This morning's forecast got off to a poor start. There was no mist, and the temperature was 2.5° C ! There are sort of sunny spells right now. It looks like there are cracks in the darkish grey clouds, and every once in a while one of the cracks passes in front of the sun, and we get a few minutes of sunshine - mostly rather attenuated sunshine. The latest revision to the forecast now shows sunny spells in the afternoon for just 2 and 3pm. 1pm is now shown as cloudy. If we are lucky the temperature may peak at 9° C for just a single hour at 3pm, but 7 or 8° C seems more representative for the afternoon. Some cloud, possibly thick cloud, will stop the temperature sinking too low tonight - maybe no lower that 6° C, but the daytime temperature may only rise to 7° C with heavy clouds in the afternoon. There is a 10% chance of rain at any time tomorrow, but no specific time for rain is currently shown.

  Yesterday was almost all to do with waiting for my Amazon delivery. I was startled to get a notification that it was out for delivery as early as 8.28am. I didn't know Amazon drivers knew that time of day. After not starting to write until late, mainly thanks to going shopping in Aldi before I started to write here, I didn't have all that long to wait until my Amazon delivery arrived. I think it was about 1pm, and the driver wasn't hanging around. He rang the doorbell, dumped the two packets on my door step, and went back to his van to watch for me to open the door and take the packets in.

  As I mentioned yesterday, the more important part of the Amazon order was a new 2TB external hard disk that I am now using as a back up disk for a heap of files that were previously only stored in their entirety on another 2TB external hard disk. Until I had duplicated that external hard disk into the new hard disk I did have most of the files on a smaller hard disk, plus some on my computers main hard disk. I have now been able to free up the space on my computers main hard disk, and reformatted for some new use, the old 1TB disk that was almost full.

  The other bit of the Amazon order was two new radio controlled/linked weather stations/thermometers. The display of one is shown on the left. I took this picture at 7.23am this morning when the outside temperature was just 2.7° C. Inside it was 23.3° C, and that was just about comfortable wearing no more than underpants until I went and had a shower a bit later, but it did need the heater on full blast for an hour or more to get there.

  The reason I ordered two "weather stations" was because the first one, the one whose display is shown above, left, was very cheap. It was only £20, and I think that was about half the price of the previously best one I had that I bought from Aldi several years ago. The other one I bought was a bit more expensive at £26. It doesn't have a built in clock, but it does show 4 temperature zones, and comes with 3 external sensors, plus one internal sensor.

  The rather good thing about it was not just the novelty of seeing 4 zones at the same time, but that the sensors are compatible with the ones I "blew up" by using non-rechargable 1.5V lithium batteries in them. That means my old displays are usable again. They only show one zone at a time (plus their own internal sensor), but they do have a radio controlled clock, and a nice colourful display. It is only a guess, but I reckon that if I had been able to find replacement sensors, a set of three would have cost more than the complete kit I got yesterday.

  While spending loads of time playing with temperature sensors I had the back bedroom window open to leave one new sensor outside the window. At the same time I took in the sensor for the first radio clock and temperature sensor I had ever bought. It lasted a maybe 5 years, but the external sensor seemed to have died. It needed cleaning, and drying out before I could give it a good prod. There was a lot of corrosion around the black wire that connects to the negative of the batteries. A very gentle pull and it just fell off. I soldered it back on, and that sensor came to life. I now have rather more sensors than I need, or can even use, but by duplicating the sensors I get a better idea of just how inaccurate these sensors are. It is only a matter of tenths of a degree, and that would hardly be seen on a mercury thermometer, but it stands out a mile on a digital display. While one was displaying 2.7° C, as in the picture above, another was displaying 2.8° C !!!!

  It was surprising how long playing with temperature sensors took up, and by the time I was happy with them all it wasn't much more than an hour until dinner time - perhaps 90 minutes because I don't think it was dark be the time I had finished. I was looking forward to my dinner, but I shouldn't have been. I had eaten a couple of sandwiches, 4 easy pealer oranges, and two kiwi fruit during the day. All those things would contribute a lot of sugar to my blood stream.

  Eating the fruit was a calculated risk. I bought it, and ate it because I had a mildly sore throat in the morning, plus a slightly bunged up, but not dripping nose. I thought some extra vitamin C might do a bit of good, and maybe it did. It all meant that I should have taken extra care with what I had for dinner. Ideally I would have had just a couple of cans of soup, but I had something in the fridge that needed using.

  It was some fish in batter/breadcrumbs that I had bought in Aldi in the morning. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it wasn't for two reasons. The first is that even in the fridge (not the freezer) it has a short shelf life, and while it would be OK for today, it seemed to be best to use it while at it's freshest. The second reason why it was a bad idea was because the fish was Pollock. I knew this when I put it in my shopping trolley, but for some reason it didn't flash any red lights.

  Pollock is a white fish that is lauded as a good replacement for cod. It most emphatically isn't ! Admittedly it has a better flavour than expanded polystyrene, but only by a tiny margin. It would probably be OK in a curry where 99% of the flavour is from the herbs and spices, but as a standalone fish it is utterly useless !  Last night's dinner gave a new perspective, and appreciation for the cod wars.

  There wasn't much TV on to keep me up very late last night, and in fact I turned the TV off at 8pm, and it wasn't long before I was reading in bed. I think I might have even been asleep not very long after 9pm. On the whole it seemed like I slept well based on the idea that I didn't have any periods of insomnia lasting more than a few minutes. I did have some entertaining dreams, although apart from a vague memory of one of them being set in a pub, I suddenly realise I can't seem to remember any more details than that.

  This morning I did what I did yesterday. I woke up as if I was going to get up, but my bedroom felt a bit too cool despite the heater being on low. I turned it up to full, and got back into bed. Once again it wasn't really my intention of going back to sleep, but that is what I did, and I probably slept for nearly an hour. I woke up feeling much warmer, and that gave me a chance to try and assess how I felt, and it wasn't that good. It was nothing specific - just a selection of familar aches and pains, and a sort of constipated feeling.

  It is curious how constipation often occurs when my blood glucose is high. I suppose the extra time given to digestion  leaches a bit more sugar out of the waste. Of course this morning there is a better reason for my blood glucose going back up to 9.5mmol/l - it was the wholemeal bread and the sweet fruit I ate. Curiously enough the fibre in wholemeal bread, and in fruit is supposed to make you "regular". This morning it has failed - so far.

  I am unsure what my plans are for today. I have thought about going out early this afternoon if the sunny periods turn out to be real, but whether that would be a long walk, or just out to the shops is unknown at the moment. I do know it is unlikely to be either unless the discomfort of constipation goes away. It does make me wonder what I have done to deserve this constipation. Maybe it is automatic once you become an old age pensioner. All I know is that for many years when I was a working man it used to be the opposite problem, and it was a great psychological relief to know that Waterloo Mainline railway station had a decent set of toilets ! I was a frequent visitor, although quite often it was more a case of making sure everything was OK.