It seems incredible, but the latest revision to the forecast says there will be sunny intervals in as little as 40 minutes time as I write this. The BBC forecast broadly agrees with this. At the moment the sky is a dark grey colour, and I am not sure it has even stopped raining yet ! After a few hours of sunny intervals, if they happen, it will be back to rain again. The latest revision to the forecast shows light rain from 1pm to 7pm, although the percentage chance of it actually raining at these times is actually fairly low - just 30 to 40%. Surprisingly enough, the BBC's (Meteogroup) forecast broadly agrees with this as well. The maximum temperature will occur for an hour or two after 1pm, and 12° C is the current prediction. After that it will start to cool down, and tomorrow's high may only be 10° C. Tomorrow afternoon may feature sunshine !

   Maybe I am getting too old for boozing sessions or something. Like many Fridays, the day after the Thursday afternoon boozing session, I had a very specialised hangover. It manifested itself not as pain, or stomach upsets, or any of the usual things that happen after a heavy night, but as a sort of "couldn't be bothered", or tired feeling. Of course the rotten weather can cause this too, and I suppose both should take equal blame. Yet another day when my get up and go, got up and went !

  I don't think I can think of any activity that is worth describing. I am nit sure I actually did any activity anyway ! I seemed to spend a great deal of the day either reading from a book or from the internet. The one thing I did do was more a sort of negative thing, and I don't know how I managed it on a day when I was only saved from being very bored by transporting my mind away in a book. Some how I managed to moderate my eating to a sufficient degree in either quantity or quality to reduce my blood glucose down to a very sane level this morning.


  One thing I noticed while reading some of the less educational bits of the internet was a new government advert thingy. I don't know, but I am guessing it may have been originally posted to Twitter. Like most announcements from Downing street it made very little sense. To be honest, when I first saw it I assumed it was an advert for Golden Virginia rolling tobacco. I have no idea what it is supposed to mean, but it could apply to those rolling and smoking "jazz cigarettes" - ak spliffs, joints etc.

  I managed to resist any sweet stuff that came in my big box of supplies yesterday, although it seems I sensibly didn't order much in that department. One thing I did order was some rice crackers in two different flavours. Unlike the hard flat disks of the rice crackers I have been consuming very frequently, these are thicker, and it is easy to see they are made of compressed rice grains. I think the rice grains are possibly party stuck together with sugar. I can't think of any other reason for sugar to be included in the ingredients. The nutritional information does list sugar, and the typical value does seem high until you realise it is per 100gm, and a whole pack only weighs 50gm.

  I took a chance and ate two packs yesterday. The first was wasabi flavour, and the dust off that, when it got in my throat, gave me a coughing fit that Covid would be proud of. They were pretty hot ! The other flavour was Thai chilli, and they seemed quite mild.  The other thing I had as a snack was a packet of giant Hula Hoops - chilli flavour. They were nice, but being big rings you don't get many in a standard crisp packet sized pack - which maybe was a good thing.
  My dinner was a very restrained menu. The main course was roast and spiced chicken legs and thighs with sliced runner beans. To slice the beans nicely I needed a sharp knife. I could have used one of my new knives, the latest of which are surgically sharp. However I used a knife that I've had for ages. My new, no-name, probably of Chinese origin, knife sharpener works really well. It has restored a good edge to the old knife in the picture.

   I now give it a wipe or two through the fine sharpening slot every time I wash the knife, and it's edge gets better and better. I am doing the same to an even older knife, and that too is getting better and better. I don't know how long this new sharpener will last, but it was only about £7 (if I recall correctly) and so I would have few qualms against getting a replacement if it starts becoming ineffective - assuming they are still on sale whenever that might be. A lot of cheap Chinese stuff like this is here one day, and gone the next when the factory starts making something completely different.

  Just to finish the story about my dinner...Once again I had a dessert, and it was one apple and two satsumas. I nearly had a second helping of chicken, but something made me leave the other two chicken breasts I had cooked for today - maybe even for lunch today.

  My evening was mostly spent watching TV - although my attention often drifted to the internet - both Star Trek episodes seemed to have been shown not very long ago, and I found my attention wandering a lot. Later on, on the Sky Arts channel, there was some documentaries about Queen. The one I watched most of was about Freddy Mercury, Queen's frontman. It started off quite good with lots of early Queen stuff, but I found it gradually getting more and more boring. I gave up on it as the section where he paired up with a world famous opera singer (whose name I can't pronounce, and so can't really remember). I turned off and went to bed.

  Initially I went to bed to read, but it wasn't long before I felt sleepy. I'm not sure when I went to sleep. it may have been 10pm, or maybe 11pm. On the whole, I slept OK last night, with no periods awake except for a few brief visits to the toilet, and once again they seemed almost dream like. I can't really remember any details about my dreams, although I think two may have involved sub surface tunnels under the roads of the city which had to be used for any of the trolls (although I think I probably meant "proles") who had to move about. I can't remember any more details than that.

  This morning I woke up almost with a start because bits of me hurt. I think one leg was just about starting to cramp, and my left elbow was, and is, once again rather sore. The odd thing is that I always thought it would be my right elbow that would give trouble. That was the elbow that was left dislocated for a month or more following an accident getting out of a car in pitch blackness some 20 years ago or more now. The hospital said it was just "soft tissue damage", otherwise known as a bruise, but when the joint popped back together in a blaze of intense pain that lasted for less than a second, I was pretty sure otherwise.

  The best thing this morning is that thanks to taking a bit of care about what I ate, and maybe, on reflection, not eating all that much, my blood glucose has come right down to a perfect 7.5mmol/l. (Actually it would be better if it were under 7, but 7.5 is good enough for me, and the diabetes nurse at the hospital). Today I ought to try and aim for a similar diet so I can have at least two days of a low enough blood glucose level.

  That might prove difficult. The first sunny periods are supposed to be not too far away now, and while it may be a little bright, it is still dull and depressing outside, and I think there is still some rain falling now and then. The road certainly looks very wet, and the puddles are no smaller. It feels unlikely I will be going out today, but I guess with both the Net Office, and the BBC saying the afternoon could feature sunny spells (or sunny intervals), it could brighten up enough to lure me out. The only definite today is that my extra strong, Belgium Xmas beer is finally, after a very long wait, going to be delivered today between 11am and midday.