It wasn't cold enough for a frost this morning, and by my reckoning it was nearly a whole degree less cold than the forecast 3° C for 7am. It should warm up to 9° C today, and with sunshine forecast it could feel OK (when in the sunshine). As I type the sunshine seems a bit hazy, although when looking in the direction of the sun it is still eye searing bright. Tonight is going to get very cold thanks to the clear sky. It could be 0° C at 6am tomorrow, but some full sunshine for a few hours, and then sunny spells until sunset, should get the temperature up to 8° C in the afternoon.
 
  Yesterday could be described as successful, but maybe lacking in any excitement. In fact it was sometimes boring - so boring that I did a few potentially dangerous experiments with my eating. To my surprise it almost turned out really well ! I achieved two useful other things yesterday, and both taxed some of the muscles that have been causing some pain recently.

  Once I had finished writing, and had my traditional rest for half an hour or more, I had a shower. I only did this because I had intended to go out shopping, and also because once I had finished showering I continued the hot water to put some laundry in to soak. My shopping expedition was just to Tesco where there were a few things I particularly wanted, and some things I was possibly unwise to buy.

  The walk to Tesco felt OK in so much as my legs seemed to be working OK, or maybe I ignored them and was more attentive to the very cold, almost icy cold feeling, wind. That wind also felt wet like there was some invisible fine drizzle in it. While that made the walk unpleasant in one sense, it did seem to feel almost nice that I didn't really feel any need to slow down, or get any angina pains because I didn't really slow down.

  The main thing I wanted from Tesco was Diet Coke, but I also wanted some meat for another meat stew. I found a pack of beef meatballs on the reduced price shelf, and they will make a fine, if not slightly greasy, stew when the time comes (possibly tomorrow). I forgot to buy some chillies to go in the stew, but I might remember to buy some later today. I didn't buy any vegetables, but I did buy some more fruit.

  One of the fruits I bought was one I had never seen before. They are (badly) pictured on the left, and called Alizza fruit. They are about grapefruit size, but more orange in appearance. Somewhere on the little box that holds two fruits it mentions them as the ideal breakfast fruit. That reinforced the idea that they were a grapefruit variant.

  In fact they were basically the same as a large orange - a thin, easily peeled skin, and easy to break into segments to eat like an orange. One thing did make them more like grapefruit - they are intensely bitter - a bit like the quinine bitterness of tonic water.  I think they may be an acquired taste, and I have the second one to acquire the taste. I don't predict that will happen. It would be more likely that the second one would taste lovely and sweet, but that is just fantasy.

  One thing that I found in Tesco was something I had never really looked for before. It was cake. It is potentially dangerous stuff when trying to keep your sugar intake to a bare minimum, but recently I found I could tolerate slices of Angel Cake in moderation. Yesterday I bought a fairly big lump of "slightly fruited" cake because I couldn't see any Angel Cake. Only after putting the first cake in my basket did I notice Angela cake no more than a foot away on the shelf "

  My rucksack, with 4 two litre bottles of Diet Coke in it was obviously rather heavy, but my shopping bag was not heavy at all by comparison with the ruck sack, and probably many previous shopping bags. I guess it did all slightly slow me down, but it seemed like a kept a fair pace going home. I was very glad to get in out of the very cold feeling wind, but otherwise I didn't feel too bad, and I didn't need to have a rest or anything before putting my shopping away, and making some lunch.

  My original thoughts on lunch were to probably to make two corned beef and horseradish sandwiches, but I am glad I only made one because the bread has gone a bit dry. It will make great toast still, and that might be a treat this afternoon. For my lunch I had one sandwich, a pot of Tabbouleh with Feta and herbs (plus my addition of chilli sauce), and a slice of the slightly fruited cake.

  As I said, the bread was a bit dry for my sandwich, and so not making up two was a good idea. The Tabbouleh was nice, although the nutritional information was probably on the underside, and so I never did consult it. I am not sure it was all that healthy. The slice of cake was almost certainly not healthy, but it was rather nice. later on I would have a thicker slice to take away the after bitterness of the Alizza fruit.

