The day started with drizzle rather than heavy rain, and I think it lasted closer to two hours. It should be mostly dry today, although the prediction for a light shower at midday still stands, and more substantial rain in the late evening. The BBC predict many sunny spells between 4pm and 7pm. Both forecasters agree that this afternoon should see 14° C. Both forecasters I consult say that tomorrow could feature a lot of light rain, but for most hours the chance of rain is actually 50% or less, so there is a chance that much of tomorrow could be dry. Maybe it might even feature many sunny spells, but time will tell.

   Yesterday was another day that started out to be quite good, but by mid afternoon it was getting a bit boring, a bit tedious. It was also a day when my plan to try and eat less did seem to work, but only from the point of view of less bad stuff, and maybe not less in total.

  The day before yesterday, which featured a lot more resting and snoozing than usual, was also a day when I couldn't be bothered to have a shower, and didn't even drag a wet flannel over any part of me (I did still clean my teeth as usual). It made having a hot shower even more enjoyable yesterday. Once clean and dressed I felt ready to go out shopping. It was probably only just over 13° C, and the breeze seemed light, and it didn't feel like I needed a coat.

  There were sunny spells yesterday morning, and I think part of my walk to Tesco did feature at least a few minutes of sunshine, and I think there was more on my way back home again. Although mild, I can't really say it was warm, and I was surprised that nothing started to ache when walking to, and from Tesco - even though I was walking slightly briskly. It is hard to judge the latter, but I what was briskly 30 years ago has became a bit slower now. I possibly kept up at least 3mph for much of the walk.

   I was more careful than usual about what I bought in Tesco. I bought a single pack of diced beef that I intend to split into two for two stews/casseroles. I bought a bag of broccoli florets to add a bit of greenery to the meals. I bought more apples and more oranges (although later I realised I already had a few days worth of oranges at home. I did make two basic errors in my buying, and both times it was because I was suckered in by those little yellow "reduced price" stickers.

  The first was almost very foolish, but there are some excuses for it (and in practice they worked). It was a cheese and bacon quiche. The last one I bought was from Aldi, and they don't seem to worry about paying the sugar tax (if indeed such a thing exists for stuff like quiche). My blood glucose readings jumped after eating the Aldi quiche. There is every indication I got away with the Tesco quiche (it was probably very slightly smaller too, which would also have helped).

  The other foolish purchase was a pack of "Korean inspired" marinated pork belly strips. I already knew that all the fat on pork belly slices is not good for me, but when cooked enough much of it can be poured out of the pan, and the fatty bits are almost crispy. That wasn't the real problem. The real problem was of not reading the nutritional info properly. It looked like the sugar content was not very low, but just tolerable. When I looked at it again in better light I saw it was for a third of the pack. I thought I would be eating the whole pack in one sitting, but I guess I had batter split it in two for two meals now. I hope this "Korean inspired flavour" is good enough to be nice twice.
  Over in the drinks department, as I think I suggested I would recently, I bought a bottle each of Tesco's own label sugar free cola. The experiment I did with the two offerings from Aldi showed that both types they did were fairly drinkable, and maybe even enjoyable. I concluded that one was supped to be a bit like Pepsi, and the other Coca Cola. So far I have only tasted the "Stockwell & Co" sugar free Cola. The silver label, like Aldi's silver label one is probably supposed to be closest to Coca Cola. I am drinking it right now as I write this, and it is not horrible. I very much prefer the real thing, but it will do at a pinch. I suspect that the Xero, "Extreme Taste", may taste too sweet - a bit like the other Aldi one.

  After getting home from Tesco, with 4 x 2 litre bottles in my rucksack, and a well filled shopping bag, it was nice to put it all down, and then put it all away - except the cheese and bacon quiche. I scoffed that for my lunch, and every bite had the taste of guilt about it ! I had a lie down, and read for a while after that lunch. I think I wanted to have a snooze as well, but that didn't happen, and wasn't actually needed anyway.

  Aftere a while I got restless, and did what I should have done even earlier. It was to finish some washing I had left soaking after my shower in the morning. It wasn't a lot - just one t-shirt, a pair of lounge pants, and three pairs of underpants. I kept expecting to get tired, and doing it in two halves, but I didn't seem to have any problems doing it all in one go, and hanging it all up to dry on the big clothes horse in the front room.

  After that I suddenly found myself feeling bored, and sort of listless. I also had the same funny feeling that someone, somewhere was not happy. The last time it turned out to be Patricia. I haven't checked with her, and I hope she was not going through it again. Maybe this time it is Angela, but I'll probably never know.

