The Met Office forecast shows very grey clouds for this morning. The BBC forecast (shown above) shows white cloud. I think reality is somewhere between the two. At about 7.40am we came very close to a sunny spell, and it seemed the cloud was not that thick. The temperature, without the aid of sunshine, could peak, for a single hour, 2pm, at 9° C. Then we may get a sunny spells, but the temperature will still fall back to 8° C. Like yesterday, the night temperature may only fall as low as 5° C. Tomorrow morning may start at 3° C, but it is currently shown as a sunny day, and all the sunshine could warm it up to 9° C for most of the afternoon. The wind will be from the west, and may feel quite gentle.

  Yesterday was mostly good, although the aftermath of it is not very good at all. The best and worst part would have been the afternoon drinking, and yet I feel I can only blame some of my woes on that. In fact I am not sure what to blame the worst of my woes on.

  Yesterday my day seemed to start better than many morning, except for the one high blood glucose reading that the Sinocare meter showed. The other two meters concurred with each out that my blood glucose was actually moderately low. On top of that my weight was lower, and my blood pressure was nice and low. It seems sort of weird that so much can change in 24 hours, but I'll come to that a lot further down the page.

  As I mentioned yesterday morning, I felt like I fancied stretching my legs, but I didn't think the weather was good enough for a walk in the park. When I went out I felt that my negativity about the weather was more or less correct. In a warm coat it was good enough for a walk as far as Savers and Poundstretcher. I think I managed to walk at an almost normal speed, and that almost felt good, although when I reached the shops I was feeling like I was right on my limit for a non stop walk.

  In Savers I topped some of the vitamins I was getting low on, and also some Ibuprofen and Paracetamol. Then it was across the way to Poundstretcher. I mostly bought food in there - a couple of their not great, but good enough, very cheap, 5 packs of instant noodles. Two other notable items were a can of mackerel in brine, and a twin pack of cans of basic canned peas. Then, with a few other items, I walked home, and once again I found myself at the limits when I got home, and that was after not being able to get up a good walking speed in the home direction.

  After putting away my shopping I made some lunch, and it was a bit different to usual. Although I may have doubts now, it felt like it might have been semi healthy when I made that lunch and ate it. Basically it was two not really very crusty rolls that were getting a bit stale filled with mackerel from the newly bought can with some white pepper, some sliced pickled gherkin, and a splat of mayonnaise. They were OK, and may have been a lot nicer on fresh rolls.

  After eating the rolls I felt like it would be nice to lie down, and read while letting them settle down. I actually had a fair bit of work to do to prepare the place for a drinking session with Jodie. I thought I had at least 90 minutes son there didn't seem to be much of a rush, and in fact I had over two hours because Jodie arrived later than expected. By 3:15pm I had finished my chores, and I started on a can of low-ish strength beer while I waited and waited.

  I think it was about 3:45pm when Jodie arrived, and it was 10 to 15 minutes before she was ready to start drinking. Once we started I was quite surprised that she wanted to try a few of my new beer delivery instead of beers from the box she had got delivered here, although we did have been from both. One beer of Jodie's we had was one of her typical fruit sour beers, but it didn't seem as horrible as most. By the time I had finished my half glass my taste buds had been numbed enough that I was starting to get hints of enjoying it.

  One from my box that I particularly liked was a stout with Irish cream. It was extremely drinkable, although Jodie was disappointed that it was thinner than she expected. She thought it would be thick and creamy - like some of the often, but not always, sour "pastry beers".  Jodie left at about 6:30pm to get a bus to Bromley where she would be meeting Alan in the Star And Garter - who apparently had a beer or two on that she just had to have !

  While Jodie was preparing herself to go out, going for a pee, and putting on her several layers of coats, I prepared my dinner. It was not the one I thought I would have, and it was one I have never had before. It was grilled mackerel and peas under a covering of melted herb and garlic infused grated cheese. It was very nice, although because I had already eaten half the fish in the can in my lunchtime rolls, it seemed quite a small dinner.

