As I write this it looks dry outside, and the cloud seems fairly thin. If the sun was a bit higher we could be having a weak sunny spell. I'm not sure there will be drizzle in the next hour, but maybe in the hour after that, and that will be followed by light rain until almost sunset. From 9pm the sky could be clear, and we'll probably have a chilly night. As can be seen in the screenshot above, by 2am the temperature may only have fallen to 13° C from an afternoon high of 17° C. At 6am tomorrow the temperature should still be 13° C. Tomorrow should be dry, but white cloud will cover the sky until mid to late afternoon when we might get to sunny skies to warm the afternoon to 14 or 15° C.

   Yesterday was one of those quite usual days that is a bit good, and a bit bad. The bad was mostly not having a lot to do, and having to find ways to amuse myself for quite a few hours. Other hours were better, and I did do some useful things. In fact I did more than I thought I would.

  The one thing I definitely had to do yesterday was to go shopping. I opted to go to Tesco because it was simpler than fighting to get a manned checkout in Iceland opened, and slightly less hassle than going to Aldi. In preparation for this I had a nice warm shower. It does seem that I have the water temperature for the shower well under control. It was warmer than warm, but not uncomfortably hot.

  Once nicely cleaned and dry, I got dressed ready to venture out into whatever the weather threw at me. The forecast said either drizzle or light rain, but it didn't rain as I walked to and from Tesco. The walk there was rather typical. I know It don't do it consciously, but sometimes I get the impression I choose the walking speed that gets me just feeling a bit uncomfortable by the time I get to my destination - Tesco in this case.

  My chest was definitely feeling tight when I entered Tesco, but it was not quite the same as angina pains. The pain seemed to remain in my chest rather than spread to my neck, shoulders, and even to my jaw on occasions. The first thing I put in my shopping basket was some apples. They are quite near the doors, and in the few moments of standing there choosing which apples I would buy, the chest pain completely disappeared.

  I also bough a string bag of oranges, and then went on to get some Scotch Bonnet, super strength chilli sauce, and the usual heap of instant noodle packets. The reduced price shelves furnished two packs of almost half price, Tesco "Finest" Scotch Eggs. Later on I realised it was a mistake to pick up more than one, and maybe to have bought any of them. This was because I seemed to choose other stuff with a short shelf life.

  One such short shelf life thing was smoked haddock (I think) fish cakes. I bought two packs to qualify for a small Clubcard discount. It wasn't a very big discount, and now I have to think when I can fit them in to my eating schedule. I might even have one pack of those fishcakes for my lunch today. Another thing that should be eaten fairly quickly is a strange calories controlled meal of pulled pork in diced macintoshes (or so the label seems to suggest). That was frozen and I have no room in my freezer. It is slowly defrosting in the fridge.

  There were a few more odds and sods that I bought, including four 2 litre bottles of Diet Coke to make sure my rucksack was really heavy ! My shopping bag was also filled to the brim, and was quite heavy. The main weight in it was maybe 5 large oranges and a 6 pack of golden delicious apples (grown in Spain). I must admit it all slowed me down when walking home, and maybe that was not such a bad thing because I was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable when I got home.

  One other thing I bought was crucial to my eating yesterday. It was a pack of what I would call finger rolls, but Hovis seemed to call hot dog buns. Despite having the Hovis brand they were not wholemeal bread. I could not find any wholemeal finger rolls. I had intended them to actually be hot dog buns, and I filled them with the other three Chilli Bratworst sausages I had eaten the previous night, and not enjoyed.

  Those sausages still looked a bit pale in places, despite being grilled for longer than recommended. It was no problem giving them another 10 minutes under the grill to heat them up, and give them a bit more colour. I then put just one in one of the finger rolls, together with some English mustard and tomato sauce. It still wasn't all that nice, but worst of all the sausage kept sliding out of the bun. I obviously had to rethink this, and instead of making up another, I had a cold peppered steak slice - straight from the fridge, and almost tasteless because it was so cold.

  It was not exactly an ideal lunch, and probably bigger than needed. I allowed quite a time for it to start getting digested. I laid on my bed and read for a while, and I think I probably had a snooze. Eventually I forced myself into action, and started doing some laundry. It had started out as washing a single hand towel, but at the last minute I added a single blue t-shirt when I left it all soaking in hot detergent after my shower.

  I predicted that the towel would need a lot of rinses - they always do ! After doing four rinses I put the towel on the side, and gave the t-shirt a couple of rinses more before one final super strength (!) wringing out and hanging it up on the small clothes horse in the front room. I then allowed myself another long and lazy rest before going back and giving the hand towel another 6 or 8 rinses by itself. Even then it could probably have done with a few more, but my right wrist was starting to complain, and so once again, after an almighty hand wringing out, I hung it up to dry an the small clothes horse in the front room.

