08:58 BST

  I don't know what I should describe it as such, but yesterday seemed like it was a fairly good day. Maybe it is because unlike most Sunday's, it was merely mildly bad instead of being awful. I can't claim to have spent that much time doing anything useful, and maybe slightly enjoyable.

  Yesterday had a brief good start with a sunny spell, but during most of the time I was writing it was very dull. The added gloom was that the forecast predicted rain. I think there was a short shower before the clouds broke up, and the forecast wet hours, which was all afternoon, and into the early evening, turned out to be long sunny spells or periods, or almost full sunshine.
  This picture was taken at 2.45pm, and shows a big area of blue sky, and the sun is shining. The sun was very high in the sky at this time, and so shadows are not easy to see - the house on the left, with the appearance of a black and white drain pipe, shows the best shadows that prove the sun was shining.

  There was sunny spells before I took the above picture, and they probably helped to spur me on to do a few useful things once I had eaten a light lunch. Like the day before, it was two small wholemeal finger rolls with a filling of cheese and onion. I think the first thing I did was to do a bit of washing up. There wasn't much because I had cleared a small backlog the previous day, but maybe it inspired me to do the next task.
  The previous day I had mentioned I had bought a spray bottle of white vinegar that was scented with gardenia and vanilla. It is a very floral small, and best used in the bathroom, rather near food in the kitchen. Earlier on I had given a bit of the bathroom hand basin a spray, and the fizzing as it dissolved some of the limescale showed it was working well. In the afternoon I cleared everything from on, and by the sink, and lurched into a big clean.

  One problem with the limescale on the handbasin is that the colour of the basin ("Pampas" I believe) makes it hard to see the limescale when wet.  While the bowl is generally bright and shiny, it is very obvious I missed some limescale on the outer edges of the basin. Another day, maybe even today, I will give them a bot more attention, but for now I am happy that it is a great improvement.
  I had a rest after cleaning the hand basin, but not for that long - just long enough to cool down a bit. The next thing I did was to try out two of my new purchases from Savers. It was the Surf "Deep Sea" scented detergent, and the Lenor "Outdoorable" fabric conditioner. The Surf "Winter Indulgence" came from Poundstretcher, and I think the smell of that will work well on towels which I don't use fabric conditioner on - I like towels to be rough and not shiny. They soak up water better like that.

  I washed two t-shirts and some underwear. My first impression on the Surf "Deep Sea" was that it was not bad, but also not that good. I have tried so many fabric conditioners that smell horrible that I was very wary of the Lenor "Outdoorable", but it seems it is one of the good ones. It has quite a strong, but still pleasant smell. I am now tempted to tip the bottle of Comfort fabric conditioner, that I have been trialling recently, down to toilet !

   Had I started a lot earlier, and had faith that the whole afternoon would be warm and sunny, I could have dried my clothes on the washing line, but I played safe and dried them on the big clothes horse (with a desk fan blowing at them). After all the effort to hand wash those clothes I was feeling quite warm. I also found that when I returned to my bedroom it was actually getting quite hot in there from the sunshine pouring through the windows. I guess it was only a rise of 2° C, but it changed from just about comfortable to very warm feeling - and more so after my hard work had warmed me up.

  From that point on I really did have not a lot to do, or at least anything I wanted to do. I did have an afternoon snack of what sometimes seems, and sometimes seems not, to be source of sugar. It was a dozen rice crackers used to scoop up cream cheese from a small tub. It is probably that it's calorie value was the significant bad thing. After that I felt bored, but then I had an idea.

  It was to go online and order more stuff from Amazon. Top of the list was was a spare pack of test strips for my GlucoRX blood glucose meter. I get them on prescription, but only 50 strips to last 56 days. I think this time I will run out before my next repeat prescription sometime next week. With the test strips from Amazon I should be OK for 6 months or more. I also ordered a bottle of Chromium food supplement. Chromium tablets are said to help regulating blood glucose levels, and when I first tried them I did seem to see my blood glucose levels dip a bit.

  The other two things I ordered were mobile phone accessories - with particular regard to "selfie sticks". I have a selfie stick with a clamp for a phone that I think I bought from the 99p shop many years ago.  They were originally designed for Apple iPhone which could be triggered to take a picture though the headphone socket. Apple did away with headphone sockets, and these selfie sticks would not work on Android phones, and so they were being sold for just 99p to get rid of them. I wish I had bought some spares at that price.

