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Monday
20th January 2025
09:12 GMT
Once again, yesterday was another cold
and grey day. The only very slightly
positive thing is that it was a dry
day. The temperature forecast ranged
from 2° C at each end of the day, with
a peak of 4° C in the middle of the
day....except I, and my 5 outside
thermometers agree that the afternoon
high was more like 5° C. At 10:25pm
the thermometer outside my bedroom
window, with it's sensor connected by
thin wire to the indoor display, said
it was 3.7° C, and I guess that it
close enough to the forecast of 3° C.
Just one
of my outside thermometers said
the temperature was as low as 3.6°
C degrees just before 8am. The
others said between 4 and 5° C. My
eyes say the road looks damp, and
I am unsure if there might have
been some light rain when itw as
dark, or if it might be just
condensation. Today we may briefly
see 6° C, but overall it is
another cold, grey, miserable, but
probably dry day. Tomorrow may
start with mist, but we have had
that forecast many times, and it
always seemed clear to me. On a
more positive note, tomorrow may
see some sunny spells, but only a
maximum of 5° C is expected.
Yesterday included doing a
few useful, or in one case,
potentially useful thing for the
future. I tried at least one thing
I had not tried before (although I
guess it was two things - this
will be explained later). The
results of the whole day were not
too bad this morning.
Like many morning, and
particularly mornings when my
health indicators would recommend
it, I had fantasy ideas about
going out for some exercise
yesterday, but I think those ideas
evaporated before I had even
finished writing yesterday's
electronic diary. It just seem too
unfriendly, cold grey and
miserable, to consider going out.
I didn't even take the rubbish out
to the black bin outside, but then
again, it was not an urgent need,
and may not be for another day or
two yet.
What I did do was to try
and moderate what, and how much of
it to eat. I think I half managed
it - the results was in the right
direction this morning, but not as
good as would have been ideal. In
terms of any physical things,
almost but not really exercise, I
did hand wash two pairs of lounge
pants, and 3 pairs of underpants.
It felt like it should have been
hard work, but somehow wasn't.
Apart from leaving it all to soak
in detergent for an hour or two, I
did all the rinses non stop, and
could have done more. I don't
think I even stopped for a snooze
when I had done it, but I am sure
I laid on my bed to read for a
while.
At about 1pm, around an
hour later than usual, I had some
lunch in the form of some alleged
pickled onion flavoured mature
cheddar cheese on rice crackers. I
did seem to get through quite a
lot of cheese trying to find the
pickled onion flavour, but
otherwise it was a pretty safe
some or meal (with regard to sugar
content, but probably not calorie
wise). A couple of hours later I
conducted a grand
experiment....sort of.
The "grand experiment"
involved the pictures above ice
cream. This stuff is cheap (much
less than half the cost of a basic
Tesco own brand vanilla ice
cream), and it is sort of nasty.
It has very little to do with
actual ice cream, and a lot to do
with stuff like palm oil, and
similar stuff. It earns it's
place, just by the skin of it's
teeth, as being ice cream because
it's major ingredient is
reconstituted dried milk powder.
Once you get over the fact that it
doesn't taste like ice cream, it
doesn't taste all that bad.
Tasting this "ice
cream" for the first time was only
half the experiment. It's sugar
content, per 100gm, looks high,
but is low compared to many ice
creams. I decided to try and eat
no more than 100gm, and while I
can't vouch for my accuracy, it
did seem like sufficient to
satisfy my curiosity, and desire
for some ice cream. I used my
rarely used kitchen scales to try
and only eat 100gm,
The kitchen scales can
measure right down to milligrams,
but I would not like to vouch for
their accuracy at that end of the
scale. I first measured the whole
tub, and the scales said 877gm. I
would eat some, and then measure
again until I got near to 777gm,
and then stop. With hindsight,
which started mere seconds after
starting this, I realised it was a
silly way to do it, although
ultimately more accurate.
One of the useful things
about my kitchen scales is you can
zero them with a container on
them. I would use a glass, and
then start to fill it with the ice
cream until it read 100gm. I could
then eat the ice cream from the
glass to my hearts content. The
only trouble with this method is
having a glass to clean
afterwards, and unless I had used
something like a saucer that I
could lick clean, there would be
ice cream stuck to the glass that
I would not be able to easily get
out with a spoon.
