06:37 BST

  To the north and to the west the sky looks very clear, but to the east where the sun is supposed to be blasting out, it is cloudy, and it looks a bit dull outside. If that cloud clears we will have the promised sunshine. It is a little warmer than forecast. My thermometers agree that it is currently 20° C instead of the forecast 18° C. The (BBC) forecast (above) says zero chance of any rain today, but my cheap and cheerful weather station says to expect rain - and it was right yesterday ! Today's high may be just 26° C. Tomorrow may start with a short burst of light rain, but most of the day will be dry and sunny. It should feel fresher with a high of just 23° C.

   Today is my birthday, my 70th birthday to be precise. It is an odd sort of idea. It mostly does not feel special, although, on the other hand, it does feel like I am not as decrepit as I assume a 70 year old should be. Maybe it is outdated ideas from when I was 30 years younger, but I choose to believe there are no more than 50% of us, maybe even 70% of us who can walk a mile and half or more.

  Yesterday was not a good day. The grey skies for almost the first half of the day were not very inspiring, and the effect was multiplied by the forecast saying we should have had dawn to dusk hot sunshine. I still managed a few intended things, but much of the day could have been boring.

  Once I had finished writing, and had my usual rest, I made sure than I washed my hair and had a shower before I started some laundry, because I had thought I would go out some time yesterday. In the end I didn't go out, but I did start, and later on finish, the laundry I intended to do. It was just a double fitted sheet and two pillowcases. I did have plans to do a second lot of washing, but that never happened.

  I got half way through washing the sheet and pillowcases, and I thought it was looking very dull outside. I was feeling a bit hot and sweaty, and it seemed like a good time to take a break. While doing so I glanced at one of my weather stations. It, and when checked, another two had the conviction that it was about to rain. This flew in the face of the weather forecast, but that also said it should have been bright sunshine instead of filthy grey clouds. I took the picture of the weather station with the clearest display at one minute to 1pm. By 2pm it was raining. It was quite light rain, but it did last 10 or more minutes.

  That rain was most obvious as splattering over the outward hinging window in my bedroom. It nay have been only 5 minutes after the last rain fell that the window was bone dry again. I should have taken a photo of it when it was covered in rain drops. Once it had stopped raining it did seem to brighten up a bit, but still no sunshine. I went back to my laundry, and did the last 3 rinses it needed. I then took it out to the garden to dry on the washing line.

  Later on the sun would finally come out at full strength, and it would bake out the very last atoms of water on that laundry. I would bring it in with it feeling almost hot to the touch ! In the meantime there was not a lot to do except for one thing. I had had a few more emails from Aliexpress. Some were sales offers. I thought, and I am sure, I did not tick the box that said I wanted offers and other spammy type stuff in my inbox.

  I logged in and made sure my options included that I did not want all those unwanted emails. I also checked the progress of my orders. The latest emails said the orders had been despatched. If they were Amazon orders I would know they would be here in a day or two. Now I have to relearn stuff when using Aliexpress. The significant thing is that everything, or nearly everything is despatched from China, and that means delays with customs, delays waiting for flights, then import customs here, and finally the package being handed on to a local courier firm.

  As far as I can tell, the very first thing I ordered, a protective case for my new Honor 200 Smart, mobile phone, ordered 6 days ago, is in the hands of Evri. They do not deliver on weekends, or at least not on their cheapest tier, and so I will have to wait until tomorrow, or even the day after for that to be delivered. Each of the three items of my second order are being sent separately, and were last heard of as waiting for a flight from China to England. I think it could be towards the end of this coming week before I get my grubby hands on those things. I may be saving some by not ordering from Amazon, but I have to exercise a lot of patience.

  Apart from a lot of mucking around on the internet, there was not a lot else to do yesterday. I had a lunch part one and part two. Part one was the other (a bit less than) half of the packet of cheese flavoured, baked, potato sticks I opened the day before yesterday. A little later I had some rice crackers with cheese. I missed a lot of it, but there was a shortened BBC news on when I had my dinner. It was a salad with sliced German sausage, and I also added the rest of the can of butter beans I had had with a salad a day or two previously. It was a nice salad, but quite unremarkable.

  I think it was after dinner when I brought my washing in. As mentioned further up the page, it was quite hot and dry - which was nice. After that there was nothing that grabbed my attention on TV, and I spent a lot of the evening just reading. Earlier on I could have gone to take some pictures of Steedtone (Dik and Jason Batt) performing as a duo at the Manor House Gardens festival. As I explained yesterday, there was nothing else to attract me to go there on a hot and steamy bus, and so I declined to go.

  I didn't exclusively read on my bed last night. I did stretch my legs sometimes, and check stuff on the internet, but as 9pm approached I felt like I could probably get some sleep. Yesterday was the longest day, and it was still light at 9:20pm, and would probably not be fairly dark until around 10pm, and possibly later. I didn't seem to have any difficulty falling asleep, and I am sure it was till fairly light outside when I did it.

  Maybe I slept too well last night. I still woke 3 or 4 times to go for a pee, and I do remember having one dream. The details of that dream are now very vague, and I can't even begin to try and describe it. The thing that makes me think I slept better than most nights is that I woke up just before 5am, and I don't think I managed to get back to sleep again. (Although I may have fallen asleep for a few minutes once or twice). It is why I managed to start writing this at 6:37am (although I did stop for a breakfast after writing that time at the top of the page - which was sort of cheating).

  When I got up I went to the toilet where I did a small pee, and no poo. I am getting a sort of constipated feeling now, but like yesterday I suspect I will go before the morning is over. Even without a poo, and even without a second pee, which would have probably happened if I had managed to get back to sleep for an hour, my weight has still dropped another 200gm this morning. That is just enough to go into the next kilogram range on my spreadsheet, and is marked by going from a light blue to dark blue background colour.

  I am happy to say that not only is my weight down, but so is my blood glucose level - except if you believe that cranky Sinocare blood glucose meter. The Contour meter read a very good 7.6mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter gave a perfect, spot on my current target, 7.5mmol/l. The first reading on the Sinocare meter was an unbelievable 9.4mmol/l. I cleaned my finger, and did another pin prick. This time the Sinocare meter read 8.9mmol/l. That is still a lot higher than the other two, but at least is just about a sane figure. I am hoping the Contour Plus meter I have ordered will be as reliable as the original Contour meter, and can replace the Sinocare meter as my third check figure.

  Today could be the perfect day to ruin my weight and blood glucose again. This afternoon should be a beer tasting with Jodie, and I expect I'll get drunk, drink nasty and sugary beers, and then eat to much afterwards. It is possible that more than Jodie will come here, and then with someone not spending most of the time glued to their phone, there might be enough conversation to distract me from excess boozing.

  Before all that there are a few things I might do. I will definitely have a shower, but maybe I don't need to wash my hair again today. Once I am clean and dressed I think I will go to the little supermarket on Catford Bridge to stock up on instant noodles (including another 5 pack or two of the Ko-Lee noodles that claim zero sugar content). I hope I also have time to do a little bit of laundry. I want to wash my light brown/khaki shorts. They are starting to get a bit smelly. While doing so I think it would be safe to wash a white t-shirt, and possibly light blue underpants as well (if there are any in the washing bag). I would hope to get it all hanging on the line in hot sunshine to dry.