The early morning drizzle should be over now, but even if it is, it still looks very grey and very wet outside. The latest revision to the forecast has the first sunny spell happening at or after midday. I can see a few patches of thinner, lighter looking cloud, and so I guess it might be possible. It is still forecast that the temperature will peak at 15° C, but only for a single hour at 2pm. The sunny spells (if they happen) will end at sunset, and after that the cloud will thicken. The temperature tomorrow will be about the same as today. It is currently looking like a real prediction for tomorrow can't be made, and the forecasters have thrown a few sunny periods, and a few light showers, at the board, and what we are seeing now is where they stuck. I am predicting that tomorrow the forecast will be looking a fair bit different.
  Yesterday was one of those days which are a bit odd, in a totally undefined way. The main plan for the day was for an Afternoon beer session, but the secondary, albeit very important plan, was waiting for a delivery being made by DPD. They are good because they are very quick and predictable, and give a fairly accurate advance warning of a one hour delivery slot. On this occasion the driver was slightly early, but that was of no consequence, and was actually good.
  Funnily enough, while the delivery was excellent, what was delivered was completely wrong ! I can imagine that if you like coffee (I can't stand the taste) this cake would be delicious, but it was not a substitute for 12 bottles of hot Caribbean chilli sauce ! Within 5 minutes after delivery I was on to Amazon. They would not let me return it because the maximum time for delivery had not yet passed - which seems ridiculous.

  The did let me pass a message for the supplier that Amazon acts as an agent/store front for. I wrote a short note saying it was the wrong item. I also asked if they wanted it returned, or if it would be OK to put it into a collection for the homeless or food banks. It was not long, maybe just 10 to 15 minutes later before I got a reply - and it was a good one !

  A little later I received another email to say I should be receiving my hot chilli sauce on the 4th of January. That is excellent service. The company, Wanis Ltd, seem like they are pretty good, and having looked at the website (https://www.wanis.com/) I am tempted to order other stuff direct from them. The only thing to bear in mind is that they are principally a wholesale outfit, and so will only sell stuff by the box, or crate, but I presume if I do order in those quantities they will be happy to supply me direct (and it will save them paying Amazon's cut).

  Apart from a bit of tidying up, and washing and polishing glasses, I didn't really do anything until Jodie and Michael came round for out beer drinking session. There was a slight change in procedure yesterday (and it might happen more in the future) Michael and I didn't want for Jodie to slowly sip her beer, and spend ages writing notes about it on the untappd web site. We just had a small taster of the beer Jodie was tasting, and opened our own bottles and glugged away on them.

  A little after 5pm we were joined by Mark who had driven up from Whitstable. He didn't want to pay the ULEZ (Ultra low emission area charge) "fine", and so he parked on the far side of the South Circular road which marks the boundary of the ULEZ zone. Mark, being a driver, was the perfect candidate to try a bottle of 0% Leffe (Belgium Abbey beer). I think he said it was OK, and that he might try it again of he spotted again.....or I could be making all that up because by then I had drunk quite a few beers !

  Michael stayed until about 5.30pm, and Mark and Jodie left at about 6.45pm. I could then have some dinner. That is when things got a bit messy. My dinner was supposed to be some Aldi "Southern Fried flavour" chicken steak cutlets, and in deed that was my middle course. I couldn't wait for them to cook, and so I had a box of "Korean Street Food" noodles. I had bought 4 boxes a month ago, and already eaten 2 of them - and I was very disappointed with them. They were not actually horrible, but I could find nothing good to say about them.

  The box I had night evoked similar feelings, although last night I was veering towards the negative. The noodles, which come already wet in a pouch, were really stodgy after cooking, and the alleged bbq sauce was rather tasteless. Oh well, only one more box to go before I can put the whole sorry thing behind me. At least my chicken steaks were very nice. After those I did something I could only do after too much beer - I ate the other half of a chocolate bar I had started several weeks ago. I expected a disaster in the morning.

  TV entertainment was very thin last night. I think the only thing I watched was Star Trek: Voyager. That finished at 8pm, and then I brushed my teeth and went to bed - but only to read for a while. I don't think I read for much more than half an hour before I put the book down, and went to sleep. In some ways last night was like the night before. I went to sleep with the heater still on, and then woke up a couple of hours later to turn it off. I then slept well apart from a more frequent need to get up for a pee. I guess all that beer had to go somewhere !

  I know I dreamed a fair bit last night, and I do remember very clearly thinking that I ought to remember one dream in particular because I thought it worth describing. The only stupid thing is that while I remembered I wanted to remember it, I don't seem to have any recollection of the dream at all now. All I can picture is some extremely powerful amplifiers, and mega bright stage spotlights. I guess the dream had something to do with gigs/concerts, but I just can't seem to put any more flesh on these bare bones.

  It was with great trepidation that I checked my blood glucose this morning. Once again it was proof that I really have no idea what I am doing because instead of being insanely high, as the result of consuming far too much "bad stuff" yesterday, it was exactly the same at yesterday - a very acceptable, if not actually good, 8.4mmol/l.  It was still not good enough to get my average for this last month of the year down to an acceptable level. Maybe next year...

  Some time has passed since I started writing, and some of that time was a break to have a late breakfast of cheese on toast. It is now getting less than half an hour before the first predicted sunny spell. It is still a bit grey outside, but there are now signs of the clouds thinning and breaking up. It is also 15° C according to two of my outside thermometers. I should be building up to going for a walk, but....

  Maybe it is the year ending that feels like the day ending, and I feel rather tired. Maybe it is that I have lots of little jobs to do today, some of them rather boring, that make me feel tired. I feel it unlikely I will be going for a walk today, although there is a tiny possibility of going for a short walk later. Today I will be taking down the fairy lights strung around the dining room. Xmas is over as far as I am concerned. That means I will also be taking down my Xmas cards and filing them way.

  That lot won't take long, but the slow and tedious job of making spreadsheets for all my health record for next year will take up quite a lot of time, and it will be quite boring. I also want to get the hoover out for some masochistic reason. What I am most likely to do next is to lay down and read. I might even have a snooze. I thought I slept OK last night, but as I write this I am having doubts.

  If I get through all I want to get through today, and do it in good time, I am having fantasies about going to the Jolly Farmers pub early this evening. If I do make it there, which I doubt, I want to be away again well before it starts getting very busy in the build up to midnight celebrations. All I really want to do is to see what it is like in there tonight. Of course if it was as quiet as it is at lunchtimes, when I see Angela in there, I could be tempted to stay for more that a single pint of Guinness - although with no one to talk to I would more than likely finish my first pint quickly, and go home again.