08:34 GMT

  This morning has started off pretty unpleasant. It is now 9° C, and at least that is better than the forecast predicts for all hours except 9pm. Unfortunately my weather station predicts rain, and that tallies with both the forecast and reality. Maybe we will get some sunny spells at 2pm (but I won't hold my breath). After sunset the temperature drops (of course) and by midnight it may be down to 4° C, and keep falling. Tomorrow morning may start at just 1° C, but some sunny spells may raise the temperature to 9° C by 1pm. The trouble is that it won't be the sunshine but another incursion of warm and wet air. Tomorrow afternoon and evening could be very wet.

  Yesterday's main feature was waiting for a parcel delivery. It didn't arrive until approximately 7.40pm, and that was rather annoying, but not as annoying as waiting half the day before the Evri website was able to start giving some estimated times of delivery. The courier didn't leave the depot until just after 2:30pm - she must have had a very good lie in yesterday !

  One thing I knew I would not do yesterday was to go to the pub at lunchtime for my usual Wednesday lunchtime Guinness. It was because Ayse, my favourite barmaid, was on holiday, and the possible substitutes are not nearly as nice and entertaining. Not going out meant I had less reason for showering, and that was handy because I had left a load of laundry soaking in a big bucket of detergent.

  Finishing that laundry should have been a priority, and I did my best to raise the enthusiasm to make it so. It was probably early afternoon when I did raise the enthusiasm, and I hung it up to dry before resuming being very lazy. I had spent much of the time before that checking the Evri web site, laying on my bed reading, but not allowing myself to snooze - just in case. I had a bizarre feeling that maybe the courier would be on the road without telling the web site, and could arrive with my parcel with no advance warning. Such an idea was silly, but it still persisted.

  I think it was probably around 1pm when I stopped for lunch. I had an idea that seemed to work OK. The day before, or the day before that, I mentioned that the baguette I had bought for Patricia was getting dry and stale. I knew it could be revived by heating, and so I cut the last of it into two more useful sized pieces. I then split it and stuffed it with cheese and sliced pickled jalapeños before microwaving it for 2 or 3 minutes - enough time to get the cheese soft and runny, and the bread to go from hard back to soft.

  It worked quite well, and it might almost have been slightly healthy - although only in terms of blood glucose, and not weight. After eating I allowed at least an hour, maybe two, for the food to "go down", before getting back to the laundry in the bucket in the bath. When I finally hung that up to dry I was very tempted to have a snooze, and I almost did because it was not long after that when I found the first, and inaccurate, estimate of the delivery time of my parcel.

  The next thing to interrupt my reading, and other forms of being lazy, was dinner time - dinner part 1 ! I had enough time before the 6 O'clock News started to microwave one of the curry ready meals I had bought to eat with Patricia if she had visited as originally predicted last Friday. I had a Lamb Rogan Ghosh, and it was not very nice, or at least not as nice as I am sure previous ones had been. Maybe they had exchanged some ancient scraggy old bit of mutton for nice fresh lamb.

  After dinner, and the 6 O'clock News it was getting close to the earliest estimated time for my parcel delivery. I still had what seemed like quite a wait, but at about 7.40pm, later than estimated, my parcel finally arrived.
  It was a big box of instant noodles - all from the Indomie brand (an Indonesian company). There were 40 packets of mixed flavours for £19.99 - equivalent to 50p a packet (approx), and that is pretty good. The only bad thing about this make is they do two versions of my favourite Mi Goreng. The difference is the colour of the writing. One has "Mi Goreng" written in yellow, and the other in white. The white is best because that includes a little packet of crispy fried onion bits, and somehow they seem to make a huge difference.

  One very minor irritation yesterday was that it seemed there was a disproportionate amount of Beef Rendang flavour noodles. This morning I realised that was not the case - I had overlooked a lot of packets at the very bottom of the box. I made a start on using up the Beef Rendang soon after the box arrived. I was also very curious as to how it would taste. I made up a double helping in one bowl, and had that as a sort of dessert as part of my dinner.

  I now know that Beef Rendang is most probably ginger and garlic flavour - at least that is what my taste buds tell me. I much prefer ginger in biscuits, but it was not unpleasant in instant noodles, although I won't go out of my way to buy more (of course if I buy another box of 40 packets, which I may well do in the not too distant future, I will have accept that I will get more or them).

  As seems ritual now, I spent the rest of my evening watching TV - the usual stuff, Star Treks etc.  While doing so I did have more ginger in the form of ginger biscuits (in ring form). They seem a nice way of eating ginger. I did end up eating more than was ideal. It was because the first 4 or maybe 5 biscuits were very soft instead of being crisp. I don't think I expected my will power to hold out for so long, and not scoffing the whole packet in just a couple of days. I found I had the perfect, albeit stupid, excuse to finish off the packet before the rest became soft.

