Today's forecast, as shown in the screenshot above, was 100% accurate up to this time. It is a shame that the latest revision says it is still raining while in reality the sun is shining. There was some really torrential earlier on - the type that you see the wind sweeping across the road in waves. The latest revision says the sunny spells happening now will be starting at 11am, and from then one the rest of the afternoon will be mostly good, although there could be a random shower at any time. It's not going to be very warm today. The latest prediction is that the temperature will peak at 18° C for just one hour at 5pm, and 17° C for the rest of the afternoon. The temperature may only reach 17° C for a brief moment tomorrow, and the rest of the afternoon may be just 16° C. The afternoon may feature non stop drizzle or light rain, with the possibility of heavier rain in the evening. Maybe even a thunderstorm at 8pm !

   Yesterday was a far better day than the day before. For one thing the afternoon was bright and sunny. That always raises the mood. Also in the afternoon I had a pleasant beer drinking session with Jodie. It turned out to be an expensive one though. I said I would go halves on an "Advent Beer Calendar" - 24 (I think) specially selected beers in an expensive box with dates doors on it. We don't actually know what will be in the box, and even the company shipping it admit that some of the beers haven't even been brewed yet. It is due to be shipped at the end of November.

  Let's hope they can find some lorry drivers to gather the beers from the ends of the Earth, and then ship them to us. (Jodie put my address as the shipping address). Later on, while under the effects of alcohol, I made an order from Beer Merchants, who I've used before to my satisfaction, of an assortment of beers. Many of them are from Germany, but not all, and many of those are Oktoberfest beers. Hopefully they will arrive in time for a drinking session sometime next week.

  It would turn out to be a shame that I indulged in a couple of small shots of some sugary liqueurs at the end of our boozing session. I think most of the beers should have had a low sugar content. I had fish fingers, which are usually safe, although they were Birdseye fish fingers, and maybe like Heinz they could have added a lot of sugar for no good reason. I had them for brunch, and didn't really feed the need for anything more until dinnertime.

  My dinner was part two of the kebab shop takeaway I had the previous night. I'm pretty sure the chicken shish kebab was very safety, but the grilled wings could have been marinated with sugar to give them a nice brown look when grilled - except I suspect they were actually fried rather than grilled. Grilling usually leaves grill marks - these had none. They were very nice though.

  Last night I read in bed quite late because I wanted to finish the book I had been reading. "Cliff hangers" may be good for cheap TV series, but I just read on. At the end I felt I should be ready for sleep - more so considering the lousy night I seemed to have the night before. Maybe it was less lousy then it seemed because I had trouble getting to sleep again last night. I think it was some time after midnight before I got my first sleep.

  I didn't seem to stay asleep for long after that. I think I only slept for about an hour, and the next bit of sleep was not a lot longer, but the next bit was probably 2 hours, and maybe 3. At 5am I turned the heater on low, and as the room warmed up I slept a lot better, but I was still awake just after 7am. I could probably have turned over, and got some more, but I thought it prudent to get up then to try and regularise my sleeping.

  This morning I wasn't very surprised when I saw my blood glucose level had gone up to 8.6mmol/l. That is not much higher than my rolling monthly average, and so it didn't affect it too badly, and it is still a tiny, tiny bit below the average for the last few months. I am not optimistic that I will get that average down any further, and it seems very likely that the average on the last day of this month won't be much different to the last few month.

  Since getting up I have managed to do a few things. I've had a shower, and then put a few items of laundry into soak in detergent. I have this insane idea that maybe I can dry most items on the line today - assuming it remains slightly windy, and mostly bright and sunny. It seemed a very insane idea earlier because the rain was torrential at the time I started soaking it.

  It was past 8.30am when I put on my hooded raincoat, and went out into the torrential rain. The rain was coming down in sheets, and the wind was driving them along the road. I assumed it would be rather quiet in Aldi, and it was ! I had an idea that I might buy a fair amount while in Aldi - not exactly panic buying, but a few extras and stuff. It was easy to see that the lack of lorry drivers, partly caused by Brexit, and Brexit itself has left the shelves looking thinly stocked. I can imagine that later shoppers will probably see some gaps on the shelves.

  Once I had put all I thought I was going to buy into my trolley I waited around near the old style, manned checkouts. Eventually one of the staff said to start unloading my trolley onto checkout 1. There was a man behind me who had a fairly well filled large trolley. He too started putting his stuff on the conveyor belt as we waited for a member of staff to man the till. It wasn't a long wait, maybe 5 minutes, and no one suggested we ought to use the self service checkouts, although I did see someone with a full trolley doing just that. That person had a member of staff with them for the whole transaction. It would have been quicker to have used a manned checkout.

  I didn't buy anything particularly expensive, and my bill came to just £34. I was expecting it to be more. So that was a nice surprise. An even better surprise was that the rain had stopped, and the sun was out when I left the store. Even though I had pushed the hood back, and partly unzipped the front, it still felt cumbersome walking back home with the coat on. I guess wearing a coat is going to happen more and more as we head towards winter.

  Getting my shopping was half of my "big plan" for today. The other half was to get the laundry done, and hang it on the line. I side note to the "big plan" was that I would be keeping my fingers crossed that the afternoon remains dry, and mostly sunny. Apart from that, I don't know what else I am doing today. I don't feel enthusiastic about anything else, and maybe I will do little more than potter around doing a few minutes here, and a few minutes there, while mostly just being very lazy.