Yesterday was one of those days. Until midday, or perhaps a bit after, it was grey and damp outside, and that sapped any enthusiasm from me. My original thoughts were that I would go for a walk that would pass the pub, and ask Angela if she would like to meet me for a drink, but when it came down to it I just didn't fancy going out at all - even to meet Angela. I later learned that Angela is still off work, and I think she has a doctors certificate for time off work. It sounds serious, but I hope it is not too serious.
  I spent most of the morning, and into the afternoon just reading, but I did take some time to check the memory cards from the trail cameras watching the bird tables. There was two short videos that were useful, but I haven't prepared them for showing here. There was just one still picture that was novel enough to show today. Like most of the still pictures it is pretty poor quality, but it shows a sparrow taking a suet pellet from one side of the feeder, and a great tit trying to do the same on the other side of the feeder.


  During the afternoon I began to feel a bit more active. I realised I could have done some laundry, and it would have probably dried on the washing line OK. I didn't do that, but I did grit my teeth, and go online to see how to get a freedom pass - a sort of upgrade to my 60+ Oystercard. I am sure that when I applied for my 60+ Oystercard (giving me free travel on buses, trams, Underground and Overground, plus, with a few extra restrictions, on trains too) I ticked the box to say that once I reached official retirement age TFL would pass my details on to the London Councils department that issues Freedom passes in London.

  My 60+ Oystercard expires in 5 days now, and I have heard nothing about getting a freedom pass. Maybe it will just mysteriously drop through my letter box soon, but I decided not to take chances, and applied online. To my great surprise it was quite simple. They needed proof of date of birth, and address, but were happy with a scan of my birth certificate, and a scan of an "official letter" (I scanned the letter I got from the Department of Work And Pensions telling me about my first pension payment). These were both uploaded to the webs site as part of the application process. The only other thing needed was a mug shot. The one I sent is on the left. I thought it looked artistically lit, but I am expecting an email to say it must be on a light background. At the end of the process I did get an acknowledgement email to say my application was being processed.

  One other thing I did online was to check my bank balance, and the list of transactions. I was specifically looking to see if my state pension had been paid in. It had, and so had my BT pension (I thought the latter was paid on the 1st of the month, but it makes no difference). My first state pension was only for a week and a day or two, and it was so I didn't have to wait an extra 28 days for the next one (they are 4 weekly instead of monthly). I was rather happy to see that the combined payments almost covered my month outgoings - and that was after a rather severe credit card bill was paid because of an excess of spending on Amazon !

  Finally 6pm came around, and it was time to cook my dinner. It was a couple of minted lamb burgers, and garden peas. The lamb burgers were a bit disappointing for some reason, but that didn't mean they were not enjoyable. It was while cooking the peas that I decided to do more work than intended yesterday. My microwave oven was getting very crotchety, and has been for some time. What was once a minor flashover now and then, that would corrupt the time, was getting very severe. There were quite a few fireworks while cooking those peas.

  I decided the microwave had to go. At the same time I also decided that the mini oven/grill was past it's best ! Grease and/or condensation had got into the mechanical timer, and it was starting to stick far too frequently. As well as that there was a hole in the bottom where the metal appeared to have rusted away. Fortunately I already had replacements stashed under the stairs for the last 2 or 3 years (possibly 4 years). Before I could fit the new appliances I had a major cleaning up job where the two units had been standing.

  The microwave and mini oven/grill ended up each double wrapped in black bin liners, and hidden at the bottom of the wheelie bin where they shouldn't be noticed (I am sure they are not supposed to disposed of in this manner). Their replacements are now standing bright and shiny on a well scrubbed work top in the kitchen. The next thing I did was to order my next microwave oven from Amazon. I was able to find a fairly cheap one that had a nice simple mechanical timer that should just make a single "ping" when the time is up. I really hated the one I have just replaced. It had an electronic timer that could be corrupted, and it was very liberal with its "peep peep" sound when the timer hit zero. It would peep for the rest of the day if you didn't acknowledge it by opening the door. It's replacement has a simple mechanical timer like it's future replacement.

  After all the rushing around yesterday evening it was good to relax on my bed quietly reading. I think it wasn't fully dark before I put the book down, and turned out the light. I seemed to sleep OK last night. At about 1am, or maybe 2am, I turned the heater on low, and maybe that helped me get some trouble free sleep for the rest of the night. At about 6.30am I was awake, and ready to get up (although I did try for more sleep, but it never came). Getting what seems to have been a good sleep is good news. Also it is rather good news that I start July with my blood glucose down to a nice 7.6mmol/l. Even my blood pressure was nice and low.

  So far today I have done three things. I have had a shower, and straight after that I put in some laundry to soak. I have also tried out my new mini oven/grill. I cooked some fish fingers for breakfast. It seems fish fingers make an ideal breakfast for me. They are relatively low in sugar, and seem to stave off hunger for hours after eating them. As expected, my new mini oven smoked a bit on first use, but soon stopped. It has one useful difference to the old one. It is higher inside, and so the food is a bit further away from the top heating element. That would probably make it less good for toast, but I might now be able to cook Fray Bentos steak & kidney pies without singeing the top of them.

  Later this morning I will finish washing my laundry and get it hanging on the line to dry. The weather forecast, and how I feel, suggest it should be a good day for drying clothes outside. This afternoon is another Thursday afternoon drinking session. I have plenty of beers here for us to drink, some left here by Jodie last Sunday, and some of them may even be nice to drink ! I am not sure what I will be having for dinner tonight, but whatever it is, it will involve testing the new microwave oven.