The sky has been fairly clear for some time now, but the sun has just risen above the houses to the east, but only just, and there is some thin sunshine coming over the top. Sadly the latest revision says the sunny spells will finish at 10am, and that there could be a sprinkle of rain at 1pm. It should then stay dry, but dull until more rain starts to fall at 5pm. It looks like that will last all night. Today should still make 12° C, but not when there is any sunshine, and when it would be most appreciated. Tomorrow will be a lot cooler, just 8° C, but if the forecast holds, the day should feature a fair amount of sunny spells and even sunshine.

   Yesterday was a busy day, and I guess I have a better understanding of what people do in offices. I spent a lot of the day working on spreadsheets. I am rather glad that I could edit last years spreadsheets recording my temperature, blood glucose, and blood pressure, for this year. "Edit" sounds sort of easy, but in practice it saved some useful time, but I still had to redo the days and dates in each sheet of the three spreadsheets. I was doing it in batches, and the last one was finished at about 7pm last night.

  Other stuff I did was some washing up. Some cooking, and some eating ! I also continued to rip the Futurama DVD box set. Sadly there is one damaged disk that has meant one episode is lost, and probably some other episodes on the disk may have glitches during playback. As of this morning the complete job should have been done, and later today I will tidy it all up.

  There was one other thing I did yesterday, and that was to hand wash two t-shirts and 4 pairs of underpants. As usual for this time of year, I had to dry them indoors. I hung them on the clothes horse in the dining room with the fan heat on low for most of the afternoon. It had the advantage of making it more comfortable to work on the PC in the dining room - the one ripping the Futurama DVDs.

  My breakfast was the usual instant noodles. My lunch was a plate of oven chips. I am still not sure about oven chips in relation to my blood glucose level, but I was in a sort of Devil may care mood, and just enjoyed them with little guilt. Apart from a handful of peanuts, I don't think I ate anything else until dinner time. My dinner was a beef stew with some mini potatoes, a bell pepper, three large green chillies, and some mange tout.

  One thing I did was to only use half the pack of diced beef. I usually use the whole pack. Using half means I spend less money, and it probably makes the meal a bit more healthy. It is one of those facts learned years ago, then forgotten, and now rediscovered, that when the stew is packed out with enough vegetables it still seems as tasty as filling. Obviously the next meal will be using the other half of the pack. I think it would be good if I can make this the normal way.

  In between jobs I did a fair amount of reading yesterday. It was handy that the book I was reading, by Edmond Cooper, was of short stories, and maybe at least half were just a few pages, and I could read the entire story between jobs. I actually finished the book last night because TV entertainment was so thin that I watched just one film, and that not in it's entirety. That film was "Carry On Camping". It was not one of the best, but it provided a 60 or 70 minute diversion.

  I was probably in bed reading soon after 8pm, and an hour later I had turned out the light. Last night was a good night in so much that I seemed to fall asleep quite quickly. As midnight approached I was having a dream that included a lot of noise - bangs and stuff. I had taken the real noise outside, as some let off fireworks to see in the new year, and folded that into the dream. I can't remember much about the dream, but I do remember waking up surprised that the "soundtrack" continued in real life. I think I only woke for a pee.

  It took a little while to get back to sleep, but after about 15 minutes the fireworks died down, and then I could get back to sleep. I seemed to sleep quite well after that, and maybe only woke once for a pee until 6am when I needed another. I had my pee, and then went back to bed. I laid there for some time before I realised I had probably had sufficient sleep, and I might as well get up.

  I was most pleased when I checked my blood glucose. The meter said it was just 7.5mmol/l - spot on my personal target, and seemingly all done without trying. I think that is the first time I have hit that target in many months. There have been hints I have been building it to it in the last week and and a bit. It would have been a good morning to ruin it all by eating that cake I keep saying I have waiting for me in the kitchen cupboard. I considered eating it, but after a poo I weighed myself, and found I was now 400gm below my "typical" weight. I really wish I could capitalise on it by doing some good exercise, but I can't see me doing that until warm sunny weather draws me out.

  This morning is the first morning where I have seen my new yellow icons in use, and I don't think I like them. I think I will end up hoping I grow to like them, or they just blend into the background. If I had a great idea for different style I might have made new ones, but I don't think I can be bothered with any experimentation today - plus I have no idea for a new style.

  Today I should be meeting Michael for a couple of pints in a pub in the afternoon. I have no idea what pub it will be. I would suggest the Jolly Farmers, but I think Michael would be bored in there. We might try the new Catford Constitutional Club which has reopened in the old Argos store. Some say it has the charm or drinking in a big draughty aircraft hanger, and some say it has some sort charm. Maybe today we will find out.

  Drinking with Michael means I don't think I'll have time for a novelty train ride today. Hmmm, it seems I am already too late for it. When I checked earlier it said the earlier Thameslink trains were running between Orpington and Victoria, but now it seems trains from Catford station are the usual Sevenoaks to Blackfriars. Maybe there was some over running engineering work this morning, and the trains were diverted until the engineering work finished. Now I know I can't amuse myself I don't feel so bad as missing it for other reasons.