It is all change today. A 4° C start, and just an 8° C afternoon high. Worse than that is that heavy rain is forecast from 10am to 1pm, and lighter rain until 5pm. It promises to be a very miserable sort of day, and another chilly night. Tomorrow may be a dry day, which is good, and there may be some sunny spells from late afternoon, and that too is good, but a high of 9° C would need to be higher still to make it a good day. Maybe that will happen.....or maybe not.

  I don't have a lot to show about yesterday, but it somehow feels like it was quite a good day. Of course the bright sunshine, with no need for any heating for quite a few hours, was a very big plus point. There were a few other small things that helped make it a good day.

  Although it felt like I got up a bit early, it wasn't really the case. I didn't start to write this electronic diary until just gone 9am. If I hadn't run out of words after I had typed 1,935 of them, I could have finished after midday if it was a 3,000 word extravaganza (rare, but it has happened a few times). I just had enough time to have a post writing rest, and then a shower before getting dressed and ready to go out.

  I decided I wanted to go to Tesco to fill in some of the gaps in my last visit on Sunday. Last Sunday I wore my sleeveless denim jacket, and the strong wind made that feel quite uncomfortable. Yesterday I paid more attention to the weather forecast, and that said only light winds. In fact there was hardly any wind at times. There was some nice sunshine, but it was a bit intermittent as I walked to Tesco, but it still felt good to walk there like that.

  There was one special thing I wanted from Tesco (or anywhere for that matter), and it was some mustard pickle, AKA "Piccalilli". This time I rememered to scour the shelves because I was sure they must have it. They did, and what is more they had an own brand and one made by Branston. I bought one of each. It is possible that the Branston branded one may have been tastier, but the Tesco own brand had far less sugar in it.

  There were a few other things I intended to get, and they included some of the bigger (100gm) packets of instant noodles, and a ready made salad. On the reduced price shelf I found a Katsu chicken currry at a reasonable price. I am not sure if I will enjoy it, but it will be interesting to see what it is like - maybe this evening. I was not going to buy any bread rolls this time, but I did anyway. Those, and a few other things, plus four 2l bottles of Diet Coke completed my shopping.

  As I mentioned, the walk to Tesco was nice. It felt very comfortable with bare arms, and I seemed to walk moderately fast with no ill effects - apart from an occasional drippy nose. The walk back, carrying some slightly heavy shopping, could have been a bit of a drudge, but the sun was out for the entire 5 or 6 minute walk, and despite the shopping it felt good. Once again I still kept up a fair pace, and I felt no ill effects.

  I think there is hope that once some sunny warm weather is here I may start to feel fit enough to tackle some longer walks again. At least I hope so. I was quite keen to put all my shopping away so I could make my lunch. It is not really a meal I need, but it has became a bad habit now. I made up two slightly crust rolls - one with cheese and piccalilli in it, and the other had beef and horseradish sauce. Both were delicious. I need to remember to use that piccalilli sparingly because of it's sugar content.

   I had a nice rest after my lunch, and I spent maybe half an hour reading. I think I may have had a snooze too, but eventually the call of the laundry became too strong. I forgot to mention that after my shower I put one t-shirt, one pair of lounge pants, and two pairs of underpants in to soak in detergent. It was odd because I though there was more than that in my laundry bag, but it seems I was almost up to date.

  Sometimes it feel like warm sunshine gives me extra energy. Although it was quite a small amount of laundry, I didn't expect to do all the wringing out, the 3 rinses, and the fabric condition, in one go, but there seemed to be no reason to stop once I started, and I had that laundry hanging up to dry probably around 4pm. That is fairly late, and I hope that in later spring and summer days I can get it done hours earlier - ideally before midday so it can dry on the washing line in sunshine, instead of on the clothes horse with, first, a fan heater, and later, a desk fan.

  I did wonder if I might feel so enthused that I might get the hoover out again in the late afternoon. That never happened because there seemed little time for it. It is hard to believe, let along describe where all the time went yesterday, but it definitely slipped by like it was oiled. the next thing I knew was that I was looking forward to dinner. It was going to be a special dinner.
  One thing I may not have mentioned was that while in Tesco on Sunday I found a couple of packets of hard boiled eggs on the reduced price shelf. I had once seen them there before, but I have never found where they are usually in the store. I bought one pack of two eggs, and yesterday I combined them with a Tesco "house salad" and a generous squirt of mayonnaise, plus some salt and pepper, to make an egg salad.

  As hoped for, it was fairly nice - maybe not so nice that I would like to make it a regular thing, but nice enough for an occasional treat. I did have a crazy idea that maybe I could force myself to have this and absolutely nothing else for my last meal of the day. Maybe if I was not already feeling the depressing waves emanating from today's forthcoming foul weather, I might have found the will power to not eat anything else.

