We are definitely taking a break from warm sunny days today. We have already had what seemed to be quite a heavy fall of rain, judging by the size of some puddles I can see outside, and there could be more rain before the clouds start to break up. I must admit that when I look outside, at an almost black sky, it seems unlikely that we will have sunny spells this afternoon, but that is what the forecast shows. It is possible that the temperature will reach 14° C for a single hour at 2pm. Clear skies tonight mean that tomorrow may start rather cold, maybe just 4° C, but strong sunshine should warm the day up to 14° C by early afternoon. Tomorrow could be the start of a 6 day run of fine warm weather.

  I think I can describe yesterday as a good day, or it was most of the time. Two things spoiled it a bit, although the worst of the second thing possibly peaked after midnight. On second thoughts, maybe yesterday's beer tasting session was not one the better ones.

  I started writing a little later than recently, yesterday, and writing 2,512 words took some time (getting all my spelling, punctuation, and general grammar perfect would have probably added an hour to that time). By the time I finished writing it was warming up nicely, and it felt like I might have to rush to achieve my next objective - going shopping in Aldi. Of course I had at least a half hour rest before I did anything else.

  That "anything else" was to have a shower. I didn't feel the need to wash my hair, or to shave, having done both the day before. Eventually I was clean, dry and dressed ready to go out. I am not sure what my outside thermometers were saying, but it seemed, and was warm enough to not bother with a coat when I went out.
  This was my view about half way to Aldi. I think the tree is a cherry tree, and I remember it being in full flower about this time last year, and instantly sneezing from the pollen as I walked under it. This year I didn't seem to get any reaction. The other thing this snap shows (taken on my mobile phone) is that gorgeous clear blue sky.

  I wore what I hoped, and was one of my more comfortable shoes as I walked to Aldi, but I still felt my legs were struggling a bit. The joy of the sunshine and blue sky was probably making me try to walk to fast. Stopping for a few tens of seconds to take the above picture seemed to give me the amount of rest I needed, and I ended up at Aldi feeling moderately good.

  A lot of what I bought in Aldi was for making beef and horseradish rolls. I bought all three ingredients, but forgot to buy some fresh aromatic salad leaves. I also bought what was probably a very bad idea for last night's dinner - even if Rogan Chicken (it is usually lamb, but I thought chicken worth a try) was actually very nice. Maybe I should blame the samosas as well for some pretty intense heartburn last night.

  It turned out that I spent rather a lot in Aldi, and I ended up with quite a weight of shopping to carry home. I marched out of Aldi into the sunshine, and I think In tried too hard to do a fast walk home. I assumed that like past experience has shown, all my leg joints would have loosened up after the walk there, and then the slow walk around inside the store. That was probably about right, but the weight I had to carry soon took it's toll on me in far more general ways than just stiff legs. I arrived home with angina starting, and it seemed to take a long time (maybe 10 minutes) to settle down.

  Once I had put all my shopping away - except for what would be my lunch, I ate that lunch. It was medium nice, but not as exciting as I thought it would be (assuming my memory of it from years ago was that it was really good). It was two packs of sushi - one vegetables, and the other chicken and duck. May it was just guilt, because the nutrition panel didn't read like a happy story, that diminished my enjoyment. I was aware that it would not be that good for me as I put it in my shopping trolley, but something like nostalgia is a terrible way to conduct my eating.

  I had a little while, in fact more than I thought because Jodie arrived a bit late, to get things ready for the beer tasting session. We started off sharing two cans of two very similar, but different beers from the Beak brewery. The first was not too bad, but neither suited my palate. I do prefer my beers to seem less like a glass of fog, and to not be really sour ! Later on we did have some nice beers.

  Michael turned up a bit later than usual, and said he could only stay for a maximum of one hour. That gave us time to open a can of Lervig (the brewery) light pilsner. Lervig are on of Jodies favourite breweries, but this Pilsner lager was rather different to their usual fare. We all agreed it was at least pleasant. I think I might have enjoyed it a little less because I knew how much I had paid for it. As an "exotic" import it probably cost twice the price of a can of one of the better English lagers.

  Michael stayed a good 15 to 20 minutes past his stated intention of only staying for an hour. He seemed very slightly more cheerful yesterday, but he needs these drinking sessions to unwind a bit from all his troubles - generally to do with his wife's state of mental and physical health. He and Jodie left at the same time. Jodie was doing her usual of getting a train to meet Alan in The Three Hounds near Clockhouse station.

  I usually try and get my dinner cooking before Jodie and Michael leave, but with my main course being a ready meal, that took just 7 minutes in the microwave I didn't do anything in advance. Once it had cooked I used the microwave to cook some samosas. With hindsight I think they would have been nicer if cooked in the mini oven - mainly because that would have probably crisped up the pastry shell.

