The screenshot above starts at 8am, but earlier than that it was cold enough to leave a frost on things like cars outside. Today could be an improved version of yesterday with the afternoon temperature rising to 12° C.That should be bare arm temperature. It will be another cold night, but maybe not quite cold enough for another frosty start. It is possible tomorrow may see and afternoon temperature of 13° C, and it will probably not get so cold in the night. This run of good weather should last until the 11th March when it may be back to grey skies and rain for a week or more.

  Yesterday, by some measures, was a good day in so much as I achieved my main aim. However, there was a lot of the day that were not so good. Then again they were not actually bad. I'm not sure any bit was actually bad. It was also a day where some things happened that were not expected, and some expected things didn't happen.

  As I explained yesterday, I started the day with my weight having risen a lot, and my blood glucose readings up in, or nearly in the danger zone. It signalled the start of a day where I had to really control my eating - both in quantity, and in quality. It was one of those very rare days since retiring that I didn't have breakfast. I had no problem with the cod liver oil capsule I take every morning repeating on me, and that was good. One of the excuses for breakfast was to put a cap on that strong fishy taste.

  My next plan for the day was to go for a walk in the sunshine. I never did do that, and there were several reasons. One was that later in the day I kept looking at the thermometer, and it never seemed to quite reach the expected 10° C. It could have felt warm enough to walk bare armed in full sunshine, but freezing in the shade. Before that excuse there was the problem of wanting to wash my hair and having a shower before being seen in public.

  Before I could have a shower I needed to get the big plastic builders bucket out of the bathtub. In that bucket was my favourite bath towel that had been soaking in bio detergent, and a splash of Dettol. The latter was because one bit of the towel had gone extremely stinky because some horrible bacteria must have started growing on it. After I finished my morning writing, and had the usual rest, I started the process of finishing that wash.

  The trouble with towels, and bath towels in particular, is if used for too long they accumulate soap as well as other stuff. It is the soap that causes the big problem - they need everlasting rinses to get the rinse water to run clean. As can be imagined, a soaking wet towel is very heavy. I did six or seven rinses (it is the sort of job I do where I find myself detached from reality, and I can't keep an accurate tally of how many rinses I did), and still the water was very soapy.

  I took a rest at that point. I can't be sure, but I think it was around 2pm at this time, and while I did not have classic hunger pains, I was getting a very sour sensation. The only cure was to give in and have a light lunch of just dry rice crackers with ready sliced Gouda cheese. It was nice, and did the trick, but was theoretically very low in sugar, and not that high in calories.

  Then it was back to the towel. I gave it another 6 or 7 (or whatever) rinses, and at that point I had to accept the rinse water was still slightly soapy (frothy), but it would have to be good enough. I am going to have to see if I can discipline myself to wash that towel well before any whiffy smells says it has to be washed. Anyway, the good thing is that I had no chest pains while doing that hard work, and my trouble the night before last was just one of those odd things.

  In theory it was still easily early enough to wash my hair, have my shower, and then go out for a walk in the sunshine, but as noted above, it still didn't look warm enough to go out without a coat, but the sun seemed to hot to wear a coat. I guess that is not a good excuse, and so I guess I'll just have to confess that I just didn't feel like going for a walk by then. What I did do was to push on, and finish the book I was reading - "The Gobbler" by Ade Edmondson.

  I did have a little snack of a handful of peanuts during the afternoon, but I was starting to very much look forward to my dinner. There were actually two reasons for this. There was the obvious one that I was getting rather hungry, but there was also looking forward to an experiment that should, and did produce an interesting and enjoyable dinner, although one not big enough to completely lift any desire for even more to eat.

  I held out to almost 6pm before I went down to the kitchen to prepare my "masterpiece". It was no more than two Ciabatta rolls filled with mackerel in tomato sauce (from those little cans that hold a single portion). The first was no more than the bread and fish with a sprinkle of white pepper. The second I spoiled a bit by adding a few slices of pickled gherkin. I though that would go well with fish, but evidently not according to my taste buds. Fortunately it only took the shine off without making it taste horrible.

