Today was said to be another day like yesterday on the BBC news last night, but this morning has started with some drizzle, and yesterday didn't. The whole afternoon is forecast to feature light rain, and that is more then yesterday. The ends of the day were only a degree or two above a frost, and this afternoon is forecast to be just 7° C, and nothing higher. Tomorrow may be brighter, and ultimately a bit warmer with 9° C in the afternoon, but the morning may be low enough for a frost, and just 3° C by midnight. It looks like we will have to wait until next Tuesday for a moderately nice day.

  Apart from writing yesterday's piece, I did almost nothing while waiting to see if the Amazon order that was not delivered the day before would be delivered yesterday. Once that was confirmed I still did very little. I think the recent change in the weather left me feeling very low.

  It was just after midday when I got the email to say my Amazon packet was now out for delivery again, but the only prediction for a delivery time was the useless "before 9pm". It would have been a super depressing and stressful day to have to wait that long, but fortunately a theory of mine turned out to be correct. That theory was actually more of an assumption the delivery route would start where it left off the previous day.

  That assumption was more or less right. Amazon gave no explanation as to why they could not deliver the day before, but I had a theory that the delivery van may have broken down, or some other disaster hit it. Once my delivery happened I got a big clue as to what happened. My packet/parcel smelt really strongly of perfume. I feel sure that what happened was that there was a breakage in the van, and with everything soaked in perfume it went back to the depot where anything untainted could go in one pile, and the rest left to at least dry out.
  I wanted to be sure there would not be any suggestions that Amazon could not deliver yesterday by saying that I was not in, or some other excuse. As soon as I saw the van pull up 2 houses away (that being the closest parking space) I grabbed a camera and took a snap !

  My delivery arrived at just gone 2pm, and that is fairly early under normal circumstances. It was also early enough that I was vindicated in no taking a chance and going to the pub. Depending on circumstances in the pub, I may not have even thought about leaving by then, and being a miserable sort of day I may have opted for a third pint at that time. It was good to get the items I ordered into my hands.

  There are good arguments that nothing I ordered was so important that it was worth getting stressed about when I got the items. The spare laptop power brick was just a spare for when the old power supply brick inevitably fails, and my web server dies until it can be replaced. I must admit I find it odd that the old, original power brick seems to be working well for now, but there must have been a reason why I replaced it with the cheap Chinese power brick several years ago.

  The bottle of Turmeric, Black Pepper and Ginger tablets was mostly to pad the Amazon order out to be sure of getting free delivery, and I have never been sure since taking similar tablets/capsules bought locally, if they do have reduce aches and pains in my ankles, knees, and hips when walking. In fact I have wondered on some occasions if they do the opposite.

  The third item of my order was either two free batteries and a charger, or a free charger and two batteries. The batteries were for my Canon EOS 1200D camera. After the last time I used it, and went to charge it, the light on the charger started to flash, and that usually warns of a faulty battery, but I had suspicions it was the charger that was faulty. The old battery seemed to charge perfectly on the new charger. I also topped up the two new batteries. I now have four, probably perfect batteries, and depending on how mad I went, I could probably go away for a week, and have enough battery power to take several shed loads of pictures without having to worry about re-charging the batteries (until I got home again).

  With the deliver done, and the items tested, I could have done anything - except I was just not even in the mood to have a shower at that point, and hadn't had one earlier. I was just in a sort of aimless mood. Earlier on, and making the great assumption that my delivery would be early, I thought I might still go out for perhaps a short walk in the park, or maybe a walk to the shops.
 At that time the weather was as kind as it could be for yesterday. Loads of the sky was blue, and the sunshine felt bright and warm. If I had gone out at that time I would have still needed a coat, and that bit of good weather was over in little more than half an hour, but I could have done a half circuit of the park, and possibly have got a few good snaps. Unfortunately I just could not raise the enthusiasm.

  I did end up doing something hopefully useful. I edited 5 episodes of The Simpsons, ready to watch with no crap before and after, and no crappy adverts in the middle.  For some reason I seemed to do those 5 episodes quite quickly, but they still took me up to the first TV programme I watched last night. It was an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series starting at 5pm.

  At about midday I had some lunch. It was two Ciabbati rolls stuff with beef and salad leaves. They seemed to be bigger and more filling than I thought. I should have opted for a light dinner which I started just before I changed channel to BBC 1 to watch the 6 O'clock news. I started with 6 mini pork pies that I had heated in the oven set to 140° C. It was the same setting I had used to warm up some mini sausage rolls, and they turned out really well. Sadly the pork pies just went sort of soggy, including the filling.