  The Rogan Chicken was enjoyable, although I think I still prefer the lamb version to chicken. The samosas were a disappointment. One problem is that they were too got when I ate them, and that stopped me getting the full flavour of the filling, although I have doubts it would have been a lot tastier at a better temperature. Crisping up the pastry (I am not sure of a good word for it - it was definitely not batter, but pastry makes it sound more like some sort of sweet thing, which it wasn't). It may have been the greasiness of those samosas that caused a lot of trouble later.

  I was too late to watch the national news, but I did watch the local news on The BBC. It was far from exciting, and seemed very dull. I did watch the whole of Star Trek: Voyager. It was one of the better episodes featuring the adventures of Captain Proton - a 1940's style SciFi reproduction in the "Holodeck" as a recreational pastime for some of the crew. The thing that ruined it was that Captain Janeway had to enter the holodeck as the character Arachnia - queen of the spider people. Even in black and white, and wearing a typical 1940s "sexy" outfit, she still looked like a sack of spanners.

  I was about to say that the last thing I watched was an episode of have I Got News For You. I know I intended to watch it, but I can't seem to remember a thing about it ! I was feeling rather tired my than, and I suppose I may have been distracted by a mild hangover by then. The hangover was the least of my worries after I tried to get to sleep in bed, although it may still have added a pinch of discomfort.

  As seems oddly normal, I seemed to feel basically OK until I tried to go to sleep last night. I knew it was heartburn that was starting, but I never did guess how bad it would get. I stopped trying to sleep, and went and sat at my PC as a distraction. I took a couple of Gaviscon tablets, and they didn't seem to give more than a vague hint of relief. I next tried some Ibuprofen. That has usually provided much relief if it was not heartburn, but some muscular trouble from among the operation scars on my chest (heart bypass operation in 2013).

  Even Ibuprofen didn't work. I began to wonder if it might be real angina building up to a heart attack. I checked my blood pressure and it was rather high, but still a bit short of the danger area. When I relaxed as best as I could my blood pressure came down, but it was still higher than my typical readings (the blood pressure meter described it as "High- Normal".

  When sitting at my PC I felt dreadfully tired, but the discomfort faded right down. I tried to go back to bed a couple of times, but the discomfort just came back. I had one other particular discomfort. My left index finer felt very sore. It felt exactly like I had been scalded by steam, and it is possible that did happen as I opened my ready meal after taking it from the microwave. The trouble was that I could not see any reddening, as a for instance, of any damage. I wondered if it could be something like a blood clot stopping blood getting to that finger. I used my Pulse Oximeter to check both the indication of my pulse rate, and blood oxygen level, and it was perfect (I was able, with a bit of special breathing, to get the oxygen saturation up to 100% - and not many people can manage that).

  The final cure for what was heartburn was some "Acidex" - a liquid suspension of chalk and other weak alkali's. Unlike the chewable antacid tablets, that Acidex does coat the inside of the gullet as it goes down. I wished I had tried that first because I probably would not have lost so much sleep last night. I think it was a bit after 2am this morning before I got some sleep. I part made up for the loss of sleep by managing to sleep until 8am this morning.

  After getting up it was the usual routine of going for a pee, trying for a poo, and then weighing myself. Fortunately it seemed a slightly bigger pee than usual, and I did do quite a substantial poo. All that meant my weight was exactly the same as yesterday - and that is at least 1kg higher than it should be. For reasons I'll come to soon, it is unlikely I will be able to lose any weight today.

  My blood glucose was, once again, OK, but not as good as I would like. The Contour meter read 8.4mmol/l, and that is good enough. The GlucoRX meter read 8.7mmol/l, and while still OK-ish, it is a bit higher than desirable. This morning the Sinocare meter was back to it's old tricks with a reading of 9.1mmol/l, and that is too high. The only good reading this morning was my blood pressure. It was 106/43, and that is very good - I hope !

  The sky looks very cloudy, but more or less on time we have had some sunny spells now. At the moment I can't imagine we will get too many sunny spells at least for some time unless the sky gets a lot clearer. Ideally I would be going out for at least an short walk today (maybe just to Ladywell and back) but that still mostly grey sky does not enthuse me. I feel it might be more productive to stay in and do something like some laundry.

  The tricky thing will be trying to improve my blood glucose and weight today. I feel I have rather painted myself into a corner after going shopping yesterday. I have some stuff that is quickly perishable, like the wholemeal rolls I bought from Tesco nearly a week ago. Some things are less perishable when stored in the fridge, but will still have to be used up sooner or later. Fortunately none are specially bad for my blood glucose or weight, but neither are they good for either. I can try, but I feel I won't be reporting any significant improvements tomorrow. However, tomorrow marks teh start of a probably week of good weather. I may take a few more of my precious Clopidogrel tablets and hope they allow me to start doing some longer walks in the warm sunny days to come.