No sunshine is forecast for today, but it should stay dry despite some of the cloud being almost black (if I interpret the forecast correctly). Despite no sunshine, the temperature should reach an almost warm 12° C.  Tomorrow should be another dry day, and the middle of the day should feature some sunny spells. It will be almost as warm as today, but only 11° C is currently forecast, but it could all change in tomorrow's version.

  I seem to be having another late start this morning, but it may not matter because I probably don't have a lot to say (but who knows what might tumble out once I get started). The nice sunshine could have inspired me to do more, but it looked nicer than it felt.

  It was sort of planned based on the weather forecast the previous day - I had intended to trim severely trim my beard, have a wet shave for the rest of my face, wash my hair, and have a shower. I did all that except for washing my hair. I seemed to think I didn't have time for that, but I don't know why. There were hours to go before the sun went in behind clouds, but I was feeling rather keen to walk in the sunshine.

  I did have grand plans imagined for walks to here, there, and anywhere, but I settled on plan B - going to Poundland. Let me interrupt myself at this point. It is just before 10am, and the sun has come out. The sky seems to show lots of blue, and this is definitely not shown in the weather forecast...or maybe it was in the Met Office forecast, but only for a single hour. Looking at the sky, it may last a bit longer than that.

  Back to yesterday, and I got dressed and took a walk to Poundland. The big problem with that is that most of the walk is in the shadow of houses, and so not enjoyable at all. On top of that, the walk is possibly as little as 30ft beyond my comfortable walking distance these days. I was starting to get hints of angina pains as I entered the shop.  I am happy to say that I achieved the core reason for going there - buying sugar free choc chip cookies.

  Of course I bought more than that. I bought some spare shower gel, and two more bottles of Vanish stain remover. I had a look to see if they had any high cocoa content, dark chocolate, but all I could see was Cadbury's (or is it Hershey's now ?) Bournville chocolate. I bought a bar to try it, although it's sugar content is a bit higher than is ideal, but not terribly so.

  While I was in the shop there was quite a loud row started. The security man wanted to see what another man was up to. He told him he had seen him picking up stuff from the shelves, but his basket was empty. The suspect, at the top of his voice, said that just because the security man was not from East Africa, but maybe from some other part of Africa (but more likely the Caribbean) he was picking on him, and was a racist.

  I have no idea what may have happened after I left the store. It may have descended into a fight, or it is possible the police were called, and the suspect would have had to empty his pockets out. Maybe after a lot of shouting the suspect may have left the store, but either he was being well blocked by the security man, or he seemed to have no desire to leave.

  Maybe because it had almost caused me pain when I walked to the shop, but I did not enjoy the walk home at all. I felt uncomfortable in a way I can't really describe. Maybe some of the problem was that all that walking in the shadows left me feeling a bit cold despite having one of my warmer coats on. I felt glad to get home. I think that was about 2pm, and I was feeling like some lunch would be a good idea.

  I had had a very big portion of instant noodles for my breakfast on the assumption that maybe I would not be home for lunch, or if I was, I would not have any lunch. Of course that didn't work because I had just bought new food. My lunch was actually a small-ish bag of black pepper flavoured cashew nuts. They were nice, but I should have split it up into several smaller amounts because my taste buds just became numb after shovelling enough it. After that I opened one of the three packets of sugar free choc chip cookies. I only had about 4 cookies from the pack instead of eating the whole pack.

  There was just one important thing I did yesterday afternoon, and it was to pay my overdue telephone bill before BT started getting stressed. To do that I logged into my main bank account, and that enabled me to see the balance of my current account. It was looking fairly healthy. That was pleasing, but I had to remind myself it could soon go down fast if I got carried away with takeaways and Amazon orders.

  Around 4pm I had a healthy sort of snack (at least I think it was supposed to be). It was nothing more than a medium sized Conference pear, and a large orange. The pear came from Aldi, and during the week I have had them, they are now starting to taste nice and ripe. It is a shame that I now only have one left. The orange came from the little supermarket on Catford Bridge, and peeled a lot easier than the rough old ones that Tesco sell, and tasted nicer too.

