This morning started with a weak sunny spell or two, but it looks like today could end up as wet as yesterday....although heavy rain is only forecast for 1pm today. Much of the day will be almost chilly, or definitely chilly for June. The afternoon may only reach 13° C, but the evening could see 16° C. Tomorrow is going to be a grey day, but it may stay dry, The afternoon temperature may reach 21° C, but that still seems low considering we are roughly a fortnight away from mis summers day !

  Once again there are engineers in the electricity sub station across the road, and so I am going to upload this unfinished in case we get a power failure. Like yesterday I will edit this out if the power doesn't go off.
 
  I am not sure why, but I am going to describe yesterday as a good day. I probably did do all I set out to do, and that was mostly to make sure I received all the parcels I was expecting. I have already written about the phone call from the Kings College Hospital cardiologist yesterday morning. It was a pleasant chat with a few suggestions made, but no demands to spend weeks in hospital again - although that may be a future possibility.

  I have already written about receiving my big box of Asian foods. Much of it was many packets of instant noodles, and they ended up providing for lunch and dinner too. I did have other stuff to make at least dinner more healthy than 100% noodles could manage.

  My longest wait was for a single item being delivered by Amazon. It was one of those rare occasions when Amazon provided a map showing the approximate location of the delivery van. When I first logged on it said "6 more stops before yours" (or words to that effect). The delivery van was already in the middle of Catford, and I did not expect to wait more than 30 minutes, but it was actually over an hour. I am unsure if it was all the traffic calming (aka driver enraging) features of the local roads,but the map showed the driver driving backwards and forwards, and even doing U-turns. I was almost amazed when he finally arrived to deliver my one small item. A new and possibly spare Oximeter (for measuring blood oxygenation and a few other things). It is possibly spare but it could become my main meter if Michael wants my existing Oximeter. He was curious about it when I showed him what it did last Thursday.

 

 One of the features of my new Oximeter is that it can connect to an app on my phone via Bluetooth. The one single useful thing about it is that it makes getting a screenshot of the results from the phone - as seen on the left.

  The instructions say something like ".....only if it is a bluetooth version of the Oximeter. I bought it as a Bluetooth version, but nowhere on the packaging did it mention it, and the one possible hint is a microscopic symbol on the Oximeter display. I need to examine it with a microscope (or magnifying glass) to see is it is a Bluetooth logo.

  Anyway, I downloaded the app, and it paired up with the Oximeter almost instantly (although it did want access for location data, which I had to give it, but it didn't seem to realise that I had GPS turned off).

  The results shown on my phone screen seemed good enough for me, but I didn't independently verify them. 97% blood oxygenation is very good, although I often score 98%, and can get it up to 100% with some careful breathing. Many doctors and nurses find it hard to believe that a once very heavy smoker can manage these high readings. The pulse rate of 75 bpm is a tiny bit high, but I was a bit excited about trying out a new toy.


   My big box of "Asian food" was delivered at just before 11am, and so it was here in time to form part of my lunch. I didn't really have anything available for lunch, except a cheese roll, and so I had either one or two packets of instant noodles. I think it may have been only one because two other things in the big box were a jar of Kimchi, and a packet of "crisps" made using sweet potato. I must admit I didn't think much of the kimchi - it didn't seem to have much in the way of spiciness when I ate it with some of sweet potato crisps.

  My dinner was definitely two packets of instant noodles.  I can't remember what flavours I chose, but they seemed nice enough, although maybe it was me, but they were not the strong flavours I was expecting. I was very aware that noodles alone lack many things to be called a healthy food. I made the meal a bit healthier by munching a medium sized punnet of strawberries. They should have increased the fibre content, and most probably had useful vitamins and minerals in them. I also ate some sugar free "fibre" biscuits. They did go well with the strawberries. Now I consider the big dessert I had I do wonder if I only had one packet of instant noodles instead of two.
  Almost forgot....while waiting for my Amazon delivery, the sky towards the east came over very, very dark. Meanwhile, over to the west, the sun, still 4 or 5 hours from setting, was shining through gaps in the cloud. It lit up the houses across the road, and they seemed to almost glow compared to the filthy thick black clouds behind the houses.  There had been some heavy rain a little while before I took this picture, and I was expecting a lightning bold to split those black clouds at any moment, but there was no thunderstorm.