Another experiment I did
could potentially be useful in the
future. Quite a few months ago now
I bought a quite cheap 10 inch TV.
It can be battery operated, and it
has a selection of inputs. It can
also record (only) digital TV onto
a memory card. The latter is very
useful because some channels, for
reasons unknown, always seem to
suffer from some breakup on when
watched on my PC, but seem perfect
on this mini TV.
One particular thing I
thought might be useful was to use
it as a 10 inch monitor for one of
my digital camera when videoing
stuff. I thought that in theory I
could connect the camera to the TV
via an HDMI lead. When I tried
that originally I found I could
play back files (and probably
video, although I never tried to)
through the HDMI lead to the TV,
but I could not see live pictures
that way.
I was sure it should be
possible, and quite early
yesterday evening, I looked
through the menu of my Nikon D610
camera, and found a menu option
for HDMI. It seems it defaults to
"Control ON". When I changed that
to "Control OFF" I got the live
pictures I wanted. Now, with the
camera on a tripod, and the TV
also mounted on the tripod, I can
do what the professionals do, and
use the 10 inch screen as a
viewfinder/monitor for the camera
when shooting video.
The reason why I may never
actually shoot video this way is
that it is an awful lot of stuff
to transport to a gig on a bus !
If I had a car to transport all
the stuff, I would take a good
tripod, maybe two, two cameras,
the TV, and external microphones.
I could set the best camera up for
a wide angle view, and use the
second camera for close ups and
maybe panned video. I did this
many years ago with standard
definition, 4:3 aspect ratio video
by getting a couple of friends to
help carry it all, and act as
cameramen. I sometimes had 4 views
to use in the edit, and I was
quite amazed at what I managed. If
you cans see the following
video........
It is a shame
that the video editor I used
to use only worked on Windows
XP, and would only work with
standard definition video,
because it was a lot more
versatile, and easier to use
that the current video editor
I use. I find it really hard
to be creative with the
current video editor, even if
it can edit ultra high
definition videos. It can do
useful things like scrolling
text, but I have never worked
out how - at least to the
extent of smoothly moving
text. Maybe if I was spending
hours doing a multi camera
edit like the video above
(which is 14 years old !), I
might try and learn some of
the stuff that seems to hard
for every day use.
The great event last
night was the eating of the
spare Singapore Fried Noodles
that I bought when I walked to
the Noodle House the day
before yesterday. It was nice,
but not as nice as I thought
those I bought the last time I
went there well over a month
ago (maybe early December
2024). On the other hand I was
drunk then, and that could
have a large bearing on how I
thought it tasted. I also
realised why I felt so
uncomfortable stuffed when I
tried to eat two of them on
the same night that previous
time. They are rather large
portions.
This time I just ate
the one, and I didn't suffer
any bad indigestion, although
I could still taste it in my
burps late into the night.
While I ate, and for some time
after I finished, I watched a
fair bit of TV. It included
two (alleged) brand new
episodes of The Simpsons that
I also recorded on my mini TV.
I think I then watched an
episode of Have I Got News For
You, and when that finished at
10pm I went to bed.
I did not try for sleep
at first because I wanted to
read the last chapter or two
(both only 2 or 4 pages) of
the final book of the "Bill
The Galactic Hero" series by
Harry Harrison. They were a
great diversion from reality,
completely crazy, and the last
few books had veiled
references to the real world
of American politics when they
were written. The earlier
books were probably influenced
by the (American) Vietnam war,
although there was no hint of
a reference to that war, it
wouldn't take a genius to put
2 and 2 together.
I am unsure what time I
went to sleep, but at a guess
I would say it was not long
after 11pm. I seemed to sleep
OK, and towards the end I was,
with hindsight, surprised that
I seemed to be peeing less
than normal. One thing I did
before I tried for sleep was
to take a single blood glucose
reading, and it was
dangerously high. It seemed I
must have peed out a lot of
the excess sugar in my blood
stream in the first part of
the night, although it was
still a bit high this morning.
