The weather takes a (hopefully) one day holiday today. This morning it feel quite chilly. The wind makes the current 11° C feel even colder. It is also very dull outside, and while no rain is forecast, it does have that "it might rain later" feel about it. If the forecast has any credence, the sun should break through in an hour or two, and then there could be sunny spells for the rest of the day. It should raise the temperature up to about 19° C (which I think is an improvement on yesterday's forecast for today).  Something closer to summer returns tomorrow. It is currently forecast to be full sunshine all day, and an afternoon temperature of 20° C.

  Like many Wednesdays, yesterday started off good, but from mid afternoon things dragged a lot. That lead me on to eating a bit more than I should have, or wanted to, but fortunately the outcome of it was not bad at all. Missing the postman was a minor irritation.

  Although I had a full shower and washed my hair the day before, I had experienced some sweat, and I washed my hair again before I showered yesterday. After allowing a bit of time to cool down, I dressed in t-shirt and shorts, plus my wide fitting trainers. They are not my most comfortable trainers, and reduce my walking speed a bit because they feel stiff. That seems to make my ankles hurt. However, I am happy to say that they are starting to feel broken in now.

  I decided I would walk to and from the pub. That would be a good test for those new trainers, and it would be a good test for  my body. I had my little Nikon camera with me, but I didn't take any pictures until I had walked to Ladywell station. I didn't feel quite good enough to walk non stop, but my pauses were possibly fairly short, and I may have walked to Ladywell in less time than some previous walks (although very slow by comparison to when I could do a brisk, non stop walk, but that was maybe several years ago now).
  At Ladywell station I saw the only train of my day. The significance of this particular train is that it was 376005. Since making my spreadsheet of class 376 trains I had seemed to get photos of almost all the 36 trains in the class months ago, but 376005 stood out like a missing tooth. I had a vague memory that I might have read that it was involved in something like a shunting accident at the depot, and had been written off. It was therefore a bit shock to see it running, and to finally fill in that missing space. In future I need to look further afield to get photos of new trains because I seemed to have all the local ones photographed.

  I must have thought that it would take longer to walk to the pub, via the station to pick up copies of The Metro for me, and for Ayse (my favourite barmaid), than it actually did. I left home earlier than usual, and arrived at the pub maybe 20 minutes earlier than usual. Using slightly twisted logic, it proves that taking the train save very little time, and possibly takes a bit longer (but it does give me a very short rest from walking while waiting for the train, and when on the train).

  The pub seemed a little quieter than some Wednesday lunchtimes, although it was starting to get a bit lively about the time I left. It is less interesting when it is quiet, but on the other hand it makes concentrating on the Metro crosswords easier. I managed to do all the quick crossword. I made a good start on the cryptic crossword, but after solving about 6 clues, in very quick time, it suddenly seemed to be very hard, and I don't think I ever solved more than those 6 clues. It was like my brain suddenly seized up or something.

  I had my usual two pints of Guinness, and once again I found just two pints seemed to slow me up a lot. Maybe I am being overruled by habit, but I found myself stopping at the same places (bridges over the river for the first half of the walk) to take a breather, although I was not exactly short of breath. I guess I was breathing a bit heavy, but it was more to do with my feet and legs aching, or maybe it was a mix of everything. The significant thing is that it took me longer to walk home than it did to walk to the pub (which also included diverting by the station).

  It emphatically felt good to get home. As usual, I seemed to recover quite quickly once I was home and not walking, or at least not in the same way. I had in mind a very simple, although maybe less healthy, lunch. It was ice cream, and probably more than I now try and limit myself to (the big problem is that the amount left in the tub was not quite big enough for two servings so I ate the lot).

  Before I started eating I stripped off my outdoor clothes, had a pee, and weighed myself while only wearing underpants. Although I had had a pee in the pub, and one when I got home, I didn't see the expected drop in weight like I would get if I had just been out walking with no booze. I can't remember what the scales read, but it seemed satisfactory as far as I can remember.

  Ignoring the annoyance at not being able to do an almost painless fast walk these days, the only minor annoyance at this point was that I found I had missed the postman who had a small parcel for me (part of an order with Amazon). It was nothing important, and I knew, as the card said, the postman would try to deliver it once more the next day (today) at about the same time. If I am not in this time I will need to go to the sorting office to collect it, but I intend to be in this time.

  The main uncertainty about this parcel delivery is that I am also expecting an heavier parcel, and I think it is coming today. I feel sure it will be too heavy for the postman, and will come in a Parcel Force van. It is possible they will also bring my lighter parcel too, but that puts some uncertainty on the time. I often see the Parcel Force van mid morning, and sometimes even earlier. I may have to put off having a shower to the very last minute.

  After I had eaten my ice cream lunch I had a lie down and read for a while until I had a snooze. I have no idea how long I snoozed for (I wasn't even really sure what time I got home from the pub, but it may have been around 3pm). At about 4pm it seemed like it would be a long wait until dinner, and I gave in and had a snack of two small (25gm) bags of crisps. I never thought I would say it, but those crisps seemed boring.

  When dinner time arrived, just before the BBC 6 O'clock news started, I tucked into a very weird dinner. It was some "Italian inspired" pork meatballs, that I had cooked a bit earlier, and were just about cold, plus some salad. The salad consisted of a tiny bit of aromatic salad leaves (I thought there was over half a bag left, but it was almost empty), and one large, and almost tasteless tomato. For a bit extra I added for pickled onions.

  It was not a very nice dinner, and it would probably be far better if I had cooked those meatballs in some gravy and a few vegetables. With the meatballs being the most significant part of the dinner, it meant that I was left with a strong garlic taste. Sometimes that can be almost good, but this time it wasn't - particularly when I was burping up garlic tastes as bed time approached and I fared I would get heartburn. Fortunately I didn't.

  Maybe I was more tired last night than I thought I was, because I remember watching an edition of Have I Got News For You between 9 and 10pm last night, but I can't seem to remember much about it. I also can't remember much after going to bed. I am sure I gave up reading after a couple of paragraphs, and then I presume I must have fallen asleep. I think it was around 1am when I woke for a pee, but I remember being very confused at the time. I can't remember if I thought it must have been a lot earlier, more likely, or much later. It seems unlikely but I may not have even realised I had been asleep when I woke up.

  I can think of no reason for it, but I had, and maybe still have, the impression that I did not sleep well last night. I feel pretty sure that I woke up to pee a tiny bit less frequently during the night, and also that I seemed to pee less than most nights. The results when I got up suggested that had been the case....or maybe it was just disappointment that my weight had gone up instead of down, although only by 100gm - which is the same as random variations.

   I had hoped the walk to and from the pub would have reduced my weight a bit, but what I ate probably spoiled everything, but it seems not my blood glucose readings. The Contour meter read a good 7.6mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read a very good 7.0mmol/l, and the Sinocare meter read 7.7mmol/l. Only two other days this month have seen a slightly daily average reading than this morning. That must be sort of good.

  My chief concern today is to be in and alert for when my two parcels are delivered. Ideally they will both arrive at the same time, but it is possible the postman may still deliver the light one, and Parcel Force will deliver the heavy one ( 12 x 170ml bottles of Hot Pepper Sauce). I hope both will come in time to let me have a shower, if I don't chance a quick one before the morning has finished, and then go shopping before Jodie arrived for our Thursday afternoon beer tasting session. I expect will be joined by Michael, but there is no certainty of that.