It is lovely and sunny as I write this, and it should stay sunny until sunset. This will drive this afternoon up to a glorious 25° C. After sunset the temperature will drop, but it may still be 19° C by 1am tomorrow. Tomorrow may start at 17° C, and there should be sunny spells until 2pm when full sunshine may take over. Tomorrow afternoon may see an almost scorching 27° C with the heat helped by full sunshine.

  Yesterday seemed to be an OK day. Sometimes it was bland, and sometime it was quite good. Sadly, alcohol was involved, and that seemed to spoil my good intentions to try some old fashioned dieting to improve my health.

  As I thought I would end up doing, I didn't have a shower yesterday, but I did have a flannel wash. I had scrubbed up a lot for my appointment with the nurse, and I couldn't remember doing anything that would get me dirty or smelly in the previous 24 hours. I felt clean enough after that simple wash to go shopping in Tesco, and to receive Jodie and Michael for some beer tasting later in the afternoon.

  My walk to, and from Tesco, seemed like I was back to normal again. I am at a loss to explain why the similar length walk to and from the surgery the day before seemed so arduous. It might explain it if I was stressed, but the nurse is well behaved, non judgemental, and I sort of enjoy my appointments with her.

  My imaginary shopping list was to buy lots of salad types stuff - both vegetables and stuff to go in salads. I bought two types of salad leaves, some bell peppers, tomatoes, and skinless chicken. I also bought things like sandwiches, Diet Coke and some other bits and pieces. I remembered I wanted both mayonnaise, and zero sugar tomato sauce, and nearby to those items I saw some olive oil spray for frying. Those spray oils are quite good for coating foil for when cooking stuff in the oven, but I don't think I would like them on stuff like salad.

  I didn't have to carry as much weight of shopping home from Tesco as I did from Aldi last time, and I was able to do a semi fast walk home non stop. It was still nice to get indoors and put my bags down. Incidently I found shorts and t-shirt was perfectly comfortable while walking to and from Tesco, although the wind did feel a bit fresh from time to time....on the other hand, I could feel some warmth in that wind. It is odd how it could be cooling and seeming to feel warm at the same time.

  Once I had put my shopping away I face a tricky dilemma. With little effort I could have skipped lunch, and that idea was bolstered by knowing I had an idea for a rather nice, but slightly low calorie and sugar dinner. On the other hand I would be drinking later, and I try not to drink on an empty stomach. One thing I had bought was a reduced price Tesco "Finest" quiche. It seemed posh, but and I imagined it would be very nice. It was not. There was nothing bad about it, but there was also nothing wonderful about it. It was exciting as a cheese sandwich with no pickle or other fillings.

  I think I had time for a lie down, and to read for a while, and I think I may have had a short snooze, but sooner or later I had to do the usual preparation for a beer tastings session - cleaning and polishing the glasses, doing some washing up in the sink, and wiping down the kitchen work tops. I managed all that with plenty of time before Jodie arrived. Once again she had got off the train, and went to get some shopping in Lidl. She seems to like that place a lot. I ought to visit it sometime, but the last time I went there, years ago, I was put off because they were moving to only self service checkouts. I am told they do often keep one staffed checkout open, but the idea still worries me.

  This business of self service checkouts is interesting. Aldi tried it, and very quickly realised that there was 10 to 20% of their customers who would not steal jobs by doing the checkouts themselves. Tesco increased their self service area, but seem to try and keep at least 2, and sometime more staffed checkouts in operation. It seems that only Iceland were really, really determined to go self service only. I haven't bothered to look in there for some time, but until I have some confidence that they have at least one staffed checkout open, I will not step inside the place. I wonder how many customers they have lost ?

  On my way home from Tesco I saw Cous Cous (previously known as "Fluffy Cat") lolling about in the shade of a car parked outside next door but one. He was showing off to a couple of the people in that house turned into tiny flats. I assumed we would not be getting a visit from him later - and I was wrong.

  Jodie arrived later than usual, but typical since her fascination with Lidl. Michael also arrived a bit later than usual. I think he had thought about not joining us, but he needs out company to get things off his chest, although he did seem to be moaning a lot less than some times.

  Most of the beers we had were between OK and nice, and I think one may have been very nice. I guess we got through 6 or 7 cans - shared between the three of us. Michael brought along three beers.. One has been a staple of the shelves of Aldi (or so I think) for quite some time, but Michael thought he had discovered something new. His son does pick him up some beers on his travels, and some really are new to all of us - including Jodie who seems to have tried thousands of different beers, and somehow remembers most of them (although these days she relies more and more on the untappd(.com) website as her memory.

  I think I had at least one extra can of beer to myself as I waited for Jodie to catch up, and I also had a couple of spiced rums. I still seemed far less drunk than Michael. In fact I didn't seem to feel drunk at all. Of course I am experienced enough to know that can be an illusion. I also knew that booze can affect my appetite long before it affects the rest of my mind.

