This morning we had our first real frost. The forecast predicted 0° C at 7am, but I think it was closer to 2° C. The frost I could see suggested it had been even colder during the hours of darkness. As I write this there is glorious sunshine. It is streaming through my window, and yet I still have the heater on full. This afternoon may see 7° C and full sunshine, but that is still going to be rather chilly. After sunset the temperature will fall to 0° C at midnight, and maybe -1° C at 2am, but by then the wind will be from the south, and the temperature may rise a bit.....although the forecast for tomorrow shows that by 6am tomorrow it will be back to -1° C, and stay there for the next few hours. By 9am it may be 0° C, and 3° C by 10am. After that full sunshine, and warmer winds from the south may warm the afternoon up to 9° C. That is still cold, but at least an improvement over today.

  Yesterday included some good things, and one bad thing - potentially very bad ! Oh well, I achieved several useful things - one of which was to go out and get some shopping. I also managed to have a fairly hot shower, but I didn't feel like washing my hair. I thought that might be pushing my luck too far.

  Getting the water flow right to get a good stable temperature for water from my shower didn't seem too hard, and it was very nice to have a hot, but not too hot shower. With hindsight it did seem stable enough to wash my hair, but maybe I'll do that today.

  Once I was clean, dried, and dressed, which I think was past midday, I set out to walk to Tesco. It was only about 7° C out, but I still wore my shorts. As my old postman said, you don't really feel the cold on your legs, and I didn't. I did wear my sleeveless denim jacket, and so I also had bare arms. It seemed odd, but I didn't really feel too cold - but maybe only as long as I kept moving.

  When I got to Tesco I got an unpleasant shock. I was waylaid by a member of staff asking me to use a "self scanner". I said no thanks. When asked why I said it was against my conscience to steal jobs from the staff. The well rehearsed girl said "but I am still here working and being paid". Evidently she should could not predict the simple future - a future where the aim of some high executive, who has possibly never been shopping in his life, is to remove all staff from the store to save money.

  I am not even sure how these self scanners work. I presume you scan the bar codes of all products you are buying, and then just walk out the store, and send Tesco a cheque when you get home. I mean, if Tesco want to run an honour scheme, that must be the ultimate step. Evidently the high executive has no idea of the amount of theft from stores, and that in some sections of society, the self service checkouts are called self stealing checkouts.
  I didn't get to see The Metro until much later in the afternoon, but it seem sensible to show it now while it is relevant to my experiences in Tesco. It seems one executive from Asda has visited his own stores. He made the brilliant deduction that not having staffed checkouts was putting people off shopping in Asda. he has ordered store managers to make sure that there are always staffed checkouts available at all times. If planned right it probably does not need to cost more in wages. At slack times the same staff can do other duties like shelf stacking. Maybe I know more about retail because I am a customer, and not someone who works in the business.

  In Tesco I made a beeline to where they keep the hot pepper sauces, and put a couple of bottles in my basket. I then went to the soups section, and grabbed about 5 cans of assorted soups. Next on my mental shopping list was a bottle of lime pickle and a bottle of aubergine pickle (both nice and spicy Indian pickles). The next two essential things were Diet Coke and bread rolls. After that I selected stuff that seemed nice as I passed it. Oh, and at almost the last moment I remembered that while it was not essential yesterday, or even today, a spare container of Anchor spreadable butter would be handy.

  Maybe it was because there was the silly woman at the entrance, asking shoppers to use a self scanner, that the checkouts seemed a bit busier. Although i was actually that the two open, and staffed checkouts, each had someone with the biggest trolleys, and each was filled so deeply filled that they were almost overflowing. I think some people have taken the government advice to keep several days stock of food at home, in case of some sort of emergency (possibly nuclear war) a little too seriously. I just had to be patient and wait until I reached the head of the queue. I can imagine that putting a fully trolley of stuff through a self checkout could take ages. A good member of staff at Aldi could get that through a staffed checkout out in about 2 minutes flat (although a Tesco girl might take double or more time).

  With 4 two litre bottles of Diet Coke, and five cans of soup, as part of my shopping, it meant I had quite a load to carry home, and it was not easy going. It didn't help that I had put on a pair of trainers that seemed unusually uncomfortable as I walked. I was about 2/3rds of the way home when my feet sort of felt sore enough to stop me walking in a straight line. I am unsure if that was the trigger, but I had something like a dizzy spell. That was not a good idea when I was carrying so much. If I had fallen over I could have damaged the "Spanish style" Paella I had bought. I stopped next to a walk I could lean against, or hold, if it was needed, and after a minute or two I felt OK again. I had no trouble walking the rest of the way home. It must have helped that I stopped trying to rush, and slowed to a more sedate pace.

