The forecast rain arrived an hour late this morning, but I wouldn't say it was heavy rain, although having said that, it did make the road outside very wet quite quickly. The hail shown for 10am in the screenshot above has now been replaced by just more heavy rain in the latest revision to the forecast. By my reckoning the temperature was 9° C at about 8.30am, but it is probably dropping now. If it has gone down to a wintry 3° C by midday, then the midday rain could fall as sleet, although the forecasters don't agree with me. The rain is supposed to stop after 1pm. The rest of the afternoon will be cloudy, and the temperature will continue to drop. Clear skies after sunset will allow the temperature to drop to just 2° C. If the forecast turns out to be correct, tomorrow may be a bright and sunny, but also very cold day. The afternoon may see a peak of 6° C, but most of the day will be in the 2° and 3° region.

   The highlight of the day, but also the lowlight, was the beer session in the afternoon. I'll explain that later. Before everything else was a shopping trip to Aldi, but I described that yesterday, including the fact that I bought, and ate for breakfast, some beer battered cod - and it was very nice.

  There wasn't much left of the morning by the time I had finished writing yesterday. I did seem to write a lot yesterday morning. I have just copied and pasted it into a word processor that can count the words, and there were 2075 of them ! No wonder it took so long ! I needed a lie down after that before I did anything else. That "anything else" was to do some laundry - by hand - and hang it up to dry on the clothes horse. I started drying it with just a big fan on it, but resorted to a fan heater on low from mid afternoon. I turned the heater off at about 7pm, and most of it seemed almost dry. I haven't checked it this morning, but it should be fully dry now.

  It is 09.24am, and in defiance of the weather forecast, I can see some patches of blue sky. It even looks like the sun is fighting it's way through a gap in the clouds. It hasn't managed it yet, and may ultimately fail, but it is still very different from the black skies shown in the forecast.

  The afternoon beer drinking session got off to a poor start when we found out that there were still no trains on the Mid Kent line through Catford Bridge. The way the notices were shown gave the impression that service would resume, after a long Xmas break yesterday - Monday. One trouble with being retired is that the days melt into each other, and I didn't realise that yesterday was a bank holiday. It was in lieu of New Years day which fell on the Sunday which is a day off anyway.

  Jodie had to get a bus here. Her first choice was the rail replacement bus, but it seems it wasn't running to time, and maybe she had missed it. She eventually got the 54 bus, which enabled her to pop into Costas to buy some filled roll that looked nice, but she spent ages picking out bits of what she thought was finely chopped chilli, and even after that she dumped some of the bread. This was after getting here fairly late.

   It is 09:34am and the sun is shining very weakly through a gap in the clouds, and a lot of the sky is now looking blue ! Also, the temperature seems to have gone up to 10° C instead of down !!

  From then on every was OK, and we had a decent selection of beers.  Her friend Alan was due to meet her here at about 5.30pm, and this was principally to help her transport all the boxes of various sizes that I had saved for her, to her parents old house where they would be used to pack stuff away, and presumably put into some sort of storage as the house is emptied for sale.

  Unfortunately the subject of her mum's old washing machine came up. When this thing first blew up, when he dad died, and she was told her mum would never leave the nursing home she was in, Jodie was insisting that I had to have the old washing machine so that Jodie could continue to wash her clothes in it by coming here every time she needed to use it. I was not happy about that arrangement, and Jodie was very unhappy about it.

  When the subject of house clearance came up the washing was mentioned, and Jodie went back to saying it was coming here so she could continue to use it. There were a few tears shed when I said I still didn't want it here. Alan tried to placate her by saying she was welcome to use his washing machine at any time, but by that time Jodie was overwhelmed by the thoughts of clearing the house for sale, and all the other problems that come with it.

