The forecast of 21° C this morning seems correct. If the rest of the forecast is correct we will see non stop sunshine, and an afternoon temperature of 32° C. That could feel quite hot and sweaty. There will be another hot night with the temperature staying over 20° C all night. Tomorrow may see a little less sunshine - the afternoon may only see sunny spells - but the afternoon temperature may still rise to 32° C. It seems we are having another heatwave that may only start to cool a bit in a weeks time.

  Yesterday was a very frustrating day. It seemed like the parcel I was waiting for might never be delivered despite Yodel's terrible website suggesting it was on it's way without really giving any details. On the other had, I did manage to lose a useful amount of weight, and my parcel did arrive before the day was over.

  I find I don't have a lot to say about yesterday. The major thing I did was just waiting for my parcel delivery. I filled in the time reading, and even dared to snooze on one occasion. I never did cook or otherwise prepare any proper meals, but essentially just had snacks when I felt too hungry. The hot day slightly lessened my desire for food, and if I had a good distraction I may have eaten less.


   It was 8.43pm when I got an email with the first estimate of a delivery time for my parcel. 9pm came and passed, but it was about 9.10pm when a car drew up outside, and the driver delivered mu parcel. The waiting was over, and I could relax for the night !




   After all that waiting I was quite disappointed with what was delivered. It was 2 pairs of of cheap (about £14 each) Chinese made shoes. Their plus point was that they were a wide fitting, and that does suit my feet rather well. In fact that was the main thing that made me want to buy them. The downside is they do not look that good. They do look like cheap supermarket shoes, and I am not sure they will last very long, but maybe these things can be part forgiven if, as I hope, they are comfortable. I will test them today.

  The long wait, and confusion about when the delivery would take place, put me right off Yodel, and if Aliexpress were going to use them in the future it would put me off using Aliexpress. I was thinking that maybe I had experienced the golden age of ordering direct from China, but than I thought that I was probably being silly. However, there was a couple of things I wanted to order even if I didn't really need them.

  They were a couple of Sony style Memory Sticks for my Sony camcorders. I don't really need them because I do very little videoing these days (I prefer my still cameras now I have a couple of excellent ones to choose from). Out of curiosity I checked out Amazon, and to me great surprise they offered free delivery. Now it is possible they saw all my web browser history, and could see that I had shifted allegiance to Aliexpress. That is why they offered free delivery without having to sign up for "Prime". I ordered two 16GB memory sticks from two different makers - both may have been dodgy, and so I was hedging my bets.

  It was noticeable how much the price has risen out of all control for memory products. I decided that I would also order two more sticks from China via Aliexpress. In theory they should fit through my letter box, and I would not even need to be in when they are finally delivered. I wonder if Aliexpress can beat Amazon's free delivery - estimated to be this coming Friday. I very much doubt they can, but we'll see.

  At this point I have to pause my writing. I have an appointment with the nurse at 9am, and it will soon by time to walk to the surgery. I'll see if I can pick up where I left off when I get back. In the meantime I have just put on my Chinese shoes. They seem comfortable to wear, but it could be different when I walk in them. I'll report of the shoes when I get back as well.

  I'm back now, and it was a very satisfactory experience. Unlike many doctors and nurses, the nurse I saw today really wants to help, and even better, to understand any problems. At my previous appointment I said that Mounjaro tended to cause some weight gain instead of weight loss, and that I wanted to try a bit of the old fashioned dieting for a month, and see where that got me.

  My spreadsheet showed that I have lost as much as 6kg in the last month, although there is so much up and down it is hard to pin it to an exact number. One the other hand, my break from Mounjaro showed I was relying far too much on it controlling my blood glucose level - which is currently dangerously high. I wondered if the nurse would suggest going on insulin, but instead she offered Ozempic - a drug very similar to Mounjaro, but with enough differences to make it well worth trying.

  To my surprise, when I went into the pharmacy I told them I had been prescribed it, and could they order it if that was needed. To my surprise they had it in stock. This morning I did my first injection, and then had some nice cold ice cream to give it a good test. I may have other "forbidden fruits" (which may well include actual fruits) and and see what the figures look like tomorrow morning.

  The report I promised about my new Chine shoes/trainers is that while not very picturesque, they did seem comfortable for the walk to the Group Practice and back. I may try a longer walk this afternoon, but I admit I do feel in a lazy mood right now, and once I have finished writing this I predict I will have a snooze before anything else.

  I'll quickly write off the rest of yesterday evening. I had watched a bit of TV, and watched a little bit more after my new shoes arrived at 9.10pm. With all the waiting over I felt I could finally relax, and I began to feel very tired. I think I watched a bit more TV before going to bed. I was in bed a bit early, and intended to read, but it was not long before I had put the book down, turned off the light, and was fast asleep.

  I probably woke up once or twice to pee, but I have no distinct memory of it. I do remember a bit of a dream. It was a dream that mixed real life with fantasy......although in the cold light of day I am not really sure what happened. In what I think was the dream I heard a couple of amorous foxes outside my bedroom window. They were making quite a racket. I thought I woke up and realised it was no dream, but now I am not sure. It could have been dream, it could have been real, or it could have been the two melded together.

  There was some good new this morning. After two fairly good poos I would seem to have lost 700gm in weight. What I ate yesterday did include some stuff with fibre in it, and that is supposed to keep you regular. I am not sure it always does, but it seemed to do it's job well this morning - so well that I felt like, and did do another small poo before walking to the Group Practice to see the nurse.

  The early morning news about my blood glucose was extremely bad. Two of my meters gave very bad (high) readings, and the third gave an all time high reading (although I think my first ever blood glucose reading, done in hospital when I walked in for some emergency treatment 15 to 20 years ago (I cannot remember the exact year, but I know it was while I was doing the middle of the three long term jobs I had before I retired). That reading, if I remember correctly, was about 14mmol/l. This morning the extra high reading was 12.3mmol/l - well over the red line. I just hope Ozempic controls this.

   This is my new Ozempic injector pen. It uses the same single use, screw on needles that the Mounjaro pen uses. I checked the one I have been using and they work fine, but this pen comes with 4 needles for the 4 doses it contains. It is one dose a week. It is so similar to the Mounjaro pen, but also different. The first time I used it, soon after getting back from the pharmacy, I did not use it correctly. After I remember the nurse saying count to ten to get the correct dose. The Mounjaro pen needs constant pressure to push the dose in, and it is done when the plunger hits an end stop. The new Ozempic pen seems to use a spring to slowly push the dose in, and you don't feel the hard end stop. I thought I had finished, but when I withdrew the needle there was a tiny spurt of the medicine. It was probably a lot less than a tenth of the full dose, but I'll know better next time.

  In theory I feel almost fully relaxed now. I've been to the nurse and pharmacy. I am not expecting any deliveries today, and I have even had sort of good news from Inpost (the company who amalgamated with Yodel). I gave a review where I complained about the tracking on their website, and how it kept pushing me to install an app on my phone. Inpost replied to my review, and it seems they took my complaint well. They replied "Thank you for your feedback! We understand that tracking updates can be crucial. Our mobile app does offer enhanced tracking, but we appreciate not everyone uses smartphones. We're working on improving our website tracking too."

  I have been thinking about going to The Jolly Farmers Today, but the idea is losing it's attraction. There is a slim chance that Ayse could be back at work now, and it would be lovely to see her. I even have a birthday present for her - her birthday is actually tomorrow - but I feel it is unlikely I would see her, and I am not sure I could get someone who knows her address to drop it off for her. I think I will have my snooze, and see how I feel when I wake up.