It was a cool night, and maybe the forecast temperature of 9° C was about right. It certainly is a dull morning. The quality of light is similar to a misty day, but there is no mist. The forecast from the Met Office insists the sun will break through at 1pm, and from then on it will be sunny until the end of the day. The temperature should rise to 18° C. The BBC tells a different story, but it can almost be completely dismissed because it says we should be having sunny spells right now, and we definitely are not ! The is another difference of opinion about tomorrow. The BBC have a very optimistic forecast for all day sunshine and 20° C. The Met Office feel a bit more gloomy about it. They say there will only be a small scattering of sunny spells, but do agree about the 20° C.
 
  I was very busy yesterday, and I didn't have time for some of the stuff I might do if I had loads of spare time on my hands. However, I can't seem to think of anything I did yesterday that took up so much time ! I did spend the usual two hours writing yesterdays scribble, and then I was lazy for a time before going out shopping.

 It was about 11:30am when I went to Tesco. I think that is now my favourite time because it does seem to be a good time to pick up the occasional bargain from the reduced price shelf - although their price reductions are usually quite stingy. I mainly had two contradictory parts of my (mental) shopping list. It is a shame it was a mental shopping list because I completely forgot to buy any reduced sugar and salt tomato sauce.

  On the one hand I wanted to buy some meat and green vegetables for dinners, but on the other hand I had a strange urge to buy ingredients for a salad. Of course yesterday was a lousy day for salad - it was not sunny, and it was not warm. I got two pack of diced meat, one beef, and the other lamb, and a white cabbage for my meat and vegetable stews. Unfortunately I had to pay full price for them.

  For salads I bought a bag or rocket, and a bag of aromatic baby leaves (or something like that). I also bought some coriander, tomatoes, and bell peppers. The final item for salads was a 2 litre pyrex mixing bowl that I could shove all the ingredients in, and sprinkle with dressing before feeding my face directly from the bowl via a fork. Although I seemed to have an accident with one two days ago, I also bought a couple more tubs of low calorie, and low(ish) sugar ice cream. I will try not to eat any of those tubs in one sitting like I did on Thursday night.

  There was some very light rain when I walked to Tesco, and I just wore an ordinary coat. The rain was heavier on the way back home, and a hooded coat might have been a better idea, but while the rain was heavier, it was not that heavy, and it is only 5 or 6 minutes to walk back from Tesco. I didn't really feel any more than slightly damp in a few places when I got home, and because it was mildly mild the rain did not feel that bad.

  One item I did find on the reduced price shelf was a packet of Cumberland sausages. Once out of the chilled cabinet they started to swell. It was as if they were several days or more after their use by date. They were very close to going off. It seemed wisest to cook them straight away, and fortunately that fell into my plans. I had those 6 (or was it 8) sausages for my lunch. It was surprising how much they shrunk during cooking. I did give them a very thorough cooking because of the dubious state they were in. It was a shame I forgot the tomato sauce.

  I guess it was during the afternoon when theoretically I had plenty of time to resume some of the small jobs I have been doing, or even watching another episode of Star Trek: Picard.  The afternoon seemed to fly by, and all I did was some reading - at least that is all I can remember doing......err, except one thing I prefer to pretend doesn't exist, and that one thing is finances.

  I checked and paid off my two credit cards. I did that before I checked my main bank balance. That was looking healthy. It does seem that somehow I am not spending more each month than my income from my pensions. There is some hope that my bank balance could climb a little for a while after getting "pay rises" on both pensions. My state pension has, as of this month, risen a whole £56.64 every 28 days. That 28 days, instead of a month means that this month the timing is such that I get two payments in this morning. My BT pension has risen by £46.98 per calendar month. In rough terms I now have an extra £100 to spend each month, but maybe if I am good/not tempted I might end up saving that £100 each month until the cost of living goes up again in another couple of months.

