This morning started with what may have been the only full sunshine today. The rest of today will be just sunny spells, and so the afternoon will only peak at 20° C - warm enough for shorts and t-shirt, but far from baking hot. In fact it may well feel cold in the shade. The whole day should be dry, and that will help. Tomorrow may feature some drizzle at 8am, but the rest of the day may be dry with sunny spells until sunset. Like today, the afternoon may only see 20° C.

  Yesterday was part good, and a lot bad. I think going out shopping broke me. I did not feel good when I got home, but it was useful to experiment on what would make me feel better. I think I did have some success, but it was the last straw for going out in the evening.

  I think I was a bit vague about describing how I felt yesterday morning, and maybe, with hindsight, I still can't decided if I was feeling good or not good. I do know I felt good enough to wash my hair, and have a shower. Once I was clean and fragrant (fragrant in a good way !) I felt OK to go out shopping. I must admit I did have some worries about how I would feel once I started out, and for good reason too.

  The walk to Tesco was OK-ish. I didn't have any bothersome aches or pains, but I felt very close to it once I arrived at Tesco. In terms of actually shopping I seemed to do well. At least I remembered I wanted to buy some bacon - which I forgot last time. I bought another 4 cans of no sugar baked beans even though I still had a couple left from last time. It is always handy to have baked beans on hand - even if it is just to use them as an occasional cold snack.

  I almost managed to stick to buying fairly safe foods (low sugar and or calories), but I did buy more ice cream. I bought a 2 litre (or was it 800gm ?) tub of Tesco plain vanilla ice cream. That stuff is surprisingly safe, and yesterday that was confirmed again. There was a load of other stuff I bought, and that included four 2l bottles of Diet Coke. In one small, but overflowing,  shopping basket I managed to accumulate quite a heavy load.

  I expected if I was going to have any trouble it would be carrying that heavy load home. I did indeed have trouble, and I later realised one reason for it. When shopping in Aldi I use two medium sized bags-for-life style shopping bags as well as my rucksack. I do my best to get both of the nags to weigh approximately the same weight, and so with one bag in each hand I can walk home fairly balanced. Yesterday I used a single large bag from Lidl.

  Walking with a lot of weight in one hand and nothing in the other, made a sort of torsional effect on my chest. Since my big operation in 2013 I have had a lot of trouble with my chest, and yesterday that unbalanced effect started off some annoying chest pains. Fortunately I know they are just muscle and bone pains, and not heart pains, but.......

  My latest theory is that these chest pains are still enough to worry me, and in doing so they raise my blood pressure. That sort of reverses reality, and instead of high blood pressure, and maybe potential heart attack, causing chest pain, it is the chest pain causing the high blood pressure. The best proof I can offer is that Paracetamol cures the problem, but it does it quite slowly.

  After getting home I put my shopping away, and then had some lunch. It was a couple of sandwiches. After that I was feeling tired and with my chest aching, I seemed to have the perfect excuse to have a lie down, and a snooze. I did have a snooze, and later woke up feeling worse. I do remember laying on my back, and hearing my ribs (I presume) clicking as I breathed in and out.

  I am very sure I woke up very gently. It was from a dream, and in the dream a friend was showing a animated power point presentation about aeroplanes. After a text preamble the animation started with a futuristic plane going across the screen. It was accompanied by some music. Initially I thought it was some Pink Floyd, but I realised it was actually the atmospheric start to "Fade To Grey" by Visage. As I considered this i gradually woke up, and soon realised I had used the music playing on my computer in my dream.

  The point of describing the dream, and how I slowly came back to consciousness, is relevant. I have wondered if some chest pain I have suffered after waking up had anything to do with Sleep Apnea. I think it is unlikely. I know one man who suffers from it, and has use a positive pressure ventilator when sleeping. He would described waking up and feeling like he was gasping for air. I have not had that feeling for maybe 30 0r 40 years, and it was very rare even then.

