The sun is shining as I write
this, but it is not bright, and is
hazy. The reason is most of the
sky is covered by milky looking
clouds. Until they burn off we
will not enjoy the expected full
sunshine. This afternoon should
reach 17° C if the sun does
completely break through, and that
should feel quite warm, although
like yesterday there could be
enough wind to take the edge off
it. Tomorrow could start almost
cold enough for a frost thanks to
the clear skies, but another day
of full sunshine is forecast, and
the afternoon could see 18° C.
Yesterday was a bad day for
several reasons, although it is
probably better to say
disappointing rather than bad. It
could have been worse. I was not
sure I would be ready in time to
go for a walk in the sunshine, to
the pub. Fortunately I did, and
the walk was mostly enjoyable
except for one thing.
That one thing was that I
was farting a lot, and I knew I
needed the toilet. I had three
choices. One was to turn back
home. Another was to use the
toilet in the pub, but while that
is generally clean and tidy, it is
still not a pleasant experience.
The third option was to use a
toilet in the hospital. On my last
visit to the endoscopy unit I
noticed that as well as a couple
of toilets along the corridor,
there was a suite of maybe 4
toilets just inside the main doors
of Riverside house - which I pass
whenever I cross the river from
the park to the hospital grounds.
That is where I went, and it was
as pleasant as a visit to any
toilet can be.
When I arrived at The Jolly
Farmers I found the place empty,
but then Tom, who I often end up
sharing a table with, came through
the door from the toilets. A
minute later and Fergal came
through from the garden. To my
dismay, Fergal was the barman for
the day. Ayse (my favourite
barmaid) had had to take the day
off because she needed to
accompany her partner/husband to
the hospital for a colonoscopy.
Ayse had told me she was well
aware of what I had gone through
to prepare for my aborted
colonoscopy because of her husband
(or maybe just partner - I am not
100% sure). The actual facts are
not really known, but it seems he
may have a serious condition.

Drinking in a nearly empty
bar was not the fun it usually is.
I am unsure if many of the
regulars didn't turn up because
they know that Ayse would not be
there. Had I known in advance I
would not have bothered, but I
would probably have still gone for
a walk in the park. I felt I
needed the exercise - and mostly
to strengthen the muscles in my
legs so I can get back to enjoying
longer walks. It is working. My
walk to and from the pub added up
to 1.4 miles. That is not a long
walk, but it was still useful, and
for the most part it was trouble
free except for some mild ankle
pain that started towards the end
of the walk home.
I took this picture as I
was walking to the pub. It is
looking towards Ladywell, and
shows the beautiful blue sky.
Maybe it was because I had my back
to the sun as I walked north
towards the pub that I don't seem
to remember it as being very
sunny. That clear blue sky
obviously says otherwise.
I took very few pictures on
this walk - there seemed nothing
new to take pictures of. This
pigeon was an exception. For one
thing it was sitting on the
railings, and so in easy view, but
also in the shade. It looked a bit
straggly, and was the most grey
pigeon I have ever seen. Even it's
beak and eyes seemed grey
(although I am sure it's eyes were
in perfect working order, they and
it's head followed me as I walked
past only about 2 ft from it.
I was walking along the
east side of the park, and the
railway was on the west side. To
get this picture I had to take it
across the full width of the park.
The significance is that the class
465 train is almost certainly the
one that was restored (probably
using stick on vinyl) to it's
original
Network
South East livery when it
was exhibited at the Rail 200
event - celebrating 200 years of
railways in Britain.
As mentioned further up the
page, it was only in about the
last 5 minutes or so of the walk
home that I started to get some
discomfort from my ankles. That
meant it was still very nice to
get home. Maybe, in one respect,
too nice. The first thing I wanted
was a bit of lunch. I had some
instant noodles for breakfast, but
no lunch until I got home. It
would have made walking
uncomfortable if I had had
something to eat before going out,
but it would also mean I felt
dangerously ravenous when I got
in.
For my slightly late lunch
I made myself a chorizo filled
deli roll (aka a soft Petit Pain
roll) while I microwaved a small,
fairly healthy ready meal. It was
from Aldi's "Protein" range, and
was pulled pork with BBQ sauce,
and rice with a lot of sliced
green cabbage leaves (at least I
think that is what the leaves
were). That ready meal was not
that nice. The delicious pulled
pork and sauce was in complete
contrast to the dry and almost
gritty rice.
I seemed to eat far too
much yesterday, but instead of big
meals it was far too much "a bit
of this and a bit of that". All
those little bits add up to quite
a lot, and I have been doing it a
lot recently - hence some terrible
weight gain, and many visits to
the toilet. The visit I made to
the hospital toilet was just one
of many visits, the rest being at
home, which were all quite
productive in the excretion of
poo. This bad way of eating is a
habit I need to crush as soon as
possible.
