Nuclear batteries and intermittent fasting

Get up around six thirty to a fine day, Norman is still asleep but I wake him gently and persuade him to make use of the garden. We share a full English breakfast and both of the eggs are double yolkers! I bought them from the farm shop at Walkington Manor, before the holiday and will by some more tomorrow, as we are down to our last egg. After breakfast and a shower, I take Normy down the lane as far as the farm, before driving into Beverley for nine o'clock mass at St. John's. Father Roy takes the service, the choir is in good voice and I know two out of the three hymns, but the organist hits one or two bum notes. I suspect it is one of the youngsters learning to play. After communion, I collect Leslie from his bungalow and drive to Caffe Nero in Saturday Market. He makes his way upstairs, whilst I order, my holiday binge on Dutch Apple pie had expected consequences and by Friday I was producing catarrh, so now I am back on the wagon. I take our Americanos and Leslie's pain au chocolat upstairs and we catch up on the news of the last two weeks. He is convinced that Obama will win in the US, as he says, "nobody can't beat somebody", which neatly sums it up. I take him home for eleven thirty and then head back to Tickton, where I change into jeans and then proceed to edge the front lawn, dig out the dandelions and deadhead the roses. I do this the grandad way, sitting on my folding tripod stool and taking as much time as it task requires. On Wednesday afternoon the letting agent is calling round to check that I am looking after the house OK, they do this twice a year. Usually it's a young guy who sticks his head through the door for about two seconds and then disappears, but I am using the occasion to motivate myself to do a spring, sorry, autumn clean. I did the bathroom yesterday and today I do the Garden Room, washing down the PVC doors and cleaning the windows. No lunch today, because I am trying intermittent fasting, my brother, Graham, put me onto it, and after research on the Internet it seems worth trying. He has lost a stone and come off his blood pressure medication. BBC Horizon ran a program on it and the latest research suggests that it might aid the bodies natural ability to heal itself. I don't particularly need to lose weight, but would welcome any opportunity to reduce medication. I am particularly interested to see if it might be an alternative to my low sugar diet. I think the evidence is pretty clear that somehow, I have got a candida overgrowth in my gut, this triggers an asthma like auto immune response. I usually manage this by sticking to a very low glycemic index diet, but would be delighted to be clear of it altogether. Anyway I will see how I get on. After cleaning, I make a pot of tea and read the Observer on my iPad, they have reduced the price for the Guardian and the Observer combined, to just over eleven pounds a month. Norman pesters me for his tea at four, but I put him off until five thirty and then take him for a walk round the fields. The swallows have flown South in the last couple of days, all the cornfields have been harvested and red hawthorn berries hang like models of the DNA double helix from the bushes down the lane. The weather has been good in England whilst we have been away and the path through "almost straight wood" has dried out. It smells of pine and humous and is one of Norman's favourite places, dachshunds love to snuffle through leaves like little piglets, he also likes to check the trees to see who has marked their patch recently. To the West dark clouds are gathering and the forecast was for heavy rain by tea time, but with luck we will get round dry. The farmers are still hard at it, stacking bales of hay in the field using a yellow forklift type truck with adapted prongs. On our way into the drive one of Norman's little girls spots him, so we stop and let her pat him. When we get in, I give him a bowl of water and then look up nuclear batteries on the Internet. Leslie told me Westinghouse are about to market a small nuclear plant which is based on this technology and can power a town of twenty thousand people for ten years. Other developments in this area suggest that related technology could be adapted to power electric cars that would never need to be recharged. I think the Mars rover is using an early prototype of this technology. Whether a cost effective, safe, nuclear battery powered electric car will be available within my lifespan, remains to be seen. As it grows dark the rain arrives and it's comforting to listen to it falling outside from the warmth of the garden room. The roses and the lawns will be grateful for the water. The forecast for the week is sunny with temperatures around seventeen degrees, perfect for me. Having dealt with my garden, I need to deal with Pip's tomorrow, the lawns will need mowing and hopefully I can make a start on pruning the trees. It's now fourteen hours since we had breakfast and I don't feel particularly hungry, Graham told me that this intermittent fasting wasn't difficult, but will reserve judgement until I see how well I sleep on an empty stomach. Do a puzzle or two and then turn in around ten.