This morning has started out bright and sunny again, but it is currently just 6° C. Once again it should warm up to 16° C after non stop sunshine. Tomorrow should also see full sunshine all day, but it may only warm up to just 14° C.

  After the really miserable day on Saturday, yesterday seemed to start with some sort of strange optimism. That was odd considering how bad my blood glucose was, and the need to do something about it. Fortunately the sunshine came as a saviour, and most of the day was fine. It is a shame that last night was a disaster !

  After I finished writing I had my usual short rest, and then I went and washed my hair, and had a shower. I dried myself off with the bathroom window open, and I didn't freeze ! That was a good omen. I decided I was definitely going for a walk, but only in the park because I never really expected to walk very far - but I did ! I did the full distance from home to Ladywell and back.

  I tried not to rush, but at times I was walking moderately fast. I relied on stopping to take photos, or at least consider various things as possible subjects for a photo, as a means of resting for a minute or two every now and again. When I got to Ladywell station I had a longer rest. I saw that a train was due in a few minutes going towards London, and another a few minutes after that going towards Hayes (Kent).

  What I was not expect was a third train. It didn't stop, but I think it was actually in service, unlike the occasional empty four carriage train I see that seems like it is on some sort of test run. I think the 8 carriage train was probably a service to Victoria that was diverted because of engineering works somewhere.

  Although I stopped to take quite a few photographs, I didn't think many were worthwhile showing - they were just sort of fillers, and an excuse to have a short rest from walking.
  I didn't actually see the culprit, but I think the damage to the bark of this tree was caused by the ring necked parakeets that live in the park. I believe one reason they have spread so widely, and have thrived, is that they can get nourishment from the bark of certain trees.
  I'm not sure what these flowers are. They seem to grow very close to the ground, and are yellow. That is about all I can say about them. Maybe I should add that they added a nice splash of colour when there is still not a lot of colour around this early in the year.
  I did have close ups of the front and back of this train, plus 2 others, but they were not exactly exciting. I thought this long shot, using my telephoto lens at near full magnification, made for a nice picture. It's more sort of dynamic....or something.
  I am almost happy with this picture. I find it very hard to get a good picture of a crow. All the black features tend to blend into one another, but I managed to get the exposure good enough to show some details of the feathers, and you can also just about see the crows black coloured eye. They truly are very black creatures.

  For much of this walk I enjoyed it, but the last eighth of a mile (at a wild guess) saw my legs suddenly get tired, and it was an uncomfortable walk from then on. 1.4 miles is typical for the walk to Ladywell and back. In the past I could do it at nearly 3 mph, maybe even a tiny bit more by not stopping at all, and just going as fast as I could manage. The time before last I could barely make 1.3 mph. The last time I got it up to 1.4 mph. Yesterday I managed an average of 1.6 mph, and I feel quite pleased with that. I suspect that I may have done a few short bits of it at twice that speed. 1.6 mph is an average speed and it was brought down by all the stops I made to take photos.

  After the pain of the last bit, it was good to get home, and after all the effort I thought I deserved some lunch. In fact lunch was a necessity because I would soon be drinking some beers - and a few of them were rather strong. I wanted something that would line my stomach without being too stodgy. I opted for rice crackers and paté. I think I probably had a bit too much of it, and my reason for that was that the paté was not very nice, and I wanted to use it all up.

  It wasn't long before Jodie arrived, a little earlier than usual, and she came laden with smelly vegetables. The worst was an onion that she diced into small pieces, and thus filled the air with a fine mist of onion. She then microwaved the onion, with other vegetables to generate even more smells ! While she was doing her cooking, I finished off a small can of beer while I waited for her to be ready to crack open one of the more exotic beers (the one I first drank was just an Aldi own brand beer).

  A few of the beers we shared were quite strong, and I had even more strong beers - beers that Jodie had tried in the past, often the very recent past, and was no longer interested in them. Towards the end I became very aware that I was slurring my words, although I didn't seem to feel drunk. As Jodie was getting ready to leave, I considered my dinner options. I thought I might have to cook a frozen ready meal, but then I remembered I had some sausages in the larder part of the fridge.

  They weren't ordinary sausages - they were Aldi's "Tuscan inspired" sausages. Generally they were ordinary pork sausages with some extra herbs. I think the predominant one was oregano. I cooked and ate all 6 from the pack, and I ate them with a can of giant beans with sausage meat. I think I had something for a dessert, and I think it was probably just some sugar free/no added sugar butter biscuits. There was just one other thing I ate, and I ate it like an apple while we were drinking. It was a big plum tomato.

  In theory I didn't think I had eaten all that much in total, but maybe some of the strong beers were like sugary food. To skip over the details of TV watching, I felt a bit stuffed when I went to bed at around 10pm. Much of the blaot feeling was wind, and I could taste the sausage herbs in every burp. As soon as I laid down in bed the bloaty feeling turned into bad heartburn. It was so bad that I am not sure it has even completely gone this morning. I was still tasting sausage and herbs at 6.30am this morning.

  I tried all the usual remedies, and all helped for a bit in some degree. I could not get to sleep like that, and after a few hours I seemed to almost stop feeling tired. I would be surprised if I got more than 2 hours sleep, and that includes maybe a single hour, more like a snooze, just a little while ago. I started writing this after designing a new page for the month of April, and actually started writing this at 5:05am.

  I did take a break, which included the snooze like sleep, and one or two visits to the toilet. The last visit included quite a copious poo, and I also went for a poo at about 4am this morning. The one thing I find hard to believe is that this morning I seem to have put on almost 2kg - which should be impossible in 24 hours, and more so after some exercise and seeming to not eat very much.

  Something weird is going on, and that is reflected in my blood glucose readings. The Contour meter read an astonishing 6.7mmol/l. I have only had a few readings that low this year. The GlucoRX meter read much higher at 8.6mmol/l. That was something more like what I expected. The Sinocare meter gave a reading of 9.2mmol/l. I conclude my real blood glucose is a little higher than I would like, but possibly not too bad.

  My blood pressure is as high as it was yesterday. That is high for me, but still in the "Normal" range. It would probably be lower if I had read it after eating, and after taking my blood pressure medication this morning. I am unsure about eating this morning. The way my weight has apparently shot up, I probably shouldn't eat for a couple of day. Unfortunately I am starting to feel almost hollow after the last poo, and a lot of farting and burping. Then there is the desirability to take my morning medication with breakfast, and also to stop the cod liver oil capsule repeating on me.

  Ideally I should go out for another walk today, but I think I have reasons to stay in. I would like to wash a pair of jeans and a medium sized bath towel today. Unfortunately, with one being white, and the other black, I will need to wash them separately. I am hoping that both will be able to dry on the washing line in the sunshine, although possibly not bone dry. It would be handy to go to Tesco today, but I wonder if that is tempting fate at a time when I should be eating the least possible. The first thing I will do after uploading this to my web server is to see if I can get another hour or two of sleep !