10:13 GMT

  Yesterday had some real sunshine, but only for an hour or two. After that there were some sunny spells. The afternoon temperature peaked at about 14° C. Most of the day was dry, but the early evening saw some light rain.
  There was evidence of rain in the early hours, and I saw some drizzle at 8am. I think the heavy rain shown in the forecast for 7am was probably only light rain. Since then we have had some nice sunshine, and it seems more than just sunny spells. Maybe it is very long sunny spells and short dull periods. There some clouds and bits of blue sky to the north and south, but as far as I can guess (not bothering to go outside to check) it looks like blue sky directly overhead. The temperature may only peak at a cool 12° C forecast today, and even full sunshine won't keep the temperature up once the peak has passed. Tomorrow could be a little less cool. 15° C is forecast, but apart from maybe a few hours of sunny spells in the early afternoon, it will be a dull day, and the morning may feature an hour or more of light rain.

  Yesterday was a day when only a few things happened, and because I am running late this morning (mostly because of a continuation of one of yesterday's events), I think I will keep my writing to a minimum today.

  Once I had finished writing I had a rest, then had a shower, and after that I went out to get some shopping from Aldi. Once again I bought, and spent far more than was probably ideal. That had some repercussions on my weight and blood glucose, and of course it was a heavy load to lug home. Among the stuff I bought was a chicken tikka wrap, and a tandoori chicken wrap. I had them both for my lunch. They are nice, but I wonder why I think they are nice enough to make a habit of buying them.

  I am not sure when it was that I made an unfortunate discovery. It was a damp patch of a mat in front of my toilet. At first I thought I must have spilled something, but it was more dramatic than that. An old leaks had opened again, and I didn't realise it until I got a torch to look behind the toilet pan. The carpet was more than saturated - in a few places there was a thin covering of standing water.

  It was fortunate that it was, until it landed on the dirty carpet, clean water because it was coming from the cistern. Ever since I moved her, 42 or 43 years ago, I have had trouble with the down pipe from the cistern leaking from the big outlet gland. Over the years I have bodged a repair several times. It really needs a new gland nut and a fresh clean piece of pipe, but my temporary repairs mean I have never got around to doing a proper repair - plus I am not sure if I can get the bits I need - I am not a great student of plumbing.

  It may have been a year or two ago I put an old Tupperware type box (with no lid) at the back of the bowl to catch the drips. Yesterday I was surprised to see it full up and overflowing. I emptied it out, and on watching what happened when I flushed the toilet, I could see that after I had tried to tighten up the gland there was only a small trickle, almost just drips, leaking out. There should be plenty of room on that plastic box to catch all the drips for weeks and maybe month.

  I will have to keep a better eye on it, but there is the trouble that the water is perfectly clear, and very still. I think that is why I had never noticed it filling up before. In the meantime, my next priority is to try and dry the carpet out. I had to leave the bathroom window open, and it is now very chilly in there. To speed up the drying I have a desk fan pointing one side of the toilet bowl. One side seems to be mostly dry, but the other seems to be more persistent.

  I have to confirm it, but I am sure I remember that Jodie will not be over for out Sunday afternoon beer drinking. That is a bit of a relief, and I hope I can get the carpet dry, and de-deodorised before I have visitors - probably next Thursday.  One thing I might treat myself to is using one of my fan heaters instead of the desk fan. It will only be a short treat while I am having a shower. As I said, it is very chilly with the bathroom window open !

  I think that covers all that was important yesterday. The next thing was going to bed, and it was a lot later than usual. I think I stayed up watching TV longer to make sure I was extra tired when I tried for sleep. It worked a bit, but my mind was a bit pre-occupied with thinking about what I was going to do about the leak. Once the carped is dry I think I need to try and find a plumber who can replace the cistern tank.

  The cistern broke many, many years ago when the flush handle siezed, and it broke away part of the wall of the cistern - fortunately above the water line. A new cistern, a new down pipe, and also a service tap should fix everything. Hopefully it will outlast me if it is a quality plumber.....but where do I find one who will do a good job without charging the Earth for it. At least it will not be an emergency call out because I know they can be horrendously expensive.

  The only other thing about last night was dinner. I have to admit I may have made a bad mistake in my eating choices. That included far too much ice cream. It was a new flavour - birthday cake - that I had not tried before, and it was very, very nice, and very very hard to stop eating it. Fortunately it appears not to have done too much damage.

  I forced myself to have a long lay in this morning, although the original idea was not to have a long lie in. I had a pee when I first got up, and when I got up the second time I had a pee and a poo, a rather large sized poo that was uncomfortable to squeeze out. One of the things I bought in Aldi was some fruit in the hope that it will be good for my bowels. This morning I guess I am a little surprised that my weight is the same as yesterday (which is higher than it should be).

  My blood glucose was not exactly good either, although the average was better than yesterday. The Contour meter read 7.7mmol/l, and that is in the neither good nor bad sort of area. The GlucoRX meter read 6.7mmol/l, and that is actually quite good. The GlucoFix meter read 8.4mmol/l, the same as yesterday, and while that would have been normal for me, I now think it is too high, although a still a long way from dangerous.

  My plans for today could be very simple if Jodie won't be over for some beers. The afternoon is forecast to be sunny, and I think I will convince myself to go for a walk. It will probably be nothing more exciting than a walk to Ladywell and back, but I might extend it if it seems to be feeling good.









  1,316 words today.