I took screenshots of both the Met Office and BBC (Meteogroup) forecasts this morning. For now I will stick to the Met Office forecast because it has got off to a more realistic start, and predicts a nicer afternoon. It certainly was foggy at 6am, and it was foggy at 7am, not misty. I think the mist is still thick enough to be called fog even now, and sometimes it seems to be getting thicker rather than thinning. I suspect that once again the predicted afternoon sunshine will be revised to happen later and later...... Err, I should have checked for revisions before writing all that. The latest forecast does show mist thickening into fog about now, and the first sunny spells now happening at 3pm. Two hours after that it will start to rain. Also, the highest temperature may now only reach 10° C. Today is not going to be a nice day - again ! Tomorrow is probably going to be even worse - thick clouds with occasional rain, and the highest temperature a wintery 6° C.
  Before leaving the subject of the weather it is interesting to see what The BBC's predictions are. The forecast in te screenshot has been revised too, but like the Met Office forecast it is mainly the timings that have changed, rather than the substance. I wonder where they think Catford actually is because this looks so different to the Met Office forecast. According to the latest revision the thundery showers are now due to start at 10am, and they will be followed by a couple of hours of rain. There will then be a few hours respite from the rain until 5pm when light rain will fall until, and beyond midnight. They still predict it will be 13° C between 3 and 4pm.
  I don't know if this is mist or fog. I would go for "light fog". The Met Office got this bit of weather right, and the BBC got it well wrong - although there is still time for a thundery shower at 10am. It is only 8.43am as I write these words.

  All of yesterday's "excitement" was crammed into the early morning when I went to the post office. As I am sure I mentioned yesterday, I didn't enjoy the experience, although the actual experience once I was being served in the Post Office was almost good - which probably means neither good nor bad. Having to wear a mask though was annoying. It was the actual walk to the Post Office and back which was the worst thing. That was on account of it being so cold and damp.

  I am unsure why it being cold should make walking feel difficult. I suspect it was all in my head. I didn't seem to feel any need to slow down because it felt like it was physically tiring, and yet it sometimes felt like I was walking through treacle. What that really means is that the cold felt uncomfortable, particularly to my tingling fingers, and I really wanted to be able to walk at 20mph, or even faster, to get it over and done with, but I could still only manage somewhere around my average of about 3mph.

  The grey skies, and the weather forecast being revised again and again to push the expected sunshine back later and later in the day really depressed me. That was made worse by the predicted afternoon temperature getting lower and lower. It all sapped any enthusiasm I had, and I felt rather pissed off. It wouldn't be long before I felt extremely pissed off.

  The morning post brought a letter concerning my tiny workplace pension that I was more or less forced to sign up to in the last 18 months, or so, of my employment. An earlier letter had revealed the size of my "pension pot", and it was bigger than I though. The letter that came yesterday showed what it would be after the tax man had taken his cut, and of course it was a lot less. That was only a minor annoyance compared to the big one !

  I had opted to take my pension pot in one lump sum. The alternative was probably about 50p a week until I kicked the bucket. I was informed that because of banking regulations I would have to prove my identity before they would give me MY money.  As well as a recent bank statement they wanted either a passport or driving licence - I have neither.  I was so pissed off that I was think along the lines of "let the bastards keep the money" because I've been through this "prove your identity" before, and it is a right pain in the arse when you have neither a passport or driving licence.

  I was almost only able to do it when I bought my Premium Bonds five years ago with the help of a letter from the director of the company I worked for. When it came to my state pension I found there was no way I could do it online, but fortunately it seems it can be done by post - unless the bastards pull the same "prove your identity" stunt on me at the last moment.

  I felt really cheesed off yesterday, and only one thing seemed positive even if ultimately it was pointless. It was made worse by the book I am trying to read. It is one of those books that just does not seem to flow, and every time I put the book down I had to read almost the previous two pages to try and work out what was going on. For the moment I am sticking to it in the hope that somewhere before the book ends it will get exciting, or interesting, or at least seem to have a point. The book is "Fool's Run" by Patricia McKillip.

