Today's weather forecast is a lot like yesterday's forecast that turned out to be incorrect. The first error according to my measurements is that it is a couple of degrees warmer than the forecast. The latest revision to the forecast shows sunshine for 9am, and then sunny spells for 11am and midday. After that it could be just dull with a 50% chance of a shower at 10pm. The highest temperature could be 20° C. Instead of being better, the BBC forecast is worse. They do throw in a few more sunny spells, but they show a 33% chance of rain for 2pm, 6pm and 7pm. Tomorrow may, or may not start with some sunny spells (depending on whose forecast you believe), but most of the day will be dull, and from early afternoon it could rain. The chance then may be just 29%, but by early evening that will have shot up to 70% (BBC) or 80% (Met Office). Tomorrows temperature could be as low as just 18 or 19° C. It's like it is still April !

  A few useful things happened yesterday, but overall it was quite a boring day. I should have gone out for a bit of exercise, but I didn't feel well. It was like some of my very familiar aches and pains all wanted to ache at the same time, and stepped themselves up a notch. None were strong pains, and indeed most of the time most were very weak, but when there are few distractions they seem worse. It is the cumulative effect that brings you down, and sets up a sort of positive feedback - the more you become aware of them the worse they seem.

  A few of those pains, like those from my right elbow can be very irritating, and distractions don't always work to give much relief, but just reading a few pages from an interesting book can completely distract from some of the other aches. Otherwise it is like worrying a loose tooth with your tongue - the more you look the worse it feels, and I was in the mood to feel worse. Of course it was all a chicken and egg situation - what came first, the ache, or the ache distracting me from doing something that would distract me from the ache.

  Fortunately there were a few very good distractions even if they were a bit short lived. One such distraction was paying my Tesco credit card bill. That involved a lot of toothache as I ground my teeth together. The amount I needed to pay on teh latest statement was not too bad, but I had made quite a few more purchases since the statement was prepared, and I opted to pay the whole lot off - and that was quite a big chunk of cash. If I had waited for the last minute to pay it I would have had one pension payment  (and possibly two) and the dip in my current accounts would hardly be noticeable, but it would be very noticeable if I checked it today or tomorrow. Oh well, that's both credit cards paid off for this month now.

  I only had maybe half an hour to lie down and sob into my pillow (standard form whenever i have to do a financial transaction - even paying the £15.45 quarterly bill from BT). Then I heard something from downstairs. It was the postman cramming a small packet through my letter box. It was one of the lens hoods I had ordered arriving. It was the most important of them. The others are just nice to have but this one was essential (for some levels of essential).

  One of my very frequently used Nikon lenses is for semi wide angle to a tiny bit of zoom. It is my favourite for band photography when I can get close to the band. It did have a lens hood, but it was a type originally for a video camera (I think) and it screwed into the front of the Nikon lens. It did it's job well, but had one failing. The lens cap couldn't grip properly, and it was prone to pop off, and often land on the ground.

  The new lens hood is designed for the lens, although at first I was not sure if it was the correct one because it is a very snug fit, but it is on, and the lens cap now clips into place firmly. The other lens caps I received recently, and wrote about, turns out to be almost a white elephant. There is now way I can glue it to an old filter lens - the difference in size is too great. I will be able to glue it to the remains of a screw in rubber lens hood - the type where the rubber soon* splits along the folding lines.

* Soon could actually be as long as a couple of years depending on just how often I use it, and need to keep folding it to put the camera in my camera bag.

  I feel sure there was another highlight to the day yesterday, but I can't seem to recall what it was - unless it was eating. I guess my breakfast was a sort of special highlight because I had a double helping of tomato flavour instant noodles. It seems ages since I've had tomato flavour, and it was delicious, but.... Two helpings was too much for two reasons. It was rather a lot of carbohydrates to start the day, and even worse is that it was a waste of a packet of instant noodles. The second packet didn't not as wonderful as the first because it was lacking the exciting impact of the first.

