This morning has started very dull, and rain is on it's way. The BBC say the rain will start at 11am, but the Met Office say it might be as late as 1pm, and all the rain will be light rain. The BBC predict that some rain may be very heavy. The temperature may only reach 13° C (BBC) or 14° C (Met Office). Tomorrow will be very dull, but the Met Office say it will only rain at 1pm, and that may only be light rain. The BBC also predicts light rain, and of course throws in a thunderstorm for 2pm ! Tomorrow could be 15° C (BBC) or 16° C (Met Office).

   I have to confess that I found yesterday's dull and sometimes wet weather, to be most depressing. I once had mad ideas about going out to do some photography, but the reality of the day put me off even going outside. It seemed to be a day to do indoor stuff.

  There were things I needed to do indoors, and I did them, but I couldn't raise the enthusiasm to find other stuff to do. Maybe the most important things I did were check and fully pay off my two credit cards, and check my main bank balance. I am happy to say that both credit cards didn't have much on them to pay, and possibly less than expected. My main bank account was looking healthy after my pension payment went in yesterday.

  I am not rich, and can't afford to do some needed, but fortunately not essential house repairs, but I have ample for day to day needs. Having said that, I will be needing a lot of the money to pay for heating bills. I have already been using the heater in my bedroom (where I seem to spend most of my day - either in front of my PC or reading) rather too freely despite my previous intention of hardly using it at all until at least November.

  That intention was really based on slightly warmer years, but the start of this autumn seems unusually cold to me. It was also based on the idea that I would wrap myself up well in several layers of clothing. The trouble is that no matter how thick my clothing is, my nose and hands still feel cold, and I can't type with cold hands. I am probably coming to the age where I should wrap myself in blankets and stuff, and sit in a chair just dreaming of past happy experiences. I am not sure I can remember enough past happy experiences, and so I have to keep my mind, and ideally, my body active.

  Keeping my body active while I am suffering from angina is almost impossible, at least impossible with accepting pains I would rather not accept. It is not just angina. Lately I have been finding angina like pains when bending over - cleaning the bathtub is one example where my chest, and other bits ache when bending over and reaching down. I think it has something to do with my tendency towards acid reflux/indigestion/heartburn. That problem has really only happened when I got to bed, but these new symptoms are quite similar, and I am unsure how they are related. One possibility is some sort of blockage that is stopping my stomach from emptying properly. Could even be some sort of cancer - most things seem to be cancer now from all I hear from friends and acquaintances.

  One problem with a dull miserable, and cold day like yesterday, is that it makes me feel so hungry. I did my best not to eat too much, but it seems I must have failed more than I realised. I know that after an instant noodle breakfast, I had a can of Heinz lentil soup for an early (midday) lunch. I was quite surprised to see that it is another Heinz soup that reports a low sugar content. I guess that is why I bought it, and the Heinz potato and leek soup, a year or more ago.

  As much as I enjoyed reading my book yesterday afternoon, it didn't fully capture my imagination like some books used to. It is probably because it is the second time I have read the book, and although I don't remember it in advance, turning the next page seems to also turn a page of my memory. It makes it all feel familiar in a way that is not a complete memory. I find it hard to explain that in simple English. Maybe the Klingons could explain it better.....or almost certainly not !

  I am trying to think how many snacks I had yesterday afternoon, and what they were. I didn't seem to think they were very significant at the time, but this morning I feel otherwise. I know I had one or two very small portions of peanuts - about as many as you can put on the palm of your hand. I also used some brochette to scoop up cream cheese, and that may not have been wise.

  My  dinner was (alleged) Chicken Tikka Masala from Tesco's "The Gym Kitchen" range.  The nutrition panel says it only provides 365 calories, and that is pretty low for a main meal. The sugar content at 13gm is probably a bit high, and it could the reason for bad blood glucose readings this morning.

  The trouble with this meal is that it seems physically quite small. I was also not very tasty - although saying that is a bit of a simplification. Some bits did seem nice, but there seemed to be hardly enough chicken to reach a full conclusion about whether it was not that nice, or not actually nice. The rice seemed fairly off, but the sauce seemed OK.

  That meal seeming small lead me on to having a dessert of rice crackers and slices of cheese. I made that even worse by putting a dollop of low sugar and salt tomato ketchup on each bit of cheese. It would probably been better to have just the cheese and crackers instead of the Chicken Tikka Masala. It is undoubtedly handy having a ready meal, but I feel I ought to get back to my old recipes for basically boiled meat and green vegetables - almost, but not quite a stew.

