Yesterday was day when just two things elevated it to above bland, although much of the day was actually bland. Those two things were having a nice hot shower, and going shopping.

  Having a morning shower was all part of my rehabilitation since my long stay in hospital - the stay than ended when my new heart valve was fitted. At first it was recommended that I didn't have a bath, or to take a shower, mainly because of one very important dressing over the big incision at the top of my leg where the heart valve entered my body before being pushed up through a bit artery into my heart.

  It was very nice when I had my first, very careful shower. That should have meant that I would resume my morning showers, but it was winter, and at first I wasn't going out much because of the cold and wet, and because I was not ready to go out. The other thing was that I know most days I would not be getting any visitors, and it would not matter if I was smelly when on my own.

  That was the start of falling into a very bad habit that I am not trying to cure myself of. Yesterday I had a shower not because I needed one, but because I wanted one. Being clean and fragrant meant that I could go out shopping. My destination was the Pound Shop, and there was nothing there I really needed, but I hoped there would be one thing it would be handy to have.

  That something was Vanish stain removing liquid. The Pound shop is the only place I have seen it on the shelves. I know Aldi don't stock it, and I am fairly sure Tesco doesn't either. I am glad I had that shower, and went out. It did buy two bottles of Vanish plus a few other things. Those other things were a couple of packets of crisps, and a blue tooth connected speaker. The latter was £5, and that seemed cheap enough to take a chance on what was probably a very low quality item.

  The walk to and from The Pound Shop was not enjoyable. Too many days of being lazy had caused my ankles, and to a lesser extent, my knees to get stiff and sore. At least I had no other pains, but my ankles and knees (mostly ankles) were a stark reminder that I had been neglecting my exercise. One curious thought is that if I had gone to the Cardiac Rehabilitation classes I would have mostly exercise by stepping up and down onto a block. I can't remember how many times had to do that when I did go to a single class back in 2013, but I wonder is going up and down the stairs here, quite a few times in the day, might have matched that artificial exercise.

  One other thing I did was to put some chilli sausages in my mini oven while I went to The Pound Shop. The timer on my mini oven barely works now (I think it is clogged with grease), but I reasoned that a walk to and from The Pound Shop would take about the right time for the sausages to cook - and they were cooked perfectly when I got home. I used 4 of the 6 I had cooked to make two sausage in Paninni rolls. They were pleasant, but I thin ordinary pork sausages with some mustard would have been nicer.

  One of the first things I did when I got home was to have a look at the bluetooth speaker I had bought. I assumed it would work off 4 AA cells, but found it had a built in Lithium battery. That made it seem a little more elegant. I put it on charge, and quite a few hours later the charge light went out. It was time to test it. It paired easily with my PC, and the music I was playing switched from the usual (stereo) speakers to the Bluetooth (mono) speaker. The sound quality was not great because that speaker has almost no bass response, but at least it was not distorted. I now have a £5 toy waiting for some reason to use it.

  That speaker lead me on to other bluetooth stuff. I have two little bluetooth adapters that can be switched between transmit or receive audio. They are occasionally handy, although I admit I haven't used them for quite some time - and there lies a problem. If neglected for too long the built in rechargeable batteries can fail. The Bluetooth speaker reminded me that I ought to put them on charge. Happily they charged OK.

  I also have bluetooth stereo headphones. Once again that have not been used for a long time. It seemed to take an ages before they started to take a charge, but eventually they did fully charge, and I was able to test them. They have always seemed a bit troublesome pair with my PC (and other stuff) but once paired they work well. I probably should use them more often when listening to loud music in the middle of the night would seem desirable.

  Apart from charging and testing Bluetooth stuff I did very little in the afternoon. I did more reading, and I had a snooze or two. Eventually dinner time approached. I had a semi weird dinner while watching the BBC News at 6. The main course was a pack of BBQ and/or spicy chicken wings (eaten cold), two packets of crisps, and rather more ice cream than was ideal. Once I started the half, or less, eaten 500ml tub I just could not stop until it was all gone. I think I would have eaten only half of it if I was being disciplined.

  I then watched some assorted TV until about 10pm before getting into bed. I read for maybe half an hour before putting the book down, turning out the light, and falling asleep. I can't be sure, but I think I fell asleep very quickly. I woke up and went for a pee a few times in the night, I seemed to sleep quite soundly, and also dreamlessly (as far as I can remember). I seems to be an odd routine I now follow - getting up at 6am, or just before, doing a few things, and then going back to bed for an extra hour or two of sleep.

  When I really got up I had a pee, and a bit later a poo as well. Then I weighed myself. I seem to have put on 300gm since yesterday morning. That is mildly annoying, but apart from a few single day blips, my weight has been fairly constant for the last 3 weeks. It is not what I hope for, but I guess it is not so bad.

  My blood glucose is slightly up for the second day running, but is still good enough. Yesterday (which I forgot to report on) the average of all three meters was 7.0mmol/l. This morning it is 7.6mmol/l. It still starts with 7 and so is still classified as good (by my way of looking at it). The small rise could just be that today I am due my next Mounjaro injection, and unless I eat too much "naughty stuff" I will probably see a small drop tomorrow.

  Today is bright grey, and even that is not very inspiring, but I feel I have to force myself to go for a walk. It will probably be just in the park, but maybe I will consider something else when the time comes (or get distracted and not go out !). I still want to put some mileage on my Freedom Pass, and I can think of a few places on the rail network I would like to visit or revisit. Today I don't think I feel in the right mood for it, but you never know.
  If I could drive, and had a car, this is one road I would not be visiting. I saw this scene when I was going to The Pound Shop (it is almost opposite). The road is Honley Road, and it is very obvious it is impassible. I have never seen a road mending (or whatever) machine like this before. Where the men are working they seem to be dragging soil and/or gravel out onto quite a big pile that is just visible behind them. On the other side there are new yellow pipes and duct work. That means the work is to do with the gas network. I think there are several projects like this in the vicinity, and it is probably all about replacing old cast iron gas pipes. On my side of the main road it was work done years ago.