going to be another wet day, although the rain is not supposed to start until midday. It is a fairly cool morning, just 7 ° C, but the wet afternoon should see 12° C.  Tomorrow may start at 6° C, but there may be full sunshine for a few hours. The afternoon temperature should rise to 13° C, and possibly 14° C for one single hour, 5pm (or maybe part of it). It may stay dry until 9pm, and even after that only light rain or fine drizzle is predicted.

  Yesterday was a  good and a bland day, or maybe that should be bland day with some good bits. Ultimately it was, like many recently, and maybe not so recently, a bad day, but that will have to be explained further down the page.

  I don't know why I feel so reluctant to wash my hair and have a shower these days. I guess it is the long term result of too many lazy days because of stays in hospital, and days when I couldn't be as active as I would like. I was sort of reluctant to get started washing my hair, and having a shower yesterday, but once started I enjoyed it, and it felt wonderful to be clean and fragrant again.

  It seemed a bit late by the time I had dried myself, dried my hair, and got dressed. I had thought that I would probably go shopping, but it seemed too late by then. That is how it seemed to me, but in reality there would have been plenty of time. What there wasn't time for was a long lie down and snooze after I had done the usual clean up in the kitchen, plus washed and polished the beer glasses ready for another Thursday afternoon beer tastings session.

  What I didn't know when it might have been useful to know, was that Jodie was going to be a bit late again, and would arrive closer to 4pm than 3pm. I guess I could have had a short snooze. One other thing that happened, around the time I could have had a short snooze, was the delivery of another part of my recent order with Amazon. It was a small bag of liquorice root. It was small enough for the postman, who delivered it, to be pushed through the letter box.

  I was looking forward to the delivery a lot. It must be 40 to 50, and maybe more since I last chewed on some liquorice root. I really liked it, but it seemed to disappear from any shops that I frequented, although I guess health food shops might stock it. The stuff I remember when I was considerably longer seemed to be fairly thin, and long sticks. What arrived yesterday was short and thick sticks with a sort of dusty look. They originally came from Pakistan. I have no idea where the sticks came from that I used to like all those years ago, but these Pakistani sticks failed to excite me. With some chewing they did liberate a liquorice sort of taste - or at least the single one I tried did. I am not sure I like these, and I may investigate another type. I am sure I can recall seeing a picture on Amazon of long thing sticks. Maybe the next time I order something from Amazon I might try another "brand" of liquorice  stick.

  On the subject of Amazon, I think the last bit of my recent order, a second pair of cargo trousers by a different maker, and different design, may be delivered today. I hope they are more like what I really wanted - more pockets than the single patch pocket on one leg of the last pair. Incidentally, I still have not tested the last pair in actual use. I did test the fit, and while very slightly tight, they were still easy to do up and wear. Maybe I might take them for a walk today. Of course, now I have (or will soon have) two pairs of cargo trousers, the weather is bound to improve enough that I can resume wearing any of my several pairs of cargo shorts !

  Jodie felt the desire to go shopping in Lidl yesterday, and so she was late arriving here. Fortunately she did warn me, and I could tell Michael that she was going to be late, but would be hear. I am unsure why I need to remind Michael about a regular event. I don't think he forgets, but it is more the case that unless he gets an invite every single time he would think he was not invited. Jodie seems to understand the idea of an open invitation, and maybe Michael does as well, and I just don't have confidence that he understands it.
  I think it is a week or two since we were last visited by Cous Cous (or "Fluffycat" as I used to call him before finding his real name). He had a good time until he was too tired. He had a couple of treat sticks, and play with a new cat toy I bought for him in Savers. It is a small rattly ball on a sort of fluffy string attached to a plastic pole. He thought it great fun at first, but like all good things it started to get too much like hard work, He curled up in his box, and with one paw over the side, his eyes started to close. I never managed to get a snap of his eyes closed, but they are half closed in this picture, and he has that contented cat look.

  Cous Cous stayed in his box, sometimes seeming to doze off (but of course his ears were following every movement) while we did our beer tasting. It may be because most of the beers were of my choosing, but all seemed to be drinkable, and even the worst was still almost enjoyable. That may sound like we got through gallons, or at least that is what a Cardiologist would think, but in reality I don't think we got through more than 6 to 8 cans, and each can was split 3 ways so we could all taste the beer. I may have been closer to a 2 pint than a 3 pint session.

  For a while it looked like Cous Cous would be staying the night, but once Jodie left, and was followed by Michael 5 minutes later, Cous Cous jumped down from his box, had a good stretch, and headed for the back door. After carefully looking for rain, a predators or prey, he took a stroll in the garden. Once he did that I served up my dinner that had been cooking in the oven while we were drinking.

