07:37 BST

  Yesterday was like a cheap imitation of summer. It was mostly bright with plenty of sunny periods, and even full hours of non stop sunshine. although the latter was generally in the morning. The sky was blue with fluffy clouds, and the temperature just about made 20° C for a short while.

  

  Today's forecast started possibly a little over eager, but the latest revision has throttled things back a bit. It now says full sunshine until midday, and then just 2 hours of sunny spells until the clouds take over the sky. With luck it will be a lot like yesterday when the sunny spells continued well past their "best before" time - almost until sunset if I recall correctly. There may be a sprinkling of rain very late tonight - good for the garden, and of no inconvenience to me. The latest revision has also throttled back the temperature from 22° C to 21° C, but that should still feel plenty warm in any sunshine. Tomorrow could see more rain, hardly any sunshine, and it will be cooler, although 17° C is not too bad.

  Yesterday, which was another good day.  Once I had washed and dressed, and then hand washed some clothes and a hand towel, I went out for a bit of shopping, and came back with more than a bit ! Initially I went to Savers to buy things like vitamins, tooth paste, shampoo, and bleach (of the toilet use variety, and not for hair !). Opposite Savers is Poundstretcher, and I noticed they were still doing their 50% warehouse clearance sale, but now you have to spend over £5 to get 50% off your entire bill.

  Without the 50% discount I would have spent £46 in there, but the final bill was just £23. I went around just stuffing anything useful into my shopping basket. I bought things ranging from drugs to birdseed taking in a bit of food, and some foil pie dishes along the way. It is probably not that economical, or "green" but I find those cheap foil pie dished are excellent to use in the oven, and then put them in the recycling when used. It definitely saves on washing up !

  After I got back from Poundstretcher I had little to do until Jodie arrived for some beer tasting. It was a good opportunity to catch up with some technology news, but that didn't distract me enough to stop me feeling peckish, and of course it would not be a good idea to start drinking on an empty stomach. I should have eaten something far more safer than what I did eat - crisps !

  They were no just any old crisps. They were salt and rosemary flavoured Kettle Chips, and they were very nice. Too nice in fact. The nutrition panel on the front of the bag showed them to have a very low sugar content, but that was of an unfeasiblely small portion. That figure also does not take into account the bodies enzymes converting all the starch to sugar. It was not wise to finish the whole bag over the course of the rest of the day. As well as the sugar build up, there was also the fact that I managed to cut my gums in two places on a sharp edge of one of the crisps. The second time was caused by the first time. As I moved the sharp bit of crisp to the other side of my mouth, it cut the gum again while moving it.

  Jodie arrived quite late because she had been offered a lift by her Alan, but he turned up late at her place, and then the traffic made for a far slower journey that the train. Jodie also left very slightly early, and so it was a shorter drinking session than usual. I think we only opened 4 bottles, and had half each of each bottle. It added up to little more than a pint each (maybe a pint and a half). I did have a whisky to dull the pain, and sterilise (!) where I had cut my gum with the sharp bit of crisp.

  We did finish of the session with another small whisky (or should that be whiskey ? - it was Welsh, and I don't know if they add the "e" like the Irish do). I had cooked the cooked part of my dinner while we were drinking. It was roasted/grilled meatballs, and I had them with a heap of salad leaves, mayonnaise, and some pickled sliced red jalapeños. It was nice, and mostly safe. The trouble is that I finished off the last of those salt and rosemary crisps as a sort of dessert.

  I managed to eat my dinner on time, and was able to watch an episode of The Simpsons, but then, as hard as I looked, I couldn't find anything else to watch until the first of two episodes of QI were due to start at 8.20pm. While waiting for QI I was also waiting for sunset so like a big kid, I could have the "thrill" of closing my new bedroom curtains again. Eventually the first episode of QI started, but after that finished, and the next one started (a QIXL edition) I recognised it as one that I had seen not that long ago. That suited me Ok because I could turn off, and go to bed.

  I read for about half an hour before turning out the light, and falling asleep fairly quickly. I can't be sure, but I think I was asleep slightly before 10pm. It was a strange night. I slept for almost 4 hours before waking up for a pee, although the quantity I peed would suggest it was not an urgent need to pee. What I got back in bed, and pulled the duvet over me I began to feel hotter and hotter. I threw off the duvet and broke out into a sweat. It was a strange feeling, but it didn't feel like a fever (and I never checked my temperature to see what it was doing - which was a bit of a shame). I have had this sweat once or twice before, but I have always woken up after, or part after it, to find a damp pillow and damp patches on the duvet.

  I have no idea what causes it. It could be a very high blood glucose reading, but an equally good explanation is that it is a reaction to the hot jalapeños I had eaten a few hours before going to bed. The problem with each theory is that my blood glucose can be high, and I have eaten hot jalapeños with no apparent sweating. It is probably something life threatening, and I guess I'll find out what when I wake up dead one morning. In the meantime, the rest of my sleep seemed to be fairly good, although it was another morning when I woke up too early - or earlier than I thought I wanted to wake up.

  This morning my blood glucose had risen to a very bad 9.7mmol/l. The only consolation is that it didn't go over the red line at 10.0mmol/l. It does mean that I feel I want to try and fast until dinner time, and for my dinner to be relatively safe. If I do eat before dinner, which I confess is very likely, I will have to be very careful what I ate - maybe just rice cakes with some cheese, or maybe ham.

  There are three things I want to do this morning. The first is to replace the flexible hose on the shower head. The old one is starting to leak. Fortunately I have two spares, and the washers and stuff. Once that is done I can have a shower, and when that is finished I can do the rest of my laundry, and hang it on the line to dry. Yesterday was good in that the laundry I hung out to dry was warm and dry when I brought it in, and I am hoping for the same today.

  There is one other variable today that is a sort of difficulty. I am expecting a book to be delivered by Royal Mail. I was expecting it yesterday, but it didn't come. I don't know if it will come parcel delivery, or just by the usual postman. If it is by parcel delivery it could be here at any minute, and if by postman it will probably be between midday and 1pm. Ideally I want to go out midday, but I sort of need that book. It is the middle of a three part story. I have the beginning, that I am reading now, and getting close to the end, and the last of the three books.

  Ideally I want a smooth transition from the first to the second book. The only thing in my favour is that if I do go out before the postman comes I will be able to collect the book from the sorting office tomorrow morning, and that should be early enough to not leave a gap between the end of the first book, and that second book of the trilogy. I could just go out for a walk today, but I think I fancy going out, with camera, to Caterham, and probably a few more stations at the limits of my Freedom Pass as part of my quest to travel as far as the Freedom Pass allows (on trains).