The latest revision to today's forecast shows less sunshine than the version in the screenshot above. I think today is one of those days where we are stuck between two weather systems, and it is hard to predict whether it will drift one way or another. I am not sure why I should make excuses for the weather forecasters. The Met Office has one of the biggest super computers in the country, and so has no excuses to get their predictions wrong. Anyway, the latest revision to the forecast says it should be cloudy now, and indeed there are clouds in the sky, but the sun has managed to shine almost non stop for the last half hour or more. Probably the only thing we can conclude is that the day will have some sunshine, but some rain a few hours after sunset. It will also be cold. The best we can hope for is 7° C today. There may be rain in the early hours of tomorrow, but the rest of the day should be dry. It may be cloudy enough to block the sun all day, but it still might be a degree or two less cold than today.
    Yesterday was dominated by one thing - waiting for a crate of beer to be delivered. I knew it would not arrive early because it didn't leave the depot until almost midday. That meant that in theory I could have gone out for a walk, but I was put off by the grey light outside, and the cold. If it had been sunny and cold then maybe I would have gone out.  The main stumbling block was I knew I would overheat inside a warm coat, and initially I would need a warm coat - particularly to keep my elbows warm because like other joints, they do have a tendency to get stiff in cold weather.

  Instead of using the bit of energy I had found from somewhere, somehow, to go walking I decided to expend it in a more useful way. Not that walking isn't useful. It is, but apart from a few pictures it leaves no evidence. Hoovering most of upstairs left a sort of anti-evidence - fluff and grit free carpets. I was also forced to do a modicum of tidying up so the hoover could get to some bits of the carpets.

  I also expended a bit of energy hand washing some clothes and a small hand towel. Hoovering warms me up, but hand laundry can get me feeling quite hot even in the chilly, unheated bathroom. After hanging up the stuff to dry, on a clothes horse, with a fan heater on low blowing at it, I should have thought of something else to do that was worthwhile. With the dining room being heated to dry that laundry, I could have done some computer stuff down there, but I couldn't seem to raise the enthusiasm to get started. I would probably have been OK once started, but somehow I just didn't feel like it.

  The best advice I could get for the delivery time of my crate of beer was "before 9pm". That was not particularly helpful. It is one area where Amazon falls down. Other companies use couriers who usually estimate an hour slot for a delivery, and usually the delivery does happen in that hour slot. I had a very optimistic idea that the delivery might happen soon after 4pm. I was out by a couple of boring hours.

  I really fancied a snooze yesterday afternoon, but I couldn't allow myself to have one in case I missed hearing the doorbell. I also ruled out laying on my bed to read. That would pass a lot of time painlessly, but would produce a very strong temptation to close my eyes, and drift off to sleep. All afternoon I spent alert, mainly reading stuff off the internet. As sunset approached I became aware that the sun had almost started to shine. It was just about level with the roofline to the west, but still bright enough to light up the roof of the flats to the south of me.
  It seemed like the sun had broken through the clouds for just long enough to prove it still existed, and to give a last wave goodbye. This picture was taken at about 3.20pm. It soon started to get dark after I took the picture, and I thought it was all over for the day, but then, at nearly 4pm, about 10 minutes after sunset, I became aware of pink light filtering through my window. In one final "Hoorah !" the sun put on a glorious red sunset.
  Weather lore says "red sky at night, shepherds delight". The last red sky of not was an outright lie ! The next day was lousy - all cold, grey and wet. Last night's red sky got it right, and today is still bright and sunny, and has been for a couple of hours now, despite the most recent revision to the forecast saying it should be cloudy for at least another half hour yet.

