There are some sunny spells now, but it seems they will not last long, and from 11am it will get sometimes dull, and sometimes very dull. It is also going to be rather cool. Just 13° C is forecast for the afternoon.At 5pm there is a 30% chance of rain, but the chances are it will be dry all day long. Tomorrow could see a few sunny spells, but there will probably be more spells of light rain (sometimes just drizzle). On the other hand, tomorrow could be warmer than today, although the afternoon may only reach 15° C. Friday and Saturday may be wet, but not as wet as forecast a few days ago.
  The BBC displaying it's fetish for thunderstorms - thunderstorms that very rarely actually happen on the day. Saturday and Sunday will feature rain, but at the moment it is forecast to be mostly drizzle on Saturday, and mostly intermittent light rain on Sunday, and definitely no thunderstorms !

  Yesterday started with the aftermath of the tachycardia attack I had in the night. By the morning it was starting to improve, and by the afternoon all was back to normal. Further research strongly suggested it was my "overdose" of liquorice that was the cause. It had left me dehydrated, and that, combined with the effects of the natural chemicals in Liquorice, was what caused my heart to beat far too fast.

  During the morning I did notice some slight dizzyness. I think I mentioned that bending over to adjust the fan heater caused some light headedness. In preparation for something like this I tend to think of astronauts on, for instance, the International Space Station, and having to learn to cope with weightlessness - and even enjoy it. My light heartedness was more a warning, but I still didn't allow it to overwhelm me, although I did adjust the fan heater and stand up again as fast as I could.

  I wondered how I would fare with washing my hair, and having a shower. I once have what I assumed to be an inner ear problem that had me falling to the bathroom floor when I was bending over the bath to wash my hair. Yesterday I was wary about it, but I washed my hair, and had a shower with no problems. That meant I was clean and fragrant, and could mingle with others without offending them. In practice it meant a shopping trip to Tesco.

  The walk was still a bit of an unknown, and I was aware that some dizzyness could be highly embarrassing, and that is why I went for the shorter walk to Tesco instead of to Aldi, which would have been my first choice. As it happened, a walk to Aldi would have been fine. The light exercise of walking seemed enough to get my circulation going, and improved everything.

  The other thing that caused the best improvement was (slowly) drinking almost a litre of chilled water. That definitely re-hydrated me. In a couple of ways my shopping trip was a failure. I forgot a few things, and made the (probable) tragic mistake of buying a tub of Walls ice cream. I have no supporting figures, but my impression is that Walls ice cream contains much more sugar, in various forms, including the innocent sounding corn syrup, which is one of the worst enemies of the diabetic, than Tesco (or Aldi) own brand ice cream.

  I felt quite good after my walk to and from Tesco, although some of that was a sense of relief that it was entirely without incident (except forgetting to buy some butter - as one "for instance".) I felt like I was quite hungry after the walk and fresh air, but I made sure I did not get too carried away. For instance I only had one of two pasta based "salads" I had bought. That and a home made ham roll were flushed down with a lot of the litre of chilled water I was drinking to re-hydrate myself.

  After breakfast it seemed like the prefect time to have another go at catching up with the sleep I had lost after being awake for a few hours in the night. I can't seem to remember how long I snoozed for, or even if I did snooze at all. I do definitely known that I read almost a whole short story (perhaps all of it) while laying on my bed.

  I must admit that I thought it was earlier in the afternoon when I checked my blood pressure, and pulse rate, and found it was all back to normal - or as normal I get. Maybe my blood pressure was a little lower than my doctors would like, but they seem to accept it without suggesting any changes to my medication. The pulse rate of 62 is very typical for me, and possibly very good.

  A bit later I dug out my other blood pressure meter, the one that uses a cuff on the arm, instead of going around the wrist. I thought it might be good to confirm the reading on the wrist mounted meter. The readings were not exactly the same, and I was not expecting them to be, but they were pretty close, and that is good enough.

  One small piece of diagnostic information shown on the blood pressure meter is the small heart symbol with an offset to the right shadow. That indicates some flutter from the heart. It was quite frequently seen before I had my new heart valve because the old valve was leaking. I think, or should I say I hope that it is just an artifact of my man made heart valve, and not showing another valve is faulty or something.

  In theory I should bring that flutter to the attention of a cardiologist, but liken the whole tachycardia thing, I am reluctant to do anything that could end in another boring few weeks in Hospital. I am barely over the last weeks I spent in hospital as I was heading for my heart valve replacement. I admit I was mostly comfortable in hospital, but the same could be said about being in prison (or maybe not !).

  I have already said that I forgot to buy butter in Tesco, but there were other things I forgot. I can't specify them because In would only know what they were if I had bought them. In simple terms they were either things liken ready meals, or ingredients to make things like dinner. It may have been because I was looking for stuff that would be good for me. For instance I did buy a bag of ready prepared "Mediterranean style" mixed vegetables for roasting, because they are sort of healthy. Of course the Walls ice cream was emphatically not healthy - as I was to discover this morning.

  I had a pretty lazy afternoon, but as dinner time approached I became busy....well sort of. My dinner would be roasted "Mediterranean style" vegetable that were only slightly spoiled/improved, with the addition of a generous shake of ready grated cheese over them. For dessert I had not only the terribly sugar laden Walls ice cream (admittedly rather delicious), but compounded the problem by having a big slice of Angel cake with it.

  My evening was the usual TV, and then to bed. I found I felt too tired to spend any time reading, and tried for sleep as soon as I was in bed, and had turned the light off. It seems I can't recall anything that would detract from the idea that I fell asleep quite quickly. I seemed to sleep well, and only woke up a few times to go for a pee. With the benefit of hindsight, I think I must be underestimating the amount of times I got up to pee, and maybe also the amount I peed.

  When I go to I went to the toilet, as is my, and probably most peoples standard routine. I had a pee, but didn't seem to be ready for a poo. I then weighed myself. It seems that since yesterday morning I have lost 400gm. That is not a lot, but the cumulative effect of more small amounts of weighloss against the small gains, means I am back to the same weight I was at the beginning of last month - or about 2kg less than my worst during April. I can't seem to remember how I managed to to put on 2kg when I was supposed to be losing up, but at least I am back, and can try and lose another 2kg, and ideally a lot more over the summer months. Well, that's the plan, but.......

  My blood glucose was appalling this morning. The culprit has to be the Walls ice cream, and secondly the cake I had with it. I had better reduce my portions of that ice creams a lot as I slowly use it up, and in future stick to Tesco or Aldi own brands (which seem to be lower in sugar than the big national brands - particularly if they have any ties to America [which I don't think Walls has....or has it ?]). The average of my blood glucose readings was 9.8mmol/l, or just under the red line. The Glucofix Sensor meter was actually over the red line with a reading of 10.1mmol/l).

  I dare not have breakfast this morning, although maybe I will have something light later in the morning. My single plan for today is to go for a walk in the park. It will probably not be a long walk, and probably just to The Jolly Farmers and back. I don't expect to see Ayse there (my favourite barmaid), but it would be wonderful to do so. Unless she is there In may just have a single pint of Guinness, and walk home again. I'll take a camera, but the chances are it will be dull out, and not a great light for photography. I may have to go and wait on Ladywell station to get some pictures of trains or something.