This morning is dull, and at just 7° C, a bit cool. Once again, sunny spells are forecast from late morning through to sunset. Unfortunately they won't raise the temperature about the 7° C start. Clear skies in the evening will mean the temperature will drop to just 3° C by midnight. Tomorrow will start at just 3° C, but it will slowly warm up. There could be some sunny spells in the morning, but by the time the temperature peaks at 9° C at 2pm, it will start to rain for possibly the rest of the day.

  After my traditional little rest, after writing yesterday's piece, I had some special work to do before I went out for my regular Wednesday lunchtime drink. I seemed to write quite a lot yesterday, 2154 words, but I must have done it quickly because I had time to have a shower, and do my special work.

  That special work was to clean out the freezer compartment of my old fridge/freezer. There was one bit of food that I thought should still be OK because it was mostly embedded in frost. A lack of regular defrosting meant that there was quite a weight of ice in that freezer compartment. It completely filled the sink. There was also a lot of free water in the bottom of the compartment, and swimming in that water was quite a few peas, two small sprouts, and even some carrot. While frozen it looked fine, but it looked really unpleasant in the water.

  Had I walked a bit faster, not stopped to pickup and fold a couple of copies of The Metro, stuff them in my coat inside pocket, and then stopped to take a picture of the arriving Charing  Cross train, I could have been on that train. That would also have meant rushing up and over the footbridge - which I didn't intend to do. The train I did get to Ladywell was the usual 12:34 train, and so I arrived at the pub at about the usual time.

  I had a good time at the pub, and managed to almost do all the quick crossword, and managed to solve a handful of cryptic crossword clues. Maybe I could have done better, but there were many pleasant distractions. Ayse like my Xmas card. By pure chance it resonated with a cocktail party Ayse would be having with relatives and close friends at Xmas. On the back of the front of the card was a recipe for a coconut rum cocktail.

  I think Ayse was referring to her husbands mum when she said she was getting some hassle for coconut rum cocktails from her. I think as Ayse read through the recipe it seemed she was getting more interested in some coconut and rum cocktails. Sadly it seemed a bit too soon to try and Ayse a Xmas hug, but maybe I'll pop in there Saturday afternoon, and try then. It is a shame that Xmas eve is not on a Wednesday because I think I would almost be guaranteed a hug then.

  I was very lucky when I left the pub. I didn't know it at the time, but while I was in the pub there had been a trespasser on the line near Lewisham station, and all the trains came to a halt for about an hour. It was all over when I came out of the pub, and I only had a short wait for one of the long delayed trains to arrive. Once back in Catford I did my best to keep up a fair pace as I walked home.

  Once home I went straight to the kitchen sink where it didn't seem like the big chunks of ice had melted much at all. I took them out, and left them to melt in the garden. Then there was the unpleasant job of sponging out all the water in the freezer, and removing all the loose vegetables that were swimming in it.

  I then cooked the one remaining food item from the freezer. It was an Iceland "Protein" low calorie and a low sugar content, breakfast wrap. The cardboard packet it was in was quite damp, but the wrap inside was protected by a sealed plastic bag. I had never tried one before, and that was a good enough reason to try it. It seemed to be in perfect condition when cooked, but I can't say I thought that much of it. The lumps of herb flavoured sausage seemed a bit nice, but the other fillings were a bit meh !

  After eating that lunch I relaxed a lot. When it was time for dinner I had an apple, a small pear, and a chunk of cheese. It was really the wrong way around, but I followed that with a bowl of instant noodles. I then had a light dessert of a single small bar of 85% dark chocolate, and also an alleged low calorie minty nougat bar.  I ate while watching Star Treks, and when Star Trek: Voyager finished at 8pm I went to bed to read for a while.

  Nothing I ate seemed to give my any indigestion problems, and after reading for about 50 minutes, I only just missed my desire to be asleep by 9pm. I felt I needed an early night because I had set my alarm for 6am. I haven't got up at 6am for ages, but it seemed surprisingly easy to do. Had I slept for another couple of hours I might have had an extra pee, and maybe even had a poo, but at just gone 6am I weighed myself, and found I had apparently lost 100gm since yesterday morning.

  My blood glucose readings were not too bad this morning, but they were still a fair bit higher than I would have aimed for. The Contour Meter read 9.2mmol/l, and that was a lot higher than I hoped for, and a lot higher than is good for me. That high reading might possible be blamed on using the last test strip in the carton. Maybe a fresh test strip tomorrow may be more friendly. The GlucoRX and Sinocare meters gave more friendly readings of 8.7mmol/l, and 8.8mmol/l - both higher than desirable, but at least in a safe area.

  This morning my blood pressure is back down to a nice low level (at least I think it is nice). It was 106/45, and that is despite all the excitement, but maybe it is also the end of a period of stress. Until last night I knew my new fridge/freezer could be delivered at any time between 7am (hence the very early start to my day) and 6pm. Last night I got a message to refine that to between 7am and 9am.

  I had a feeling that it might be closer to 7am. It was probably about 6.50am when I got a phone call from the delivery driver to say he was on his way, and depending on the traffic, and maybe ease of parking, they would be with me in about half an hour. It was very close to half an hour later when they arrived. They started by taking the old fridge out, and while they were doing that I got the broom out and cleared more dust and grit from where the old fridge was standing.

  I was quite surprised that the carried the old fridge out, and then carried the new fridge in. They had a sack trolley, and I don't know why they didn't use that. They parked the new fridge in the kitchen in the same place as the old one (although not where the fridge had stood for the last 40 years. I thought there was a better position for it, and with the fridge facing out to the middle of the room rather that along the side of the room.

  I was surprised that once they fridge was in position they just warned me to let it settle for 4 hours before plugging it in, and then just leaving. I was expecting them to unbox it, and take all the packing for recycling, but apparently not.  The new fridge/freezer is taller than the old one, and I am not even sure there was enough clearance to slide a box off the top of the old one. There was definitely not enough clearance to get the box off the new one. I had to carefully cut the box away - which was hard work when trying not to scratch the fridge itself.

  The worst bit was that the fridge was standing on a mat of expanded polystyrene, and getting it off that single handed was tricky, but I did it. I can easily imagine many people of my age (now with half a year of the three score and ten we are apparently built for) could be too frail to do the unboxing. I still have to cut all the cardboard up before putting it in the recycling bin - which fortunately is emptied today. I am unsure if expanded polystyrene is allowed in the recycling bin, but the solid mat that the fridge was standing on does seem to have a recycling symbol on it, and so that is where it will all go.

  I now have two things to do later. At midday I will turn the fridge on - provided I can find a suitable short extension cable because the cord on the new fridge seems very short. Maybe before that, if the recycling bin has been emptied, I will cut up the cardboard, and the expanded polystyrene and stuff it all in the recycling bin, but with the unboxing done I could relax to make a bowl of instant noodles for breakfast, and once eaten I could start to write this.