Today should see some sunny spells, or maybe that should be may see some sunny spells. There should be a sunny spell sometime soon, but at the moment the small patch of blue is about 5 or 10° above where the sun should be. I can't see directly upwards at the moment, my bedroom ceiling is in the way, but from what I can see through the window it seems that there is a huge patch of blue above us. The problem is that towards the southern horizon, where the sun would be, there is still dark cloud. Anyway, with a bit of luck there could be a scattering of sunny spells today, and the temperature may rise to 2° C for a few hours in the afternoon. Having just refreshed the weather page I now see no sunny spells this afternoon, but more sunny spells this morning. The temperature profile of the day remains the same, and the day is still shown as being dry. I can imagine most of the snow will disappear by late afternoon. Sunny spells are still predicted for tomorrow, but paradoxically it may be a little cooler than today.

   Yesterday felt frustratingly boring. I think the trouble was that I couldn't do the one thing I wanted to do, and I didn't fancy doing anything else. I wanted to go for a walk in the linear park, but I felt I ought to stay in and rest the pulled muscle in my left thigh. It had been very sore when getting into bed during the night, and was sore when going up stairs (but not down stairs). Not only that, but I was scared that another fall on any ice I might encounter could be very painful if the same muscle was pulled again.

  It left me feeling frustrated, but as early even approached I found I had made the right decision. Admittedly it was helped by Ibuprofen and booze, but I suddenly realised that 90% of the pain had gone when I walked upstairs. I could still feel some stress in the muscle, but it wasn't exactly painful. Much later I also found that I could lift my leg onto my bed without it being any more than slightly uncomfortable. As I reported yesterday, the night before it was agony getting my left leg onto my bed, and I had to use my other leg to lift it up as I got into/onto my bed.

  There was good and bad and very good news yesterday. I was sent a text message from my doctors surgery that gave me the address of a web site where I could book a covid-19 vaccination. The web address specifically included the words "third party", and I assumed the vaccinations were being done by a private company, and a further assumption, possibly very wrong, was that it would be at some distant place in some god forsaken part of the country.

  I have heard tales of vaccination centres being only accessible by car, but maybe that is only in rural parts of the country. However, even in London, it could be further than I could walk (and walk home again). My aversion for mask wearing means I do not use public transport. I am also not keen to wear a mask even for vaccination, and so I ignored the offer in preference to carrying on my standard precautions of staying well clear, much more than 2 metres when possible, of anyone but those I need to be closer to.

  My thoughts on these matters ended up on social media, and were read by Angela. She got back to me to say that she could recommend anyone over the age of 65 to be vaccinated in the hospital. She has already had her first vaccination, and I guess that this idea of being able to recommend anyone above 65 years old is an extension of the hospital being careful with their valuable staff - keep them safe, and anyone they are likely to to be in contact with. It will mean wearing a mask, but I guess I can bring myself to do that for this one special occasion - assuming I do get offered the jab at the hospital.

  I know it will make Angela happy if I do get the jab, and that makes it worthwhile. It made me sad and happy that while we can't see each other during lockdown, and there is little chance once lockdown is over because of the shackles that lover boy puts on her, it is yet another sign of the deep bond that exists between us.

  I was thinking about this last night, and how Angela changed me. I've had few lovers in my time, and breaking up was always devastating, but not with Angela. With previous lovers there was that despair that maybe you would never find anyone else. That wasn't the case with Angela. It felt like I had found the closest to perfection I could ever find, and there could never be a replacement. In a way that was sort of liberating. It meant that the one chance I had of some intimacy could be taken without any commitment. I don't mean that in a degrading way. It wasn't me who said "friends with benefits". It felt like the sort of thing I should have been doing as a teenager - a sort of learning experience I guess.

  During the course of the last two paragraphs a lot has happened. Angela sent me an email with the address of the hospitals own booking form for Covid vaccination. I suspect it was far better than the general NHS online form - mainly because it was simple and it worked - and it seemed to work fast. I entered my details, and within seconds of hitting enter it confirmed I was booked in, and gave me a reference number. I shall be getting my first Covid jab in the hospital early Friday morning.

  Less good news about yesterday is that I felt frustrated about not going out, or it being wise not to go out. Add in some boredom, and I was feeling down - light depression. Of course the message from Angela was a brief spark of light on a dull day. The ultimate problem was trying to moderate what I ate. I knew that my dinner was not going to be all that good for me, but being unfrozen ready meals I couldn't put off eating them too long. I thought some booze might help, and along with a couple of Ibuprofen tablets, it certainly helped my pulled muscle. By the evening I was going up the stairs with hardly any discomfort.

   Those few beers did me both good and bad. The bad was increased appetite, and the stupid idea that I would finish off the bag of liquorice allsorts that I had made last for 3 or was it 6 days ? As well as being a source of concentrated sugar, they are also know for their laxative effects. Fortunately the latter has not happened (yet), but the former has left it's mark.  My dinner, a small "lamb hotpot" and a small "beef hotpot" ready meals showed the sugar content to be in the green on the "traffic light" panel, but I reckon the sugar content only just scraped under the bar into the so called low sugar area.


  There was one other slightly positive thing yesterday. I got the confirmation that my last, slightly insane, order from Amazon had been despatched. I think I was sober when I ordered the three bottles of whisky pictured on the left.  I think it is the two on the right of the picture that should be delivered today. The third one is being sent by a courier company that doesn't appear to offer any tracking information, but even that could arrive today.

  I was most delighted to see that Dimple whisky, in it's unique wired bottle is still available. I haven't seem a bottle of it for something like 50 years ! The bottle in the picture does look a bit different to how I remember the last bottle I saw, but I will still be happy to get it - I hope. I am buying it more for the bottle than the whisky in it, but I rather expect I'll enjoy that too !

  The Prohibition Edition of Cutty Sark whisky is interesting on two accounts. For one thing Curry Sark is a whisky that I haven't seen around here for years and years, and secondly it is over-strength - a whopping 50% instead of the more usual 40% of most spirits. That should be "interesting" !

  Last night was another night when I am unsure if I slept well or badly. I didn't seem to have any trouble getting to sleep, but I seemed to have dream after dream. Most of the dreams seemed to be very strange, and often seemed to be about being lost. One remembered sequence started off being in some sort of office of a small, and experimental New York radio station. I needed to use their toilet. Opened the door to the toilet and found myself stepping off an American subway train. Across the platform was the entrance to an English (or English style) pub. It was quite crowded, and I couldn't seem to get served. At some point I fond my friend Jodie standing next to me, and she said we shouldn't wait any longer, and needed to go out on to the platform to get the bus to Catford. There was a lot more like that with one setting changing into another with no predictability.

  This morning my blood glucose was predictably very high. I really need to get out for a walk today, but somehow I don't feel like it, plus at some point there will be a knock at the door when my booze turns up. I may get some notification about an very, very loose predicted time for the Amazon delivery, but the other will just turn up as a complete surprise sometime, some day. Probably the main idea of starting this writing early was so I could go out early, and be back before there is any chance of the Amazon delivery man arriving. Maybe I might still get out for a walk....