  In theory I was all set up for a great night's sleep, but that didn't happen. It was one of those nights where your brain just will not shut up. It all started when I was thinking about my next upcoming meeting with a doctor. Once upon a time I was in a big workshop repairing TVs. Among the banter that can take place in such workshops was the idea that our trade was not so different to that of a doctor.

  I suppose it was a bit tongue in cheek, but we would argue our job was harder for one particular reason. Both the body and a big TV are similar in complexity, and we had to use test equipment and training/experience to diagnose a fault. Like a doctor, we would ideally diagnose it down to one single faulty component. When that was not possible we could resort to transplant surgery.

  There were two important differences between us and doctors. Doctors only have to learn one model - the human body has not changed in the last million years, but TV manufacturers seem to bring out new models every 6 months - and some times the differences between models were huge. Where we really scored over doctors was that we would very frequently resurrect the dead !

  That train of thought lead me on to another. It was from my next (and last) job. I worked with some very clever people in the development workshop. They all had degrees, and the senior development engineer had a doctorate and could be addressed as "doctor". One curious fact is that most knew very little about video signal circuitry, and why it had to have some special characteristics. They would often consult me about this and also other analogue circuits.

  One topic of conversation was about electricians. These days you can't do, for instance, house electrics without having passed a test. I was working with some incredibly intelligent people, and they, and me, were educated enough to tell an electrician why he had to do the stuff laid down in the rule book, stuff that he didn't understand the reasons for it, but we were not allowed to do any mains electric wiring and stuff.

  It was probably gone 1am, maybe 3 hours after going to bed that I finally fell asleep. That was sort of annoying, but at least the rest of my sleep seemed OK. I even had a very rude dream that was enjoyable, but which I will not try and describe. I think I woke up for a pee a couple of times, but maybe after getting to sleep so late they did not feature very highly in my memories.

  I eventually got up about an hour later than usual, and tried to keep focussed on getting up, and not be distracted by other things. As usual, the first thing was to go to the toilet, and then weigh myself. I did no like what I saw. Fortunately, after checking my blood glucose, and counting out my pills and vitamins for the day, I went for another visit to the toilet, and after that I found my weight was exactly the same as the day before, and also the day before that. It is far too high, but at least it is consistent.

  I don't think my high weight is completely the result of what I am eating. It may just be useful scapegoat, but I feel that some of the blame continues to be the Mounjaro injections I have. It is a two edged sword. It continues to control my blood glucose so well, but maybe even that make me feel like eating - which is not necessarily the same as actual hunger. This morning I was simplify things by saying none of my blood glucose readings were as low as to get very coveted "fives" but all three readings were "sixes". The average of all three was 6.37mmol/l, and that is less than the average for the whole of November, and indeed any other month this year.

  As usual, I am not sure how I feel this morning. I am tempted to say not very good, but the main evidence for that is my blood pressure meter saying my blood pressure is "High Normal". That is probably because I need a pee.....which I have now had (it was more than expected). My blood pressure is now normal. I no longer need to pee, and yet I feel no better, or worse, than any morning when I decided I don't feel all that good.

  One reason for not feeling good is what I see when I look out the window. It is grey and damp, and while I can't see it, I think there may be some fine drizzle in the air. My thermometers tell me it is an awful lot colder outside than my warm room. Today, or at least this end of the day, is not a day to go out. To make matters worse, or maybe briefly better, the two hours of sunny spells in the afternoon has now been changed to more rain, but 3pm has mysteriously changed to an hour of full sunshine, but with the sun being on the horizon by then it will bring little cheer.

  There is a microscopic chance I might go out late in the afternoon. There are early evening gigs. Most seem to start at 5pm - a nice sort of time) in the winter gardens of Beckenham Place Park. There are a couple I am curious to see, the first being on Friday. I have no idea if anyone is playing there tonight, but I am thinking it might be useful to check out the travelling (either by 54 bus, or a train 2 stops from Catford station), and to find out where these Winter Gardens are. I think I can guess where to start looking. I suppose it would probably be better to explore in daylight, but I guess I won't be bothered to go there at any time until spring is well under way. I am starting to think I am going to have another very lazy day, doing nothing and going nowhere. Actually there is one thing I may well do - beer drinking. Jodie is at another gig this evening, and won't be joining me, but I expect Michael will drop in for a good moan if I invite him !








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