  My lunch and my dinner was rice cakes with cheese or mortadella on them. I had 4 for lunch and 4 for dinner. I didn't put any salad leaves on them as I feel I should have done. I was attempting to reduce my sugar intake, but I also ate 3 of the little salad pots I have mentioned in the past. One was a chick pea salad, another was kidney beans with couscous, and the third was spicy bulgar wheat. They look mostly innocent, and to actually be a good source of fibre, but they conceal a lot of sugar - mostly as carbohydrate the turns to sugar during the digestive process.

  I had on, and partly watched the usual Star Trek episodes yesterday evening, but I mostly listened to them as I read other stuff on my PC. I don't know if it was the mood I was in, but all three seemed to be quite boring. One was just one of the bad Deep Space Nine episodes about religious shenanigans on the planet Bajor. I really don't give a damn about their fictional gods and prophets.

  I can't really remember what Star Trek: The New Generation was about, but I recognised it as soon as it started as being a tedious episode. Star Trek: Voyager was semi interesting, and I had not seen the episode before, but one interesting thing was that I could follow the plot, and sort of enjoy it, just by listening to the dialogue. I don't think I would have lost anything if I had been out and didn't see any of the Star Trek episodes last night.

  I was tempted to turn the TV off, and leave it off for the night after the Star Treks, but I though it worth switching it on again at 9pm for a QIXL. It was moderately enjoyable, and it wasn't until near the end that I remembered it from some earlier showing (possibly as originally shown on the BBC). At 10pm, when it finished, I was looking forward to a good sleep. I didn't get one.

  I guess it was so much inactivity during the day, and possibly a snooze or two (but I can't seem to recall having one), but I just couldn't seem to relax properly. I thrashed around in bed until about 1.30am before I finally fell asleep. With hindsight I think I probably did have a couple of very short sleeps before then, but 1.30am was about the time I got my first long period pf sleep, although it was probably only about 90 minutes, and I may have only got a couple of similar lengths of sleep before I got up.

  I do remember having some dreams, but bit of one stick in my memory. It was a strange dream because I feel sure I added to it while briefly awake, and when I was asleep it was like I was listening to the plot or outline on the radio. I filled in the visual details from my imagination - either when asleep or while briefly awake - if indeed I was awake, and didn't dream I was awake !

  The dream was set in a town in, or near the Arctic circle. It was about a "tunnel" connecting two building. It was called a tunnel even though it was actually a bridge, connecting the second storeys of two buildings. The idea of it being a tunnel was that it was fully enclosed to keep out the Arctic snow and ice. It did need some additional heat to keep it ice free, and a law was passed that everyone in the town (maybe a town of just the two buildings) had to walk through the tunnel at least once a day so their body heat would warm it just above freezing point.

  As I say, it seemed to be presented as a radio documentary, and I imagined the visuals.  As such it was fairly unique as dreams go. It was also unusual in that I can't even imagine what might have inspired the dream. It matches nothing in my personal experience nor anything I have read or seen on TV. The closest I can think of inspiration was when I was reading "Who Goes There" a SciFi horror story set in the Antarctic. That had tunnels under the snow connecting the huts of the survey base, but they were real tunnels, and......hmm, maybe that was the inspiration. but my dream was definitely not a nightmare. It was all very innocent.

  This morning I had two very high blood glucose readings. The new meter was over the "red line" at 10.1mmol/l, and the old meter was just under at 9.8mmol/l. I know there were a few doubts about what I ate yesterday, but I have a theory that these high figures are partly due to what I ate the day before. It was late in the morning (which was annoying) but I did eventually have quite a big poo. Until then my gut would still be extracting sugars from what was passing through the gut. I must admit it is desperately clutching at straws, but maybe an extended transit time could skew the results of my blood glucose readings. Of course this can only happen when Insulin is either too low, is being resisted.

  There is also the fact that I felt rotten for a lot of yesterday. Assorted maladies can cause a rise in blood glucose levels. There are days when I wonder if I have "off" days as a side effect of my Covid jabs. It is a curious thing that I feel much better today compared to how I did yesterday, and yet I have nothing great to look forward to today, and it could be another very boring day. It is possible I could go out tonight. It is possible I could go out for a walk today, but as I sit here, writing this on my PC, I don't feel that either is any more than a weak possibility. Oh well, we'll see what happens tomorrow morning.