08:32 BST

  Today may be a little cooler than yesterday. The whole day, except for just 1pm will feature full sunshine, but the temperature may only reach 27° C. Tomorrow will also feature one hour of just sunny spells at 3pm, but the rest of the day will feature full sunshine. However there are some very small chances of rain at 8 and 9am, 10% chance, 8% from 9pm, and 15% at midnight. A short and light sprinkle of rain could be briefly refreshing on a day expected to hit 31° C.

   Yesterday was a rather good day, and in some ways it was because less happened instead of more. That will be explained later in my writing. It certainly was a warm day - too warm for Jodie to come out (possibly with a hangover), and warm enough for me to start using one of my desk fans to cool me off a bit.

   I was unsure how I felt yesterday morning. My blood glucose was too high when I think I hoped it might be a bit lower. That put a dampener on the morning. My weight was exactly the same as the previous day, and while that could be considered good, I had hopes that it might have been even a tiny bit lower. The problem with just those two things was that being a Thursday, I expected to do a lot of drinking of dubious beers, and usually I would put on a little weight, and my blood glucose would get even higher.

  Things could be even worse with my desire to go to Tesco to get some shopping, and all the temptations that could bring. I had a shower, but I didn't think my hair needed washing. It was a semi cool shower, and so I didn't need to cool off before getting dressed. Part of the getting dressed was to put on my latest pair of Adidas trainers. The brief tryout at home suggested they would be very uncomfortable for any longer walk - even just to Tesco.

  Fortunately they were not very uncomfortable, and were almost a little bit comfortable once I got walking in them. I still think they may not be good for longer walks, but shorter walks, like local shopping trips should be comfortable enough, and will start to break them in. I am almost optimistic that they could turn out to be comfortable in time. After a few semi long walks my 2nd pair of Adidas trainers are now probably the most comfortable shoes I have owned for ages, but it did take those few walks to break them in.

  I was quite careful about what I bought in Tesco. I was trying to only buy low(ish) calorie stuff, and low sugar stuff. The only exception, and I have not checked to see just how bad they could be, was a packet of beef kebabs from the reduced price shelf. I am not sure how I let myself be suckered into buying them because they probably may not be very nice. They are the sort of kebabs that are impaled on a wooden stick. There are probably enough for three meals, but I don't really expect to get more than two out of the pack.

  I bought several drinks, including two 2l bottles of Lime Flavour Coke Zero. They don't seem as nice as the late lamented lime flavoured Diet Coke. One thing I completely forgot to buy, mainly because it was not until last night when I realised one or more could be very useful. It was small, 500ml, bottles of water - and specifically they type with a normal screw lid that can be refilled. Last night I was imagining going for long, but quite slow walks in the blazing sunshine. If they are local then I wouldn't usually bother to drink until I get home, but having some water on hand would be beneficial for less local walks.

  I had just reached the head of the checkout queue (the queue I joined only had two people ahead of me), and was about to be served when my phone rang. It was Jodie, but I had to cancel the call, and phone her back after I had gone through the checkout. She was phoning to say she thought it was too hot to come out for afternoon drinking. reading between the lines also suggested she may have had a bad hangover as well.

  My walk back home almost seemed comfortable in the brand new trainers, but there were a few bits of each foot that were a little uncomfortable. More significant was the fact that those new trainers were more like a pair I had bought a few months back, and the problem with those was that they felt really stiff, and they seem to make my ankles hurt after a while. I don't think these newest trainers are going to be as bad, but will still feel a bit stiff even after a lot of wearing in.

  Despite that, I felt no need to rush to take those brand new trainers off, but put my shopping away first. I also prepared some lunch. I was fairly certain I would be seeing Michael later in the afternoon, and so something to line my stomach against the beer was still a good idea. Otherwise I would probably have skipped lunch. I can't seem to remember what I had for lunch, but it may have been pâté with rice crackers. I know I bought new pâté, and I would probably have been using up what had been in the fridge for 3 or 4 days.

  The only thing of note that happened about half an hour before Michael arrived was finding a rather large black beetle in the kitchen. It was just slowly walking across the kitchen floor. It is lucky I spotted it just before I would have walked on it. My theory is that it was on the brown, garden waste, wheelie bin when I took it through the house from garden to put it out for collection/emptying yesterday (which it wasn't for reasons unknown). I picked the beetle up in a glass, and threw it into the garden. It was quite exposed, and a crow or magpie might have eaten it before it found some sort of cover.

  Michael turned up at his typical time - about 90 minutes after I would have started drinking if Jodie had come over. With less time for drinking, and not being bored with Jodie ignoring me in favour of her phone, I ended up drinking less. Most of it was lager, and I have a suspicion that a couple of the lager I drank had a high sugar content (or at least non zero as the best Pilsner lagers are). We finished the session with me comparatively sober, although Michael said he felt very drunk (which is odd because he didn't seem to drink as much as usual).

  I had missed all but the local weather forecast on the BBC News by the time Michael went, and ate my dinner while watching Star Trek: Voyager. It was a semi carefully contrived dinner. I had two starters - two almost tiny pots of two different fish patés. One was salmon, and the other was mackerel. The latter was the more tasty one. Those two "starters" were followed by a pack of two Tesco Finest fish cakes. The label proclaimed they only had 0.5gm of sugar in each - which was pretty good (the fish pâtés also showed a very low sugar content).

  I think it was after eating dinner that I got my 12" desk fan out, and used it to cool me off after eating my hot dinner.  I took the picture on the left just before 3pm, and by then I think the temperature was at it's maximum, and it didn't really change much until almost midnight, and even then it barely cooled down indoors.