  Yesterday would have been a typical day when I would want to eat and drink to excess, but somehow I did neither. I did have a couple of very large whiskies, but no more. I was still very much aware that I needed to get my blood glucose down again after the morning's very high reading. Somehow I managed to achieve that even though I was running on autopilot for most of the day. Maybe my autopilot does a better job than my conscious decisions.

  I was partly helped by the knowledge that I had a very nice dinner coming up. It would be big and hot, and yet almost healthy. It was stewed lean and diced beef with some added spices, a couple of those long thin shallots, and a heap of bean sprouts. It was very nice, and I had a high amount of confidence that it would only affect my blood glucose in a positive direction, i.e. downwards. I felt so confident that I had a sweet of three nectarines. They were not very ripe, and so more tart than sweet.

  After a generally sedentary day (after my morning walk) I didn't really expect to feel very tired in the evening, but I guess habit meant that I was feeling quite sleepy....sleepy or tired ? ... as 9pm approached. I went to bed, and attempted to read more of the book I am reading, but I still couldn't get into the flow of the book. I maybe read two pages, and then turned over, and it probably wasn't long before I fell asleep.

  I meant to mention that before I went to sleep I had had some nasty pain. It was possibly an ingrowing whisker in my moustache area - if such a thing is possible. All I know was that if I touched a certain spot it felt like a white hot needle in the skin under my nose. Unfortunately "touching a certain spot" included using a tissue to blow my nose - which I did quite a few times between getting into bed, and falling asleep.

  My sleep seemed to include various dreams with a common thread running through them. They were inspired by hearing that Angela was cooking Kolokasi for her son and daughter. It is a traditional Greek dish, and I think that maybe yesterday was a special day in the Greek calendar. The dish is based around a root vegetable of the same name, but known outside Greece as Taro. The preparation of the root is hard work. Probably even harder if you are not in practice than how it is described in this recipe - https://www.cyprusalive.com/en/kolokasi.

  I'm not entirely sure why I decided to send a message to Angela when I was feeling down, but I said that I hoped her special dinner went well, and that it was a labour of love preparing that vegetable ready to be included into a sort of stew. She replied "it is !", and then 2 minutes later sent another reply simply saying "Miss you x". That made me feel really good, but at the same time even more miserable because I miss Angela so much.

  My dreams often seemed to be about preparing the root for my own experimental cookery. In some respects the dreams were of the sort of experiments I may do for real. My research shows that the root is saturated with Oxalate - the same stuff that rhubarb leaves have, and is poisonous. In the case of kolokasi it is destroyed by cooking. So it is safe providing it is well cooked, but there are some unknowns about how the method of preparation might change the taste or texture. In Greece they seem to have a traditional way of preparing it, and they would say it is the only way, but elsewhere, as Taro, it appears to be prepared in several different ways - including just slicing it. I do fancy experimenting with it one day.

  Apart from seeming to dream a lot, I think I slept quite well, but I woke up a lot faster than I would like because I became aware of the calf muscles in my right legs starting to painfully contract with cramp. I had no time to wake slowly. I had to leap out of bed to put some weight on my legs to kill the cramp. Apart from that brief cramp I felt semi OK. Most of my body seemed in working order. Maybe not good working order, but still usable.

  The best thing about this morning was that my blood glucose was down to a very acceptable 7.7mmol/l. That was a good drop from 9.2mmol/l yesterday morning. That was such a brief high blip that I almost wonder if I was fighting some sort of bug. I had had a small stomach upset, and while I have never noticed it happening before, it may have raised my blood glucose level. Anyway, it is over now, and for today it is good.

  I have no idea what I will do today. I was thinking of a walk, but maybe no longer. The weather forecast has been revised again, and it is not looking good outside. A little earlier I was subjected to another rambling phone call from Lee, and the time now is 10.44am. The fog has now thinned to just a light misty haze, but the sky is still mid grey. The latest revision to the forecast says that the mist will descend again at midday, and only lift when drizzle starts to fall at 4pm. There seems to be a 20% chance of drizzle at any time before that. The temperature is now only predicted to reach 9° C. It does not feel like outdoor weather. Therefore I predict I will spend another boring, and maybe depressing day, indoors looking for something to amuse me.