The early version of today's weather forecast, as shown above, shows light snow for 10am. The sky does seem to look like it could snow, but the latest revision to the forecast has changed snow to rain, and that rain will continue until past midnight. From 1pm it is likely to be heavy rain, but the more it rains, the warmer it will get. The day could end at 10° C. Tomorrow could see the temperature rise to 13° C, but once again rain will be involved. Tomorrow morning, and tomorrow evening could feature light rain. Between the two lots of rain it might be dry.

   There were three notable things that happened yesterday, or maybe four things if you include eating. I spent the whole morning being lazy, apart from when I was writing here. I suppose what I was actually doing was keeping my fingers crossed that the small rise in temperature would be enough to thaw out the frozen drain pipe from my bath.

  It was 12:50 when I went to the toilet for a pee, and noticed the bath had emptied of the water that had not drained away in the previous 48 hours. That was good news on two counts. The first was that the water was beginning to have a hint of "old washing machine water" smell. The second good thing was that it wasn't long after 1pm when I was able to have a nice warm shower.

  I felt much better for that shower. It wasn't just that I was clean, and (hopefully) pleasantly fragrant again, but the warm water seemed to chase away a few annoying aches.  I was now ready to go out and get some shopping, but I found I couldn't be bothered to do that. In part it was because there was nothing I needed urgently, but also, having got nice and warm, I wanted to stay that way.

  The one thing it almost wasn't, was laziness because the next thing I did was to hand wash a couple of t-shirts and 4 pairs of underwear. Some of that needed washing with some urgency because not only had I not washed for a couple of days, but I had been wearing the same clothes for those couple of days. It is lucky that I rarely have any visitors calling round here !

  I dried that washing on the clothes horse in the dining room using a fan heater on low. I guess I have become a bit over complacent over my electric bill because I left that heater on low all night. Those clothes were perfectly dry and warm this morning. Some of that complacency was due to checking my finances yesterday. I was actually paying off my credit cards, but I checked my main account first. It was looking healthy.

   One interesting thing, which was not obvious until I got over the initial shock, is that the seemingly large amount of my Tesco credit card bill actually represented the total amount I had spent on my "normal shopping" (most of my online purchases are made with the other credit card, and that was quite a small amount). My "normal shopping", plus my standing orders come out quite close to my state pension payment - not close enough to cover it completely, but my BT pension covers the difference, and allows a small amount of surplus. It seems my day to day needs are nicely covered, but there is no money for things like house maintenance.

  One waste of time in the afternoon was yet another attempt to renew my Senior Railcard. I am now convinced it is one of two possibilities that causes the process ton crash, and in a way both can be blamed on the website itself. It is possible that there is an uncorrectable clash between part of my "account" having the name Bill, and another part Billy. It seems ludicrous that I can't correct that if it is the problem. It might also be the website just being crap that causes it to fail at the same point every time. At least I have managed to learn how to get it to offer me the choice to renew an existing card, and not have to try and prove my age every time. I still feel that the only way to resolve the problem is to talk the the "man" who deals with Senior Railcards, and iron out the problems that way. I have sent a request for help message, and maybe I'll be contacted with the "promised" 10 days.

  The final notable thing about yesterday was eating. I had a rather delicious lunch of a sort of pizza. It was actually a naan bread with a couple of different cheeses on it, and zapped in the microwave until the cheese had melted. I can imagine it was very unhealthy. My dinner was bigger than intended. It was all the left over curry and stuff from the previous nights takeaway.

  I was rushing a bit preparing that dinner because I was doing it during a commercial break in a program I was watching on TV. I tipped one main course, a lamb bhuna, plus a pilau rice onto a plate, and microwaved it. I then rushed back to my TV programme. Unfortunately I had not given it long enough in the microwave, and bits of it were almost cold. I ate it anyway, but 20 or so minutes later, when the next commercial break came along I decided I would try again with the chicken pathia, and the bombay aloo. I gave that an extra couple of minutes, and most of it was mouth scalding hot.

  I definitely enjoyed it hot far more than cold, but it ended up as quite a big meal. I felt rather full after it. I also seemed to get a bit of acid indigestion. I had a couple of antacid tablets an hour or two before going to bed. Maybe that helped getting a very peaceful night. Like the previous night, I turned the heater on low for much of the night, but I did turn it up full at about 3am.

  There is not a lot to say about last night. I barely remember dreaming, and at no time did I feel too hot or too cold. I think I had fallen asleep around 9pm, and apart from getting up for a pee a few times, I seemed to sleep quite soundly until the last few hours when I probably tossed and turned a lot, and woke up as often as every half hour. If it had been a summers day, and was light outside, I would probably have got up as early as 5am, but I was forcing myself to sleep until at least 6am, and in fact it was about 6.50am when I got up.

  I assumed there was no way could my blood glucose reading be low after that naan bread "pizza", and after a double helping of curry for dinner. It was quite a pleasant shock to read just 8.4mmol/l on my meter this morning. It suggests that I have definitely thrown out what ever bug left me feeling ill for a week and a half. The curious thing is that my body temperature still seems to be slightly higher than normal. That would suggest I am still fighting something. On the other hand maintaining an extra degree of body heat would consume a lot of energy, and maybe that is where the glucose is going. Perhaps in spring I can reduce my calorie intake, and my blood glucose will drop even lower, although that seems too much to hope for.

  This morning I will luxuriate in another hot shower, and with the temperature already around 2° C I won't have to worry about the drain pipe being frozen. Once I am clean I think I will dare go to Tesco. I do feel a bit reluctant about it because it is bound to be very busy, and I wonder if Monday morning might be more sensible. I'll decide at the appropriate time. The trains seem to be running normally today, and so I think I can expect Jodie over for a beer tasting session this afternoon. Before that I had better do some washing up, and prepare, and part cook tonight's dinner.