Today is going to be cooler, and with less sunshine than recent days, it still might be a good day though. Rather than sunny intervals, as per the forecast, I would describe it as generally non stop hazy sunshine for now. The cloud is thin enough to let attenuated sunshine through. This afternoon the temperature may briefly peak at 21° C Clear skies tonight will mean it is going to be chilly tonight. The rot really sets in tomorrow, and the weather will revert to something more akin to early spring. The day may start at 8° C, and then only reach 13° C. There will be a few hours of sunny spells in the morning, but from 11am it will be grey until a few sunny spells just before sunset. It should stay dry.

  I think that yesterday I was suffering from a very low key hangover from Thursday's beer session. Nothing hurt, but I seemed to have almost lost the will to do anything. Saying nothing hurt is probably not accurate, and "feeling my age" is more the truth.

  As far as I can recall, my morning was pretty typical yesterday. One difference is that I seemed to have little to say although that was almost intended, and in consequence I finished writing earlier than usual. I was feeling like writing was hard (brain) work, and wrote the least I thought I could do and still give a sort of overview of my day. It felt good to add the final full stop, and then have a lie down to rest my brain.

  There was one thing I wanted to do yesterday, and that was to do some laundry, and hang it on the washing line to dry in the sunshine. After I had a shower, which I probably didn't need because I wasn't intending to go out and meet/encounter anybody, I got the big buckets out and put in a load of stuff to soak in detergent. Then there was one thing I had to do before I could put that washing, once rinsed and conditioned, on the washing line.

  That job was to get the strimmer out, and clear the garden path of overhanging plants, some of which were stinging nettles. I ended up doing more than that, and cut many clumps of weeds or unwanted plants down. I didn't rake it all up, but I raked up a lot, and that added up to a new layer in the garden waste wheelie bin that was a good 6 to 8 inches high. It will wilt down a lot, but it has completely covered over the kitchen waste I have added to the bin - because it is all good compost.

  Another little job I did was to sweep the path alongside my house from the back door to where it meet the garden itself. That also included scraping off some moss that it annoyingly keen to grow in the permanent shade out there. By the time I had dome that lot I was feeling quite tired, and maybe slightly achey. It was rather more effort than I thought it would be - and more so in my seemingly fragile state.

  Once I had cleaned myself up it seemed well time for some lunch. Like the previous day, I had fish in Ciabatta rolls. Once again the fish was out of small cans, and this time it was in (allegedly) mustard flavoured sauce. The tin I used yesterday had a little less fish in than some others, and the filling in the rolls were a bit thin, but in one way that was good because I could still taste the nice bread taste.

  After lunch I laid on my bed, and started reading. I ended up reading a lot. The story of the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, was reaching a climax, and the story became quite intense. On Mars winter was approaching, and the sun could not supply enough light for the solar cells on the rovers to enable any more than the minimum operation. The book ended with both rovers in pretty good health apart from very little power left.

  Both were put in deep sleep mode where all but a small battery charge monitor was completely shut down. The book ended with a great big unknown - would the rovers survive winter on Mars when temperature drop to minus 150° C, or even lower. Both rovers did survive their first winter. Spirit wouldn't survive a lot longer, but Opportunity continued exploring for 15 Earth years before it finally died. This later stuff I have only just read about on a web page that provides a nice condensed story of both rovers lives - https://www.nasa.gov/podcasts/on-a-mission/a-lifetime-on-mars-the-adventures-of-spirit-and-opportunity-s4e4/

   Incidentally, the web site I've linked to is principally an audio story, but also included a full transcript (including descriptions of sound effects etc. used in it). I didn't finish the book in one sitting (or laying down !), but I did seem to spend quite a bit of time getting to the end yesterday. I had meant to get back to my laundry, but time seemed to slip away. I did get back to it much later in the evening - when it would be pointless to dry it outside - but I did do two of the rinses so I had a lot less to do today.

  At about 4pm, or maybe a little bit earlier, I had a snack, and I can't seem to recall what it was ! Maybe I just imagined I had a snack because it would be the sort of thing I do. It was just before 6pm when I had my dinner. It was an alleged calorie controlled, and also moderately low sugar, ready meal of chicken in a mushroom sauce with green beans and boiled baby potatoes. It was nice enough, but not exciting. I then had a dessert of the last of a 900ml tub of ice cream that
I managed to make last almost a couple weeks.

