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October 2021 November 2021

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Friday 19th November 2021
09:12 GMT

  The Met Office finally got the forecast for yesterday about right, but a couple hours too late to match reality. The reality was that it was bright and sunny from just about sunrise to nearly 2pm. If I didn't have other things to do I could almost have gone for a walk in the sunshine. The rest of the afternoon, up until sunset, was dull, and I can't recall the sun even peeping through the clouds for a second. The afternoon temperature was probably the forecast 13° C, but may have reached 14° C after all that extra sunshine, although it was a bit breezy, and that made it feel a bit cooler.
no sign
                                of the sun yet, but maybe later
  I optimistically suggested there could be some sunshine later when I tagged the screenshot above, but the latest revision to the forecast has removed the two hours that may have had sunny spells, and now says the whole day will be either dull, or very dull. The very dull may start at 4pm, but it is far from bright even now. There is a 10% chance of rain at any time today, but no rain is actually shown in the forecast. One very small improvement over the screenshot above is that now at least 2 hours at 14° C are predicted. Tomorrow may only reach 11° C, and there will be thick cloud, but once again no rain specifically forecast, from almost midnight tonight until midnight tomorrow night.

  Yesterday morning's sunshine was very inspiring, but there was little I could do about it because I had to get things ready for a Thursday afternoon drinking session. After having a shower, and allowing a little time to cool off, I cleaned up the dining room. The most important thing was to clear away the scattered bits, plus alternative spares, for Jodie's Mum's old Dell PC. It actually took less time that expected, but then again I didn't properly pack away all the spares I had dragged out to check in it. They are easy to get to again when I start again on that PC, but I did wash the table down, and get everything ready for boozing.
the
                                    weather at midday
  This was a view of the weather at midday, and it looked nice. If it had been a bit warmer it might have been very nice.
rubber gloves drying outside
 While taking the picture above I couldn't resist taking the snap on the left. It is a bit fuzzy because I was using full zoom through a less than sparkling clean window. My thought when I saw those red rubber gloves hanging up to dry in the garden was how confident my neighbour is. I'm sure that if I dried the rubber gloves I use for doing my laundry (by gloved hand), by hanging them up on the washing line, I would find spiders nesting in each finger of the gloves the next time I wanted to use them. I think I will stick to drying my gloves indoors !


cherry B 
  Once I had the dining room sorted out there was time for a short walk, but only as far as the little supermarket on Catford Bridge. I particularly wanted some of the nice crusty bread they sell there. I also wanted to have a quick look at their beers, cheeses, and sliced meats. I really wanted some ham, but I think the owners of the shop, but not all the staff, are Muslims, and so they don't stock any pork products...although having said that, I suddenly recall that that they do sell quite a few Polish pork products. I am wondering if I was looking in the right place for ham.

  One thing I spotted, and had to buy, was bottles of Cherry B. I didn't even know the stuff was still made. I thought that like Babycham and Snowball, it was drink of the 1960s that was made to keep the ladies amused while the men drank their pints in the pub. Having never seen a bottle in close up, I didn't even know it was cherry wine. I thought it was cherry Brandy, but apparently not. It is 11.5%, and so those ladies in the pub would probably get very giggly after a bottle or two !

  I also bought a couple of beers, but one of them turned out to hardly be a beer at all, although it is apparently classified as one. Once again it was a cherry drink, but this one I discovered to be alcohol free ! It was quite nice as a fruit drink though. The problem is that I think it may have been Rumanian, and so most of the writing on the can was undecipherable by me ! Presumably the shop staff didn't know any better, and it was in the middle of all the beers.

  It was later in the afternoon, during the boozing session, that I found out the truth about that Cherry drink. It was Jodie who realised that "para alcol" meant alcohol free. Oh well... We had a good drinking session with a variety of beers. For a change most of them were pretty nice. We finished off with a few spirits. Even Michael accepted a very small tot of my recently bought (from Aldi) Japanese whiskey. He remarked that is was far from harsh, and almost bland. I wouldn't call it bland at all, but it is extremely smooth.

    On the subject of whisky. I may have mentioned that I had ordered a bottle of Johhnie Walker Black Label whisky from Amazon, but what turned up was Double Black Label. I think it was yesterday morning that I did my research. Black Label, and Double Black Label are two distinct products, and the latter costs more. When I checked I found the single Black label was £22, and the Double Black Label was £32. I was charged £25. I don't know if I got it as a special offer, or what. What I do know is that I am happy to have got it at the cheaper price, but I am not that happy with the product.

   It sometimes seems that the higher the price the less I like Scottish whiskies. From other places the price is less of an indicator - for instance whiskies transported all the way from Japan are bound to command bigger prices. Double Black whisky is apparently matured in freshly charred oak barrels, and it tastes like it has been rescued from a bonfire. It is a different unpleasant taste to that which is described as a "smoky peat taste", but just as bad. The funny thing is that I don't really like the taste of Johnnie Walker Red Label whisky either, and I reckon the two will end up together at the back of the cupboard, untouched for years.

  At the end of out drinking session I was typically lightly drunk - feeling fairly sober, but obviously not. It showed in one way in particular - a ravenous hunger. Before drinking I had already had two cheese sandwiches made with an Eastern European cheese (similar in texture to something like Gouda), and they were a calculated risk. A fortnight ago I was eating similar bread and getting very low blood glucose readings, but in the last 4 or so days my reading have jumped up again. Eating that bread could have been kill or cure.

  The main part of my dinner was some southern fried flavour chicken goujons (or strips, or something like that). They were from Aldi, and so I thought that would probably have less sugar than a Tesco equivalent. I think I had that chicken with a packet of plain crisps. It didn't seem to be filling enough, and so I had another cheese sandwich. I have a feeling I ate something else too, but it may just have been a spare bit of cheese.

  By bedtime I had gone through the phase of feeling tired, and was suddenly wide awake again. That was not a good idea because I wanted to get to sleep before my hangover started. I think it was nearly midnight before I fell asleep, and at that time I didn't seem to have a hangover. I didn't seem to feel that bad the few times I woke in the night. This morning I haven't got a painful hangover, but I am still hungover. I just feel ultra lazy, and very unenthusiastic about anything - not that there is much to be enthusiastic about on such a grey morning. I reckon those heavy grey clouds match how I feel.

  If there was any surprise when it came to checking my blood glucose it was that it was not a lot higher. This morning it is 9.5mmol/l. That is uncomfortable close to the danger line at 10.0, but still below it. When I consider all I ate yesterday I would not have been surprised if I hadn't crossed the danger line. Now the problem today is how am I going to severely curb my appetite on such a boring day ? At the moment I don't really feel like doing much. I'm not sure if I can even be bothered to have a shower, although I will flick a flannel over a few bits of me.

  I will probably do a bit of laundry today, but I can't think of anything else I want to do, and I'll only be doing that laundry because it needs to be done sooner or later, and it is easier if I don't let it build up. That does mean I will have some heating on downstairs to dry it, and maybe I'll spread out that Dell PC all over the dining room table again, and see what I can do to get it working. I think it is going to mean checking out a new motherboard I might put in it. I have such a motherboard, but I don't think I know if it works or not, but I obviously saved it for some reason.
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