  I ended up running the fan through the whole night, and it is still running now as I type this. I know I turned the TV off at 9pm, but from then on it is all a bit hazy. Most of my concentration was on the book I was reading, and not on the clock. I think I may have only read until 10pm, and then tried for sleep. I don't think it took that long to get to sleep. I know it was not instant, and I know I spent some time fantasising about today. I was thinking I might possibly go to the seaside today, and it was while internally debating the pros and cons of the idea when I slipped into sleep.


  I expect having the fan gently blowing towards my face and chest might have helped me sleep better last night, but it felt like a lot of sleeps lately - seemingly quite good. I am unsure if remembering bits of two dreams was a good or bad thing. One dream was possibly around midnight - I know I got up around that time for a pee. I can only describe the dream in the simplest terms. It was about a day when the last slam door trains ran. I was at a very different looking Catford bridge station with someone, possibly Jodie, who was not terribly interested in trains, but did appreciate some of the excitement of watching two trains arrive on both track, and then getting a ride on one of them.

  The other dream was not that long before I got up. It started with travelling on the top deck of a bus with a woman who seemed to be getting a bit sexually excited for some reason. We were travelling to a theatre somewhere to see a live theatre performance of a Monty Python tribute show. When I got off the bus I was with a different woman, and it was her who had ordered and bought the tickets. At the very last minute I realised I had left my ticket at home, and I hoped that somehow the theatre staff could look up her order, and know she had ordered two ticket even if my one was not there.

  My hopes for that unlikely idea vanished when I could no longer find the woman. It was quite a small queue to get in the theatre, and everybody had been through the ticket checks except me. Most of the front of house staff had gone away to attend to other duties, and almost no one was guarding the entrance. I decided to see what happened if I just walked in and tried to find my own way to the auditorium.  I was not challenged, and neither was I able to find my way to the auditorium.

  The place was like a maze inside, and some of my exploration seemed to take me to the back stage area. I eventually went up a couple of staircases, which seemed to have many landings and different routes. I think I was at the very top of the place, and one room I looked in appeared to be the caretakers room. It was all fitted out for a single person to sleep and had a kettle and sink. It also had a window the seemed to look out over one of the London west end squares,

  I think I woke up then. The idea of going into a theatre without a ticket when it was quiet was inspired by a true story, although in that case I did have my ticket with me. I had been taken to watch a Pink Floyd Tribute show in The Orchard Theatre in Dartford. In those days I was a heavy smoker, and at the first interval I rushed outside to have a cigarette.  All the theatre staff I could see were up on the mezzanine area where the bar was, and I suspect a few of them were actually working behind the bar. When I had finished my cigarette I casually walked back into the theatre. I am not aware that anyone saw me, and I was certainly not challenged by any body. I had and maybe still have a theory that once the show has started anybody could just walk into a (smaller) theatre and sit down in an vacant seat they could find, all without having to buy a ticket. If anyone has actually ever thought about it, it would cost more money to pay someone to guard the doors than the missed price of one ticket.

  That last dream may have happened when I woke up at about 5.50am, and decided it was a bit too early, and I would lay there in bed for maybe 20 minutes, and probably not even fall asleep again. I was quite surprised when I opened my eyes and saw it was about 7.20am !  Even then I was not sure I didn't want even more sleep. I think I got up more out of principal than feeling it was the right time. Maybe the cool feeling air from the fan made it seem more comfortable.

  I was fairly sure I needed a pee, but when I went to the toilet I only had a pee and a fart. I think I may be a bit constipated again - one of the apparent curses of old age. When much younger it was a source of amusement that old people were always going on about their bowels - both in real life, and it was a staple for a lot of comedy programmes. Maybe it was shame I didn't have a poo to help make the scales read a bit lower, but an apparent weight loss of 300gm was still very good.

  There was less, or even no good news about my blood glucose level this morning despite thinking I had taken precautions. The Contour meter read 8.4mmol/l, and that was actually semi good. The GlucoRX meter read 8.8mmol/l, and that was no so good, but OK. The Sinocare meter was typically higher with a reading of 9.2mmol/l, and that is higher than desirable. So all readings came down on the safe side of the red line, and today's average of 8.8mmol/l was less than yesterday's 9.17mmol/l. but I am still not satisfied.

  Incidently, one thing I did last night was to look for glucose meter test strips from Aliexpress - the Chinese online store that shares some similarities to Amazon. Although Chinese owned, there is an option for some products to be shipped from Britain or Europe. That would/should be a lot faster than stuff shipped from China - like my first ever order with Aliexpress, 75p worth of protective cover for my newest mobile phone (still on trial before I switch simcards with my current phone. Today I was notified it had arrived in Britain, and I guess it might even be delivered tomorrow. Once that is safely here I may make another order for glucose test strips, and possibly another blood glucose meter. They seem to have a black coloured, instead of grey, Contour meter (possibly a Contour plus) that I might get for about £23 if I remember correctly.

  Today's glorious weather could be good for walking, but I would probably not want to do that if I continue to feel constipated. This weather would also be very good for drying laundry outside, and I have plenty of that I could do. I may well stay in today and wash a few t-shirts, or maybe some bed linen. The problem with bed linen, and specially so with something like a duvet cover, is that it is almost impossible to wring it out by hand, but if I am drying it on the washing line, it doesn't matter if it is still dripping. I may as well change all my bedding, and try and wash some of it today.