09:09 BST

  The forecast for today looks grim, but maybe the latest revision is slightly less grim (by the skin of it's teeth). The latest revision shows the thunderstorms starting at midday, and the lead up to them to be just mid grey sky. They could continue until 4pm. The Met Office forecast is a bit different. That warns of thunderstorms, but doesn't actually show any on the chart. It shows "light showers" at midday, "heavy showers" at 1 and 2pm, and then "heavy rain" at 3pm. At 4pm they say "light showers", and after that it should be dry, but still dull. Both forecasters predict a high of 21° C today. Tomorrow could start chilly at just 14° C, and it will rain, but from 11am the sun should break through to bring sunny spells for the rest of the day. The afternoon high may only be 20° C. Tuesday may see the return of sunnier weather, and the build up to another heatwave towards the end of the week.

  Yesterday, the dismal weather, even if it was almost dry, had a dismal effect on me, and while I didn't feel depressed at any time, my actions, or lack of them, strongly suggested otherwise. I did one physical thing and one bit of experimentation on myself by way of altered diet.

  As well as the cold and grey weather to make me feel low, I was not happy that I had not lost more of the recent blip in my weight. One potentially dangerous thing was to have another of the habenero and lime flavoured Korean instant noodles. The first one seemed to be really hot - both physically and spicy. I wondered if it was the cause, or contributed to my adventures in the night, and on the toilet, and somehow made my weight shoot up.

  I made two changes when I prepared those noodles yesterday. I used less water, and that mean there was less boiling water to cool down. I expected it would make the flavouring more intense, but curiously it didn't. I allowed more time for the noodles to cool off a bit, and maybe not scalding my mouth with spicy "soup" just made it seem a lot milder. In fact it was a little disappointing, although though still very nice.

  After I had finished writing, my plan was to have my usual rest, and then have a shower. I was curious to see what changes had been made to Aldi after there few days of closure for refurbishment/improvement. The problem here was that I had a hand towel soaking in it's big bucket in the bath, and I would have to get that out of the way before I could shower. Things probably went downhill from there.

  I couldn't seem to find the enthusiasm to finish that laundry job, and the cold grey sky outside just multiplied the lack of enthusiasm. The next hurdle was that I began to feel that there was no good reason to go out for any shopping from anywhere. I had sufficient food in the fridge, and some of it needed using up before too long. In theory I should have been trying to avoid temptations of things to eat while I was hoping to get my weight back down.

  I say "in theory" because while that could have been ideal, in practice I almost did the opposite. One thing was bugging me, and it was that my weight did not go back down again, and perhaps had partly gone up because I was peeing less - particularly at night. That might suggest as a kidney problem, but I noticed a better reason.  A condition called oedema. The NHS page I've linked to is interesting, but misses one important point.

  I first suffered from Oedema after my quad bypass operation. It was, and has always been when it flares up, the left leg - the leg where an artery was removed for the bypass transplant. I was prescribed a drug, Furosemide when I left hospital. I may have been on it for up to a year, but it did the trick, and the swelling of my left leg when right down. It has come and gone in a quite mild way a few times since then (2013), but last night my leg seemed to be very swollen in comparison with my right leg. I'm not sure it can account for all my weight gain.

  In a bid to actually raise my blood glucose level, and so make me pee more, I ate several things that should have added a fair bit of sugar to my diet, and that included two slices of angel cake - one of which was in the evening. I suppose the angel cake was the most sugary thing I ate, but I didn't hold back on a few snacks, and had a (Tesco ready meal) prawn curry for dinner. Essentially it was almost like I was eating all the wrong things, although it probably only added up to a bit more than I might have eaten if I was set on controlling my food intake.

  It was about mid afternoon before I gritted my teeth, and went to finish washing the hand towel that had been in soak for so long (on Friday I lightly wrung it out, and left it in a big bucket, ready to add hot water after I had had my shower, and washed my hair prior to seeing the nurse). I had actually started washing that towel on Thursday !  After losing count of the amount of rinses I gave it, I hung the towel up to dry indoors. I probably could have hung it on the washing line, but the sky did look like it could start to rain at any minute (it actually stayed dry).

  It was only in the evening when I did other stuff - no reading until later when I went to bed, and I had finished the laundry. I amused  myself in the evening by doing some cack handed multi-tasking. That is supposed to be the posh way of saying I watched a documentary about Jimi Hendrix on Sky Arts, and then, as soon as they started a long and boring ad break I would switch to Dave where they were showing three back to back episodes of Red Dwarf. I would then watch that until Dave showed an ad break, and then go back to Sky Arts for more Jimi Hendrix.

  I'm not sure when anything finished last night, but I suspect it was around 10pm when I went to bed. I managed to read a couple of pages before I put the book down, turned out the light, and quickly fell asleep. My increased peeing in the night - mostly in quantity rather than frequency - was as desired, and I hoped for the best. I think watching Red Dwarf earlier inspired one dream last night.

  The dream did not feature the character "Cat" from Red Dwarf as represented in the TV show, but someone who had similar characteristics....although when I try to remember the dream I am not sure I can actually recall seeing the person. The significant thing about Cat is that he has, in human form, many of the characteristics of a cat - always grooming, and being very egotistical. The significant thing for my dream is that he has a huge wardrobe, and always likes to be extremely well dressed. In the dream there was a character who owned something like a slim, but just as long, Volkswagen microbus. It had been fitted out as a mobile wardrobe.

  I am sure there was more to the dream than that, but just about my entire memory of the dream is seeing the open side of the vehicle, and inside there was a rail from front to back with clothes of all descriptions hanging from it. There was also little lockers/cupboards with trinkets and stuff in them.

  When I got up I went for one more pee, and passed a fair bit of wind (but no poo), and then weighed myself. Yesterday I seemed to have lost 200gm, and this morning I had put that 200gm back on. I am now back to the weight I was the day before yesterday - the morning when, after spending an hour on the toilet in the early hours, found I had put on 1.6kg when I thought I had passed so much poo that my weight should have been less, and not more.

  There were enough clues to believe I had probably ruined my blood glucose level this morning, but it seems I hadn't.  Both the Contour meter and GlucoRX meter gave readings of 7.3mmol/l, and that is still very good. This time my new Contour Plus meter read 7.7mmol/l, and although not quite as good, is still very good.  All three average out to 7.43mmol/l, and that is less than last Friday, and the same as last Tuesday. Last Wednesday was exceptionally low, and yesterday was slightly lower. Everything is in the green, and I am very happy with every day this month, and also the last day of June when this run of low readings started.

  Today brings a chance, possibly two chances to ruin it all over again. If I have the time and inclination, I may get to Aldi today. It would be handy to see if they have any interesting beers. Sooner or later I am going to have to make an order with one of the beer companies to top up my dwindling amounts of exotic beers. Something exotic, or at least a bit unusual, would be good for this afternoon when Jodie will be over for some beer tasting. Of course I would not blame her if she declined to go out because of heavy rain and may thunderstorms. I certainly won't be going to Aldi if it is pouring with rain.

  This afternoon should be another beer tasting session like last Thursday, when I made a point of reducing my booze consumption. Like last Thursday, I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow morning, and to make matters worse it is at 11am, and so I ought to try and appear bright eyed and bushy tailed.  This appointment will be all about my cardiovascular problems, and my blood glucose and weight will probably not matter - although I would not be surprised to be told that a lower weight, and maybe lower blood glucose, would help my problem. One other problem is that I probably won't have time to finish writing before I have to leave to go to the surgery, but I will finish it when I get home.