07:47 GMT

  If the sun was a bit higher in the sky it would be sunny as I write this. The forecast says it should be sunny, and the sky seems just about clear. That clear sky means that it is below zero at the moment, and it was still dropping a little while ago, but I think it has stopped falling now. The worst of my thermometers shows -1.3° C (yes, minus !). I can see bright sunshine on the top of the flats on the other side of the railway, and soon we should see sunshine on the road outside, but it may only last until 10am. After that there should be sunny spells until sunset. This afternoon's high will be just 4° C. After sunset it will only drop to 3° C, and will stay there until it drops to 2° C in the early hours of tomorrow. There could be a lot more sunshine tomorrow, but the afternoon may only warm up to a chilly 5° C.
 
  Yesterday was another day that was good and bad. Maybe it should be described as more bad than good on account of the cold. It could be said there was only really one bad thing, and even that turned out to be not so bad - apart from the cold and very windy weather.

  It seems it has become a habit to leave a fan heater, on it's lowest setting, running outside the bathroom for long periods. It is an expensive thing to do, but that is the price of having a shower and washing my hair in a warm bathroom (and it was only just warm, and very far from hot).

  Yesterday morning was one of those times when it seemed like everything was in slow motion, and I would be late getting to the pharmacy, and late getting to the pub. In fact it was not how it felt, and I was not late for either thing, and maybe even a bit early. Once I was dry, including my freshly washed hair, I got dressed, and put on my blue, well padded, and hooded winter coat, and stepped out into the icy weather.

  My first port of call was the pharmacy where they had promised they would have my next Mounjaro injector pen by midday. The fact they didn't have it was of no consequence, except wasted journeys, because the current one still should have one more injection in it, and even if it didn't, my next injection is not until next Monday. The nice lady in the pharmacy, whose name may be Winifred (but that could be the other lady), said she would ring me when it arrived to save another wasted walk.
  I decided it would be faster to walk along the main road from the Pharmacy to The Jolly Farmers. If I had more time, and it was weather I could enjoy, I would have walked through the park. Along the main road I came across this scene of hundreds of pigeons (well, a lot of them). I guess someone had been feeding them earlier, but it still seemed like a scene from the Hitchcock film "The Birds".

  Before I got to the pub I popped into The Hospital to pick up a couple of copies of The Metro (one for me, and one for Ayse). The time is flexible these days since I no longer meet Angela in The Jolly Farmers, but I still aim to get there for 1pm. Instead of being late, as I thought I would be, I was more like half an hour early (and possibly more). That could have been dangerous for one simple reason.

  I had a message from Kevin quite early in the morning (about 5.30am !). He said he might join me in the pub, and so getting there early would mean drinking at least an extra pint, and on top of that we may well have left very late in the afternoon after many more pits of Guinness. Kevin didn't turn up - which was 90% a shame, but 10% relief. After I had drunk 2 pints of Guinness, and failed to make much headway on either of the crosswords in The Metro, I decided to walk home through the park.
  It seemed to feel even colder after leaving the pub. There were many dark, and I can imagine snow filled clouds to be seen, and on top of that it seemed like the wind had picked up a lot. The wind was main reason it was feeling extra cold. It helped to put my hood up, although that didn't help when I could just hear my own phone ringing. It was the lady from the pharmacy to say my Mounjaro had arrived. I had to make a detour to go and collect it. If I hadn't been almost heading in the right direction I may have left it to today.




  That detour increased the length of my walk home to just over a mile, but I did manage to keep up an average speed of 2 mph. It was actually handy to stop at the pharmacy for 5 minutes or so to get my breath back. I had been pushing myself a bit harder than needed, and sucking in the icy air was giving me a lot of heart pains (I think it is a variant on Angina).

  The booze, and the walking, and the cold all conspired together to make me feel ravenous. Getting home was very nice, but getting home to eat was fantastic.....or maybe it wasn't because my appetite was running out of control by then.

  I didn't have anything like a formal lunch once I got home. It was more a case of raiding the larder for anything that could be scoffed with little, or no preparation. It certainly included a couple of Aldi's version of Pepperami sticks, and some baked waffle shaped crisps. I think I had a chunk of Angel cake too.

  The obvious thing would have been to have some hot food, and I could have had a can or two of soup. It would have been healthier too. I don't really know why I didn't have soup.

  After eating I wanted to have a lie down, and probably a snooze, but I had some pictures I had taken, and wanted to get them transferred to my PC, and then edited to show here.





