There seems to be a lot of blue sky visible in some direction, but not in the east where the sun is trying to shine, but it is trying it's best to get through what seems to be white haze rather than clouds. The latest revision to the forecast now shows sunny spells for right now, and then again at 9am. It also now shows some light rain for both midday, and 1pm. Much of the afternoon, and then into the evening, will probably be very dull and gloomy. To make things worse it is going to be just a cool feeling 18° C this afternoon, and the start of the evening. Tomorrow may be dry, but thick cloud is currently forecast for most of the day, but it should be warmer with the afternoon, and early evening temperature reaching about 21° C.

  I felt terribly unmotivated yesterday, and I spent almost all morning quietly reading. It is a paradox that I felt bad about not being productive, and yet very happy to substitute fantasy for the cruelty of the real world - a cruelty that would get worse later in the day. At this point I am trying to think what I had for lunch. I am sure I had some, but I can't remember if it was rice crackers with Wensleydale cheese on them, or whether that was a snack.

  I was spurred into some action when Jodie replied to my last txt message to say that she looked forward to coming over today to see my dining room now that the basics are finished (although still lots more work to do). I also sent a txt message to Michael, my neighbour who lives near the corner shop. I invited him to join us, and later he replied to say he would do. All I am waiting on now is to find out what time Jodie thinks she can get here - hopefully it will be around 3pm, and once she lets me know her best guess I will let Michael know.

  It didn't feel like I did much, but putting some final touches to the dining room brought me out in a sweat. I took off the bubble wrap that had been protecting the table top, and gave the the top a polish. Then I considered chairs. I still have three of the original four chairs that came with the table. The other had succumbed to too many failed welds to repair. One, that had been in the spare bedroom was fairly clean apart from some surface dust in places. Another is still in my bedroom, and needs a really good clean.

  The problem with the chair in my bedroom, and the one that has been in the back room all this time, is that the black material seems to be a magnet for cat hair, and will not let it go. I spent what seemed like a long time cleaning the chrome of the chair legs, and scrubbing matted cat hair, plus dust, and other stuff from that chair. It was bending over the chair, scrubbing away, that started me sweating. I had to leave the chair on it's side, with a fan on full blast, to dry it off after I had to wash it, as well as scrape off the cat hairs. It is not exactly beautiful now, but in a serviceable condition.
  If I were to look through someone else's eye I might not see the sight above as being anything notable, but knowing how it started, and the work I have put into it, it looks rather pleasing to my eyes. One job for the near future will be to paint all the wall I can get at of the wall with the window in it. It does look very grubby under that window - a legacy of three cats muddy paws over a period of 15 or so years.

  Soon it was time for dinner, and once again I had grilled salmon on a bed of assorted salad leaves. For a bit of variety I gave the leaves a very generous dosing of mayonnaise. Once again it didn't feel like enough, and so I had two nice ripe nectarines for dessert. It was a bit after dinner, with one Star Trek (on the Pick channel) ending, and still a couple of minutes before another Star Trek (on The Horror Channel) started that I did some research that sent me in waves of depression.

  The latest government diktat is that from 24th July it will be mandatory to wear masks in shops and supermarkets. I just do not care how many people I may kill, or how many people kill me, but I really, really do not want to wear a mask. So far I have abandoned public transport because I won't wear a mask. Now it looks like I will have to abandon shopping. I intend to use these last days to stock up on tinned, and other long life food, and do my best to last as long as possible on it after the 24th. Later on I did realise that there is a possible way to buy food, that isn't takeaways. The rules say "in a shop", but market stalls are in the open air, and so a mask should not be needed.

  There is a sort of barrier to overcome to using a market stall, and it is that I have never bought anything from one in the past, and I don't know how to do it. That must sound strange to anyone who uses market stalls, but I am just so used to picking up stuff in supermarkets, and then taking it to a checkout, that anything else is going to feel strange. Fortunately, worrying about these things did not seem to affect my sleep.

  I remember very little about my sleep. That seems to suggest I actually slept very well. I just have a very feint notion that I might have had a dream that involved shopping, but only that hazy hint seems to survive, and not a trace of any details. I can barely remember getting up for a wee or two in the night. As seems to happen every morning now, I woke up a good hour earlier than I wanted to, but it didn't seem to take much effort to get back to sleep, and I think I slept for another 90 minutes.

  There is good news this morning. After some annoying high reading, I got my blood glucose down to a much better, and even good 7.2mmol/l this morning. That is slightly below my recent average for previous months. As always I would prefer a figure starting with a 6, but I must have done something right to get it down from above 9 yesterday morning. Once again I haven't dared get on the scales because I fear what I may see, but my other measurements, temperature, and blood pressure, are both very good.

  I have one project for early this morning, and it is to go shopping in Tesco to buy some cans of food, and other stuff that should keep a long while like bacon and cheese. Depending on how many cans I buy, I might have room for a couple of bottles of Diet Coke, but I can foresee that I will end up drinking tap water in the not so distant future. This afternoon I will see if there are any quick and simple improvements I can make to the dining room, but mostly just wait for my guests.