09:19 GMT

  Last night's rain continues this morning, and won't stop until Sunday - over 48 hours of rain, and a lot of it will be heavy rain. I think it is going to have some interesting effects on the river through the park. Today will be either 12 or 13° C, and no other temperature - maybe. Tomorrow may be a degree or two cooler, and it will rain from before dawn until the next day with no gaps - also maybe.

  Yesterday was a fairly good day. I did a few useful things, and maybe I could have done more, but while it was not nearly as bad as the day before, I still felt a bit tired.....or maybe it was just creakiness brought on by the weather.

  After I finished writing, yesterday morning, I had the usual rest, and than I had a shower. I was going to wash my hair as well, but time seemed to be slipping by too quickly. It was already midday by the time I was dried and dressed. I still felt there was time to go shopping in Aldi. It was dry with some sunny spells, and I took a chance on walking there with no coat. It was most handy walking back home again with no coat.

  The reason no coat was particularly good when walking home was because I seemed to have got very carried away, and I not only spent a fortune, but I had two heavy bags to carry, plus a very heavy rucksack. I was feeling quite hot by the time I got that lot home, and if I had been wearing a coat I would have probably collapsed into a puddle of sweat ! I still had a slight film of sweat on my brow when I got home in just a t-shirt.

  One reason for all the weight was the amount of drink I was carrying. Most of it was Diet Coke, but there was other stuff, and it was all alcohol free beers. I guess I am stocking up for Xmas, or the feast of St. Scrooge as I like to think of it. I find Xmas as depressing as a rainy Sunday afternoon, and I have no wish to make it worse by using that well known depressant, alcohol. I may also do some better dieting on Xmas day.

  Most of the food I bought was unremarkable, but a couple of thing are worth a note. One thing I discovered by the tills, and it was "protein" Jaffa cake bars. I looked at them and decided to look away because they were very tempting, but fortunately I noticed they said low sugar on them. I don't know what it is, but they have a chewy, almost toffee like, orange flavour centre. Each bar only contains 1.2gm of sugar, and that is low enough that i could almost eat them all day with little effect on my blood glucose.

  That bar was good, but the ice cream I bought was most probably not. Once again it was chocolate and orange flavour, and it is a highly addictive flavour. It would have been so easy to eat the whole tub in one sitting, but I made sure I had a very limited amount when I had some last night.

  Much of what I bought should be fairly safe in slight moderation, although fruit always seems an unknown quantity. This time I bought some apple sized oranges, and some more Cox's apples. I was going to buy a couple of bananas as well, but I couldn't get near them. Two West Indian women seemed to be discussing the pros and cons of every single banana in the two boxes of them. I presume they were looking for some special quality, but I have no idea what.

  The weight I was carrying as I headed for home seemed so high that I didn't think I could make it all the way home without stopping, and more importantly, without some angina or similar pains. I must admit I did stop twice on the way home, and although it wasn't the main purpose, it was handy to stop and blow my nose. It was getting almost drippy because of the slight allergy I think I have to some fungal spores in the autumn. It dried up as soon as I got home.

  It was the usual thing of putting my shopping away, and then having my lunch after I was home. It was supposed to be a light lunch, and that was partly because I thought the Mounjaro was starting to work. I almost didn't feel hungry, and I had a hint of an idea that my stomach was still feeling full from breakfast. Of course this idea was nonsense for someone, like me, who has been practising eating for over 70 years now. I took one bite of a sandwich, and instantly felt like I could eat a horse. I definitely had a triple pack of sandwiches, one of the two "protein", low sugar, jaffa cake bars. I am sure there was something else as well, but I can't seem to remember what.

  I wanted to have my usual after lunch lie down, and maybe even a snooze, but time seemed to be against me. I had to limit my resting time, and then go down to the kitchen to do the overdue washing up, that included the glasses from last Sunday's beer tasting session with Jodie.

  I was about half way through the washing up when I heard the distinctive meowing from Fluffycat outside. I had not seen him all morning, or at all the previous day. Yesterday I wrote that I was worried he had had an accident - maybe even falling off the house roof (after I had recent proof he does go up on the main roof). I think he had just been sheltering from the weather.

  He came in, and I think he just wanted to talk and have some company. I put some fresh food down in one of his new bowls, and he gave it a lick or two, but seemed to decide that just because he showed a big preference for fish a day or two ago, he was now bored with it and would prefer chicken. He was very keen on a couple of treat sticks, and I thought after he had those he was going to curl up in his box. I went back to my washing up. Five minutes later he was meowing at the back do to be let out. He gets very peeved if he is not the centre of attention.

