The forecast temperature for early this morning was a bit optimistic. By my reckoning it is just about to hit 6° C as I write this just before 8am. The main change in the latest revision to the forecast is that it shows the rain starting at 10am, and then continuing through the whole day. The temperature should slowly rise through the day, and by 9pm it could reach 12° C. There will be a few dry hours, but it seems the last of the rain will fall at 6am tomorrow ! Most of tomorrow may feature white cloud, but some sunny spells are expected, and the temperature could reach 13° C.

  Maybe I was spoiled by going out for a drink with Michael the day before yesterday, or maybe it was yesterday's weather, but I don't think yesterday was a good day. If there was anything good about it, it was that I finally got to go shopping in Aldi. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was a slightly bland experience. Maybe the worst things was that with the weather forecast showing the day as being generally bright and sunny, I don't remember a single ray of sunshine as I walked to and from Aldi.

  Another reason for the blandness of my shopping trip is that I didn't see and post Xmas bargains. I suspect they were there, but it was only stuff that was chock full of sugar and calories. One post Xmas thing I bought didn't seem to be discounted, and was a terrible idea. Somehow curiosity got the better of me, but with hindsight I realised that I am sure I had tried "pigs in blankets" flavoured crisps before. Maybe it was last Xmas.

  Those crisps were very bad for me, and not really that nice - except they did seem sort of addictive nice. I ended scoffing the whole large (though not huge) bag as an early afternoon snack. I was still burping up the flavouring of those crisps until my dinner finally submerged them. Another nice, but possibly ill advised thing was a couple of cod and peas fish cakes. I had those for lunch. I half enjoyed them, but I think their sugar content may have been a bit higher thatn is good for me.
  I was quite happy with one of my beer purchases. There was one tin of this "Japanese style rice beer" in the cans that Michael gave me as a Xmas present. Until yesterday I had not tried the stuff, but I had high hopes for it, and so I grabbed another two cans while I was in Aldi. Once upon a time, maybe almost 30 years ago now, when Jodie first introduced me to imported beers, there were a couple of lager style beers brewed using rice that I thought tasted really good. I think they were both from South America. One was called Brahma. Sadly that is now brewed in a European beer factory, and tastes like a standard lager, and probably doesn't use rice in the process.

   These cans, brewed for the world cup (football or rugby - I have no idea which) specially for Aldi, seemed like they might replicate that taste from so many years ago. They almost did. The beer, as can be seen in the picture is very pale, and it does have a that delicate taste of rice, but sadly it seems to be submerged under the taste of hops more suited to ale. The first light taste is followed by an almost nasty bitter after taste. I must admit that by the time I finished the second can I was starting to appreciate the taste a bit more. It will be interesting to see what Jodie makes of it at our Thursday afternoon beer tasting session.
 One very novelty item bought yesterday was the candle in the picture - a scented candle with the scent of, believe or not, pigs in blankets. I lit it and left it burning for a few hours. The smell build up is quite subtle, but after a time the room fills with the smell of a transport cafe while breakfast is being served. Of course for the true experience there should be the smell of unwashed long distance lorry drivers as well, but thankfully that smell is omitted.

  Once everything had settled down after my shopping trip, I found no inspiration to do anything more that just reading. It felt like a big anticlimax. I think I managed to have an afternoon snooze to make the afternoon a bit shorter. I'm not sure when it was that I resumed binge watching the rips of my Futurama DVDs. I'm not sure that maybe 5 twenty minute episodes counts as binge watching.

  I suppose/hope that yesterday being a bank holiday interfered with the normal TV schedules. I think there was a single episode from one of the Star Trek series on, but I didn't watch it. I had my dinner of chicken, miniature potatoes, and spinach while watching Futurama, and then, after a break of about 20 minutes I watched QI. When that finished I read for a while, and then there was another QI on at 8pm. That was followed by an episode from 2018 of Have I Got News For You.

  It was 10pm before I got into bed, but I read for at least half an hour, and maybe a full hour before trying to get to sleep. It may have taken more than half an hour before I felt asleep, but once I did I seemed to sleep quite well. I can't remember when in the night it was, but I had an interesting dream. I dreamed I was on a space station, and trying to illegally copy all their software CDs. I don't think I was trying to do it for any more reason than that they were there. One very peculiar thing about the dream was how the lack of gravity was totally ignorable. I have a vague recollection of floating, but it was as if I were a space veteran and I barely noticed it.

  I remember hardly any more about the dream than I have mentioned. I have no idea how it started, or how it ended. The only other notable thing about my night was that despite getting to sleep quite late, I still woke up just before 6am, and had trouble getting back to sleep again. In fact I am not sure I really did get back to sleep. It seemed like I was awake until just gone 7am when I got up.

  Since getting up it has been a fairly typical morning. I checked my blood glucose, and as expected, after eating the crisps and the cod and pea fish cakes, my blood glucose has gone up to 8.6mmol/l. That is a disappointment, but it is only a little more than my typical average. I am wondering if those rice beers might have had some sugar content, although their bitter after taste suggests not. The other thing to rise a bit was my weight. The rise was less than a full kilogram compared to the unexpected slightly low reading at the start of the month, and I am not going to worry about it, at least not until we have a warm sunny day that might finally draw me out for a bit of exercise.

  Today I do have to go out because it is probably quicker than trying to get through on the phone.....I need to visit the pharmacy to order my next repeat prescription. I may extend that walk, depending on the rain situation, to go into Poundland for a quick rummage to see what has appeared in there since I last visited maybe a month or two ago. Other than that, I predict another very boring day today.