I've refreshed the weather forecast page several times to make sure there have been no wondrous changes, but it still looks bloody horrible. Until 1pm the sky will be dark grey, and heavy rain will fall. It seems to be falling in waves so there are periods of respite - even if those periods of respite are just light rain, and not no rain at all. The afternoon should see only mid grey skies, and there may be little or no rain, but it all starts again as the afternoon ends. Heavy rain is predicted, and it could fall all evening, through the night, and not stop until about 9am tomorrow morning. The rest of tomorrow may be much brighter, and could even feature some sunny spells, but there is still a risk of an isolated shower.

   Compared to the previous few days, yesterday was a good day. I had some nice rest, aka time to read a book, in the morning, although I did do a bit of housework. I hand washed a couple of towels. one just an easy hand towel, and the other was medium sized bath towel. The latter needed some muscle power - mainly when trying to wring it out. I had to dry both towels indoors because it looked far from drying weather outside !

  Early afternoon saw me doing a bit more housework. I had to wash the dining room table because that was the easiest way of cleaning the dust and fluff off it after working on old, dusty, PCs on it. I also gave the dining room carpet a good hoovering - partly because of dust and fluff from the old dusty PCs, but it needed it anyway. I am forgetting - prior to the cleaning I had to tidy the bits of PC up. I actually fitted what is probably my second best computer motherboard into a case, but whether I ever use it remains to be seen.

  At about 2.30pm I had a brief visit from Michael. He had been to the shops, and had very kindly asked me if I needed anything. I still feel guilty about asking for stuff that I could easily buy myself if I put a face mask on, or claimed to be exempt from wearing a mask because of asthma or, more likely, COPD. I do have a prescription inhaler to back up my claim, although I admit there are very few times when I feel the need to use it. I think my main reason for not wearing a mask is because of the amount of times I have to blow my nose while I am out. One blast of cool wind can set me off, plus I do seem to have a mild allergy to what is probably fungal spores in the autumn. I would not like to wear a mask soaked in my own snot !

  All I asked Michael to buy for me was some bottles of Diet Coke to feed my caffeine addiction...probably.  I only ask Michael to but it because he shops using a car, and doesn't have to lug it home by shanks pony. If I can make the 4 bottles last a week, and I often can, I may ask Michael to get me some sausages if he asks if I want anything next week. I must confess I do fancy some sausages. I have a feeling that Michael would like me to ask for sausages because it would give him an excuse to go to his favourite sausage shop in Beckenham. He has sung it's praises many times in the past.

  I think it was around half past 3 when Jodie arrived, and maybe 20 minutes later when Michael arrived for our "Thursday club" drinking session. Jodie and Michael both brought some beers along. That was handy because although I had beers here, and I didn't have anything novel to offer. I must order some new beers sometime soon. We had a good session, and it was a lot like a pub session. A few very mild arguments, good beer, and a jolly time.

  At some time I must privately thank Michael for announcing it was getting near my dinner time, and that he had better go (and that he felt he had drunk quite enough for one afternoon). By mentioning my dinner time it served as a reminder to Jodie that it was getting near time to go. I think Jodie would be happy to keep drinking late into the evening, but she gracefully decided to leave just after 6pm - my dinner time !

  As seems to be a very bad habit now, I didn't feel like preparing my dinner after a boozing session. I had originally intended to be creative with the last bit of my Monday night takeaway. It was just a single naan bread, and I could have made beans on cheese on naan (a bit like toast, but maybe better). It would not have taken long to do it, but I opted for another takeaway. I opted for kebab last night, and I tried a new kebab shop - The Sydenham Kebab shop.

  I ordered my usual chicken shish, a lamb shish, and one other thing because it intrigued me. It was "chicken meat" with salad and chips. The chips were theoretically bad for me, but they were very nice. They were also a bit strange. They seemed to look undercooked, but evidently they weren't. I am wondering of the made from an unusual type of potato. It was quite a big meal, or at least it seemed to fill me up, and so I have two more kebabs for today, plus I still have that naan bread.

  With it getting dark now before even the first episode of Star Trek has finished, I was in bed straight after the second episode was shown. That was 8pm. For many that would be a ridiculously early time to go to bed, but I did read for over an hour before turning out the light. It may have been the booze, or it may have been the chilli sauce on my dinner, but I felt too warm in bed last night. I was back to the struggle if finding the right amount of duvet to cover myself with to be comfortable. Of course that changed as my bedroom cooled off during the night.

  I probably slept reasonably well, although there were a few times when I seemed to be awake for long periods - where "long" could have been less than 15 minutes. I wish I could remember what my first dream was about, but I seemed to forget almost all of it within seconds of waking up. I do remember it featured two large, say toy balloon sized, silvery spheres. They were like the sort of thing you might see where extremely high voltages are in use - maybe on a Wimshurst machine, or Van Der Graff Generator. I did connect wires to these spheres, but I feel sure it had nothing to do with extra high voltages, but it was for some other reason. What that reason was intrigues me. I could have invented, say, anti gravity, or something else wonderful in my dream, but now that knowledge has evaporated to wherever dreams go.

  I guess I don't feel too bad today...well not too bad physically, but the dark grey skies and rain are having their normal depressing effect on my mind. Despite that there is good news this morning. My blood glucose is only up to 8.3mmol/l. I expected it to be higher after beer and chips. Even more miraculous is that I seem to have last 100gm this morning. Both these things could be good because at around 11am today (that being the middle time of a one hour slot) I should be receiving some goodies that I will have to treat with a good deal or respect.

  A while ago I discovered a web site called https://www.starbargains.co.uk/. The stuff they sell mirrors the stuff sold by Poundstretcher, and a couple of days ago I ordered some stuff from them. To meet the minimum order I had to order a fair bit, but amongst the stuff I ordered were some of the first rice crackers I had ever tried. I think the BBQ flavour was possibly subtly different, and subtly nicer than the BBQ rice crackers I ordered via Amazon. I also ordered some sour cream and chive flavour rice crackers - I haven't seen them list by Amazon. Rice crackers are very innocent, but peanuts aren't, and yet I have ordered several bag. The possible worst thing was a single (at least I think it was single) bar of 72% dark chocolate. Dark chocolate has far less sugar than milk chocolate - usually - but I had still treat it with respect - more so if I have ordered a pack instead of a single bar !

  Today is so grey and miserable that the chances of me going out at all are rather slim, and yet I do feel curious about what the river is doing after this very heavy rain. I think there is a chance I may put on a raincoat and go for a short wander. If I do, and it is a big if, it may only be as far as the weir at the back of the hospital in Ladywell Fields. At best about a one mile walk there and back, and possibly less.