08:24 BST

  I must have done a few things right yesterday because it seems like it was a fairly good day, although like many most days, it became slightly boring, fairly uninspiring, sort of tedious after dinner. One very notable thing about yesterday was that it was possibly the last time I go out shopping without wearing a coat this year.
  One thing I did yesterday was to check the weather a year ago. I was thinking that the recent weather has been very disappointing for early September. Itend to think that September is a summer month, although further research showed that this time in 2023 may have been very exceptional. As the weather forecast from the Met Office showed, the temperature reached 30° C, a year ago, and if I recall correctly it may have been 32° C the day before ! By the end of September 2023 we were seeing days like today.

  The great achievement yesterday was to go shopping in Tesco, and it wasn't just going to and from Tesco, but the end result of some of the stuff I bought. More about that further down the page. Before I could go out I thought it would be good to have a shower. I also had a wet shave at the same time, and that will save a bit of time today.

  The walk to and from Tesco was interesting - in the negative context of "interesting". Almost before I stepped off the kerb to cross the road, I had what seemed like weak angina pains. I am sure it was not angina because it didn't get any worse as I walked, and it came one on before I had done anything to trigger it. It may have been heartburn, but I don't think it was even that. In some ways it was more like the sort of joint pains you get from 'flu, but it seemed to be confined from mid belly up to shoulders.

  I think I pushed myself a little harder was I walked to Tesco to see if it would make things worse as a sort of proof that it could be angina. I guess it did make it marginally more uncomfortable, but nowhere near angina levels. I am at a loss to make any sort of diagnosis as to what it was, but maybe it was something to do with it being cold. I think it was only about 19° C when I went out, and I didn't wear a coat. With a bit of sunshine it would have felt fine, but without it was very close to feeling chilly.

  My shopping list was no more than a few ideas, although I guess many shopping list are no exception to that. The first place I headed to in Tesco was the vegetable section to go some cauliflower and broccoli. I then bought 4 cans of soup - two being the incredibly low sugar Tesco cream of chicken soup, and the other two chosen to be quite low. I liked the look of some posh tomato soup until I saw the sugar content. It must have been syrupy enough to put on your cornflakes (or something).

  I next headed to the reduced price shelf where I saw some Scotch Eggs waiting to get their yellow reduced price stickers put on them. I went to the meat counter where I got a small pack of diced chicken breast, a small pack of diced beef, and because I couldn't see any diced lamb I bought some lamb leg steaks (or cutlets ?) that I can dice myself. I then went back to the reduced price shelf where the Scotch Eggs now had the yellow stickers on, and were reduced to 59pm per pack of 2. I bought two packs.

  I got a few more items before I ended up at soft drinks, and got four 2 litre bottles of Diet Coke. I found a checkout with one man being served, and no queue behind him. It was not long before I was staggering out of the store with 8 litres of Diet Coke in my rucksack, and my shopping bag full to the brim. The walk back home was like the walk to Tesco - slightly uncomfortable from the moment I left the checkout to beyond the time I arrived at home.

  I put away most of what I had bought, but left the diced chicken out. I put that in my biggest Pyrex casserole dish (with lid) and after adding two stock cubes, some water, and the remains of the onion I had been using in cheese and onion roll, I put it in the microwave on full power for 15 minutes to part cook it to save time later on, nearer dinner time. I then went up to my PC, and ate one packet of 2 Scotch Eggs with a sprinkle of hot pepper sauce on them.

  I had an hours rest of reading and short snooze after I had finished my lunch. Then, still yawning, I went out to the bathroom where I had left some laundry soaking in detergent. It was two pairs of long lounge pants and two pairs of underpants. The lounge pants needed some extra wringing out power, but I got the whole lot done, three rinses, and then fabric conditioner before hanging everything on the big clothes horse in the living room - with the desk fan blowing it to speed up the drying.

  I had a naughty little snack after finishing the laundry job. It was two small packets of crisps made even more unhealthy by using up an over half empty tube of chorizo flavoured, Primula, cream cheese in a squeezy tube. The cream cheese did very little to make the crisps nicer, but it seemed a satisfying snack. Of course I only did it because I was starting to feel the first boredom coming on.  I mostly went back to reading to soak up another hour or two before dinner time.

  Before I served my simple chicken stew I added a few miniature potatoes, and some broccoli and cauliflower. It was starting to look like quite a big dinner, but when I came to eat it it, I found that some of the size was just thin gravy. I made no attempt to drink that gravy, and ended up pouring it down the sink. What I did do to top up my dinner was to eat the last of the sugar free choc chip cookies I had bought from the little supermarket on Catford Bridge. They topped off dinner nicely.

