It was a nice change to wake up to no frost this morning....or was it. Maybe it wasn't. With a start of just 2° C it was still icy cold, but without the prettiness of sparkly frost. Later today, after some sunny spells, it should warm up to 5° C (it is almost there even as I type this). after sunset the temperature may drop to 3° C, and we should have another night with the temperature not in negative figures. Tomorrow could very briefly peak at 8° C but 7° C will be more representative of the afternoon and until the end of the day. There may be sunny spells in the morning, but the day will be generally dull, and maybe very dull for just midday.
 
  Yesterday was a semi successful day, I achieved a few useful things, but I failed to do one thing I wanted to do, and didn't eat quite as carefully as I should have done, although I was a bit careful, just not enough. The waste pipe from the bathtub freezing up again was annoying.

  One early idea for yesterday was the possibility of going for a walk, and by that I meant more than just to the shops. The pure morning sunshine that inspired this idea didn't manage to last long enough before I could have first stepped outside (maybe around midday). At this point I can't seem to remember how I realised the very important fact that the bath was not draining because the drain pipe outside was frozen.

  I think I realised the bath was not draining when I allowed just trickle of water through the shower hose, just to pre warm it while I was brushing my teeth at the hand basin. My reason for doubting this obvious scenario is that I thought I put in a couple of towels to wash, and then was when I noticed the bath was not draining while waiting for hot water to come through the shower head (used to fill the big buckets I do my hand laundry in).

  I am positive my first intention was to have a shower, and couldn't because the water was not draining away. I am also positive that I would not start to fill the first big bucket, with detergent in it, if I couldn't do any more until the water started to run freely down the plughole. I must have started that laundry after the drain pipe had unfrozen. I know I did all the rinses when the water was draining away, and presumably I must have started the process much later in the day, but I can't seem to picture when.

  I couldn't have a shower, but I did wash my face, and flick a flannel over some bits of me while standing at the hand basin. That and a spray of deodorant seemed sufficient to go shopping in Tesco where there was no chance of getting intimately close to anyone. I was glad I had dismissed the idea of going for an exercise type walk because just walking to Tesco seemed a bit unpleasant. Some bits ached, and the very cold air was making me feel a bit breathless.

  I'm not sure if I was feeling a bit depressed, or just complacent after my good blood glucose tests in the morning, but I was lax in the extreme about some of the things I bought in Tesco. The worst was 5 reduced price, and mostly not reduced that much, that would have come from the sandwich counter. There were two cheese and bean wraps that I knew to be very tasty, but had a rather high sugar content. I bought two of them, and other stuff that was not exactly healthy.

  Most of the rest of my purchases were fairly "safe", although a couple of frozen ready meals were a bit borderline. Some stuff, like some sliced cooked beef were fine until I put them in baps - and I bought a pack of four baps. It is possible that I may let my discipline slip and eat them two at a time this time. The other very dubious thing I bought was a one litre tub of plain vanilla ice cream. I did compare it with some alternatives, and it's sugar content, although high, did seem lower than the others I checked.

  Loaded down, included 4 two litre bottles of Diet Coke in my rucksack, slowed me down a lot when I walked home again. It felt a real drudge getting home, and I was so happy to get back home and into the warmth. Once I had put all my shopping away I went up to my PC, and stuffed myself with all the sandwich and snack stuff I had bought with none too generous reduced price stickers on.

  There were the two cheese and bean wraps, a meat deli delight mini sub roll, a sandwich, and a mini roast hog flavour sausage roll. I have to admit I felt quite stuffed after that lot, and I felt so guilty that I did not eat until dinnertime, and that was quite a special meal. After my lunch I laid on my bed with a book, and read until I fell asleep. When I was awake I did keep an eye on the outside temperature.

  After noting the temperature had been positive for several hours I checked to see if the water had drained from the bathtub. It had and so that must have been when I filled the first big bucket with detergent, and started washing two towel. Both were hand towels. One was brand new and intended for the kitchen, and the other was thicker and slightly fluffier one used as a hand towel in the bathroom.

  Although I still the idea that I must have started the detergent stage earlier, it does seem more logical it would have been this later time. I still did not want to risk emptying big buckets of soapy water across my patched crack in the bathtub, and down the plughole, I was carrying those big buckets, maybe holding around 16 litres, and so weighing roughly 16km, the single pace and a bit, and pouring them down the toilet pan.

