Today may be a weak improvement on yesterday. The ground still looks very wet, presumably from rain during the night, but there is quite a low chance forecast for rain this morning, and even less from early evening when, if we could see them in the dark, the clouds may be lighter. This morning starts at 3° C then climbs to 4° C, and finally peaks at 5° C from 1pm. It then starts to fall at 8pm. Tomorrow may see just light cloud, no rain, and it may reach 6° C during early afternoon. It is forecast to be better than today, but only by a small margin.
 
  Yesterday felt like a really horrible day despite doing a few useful things. It was spoiled by not doing more useful things, losing control of my eating, and aches and pains. The latter being quite acute in the late evening. All the negativity seemed to breed more negativity, and that was part of the reason why I could not bring myself to do more useful stuff.

  After writing and my usual rest, I was going to have a shower, but I just could not bother to. The idea of getting wet when it was so cold in the bathroom, and much of upstairs just put me off. I did have a heater on low blowing some warm, or maybe just tepid air into the bathroom, and that did take the chill off, but it didn't feel good enough to stand around dripping wet. I just had a quick flannel wash.

  Once I was dry and dressed I prepared myself to go to Tesco. There didn't seem to be enough rain to bother with a hooded coat. By pure chance I probably went out during one of the lulls in the rain, and when it did rain it was no more than some fine drizzle blowing in the wind. My favourite thick coat seemed sufficient to keep me warm, although it was only just good enough.

  It is odd that when I was feeling like it would probably hurt going to Tesco, it was almost pleasant. To be truly pleasant it would have had to be 10° C warmer, and not needing my coat done up, but even in the cold my legs seemed to working OK. I didn't try to walk too fast, but I think I walked at a fair pace, and that felt OK. Once inside the store I still didn't feel warm enough to unzip the front of my coat.

  There were several things I wanted in Tesco. Of low priority, but while I was passing I grabbed some packets of instant noodles - including a couple of the big 120gm packets. I then made a beeline for the reduced price shelf. That was a bit disappointing, but I did find some posh ham that was reduced by about 75%. That was a rare sized discount ! After that I went to get the thing that was most important - a bottle of milk.

  I got other stuff like both tiger and crusty "breakfast rolls". One impulse buy was a four pack of lager from the Vocation brewery (if I remember correctly). That meant I reduced my Diet Coke buying to two bottles instead of the usual four. It seemed like I had a lot to carry home, but it didn't feel like I was loaded down, and the walk back home was like the walk there - almost pleasant, and once again it would have been pleasant in warm sunshine, but it seems we won't get any of that this month.

  It was freezing cold in the kitchen, and not much better in the dining room, when I put my shopping away. Some hot soup would probably be the best thing I could have had for lunch, but I had planned otherwise. I had decided to toast the last two baps I had in the fridge. They were still fresh, but I was sure they would not be that way for too much longer. A much bigger grill would have been good so I could split them in two, and toast all four halves in one go.

  I had to toast two halves at a time, but only the inner surfaces. The outer, and then really only the top, would get toasted after those baps were complete. The next stage was to add some pickle, some ham and some cheese to the bottom halves, and then toasting until the cheese was melting. If I had the patience I might have added another thin layer of cheese, and toast that until it was starting to brown. The final stage was to put the tops on, and than toast the tops.

  I enjoyed those toasted baps, but I wouldn't like to make a habit of eating them. For one thing they were probably not too healthy for me, and maybe the second and bigger reason is that it needed a lot of patience to make them, and it was all done in a freezing kitchen. I expect I would have far more patience if it was spring, and a bit warm in there, although then there would be less call for hot food.

  After eating my lunch, and having a short rest to let it settle down, I had to really force myself to do some housework. It was part of the tasks I had set myself before Patricia arrives for her one night stay here. I have been mostly keeping on top of the washing up, and so little needed to be done in the kitchen. What definitely needed to be done was to hoover the dining room, and do other cleaning and tidying up in there.

  I didn't give the PVC tablecloth a wipe down as I will do later, but I did try and tidy up some of the stuff on the floor. It was then time to get the hoover out. One of the first things I had to do was to go outside inn the freezing cold to empty it. I came back in with many muscles complaining from the cold. That did not make for a good start. After a while, pushing the hoover around helped to warm me up a bit, but it still felt uncomfortable cold in the dining room.

  In an ideal world, and one that sometimes feel has passed, never to return, I would have gone on to hoover the hall and at least the bottom half of the stairs, but I felt I had exhausted myself just hoovering the one room.  Knowing what it was like before I started, it did seem to look like I had done a fair job, but in reality I think I will do it again today. It may require a lot less effort to just go over the bits I seemed to have missed, and hopefully I can do the hall and stairs today.

  I didn't even bother putting the hoover away when I finished. I just left it where it was and went back up to my bedroom where it was nice and warm. I had also been burning some electricity to warm up the spare bedroom to make sure it is dry when Patricia stays. It probably wasn't actually damp, but just cold feeling. Meanwhile, I laid on my bed to read, and while I don't specifically remember it, I would not be surprised if I had a snooze.

