Today has started off nice and bright. The "sunny spells" seem so long that it would not be inaccurate to describe it as sunny as I write this. Maybe this aftenoon will see some light rain. The afternoon should reach 21° C, but after 5pm it will slowly start to cool. By 9pm it may only be 18° C, which is still not that bad, but that may also be when we get a thunderstorm to start some light rain for much of the night. CORRECTION: The latest update to the forecast has moved the thunderstorm to midnight tonight. Tomorrow may be mostly dry, but it will be dull, and the afternoon temperature may only reach 21° C, but that is the same as today, and I don't think it will feel cold.

  Yesterday was mostly OK, but with one big disappointment that was actually of no consequence. Perhaps the best thing about yesterday was that I went out shopping in just a t-shirt, and didn't feel a drop of rain.

  Yesterday I felt it important to have a shower. I would also have liked to have washed my hair, but that felt less needed, and it seemed as if it was getting a bit late. So I skipped washing my hair. A bit later I would discover that there was no rush at that point - but there could have been earlier.
  My first port of call when I went out was to go to the pharmacy to collect my repeat prescription - something I should have done the day before if only I had realised it was Friday. Unfortunately, on Saturdays the pharmacy is only open between 9am and 11am (and also 6.30pm to 9.30pm). It was about 1pm when I got there, and of course it was closed.

  Well I guess it was nice to stretch my legs, and most of the walk was not wasted because I came equipped with bags to go around the corner to do some shopping in Aldi. I'm not sure how I did it, but despite seeming to buy a lot, my bill was about £20 cheaper than last time. It was probably because I bought only one bottle of booze, and that was on special offer.

  I bought the usual selection of stuff, although my shopping was a bit light on vegetables. I had intended to buy some vegetables in one form or another, but I had no actual idea of what it might be. I had a vague idea that I might buy some frozen vegetables, but I didn't.

  There was one thing I made a point of buying, and that was plain vanilla ice cream. It will soon be time to start my special low fibre diet prior to my colonoscopy. Plain vanilla ice cream is an allowed food, and I may as well try to enjoy the situation as best I can.
  Another thing I bought I find I cannot actually call them mints because they are not exactly minty. I think I shall call them "tablets". They are the same size, and from the same tin can as the actual mints that Aldi sell (and once upon a time, Lidl used to sell almost identical mints, and probably still do). These are a rather nice strawberry and peach flavour, or so it says on the tin. I would describe it a a sort of fruit flavour with hints of peach, and maybe raspberry, and possibly other fruits too.

  Talking of raspberries, I bought a small punnet of raspberries to see how I liked them these days. They seem to be potentially nice, but after a few I lose the nice bit of flavour, and at the end of the punnet I felt glad to have finished them off. They may have been useful as a source of fibre to keep the bowels open.....or whatever.

  I fully expected to get wet when I went out, but thought I would dare the weather to annoy me. I went out in just shorts and a t-shirt. My dare worked, and I never felt a single drop of any rain. As I wrote near the top of the page, yesterday, despite what the forecast said, seem to be a mostly dry day.

  When I got home I put the food away except for the sandwiches or wraps that would be my lunch - another quite late lunch. I had had a small packet of instant noodles for breakfast, and so I was not starving....well not much ! Eating that late lunch was the last thing I did of any note until it came to making my dinner. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and I am sure at least one snooze too.

  My dinner was an experiment that worked really well. I wanted to use the last of the Chinese marinated pork that I had cooked the previous day. On that previous day I found the meat to be fairly fibrous, and it had a tendency to get stuck between my teeth. Yesterday I got out my chopping board, and one of my very little used, and so extremely sharp "Kitchen Devil" knifes and diced the cooked meat into small cubes.

  I reheated the meat in a stock made mostly from one of the flavourings of some instant noodles that I don't like (they are thin rice noodles, and I don't get on with them - I threw the packet away, and kept the sachet of flavouring). I put the meat, a small amount of water, plus the flavouring, and the contents of a packet of "microwave-in-the-bag" long rice with wild grains (or something like that) into a casserole dish. I microwaved it for 5 minutes (the suggested time for the rice). The end result was very nice. If I ever buy another pack of that Chinese pork (and I might) I will probably use it in a similar way.

  Rice is odd stuff. It seems to dissolve in the stomach, and so is only filling for 5 or 10 minutes (or at least that is how it sometimes feels it does). I am sure I didn't wait until I started to feel less full before I decided I would have "just a little ice cream". That was the intention, but the Aldi cookie flavour ice cream seemed to be so addictive that I ate the whole 500ml tub. On this occasion it did not seem to have any negative effects.

  As usual I watched some tv in the evening. I am unsure when I went to bed, but it was when reading seemed it would give more pleasure than what was being offered on TV. I think I put the book down between 10 and 11pm (possibly nearer 10pm), and I was soon asleep, but sleep did not last long. I was woken up by, or maybe just in the middle of a nightmare. The nightmare was set at the hospital, and I was told I could not have sedation for my gastroscopy and colonoscopy because they had decided that Jo was not a suitable adult to look after me for the 12 hours it apparently takes for the sedation wears off.

  There is some sad truth behind this. The letters I received yesterday said that I had said I could not find a suitable adult, and so could not have the sedation. That was said well before Jo volunteered, and during my pre-assessment telephone call I told them that Jo was going to pick me up, and see me home. It is possible they are being extra finicky because what they really want is someone to stay the night to keep an eye on me. Maybe they realised tht I was only going to get a lift home, and maybe they called Jo (they had asked for her number) and she confirmed that she was not going to stay the night. On the day, if they refuse the sedation I think I will have to refuse the procedure.

  Anyway, I think the aftermath of the dream, and thinking about all this, kept me awake for maybe an hour, possibly, but unlikely, two hours in the night. Whatever, it spoiled my sleep, and I guess I overslept a bit this morning - not that there was any real rush to get up, but I do like to start writing all this before 8am if I can - which seems to be rare thing recently.

  This morning I thought I was going to be constipated today, but on the second attempt I had no trouble at all, and that with another pee meant that my final recorded weight for this morning was a nice drop of 800gm. This time my blood glucose was low too....or low-ish. The average of my three readings was 7.73mmol/l. That is not quite as low as yesterday, but still rather good.  My blood pressure seems OK this morning. Just now it was 120/70 with a pulse rate of 72bpm.

  I note there are no trains on the Mid Kent Line (through Catford Bridge) today, and it is because of engineering work. There is a bus replacement service. I don't know if Jodie will want to get the bus here for a beer tasting session later this afternoon, but I had better do some of the preparation work in case she does. I'll probably hear from her soon, and find out if I am beering, or doing something else today (probably some laundry).