08:19 BST

  Yesterday's weather was a great improvement on the day before, but it still wasn't very nice. It was generally dull, although there were some sunny spells in the early evening. The forecast temperature was  brief peak at 18° C, but most of the day was a fair bit cooler. Maybe it was a bit humid because a brisk walk in the park did get me feeling a lot warmer.

  

  Despite what the forecast says, there has yet to be any sunshine so far this morning.It is fairly bright though, but there are also some grey looking clouds in the sky. Oddly enough, the latest revision to the forecast, that starts at 9am, still shows the same picture as that above. They seem certain there will be sunny spells until 2pm. The temperature has been revised upwards to 21° C, and it may be that for much of the afternoon. Before getting too excited, it is worth checking what the BBC say. They agree on 21° C, but only for a single hour, and from 9am they paint a rather dull, and even gloomy picture that features zero sunshine. Tomorrow is forecast to feature strong sunshine for most of the day, but the temperature may only touch 20° C for a brief moment.

   There was just the one highlight yesterday, and that was going out to meet Angela for a lunchtime drink. Based on some early version of the weather forecast I was hoping to be able to walk through the park without a coat, but it seemed safer to put on a coat/jacket. That turned out to be a good idea on the way home because there were a few raindrops, but not enough to make me want to do my coat up.

  I was a bit worried that maybe Angela couldn't make it, because she was very late replying to my email asking of she wanted a packet of crisps with her drink. She did eventually reply about 5 minutes before the arrived on time, and yes, she did want a packet of crisps. It was a very pleasant hour together, and Angela said she really enjoyed it - more so than usual. Maybe I did too, but I didn't seem to realise it at first.

  What I do know is that I felt mildly depressed in the rest of the afternoon. It could have been the come down from a really good lunchtime, but I don't think so, or at least no more than usual. There was also the dreaded "see you next week" as we hugged goodbye. That is always a bit of a downer. Maybe it is fortunate that at the sort of age I am, time slides by so quickly, that a week hardly seems to be anything now.

  A good reason for depression was the weather, although the gloom didn't last beyond early evening when there were sunny spells. The worst thing was that thought that I had nothing to do, correction: there was nothing I wanted to do in the afternoon and evening. I could, of course, got out the hoover, or done some other housework, but I was not in the right mood to do that, and the two pints of Guinness I had in the pub were just enough to slightly alter my enthusiasm quotient.

  One bright spot was actually the moment I got home for the pub. Sitting on the doormat was a slip of paper from Sue next door saying she had taken my parcel in. That is a very rare thing because it is rare that I am not on high alert at home waiting for a parcel delivery, and also because Sue won't open the door to strangers. I didn't ask, but maybe she saw the Royal Mail van outside, and assumed it would be safe to open the door, and offer to take the parcel in. The parcel contained another 4 seat pads in a different colour, and slightly different size, and I bought them as a backup in case the seat pads that came the day before yesterday were not to my liking for some reason.

  Once I had checked those seat pads out I made myself some lunch. It was very different from what I would usually have. It was a packet of Vesta paella. I hadn't had anything from Vesta for many, many years, and that could have been over 30 years ago. Once upon a time they had to be made on the hob, but this packet, found in the Pound Shop if I recall correctly, had cooking instructions for hob or microwave. I did mine in the microwave, and it came out OK, although I feel I might not have added quite as much water as suggested because the rice was slightly hard.

  The sugar content was shown as low of the packet of the paella, but I don't trust rice. All that starch can be turned into sugar by enzymes in the digestive tract. For reasons I can't divine, some rice is worse than other - OR - some takeaway rice actually has sugar added to make it seem nicer (in the eyes of some). Anyway, the paella was nice, and sort of nostalgic, but far from wonderful. If the world was coming to the end, of some other sort of terminal entertainment, it would be good to have a stock of Vesta ready meals in the bunker.

 I decided I would finish off all but one of my bottles of cider. I still have one that is bottled like champagne with a wired cork, and in theory that could last for years, if not decades. I also have some cans of cider, but they are all fruit flavoured ciders, and I am very wary of them because of their sugar content. However the two bottles I did drink also had a high sugar content.

  The first cider was really an alcopop for kids. It was Brothers strawberry and cream soda flavoured cider, and it did taste rather nice, but it was syrupy enough to almost stick my lips together.  The second cider is shown in the picture on the left. It was very strange. It smelled disgusting - a sort of hint of vomit type of smell - but once passed the nose the strawberry and lime flavours came through. I don't think it was a great flavour combination, but wasn't bad.

  It too seemed to leave my lips a bit sticky from the sugar in it, and that spoiled my enjoyment a bit, but maybe it was not so bad after all. Of course it wouldn't be until this morning that I realised I had good reason to be cautious, but maybe not to panic.

  My original plan was to have a similar dinner to the night before. I had the mixed lettuce leaves, and some precooked chicken chunks (flame grilled flavour - or so the packet claims). Plus I had plenty of mayonnaise. I could have had all that for dinner, but I opted for a couple of big chunks of cod in breadcrumbs instead. I say "big chunks of cod", but in reality it was a big thick chunky covering of breadcrumb stuff. That rather spoiled it, and of course was another unwanted source of sugar.

  I watched just two items on TV last night, and the second was an episode of QI being shown on Dave. That finished at 10pm, and once again I went straight to bed. Just like the night before, I read a couple of pages from a book in bed before putting the book down, turning out the light, and suffering about 3 minutes of "will I ever fall asleep" before falling into a deep sleep. I generally slept OK, but maybe some of that excess sugar caused me to get up and pee a bit more than usual.

  The funny thing is that "I know" I got up to pee more frequently than usual, but I can't seem to remember actually doing it. Maybe some of the times were just dreams, If so, they are the dreams I remember most, and yet at the same time, like dreams, the memories are really insubstantial. What was a lot more real was the three time I woke up with cramp - fortunately while it was still building up to agony, but before it got there. The last time was when I actually got up. That was a tricky one because I was trying to put some flip-flops on before going for a wee, and I kept triggering the cramp what I tried to get my feet into the right position to slide into (or onto ?) the flip-flops.

  This morning my blood glucose was predictably high, but at the same time it was a lot lower than expected. 9.0mmol/l is just over the "usual" threshold, and still some way from the danger line. It was obviously to be avoided if possible, but the biggest problem is that it mucks up my running average. It is currently running at 8.35mmol/l, and that is close to typical for last year, but my second highest for this year. If I ever do get an appointment to see the nurse (she was supposed to be phoning me to agree on an appointment) for my annual (or 6 monthly as it used to be) checkup, I think my last three months of readings will be sufficiently low enough to earn another gold star !

  Today a couple of things could happen. I think I am going to trust the weather forecast enough to wash some stuff and hang it on the washing line to dry. This afternoon I think Jodie will be over for another beer tasting session, but there is always an element of doubt because she confirms or denies these things at the end of the previous sessions when I am generally drunk, and can't always remember what she says. There is a possible possibility that we might be joined by Michael for a short while. I spoke to him on Tuesday, and his difficulties seem to have calmed down for a while.