   Another picture taken on my walk to the pharmacy on my way home. I saw one of these parking spaces for electric hire bikes and scooters nearer the pharmacy earlier on. This was the second I saw. On the face of it it looks to be a good idea, but in practice the yobs, and others who ride Lime bikes (and others) will probably still just throw down the bike onto the pavement once they have finished with it.

  It was getting late by the time I had finished eating, and finished with the photos, but I still had time for a much wanted lie down. Once again I have no idea if I had a snooze, or not. I definitely closed my eyes for a short period of time, and possibly had a 5 minute nap. All too soon it seemed like time to get my dinner ready to watch while watching the BBC news.
  It was probably before I even tried to snooze, at just after 4pm that I took this picture through my bedroom window. That red sky confirmed the advance weather forecast that said this morning would be cold, but sunny. (Red sky at night, shepherds delight !).
  It was just after 8pm that I took this night time picture that confirmed that last night was going to be a very cold night. The picture has not come out as well as hoped, but it shows some splodges of white cloud with a whole lot of empty sky (or at least that is what it is supposed to be showing). The sky should actually look a lot darker. That lack of clouds let the last of the warmth out (not that there was much to start with), and allowed the temperature to sink into minus figures this morning.

  One other thing of significance yesterday evening was a message from Jodie. Her original plan was to to go out tonight to see a gig in Canterbury being played by her friend (and mine) band - The Flame Pilots. She and Alan were both going to go, and Jodie was not coming here for the Thursday beer tasting. They decided it was going to be a far too cold night to go walking around in Canterbury, and so Jodie will be coming here later today to sample some of the beers from my latest, and recently delivered beers.

  Last night I watched some of the usual TV programmes I watch, and at 11pm I went to bed. I didn't bother trying to set the thermostat on the fan heater last night, and I left it running all night. This morning it was only just comfortable. I did the same for the fan heater (once again turned down to 1kw = I bar), and left that blowing through the door into the bathroom. It made going for a pee in the middle of the night far less painful. Going from a warm room into intense cold can cause angina like pains - it probably is angina and is caused by the arteries shrinking to avoid heat loss from the body.

  I watched TV until 11pm again, and then jumped straight into bed. For some reason I thought it might have taken some time to relax, and fall asleep, but I think it probably happened almost instantly.  I woke up several time in the night to go for a pee in the almost warm bathroom. I am sure I had some sort of dream, but I can't seem to recall any details about it. It is possible I got more sleep than I needed.

  I woke up at about 5.30am, and it seemed like I could get up. I fought that, and did get a little more sleep. It was obviously a sham because I feel a strong desire to go back to bed as I write this several hours later. I should have plenty of time for a lie down, and snooze once I have finished writing this, Now that the sun has risen, and will soon be shining through my bedroom windows, it should get nice and warm in my bedroom - hopefully.

  Despite what felt like a feeding frenzy yesterday, My weight is not too bad this morning. I had a fair sized pee, and quite small poo when I got up. I later went back to the toilet for another small pee. After that I weighed myself again, and I have only put on 400gm. That is not ideal, but is less than I feared. Since than I have had another poo and pee, but I have also eaten breakfast and so I can't record what I might weigh now.

  My blood glucose is slightly less than yesterday, but is not too far off the average of the previous days of this month. No reading is particularly good. The Contour meter read 7.9mmol/l. That is fairly good, but lower would definitely be nicer. The GlucoRX meter read 6.9mmol/l, and that is good. The GlucoFix meter read 7.8mmol/l - slightly less than the Contour meter, and so good, but still a bit disappointing.

  My blood pressure is pretty good this morning. It is 117/52. Maybe that is a little low, but it seemed good enough to me. For all these OK or better readings of everything I can read, I should feel wonderful, but as mentioned a few paragraphs ago, I feel like a long snooze. I also feel sort of "not good" but I can't put my finger on one single thing and say this is bad. Actually this is not that different to most mornings.

  Also as mentioned a few more paragraphs up the page, Jodie should be over for our Thursday afternoon beer tasting session. She has read the list of beers in my recent delivery, and I think she said there was only one that she did not recognise. One day she will come around to the common way of thinking that if something is nice it is worth having again many times. Sometimes......maybe on reflection, all times, Jodie does not like a beer unless she has never had it before.

  I think most of the preparation for this afternoon is just to do the usual - clearing a pile of washing up from the kitchen sink. I think other stuff will just have to stay as it is. I have no desire to get the hoover out this morning - even if some floors need it ! I will endeavour to get myself clean and fragrant before Jodie, and probably Michael, and possibly even Alan, join me in some beers later.








   2,263 words today.