As I write this it should be sunny, but there is a streak of cloud right across the face of the sun, but at least the glare either side is bright enough to make the eyes water. At the moment the sky seems to have too much cloud for full sunshine, but sunny spells look very possible. Once again it is going to be a very cold day with the temperature only reaching 3° C, and maybe 2° C might describe the day better.  Clear skies tonight means that tomorrow may start at 0° C, but a day of full sunshine may get the temperature up to 5° C.

    Yesterday was one of those days that was a mix of good, bad, and bland, with bland predominating. It was too cold to go out, although that rule could have been overridden if there was sufficient snowfall to make some good pictures. I just had to stay in and find ways of amusing myself.

  One thing that made the day seem longer was waiting in for an Amazon delivery. Checking their web site showed my delivery had left the depot in Dartford modestly early at 10:40am (if I recall correctly). There seemed to be hope that it might be delivered early, but it was gone 7pm when it was not so much delivered, but my front door bell rung, and the package dumped by the wheelie bins in the sleety snow. I was not happuy about that, and noted it on Amazon's review page.

 There were two things in the order I was very much looking forward to. One was the book pictured on the left. It was written by a NASA scientist who was chief scientific investigator for the first rovers landed on Mars, and describes the trials and tribulations of these missions.

  At this point that is all I can say about the book, but it does look to be a fascinating read, and I hope to start reading it sometime today after I have finished reading Brian Aldiss's "Heliconia" trilogy. I have 5 to 10 pages to get through of that 1274 page book. It is still not an easy read, and not just because cramming three books into one makes for a very heavy book. The trouble with it is that it is a book that covers centuries of time, and doesn't have the traditional start, middle and end.


   One little "amusement" yesterday was a single item of laundry. It was the bath towel I had used for no more than a couple of days. When last washed it seemed like there was a smelly bit at one end of, and I kept it airing for maybe a couple of months. The smelly bit appeared to stop smelling, and I took a chance at using it. It didn't seem to be obviously smelly, but there were hints of staleness when I used it to dry myself. So back into the wash it went. It was very heavy when wet, and I split the rinses into two sessions. It only seemed to need about 6 rinses, so three at a time, before the water was mostly clear. I dried it overnight, and I shall test it again when I have a shower later this morning.

  One other pair of "amusements" was a split lunch, or more rightly a lunch and a snack an hour or two later. Lunch was just little squares of corned beef on little rice crackers with a smear of mustard. each one was a single mouthful. It was quite a nice combination, and I am not sure why I have never thought of trying this recipe before. My later snack was similar except this time it was cheese on rice crackers, and instead of mustard I had some finely sliced onion on it. That was really nice, although the lingering taste of onion in my mouth was not so good.

  After lunch and a snack I had my dinner a bit later than usual - around 6.30pm if I recall correctly. It was another experimental recipe that was almost the same as my recently praised grilled lamb cubes and sprouts. Last night I used diced beef instead of lamb, and seasoned it all with a fair bit of pepper, and also some salt. The meat was a lot tougher/chewy than lamb, and that was a point against it as an idea, but it was still rather tasty.

  The other thing I was looking forward to in my Amazon delivery was a pouch of Turmeric, Ginger, and Black Pepper pills.  I was looking forward to getting them out of curiosity rather than any great belief they would do me any good. The first thing I saw was how small the pouch was. On Amazon's web pages it seemed like it might be almost the size of a small paperback, but it is actually a lot smaller. The tablets inside are very small. For some reason I was expecting capsules instead of tablets.

  One annoyance is that while it boldly says 120 tablets, the recommended dosage is two tablets per day, and so it is only 2 months worth. They were strongly recommended by friend Michael, and he was backed up by someone who might have been Jodie even if that seems unlikely.

  I can't quite remember why he recommended them. It might be that after taking them for a while I will be able to leap tall buildings, run fasted than an express train, and juggle cars with one hand. On the other hand it might have been something to do with keeping me "regular" because they benefit bowel health. Anyway, I have 60 days to see if they make any positive contribution to my health.


   I watched some Star Treks on TV last night, plus one episode of Star Trek: Voyager from a recording. Sky Mix seems to have finished showing Star Trek: Voyager now, but I couldn't remember them showing the final episode. I wondered if they had, but I had not recognised it. Watching my recording of it showed that I didn't see Sky Mix showing it. It was fairly obviously an episode where they had to cobble together some vague ideas so they could finish the series, and maybe move on to something new. I am glad it is now all over because it never was my favourite Star Trek - it even came behind Deep Space Nine because that at least did have some good episodes.

  Last night was a good night to compare the styles of the two presenters of QI. Sandy Tokstig was a competent presenter, but was so often let down by terrible guests. Stephen Fry seemed to have a far higher proportion of good guests, and also seemed to have more slick presentation.  It was good that he was on second so I could go to bed on a happier note. That was possibly at around 10pm.

  Unlike the previous night I had no long periods of insomnia last night. The longest was when I woke up at around 2am to find I had tucked myself in so tightly under the duvet that I had been sweating, and there was a break in my sleep while I turned the pillow around, and tried to get comfy again. I am sort of surprised it didn't happen again because it was still feeling very warm under the duvet, and yet outside it felt freezing. In reality it was still almost 20° C in my bedroom thanks to the heater being left on low all night. Two more degrees and it would feel arm. It is odd how just two degrees can make such a huge difference.

  At about 4am I woke up for maybe my second pee of the night, and turned the heater up full on my way to the toilet. It took nearly 2 hours before I could sleep comfortably with my body half uncovered. I'm sure I had some dreams last night, but right now any memory of them has faded away to nothing.

  Once I had braved the cold toilet, which  braved for extra time so I could do a poo, I checked my blood glucose, and my weight. My weight can only be described as slightly, very slightly, lower than "typical". That is probably rather good at this time of year with just about zero exercise. My blood glucose was either very good, or very average. The first reading I took was using the Contour meter and it read a very good 6.9mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read 8.0mmol/l. That is quite a difference to the other, but can still be considered good. The Vivachek meter read even higher at 8.5mmol/l, and that hasn't been considered good for a month or two now.

  Today it is my intention to go out at least once in the bright sunshine. I need to get to Tesco to buy more stuff for upcoming dinners. Basically that means more meat, and more frozen sprouts - maybe some fresh sprouts as well ! If that walk feels OK, or even nice in the bright sunshine (the clouds have now thinned enough to allow strong sunshine) I may go out again. The second outing may be a real walk, or it might just be to Poundstretcher. I feel an urge to get another ten pack of 330ml cans of Lime Diet Coke before they run out, and maybe never seen again, and I also have an urge for a couple of spare packets of the bitter orange, dark chocolate biscuits I tried form there a week ago. There are more similar biscuits by the same maker, and I might stop to see what they say about sugar content, and but some if they seem to be low enough.