By my estimate it is brighter than the forecast says. The clouds seem to be a very light grey so far, but maybe they will get darker late. There seems to be a 10% chance of rain for the whole day, and maybe we will see a shower, although none appear in the forecast. I guess 7° C for December is probably about right, and so it is going to be a chilly day again. I'm looking forward to spring ! Tomorrow may start with thick, dark grey clouds, but maybe from about 1pm they will turn to lighter clouds. It could be a degree or two cooler tomorrow.

  Yesterday could be called a busy day. As I wrote yesterday morning, it started with a shopping trip to Tesco. During and after that I was copying/digitising a couple of old VHS video tapes into my old Windows XP computer. I didn't get the chance to then convert the mpeg files to mp4 files, and try some new settings to see if I could cure the lip-sync error that was showing up towards the end of previous tapes I had done. I had to stop at about midday to clear up the dining room.

  The dining room needed clearing, and things like glasses washed and polished for an afternoon beer session with Jodie, and her new friend Alan. He seems an nice enough chap. He is an ex-biker who has suffered for his art. A serious accident meant he lost one of his legs, and he has nerve damage that severely limits what he can do with his right arm and hand. He is more an ale drinker than lager drinker, and so Jodie suggested I put some of the ales from the beer advent calendars into the fridge.

  To try and keep some kind of conversation going while Jodie attended to her ever hungry mobile phone, I amused (or bored) Alan with some of the videos I have taken over the years - including one of Jodie in the radio studio in 1992 ! I think he had a fairly pleasant time overall, even if it was boring in parts. He and Jodie left fairly late, but I can't seem to remember just when it was. At one time I thought it was getting on for 8pm, but I think it was actually getting on for 7pm.

  That is still a fair bit later than Jodie would normally leave. They were going to get a 75 bus to Penge for more beer, and possibly a gig later still. I started to cook my dinner as they were planning to leave, and because their planning took a while, I didn't have to wait all that long after they left until I could tuck into my dinner of oven grilled (roasted) pork belly strips.

  It has been some time since I last had pork belly strips, and they were very nice, although that would have been nicer still if Tesco hadn't trimmed so much fat off them. It may be far from healthy, but that fat, when cooked enough to go crispy, is really nice. Prior to dinner I only ate the late fish breakfast that I mentioned yesterday, and a handful of peanuts. I did have a dessert after dinner of 4 or 5 little "easy pealer" oranges.

  I can't remember what time I went to bed, but it was probably about 8.30pm. I started reading, but didn't make it to the end of the next chapter before I was yawning, and my eyes kept closing. It wasn't long after turning out the light that I was fast asleep. I slept until about 2am when I woke up from a dream - a dream that spoiled the rest of my sleep.

  That dream was not a nightmare, or anything like that. On the contrary is was very nice in a certain way. In the dream I was lead up to an observation tower that was like a wooden crate with a hatch in the bottom. There was quite a chill up there, and I thought that I might be near the arctic. I was prompted to look in a certain direction for a most wonderful view. It was a view of the sky, and in front of an inky, deep indigo sky were what looked like diamonds shining away like stars.

  The only negative thing about it was that I knew even my best camera would struggle to capture a picture showing the depth and contrast of the view. All I had was my mobile phone camera, and I knew it would not take a good picture of this view. I don't know if it was being annoyed at not having a better camera to hand that woke me up, but I woke up before I had really found out what I was looking at.

  I spent a fair time thinking about it when I woke up, and it seems it was foremost in my mind every time I woke up after that. What I eventually reasoned out was that I probably was somewhere to the north, because I am sure there were other flickers of light overlaid on that very dark indigo sky. Those flickers could have been the aurora borealis, just about visible despite the bright "diamonds" in the foreground (which seems unlikely).

  The bright "diamonds" were probably very small clouds being brightly lit by the sun because they were high up, and while the sun had set on land, it was still shining upwards over the horizon. It was a beautiful sight, and apart from seeing the aurora behind it all, is actually possible, and clouds being lit up just after sunset can be seen any time the weather is favourable. I have no idea what inspired that dream, although I was looking at a picture I had taken on my way to work some years back, and I was sort of annoyed that the phone camera had made the sky look almost bright when to my naked eye it was as good as black.

  This morning has been another busy morning. I woke up at 7am and as usual I checked my blood glucose. It was a very satisfactory 8.4mmol/l. That is just under my typical end of month average, and it feels like I have passed whatever was giving me some high readings recently. Maybe it was just what I ate yesterday, but I was expecting some of the beers I drank yesterday to give some high readings - some of them were noticeably sweet !

  After showering, and feeding the birds, I put on a warm coat, and went shopping in Aldi. I seemed to spend a fair bit of money, although I did buy a spare bottle of whisky while I had the opportunity. I think I now have sufficient to see me through Xmas, and possibly the week after, but I think that Aldi will be open next Monday. I feel I have to go to Aldi, and Tesco, soon after Xmas to see what they are selling at reduced price.

  About the only thing I can think that I will be doing today is more VHS tape digitising. It's not much, but it will keep me amused for a while. Right now I feel like a snooze !