It's looking a bit dull, almost misty, as I write this, but even the latest revision to the forecast has the sun breaking through soon, and from 10am until sunset the sky should be blue, and the sun beating down. Finally it is like we have moved closer to summer, and yet today may be a degree or two cooler than yesterday. The forecast still says no higher than 19° C. Tomorrow could see sunny spells from the moment the sun rises, and then a mix of sunny spells and sunshine until sunset. The day might reach 22° C. The following few days could see it get hotter.

  There were three things that determined how much of yesterday went. One of them was finishing a small load of laundry, and hanging it on the line. With no fear of rain I could leave it out there to bake in the sunshine. When I brought it in it was bone dry and warm. That must have been around 4 or 5pm. The other morning event was the delivery of my beer from the Fullers Brewery.
  It was amazing how it went from not dispatched to being delivered in 24 hours, or maybe less. I can't help but feeling the reporting about the state of my order wasn't accurately recorded at the brewery. Anyway, it arrived at about 10:30am, and I opened the boxes like they were presents of Xmas day. When I made the order I wanted to get some of all, or nearly all of the Fullers beers. That meant buying a preselected selection of three each of the beers seen in the middle of the photo. For the Golden Pride, and the Bengal Lancer I had to buy packs of 8. I also bought two London Pride bar towels.

  For a time I thought I was going out for a walk. It was going to be a test of my legs in advance of a long walk I have to do today, but it never happened. I didn't want to go out under a dull sky - doubly so with the promise of blue sky and strong sunshine on it's way. There were two problems. One being one of the undescribed things above, and the other was the predicted appearance of the sunshine getting later and later.

  The undescribed thing was that I was getting very close to the end of the book I was reading. By the time the sun did appear, gone 2pm, and maybe as late as 3pm, I was so engrossed with the book that I wanted to continue reading to the end. That is exactly what I did, but not in one sitting. I did get up and stretch my legs a few times, and I ate some things I definitely shouldn't have eaten. I made the classic mistake of confusing "no added sugar" with "sugar free".

  I thought my eating was well controlled yesterday, but it may have been less controlled than I thought. For lunch I had a can of cheap but not that nasty, chilli con carne. It's sugar content, like the can of chicken curry I had the day before, seemed to be about double that of a can of soup (or the lower sugar soups), and so I only had the one can. That is all I actually needed because it was thicker and more filling than soup (and I usually have two cans of soup).

  It was later in the afternoon, with dinner maybe 2 hours away that I fancied a nibble. I had 6 or 8 biscuits that with hindsight I realized had been marked as "no added sugar". They were from the same range that is mostly "sugar free". I have a vague memory of thinking they did taste sweet. In the belief that I had been eating OK prior to dinner I decided to try and continue that. My dinner was no more than corned beef with pickles, and some French mustard. I expect the latter may have contained sugar, but I wasn't exactly eating it in bulk !

  I thought it would be nice to wash down my dinner with some of my new beers. I started off with a bottle of 1845 (see picture a few paragraphs up the page). I have to admit that I didn't like it - probably because it was not like I expected. It was still very drinkable. I think I had a Bengal Lancer next, and that was very nice. It seemed to have the merest hint of spiciness about it. The Golden Pride was next, and that was very pleasant, but I went back to Bengal Lancer for my last bottles. I have a dark suspicion that one or all of these beers had a fair bit of sugar in it.

  It was good that I had finished my book well before going to bed because those four bottles of, admittedly quite strong beer, did leave me feeling very sleepy. I had been watching some TV about the Apollo moonshots before bed, but I felt too sleepy to watch the last one to the end. As far as I am aware, I fell asleep within seconds of turning off the light. I seemed to sleep quite soundly. I expected to be up multiple times for a wee after that beer, but I can't seem to remember any more than a couple of occasions.

  I know I dreamed a lot. One dream was about being in a pub, but I can't remember drinking in it. The oddest thing about my sleep was that I can't remember waking up once with a dry mouth. There are two probable reasons for a dry mouth. One is the dehydrating effect of high blood glucose, and the other is snoring. It seemed like neither had affected me during the night, and I was hoping that maybe my blood glucose had stayed down. It hadn't ! It had gone up a lot, and was in the danger zone this morning, 10.2mmol/l !

  It is perhaps fortunate that I have a good reason to fast today, and to do a load of exercise. Today's highlight will be a street gig by The Coxymorons. The last time they played they had made reference to the name, but I didn't think it would be what they would officially call themselves, but I guess they had to call themselves something. Like the last couple of their gigs I went to, they are almost street gigs. This afternoon they are back to playing in the forecourt of of the hairdressers on Manor Lane, Lee. It is going to be a very arduous walk going up and over the hill to get there, and the same coming back !