  After watching the usual 6 O'clock news, and Star Trek:Voyager, I consulted the electronic programme guide for other stuff to waste the next few hours, and found n4 episodes of The Simpsons being shown back to back, with days of adverts crammed into every space ! It was during one not very good episode that I went back to the bathroom to do two more rinses of my laundry. At 9:30pm the last Simpsons episode finished, and I headed for bed.

  I had finished my book, and although I had selected another book to read, about the moon landings, I decided not to start reading, and to try for sleep instead. That almost worked, but I got up and read some technology news on the internet for about and hour, and until I was yawning, and my eyes were starting to close. I want to bed then, but I still lay there awake for maybe another 20 to 30 minutes.

  I seem to think I slept fairly well last night. Of course that ignores getting up to pee every 2 or so hours. I remember dreaming a lot, but I can only remember a few tiny bits of a couple of dreams. One dream was set in a big house that it seemed I owned, although there were quite a few people that I would not usually be visitors. In the dream someone, or some people, were stopping us leaving the house. There were three of us there who had leather jackets, and could possibly appear to be scary bikers. I suggested we put on our leather jackets, and then go and confront whoever it was that was stopping us leaving. I think I woke up before that confrontation, and so never saw who it was we were up against (or why he or they were doing it).

  When I got up this morning I had a good pee, but it was not quite good enough. Just a medium poo would have been enough. The hoped for event was the scales clicking down to the next full units digit. It was almost teetering on the edge. Before I had any breakfast I went back to my laundry, but only after checking my blood glucose. It must have been a first - all three meters read 8.2mmol/l.  That is semi good. If I had not had the ice cream for dessert yesterday I might have got very good readings, but it would be unlikely to get three identical readings. That may never repeat for years or maybe decades (if I live that long).
  Before doing anything else I went to finish doing yesterday's washing. I managed to get the rinsing and fabric conditioner done in time to hang it all out to dry just after 8am this morning. That was a bit of a shock to my system, but getting it done felt rather good - mentally, but a little less so physically. The change in weather is definitely making a selection of joints and muscles feel creaky. 08:09 and the washing is in the shade, but the rising sun is lighting up the fence on the left.

  After I came in I put the big buckets away, and had a clean up, I thought I was ready for my morning poo, but it was only a fart. However I did have a little trickle of pee. I took off my shorts and got on the scales again. This time the scales did show that magic one unit less, but obviously quite a lot of hundreds of grammes - 800gm in this case. It would seem that compared to almost the same time yesterday I had lost 500gm. It seems far too optimistic to believe it could happen so easily, but two more days like yesterday and that units digit could drop one more.

  This morning is another morning where all my health indicators say I am in good health. Even my blood pressure is firmly in the "Optimum" region at 98/48 this morning. It is a shame that I don't really feel that good. I am definitely not in the right sort of mood to go out for any formal exercise today, but I am fairly sure I will be going to Aldi today for some shopping (which will probably bring enough temptations to set my weigh back a few days.

   One bit of of exercise I might do is some more strimming in the garden. It is useful that at the moment there are no limits, no too little, and no too much to do. I can just do it until I feel I have had enough, and that could range from zero time to a couple of hours if I am feeling very masochistic.

  One thing that is in the news a lot recently is VE day. It reminded me that the last time I have of any VE day memory dates back to 1995. The one coming up it the 80th Anniversary, and so 1995 must have been the 40th anniversary. Both a probably high key, but I am sure 2005, the 50th anniversary must have been high key, but I have no memory of it at all.

  One memorable thing about 1995 is that there was one Aide-mémoire, and it was the three day VE commemorative Travelcard. It was back in the day before touch technology (Oyster and bank cards) and so a thin card  ticket was cheap to produce. Other cities may have had something similar, but for London it allowed three days of unlimited travel on buses, tubes and trains in the London travel zones. - which was great for exploring, train spotting and anything else ! I can't remember exactly, but I seem to think it was three days for the price of two.