It is about 13° C as I write this, and that tallies with the forecast, but it is not sunny. There was a few minutes of weak hazy sunshine that was just strong enough to cast a feint shadow, but no full on sunshine as shown in the forecast. Even worse is that it is raining ! The idea that we could see a high of 15° C this afternoon seems probable. If the sky does clear enough for full sunshine that is going to feel very nice. Sadly it is forecast that it is back dark clouds and rain from 4pm onwards. Tomorrow may start with some light rain, but it should clear by before mid morning. The sun may not appear until midday, and the temperature may be it's highest for the day during early afternoon. only 12° C is expected, but could still feel good in any sunshine.

  Yesterday started off bad with dangerously high blood glucose readings, and also my weight going up by 800gm. I had to try and fast, and that is not easy when booze is involved later in the afternoon. I think I did well until I had finished drinking !

  One thing I did yesterday was something I haven't done for ages. It was to skip breakfast as part of a day involving fasting. I was not sure that was going to work because one thing about breakfast is that it helps conceal the cod liver oil capsule I take every morning. Without food it can seem too easy to burp up the awful taste of that oil. Fortunately that didn't happen yesterday, and maybe it was a lesson that breakfast is not always needed in the one respect.

  Yesterday morning seemed like quite a relaxed morning with just one thing I wanted to do, but that only if I had enough time to do it. It was to go shopping in Poundstretcher after I had finished writing yesterday's diary, had a rest, and then had a shower. I must admit it was a joy to be able to have a shower without having to worry, or at least not to worry too much about the crack in my bathtub leaking water. For now it seems like my two layer glass fibre patch continues to work well.

  There was nothing special I wanted in Poundstretcher except for one low priority thing - disposable, compostable. paper plates. They did not have any. Other stuff I got while it was there were more instant noodles, some 500ml bottles of Lemon Diet Coke, and then just a few odds and sods. It was still cold enough to do up my medium weight jacket when I walked there, but it almost seemed a pleasant walk. Walking home again was also almost pleasant. Maybe it is simpler to say I suffered no real hardships walking there and back.

  As I said above, it was a fairly relaxed morning, and it was about 1pm when I got back from Poundstretcher. If I recall correctly I didn't feel all that hungry, and at other times I could have ignored the slight desire for food, but I felt that I needed some sort of lining for my stomach before drinking. I had what I suggested I would have when writing yesterday morning - rice crackers and cheese. The only slight diversion from that was that I added the last 5 or 6 slices of pickled gherkin in the jar to some of those cheese and crackers.

  Jodie arrived at about 3.20pm, and the boozing commenced. Michael joined us fairly early - I'm sure it was a little before 5pm. Most of the beers we had were medium strength, but I did finish things by opening a three mini bottle gift pack of whiskeys. I finished the session technically drunk, but I still felt very alert, and very much in control, except when it came to food !

  My plan was to eat a Tesco ready made mixed salad with some corned beef and a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I did indeed do that, although the amount of corned beef was more than I was going to use, but decided just to throw the whole lot in rather than keep an almost empty packet. I think I also had some salted peanuts, and they would not be great for my weight, but usually OK for my blood glucose level. What screwed up my blood glucose was finishing off the second half of the chunk of Madeira cake. My intention was just to possibly have a small slice, but I ate the lot !

  By about 7pm I had watched all the TV I wanted to watch, and I was feeling nice and mellow. I decided to go to bed. I read for a short while, but I thought I felt sleepy/relaxed enough to go to sleep despite it being so early in the evening. I was indeed fast asleep definitely before 8pm. I am unsure of the time because it didn't feel important then, but at maybe 10pm I woke up. I had a pee, but there seemed no urgency about it. I think I may have woken up for another reason.

  As I was trying to go back to sleep I was hindered by some acid reflux. It was not bad, but bad enough to not ignore it. I had some antacid tablets, and they helped a lot, but did not cure it. As I lay in bed another reason for no sleep appeared - the sound of a mouse chewing wood. I have seen no sign of any mice in the house for at least a year now, and possibly two, but last night, in the most unlikely place, there was definitely scritchy scratchy sounds of a mouse attempting to chew through a floorboard.

   Once I heard that sound I could not ignore it, and doubly so because it was in my bedroom - or at least, as far as I can guess, under the floor somewhere near the back of my computer desk. I found it hard to locate the sound, but I think it was probably from by the skirting board to the right of my computer desk. There are several boxes and piles of clothes there, and I had no desire to start pulling everything apart to try and locate the exact position last night.

  I seemed to be awake for the half the night because of that noise. I think I managed a small sleep in the early hours of today, but it was at least 4pm before I got some real sleep. I had a lie in this morning, and it was gone 8am before I got up, but I feel like I missed so much needed sleep. I don't exactly feel bright this morning, although some of my health indicators show an improvement over yesterday.

  I did not seem to pee much in the night, and that could partly explain my weight gain. 500gm is not the end of the world, and two big pees in the night, as happens quite frequently, could have halved that gain, and possibly more. Until I had my drunken dinner last night I was probably doing well enough to potentially lose a couple of hundred grams.
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  My blood glucose readings were improved over yesterday, but still a lot higher than is good. Bother the Contour and Sinocare meters agreed that the glucose level was 9.3mmol/l. That is not exactly dangerous for short periods of time, but it could give undesired effects if it stays there too long. Only the GlucoRX meter gave a fairly OK reading of 8.3mmol/l for some unknown reason.

  Despite the added stress of lack of sleep, worrying about my weight and blood glucose, and of course worrying about the mouse I heard in the night, my blood pressure is still very good. Admittedly on the second attempt, it was 108/43. Even the first attempt was only 112/48.

  Today I can think of three things I want to try and do. The first is to try and fast again until dinnertime, and then trying to put together a fairly safe meal - and stick to it. The second is to pull my bedroom apart to see if I can find evidence of a mouse in residence, and either set a trap or two, or if it seems it has been trying to gnaw through from under the floorboards, to seal any hole(s) found.

  If I manage to solve the mouse problem, or maybe even if I don't, I want to take advantage of the promised sun, and warm-ish weather, and take out probably my Canon 600D camera for a walk in one or other park. If I had slept well, didn't have a mouse problem, and was washed and dressed early, I had a vague fantasy that I would jump on a train to spend an hour or two at the seaside. Last night I even checked the weather at Sheerness (Isle of Sheppy) today. It looked like it would be better than here. At the moment it is far too cloudy for anything more than an occasional, very brief, and maybe not full strength sunny spell. I still hope that we will get the full sunshine that was promised for a few hours of the afternoon.

  Of course, having written that, the sun has now come out, but I have doubts it will be out for long because the sky still looks very cloudy to the south. It is also very cloudy to the north as well. Just before I finish I realise there is one other thing I ought to do today. Now the bathtub is no longer leaking (for now at least) I ought to get the big buckets out and do some laundry. It makes me wonder if I will ever get out for a walk, but unless the sky clears I won't be terribly keen to do so.