This morning was another cold morning after a cold night. I think my thermometers agreed it was between 11 and 12° C at  6am. A mix of sunshine and sunny spells (nearly all sunny spells) should warm the afternoon up to 23° C. It is possible tonight will be less cold than last night, but only by a degree or two. Tomorrow will be almost the same as today, but one small change is that the afternoon is only expected to reach 21° C.

  Yesterday was not a good day except for two occasions, and both those occasions, or waiting for them, was the reason why the rest of yesterday was not that good.

  My day started with the need to watch what I was eating because both my weight and blood glucose readings were not good. At this point in time I can't seem to remember, but worse than that is that I may be mixing up yesterday morning with the morning before.

  When checking my spreadsheets I see that my blood glucose was actually good yesterday, but I had definitely gained 400gm. By itself that is not bad, but I seemed to be getting too many small gains, and of course lots of little things add up to a big thing. I think I allowed myself one small packet of instant noodles yesterday morning. It was partly because I was feeling hungry, but more to do with having something to stop myself burping up the taste of the cod liver oil capsule I had with my morning medication. I hate that fishy taste !

  I was on high alert yesterday morning, and some way into the afternoon. The reason was that I was expecting one parcel delivered by Royal Mail, and I hoped that I would also get a small packet from China being delivered by Evri. I incorrectly assumed the small packet from China would be small enough to fit through my letter box, but it was rather lavishly packed.

  I was so distracted by waiting that it seemed that I had no more than a very small snack for lunch. It might have been two very small 25gm packs of Hula Hoops - known by me to have a very low sugar content. The great distraction was waiting for my new zoom lens to be delivered. I knew the important specs, but I had no idea just how big and heavy it was until it was finally delivered at around 2.30pm. After that I had a new distraction - playing with the new lens.
  This picture shows nothing to indicate the scale, but the new lens and camera were at least 18 inches long. I think I read somewhere that the lens itself weighs 1.3kg. Most of the weight is in the big lens at the front, and that makes it very unbalanced. There should have been a bracket near the camera lens so it could be attached to a tripod at about the centre of balance. That was not included for some reason. Maybe it was an optional extra that the original owner did not order, although I think it more likely that it had got lost or something.

  The best way to show the capabilities of this lens is to show some test snaps.
  As a reference I took this picture with a 50mm non zoom lens. It is special as it has a very wide aperture, and it was my first attempt to get better pictures in dull pubs without resorting to using flash. These days I just use my big flash gun. Inside the red circle on the picture is a single chimney pot (that is only just about visible), and that was my target for the rest of the pictures.
  This snap was taken with my previously biggest lens - a 300mm zoom lens. I have several because they are quite cheap on the second hand market. It is also a fairly light lens, and that makes using it simple.
  It is easy to see how much difference it makes to use my new 500mm zoom lens. I must admit that it was tricky taking this picture with the weight of the lens making me wanting let the lens droop. Although this sized lens is in the same class, or at least getting there, as used by Daily Mail photographers to get compromising pictures of celebrities from a great distance, I sort of imagined I would be using it more to get pictures of small birds at the top of big trees. I am not sure that will actually be practical. Close ups of squirrels may be a better bet provided they pose for me.

  One interesting thing that I have only just realised, is that it is a 50 to 500mm lens, and at minimum zoom it would give the same size picture as that I took through the non zoom 50mm lens. It is not exactly wide angle, but quite wide enough for almost every day uses. Of course the most interesting thing is the weight of the lens. It can only be described as blood heavy. I am going to have to make sure that my camera strap is going to strong enough if it has to support both the camera and lens. I will also have to make sure my neck is strong enough if I treat it like any other lens !

  Later yesterday, although much earlier than estimated, at about 5.30pm, my special "Hydrogen Light" lens filter was delivered. As expected it is a very delicious deep red colour. The idea is that it will only let through the light produced by Hydrogen fusing in/on the sun, and in theory it should reveal things like sunspots etc. I don't know how the filter is made. It could be just a deep red lacquer coating, but I wonder if it more complex than that. It could be built up from ultra thin layers of different metals or oxides.....or something. I have yet to try it, but maybe I might manage it today if I can still see the sun in the sky.

  Like the night before, when  I ate a chicken shish kebab, I had a lamb shish kebab for my dinner last night. I ate it cold, and it was not quite as good as when hot, but still very nice, and still very low sugar, and possibly even low calorie content too. I thought it safe enough to have two nectarines and a cherry flavour Magnum ice cream bar for a dessert.  It made for a nice dinner, and I don't think I felt tempted to eat any more after that.

  I watched some TV last night, but I was in bed readings by about 10pm. By 11pm I had put the book down, and fallen asleep. I really can't think of much to say about my sleep. I think I got up for a big pee at some point. I am very sure I had a dream, but I can't seem to remember a thing about it. It was another morning when I woke up just a little bit too early to stay up, and after a few small things I went back to bed, and slept for another hour, and maybe two. I am fairly sure that is when I remember having a dream that left no memories !

  The way my guts are gurgling, fizzing and generally being noisy this morning, strongly suggest that sooner of later I will be having a possibly explosive poo, but that has not happened yet (beyond a few farts). Even so, the scales say I am 800gm lighter this morning, That is rather good news. I wish I could afford a shish kebab for dinner every day.

  The very best thing this morning is my blood glucose. It is not low enough to raise any concerns, but it is low enough to celebrate this morning - except the sort of way I would like to celebrate would unravel the reason for it. This morning the average of all three readings was 6.03mmol/l. Just one day in January, and one day in March showed very slightly lower readings. This morning I used a very rare colour code on my spreadsheet. Two readings were in the bright yellow, and they were both 5.7mmol/l. It seems that a lamb shish kebab and my Ozempic injections are a potent combination.

  The main thing on today's menu should be a beer tasting session with Jodie late this afternoon. We can crack open a few of the new beers, and se how they taste. One or two look nice, and one or two look like they will be nasty, but you never know until yo try them. Other stuff today has to include finishing the laundry that has outstayed it's welcome in the big bucket in the bath. I think I need to wash my hair and have a shower. If I have time I might dash out to Tesco, but I still have grilled chicken wings with salad from the takeaway the other day for my dinner, and I can wait until tomorrow for any shopping. I guess I'll make up most of today as I go along.