Grumpy.

I’ve mentioned several times on this blog that my body – especially my upper body – is sensitive to changes in the weather. Well, it’s also becoming increasingly sensitive to household chemicals, and now I have a problem.

I have an old fashioned enamel bathtub in my bathroom which functions as both bath and shower, and for several years the lime scale has been building up and depositing an unpleasant brown stain on the surface of most parts of it. This week I decided to tackle the issue and set to with a squirty thing containing a proprietary lime scale remover and a scrubbing brush. Now I feel ill, and I’ve little doubt that the Dettol Lime Scale Remover is the offending agent. It wouldn’t be such a catastrophe if all the stain was removed, but it isn’t. Much of it is, but at least a second application will be needed if the poor old bathtub is ever to be properly shining white again.

And on the subject of health issues – of which I have an enviable cocktail since the kidney cancer started the ball rolling – I watched a YouTube video presentation last night in which some American doctor told me what I mustn’t eat if I’m to ease one of them. No sugar, no soya (which he called soy because he’s American), no dairy products of any kind… I switched off at that point because I was becoming depressed.

It would mean no chocolate, no sugar on my breakfast cereal, no jam or marmalade on my toast, no grilled cheese and oatcakes, no spread containing buttermilk, no potatoes and vegetables tossed in butter and herbs, nothing containing caramel (which I very much like), no vegetarian chilli or Bolognese… And even the instant gravy I have with my vege pie dinners contains milk powder. That’s most of my diet gone. I decided to be a masochist and pick up the video again, just to see what the doctor from America would tell me I can eat to improve the issue: tomatoes.

I do actually like tomatoes. I buy Sainsbury’s most expensive little plum tomatoes and occasionally snack on them, but can you live on tomatoes? Would I want to live on them? Hardly, so it appears I still have to live with the deleterious consequences of an unsuitable diet.

And tomorrow I have to get up early in order to something I don’t want to do. I have a number of pet hates, two of the most hated being:

1. Getting up early with the alarm.

2. Doing things I don’t want to do.

So I’m in a bad mood.