It looks wet outside again, but I am not sure if it is actually raining as I write this. It could be just fine drizzle. 10 and 11am are now shows as heavy rain in the latest revision, but it may be some recompense that the rain may now stop at midday. It may even slightly lighten up - just as the sun is setting - but it will be another day with not a single ray of sunshine. The temperature is almost going to be a flat line at 6° C, but will probably fall a degree in the late evening. Tomorrow may feature a few sunny spells, and stay dry, but it will be a bit cooler at just 5° C.

   Yesterday could be described as a pretty terrible day. I felt ill nearly all day, and I have a feeling it might have been a real illness rather than cold and damp giving me assorted aches and pains. It felt a lot like a mild 'flu, but without things like fevers, and other symptoms, although having said that, my temperature was a bit higher than usual, but still a full degree less than where a traditional fever starts.

  One thing I did yesterday was not an ideal activity when my arms, back, and chest were aching to some degree or another. It was to finish hand washing a thick, and heavy when wet, pair of sweat pants. I did their final three rinses (and didn't bother with fabric conditioner), and after some really tricky wringing out, managed to get them dry enough to not drip (while I first watched) to hang on the big clothes horse to dry.

  There were two other notable things I did yesterday. One was to get the iMac computer in the dining room back to the same state it was before I tried to "improve" it. It still can't play high definition video, and I am wondering if it is a limitation of the memory attached to the graphics processor that is to blame. One thing I realised I ought to do is to see if the original Apple OSX operating system can play that high definition video (it was recorded on my phone, and so nothing esoteric in this day and age).

  If OSX can play that video I might be tempted to convert the computer back to Apple's original operating system, and see how many free and open source programs I can find to match my expectations to do stuff. I think there are many common Linux applications/programs that have versions to run on Mac computers. On the other hand, the Linux on it can do most things I require of it - providing I don't stretch it too far !

  I had the heating on in the dining room for a lot of yesterday. It was only the halogen heater, and the max power of that is just 1.2kW, so it is not a huge power hog. Some of the time I switched it down to just 800W. It should have been, and probably was, comfortably warm in there, but I still ached a lot when working on the computer. It often meant standing up to reboot the thing, and bending forward to read the screen at the far side of the table. Even typing and using the mouse seemed uncomfortable.

  The second of the two other notable things I did was to make a start writing out Xmas cards. It is a bit early in the month for it, but I thought it worthwhile making a start before it gets too late. I have done the main ones, and stamped the ones that will need posting. What I didn't seem to find the patience for was to try and think of who I might bump into, and who I think deserves a card. A typical person would be Jo, lead singer of Chain. I don't know her address (but she knows mine). I hope to hand her a card at a gig, but I am not sure when I will get to one.

   I am not keen to go to most gigs until all the Xmas stuff is out of the way. In the last 35 or so years, the only thing I have liked about Xmas is a few days off work. The rest just seems a load of twaddle, and unless I make some sort of effort to amuse myself, it is a miserable few days. It has been good in the past if I have felt well enough, and the weather kind enough, to go for a long walk on Xmas day. I fear that even if this Xmas day is bright and sunny, that I am too far out of condition to enjoy a nice walk.

  Being a weekday, there were Star Trek's to watch last night, although none the four possibles was terribly exciting. Perhaps Deep Space Nine had the best episode because most of the story was about Quark, the Ferengi bar keeper, and his battles with, in effect, the Ferengi tax man. I ate my dinner during Deep Space Nine. It was the dinner I had cooked for the previous night, and I think I now know why I chose something else for that previous night. Last nights dinner was OK, but it was not very exciting. Chicken needs lots of herbs and spices, and chillies, to make it tasty, and my dinner was light on all those things.

  There was other stuff I watched on TV last night, including an episode of QIXL. I think it was about 10pm before I went to bed. I did feel very tired, but I managed to read for 15 or 20 minutes before quickly falling asleep once I had put the book down, and turned out the light. I seemed to sleep well last night, and with the night being less cold than recent nights, I only needed to have the heater on low all night. It wasn't until I had got up that I thought it felt a bit too cool in my bedroom. I found the heater was still on low, and have since turned it up to full power.

  I thought I had something to say about my dreams last night. I am sure I had many of them, and I do remember dreaming when I woke up for a pee at about 1am this morning. The trouble is that it was another dream that was all situation, and no action. Evidently the memory of it didn't survive until this morning because I can't seem to remember even the situation, or even remember why I think it had no action.

  Despite being often miserable, and often quite uncomfortable, I seemed to control my eating fairly well yesterday, and my blood glucose readings are quite good this morning. Two meters, the Contour, and Sino Care meters gave the same figure of 8.0mmol/l. That is below average, and so very good. The GlucoRX meter gave a reading of just 7.4mmol/l. Being significantly less than the other two suggests it's wrong, but at least it is wrong in the good direction !

  Once again I face a grey and wet day. It gives me no enthusiasm to want to go out, but maybe I might force myself to go out - possibly after midday when it should be dry. I might just go for a rummage around Poundland. I fancy another of their gaming mice with all the flashing LEDs. I gave the last one I bought to Patricia (if I recall correctly). Once in the shop I will probably buy more shampoo and conditioner, and probably other stuff as well. Just thinking about it makes the urge to go out a bit stronger !