  The root cause of all Jodie's problems is that she is a hoarder. I haven't seen Jodie's flat for 20 or more years, but it is apparently so full of stuff that it is hard to move anywhere. Apparently the kitchen is so crammed full of old bottles, and other stuff she "collects" that it is impossible to get to the light in there, that failed years ago. It is also impossible to get her failed microwave oven out, and replaced, and it is impossible to get her old washing machine out to replace it with a working one. It is probably harsh, and uncharitable, but I feel Jodie needs to sort out her own space before cluttering up my space.

  Jodie calmed down after a while, and was sort of smiling again after 20 minutes or so. We finished off with a few spirits (except Alan who had a 0% beer because he was driving), and then we took the boxes out to Alan's car. Alan and Jodie drove off, and I got stuck into dinner. The booze had made me feel ravenous, and I could barely control it. I could describe what I had as a three course meal.

  I started off with some smoked mackerel. That was nice, but of course it left a very fishy taste. That fishy taste was partly over-ridden by three big mushrooms cooked in the oven with lumps of cheese added towards the end of their cooking. I made up the recipe for the mushrooms as I went along, although it was inspired by the "stuffed mushrooms" which often appear in Aldi. The third course was the worst in some respects.

   I had it a little later rather than straight after the mushrooms, and once again it was an attempt to reduce the fishy after taste. It was two packets of "lite" crisps with the last of the cheese I used for the mushrooms. It was a "Bombay spiced" cheddar cheese. The strongest taste came from the onion seeds in it, although that may have come from some mango chutney.

  I had a skim around the TV channels while eating, and came across the Bond film "Dr No" being shown on something like ITV4 (or something). It was one of the early films in the franchise (1962), and featured a very young looking Sean Connery. It was all rather simple compared to modern "Bond films", and maybe better for it. Once it ended I went to bed with the book I am reading, and I read for maybe half an hour, but no longer because by then the booze was really taking it's toll on me.

  I fell asleep really quickly, and apart from briefly waking up for a pee, I slept solidly for about 4 hours. I had evidently had a dream because I woke up with the words "where can I get a kosher vicar ?" echoing in my mind. It sounds like a line for a Carry On Film or something. After that it all went very wrong. For the next 4 or so hours I got very little sleep. It was so bad that I got up at 2 or 3am, and read some stuff on the internet for nearly an hours. I did get some sleep, but it was very rough sleep. I managed to keep catching bits of sleep until I gave up just before 8am.

  I thought I had better get up then because I am expecting a delivery of bottles of hot chilli sauce today. They are what I originally ordered, but had a cake delivered instead ! The delivery day was promised as today, but as far as I can see nothing is moving yet. DPD, who are delivering it do acknowledge the quoted parcel number, but their tracking info suggests that have not picked it up for delivery yet. I have a feeling it will come tomorrow.

  Meanwhile, back in the real world I checked my blood glucose. After all the beers, and a sort of three course dinner, I suspected the worst, but I was pleasantly surprised that the reading was only 7.9mmol/l, and that is fine - another 20 days like that and my end of month average could be a new record low, although that would be incredibly optimistic. I also checked my weight, and initially I thought it had gone up, but 5 minutes later I needed another visit to the toilet, and another reading showed my weight as being about the same. I am thinking that maybe I might be needing another visit to the toilet soon, and while it is too late to weigh myself again, if it had happened before I ate or drank anything it might have shown a very small weight loss (100gm ?).

  For some real, noticeable, weight loss I would need to do some exercise, but after a few bits of brightness, the day looks really foul again, and I have no intention of going out yet. Maybe if the afternoon was going to be sunny I might have considered it, but even the latest revision to the forecast says it will be dull, and very cold. I think I will be staying in. I'm not sure what I will do today, although one thing I have been meaning to do is to design a new set of icon for 2022. I've tried a lozenge shape, a slanted lozenge shape, triangles, squares, and rotated squares (currently used), and I have no idea for a new and exhilarating design, but maybe I'll work something out, and if I do you will probably see it tomorrow.