Today is one of those days where the weather forecasts elicit very little trust. The forecast says it should be dull and cold right now, but it seems to be sunny, and the temperature by my outside thermometers is 20° C, although admittedly one of them says just 21.8° C ! The latest revision says 9 and 10am will feature sunny spells, but still says it should only be 17° C. The great unknown is when, or if it will rain later, and how heavy it might be if it does rain. The latest revision says it will rain at 3pm, and there will be hail at 7pm. The rest of the day will be dry. I expect that will change a lot through the day. Meanwhile, The BBC weather forecast keeps saying it will rain between 2pm and 7pm, and that the last hours could feature thunder an lightning ! Both forecasters say the highest temperature will be just 20° C today. Both forecasters say tomorrow could be 21 or 22° C, and that there will be some rain, but maybe not much, or maybe everything will change by tomorrow.

  I definitely wasn't lazy for the first half of yesterday, but I will admit the afternoon did involve a lot of relaxing. During the course of the morning I went shopping in three different shops, but I did two of them one after the other. My first shopping outing was to go to Tesco.

  There was stuff I wanted to get in Tesco, but there was nothing I needed immediately. What I did want to do immediately was to see if my new, emailed, voucher for 500 Tesco Clubcard points would work this time. I am happy to say they fixed their cock-up, and I gained my lovely 500 points - worth an amazing (sic) £5 in vouchers at some time in the future. I hope they do another promotion like this because it is essentially money for nothing.

  I mostly bought known safe stuff with a couple of exceptions. They only had one tub of the known safe ice cream I like, but for some foolish reason I wanted 2 tubs (maybe I have a daft belief there could be more summer coming one day). I bough one of the known good stuff, and one tub of "cookie dough" flavour ice cream. It has 10% more calories, but still a low figure. It is/was my belief it has a lot more sugar in it, but some empirical evidence suggests it is still moderately low, or maybe very low compared to, say, typical Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

  I was fortunate, or maybe unfortunate, to discover the new location of the reduced price cabinet. I grab two things from there that were not that good for me. One was a chicken and bean wrap. The other was a pack of mini Scotch Eggs. I had those last two items for my lunch when I got home. The bean and chicken wrap was quite nice, but I didn't dare check it's nutritional information because I didn't want that to leave a sour taste in my mouth. The same was true of those mini Scotch Eggs, but they didn't have the forgiving factor of being very enjoyable. I could only describe them as pleasant in a bland sort of way.

  Before I had my lunch I went out again to get some stuff from Savers. Top of the list from there was toilet cleaner, and I bought two bottles of bleach, and two bottles of unfortunately not very nice smelling toilet gel/freshener. It was scented with "marine wave" but smells more like an explosion in a chemical factory. It's a shame really because they also do a few nice floral versions, but Savers didn't appear to have any on the shelves.

  I also bought some spare hay fever tablets and Paracetamol tablets, a couple of smelly candles, and some shower gel. Once i had paid for that lot I went across the way to Poundstretcher. I had two things on my shopping list for there. One was to get another half dozen cans of sugar free "Dark Berry" Tango, and the other was some strip sticking plaster. I use that to protect my bunions and stuff, and it can make the difference between a painful, or painless walk, although the type of show makes a big difference.
  I was happy to see these in Poundstretcher, although the happiness was a bit short lived. They used to have the Birthday Cake flavour fizzy drink, plus a bubblegum flavour in a bigger can (maybe 440ml), and I was sure I like one or the other, but there was a problem. They were so old that many had lost their fizz. The cans in the picture above have over a year to go before their best before date.

  I had to wait several hours while they chilled in the fridge before I could taste them. The "Rocket Ice Lolly" was the one I tried first. It did indeed taste like melted rocket ice lolly, except of course it wasn't mega sweet. The trouble is that if I recall my childhood days, the magic of the lolly was that it was frozen, and the melted run off was not that great. Without the gallons of sugar in it, it just doesn't taste very nice. The "Birthday Cake" flavour is more like a dilute cherry flavour. It is definitely the nicer of the two, but really rather underwhelming.

  As I mentioned near the top of the page, I had a mostly very lazy afternoon. It wasn't until time for the first of the three Star Treks that I perked up a bit. During the first commercial break I put some skinless/boneless chicken pieces, with added herbs and spices in the mini oven/grill to cook. I ate them with a heap of salad leaves when the second Star Trek started. It was supposed to be a bit like a kebab, but the salad was the wrong type, and despite the herbs and spices the chicken tasted a bit bland. It really needed to be cooked at a hotter temperature over a smoky barbecue.

  Just for a change my TV viewing didn't finish after the third Star Trek. I think there was a gap between 8pm and 9pm, but I may have watched something, but if I did I have no idea what it was, and after a lot of thought I now know what it was. It was Secrets Of The London Underground. From 9 to 10pm I watched an edition of Have I Got News For You, and because I didn't seem to feel sleepy, I watched a second edition which finished at 11pm. I was definitely ready for bed after that. I didn't bother to read anything, and instead I just lay in bed wondering if I would ever get to sleep. I doubt that lasted for more than 5 minutes because the next thing I remember was seeing just after 3am on the clock.

  I got up and had a pee. I wasn't really sure if I needed one, but it seems I did - quite a big pee in fact. I then went back to bed, and seemed to spend an age getting comfortable, but probably no more than 5 minutes. The next thing I knew was that it was light outside, and about 5.15am. I had another pee and didn't expect to get back to sleep. To make it seem more unlikely I pulled the duvet over most of me. It wasn't all that cool in my bedroom, and I expected I would kick the duvet aside, but I fell asleep like that.

  I woke again about an hour later, and got up. One notable thing last night was that I didn't drink much water in the night, and I only had two pees (of which only one was a big one). It seemed like maybe my blood glucose was going to be very low. That did seem unlikely after all I ate yesterday (which included the possibly dodgy ice cream), and indeed it was not low, but then again it was not high either. It was slightly above typical average. The new meter said 8.9mmol/l, and the old meter said 8.7mmol/l. I think I will only make a moderate effort to do better tomorrow.

  My plans for today all hang on what the weather is going to do tonight. My intention is to act like I am going out tonight. That means have a large-ish late lunch/early dinner so I don't feel all bloated when - and if - I go out. I want to go to The Whitestar Open Mic in The Partridge pub, and I particularly want to go in the hope of picking up the Whitestar t-shirt I ordered nearly a year ago. I just haven't seen Whitestar, at least not with the foreknowledge I would be going, since ordering the t-shirt. I have been assured it is, or was, put aside for me. I would like to wear it at their next gig on Saturday afternoon in The ShortlandsTavern. If there is no hailstones, thunder and lightning, or just any more rain that the occasional bit of light drizzle then I shall be staying indoors !