08:55 BST

  It seems we are back to the doom and gloom today. It is as the forecast says, rather dull outside. I hope that today the sun will break through by 2pm, as per the forecast, and won't be like the day before yesterday when the clouds only broke up in the evening, and when it was too late to see any sunshine. The best we can hope for today is just 22° C. Tomorrow may see the return of sunny spells, and that may increase the afternoon temperature to 23° C.

  It is hard to know whether to describe yesterday as good or bad. I think there were lingering effects of the dull and gloomy day the day before, and although it was bright outside, I still found myself lacking in enthusiasm to do much more than eat.

  One thing I had to do before I could wash my hair, and have a shower yesterday morning, was to get the towel I had left soaking in detergent (in a big bucket) out of the bath tub. I must admit I was not looking forward to washing that towel because it was more or less a full sized bath towel, and very heavy when saturated with water. In fact it was not quite as , bad as I feared. I did 5 rinses, and wrung it out 5 times before setting it aside so I could wash my hair and shower.

  My intention was to give the towel about 5 more rinses, and hang it up to dry before Jodie arrived for a beer tasting session. I actually only managed to do two things before Jodie arrived, and spent most of the time being very lazy. One of the two things was to do some washing up. There were a few things in the kitchen sink I did, and I also wiped down the kitchen surfaces.

  The second important thing I did was to order more beers. I have no idea of the status of my beer order from Left Field Beer, apart from the fact that they have taken my money. I have formed an idea that there is no one there to oversee and orders, and the web site and ordering system is just running automatically. I did get a confirmation email which also said they were on a family holiday, but would be back towards the end of July. Maybe they are caught up in a war zone or something, and are still "on holiday".

  Beer Merchants didn't seem to send me the usual confirmation email, but just now I got an email from DPD to say they were expecting my order soon. It is possible that if Beer Merchants are as quick as they have been in the past, I might even get my order delivered some time tomorrow. I just hope it is not delivered on Wednesday while I want to be in The Jolly Farmers at lunchtime.

  When Jodie arrived, a little earlier than recently, I had two beers for her I had bought in Aldi. One was a mini box of four cans of "IPA". I had tasted one the previous night, and while it was drinkable, I can't say I really liked it. Maybe it was no surprise that Jodie said it was quite nice. Out beer tastes have diverged a lot over the last few years ! The other beer was a German wheat beer. I was sure it couldn't be new, and that we would have had it before, but Jodie checked her records, and apparently not. She was very dubious about it in the belief that most German wheat beers have a sort of banana taste, but this one had a more nutty taste. We both agreed it was nice.

  After those two little triumphs Jodie had brought a couple of beers that were fruit and pastry sours. Both were like a slightly unpleasant milk shake, and I didn't care for either of them. I just had a small taster of each, and then opened something I knew I would like. Before Jodie left I opened two bottles of Aldi's version of Tequila Rose. The two bottles seem like they are based on two different tequilas. One was a very pale pink, and the other a stronger pink.

  Oddly enough it was the pale version that had the nicer, more strawberry taste, and is probably equal to the genuine Tequila Rose. That got Jodie checking the internet to see who else sold something similar, and in a couple of cases a similar thing based on a different fruit. She had that light in her eyes that made me think that she is going to start a new collection of bottles or labels now she knows that Tequila can taste nice as part of crème liqueur.

  After Jodie left I had my dinner. It was simply a ready made "rainbow salad" with extra mayonnaise, some coleslaw and some smoked mackerel. It was fairly nice, and I hoped it might be a healthy-ish option. I can't seem to remember what I had for a dessert. It may have been some ginger biscuits, but I think that was a day or two ago. There may be a bigger chance it was some ice cream (but not much).

   During the evening I watched some assorted TV - often skipping channels until I found something more interesting. The one thing I did watch in full was Have I Got News For You on Dave. That finished at 10pm and I headed straight to bed, but sleep did not come easy. It may have started with a pain under my left man boob. It was annoying, but I didn't think it was serious, and it probably wasn't. I assumed I might have pulled a muscle manhandling that big, waterlogged bath towel earlier.

  Later on I got the first hints of heartburn. At least I think it was heartburn, but it may have been triggering other things. I took two doses of antacid tablets before it calmed down. I also took a couple of Ibuprofen tablets to calm down and muscular/joint pain - which I did have, but it was only bothersome when added to other pains. One other pain was a hangover. I usually sleep through hangovers, but with everything else going on I didn't really get any proper sleep until gone 1am.

  Once I got that proper sleep I was generally OK for the rest of the night. One oddity was that I didn't seem to pee much during the night. That seemed unlikely but it was born out when I weighed myself the first time. I seemed to be a lot heavier than I should do. I also felt bloated. I had had several large poos yesterday, one in the evening, and I couldn't believe that could be the cause of the bloated feeling.

  I think it was about 5:30am when I turned the heater on low in the hope I could get more sleep, and that did work to some extent. I had been up for maybe half an hour when I realised I needed the toilet. I only had a small pee, but from somewhere I seemed to manage to pass a very large amount of soft, but not runny poo. After that I got on the scales again, and this time it was just really annoying instead of a disaster. I seemed to have put on 800gm. I am sure I never ate anything that could that, and so the beer must take some of the blame.

  The worst was yet to come. Despite not seeming to pee as much during the night, I had a feeling that my blood glucose would be very high this morning, and it was ! The Contour meter read 9.4mmol/l, and while below the red line (10mmol/l) it was highly undesirable. The GlucoRX meter was not as bad, and if it's 8.6mmol/l could be trusted it would not be that bad. The Contour Plus meter tended to agree with the Contour meter, but even worse. It read 9.7mmol/l.

  In light of the terrible weight and blood glucose readings I decided to skip breakfast. I failed at the first hurdle when I just wanted something to chew, and gave in to a small handful of peanuts. They usually have no effect on my blood glucose, but won't help my weight to go down (although the small quantity I had shouldn't be too detrimental). I have a plan to semi skip lunch too, but that plan would probably only work if the sun came out.

  Once I have finished writing this I will have my usual rest, but it is possible that it may not be the more usual short rest (half an hour). If I find my eyes closing I won't fight it, and if I sleep for an hour I won't regret it. One of the first things I will do after the rest will be to give the big bath towel up to another five rinses before hanging it up to dry. I can then have a shower and get dressed ready to ??????

  If the sun was shining, even just sunny spells, I am sure I could easily raise the enthusiasm to go for a walk. Maybe I might go to Ladywell and back even if it is dull, but I had a stupid hope I might do something more ambitious. One possibility, but very slightly boring, would be a walk in the Linear Park - that could be at east a 3 mile walk. A slightly shorter, but more interesting walk would be to get a train to Elmers End and that take a walk in the South Norwood Country Park. That could involve train and tram spotting.

  The trouble is that it is dull and depressing again, and at this end of the morning I have my doubts I will actually go out at all. I have even relieved myself of one possible short walk. To my amazement I got through first time to the pharmacy to order my next repeat prescription, and now don't have to walk there to make the order. I will (hopefully) pick it up on Wednesday on my way back from the pub. Meanwhile I have fighting the desire to eat for most of the day to look forward to. It would be a lot easier if I wasn't at home.