To call 5° C warm is a rather desperate measure, but assuming it does reach 5° C today, it will be the warmest day for some time today. There should be some sunshine or sunny spells this morning, and maybe into the afternoon, but the latest revision to the forecast has changed the time compared to the screenshot above. I expect the times will change again, but at the moment the forecast says sunny spells for 10 and 11am, and full sunshine for midday and 1pm. After that it will probably be light grey. Tomorrow may see heavy cloud, and it will be very wet. Some of the rain will fall when it is just 2° but the forecast says rain, and not sleet - which might be more probable. During the day the temperature will rise, and by 11pm it could be 10° C.

   I spent almost all of yesterday just resting. I had thought about going out for shopping, but with my bath still 2 or 3 inches full of water, because of the frozen drain pipe, I couldn't have a shower. I had suggested I would probably just have a flannel wash if I needed to go out to the shops, but nothing on my shopping list couldn't wait anther few days if needed.

  I spent a lot of time just keeping warm, and reading. One afternoon distraction was watching a 90 minute movie, downloaded from You Tube, about the Scottish Whisky trail. It seemed like it was probably a tourist film for showing in America. There were three tedious musical sessions in it, which I skipped over, and some aspects were over romanticised, but it was mostly interesting. It seemed to be narrated by a proper Scotsman, but he didn't seem to flinch when describing the kilt as traditional Scottish dress - some say it was actually an English invention !

  I had two bowls of instant noodles for breakfast, but apart from some peanuts, I can't recall eating anything else until dinner time in the evening. Maybe that is why I dared to order a takeaway. It was an Indian takeaway, and last night's dinner was lamb vindaloo with pilau rice and an aloo gobi vegetable side dish. I also ate the two free poppadoms. The trouble with most takeaways is their sugar content, and Chinese and Indian are the worst for it....or so I thought.

  I didn't actually feel all that tired last night, but there was a big boring gap in TV entertainment last night. While waiting for 9pm to approach I did sort of feel tired. I had already brushed my teeth, and at about 8.30pm I turned out the light, and I doubt it was more than 5 minutes before I was fast asleep. It was a surprise to realise I had been sleeping for over 2 hours when I woke up near 11pm.

  Last night was an experiment to see if I really needed to run the heater at full blast all night. I had mainly started doing that while I was ill. I am still getting the odd twinge that would seem to be like an after shock of that illness, but most of the time I regard myself as well - or at least while I am in the warm. Too much cold can cause all sorts of aches and stuff. Having the heater on half was almost OK.

  I still managed to keep nice and warm, and indeed at times too warm under the duvet. It was the latter that caused most of the problems. If I stuck an bits of me outside the duvet they would soon start to feel uncomfortable cold. It was why in times before fuel costs went through the roof, I would have no hesitation about leaving the heater on full blast. I could even kick the duvet off, and not feel cold.
  One such feeling too hot event was at 2.30am this morning. In this case it was my feet that seemed to be too hot, and I stuck one of the out from under the duvet. It soon felt far too cold. Before I took it back under the duvet I saw an opportunity for my new phones "night shot" option on the camera. Above is my naked foot with the time displayed on my PC in the background.

  It is about now that I try and remember some dreams. I do remember having quite a complex dream involving many people, but most of it has evaporated now. The only thing I remember was chasing some kids out of my house, and then looking at my front garden. I can remember thanking someone for clearing it, but I don't know who it was. The peculiar thing is that the garden seemed to be mostly covered in green carpet. The other slight peculiarity was that it was n't the front garden where I now live, but where I lived as a kid.

  It was with great trepidation that I checked my blood glucose reading this morning. Before I did that I took my temperature and it was unusually high for just after getting out of bed. I wondered if it was heading towards feverish, and that would give a very negative result to my blood glucose check. I was astonished to find a near perfect reading of just 8.3mmol/l - slightly under my typical average of all months except this one.

  Maybe I have discovered an Indian restaurant that does healthy cooking. I did note that there was very little oil on the vindaloo, or the aloo gobi side dish. Apart from the price, which maybe is not as bad as some Indian restaurants, I could be tempted to get more takeaways from there, but maybe I should see what the "spare" dishes I bought do to my blood glucose before getting carried away. I have enough for a second full dinner, and possibly a slightly smaller dinner, or maybe lunch.

  It will be interesting to see if 5° C will be enough to melt the frozen drain pipe, and for my bath to empty today. The only trouble is that there are only 4 hours of 5° C today, and most are in the afternoon. The temperature should turn positive by 11am, and so there is hope - just. Maybe I may be able to have a late afternoon shower today. I am not sure what the point of it will be, but with the temperature going below zero again in the early hours of tomorrow, the drain pipe may well freeze up again. Probably the next important time for a shower will be on Sunday before Jodie comes over for a beer tasting session.

  I don't really know what I will be doing today. Now I have curry in the cupboard, so to speak, I don't really need any shopping today. There are no trains again today, and I am not going out walking in these temperature, or at least not this morning. I guess I'll just keep myself warm at home today. That may not be so easy. After letting my bedroom cool down during the night, the heater seems to be struggling to get it comfortably warm again this morning. I almost wonder if the mains voltage has been reduced to avoid brown outs.

  At the moment, 09:40am my bedroom is 22.3° C, and the outside temperature is approximately -1.2° C.