This morning has certainly started off rather dull and wet, but I think there have only been a few short bursts of heavy rain. Mostly it was moderately light rain. It is slightly odd that the latest revision to the forecast shows no changes to that shown in the screenshot above - except that the latest revision starts at 10am. The temperature should rise to an almost, but not quite warm 13° C (it would be warm in sunshine), and once the rain fizzles out at 11am, the rest of the day will feature white cloud. Hopefully it will make it seem a bit more like daylight than the twilight at the moment. Tomorrow is looking like it could be very wet, but at least it should be 13° C.

   Once again, yesterday was not like I thought it might be. After my unstable guts the morning before, I was sort of fit and healthy (using a very broad definition of healthy), and in theory I could have done more than I actually did. There was one fly in the ointment that put paid to any hopes of outdoor activities. In the end that didn't matter because the hoped for sunny spells seemed mostly underwhelming.

  The fly in the ointment was a delivery from Amazon. I was informed, shortly after I had finished writing yesterday, that my parcel had left the Dartford Depot at 10:18am. On past form I expected it to arrive here at approximately 1pm, but Amazon's tracking page just said "before 10pm". The idea of staying up until 10pm, while waiting for a parcel really annoyed me. The tracking page kept saying " by 10pm" right up to the point it changed to delivered - which was actually at 4.30pm. That was not an unreasonable time, but I wish Amazon were able to give some sort of prediction rather than "before 10pm" - Grrrrrrr !!!

  With the possibility of my parcel arriving even earlier than my prediction, based on past experience, of around 1pm, I thought I had better speed up getting ready to go out and buy even more shopping from Tesco. I intended, and did take advantage of some Xmas stuff heavily marked down to clear the shelves. I had a quick shower, and headed for Tesco just before 11.30am.

  I explained yesterday how some of the usually extremely poor value for money gift packs of booze in miniature bottles were marked down to a far more reasonable half price. I got several of those, and I also bought a couple of full sized bottles while they were on Clubcard specials. What I shouldn't have bought, but did buy with a reckless disregard for my health, were some reduced price small sub rolls from the sandwich counter.

  Those white bread sub rolls are really laden with sugar, and I knew I was taking a huge gamble that ultimately did not pay off. The worst thing was that I couldn't decided between the "pigs under blankets" or the "deli meat selection". I ended up buying two of each, and so today I have to eat the same naughty things as yesterday. Looking on the brightside, before discounts my bill was a massive £96, but after discounts it was £63 - about a third off, which ain't bad.

  The man from Amazon didn't appear at 1pm, but the man from Royal Mail did. He had a late Xmas card for me, and another of the books I had ordered. I think I am now waiting on just two more books. Yesterday I finished the book I described in more detail yesterday. I was still a bit unsure about how well a sensitive subject, colour prejudice, was handled, but Edmond Cooper's writing style in 1963 was much more fluid than the turgid book he wrote in 1959. At the current time I have two more of his books to read, and both of them are books I have never read before. It is possible I might check to see if any more of his books are available.

  I don't know if it was the stress of the unknown delivery time of my Amazon parcel, or if it was the high sugar influx of those mini sub rolls from Tesco, but I seemed to feel very hungry yesterday.  It was probably no more than 90 minutes after stuffing my face with those rolls that I wanted more to eat. I satisfied that (probably imaginary) hunger with a can of East European beans with smoked pork. Their sugar content is low compared to anything Heinz do with beans, but it is not a trivial amount.

  At this point I have to slip in an extra paragraph because I forgot to mention one positive thing I did. It was to hand wash another hand towel. It was one I had been using to protect my pillow on those nights when things can get a bit sweaty (a habit started one very hot summer). I think I got most of the grease out, and after 8 rinses the water looked fairly clear. I hung it on the clothes horse to dry in the dining room where I had the heater on low for several hours to speed up the dry a bit. It should be dry this morning, but I haven't checked yet.

  One more extra paragraph so I can get everything in roughly the right order ! Yesterday I mentioned that I was not sure of Jodie was coming over in the afternoon for a beer tasting session. It was several hours before she replied to say she would not be coming over. Yesterday afternoon she was flying out to Finland, with her boyfriend, for a gig or something, but she will be back for next Thursday afternoon.

  Later still I had an orange and a pear. It was going to be two oranges, but one of the oranges had developed a pale green fur around one end. I definitely didn't fancy that ! I had a pear instead. The pear had been in the kitchen for maybe a week, and instead of being a nice crunchy Conference pear it had softened and tasted very sweet. I had partly cooked my dinner ready for dinner time, but when the time came I opted for two home made ham and mustard sandwiches.

  Several hours before dinner my Amazon parcel was delivered. It was two double CDs. The important one was from the band Angel Witch - one of the pioneers of The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. I bought it on the strength of just two tracks from some old compilation albums. The first CD of the two CD set was of their first album plus four live tracks performed for the BBC. The second CD was a sort of cheap filler of assorted live tracks and studio demos.

  I like the first CD, but the second CD was of generally poor quality - like the sweepings from the cutting room floor. The other double CD was very cheap, and that was good because it was extremely variable. It was a compilation album of tracks from some of the bands that were pioneer of TNWOBHM (The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal). Some are great, and some deserved to sink into obscurity.

  At the end of my eighth day of not seeing or speaking to anyone I was in bed, reading, by 9pm. I think it probably took until 10pm before I had finished the book I was reading. To my surprise I was asleep very soon after that. It was all a bit like the night before. I don't really remember anything until about 3am this morning. I definitely got up for a pee then. Maybe the memory was reinforced because as well as a pee I was also using some deodorant spray on a spider that was seeming to be heading to lurk above the toilet bowl. I wanted to drive it to another corner rather than find it above my head the next time I used the toilet.

  Also like the night before, I generally slept OK until just after 6am. I could have got up then, but with daylight still almost 2 hours away, I did my best to get more sleep. It didn't feel like I had slept much, but a lot of time seemed to pass in mere minutes. I think It was around 7.30am when I got up. As usual I went to the toilet, scrubbed any contaminants off my hands, and then checked my blood glucose. Everything I moaned about further up the page combined to fulfil the prophecy to raise my blood glucose. It had risen to 9.0mmol/l. That is very disappointing compared to 8.0mmol/l yesterday morning, but at least I could identify every single cock up that caused it.

  Today I had wanted to go out and travel over a rare route, passing a rarely seen disused railway station. It is a diversionary route because of engineer work. There is a very small chance I might still go later, but at the moment it is still very wet outside, although the sky is starting to look a bit brighter. That put me off, as does having to get to Willesden Junction station where the trains are starting from. I realise I am not terribly enthusiastic about it. It was be a "nice" thing to do, but not an essential thing.

  What I am more likely to do today is to get a bit more shopping. I think I have got all I would sanely want from Tesco, but there are other things that it would be most useful to get - namely topping up a few vitamins and stuff like soap from Savers. If I go there I might as well also have a rummage in Poundstretcher which is just across the (pedestrian only) road. I could get a few cans of sugar free Irn Bru from there, and probably other stuff too.