08:26 BST
Yesterday
morning was very dull, and the first
half of the afternoon was merely
dull. After that we did get some
sunny spells, and it seemed quite
nice after a completely ruined
morning. The afternoon temperature
reached 21° C.
This morning was supposed to be
sunny, but it is actually like the Met
Office forecast - very dull until
almost mid morning. Both forecasters
agree that from late morning the sun
will break through. At first it may be
just sunny spells, but from 4pm there
may be full sunshine. It should raise
the temperature up to 23° C. The TV
weather forecast last night did
mention today may feel very humid.
Tomorrow should be nice and bright,
and there could be quite a few hours
of full sunshine. 1pm could be an
exception when rain is predicted. The
temperature could reach 24° C
Yesterday did not get off to a
good start, and the dull grey light
left me feeling depressed, although
maybe not "depressed" in a real
clinical way, but who knows ? I did my
best to ignore it, and nearly went out
for a walk, and of course that was the
exact time it started to rain - when
the forecast said it wouldn't.

The picture above shows
how miserable it looked to the north,
although the view to the south was not
really any different. The only problem
is my mobile phone camera has made the
clouds appear lighter than they did to
the naked hour.
On the left is a picture of one
of my weather stations, and apart from
the time, which is sort of relevant,
it shows a weather prediction of
clouds with rain falling from them. At
this time it was still dry out, and I
started to prepare for a very gloomy,
but needed walk. I thought I might
walk to the station to pick up a copy
of The Metro, and then circle round to
walk through the southern end of
Ladywell Fields until the footbridge
over the railway, and than I would
walk back towards home. That would
possibly be just under a mile, but
enough to stretch my legs
I had had a shower, and had
just got dressed ready to start my
walk, and of course that was when it
started to rain. The forecast did say
there was a mere 10% chance of rain
for the hour starting at midday, but
with such a low chance it actually
showed it as dry. It was very briefly
very slightly heavy rain, but most of
it was just light rain, and I doubt it
lasted more than 15 or 20 minutes,
maybe even less, but it was the straw
that broke the camels back. I took off
my indoor clothes, and put on clothes
suitable for slouching around all day.
The only plan I had left for
the day was to finished a bit of
laundry I had left soaking in
detergent after my shower. It was just
one t-shirt, and a remarkable 7 pairs
of underpants. That is quite a
miss-match, and the explanation is
that I have several t-shirts hanging
up that have only been worn for little
more than an hour each. I suppose that
if I had a washing machine I would
probably wash than even after so
little use, but I feel I need to get a
bit more wear out of them before they
are ready for hand washing.
I did one thing that I
shouldn't have done - even though
ultimately it probably didn't matter.
At a time when I wanted to be very
careful about what I ate in an attempt
to get lower blood glucose readings in
the morning, I had what seemed quite a
big lunch. It was two Ciabatta rolls
filled with cheese and salad. I say it
probably didn't matter because I am
getting more and more hints and/or
reasons that I may soon move from type
2 diabetes to type 1, and end up on
insulin.
Becoming an insulin user is a
lot of fuss and bother, although I
guess that like everything, you get
used to it, and it all becomes
routine. I know, and knew (he is dead
now) two diabetics, and they suggested
that once on insulin you can eat what
you fancy, and it is all rather
wonderful......but then again both
are/were naturally skinny, whereas I
am not, and would still have to be
careful about what I ate.
Of course there are other
reasons for high blood glucose, and
one of them is the bodies natural
choice when fighting infection or
injury. I have neither that I am aware
of, but there may still be some
underlying reason. Although I feel I
have past the ages for getting most
cancers, there are a few that are more
prevalent in old age. Probably the
most popular is prostrate cancer, but
I am sure there are others. Maybe I
have cancer of the throat like Angela
(more or less exactly the same age as
me) had, but I still have no managed
to find out what he early symptoms
were, or how it was initially
detected. I do know that my throat is
now very sensitive to dust, dryness,
and anything else that would not make
me cough once upon a time, but seems
to now.
I spent most of the afternoon
reading, although I did finish the
laundry, and hand it up to dry
indoors. I am currently reading the
first Red Dwarf book. Like the second
book, which unfortunately I read
first, it is based on the TV series,
but goes into finer detail. At the
same time it feel as if it is quite
brief because a whole TV episode can
be covered in less than a chapter. It
was good to see the TV series so that
I became familiar with the characters,
and their environs, and yet the books
seem more enjoyable than the TV
series.
