It is always worth remembering to check the latest revision to the forecast before commenting on it - and I did remember to do it today. The latest revision has removed all mention of rain, and also any mention of any sunny spells. It would appear that today will just be grey - light grey, but still grey. The afternoon should still reach 9° C. Tomorrow should feature some sunny spells before midday, and some light rain from mid afternoon. The afternoon temperature could rise to 10° C

  Had I known that yesterday afternoon was going to include some sunny spells I might have given going out a second thought. Going out for a walk would have been good for me, but it is easy to make excuses. Obviously the first tier of excuses was the doom and gloom of the early weather forecast. Tier 2 is a lot more subjective, and perhaps no more than  a cheap excuse. I considered it to be too cold and too hot to go out. As I have whined about before, several times or more, the air was still a bit too cool to go without a coat, and yet a (dark coloured) coat would soak up so much sunshine that it would be too hot under the coat.

  There was a tier 3 if I wanted to be pedantic. Maybe tier 3 and 4 ! I had a hangover, and as I said yesterday it was not of the painful variety, but of the variety where it seemed everything, physical or mental, was hard work - like wading through treacle. There was also the gut rot I was suffering from. That was all over well before the afternoon, but it left me feeling fatigued. In fact I am not sure what was worse - the hangover form the previous evening's booze, or the hangover of the couple of very explosive visits I had to make to the toilet.

  This could be leading up to a tale of doing nothing, but I did achieve one useful thing, and maybe a few minor things. It took some time before I decided to put my book down, and stop semi snoozing*, but having done so (maybe soon after midday) I proceeded to do some special laundry. It was one bit of laundry where a washing machine with a boil option would have been very useful.

* I don't think I actually snoozed, but I definitely closed my eyes several times. I think my brain wouldn't shut up, and if I did sleep it was probably for mere minutes.

  The special laundry was 3 tea towels and a hand towel from the kitchen. The hand towel was starting to smell a bit - only a tiny bit, and then only one corner or something, but it's time was overdue. The tea towels never came up clean after the last wash, although I am not sure even a good boil can get out turmeric/curry stains. The worst thing was that they still smelled of Bio Detergent from their last wash (or three). I might have even used some fabric conditioner on them. The latter was probably stupid because it could taint any plate dried with it.

  My plan was to do the hand towel, and three tea towels as a separate wash, and not to use any fabric conditioner. To try and get them all as fresh as possible I intended to give them a lot of rinses. I think I gave them 6 or 7 rinses in the end, and the rinse water was still not running perfectly clear, but I was bored by then. I gave them all the best wringing out I could do, and hung them up to dry. I could still smell detergent on them as they were drying. My plan now is to wash them again a lot earlier than I probably would have before. Maybe in less than a week. Once I start to use them, probably today, I shall wash their replacements because they smell a bit musty after being in a drawer for possibly several or more years.

  There was one other malady I had yesterday. It actually started a day or two earlier. Superficially it was like toothache, but it didn't feel quite right for that. The pain seemed to be high up in my cheek. I have a theory that it was a blocked saliva duct. I have never experienced one before, but someone I knew (or know) had one years ago (possibly a workmate from one of my jobs), and although my memory is rather vague about it now, the symptoms seem to be similar. I think he sought medical advice, and was told to take painkillers if needed, but it should, and I think it did, sort itself out in a few days. What ever I had it seems to be 90% gone now.

  I felt too miserable to control my eating yesterday, although I didn't let go completely. Ideally I would have fasted until at least late afternoon, and ideally until dinner time.  It wasn't even lunchtime, although it was a bit too late for elevenses when I tucked into two small cox apples and a chunk of cheese. I reckoned that was close to safe. later on I had a mid afternoon snack of rice crackers and salami. The salami had a lot of fat in it, but minimal amounts of sugar (actual or potential).

  My dinner was an interesting experiment. It was not exactly healthy, but not terrible, and I might have the same thing again. It was simply a sort of stew of diced lamb with a mix of canned marrowfat peas, and some frozen peas. I added more flavour from some lamb stock cubes, mint, and some hot pepper sauce. As I say, it wasn't particularly healthy, but it was a little bit. More importantly it was rather delicious. I have another pack of diced lamb that is getting near it's use by date, and while I could cook that with some other green vegetables I will probably give into temptation of adding a can of mushy peas and more frozen peas tonight.

  As well as two episodes of Star Trek I watched two more TV programmes last night. I ended up getting to bed much later than usual. The first of the two extra programmes was a documentary on Sky Arts about electric music. It started off well with a look at the developing use of the electric guitar. It them moved on to the early days of synthesisers. That was less good. It ended with "techno music" or "electronic dance music", and that was really crap.

  The next programme, still on Sky Arts, was Brian Johnstone (lead singer with AC/DC for many years) in conversation with Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company &tc.). That was good and bad in parts. It can't be denied that Paul Rodgers has a great voice, but I don't like some of what he has done with it. The most interesting part was about a time I was not aware of. It was after Freddie Mercury dies, and Paul Rodgers fronted a few Queen gigs. It is probably heresy to say it, but I think I preferred Paul Rodgers. This seems to be a fair write up of that collaboration - https://www.smoothradio.com/artists/queen/paul-rodgers-now-singer-free/

  It was after 11pm when I turned out the light, and soon went to sleep last night - rather later than most nights. I can remember waking up once in the night, and doubting I was having a good sleep, but it seems I was. I hardly remember any more after that until I opened my eyes to see early daylight seeping around the curtains. I felt curiously good. I seemed to ache a little less than most morning (although "a little less" does not equate to nothing at all). I also felt very awake as soon as I opened my eyes.

  I wasn't expecting any great change in my blood glucose this morning. After eating so much (I forget to mention I had a big juicy navel orange after my dinner) I thought I would be lucky if my blood glucose remained the same as the day before, but it had actually gone down from 9.4 to 9.0mmol/l. That is still far too high, but at least it is in a more sane area. If I could fast a bit, or get some exercise I should be able to get that down a bit more tomorrow morning, but it is not feeling like a good day for it.

  So far today I have watched a full 1 hour and 10 minute You Tube video, and I have had a shower, and washed my hair. I am now coming to the end of this diary/blog for today, and all I can think about for the moment is to lay down, and read for a bit...and probably snooze for a bit. It is pretty grey outside, although the sun almost broke through nearly an hour ago. It might even manage it soon, but it is going to take more than 30 seconds of sunshine to enthuse me enough to go for a walk. I think I'll be doing something else, or nothing (much) today.