  Dinner was roasted "Mediterranean style" vegetables (the nice big ones that Aldi and Tesco [if you can find them] stock). I added some chunks of sweet potato, and in the last 5 minutes of cooking I sprinkled on some ready grated Cheddar cheese. It was obviously a vegetarian meal, but not vegan because I used real cheese ! It was very enjoyable, and theoretically very healthy. All that fibre should have been really good for my lower digestive system.

  Of course I spoiled the health aspect of it by having a slightly restrained amount of mint and chocolate ice cream for a dessert. On the other hand, there was still the positive effect that I felt satisfied with no feeling of bloat - although that would come later in the form of burping up the flavours of my dinner many hours later.

  After dinner I watched some TV, and then read in bed for a while. I think I turned the light out around 10pm, but it may have been an hour earlier or an hour later. I was not watching the clock once I turned the TV off. I can't recall any difficulty falling asleep, and I think I had some good sleep. I did have to get up a few times to pee, but it seemed to feel less than usual in both frequency and quantity.

  I do recall fragments of a couple of dreams from last night. One was very simple and probably quick because nothing really happened apart from realising what some features of the land were. In the dream I seemed to be out for a walk over a hill with a very pronounced outline. I soon realised it was like, and probably was, the top of a tunnel covered in grass. Quite why the tunnel should be so shallow that the top was so close to the surface that it changed the profile of the hill. One possibility came to mind. It might have been a wartime measure to hide the railway line by covering it over, although that would be a massive undertaking with little practical benefit. Another possibility is more realistic.

  Back in the day when railways were first being built, some very rich landowners had some weird ideas. Some were quite keen for the railways to pass close by, even if it meant crossing their land because it would be good for transporting their farm produce. Other rich landowners objected to the very sight of a railway, and so some were built in tunnels, or at least in a deep cutting, so they could not be seen. Maybe the railway tunnel (at least I assume it was a railway tunnel) in the dream was to hide it from a landowner and not from the German bombers during the war.

  Another dream may have been some smaller dreams that seemed to flow into each other. It was set in something like an industrial estate, similar to where my last employer was situated, although there was a sort of flavour of school about it too. The dream was all about plotting to go home for dinner at dinner time by sneaking out. As I say, it could have been a series of short dreams because it is hard to remember any plot of how I was going to sneak out, or even if I even tried. I may have woken up before the dream was complete.

  I had an unusually long lie in this morning. I woke up at about the usual time (although that itself is a "variable constant" - it changes from day to day). I went for a pee, and one the way back I updated the web pages with the BBC and Met Office forecasts, and then I went back to bed. I thought I would just lie there for a few minutes to....I don't know, maybe think about stuff, but I actually fell asleep again for at least an hour. I got up again, went for a pee, and again failed to have a poo. Evidently all the fibre in my dinner last night had not reached anywhere near the end by then.

  After I had checked my blood glucose (not good) I went back to bed again. I didn't expect to sleep, but I did. I expected to relax a bit so I would open my bowels (as the nurses say in hospital) when I next went to the toilet. That failed, but it did happen after I had eaten some breakfast - a single medium size packet of spicy instant noodles - by which time it was too late to record any change in weight.

  This morning, my official records (official to me) said that I had gained 100gm. Maybe if I had had that poo before breakfast, and had weighed myself after the poo, and a small pee I did, I might have found I had lost 100gm, and possibly 200gm (although most of that would have been pee because the poo was averagely average, and nothing notable).

  My blood glucose was very slightly higher than yesterday. It was not terrible, but still very undesirable - doubly or treble so considering I have to see the nurse this coming Monday. The average of all three meters was 8.83mmol/l against yesterday's 8.57mmol/l. I could only be happy if it was less than 8.0mmol/l. One the other hand, I would be very unhappy if it was at or over 9.0mmol/l.

  It is now past midday, and I still have to do a very important job before I can move on. Yesterday, after my shower, I put two small hand towels in to soak in Bio detergent, and they are still there this morning. Before I can do almost anything I have to finish that job. With that done I can have a shower, and with that done I could go shopping in Aldi. There is still no panic about it but I am down to one unopened 9 roll pack of toilet paper. If we had another Covid lockdown I would hate to have to panic buy toilet paper, and so I like to panic buy before the panic !! Of course there is other stuff it would be handy to have - stuff like food for dinner and stuff. Other than shopping, I have no idea what I will do, what I want to do, and what I might bother to do - if anything !

   Oh yes, I think my second pair of cargo trousers could be delivered today. They are reported to have reached Amazon's Dartford deport where deliveries depart from for deliveries around here. There is no notification they have left the depot yet, but their delivery drivers probably all have at least three jobs, and don't start delivering for Amazon until their morning, and sometimes afternoon jobs have finished. It is possible those trousers won't be delivered until 6pm tonight, and until then I will be on high alert. One the other hand, if I was out shopping in Aldi, the man from Aldi would probably dump the package behind the wheelie bins, and I could pick it up on my way back from Aldi !