The latest revision to the weather forecast hasn't changed from the early version shown in the screenshot above. The gap in sunny spells at 1pm remains. The BBC version of the forecast is unusually pessimistic with a gap of about 4 hours in it's forecast of sunny spells. It seems the best we can hope for today is just 18° C. Tomorrow looks like it could be a return to a very dull day, although the BBC offers sunny intervals for a lot of the day. Both forecasters agree the afternoon will be no higher than 18° C.

  Yesterday I finished by saying that I wanted to go out, but also that I didn't really feel like doing so. What finally happened was a sort of compromise between the two. It ended up as an almost split second decision on what I would do next. Instead of going out for maybe 3 or 4 hours, I went out for little more than 20 minutes.

  It turns out I made the right decisions for the wrong reasons. I did the preparatory work for going out, which was most significantly a shower, soon after 10am, and then, after dressing, checking the camera I decided to use. I could potentially have got on a train soon after 11am, and that would have been earlier than most times for a long time now, but there was a problem.

  That problem was too many visits to the toilet. It wasn't quite bad enough to call it a stomach upset, but my final visit to the toilet was just as I would have been going out. I didn't fully trust that it really was the final visit - I only know it was by hindsight. I immediately pulled in my hopes and expectations, or whatever, and embarked on a much shorter expedition. The first port of call was right by Catford station. It was to the cash machine there, and I withdrew some spending money.

  After using the cash machine I walked to the little supermarket on Catford Bridge (the road, not the station). Part of my original plan was to go there after I had been out for a few hours. I had several things on my shopping list, and I bought them all plus a couple of cans of beer. I fancied some known safe sandwiches using Polish sourdough sliced bread - which proudly shows a sugar content of 0%.

  I bought the bread, plus some of their big, slightly tasteless, and not at all sweet, tomatoes, and some sliced salami. While there I also topped my stash of Polish instant noodles - including the rather nice, rather peculiar beetroot flavour ! I resisted the temptation to buy any crisps - they do have big bags of flavoured crisps that are not available in bigger supermarkets. Finally I bought what I can only describe as a double sized bagel - a ring of soft white bread (softer than a typical Jewish style bagel). I knew that would have some sugar content because, if nothing else, the top surface was glazed with what I think was a sugar solution.

  As I walked home I began to realise I had made a mistake when using the toilet earlier. It seems that all the while I was concentrating on emptying my bowels I must have forgotten to have a wee as well. As I neared my front door the desire to wee got quite strong. It was not so strong that I didn't have time to take my shopping through to the kitchen, and leave it there while I then took a stroll back to, and then up the stairs. I most definitely needed that pee, and I am so glad I was not on a train when the need arose, or even worse, standing on a cold and draughty platform waiting for a train which would hopefully have a working toilet on it.

  Having got myself comfortable I made myself a nice lunch of a sandwich using the big 6" across, bagel like roll. I filled it was sliced tomato, and sliced salami. I don't think I added anything else - definitely no butter, margarine or mayonnaise. The glaze on top of the roll definitely tasted sweet. After that lunch I went and laid on my bed to contemplate my sins and other stuff, but predominately the nice sunshine that was coming through my bedroom windows, and warming my bedroom up.

  The extra warmth, and the nice sunshine made me feel quite drowsy, and I think I had a snooze. As far as I can recall, snoozing, reading, both from a book, and from my PC screen, was about all I did all afternoon. Maybe I little guilt passed my way as I contemplated another day with no real exercise - although the walk to Catford station, and the walk home the long way around, was not completely negligible.

  I have to say that watching ancient repeats of Star Trek: The Original Series is frequently boring, but it is better than any other alternative at 5pm. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is very variable. Some episodes are good, and some are bad (the episodes about the religious practices of the Bajorans are really tedious !). I missed a bit of Deep Space Nine because I went down to the kitchen to make my dinner.

  Dinner was probably not terribly healthy, but it could have been worse. I toasted four slices of Polish Sourdough loaf with cheese, tomato and more sliced salami on them. It was nice, and would have been even better if I had had enough patience to let the bread brown a bit more, and the cheese to melt and start to go crispy, but I didn't. The only other problem is that it sounds bigger than it really was. That sliced sourdough bread is almost half the size of ordinary supermarket sliced bread. I topped my dinner up with a dessert of low calorie, low sugar ice cream.
  To help wash down my dinner I had two cans of Polish Karpackie beer. As the can says, it is 9%, and gives a nice warming glow. I bought the two cans while buying the other stuff in the small supermarket I visited.

  The early episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, which are now being reshown, are better than the later episodes, but some, like last night's episode, are still a little bit crap. I couldn't turn off before hand, but I was quite happy when it finished at 8pm. I guess I sort of pottered around on the internet for an hour before going to bed where I read for maybe half an hour. I expect the beer helped me doze off nice and easily once I turned the light off.

  On the whole I think I slept well last night. I think I got up three times in the night to pee. That gave me the idea that my blood glucose was not exceptionally high, and believing that probably helped me relax and sleep better. I remember having two dreams that I was going to describe, but one dreams seems to have faded away now. The other dream has enough details to try and describe, although I am not sure I fully understood it as I was dreaming it.

  The dream was set in a telephone exchange, although unlike any I have ever been in. I was tasked with helping a secret agent tapping some fiends telephone line, but part of it involved tapping (or something like that) mobile telephony. The agent wanted to borrow the SIM card from my phone. It was a full sized SIM card (the same size as a credit card), and he slotted it into a piece of equipment with several big printed circuits in it. Some test calls proved the equipment worked.

  He then took out my SIM card, and put in a special one that had some small blue LEDs on it. The next bit of the dream seemed to take place maybe several weeks later when the tapping job was done. I was told I could disconnect the special equipment, but not told what to do with the special SIM card, and so I kept it. A little while later I was approached by who was called Q in the James Bond films. He had an invoice book with him, and said he just needed my signature that the SIM card was in my possession. He said I could keep it as a curio, or I could use it myself. It had a perpetual unlimited data plan on it, but was told if racked up charges of more than £5 in a year it would be noticed, and I would either have to buy the card for some horrendous price, or give it back.

  I must admit that it was a dream full or loose ends, and much of it made no sense, but I guess it was entertaining in an odd sort of way. I woke up from it at a reasonable time to get up - and that meant it was time to find the truth about my blood glucose. It was not a happy process. The new meter gave a reading of 8.8mmol/l, and that was not bad. The old meter gave a reading not that much higher, 9.2mmol/l, but that crosses the threshold between OK and not really OK, but not terrible. The oldest meter was even worse with a reading of 9.3mmol/l. Once again it was a lot higher than I would like, but at least it was some way clear of the red line at 10.0mmol/l.

  Today is one day when I know what I am doing - sort of. This morning, between 10:12 and 12:12 I am expecting a delivery of some beers I ordered for my own amusement (and probably some of them will form a Xmas present for Kevin) from the Harvey's brewery in Lewes, Sussex. Even at the latest that will give me plenty of time to walk to The Jolly Farmers for a couple of pints of Guinness. The catch is that somehow I have to find time to have a shave, shampoo and shower before I go out. I am relying on the delivery to be nearer 10:12am as is often the case with deliveries by APC.

  P.S, I have to walk to Ladywell because the trains are on strike. I picked up two copies of The Metro yesterday in case I can't find any copies today because the stations are closed.