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Tuesday 3rd November 2026

09:14 GMT

Yesterday started at 9° C, but by 7am it had dropped to 8° C. After a couple of hours it started to warm up a bit, and there were a few, very few, sunny spells until sunset. The afternoon reached 12° C, but the wind was from the north, and could feel a bit cool sometimes. After sun set the temperature slowly dropped to 9° C after 9pm. The forecast shows it as a completely dry day, but I got caught in some very light rain in the afternoon.

Another 8° C start to the day, but we now have sunshine, although it is often hazy sunshine. As I write this at 10am the sky is fairly cloudy, and as per the forecast we are losing the sunshine, The afternoon should still reach 12° C, but from 2pm we can expect rain for a few hours, with more possible from 9pm. Once again the temperature will drop to 8° C in the night. I guess we are doing well, because November often sees some frosts in the morning, but there is none forecast up until the last day of the advance forecast that ends on the 13th. The headline icon for tomorrow shows a grey cloud, but the full forecast shows a scattering of sunny spells. It may be dry tomorrow with an afternoon high of 11° C.

I can't bring myself to say that yesterday was a good day, although I suppose there were good bits later in the day. My day effectively started with a very tepid shower, and a pleasant walk to the hospital.

As I probably mentioned any time since just before the weekend, I had to go to the hospital Enterology (or Endoscopy) department to collect my "bowel preparation" plus some written instructions from Endoscopy reception. The sky looked threatening, and although I felt fine in shorts, I decided to wear my "best" leather jacket. It does seem to fit better now, and it felt quite comfortable, and even just about comfortable when zipped up. It was cool enough outside that I didn't feel too hot, but I can imagine I would still cook if I tried to wear it in a warm pub.

The top right hand of this photo shows there was some blue sky, but overall it was quite grey out. It is hard to believe the sun was behind me because you can't see any hint of it. Apart from being gloomy, it would have a bad effect on the photos I took.

I only took the one photo on my way to the hospital. I was in no great rush, and could have stopped for more, but I wanted to get the visit over and done with. I was only going there to collect a big padded envelope from reception, but I also spoke to a very nice nurse - very friendly and doing her best to be reassuring (and looking very attractive). She said she would be my nurse when I have an appointment there on Monday 9th November.

She may have been the nurse who was there when I had a gastroscopy (camera down the throat). She, if indeed it was her, said that I had done really well, and that some patient, who like me had had no sedation, try and pull the camera out. I endured it with no complaint except for a load of choking and gagging. Having endured it once I think I could do it again with no sedation provided the doctor was very quick. It is pretty horrible though.

It was good to get out of the place, clutching my package, and heading out into the park, and any photo opportunities that presented themselves. Some of the following pictures range from almost sharp to slightly fuzzy. Down by the river in particular, because it is shaded by trees on both sides, the light was quite dim, and the camera, which is mostly automatic, selected some very slow shutter speeds, and that can make slight hand shake into motion blur.

This picture of a squirrel doing a nice pose is not as sharp as I would like, and it is because of very light motion blur.

On the bridge that crosses the river by the basketball courts, and where I took the picture of the squirrel, can be seen a tree. There is only one tree like it in the whole of the park, and I can imagine it could have grown from a dumped Xmas tree that was dumped 30 to 40 years ago. The tree is very tall now, and I think it is a spruce tree. It has silvery needles, and at this time of year (at least I have never seem it at any other time) it has little shoots with what I assume are tiny flowers between the leaves. I should probably go back with a better camera with a bigger zoom lens on it to take a more detailed picture of this flowers (if indeed that is what they are).

This is another squirrel that posed for me on a tree stump. I think both squirrels were hoping I might feed them. I must buy a big bag of mixed nuts and see how friendly the squirrels want to be.

This was one picture that could have been so much better if I had taken one of my big cameras with a big lens on it. The Heron was part in shade, and my little pocket sized Fuji XP71 was at it's very limits to take even this poor picture. The main feature of the Fuji XP71 camera is that it is (or used to be when new) waterproof, and it even has a setting for taking pictures under water ! I have never had the opportunity to try it underwater, but In have used it in heavy rain, and I selected it yesterday because I expected it would rain - and it did.

