Yesterday was quite a good day, although in truth only bits of it were good, and a lot of it was better than bad, better than boring, but maybe not better than bland. The two best things probably justify saying that yesterday was good.

  Yesterday morning was very typical except for one thing. I had my usual rest and I think I even had a snooze after I finished writing, but I was also keeping an eye on my email waiting for a notification that I had an Amazon delivery out for delivery. The email finally arrived, and it was unusual in that it gave an estimated delivery time for between "12:45 pm - 2:30 pm".

  That advanced warning meant I had time for a shower, and had I been a bit faster getting in the right state of mind, plus dressed etc, I could have rushed out to Tesco to get some shopping I had been intending to get for a day or two. I didn't fancy a rush, and waited until my delivery arrived.


  My delivery was of three different makes of Ouzo - the Greek spirit that is flavoured with aniseed. You may ask why I needed three bottles, and I can give a few explanations. All explanations would include curiosity. I knew the bottle name "12" was a very nice Ouzo. The bottle on the right of the picture was to compare to another bottle I have had years that was also made by the Metaxa brewery. It seems to have a slightly sooty taste that I don't recall it having before. I wanted to know if the new bottle, which incidentally has a very different label, also tasted sooty. The bottle in the middle was completely unknown to me, and so needed trying.

  That middle bottle has a very subtly different taste to the 12, but is so close that can't say I prefer one over the other. The Metaxa Ouzo has one curious addition on the label - it says "with mastic". Evidently it is not the same mastic that builders use to fill in gaps around window frames etc. I have not checked, and I should have before writing this, but it is my belief it is maybe a Greek name for another herb. There is definitely no hint of any sootinesss, and once again the taste is similar enough to the other two. although not identical) that would find it hard to say any of the three bottles is a favourite.



   Once the Ouzo had arrived I was free to go to Tesco for some shopping. It was still sunny, and I walked to Tesco in just a t-shirt and shorts. A tiny bit warmer might have been nicer, but I can't say I felt cold except maybe going through the heavily shaded car park next to Tesco, but even that was not cool enough to be uncomfortable. The walk there was almost like the walk would have been before I had any heart trouble. I didn't even notice much in the way of knee or ankle pain.

  I only had an imaginary shopping list to follow, and that did not even mention specific things, but was more a sort of vague "these sort of things would be nice". On the other hand I suppose there were some specifics such as sandwiches. I thought that I would get a cheese sandwich as my first choice, but upon scanning the shelves I found I had a desire for tuna as a filling, and I did get two things with tuna in.

  Another vague specific was something like spare ribs, and I did indeed get a box of BBQ spare ribs, but also a box of boneless beef ribs - and that was despite them being so rich and greasy that they may have been the culprit behind my late night throwing up some days ago (although maybe I just thought they may have been too rich and greasy, and wondered if I might throw up if I was not careful). In fact, as I wrote the last sentence I remembered that on the occasion of my throwing up I had eaten a lamb keema and some black pudding sausages. I think it was the sausages because they had been unwrapped in the fridge for 2 or 3 days before I cooked them.

  Among the other stuff I bought were some frozen vegetables, a couple of 500ml tubs of ice cream (including a delicious apple crumble flavour ice cream), and the inevitable bottles of Diet Coke - 4 x two litre bottles of it. Along with other stuff I managed to do run up a bill nearly twice of what I used to pay not so long ago. Some of that is due to the way food prices have risen recently (almost certainly thanks to Brexit), but also because I seemed to manage to cram a lot of stuff into one hand basket, plus carrying two of the Diet Cokes to the checkout by hand.

  I had to lug home my very heavy rucksack with the Diet Coke bottles in it, plus two shopping bags (although I could have got everything in one slightly bigger bag). I have become conditioned to expect chest pains carrying such a lot home, but thanks to my new heart valve I had no chest pains. I still kept thinking ahead to the best places to stop if I needed a breather and to let any chest pain subside.

  As I said, I had no chest pain, and what is more was that my knees and ankles were not complaining except on one special occasion. That special occasion was the one step up to my front door. My ankles and knees felt quite weak when I did that. On reflection I think the reason is that I have to step up and then instantly stop before I hit the front door. When I think about it, I stepped up a similar height when crossing the kerb in a few places, but there I could do it as one long stride with no need to stop, and so it was just one fluid motion.

