08:10 BST

  Yesterday was a pretty good day. It was often bright and sunny, but it was possibly a strong breeze that made 18° C not feel as warm as it could do. I guess it did feel warm in direct sunshine, but in the shade it didn't seem to feel warm at all.

  

  The sun is trying to break through a thin layer of white cloud as I write this. It is fairly bright, particularly to the east, but there is not enough of a concentrated amount of light to cast a shadow. If the forecast holds the sun will start to break through soon, and this afternoon should see a blue sky and full on sunshine until sunset. It should raise the temperature to 21° C, and possibly 22° C for a short period. Tomorrow may not see quite as much sunshine, but the temperature may climb to 21° C again. Sunday and Monday may feature an occasional splash of rain, but the forecast will probably have changed a lot by then.

  Yesterday morning was quite hectic, but I had a very lazy afternoon. As I said I would do yesterday morning, I gave the kitchen a bit of a clean, and tidy up. I also gave the bathroom a clean, but I must admit that in both cases it was really only the worst bits that got much attention. There were some areas of both it would be wise to not look at too closely....

  The next thing I did was to go shopping in Tesco. Top of my shopping list was a small bottle of milk, but while there I bought some pop, some whisky, and a few items of food. The food included 2 items that I probably shouldn't have bought. One was a tub of coleslaw with cheddar cheese in it - because it looked, and ultimately tasted nice. The other think was a little container of pre-cooked cocktail sausages. They were reduced price, but I shouldn't have given into temptation.

  Before I went out to Tesco I heard from Patricia. That was about 10am, and she was already on a DLR train to Lewisham. She said she had some shopping to do first, but would see me soon. I think it was about 11am when she arrived, and it was so good to see her for the first time in almost three years. I can't remember when I last saw her, but I do remember she was on the point of returning to Europe when Covid caused two years of disruption.
  I guess Patricia was here just in time for elevenses. Back in 2018 (I think) I bought a lot of flavoured coffees for Patricia. They were inspired by one or two flavours she had found herself in Aldi. I think I had 6 or 7 flavours to offer, and she chose Turkish Delight flavour. I don't drink coffee, but Patricia declared it to be delicious, or doubly so when served with Jaffa Cakes. They were from a still sealed packet also bought in 2018 !! I warned Patricia about it, but she went ahead, and said they were still perfect.

  After hearing a lot of news from the last few months (anything older, and important, I had heard via Whatsapp) I heard some of Patricia's plans while she had a ready-mixed gin with rhubarb and ginger ! I originally thought we were going to lunch (in the Wetherspoons) together at lunchtime, but she was due to meet her sister for lunch yesterday, but Patricia promised we would have lunch, and possibly next Thursday.

  I can't remember when she said it would be, but she will be leaving London for Italy, where she is buying a flat, possibly next weekend. The possible good news is that she may have a court interpreting job coming up in London in June, and will obviously need to be in London for a while. Patricia may stay here for a few days, or more if the court case lasts longer. I asked her to give me as much advance warning as she can because I need to get the spare room free of a load of my clutter, plus cleaned and aired.

  Patricia left to go and see her Sister just before midday, and then just after midday, maybe a little later than I expected, I got my delivery of beers from Beautiful Beers. Many of them wer as suggested by Jodie, and among those suggestions were a few very strong Abbey beers - which I generally think are really nice. You do get a rare one that doesn't taste good, but the rest tend to be wonderful.

  It is an expensive "round" buying these exotic beers, but I am very tempted to order another £80 worth in a week or two. Beautiful Beers do offer a marvellous selection, and they even do slightly cheaper "clearance" beers. I didn't drink any of the beers that arrived yesterday, and I didn't drink any other beers yesterday either. I did have a couple of whiskies later in the evening. For most of the afternoon I did little more than read and snooze.

  It didn't feel like I ate much yesterday, but I did eat more than it seemed. I think I had two or even three rounds of cream cheese on rice cakes. The first 4 were using what turns out to be a very bland Tesco own brand cream cheese. Later on I tried some "strong" cream cheese on rice cakes, and they were more enjoyable, but they may have been the rice cakes I also put some ham on too. The ones with both cream cheese and ham were my dinner, but that is also when I had a whole tub of coleslaw with cheddar cheese in it. I think both the coleslaw, and the cooked cocktail sausages I had, were the major sources of sugar in my diet yesterday.

  All the resting and snoozing I did in the afternoon meant I was in no great rush to go to bed. It was about midnight when I put my book down, turned out the light, and was soon asleep. I generally slept well, but I did seem to dream a lot, and one, seemingly very long dream, used a very common theme in my dreams. It was sometime last night, maybe even as a dream itself, that I finally found the inspiration for these dreams.

  Many of my dreams have been about being in a big building, and often are inspired by many of the places I worked at, or went on training courses during my years working for BT. Very often the building in the dreams were huge to the point they had things like shopping malls in them. They would usually have multiple exits - and often to places I was slightly unfamiliar with.

  Whether it was in a dream, or whether it was during a short period when I was awake, I suddenly realised what my brain was doing. It was combining all the SciFi stuff I've read by Isaac Asimov, which very frequently features underground cities, with my own experiences working or training in big, and sometimes confusing buildings. For instance, my secondary school had the science labs on the top floor, and some were accessed by one staircase, and others by the other staircase. There was a connection on the top floor via a staff room, but that was off limits to us.

  I woke up earlier than expected this morning, and I tried to go back to sleep again, but it seems I had had sufficient sleep. I must admit it is heard to define early now the sun rises just after 5am, but I guess I have a very, very loose target of 7am these days. This morning it was about 6.30am when I gave up trying to get back to sleep, and got up. One of the first things I did was to check my blood glucose reading.

  It was at this point I remembered the "other thing" I ate yesterday. It was a sachet of a grain, possibly bulgar wheat, or possible something like barley, and ready cooked with lentils. I've had it in the cupboard for some time now after buying it out of curiosity. I hadn't eaten it previously because I suspected it would really raise my blood glucose level, and it seems it, and the other stuff I ate, really did raise it. It was a very bad, but not terrible, 9.3mmol/l !

  My plans for today are complex, and some things may not happen. The important thing today is to try and keep myself in the right state of mind to go out this evening to a gig with Angela, and Miranda. Before I do anything else this morning I want to wash two hand towels, and some clothes, and get it on the line to dry in the sun - if we get any sun. It is supposed to be out now, but if anything it looks even grey now.

   The BBC weather forecast may turn out to be closer to reality than the Met Office forecast today. While the Met Office still says there ought to be sunny spells now, the BBC say the first sunny spells will not be until 11am, and it also says there will be less full sunny hours than the very optimistic Met Office Forecast. Anyway, once I get the washing on the line to dry I face a big decision. I would like to go and do some more rail photography today, but I am not sure if I can do that, and retain enough energy to go out tonight.