The idea of full sunshine, as shown in the screenshot above, at 10am seemed a silly idea, and the latest revision now shows just sunny spells at 11am, and no full sunshine. Even an hour of sunny spells seems unlikely when I look up and see a dirty grey sky from horizon to horizon. Heavy rain is now predicted to start at midday, and it could continue non stop until, or beyond midnight. It is possible that the temperature might peak at 19° C mid morning, but nearly all the day will see only 18° C. The temperature starts to drop mid evening, and we could be in for a cold night. It could be no more than 13° C at 6am tomorrow. The rest of tomorrow could see a mix of sunny spells and light rain. I doubt we will get a better idea of tomorrow's weather until mid morning. What does seem likely is that the highest temperature tomorrow will be just 17° C.

   I was not happy yesterday. I think I could describe myself as cheesed off for most of the day, and with the effect turned up to 10 towards the end of the day. That is despite doing a few useful things like some laundry, and transferring two recordings from cassette to mp3 files on my PC.

  I think I already knew that I would not be showering when I wrote yesterday morning. The weather seemed so gloomy that I never did get any urge to go out and mingle with the public, and although there is always a tiny chance that I could have got a caller, I decided to take a chance, and use my big buckets in the bathtub to wash a hand towel (incorrectly spelled as had towel yesterday), plus a double fitted sheet.

  I left both items soaking until early afternoon, but when I came back to them I finished the job without pause. Then I hung both items on the clothes horse in the front room. I don't think it was raining at the time, and I can't really remember it raining at any time, but it looked like it could at any moment, and trying to dry anything outdoors would be destined to 100% complete failure. Getting that job done felt good, but not good enough to dispell the gloom gathering around me.

Live update: It's 8.40am and there have been a few short bursts of sunshine. This is good ! I can also see many patches of hazy blue sky. This is encouraging !

  The other job I did yesterday was transferring two bootleg recordings from Cassette to mp3 files on my PC. Both recordings were made in 1993 by Jodie, and were of gigs (possibly just a firsts set unless the gigs were very short - I must consult Jodie's better memory on this point), from the band Atom Heart Mother. We were both enthusiastic followers of their gigs.

  The sound quality on both recordings was pretty dire. Jodie was using a recording Walkman, and using the headphones as microphones. I don't think it was the way they were recorded that made them sound so awful. I came away with a strong impression they were just overloading the PA. I have only the vaguest of memories of these gigs, but I seem to recall they were very loud, and the singers voice was often lost in the distortion of the PA - and that is how it was recorded.

  It was sort of nice to relive those enjoyable gigs, and fortunately I can remember most songs well enough to fill in most of the bits I can't hear on those recording, but to anyone unfamiliar it will sound like a load of cacaphonic noise. Although it was satisfying to get the job done, it was far from enjoyable, and did nothing to lift my spirits.

  The other thing that added to my depression was that I ended up feeling hungry, and eating too much because I was depressed. It was negative circular logic....or something. It is difficult to define the root cause of all the depression. The very dull, and also rather cool, weather was a good reason, but another was that suddenly Angela's wedding is almost upon me.

   It happens this coming Saturday, and I do not want to go, or know anything about it. I have not had an official invitation, as all those going to the actual ceremony have to have, but I have been told in no uncertain ways that I have to be at the wedding itself. I strongly feel I am just being used as a good cameraman to get some good snaps of it. I am going to do it, but I expect I'll be doing it with a scowl on my face. My thoughts at the moment will be that I won't be going to the reception even though The Life Of Brian will be temporary re-uniting to provide live entertainment.

  There was one other thing I did yesterday, and it was to order some stuff from Amazon. It was one of those time when I thought one thing would be handy, but not important, and then remembered two other things it would be handy to get. That seemed enough reason to make the order. One item was a couple of packs of disposable plates - naughty things in this day and age, but they are handy, and so I can't be bothered to be responsible.

  The next item was two 12 packs of my favourite Caribean hot pepper sauce. I seem to get through a lot of it ! The last item was possibly a bit stupid, or maybe not. It was a pack of test strips for an older blood glucose meter I have. I noticed it yesterday while packing away some shorts that I doubt I will be needing until the middle of next year. There was just one test strip with it, and it was a pack opened quite some years ago.

  I used that last test strip yesterday evening to see how it read after having my dinner, plus all the other stuff I had eaten. I didn't note the figure, but I think it was 9.5mmol/l, and that was what I expected, or maybe a bit lower than expected. I compared it with a reading taking on my new meter, and that said 8.6mmol/l (or thereabouts), and that definitely felt too low to me.

  As seems to be normal recently, I went to be straight after I had finished watching UFO on TV. That finished at 9pm. I tried to read for a while, but I felt too tired. I can't be sure, but I think i was asleep before 9.30pm. It was cool night, and I had no trouble sleeping under the duvet. In fact the duvet seemed essential in the last hours of sleep. I had quite a few aches and pains in the night, and I feel sure they were all weather related. Quite how the weather can make joints ache while wrapped in a warm duvet is open to conjecture, but it seemed to.

  It was interesting that I think I only woke twice in the night for a pee - a possible, albeit unlikely, indication of low not high  blood glucose. I'm not sure if it woke me up when I got up, but I was quite keen for a pee, and a poo soon after getting out of bed. Having a poo was a good thing because after my stomach upset the day before yesterday, I didn't go at all yesterday. It wasn't actually uncomfortable, but I was aware of it, and it was another negative part of my day.

  I was going to write about my dreams, but none seems particularly noteworthy, and I seem to have written quite a lot already. I'll move on to my blood glucose readings. Once again the reading were very different between my old and new meters. It occurs to me that my even older meter, with the new test strips I have ordered, would be a good way of doing a two out of three check of what my blood glucose really is. This morning the new meter read 8.3mmol/l, and that seemed too low. On the other hand it would agree with not needing to pee all night. The old meter read 9.5mmol/l, and that was more like the figure I was expecting - very high, but below the danger line. Tomorrow I open a brand new pack of test strips for the new meter, and it will be interesting to see if that makes any difference.

  Today is Wednesday, and so today I shall be going to The Jolly Farmers for my usual 2 pints of Guinness while I see what I can manage of the Metro's two crosswords. I think it will be prudent to wear a rain coat. It might even be essential when I go out, and almost certainly essential when I am coming home. There is a tiny possibility that I might be joined by kevin in the pub, and if that is the case it might be a little more than two pints of Guinness !