08:43 BST

  Yesterday was not as horrible as the forecast suggested. Rain was predicted for different times every time the forecast was revised. There was no rain until late in the evening, and instead of thick clouds during the day, they were thin enough for the sun to almost break through a few times. Mostly it was no more than a blindingly bright patch of cloud, but at least once the sun actually managed to pole a few fuzzy rays through the clouds. With an afternoon temperature of just 9° C it was a cold day, and during the evening it got a lot colder.

  

  The one definite thing about today is that at 7am it was just 1.2° C, and it is quite probably that the forecast for 8° C this afternoon, albeit for a single hour, seems consistent across the recent revisions. Other than that, everything keeps changing. The latest forecast shows dark clouds, and rain for 10am, 11am, and Midday, but as in the screenshot above, the rest of the day will be cold but sunny.
  To show how the forecast keeps changing, this is how the forecasters thought part of today would be like last night. They predicted light snow for 9, 10, and 11am ! It is only 5 minutes away from 9am as I type this, and I can see some dirty clous in the sky, and yet we have just had a few minutes of strong sunshine ! My thermometers say the outside temperature is now 3.5° C, and that is too warm for snow, but sleet could still be a possibility. All I hope now is that I will be able to remember what the weather was really like when I describe it tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning could start at just 1° C, and later it will rise to about 8° C again. There might be some sunny spells, and it will probably be a dry day.
 
  I can't say it with too much conviction, but I think that while the air temperature was quite low yesterday, and there was hardly any sunshine, there did seem to be a lot of infra red radiation coming through the clouds early yesterday afternoon. It is the only explanation I can suggest for why I felt hot in my black leather(like) coat as I walked part of the way to the pub to meet Angela yesterday.

  There was some perspiration on my forehead (where I sweat far too easily for my liking) when I arrived at the pub. It was made worse because I was carrying my laptop, and I didn't realise how heavy it was until I tried carrying it for a long distance ! Fortunately I didn't have to rush because Angela said she might be a bit late. She must have been very keen to see me because she was actually early, and I hadn't even finished ordering our drinks when she walked in the door.

  It was a less exciting drink than usual, and that was because the preceding week had been so quiet, or "flat" as Angela described it. I think it was a sort of relief for both of us to discover we both thought it was a very dull week. It may well have been the fault of the weather, or it may just be that it was a week when nothing interesting happened. Anyway, it was good to enjoy each other's company for an hour.

  I had taken my laptop to the pub mainly because I thought I would be going to meet Kevin afterwards, but I got the laptop out and showed off all my health measurements spreadsheets to Angela. I think she was part interested, and part bored ! One curious thing was that Angela told me that the usual way to her office had been blocked by the drop down barrier, to keep cars out, being lengthened to make passing it on foot a squeeze even for Angela, but she said not to worry because she would show me a new route. I have sometimes doubted that Angela likes me to walk with her right up to the front door of her office, but this seemed confirmation that she was fine with it, and even enjoyed it.

  After a hug goodbye outside Angela's office I walked towards home. I hadn't got very far when I realised I had had a text message come through. It was Kevin apologising for the late message to tell me he wasn't feeling up to a drink that afternoon, and that it was now plan B, and we would try again sometime tomorrow. I can't remember if it was going to be a lunchtime drink, later in the afternoon, or early evening, but no doubt I will find out in the fullness of time.

  When I got home I had a few pictures in my camera to "digitally develop".  I had taken my Nikon Coolpix S6300 pocket camera with me, and I had caught a train from Catford Bridge to Ladywell. It saved a bit of walking, a bit of time, allowed me to pick up a copy of The Metro, and I could take a few more snaps of trains. There was a Hayes bound train that arrived before my train, and I took snaps of the front and back of that, plus snaps of the front and back of the train I got on to go to Ladywell. Out of the four pictures three of them were of train (numbers) that I didn't have in my catalogue.
  The light was very dull, and my pictures looks a bit flat, and sort of misty looking. Nevertheless, the relevant bits, the train, and it's number are clear.
  This is the back of the train in the picture above. You'll note it has a different number from the front because the train is composed of two 5 car units. My train is approaching in the distance.
  This is the rear of my train at Ladywell, and once again it's number is one I didn't have in my collection.

  While I was selecting these pictures from the 6 I actually took, and then editing them to show here (basically shrinking than down to just 800 pixels wide) I was scoffing more puffed up potato things. I think they were described as spicy potato wheels. They were among the things I had bought in Poundstretcher on Monday. The good thing about them is that a large bag practically weighs nothing, and so what seems like a lot to eat is actually mostly just air. The best thing is they have no added sugar.

  A little later I had a snack of spam on rice cakes. To make it more exciting I added some hot English mustard to them. It was at that point I made a tragic mistake. Any mustard I have used in the last few weeks, or more, has been mild stuff. The last jar I had been using was a Polish mustard that was similar to German mustard. It was quite mild. I used the same amount of English mustard as that Polish mustard, and it near blew my head off !

  As dinner time approached I started think I could get a takeaway, but then I came to my senses, and ended up cooking a rather satisfying meal. I had some minced lamb in the bottom of the fridge (just chilled, and not frozen). I had originally thought about the possibility of using it to make some spice meatballs - partly inspired by a Greek recipe, but mostly to my own recipe. I didn't have the patience for that, and I just tipped the mince out of the pack onto a roasting dish, and roasted it. I also cleaned some new potatoes and cooked them with fresh mint. The last bit was to prepare some mange tout, and cook that with a few more mint leaves. It all ended up as quite a large, but very tasty dinner.

  I seemed to read in bed for a fair amount of time last night. Maybe it was as much as 2 hours, but the only fact I know is that I turned out the light at 11pm, and I was fast asleep 5 minutes later. I left the heater on low last night because even by 11pm the temperature had dropped a lot, and I knew the temperature would be almost low enough for a frost this morning. (I don't think there was a frost though).

  I slept well last night. It was similar to the night before when the only time I spent maybe 10 minutes awake was after 4 or 5am. I ended up getting up earlier than I expected to. I was having a sort of lie in, half awake, half asleep, for maybe as long as an hour, but suddenly I got cramp in my right leg, and I had to leap out of bed to put some weight on it. That completely woke me up, and I got up.

  I thought my dinner was rather generous, and the potatoes may not have been too good for me. Plus there was other stuff I had eaten during the day. I was therefore surprised to see my blood glucose had dropped again. This morning it was just 7.7mmol/l again, and that took my end of month average to 8.26mmol/l. That is the highest on these first three months of the year, but still lower than any month last year. This morning's low reading after hardly eating carefully yesterday, strengthens my belief that the occasional runs of high readings I get now and then are caused by my body fighting some sort of infection, and long Covid is a potential explanation.

  This morning I feel fairly OK, although I don't seem to be enthused with energy, but that is OK because the worst thing I have to do today is a lot of washing up ! I might pop out to Tesco if I have the time and inclination some time this morning. I haven't been to a supermarket since Monday of last week, and maybe it is time to top up the fridge and larder. The main thing today will be an afternoon beer tasting session with Jodie, and possibly either Alan or Michael, or both.