Once again it seems the weather is in too much of a state of flux to forecast accurately. There was no rain at 6am, and the rest of the day should be dry. In fact at 6am it seemed to be bright enough to be sunny, but since then most of the clouds have turned a dull grey. According to the latest revision there is now a chance of sunny spells at 1 and 2pm. After that it gets dull again - probably for the rest of the day, but the afternoon should reach 16° Cm and so everything is all right....well sort of. It ain't great, but you gotta find something positive. Tomorrow could feature a lot of sunshine or sunny spells, and the temperature may finally be back where it should be, 20° C in the late afternoon.

  My greatest achievement yesterday was doing a medium load of laundry (by hand). I was tempted to hang it on the line to dry. Now and then it didn't seem too bad outside, but then it would come over really dull. It seemed safer to dry it all on the clothes horse indoors.

  It was while doing that laundry, working away with my brain almost in neutral, that I had a crazy idea. I wondered if Fullers, brewers of the fabulous, and dangerously strong ESB, did home deliveries. A very quick search of the internet revealed that they do. I was hoping for a sort of multipack of all their bottled brews, but they only did a multipack containing just three of their beers. However, many of the beers were available in 8 packs. It was a crazy thing to do, but I ended up spending another £60 on more beer. One good thing is that I must have reached the trigger point for free delivery, but only for the 2 - 5 working days service - which is fine by me.

  As is now usual, I tried my best to diet yesterday, although the real emphasis was on sugar content rather than calorie content. I had a very light lunch - maybe too light because I was feeling very peckish 4 hours later. It was at that point I made a terrible mistake. I looked around and my eyes alighted on two small cans of mackerel fillets in an (alleged) hot chilli sauce. Of course the "sauce" was mainly red oil, and I detected no chilli in it. I ate both cans with a few rice crackers.

  It was a big mistake, not for it's sugar or calories values, but for the lingering fishy taste. I couldn't wait until dinnertime before I had to have something to try and take that fishy taste away. I ate a whole (small-ish) bag of salted mixed nuts. They were very nice, and almost worked, but of course that was a load more calories. I feel that what I was, and continue to try and do can really only work when I am out of the house.

  My dinner was going to be a sort of vegetable stew, but for some reason I found myself wanting some roast chicken thighs. Well they had to be cooked sooner or later, and last night I had three of the pack that six in it. I am obviously having chicken thighs tonight too. This time I'll try and have some vegetables with them. After dinner I tried to amuse myself by watching TV, but nothing really caught my attention. I ended up snacking on some cheese and rice crackers while drinking beer.

  Some of my sleep was really bad last night, and it was all to do with the messages shown on the left. As far as I can recall, I fell asleep really easily last night, and it was probably at about 10pm, although I have to admit that time is a guess. It was just before 11pm when I was woken up by an incoming message, but I didn't realise that at first. It was only when I grabbed my glass for a drink that I noticed the little lamp on my phone was glowing. I checked it and found, much to my delight, that it was a message from Angela.


   She, and her daughter Miranda, had been watching the DVD I made from Sue's video recording of the band Warehouse playing a gig in The Rutland Arms. The Rutland Arms was Angela and Miranda's "local", and they regularly attended gigs there. I don't know if the managed to spot themselves in the video, I didn't, but the message suggests they were definitely there the night the video was recorded.

  It is always a pleasure to receive a message from Angela, even at 11pm, but I think it came through at a critical time in my sleep pattern, or something like that. It seemed to take forever to get back to sleep again. The mattress and pillow, that were comfortable a few hours earlier seemed riddled with lumps. The bed was either too hot or too cold depending on how I lay on it, and how much duvet I had over me. Then there were silly things like a wisp of my own hair that kept tickling my face, and possibly tickling just inside one nostril (although I have no idea how that could have been possible).

  I have no idea when I fell asleep again, it may have been as late as 2am, but possibly 1am might have been more realistic, and I do have vague recollection of seeing the clock just coming up to 1am. Once I was asleep again I slept solidly until just before 5am. I had a wee and managed to fall asleep again until almost 6.30am when I got up. At that point my intention was to check my email, my blood glucose and temperature, and then go back to sleep.

  As yet I have not been back to bed, and it is now too late anyway, although I can easily imagine having a snooze or too before the morning is over. The good news is that despite some of my excess snacking, my blood glucose has remained stable at 8.6mmol/l. It is a tricky figure. It is just in the safe area, but leave zero room for complacency. No chocolate cake today ! I wasn't intending to anyway.

  One other thing that happened yesterday was that the postman delivered two of the books I ordered. It is likely another one or two may arrive today, and so I had better be up and dressed when the postman comes. That is usually soon after midday. That does mean it would be possible to get to the pub at 1pm if I heard from Angela, but if she was on the sauce with Miranda last night she is probably working from home today.

  I don't really know what I am doing today. I suppose I could go for a walk this afternoon. Two of the three conditions for a walk will probably be met. It should be dry, and it should be quite mild, but the missing ingredient is sunshine. It would not be pleasant under a grey sky.  Maybe I might consider doing some housework, or even painting a door or window frame. Regardless of anything else, I now have a lot of booked stacked up to read, and I will spend some or more time reading them !