It was just 8° C at 6am this morning, thanks to clear skies. That also meant that we had full sunshine a couple of hours later when the sun had risen.  The full sunshine this morning will probably change to just sunny spells for the afternoon. More cold winds from the north mean that no amount of sunshine could raise the afternoon temperature above 14° C today. Once again it is going to be a cold night. There will be more cloud tomorrow morning and that should help the temperature stop going below 9° C. There may be some sunny spells tomorrow morning, but the afternoon may only reach 13° C, and the afternoon could see rain or drizzle.

  Yesterday seemed like a satisfactory day. It had one downside, and few upsides, but passed smoothly. I guess the day ended well, and that made for a good start to this morning, but first some notes about yesterday.

  My morning was going a bit slowly after I finished writing yesterday's diary, but I was just about ready to have a shower when my phone rang. It was an old, and perhaps ex-friend, Sue. Her life seems to be a disaster, and there are no easy ways for anyone to help her out. I currently doubt her sanity. To cut a long story short, she wanted me to phone the police for her because she said her phone could not dial 999.

  It seems she thinks she is about to be evicted, and believes someone, presumably the housing association who own her flat, had interfered with he gas supply, and bent her kitchen window frame so one window cannot be closed. Obviously something had happened, but I did not trust her interpretation of it all - particularly that he phone could not dial 999. She pleaded with me to phone the police on her behalf, and ask for a visit from a policeman.

  I dialled 101, the non urgent police number, and did my best to explain that I thought she was ill, probably mentally ill, and that I was concerned for her welfare. They said to dial 999 and ask for an ambulance and welfare check. I did that, and so far I have not heard anything more. It was all both upsetting and irritating. I just hope that she is getting some sort of care, and will leave me alone. I have my own problems to take care of.

  Once I hung up from the emergency services I had a shower, and then got dressed ready to go out shopping, and also to pick up my latest repeat prescription. As noted near the top of this page, the weather still seemed good enough to not bother with a coat, and I wore a t-shirt and shorts for my shopping trip. I felt perfectly comfortable wearing just that, but I did not feel comfortable walking.

  It was like my legs had seized up. It may have been some ongoing problems after my 'flu jab. The day after that jab I most definitely woke up feeling terrible. I seemed to feel better as the day progressed, and by bed time I thought I had fully recovered, but maybe not. All I know is that all my leg joints, plus most of the muscles in my legs seemed to ache, and that started after only a few minutes of walking.

  By the time I had reached my first destination, Poundland, I would have liked to have sat down if it were possible - which it wasn't. Slowly walking around the shop helped a bit. There was one thing in particular I wanted from Poundland, and it was pink stain remover. It seems to be the only place I know that sells it, although Savers do sell the crystalline version of it in tubs. I also wanted some bleach,  antibacterial spray, and antibacterial wipes. In theory I am now fully kitted out to clean the inside of my fridge, and a lot of the kitchen with the aim of reducing the incidence of mould growing on things like bread.

  I also wanted some cat treats, but the amount they had was a lot less than last time, and they didn't have any catnip infused "Dreamies", but I did get a few cat treats. I also got a few human treats too. One was notable - salt and pepper chicken flavour instant noodles. I had one for breakfast this morning, and it was interesting. They suffer from the same problem I often see when buying stuff like this from bargain places. Most of the flavouring settles to the bottom of the dried noodles, and when made up you find the bottom is like a very highly flavoured mud. The cure is simple - give it a dam good shake before opening and pouring on the boiling water.

  The walk, along the main road/high street to the pharmacy took it's toll on my legs again, and it was a much shorter walk. When I got to the pharmacy I found they had made up my repeat prescription, and just had to take the Ozempic out of the fridge (it is recommended it is stored in a fridge - which I do when I get it home) to add it to my bag of boxes of tablets. Unfortunately they forgot the blood glucose test strips, but they (or maybe the nurse who sent the repeat prescription through to the pharmacy) did do something sensible.

  One of my prescribed drugs is Bisprolol and I take 10mg in the morning, and 5mg in the afternoon. The previous prescription was all 5mg tablets, but this time half were 10mg for the morning, and the other was 5mg for the afternoon (or early evening).

  The walk home from the pharmacy was quite taxing. I guess saying "agony" is a bit too strong, but definitely very uncomfortable, and it felt so good to get home (note: it is only about a 6 or 7 minute walk). The first thing I did was to sort out my shopping, including all my boxes of drugs. It was than I found they had forgotten the blood glucose test strips. I think I still have an unopened box with 50 test strips in it, and I have not finished the box I keep with the meter. So I don't need to go to the pharmacy to say they forgot them. I am doing OK until my next repeat prescription in 2 months time.

