I guess yesterday only featured two main things. In the late morning I went to Poundland, and in the afternoon I had a drinking session with Michael and Jodie. I don't think I did anything else of note except for somehow keeping control of my eating better than I thought I might. That has brought some rewards as I'll explain later.

  I had been thinking of going to Tesco yesterday morning, but I thought "why tempt myself ?". I have plenty of soup, some frozen food (mostly fish fingers) and some stuff in the fridge. There were a few things I did want, like birdseed, and some green nail varnish ! I have no  idea where in Tesco they keep their nail varnish, and I have no idea if they would have green. I actually wanted the nail varnish as a very small pot of paint that I could use to mark one of my camera bags.

  There was one other minor event yesterday. At about 2pm Michael dropped off some bottles of Diet Coke he had bought for me while shopping in Tesco. I must confess it is a very arrangement I have with him for this. I think he enjoys being useful. I only allow him to do it because I know he uses a trolley when shopping in Tesco (I only use a basket), and that he drives to and from Tesco. When he dropped the bottles off to me he confirmed that he was looking forward to coming around a bit later for some beers.

  It is always a pleasure when Michael comes to drink with us. There are times when Jodie can be quite boring, spending ages doing this that and the other on her phone, but Michael always has plenty to say - maybe more so yesterday when he had some sort of disagreement with his wife. He didn't say what it was about, but he did say they weren't talking to each other for the moment.

  Jodie was purposely drinking slowly because she was going to leave a bit earlier than usual to go up to London for a gig. She still managed to have a taster of two more whiskies from the three that I had delivered a fortnight or so ago.  The first one we had tried was the Indian whisky. It was very astringent, and not pleasant to drink. Maybe a splash of water might make it more drinkable. Yesterday we tried the South African and the Welsh whisky. If I recall correctly, the South African whisky was the best. It was very smooth, not peaty, and .... errr, it was nice !

  Michael stayed later than usual. He left at about 5.30pm, and Jodie wasn't that far behind him. Once Jodie had left I made myself some dinner. Like the previous day, I had not eaten much after my breakfast, but I still decided I would just have soup for dinner, and once again I had three cans of it. That was quite a lot more of mostly liquid on top of the beer I had drunk. Maybe it left me feeling a bit too full. Later on I did have a bit of acid reflux, and had a couple of antacid tablets.

  Just before dinner I brought in the two hand towels that I had started washing the night before last, and finished yesterday morning. They had been on the line for most of the daylight hours, and were almost dry. I hung them on the clothes horse to dry in the front room overnight. This morning they were dry and smelling fresh.

  I started feeling tired quite early last night - the result of a disturbed sleep the night before. There didn't seem to be anything on TV that grabbed my attention after 7pm, and by 8pm I think I was asleep in bed. Just before 9pm I had a phone call from Lee. I didn't answer it because I didn't want to spend an hour or so being bored by him. He tried ringing three times in quick succession, but eventually he gave up after ruining my sleep !

  Last night I tried an experiment that didn't really work, although it may work when we get deeper into winter. It was to try and sleep while wearing thermal underwear and a pair of thick socks. The main aim was to try and reduce my electricity consumption. Ultimately it left my feet and legs feeling too hot, and my torso feeling cold unless I managed to get the duvet positioned very carefully. I think I'll try again once we start getting frosty mornings.

  It probably doesn't feel like I got enough sleep last night, but I still got up at just after 7am. My blood glucose was not as low as I hoped this morning, and I think I can blame one or two of the beers I had yesterday. On the other hand, the reading of 8.5mmol/l is just about my monthly averages average, and it did lower my running average for this month just a tiny bit. We are halfway through the month now, and it does seem possible that my average for this month could rank among the lowest months if I can keep enough control on my eating.

  The other interesting thing about my eating control is not just keeping my blood glucose down, but it also appears I am losing weight. After making two fairly substantial deposits in the toilet this morning I weighed myself. When dealing with quantities as small as 100gm it is all a bit random, but it is possible that I have lost 100gm in the last 24 hours (possibly a tiny bit more because I had to visit the toilet again just now, and it wasn't a trivial amount). I am not keeping accurate records at the moment, and maybe if this trend can continue I ought to, but I think I have lost a whole 1kg over the last week or two.

  The 9am rain never fell, but it is still very dull outside. It does nothing to inspire me. I can foresee that I am going to raise being lazy to new levels today.  With luck I will be able to have a few nice snoozes as well. My ultimate plan for today, although I can't seem to imagine it happening at this end of the day, is to go to a gig tonight at The Swan in West Wickham. It is easy(ish) to get there (apart from the walk up the hill from West Wickham station), and it is an MT Pockets gigs. It should be very enjoyable. All I have to do is overcome the psychological hurdle of going to the station when I think I should be going to bed.