  I was still nice to get home, and once I had put my shopping away I had no trouble going upstairs carrying a couple of the sandwiches I bought to eat while sitting at my PC. One was a "tuna crunch" in a small sub roll. That was very nice. The other was a tuna and sweetcorn sandwich. That was not nice, but in a sort of dry and chewy sort of way rather than actually nasty.

  After eating I had a sort of "mission accomplished" sort of feeling, and that put me in a very lazy mood. I should have mentioned it earlier that while waiting for my Ouzo delivery I finished some laundry that I had abandoned over night. I got that hanging up to dry on the big clothes horse in the front room. The sunshine had warmed the room up a bit, and I saved electricity by just using a desk fan to speed up the drying. It all seems bone dry this morning.

  With no more real objectives for the day I lay on my bed and read and snoozed - or tried to. I did have a crazy idea that I might take a walk in the park, but I had settled in such a slothful state that I dismissed it from my mind. The next thing of importance I did was to start cooking my dinner. I put a plateful of frozen "Mediterranean style vegetables" in the oven to cook/roast/grill. Once they were sufficiently done I heated a pack of BBQ chicken drumsticks in the microwave. The chicken and the vegetables were the first course of my dinner.

  So far so healthy (hopefully), but I also had a dessert. I could not resist trying some of the apple crumble flavour ice cream. I had some of the same description I bought in Aldi a month or two ago, and while both were delicious, each seemed to be a bit different to each other. I also had a chunk of Madeira cake with cherries in it - very sweet, very delicious !

  Much of my evening feels very vague. I think it was because I was watching TV, but not being engrossed by it because I was scraping the barrel - at least that is what it felt like. I can't seem to remember if I watched Have I Got News For You or QI. I am sure it was not both because I remember looking at the programme guide and I wasn't keen on the guests on both programmes. I think it was just Have I Got news For You, and then I was in bed reading from about 10pm

  Once again things get vague. I think I may have read for half an hour before turning the light out. I know for definite it was one of those nights where it was anything but definite. I turned the light out, and tried to get to sleep in one position, and then another. It then seems like I laid there for ever fully wide awake - except that I woke up from sleep I didn't even know I had started maybe an hour later.

  On that occasion I woke because I needed a pee. I don't tend to make a habit of counting the amount of times I get up to pee in the night, and tend to think of it more in a sort of abstract way - few, medium of lots. I think last night it was just a few times. That may well be because I have run out of my Diuretic tablets. All my prescribed medication is a mess at the moment after spending so much time in hospital. In hospital there were drugs I didn't take at all, and other I seemed to take more of. I feel sure the Cardiologists were making most of it as they went along. It doesn't help that they often changed the doses, and sometime I would have to take double the amount, but that extra amount didn't seem to make it through to the next prescription.

  Maybe the result of not peeing much in the night was the reason for my weight apparently increasing by a terrible 1.1kg since yesterday morning. That figure may not have been helped by the fact that once again I seem constipated - although I am not sure if that word is correct. I don't feel and typical constipation discomfort, and it is more the case that I just haven't "been" this morning, and I now I should have.
 
  Despite the weight gain, my blood glucose is still rather good this morning, and it is all thanks to Mounjaro - the drug that is supposed to help me lose weight. Incidently, I will be taking my weekly dose today. My blood glucose readings were 7.1, 7.3, and 7.8mmol/l this morning - three good figures, and the lowest is a bit better than good.

  I have no very definite plans for today, but I think I am going to try and convince myself that I am going to do a bit of walking today. My aim would be to walk to Ladywell station and back again, but such a walk could easily be made longer if it feels good. The Met Office say the afternoon should be 14° C with sunny spells. The BBC say this afternoon will have less sunny spells, and the temperature may only be 13° C. Both should be good enough for no coat and shorts, although when the sun goes in it could feel a bit chilly. I am thinking of taking my big Nikon 300D camera with telephoto lens out with me, and that will not only mean some possibly good snaps, but a good excuse to stop and take any breather needed. The most important thing is that it should be dry !