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Sunday 24th January 2021
Lockdown day 306
Shopping embargo day 88 185

08:40 GMT


  I think yesterday could easily be described as sunny. It was initially cloudy, and it probably took until almost 10am for the sun to put in it's first, slightly hazy appearance. After that there was no stopping it. Occasionally a cloud would quickly pass across the face of the sun, but otherwise it was non stop sunshine almost up to sunset, and it was trying even then. It was still no more than a rather chilly 4° C at best, yesterday. Here's what the sunset looked like at 4.08pm
the sky near to
                          sunset last night
snow
   The big question about today's weather is not "will it", "but when will it snow ?". Both forecasters I consult, The Met Office, and The BBC (Meteogroup), say it will snow. The BBC are quite enthusiastic about the idea it will be snowing heavily by 9am, and the Met Office are a bit more restrained as you can see in the screenshot above. They even downgrade some showers as just sleet instead of snow. There is one more forecast.....
sunrise this
                                  morning
  This was how the sky looked at 7.47am. The old weather saying "red sky in the morning, shepherds warning" seems to apply strongly here. It doesn't actually signify snow, but what we see here is the leading edge of the cloud that could bring rain, sleet, snow, or just dull overcast weather. One thing is for certain, if it should start to snow soon it will be falling on frosty ground, and none will be wasted by melting as soon as it hits the ground. With a maximum temperature currently predicted to be no more than 2° C today, any snow will be melting quite slowly. The latest revision to the forecast predicts heavy snow at 10am, light snowfall at 11am and midday, sleet at 1pm, and finally, light snow at 2pm. It is starting to look like an anti-climax. Tomorrow is currently forecast to be a completely sunny day, but the temperature will start below zero, and only climb to a maximum of 4° C.

  Not a lot happened yesterday. If I had known that it would be bright and sunny from late morning onwards, I might have got myself in the mood to go out, but the heavy morning cloud did the exact opposite. It made me think along the lines of "batten down the hatches, and weather the storm", or something like that. Basically it just sapped any enthusiasm to do almost anything. It was all compounded by my feeling of sleep deficit after a bad night, and a sort of undefined feeling of not feeling good. Yesterday morning I wrote that I didn't feel too bad, or words to that effect, but it was mainly because I couldn't define why I didn't feel better.

  I was going to say that despite that I did do...something, but I can't really think of what that something might be. I seemed to do little more than lay on my bed reading, and having a snooze or two. The one thing I did do was to be careful about what I ate, and I attempted to be careful with how much I ate. The latter would end up as a disaster. The only thing I ate of any note before dinner was a lunch of rice crackers and mushroom pate. The crackers were very low calorie and sugar, and the pate was just very low sugar. Everything else about it was very unhealthy. Unfortunately it was the latter that made it so tasty.

  My dinner was supposed to be roast/grilled chicken thighs with some green vegetables, but as dinner time approached I felt an increasing desire for a sort of treat for enduring a boring day. That treat was to order a takeaway, and the takeaway was to be kebabs. I made a tragic mistake when doing the order. I ordered "regular" instead of "large" kebabs. I thought it worth saving the extra £3 for large ones, but that was definitely a false economy.. "Regular" seemed to be possibly less than half the size of "large".

  It was because the "regular" portions seemed so small that I ended up eating what was originally intended to be eaten tonight. By not eating the pitta bread, and by not ordering anything other than the basic shish kebabs, it was still a healthy meal even if the end result was bigger than intended. I didn't feel the need to eat anything more after that for the rest of the night. I did wash it all down with a few large whiskies though.

  To my surprise there was some good stuff on TV last night. Best of all was another chance to see not one, but two documentaries about Cream. Cream have been described as the world's first super group. They were good, but I have to admit I only liked about half, or even less of their output. What I do like , I like a lot. It was interesting to hear an explanation of the song SWLABR. I used to think it was either about a transvestite, or a woman with hormonal problems, but I was wrong on both counts. It was apparently written about a beautiful, but ex lover, and how her photographs were defaced by doodling beards and moustaches on them out of spite !

  I could have stayed up even later and watched part 3 of "The Art Of Drumming", and I might have done so if I hadn't decided that I would try and get to sleep early to catch up on the lost sleep of the previous night. I think I was in bed by 8.30pm, but initially I read for a while to get into the right mood (whatever that is) before trying to get to sleep. Sleep didn't come that quickly, but I reckon I was asleep by about 9.30pm - not that early, but on balance, a bit earlier than recently.

  On the whole I seemed to sleep quite well last night. There was one period when I seemed to be awake for maybe 15 minutes. It seemed like the start of another period of insomnia, but I fell asleep while thinking about it. On another occasion I woke up feeling very cold. After a wee, I tucked myself in tight, and woke up an hour or two later with some slight dampness on my pillow where I had started to sweat. I tucked myself in a lot less tight after that.

  This morning was one of those mornings when you wake up and know with doubts that it is time to get up. I suppose that is some sort of confirmation, or at least very heavy evidence, that I did get a good sleep last night. Perhaps it was also influenced by a sort of excitement about the probability that it might snow today. That is also probably the reason why I sort of feel unusually OK this morning. The fly in the ointment is that as I write this the sun is trying to come out instead of the snow trying to fall.

  What happens today all depends on the snow, or lack of it. I am all fired up to take some photographs of the snow, and I am thinking that if I wear my super insulated orange coat I might even take a walk in the linear park. If it does snow there is little chance of Jodie visiting with more insane (or sane) beers. Jodie has a deep hatred of snow !  If the snow is non existent, or maybe just a very light dusting, and if the train are running, then this afternoon will feature boozing !
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