Yesterday was quite a good day, but one aspect of it made it not such a good day. That enigma will be explained during the course of my narrative for today. The particularly good, and sometimes bad thing was a shopping trip to Aldi.

  Yesterday got off to a fine start. I felt in the right mood, a sort of constructive mood, I guess, to wash my hair and have a shower in the morning. Being all clean and sparkling (?) made my walk to Aldi feel better in some way that I can't explain or understand, but it did !

  There were several things on my shopping list, but like any shopping trip to Aldi I mostly make it up as I go along. Two things I definitely felt I needed, and they were toilet paper and paper handkerchiefs.  I also definitely wanted some bottles of Diet Coke. Apart from those items my shopping lost was very vague. I thought I definitely wanted some of those lovely, ready to cook (although it is mostly reheat) BBQ spare ribs. I think they must have some narcotic in them, because after trying them just once, out of curiosity, I became hooked on them !

  When I think about it, my mostly imaginary shopping list had more on it than I realised. It definitely included some ice cream, and it included some sausages. There was a reason for the sausages, and it was for something to test the zero sugar Heinz tomato ketchup on. I didn't realise it until I saw them in the freezer, but I think I bought the fish fingers for the same reason.

  One thing I didn't buy was any booze, and it was only because I knew I would be buying enough other stuff to mean a couple of heavy bags, plus a heavy rucksack to carry home. I certainly bought enough as my till receipt would testify. I spent a lot more money than was ideal, but none of that food will be wasted. Apart from soft drinks, I didn't buy anything other than food. One reason I wanted to go to Aldi instead of Tesco was to see what they had in the famous centre aisle. Sadly they seemed to have nothing that I felt I could justify buying. I was hoping they might have some flip flops, but I guess we have to get through Easter before the summer stuff is put on the shelves.

  It was partly due to my new heart valve, and partly due to slowly getting the strength back into my legs, that lugging my heavy shopping home was painless. I Don't think it even slowed me down much. It was still good to get home and put the bags and my rucksack down. I didn't stop for a rest, or even a pee, and put most of the stuff I bought away in the fridge and cupboards. There were a few things I left out because they were to be my lunch (or was it late breakfast ?). It was definitely my first meal of the day because I skipped breakfast.

  The first meal was probably lunch, and my starter was a pack of fish sushi. I like that stuff, although I did find it hard to swallow some of the big lumps of rice. I am sure I had something with it, but I can't seem to remember what it was.....unless....It may have been a ready made (from Tesco) fruit salad with added ice cream. I definitely ate that, but I can't remember when.

  After lunch I had a lie down on my bed. I read for a while, but then put the book down and let my eyes close. I seem to think, even though I can't put any number on it, that I had quite a long snooze. I was fully in lazy mode by then, and I can't recall doing anything of note until 6pm approached. Then it was time for dinner, and watching the depressing BBC 6 O'clock News. (It was the news, and not the BBC that was depressing).

  My dinner was mostly cold mixed meat pizza. I guess it would have been nicer if I had heated it up, but it seemed OK cold. Maybe if it had been hot I would have eaten the whole 12" pizza, but I only ate half of it. I wish I knew the reason why I felt than half was enough this time so I could try and do it with other meals. I guess some of the reason was because I knew I was going to have a dessert of ice cream and I am sure I had some cake too.


  Some time in the day I opened a new packet of crisp that I could not help buying from Aldi (I expect most supermarkets will also be selling them). I was intrigued my the idea of cocoa flavoured crisps, and the chilli was another attraction. It was a big bag, and I still have over half left to enjoy later (probably some today). They definitely had a mild taste of cocoa (or chocolate).....maybe "delicate" is a better description than "mild". The same is true of the chilli. I could taste it, but could barely detect any heat from it.  They were nice as a one off, any I may buy another packet some day. I think I would just say they had to be tasted, and while pleasant, they were not addictive.

  My evening was the usual entertainment by TV. I don't think anything I watched was terribly exciting, although QI did have some good panelists on it. One thing I thought was odd was that QI was probably on after Have I Got News For You. Often it is the other way around. With QI on last I didn't realise it was very late, 11pm, when it ended. I lost little time getting to bed once it had finished.

  It was while watching TV that I seemed to drink a lot of chilled water. I think I must have guzzled almost a litre of it - not because I was thirsty, but because I love ice cold water. It would have an effect on my sleep - I woke up several times in the night. That is not that unusual, but they size of each pee in the night was, or seemed to be, very big. It was almost as if my blood glucose had gone very high.

   The first thing I checked when I got up was my weight. To my surprise it hadn't gone up, but neither had it gone down. It was exactly the same as the day before (although since weighing myself I have done a nice poo, and maybe that might have counted as about a 100gm loss, but I have had breakfast of instant noodles since then, and any weight now would be influenced by breakfast.

  My blood glucose was not, as I feared, very high. It was remarkably normal, and the three readings were unusually consistent. I got readings of 6.7, 6.8, and 7.9mmol/l. On second thoughts, that last reading says all three readinsg were not consistent, but two were, and so they were probably accurate. I regard any reading starting with a 6 to be very good, and even the 7.9 was pretty good even if it did skew the average. That average for all three was 7.13, and I have to admit it is higher than about half the averages so far this month, but it is less than the average averages of January and February - so it is an improvement.

   This morning I don't feel as good as I would hope. I seem to have a few aches and pains. My right arm, and particularly the elbow joint, but also my shoulder joint, seem to be a bit creaky and sometimes painful. I don't think it is bad enough to warrant any painkillers. I right leg is also complaining a bit - a bit like I have been walking too far. It is the muscles above the knee that seem to sometime hurt. Everything else seems OK.

  My plan for today is to walk through the park to the Jolly Farmers. If I manage to get out early enough, I might spend 20 minutes or so at Ladywell station to get a few train pictures, and also pick up copies of The Metro. Ideally I should jump on some trains because Jodie tells me she had used a train that had a slightly different interior recently. I believe it was probably a class 376 train. I think that have all had external refurbishment, and are now all in their new dark blue livery. Maybe now they are getting the promised internal refurbishment. Jodie says that some seats now have tables, That seems unlikely for what is supposed to be a high density commuter train, but maybe is the case.