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Thursday 27th August 2020
Lockdown day 157
Shopping embargo day 35

07:24 BST


  Yesterday was dry, mostly bright, and occasionally sunny. The afternoon temperature was about 21° C.
horrid afternoon
  The latest revision to the forecast has added a couple of sunny spells for the morning. They are happening as I write this, and may continue for an hour yet. Everything changes this afternoon as thick black clouds roll, and heavy rain is predicted. Oh well, another day when the garden doesn't need watering.  Late evening may be dry. The most significant aspect of today's weather is that at just 16° C it is going to feel quite cool. Tomorrow may be a little less cool at 18° C, but it may start dull, then light rain will fall, and possibly there will be a thunderstorm in the early afternoon.
hot
I just thought a reminder of what it was like this time last year might be interesting - very different weather !!

 
  It took me an awful long time to get going yesterday. Until lunchtime I just lay on my bed reading. The only break from that was when the last item of my recent Amazon order was delivered. The first item was the Mexican beers. The second was the chilli sauce. The last item was a 12 pack of rice crackers - 3 x 4 different flavours. They were not quite the same as the rice crackers I was hoping to get, but they may have been better in one respect. The rice crackers that inspired my order were from Poundstretcher, and I knew, from practical experience, that they didn't affect my blood glucose, but they did feel a little greasy. These new crackers are dry baked, and so, in theory, even healthier.

  I opened up one of more boring packets - lightly salted - as soon as I had unpacked the box they came in. I had a quarter of the pack (the inner tray is conveniently divided into 4), and used them to test the chilli sauce. The sauce has no immediate bite, but does leave the tongue feeling warm. I was worried about the sugar content, but maybe I worried a bot too much. I used that sauce several times during the day, and my blood glucose was actually low this morning.

  That first test of the crackers was Elevenses. For lunch I had more crackers, but this time with cheese. After lunch I laid on my bed, and continued reading. I could have almost continued reading for hours. once I get lost in a book time flies by, but this time I couldn't shake off the feeling that I wanted to get some work done. Eventually I started making preparations to paint another wall in my dining room.
new paint
  This is the wall I painted. I took this picture very soon after I finished painting. I should have left it a bit later because while the paint was still wet in places it looks a bit blotchy. Later on it looked a lot better.  I have to admit it was a messy job. I managed to tread on some spilled paint, and then trod it elsewhere in the room. The dust sheet I was using, an old sheet, was so thin that paint was just soaking through it. An online friend suggested using an old shower curtain instead of a sheet.

  That was a good suggestion, and one I can do when I put the second coat of paint on today (at least I think I will be doing it today). I have a selection of shower curtains. I have  posh pair that I will put up when Patricia finally manages to visit London, and will probably stay here for a couple of days. That will depend on covid virus restrictions being lifted to allow her to travel from Argentina. I also have 3 pairs of 99p shop shower curtains. One pair is not matched, and I will use those as dust sheets when the paint starts flying next.

  Painting, and then scrubbing spilt paint off the carpet etc, seems to be harder work than it probably should be. I felt quite hot and sticky by the time I had cleaned up. I was also feeling hungry. Fortunately I had started so late that it was very close to dinner time by the time I had cleaned up. I was looking forward to the last bit of my takeaway from the previous night - a lamb bhuna. If the bastards hadn't forgotten the chicken biryana I would have enjoyed that too. For a starter I had a tin of curried spinach and potato.

  That tin was an Aldi own brand called Bilash. I think it is discontinued now because none of the things in the range were very good. The tin I opened last night was years old, and either my tastes have changed, or it has mellowed over the years. It was complete rubbish compared to what you might get from an Indian restaurant, but maybe aided by a good splash of my new chilli sauce, it didn't taste that bad last night.

  I guess my dinner should have been quite adequate, but after a while I began to feel peckish again. It was probably just boredom, but it could have been something else.... I must admit I was not very captivated by either of the two episodes of Star Trek last night. I gave in to this annoying mild hunger by having more rice crackers with cheese. I was also drinking a few cans of Guinness.

  Soon after 8pm I was ready for bed, and reading while laying on my bed. After a while I became a bit flatulent, and thought I had better go to the toilet. I thought that cured it, but no - something was brewing inside of me, and I think that it was responsible for the peckish feeling I had earlier. It seemed the Tarka Dall, curried lentils with garlic, was doing pretty much as expected, but in this case over doing it. After a good clearout, that took several sessions, I was able to retire to my bed with no discomfort (except in one small predictable spot).

  My sleep was punctuated by waking up to go for a wee more often than usual. I thought this was a sign that my blood glucose was way too high. However, after getting up, I measured it, and it was just a rather good 6.8mmol/l. The extra weeing in the night must just have been the tree cans of Guinness I drank during the evening. My weight is still annoying. It may have dropped by just 100gm, but I may be fooling myself. I guess I should just be happy it hasn't gone up - that is a lot more definite.

  In an ideal world I would be putting that second coat of paint on the wall in the dining room, and doing it soon. If I did that it would be dry enough to put up the new curtain rail, and hang the new curtains late this afternoon. Unfortunately it is a far from idea world. Maybe it is the coming heavy rain, but I am feeling a lot like yesterday. I don't know what it is, but I don't feel like doing any more than quietly reading again like I did yesterday. I will do that painting sometime today, but not soon. Maybe having a good shower, and washing my hair, neither of which I did yesterday, has worn me out this morning. Oh well, it's only a couple of hours until lunchtime.
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