08:55 GMT

  The forecast said there would be non stop rain from 10am onwards yesterday, but there were dry spells until early afternoon. After that the rain probably was non stop, and from late afternoon the rain was no longer light rain, but very heavy rain ! The rain continued into the night, but maybe it was back to light rain by then. It was a cool day with the afternoon peak only 10° C.   This morning is another morning when the weather forecast doesn't quite match reality. The ground is wet, but if it is still raining it is so light that I cannot see it. The current temperature is just over 8° C, and I suppose that is only a single degree higher than the forecast. It seems that most of today will see rain, but most of it will be light rain, and the early evening may only see some drizzle. We may have reached the afternoon high already - it is forecast to be just 8° C. Tonight the temperature may fall to just 4° C. Tomorrow could start at just 2° C. That would be low enough for snow, but it seems most of tomorrow will be dry with sunny spells. Sadly it will still only peak at 7° C at 2pm (maybe). At midnight tomorrow there could be some sleet.

  Yesterday was quite a good day for a few reasons. One reason was that I finally went shopping in Aldi. More on that later. The evening featured a beer tastings session with Jodie and Michael. It was fortunate Michael was there because Jodie was not in a talkative mood again. In fact it is quite rare when she says more than a few words these days. Apparently, Instagram is far more interesting than we are.

  I don't think I felt any apprehension about going to Aldi yesterday, and that was a shame for one particular reason I will describe soon. The actual walk to Aldi takes a minute or two more than the walk to Tesco, and yesterday it was probably at least an extra minute on top of that. My legs were very stiff again, and I was feeling sore by the time I got to Aldi. Once inside the store, and walking much slower, and with with frequent short stops, my legs recovered, and I felt fine by the time I left the store.

  The apprehension I should have felt was mostly about spending too much. I had some definite ideas about what I wanted to buy, and if I had stuck to them I would have been fine, but.... I kept finding stuff I wanted. I found they stocked what I was looking for in Tesco - ready to roast root vegetables with a sprig of rosemary. I bought two bags of them. I also found they do something similar, but maybe a bit more chunky, of "Mediterranean style roasting vegetables".

  On the bad, but good side I found two 500ml tubs of ice cream flavours I liked the sound of. The only trouble is that until I am back on Mounjaro (which could happen next Tuesday), and it controls my blood glucose level, I can't eat too much of those ice creams (although I did have quite a big taste of a hazelnut and chocolate ice cream - it was almost, but just a smidgin back from being too sweet to enjoy).

  I ended up spending a ridiculous amount of money in Aldi. That does not matter in one respect because what I bought should last a fair time, and I won't need to go shopping again for a while, but in another respect it was  bad idea because I had to carry all I bought home - and it was fairly heavy.

  I wondered how I would cope carrying all that stuff, and the answer was "quite well". I'll admit it was tiring, but I felt no chest pains, or at least no bad chest pains.  I think the slight ache was probably normal, but there have been so many changes to my heart health and stuff that I have no idea what normal is now. I can definitely say I was most happy to reach home and put my load down.

  After I had put all the stuff away I had some lunch, and it was a couple of wraps bought from the sandwich selection. One wrap was two hoisin duck wraps, and the other was Caesar chicken flavour. It was after those that I had a couple of, spoonfuls of the very sweet hazelnut and chocolate ice cream. I then had a rest, but I could not have the complete multi hour rest I wanted because I had to get the place ready for beer tasting.

  Maybe I managed a 30 minute snooze before I went down to the kitchen and washed the beers glasses, did the rest of the washing up, and wiped down the kitchen work surfaces. After that I should have got the hoover out, but it seemed like time was against me (actually it wasn't) and I used a simple dust pan and brush to get some detritus off the dining room floor. Some of it was spillage from Jodie when she had her lunch here.

  The main thing to clear up was some packing from the box of hot pepper sauce I got. most of the packing around the bottles was shredded cardboard, but there was also a lot of shredded paper, and that seemed to fly everywhere no matter how careful I tried to be. I must admit that bending over to use the dust pan and brush gave me a headache, and made me feel not really right. I am fairly sure it was a blood circulation problem, but fortunately I had finished before it got too bad (and if I hadn't finished I would have taken a break at about the same time).

