There was definitely fog at daybreak today, but it was getting thin by 10am, and now there is just a slight haze to the air. The latest revision to the forecast says the mist should persist until midday, but that seems unlikely.  The BBC website thinks the mist will return at sunset, but the Met Office think it won't. Both website agree it is going to be a very cool day with the temperature around 4 or 5° C, although by mid to late evening it could rise to 6° C. Even with no more mist or fog, it is still likely to be a very dull day. No mist or fog is forecast for tomorrow, but it will be a very grey day, and maybe a little less cold than today, but only by as little as a single degree.

  After what felt like a bad night's sleep, and the grey miserable weather, I wasn't expecting to do anything yesterday. That is how my day started. I just lazed away, quietly reading, and trying to grab a snooze, The odd thing is that I don't think I actually did have a snooze. maybe I was less tired than I thought. In the afternoon I became a little more active.

  As part of the little re-shuffle of stuff in the dining room, to make way for all the beer advent calendars I seemed to have bought, I discovered a box of VHS tapes I had forgotten about. I am pretty sure the idea was to gather them together in advance of copying them to mp4 computer files. Once that is done I can throw those tapes away. There are some pre-recorded tapes I could offer to charity shops, or even to a preserved railway (because they have railway content), but I don't think many even have VHS players any more. I suspect the dustbin is their best resting place.

  I set up my old PC, which though primarily is a Linux machine, I cans select Windows XP during boot up. The analogue to digital converter box that converts the analogue video to digital is only supported by a Windows application, and so I am forced to keep that Windows XP option on that old PC. I used it to copy three tapes yesterday afternoon. In the front room I had my laptop set up with a flat bed scanner, and I used that to scan the VHS tape labels to jpg files to keep with the video files.

  One problem with the video analogue to digital conversion is that the software only converts the video to mpg files. This is because it also has a DVD burning function, and DVDs use mpg files. The problem is that the mpg files are as much as 10 times the size of mp4 files of equivalent quality. I have to use a second stage of processing, on my main Linux PC to do the conversion to mp4 files.

  That may be introducing another problem, although there is also a chance the problem is further back in the chain. I have noticed a slight loss of lip-sync towards the end of a recording. My Linux software (Kdenlive) does ask if I want to use the preset for 50fps video, but I have always used 25fps second video. Maybe I should accept the 50fps. The other possibility is that the hard disk access on the Windows XP PC is not fast enough, and the recording is dropping frames. There is little I can do about that unless I install Windows XP on a faster machine that will only get used for video stuff....then again, the old machine is really only used for video stuff, and so I guess it would not be too much of a waste.

  One thing I was intending to do yesterday was to be very careful about what I was eating. I didn't really manage that as well as intended, but at least I didn't go mad. I did have a very slightly early lunch of instant noodles because I had eaten smoked mackerel for breakfast, and I was getting a bit fed up with the fishy burps.  For dinner I almost stuck to soup, but one can of "soup" was actually a tin of cheapo stewed steak. It smelled a bit like dog food before being heated up, but was rather nice with chilli sauce once heated.

  I find it hard to describe last night's sleep. It seemed like I wasn't sleeping well, but at the same time huge chunks of time passed by without me realising it. On reflection I probably slept quite well because I didn't seem to have any trouble waking up, and getting up at 7am this morning. I wanted to get up early because I wanted to have another go at shopping in Tesco, but of course Tesco doesn't open it's till until 10am because of Sunday trading laws, but they do open the doors at about 9.45am.

  Getting up early allowed me plenty of time to do several things before going out. One thing was to check my blood glucose. It was 8.9mmol/l. I should have been able to do better, but it is hard on dull and miserable days. After that I had a shower, and once I was dressed, and ready to go out, I did other stuff because it was still too early. One such thing was the fire up the old Windows XP computer, and digitise another old tape. Once that had started there was time for one more visit to the toilet, and then I went out.
  This was the view down the road as I walked to Tesco. The fog had already given way to just a mist that only obscured the distance. It was cold and damp, and I made sure I had my coat zipped up tight to keep my chest warm. This had the affect of slightly interfering with my breathing, ad so I showed up at Tesco with no mask, and breathing through my mouth because I was very mildly short of breath. I did have some hesitation about going into Tesco without a mask, but I soon found out I was far from being the only one, and even the young lady on the checkout didn't wear one.

  It terms of most money spent it was the booze I bought that came top, but in terms of weight to carry home it was bird feed for my bird table. I was getting close to running out, but now I have quite a good stock of feed that should last at least a week. Apart from some soups, I didn't really buy much else. One interesting thing is that Jamesons orange flavoured Irish whiskey was supposed to be on club card special offer. I was a bit annoyed that the till receipt didn't show any discount for it, but my annoyance turned to joy when  I saw that somehow I had been charged something like the half bottle price. That was a fair bit cheaper than the discount !

 Since going to Tesco I have continued to be mildly busy. I had transferred another VHS tape to a digital file (but I haven't converted the mpg file to a mp4 file yet). I have cooked and eaten some cod in breadcrumbs for breakfast, and I have cleared all the computer stuff off the dining room table so it is ready for a Sunday afternoon beer session with Jodie, and her new friend Alan who I will be meeting for the first time.