Once again the BBC weather forecast shows more or less continuous sunny spells, and the Met Office forecast shows the sunny spells ending two hours earlier, plus no sunny spells at all for 2pm. I think I shall chose to believe the BBC forecast. Both forecasters agree that this afternoon will only reach 14° C, but if the breeze is light it should still feel OK. Tomorrow almost reverts to winter ! It is going to be very wet, probably very windy, and just 11° C - and that might be for just a single hour !

Yesterday was a day when I was determined not to waste another warm sunny day. My original idea was that I would go for another walk to help strengthen my leg muscles. I didn't think it would be as long a walk as the previous day, but there was always the option to do more or less depending on how I felt.

  That didn't happen, but the warm sunny day was not entirely wasted. I thought that while I had not slept all that well, I had probably got adequate sleep after I ended up sleeping a bit later than usual. The reality seemed to be that I did not get enough sleep, and after I finished writing yesterday morning I laid on my bed to take a breather, and ended up having a snooze. It felt like time was slipping away faster than I had anticipated.

  I still had some clothes soaking in their big, builders style, bucket in the path, and I couldn't have a shower until I had dealt with that. It seemed to take some time before I was ready to do that, but once started I did all the washing cycles. It was when I was half way through that a great realisation came over me. Even if I didn't go for a walk, which was looking unlikely by then, the warm sunshine would not go to waste. For the first time this year, and possibly in over 6 months, I could hang the washing on the washing line to dry.
  Had I known I would be hanging washing on the washing line, I would have included an extra t-shirt, and maybe another pair or two of underpants. When I checked that washing 4 hours later it was bone dry, and warm to the touch. I am pretty sure it would have been like that after 3 hours in the sun, being agitated by occasions puffs of a light breeze.

  There was another way the warm sunshine was not wasted. After hanging the washing on the line I did a little bit of work in the garden. I pulled some ivy that was creeping up the fence, and through the fence, in two places. I also scraped some moss off the bit of path outside the back door, and swept up lots of loose stuff that had accumulated there over the winter. It was approximately 1/200th of the work that need to be done in the garden to make it less wild. The rest of the work is quite daunting, but provided I took it easy, it seemed like it could be nice doing it on a warm sunny day.

  I think it was only just after midday that I had the lunch I was originally going to skip. It was generally fairly safe stuff. I had two medium sized blood oranges plus a level handful (or palmfull) of mixed nots. As a sort of dessert I had some sugar free Maria biscuits with some thinly sliced cheese on them to round things off. After that I laid down and read another chapter or two of the book I am currently reading - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land

  Later in the afternoon I went down to the kitchen to prepare my dinner. I put half a pack of diced chicken in a casserole dish with two stock cubes, chilli powder, and paprika. 20 minutes in the microwave, and it was ready to have some cauliflower added 10 minutes before I wanted to have dinner. I also treated myself to a mostly safe (in terms of sugar content) snack of rice crackers and some special cheese. It was cheddar cheese with smoked tomatoes in it, or smoked cheddar with dried tomatoes in it. It was very nice whatever it was.

  I spent maybe the next hour skimming through a copy of The Metro I had picked up the day before, but hadn't previously looked at. There wasn't much to read, but I soon came to the crosswords. I completed the quick crossword in little more than 10 minutes. I had better luck than usual with the cryptic crossword, and I think I solved about double the usual amount of clues, but that still only amounted to about 6 answers - assuming they were correct.  Once again I concluded that many, or most of the cryptic clues had loads of waffle added to distract away from the couple of words that were the real clue.

  I seemed unusually eager to have my dinner last night, and I think I had it very soon after 6pm. By that time I was being entertained by watching the usual Friday even run of back to back episodes of The Avengers on "Great TV!". I missed some of the first, and didn't pay any attention to the last because it seemed like I had watched it very recently. I was in bed, reading before 9pm. It was partly because there seemed nothing better to do, and partly to try and get used to earlier nights.

  The latter reason was because on Tuesday (16th) I need to be up early to go for my MRI scan. An early night before it would be a good idea. Unfortunately it most definitely did not work last night. It may have been midnight before I got to sleep, and even then I didn't seem to sleep for long. It was one of those nights when it seemed I couldn't get comfortable, or couldn't relax, or it was too warm and too cool......

  Sometimes it felt like I was awake almost the whole night long, but I know that was not the case because I seemed to dream a lot. Most, if not all dreams were short and almost inconsequential. One bit of dream I remember some vague details, but not full details, or context; I was at a bar, but instead of serving beer it served varieties of beef stew ! In order to try and squeeze a bit more sleep in I did what I am trying to learn not to do when I have an early morning coming up, I forced a lay in. It was another occasion when I knew I must have been asleep because of a now forgotten dream, but also how an intended extra 45 minutes turned into an effortless 90 minutes.

  It seems my dietary choices just about worked yesterday. My blood glucose readings were almost what I hoped for. The Contour meter read a reasonably good 7.9mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter had a rather splendid reading of just 7.2mmol/l. Sadly the Sinocare mete let the side down with an OK, but higher reading of 8.5mmol/l. On top of this my weight this morning - before having a fairly decent poo - was roughly 2kg (or about 5lbs) lighter than some of the peaks I had the previous month. If I managed to try harder for the next two days, I might even be 3kg lighter when I am weighed at the MRI appointment (I presume I probably will be weighed). Whether I can put in the extra effort for that is probably unlikely, but maybe I can shift a few hundred grammes.

  Much of today is mapped out already. By 2pm I hope I will have endured a ridiculously long double bus ride to see Jo do another solo afternoon session in Ye Olde Whyte Lyon pub. I am contemplating possibly a single bus ride. It would mean a 1.2km, or say 3/4 of a mile walk down a moderately busy, but leafy road. If I could be sure it wouldn't trigger any angina, and my legs weren't going to start complaining, it could be a fairly enjoyable walk. It might be better to walk back that way, but I'll decided these things on the spur of the moment.

  The gig ends nice and early at 4pm, and it should still be bright, and slightly warm. I doubt I'll have more than a pint or two of Guinness, and I might not stay until the end. that might be more likely if it is as busy in there as last time. On a warm and bright Sunday afternoon some people may opt for a run down to the coast, or a walk, rather than sitting in a crowded pub - hopefully.

  Once home again I have to start careful eating, and no more fizzy drinks until I've had my MRI scan. The specific rule is no caffeine containing drinks, but I think just plain, but chilled water, would be best. No fizz - no unwanted bowel gas, or at least less of it. It was be a bit of a harsh 48 hours !
        







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