  There was also the feeling that I have a lot of soft fruit that can't last a lot longer, and so I had a small plate of 4 bits of fruit as a dessert for my egg salad. I had one small (4 inch long) banana, an apple, a persimmon fruit, and a small apple. It all seemed a very light dinner, but it also seemed quite filling. As usual I could say I wasted most of the evening by watching TV until 9pm.

  I then went to bed to read in bed for well over half an hour, although I am not really sure when I put the book down, and when I fell asleep.  I do remember thinking that it was probably going to take ages to actually fall asleep. It was a lot quicker than I expected, but whether it was 5 minutes or 35 minutes is completely unknown. One thing I do know was that my bedroom was very warm at first, but I tolerated that, mainly by sleeping with the duvet kicked aside because i knew it was going the get very chilly this morning.

  It is really hard, maybe impossible, to say if I really slept well, or not, but I think it was well last night. I even seemed to get up to pee less - maybe only every three hours instead of two. On the other hand, being almost able to remember what seemed like hours of dreaming, might suggest I did not sleep so well. I think I can remember enough to give only the flavour of two dreams.

  The first dream was about sitting on a beach, late at night, with some friends. Most of them seemed like they were musicians I have seen. I have a hazy memory of before going to the beach. Someone said it is a shame we have no booze, but I (or maybe someone else) said we did have a few drinks in pastille form. They were like a cross between a wine gum and a suppository - coloured a nice wine red, but bullet shaped. We had one each, but I also have a spare.

  I have no memory of whether we dissolved the pastilles in water or just chewed on them. I thought it should have been the former, but who knows ? When we had finished the pastilles one of us, an amateur herbalist made drinks using herbs she had found. It was like drinking from a flower vase, but very tasty. I was feeling peckish, but we had no food...or so it seemed. When 2 of the party left we realised they had left behind empty jars that had originally had mashed potato in them.

  That dream seemed like it was in the early part of the night. The other dream I can sort of remember was not long before I woke up. I seemed to be in a doctors surgery, but I don't think I was a patient. One woman was, and she wanted a vaccination. The doctor said she had to pay for it because she no longer had any but emergency cover from the NHS. The doctor was cackling like a comic book villain as he explained that under the new rules, those who hadn't signed up to the surgery many years ago were only taken on as private patients. The sad thing is I can foresee some future plan that will make this, or a variant of it true.

  I got up a bit earlier than I might have done this morning, but no earlier than I expect to be getting up once the sun rises before 6am. I almost could have got up an hour earlier, but after having a pee I got the fan heater out to blow warm air into the bathroom. It made it more comfortable when after an extra hour in bed, mostly asleep, I got up and went to the toilet for a small pee, and just passed wind instead of a poo.

  A poo is not rather overdue now. I don't think I had one at all yesterday. This morning I keep think I will be going, but it is just wind all the time, but sooner or later something has to give. It all meant a bit of disappointment when I got on the scales. This morning my weight has gone up, but only by 400gm. If I did all yesterdays poo's and had had a decent poo for today, before I had breakfast, it is quite possible that gain might have only been 200gm, or even less.

  The apparent lack of peeing in the night, plus most of them seemed to be quite small, was another reason for my weight to be higher. It also suggested my blood glucose might be lower than recently. It wasn't ! The Contour meter read 8.7mmol/l. OK but a bit lower would have been good. The GlucoRX meter read 8.1mmol/l, and that was fairly good. The Sinocare meter was heading towards, but fortunately not quite reaching "starting to be bad" with a reading of 8.9mmol/l. That gives an average of all three of 8.57mmol/l. Yesterday was only vey slightly better at 8.47mmol/l.

  This morning is another good one for my blood pressure, although I find that a bit surprising because today will bring some problems. However it was another case of th first reading, without all that much preparation being so good that I never bothered with a second try. This morning it was a very pleasing 100/48. That may go up with my stress levels later.

  Two things should be happening today. It is a Wednesday, and that should mean that I will be going to The Jolly Farmers to try and do the crosswords in The Metro, and have a couple of pints of Guinness in convivial company. There were potentially two flies in the ointment. The first is the forecast for heavy rain while I would be out. That put me off a bit, but then there was the strong possibility of a box of beer I ordered being delivered today.
  This morning I got the confirmation that my beer will be delivered today, but the earliest is likely to be 4.15pm. It is exceedingly rare that I am not home from the pub by then (usually only when I am joined by Kevin in the pub). That is one headache i don't have to worry about. That still leaves the very heavy rain to put me off, and one other possible problem. That possible problem is constipation. I feel slightly uncomfortable now, and it is getting worse. The chances are that it will be over by midday - a very inconvenient time, but one that is annoyingly common. I still don't know if I want to go out in the heavy rain, but I think I'll still wash my hair, and have a shower - just in case !