Both forecasters agree that 5pm will see full sunshine until sunset, but the BBC (screenshot above) and The Met Office paint a different picture for earlier in the day. Maybe the BBC forecast has got off to good start by saying 7am would be dull and cloudy, but then reality diverged, and now, 9am, it is still very dull outside, and the chances of seeing any sunshine soon seems very unlikely. A high of 22° C today should feel warm, but if it stays dull and grey like yesterday, it may be no better than "mild" - maybe more suited to October. Tomorrow could start off very chilly with just 12° C, but it will warm up to 21° C by 3pm, but then we may lose the sunshine and sunny spells to leave most of the afternoon very dull.
 ° C. 
   Yesterday was very strange. I was still feeling very slightly depressed, and the weather not obeying (!) the forecast, and it actually being very grey for a large amount of the day, did little to enthuse me. By midday I still hadn't been notified that my packet from Amazon had been despatched. That effectively mean my whole afternoon was open to me.

  Although I was having fantasies about going out somewhere if I had a reasonable belief that I had no reason to need to stay in, I put off having a shower, for the second day running, until such time that I knew I would be going out. With the afternoon being nasty and grey, and the wind blowing in my open bedroom window feeling quite chilly, I was pretty sure I did not want to go out.

  During the morning I spent some time reading and snoozing. In fact I spent nearly all my time doing that once I had finished writing here. At about midday I had not heard from Amazon, and I felt sure my packet would not be delivered yesterday. Maybe it might today, but according to their estimates, it could be as late as Wednesday. I won't be letting that stop me from going to the pub tomorrow.

  It was also just after midday when I had some lunch. I wanted it, but didn't really enjoy it, and that made me wonder if I really needed to have it. I think possibly not. It was a packet of two little (3" across) mini cheese and spring onion quiches. I also had a single, small packet of crisps with them. Maybe their strong cheese and onion flavour just blocked th flavour of the quiches. The first time I tried those Iceland quiches I thought they were really good, but now the novelty has worn off.......

  I can't say I did any big things in the afternoon, but I did do quite a few small things that helped pass an otherwise boring time. One thing was topping up, and fully charging some of my camera batteries. My Nikon Cybershot P500 camera, a "bridge" style camera (bridging the gap between a point and click, and full DSLR camera) does not use a physical power switch, and the power is switched electronically. That means the battery is always supplying some small amount of to the control circuitry.

  I found that small amount of power had completely flattened the battery, and it needed charging from zero - which took some time. I must admit I was surprised to see it in that condition. It is probably my favourite camera to take out on rail journeys - mostly to take pictures of trains. It usually does a first class job providing it is bright enough to use a very fast shutter speed. The trouble is that I have not gone out on any rail trips for ages, possibly for a full year....and a bit ! According to my records, the last time I used the P500 was on 5th June 2023. No wonder the battery discharged.

  Another waste of time was searching for a USB Blutooth dongle that I am sure I can remember as being class 3 blutooth. Maybe I never had one because otherwise I would probably be using it. I am still hoping that the class 5 dongles I am expecting to be delivered today or tomorrow will give nice and fast transfer rates, but I wanted to see what a class 3 could do. Sadly I never did find it, although I did find an unmarked dongle, apparently identical to the one I am using on my main PC, on a currently redundant PC. With hindsight, I should have tested it to see if it made any difference, Maybe that will be a short job for today.

  I have to admit that I stopped wring to do the test I had intended to do later today. As far as I can tell, the dongle I found plugged into a redundant PC, and three others are probably also class 2 devices - except for one of those three other devices. That appears to be a class zero, or in other words it appears not to work at all !  It all makes me even more eager for my class 5 devices to be delivered. There is still plenty of hope that it could be today because it seems Amazon drivers are far from early risers !