I had two short dreams
in the night that have a
common theme, and one that was
another dream of being back at
work. The only notable thing I
can remember about that was
leaving work 15 minutes early
because I could not be
bothered to hang around doing
nothing for a quarter of an
hour, and just left without
caring who saw me. No one said
a word, and so I reckoned it
was an OK thing to do.
The two dreams on the
same sort of subject both
started off with me dreaming I
had an erection. I don't think
I really had one while I
slept, but you never know....
In the first dream I was in
bed, and it seemed to have
been light. I had woken up
with an erection (morning
glory !), and was thinking
that maybe some gentle
"massage" would be the cure
when my mum came in the room,
and wanted to check my blood
pressure, blood glucose level
and temperature. That killed
the erection.
The inspiration for
this dream was obviously from
the last couple of short stays
in hospital when my blood
pressure, blood glucose, and
temperature was taken about
every two hours night and day
(except when I was on a
permanent heart monitor). It
was really annoying, and
trebly the first time that I
had finally managed to get to
sleep for the first time, and
was woken up after 2 hours.
That is when I told the nurse
to bugger off, and rolled over
on my other side. I don't know
to this day whether he (it was
a male nurse) managed to get
any readings on that occasion.
The second dream on the
same sort of theme was once
again waking (in the dream)
with an erection. I wanted to
see what I was doing but my
bedside light would not work.
I took the bulb out the light
the other side, and tried that
in the one that wouldn't
light. It seemed to take a few
seconds, but it came on very
dimly, and never really got
brighter. I never did
get enough to light to see by,
and I think the dream faded
out.
When I finally got up I
felt some urgency about going
for a pee, but I only seemed
to do a small amount. It felt
like I needed a poo too, but
it only seemed to be wind.
Since then I have been to the
toilet several more times, and
so far I have only farted. It
does feel like something is on
the move, and sooner or later
today I will have that poo,
Until then it sort of limits
me to staying in, with easy
reach of the toilet today -
probably.
I expect my blood
glucose to be very high this
morning, and while it was
higher than is good for me, it
was not that high. The
Contour meter actually read
not too awful with a reading
of 8.4mmol/l. in fact that is
under my old target of
8.5mmol/l, and oddly enough
that is exactly what the
GlucoRX meter read. So far I
guess it was not actually bad
at all, but the Sinocare meter
put the boot in with a reading
of 9.0mmol/l. I suppose even
that is not exactly terrible,
but is still undesirable. On
the other hand after the ice
cream I ate, and the great big
fried Singapore noodle dinner,
it was probably a lot better
than expected.
Another surprise this
morning is that I seemed to
have lost 200gm of weight
since yesterday morning. I
expect that if I had managed
to have the poo I still think
I need, it could have been
double that 200gm ! My blood
pressure is up a tiny bit this
morning, but there is so
little difference between
109/49 and 108/50 that it is
hardly worth mentioning. As to
how I actually feel.... well,
I feel colder than I would
like but I have to watch the
electricity bill, but I guess
I have no particular aches and
pains worth mentioning (that
is not to say that I could
find plenty of little aches if
I thought about it hard
enough).
I have been trying to
think of ways to lure myself
out of the house today, and
about the most like I can
think of is to go ans stand on
Catford station with a camera
to take some pictures of
passing and stopping trains. I
think it is most unlikely that
I will do that, and maybe the
very best I might do is go to
Poundstretcher and buy what
ever it was that I thought I
might buy from there, but
without even being able to
remember what it was, it seems
very unlikely it will happen.
What is quite likely that I
will do is to clean up, but
stripping out adverts and crop
to the start and end of four
(alleged) brand new episodes
of The Simpsons that I have
recorded on my mini TV. There
could be other recordings on
there that I have forgotten
about, and I could edit those
as well before archiving them.
There might even be something
I could watch as well.
1
Once again, yesterday was another cold
and grey day. The only very slightly
positive thing is that it was a dry
day. The temperature forecast ranged
from 2° C at each end of the day, with
a peak of 4° C in the middle of the
day....except I, and my 5 outside
thermometers agree that the afternoon
high was more like 5° C. At 10:25pm
the thermometer outside my bedroom
window, with it's sensor connected by
thin wire to the indoor display, said
it was 3.7° C, and I guess that it
close enough to the forecast of 3° C.
