If the weather stays true to the forecast (or vice versa) today could be an exceptionally good day. The forecast has had one revision since I took the screenshot above, and nothing has changed except one tiny detail. It is now forecast we will only get 2 hours of 28° C instead of 3 hours. That's still plenty hot enough - particularly when we have spent most of August getting acclimatised to October weather ! Needless to say, there is very little chance of rain today. Tomorrow could be almost a clone of today, but there may be changes in the evening as things get ready to start the day after with heavy rain !

   Although I did far less than the day before, yesterday still felt like a busy and productive day. It may have felt like it, but all I can offer for work done was some laundry. It did include a large bath towel, and so it was not trivial doing it by hand. On the other hand, because I could hang it on the line to drip and dry in the sunshine, I was spared that last bit of wringing out, that involves a lot of grinding teeth, and grimacing. Having said that, I don't think the towel was dripping when on the washing line.

  The other event of the day was an afternoon beer sampling session with Jodie. She had a hangover after finding a bar that stocked a wide range of exotic beers near Dover when out with some friends. That hangover meant she was reluctant to try some of the stronger, and potentially nice beers, but was still got through a couple of pints each. It probably was no more than 2 pints each, and it could have been less. There are approx 3 x 330ml cans in a pint, and we were sharing each 330ml can. I doubt we opened more than 6 cans.

  Jodie was drinking quite slowly - partly because of her hangover, but also, as usual, she was stuck on her phone "checking things". Some of the time that meant checking on the Untappd website, a sort of social media site for beer drinkers, what other were drinking, and what others thought of the beers we were about to drink. It makes for a boring session when she does too much of that. It is why it is good when Michael is here.

  At one point I got thirsty waiting for Jodie. One this occasion there was an even longer pause because she had to go to the toilet. I decided to open a chilled can of Irn-Bru. When Jodie came down from the toilet she immediately asked what I was drinking in a voice that was half school teacher, and half child throwing a tantrum. I said it was Irn-Bru, and she said she didn't like it. I said it was really nice, and took a big gulp. That was a mistake because it fizzed up inside my mouth, and tried to escape through any orifice. It nearly squirted out my nose, but only got half way. Some fizzed into my windpipe. I ended up coughing for 5 minutes like I had suddenly gone down with Covid ! I still like Irn-Bru !

  One other reason why Jodie was drinking more slowly, and less than usual, was that she was going to The Star And Garter pub in Bromley to see her other boozing friends after she had finished at my place. It didn't mean she left any earlier though. Before she left I started to get my dinner ready. It was a simple dish of a leg of lamb steak and home grown new potatoes. I had hoped to garnish both with Rosemary, but I must have run out, and used mint instead.

  Mint was nice, but I would still have preferred Rosemary. It means one of my near future quests is to buy some sprigs of Rosemary, probably from Tesco where I bought the basil that I am now successfully growing in a plant pot.
  I took away most of the anti-cat/anti-fox sticks to get a clearer picture this time. In the last day or so these three plants have grown at least an inch, and are growing new leaves. It could still be a few weeks at least before it is big enough to harvest a few leaves, but it seems to be on it's way. I'm hoping I can duplicate this with Rosemary.
  Before I could sit down to enjoy my dinner an incredible pall of smoke made it look like a 1950s London fog. I have no idea what the people 3 or 4 doors down the road were burning, but it sure produced a lot of smoke ! It smelled like a combination of an electrical fire, and the sort of smoke you can imagine kippers being smoked in. I took the picture above after I had finished my dinner. By then it had all died down, but I did capture this last thick plume of smoke rising into the sky.

  It seemed very hot in my bedroom when I went to bed. I didn't want to leave the window open because it can be a bit noisy late in the evening, and so I used a fan to waft some air over me as I tried to get to sleep. It wasn't too successful, but I did get a bit of sleep in before midnight. By then it was quiet enough to open the window (until about 5am when the first people start going to work, and the trains start running again).

  It was in that little bit of sleep before midnight that I had my first dream. As is usual in dreams, I can remember a sort of précis of what it was about rather then details of the dream. The fan I was using somehow inspired me to dream about aviation. It was no doubt helped by reading some stuff that included some stuff about aviation developments during WW2. In the dream the fan must have represented a propeller, but there was more. Somehow, with the aid of that fan blowing I was able to find the perfect fuel/air ratio to push me into supersonic flight. At least I think all that happened in the dream, but I am probably remember more about what I was remembering when I woke up from the dream just before midnight.

  I can't really say I slept all that well after midnight. It was staring to cool off a bit by then, and it almost seems like I would wake up once an hour to see what the temperature was like. I don't think it was as often as once an hour, but time gets very jumbled when half awake, half asleep. What I do know was that it never got cool enough to cover myself with the duvet for more than 5 minutes, and that my pillow was damp with sweat.

  On the whole it was not a good night, and to make matters worse I was woken up far too early by noises from the road outside. It was only just light when it sounded like a lorry was going full pelt down the road by the railway, and generated a small earthquake as it went over the speed bump at the end of my road. Maybe it is going to be a good day for a long afternoon siesta.

  Aside from bad sleep, the other bad news this morning is my blood glucose. It is up again. Fortunately not into the danger zone, but at 9.5mmol/l there is no room for complacency. I'm not sure whether to blame it on the potatoes I ate, or the beer. I guess it was a bit of both. I think I'll leave off the potatoes for a few days and try and let things settle down, but I still have a lot of home grown potatoes to get through some time.

  I don't think I have any concrete plans for today. I have a little bit of laundry I could get done to take advantage of a good day for drying stuff outside, but tomorrow could be just as good. I feel I ought to go for a long walk in the park, but at the same time I don't feel very enthusiastic about it. I think I'll just make it all up as I go along. In the meantime, here's some more good news (hopefully). It looks like one of my not very giant sunflower plants is developing a flower bud. The other 2 or 3 plants seem less developed, but maybe some regular watering, and a few days of sunshine will work miracles.