  Usually I would tuck into some sandwiches when I got home, but I didn't buy any. Instead I made my own. I think I had had breakfast, but maybe I didn't. The couple of rolls I made were definitely lunch, and were to soak up some of the beer I would be drinking later. The silly thing is that I can't remember what I put in those rolls.......except.....it is coming back to me now.....it was cheese and Aubergine pickle !

  Ideally I would have liked a snooze after eating, but it was so late that I might have less than an hour to prepare for a beer tasting session with Jodie and Michael. Jodie confirmed she was on her way, but had elected to get the bus, and it was going very slowly. Michael gave his normal response when I sent him a reminder that we were drinking. He usually say he will "try and make it", and somehow he always does manage to make it. I think it was only a few weeks ago when he said he was sure he couldn't make it, but still arrived anyway.

  It was not a bad drinking session. Most of the beers were quite nice, although one was spoiled by a sort of metallic taste. Most of the beers, which I don't think was any more than 6 cans, came from the newly repaired little beer fridge. The new fan at the rear of the fridge seems to work well, and is silent (although the fan inside of fridge is a bit noisy). All the beer was well chilled. If all that fridge needs is fan replacement every 5 years, it could last a very long time !

  Jodie left to get the 7pm train back to Elmers End, and Michael left at about the same time. Before they left I put the Paella ready meal in the microwave, and I ate it as soon as they both had left. It was the second or third of those Paella's I have eaten, and they seem consistently nice, but not wonderful. Nice is good though, and it would seem that they are also fairly kind to my blood glucose and my weight.

  I missed half of Star Trek because we finished the beer session a bit later than usual. but I watch what was left as  ate.  I think I found an episode of The Simpsons on after that. That took me up to about 8.30pm. I had a quick flick around the internet, and then read for maybe 20 minutes, maybe long, but I kept to my own promise of an early night. I think I was in bed, and possibly asleep not long after 9pm.

  I slept for 2 or 3 hours before waking up for a pee. I made a point of trying to remember what I had been dreaming about, and two bits, but not entire dreams, seem to have stayed in my memory. The first was easy to remember because it was like my dream was a sort of movie version of what I had been reading earlier. It was about a pair of twins who had telepathic abilities - but only between each other. There were other twins found as well, but the book is about the one pair of twins. One would join a faster than light spaceship journey to investigate planets around other star systems, and the other would stay home. The novel makes the assumption that telepathy is instantaneous, and is not hampered by the speed of light - thus the two twins could send instant massages to each other if one remained at home, and the other was on the spaceship.

  I said the dream was like a movie version of the book, but maybe radio play might be closer. I don't recall any more than hearing the book, maybe with my own modifications and and stuff. I don't think I tried to guess what the twins, or other characters looked like.

  I can also remember one very short bit of another dream (it is possible I remember all there was to remember). In the dream I had picked a very large lump of earwax from one of my ears. It was not waxy, but more like wet clay. I could roll it between two fingers, and it didn't stick because it was wet, although it never left my fingers wet. It felt like there should be some good use for that ear wax if it could be duplicated in industrial quantities.....maybe.

  I woke up again a few hours after I had got back to sleep, and I did not feel good. It felt like that I might be having some sort of heart event, but it was very mild, although still annoying.  After a while I had a quick under-the-tongue spray of GTN spray. I'm not sure if it helped or not, but I did get back to sleep again. The next time I woke it was very obvious that it was very cold outside. I turned the heater up full blast, and pulled the duvet around me before trying for a bit more sleep.

  When I got up I went to the toilet, and had a nice pee, but what I thought was a need to poo was just wind, and not much of it. I think I will be having a poo sooner or later. I weighed myself and found I was not trying hard enough to be careful about what I ate - although a shopping to to Tesco, and beer in the evening, was probably too much to fight - however, I only seemed to gain 100gm, and that is not enough to get stressed about.

  My blood glucose was actually very good - better than yesterday, which was slightly high, and better than the previous couple of days. The average of all three meters was 7.23mmol/l, and I think I am quite pleased with that. Last night my blood pressure was a bit low, 88/59, and this morning it is still low, 97/69. I am not sure whether to be concerned about it or not. One way of looking at it is that my heart is not having to work so hard, and that may/could make it last longer (unlikely).

  As seems usual, I have no exact idea what I will be doing today. One thing I guess I have to do is to finish washing a couple of hand towels I started yesterday, and left soaking in Bio detergent. Once they are done I will be able to wash my hair and have a shower. Both are needed if I decide to go to see The Life Of Brian band tonight. I really would like to go, but I am very out of practice of going out in the evening, and on top of that it will be bloody cold tonight (probably around 2° C). I guess all I can do is to do what is needed to enable me going out, and then make a decision at the last minute as to whether I will, or not.