  At about 5.30pm I started to make up my dinner. It was a sort of chicken salad, but a very basic one. I can't seem to remember the name of the lettuce, but it was long rather than round, and I pulled off at least 6 of it's long leaves, and roughly cut them into more manageable sizes. On top of that I added a few baby plum tomatoes, two quite small packets of Iceland's ready cooked and sliced, BBQ flavoured chicken. Finally I added a big spoonful of potato salad, and another of coleslaw.

  I have to admit that the chicken was not very nice. It seemed to be real, rather than reconstituted chicken, but the BBQ flavour sometimes reminded me more of tobaccos smoke. The potato salad and coleslaw didn't seem to be very good at all. I think Aldi's cheap versions are superior, and for that matter, their ready cooked chicken seems to be rather better too. I had a dessert after the salad because I thought it might give me heartburn. I topped it off with a glass of cold milk and some "no added sugar" chocolate covered oat cookies. They were nice, but I still suffered from heartburn last night.

  One bit of unpleasant news that I have not mentioned yet concerns the result of taking a couple of constipation tablets the previous day. Despite seeming to have a very thorough clear out the day before, I started yesterday as if nothing happened the day before, and did a fairly normal poo in the morning, and then a smaller on a few hours later, and only very slightly small poos at about 4 intervals during the afternoon. I have no idea where it was all coming from, but the last time I went to the toilet for a poo was at about 8pm !

  I thought I would be clear of any problems after that, and in that respect I was, but as I was going to bed my chest started aching. The pain was like a burning sensation, and it was indeed heartburn. A couple of Gaviscon tablets helped a bit, but a couple of hours later I needed to take two more to finally settle things down. I lost track of time, but I think it was before midnight when I managed to get to sleep.

  I only have a clear memory of part of a dream, and I am sure I remember it because it was a sort of lesson. In this dream I was in bed, with no clothes on, when someone who was a close approximation of an old girlfriend came into my bedroom. She then got into bed with me without taking any of her clothes off. I felt I had to apologise to her and say I was terribly sorry that I had nit showered for the last two days. She replied that I didn't seem to smell bad, but she didn't cuddle as close as she might have done. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I can't remember what may have happened after that.

  One thing I also can't remember is what my state was when I looked at the clock, and calculated that if I fell asleep quickly, and slept well, I could still get over 6 hours of sleep. I don't regard that as a full sleep, but maybe I did fall asleep then, and did get 6 hours of sleep. I must admit that I felt reluctant to get up as early as I did (about 6.40am) but I guess I don't feel too bad for it. Maybe I don't really feel bad in any ways this morning, but then again I haven't stressed myself yet.

  One bad thing is that I seem to have put on a lot of weight in the last 24 hours. Now that is a bit odd because while not everything I ate yesterday was particularly healthy, I can't seem to remember eating all that much of anything bad. The big paradox is that this morning my blood glucose readings average was the second best this month.  The Contour meter read the highest, and that was only 8.2mmol/l. The GlucoRX and Sinocare were both in the good light green area - 7.6mmol/l for the GlucoRX meter, and 7.8mmol/l for the Sinocare meter.

  My blood pressure reading was very ordinary this morning. On my first attempt at taking a reading, and without really doing any preparation, I got a reading of 103/50. That is in the optimum area, and seemed good enough without trying for any spectacular by doing some relaxation and breathing for a second reading. Incidently, when taking a blood pressure reading early last night I got another good figure, and confirmed it with my other wrist mounted meter, and my upper arm meter. The readings were not identical, but agreed to within a few digits.

  As I type this it is 11:23am, and most of the morning is over. It is easily still possible I may get an email from Amazon to say my packet has been despatched, and will be here by 9pm (but hopefully a lot earlier. I still have time for a quick shower before possibly needing to go on high alert. One thing I will do today is to wash a few t-shirts, and some underwear. I am almost tempted to wash my outdoor shorts. It is feeling like the time to get back into long trousers is getting very, very close ! Maybe I'll hold out until the end of the month when the long range forecast shows the fantasy of a few days at 25° C. Other than that, I have no idea what I shall do today.