  I then had some lunch. I think it was a couple of corned beef rolls on very well sealed, long life, finger rolls that I buy from Poundland. It is an odd thing for them to have, and I never expected them to be any good, but they seem OK, and I make a point of getting a couple of packs of 2 every time I shop in there.

  I spent the rest of my afternoon being very lazy - mostly laying on my bed reading and snoozing. One thing I meant to do, but didn't, was to go shopping in Tesco. I could have rustled up some sort of dinner from stuff I had in the freezer, or even in tins, but I fancied something nicer. I decided what I wanted was a lamb and/or chicken shish kebab. I went onto the web site of a kebab place I have used before, but it said they were temporarily closed. I wondered if it was some sort of religious thing.

  My next choice was for a Chinese takeaway. I was a bit dubious of one because they can be high calorie, and/or high sugar, but I decided to ignore my fears, and order one anyway. My dinner was one spring roll, a container of spare ribs (small ones) and a container of Singapore noodles. It was quite nice, and while filling, didn't seem to be too filling. i accompanied it with my prescription drugs, plus one Dandelion root diuretic capsule. I had been taking those capsules for the previous 4 or more days, and I was never sure they really worked. Yesterday I had my repeat prescription which included Furosemide - a very potent diuretic that as well as it's intended use (it reduced water retention in the leg where they removed a vein for my heart bypass graft), is also handy for weight loss. I was interested what the chemical and herbal would do together.

  I was about to say that not much happened in the evening - just the usual TV and bed - but something did happen. At just before 7pm I had a delivery of one of my Aliexpress orders. It was a pack of 10 men's underpants. I was curious as to what they might be like - although with hindsight they could equally have appeared in Tesco with a Tesco logo on them. They seem good, although the largest size they do is smaller than "Western" sizes. I ordered the largest they did. They do fit, but with little spare. I have been wearing a pair since getting up, maybe 3 hours now, and they are comfortable enough to be completely ignorable. I am not sure that £3 per pair was a bargain though. I can't remember the last price I paid in Tesco for underpants, but I have an annoying idea it may have been a bit less.

   After the usual TV I went to bed. I think I read a few pages from my book before putting the book down, turning out the light, and falling asleep fairly quickly. There was only one notable thing about last night. I could include a dream that I know I had, but I can't remember a single thing about it. I do remember getting up to go for a pee a couple of times, and each time it was a very big pee. I think the Furosemide tablet, plus the dandelion root capsule worked well together to almost dehydrate me.

  This morning, after several large pees in the night, plus a quite small poo when I got up, I found I had lost a whole kilogram of weight compared to yesterday morning. All that peeing obviously helped, but maybe what I ate helped a bit too. Over the last week I had put on a little bit of weight on a few days, and it was rather pleasing to reverse that this morning. In the unlikely, although possible event I manage to lose 200gm by tomorrow morning I would be able to enter the weight in my spreadsheet in a different colour to indicate I had dropped into the next full kilogram less.

  It is often the case that when my weight goes down, my blood glucose goes up, however logic defying that is. This morning, as well as the weight loss, my blood glucose is pretty good. The average of all three readings was 7.47mmol/l, compared to 8.17mmol/l yesterday morning. It is a small drop, but very welcome, and changes good to something close to very good.

  My blood pressure is also pretty good this morning. It was 135/77 with a heart rate of 76 bpm. That heart rate is one of the lower reading this month. I wonder what caused it ? Could it be something to do with last nights Chinese takeaway. I have the other half of that order to eat tonight, and I wonder what my readings will look like tomorrow morning ?

  There are several things I could or should do today, and I am not sure how many, or even any I might do. One semi important thing, or which would be important if I didn't have the other half of my Chinese takeaway to eat tonight, would be to go shopping in Tesco.

  It would be prudent to do my fridge cleaning, to try and eliminate the mould spores in there, before buying new stuff to clog it up. On the other hand I could still go to Tesco and only buy a very few essential things rather than enough to fill the whole of the fridge (larder section).

  As well as cleaning the fridge, plus some of the kitchen, I also should do a bit of laundry. I have a small backlog of stuff - including underpants. With my new Chinese underpants the need to wash my existing ones is less important. On the other hand I think some of the new underpants might benefit from washing and in particular, fabric conditioner. I notice the pair I am wearing right now seem to be a better fit now the material is sort stretching to my size.

  Of all the things I might not do today, there is one I really would like to do, but I feel less likely I will do. Tonight there is a Life Of Brian gig I would very much like to go to. It would be hard enough to convince myself to go out at a time when I would normally just be getting into a pre-bed relaxation sort of mood. On top of that it means getting two buses to a pub I have never been to before - and at this time of year doing it all in the dark. My current prediction is that I will wimp out of it, but you never know. Stranger things have happened in the past.