This morning it looks like the weather forecast has got off to a good start. It has been bright since sunrise, and once the sun has risen high enough to clear the house roofs it should be nice and sunny. Sunshine, or maybe, as forecast, sunny spells should continue to 1pm. It won't be warm with a high of 8° C forecast for early afternoon, and 2 or 3 degrees lower towards the end of the day. Earlier versions of the forecast showed more rain for late afternoon/early evening. The latest version just says some drizzle at 5, 7 and 8pm. Tomorrow could feature non stop sunshine for most of the hours of daylight, but it still will no be very warm. Just 7° C for a couple of hours in the afternoon.
 
  On the one hand I could describe yesterday as being bland, but maybe that is a bit harsh for a day that had it's moments, and was enlivened by unscheduled sunny spells in the morning. It was also an unusually healthy day, and I have no idea why that happened.

  After I finished writing, and had my usual rest, I washed my hair, and had a shower. At that point there was no obvious sign of any leakage through my patch over the crack in the bathtub, and so I decided to do some more laundry. It was one t-shirt, one pair of lounge pants, and 4 pairs of underpants. I left them all soaking in detergent, and came back to them later. Once I had dried my body and blown dry my hair it seemed to be time for a spot of lunch.

  If I remember correctly, and I must admit I have some doubts, I just had some salted wheat crackers with cheese. The salted crackers (basically the same as "Ritz Crackers") were bit nicer, in a more chewable way, than the rice crackers I would usually have with cheese. I only gave the nutritional information a very quick glance, and I think the salt content was a bit high, but still modest, and the sugar content was higher than the rice crackers.

  After that small lunch I had a lie down, and read for a bit. I then went back to the laundry that I had left soaking. By this time the sunny spells had long gone, and I had lost any zest. It seemed not to be exactly hard work, but very boring work. I got as far as getting everything in the last rinse water, and felt like another rest. I didn't actually rest, and among other things, I went down into the kitchen to make a snack - or late lunch part 2.
  This view was maybe the main reason why I ran out of enthusiasm to finish the laundry in one go. It is the view outside the bathroom window. I couldn't actually see it while I worked in the bathroom, but that cold, grey and wet aura seemed to be seeping through the slightly open window. I described it as cold, but actually I think it was around 9° C, and possibly 10° C. It the sky was blue, and the sun blazing down, I would have been happy going to Tesco (for instance) wearing just a t-shirt and jeans.

  I am not sure if one bap stuffed with ham and mustard is too big to be called a snack or not, but whatever it was, it was very tasty and very enjoyable. I didn't rest for hardly any time before I went back to the laundry and did the final fabric conditioner phase. I hung it up on the big clothes horse in the dining room, with a fan heater on low to speed up the drying. It was during that last bit of washing that I made a sort of discovery.

  For as much as the last 3 weeks I had been suffering from aching arms (plus a few other bits). Together with the 4 or 5 days I had with a sore throat (maybe just two of those days were a bit painful), I thought it must be the bug that has been going around lately. The trouble with that idea is that everyone said that bug was far worse than I had - more like actual 'flu. My version was like a never ending very mild 'flu that never got that bad, but never got better.

 It was while wringing out my laundry that I suddenly realised I was not getting any significant pain from my arms. It seemed to have gone away without me noticing it. I did still feel some weakness, but stuff that could cause a very strong pain, such as reaching behind me to straighten my pillow, did not hurt. Maybe it was recovering from some unknown illness that made me feel slightly better without actually realising it at the time. Maybe it inspired what came next.
  For some reason I had not prepared any dinner. I am sure I had intended to make another beef, or maybe lamb with vegetables, stew. Perhaps, once again, my brain had been conspiring without letting me know about it. I suddenly had the idea that I was going to see what it would be like to have nothing but fruit for dinner (with a dessert). Pictured above is the main part of my dinner - one plum, one jazz apple, one golden delicious apple, and a big orange.

  As I have been recently noticing, fruit can feel filling in a way I didn't think happened. Munching my way through this fruit was as good as munching through a more conventional dinner. The plum slipped down easily enough. The jazz apple (bottom left) was not very nice, and I think I will avoid buying any more in the future. The golden delicious apple was nice, but not as nice as those from the little supermarket on Catford Bridge. The orange was one of the nice varieties, and much better than similar ones that Tesco sell.

  Quite a lot of recent experimentation had shown that a small amount of ice cream was safe to eat for me, and so I had some ice cream after the fruit. I had more of the Tesco "Molly's" frozen creamed palm oil ice cream. It is not nasty, but it is less enjoyable than most other ice creams. This time I did not measure out 100gm or less, but guess at the right amount, spooned straight from the carton. I think I may have had closer to 150gm - theoretically a bit too much sugar, or so I thought.

  I spent much of the evening watching TV, but not everything I had on really gripped my attention, and I found I was looking at stuff on my PC many times. The last thing I watched, and episode of The Simpsons, finished at 9pm, and I went straight to bed. I read for perhaps half an hour before trying for sleep. I can't recall any difficulty getting to sleep, and I guess I was asleep just before 10pm.

  My sleep was generally uneventful, but I did seem to be peeing a lot in the night. I made the negative assumption that the fruit and ice cream had increased my blood glucose level to dangerous levels. That did not feel good mentally, but while I seemed to be peeing bigger quantities, I was still only waking up about every 2 hours - normal for me these days. One thing I noticed last night, and one or two previous nights, was my left foot seemed a bit swollen - or filled with water.

  When I got up I was sure I would poo, but it was just a lot of wind. I still had quite a big pee. Losing all that water seemed to make my left foot shrink, and it certainly made my weight shrink. The scales say I lost 800gm. That is a lot for a 24 hour period, or at least it would be if what I had lost was fat. I think many of my weight ups and down, except for longer trends, are not changes in fat but water retention.

  When I checked my blood glucose I had a most pleasant surprise. The fruit and ice cream, if they had any effect it was to reduce, and not increase my blood glucose. At about 8.30pm last night I had a hint of this when a check showed my blood glucose was only 8.8mmol/l so soon after eating. That was a little higher than I would like, and yet still a lot less than I expected so soon after eating.

  This morning the Contour meter read a very good 7.6mmol/l. My rarely achieved latest target is 7.5mmol/l, and so I didn't quite make that. The GlucoRX meter was spot on target at 7.5mmol/l. The Sinocare meter once seemed to always read a lot higher has been behaving itself really well recently, and this morning was no exception with a reading of 7.9mmol/l. All that gave all three readings in the light green zone of my spreadsheet, and an average of 7.67mmol/l. Admittedly that is actually slightly higher than yesterday's 7.33mmol/l.

  The one great event today is that it is Wednesday, and so I shall be going for my regular lunchtime drink in The Jolly Farmers. In theory I will get there in sunshine, or at least before the sunny spells finish. At the moment the sunny spell is looking a bit hazy, but it is still very bright. I think I will be on my own today, but with better weather it is possible Kevin may turn up.

  I shall go there on the train as usual, and take unwanted pictures of all the train.....just in case one does turn out to be one I have not photographed before. If it were bright and sunny when I leave the pub I could be tempted to walk home. It would be hard work, but I need the exercise. on the other hand I am sure I will get the train because I fancy getting some more, and nicer fruit from the little supermarket on Catford Bridge.