We are well into summer now, and it sometimes seemed someone just flipped a switch to convert early spring to summer. There should be sunshine all day today, and the temperature should soar to a very nice 28° C. The only downside is the thunderstorm warning. There is no predicted time for one, but in the early morning forecast there was a 30% chance of rain at 3pm. That has disappeared from the latest revision, but a few hours have been changed from full sunshine to sunny spells. The BBC's weather forecast also warns of thunderstorms, but once again there is no clue when they might be, however their animated cloud prediction screen does show a very dense rain cloud passing a few miles to the south of us at 3pm. If that cloud gets blown off course we could get very wet for a short while. The BBC think tomorrow could reach 29° C tomorrow afternoon, but the Met Office say only 28° C. The Met Office have dialled down the sunshine to include quite a few sunny spells instead of full sunshine. Both warn of more thundestorms.
  This is the a snap of the BBC's animated weather forecast that shows the positions of clouds over the next two days. The heaviest rain, maybe that which will bring a thunderstorm is shown as white. Medium is green, and light is shown as blue. It is possible that the big cloud will just touch us as it passes our way, but a change of just a mile could bring disaster or not even a hint of it's passing.

  Yesterday had its good and bad points, although maybe the good outweighed the bad. Part of the bad was the usual wait and uncertainty of an Amazon delivery, but I was free to do as I pleased for a few hours after I had finished writing yesterday. I didn't have an awful lot to say yesterday, and so despite the late start, I didn't finish writing too late. I think today could be similar, but I am still marshalling my thoughts.

  I spent some of my free time doing a bit of shopping. I first went to savers where I stocked up on vitamins plus teeth care stuff. I also bought some soaps and some toilet cleaner. Then I went across the way to buy more stuff in Poundstretcher. Notable stuff from there was the return of the sugar free "Dark Berry" Fanta fizzy drink. I bought 6 cans, and I am pondering getting some more before they run out again. They also had packets of those very thin "micro chip" sticks for half price. I bought three of them, and once again I will probably buy more before they run out.

  One novelty while in Poundstretcher was bumping into Michael. I had quite a lot of stuff in my shopping basket, and he sort of looked at it in amazement. He was only looking for one thing, and he evidently didn't find it because I later saw him exit the shop without going to a till.  While we were chatting he said he wouldn't tell anyone I was buying loads of household stuff from Poundstretcher. I said why not ? and later I told the world myself.

  If I recall correctly I only had a bag of those microchips for my lunch. I was going to have a snooze afterwards, but the earliest possible time for my Amazon delivery was getting close, and so I elected to stay alert. Of course I could have had a snooze, a long snooze ! The parcel was not delivered until 5pm. At least that was a lot better than the "before 10pm" as their first estimate.

  While I waited I set up my VHS video recorder, and my DVD recorder, and looping through the video to my big TV. When I first turned on the DVD recorder the disk tray refused to eject. I had to take off the lid, and then take off the disk clamp. It ejected OK then, and although I refitted the disk clamp I didn't put the screws in, or put the top back on the machine.  The idea was, as I think I mentioned yesterday, was to record from the VHS machine on to re-writeable DVD disks.

  It did work, but the first re-writable disk had been exposed to hot sunshine, or something corrosive, and the recording lasted 5 minutes before it threw an error. A second disk worked OK, and I couple play it back in the recorder. The DVD drive in my laptop could just about read the disk, but for some reason, when I tried to rip it to mp4 it only seemed to have half the recording, and there was no sound. I later concluded that my old DVD-RW disks were probably knackered.

  The next recording I made was on a write once DVD disk, and that seemed to go smoothly, but I couldn't read it on anything at all except, once again, the machine that wrote it. I tried the "Finalise" option. That was supposed to make the disk readable by normal DVD players. It was because that didn't seem to work that I stopped using the DVD recorder, but it seems it may not work properly, or at all on RVD-RW disks. It "finalised" my DVD-R disk perfectly. I could then read it on my PC drive and ripped it to an mp4 file that I will later edit (taking out a commercial break in the middle, and top and tailing it.

  As I said above, it was about 5pm when my Amazon parcel arrived. It was an external, USB connected, DVD drive. The whole thing was cheaper than just the drive mechanism (with electronics) that I have ordered as a replacement to fit inside my PC. The external drive was definitely built down to a price. It seems very flimsy, and the clearance between the top of the disk and the case is just fractions of an inch. Apply a bit of pressure to the top, and you can hear rubbing from inside the case. However, it does work, although maybe it is not very sensitive, and maybe is not compatible with DVD-RW disks.

  My dinner was just 5 well cooked, almost fat free, and so not as nice as they should be, pork sausages. I gave them a squirt of low sugar brown sauce, and had a small chunk of cheese as a sort of dessert. In theory I ate very little of anything containing anything more than a very modest amount of sugar yesterday, but this morning's ressulst suggest different.

  I watched the usual Star Treks last night, although I missed most of the first to be shown while I messed around with recordable DVDs. At 8pm, at the end of Star Trek: Voyager, I turned the TV off for an hour, but turned on again at 9pm for Have I Got News For You on BBC1. When that finished I took my book to bed, and read for almost half an hour, but my eyes were drooping after a couple of pages. It can't have been long after 10pm that I was fast asleep.

  My initial sleeping was helped by my bedroom still being nice and warm thanks to the warm day. I kicked the duvet aside and fell asleep uncovered. I think it was around 1am when I woke up feeling cold. I slept the rest of the night either covered, or at least partly covered. I only have a definite memory of one dream last night, but the details have already faded. I am sure it was a work themed dream, but I seemed to be playing with stuff more than working - so not a bad dream !

  This morning, for the third morning running, after eating a different and varied diet on each of the three previous days, my blood glucose reading was 9.3mmol/l again. There is definitely something very strange going on, and I don't know what to blame. The good thing is that 9.3mmol/l, while high, is safely below the red line (10.0mmol/l), and so I don't have to worry about it too much, but it is sort of bothersome. It does seem there are only two common factors. One is the meter, and the other is the test strips. It is still a fortnight before I should be getting new test strips on my next repeat prescription. The test strips I am using are still well within their use by date, but one thought occurs to me - what might the effect be if they have been stored in very hot warehouse. Maybe that is why they are being offloaded via Amazon.
  Today my plan was to go to Acton Town station to get a few snaps of the London Transport heritage train doing special trips. All tickets have been sold to ride on the train, but I only want to snap the outside of it, plus other stuff as it may present itself. My plan is now deferred to tomorrow - when sadly it might be more busy....or maybe not - it is going to be a very hot day, and many may retired to parks or to the seaside, but we'll see.

  My new plan is to go to Angela's BBQ. She sent me my official invite about an hour ago, and baited it by saying Brian (from The Life Of Brian) would be bringing a guitar, and hopefully Miranda will sing a few songs to Brian's guitar backing. The real clincher was that it is to be an afternoon BBQ starting at 2.30pm. I was not looking forward to an evening session, but hopefully I can get a few snaps, listening to Brian and Miranda, and be home for my tea (I probably won't eat at the BBQ, but I might have a can of Guinness). Of course, there is the possibility of a thunderstorm at 3pm....but it is only a possibility. The latest from The Met Office has brought back the light shower icon for 3pm !