07:06 BST

  This morning's weather forecast is looking like it may turn out about right, although it doesn't include any rain (although there was a reported chance of 10% for 6am), but my weather stations are convinced there will be rain today. Until late afternoon there may only be sunny spells, but there could be some full sunshine after that until sunset. The maximum temperature today could be 23° C, and that only for a single hour. One other thing about today's weather is that there is a lively breeze, and at the moment it feels quite chilly. Tomorrow may reach 24° C, but it is currently forecast to be a very dull day with only a few sunny spells in the early morning, and from mid evening.

   If my weight and blood glucose level are anything to go by, then my birthday celebrations yesterday must have been really good. They were better than some previous years, but nothing exciting, and I can only describe yesterday as a fairly pleasant sort of day.

  I started yesterday a lot earlier than usual, and it was because I was almost up at daybreak - which is very early around the the summer solstice. I tried for extra sleep, but mostly failed. The outcome of this early start was that I finished writing, had my usual post-writing rest, showered, and I as ready to go out by, or even slightly before 11am. In fact it may not have been much later than 10am (I could check a till receipt for a more accurate idea of the time).

  I headed out in the still cool morning air to get some shopping from the little supermarket on Catford Bridge - once known as TFC (Turkish food centre) but now identifies as PFC, which may, or may not, stand for Polish Food Centre. They stock a lot of stuff from all over Europe, and even stuff from Indonesia, Vietnam and Korea. The latter three is mostly instant noodles, but they have other stuff too.

  I was particularly after more instant noodles. I knew that those branded Ko-Lee claim zero sugar content, and I bought two 4 packs of those. I also found some 5 packs that I had never seen before. They turned out to be Turkish instant noodles, and they too claimed zero sugar content. I also bought other stuff, including some beers and sugar free soft drinks. Carrying a slightly heavy shopping bag did not seem to slow me down much.

  In some ways it is was also a pleasant walk back home. It was bright, slightly warm, but with a nice fresh breeze. I was wearing my latest Adidas trainers. They do seem to be getting a bit more comfortable after a few short walks in them. I have doubts they will never be comfortable for longer walks. One problem is that I bought one size too big because a half size (which usually seems to mean a wider fit) was not available. They feel a bit loose when walking in them, and that is never a good idea.

  After getting home I had a snack - it was closer to elevenses than lunch. It was some cheese and garlic flatbreads and some sun dried tomato flavoured humus.  The flatbreads actually say on the very front of the packet that they contain very little sugar. They were great for scooping out the humus, but I forgot to check the nutritional values for it. I now have a feeling that it's sugar content may be quite high.

  After elevenses I had a short rest, and then got back to some laundry I had left soaking in detergent after my shower. It was a pair of light brown (maybe pale brown is a better description) shorts, one white t-shirt and two pairs of underpants. That was not a lot to deal with, but I had to take a break to go to the toilet in the middle of the job. And I most definitely, with no room for error, went to the toilet. It was what I was hoping would pass when I woke up, but a lot more so !

  I finished doing the washing, and hung it all on the washing line just as the sun was disappearing behind ever thickening clouds. I wondered if my washing was going to get an extra unwanted rinse. Fortunately that didn't happen, and when I brought it all in around 5pm it was feeling bone dry and nice and warm because in the last 20 minutes there had been some nice sunshine on it.

  On the left is my "official birthday portrait", or selfie as most call them. I took it soon after coming back from my shower. I am definitely topless, but I promise you I had my shorts on lower down. At first I thought it looked OK, but the more I looked, the more annoyed I was that I hadn't tried to make my moustache looks a bit better tamed ! It looks lopsided, and too long and straggly over my top lip. I have since improved it.

  It was probably a little after 1pm, maybe as late as 2pm, when I had my pre-boozing, stomach lining, lunch. It was two Scotch Eggs. They were not the Tesco "Finest" Scotch Eggs, and so a little less nice. In fact I found them very unexciting. Maybe even a bit bland. Still, they filled a hole and may have slowed the effects of later boozing.

  I still had a couple of hours before Jodie, and maybe others, arrived to start the usual Sunday boozing, and which was actually my "official" birthday celebration, although that was not what I had intended. I didn't expect much more than a usual Sunday boozing session. I whiled away the wait by reading, resting, and I think I even had a short snooze.



   Jodie arrived a little after 3:30pm, and had brought a few birthday gifts for me, plus a birthday card. A few of the birthday gifts were last minute stuff she saw while she was shopping for her lunch on her way over. One item was a 6 pack of Marmite flavoured potato puffs. They were quite nice, but I feel they tend to err on the side of caution when doing these Marmite flavoured things. As a seasoned Marmite eater I would have like a far stronger flavour.

  Another thing was a packet of Shropshire Blue cheese. I did eat some as part of my dinner later on, and it was nice, but typical of many blue cheeses rather than being in some way special. It struck me as a strange present. Even stranger was a punnet of Kumquats. They are a strange fruit like a miniature orange - so small that they are eaten whole. I'm not sure if I like them or not. I had one yesterday, and it was possibly the first I have ever tried. I did know that you eat them whole,  and maybe that suggests I have had one before. I found it a little too tart for my tastes, but it is other wise strangely pleasant.

