This morning it was still 3° C according to my thermometers, but it seems it will soon fall to 2° C, and by 5pm it could be down to 1° C. During daylight hours it should be slightly bright - except it's not at the moment ! It is a sort of sullen grey, and that suggests the predicted snow seem almost certain. Maybe it will be more than just "light snow", and maybe my guess was right because the latest revision to the forecast shows heavy snow for 2pm after a couple of hours of light snow. The BBC predict only sleet, but that could fall between 11am and 3pm according to their forecast. They say light snow later in the evening. The Met Office say light snow at 5 and 6pm. The times and amounts could easily be wrong, but it seems certain we will see the first snow of the year today. Tomorrow could be sunny, but the temperature will only rise to 3 or 4° C.

    Yesterday was quite a good day, although it would have been a lot better if it had been a lot warmer, but I guess we are in the middle of winter, and we can't expect to have low electricity bills ! Despite the cold it was still a far better day than the day before.

  I was evidently feeling good yesterday morning for reasons that are not 100% clear. It can't have been anything to do with my blood glucose because while satisfactory, it was not that low. Maybe it was just the morning sunshine, but that had finished before my first act of the day - that of going out shopping after I had had a shower. I can't really describe it as a pleasant walk, but I can describe it as an easy walk to Poundstretcher.

  I had an idea that I wanted to go there for two particular things. One was to buy some strings of LED fairy lights in their post Xmas sale. The flaw in that plan is that they had almost no Xmas stuff on sale - reduced price or otherwise. The other thing I wanted was a couple of spare squeezy bulbs of lime juice (from concentrate). I bought one in there the previous time I shopped in there, and although it is not great lime juice, a quick squirt in Diet Coke does offer an interesting taste.

  I bought two more squeezy bulbs of lime juice, and also two of lemon juice which I noticed next to the lime. At 89p each, I think, possibly incorrectly, that they are cheaper than other alternatives, although maybe not quite as nice. It seemed to be a day of Lime because I noticed they had 10 x 330ml boxes of Lime Diet Coke. I've been looking for 2 litre bottles of it for weeks now, but it is either no longer made, or Tesco have stopped stocking it. The good thing about Poundstretchers boxes of cans is that you get 3.3 litres of drink for £1.99. The 2 litre bottles were £1.85 the last time I saw them.

  There were a few other odds and ends I bought in Poundstretcher. One was a pack of three Sensodyne sensitive toothbrushes. They were Jodie's favourite, but no one has seen them for years and years. I gave Jodie two from the pack as a sort of new years present, and she seemed to be delighted (in the 10 seconds she looked up from her phone). One thing I bought for myself was a bit experimental. It was pack of chocolate biscuits !

  They were no ordinary chocolate biscuits. For one thing there were only three of them in the box, and they were quite small. The other important thing is that they were coated in dark chocolate, and that has far less sugar in it. They had a filling described as "bitter orange" cream. In the end I forgot to check any nutritional info on the box, but I had a strong impression that their sugar content was very low. I had one when I got home with them, and then the other two as a sort of dessert after my dinner in the evening.

  Being as yesterday was "an official drinking day (!)" I made sure I had some lunch before the boozing started. It started with two hard boiled eggs with mayonnaise and some white pepper. I had bought the ready hard boiled eggs in Tesco for half price the day before yesterday. It was a nice snack,but I found I wanted more, and so I followed them with two, reduce price, Tesco "Finest" Scotch eggs. That was quite a lot of eggs in one go, but I have "gone" this morning (but maybe never again !).

  Jodie arrived half an hour late for out boozing session. Apparently she had spent ages in Tesco trying to find where they kept the Cheese (it's in the next aisle to the meat).  She had brought some exotic lager for Michael to try. Michael had said he might pop in, but it seems his wife's health is on the blink again, and he couldn't leave her. Having arrived half an hour late, Jodie then spent half an hour messing about in the kitchen preparing and cooking her lunch (or dinner).

  We finally got down to some drinking. She had a few beers from her advent calendar to finish. They were all not to my taste. I had a single mouthful of them to say I had tasted them, but then opened of one of my bottles. One of them was a beer Jodie said she didn't need to taste because she had had it before, but then she realised that she had only had it on draught, and needed to try the bottled version, and log it on her untapd.com web page.

