There is bright sunshine now, and it is forecast to stay sunny all day long. It should raise the afternoon temperature to 15° C. It looks like we are in for a run of warm sunny days, and by Saturday the afternoon temperature may reach an almost summer like 20° C.

  Yesterday was a very satisfactory day, although maybe with hind site it was less than ideal.

  One of the best things about yesterday was the delivery of my two 2TB solid state hard drives all the way from China. It was an eight day wait to get them after ordering, but considering they came from the other side of the world I should think of it as very quick. I have not tested them yet, but I am stupidly optimistic that they will be fine. Both were intended for my two laptops, but I am thinking that maybe only one will get the upgrade treatment, and I will keep on drive as a spare. In fact if the one I do use turns out to be good quality, I may order another couple spares.

  The delivery, made by Evri, apparently out the back of an ordinary estate car, happened at 2pm, and with that out of the way I could do other stuff. Other stuff was going for a modestly long walk - a walk to two shops and the pharmacy.

  The first shop I visited was Poundstretcher where I had a good idea of what I hoped to buy. I wanted, and bought a couple more tubs of "hot crayfish flavour instant noodles". It is a bit tricky to prepare them unless you follow the instructions - which I don't. You are supposed to add boiling water, let it stand for 3 or 4 minutes before draining any excess water off. Then you can add the flavourings and seasonings. The draining of the water seems an annoying step, and an opportunity to scald fingers. I just try and add just enough water so it is mostly soaked up by the noodles, and the seasonings and flavourings at the same time. They seem pretty nice when you get the amount of water about right, and that is why I wanted some spares for future occasions.

  The other thing I wanted from Poundstretcher was a spare pair of their cheap and cheerful, and surprising comfortable trainer like shoes. I found an identical pair to the last pair, and I bought them. I also saw a design with a white sole, and I was going to buy a pair, but I don't think they had my size. They did have a third design that has "go faster" stripes on them. I bought a pair of them, but they did not seem so comfortable when I wore them around the house yesterday.

  I also bought a few flapjacks, and possibly some other food, but I can't seem to recall what it was I bought except for a bag of liquorice allsorts. After Poundstretcher I walked along the high street to Poundland. I was hoping they might have got new stocks of the flip flops I bought from their a week or two ago. They are very comfortable, and I was hoping for a spare pair, but alas they didn't even have any of any size left.

  I decided it was safer not to go around Poundland or I might have bought any old crap if the mood took me. Instead I left the shop and walked further along the main road until I turned off to visit the pharmacy. It was good and bad news in there. They had my new Mounjaro injector pen, but not my next repeat prescription of all my regular drugs. They said try on Thursday, but I am in no great rush, and I'll pop in on Friday morning.

  I would be surprised if the walk I did was much less than a full mile, but I am sure it was not more. After I got home it was time for a late lunch. I had an Aldi brand individual pork pie with some cold baked beans. It is annoying that once upon a time a pork pie was something very delicious, but now I find them bland. I assume it is just me, and possibly accelerated by some long term effect of the Covid I had in 2019. It could also be EU regulations or something that prevent the tastier bit of the pig being used in a pork pie.

  After my lunch I had a long lie down, and a snooze, but I couldn't let myself go too deeply into relaxation because I had another important job to do. It was to phone the Phlebotomy service to book a time to give some blood samples, as requested by the nurse on Monday. Despite all the propaganda about how easy it is to do on line, I just phoned up, and 10 minutes later I had an appointment booked for this coming Monday morning at 9.10am. Apparently they start at 7.40am, and if I needed it, I could have had an appointment then.

  During the afternoon I am sure I had a few unhealthy snack foods. I don't really remember what and when I had one or more snacks. What I do know is that they had a negative effect on me. Later on I had my dinner, and it was a bit of a mixture. It included a ready made tuna salad - which was nice. A whole packet of fish sticks which always seem like they should be really nice, and maybe they were when they were called crab sticks (despite having no crab meat in them), but once again, my aging, and possibly damaged taste buds registered them as "nice" but nothing special.

  I also had some Raspberry Pavlova Ice Cream. It was dangerously nice, and while I did restrain myself, I don't think I restrained myself as much as I should have. Then again, since first discovering I could eat a limited amount of ice cream with no negative effects (admittedly perhaps only plain vanilla) my portions seem to be getting bigger and bigger. I don't recall eating anything after that, but it is possible I did eat something.

  TV was a bit of a rag bag last night, but I found stuff to watch until about 10pm, or maybe it was 11pm. I know that after I went to bed I was reading in bed until about midnight. I am currently reading Isaac Asimovs "The Martian Way". Some people, mostly English teachers, say Asimov is not a good writer because he writes too simply. To my mind hat makes him a good writer. Each sentence means what is says, and doesn't need a degree in English literature to explain it. It makes for easy reading, and the important facts seem to sink in easily because there is no distractions of weird writing like in, for instance, Shakespeare. How his turgid verse is judged to be a great example of literature escapes me.

  I generally slept well last night, although I did wake up several times to go for a pee, and at about 3am I seemed to have some annoying flatulence. That meant sitting on a cold toilet seat for 10 minutes to see if anything else would happen. I could hear some semi violent internal gurgles, but nothing else happened. I can almost remember some of a dream I had, but the only memory that remains now is a vague idea that it involved being in a pub.

  This morning I was depressed to see that I had put on a bit of weight - about 1.5kg, and that seems impossible in 24 hours. Since then I have had another medium size pee, and passed a bit of poo, but I don't think even that could reduce that to a 1kg gain. The annoying thing is that I know I did not eat that well yesterday, but I didn't think it was so extremely bad.

  My blood glucose was also high this morning, although not so high as to be unsafe. I got readings of 8.4, 8.8, and 8.0mmol/l. Once upon a time, before I started injecting Mounjaro, these readings were not exceptional, but now readings starting with sevens are more expected. On only one day this month, the 10th April, have I had higher readings. Maybe I should blame the liquorice allsorts that I probably ate in bigger than desirable quantities yesterday. I do have a lame excuse for it - I believe, with no real evidence for it than family hearsay, that liquorice has laxative properties, and it could be a cure for insufficient fibre in the diet. This morning I had no trouble "going", but then again, it seemed far less that expected.

  The main plan for today is to take a walk through the park to The Jolly Farmers for a few pints of Guinness. It should be nice and warm and sunny, and so I think it is a day for shorts. getting a bit of sun on my legs to give them a better colour would be a good thing - as it will be for my face and arms. I hope the beer does not cause any ankle or knee aches as I walk back home. Just lately it does seem that I have almost strengthened my walking muscles, and it can't be long before I tackle a 3 mile walk, but not today.