Yesterday was one of those days that turned out rather different to expected, and it was all to do with the unexpected sunshine. It seemed very cheerful - perhaps even exciting considering the rather glum weather forecast. That sunshine inspired me to do two things. The first was to wash a hand towel, and a few items of clothing. I finished it, and got it hanging on the line far too late for it to dry, but it got it off to a head start to finish drying it indoors.

  The other thing that sunshine inspired me to do was to be lazy. At other times it would have inspired me to go out, but soon after the sky became completely clear I could see the bright sunshine on my bed, and I just felt the urge to lay on my bed, with the sunshine on me, and feeling deliciously warm without having to use any other heating. That is the reason I didn't get my washing on the line until the sun was about to go in.
  I felt inspired to take a photo of the blue sky soon after it started. I also felt inspired to add the time and date to the picture just so it was instantly obvious when it was.
  Two hours later the first clouds started to appear, but it was still sunny until just after 1pm. Adding the time and date to this picture had a real purpose. The picture was taken with my Polaroid Snap camera. It is an "instant picture" camera that prints the picture inside the camera on special credit card sized paper. Fortunately it also stores the 10 megapixel image on a micro-SD card. Unfortunately there is no way to set the time or date on the camera - which is a bit crap. To be honest it is a crap camera - no LCD screen, and just a fixed aperture lens. It is the electronic equivalent to a Box Brownie. It can take good pictures in a limited set of circumstances. The picture above is one such circumstance.

  One thing I thought I was going to do yesterday was to start editing the digital transfer of the "Beer Hunter" episodes I had copied from an old VHS tape. I did get as far as copying the big, unedited, files from the old PC I did the transfer on, so I could edit them on my main PC (which is far faster than that old PC), but I did no more than that. What I did do was to spend quite a few hours on my big, and growing spreadsheet cataloguing all my train pictures. I have now almost finished the year 2003 after starting with the earliest pictures I had taken (and the earliest were pre-digital).

  I'm not sure when it was exactly, but I am now approaching the years when I turned my camera(s) towards band photography, and did less train photography. Things should speed up a bit soon, and I'll eventually catch up to the last few years which I think I have already catalogued. It will be a relief to finish the job....except I won't because I have decided that what I ought to do is to extract all the photos referenced (or copies of them) to a special folder that could travel with the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet could copy links to each picture like a web page. I sometimes wonder if this project will ever end, and what the ultimate point of doing it is.

  As I mentioned yesterday, I had some peri-peri seasoned smoked mackerel for my breakfast. Somehow I didn't seem to each much after then until dinner time. Of course that was what was supposed to happen after eating breakfast. I begin to see the value of breakfast now in the quest to control my blood glucose level. I am pretty sure I don't do it for the same reason that the medical profession suggests it. They would suggest I had some sort of cereal. Quite why a carbohydrate heavy meal should help is beyond my understanding.

  I think I had a handful of peanuts, and a chunk of cheese to nibble during the day. By 6pm, and dinnertime, I was definitely looking forward to my next meal. Before I ate anything I checked my blood glucose because I had a feeling it might be OK. It was ! It had fallen to 7.3mmol/l, and that was very pleasing. It may have even been inspirational in my selection of stuff to eat. I had two cans of soup - one can of oxtail soup, and one can of chunky vegetables and beef. Both fairly low in sugar. I followed the soup with the last two roast chicken thighs that I had cooked the night before, and reheated a few minutes before I ate them. A little later I had another chunk of cheese to nibble on while watching TV.

  Watching TV wasn't the last thing I did before going to bed. Earlier in the day I had changed the hand towel in the bathroom. The clean hand towel I was going to use was very smelly, but not in the way an old towel can be. Once upon a time I bought some fabric conditioner, and either I was using it wrong, or it had a slightly unpleasant overpowering scent. I think I lived with it at the time, but I am not sure how. Before going to bed I decided I would start to wash the "clean" towel and the dirt towel. I did the wash with detergent, and the first two rinses before retiring to bed.

  I read in bed for maybe half an hour before trying to get to sleep. In theory it should have been easy because in the morning I had changed the sheets. I forgot to mention this earlier, but it was another thing inspired by the lovely sunshine. Sleeping in a freshly changed bed is usually one of life's little luxuries. Sadly not this time. I thrashed around for maybe 90 minutes before I got to sleep.

  Everything seemed to be going well until, about 90 minutes into my sleep I was woken up by a drunken (probably) Squirrel sending my a link to a Twitter page about a group of three woman who are campaigning to get the Ravensbourne Arms (closed and part redeveloped for 4 or 5 years now) re-opened as a pub and live music venue. I was already aware of this, and that made being woken up doubly annoying. I think it took at least another hour before I could get back to sleep again. After that I slept reasonably OK.

  I was awake, and got up at 7am despite not having as much sleep as I wanted. Since then I have been a little busy. Of course the first thing was to check my blood glucose. It was 7.6mmol/l. Nearly the lowest morning reading for the past few months (the lowest being 7.1mmol/l just for one day in August). It was only just over my target of 7.5mmol/l. I feel a strong urge to at least try and match that tomorrow, but there are far too many variables to believe it could happen.

  It wasn't long after getting up that I finished washing the two hand towels I had started the night before, and I got them hanging in the line before 8am - a record ! Unfortunately they will be stuck in the shade until about 5pm, and if the forecast has any credibility the still won't see any sunshine because of clouds. After doing that I started cooking a couple of fish burgers for breakfast.

  I had my fish breakfast, and soon after I had a shower, and now I am writing this. At this point I usually say I have no idea what I am doing today, To a certain extent that is the case today. I expect I'll see Michael today - even if it is just a quick natter when he brings me some bottles of Diet Coke if he goes shopping in his car. It is possible that he could pop in for a few beers this afternoon. I am not sure if Jodie is coming.....err, a brain cell has just woke up....Yes, Jodie did say she would have a quick beer on her way up to London to meet some friends for a gig they are going to. It is possible my drinking could be very light today, and maybe that will help me stay on track for another low blood glucose reading tomorrow morning....maybe.....