  The session became far more enjoyable when Alan, Jodie's boyfriend, turned up. He is a far better conversationalist than Jodie. It turned into what seemed like a longer session than usual, but somehow I didn't seem to drink as much as usual...or maybe it was that most of the beers I drank were not strong beers. Jodie and Alan left to get the 7pm train - usually it is the 6.30pm train.

  About halfway through the drinking, and after Jodie had finished in the kitchen, I spent probably little more than 5 minutes in the kitchen preparing my dinner, and putting it in the mini oven/grill to cook. It was nothing more than a pile of frozen sprouts and diced lamb. I only discovered this way of cooking lamb and sprouts a month or so ago, and it is so easy, and so delicious. I would try it with some diced beef, but I have unfrozen vegetables I have to use up - possibly for tonight's dinner.

  There wasn't any great entertainment on TV last night, but I flicked around the channels while eating, and watched a bit of this and a bit of that. I think I was in bed, fast asleep before 9pm, but maybe not a lot before 9pm.  It was the start of what could have been a great night's sleep, but wasn't. Within a couple of hours I had a repeat of something that has happened a few times lately. I woke up after a couple of hours convinced it was time to get up.

  A few seconds later I focussed on the clock to see itw as only 11.15pm (if I remember correctly) and it was still Sunday ! That was sort of annoying, but I let it wash over me, and it wasn't long until I was asleep again. It was around 2am when I woke up again, and this time it took me a good few hours before I got back to sleep again. I don't know if I had had a dream involving cameras, but my brain just would not shut up thinking about cameras for a lot of the next couple of hours.

  I am not even sure what it was about cameras I was thinking of, but it was probably related to a review I saw about a semi old, Nikon D700 camera. The reviewer was waxing lyrical about what a great camera it was that almost took perfect pictures by itself. My Nikon D610 camera is just slightly older, but is also classified as a semi-pro camera, and it too seems to take great pictures with very little input from me (although I guess I am still responsible for framing the view, and setting the basic parameters of the camera). Everything the reviewer said about the D700 I could relate to my D610. I must admit I did check the second hand, body only, price of the D700, and I could get one for £369. I could just about afford that, but maybe not now, and maybe I don't even need it.

  I said I was awake for about 2 hours, but in one respect it was longer than that. After about 2 hours I think I fell asleep for 15 or 20 minutes, and then I was awake again for as much as half an hour, but time became very variable, and I lost track of when I was asleep, and when I was awake. I do remember having what seemed quite a long dream in the last hour or so of sleep. I remember the dream was about going into a gents, probably at work, and all the interior was finished in easy to clean brushed aluminium. I also remember looking for toilet roll, but I remember very little else about it.

  This morning I got out of bed feeling very blurry eyed, as if I needed more sleep (and I did). I did try and get more sleep, but there were several times when I felt cramp start to develop in the back of my calf muscles, and I had to take quick action before those muscles cramped up painfully tight. I also had a bit of a stomach ache that was only part relieved by going to the toilet, although it was nothing but wind on the first visit.

  I was very curious about how my blood glucose readings would be after beer, and that dark chocolate I had earlier yesterday. It seems I got away with it all, and had some good readings. On this occasion the Contour meter had the highest reading, but it was only 7.5mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read just 6.9mmol/l, and to my astonishment the Vivachek meter read just 7.3mmol/l. My monthly average so far this month is a very nice low of 7.66mmol/l - far better than for ages !

  I think it is too cold to go out anywhere for pleasure today. Fortunately I don't need to even go out for any shopping today, but it is possible I might still go out. It would be nice to get some snowy photos if there is sufficient snow falling later. The latest update to the BBC forecast says light sleet from 11am to 1pm, but some light snow from 7pm tonight. The Met Office now says light snow at midday, but maybe heavy snow at 2pm. Like the BBC forecast they also say more light snow after dark - which is not great for photography. It looks like I'll have to amuse myself until 2pm, and hope The Met Office have got their forecast right.