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Wednesday 29th April 2026
08:57 BST

 
Yesterday started off quite dull, and it was forecast to rain. It looked like it might rain, but it turned out to be ompletely dry. The afternoon started with some sunny spells, and they turned to full sunshine after an hour or two. The afternoon temperature reached 16° C.  With some wind from the north east it did not feel as warm as 16° C should have. Incidently, that wind seemed stronger and colder in the morning as it came whistling through the slightly open window in the bathroom !
 BBC_weather forecast
   It is sunny now, and it has been sunny since sunrise. The sunshine should continue until sunset. The sky will be clear blue all day, and with a brief peak of 17° C this afternoon it should make for a very nice day. The good weather should continue tomorrow with sunshine all day long, and the afternoon reaching 19° C tomorrow. Things could change a lot before the day after tomorrow arrives, but the current forecast says the day will start with full sunshine, but by 2pm some cloud will reduce the full sunshine to sunny spells. By 5pm we may see the first rain in quite a few days now.

  Yesterday was a mixed sort of day - as many/most are, Some of it was good. Some of it was bland, and I can't seem to think of anything that was actually bad. It would be fair to say it was not a terribly dynamic sort of day, and I had plenty of opportunities to be lazy, even if lazy was actually reading a book.

  One thing that pre-occupied me a lot yesterday was keeping an eye on the progress on my latest order of stuff from Aliexpress in China. I must admit that I did get a bit excited, albeit in a negative way, for a while until I considered what I had read more carefully. It seemed like my order might be delivered today. As much as I look forward to fondling what I have bought, I am happy to be a tiny bit more patient. If, as I thought for a while, it would be delivered today, it would interfere with my desire to go to The Jolly Farmers today. I think a deliver tomorrow is still possible.

  One more concrete thing I did yesterday was to do the sort of clear up and cleaning I usually do in a panic on days when Jodie, and others visit for a beer tasting session. It is particularly important for when Jodie is here. She always brings her lunch with her to eat at the start of the drinking session. It usually has to be cooked, and that needs a relatively tidy kitchen. I also have to wash and polish the beer glasses. I did all that yesterday, and won't have to clean and polish the beer glasses tomorrow. I'll probably still have to do the kitchen cleaning.

  I seemed to spend a lot of the day being very lazy, apart from my little cleaning spree in the kitchen. I spent a fair time laying on my bed reading, and even had one or more snoozes. Of course there were a few distractions from that, and that does not include keeping an eye on my email, and following the links to see the latest progress of my Aliexpress order(s). One short distraction was dealing with another big spider in the bathroom.

  I don't think I mentioned it, but a couple of days ago I tried the effect of fly spray on a big spider on the bathroom ceiling. It did not seem to kill it, but it did seem to semi stun it. I fell off the ceiling into the bathtub. It didn't seem to have a lot of fight in it, and it was easy to wash it down the plughole. Yesterday the big (but I admit it was not HUGE) spider was on the wal above the door. Once again I gave it a blast of fly spray. It tried to run a bit, but fell off the wall onto the floor. It made a bit of a mess, but my size elevens made sure it will never invade my bathroom again.

  The only other interruptions to my advanced laziness practise were meal times. I find I am having difficulties remembering what I had for lunch. I have a theory that if I keep typing I will eventually remember. Maybe it is working - up to a point. I am sure I had a packet of "Triple Cheese Sandwiches". I think I had a large oat and raisin cake as well (a flat thing more like a soft biscuit than a cake).

  I do remember my dinner in all details. It was going to be bangers and mash, but it changed half way through to a vegetarian meal (although far from vegan). The mash was to use up some potatoes that were old enough to smoke (probably) and were sprouting lots of suckers. They would have made great seed potatoes ! I had a small bag in the fridge, and despite being chilled, and mostly inn the dark, they were really sprouting badly. The others were just in a bag on the work surface, and were younger and not sprouting so badly.

