08:48 GMT

  The good think about the clear sky is that this morning is very sunny. The bad thing is that the temperature dropped low enough for a frost, although by about 7am it was 3° C. The sunshine should continue until 3pm when the sun is starting to set (official time 3:56pm). The sunshine seems to carry little heat, and this afternoon may only see a high of 8° C. At sunset the temperature will start to fall, but a few hours later it will start to rise again. by 1am tomorrow morning it may be 8° C. At 2am it may start to rain. It may rain all day tomorrow, but it may mostly be light rain. The rain will be caused by warm and wet air, and by 2pm tomorrow the temperature could reach 12° C.

  Yesterday could easily be described as a very bad day, although mostly it was just annoying. There was one very special thing I wanted to do, and I was unable to do it...or maybe it would have been not a good idea to do it. It left me cheesed off for the rest of the day, and that had other consequences.

  It had been my intention of going to Petts Wood where they had the Xmas carnival, and the turning on the Xmas lights celebration. That was of no interest, but the live music stage was of interest. There was one known band, and a couple of others that looked interesting, and others very much less so. The stage has always been well lit, and that makes for good photography. Pictures I have seen of yesterday showed an inflatable stage, and maybe that was less good, but I may still have been able to take some semi professional looking photos - had I gone !

  The rain, some of which was quite heavy, would have meant a soaking just walking to the station to get a train. That was off putting enough, but I intended to brave it - unless other negative factors made me decide otherwise. There was one negative factor that might have stopped me even if it was warm and sunny outside. There was also a sort of negative bias that tipped the balance.

  The negative bias was my faulty heart valve. It makes things a lot harder to do, and seems to sap my energy. If I had tried to rush to the station, to reduce my exposure to the rain, I would have probably ended up with angina-like pains. That heart valve problem is a bit variable, and it is hard to predict exactly what will happen beyond a lack of energy. I had originally hoped to try and ignore it, or at least see how it went.

  The other main negative factor was the side effects (or maybe intended effects) of my Mounjaro injections. I have mentioned before how they way they are supposed to cause weight loss is by making you feel full, and they do that by slowing to emptying of the stomach and  the bowels. In terms of inducing me to eat less their effect is negligible. Other feelings are less negligible.

  In one respect the more annoying thing is that the slow emptying of the stomach can cause wind and burping. Sometimes the burps can smell bad, and in company that is very bad. That didn't happen yesterday, but those burps can also cause acid indigestion. That is very annoying at night, but would have not been too much bother during the day yesterday, and very little bother while travelling.

 It is the other end that can make travelling tricky. The slow emptying of the bowels can feel like a cross between constipation, and something else. That was a big problem yesterday. I had actually got myself ready, and was about to go out, but I kept having to go back to the toilet. I did pass a couple of very soft poos, although not soft enough to be called diarrhoea. After several visit it seemed like it would be safe to go out, but by then the rain seemed heavier, and I had missed the ideal train.

  I was feeling cheesed off and I abandoned the idea of going out. If I had managed to keep my spirits up I could have at least gone to Tesco, to get a few things I could not carry the last time I was there a couple of days ago. By midday, or maybe 1pm, the rain had almost stopped, and going to Tesco would have been little bother, but by then I had gone into a bad mood. I am not sure if it was depression, sulking, anger, or any of several more possibilities - none of which gave me any enthusiasm to go out.

  I stopped to have some lunch. It was probably corned beef with mustard and rice crackers, but I have a feeling I am confusing that with a day or two previously. What ever it was, was enough to satisfy any hunger for a while. I then spent hours laying on my bed. I think I had a snooze, and possible two. I definitely read more of my current book. I also went to Amazons web site to order a few things.

  It was a week or two ago I noticed they listed boxes of instant noodles by some of my favourite instant noodle brands. I ordered a box of 40 packets of Indomie noodles. They make one of my favourites - a spicy stir fried flavour. This box of 40 contains flavours I have never hear of before, and I am looking forward to it arriving in a few days time.

  The other noodles I ordered was another box. It is mix of flavours by Koka, and it is a box of 30. Once again there would seem to be some flavours I have never seen before. They should be delivered today between 12:45 and 16:45. Tesco sell three different flavours of Koka instant noodles, but I only like one flavour - when they have it. They most often have vegetable flavour and curry flavour. Both are edible, but the curry flavour is not very good. The Koka box was £19.68 and the Indomie box is £19.99. Buying in bulk saves a useful bit of money compared to individual shop prices.

