I was really hoping that the latest revision to the forecast would bring good news - and it has ! 7pm is not forecast to be sunny like 6pm. However, before that wonder happens it is going to be dull, or very dull, and rather cool with the temperature only rising to 19° C. The BBC (Meteogroup) forecast is even more pessimistic. It predicts not a single ray of sunshine, and apart from one hour when it might be 18° C, the temperature will only be 17° C or less ! Tomorrow may be a few degrees warmer, and the clouds lighter in colour, but it still looks like it could be another depressing day.

  I find it very hard to recover from a cool and grey morning like yesterday. Once my enthusiasm is drained it seems to stay drained. Maybe if I had any confidence that the afternoon would turn out nice I could have convinced myself to be ready to jump on a train to somewhere, and just gone for a walk in the park. At least I did finally take advantage of the sunny weather, although I did the main work before the sunshine broke through. It was nothing that exciting, although hand washing a pair of jeans is not something I do that often.

  I think my surprisingly not terribly high blood glucose reading in the morning made me a bit daring during the day, although there was only one thing that I think I over did. I did get a bit carried away with eating more liquorice allsorts than was good for me. The day before (or the day before that) I got away with eating maybe 4 or 5 pieces, but I probably ate about 12 pieces by the end of yesterday.

  The other extravagant bit of eating was a door stop sized cheese and onion sandwich. As I thought I would have to do, I had to cut the remains of the wholemeal, sourdough, loaf sideways - either side of the huge air bubble I found in the middle of it. It made for a very thick sandwich, and even though that bread had no sugar in it, I think I overdid it is the form of starch, which enzymes convert to sugar during digestion. The ironic thing is that it was not that enjoyable because the bread was starting to get stale - it was still enjoyable, but not that enjoyable.

  Another food annoyance was that the southern fried flavoured chicken "steaks" I bought from Tesco were far inferior to the similar product from Aldi. You can almost believe that the Aldi version is actually made from slices of breast meat, but the Tesco version is obviously made with minced chicken, or probably "mechanically recovered meat".  They weren't actually nasty, or anything like that, but just a big disappointment compared to what I expected. Maybe that is why I gave into temptation to have a second handful of liquorice allsorts.

  I washed dinner down with two bottles of beer. My recent order of beers from the Spitting Feathers brewery had one duplicate beer in the six beers ordered. I decided to try the duplicate, and it was very nice. It was supposed to be an ale, but it was fairly pale like a lager, and also like a lager it did taste slightly sweet - another thing to upset my blood glucose. It is only by being constantly aware of these things that I can "control my diabetes well". The second bottle of beer was a smaller bottle, but it was definitely lager, and although less sweet tasting, I have my suspicions.....

  I read in bed until I could barely keep my eyes open last night. Once I put the book down, and turned out the light, I think I fell asleep fairly quickly, but not as instantly as expected. On the whole I slept fairly well last night. Maybe it was helped by taking a couple of Paracetamol like I did the night before. If I have any complaint it is I woke up earlier than desired, and had a hard time trying to get another hour of sleep. Maybe I just didn't need that hour extra, although I think I managed about 20 minutes.

  I wondered if I had got away with it this morning, but I didn't ! My blood glucose had shot up to 9.3mmol/l. I do wonder if I can blame all of that on what I ate yesterday. I definitely made a few mistakes, but yesterday I was speculating there could be a delayed effect after eating far worse stuff the day before. I don't think it counts as proof, but it does seem likely that my idea of a delayed effect probably holds some water. I've had clues to it in the past, but only on this occasion does it seem more obvious. Of course without a very accurate diary of food, and it's sugar content, consumed, it is no more than guess work.

  This morning it is all about providing samples for medical analysis. The easy one is a sample of wee. That is bottled, and ready to take to reception at the surgery. What I have no succeeded in doing is to provide a poo sample for a bowel cancer screening thing. They only want a tiny sample, but it has to be taken before the poo is submerged in the toilet bowl. This does raise some difficulties that I have yet to overcome. Maybe the biggest is being able to do a poo in unusual circumstances ! I'm sure I will succeed sooner or later, and once the sample is sealed in it's little flat test tube it goes in a special cardboard envelope that is then posted to the screening centre. I always thought that sending human excrement through her majesties mail was a hanging offence or something....

  The only real thing happening today is another Thursday afternoon beer drinking session with Jodie, and hopefully, Michael too. At least this time I have 5 more bottles from the Spitting Feathers brewery to share with Jodie (and maybe Michael too). If the other four beers are as good as the one I drank yesterday, it should be an enjoyable session.