  Once again there seemed nothing to amuse me on TV after Star Trek: Voyager finished at 8pm, and so, once again I was in bed reading soon after.  I could possibly have been asleep by 9pm, but once again I suffered some heartburn. This time it was very, very mild, and a couple of Rennies settled it fairly quickly, but by then I had got up, and I spent a bit of time on line checking some places out using https://www.openstreetmap.org.

  Once I was back in bed I think I slept quite well. Like the last night or two, I had switched of the heater an hour or so before going to bed. At 3am it was definitely time to turn it back on. By the time I got up it was barely tepid in my bedroom. I was hoping it would be a bit warmer than that, but some of the problem is that I started to feel too warm under the duvet, and kicked most of it aside. As a result I woke up feeling cold, and it would have been a lot nicer if my bedroom was a few degrees warmer.

  I can barely remember getting up to pee in the night, and yet for some reason I don't feel like I slept all that well last night. I remember what seemed to be a long series of dreams all based on a common theme. That theme was another variant of being at work. Like the previous night it was set in a TV (and other consumer electronics) repair workshop. The colour scheme marks it out as the same company I used to work for, but much of it, including the people were unrecognisable.

  It seemed like a lot went on in the dreams, but I can only remember a few bits with any clarity. It seemed like we were in a new premises, and much of it was unfinished. There was some bits of scrap cardboard on my bench, as well a few repairs. I went to find where the recycling bin was to dispose of the cardboard. In the warehouse someone just said to dump it in a corner, and they would take care of it later. I went back to my bench and found it was gone, and so were my repairs.

  It seemed we were all getting brand new benches. At the the far end of the the room, which was really long, I found a chippie (carpenter) sitting on the floor trying to work out how to assemble the first bench. One oddity was that at that end of the building the windows, and the view outside reminded me a lot of the view from the lower school part of my old secondary school. I think that is all I can write about last night's dreams.

  My last few hours of sleep were not good at all. I was stuck in a too hot and too cold situation, and it seemed like I was half awake all the time so I could keep adjusting the duvet. That was one reason why I woke up not feeling all that good.  Most of it was another case of none and every symptom: Or I can't really describe any symptom in any meaningful way. One symptom I guess is simple to describe - my right arm hurt - but less simple to say how. Later on I am sure it was my right elbow as the source of all the pain. I am currently wearing an elasticated support bandage around my elbow, and it feel generally comfortable now.

  One possible symptom is water retention for some unknown reason. As I said above, I hardly remember going for a pee in the night, and when I got up I didn't seem to pee much, although it was enough to change mildly uncomfortable to comfortable. Water retention (and/or poo retention - as is often the case, I haven't pooed yet this morning) might explain why this morning my weight is about the same as my worst weight this year !

  One generally symptomless problem is my blood glucose readings this morning. They are not good ! The Contour meter read a bad 9.2mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter was a bit better at 8.5mmol/l, but the Sinocare meter roughly agreed with the Contour meter. It read an even more awful 9.6mmol/l. The only good thing is that no reading crossed the red line that the hospital diabetic nurse puts at 10.0mmol/l. The only good news is my blood pressure remains very good at 106/47 on my first reading this morning.

  Today is yet another day when I have no idea what I am going to do - even less idea than yesterday morning ! At the moment I can see a blinding white patch of cloud where the sun is trying to burn through it. That makes the day less gloomy, and that inspires me enough to want to have a shower, and maybe wash my hair this morning. That means I could go out. There is a sub microscopic chance that I could be invited to meet Angela today.

  Today Angela goes to hospital to hear the result of her biopsy. I really hope it turns out that it is not a cancer, or if it is, it is an easy one to treat with excellent chances of a full recovery. I had heard from Angela this morning. She just sent a simple message to say she was feeling scared. I really don't know what to say in such circumstances, but I seemed to manage to say enough to get a reply of "xxxx".
  I also added that I hoped she would have either best, or at least good news today so I could drink to her health with some genuine Greek beer - which with her Greek roots I am sure she would approve of. I sent her a bigger version of the picture above. The only trouble with this beer is that apart from the bits that have to be written in standard Euro forms (strength and stuff) all the information is written in Greek, and I can't understand a word of it. I am not even sure that Angela can fully read Greek because he parents came to England when she was only a toddler.
  I mentioned yesterday that I had started Sunday's beer tasting session on my own with a bottle of St Bernardus Christmas Ale. I didn't have a hand picture of the bottle, but I did fish the bottle out of the waste, and soaked the label off so it would photograph better. All the speckling towards the top of the label is, I think, supposed to be snow, but somehow the camera is showing it almost as glare. Anyway, on the right, you can see it was 10%, and it was rather delicious.