At about 4pm I gave in to
having an afternoon snack. It was not
needed for any better reason than a
form of real world entertainment. The
only trouble at this point is that I
can't remember what it was. I was
going to say rice crackers with
cheese, but for some odd reason I
don't think that is
correct.....thinks......ah, got it !
It was rice crackers and Aldi's own
brand garlic and herb "whipped cheese"
(a scoopable soft cheese), and it was
far superior to garlic and herb
Philadelphia cheese.
It was at 4pm when I turned the
TV on, but I was not always watching
it. For instance I didn't bother to
watch the 5pm original series Star
Trek episode, but I did watch most of
the 6 O'clock news while I ate my
dinner of ready roasted chicken
breasts with sliced pickled gherkins
and/or creamy coleslaw. The latter
probably had more sugar in than was
good for me despite seeming like it
might be a healthy thing to eat.
At 9pm I was heading for bed.
As usual, I read for half an hour or
more before trying for sleep. I could
still taste the coleslaw whenever I
burped, and so I too a couple of
Rennies antacid tablets as a
precaution. Generally my stomach was
not giving me any trouble, and that
was all the more remarkable after not
passing a single poo all day. The only
really negative thing was that I
started to pass a lot of wind, and it
had the most unpleasant aroma EVER !
I didn't feel I needed the
heater on last night, but I woke up
after maybe 2 hours sleep feeling
cold, but not very cold, although I
knew it would get worse as the
temperature dropped outside. I tried
pulling the duvet over me, but like
the night before (or was it the night
before that ?) but I seemed to warm up
in the wrong places. I ended up with
some bits feeling too warm, and others
too cold. I gave in and put the heater
on, and hoped the thermostat was low
enough to nut burn too much
electricity. In fact it was two low
and I woke up a few hours later
feeling a bit cool. I then turned the
thermostat up too high.
Last night was another night
when I know I had dreams, but the
memories of them are just out of
reach. That is another shame because
one thing I do remember is waking up
(to go for a pee) and thinking "that
dream was worth describing", and then
possibly forgetting about it while
having my pee. I didn't get up very
early this morning, but I did try not
to dawdle because I have stuff to do,
mostly taking stuff out to the wheelie
bins, before I can go out. Some extra
time to hopefully have a poo or two
would be useful too. I am starting to
feel constipated now !
I had had a few reasonable
sized pees in the night, and another
when I got up. Sadly no poo movement
yet. Maybe I did have some control
over my eating yesterday, even if it
was not enough to save my blood
glucose level. The scales said that I
lost 200gm, and I dare say it could be
more is I could empty my digestive
tract. 200gm is not a lot, but it is
in the right direction, although not
enough to get back down to my weight
when I saw the nurse (although it is
exactly the same as it was the day
before I saw the nurse).
After loosing that little bit
of weight it seemed to suggest that I
was in better control of my eating
than I thought, but but my blood
glucose says otherwise. The big
trouble is that I can't think of
anything in particular that I ate that
I can point my finger at, and say "you
did this". My blood glucose is scarily
high this morning, although no reading
has actually crossed the red line into
the actual danger zone. All three
readings are however, in the
pre-danger zone !
The contour meter read
9.5mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read
9.3mmol/l. I was quite surprised that
the Sinocare meter didn't take off an
go into orbit. For a change it agreed
closely with the other two with a
reading of 9.4mmol/l. I am
theoretically still safe from the
worst that high blood glucose can do
to me, but readings above 9 can be the
cause of zits, spots and boils on the
inner thigh because the blood flow
there is generally slow and toxins can
build up. I don't think that general
blood flow is low enough to worsen
things like angina, but sods law says
it probably does.
It is still very grey outside,
but the sun should break through soon
if the weather forecast carries the
merest hint of truth. Even some sunny
spells, probably all we can expect,
will be good enough to make me want to
walk all the way to the pub today. I
will have to go via Ladywell station
to pick up usual 2 copies of The Metro
- one for me, and one for Ayse. I
expect I will have my usual 2 pints of
Guinness and do my best to do the
crosswords. The big unknown is whether
I will be joined by Kevin today. I
think he is reluctant to give me any
advance warning because like me, he is
now of the age when you can't predict
when you will be fit to go out. I am
not sure I am fit today, but at least,
just two paragraphs ago, I went to the
toilet, and I am technically no longer
constipated (although I predict there
is a lot more to come !).