After a couple of hours of just sunny spells there is now full sunshine from a sky that looks very blue from my south facing windows. This afternoon may peak at 20° C. We may lose the sunshine at 5pm as the sky clouds over, and from 7pm we may have light rain for the rest of the day. The rain may continue through the night, but by 6am tomorrow it may be n more than some drizzle. Tomorrow may be dull until the first sunny spells start at around 2pm. 4pm may see full sunshine until sunset. Tomorrow's high may only be 15° C, but a month or two ago that would be considered a heatwave !

  I can't decide if yesterday was a good or bad day. I guess it had it's bad parts. Most of the day could probably be described as "neutral". I can also add that some bits that seemed good at the time actually turned out bad. All this and more will be sort of fully explained as I continue writing.

  One good and bad thing was going shopping in Tesco early yesterday afternoon. I bought some (maybe semi) essential. but I was also tempted to buy stuff that is not exactly ideal for me......but I did it anyway. After I was home again I had some sandwiches for lunch (or it could be a very late breakfast). I then had to start the usual routine of some light tidying, and washing and polishing the beer glasses.

  One thing I bought in Tesco was a 4 pack of cans of Guinness. There was a good reason for that. Guinness cans declare they have no sugar in them, and with blood tests the next morning, I thought I would try and mostly stick to Guinness when the beer tasting started after Jodie arrived.

  I did have small samples of most of the beers that we tried, but I let Jodie drink most of each can. A couple of the beers had been brewed with nasty sour tasting hops - Jodie tends to like them, and I am just glad I only opted to drink little more than a shot glass of them to say I had tasted them.

  Jodie was quite consistent with mostly ignoring me in favour of reading endless pages on her phone, and also eating her lunch as we drank. I decided I could at least join her in some eating. I was going to have it with ice cream, but I decided I would eat a ready prepared fruit salad without it. As I ate it I mentioned how all the fibre would be good for my bowels. It was a very prophetic statement (as I will soon explain).

  Jodie left a little before 7pm, and I had my dinner. It was a couple of "Cumberland sausage" Scotch eggs. I had had them before, and I would not say the sausage meat was anything special, but the liquid yolks of the boiled eggs were special (and I am not sure I like them, or if they were good for me). If my memory is correct, the last time I had them I ended up with a stomach upset.

  There is probably little to say about last night. I watched some TV, and read in bed for a while, but I think I was asleep around 11pm, and possibly earlier. I woke a few times for a pee, and later in the small hours of the morning I noticed my guts were making a bit of noise (mostly odd gurgles from deep inside). It was another night when I definitely remember a dream, and for some reason I think it might have been an enjoyable dream, but I can't say for definite because I have left it too late to remember a single thing about it.

  I had to make sure I was up semi early this morning because I had to be at the Group Practice to give some blood samples (plus a free pee sample) at 9:10 this morning. As usual, the first thing I did when I got up was to go to the toilet. I had a fair pee, and I also passed a fairly substantial poo. I then weighed myself, and despite all that I was not happy with what I weighed.

  That large poo turned out to be a sort of plug for quite a lot of much less solid poo. I can't be sure, but I feel that it was likely the result of the fruit salad - so much for saying it would be good for my bowels. Well I suppose it was, but on a very inconvenient morning. After a few more visits to the toilet I weighed myself again, and it seems I still managed to put on 400gm since yesterday morning, but before those extra visits to the toilet it was more than double that amount.

  On the morning when I would be giving blood samples on which my "official" blood glucose level would be judged, my blood glucose as I measured it was not that good. The average of all three readings was 8.8mmol/l. That is sailing a bit close to the wind. My only hope now is that the lab test for blood glucose uses a method that sort of averages things over the last few months. This month has not been that good, but March was particularly good, That gives me some hope I won't get a lecture from the nurse !

  I only just made it to the Group Practice, to visit the vampires who live in the attic (it's true !) in time (in fact I was one minute late by my reckoning). I was slowed down by two things. The most significant was that I could not get off the toilet, and I had fears I still might not have finished when I left home. I was further slowed a bit by bumping into my neighbour, and we walked together (although she was heading to the bus stop on the main road).

  Although one minute late, my timing was actually quite good. I doubt I had to wait more then 2 minutes before my name was called, and I was told to go to room 25. I didn't think I had seen the Phlebotomist before, but she was by no means a youngster, and that gave me some confidence that she was well practised. She was ! She found a good artery very quickly, and although her needles insertion was not as free of pain as some manage, is was pretty good, and best of all she hit the artery (or vein) dead centre first time, with no painful poking about.

  I don't think it was any more than 5 minutes after arriving that the deed was done, and I was out on the main road heading to Poundland. I was after two specific things from Poundland. One was a couple of rolls of white plastic bags I use for my indoor recycling bin, and the other was a couple of packs of what has so far turned out to be some very nice long life deli rolls. They are in a sealed plastic bag, and the bag is probably filled with something like dry Nitrogen to stop any bacterial growth.

  It was a nice day for the extended walk home via Poundland, but I found my legs were complaining - probably because I started off at quite a high pace. There was no need to rush at all....well not much....I was looking forward to some breakfast when I got home. The first thing I actually did was to strip off and get on the scales. That extra walk, and another poo or three after I checked my weight for the last time, meant that I was another 300gm lighter when I got home.

  After that quite useful drop in weight it was a shame that once I was home I stuffed two packs of sandwiches down my gullet. That made me feel sleepy. I had only written a few paragraphs before I decided I had plenty of time after doing the only important thing today, and downed tools and had a lie down, and a snooze. It might have been little more than half an hour before I resumed writing here. That about sums up my morning (it is just after midday as I write this). I don't think I have any plans for today. I might possibly go for a walk in the park later, or I might, and probably will, just sink into advanced level laziness for much of the rest of the day. We'll see.....