  I was doing the same when I previously did some laundry, and it left a legacy of aching muscles. This time, after the previous time as practice, it didn't feel so bad - at the time - but the legacy would be worse ! After 5 rinses the water still looked a bit soapy, but I was too tired for more without a break. I think I did other stuff, mostly just reading, for over an hour before I did another 4 or 5 rinses, and declared the job done.

  I hung the two towels on the small clothes horse in nthe dining room. In anticipation of doing so, I had been burning generally unused kilowatts of electric power for most of the day, although I must admit letting some of the warmth through the door, and into the kitchen, did make doing some work in the kitchen much more pleasant. I think I left the fan heater on full power for as much as 3 or maybe even four hours before turning it off, and replacing it with a desk fan to circulate the air all night. This morning those towels felt cold, but dry.

  I think my original idea was to have a couple of cans of low sugar soup for dinner, and I am not sure why I didn't do that. What I actually had was some salt crackers (almost exactly the same as Ritz Crackers), and rice crackers with quite a bit of Double Gloucestershire cheese, plus an apple. It was nice enough, but a bit unexciting. The exciting bit came afterwards when I had some of my newly bought ice cream. I tried to keep it down to less than a quarter of a litre, and I think I succeeded.

  I watched an assortment of stuff on TV last night, except for the bits I didn't watch because my concentration was on other stuff - like the book I am reading. I finished with the TV at 10pm, and went to bed. I read for about half an hour, and then tried to sleep. I felt really uncomfortable, and this time it was not the mystery lumps in the mattress and pillow that weren't there the previous night. This time it was aching muscles from over straining them carrying big buckets of water around.

  The very worst ache was, or seemed to be, in the middle of my back. It only felt very uncomfortable when I adopted my favourite sleeping pose. Other posed were possible, but they two had their own aches and problems. I had no choice but to get up again and take a couple of Ibuprofen tablets. I thought they might be best for inflamed muscle tissue, and it seemed I was probably right. I was back in bed at midnight, and while I admit that pure exhaustion played a strong part, the aches and pains were much diminished, and I was soon fast asleep.

  It wasn't long before I was having a seemingly long dream. Now the silly thing is that I can say what the dream was about, but not what happened. I know it was my own imagination continuing what I had been reading earlier - with myself taking the part of the hero, who oddly enough was called Bill too !
  On the left, the current book I am reading, and on the right the next book, and also the final book of the series. Maybe I remember about the dream, more than it's contents, because I woke up, and lay there considering what I had just done, and having the mad idea that I managed to invent a story line that was as good as the original. After a few minutes of self congratulation I realised I had woken up because I needed to pee....or maybe I didn't.

  When I went to the toilet I realised my need was a lot less than expected. That happened a few times, and I think I managed a run of sleep of 4 hours without waking because I seemed to be peeing a lot less than usual last night. I hoped it was an indicator that my blood glucose was nice and low this morning - it almost was !

  This morning I woke before 7am, and it felt like it was definitely time to get up - in other words I felt no desire to go back to bed after I had gone for my first pee of the waking day, although sadly not a poo (that came a few hours later after I had eaten breakfast, and thus I could not weigh myself again - which is a pity because I seemed to have put on 300gm this morning when I was hoping I might have lost a bit of weight.....but then again my dinner did include quite a lot of cheese.

  When I checked my blood glucose the readings were good, but I was hoping the lack of peeing would mean they were excellent. It was a curious set of readings though. The Contour meter read 8.1mmol/l. That is still good, but a few tenths less to take it in the light green code of my spreadsheet would look far better. The GlucoRX meter read 8.2mmol/l, and the Sinocare meter read 8.3mmol/l. So three readings, all good, and each one tenth more than the last one.

  My blood pressure has often been very slightly high, but still in the meter's diagnosis as "optimum", but this morning is seems to be back to it's more usual area. On my first try it was 107/43, and it seemed pointless to waste more time trying for an even lower figure - particularly when time seems to be flying by this morning. I can't believe it is already 11:45am after thinking it was not that late when i started writing. Have I written another extra long piece this morning ? I'll find out at the very end when I tot up the amount of words (and show it at the very bottom on the page).

  One thing I will do today is to have a shower, but after that I have no idea what will happen. It would be sensible to go for a walk of a mile or two to get some of the kinks out of my abused muscles, although that don't seem to be complaining much this morning. However I don't really feel in the right mood for a walk today.  For one thing the predicted sunny spells seem to not be happening this morning, and I doubt they will happen later either. It seems to be just cold and dull outside, and not welcoming at all. I think I will only find out what I am doing today once I am actually doing it !

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