  After that I had nothing to look forward to except dinner. Fortunately that was only a few hours away, and I had a handful of peanuts to satisfy myself....or something. My dinner was the last two Chilli Bratwurst's. Once again I heated them up under the grill for 5 or so minutes. The first one I cut in half, and put each half in one of the hot dog buns, and once again added mustard and ketchup.

  Only having half a sausage in the bun cured the sliding out problem, but it seemed quite a sparse filling. On the other hand I think it tasted nicer that way. I also cut the final sausage in two (down the middle), and this time put both halves, side by side, in the last bun. This time I did away with the mustard and ketchup, but I did add some Thai chilli sauce. That last bun was actually tasting nearly as good as I had hoped to achieve.

  It was probably a big enough dinner, but I had a hankering to have a dessert of one Golden Delicious apple, with a chunk of cheese, and one of the large oranges I bought. The apple and cheese was nice, but the orange was a bit mediocre. It was hard to peel, and it was tricky trying to get all the pith off. If it had been a really delicious orange the trouble preparing it might have been worth it, but it seemed like a typical force ripened fruit, and not terribly flavourful.

  There was not a lot on TV last night, but I did end up watching a series of programmes about cold war spies. It was heavily from an American perspective, and so a rather hysterical, but otherwise fairly interesting. At about the same time there was a possibly good (but American) SciFi film about America's first astronaut who came back from space as a monster. I feel sure they couldn't possibly have copied the early 1950's Quatermass story, and live TV production. I recorded the film, and as yet I have not checked to see if the monster was shot down and killed in Westminster Abbey !

  I think it was around 9pm that I headed to bed to read for a while. It was after half an hour of reading that I started getting chest pains typical of indigestion. I still don't really know why this tends to kick in while laying down, although in this case it was when laying on my back rather than on my side as is more usual. I got up, had some antacid liquid, and it soon faded away. I was back in bed, and possibly even asleep not long after 10pm.

  I seemed to sleep well last night, although I think I got up for a pee about every 2 hours. I dreamed a fair bit in the night. To my great annoyance I can't seem to remember any details from the dreams, although I do seem to think that one dream was rather enjoyable, and another was rather annoying, or frustrating. Sadly none seemed to have any erotic segments, and that is a shame for obvious reasons, but maybe more because it might have helped me remember some of my dreams. I don't think any of my dreams involved Angela, but I do remember thinking of her during periods of being awake - such as for some minutes after coming back from a pee.

  I woke up, and got up just after 7am - still before sunrise at 7.34 this morning. I guess I didn't feel too bad.....sort of averagely slightly less than good, but not quite bad....sort of.  After a pee and poo I got on the scales, and was surprised to my lowest weight for the last 5 days, and the lower one was a bit of a fluke. So I suppose I had better say my weight was still in the small region that is my current average.

  I was expecting hat the bread rolls I ate, plus maybe the extra apple and orange might have affected my weight. It seems that they did affect my blood glucose level this morning, and all three readings were back to the older average. The Contour meter read exactly 8.0mmol/l - just 0.1 above being inn the coveted light green area. The GlucoRX meter read 8.2mmol/l, and that is still a bit good. The Sinocare meter read 8.8mmol/l, and spoiled things a bit with a very slightly higher than desired reading, but still a long way from the danger zone.

  For some reason my blood pressure is a little higher than my usual typical, but the meter still rates 111/59 as being in the "better than normal", "optimum" area. It may be because I am now rushing to finish writing this because I seemed to end up spending a lot of time reading the wikipedia pages about the Quatermass tv serials and films. It was very interesting, but a great distraction - particularly when clicking on the links for each episode, the films, the radio programmes, and other stuff !
  This morning I thought I would try something new I spotted in Tesco yesterday. As per the picture above, it was instant "Schezwan Fried Rice!. Just add boiling water, and leave to stand, with the lid on, for 4 minutes, and......it is ready to eat, but it was not very nice. The rice was soft and gritty at the same time, and the flavour was not that great. I don't think I'll be trying one of these again, although I might consider a different make if I ever see one. I

   I was not expecting it to be a full breakfast, and so I also made up a pot of "Spicy Ramen" instant noodles with a cautious sprinkle of Scotch Bonnet, Caribbean hot pepper sauce...maybe just a tiny bit too cautious a sprinkle. I'll know in future that a little more would not make it too agonisingly fiery !

  The highlight of today should be a visit from Jodie for another beer tasting session. I feel I will have to exert some discipline towards using up more beer already in the fridges before raiding the new box of beer that was delivered on Thursday.  Another thing I might do, mainly depending on the time available, and if there is a dry interlude (it is raining as I write this) I may go to Savers and to Poundstretcher to buy a few odds and ends. Other than that, it is lazy time !