This morning didn't start as cold as yesterday morning, but it did start grey and very damp looking. I think there must have been some rain last night. The temperature may reach 10° C today, but it will be grey all day, except when it is very grey from about 3pm onwards, and it will still probably feel quite chilly. From 5pm we may see some drizzle that will turn into light rain after an hour. Tomorrow may only miss starting with a frost by a degree or two. The day should see a lot of sunshine, and it should reach 9° C in the afternoon. It will probably still feel very chilly.
 
  Mission accomplished - I bought my new microwave oven, but there is more to this story than just a couple of words. Yesterday was still not a very good day, and I guess "pretty awful" might sum it up fairly accurately. However, somehow I still managed to control my diet.

  I was grim outside yesterday morning, and it was difficult to keep just one room warm enough to be comfortable - particularly when sitting down to write for a couple of hours. After I had written yesterday's piece I had a short rest before I had a wash. I couldn't be bothered to have a full shower, and just had a flannel wash. I then got dressed, and ready to go out.  I can't say I was feeling good when I went out.

  One obvious thing was that it was cold, grey and miserable outside. Another thing was that I was wondering if I might be wasting my time. I was heading to Tesco where I had seen a pile of microwave ovens on sale. I feel sure they were going for just £40, and I wondered if I would be wasting my time because they had sold out of them. When I got to Tesco I found they had plenty of microwave ovens, but they seemed to be a little posher, and double the price I thought I remembered the previous one went for.

  The £80 microwave ovens were still nice basic devices with two rotary dials for time and power, and no fancy electronics that for £5 of electronic bits would add £100 to the sale price. £80 was more than I was expecting, but it still seemed reasonable. All I had to do was to pay for it and take it home. The only problem was that it seemed like hard work just carrying it across the store.

  It takes no more than 7 minutes to walk home from Tesco, and if I were as fit and healthy as I was as little as 4 years ago, I could do it in about 5 minutes. It was a great demonstration of how my body seems to be deteriorating as I approach 70 years old. I had to stop 4 times on the way home to rest my arms before I dropped the box with the microwave oven in it. I felt dreadful when I got home. I had all sorts of aches and pains, and some of those pains were the start of chest pains.

  I barely rested until I had unpacked the oven and set it up on the kitchen counter, after first taking the old one out, and leaving it on the front garden wall. As expected/hoped for, it seems to have gone this morning. It was probably taken by one of the scrap metal collectors who roam the streets in their dodgy looking Transit vans. I gave the new oven a quick test by getting it to boil a quarter pint of water.

  It passed that test perfectly, and it seems like it was a good buy - except for one slight annoyance. The interior of the oven is black, and with the poor light in that part of the kitchen, plus the glare from the window behind the oven, I can barely see inside it. I have now placed a small torch by the oven so I can see what I am doing on some occasions. I hope that the black paint is of better quality than the very poor quality white paint of the old oven. It was that peeling away, and the interior going rusty, that condemned the old oven.

  I could have cooked some lunch in the new oven, but I just made a couple of corned beef, tomato and horseradish sandwiches. They seemed almost substantial, but I was feeling so awful that I wanted more. In addition I had a small bar of 85% cocoa chocolate, and half a dozen sugar free oaty biscuits. With hindsight I should have used the new oven to heat a couple of cans of soup.

  I felt cold all afternoon, and hot soup, with added chilli sauce, would have gone some way to help me feel warmer. I guess it was a mix of the cold, and the after effects of struggling home, carrying the new microwave oven, and maybe something else that I can't identify, but I felt dreadful. I could not seem to rest properly, or concentrate on anything I tried to do. About the only thing I did do properly was to munch a small quantity of salted peanuts as a mid afternoon snack.

  I looked forward to both dinner and something to watch on TV. Some TV seemed OK-ish last night. It was some sort of desperation that made me decide to be careful, and just have fruit for dinner. I followed the fruit with a small (around 100gm) portion of low sugar ice cream. It sounds odd, but having that slightly frugal dinner actually cheered me up, but only a tiny bit.

  At 8pm there were two new episodes of The Simpsons being shown on the E4 channel. I didn't want to watch them then, but I did record them both. While the 10 inch TV was recording than I retired to me bed to read. The book I am reading was not ideal for the mood I was in. I wanted some very basic escapism, but "Heart Of The Comet" by Gregory Benford and David Brin is quite stodgy reading. It is still interesting but not what I wanted last night.

  Once the Simpsons episodes were recorded I turned off the TV, and then read a bit more until I tried for sleep. I did get to sleep quite quickly, but I did have some initial trouble of feeling the old problem of too warm under the duvet, and too cold without it. It was an expensive option, but I turned up the heater, and for half the night I was able to sleep comfortably almost uncovered. Later on it seemed like I could sleep comfortably under the duvet.

  I can only remember a snatch of one dream. It was set in a pub that was more like a stage set. It had all the essentials, but still seemed empty. I am not sure who I was drinking with, but the subject turned to barley wines. I said that if my drinking partner had never tried one he ought to (I am not exactly sure if it was a he because I am not sure I actually saw who I was drinking with). I said I was sure the pub sold a barley wine, and went to buy one. It was named "Stingo", and while I have a feeling I have heard that name before, I am sure it was not a barley wine.

  It doesn't feel like I was getting up to pee with the same regularity as usual last night, although that might just mean that on one occasion I slept for three hours instead of two hours between visits to the toilets. It did seem that I still peed just as much, and that suggested I could not look forward to very low blood glucose readings this morning. I am happy to say that is a bit wrong.

  After getting up I had my usual pee, and a poo. All the fruit I have been eating is obviously beneficial because that poo slipped out like it was greased ! After the toilet I got on the scales, as usual, and I was happy to see that I had lost 200gm. It is not a lot, but enough small decreases adds up to a useful amount. There is a fair chance that my weight will be as good, or better than the general amount of last year - which was a fairly good year until it started going wrong as the year ended. I only have partial results for the year before last, and then year was pretty dreadful. At time I was 4kg heavier than today !

  My blood glucose readings were not as good as yesterday, but three readings all in the light green (as colour coded on my spreadsheet of readings) is still rather good. The Contour meter read 7.6mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read 7.5mmol/l, spot on my current target. The Sinocare meter read 7.7mmol/l. That gives an average for the day of 7.6mmol/. Sadly that is not quite as good at yesterday or the day before, but a lot better than the day before that, and almost all of last month.

  The temperature is now almost 10° C, and once all my thermometers say it has reached there it will be at least a degree higher than the best yesterday had to offer. It may be possible that today could reach 11° C, but it was still be grey and dull, and that will make it feel several degrees colder, and maybe more. Basically, I have no desire to go out today, but I will probably go out for a bit of shopping.

  Assuming I feel less grumpy and aching than yesterday, I may try and do something useful today. I might wash a couple of t-shirts and some underwear. I probably will edit a few more recordings of The Simpson, and even if I don't I still have some ready to watch if I am in the right mood. Right now I am not in the right mood because I feel a bit cold. My body temperature, or at least as measured under the tongue, is far from feverish, and maybe closer to hypothermia. So it is probably not a medical problem, although if the room temperature is at a level that should feel very comfortable, then I am at a loss as to why I should still feel cold.