The day certainly started foggy, but by now I think I could only describe it as mist. The temperature at the moment, based upon an average of my outdoor thermometers is 4° C, and that would seem to be an hour earlier than predicted. A day or two ago the forecasts were saying it might be sunny after the mist or fog had lifted, but this morning, the early and later revision is pretty sure that the mists will be followed by thick dark clouds all day. There is a 10% chance of rain at any time, and I think there may well be some light drizzle now and then to top up all the dripping condensation from the mist and fog. Add the temperature being no more than 6° C, and it seems it is going to be a pretty miserable day. Tomorrow could hardly be worse, and fortunately it won't be. The clouds will still cover the sky all day, but they will probably be much lighter in colour, and the temperature should reach 9° C.

   I achieved two useful things yesterday, although I will admit I had a mostly very lazy day. I wasn't feeling all that good after my bad sleep, and maybe I had a mild touch of Covid, although 3 years ago I would have described it more like man-'flu. I felt tired, unmotivated, and a few joints ached like they would with 'flu, but these days don't need anything more than a cold damp day to ache regardless of anything else.

  On such a day it was glorious to lay on my bed, with the sun streaming through the windows, directly on me. It felt so warm and wonderful that if I hadn't been feeling bad I would have faked it. It was one occasion when I didn't feel like I was wasting a sunny day. I did a fair bit of reading, and had a snooze or two, although I was sort of surprised that I didn't sleep a lot more. It was probably good that I didn't because that would have probably spoiled last night's sleep.

  One of the two things I did I was rather pleased with. For anyone with the skill and a sewing machine it would be a 30 second job, but it took me a lot longer to hand stitch two pleats into the waistband of of a pair of lounge pants that were so stupidly slack that I could barely make it across the room without them ending up around my ankles. I think it is more a case of the elastic has stretched rather than my gut shrinking, but they are still very elastic - so who knows ?

  The stitches I used would not be recognised by a home economics teacher, but I think they will hold. They are best described as the sort of thing Ughh could do, sitting in his cave and using a bone needles with something like sabre tooth tiger gut as thread. In other words, my stitches are far from beautiful, but I think they should be nice and strong.

  The other bit of productivity from yesterday was some laundry. As usual, and in deed the only way I can do it, was by hand. It was only a single t-shirt, but a bit of bulk was added by way of a different pair of lounge pants. The rest of it was 4 or 5 pairs of underpants. It was not until mid afternoon that I had it hanging up to dry in the front room on the clothes horse. I put a fan heater on low to help start the drying for a few hours, but then I just used a desk fan - which I left on all night. I think everything is dry this morning, but it was cold in the front room, and all the washing felt cold to the touch. I am warming it up before I assume it is dry, and put it away.

  After my high blood glucose reading yesterday morning I really needed to fast until dinnertime, and then try and eat carefully. I managed the last bit, but I didn't fast. I had a couple of fish burgers for breakfast. I can't remember what order I ate them in, but my lunch was split into two snacks and hour or so apart. One was a pair of sweet Coxes apples, and the other was 4 rice cakes with cheese on them. Those rice cakes were supposed to be salt and vinegar flavour, and as such I think they were coated with a sugar solution containing salt and vinegar. The sugar solution, assuming my guess is correct, rather negates the purpose of the rice cakes. They are supped to be very low sugar.

  My dinner was a two part meal. Part one was lamb leg steaks with spinach. Part two was the rest of the spinach with melted cheese on top. Part one included mint sauce and was very nice even if the meat was a bit tough. Part two was almost a disaster. After the first lot of spinach had been cooked (5 minutes or less in the microwave) there was a fair bit of juice in the bottom of the casserole dish I had used. Some of it was dark soy sauce. When it came the the second lot of spinach there was a lot of juice in the bottom of the dish, and much of the cheese was just swimming around in it. It didn't end up as very cheesey, but at least it was still edible, and it provided a useful lesson for the future.

  I decided that maybe a couple of Paracetamol tablets might give me a better sleep last night (they have a few times in the past). Once again I watched Star Trek: Voyager before going to bed and reading for maybe an hour (maybe only half an hour). I can't seem to recall anything but falling asleep quickly and easily. It did seem I slept well last night, but I do remember dreaming a lot. One dream was probably a lot of very short dreams one after another, and it was almost a nightmare.

  It was quite a confusing dream because each bit of dream didn't really join to the next, although there was a sort of storyline running through it. It seemed to start with a visit to what must have been Clapham Junction. I was with a friend or two, and it seems we were there to take pictures of a special train. I didn't seem to be able to take any photos. Somehow we all got separated, but somehow we all got on the special train despite having no tickets for it.

  The train ended up at Waterloo station, and we all met up again on the concourse. I think it was at that point that I remembered I had to get to work, but I couldn't remember where that was, although I was sure it involved getting a tube on the Bakerloo line. One of my friends said he knew the way to get the tube, and we followed him. Every now and then hew would say something along the lines of "10 years ago we could have turned left here for a quicker route until the station was modernised".

  The tube station turned out to be a real warren with tunnels leading here there and everywhere except to the platforms to get the train. After a lot of walking we emerged back into the streets some way from Waterloo. By that time I was on my own, and lost. I checked Google maps on my phone, but that seemed to tell me nothing. I started walking hoping to find another tube station where I might have been able to get a tube to work - which I now knew was in north London, but I still had no idea exactly where.

  After walking for a while I passed a police station, and I considered going in to ask for directions, but there was a huge gang fight going on right outside, and I decided to hurry past. The last I can remember of that dream was that I was still walking through unfamiliar streets, not knowing where I was, or where I was going. It sounds like a description of real life.

  This morning my blood glucose has gone up even higher, although it hasn't crossed the red line yet (10.0mmol/l). It was 9.4mmol/l, up from 9.3mmol/l yesterday.  I think some of the blame must fall on those salt and vinegar rice cakes. The package was open, and had been for months, and I think that was because I thought they were to blame for another high blood glucose reading in the past. I had to throw away all but the last 4 in the pack because the top ones were stale. I did notice that they were very sticky - maybe another thing to suggest they contained, or were coated with a lot of sugar.

  Today I ought to fast and do lots of exercise, but once again that is highly unlikely to happen. I have already had fish fingers for breakfast. Looking out the window at all the greyness just makes me feel hungry ! The mist and fog seems to have listed now, and the day is microscopically less depressing now. If only we could see some blue sky today ! It was still be cold though, even if we had glorious sunshine like yesterday.
  The file name tells me that I took this picture on my mobile phone at 12:41 yesterday, and what it doesn't show very well is that there was still frost on the grass and the weeds by the wheelie bin. If the day had been a degree or two colder that frost may have persisted all day.

  I don't know what I am going to do today. I know that if I could just get in the right frame of mind I would enjoy doing battler with the mini PC I am trying to install Devuan Linux on. In fact I did install it, but the funny UEFI bios is not allowing the bootloader from being accessed. I think I know how it should be done now, but essentially it means starting the installation from the beginning again. That bit doesn't take long, but is still sort of tedious, on the other hand, if it works it will be a good learning experience.