The forecast has been revised since taking the screenshot above. Only the morning has changed to include some light rain, although no rain has appeared yet. Most of the day will feature heavy cloud, and from about sunset those heavy clouds are going to leak rain. It may only be light rain, and most of the time there is only a 50% chance it will happen. It is going to be another cold day with the temperature only expected to rise to 8° C maximum. Tomorrow could be nicer with sunny spells from late morning to sunset. By 2pm the temperature could reach 10° C. That is still not a lot, but might feel OK when the sun is out if the wind is very light.

   Yesterday was a boring, or annoying, or  frustrating day. During the morning I cleared the dining room table of all the boozing stuff, gave the top a clean, and set it up for VHS tape to PC transferring. In other words I put my old PC, a monitor and VHS cassette player on it ready to transfer Sue's VHS tape. I also did a quick test on 10 minutes of video to see how the "Burn To DVD" part of the software for the video interface box would work. It was certainly quick and simple, but I was not impressed with the results. It seemed like the conversion of the video file to that needed for a DVD was pretty crap. It will do for a rush copy for Sue to take home, but I shall work on a better quality version at a later time.

  The only trouble was that Sue never arrived. Apparently she had just had an artistic inspiration, and lost any sense of time as she did her drawing. When it seemed to be getting late she considered getting a cab all the way here, but that would have cost her at least £40. Apparently when she tried to use the Uber app it refused to acknowledge my post code. I waited for ages and ages, and it was heading towards 4pm when we decided to try again on Friday (tomorrow). I hope I don't have another wasted day then !

  To add to my general frustration I was waiting for a delivery from Amazon. I had ordered a round table cloth for my round dining room table. The tracking info said it arrived at Dartford, the depot that the courier would start from, at 3am. The lazy bastard of a driver didn't leave the depot until midday. Amazon's tracking info started with a highly optimistic forecast that it might arrive as early as 4.30pm. Later on it said between 6.30p, and 8.30pm. It finally arrived at 8.32pm.

  I was not amused that it arrived so late. I could have been in bed by then, but maybe there was a sort of sliver lining to that dark gloomy cloud. I noticed there was an hour of Bill Bailey on BBC 1. It was recorded live on one of his recent tours. I can't say it was one of his best, but it was still funny, and well worth watching.

   Such a mostly boring day of just waiting around inevitably had me thinking about food more than I should. I had a few small snacks, and one big one. The big one was originally intended to be just a handful of nuts and raisins, but it got a bit out of hand. The nuts were bad enough, but the raisins (and I think there were sultanas too) were like little capsules of sugar. It would have been safer if I had never bought them (I bought two - one still unopened).

  My dinner, or at least the main course, was just meat (lamb), stock and sugar snap peas and runner beans. It should have been mostly OK, although the lamb was quite fatty as lamb tends to be. It was a moment of insanity after gorging myself with fruit and nuts to have a tub of low calorie, and slightly low sugar ice cream as a dessert. That is the sort of thing that happens when I feel like I have wasted a whole day.

  I was in bed, and asleep fairly late again last night. It seemed like I slept OK, but on the other hand I remember dreaming a lot. I had two similar themes for my dreams. The first dream had a sequence where I was in a supermarket very late at night, and they were closing. Some parts of the store were in darkness. I only had a small selection of stuff in my basket, and I was wandering around desperately trying to think of what I was also going to buy. In the end a security guard escorted me to a checkout, and he operated the till.

  My next series of dreams were also about it being late, but in this case I was at work, and working overtime. I was working in the telephone exchange in the middle of Catford, but the interior was very different, and it seemed to have extra floors where non engineers worked. The main apparatus room was very cluttered, and it seemed like three generations of telephone exchange equipment had been shoehorned in it.

  The more curious thing is that one corner was for media people. It seemed that somehow it had become a hub for communications between broadcasters at their various studios, and transmitter sites. As such it was permanently manned by broadcast engineers, and they had limited permission to work with the telephone equipment. If they wanted to do more they had to get someone like me to supervise or help.

  It seemed like I had found out that if I asked them all if any might need me later I could grab some valuable overtime without having to do much. For instance, if they had some change of feed at 8.30pm I would just hang around after my normal finish time doing nothing until called for, but I would book the whole time to assisting the broadcast people. They were awash with money, and had no objection to this. In what may have been the last dream in this series I made a new discovery. At 9pm, when they had a shift change, they would use one of those large 9 seater mini cabs to transport people to and from the place, and that if there was room I was quite welcome to grab a lift from their taxi.

  I never had perks quite that good in my working life, but at times I did get near that on odd occasions. Those later dreams were sort of nostalgic in a way, and reminded me of happier times when working in telecommunications, but I still remain convinced I took the right path when I accepted voluntary redundancy, and got out while the going was good.

  Maybe being aware of some many dreams, even if the fine details evaporated soon after opening my eyes, was a sign that I wasn't getting much deep sleep. Although I had no fixed time to get up today (or indeed most days), 6am currently feels like a good time. This morning, by that metric, I overslept by half an hour. I think it was fully light when I woke up. I didn't feel all that good when I got up. As well as the more common aching joints (mostly quite mild aches, but still there) I had an added ache. It is one that comes and goes, but this morning my right elbow seemed quite painful from time to time. I think it had settled down now until I provoke it again.

  The most negative thing is my blood glucose. It is back to being far too high again. As a result of all the bad things I ate yesterday it is up to 9.2mmol/l. It is starting to feel like I am losing the battle to keep it down, and the time is getting near when I'll end up on insulin injections. However, if we ever get any decent weather, and the whole summer is not cold and wet, I should fare better once I am out exercising more often.

  Today all hinges around another Thursday boozing session with Jodie this afternoon. That could lead to more bad eating, but maybe I might manage to eat more carefully today. It is usually easier after a a high blood glucose reading like this morning's. It is a sort of vivid reminder of what I should be doing - until booze makes me forget again.