By my reckoning, it was just a bit under 9° C at the start of the morning, and that was thanks to the sky being clear. We now have glorious sunshine, and it is possible it might stay this way until sunset. Sadly it will only raise the temperature to 16° C, but it should reach that by 1pm. It could feel quite warm in direct sunshine, and all that sunshine should warm my front, south facing, rooms up a treat ! Sadly tomorrow may start with mist, and after that some rain can be expected. However the temperature may reach 17° C, but with the possibility of rain instead of sunshine it will probably feel rotten again.

   Yesterday had it's moment, but it was not a very good day. It wasn't actually bad, but it seemed very bland, and there was no "natural" things to do - just stuff I almost made up on the spur of the moment to stop me feeling too bored...and hungry !

  One thing I did do was to wash my hair and have a shower in case I did need to go out. In the end I didn't go out. I decided I couldn't be bothered to go to the pub at lunchtime if my favourite barmaid was not there, and besides which, I had dawdled so much in the morning that I barely had time to dress after my shower, and get to the station in time. It just seemed easier not to bother going out.

  One positive thing of having a shower was that once I had finished I thought I may as well leave the hot water running (actually a bit hotter than I had showered under) and put some laundry in to soak. Finishing that laundry would be a job for later in the afternoon. What I did once I was dry and dressed was to prepare some lunch. It was nothing extravagant - just the second pair of now past their use by date, Scotch eggs I had found on the reduced price shelf in Tesco.

  Maybe an hour or so later I did "top up" lunch with a smallish quantity of Bombay Potato flavoured crisps. Such a flavour dictated they had to be bought, and tried - even if, as expected, they turned out to be just s a sort of vague spicy flavour crisps that didn't tast at all like Bombay potato. I can't even say they tasted different and yet still delicious. I would only go as far as to say they tasted "interesting", but not so good that I have any desire to buy another packet. I don't think "Indian" flavours translate well to crisps.

  When I went back to my laundry I found I was not enthused to do it, and that made it seem like hard work. In a way I was fortunate that I needed to go to the toilet just as I was about to start the fabric conditioner. That gave me the perfect excuse to take the rubber gloves off, have my pee, wash my hands, and then be lazy for 30 to 60 minutes before finishing the wash. It was one pair of long lounge pants and 5 pairs of underpants (or was it 6 ?). One again there were no t-shirts because I have mainly been using one t-shirt to go out shopping, and so probably less than an hours wear, and a smelly old t-shirt for private indoor use. I guess the one I have only really used for shopping probably is due for a wash very soon.

  My next diversion from reality was to edit a couple of TV recordings. One was an episode of The Simpsons. Removing the adverts, and the stuff before and after didn't take long, and I ended up with about 24 minutes left from a 30 minute programme. Sadly the end was completely mutilated by Channel 4 doing promos and voice-overs all over the end credits. If I was the producer I would sue them for mutilating my product.

  The other recording I edited was the film I mentioned recently, The First Man In Space". it was sort of interesting to reviews small bit of the film now I know it was actually an Anglo-American production, and that the majority of what started out looking like a very shouty American film was mostly shot near just outside London, and after the initial shots taken in the USA, all the shoutiness was turned down to be more appealing to more sophisticated English audiences.

  I had done all the editing, and was just about to save it to my archive hard disk when my phone rang. It was my friend Keith, and he is another one who likes his long phone calls (it was nearly 2 hours). His news was that he had had three operations to cure two hernias, and now faces another because apparently his testicles are still enlarged and dangling down too far to be comfortable.

  His operations mean he is forbidden to lift anything heavy. Once upon a time he would be gung-ho, and said the doctors must be lying, and ignore them. Maybe he has had some experience of the result of not following the doctors/surgeons advice, and now takes it very seriously. It seems quite unusual for him to take orders from anyone after making his own rules for so much of his life.