  Jodie started off the boozing with some of a glass of ice cold water - she was hot after getting here. I had only been out when itw as a bit cooler earlier in the morning, but I didn't feel like it was a very warm day yesterday. I started with a can, bought earlier in the morning, of sugar free "Shandyade". I have to admit I found it to be better than most of the beers we later drunk - except for one. That one was a very special chocolate stout.

  To be precise, it was Imperial Chocolate, Carob and Blackberry stout. It was rather nice, but the downside is that it probably accounted for over 50% of my entire sugar consumption yesterday, and hence was very bad for me. Oh well, it was my birthday, and it was a beer I had ordered months go when my blood glucose was far better controlled.

  Initially Jodie had a lot to say, but as usual it wasn't long before all her attention was on her phone where she was "doom scrolling" Instagram and other similar type things. Occasionally she would surface for air, and say a few sentences. She did make up for it in one way. She had given me one more present, and it was my actual present, the other things just being last minute supplements.

  It was a bottle of when she thought was a Japanese whisky, but it was actually a Scottish whisky brewed by the well know whisky distillers Dewar and Sons. The Japanese confusion was because it was brewed using some Japanese adjuncts, and matures in Japanese oak casks. We both tried a little tot of it just before Jodie went to get her train to London Bridge (where she was meeting one or more people to go to a gig in Camden). We both decided it was a very nice, smooth whisky !

  I had an aspiration to try and not eat anything that was bad for me last night. I had not prepared anything in advance. I am not sure why on a warm evening I wanted something hot, something like a real dinner. Well it was not like a "real" dinner, but was two 70gm (medium small) packets of Turkish, chicken flavour instant noodles. They were from the packet of five I had bought in the morning, and it seemed like the perfect time to test them. Chicken is usually a bit of bland flavour for instant noodles, but this time it seemed those noodles were quite nice.

  In an ideal, and maybe sober world, even if I didn't feel drunk at all, I would have stopped eating after those noodles, but I wanted a sort of dessert. I didn't have anything that could be called a dessert, but I did have one more course. It was more cheese and garlic flatbreads used to scoop out coleslaw from a small pot. It feels odd how it was not very nice, and yet I felt compelled to eat all that small pot of coleslaw.

  Last night did not offer much TV entertainment, and I found other amusements until 8pm when Dave was showing another old edition of Have I Got News For You. It was a pretty good edition, and I did have the choice of watching another, and if I was feeling very masochistic I could have watched an edition/episode of QI, but at 9pm I switched off the TV, and read in bed until I felt sleepy - which did not take all that long.

  Last night was much cooler then recent nights, and it seemed too cool to leave the window open, but I did leave the fan on low because my bedroom had soaked up so much heat over the last few days that it was quite warm inside (it was still warm when I got up this morning). It was either just before it got dark, or when it was semi dark when I fell asleep. I had the usual calls to go for a pee in the night, but otherwise I slept well - until it started getting light.

  Sunrise was at 4:43am this morning, and I woke up just as it was getting light. It was the same as the morning before. Like the morning before there was one thing that stopped me getting back to sleep. For the last two morning I woke to the sound of mouse trying to gnaw a hole between the edge of the floorboards and wainscoting. At least I think that is what I was hearing. I thought I had cured that problem by using sealant on any tiny crack I could fill, and I had not heard anything for ages, but now the mouse seems to be back.

  I am sure it can't be the same mouse. Even if it was going to the other end of the house, and down into the kitchen, there is no evidence of it eating anything down there. There was a mouse in the kitchen that I first caught using my trail cameras, and then more literally caught in a mouse trap. Since then I have seen nothing to show a mouse has been in my kitchen - nothing nibbled and no droppings. What can the mouse under the floorboards be eating, and surely it must need some sort of water. One possibility is that what I am hearing is coming through the wall from next door, but it is still annoying, and sort of disturbing - mainly sleep disturbing.

  Had I got some good sleep for an extra hour or two this morning, there would have been a good chance I may have had an extra pee, and possibly the same poo I had just after my breakfast. If it all happened before breakfast I would have weighed myself again, but as it stands it seems I have put back on 600gm. That is annoying. The only good thing is that I can probably lose that again in a day or two.
 
  Controlling my blood glucose is getting harder. Some of the beer I had yesterday probably had a fairly high sugar content, and the chocolate stout probably had a lot of sugar in it. Whatever the reason, my blood glucose has shot up again. The Contour meter read 9.6mmol/l, and that may still be just under the red line, but it is extremely undesirable. The GlucoRX meter read 9.7mmol/l, and that is getting way to close to the red line. The Sinocare meter crossed the red line with a reading of 10.4mmol/l.

  I should be fasting until dinner time, but I did have a breakfast of two packets of instant noodles. They are supposed to not have any sugar in them, but if I had to have something, I should have had a single packet. I am unsure why I felt I wanted even one, let alone two. My only hope is to go out on a semi long walk today, but there is a problem. It is not confirmed yet, but there are strong hints that my first order from Aliexpress will be delivered today. It was supposed to have arrived at Evri's depot on Saturday, and in theory it should be out for delivery today. Evri are not good at providing much advance notice of when they will deliver - sometimes a one hour slot advised after the clock is already ticking for that slot. Until that packet arrives it feels like I can do nothing in the way of going out for a walk or anything similar.