Yesterday's forecast for today got things back to front. I woke up to snow instead of going to bed while it was snowing. It looked as if there was at least half an inch, and possibly even an inch on cars outside, but almost no snow settled on the road. The Met Office website seems to have gone off the air, probably due to overload, but the last revision I saw says the snow will have turned to sleet by now, which seems about right, and from 11am there will be heavy rain - possibly with a bit of sleet mixed in because the afternoon temperature may only be 3° C today ! Tomorrow may reach 9° C, but once again it will rain for most of the day.
 
   I think I can describe yesterday as being a fairly good day. The big excitement was the anticipation of the delivery of my beer order. The actual delivery, and subsequent opening of the box was an anti-climax. That is not to say that there was anything wrong with what was in the box, it was all delicious, or should be, but it can't all be drunk in one glorious booze up. Such nice beers have to be cherished, and drunk slowly to appreciate them more....or something like that !

  In some ways the crowning achievement yesterday was the walk I took to the station to get a copy of The Metro. Yesterday I measured and timed it. The distance to and from the station adds up to 0.656 miles, and curiously enough, that is close to exactly 1 km (actually 1.056km). One good thing is that I managed to make the average speed of the walk 3mph.

  I don't think I did the same walk the day before yesterday so fast, and that was because I was really feeling the strain at the halfway point (the station). Yesterday the aches and pains were far less, and I might even have been puffing and panting less (although fatigue usually sets in before I start to pant - probably because of the damage to my chest caused by my heart bypass operation in 2013 he left my chest too weak to breath as deeply as I once could).

  What was most satisfying is that it seems to confirm that I am just out of practice rather than falling apart at the seams. I am going to try and keep this light practice up until some warm, sunny weather entices me out for some better exercise. Hopefully the light exercise will make the transition to longer walks much less difficult.

   Extra practice at doing the crosswords in The Metro seems to be paying off too. I times myself doing both crosswords, the quick, and the cryptic. I finished the quick crossword in 7 minutes. I didn't finish the cryptic crossword, but after 20 minutes I think I had just 4 clues to solve. One of those odd tales of going to the toilet, and how letting the mind go blank while the body takes over the job worked a treat, and late last night I suddenly, and quite out of the blue, realised the answer to one of those clues I hadn't solved. It was an anagram, and about a mollusc. The answer was teredo worm, or Naval Ship worm, that eats wood under the sea (such as pier supports).

  For some reason I can't seem to remember what I had for lunch yesterday. I think it was probably some instant noodles followed by some rice crackers with cream cheese. Maybe a memory is returning......I now think the instant noodles was wrong, and the first bit of lunch was a couple of pea, lentil, and beetroot "veggie cakes" with ham and mustard on them. I feel sure I probably had more rice crackers later in the afternoon, but all thoughts of food were set aside earlier than expected.

  My beer delivery was estimated to be between 13:20 and 14:20, but in fact was delivered at approx 12:45.  I recognised the delivery driver as one who seems to arrive a bit earlier than the "official" estimated time.  As I was saying near the top of the page, the actual delivery is a bit of an anti-climax after the anticipation of it. After opening the box, and checking all I had ordered was there, it was also a sort of anti-climax. I don't really know why that should be. Near the top of the page I said it was because of the realisation that I couldn't drink them all at once, but maybe it is the flip side of that that is sort of depressing - knowing I have to ration my consumption, plus it could be days, possibly even a couple of weeks before I can sample what I hope will be some delicious beers I have never tasted before !

  I would have had a very lazy afternoon, but I had to finish one job I had started after my shower - leaving some laundry to soak in detergent. In this case it was a single t-shirt, but at least a whole weeks worth of underpants. By the time I returned to the job the water was freezing cold. It was so pleasant to wring it all out after the first rinse in warm water. For some reason I kept thinking I couldn't be bothered, or even have the energy to finish the job without stopping, but I did it regardless. I think the only real reason I was thinking of taking a break was to start my afternoon nap.

  I don't think I did have an afternoon nap after hanging up the washing to dry. I thought I wanted one, but maybe that is just a bad habit I have got myself into. It is probably better not to have an afternoon nap because I expect it interferes with my sleep at night. I think I just passed the time reading some stuff from book and internet. I do remember one particular thought, and it was how I was feeling almost no guilt about using electricity to keep my bedroom warm. That "guilt" was cured when I saw how close my standing order was keeping up with my electricity consumption. However, I can't wait for warmer days when I can cut my heating down.

  I had a rather delicious dinner last night. It was only delicious because it was so unhealthy. It was a lamb stew, and ever so fatty. That made all the vegetables nice and slippery. The effect works really well with heaps of cabbage, but last night the vegetables were a few sprouts, some runner beans, a few sugar snap peas, and some baby potatoes. Maybe it was a bit too slippery with fat because it wasn't long after eating it I fancied something dry - which turned out to be rice crackers with more cream cheese.

  I watched my usual programmes on TV last night, and then took an hour break before turning the TV back on to watch QI. Unfortunately Dave seems to be repeating lots of repeats of episodes of QI, and last nights seemed as if I had only seen it a few weeks ago. I watched about 5 minutes before turning the TV off, and going to bed. I read for maybe half an hour, and was possibly fast asleep by 10pm.

  There is not a lot to say about my sleep. It seemed to be rather good. I only seemed to wake up a few times - maybe only every three hours instead of the more usual two hours. I do remember having some dreams, but I don't seemed to have retained enough memory of them to make any useful comments about them. I certainly never dreamed I would wake up to snow this morning.

  Most of the snow has now melted, and there was less than I thought. My first peep through the curtains centred on the snow on next doors car. It looked thick, but I failed to note that hardly any snow had settled on the road or pavement. The view from the back windows was better than from the front.