Sunshine was forecast by both The Met Office and The BBC for this morning, and this time that is exactly what we have. The clear skies meant that it was less than 7° C earlier, but it is starting to creep upwards. It seems it will only go up a single degree to 8° C until 8pm when it will rise further as warmer and wetter winds bring rain and strong winds for tonight. Tomorrow the day defies convention by being warmer at the start and end of the day, and cooler in the middle. The afternoon temperature could be as low as 6° C, and to make matters worse there could be winds gusting from 44 to 50mph !

  There is a good reason why I have started writing so late this afternoon, and it will be explained when I come to writing about the evening. Much of yesterday was fairly good, although I suppose not enough really happened to comment on until the afternoon beer tasting/drinking session.

  Apart from writing, and having a quick splash under the shower, I almost did nothing until it was time to do a panic cleaning up in the kitchen and dining room ready for the beer session. One thing I did do was to have a single large bap with Stilton cheese and some chopped iceberg lettuce in it. I'm not sure why but I didn't really enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Maybe I like Stilton less than I believed, or maybe it just doesn't go well with wholemeal bread. (I expect I'll finish it off on plain rice crackers sometime).

  Jodie might have been on time yesterday, but she messaged me to say she was taking shelter from the rain at Catford Bridge station. She said it was pouring down when she got off the train, but it was dry here just half a mile or less away. She only had to wait for 10 minutes before she was happy to walk here. Yesterday was tried a few festive/winter beers, and they seemed nice, but not as wonderful as the old style Young's Winter Warmer. Now that stuff kept you warm in arctic conditions !

  Michael joined us 30 to 40 minutes later, and for once he was not all doom and gloom, although he could not resist some doom and gloom. One positive thing is that despite saying he would not have the time, he found he really did have plenty of time to catch up with some relatives, and in particular his sister (I think he said) who was visiting from Spain for a week. He went to several pub sessions, and even watched a band at one of them. He tells us that now he feels he might like to see more bands rather than moping at home all evening.

  We were also visited by Jodie's friend Mark, and being a driving I found him a can of 0.5% beer. He declared that it was very drinkable. I also fobbed him off with a couple of takeaways. they were the two cans I have previously mentioned as being only fit for the sink plughole. One was brewed with cold coffee, and the other infused with Earl Grey tea (of all abominations).

  Mark took them away to try when he got home, but first he took Jodie away to meet up with Alan for a bit more cheap drinking in the Penge Wetherspoons pub. Michael left very soon after. It was actually rather later than usual when they all left. It was getting on for 7.30pm when I had my dinner - and while I doubt it would have made much difference to have had it earlier, except I would have got over the worst of it earlier.

  It is necessary to back track a bit at this point. As usual, Jodie had her lunch at my place, and spent ages eating it tiny piece by tiny piece. It inspired me to also have a nibble, and I opened a little pot of lentil and tomato salad. That seemed very nice, and even went well with my beer. When it came to dinner I had starting roasting some pork belly strips while we were drinking.

  They were perfectly well cooked, but more cooking would drive off more fat, and make them more sort of crispy. I didn't really know what to have with them, and for simplicity I had a couple of tomatoes. I guess it was quite a big dinner, but at least before the final bit, it seemed very nice, and I shovelled it down with great delight. The last bit did seem to be a slight effort to eat, and I know I should have only eaten half the pork belly strips.

  It did not seem to be any trouble as I watched the last half hour of Star Trek: Voyager. I then turned off the TV, and laid on my bed to read. It was then that I noticed the first sign of a bit of heartburn. At 9pm when I turned the TV on again to watch one hour of QI, I started to feel a lot more uncomfortable. Before I went to bed I ate a couple of Rennies antacid tablets. That seemed to work, and I think I managed to get to sleep for a while, but I soon woke up feeling bad.

  The mild heartburn had developed into mega heartburn. In fact that pain was reaching out enough to make me seriously think it could almost be heart attack pain. Fortunately, as unpleasant as it was, I was doing lots of burping, and I could taste the acid in some of the bigger burps. I took some antacid liquid because that usually soothes things down quite effectively, but not this time.

