I kept refreshing the weather forecast page hoping to see something better than in the early morning screenshot above. It has actually got worse, although you have to examine it carefully to see it. The 13° C forecast for 4pm in the screenshot above, has been reduced to just 12° C. Other than that, nothing has changed - it is going to be a very dull, and probably a cool feeling day. Oh well, at least it should stay dry. Tomorrow sees the build up to a few days of warm sunny weather weather. Most of tomorrow could be sunny, and the temperature could peak briefly at 17° C. The next couple of days might be even better !

   Yesterday was good and bad. I guess that on balance it was good when I also consider the consequences of the day. The highlight of the day was the morning. This was when Rod, father of Dylan the drummer, and professional photographer, popped round with a bit of soldering work for me. It was literally just soldering three wires onto a circuit board. They were a couple of camera battery packs that he acquired from work after they fell off a shelf, and burst open. In professional circles there would be no messing around, and were replaced, but they were worth trying to repair for "hobby" use.

  It was a ridiculously easy job, even with the more limited tools I have here compared to what I once had at work, and I doubt it took more than 5 minutes. For that I had a ridiculous reward - not only far too much money, but a bottle of whisky too ! I did my best to refuse the money - the whisky was more than enough reward - but Rod was absolutely adamant that I should take it. There is a further reward coming later this morning - delivered by Dylan, his son on his bicycle.

  The other reward is a camera mount for a tripod - maybe two of them. I would guess that these are probably salvaged from defective tripods at Rod's work. I gather they can turn a cheap tripod into a good tripod. I would also guess that the bottle of whisky was probably some sort of corporate gift, and sort of salvaged. None of this makes any of it of lesser worth, and I am most grateful, and I promised Rod I would try and may good use of the camera mount on one of my tripods.

  It was later on, after Rod had left, that I came to realise why Rod had been so generous. It was probably nothing to do with soldering a few wires to a circuit board, but for the pleasure of going out, and having a chat with someone face to face. I have loads of practice of being by myself, and tend to feel it doesn't affect me, but it felt good to have a chat with someone else. Mostly I've just seen Jodie once or twice a week for months now, but she is not the greatest of conversationists.

  It made me think about why I can't wait for the pubs to open, and open properly again in the hopefully not too distant future. It is not about the booze, although that can be good in itself, but the chance to exchange a few minutes of greetings with people you know. At gigs it is often no more than a shouted "hello". On quieter occasions some proper talk can happen, and sometimes it is just nice to listen.

  I was supposed to go out for a walk yesterday afternoon, but that never happened. After Rod left I put my tools away, and decided to check my email. After that I could have put on my walking boots, but I got distracted for a while reading some stuff on the internet. That should still have been OK, but two things happened that effectively had the same final result. I had left my bedroom window open to air the room while I was downstairs with Rod. It was feeling chilly in there, and it wasn't long before I was starting to feel uncomfortably cold. To make matters worse the periods of sunshine were getting shorter and shorter, and that made it feel even colder.

  The above happened even with the window closed, and the heater back on - albeit on low. By 1pm I decided what I wanted more than going for a walk was hot soup. (I might have had something else, but I selected some Oxtail soup that had a fairly low sugar content). Actually, before I had the soup I didn't want to go out at all, and then afterwards, with a nice warm feeling in my belly, I still didn't want to go out.

  I think I spent most of the afternoon just reading. I would take breaks now and then, but mostly I just read - and I enjoyed it. While this was going on it looked very cold and grey outside, and I enjoyed being in the warm too. I think I was thinking that none of it mattered now when in just a few days it would be like early summer with temperature edging up to 20° C in bright sunshine - that is good walking weather !

  I was so engrossed in my book that I started preparing dinner late, and it wouldn't be ready until at least 6.30pm - not very late, but late enough to break the routine. It was while selecting vegetables to go with the lamb I was cooking that I noticed a forgotten pack of paté that was 5 days after it's use by date. It was still perfectly sealed, and had been chilled since buying it. I assumed it was probably still OK, but it needed to be eaten as soon as possible. I ate it with two small packets of "healthy eating" crisps.

  My dinner followed not much more than half an hour later. It was basically just casseroled diced lamb and peas with mint. It was quite fatty, and with hindsight I realised I should have made more of the paté, and not eaten the lamb yesterday. If I chilled it over night I could have scooped the fat from the top of it, and then reheated it for dinner tonight. I was quite concerned that I might have overdone things yesterday, but it turns out I hadn't.

  The only entertainment I could find on TV last night was three episodes of Red Dwarf (series 11). Like overeating a delicious meal, three episodes can get a bit bloating, but it passed the time, and after the third episode I went to bed. I read for another half an hour or so, and then turned over to go to sleep. As far as I can tell I slept well. I can only remember waking up a couple of times in the night. The last time was handy because it was an hour before I wanted to get up, and I could turn up the heating full while I stayed in bed.

  I seemed to feel passably OK this morning - no extra aches and pains, and the usual ones were quite mild. The best news was when I checked my blood glucose. I was worried it might have gone up a bit after all I ate yesterday, but it had actually gone down ! Yesterday it was down to 8.3mmol/l, and this morning it was down to 8.0mmol/l. That is getting a lot nearer to where I want to be. My target id 7.5mmol/l, and even lower would be ideal.

  I don't know when, but I am expecting Dylan to drop the camera mount(s) over this morning. I am expecting a call from him any time now. After that the next thing will be this afternoon's boozing session with Jodie. I have been thinking that twice a week is getting a bit much when I am trying to get a bit more healthy, but one important reason Jodie visits is to cook her dinner in my microwave so she can have one hot meal a day (her own microwave is broken). It is hard to say no under such circumstances.