  Back to dinner.....as usual I watched the news while eating. The news was followed by Star Trek: The New/Next Generation. That was followed by Star Trek: Voyager. It looked like a terrible episode (as so many of that series were) and I turned off the TV and started reading while laying on my bed. At 9pm I watched both QI and Have I Got News For You, and I think it was Have I Got News For You first.

  I then went to bed and read for 10 or 15 minutes. I was too tired to read more than that, and I think I was fast asleep 5 or 10 minutes after turning the light off. I don't think I slept well, but the only reason to think that is that I got up much later than usual. I can't recall peeing much in the night, but I am sure I got up at least twice. I do remember a few odd seconds of a couple of dreams I had.

  One dream was very vague. and about the only think I can remember was that I was in Croydon. I guess that means it was a nightmare ! The other dream could be described as "sound only". I can just remember a concept rather than any action, and I think I was mentioning it to more than one invisible people. The concept was that I had discovered/thought up/invented/ or something along those lines, a safer way to do......something. What that "something" was has now evaporated to the place where most dreams end up.

  I was not sure how my health would be this morning, but it turns out it is less than ideal, but far better than bad (or something like that). I have yet to have a poo, but my weight has dropped 500gm. That seems rather good considering I barely gave a thought to what I was eating, although I suppose I did give some thought to it. My blood glucose was not as good as the day before, but it was not too bad. I got readings of 8.4, 8.8, and 8.4mmol/l. The average of all three was 8.53mmol/l, and while that is not bad, it is the second highest average this month (the highest was a truly terrible 10.0mmol/l).

  My blood pressure is moderately OK, but nothing to shout about. It was 124/75 with a pulse rate of 71bpm. I think the pulse rate is slightly high considering I was relaxed (or thought I was) but it is not that bad. The systolic pressure of 75 is a bit higher than I would like, and maybe that is because I am currently not taking Amlodopine. That blood pressure control drug mostly controls the systolic pressure - at least I think it does. It came up in my telephone conversation/consultation with the cardiologist at Kings College Hospital yesterday. He wondered why I was not taking it, and I told him it was because on my discharge papers from King College it was omitted from the last of drugs I was taking, and my GP decided not to include it in my repeat prescriptions. The Cardiologist is sending a note to my GP to get it corrected, along with some suggestions about changing the doses of some of the drugs I am on. I hope the surgery takes notice of these things.

  My fair Diastolic pressure, after several mornings when it has been very high, is probably down to me not only increasing the dosage of Bisoprolol (officially sanctioned by the cardiologist), but splitting the dose between morning and evening. This morning it seems to have worked well.

  This morning I was going to go shopping in Aldi, but if nothing else, the weather says no - it may not be heavy rain, but it is definitely raining, and it looks to be the sort of rain that creeps up and silently soaks you ! My alternative plan is to have a snooze when I have finished writing this, and then I have a heap of washing up in the kitchen sink, and the work surfaces could do with a wipe down. On top of all that, the recycling bin needs emptying, and so does the overflow bag I have had to use !

  Later this afternoon I should be seeing Jodie, if she dares to come out in the rain, and probably Michael too for another beer tasting session. That reminds me, I must order more beer sometime soon. One other thing that should happen this afternoon is the delivery of the last part of my last Amazon order. It is a lens hood for the lens I recently bought from Ebay. It is coming all the way from Belgium, and thanks to the wonder of Brexit, the great freedom that never stops taking, it had to wait to get through customs - what a great improvement that was over the single EU free trade area - NOT !!!!!!!