It was in anticipation of the rain that I also wore my leather jacket. As noted above, it seems a better fit than when new thanks to some (but not a lot) weight loss. When the rain started I zipped it up, and did so without having to fight it. I could zip it up last winter, but it was tight enough to put pressure on my chest - something that can cause some pain that could be mistaken for heart problems. Yesterday I was comfortable even with it zipped up, although as already mentioned, if it had been warmer out I would have felt too hot.

I was tiring on the last bit of the walk home, and it was good to get home for a rest, but also for something to eat. I had gone out with no breakfast, and so I had an early afternoon breakfast of instant noodles. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are my last chances to eat what I want (within some sort of reason) before I start a 4 day low fibre diet in preparation for my (possible) Colonoscopy. For those 4 days I will only be eating plain cheese sandwiches (using white bread, and no pickles, tomato of onion), and I will be eating plain vanilla ice cream.

The previous couple of attempts at a Colonoscopy have failed because my blood pressure and heart rate were dangerously high. The last time I was ordered to report to A&E, and that ended with a week in hospital where nothing really happened except being attached to a heart monitor. The truth was actually told by the doctor at the Ambulatory Care Centre - "I can see from your home records that the only time you have normal blood pressure is when you keep well clear of hospitals" (or words to that effect).

I have a feeling that this next attempt will also fail, but this time I will just go straight home, have some lunch, and I'll probably be as right as rain by the evening. In the meantime I am on edge, and the only solace is that I can't be bothered to be careful about my diet until I have to go through the motions and start the 4 day low fibre diet. For instance, last night I treated myself to a lamb shish kebab with salad, takeaway (and I have a chicken shish for dinner today). Oddly enough, a shish kebab, being grilled meat with salad, is very healthy, and that fact is recorded in my blood glucose readings this morning.

Apart from "digitally developing" the pictures I took while in the park, the rest of my day can be quickly summed up as ordering my takeaway, eating watching TV and reading. I think I turned the light out at about 11pm, and at first I didn't think I would fall asleep, but 30 seconds later I was fast asleep. I woke in the night once or two to go for a pee, and sometime in the morning I had a dream. Some of the dream was sexy, and that seems unlikely when the main part of the dream was about repairing my small beer fridge. Incidently, I have ordered a new fan to repair the fridge. I have no idea what the power was for the failed fan. I expect it may have been mains powered. The new fan is low voltage DC (probably 12V) and I will have to use a modified power brick to power it. Another unknown is if I have ordered the right sized fan. It looks like a 5 inch fan, and that is what I think I have ordered. In another week or so I will find out.

This morning I felt similar to, but not exactly, constipated. On my second visit to the toilet I did pass something, even if I expected more. I then weighed myself and found I had lost a meagre 100gm. I guess I'll blame the chocolate ice cream that I decided to use up because I will only allow myself plain vanilla for my 4 day low fibre diet - prior to having a camera shoved up my bottom.

Yesterday I took my second to last shot from the current pen of Ozempic - the wonder drug that doesn't cause me any weight loss. On the other hand, it does help regulate my blood glucose. This morning my blood glucose was rather good, and almost unlikely considering I overdosed on chocolate ice cream yesterday. The average of all three readings was 7.63mmol/l. I haven't had a great reading like that since the first half of last month.

My plans for today include trying to wash my hair and having a shower. Low water pressure means it is hard to get stable warm water from my shower. The best seems to be tepid water which is not enjoyable at all. I will definitely need a good shower for next Monday morning when I go for my Colonoscopy, but I fear it will be another tepid shower. Once I have had the best shower I can manage I want to go to Tesco. I need plain bread rolls, some more butter, and some sliced cheese, plus plain vanilla ice cream (possibly two tubs because it will be a significant part of my diet until next Sunday). I think my plan for the rest of today is just to be as lazy as I want to be.

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