So far this morning we have had several rather weak sunny spells. The sky is grey, and the chances of more sunny spells seems slim, but based on what is happening as I type this, not impossible. The early afternoon is shown as sunny spells - a bit of a change to the showers predicted in yesterday's version of the forecast for today. It has started off as a mild morning, currently 15° C according to my thermometers, That may mean the afternoon high could be a few degrees higher than the forecast 16° C. Tomorrow could be a lot cooler. Showers are predicted for the morning and sunny spells from mid afternoon. The maximum temperature could be a chilly 11° C. Friday morning could start as low as 4° C !

   Yesterday was a day that ended up being fairly productive....sort of.  I did two important things in the morning, and one thing in the afternoon that took a lot of time, and was a mix between useful and a waste of time. The first important thing was a nice shower.

  Having got clean and fragrant, I got dressed ready to go out. I could almost have gone out without a coat because of the lovely unexpected, and very warm sunshine (although the air temperature was still a bit cool, maybe 15° C). My destination was Tesco, and my intention was to be very careful about what food I bought. On the whole I was successful, although the little tub (?) of Boursin, garlic and herb soft cheese, did seem to be more a luxury than safe food item. (I was wrong about that it seems).

  The walk to and from Tesco seemed to be fairly OK, although not quite good enough to forget a few aches, and just enjoy the walk in the sunshine. I do remember some chest discomfort starting in the last 100 foot before reaching Tesco. I don't seem to recall anything similar on the way home. Maybe I was feeling a tiny bit short of breath, but I was able to chat to the postman, who I caught up with outside my house, without having to pause for breath.

  My shopping included two alleged "calorie controlled" ready meals - basically tiny versions of ordinary meals - and some fresh, skinless, boneless, chicken breasts. I also bough a bag of ready to use cauliflower and broccoli to have with that chicken. In theory I had three "safe" meals to choose for dinner yesterday. I'll describe what I had, with a picture, further down the page.

  My lunch was a bit of a novelty for me. It was a dozen rice crackers that I used as scoops to eat the aforementioned Boursin garlic and herb cheese. It may not have done my cholesterol levels much good (or maybe it did ?) but it was quite tasty, and there was later evidence it might have been a very low sugar meal. It is possible it might even have been low calorie, but normal cheese is not known to be low calorie.

  After lunch I relaxed by reading my book while laying on my bed, and I think I had a snooze. After that I almost had to force myself to start a little job that ended up consuming a lot of time. I still wonder of there was any point to it, but it was a return to searching through my photo archives for pictures of Undergound/tube trains that I could add to my latest waste of time - a big and now getting bigger, spreadsheet listing every unique train I had taken take a reasonable picture off - listed against the number of the train.
   This is a Northern Line train taken on the 7th June 2022 at Finchley Central station. My ultimate destination was  to Elstree & Borehamwood national rain station, but the Thameslink train heading home called at Kentish Town, and that made a simple interchange to the co-sited tube station, and from there I explored a bit of the northern line.
  This is a Metropolitan Line S8 stock train. It is passing through Kilburn station, and I took this snap on my recent outing to get to Stanmore station, as part of my quest to visit all the furthest station on each line (or tram) on my Freedom Pass.
  Another train taken on my quest to visit Stanmore station last week. This is a Jubilee Line train of 1196 stock just leaving Kilburn station.
  Here's a Piccadilly Line train seen at Uxbridge. To my great annoyance, I can't see a train number on it. There is a just visible carriage number on the side, and in theory, if I had the time and patience, I could find enough info to say what the train number was. The only thing I can add is that this is part of the 1973 stock, the oldest currently running on the tube network.

  Only going back to 2022 netted me a lot more pictures than the four shown here. I know there are a lot more to find, and I know that I have some of Underground/tube trains that have been scrapped and replaced by more modern trains. One surprise was that I had found I had taken pictures of two different trains last week and in 2022 !

   Searching through just 2 years of my archive, and then editing any decent pictures I found, was quite a tedious and time consuming business. The worrying thing is that I am sure there will be one or two years in the past when I will have taken loads more pictures, and I even have some taken using my old 35mm film camera. Many of those are not too good because I only had a single lens for that camera, and it was often not enough zoom, or not wide angle enough, but some might be OK. It is just going to take a long time to find all these pictures, and edit them for inclusion in my grand waste of time spreadsheet.
  As I mentioned further up the page, one thing I bought from Tesco, in the morning, was a couple of so called "Calorie Controlled" ready meals. This (picture above) is one of them. At just 292 calories it seems pretty good, but that is easy to achieve when it is mostly gravy ! The mashed potato was not very good, but the rest was fairly tasty. The only trouble was it left me feeling like I had only had a small snack.

