Sunday 15th November 2020

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Sunday 15th November 2020

Lockdown day 237
Shopping embargo day 88 115

09:47 GMT

There was definitely rain yesterday, but I think it was probably less than expected - which was heavy rain all day ! I even spotted some blue sky late in the afternoon. Unfortunately it was in the south east, and the sun was in the west, and so it still looked gloomy outside. The temperature was forecast to be a flat 14° C throughout the whole day, and I think it probably was. With no sunshine it was cool enough to need the heating on low all day.

The screenshot above was of the 6am version of the forecast. The latest revision was updated at 8am, and nothing about it has changed - or not that much. One small change is that 9am is now shown as rain, and indeed, that is now, and it is raining ! There still seems to be this fantasy that amid lots of rain, 1pm will bring bright sunshine for an hour...well, maybe. Although much more rain is forecast, and some of it possibly heavy rain, it may get a bit brighter in an hour or two, and the afternoon might be bright, and wet. It seems we have passed the warmest part of the day already, and it is now slowly cooling down. Tomorrow is currently predicted to be dry, but it will probably be overcast all day - maybe only lightly overcast. The highest temperature, 12° C, may not happen until fairly late in the afternoon.

Here's photographic evidence that there was some blue sky yesterday. This was, according to my camera, taken at 2.44pm. At this time the sun was off the right hand edge of the picture (almost a complete right angle to to this view). The sun was also behind a big pile of clouds, and so it was still dull and grey outside.

Yesterday was another day when my enthusiasm to do anything was hovering around zero. That was very dangerous ground for any eating control, and I had to choose what I ate rather wisely when I felt I just had to eat. I think I ended up having three lunches spread across much of the afternoon. I think part one, at midday, was some ham and rice crackers. That was safe in terms of blood glucose. Part two, some time after 1pm, was a can of "chunky" soup. That was sort of medium risk. Around 3pm I wanted more, and I heated up a can of meatballs in gravy. I am unsure of the risk from those meatballs - mainly because no one actually knows what canned meat balls are made from !

I did finally do some video editing yesterday. It was some unused video I found on an old camcorder tape taken at Party In The Priory 2012. Originally I would have cut out each individual song, and only bothered with the best. On this occasion I used everything I had of the band All You Need, fronted by the late Elizabeth Vass. Apart from a fade in and out, a few captions, and one join, it didn't need any creative editing. Not having to concentrate, and be creative helped a lot.

One thing that let Party In The Priory down, for the few years that it ran, was the sound quality. It was frequently a bit iffy. In this video the sound mix is poor, but at least Liz's vocals are mostly very clear.

Once again I filled in huge gaps in the day by reading. That was very enjoyable, but laying on my bed for long periods does my muscles and joints no good, and at one point I thought I was developing back ache. It was never as bad as that, but this morning I do feel a bit stiffer, and more creaky than I like. The only positive thing I can say is while it is not nice, it is not actually painful.

The highlight of such a day as yesterday would usually be dinner, but after the extra soup, and meatballs, I kept thing simple - although laziness did contribute a lot to that decision. I started off by putting some sausages in my mini oven and grill some time before dinnertime so they would have a chance to cool a bit before eating them. At that point I was thinking of cooking some sort of vegetables to go with the sausages, but in the end I decied I would just eat the sausages by themselves. I did follow that with a tub of low calorie and sugar ice cream for dessert.

This was my supper ! I washed my dinner down with two cans of Guinness followed by a couple of large measures of Jameson's Stout Edition whiskey. Maybe those sausages were salty or something, but the first can of Guinness went down without touching the sides ! I slowed down a little for the second can, and just sipped the whiskey.

The trouble with resting so much during the day was that I didn't seem to feel sleepy when I went to bed. I was going to read in bed anyway, so that didn't matter, but after a few pages I found my eyes were really trying to close. At that point I turned out the light, turned over, and......nothing happened. I must have ended up debating with myself for what felt like ages, but I expect it was little more than 10 minutes, wondering if I was going suffer from insomnia all night.

Fortunately I didn't seem to suffer any significant insomnia, although I did seem to wake up more frequently than usual last night, and it felt like I had some very extended dreams. One dream was set in a sort of multi occupancy factory, and I remember walking through it, and seeing all the different companies that used it. I can't remember if I was trying to get to somewhere, or if it was just curiosity. I suspect a bit of both.

As I mentioned a bit further up the page, I do feel quite creaky this morning. Some of it would have been caused by laying around too much yesterday, but some may well be the damp weather. Worst affected is my left elbow. It is often sore on some morning, and even later in the day on rarer occasions. This morning it can be quite painful, and I would not be surprised if I give in and take some painkillers soon.

There is better news about my health measurements. My blood pressure and temperature are very normal, and the more critical one, my blood glucose level, is pretty good. It was 7.8mmol/l. That is higher than yesterday, but these days it seems like anything under 8 is pretty good. Now I just have to try and be careful so it doesn't go up, and preferably goes down a bit for tomorrow.

Unfortunately there is a good reason why taking care may not be possible. Jodie has volunteered to pop over this afternoon so I can keep her company, and we can drink more beer. That will be some time after 3pm. Until then I have to keep myself amused. I am wondering if I can raise the enthusiasm for a short walk if the sun does come out at 1pm today. I have a feeling that by then I will have given up on the idea, but you never know.

Could this be this afternoon's beer delivery ? Sadly not, but I have never seen this van parked outside my house before.