There is a lot of cloud as I write this, but among the cloud are some large islands of blue sky. When the sun can shine through the blue areas it is wonderfully sunny, but since I started writing the sun seems to have gone behind the cloud. The forecast optimistically shows lots of sunny spells until 2pm when there may be full sunshine for the rest of the day (except 7pm !). This afternoon should see 21° C - rather better than the current 14° C. Like yesterday, the temperature will have dropped a lot by midnight, but maybe only to 15° C, although it will continue to drop through the small hours of tomorrow. It should be a nice bright day tomorrow. The morning may start with full sunshine, but after 9am there may only be sunny spells until sunset. Tomorrow afternoon's temperature may only reach 20° C, but that is not too bad.

  Yesterday started with me feeling achey, and there was a hint that it might have been illness rather than the weather. I found that Paracetamol improved how I felt a lot. Like most days, some of it was good, and some bad. I can't really put a figure on it, but maybe it was half of one and half of the other.

  The aches and pains I started yesterday with were, in the grand scheme of things, generally mild. In one sense that was worse than definitely bad. It was enough to make me feel miserable, but not enough to give any hope that it would be bad enough to die......or at least say "this is definitely caused by something".

  I had quite a lazy morning, and all the resting seemed like it was good and bad - good to just lie on my bed reading, but bad in so much I felt sure that if I was sufficiently motivated I could get all the creases out of my body by doing stuff. I did eventually do "stuff", and maybe it did not help to free up my stiff and aching bits, it did give me some satisfaction. It was the finish the laundry I had left in soak since the day before. It was not a great amount - just 7 pairs of underpants and one t-shirt. It should have been easy, and it was until it wasn't. When it got to the final rinse I had a rest for maybe an hour before doing the fabric conditioner.

  Doing that laundry was not my only achievement. I also managed to regulate my eating quite well. I skipped breakfast, and my lunch was one deli roll with a cheese and kimchi filling. I must confess that my eating was regulated in part by not having many things that I might have eaten on top of what I did eat. I had intended to go to Aldi (or maybe Tesco) to top up the larder and freezer, but by the time I had finished the laundry it felt too late to have a shower and go out.

  I don't think I can claim that I did anything except the laundry in the afternoon......or actually, I did do a bit of washing up, but I didn't wash everything in the kitchen sink. I must admit that a lot of the afternoon is a blur. I know I spent some time reading, but how long that was is a mystery, and I only presume I had a snooze, or maybe even two. It was a totally unproductive afternoon, but somehow I didn't seem to care.

  My dinner was probably healthy. It certainly contained a lot of fibre. It was roast "Mediterranean style vegetables" topped with grated cheese and low sugar baked beans. It was nice than it sounds, and except for one thing, it seemed to be good for me. As seems very normal now, I spent the evening just watching TV.  Despite doing so little, and probably having a snooze or two in the afternoon, I was feeling very tired by 11pm when I went to bed.

  Initially I just laid on my bed with the duvet left on the side. I read for a while, and the next thing I knew was that I was waking up. I had put the book down beside myself, and hadn't bothered to pull the duvet over myself. If I had pulled the duvet over it would also have been over the book, and I would have found myself sleeping with a fairly big book. I have no recollection of putting the book down, and no recollection of feeling the need for sleep so strongly.

  After placing the book by my bed, turning out the light, and pulling the duvet over myself, it seems I must have fallen asleep almost instantly. I remember nothing of going to sleep, and almost nothing about the night. It seems like I slept really solidly. It was maybe another hint that I might be suffering from some sort of illness. This morning I do seem to ache a bit less, but I seem to be getting a tickly throat that is making me cough now and then. It could possibly be a touch of Covid coming back to haunt me.

  This morning I was quite disappointed that after all the fibre in my dinner, I have yet had a poo, or to a limited extent, felt the need for one, although I have done a lot of farting. A good poo would be good because it might have helped shift a bit of weight. This morning my weight is the same as yesterday - which is good on one level, but losing even 100gm would be more in line with my intentions.

 One of those oddities in life is how my weight and blood glucose often change in opposite directions. Until I had a second pee, it initially looked like I had gained a tiny bit of weight. Meanwhile, my blood glucose readings were the best I have seen in ages. I got readings of 7.6, 7.4 and 7.4. My self set target is 7.5mmol/l, and with two readings just under, and the third reading just over, it was all very satisfactory.

  This morning I am not sure how I feel.....although maybe I am starting to feel that a big poo is on the way. Other than that, and the tickly throat I mention a few paragraphs ago, I seem to feel something closer to normal - not that normal has been very good for years now. One of the useful things is that I now feel that some of the chest pains I have suffered from in the last few days have just been extensions of the other aches - muscular and skeletal pains, and those are greatly subdued with some Paracetamol. Heart pains aren't !
  One thing that might help me go out tonight was the realisation that at 9.30pm last night, it was still almost bright enough to be called daylight. I took this picture just after 9.30pm, and while the contrast between the sky and the houses is very strong, the sky still looks bright, and the red tinged clouds promised a fine day today.
  One thing I couldn't capture was the amount of red tinged contrails in the sky last night. Had I had a clear view of the sky in most, or better still, all directions, I might have got some great pictures of all the contrails. It seemed like every plane in the sky was crossing Catford last night.

  The most significant thing that these picture show is that it was still light so late last night. The theory is that tonight I should feel less like it is time for bed at 9pm (although TV always seems to keep me up until about 11pm these days). If I can fixate on the idea that I should not be mentally preparing for bed as early as 7pm (sometimes) I should be OK to go out to a gig tonight.

  Chain are playing in The Partridge in Bromley. A plus point is that it is an easy, although very boring, bus ride, and with the bus stopping very close to the pub - just 2 or 3 minutes walk. The bad point is that The Partridge is usually so dimly lit that I would need my flash gun to take pictures. Another bad point is that it gets stupidly busy in there. I really need to try and endure the bus ride and the crowds, and try and get some good pictures of the band. I sort of regard it as my audition to earn my usual back stage pass at Petts Wood Calling in August. Not only that, but I want to see how well my Canon 600D camera works with the new lens I bought for it. It is a lighter camera than my big Nikon, and that is a plus point for a crowded pub.