Both the BBC and Met Office weather forecasts seem to broadly agree in today's weather forecast, and both may be a little wrong. It is almost 9am, and the sunshine hasn't started yet because of some cloud to the east, but with a lot of blue sky is certainly could happen. The main difficulty at the moment is how long the brightness will last, in the early afternoon, before rain starts to fall. The Met Office suggest 3pm, and the BBC say 2pm, and they also say it will only be light rain, and not he Met Office prediction of heavy rain. With an afternoon temperature of just 10° C it is not going to be a great day, but hopefully this morning will be pleasant.  Tomorrow will probably feature light rain from morning to evening, but in some sort of compensation the afternoon should be 12° C with 13° C being possible.

  While the rain may not have been heavy for all of yesterday morning, it was still wet and gloomy enough to leave the day feeling very depressing. I certainly felt no impetus to go out, and as predicted, I was a bit bored, but only now and then. There were two bits of good news yesterday. One bit was my nice low blood glucose reading, and the other was that the water pressure had risen back to normal again, and I had plenty of hot water.

  I still wasn't sure that the water pressure had returned to normal until I started to do some laundry - one of the few productive things I did yesterday. I washed two hand towels, and three bar towel. As I started the job it was quickly apparent that the big builders buckets I use to do my laundry were filling up a lot faster than the day before. Also, the temperature of the water remained constant.

  With the water heater working correctly I could have had a much needed shower, and possibly washed my hair, but because I was not intending to go anywhere, and the chances of any visitors was slim in the extreme, I couldn't be bothered again. That will most definitely change today. There was one other consequence of the water heater working properly, and it was to do all the washing up before it built up, and to also wash and clean three more "new glasses" that actually started life as candles. Most, but not all, candles in glass can be cleaned of all residues, and used for drinking glasses, or anything else rather than just throwing them away. The only trouble is that my collection is growing bigger than I have places to store them.

  Starting the day with such an ideal low blood glucose level meant I didn't have to be so careful about what I ate yesterday. That was a good thing because a lack of distractions made eating so desirable. I did manage not to go mad when it came to eating. For instance lunch was just some cheese on toasted Polish sourdough bread. I think I did have something else either before, or after that, but I can't seem to remember what it was. Maybe it was nothing but some excess cheese nibbling, and maybe I ate a small pack of ham as a snack.

  My dinner was a mostly safe sort of stew again. It was the other two skinless, boneless, chicken thighs from a pack of four that I had part cooked as part of my dinner the night before. I fully cooked them with some miniature potatoes, and that was basically all my dinner was last night. It definitely seemed that something like potatoes, even though there were not much of them, make the meal far more satisfying than just green vegetables.

  I guess I spent most of the day being lazy, but I did do two significant things - neither of which took very long. One was to fill out an NHS survey about my experiences with my GP. I could not tell a lie, I had to tick a lot of the "negative" options. The other thing, and I am not sure why I did it yesterday, instead of at the end of the month as I was only considering doing it, was to order some more beer. I ordered three cases in total, costing £95. I bough some Jodie would probably like, but also some for myself - stuff like Belgium Abbey beers. This morning I got an email from DHL to say hat Beer Merchants have already booked a courier to pick it up and deliver it. It is possible it could arrive before the weekend is over.
  It was well before Xmas, mid October if I recall correctly, when I ordered three cases of Guinness.  Before last night I still had almost two cases still intact, but last night I fancied some Guinness while watching TV. I put four cans in the fridge to cool, but in the end it seemed that three cans was about right. One reason I hadn't drunk more Guinness was that the two packs of 15 cans were sort of buried under beers bough for Xmas, but they have been either drunk, or moved elsewhere.

  I watched my usual QI and Have I Got News For You last night, and got to bed just after 11pm again. I did start to read in bed, but I was yawning so much I tried to go sleep after barely reading a single page. Once the distractions of the book and the light were gone, and I tried to get comfortable, all the aches and pains started to surface. There was a new one last night - my left knee. That has never hurt before, and I don't know why it started last night. I do know it stopped almost instantly I changed my posture.

  It wasn't long after trying to get to sleep that I decided that I would sleep better, and maybe get to sleep far quicker, if I took a couple of painkillers. I suspect I fell asleep before they had taken effect, but maybe they helped a lot to give a far more comfortable night. It is hard to tell because it is so subjective, but I think I ended up sleeping quite well for most of the night. It certainly seemed very easy to turn "just 5 minute more" when I woke up around 6am, into another 90 minutes!

  I can't say exactly what was to blame for it, but it was maybe the potatoes in my dinner that caused my blood glucose to rise to 8.3mmol/l. It's shame it wasn't another day at less than 8mmol/l, but 8.3mmol/l is below my typical monthly average, and so has to be judged as good. Another positive is that I seem to ache less this morning, but a negative is that I still have not had a decent poo, and while I don't feel uncomfortable per se, it does feel like my gut is distended. The real test will come when I put my trousers on. I think the idea of my gut being distended is just imagination...maybe.

  It seems the Gods may be looking after us again. The highlight today will hopefully be a drink with Angela in the pub at lunchtime. To make it more special it is possible my walk through the park will be in sunshine. It might even be possible that my walk home afterwards may be in sunshine too. As I write this at 9:51am, the sun is finally shining !

  All I have to do now is hope that the water pressure stays up so I can wash my hair, and have a shower with no danger of the water running cold. Hopefully I'll also have time for a quick shopping trip to Tesco before I head towards the pub. I definitely need some green vegetables, and topping up a few other things would be a good idea while I'm there.