  I was looking forward to my dinner last night. I knew I had to be careful about what, or how much I ate yesterday after my appallingly high blood glucose reading yesterday morning. I think I did it at a subconscious level because I did seem to moderate how much, and what I ate yesterday. My dinner was almost an exception to that. It was part 2 of the three dinners worth of curry I had ordered as a takeaway the day before yesterday. I had lamb rogan ghosh on a naan bread that I had to tear into overlapping pieces to fit on a big dinner plate. It was very tasty. Even the naan bread itself seemed to very tasty.
  I think it was about 7.30pm(ish) when my beer delivery finally arrived. As "promised" it was in a "festive" (cardboard) crate, although, of course, that was inside a standard Amazon plain cardboard box. I am not totally sure why I ordered it. I had actually been searching for strong winter ales (something like the original Youngs Winter Warmer), but there was little on offer. I did order a 4 (or 6 ?) pack, with special glass, of a Xmas Ale as well, but that hasn't even been despached yet. I was hoping the Xmas crate of lagers would have some festive bottle labels or something, but sadly no.
  These are some of the beers in the Xmas crate of lagers. A few are not ordinary, lager lout, type lagers...
  I think that Adnams "Mosaic Pale Ale" is maybe a pale ale, and not a lager ! I have sent my friend Jodie these pictures, and asked her if I should chill any for drinking next Thursday. I have not received any answer yet, and I presume that means she has had them all once, and will never need to drink them ever again because they will lack any novelty value to upload to the untapped web site she is addicted to !

  I was trying to reduce my consumption of Diet Coke last night because it was running low. I replaced it with 4 bottles of beer starting from late afternoon. Two of the bottles were left over from my first ever beer delivery from The Westerham Brewery. They were basically traditional English ale varieties. I was not too keen on them initially, but they do have the odd characteristic that they become much nicer after about the first half pint. The first mouthful, after drinking a German beer, tasted very rough, but after that first half pint I "got the flavour".

  Four pints of beer was just right to give me a sleepy feeling, and after reading in bed for a while I was fast asleep before 10pm, and maybe closer to 9pm. As usual I woke up for a pee several times in the night, but it did seem that the intervals between these times was longer than usual, and I had no trouble getting back to sleep again afterwards. Maybe I was more tired than I thought I had been. I do remember some dreams, and I think I remember there was one that I thought worth remembering, and describing, but I can't remember enough to even try to describe it.

  The only time I had trouble getting back to sleep was after waking at 6am. I might have managed a few minutes of sleep, but I couldn't shake off the idea that it had been my intention of getting up early so I could go and get a bit of shopping. At 6.30am I got up and did my usual routine. I was very pleased to see my blood glucose had come right down to 7.9mmol/l. 6.9 would have been even better, but 7.9 is in the sane area, and nothing to get excited about.

  With my morning duties done I had a shower, and then started off some more laundry by putting it in to soak in detergent. I will come back to finish it sometime later today (I hope). I then got dressed, and ready to go out in my warmest coat. As predicted, even with the temperature down to 4.5° C, according to my garden thermometer, I was soon feeling quite warm by the time I got to the Turkish/Polish/Estonian/etc mini supermarket on Catford bridge. I bought 3 bottles of Diet Coke, and some assorted food and fruit in there.

  By the time I had walked home again, and in that direction carrying a heavy load, I was definitely getting sweaty under the coat. It would be very nice for waiting in the snow for a train, but it is not a coat for even light exercise (like walking). Soon after getting home I started cooking breakfast. It was nothing I had bought this morning, but some smoked haddock I had bought from Aldi last Monday. It was 2 days after it's best before date, and while it was (hopefully) not bad enough to be off, it was starting to smell very fishy.

  I ate that fish with some peas, and drenched with balsamic vinegar to calm the fishy smell and taste. (It did have a very feint whiff of ammonia about it as if it was starting to go off). It was nice - sort of, but also some worry about whether it was wise to eat it, and will there be any repercussions ? A good half hour has passed since then, and so far so good....

  It was my intention to go for a walk in the sunshine today, but I have to admit I am losing the enthusiasm for it. I could use the excuse that I want to stay near the toilet in case that fish causes any unpleasantness. Alternatively I could use the excuse that just as the forecast says the sun should be coming out, it has actually just gone in, and it looks a bit grey out. I could also argue it is unpleasantly cold out there. Maybe I might still go out. I just have to keep reminding myself that it could be bright out, and so good for photography - except, as I discovered a week or two ago, the sun is so low in the sky that it is easy for features near the ground to be in deep shadow still. What I actually do will be revealed tomorrow !