  The stick I have been using is attached to the telescopic stick using a standard tripod size bolt. Unfortunately the brass ferrule is now loose in the plastic, and threatens to fall off if I am not careful. I have ordered a cheap, but superior looking tripod head for a mobile phone, that I can either use on the selfie stick, or a real tripod. To trigger the camera I have been using a little bluetooth connected shutter button. Although rarely used, it is such an essential accessory that it seemed prudent to order a spare.

  The only trouble with this order is that it was either pay an extra £4.99, and get it delivered today, or get free delivery on Wednesday - the worst day of the week for deliveries because they could come while I am (hopefully) at the pub having my (usually) regular Wednesday lunchtime pints of Guinness. Ideally it might arrive around 11am, or after about 3pm.
  One increasingly common use for my selfie stick is taking pictures like the above through the bathroom window without having to clamber into the bath. The picture was taken at 7.45 pm, and that was after sunset, but there is still light in the sky. The sky shows some dark looking clouds, but earlier on they looked like white fluffy clouds. Slightly left of centre is an area of sky that looks white with a hint of blue. Once again, just 10 minutes earlier it was obviously blue sky.
  One and three quarter hours before taking the picture out of my bathroom window I was eating dinner. It was another of Iceland's "My Protein" range, and it was fairly nice, although I am not too keen on noodles, and it seems a lot of these ready meals are built on a base of noodles. I think I prefer rice, and I think rice tends to have less sugar in it. This Cajun Chicken Pasta meal has 12.4gm of sugar in it. It is marked with a green dot, and that presumably means it is considered low in sugar, but to me it seems a lot.

  My evening was dominated by watching TV, and specifically the Sky Arts channel. It started with the much repeated story of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album. It was recorded while two marriages were breaking up in the band. I find it to be a very emotional story, and in ways that are different, but also similar, it reminds me a lot of the trauma of my relationship with Angela. I think I have now consigned Angela to the past, but it has still left a very raw spot that I can't ever see healing now.

  A bit later, and not finishing until gone 10pm, was a showing of "A Concert For George". It happened a year after his death, and took place in The Albert Hall. Some of it was so-so, and some of it was very good. Some of it was also quite emotional. What I night I had ! Fortunately it all seemed not to interfere with my sleep - and neither did any annoyances like heartburn. It may have made me think for a little bit before giving in and falling asleep.

  Last night was another night where maybe I just dreamed too much to remember. I can't even seem to remember where my dreams took place - home, work, at railways stations, anywhere, and not a single place has left it's mark on my memory, It is quite annoying really. I know....or at least I think I know that I did the usual of waking up every 2 or 3 hours for a pee. They would seem to be good times to try and remember bits of my dreams, but once again, not last night.

  The only bit of my sleep I did remember was waking up at about 5.50am. It was still dark, and I thought I would try and sleep for another half hour. Of course nothing happened for that half hour. I tossed and turned and tried to will myself to fall asleep. Eventually I just gave up, and lay there silently cursing, and then suddenly the clocked jumped half an hour. Only after giving up trying to sleep did I actually fall asleep. I might have slept longer but I was woken by cramp in my right leg - I think (it is usually the left leg).

  Oh well, at least the morning got off to a good start with both a pee and a poo. the combined effect of both is that I seemed to have lost another 200gm. That is not much by itself, but if I could do that 5 days on the trot I would have lost a full kilogram. Usually something happens before than and I put on 200gm instead of taking it off.

  This morning I am happy to say that all my blood glucose readings are all out of the even mild danger area, and all back in the OK, but not great area. The Contour meter was the highest with a reading of 8.5mmol/l. Curiously, the GlucoRX meter read 8.4mmol/l, and the Sinocare meter read 8.3mmol/l. It makes me wonder if I had got the Vivachek meter out again it would have read 8.2mmol/l.  I wonder if I can find the will power on this so far dull and gloomy day to be even more vigilant, and get some readings in the sevens tomorrow.

  After a brief very small peak, my blood pressure is back to my typical morning readings I've been getting roughly since going on my half tablet of Isorbide Mononitrate (anti angina drug). This morning I got 102/49, and on reflection that is very slightly lower than my typical average, although the change is so small as not to be significant.

  I don't think I had any thoughts about going out - even to go shopping today, and the dull weather just reinforces that idea. It is typical of old age that this grey and damp feeling weather, albeit no rain until tomorrow, that my bones and joints feel stiff and creaky this morning. What I may do is to wash either a towel or a couple of pair of lounge pants. I might even do both, but do the towel separately using the Surf "Winter Indulgence" detergent to see how that smells. I probably also ought to get on with the video editing I have been saying I would do for the past few days, but didn't.