There are still too many big fluffy clouds around to give any long periods of sunshine at the moment, but the latest revision to the forecast still says that 9 and 10am should feature non stop sunshine, and that 11am will feature just sunny spells. After that it will be generally light grey, but it should stay dry. Like yesterday, the weather may still be a bit unpredictable today, but it seems very likely that much of this afternoon will be 11° C. Tomorrow may be a bit brighter, and it should be 12° C for a lot of the afternoon. Unfortunately it may end with rain after sunset.

  Yesterday was one of those days where I was busy, but not doing anything physical. I spent a fair time trying to find out why my old laptop should stop recognising a Lightscribe burner, and just thought it was an ordinary CD/DVD burner. I saw lots of ideas when searching the internet, but it was a vague reference to Nero Burning Rom, a popular CD/DVD burning application that gave a clue.

  It seems the Lightscribe applications rely on the computer already having software that knows how to talk to an optical drive writer. I can't remember uninstalling and burning software from that laptop, but installing the free CDburnerXP software (https://www.cdburnerxp.se/) made everything work OK again. The only trouble with that software is it needs Microsoft's "Net Framework" installed, but that is no longer supported for Windows XP, and you have to burrow deep into Microsoft's web site to find an archived version of it.

  My last ditch attempt to get the Lightscribe software to work, before I finally found the answer to it, was to do a fresh installation of Windows XP onto my mini-pc (on a new hard drive). It was long and slow process - first the install itself, and then installing service packs 2 and 3. The next thing was to find the drivers disk for the motherboard in that PC. I finally found it under a pile of dusty disks, and installed all the drivers for the PC.

  After that I started to install some software. It was during this process that I came across the requirement for the Microsoft "Net Framework" needed for CDburnerXP. I found an archive file, and started downloading it. It managed about half of the download before it just stopped for no apparent reason. Fortunately I had found a disk that came with my original Lightscribe burner, and so I installed that instead. I must admit I haven't tested it yet because I had the lightscribe disk burner plugged into the laptop where it was busy writing labels on a bunch of DVD disks I have made.

  All these things didn't take long individually, but I didn't have time for anything else all afternoon, and I was still fiddling about after dinner. Installing Windows XP on the mini PC raised another problem. Until it went weird on me, for reasons unknown, I had been intending to use that PC as mainly a music player in the dinning room. In fact I am sure I did use it for at least a week before it decided to display a black screen instead of a desktop.

  The only trouble with Windows is that it can't read the Linux formatted USB hard disk that all my music is on. I'm sure it was before dinner that I decided to copy all the files from the Linux formatted disk to another hat was formatted to NTFS - the native Windows file format. In theory it was straightforward, but it turned into a pain in the rear end. Windows file names do no allow some or all accented letters, and so things like Mötörhead were rejected. Also, for reasons I can't explain, some folder names have a trailing space character. It seems Windows doesn't like that either. I have a whole lot of editing to do before I can get everything copied from the old disk.

  Yesterday involved a lot of waiting, and once upon a time that would be a cue for a cigarette. I don't do that now, but I did reach for some snacks now and then. Nothing was that bad, but as I said as recently as yesterday, the "no added sugar" biscuits I have are still made from wheat, and that is digested to sugar by enzymes. Then there were unknowns in my dinner.

 Dinner was a sort of cheap supermarket chicken kiev. Lumps of reconstituted chicken injected with a weak herb and garlic butter, and then encased in breadcrumbs. I think it was moderately low in sugar. I am not so sure about the pile of sugar snap peas I had with it. Their very name suggests sugar, but I hope it is just a figure of speech. It was a pleasant, but not very satisfying dinner. I think I managed to abstain from eating anything else after it.

  I read for quite a while before turning out the lights to sleep. It was quite late when I did that - possibly after 10pm. I don't remember much after turning out the light. I think I went to sleep very quickly, and to my surprise it seems like it was a deep sleep. I think I woke a little after 2am for a wee, but then fell asleep again very quickly. That was almost the only time I woke in the night, and if you don't include deciding 6am was too early, and going back to sleep again for an hour, it was the only time I woke up in the night. That hasn't happened for years now (as far as I can remember).

  Not getting up for a wee 3 or 4 times in the night ought to suggest my blood glucose is nice and low, but it isn't. This morning it had gone up to 8.7mmol/l from 8.2mmol/l yesterday morning. It is a measure of too much snacking yesterday. I'll be very happy once the warm sunny days are back so I can spend more time away from home walking and travelling. At the moment about half the sky is blue, and the sun is shining. I could almost imagine going for a walk today, but I can't.

  The main thing on the agenda today is another boozing session with Jodie. There is a very tiny chance that Michael could join us now we have all had our 2 covid jabs, but I suspect he will wait for a few more week yet - just to make sure. This morning I ought to do some housework to make the place look a bit more presentable. I still have a lot of computer stuff to do, although none of it is particularly urgent.

  There was one bit of good and bad news yesterday. I had a letter from the department of state pensions, or whatever they call themselves this week. It confirmed my application for my state pension had been confirmed, and when I would get my first payment - the 30th June. It seems that for some stupid reason I will be paid every 4 weeks, and not every calender month. That is going to complicate matters considering everyone else in the universe works to calender months. The bad news, although there is a small element of good about it, is that my state pension will be almost the same as my BT pension, and the two combined will take me over the tax threshold. I had hoped never to have anything to do with the taxman ever again, but it seems it is not to be.