  Jodie message me to say she was getting the bus here, and would be arriving a bit later than usual (but it was probably little more than 10 to 15 minutes later - or even earlier when she misses a train). Her reason was that the walk from he bus stop in the now pouring rain was shorter than from the station. I've always considered that the walk from the station is marginally quicker, but I admit, not by much.

  When Jodie arrived the first beer we opened was one of the beers my sister had sent to me from Devon's Otter brewery. It was the sort of beer I once liked, but these days I have been exposed to so many beer styles I am no longer sure what I like. Before the session was over we had opened and tasted all three Otter beers that came in a presentation pack. They were all traditional styles of ale, and were all almost likeable. That may sound a bit negative, but compared to some of the truly awful "beers" that Jodie likes, they were really good.

  Michael joined us about an hour after we started drinking, and he was his usual cheerful self (!!!). Fortunately I got him talking about stuff that was less controversial than his normal moaning about Catford and the roads in the borough (and the whole of London). We talked about endoscopies and colonscopies - both of which he is very familiar with. I don't think Jodie was liking some of the things she heard.

  Jodie was first to leave to get the 6.47 train so she could meet Alan in The Three Hounds beer bar as she often does. Michael left 10 minutes later. Before they had left I had put my dinner on to cook. It was spare ribs in BBQ sauce, and a steam in the pot, pot of cauliflower, peas and other green stuff. It was not a bad combination, and I think those vegetables had a hand in making me poo quite easily this morning.

  I had trouble getting to sleep when I tried at about 10pm last night. It was like the previous night (and maybe the night before that). I found it difficult getting comfortable and relaxed (or maybe relaxed and comfortable). The reasons why I was uncomfortable are hard to explain - again. One thing was trying to find a comfortable position for my legs. The silly thing is that after falling asleep, and then waking up again, my legs felt perfectly comfortable, but maybe it was my arms that I could not get comfortable then. Maybe the overriding thing was that I was just not tired enough to just instantly give in to sleep.

  I had one strange dream...well I guess you could call it a hybrid dream because I put together the full story of the dream while I was awake....or maybe there was one important thing in the dream that I felt I needed to clarify....or something. The dream was a potentially erotic dream, but the dream ended before any eroticism turned from possible to real.

  In the dream I was hoping to catch a young girl before she went out to work. By "young girl" I am comparing ages with myself. This young girl was around 30 years old. I have no idea who she was, or even if there was some sort of background story that might explain why I found it so easy to say what I said to her, and why she was not bothered by it. it was a simple request that she join me in bed that night because I felt the need to have a cuddle. In this case cuddle is not an euphemism, although there was a sort of hope that it might lead to "happy endings"*.

  * I believe that "happy endings" is used in Thai massage parlours when "extra services" are paid for - or at least that is what I have read somewhere.

  I woke up and got up a bit earlier than I thought was ideal after not getting to sleep as early as I thought I needed. I am looking forward to my morning snooze later, but I seem to feel OK now. Upon getting up it was the usual routine of a visit to the toilet followed by weighing myself and checking my blood glucose.It was a bit tricky knowing when to record my weight because I have had several poos this morning.  All were easy to pass, which was good.

  I think I had another pee, and even another very small poo after I had recorded my weight, but I doubt it would only give me a 100gm advantage. My "official" record says that my plentiful eating yesterday means I put on 800gm. That is not good, although overall my weight is still staying in quite a small range of weights - or it is hovering up and down a small amount around a constant number. My job is to get that constant down a bit (or a lot if I can) but I feel today is not going to be the day for it.

  One of my plans for today was to go for a walk in the park, but the weather means such an outing would be very unattractive today. I was hoping that a delivery today would provide a good excuse, but just recently I got a message to say the delivery will take place between 4pm and 5pm. It is all the stuff I ordered from the Asian wholesaler, and there is a lot of it. I ought to be very careful what I eat today because there is plenty of stuff that I will be gagging to test in today's delivery - at least 3 more makes of instant noodles than I had heard of before, and quite a few flavours I have never tried before.

  One bit of very light exercise I will do today because I have started it, is to wash some clothes. I realise I have let a backlog build up again. Already in soak are a couple of t-shirts, a pair of pyjama bottoms I was wearing for days in hospital (and fairly stinky), plus the usual pile of underpants. If the rain stops and the sun comes out, I may still go for a walk, but the weather forecast says I will not be blessed with any warm sunshine today. 

   2,075 words today.