  I hurried our conversation along a bit when it became boring. He is a mine of trivial information about mobiles phones, their masts, and their operators. Oh well, everyone to their own, but I don't have to listen to it ! By the time we had hung up it was after my usual dinner time, and I had nothing prepared. On the other hand I had little I could have prepared. I did have some chicken I could cook, but I didn't fancy that. Anyway, I still had to save the edit of the film, and copy it from one back up hard disk to the other.

  With the film securely saved I could think about dinner, and I opted to start with a can of pea and ham soup with added croutons. If that was the starter, the main course was interesting. It was a small and slightly nasty apple, and bigger and tastier apple and a large Tesco orange. The latter I microwaved for 60 seconds in the hope it might make it easier to peel, and remove more of the pith. I think that almost worked, but the next orange I might put in a container, in case it explodes, and give it 2 minutes.

  As I have begun to realise, some fruit can be almost satisfying, and two apples plus one large orange, and a chunk of cheese could have been satisfying enough without the can of soup. I am wondering if I can be satisfied with nothing but fruit this evening after consuming lots of beer. Maybe I'll end up soaking some of the beer up with some crisps...or maybe something different.

  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager were both lousy episodes, but I watched most of them before retreating to bed to read. I did try and get to sleep after 9pm. I seemed to almost feel comfortable for a change, but I found I just did not seem to feel sleepy. Like the night before, it was almost 11pm before I fell asleep. I mostly seemed to sleep OK, but like most night now I ended up turning the heater on low the first time I woke up for a pee. It felt quite chilly when I went back to bed.

  I had the most peculiar dream last night, and there were several repeats of basically the same thing, and then an "extended mix" of it. The most peculiar thing was that I was not sure what it was about. It seemed I just had to learn the mantra "Windows open up, and doors close down". I didn't know if I was learning this for some sort of video game, or even if I was learning it as part of becoming a building designer or something.

  I can't seem to remember actually seeing any door or windows. In fact I can't seem to remember seeing anything at all, but I definitely heard it, and repeated it. That changed when there was a strange addition to the dream later in the night. It involved a can of Ravioli, and it needed to be opened with a key. So was added, "and a key is needed for Ravioli". I did did visualise a can of Ravioli, but it seemed to need an ordinary can opener, and not a key. Somehow it was all sort of suggestive of some sort of video game, but I don't play video games.

  I suppose it is no more than a cliché now, but once again I feel sort of OK-ish this morning, although I could find lots of little aches and pains to moan about if I tried. Maybe the warm sunshine on my right shoulder give me a more positive attitude. Another positive thing is that after my early morning wee, and again, a poo at the same time, my weight seems to have dropped by 700grams after my special diet yesterday.

  That diet, despite some reservations, including a blood glucose measurement of a massive 13.7mmol/l about half an hour after dinner, has left me with quite reasonable, maybe even good, blood glucose measurements this morning (although once again I did one twice because the first time it seemed so much higher than the other two readings). The Contour meter, and the GlucoRX meter read 7.7mmol/l. That is very good, but I was hoping it might be lower. The Sinocare went back to being the odd one out, and the first reading was over 9, but the second reading was 8.4mmol/l. By itself that is in an OK sort of area, but so much higher that the other two readings.

  It may be because I have turned the heating off and it is feeling a bit cool while I wait for the sunshine to warm my bedroom up, and it may be because I am rushing to get all this typed, and should have rested a bit before checking my blood pressure. It has gone up a tiny, and to be honest, insignificant amount. On the second attempt it was 110/46. Nearly all people who have been diagnosed with hypertension would be really proud of that figure, but I can usually manage to get the systolic pressure down to around a current average of 105mmHg, and so 110mmHg is a bit higher, but it is still well inside the area that the meter says is "Optimum" (or even better than "normal").

  Just to make a change I have some definite plans for today. I want to wash my hair and have a shower before doing anything else. Once I am dry and dressed I would like to go to the little supermarket on Catford Bridge to buy some of their much-nicer-than-Tesco fruit, and probably some more instant noodles, and hopefully some sugar free biscuits. Later this afternoon I should be seeing Jodie and Michael for a beer drinking session.