  As usual it was worse when laying in bed, and I spent many hours sitting up at my PC hoping the heartburn would go away. later on it seemed very obvious that I had eaten far too much, and some of that too much must have been from the day before yesterday. At 2am I went to the toilet, and did a large poo. 10 or 15 minutes I had another quite large poo. I expected that to help, and maybe it did to some small extent.

  The problem by then was not only the heartburn chest and neck pains, but the amount of burping I was doing. It was as if something was generating a lot of gas in my stomach, and maybe that was the case, but I didn't think I had eaten anything that might do such a thing. It all came to a head about 2am when I didn't have to rush, but new I had to get to the toilet to vomit. As predictable, it was all very unpleasant, although I have to say my aim was very good, and the only thing that missed, ending up on the rim of the bowl, was a solitary lentil !

  I felt a lot better for emptying my stomach, but I am sure it was not completely empty, and more like only enough to relieve the pressure. It was about 3am before I felt so tired that I managed to fall asleep even though the heartburn was still quite uncomfortable. Once I got to sleep I seemed to sleep mostly OK. I did get up once or twice to pee. I'm sure I had a few possibly exciting dreams. I know one was about going to a gig in a pub with a band I seemed to know well, but I have no idea who, or even what happened there.

  I managed to sleep until just gone 8am, and so if I include the little bit of sleep I got last night, I might have got over 5 hours sleep. That could have been enough in summer, but I feel like I need a lot more in winter (Ideally hibernating through to spring). I expect I'll be taking any chance for a snooze today. Any way, I got up and as usual I went to the toilet for a pee, and much to my surprise I had quite a decent poo as well.

  I expected after three good poos, plus vomiting, I might have shed some of the excess I noted when I got on the scales yesterday morning. I was rather disappointed to see the exact opposite. I have no idea when I was doing all the excess eating, but it seems I have put on another kilogram since yesterday morning. That seems as if it should be very unlikely, but the scales say it is true.

  This time even my blood glucose has gone up a bit, but all but one readings were in the sort of average, and relatively safe area. the Contour meter read 8.7mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read 8.8mmol/l. The Sinocare read just slightly higher at 9.1mmol/l. Maybe I can blame these slightly elevated readings, and all the weight gain on the bigger chunk of the chocolate cake I have been trying to eat in small quantities, and bought because I though it was small individual portions, but is actually one big cake, and so it can't be left uneaten too long now it is open.

  This morning I have no heartburn, but I still feel rather delicate. I still felt the need for breakfast to keep the cod liver oil capsule I take along with all my other pills in the morning. Ideally, after that weight and blood glucose gains, I should have fasted until dinner time, but burping up cod liver oil is horrible, The best compromise I could make was to have fairly bland instant noodles and not smother them in hot chilli sauce. I should still have had only one small packet, but I couldn't seem to resist two small packets.

  The instant noodles went down OK, although maybe I might have more than a slight hint of feeling bloated. At least that is a lot better than the discomfort of heartburn. I will try and fast until dinner time, but if I do give in it is likely to be something like an apple with a little chunk of cheese, or maybe rice crackers with cheese - probably the Stilton cheese.

  I once had ideas about going for a short walk in the the nice sunshine, and I can't deny that wont happen, but in reality I can't imagine me doing much today. There is one unlikely problem with eating today, but that is based on the idea that I might go to a gig tonight. Chain are playing in The Coach And Horses in Beckenham. It is a simple, but mildly tedious bus ride away, and after taking the band photos last Saturday, I fancied taking more.

  In reality it is highly unlikely I will go out this evening on account of the copious rain forecast for tonight. That is a concrete reason not to go out, and then there is the idea that I would be going out when I would normally be thinking of going to bed, a rather definitely after losing some much sleep the night before. I don't think I could positively rule out going out just yet, even if it now seems highly unlikely, but last night, one of the positive things I did, was to select a camera to take with me if I did go out. I thought my lightweight Nikon D3200 with a single lens out to do the job, and it is now sitting on the table waiting to go if I end up going. The truth will be revealed tomorrow.