  As usual, I watched TV until 9pm when I headed to bed. I intended to read for half an hour, but I think it was barely more than 15 minutes until I put the book down, and was soon asleep. I had been worried that I might have more aching chest problem, maybe just heartburn, maybe other reasons, that would stop me getting to sleep, or even wake me up in the night, but all that woke me up, approximately every 2 hours on average, was getting up to go for a pee.

  Even going out to the freezing bathroom didn't cause any but the merest hint of any cold induced angina, but it did seem to me me too tense to pee until I relaxed. I guess it was a very average night in terms of quality of sleep, and quantity of pee. I guess it was typical in another way too - I know I had dreams, but I can't seem to remember a single thing from those dreams now.........

....Actually, as soon as I started to write that I found I can remember some bit of one dream. It was set in a big telephone exchange. I can't remember doing anything in the dream until I wanted to pee. I knew that there were toilets one floor up at the end of the building. As I went up the stairs someone asked me if I was going to watch the women in the swimming pool ?

  The idea of a swimming pool, even a small one as it was in the dream, in a telephone exchange was very weird, but sure enough there was a big window overlooking a swimming pool on the next floor. There were two woman at the far end. They appeared to be fully dressed while sitting in the water - a bit strange, but no eroticism there. I walked past to the toilets. The outside looked clean and clinical, but each cubical was filthy. This was probably because there was no toilet bowl, and you had to pee or poo down the 3 inch diameter pipe end - which most people managed to miss....

  I woke up at 6am, and I could have got up then. It was slightly tempting because it was starting to get light, but I had a pee, and then went back to bed to try for more sleep. I think I got about an extra hour of light sleep. I followed the usual routine of going to the bathroom for at least a pee, and hopefully a poo, but the latter didn't happen, and after eating so little yesterday, I may not go at all today.

  I did spent 5 minutes on the toilet twiddling my thumbs in case there was a late arrival, but it didn't happen. I was able to do this almost in comfort because when I woke at 6am I got the fan heater on the long extension lead, and put it on low in the bathroom. It was just about good enough to take the chill off the air, but the toilet seat and walls were still radiating waves of cold !

  The big thing this morning was to find out if I had done anything about all the weight I had put on, and the dangerously high blood glucose readings of the previous morning. I am happy to say I seemed to lose 1.3kg in 24 hours. Of course this is impossible in terms of loosing body fat, but through the day yesterday I did go for as many as 5 or 6 poos. One of which was very big. I also seemed to pee a lot during the day, but that was unsurprising because of my high blood glucose.

  I not only reset my weight, but reset my high blood glucose readings as well - except in one case. The Contur meter erad a very good 7.8mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter was in close agreement with another very good reading of 7.9mmol/l. Both these figures are coloured coded light green in my spreadsheet. The third reading was in the pink - one last stop before hitting the danger zone (in red). It was the Sinocare meter going out on a limb again with a reading of 9.0mmol/l. That was actually the best of three readings taken with the Sinocare meter. I really don't know why it does this sometimes. It must be using a different detector to maybe get around a patent, but one that is sensitive to other body chemistry. I am glad I have a selection of meters to compare it against, and ignore it if it is too different.

  There is one thing I have to do today, one thing I ought to do, and one thing I want to do. I have to do a small backlog of washing up in the kitchen sink. I ought to wash two more small hand towels. I want to finally have that walk in the sunshine I have been looking forward to for ages. If the weather forecast can be trusted it should be very comfortable walking with no coat on, and getting some sun on pale arms.

  There are two things left off that list that actually come first, and have a higher priority. The first is to take a short rest after uploading this to my web server. The second is to wash my hair, and have a nice shower. That should be enough to make me feel sort of human again.