  I had one thing to look forward to, and that was dinner, but as planned it was to be a small-ish meal. I have to confess that I had a late afternoon snack less than two hours before I had my dinner. I only waited until just gone 6pm (which would have been 5pm before teh clocks changed) before I served up my dinner. It was stew/casserole featuring just half a pack of diced lamb together with half a can of butter beans, some cauliflower florets, and a couple of small new potatoes.

  I would love to say that dinner was very tasty, but somehow all the ingredients, plus some spices and stock cubes, didn't seem to compliment each other. The semi tragedy is that tonight;s dinner is the other half of the pack of lamb with similar other ingredients, except the butter beans have been replaced by half a can of low sugar baked beans. After my main course I had a dessert of just 3 small apples. All three were slightly tart, and quite watery. I don't think they would have had much sugar in them.

  While eating, and afterwards, I watched two episodes of Have I Got News For You, as recordings done on my big TV. I made the decision to delete them after watching because I couldn't be bothered to edit them, and also because I decided that while some bits are very funny, most of, being based on current affairs, make it date rather prematurely. Both episodes I watched were dated from early 2020, and there was so much that made little impact on me - probably because I gave up watching the news when it became too depressing even before the Covid years.

  As is my general habit, I was in bed, reading, soon after 9pm. I read for maybe half an hour before starting to feel tired. I felt pessimistically sure that it would take ages to actually get to sleep, and I was very slightly right. I can't be certain, but I think I lay away for half an hour before falling asleep. One or more of my dreams was dominated by machines with some similarity to MRI scanners, but these were cooled by liquid Nitrogen, and not liquid Helium. I do remember there may have been half a dozen of them in a big room, but I can't seem to remember what their purpose was.

  Writing that has just jogged my memory. I almost forgot that yesterday morning I rang the MRI reception number. I was answered quite quickly, and we soon launched into a sort of question and answer session, although I answered most questions without being asked the question - because I had the copy of the questionnaire they had sent to me. The first thing I volunteered was that I was heavier than the 102kg maximum they mentioned in the paperwork. They said that was no problem, and that figure was for the two scanners that are more commonly used, but they have a bigger one.

  Other questions on the questionnaire were a bit silly, or at least silly for a man ! I confirmed I was definitely not pregnant, and was definitely not breast feeding - probably also silly for an almost 69 year old ! One important thing, although my guess that it would be that it would be OK, concerned any metal, including tattoos using metal containing ink, in the body. When my chest was put back together after my bypass operation in 2013 it was partly held together by Titanium wires. I was fairly sure that Titanium was non magnetic, and it was confirmed that they would not cause any problem.

  Back to this morning, and I got up quite late. When I first woke up it felt a bit cool in my bedroom, and so I turned the heater up full, and laid down again. I was surprised that a whole hour had suddenly passed. I must have fallen asleep without realising it. My first observation was that it seemed I was constipated again. Sometimes it seems my new routine is one day on, and one day off, but that theory turned out to be false - it just needed a couple of hours before I was ready to go.

  Despite feeling I had made a few too many mistakes yesterday, my blood glucose readings were rather good this morning. The Contour meter read 7.9mmol/l. It was back to being under 8.0mmol/l, but only just. The GlucoRX meter read a nice 7.3mmol/l, and that is the sort of figure I was hoping to get back to. The Sinocare excelled itself by giving a reading between the other two of 7.5mmol/l - right on my (current) imaginary target ! It is almost meaningless after just three days, but my rolling average for this month is a fairly good 8.11mmol/l.

  Today is an enigma. It is easier to say what I am not going to do. Ayse, my favourite barmaid, is either in hospital, or recovering from hospital treatment today, and so I won't be going to The Jolly Farmers today. What I might do depends on the timing of Kevin's telephone appointment with his doctor. If it is early enough we may meet in The Blythe Hill Tavern. If it is too late, I have another possible plan. For the moment I will get ready, and wait to hear from Kevin.

  My alternate plan, if I don't have a lunchtime pint, is to try and go out to the Whitestar open mic in The Partridge tonight. I don't know why, but I feel like I might be OK to go to it, and stay at least a couple of hours. It will be interesting to see if Angela's husband, who doesn't seem to be drumming for anyone lately, goes. He used to be their fairly regularly, but I haven't noticed him in any pictures. I wonder if he is unwell. Angela certainly says almost nothing about him on social media. It is all as if it is a big secret !
      







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