Today has started sunny, and so the forecast has got off to a good start. If the forecast continues to correctly predict today's weather, there should be sunshine, and then sunny spells until sunset. All that sun will raise the temperature up to 11° C - which could almost feel comfortable in the sunshine. There seems very little chance of rain today. That is not the case for tomorrow which will start off very wet, but by sunrise, which we will never see, the rain will have stopped, but the clouds will still be thick and grey for the whole day. The temperature is predicted to be an absolutely flat 11° C from midnight to midnight - which seems very unusual.

   I felt tired after my morning jaunt to Aldi, and then sitting down for well over an hour to write yesterday's blog (with plenty of time on my hands, I feel no need to rush, or to keep things brief. Sadly I can't seem to find the time or patience to proof read these scribblings.)  In theory, I could have gone out for a walk in the sunshine yesterday morning, but I just fancied being lazy. Besides which, I was waiting with baited breath for a notification that Angela's Xmas present had been delivered.
  I have to say that Amazon managed to get in the first notification, but Angela was not too far behind. After all it does take a bit of time breaking into the sturdy cardboard packaging they use for bottles of booze. As hoped, Angela was delighted.

  On the one hand it made me feel very happy that I had made Angela happy, but on the other actually seeing in print what I already knew, that I would not being seeing Angela at Xmas, made me feel very sad. I feel that Angela was also a bit sad about it. In recent message exchanges, regarding Xmas cards as such, she has suggested that she can't wait for the pubs to get back to normal - as in you can walk in at any time with no appointments, no masks, no giving details, etc - so we can get back to meeting at lunchtimes again. Actually I am not sure who hinted at it first, but I know we both agree with it wholeheartedly. It is just a shame we have to do it secretly, and that it is just about the only time I can see (or will be able to see) Angela because of her insanely jealous, and domineering lover boy.

  I was guilty of letting my negative thoughts overpower the positive thoughts yesterday afternoon. Those negative thoughts, amplified by the dark grey sky, and rain, lead me down the path towards beer and snacks. I didn't completely lose track of what I could and couldn't eat, and it was only beer I was drinking rather than any spirits, but 4 cans of beer were from the pack of 5% French lager I had bought from Aldi in the morning.

  That beer, a sort of spoof of Kronenberg 1664, was called something like 1889 (at least it starts with 18 - I can't seem to recall the other two digits). It was good and bad. It seemed quite nice once you get the flavour, but it is one of those annoying beers that leaves a sour after taste. In other words, it is best to keep drinking it, and not stop - although at some point you have to. 4 cans seemed to be enough to stop.

  The rouble with beer is it can have an unpredictable effect on my blood glucose level the next day. In theory, all the (natural) sugar from the barley is converted to alcohol by the yeast, but I suspect the fermentation is sometimes stopped early to give the beer a sweeter taste. That French beer probably had a fairly low sugar content. Some of the snacks I had probably contributed more to my blood glucose level, although I didn't eat anything with known large amounts in it.

  After eating such things as low fat crisps as scoops for low fat cottage cheese, I decided to go for a very small simple dinner. It was nothing more than sausages with some 50% less added slat and sugar, tomato sauce. They were no ordinary sausages - they were pork and leek sausages. Leek could go well with sausages, but not in them. Maybe it was just the background thought that diluting expensive pork with cheap leek made them nothing to get excited about, or maybe it was just that they were nothing to get excited about.

  I have to say I slept well last night. For 5 to 15 minutes it didn't feel like I was going to even get to sleep, but once I did I seemed to sleep very soundly. I know I had to get up several times in the night for a pee, but the memory of each occasion is like a dream, and each time I seemed to fall asleep almost instantly when I got back to bed. I can remember one occasions when I seemed to be still wondering what was the best position to get back to sleep when I woke up a couple of hours later. Even when I woke up at 6am, and decided that a "few more minutes" might be nice, it seemed like I had barely blinked my eyes before another hour and a half had passed.

  I didn't realise it when I first woke up, but now, as I sit here writing about it, I am thinking that I don't feel too bad this morning. Yesterday I had a few odd aches as a result of what should have been a short walk by my previous standards, and maybe I really did need a good rest last night. This morning even my usual aches and pains seem diminished. I am not sure if my get up and go is back. It probably isn't. That escaped around the beginning of November.

  Despite my lack of discipline yesterday, my blood glucose is not terribly bad this morning, but it is still as bad as it was yesterday. If I had been in the mood to care more I could have got it down a bit by this morning - and that would have been a very sensible thing to do considering today is a Thursday - boozing day !

  The pattern for today's activities are now set by the habit of half a year or more of doing the same. This morning, or at least in the very early afternoon, I have to remove my old/spare computer from the dining room table, and then tidy and clean the dining room for another boozing session. It was probably just be Jodie and myself, but Michael has an open invite, and if his nasty little illness permits, there is a tiny chance he will join us.

  One other thing to look forward to today, but only with a very jaundiced eye, is that I have been informed that my order for a special pack of Christmas ale from a Belgium brewery has finally been despatched (or so they say). They even say that it could arrive today, but that seems unlikely. It has apparently been despatched by DPD. Past experience has shown them to be very good at keeping me updated, and they usually give advanced notice of a one hour delivery slot. As yet I have heard nothing from them. I just checked on their website, using the parcel tracking page, and it says they have received my details, but not the package. I think this means the brewery have sent the details to the courier, and that the courier now has to pick up the package from the brewery. There is still hope !