Having checked the latest revision to the forecast it is looking like we have had a reprieve. It is now predicted to be dry until 6pm when light rain will fall for several hours. There may be sunny spells at 10am and 6pm, but the chances of those timings is very unlikely. Much of the day will be rather dull. The temperature nay hit 21° C for a couple of hours. The weather tomorrow is of great interest to me. Around here it may just be the case of the day being occasionally bright, but with a 40% chance of scattered showers. The temperature may only be 19° C. Some miles away, in Petts Wood, things may be very different, but more about that later.

  Yesterday was another not very productive day. I didn't go out at all, and the predicted rain in the afternoon meant it was pointless doing any laundry. I mostly idled away the day until the afternoon when I had some beers with Jodie, and Michael. I opened up the bottle of Abott Special Reserve beer that I had bought from Tesco on Tuesday. It was good, but maybe not the nectar I was expecting. Maybe it would have tasted better after a few pints of very mediocre beer - as would be the case when I have drunk it in a pub in the past.

  It was quite a malty tasting beer, as expected, and that suggests it had a lot of sugar in it. It seems to have turned out that it was more than a suggestion, and was a fact this morning. The drinking session went on later than usual. I think Jodie was hoping that the rain might stop, but it got to 7pm, and she had to grit her teeth, and walk to the station in the rain.

  Once Jodie had gone I could get on with my dinner. It was an experimental dinner...well sort of. I wanted to compare the "southern fried" flavour chicken goujons I had bought from Aldi, with the "spicy" chicken strips I had bought from Tesco. It wasn't a fair match because the only things they had in common was they were based on strips of chicken with flavoured breadcrumbs (or something similar) on them.

  Eating both packs made for a big dinner, and I suspect their sugar content, although small, was far from zero. I think that maybe the spicy chicken strips from Tesco may have been a bit nicer, but there was not a lot in it. I may buy more of either of them, but not for the same meal, and maybe not even in the same week. I didn't eat anything else for my main course, but the booze enticed me to finish dinner with a few squares of no added sugar milk chocolate. Once again it was not zero sugar, and added to the excess sugar loading.

  I thought I was quite keen to get to bed last night, but somehow I ended up turning out the light well past 9pm. I would almost describe my sleep as normal, or like most recent nights, but there was one particular negative aspect. There were several times when I suffered that major, and painful, annoyance - cramps in the calf muscles. The first time was when I was sitting on my bed trying to slide my feet into flip-flops prior to going for a wee. That was simply cured by standing up to put the flip-flops on. Waking up with the calf muscles in both legs in agony was not so good, but as usual, leaping out of bed, and standing up was an almost instant cure.

  Yesterday I predicted my blood glucose would be really bad today, and I wasn't wrong, although it is less than my worse fears. 9.0mmol/l leaves no room for complacency, and today I need to take steps to try and keep my sugar intake as small as possible today in the hope that tomorrow it will be 8.5mmol/l at worst, and ideally a fair bit less. The damp weather is affecting me this morning. My legs, and in particular, my knees are very stiff this morning. I had to have two attempts to lift my foot high enough to put my foot into my pants this morning. I wonder how long it will be when I have to do that sitting down ? Other than that I feel mostly OK.

  I have no plans for today apart from trying to get myself in suitable condition for a long, arduous day tomorrow. That mostly means watching what I eat, and resting when it feels good. The reason for all this is that tomorrow the plan is that I am going to Petts Wood Calling, the festival previously known as Petts Woodstock. It is a smaller event than previous years, and there is just one stage. That is going to mean some long boring breaks as the bands change over.

  It is fortunate that there are fours bands I would like to see all on one after another, and they are the first bands on. I don't fancy seeing the later bands, and so I'll be leaving soon after 5pm, and with luck I'll be home in time for dinner. This all sounds fine and good until you check the weather forecast !