  I did mention this to the cardiologist during my telephone appointment a few days ago, and he agreed it would cause high blood pressure amongst other things. I said that while I was aware of it as a potential problem, I didn't think I suffered from it. He said that the only real way of checking would be to spend the night in a sleep lab. The flaw in that argument is that every time I have been in hospital it has taken one or more nights before I have managed to get any sleep at all. I would also assume that if the nurses had noticed me stopping breathing in the night they would have recorded the fact - particularly if it was a heart patient like me.

  At times I felt OK in the afternoon, but at other times I did not feel good. By dinner time I pretty much knew I would not be feeling good enough to go out to the Chain gig I was hoping to get to. It was rather annoying, and particularly so when I wanted to test a new camera lens at a real gig. Of course it didn't help that I am so out of practice at going to gigs that it was far too easy to throw in the towel rather than force myself to go out. There was also the consideration that carrying a semi heavy camera bag around my neck would/could just cause more chest trouble.

  Once I had actually eaten dinner I was not really in a fit state to go out. It was not a big dinner, but it was enough to make me feel sluggish. I know dinner included a Tesco smoky bacon sandwich, a spinach and potato pasty, and some plain vanilla ice cream. I might also have eaten a couple of "fiery hot" Pepperami sticks. In fact I know I did, but I can't recall if I had them as a snack before dinner, or after dinner, later in the evening.

  My evening, instead of some good music, and test photography, was mostly watching TV. One big problem was that U+Dave, now known as the gambling channel in my mind, didn't have all that much to show apart from hundreds of ads convincing people how much fun it would be to throw their money down the drain by participating in many different forms of advertising, The very, very, very worst adverts were for my very much hated BetFred Casino. Quite why they think fronting the adverts with a bunch of wide boys, who would sell their own grandmothers, would cause anyone want to take part is a complete mystery to me.....but then again I am not in their chosen demographic.

  It was either 9pm or 10pm when I turned the TV off because the adverts were driving me to distraction (the posh way to say murderous insanity). Going to bed early-ish gave me a little time to read a few pages of the book I am reading, but it was not long before I was sound asleep. My sleep had left a big blank in my memory. I can't remember if I got up to pee at any time, although I probably did. I can't remember if I dreamed at all, but once again I expect I must have done.

  This morning there is evidence that I eat very incautiously. I seem to have gained 600gm - which is bad ! On the other hand, even with the ice cream, I seemed to have mostly stuck with low sugar stuff. This morning my blood glucose readings were 8.2, 7.6, and 7.9mmol/l. That averages out to 7.9mmol/l, and that is fairly good. 8 or the 14 days so far this month has seen a higher reading.

  My blood pressure was fairly good when I measured it this morning. It was 127/81 with a pulse rate of 75. The pulse rate is very slightly high. I think between 60 and 70 bpm would be considered good. My diastolic pressure of 81 is also a little higher than I think would be ideal. I hope that will be cured when I get my next repeat prescription - which should include Amlodopine - a drug that was omitted because the Kings College Hospital discharge papers forgot to mention it. The cardiologist I spoke to last Wednesday was quite surprised I was not taking it.

  I have been feeling sort of OK for a lot of this morning, but as I write this I am suffering from chest pain. I am very sure it is a muscular/skeletal thing caused by allowing myself to slump in the chair while writing this. The centre of the pain is in the middle of a crease that runs across my body just under my man breasts. I have now pushed my bottom back into the chair, and trying to sit up straight. The pain has not gone, but maybe it feels like it is starting to fade. It is still annoying though.

  The main thing on the menu today is another afternoon beer tastings session with Jodie. Fortunately I have an only partially read copy of last Thursday's Metro to read while Jodie ignores me. Maybe it is me - I just don't have a lot to say that would interest her......on the other hand, even if I do have something I feel could be interesting, she still carries on scrolling through Instagram on her phone, and checking the beer logging website, untappd. Anyway, I'll worry about that later. It feels like time for a quick snooze - one of the rare treats of being retired !