  I must say, for a day when I generally felt rotten, time to slip by very easily yesterday. That in itself was not good because there was so much more I would have liked to have done, and not doing it made me feel worse, and that made me feel depressed, and being depressed made me feel more depressed. It was obvious I was not going to get much more done yesterday, and anyway, the very first Star Trek was just starting at 4pm. If nothing else, I could have spent some time editing, and watching, a Simpsons episode or two, but I just could not be bothered.

  One little thing I did do was to add the final vegetables to the stew I had made using the second half dozen meatballs. Like the with the first half dozen, I had thickened the gravy with tomato purée and ready crispy fried onions. It was going to be another very rich stew, but also quite small. I had something before it was dinner time, and I think it was probably the last two choc chip muffins. I think I was in a bit of a devil may care mood by that time because after my my dinner I had some dessert of vanilla ice cream - the good stuff that also had a fair bit of sugar in it.

  I watched a fair bit of TV last night, and most of it was assorted Star Trek episodes. Some were interesting, and for some my attention wandered to look at other stuff. The last thing was to record, but not watch (and I am not sure why) two new Simpsons episodes. The last finished at 9pm, and I went straight to bed where absolutely nothing happened ! Before I could get comfortable I had to visit the toilet several times.

  The first visit was for a pee. It was freezing in the bathroom, and when I got back to bed many of my muscles were were really aching. Some seemed to squeeze me in a way that was a cross between heart attack, angina, and acid indigestion. I was pretty sure it was not heart trouble even if it felt like it. I sat down and checked my blood pressure. Admittedly I made sure I was relaxed as I could be, and got a reading of 100/50, and that is perfectly OK.

  I had to make three more visits to the toilet, and all three involved having a poo. It is annoying that I couldn't do the whole lot in one sitting because it was not an awful lot. It meant three more trips out to the freezing cold bathroom, and once again going back to bed with a load of complaining muscles. The odd thing is that I didn't seem to shiver during all this, but I most definitely felt very cold.

  I feel sure that the aching muscles were a symptom of something, but I don't know what. Maybe the closest thing would be like when suffering from 'flu, but I don't think I have enough other symptoms for that. I certainly have had no fever. My temperature did reach 36.7° C yesterday, and that is about 0.1° C higher than my usual highest, but it is a long way from having a traditional fever (37.8° C was quoted on Covid warning posters). It is all very mysterious.

  I gave up going back to bed after the second two visits to the toilet for a poo, and sat at my PC looking at anything I could find to pass the time. As more and more time passed that even meant looking at the last trains for the day heading for their final destinations (https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/nkl1). I must admit that in a sort of anoraky way, it was interesting to see some lines become blocked for overnight engineering work. That happened after 1am. It was almost 3am before I tried to go to sleep one more time, and this time it worked.

  It was a stupidly late time to get to sleep, but once asleep I seemed to sleep OK. More importantly, I was able to get back to sleep quite easily on the few times I had to get up to pee in the probably even colder bathroom. I think it was around 5am when on one visit to the toilet I got out the fan heater, and turned it on to blow some warm-ish air into the bathroom. When I finally got up, at gone 8am, it was tepid in there when I went for my first of the official morning pee and poo.

  I don't remember much of the dreams I know I had....or at least I think I know I had. Only one mysterious bit of dream left a memory. It was about marking some bundles of paperwork official, or at least name tagged. I have absolutely no idea where such a bizarre idea came from, but the way authentication of the paper work was done meant attaching a picture of a big toe, taken under water !

  I can't say I feel all that good this morning, although I feel no worse than the last 3 or more days, and just maybe I might actually feel slightly better than some recent days, although the difference is hard to find. It was not very cheering this morning when I found all my eating (and I am sure there was some I haven't described) meant that I have put back the 400gm I apparently lost the day before. All this lack of exercise, and frolicking in warm sunshine, is taking it's toll on me).

  On the other hand, my blood glucose remains batter than expected. The Contour meter gave the worst reading of 8.4mmol/l. Even that would be considered good if I hadn't started getting much better readings towards the end of last month. The GlucoRX meter read 7.5mmol/l, or spot on my current target. The Sinocare meter read 7.8mmol/l, and that is pretty good. I remain amazed at what I am getting away with these days - particularly after eating cakes and ice cream yesterday.

  I must admit I am not looking forward to doing anything on this cold grey day, but eventually I will have to bite the bullet, and get hoovering again. I'll do a quick sweep over the dinning room floor before doing the hall and the stairs. That will probably be quite enough for my body, but not for my mind. Ideally I need to hoover upstairs too. The spare bedroom looks basically OK as it is, but if I can, I will hoover that as well. I don't think I will find the time or enthusiasm to re-do the patch on the cracked bathtub, but maybe I might change the shower curtains....or perhaps I could get away with a light scrub of the bottom of them, where they look discoloured, with some bleach.

  I think I have already thought of enough stuff to scare me off doing anything, but if I just relax and not think about it, I may end up doing more than I think I can do. I am unsure what time to expect Patricia tomorrow. It could be quite late in the afternoon because I expect she will want to visit The National Gallery while travelling through central London. If I forgo my lunchtime in the pub, there could be time for a few last minute things before Patricia arrives. I will ask he to give some estimates before making any concrete decisions.....or biting off more than I can chew.