Apart from transferring
photos from camera and phone to my
PC, and doing the editing for
display here, I did very little
yesterday afternoon. It feels like
I probably spent most of my
afternoon laying on my bed reading
and snoozing. Late in the
afternoon, as dinner time
approached, I went down to the
kitchen to prepare my dinner. It
was to be pork shanks with mustard
sauce (from a part cooked kit)
plus mashed sweet potato.
I have had, but have never
made my own sweet potato mash. It
is quite nice stuff, and easy to
cook. Sweet potato is better for
diabetics because it's starch
content is less, and I think it's
fibre content is higher, although
it is so creamy, even without
mashing, that it seems unlikely to
have any fibre in it at all. I
made sure it included extra fibre
by only scraping the mud off the
skin, and including the skin in
the mash.
At 6pm it was BBC news
time, and it was also dinner time.
The mashed sweet potato went well
with the pork shanks. One unusual
thing was that I found I felt full
enough to not eat all the mash. I
admit it was a big portion because
it was made with a single big, but
not super big, sweet potato. It is
rare that I don't finish all that
is on the plate, although we are
told that leaving some food on the
plate is allegedly good for you. I
don't like to waste food. If I had
not served it first, I would have
saved any mash left in the put,
and used it today in some way. but
once it was on the plate, and
mixed with meat juices and mustard
sauce, it was probably better to
discard it.
I had an almost normal
evening watching some selected
stuff on TV, but there was one
slightly unusual thing - I found I
needed about my 6 or 7th poo of
the day. I have to admit it was
the undeniable proof that I have
been eating too much recently. I
know one reason for it. After 10
to 20 years of being very careful
about how much sugar I consume
(because of my type 2 diabetes), I
suddenly find that Mounjaro takes
care of my blood glucose level,
and it feels like I can anything -
and I do. The trouble is that
"anything" is stuff like chocolate
and ice cream. Stuff that I would
strongly avoid, but now I can eat
without affecting my blood
glucose, but I now have to try and
remember is still affects my
weight !
I felt tired last night,
and so I finished with TV by about
10pm, but like the previous night,
I spent far too long reading in
bed, and so it was hardly an early
night. As far as I can recall, I
had a great night's sleep. Of
course there were the usual
interruptions to get up for a pee,
but these days that seems
perfectly normal. Once again I
recall having at least one dream,
but I can now no longer remember a
thing about it.
When I finally got up I
weighed myself, despite thinking
that sooner or later I would be
having a poo (but also realising
that poo weighs surprisingly
little). The bad news is that I
seemed to have gained another
700gm, and my weight is slowly
creeping up day by day now. This
is most annoying, and I only have
myself to blame. I need to
acclimatise myself to be able to
feel hungry at time, but without
doing anything to stop it.
One thing I did not have
yesterday was any ice cream, and
so that can not take any blame.
However I did have a few chocolate
covered bars, and I think I had a
couple as a dessert yesterday.
They probably take most of the
blame for my blood glucose being
very high this morning. One thing
to make it worse was that my last
Mounjaro injection was only about
half a dose because the pen had
come to the end. I was going to
wait intil Monday for my next
injection from the new pen, but I
think I'll take it today.
My blood glucose level is
high enough to tickle the
underside of the danger level. I
got readings of 9.3 (very bad),
8.8, and 9.0 mmol/l. That averages
to 9.03mmol/l - the highest
reading I have had since February
when I had a week or so of very
high readings. I can't recall what
was going on......err, yes I know
exactly what was going on. It
started when I was discharged from
hospital with my new heart valve.
I had a spree of takeaways to make
up for lost time (or something
like that).
A week later I had my
gastroscopy (tube with camera down
the throat). That involved some
fasting, and once again I seemed
to be making up for lost meals by
having several very naughty (but
oh so nice) takeaways - mostly
pizza with some more naughty side
orders.
Oh well, at least my blood
pressure is nice and low this
morning, 107/50. Today could be a
day to make things worse. It is a
Thursday, and that means beer
tasting day with Jodie and usually
Michael, and sometimes one or two
more. I have part skipped
breakfast, although I have had a
packet of Aldi Beef Jerky. It's
sugar content is fairly small, and
it's calorie count is quite small.
For lunch I will need something to
line my stomach before boozing,
and it might be a corned beef and
horseradish roll. My dinner
will be under the influence of
alcohol. and so it is hard to
predict. I'll try to be careful,
but.....