  That leads nicely on to dinner time. I usually time dinner for 6pm so I can watch the news, and although I had to watch it on the BBC News channel, because the TV schedules are all over the place at the weekend, I did indeed watch the news.....at least my eyes seemed to see it, and my ears must have heard it, it seems to have left very little impression on me. maybe my dinner was more interesting.

  Dinner was a ready meal for one (at least it seemed to be for just one). It was a variant on Chicken Kiev. It was chicken in a white sauce that had a hint of garlic and herbs, topped with sliced potatoes. It seemed OK, but it was not exciting enough to make me seek out another in Tesco (I think it came from Tesco). I followed it was a rather large dessert of ice cream and cake. It was rather large because the cake was not big enough to cut into two, and the ice cream was near the end. I just ate the cake as it was, and kept eating the ice cream until the tub was empty. I almost got away with it.

  I should have turned the TV off when I finished eating, but I watched the news until that finished, and then watched a heap of back to back repeats of Simpsons episodes. It seemed like there were a couple of episodes among them that didn't seem familiar. I think the last one ended some time between 9pm and 10pm. Once it had finished I went straight to bed. It did seem earlier than most night, and I almost decided to read for a while, but I turned out the light, and I was soon asleep.

  The cake and ice cream would have raised my blood glucose a lot, but only for a couple of hours while the Mounjaro dealt with it, but long enough to need to wake up several times for a pee, and in turn, that influenced my dreams...or at least one of them.

  The one dream I remember was set in a place that had a few similarities to my last place of work, and maybe more like where the company was located when I first started their. It was based in an old factory that had been partitioned up into separate work units. I had been visiting the room where all the development work was done, and felt the need for a pee. I walked out of the room, and into a corridor.

  I missed where I knew the toilet to be, and opened a door that had no sign on it. It turned out to be an unmarked, and sadly rather unclean toilet. I had to do a bit of unpleasant cleaning before I could use it. With that done I was just about to pee when I woke up, and went to my real toilet !

  I suspect I might have had another dream about going to the toilet because I woke up a bit earlier than usual, although only about 20 minutes earlier. I did need to go for a pee, and I thought I would be having a poo as well, but it was just wind. Afterwards I weighed myself, and I sort of expected I would not like what I saw. Fortunately, about 20 minutes later I went to the toilet again. After that I found I had only put on 300gm since yesterday morning. That is still rather more than ideal, but milder then my first weighing.

  I next checked my blood glucose, and that was not great, but still pleasing. The Contour meter read 7.5mmol/l. That was spot on my target (assuming I didn't make the target smaller as I once intended to).The GlucoRX meter read a very good 6.2mmol/l. The GlucoFix meter read 7.3mmol/l. I also took a reading using one of my cheap Chinese meters (purely out of curiosity) and it read 7.9mmol/l. One reason I stopped using that meter after a month's trial was it always seemed to read high. The average of the three meters I officially use at the moment was 7.0mmol/l. That was higher than any reading in the last 7 or 8 days, but lower than quite a few of the previous days of the month.

  My blood pressure is very slightly higher this morning (125/53) but not so high that I can bother to try and relax a bit and try again. It is probably a little higher because I realised I have painted myself into a corner. Once I knew that my order for the box of Koka noodles could be delivered as early as 12:45 I should have dropped everything and had the shower I ideally need to have this morning.

  The problem is a very pleasant problem in so much as it is that I believe I am expecting to see Patricia today. I think she may stay overnight, and then go to the airport for her flight back to Argentina in the morning...except I am sure she mentioned that her flight was on the 2nd of December (although it could be at some unearthly hour of the morning, and she would leave here very late, and spend an uncomfortable few hours at the airport until something like 2am).

  The actual problem is that I have not had a shower yet, and I would like to wash my hair as well. Also, I have not heard from Patricia yet to say she is on her way, or when she will be on her way. It is a very long train ride from the south coast to Waterloo, and maybe she will not arrive until later this afternoon. There may still be time to have a shower and wash my hair between when Amazon make their delivery, and when Patricia arrives. Some of the waiting time I could use to do some housework and stuff, and it would make the place look much nicer if I did, but right now I feel I am looking forward to my first morning snooze ! I'm sure it will all work out OK in the end.

 








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