  I had cooked most of my dinner while we were drinking. In the microwave I was boiling some sweet potatoes to make a healthy mash (or healthy until I put in a big lump of butter). I also cooked some frozen peas in the microwave. Meanwhile I was grilling some strips of chicken breast (or was it thigh ?) that was boneless and skinless, I used my new spray olive oil on the grill pan and the chicken itself. I seasoned the chicken with some salt and mixed herbs, plus extra thyme.

  Once Jodie and Michael had gone home I tucked into my dinner. I must admit it was probably a larger portion than was ideal, but it was nice and tasty, plus I knew it was all made from mostly healthy ingredients (ignoring the salt and butter I had used). The original idea was that it was to be a complete meal, but the booze lowered my resolution, and I gave in to the idea of a dessert of ice cream, and it was rather a lot of ice cream. It was one of those occasions when the tub was getting empty, and I stupidly decided I may as well continue eating it until it was empty.

  I have decided that in future I am only going to buy 500ml tubs of ice cream instead of 2 litre tubs. I may have eaten 500ml last night, but if it had been from a 500ml tub I probably would only eaten half a 500ml tub even if I got carried away, and possibly less.

  After dinner I watched more TV (I had eaten watching TV) and I was stupidly feeling smug that I had at least tried to be careful about what I ate. The things alcohol will do to us !!! It was 11pm when I switched off the TV and went to bed. I did read in bed, but not for long before I put the book down, turned out the light and.... I think I fell asleep very easily, but you can never be sure about these things.

  I am not even sure I slept well, although I believed that I did.  I know I got up to pee a few times in the night, but I don't remember it being very often, and I don't recall any pee being unusually big. What I do remember is waking up feeling a bit too warm. I think I fell asleep later after kicking the duvet to one side.That feeling too hot may have been caused by something I didn't realise until after I got up this morning.

  I got out of bed, and started walking to the toilet. It was just routine, and I didn't think I was in any rush to have a pee. I did think I had a large fart coming that might be safer to let out once I was sitting on the toilet. That proved ever so correct. It was not all far, but a lot of very soft poo - one or two notches away from diarrhoea ! It became glaringly obvious that I had quite a stomach upset, but I could not think of a good reason for it. I can't recall eating anything that might be off, or something. The sweet potato mash, although it is not obvious, has quite a lot of fibre in it (at least I think it does, but I could easily be wrong). That could promote "regularity", but nothing explosive.

  For all that, plus another pee, I still seemed to have put on 1.1kg this morning. That is not a good start when I am supposed to be self managing an old fashioned weight loss diet. I can only blame the booze, although it feel unethical to put all the blame on beer (and a couple of spirits).

  My blood glucose was not very good this morning either. The average of all three readings was a terrible 9.23mmol/l. That is not the highest reading this month. In fact there have been five higher readings, but even so.... No I am losing the protective effect of Mounjaro, I will have to do a lot better than this. I guess the transition is going to be difficult for a while, and I;ll just have to do my best. This morning I felt I needed something in my stomach because it was feeling a bit like it was acid (although it wasn't acid indigestion). I have had one single small packet of instant noodles, and I do feel a bit better now.

  I have some loose plans for today. One thing I definitely want to to is to go to Tesco again. There are a few things I could usefully get, including some extra bottles of Diet Coke, but most importantly I want to find a birthday card for Miranda (Angela's daughter). Her birthday is not until next Wednesday, but she is singling and playing with her band, The Life Of Brian, at the British Oak in Blackheath tomorrow night.

  I definitely want to get along to see The Life Of Brian tomorrow night. I can give Miranda her birthday card. I can listen to some great music, and I can see Angela (hopefully with he husband too buy playing drums to get in my way). The downside is the long walk from the bus stop (if taking a single bus ride) to the pub. The walk crosses over the motorway style approach road to the Blackwall Tunnel. There was an occasion in 2013, a few months away from my heart bypass operation, when I suffered really bad angina pains walking to the pub, but I was saved because that bridge give a greta vies for some photography, and I could stop for five minutes to let the angina pains die down.

  On Saturday (and this assumes I can get myself out of the front door, and heading to the gig - something I can't say will happen with any certainty) it is my intention to get a bus to Greenwich, and change there for a small bus that stops outside the pub. My research shows that is the one single bus stop where a bus from Catford, and the little bus share a bus stop, or even have bus stops only separated by a few minutes walk from each other. It feels like it is a long way way, but apparently it is not that much further to go, and it is so convenient to get the bus to outside the pub.

  There may be one useful things about that journey to the pub, and that is that it should be mostly light outside, and I may spot other places where a change of bus could be done without going too far out of my way. When it comes to going home I shall get a bus direct from the Royal Standard bus stop to Catford. The walk to that bus stop from the pub is just about noticeably downhill. That means the walk to the pub is uphill, albeit some gently uphill that it is not that obvious, but it does take it's toll on my body !