Once again the forecast is being revised almost every hour. The weather patterns must be very complicated recently. The idea that it will rain this morning seems to be a common thread, and while some of it may have been too fine to see from indoors, it does seem to have been raining all morning up to when I am writing this. The latest revision says that the rain will continue non stop, sometimes light, but sometimes heavy, until gone 1pm now. Maybe this afternoon will be dry, but the chance of the sun breaking through the clouds seems very slim. The thick cloud has been beneficial in as much as the early morning temperature was 15° C, and that will allow the temperature to possibly rise to 17° C by midday. Sadly it will soon drop away. Clearing skies mean it will probably be down to 12° C by midnight, and a rather chilly 9° C by tomorrow morning. Tomorrow may see clear skies, and lots of sunshine until mid/late afternoon when it will cloud over, and heavy rain may form. For all the morning sunshine we will be lucky if the temperature rises to more than 14° C.
 
   My first delivery, a big box of goodies from Star Bargains, had arrived before I finished writing yesterday. It would not be until just gone 1pm until my big box of beers arrived. That gave me enough time to do yet more laundry. This laundry was a project that started in the days of the last warm sunshine in my garden. I dug out two large bath towels that I hadn't used in years - since before I paused smoking for the next 14 years. Both smelled rather smoky, and stale.

  I washed the first one weeks and weeks ago. It was hard work, but I was able to hang it outside to dry (although I seem to recall bringing it in very slightly damp to fully dry overnight). Either I am getting weaker, or the towel I washed yesterday was bigger and thicker than that first towel. I couldn't seem to find the stamina to wash it in one sitting, and I ended up doing it in three stages with a rest between each stage. A big part of the reason it took so long was that it seems that last time it was washed, possibly in a washing machine, it had not been rinsed thoroughly.

  I am starting to run out of detergent, and so I didn't use it as liberally as I would have done a few weeks back. Nevertheless, I just could not get the rinsing water for this towel to come clear. After 4 rinses it was still as if I was washing it in detergent. After 6 rinses the amount of bubble and froth had dwindled enough that I decided I had better go to the fabric conditioner, and call it a day.

  It was late in the afternoon (or in terms of summer, no later than mid morning, or 4pm), and I could only hang the towel outside for a couple of hours until darkness started to fall. That couple of hours was enough to stop it dripping, but it was still very damp when I brought it inside to dry with just a fan blowing cold air at it. This morning it is not perfectly dry, but very close to it. It is such a palaver washing these big towels that I doubt I will be using them until a special occasion arises sometime in the future. Maybe that might be on a hot sunny day next summer.

  Like the previous few days, I did very little else for the rest of the day, or no other big things. I did do odd little jobs, and I guess they all add up to something useful in the long run. One such little job, or actually a series of very small things, has probably laid the foundations for a much bigger job of cleaning up my bedroom. Ultimately I have to clear out one corner of my bedroom so I can move my wardrobe from the spare room to it. That will lead on to putting up the shelving, using timber I have already cut to size, in the spare room. In turn that will make the spare bedroom seem a little more spacious. My aim is to have that done ready for Patricia's next short stay here - but in the current state of the world, and our little pandemic, that is unlikely to be until next summer at the earliest.

  It was very hard to control my appetite while not fully occupied yesterday, and the box of goodies from Star Bargains made it even harder to do, and yet the indications are that I succeeded. One reason is that I ate something that I knew was very bad for me, and that made me much more careful later. That very naughty thing was a bar of caramel chocolate. It was absolutely loaded with sugar, and I really shouldn't have included in my order from Star Bargains....or maybe it was a good thing.

  Eating that sugar laden chocolate was possibly a good thing to remind me of what I was missing - except what I thought I was missing I didn't really enjoy. It tasted too sweet for my re-educated taste buds, and while one square of it seemed nice, I quickly tired of it, and should have put the rest away for later. I assume it was some sort of guilt, but I don't recall eating anything else until dinner time.

  Dinner was part of my takeaway from the kebab shop. It was the grilled chicken wings with chips. As I probably mentioned yesterday, there was no option on the menu not to have chips with those wings. They came with a separate container of salad (at least I think the two came together), and I had the salad as a starter. Oddly enough I found the chips were nicer than the wings. They tasted slightly odd, and I can't really say what that oddness was. I suspect it was some sort of marinade - possibly based upon something sour like lemon juice.

  There was one other thing I ate, and I can't remember when it was I started it, but before I went to bed I had eaten half a bag of Wasabi flavoured crisps. I had the other half for breakfast. I read in bed for a while, but I think I went to sleep a little before 10pm (but it may have been later). Apart from initially waking up a bit before it was light, and having to force myself back to sleep until it was light, I seemed to sleep quite well.

  I can recall getting up for a pee once, or twice, but my memory of it is rather foggy. My memory of my dreams is even foggier. I can recall thinking I ought to remember that dream, but while I can remember thinking that, I can't remember a single thing about any dream I had...just an idea that I had dreams. After my last bit of sleep I think it was about 7.30am when I heaved myself out of bed. By 8am I was answering the phone for a call from Lee. As usual he made a simple question drag out for over half an hour !

  Anyway, the good news is that despite eating naughty stuff, both my weight and blood glucose have dropped a little this morning. I sometimes feel that my pancreas needs some shock treatment to wake it up now and then, and that very sweet chocolate bar would certainly have done that ! Tonight I have 2 more shish kebabs to choose from. I expect I will end up eating both because beer will be involved.

  I am almost forgetting one other thing of some minor importance I did yesterday. I did some gardening. It involved a little bit of weeding, but mostly I picked all the tomatoes from the big, bush like tomato plant that was entangled with my very wild growing nasturtiums. I found a few ripe, or nearly ripe tomatoes near the bottom, and perilously close to the mud where they would soon start to rot. Most of the tomatoes, and there were quite a lot of them, I have transferred to paper plates, three of them, in the hope they will ripen by the front, south facing windows. This morning there are hints the process has already started. It is a shame that today will probably see no sunshine, but tomorrow offers some hope.

  The big thing today is "Thursday club". I have 36 new bottles of beer here now to help entertain Jodie and Michael this afternoon. I expect both will bring a few more bottles for even greater variety. This means that one job this morning is to clean the dining room, and put some heat on in there. That may be the only thing I will do today, but I might do another small bit of laundry. I will put a fresh towel in the toilet today, and so I could wash the old one, and I think there are a few more small things I could wash. I even have more fiddly socks to wash if I feel in a masochistic mood.

  That just leaves me thinking there was one other, probably terribly important thing, I was going to mention, but what ever it was seems to have escaped me for now.................Oh yes, I was going to mention I pulled up a few of my spring onions while I was in the garden. I have no idea how long they may continue growing, maybe until next spring, but after growing for 6 months, or more, they are still tiny, but just about usable.