Unfortunately the weather has turned rather dull again. The cloud was a lot thicker earlier, but now it is lighter, and as I write this the sun has almost found a small gap in the clouds, and the sky to the east is bright enough to cast a very fuzzy pale shadow. The latest revision to the forecast says there could be sunny spells between 10am and 11am, but the rest of the day will probably be overcast - sometimes heavily over cast, but the threat of rain has receded. The afternoon should now start at 20° C, and will probably stay like that for 3 or 4 hours. Tomorrow may be similar to today with a random risk of a shower at some time.

   I gave further consideration to going out for a walk yesterday, but my earlier decision that I wouldn't go for one turned out to be the final word on the matter. I think that writing about being depressed the day before left me feeling depressed yesterday morning. For a moment it probably made it worse because I was trying to explain some of the reasons for that depression, and writing about it just reminded me what a miserable time this is.

  To escape from those feelings I escaped into the fantasy world of literature, or to put it simply I read a few more chapters of the book I am currently reading (To Sail Beyond Sunset by R.A. Heinlein). With that done I was almost ready to do stuff, but it was lunch time. I ate a punnet of strawberries for lunch. They were sweet and delicious....and yet they did leave a slight fruity acid taste in my mouth. I think I counteracted that with a big chunk of cheese.

  After another very short rest I got to work. The main thing I wanted to do was to give the back room chimney breast another coat of paint. It didn't start well because the paint roller was still soaking wet after I had washed it the day before, and then sealed it into a plastic bag. All the water in the roller diluted the paint, and it was very runny until I had dipped it in paint a few times. It all came out OK in the end, but I did need to wash a lot of thin dribbled paint of the skirting board.

  The other thing I wanted to do was to have another go at cleaning the door into the kitchen. I gave it a good scrubbing with more spray Flash liquid, and it does look better now, but I still can't seem to completely eradicate the shadow where there was a posted pinned to the door for years (possibly 20 years !). Now it is dry, that shadow is less obvious. Sometime in the future I will have to buy some gloss paint, and re-paint the door (and door frame), but it will do for now.

  I had another snack after that door scrubbing. It was a couple of nice ripe nectarines. I seem to have bought a lot of fruit lately, and I enjoy it - up to a point. Unfortunately it can raise my blood glucose level - particularly, and rather obviously, some of the sweeter fruits like nectarines. Those nectarines would not be the last fruit I ate yesterday. After that snack, and a short rest, I got to work again.

  My next job was based on a recent bit of inspiration. Sitting under a pile of assorted stuff, plus dust and fluff, in my bed room, was a wall clock. It was last used when I had a pirate radio studio, but it originated (from my perspective) from the workshop at the back of my dad's shop. I guess my mum saved it when she sold the shop after my dad died in 1968. For all that it doesn't have a great deal of sentimental value, just a bit, but even with none it would still be a shame to throw away a working clock.

  The Bakelite case of the clock was painted with a pale green/blue paint, and ideally it could have been stripped back to the Bakelite, but I gave the old paint a clean, and then used the same paint I had used on the walls, matt vinyl emulsion, to paint it. Gloss would have been better, but now it is dry it looks OK (I think). I will screw it to the wall later (possibly today), but it needs mains power, and it would look so much better if the mains lead was white. I haven't got any suitable white mains lead, and I might just mount it on the wall unpowered until I can get some.

  The final bit of work I did was to clean up after painting the wall. The preparation for painting had included removing wall plugs and filling the holes. That left plaster dust on the carpet, and there were dribbles of paint on the skirting board. Cleaning the paint was easy enough except for resisting the temptation to lean against the wall when bending down to clean the skirting board. I did resist, but the urge was strong !

  I'm almost forgetting one other job I did next. As part of my clearing up I had a big box of wire and assorted junk. The most useful wire or cable I saved, but there were offcuts, and loads of reject leads and off cuts that my brother dumped on me when the factory he worked in closed down. I stuffed all the scrap wire into a box that my friend Lee can give/sell to his pikey friend. The bigger box that I had sorted out had a load of ancient mouse droppings in the bottom, and that went straight out to the wheelie bin.

  With the one big box out of the way it was time to get the vacuum cleaner out. First of all I sucked up all the plaster dust, and then I gave more of the carpet a good hoovering. There were areas, such as where the big box with mouse dropping stood, that hadn't been given a good hoovering since I started this project, and there were other bits of carpet that hadn't been done properly. "Properly" in this case meant getting all the matted hair out of the carpet. It still amazes me just how much hair I must have shed over the last 30 years. If it were clean I could stuff a mattress with it ! Like all the carpets in my house it is too old to ever look good again, but after de-hairing it ain't looking that bad.

  My dinner included a disaster. I was grilling some salmon fillets that I had with just salad leaves, including watercress, dressed with vinaigrette. To grill the fish I lined a small tray with aluminium foil. I am not sure how I did it, but when I picked up the tray to put it in the oven I managed to get a little torch stuck to the underside. The torch has the outline of a conventional torch, but is, or was, less than a quarter of an inch thick. A long life lithium cell powered a high efficiency white LED. It was quite neat - until it got roasted.

  I guess it must have exploded in the oven, but I was upstairs, and didn't hear it, but it wasn't long before I could smell it. It was a nasty, chemical smell. I was sure it would taint the fish, but a tentative little taste showed it hadn't. That was rather lucky, and quite surprising. Fortunately most of the exploded remains were stuck to the foil under the baking tray, but some plastic got welded to the rack the try sits on. One of my jobs for today is to try and clean it off !

  My dinner was nice, but in some ways it was quite small, and left me wanting more. Once again I turned to fruit, and I ate two Jazz Apples with a chunk of Wensleydale cheese. For about the fourth day running I didn't wash dinner down with any booze - and that was despite buying a small bottle of vodka when I was in Aldi in the morning, and also despite having quite a selection of bottles and cans of beer.

  Last night I was back in bed quite early, and probably fast asleep before 10pm. One of the last things I noted before going to sleep was that it was raining outside, and it seemed sufficient to water the garden. I don't really remember much about sleeping last night. I know I got up for a pee once or twice, but I must have fallen asleep instantly afterwards. I think I was either very tired, or I slept unusually well. I don't think I even woke up at 4am...or maybe I did, but if I did I must have turned over and gone straight back to sleep. That was definitely the case at about 5am.

  All the fruit, and the ice cream I had for breakfast, despite it being low sugar ice cream, left it's mark. My blood glucose was far too high this morning. It was 9.3mmol/l - very close to the danger level of 10.0mmol/l ! Once again I didn't even dare get on the scales, but my other readings were all fine. I think I feel basically OK today, although I do feel a bit lazy...maybe a lot lazy.

  It is surprisingly bright at the moment, and although still hazy, the sun is casting some fair shadows now. If it was like this in a couple of hours I could almost force myself to go for a walk, but it will probably return to being grey and overcast soon. Funnily enough, the latest revisions to both the BBC and Met Office forecasts seem to deny the sunshine I have just seen (it probably didn't last longer than 2 minutes). I think today I will hang the clock on the wall, and then see if I can do more clearing up in that back room. It is possible that Jodie may come and see it tomorrow, and it would be good if it was in a fair state to sit down, and have a beer.  If I have the time and inclination I may even do some work in the garden today. I have neglected it for a while, and all sorts of things need doing sooner or later.