The latest revision to the forecast doesn't change a thing to the early forecast in the screenshot above. Today started very cold, cold enough for a frost, and the best we can hope for is 7° C this afternoon. However there should be non stop sunshine until sunset, and the sky will stay clear after that leading to the temperature dropping very low by tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning will start with a freezing fog ! There may be some sunny spells from late morning, but it will be as cold as today.

   Yesterday turned out to be different to anything I could have imagined. Before doing anything I sent Jodie a text message to ask if she was coming over for a beer in the afternoon. She replied to remind me that she was having a dirty weekend in Brighton, although the words "dirty weekend" are mine, and probably not right.....but you never know ! At that point there was only one thing I thought I might do, and that was to hand wash a large bath towel.

  I started soaking the bath towel, and then laid back on my bed to read, relax, and even have a snooze if it happened (it didn't). It was rather glorious laying there with the sun streaming through my bedroom windows. I think I had turned all the heating off, and yet I felt slightly warmer than perfectly comfortable. I think it was that which inspired me to do the main job of the day.
  That main job was to pull the weeds, and the old giant sunflower plants, up, and turn over the soil. I also gave a good raking to pull out a few more bits of weeds, and to try and level it up a bit more. In that I failed as you can see in the picture above. You'll also note that I didn't clear the extreme left and right ends.

   The weeds on the right hand end are growing up through a pile of bricks and rubble that is home to mice or maybe rats. I shall be dealing with that pile another day. I left the extreme left hand side because I want to do something with those old tree branches. That may mean cutting them up, but I hope not because that will be really hard work.
  All the time I was working I was being observed by one or two robins. I planted a lot of seeds - some of them very randomly. A lot of seeds had come loose in a Tupperware type box, and I had no idea what they were. I just scattered them everywhere, but there were known seeds that I planted sort of properly, and then raked the area over, and then tamped it all down. As soon as I walked away the robin was down on the ground looking for any delicacies - seeds, or maybe any insects or larvae I might have uncovered.
  While I was in the garden I noted that there were green shoots appearing from the flower bed I cleared on the 14th December last year. On that occasion I planted two different types of crocuses (big and small, I think), as well as some other bulbs and seeds. I think this green shoot is a dwarf crocus. I planted the bigger ones further back towards the fence.

  That is now two flower beds cleared and planted with seeds. I have one more to go. It is half the depth of the other two, and I did make a start on it, but I was feeling too knackered to continue. I had quite an assortment of aching muscles when I went back indoors. Another task, for another day, is to get some more seeds. If I had any knowledge of gardening I would be looking for something that flowers in the summer and early autumn, but I will just grab anything I can from Poundland and Poundstretcher.

  I put my feet up for at least half an hour, and probably a full hour after cleaning myself up. I dare not leave it any longer in case I seized up. Before that happened I tackled the large bath towel. The soapy water was all cold and horrible when I plunger my rubber gloved hands into the big bucket to continue the wash. I did the wash, and three rinses before I had a break because my muscles were really aching. I realised it would take more than three rinses - it usually does with towels.

   After another 30 minute break I did two more rinses, and then the fabric conditioner. I hung the towel on the clothes horse, and decided not to waste any electricity by putting a fan heater on, but just used a desk fan to blow on it. I left the fan on all night, and the towel was bone dry this morning. With the towel washed I could finally get into deep lazy mode.

  My food intake was a bit weird yesterday. I had two bowls of instant noodles for a hot breakfast. I had another two bowls of instant noodles for lunch, and for dinner I had two cans of soup plus 6 grilled chicken wings left over from my Saturday night takeaway. At some point I had a small amount of nuts too. I was curious what it would all do to my blood glucose level. In the past, instant noodles seemed to have been proved both good and bad for my blood glucose level.
  Another gamble with my diabetic health was a bed time tipple of two strong Belgium beers. The Leffe was 6.6%, and the Karmeliet was 8.4%. Both went down rather well, but it wasn't really bedtime when I drank them. I watched half an episode of QI, and a full episode of Have I Got News For You, before going to bed at 10pm. Rather than stay dry I had a couple of large whiskies as chasers while watching TV.

  Before I went to bed I took a couple of Paracetamol tablets. The aches after doing the gardening, and then hand washing the big bath towel, had calmed down a lot, but I took the cowards way out and made sure I could have a comfortable night - and I did ! I read in bed until almost 11pm so I could finish the book, and then fell asleep almost straight away. The next thing I knew was that it was 3am. I did suffer from insomnia for an hour then, or so it seemed, but I now have doubts. As I lay there trying to get back to sleep I was mentally writing this diary page, but I now wonder if that was actually a dream.

  By 7am I had been awake in bed for 20 or so minutes. I was trying to get another half hour, or more, sleep, but it seems I was destined to get up at 7am. That was probably a good thing, and I may have realised why subconsciously. There was another reason for getting up - needed to go to the toilet, and not just for a pee. In fact, for good measure, I went twice (and a third time a bit later).

  It was after that when I checked my blood glucose. After my strange diet yesterday I was prepared for the worst. I was astonished when the meter said 6.5mmol/l. I haven't had a reading that low in years (probably) ! I can't say I felt any different for it - even to the extent that I was sweating by the time I had lugged a lot of heavy shopping home in a thick coat. Part of the reason for it being good getting up early was that I went shopping in Aldi early this morning.
  I was not happy seeing this car parked by Aldi. It had left a mere 6 inch gap between the car and the fence post. The bit of path it was covering is the only level entrance for prams, pushchairs, and wheelchairs without having to try and cross the irregular bricks across the way in to the car park. Those bricks are specifically to stop small wheeled things like shopping trolleys from crossing the threshold. They work just as well on anything with narrow wheels - like prams, and wheelchairs, plus cycles, and are uncomfortable to walk on - and potentially a trip hazard too. I guess free car parking (for Aldi shoppers) is too expensive for BMW drivers.

  One reason for my strange diet yesterday was that I had run out of more conventional food - or at least without having to dig to the back of the freezer. It meant that I was quite liberal with my buying while I was in Aldi, although not liberal to the extent of buying much that I should try and avoid. I did buy a a few things that maybe I shouldn't have, but I did make a useful discovery. I have mentioned using cheap cans of stewing steak as beef soup, and they are good for that, as well as containing very little sugar. I wondered about cans of chicken in white sauce ("Ideal for Pies "!). I checked a can, and they have hardly any sugar in either. I bought a couple of cans to have as chicken soup some time.

  I bought three things that were offside for my low sugar diet. One was a beef noodles snack pot. It might have been very nice if they hadn't used so much cheap carrot as a filler. The other two items were chip shop style beef and onion pies. They were partly part two of my breakfast. The reason for the "partly" was because I managed convert the tops of the pies to charcoal. I should have turned the top element off in my mini over and grill ! The bottom of the pies were edible, but they were not nearly as tasty as I hoped for.

  One reason for wanting to get to Aldi early is that I am expecting an Amazon order to be delivered by Royal Mail today. I feel sure it will come with the ordinary post around 1pm because it is just a small (2.5 inch) hard disk for a computer. Once it arrives I can fit it in the mini PC I have been playing with recently. I will probably do that today. It is a much bigger hard disk, and I think I will first attempt to clone the hard disk that is now working OK. Once it works I can then enlarge the partitions. On the other hand I might put Windows XP on it, and make it dual boot. Every now and then it is useful to have Windows XP for the odd gadget that doesn't play nice with Linux.