  I boiled them up in a Pyrex casserole dish in the microwave, and once soft I mashed them with a fork, and plenty of real butter. I also sprinkled on some dried mint. Once the mash was ready I put it on the side, and started to cook just 4 sausages (it could have been six, or even more, but somehow I restrained myself).

   I am still getting used to my new mini oven. It does sometime seem hotter than the old one, and the last time I cooked sausages in it they splattered grease everywhere, and when it got onto the hot heating elements it turned to smoke. I found the whole kitchen looked hazy from that smoke. This time I covered the baking tray with foil, and folded more foil over the sausages. That stopped them burning, and stopped grease splattering everywhere. They also looked to be not done very well, although I am sure they were actually cooked enough.

  It was because I was ready to eat the mash, but not the sausages that I came up with what was probably a good idea. I added a small pile of frozen garden peas, and lightly folded them into the mash. I then gave them another 10 minutes in the microwave to cook the peas. Meanwhile, I decided I would save the sausages to make some sausage in deli rolls for today. I think the mashed potato, with the butter and peas was almost a balanced meal. I know it was rather nice, even if a bit monotonous.

  I ate dinner while watching the 6 O'clock news. I think it was when the news finished that it seemed to be dark outside. Hmm, I think I got that wrong. Sunset was around 8pm last night. At that rate it must have been after Star Trek that it seemed dark enough to draw the curtains. As I did so I saw there was an almost full moon that was in clear view when looking out the window. I grabbed my Nikon D300S camera and 300mm zoom lens, and after putting on a shirt I went out.
not
                                          quite full moon
  I think I read somewhere that the full moon is still 3 or 4 days away, but there was a lot of moon on show last night. The clear sky was very handy even if it allowed the temperature to drop during the night (although not terribly low).With hindsight I should have used my Nikon D610 because it is a higher resolution camera, and I could have cropped the image a lot more to give a more close up effect. I shall do that tonight if the sky seems clear, and the moon is in a good position. For the moment, my picture here is a lot better than any mobile phone can manage - they don't have the zoom capability, and most can't be set for the best sensitivity. They see the huge expanse of black and go to their most sensitive. That is why so many attempt I see show the moon terribly over exposed and all detail missing. I'm not saying my picture is perfect, far from it, but it's not bad for an amateur.

  After the usual TV I went to bed fairly late. Like the night before, I did not try to read much, and preferred to try for sleep fairly soon after getting into bed. I can't be sure, but it feels like I went to sleep very quickly last night. I don't seem to recall getting up for a pee more than twice - which is not that often these days. That was surprising because among my evening pills/medication I added a single Furosemide diuretic pill. They usually get me peeing many time in the night.

  Some extra peeing may have been good last night because it would make my weight look better. This morning I seem to have put on 700gm. This is not good, but I seem to lack the will power to do anything about it. Maybe, or in fact almost certainly, it is because so many days are rather humdrum at the moment. I am living just to see the things I have ordered from China, and almost no other reason.

  On a more positive note, and a potential reason why I didn't shift a few hundred grams, or more, was because my blood glucose is reasonably low this morning. I had readings of 7.3, 7.9, and 7.5mmol/l this morning, and that averages to 7.57mmol/l. It is not my lowest average for this this month, but is sort of average of the averages. This could be improved, but is good enough.

  As noted further up the page, I seem to be in the clear (i.e. no expected deliveries today) to go and enjoy an hour or two in The Jolly Farmers, and also, hopefully, enjoy a sunny walk in the park today. The only potential negative thing is that it seems my hay fever is back this morning. My nose is very twitchy, and I have even sneezed once or twice. It could be pollen blowing off what may be a cherry tree in the garden behind mine. I suspect that I will actually fare better in the fresh air - even if that sound counter-intuitive. The truth will be revealed later.

  One other negative thing this morning is that I have yet to have a poo, and while I am not really in any discomfort, it does feel a lot like constipation, and the sort of constipation that I would prefer to pass in the privacy of my own toilet rather than grunting and groaning in the pub toilet. I am relying on the fact that things usually come to pass before I am due to go out - ideally before I wash my hair and have a shower.
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