  At some point, and I can't seem to remember what order things came in, I had my last wholemeal bap filled with corned beef, tomato and mustard. It is probably just as well that it was the last one because it was nice enough that I could have easily had a couple more. I used the last of the corned beef for my official dinner. I had it cut into small squares, on rice crackers (supposedly very low sugar content) with some pickled sliced gherkin on some of them.

  I did something I haven't done for years last night, and it was to watch something on BBC2, and even rarer was that it was a film. It was a black and white film made in 1964 called "The Train". It was (probably very loosely) based on a real event in wartime France when a train carrying looted paintings by famous artists was stopped by the Free French Forces, and prevented from leaving France. The film version was obviously dramatised, but it was sort of captivating. I thought I would just spend a couple of minutes seeing what it was all about, and ended up watching until the end.

  It was lucky that I had fond something to watch because there was very little offered that might amuse me on TV last night. I thought Jephro Tull in concert might be interesting. Maybe I just picked one of the worst bits to watch, but it seemed very boring - so boring that I thought eating three small packets of crisps might have added more flavour.  After 10 minutes I turned the TV off, and resorted to reading to pass the time.

  I have no idea when I put the book down, and very quickly went to sleep. I am guessing that is was probably very soon after 9pm. I was going to say that I slept very well last night, but then I remembered waking up feeling cold. Later on I woke up with cramp starting in my left leg (or was it the right ?). I also had pains from my right elbow - possibly where it had got chilled earlier in the night. When I got up thinking I was actually "getting up" I woke with both my hands numb.

   I am not sure how the two things are related, but I decided I wasn't getting up then after all, and after a pee, and my hands returned to normal, I went back to bed. I suspect I spent more time thrashing around trying to get, and stay asleep, than the amount of actual extra sleep. In theory I would have had an extra pee after extra sleep, and I thought I would have a poo. I had no poo, but did pass a lot of wind, and little more than a trickle of pee.

  I had hoped I might have lost moor weight than the scales said I did yesterday. The scales seemed to hesitate before coming to a proper reading, and it is probably they were deciding if it was 100gm or 200gm that I was lighter this morning. If I put on my extreme optimistic hat it was 150gm, but the scales only read in 100gm increments. Oh well, at lest is was a drop even if a small one.

  This morning proved the worth of using three different blood glucose meters. The first reading was a lot higher than the other two. maybe it was a faulty test strip, or just something weird, but a second reading brought it in line with the other two. The Contour meter, the one that needed a second reading, read 8.7mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read 8.0mmol/l, and the Sinocare meter read 8.8mmol/l. That gives an average of 8.5mmol/l, and that is very average in itself.

  One of the last things I did before going to bed last night was to remember I had not checked my blood pressure. I usually do it early in the evening. Doing at the last minute meant I was not really relaxed, and more in a sort of panic. The reading was unusually high, but even 121/52 is perfectly normal, and not far off "Optimum". This morning I had a mini panic when the meter suggested the new batteries I had only fitted a few days earlier were already flat, but I think it was a recurrence of a "loose connection" problem I had weeks ago. The best I could manage this morning was 116/45, and despite the stress, was still shown as "Optimum".

  Once I have finished this writing I will have my usual rest for half an hour or so, and then I will have a shower. I may also wash my hair. It needs it, but I may get by if it feels like I am running out of time. What I have to do once washed and dressed, is to finally go shopping in Tesco. I have done well to eke out what I have, and in theory I could last another day, but I think today has to be the day.

  Two things will happen this afternoon, and until the first has happened, I won't know what order they will be in. It is probable that Jodie will arrive for a beer tastings session after the other thing. It was last Friday afternoon that I ordered some more Xmas beers. This lot will be a more international selection than the last. I forgot to mention it on Saturday, but I was reminded this morning when I got an email to say the beers would be delivered this afternoon. I guess in the Xmas rush the couriers, DPD in this case, are now all on overtime with deliveries even on a Sunday.