  I was going to top it up with some fruit, but maybe the booze made me cook a pack of chicken (allegedly) filled spring rolls. I don't think I even wanted to look at their nutritional content, and just wanted to scoff the lot because I thought they would be delicious. They were not ! They were not actually horrid, but I can't think of a good thing to say about them. They could well have also been instrumental in some bad health readings this morning.

  The only TV entertainment on last night was a string of episodes of The Simpsons. The last two were new episodes, and so I watched and recorded them. The last finished at 9pm, and I went to bed. I read for a while, but I think I may have fallen asleep not long after, and possibly before 9:30pm. I then slept for at least an hour, possibly two before waking up. I needed a pee, but it was a lot smaller than I thought.

  Maybe another reason for waking up was that I felt dreadful. It wasn't the more common chest pains from heartburn, or cold induced angina, although I did have a bit of mild indigestion, but mostly it was a hangover ! I think I may have been sleeping awkwardly as well because my neck felt like it had been resting on a rock. It may have taken as much as an hour, but the usual remedies worked well enough to get back to sleep.

  At that point I can't be sure if I slept well, or slept badly. I know I didn't pee much at all during the night, and I suspect I might have even got a straight 4 hours sleep without waking. At some point I had an interesting dream. It was another dream about being back at work, although in no place I recognise. I seemed to be hand making parts for aeronautics - probably, but not necessarily a plane.

  In some ways it was curious because what I was making seemed more like it could be used in a very high end audio mixer. I featured two "volume controls" (as a simple description) with very clever circuitry to keep them always identical in effect. Power and signals entered and left via a Mil Spec (Military specification) version of a din plug. It was made or silve plated solid brass, and of course had a locking ring.

  While I was soldering stuff up I remarked how nice that connector seemed. The storeman who had a desk near me, and over heard me, asked me to guess how much that one connector cost. I said I thought it must be at least £5. The storeman said add a zero to the end - £50 for as single connector ! Like my wiring and soldering, it would have been hand made, and I suppose that £50 is less outrageous because of that, but Mil Spec stuff still carries a huge premium for all the paperwork that goes with it. It is no wonder that even NASA has been experimenting with COTS (Cheap Off The Shelf) stuff for some things that are only designed for a limited life.

  I don't think I realised how early I got up this morning. I was definitely trying to stay asleep, but sort of gave up. It was closer to 6am than usual. By 7am I had completed my health checks, and was having my breakfast - a single, medium small bowl of instant noodles because my health checks had been awful. My lack of peeing in the night suggested low blood glucose. That idea could not have been more wrong.

  The first terrible outcome was that it seems my weight has shot up ! It should be impossible, but I appear to have put on 1.5kg in 24 hours. I suspect much of that is water retention for some hard to work out reason. A bit more of it isn't exactly constipation, because I have successfully done a poo, but about the smallest possible. It is as if I am all blocked up or something. Even my blood pressure took a couple of tried to get a reading of 115/51 - still perfectly good, but higher than most mornings.

  Not peeing much in the night was not because my blood glucose was low. On the contrary it is rather high. The Contour meter read a very high, almost to the red line, 9.8mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read a better 9.3mmol/l, but that is still bad. The only good thing is that the Sinocare meter didn't go over the top as it often does, but even 9.2mmol/l is very undesirable. I am going to have to try and fast as best I can today.

  I feel quite rotten this morning, and I think 100% fasting is never going to happen. For one thing I have one not very crusty, crusty roll left, and I have to eat it before it goes completely stale. I have some opened ham that I also need to use, and the two can be used together with some mustard for my lunch.

  The worst thing is that I feel I need to go to Tesco today. The need is more that tomorrow should be bright and sunny, and I expect I will want to try and get out to frolic in the sunshine for a bit....or longer. So going to Tesco today is sort of important. That can bring some bad temptations, but I intend to find where they hide the calorie controlled meals when they are not on the reduced price. I am also thinking that tonight I could have a home made, very basic cauliflower cheese. I think that some half boiled, and then roasted with cheese on top, cauliflower could be quite health apart from the fat from the cheese. Hopefully if I can stick close enough to these ideas I can start tomorrow with the worst readings back down to normal.