  To help fill me a bit more I had an apple with a chunk of cheese. It is a combination I quite like, although it doesn't seem to work with hard green apples, but they are probably best used for cooking....unless you have the teeth of a 16 year old, and no concern about breaking them....or your gut.

  I ate my dinner during the end of Star Trek: Enterprise, and the start of Star Trek: Deep Space nine. Both were fair episodes, but Star Trek: Voyager got boring, and I phones Sue for the first time in weeks, if not months. I wanted to hear the latest news about her teeth. I had heard she had made a visit to Kings College Hospital. It turned out is was another assessment, and some preliminary stuff before she should have the big job done next Monday.

  The "big job" is to have 24 roots extracted because the teeth above have decayed to nothing, and giving her many abscesses in the process, and ultimately the sepsis that put her in a coma for weeks and caused the loss or deformity of her toes.  I wonder if she will let the dentist go ahead on Monday, She insists she wants a general anaesthetic, but the dentist want to do it all under local anaesthetic, and heavy sedation. It could be quite a thing to endure, although I do wonder if getting those decayed, and probably dead roots out might be mostly quick and easy. All I know was that the semi retired dentist from Kings College got my wisdom teeth out is almost seconds flat, but after quite a bot of preparation time. If all dentists were like him I would have no qualms about going for dental work, but sadly one really brutal dentist put me off for life !

  I was very insistent I was going to finish my call with Sue at or before 9pm, but she managed to keep me hanging on for another 20 minutes before I finally managed to get in a good bye. I had made sure I had brushed my teeth and other things so I could jump straight into bed once I was off the phone. Of course I had to have another pee by then, and then it took some time to get comfortable. I reckon I managed to get to sleep by 10pm.

  My sleep was not that good. It was probably around 2pm when I woke up feeling far too hot under the duvet. As usual I had dampened the pillow with sweat. It seemed too cold to sleep uncovered, and a bit reluctantly I turned the heater on low. I got to sleep again, and the next time I woke for a pee it felt only just warm enough to kick the duvet almost completely aside.

  At some time before I woke up at 6am I had a sort of egotistical dream. I dreamed I was working at a lab technician in a university, and was supporting students going for their BSCs and Phds. They were doing stuff on the cutting edge of science, but somehow I was always one step ahead of them, and could see ahead everything they were trying to do. I guess, back in real life, I have always had a natural understanding of electronics, and while my own solutions were often bodges, built with cheap or second hand bits, I have managed a few miracles in my time.

  I woke up at almost spot on 6am this morning. I needed a pee, and so I had to get up, but it was dark outside, and would be for the next half hour. I decided I would just have an extra 20 minute in bed before really getting up. I didn't really believe I would even fall asleep, but at 7.15am I woke up, and that is when I got up. I needed one more pee, but for the other I only passed some farts. I didn't poo at all yesterday, and I still haven't today. Something will have to give sooner or later.

  For all that I only seem to have put on 100gm since yesterday. A really good poo, something that must happen sooner or later, even if it means taking some laxatives to make it happen tomorrow (I hope) it would mean that yesterday I would have probably lost one or two hundred grams. There is a sort of good reason to think that my eating yesterday was very well controlled.

  What I believe are the good reasons are my blood glucose results. This morning, for the first time I can ever remember, all three readings were in the dark green. That is my colour coding on the spreadsheet for readings between 6.0 and 6.9mmol/l - which is in the really excellent area. The Contour meter read 6.8mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read 6.1mmol/l, and that is only a tad above the Gold area - a region I don't think I have ever visited in the last 15 years. Even the Sinocare meter was playing the game this morning with a reading of 6.4mmol/l.

  My blood pressure is a tiny weeny bit higher this morning, 109/5, and that is probably because I have a headache. Yes, it is the headache causing the high blood pressure (albeit still in the optimum area according to the meters own diagnostics) rather than the other way around. The headache is because I am expecting not one, but two deliveries today. Both were ordered just yesterday, and free delivery selected. They were both scheduled for delivery tomorrow, but apparently being delivered today - one by Amazon, and one by Evri/Hermes.

  The headache is that it seems very unlikely I'll be able to get to The Jolly Farmers today, and as well as the pleasure of a couple of pints of Guinness, and seeing Ayse, my favourite barmaid, it is possible it might have been a nice journey in bright sunshine (unless the weather forecast is as inaccurate as yesterday's was).  Sod's law says both parcels will be delivered late enough in the afternoon that I would have time to go to the pub, but by the same rules of Sod's Law, if I do go out that will be the exact time the deliveries will arrive. Neither will fit through ,my letter box, and one is definitely delicate enough that leaving out in any rain could ruin it. No, I just have to be in when they arrive. The very worst thing is that I think it is next Wednesday, and the one after, that Ayse will be on holiday, and not working. I shall miss her for three weeks. Guinness served in a dirty glass by her stand in will never taste as good as Ayse's properly cleaned and polished glasses !