  Just those 6 mini pork pies (about a bite and a half in size) did seem more filling than expected, but I hadn't finished eating. I seem to have quite a lot of fruit at the moment, and some of it is getting close to spoiling. Last night additionally ate three small, almost ping pong ball sized, easy peeler oranges, and an extremely ripe small banana. I still had not finished eating because I had planned since the morning to eat a chunk of Angel Cake - which I did eat, even though maybe the original idea of eating it had long gone.

  To add to my discomfort during the night I also drank two 440ml cans of 8.4% Orangeboom strong lager yesterday evening. Not only is that lager not that nice, but I fear it may have a high sugar content, although there is no information on the can to confirm it, and the "made with only pure malt and hops" does suggest the sugar content had not been topped up with glucose syrup.

  After watching an episode of The Prisoner I went to bed feeling fine, or maybe just very slightly a bit full. I seemed to be OK laying on my back reading, but about 20 minutes later I put the book down, turned out the light, and turned onto my left side (the safer side I believe). Once again I started to get some light heartburn. I thought a couple of Gaviscon tablets would tame it, and they did enough to get an hour or so of sleep.

  During dinner in particular, I deliberately made sure I had eaten enough sugary stuff to raise my blood glucose enough so I would pee a lot in the night, and, in theory I would weigh less than the morning before when I had not peed much in the night, and seemed to be suffering from water retention. Half the plan worked, and I was going for a pee sometimes as often as once an hour. That had a bad side effect.

  My bedroom was cozy and warm, but outside, and in the bathroom in particular, it was freezing cold. The first time I got up for a pee the cold air started giving my angina like pains. Some of it was probably more heartburn, and some of it was old scar tissue in my chest from my bypass operation,, aching. Some of I am sure was actual angina caused by arteries closing up because of the cold.

  This same thing happen every time I went to the cold bathroom to have a pee. Sometimes it was not so bad, and I was able to relax enough to get back to sleep again, but sometimes it was quite bad. I even turned the heater up full for some of the night so I could warm myself up quicker. During one bad time I checked my blood pressure, and it was initially up in the danger area, but I think I was feeling stressed as I did it. Five minutes later I relaxed more, and although my blood pressure was still higher than my usual low figures, it was at least back in a safe area - the meter called it "High Normal".

  It all made for a painful night, and loss of sleep. I am unsure what might be blamed for it. Nothing I ate was hot and spicy - an easy way to bring on a bit of heartburn. I feel the heartburn was the trigger for the other things, although antacid tablets didn't seem to bring as much relief as usual. It must have been that my dinner was considerably bigger than it seemed to be.

  The plan to pee a lot in the night seemed to work well, but did not have the desired result. My weight this morning was hovering between the same as yesterday morning, and 100gm more ! Today In really must control my appetite better, and not just in relation to my weight !

  I knew my blood glucose readings would be up this morning, but it was not my intention for the readings to be as high as they were. The Contour meter read a horrendous 9.9mmol/l. That is only just south of the red line. The GlucoRX meter read a very slightly better, but still awful 9.7mmol/l. The Sinocare meter was right on the red line with a reading of 10.0mmol/l. Oh well it could have been worse - all three meters well over the red line. That would be a right disaster.

  The one measurement I was probably most curious about after all the Angina pains last night, was my blood pressure. I initially thought it was going to be high because the sound of the pressure cuff being pressurised seemed to take a long time. When I looked at it after it had finished I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice low reading of 103/43 - very slightly less than my typical average. Best of all was that was on the first and only attempt.

  In an ideal world I would be fasting for most of today, to get both my weight and blood glucose readings down. The problem is that it is a Thursday, and Jodie, and probably Michael will be over this afternoon for a beer tasting session. Even a couple of pints of beer can give me a raging hunger, and I may well have as much as three pints - and some of that could be extra strong beer !

  With that in prospect I will need to line my stomach before drinking. I would have had a couple of rolls for lunch, possibly filled with cheese, but I think I shall try and stick to rice crackers and cheese - but no sugary pickles with it. If I can control myself this evening I may just have a couple of Scotch Eggs, and possibly an apple for dinner. If I can manage that I may have my blood glucose back in control, and maybe I might even lose a few hundred grammes by tomorrow morning. I might even avoid heartburn and get a good sleep tonight.