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.....