As I write this it should be sunny, but it is currently quite cloudy. I forgot to check, but having been outside to hang some washing on the line, while not fully dressed, it didn't seem to feel as cool as 13° C out there. The very latest revision to the forecast says it should be sunny all day, and if we are lucky the afternoon temperature may be 19° C for a couple of hours, but 18° C for most of the time. There are a few times when the chance of a shower go up above 10%, but no rain is actually forecast - except for some way to the north of here. Even 20 miles away seems too close for comfort - except for comfort to the garden. A couple of hours of rain would be good for the garden even if not good for me. Tomorrow may only see a handful of sunny intervals, but the temperature is predicted to rise to 21° C,

  Yesterday was a day when I did a lot, but nearly all of it was mostly inconsequential....actually that is probably not a good way to describe it. Several things I did ended up as annoyances. One such annoyance was giving my DVD recorder another chance. I hooked it up to my VHS machine, and recorded an official BBC tape of out takes from the series "Bottom". The recording went well with no apparent errors. The disk finalisation also didn't seem to throw up any errors. "Finalisation" is the process that adds the file layout that can be played in other DVD players.

  I tried playing back the disk in the recorder, and it all looked good. I then tried it in my PC, and the PC rejected it as a corrupt disk (in effect). That was highly annoying ! I then tried recording some stuff on different types of recordable disk. I was not sure if it wanted DVD+R or DVD-R disks, or even whether it might prefer DVD-RW disks. It seems that after doing my one almost successful recording it had gone off all the disks I offered it. That gave me a possible clue as to why it is not working properly.

  It is my opinion that the laser is failing, or at least going low power when it is hot. It could mean a lot of messing about, but it may be possible to use a DVD recorder drive intended for a a PC as a replacement. That hope is based on the idea that I might find it is just an ordinary commercial mechanism, with a standard PC interface inside the case. There is some precedent for this. I acquired two scrap drive mechanisms from Hitachi DVD players (not recorders) while working in the trade. If I recall correctly, they had to be replaced because they were made before the full specification for DVD video was finished, and their firmware could not be updated. Apart from their mounting points, and size being non standard, they had a standard IDE interface, and worked perfectly as a DVD drive when connected to a PC. It may be that I might have to use a PC mechanism super glued to the top of the case, but there is hope I can make the recorder work OK one day. It would make doing analogue to digital transfers much easier.

  I also wasted a lot of time, although most of the actual time was just letting a tape play, trying to copy one of my old off-air recordings onto a SD memory card using a very crappy fag packet sized digital video recorder. That thing sometime works, and mostly doesn't. It is just more frustration doing something that should be very simple with much more expensive, maybe "professional" gear, but is a pain in the rear with cheap crap from China !

  There were two other, maybe more productive things I did yesterday. I finished the laundry that I had got as far as putting into the detergent the day before, and then ignored until yesterday morning. It was cold and clammy as I wrung it all out before giving it three rinses in warm water, plus one more immersion in warm water with conditioner. I hung it outside to dry, and with the strong wind it was dry by late afternoon. I guess that was definitely productive.

  The task I did which I have some doubts about was some simple gardening. It started with planting a young Iceplant (I don't know a better name for those plants with the very thick leaves that trap dew in the morning) that Michael had given me the day before. It had been unearthed some time before I could get it home, and I left it in a glass of water overnight. When I came to plant it, it seemed to be a bit limp, but I made sure it had plenty of water. This morning, although I haven't been over to it to look at it closely, it still looks a bit limp from a distance. I hope it will pick up soon.

  After planting that Iceplant I decided to plant some Anemone and Begonia seeds. I don't hold out much hope for them because they were old stock bought from Poundstretcher, and they have been sitting in my back room for a few months now, but maybe they are resilient enough to sprout. I just hope that I can recognise them for what they are, and not confuse them with weeds. My small flower bed in the garden received loads of random seeds in random positions, and for a while I thought that they were all sprouting, but now it seems all the shouts I can see all look the same, and they all look like weeds. I can see that in future I ought to start seeds in a seed tray, and transplant them into regimented lines that I can distinguish from the random weeds.

  I didn't go out at all yesterday, and in fact I didn't even wash. It was another day when I couldn't raise the enthusiasm, or another day when I didn't feel right. There were a few times when I had a very short lived tickly cough - a symptom of Covid-19, and a hundred other things. At the same time my nose started running a lot. It really felt like I had a cold, but it would seem to be one that lasted much less than 24 hours - maybe just 3 hours ! Later in the afternoon I had a very brief, slightly wet cough. The worst thing was definitely the dry cough - not because of the effect on me, but on the effect on others. It marks me down as a plague victim, and gets filthy looks from others. On the plus side it keeps everyone away from you !

  Another slight hint of having a cold, or worse, was just before midday. I felt quite cold as if I might have a fever. My thermometer said otherwise, and in fact said my temperature was fairly low. I think it was a combination of the strong wind coming through my bedroom window, and laying on my bed sedately reading. It seemed a very convenient time to have some hot soup. That saved me from using my meagre selection of food in the fridge, and Tesco mushroom soup is fairly low calorie, and it's sugar content is very low too. The same is true of the chicken soup. I had a can of each with some hot chilli sauce in it. That warmed me up, and in a strange sort of way, filled me up too.

  My dinner was an augmented ready made salad. I tossed out the Mozzarella cheese lumps and substituted many more diced bits of Red Leicester cheese. I also added some thinly sliced onion and some sliced de-seeded  chillies. It seemed so nice that I could have eaten another. I'm sure I had something after it, but I can't remember if it was any more than some sugar free chocolate wafers. I definitely had some of those at some time yesterday.

  Last night was another night when I ended up watching very little TV. I was in bed, reading, soon after 8pm. At that point I was immersed in the book, and lost all track of time. It may have been 9pm or 10pm when I put the book down, and I seem to remember it as one of those times when I fell asleep almost instantly. I can't recall being awake for any length of time longer than it takes to go for a wee once I was asleep, but I did seem to have some very long dreams in the night.

  6am seemed too early to get up, but having woken up around then, I never went back to bed. I git up and did my usual routine. For some reason I expected my blood glucose to be a bit higher than it actually was - 6.3mmol/l - which is really good. If that was low then for some perverse reason I expected my weight to have gone up, but no ! This morning I am tickling the upper edge of the lowest reading in the last x number of years. At this rate, assuming I can do what I have been doing recently, the units digit of my weight will be one less - and that is in kilograms (or 2.2lbs).

  My current temperature is just 35.6° C - well below fever level, and my blood pressure is 122/78 - which I think is very satisfactory (particularly for first thing in the morning). It seems I am fully fit and well. It's just a shame I don't feel that way. Regardless of how I feel, I need to get some shopping, and so I need to get washed, and to go out. I may as well get my shopping at the end of a walk. It is cool enough today to get back into long trouser, and that means I can walk along those nettle infested paths by the river today. All I need now is for the clouds to clear, and for the sun to come out - as promised by the weather forecast !