  After a rather over the top lunch, which included a bag of cheese flavoured micro chipsticks (eaten is several doses over the afternoon) it was possibly good that I had my first salad of the year for dinner last night.
  I seem to be very out of practice at evaluating just how healthy, or not, this salad was. The green leaves, rocket, baby salad leaves, and coriander, should be very healthy (aka almost zero sugar content). The spring onions may have had some sugar in them, as also the single small bell pepper, but I am sure the tomatoes have more sugar than is good for me. I think I only added about 4 or 5 baby tomatoes. I resisted the temptation to buy bigger tomatoes, and use a lot of them.

  I dressed the salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I seemed to go over the top with the amount of vinegar I sprinkled on. The last few items at the bottom of the bowl were swimming in vinegar. Nevertheless it was a tasty salad, and while it didn't seem to be all that filling as I ate it, I didn't seem to have any desire for anything extra. One bad thing about the photo above was taking the picture with the Pyrex bowl standing on a Jack Daniels bar towel. The top of the bowl looks like I have tried to write words with a stream of salt, but it is just the bowl distorting the image of the bar towel under it.

  I watched the usual Star Treks last night, but when I checked the programme listing for Dave I found the first watchable programme, either QI of Have I Got New For You (I forget which) wasn't on until 11pm. That was far too late for me, and so I checked the programme guides for the other channels. That resulted in doing something I haven't done for years. I watched the latest Have I Got News For You on BBC 1 ! I didn't realise that BBC 1 still showed any general entertainment. I thought it was all cooking and dancing these days.

  I don't feel I slept well last night even though it did seem that I got a lot of sleep. Once again I was fighting to keep my ideal sleeping temperature, although I suppose the real ideal is hot enough to throw the duvet aside and sleep raw.  Like the night before I persevered with sleeping with the heater off, and tightly covered with the duvet. Once again I woke up with one arm, which must have slipped outside the duvet feeling cold, and my pillow damp with sweat from my head. I think that was about 3am, and I took it as my cue to turn the heater on low.

  I think it was around 4.45am when I woke up next. It was light outside, and I was half tempted to get up, but the cold air coming through the open bathroom window sent my back to my warm bed, turning the heater up full on the way. I didn't sleep that well after that. I started suffering from things like cramp in my right leg. Twice I woke up while the pain was vey mild, and I managed to stop the cramps without getting out of bed. I eventually got up at about 6.30am.

  My fears about my blood glucose were correct this morning. It was not as low as hoped, but then again it was only 9.2mmol/l. By itself that is not awful, but what worries me is that if I can't control it, it could become the new normal, and that leaves only a tiny bit of wriggle room before going over the red line at 10.0mmol/l. There might be hope I can do better today.

  The plan for today really depends on the day brightening, and warming up. There is no external reason, like expected parcel deliveries, to not go out for a long walk in the afternoon sunshine today. I am assuming that my legs will be up for the job in the sunshine. They don't feel too bad so far this morning, and could get better (or worse) later. There are two main impediments at the moment. I could get distracted in the long wait for the sun to come out. The other problem is that I am looking at this potential walk as something I have to do, rather than something I can enjoy.

  There are no trains today, so I can't do one thing I thought I might do. That was to try and extend the last long walk of home to Clock House station, and get the train home. I was think of trying to push myself to walk to Elmers End, but with no trains I would have to get the bus home, and on a busy Saturday afternoon that could be a most tedious bus ride. I think I need a circular route that I can walk the whole way. Oh well, I still have plenty of time to think about it.
  I have a feeling the last time I showed a picture of these fluffy, purple headed flowers I didn't know their name. Well I do now. They are Alliums. There is more information about them here > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium The salient points are that there are around 850 different varieties of Alliums because they are from the same family as garlic and onions. My ones seemed to be fully open in the early evening last night - a picture taken with flash because it was rather grey at the time - 6pm. Apparently these will stay in flower for a long time, but when the go to seed it is supposed to be easy to collect the seeds > https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-collect-allium-seeds/