  I watched a few Star Treks last night, but once Voyager finished at 8pm I could find nothing to tempt me to keep the TV on. Instead I spent almost an hour on the internet reading such stories as https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/food_dye_skin_transparent/  or https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/07/boeing_starliner_returns/  some of these news items are worth it for the comments section which are far longer than the news story, and are often amusingly snarky.

  I think I was in bed, reading, by 9pm, and I probably put my book down at about 9.30pm. I was fast asleep very quickly after that. I was about to say that last night I had some dreams that I could describe, and that is true provided you use the past tense sense of the word "could". As soon as I tried to think what I was going to say it seemed that most memories of my dreams just vanished into thin air.

  I do remember a few fragments of dreams. One was about one of my old cats just walking in years after he dies, and demanding he be fed. Another bit of dream was horrifying, and so I guess easier to remember. The dream was set in an electronic workshop, but I am not sure of it was my old one at home, or at work. In the dream I accidentally put my arm on a hot soldering iron. The peculiar thing is that I cannot recall any pain, but I could smell burnt flesh. The iron stuck to my skin, and I couldn't pull it off until it had cooled down. Where it eventually came off I could see it had burned a big hole, or maybe it was like it had melted a big hole. There was no sign of any redness or charring, and still no hint of pain. I seemed to assume it would just grow over again.

  During the night I did almost my usual frequency of getting up for a pee, but maybe last night I skipped one. It is possible I just didn't remember going, but it seemed like there was a 4 hour gap between going for one pee. It also seemed like I may not have peed as much during the whole night as usual. That suggested a possible dip in my blood glucose, but potentially some weight gain if I was still carrying a lot of water.

  I needn't have worried about the later. After a pee and a poo I weighed myself, and it seems that I have lost another 500gm. There is about another kilogram to go, or twice what I lost yesterday, and I was be exploring realms I have not seen for a long time - and possibly time to put another hole in my trouser belt !

  My blood glucose might have been bad this morning, but a second reading on one meter made it a particularly good morning. The Contour meter was in the light green (very good) area with a reading of 7.2mmol/l. The GlucoRX decided the reading should be a horrendous 9.2mmol/l, but a fresh test strip, and a fresh squeeze of blood gave a nice reading of 8.0mmol/l. The Sinocare meter confirmed my low blood glucose reading with a very nice 7.5mmol/l - also in the light green (very good) area.

  My blood pressure continues to be mildly higher this morning. This morning it was 115/58. That is again in the "optimum" (i.e. better than "normal") range, and so there is nothing to complain about there, although I will keep and eye on it. If it continues to creep up I may try (but probably fail) to speak to a doctor about it.  One possible reason for this small rise in my blood pressure may be because I feel cold. It is a cold morning, and I refuse to waste money on heating until at least mid October, and maybe the start of November.

  This morning I had the novelty of trying a Japanese curry flavour cup noodle. Soba make some tasty "cup noodles". The Chilli flavour is particularly nice. It is a shame that the range tends to be more expensive than many cheaper, but equally nice or nicer alternatives. This Japanese Curry flavour I consider very bad value for money. It is not nasty, but I can't say I actually like it. It was good enough for a one off taste, but unless I see it heavily discounted, maybe to clear unsold stock, I will not be buying another.

  There are two things that could turn today from a good day to a bad day. One is the unknown quantity, or rather time, of a delivery from Amazon. It could be around 11am, it could be later this afternoon, or it could be in the middle of my visit to The Jolly Farmers for another Wednesday lunchtime (two pints of) Guinness.

  Today could really be a day when I hope the forecast is correct, and it does rain. I have been asked to go to Dik's place at 6pm to take some pictures of his band after they finish rehearsing at his place. Apparently he wants a picture of them all lined up with their backs to a brick wall. That could be tricky if it is raining - particularly if they want to hold guitars or something (I know my camera is moderately rain proof, but I'm not !).

   There is one possible and one probable reason for not wanting to go on this photo job assignment. The possible is that my Amazon delivery could still not have arrived by the time I have to leave to go to Dik's place. The probable is that it is likely to be a very slow and painful walk. He only lives about half a mile away, but he is near the top of a hill, and I can imagine my angina will be kicking in before I am halfway there, and the last half will have to be done with frequent stops as I go up the hill. I am unsure why I agreed to go now. So hopefully the weather forecast will be correct, and it will be called off because of rain.