Yesterday was merely satisfactory. Until a Sunday afternoon beer tasting session with Jodie, I was very lazy. There were a few things I might have done, but I could not raise the enthusiasm. When I could, I preferred to snooze, or at least try to. I even took the lazy way out and had a can of soup for my lunch.

  As usual I had to do some tidying and beer glass cleaning prior to Jodie's arrival. I also started part cooking my dinner. At least it was supposed to be part cooking. The stuff that should have been precooked was "rustic root vegetables for roasting". The reality was that I overcooked them, and they became dried out and some even crunchy ! Oh well, it was much better than the previous day when they were under cooked.

  Signalling problems meant a big gap in the train serviced yesterday afternoon, and once again Jodie was forced to get the 54 bus here. On the plus side it meant that she didn't give me the silent treatment (I'm too busy looking at something on my phone like a middle aged teenager).....or not for a time. One thing that was semi discussed (for a few seconds) was that we need a new beer order because the beer in the fridges it getting rather low, and most beers are very strong - which is good in small amounts.


   As seems usual now, we were joined by fluffy cat. The main reason is that it is only when we are drinking beer that was are in the dining room, and that, plus walking through the kitchen,  is the only room that I allow Fluffy Cat to visit. On this occasion I gave him a new box to visit. Rather then dropping him in the open top, I cut a hole in the side. This fully met with his approval, and after a while it seemed he had a sleep in there with only a single paw on the outside.

  I don't know if it is me, but I only enjoyed a few of the beers we tasted. Even some I thought I should like, an Abbey brewed beer for instance, failed to excite me. I am wondering if the Covid I caught while in hospital in late December, has affected my taste buds. It seemed to be quite mild to me, and the biggest annoyance was a bit of a cough that I feared would disturb others in the hospital ward. As I have mentioned to many, and many times, that compared to the smokers cough I had in 2013 (before I paused smoking until 2035) it was a very mild, almost ignorable cough. Maybe it did affect my taste buds in some way that was not obvious when just eating food.

  Jodie wanted to get the 6.48pm train, and her plan was to meet Alan on the train so they could go to Three Hounds (micro beer bar) together. The trains were running normally again by then after the earlier signalling problem (that turned out to be between Cannon Street and London Bridge stations).  That allowed me to get the meat part of my dinner cooking so it would be ready to scoff after Jodie had gone home.


   It was quite a nice dinner despite the vegetables being almost cremated. The meat was a couple of mint infused lamb shanks. Those lamb shanks should have been really delicious, but there may have been two problems. Maybe the possible Covid induced taste bud problem was affecting more than my appreciation of beer. There was also the possibility that the quality of the meat was very poor. I don't really know whether lamb shanks are supposed to be as succulent as shoulder of lamb, for instance. The fact that the meat has probably been steamed to make it fall off the bone, and then smothered in mint sauce, might suggest it was inferior meat. It was still nice, but maybe only 7 out of 10 on the delicious scale, and I was hoping for a 10.

  being as last night was a Sunday night, I was prepared for the choices on TV being very slim. I ended up watching 2001 on ITV4 (I think). It is a good and bad film. Some of it is slow enough to be almost tedious. On the other hand if it was some brash American film with jump cuts every two second to make it "a super action film" I would have found something else to watch. Maybe it is just one of those films that is not so good after the first viewing.

  I think it was around 10pm when I went to bed. As far as I can remember, I fell asleep fairly quickly once I had turned the lights out. Maybe I slept too well at first because it would have been useful if I had woken up more often for a big pee. It would also have been so much better if I hadn't woken up just before 5am, and then only slept for several short periods of time before eventually getting up. It all made it feel like I had not slept well.

 Maybe one reason that I didn't sleep as well as I would have hoped, was because I was feeling a bit uncomfortable. It took some time to find what and why. The what was that I needed to poo. All the roasted vegetables, and even other vegetables, I have had a lot of lately are really doing their stuff at keeping me sort of "regular".  Without the extra fibre I could have been constipated. The discomfort didn't feel like constipation, but I guess it was sort of related.

  When I got up, as well as having a pee, I passed a fairly big (but not huge) stool. Maybe 15 or 20 minutes later I passed another. I had hoped it might have made me weigh less, but this morning I was annoyed that instead of any loss I had gained 600gm, and was back to where I was the day before yesterday. A bit later, before I ate breakfast, I went for another similar poo, and that didn't seem to register on my scales at all....which is sort of weird considering how it sounded as it hit the water in the toilet bowl.

  While my weight was nothing to celebrate at all - quite the reverse in fact - my blood glucose was very good. I got readings of 7.3, 7.3, and 7.4mmol/l. It is unusual to get three reading so close to each other. I know these very good (but not quite ideal) readings were than to Mounjaro, but I think some credit must go to my choice of foods. It is a shame that low glucose foods do not equate to low calorie foods.

  There is nothing in my diary that I have to do today, but I feel a a short walk would be good (a longer walk would be better, and there is a tiny chance I might do that as well), and I think my short walk may be just to Tesco. There is not a lot I actually need, and life would go on if I didn't go, but I expect I will go.