One thing that is very obvious about this morning is that it is blood chilly. The forecast reckons we should be heading for 8° C, but I'm not sure it has fully reached 7° C yet. The sun has tried to come out a few times this morning, but it is battling with a lot of cloud. The latest revision to the forecast still says there should be non stop sunshine until it gives way to sunny intervals from midday. I am not optimistic that forecast is going to turn out right. The idea that the highest temperature this afternoon will be just a very cool 11° C doesn't seem to be far off the mark though. Tomorrows forecast shows the same pattern of sunshine and sunny intervals, but the day will start even cold, maybe 5° C, but will end up warmer less cool at 13° C.

  Yesterday, being a Sunday was very boring ! It was the one constant in these topsy turvey pandemic times. Maybe around 11am, when it was looking bright and sunny, I did think I ought to put on a coat (it was chilly outside), grit my teeth and go for a walk. Maybe just a short to medium length one, but by the time I could have been ready to go out the sun was starting to lose the battle with the clouds. It wasn't long after midday that it looked very unappealing outside.

  I was left with no option but to find other ways to amuse myself. It probably didn't help I think I had decided quite early on that I was going to have a lazy day. I did feel tired for the first half of the day, and probably into the afternoon after I have lost a lot of sleep during the night because of a stomach upset. I can't quite explain why, but it does seem being bored when feeling tired and lazy just amplifies the feeling of boredom.
  I did look around for things to do, and I should have spent a few hours in the back room, and done some useful cleaning and tidying down there. There is one job that would be very simple if it weren't for all the bending down, and that would be to clean the metal frame of my glass topped dining table. Instead of doing something sensible like that I decided I should clean up, and put fresh batteries in my old calculator (or one of them). The one above was in my old workshop, and was coated with many, many years of nicotine and tar. It is still discoloured after a good scrub with isopropanol alcohol, but with a brand new pair of AA batteries in it, it still works. What's more it can still display "BOOBS" - which is what calculators were invented for.

  One ironic thing I did during the morning, probably during a sunny interval, was to order a garden hose. By early afternoon I was left wonder if I had wasted my money because it really did look like the garden was about to get a very natural watering despite the forecast saying it would not rain. Back in the real world I think I really do need a hose if I am ever going to get the grass to grow on my lawn area. There is some sparse grass finally starting to grow, but the weeds are outdoing the grass 10 to 1 ! I did spend a few minutes in the garden with my hoe, decapitating the weeds yesterday, but I think it is going to be a long lasting battle to get the lawn, once it actually starts to look like a lawn, weed free.
  One solution to boredom might have been booze, but I did wait until after dinner before I cracked open first one, and then the other of the cans of 7% Polish beer. I have to say they were most pleasant ! A bit later in the evening I had another 2 bottles of bear. One was 6.5%, and the other a mere 3.8%. By tradition you start with the weak beer, and end up on the strongest. I did it the other way round, and it seemed to work out OK for me.

  I was slightly careful with what I ate yesterday. Lunch was a cheese salad based upon a Tesco ready prepared "simple salad", with cubes of double Gloucester cheese, and another "vegetable salad". The latter was Turkish in origin (I think) and as I have suggested before, is like a very chunky version of Heinz Sandwich Spread. I have seen several variants of the vegetable salads, all from the same maker, but without comparing the ingredients list closely it is not easy to say how they differ. All I know is that the big writing on the label, presumably the name of the product, is different. I know one variant contains some chopped meat. The mayonnaise goo that binds the finely diced vegetables together was probably the most unhealthy part of that meal.

  I did have a few nibbles during the day - mostly nuts. Nuts are high in calories, but don't seem to raise my blood glucose. It seems my dinner didn't raise my blood glucose level either. It was quite a healthy sort of meal It was nothing more than some heavily seasoned roast skinless and boneless chicken thighs served with sliced tomato and sliced cucumber. It was very simple, and surprisingly tasty.

  During the evening I had a phone call with Sue. As usual it went on and one and on, but I guess we were both pretty bored (although obviously not while talking to each other). Sue was feeling very pessimistic, and doesn't believe the pubs will open again this year, and maybe there will be very few, or indeed any gigs in the future. I wouldn't be surprised if the pubs wait until their financial situation seems stable before there are any pub gigs, and that might take until next year, but I feel sure the pubs must be allowed to re-open before summer is over.

  I made a point of terminating my call to Sue by midnight (or actually about 10 minutes past). I think that by half past midnight I was asleep, and sleeping well for a few hours. The only real interruption of my sleep was at about 3am when I realised that the icy feeling wind that was blowing into my bathroom through the open window was also cooling my bedroom. From then onwards I had to make sure I was well wrapped by my duvet. This morning my bedroom still feels a bit cool even with the heater on low. I keep wondering if I should turn it up full for a while, but that feels wrong for mid May.

  Despite being very bored through the day, which can be very dangerous when it comes to eating, it seems I was much more careful than I would have thought. At this point I am only considering one important indicator - my blood glucose level. This morning it was just 5.8mmol/l. If I could manage that every day I would be very happy. It tends to prove a controversial theory - that beer (excluding sweet fizzy lagers) doesn't cause any harm to blood glucose levels. In a way this is not surprising. If the yeast is allowed to finish it's work, and the brewer gets the amount of malt right for the type of yeast, the yeast converts all the sugar to alcohol.

  At this point in time I can't say what I will do today. I'm not even sure that I will do what I need to do. If the bathroom didn't feel so icy cold this morning I would trim my beard, and wash my hair before having a shower. The idea of standing around wet and naked in that cold room does not appeal. Even going to the toilet earlier almost had my teeth chattering ! I suppose I ought to close the window until the world warms up again, but that means a bit of faffing around - leaning over the bath to undo the security measures I use to allow the window to be partly open safely is a sort of annoyance. I really ought to install some simple catches to make opening and closing that window easier, but why complicate a system that has worked for the last 30 years....maybe to stop me shivering to death when washing my hair this morning !

  Looking out the window, and seeing black clouds instead of sunny intervals does not fill me with any great enthusiam to go for a walk today, but I guess I ought to do it. Maybe like I suggested yesterday morning, I might just go for a quick spin around the park wearing lightweight trainers. Yesterday I incorrectly said they would be comfortable when in fact they are more likely to be a bit uncomfortable unless it is a short walk. I may correct that error in my archive page for yesterday.


  Just as I was finishing the last sentence an email popped up on my PC. It seems my plans for today have just changed. I doubt this package will be delivered until late afternoon, but I don't want to take any chances and miss it. Maybe my plans for today will be to be on high alert, never more than 37 seconds away from the front door !

  My package allegedly left Amazon's Dartford depot at 9.45am. That is a about 2 hours earlier than usual, and I am guessing that it will arrive here mid afternoon, possibly around 3pm, but it could be any time up to 9pm. Fingers crossed it will be early afternoon, and I will be able to relax later this afternoon.