The curious thing is that yesterday the BBC were predicting fog and mist for today. This morning the Met Office forecast mist last all day today. The BBC now say it will be clear, although an hour or so ago I could just about make out a slight haze in the air. Another thing not shown on this morning's forecast is some fine drizzly rain. I felt it myself an hour ago, and it looks like it might be still falling. Oh well, back to the fantasy of the forecast. It is going to be grey all day, and the afternoon's temperature should peak at 9° C. Tomorrow is predicted to be a 1° C cooler version of today.
   After sometimes struggling to take decent photos in the gloom of the day before yesterday, I decided I would not go out yesterday. The surprising thing is that it seemed to be an OK day rather than the depressing day I expected. I was even a little bit productive.

  The chance of any visitors yesterday was so incredibly low that I did not bother to wash, or put on any clean clothes. After I finished writing I had a nice rest, but I realised I would have to stir myself at some point, and so I finally got back to the laundry I had left soaking since the previous morning. It was the under sheet and pillows I had taken off my bed a week or three ago.

  The pillowcases were easy, but hand washing the sheet was not so easy, but I did it all in one session. However, I wish I had treated a few stains on the sheet before I left it soaking. I think they were blood stains, but I can't seem to recall where I was leaking when I got blood on the sheet. I will have to try and remember to use some stain remover the next time I wash that sheet.....on the other hand I might throw it away. Compared to the sheet on my bed now, which is almost silky smooth, the old sheet feels very rough with loads of tiny "bobbles" on it in many places.

  I spent a lot of time reading yesterday. It was about the only reliable entertainment. There was very little to amuse me on the internet, and TV was terrible until the evening. It did make my attempt at fasting very tricky with no distractions, but I almost managed it to my satisfaction. I did give in a bit early when my stomach was growling and feeling sort of acidy. I had dry, apart from mustard, creme crackers with ham on them for a mid afternoon snack.

  I can't remember the order of things, but I think I probably started washing a hand towel before I had my mid afternoon snack. That towel had been used in the kitchen for far too long, and was getting a bit whiffy, and also a bit greasy. I decided to pour Vanish stain remover over it before I added hot water and bio detergent. I have never seen that stain remover froth up like it did yesterday ! Once I added hot water and bio detergent it would put a bubble bath to shame !

  It would seem logical that I would have my mid afternoon snack after I left that towel soaking in all the bubbles. When I go back to it later it seemed to take endless rinses to get down to only a light bit of froth. I did it in two stages, and gave up a rinse or two short because I had become bored with it. I had no room on the big clothes horse (which had the pillow cases and sheet on it), and I had to use the small clothes horse. I put that in my bedroom, and the towel seem to almost completely dry in quite a short time with the heater on low blowing at it.

  Somehow I had kept myself busy enough that I didn't turn on the TV to watch Star Trek: The New Generation at 4pm on Sky Mix. I did turn the TV to watch Star Trek: The original series at 5pm on the legend Channel. As that can to an end at 6pm, and it was an episode I remember fairly well from many years back, I prepared my dinner during the last commercial break, and didn't finish the preparation until maybe 5 minutes after the commercial break ended.
  As I mentioned yesterday, "if covid has taught us anything, it is that a Scotch Egg is considered a substantial meal". In fact I cheated when I took the above picture. I tried to make my Xmas dinner look as frugal as possible, but in fact there were two Scotch Eggs in the pack I bought, and I ate both of them. I followed that with an apple, and then some sugar free choc chip cookies.

 There are plenty more arguments, mostly pro Scotch Eggs being a "substantial" meal, to be read here https://duckduckgo.com/?q=scotch+egg+a+substantial+meal&ia=web

  After watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which was a very weird episode, and not exactly enjoyable, plus Star Trek: Voyager, which was pretty terrible, I turned the TV off, and my thoughts turned to bed. It was only 8pm at that point, and that seemed a bit too early. I had a flick around on the internet, and then retired to bed to read. I read for a bit longer than usual because I was very near the end of the book. After finishing the book I turned the light out, and I don't recall it taking that long before I was asleep, I also don't recall what time that was, but at a guess it was probably not much later than just gone 9pm.

  I am still unsure if lots of probably short dreams, even if almost instantly forgotten, makes for a good or bad sleep. It feels like I probably slept well. I got up every 2 or 3 hours for a pee, as usual, but I don't recall not falling asleep again within minutes of getting back into bed - except at around 5am, but being relatively close to getting up time, that may not count.

  One thing I did last night that I forgot to mention, was to take a couple of laxative tablets. I didn't "go" at all yesterday. It may have been because I had eaten so little, compared to normal, the day before. I took the laxative tablets just in case, and also in the knowledge that I won't be going out today, and so I can always be within a minute or so of the toilet. This morning nothing has happened, although it feels like something is astir.

  Not going may be because once again there is little to pass. This morning, definitely helped by some good peeing in the night, my weight is close to the lowest weight I have been all year. This morning I was 300gm lower than yesterday, and yesterday I was 500gm lower than the morning before. My walk the day before may have helped that 500gm loss, but it does seem I have been doing rather well without exercise. I can only imagine what might happen if we had some warm sunny days coming soon.

  My blood glucose measurements threw up some surprises this morning.  The contour meter read a very good 8.1mmol/l. The GlucoRX read an extremely good 7.5mmol/l, and that is spot on for my new, but very rarely achieved recently, target. The Sinocare meter I had to take 3 readings before I got one I believed. The first reading was using the last dregs of my first finger prick of blood. It gave a reading of just 4.7mmol/l. That would be really wonderful if it were true. I massaged my finger, and got more blood out, and this time it read 9.4mmol/l, and that was too high. I pricked another finger and that time it gave a reading of 7.9mmol/l. That was more in line with the other two, and probably believable.

  I had to take two readings of my blood pressure this morning. The meter glitched in some way on the first reading, and just showed error code E20, and I have never really worked out what that means. I gave the meter a shake and tried again. After the error code I expected the reading to be a bit high because I had spoiled my relaxation. In fact the reading was 108/55. If I had tried to relax a bit more I could have got that down a bit, but it seemed pretty good as it was, and so left it there.

  Today I will try and eat as frugally as I can, but there is a difficulty. It is Thursday and Jodie said that she may still come over using a bus because there are still no trains today on this local part of the rail network. With booze involved all attempts at fasting will mostly fail. Even if Jodie decides at the last minute not to come over, I expect I'll still be drinking with Michael. One factor makes it seem almost certain Jodie will be coming is that I have a box of beers from her favourite brewery sitting here, and she will be desperate to fondle them !

  I better have a shower if I am expecting guests today. I'll probably wash my hair too, but mostly I will probably spend most of the waiting time just reading.