  I finished the washing up, and then I had a bit of time spare because Jodie sent me a message to say she had just missed her train, and would be on the next one. I had time for a quick lie down, and then Jodie arrived, and not much later than usual.  By then I had started drinking, but it was only a can of 0% Guinness. It did not taste as good as the last one I had. I was quite happy to have something a bit more substantial.

  Michael joined us a bit later, and he didn't seem to be quite as depressed as expected. Once he got talking he seemed almost OK. One previous bit of stress was that he had to have a new boiler installed last Sunday. His stress was eased considerably because his son and daughter-in-law where there to supervise things. They approved of the plumber and his work. They also made sure he realised that the controls of the new boiler were more or less exactly the same as the old boiler.

  We were later joined by Mark. He was the guinea pig who sampled the new 0% lager I had bought for him. Jodie also tasted it, and both agreed that it was rather nice.  Jodie and Mark left first, at about 6.30pm, and Michael followed very soon afterwards. I had missed most of the 6 O'clock News, but I did get to see most of the London news. While I watched that I ate my dinner. The main part was a "4 fish bake". I am unsure what the 4 fished were, but they were under a sort of crispy crust, and in some sort of white sauce. It was nice-ish, but maybe I had hoped it might be nicer.

  After the fish I had a dessert, and it was nearly a disaster. I thought I would try some of chocolate orange ice cream I had bought in Aldi. It was very nice, very, very nice, and it was hard to stop once I started. I think I managed to stop after about a small portion and a half......maybe.

  After my usual TV programmes I went to bed at about 11pm. I seemed to feel OK, and was able to relax and I think I fell asleep fairly quickly. I did have one bad dream, but I can't remember much about it. In the dream I seemed to be trapped, or encased in something. I seemed to have air, and there was some wriggle room, but the only way I could hope to attract any attention was to tap on when seemed like sort plaster, and I had doubts anyone would be able to hear me. It seemed easier to wake up and go for a pee. The rest of my sleep was very nondescript.

  I woke earlier than I thought was ideal, but I half got up. I had a pee, and I had a poo. Then I weighed myself. I gained 100gm since yesterday morning. That is not good, but on the other hand I expected a lot more after the ice cream, and beers and stuff. I then went back to bed, but I am not sure if I fell asleep again. I may have done, but not for all that long...at least I don't think it was for long.

  My blood glucose was a bit higher this morning, but I think I can say it was still good. The Contour meter read 7.2mmol/l, and that is pretty good. The GlucoRX meter read the same as yesterday, 6.7mmol/l, and that is definitely good. The GlucoFix meter read 8.3mmol/l, and while that is "good enough" it is once again a lot higher than the other two. I tried it twice using blood from two different fingers, and it was adamant the reading was going to be 8.3mmol/l.

  I think it was possibly last week when I said I was getting fed up fighting with my printer, and I was going to order a new printer. I found another Canon printer, and at £59 it seemed worth taking a chance on. I ordered it from Amazon, but it was delivered by DPD. That was good because they usually deliver in the morning, and they estimate an hour slot for when it will be delivered. Their estimates usually turn out to be fairly accurate.

  The estimate for delivery today was between 11:18 and 12:18, and it was actually delivered at 11:51. The picture on the left is me taking it in. It seems like it might be a good printer, and like my first Canon it has a small tray in the paper tray that is used for holding ink jet printable CD and DVDs. It is a facility I never made use of for two reasons. One reason is that there is no programme to use it with Linux. Linux can almost do it by itself, but I never could get the offset down to zero, and printing was very lopsided. The bigger reason for not using it was that I don't seem to need to print on CD/DVDs these days.

  One feature this new printer has is to connect using Ethernet. That does mean I can probably connect from my virtual Windows XP PC on my Linux box, and I can use the Windows driver disk to set up the printing properly. Mostly I will be using the printer to print text and Linux can do that with it's eyes closed.

  One minor, probable disappointment, is that I have a load of spare ink cartridges for the old Canon Printer. They look very similar, but I suspect they are not completely identical - maybe only by a few millimetres - but I can't be sure until I start to set up the new printer, and power it up for the first time - probably this afternoon.

  If my spare ink cartridges are incompatible it is no great worry, and I might even end up using them in the old printer if I can repair it. I suspect one of the paper feed rollers has gone slippery, or there is something, maybe a tiny scrap of paper, that is stopping it pulling anything but thicker paper. I did order spare cartridges, as suggested by Amazon (people who bought this, also bough this - add both to basket). They are out for delivery even now, but there is not a single clue when Amazon will deliver them - apart from the ultra annoying "before 9pm". Luckily I have no desire to go out on this very dull, very wet day. Aprt from playing with the new printer, I don't think I have any plans to do anything today.








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