  After my lunch I laid down and read for a while, and I feel sure I had a snooze. I don't really know how long I snoozed for, or even if I really did snooze or just close my eyes for a few moments. After my rest I reluctantly forced myself to go and get back to the laundry I had left soaking. Doing that laundry was one thing that got some of my muscles aching again. This time it was predominately the muscles in my forearms, and particularly when wringing stuff out.

  I got as far as starting the final rinse when I decided I wanted to take a rest before  the muscle aches got too bad. I think I may have rested from the job for almost an hour. When I got back to it I had to wring out the last rinse water, and then wring out the fabric conditioner before I could hang the two t-shirts, and four pairs of underpants up to dry. I hung them on the big clothes horse in the dining room with the fan heater blowing at them to speed up the drying.

  It seems unlikely, but I never did seem to find any spare time to edit and watch the last two "new" episodes of The Simpsons I had recorded the previous day or two, plus several more older recordings. One thing I did do that took up a bit of time was to test out the Alizza fruit as a late afternoon snack. As I mentioned above, it was a very bitter orange flavour, and that seemed a fair excuse to have a slice of sweet "slightly fruited" cake to take the taste away.

  I waited until about 5:30pm before I got my dinner together, and ate it while watching a Star Trek episode. It was an almost all fruit dinner. I had a plum, a nectarine, two small "easy peelers" oranges, and an apple as the main part of my dinner. I also had yet another slice of that slightly fruited cake. I ended up eating quite a bit, in fact almost half of the slab of cake. That was quite a lot of unwanted sugar !

  A quick look through the electronic programme guide showed there was little to attract my attention on TV after the last Star Trek had finished at 8pm. That last Star Trek was an episode of Voyager, and bits of it were OK, but still Captain Janeway really grates on my brain. She is so soft and simpering that I hate her. By comparison Captain Kirk was too aggressive, but Captain Picard seemed like the perfect captain.

  I was in bed reading not long after 8pm. I lost track of time then, but I think I had put the book down, turned out the lights, and was asleep before 9pm. On the whole I seemed to sleep well, I did seem to get up to pee quite regularly, but I am sure at least one time it was actually a dream. My recollection is that I had got up for a pee, gone back to sleep, and woke up just 5 minutes later (or possibly 5 minutes before - the first hint it was probably a dream) and then went for a second moderately large pee (the second hint it was a dream).

  Most times I did seem to not exactly do a very large pee, but at least an average pee. It all added up to a lot, and that suggested my blood glucose would be very high this morning. It also suggested that it would make me weight less when I got on the scales after getting up. The latter turned out to be right, albeit with the added loss of a modest poo. In fact the entire loss was very modest - just 100gm. On a longer scale of things it seems I have lost a full kilogram in the last 7 days.

  When I next checked my blood glucose I was pleasantly surprised. It was not terribly exciting, but getting all three reading in the light green on my spreadsheet was good. The Contour meter read 7.9mmol/l. That is both very good, and slightly disappointing because it is over my target of 7.5mmol/l or under. The GlucoRX reading was slightly below target at 7.3mmol/l. The Sinocare meter was over my target, but less over than the Contour meter. It read 7.8mmol/l. I think I am happy with those readings, but also quite surprised after eating all that cake.

  It is now 10:30am, and the sun is pouring through the front windows. It makes me want to lay on my bed, warmed by bright sunshine, and dream it is summer, and I will do that for maybe half an hour, but after that I need to have a shower, and then get ready for a walk in the bright, but cold outside, sunshine. I will be walking to the station to pick up two copies of The Metro free newspaper, and then getting the train to Ladywell for the short walk to the pub.

  If it is fairly normal Wednesday lunchtime in the pub I will enjoy two pints of Guinness, do my best to do the quick and cryptic crosswords, and listen and maybe take part in some banter. After my two pints I could walk home through the park, in the sunshine, but like last week, I will get the train so I can walk home via the little supermarket on Catford Bridge. Once again I would like to get some more of their usually very tasty fruit....and maybe other stuff too...if it catches my eye.