08:09 BST

  Yesterday afternoon featured lots of sunny spells. There were a few other sunny spells, but they tended to be brief. Rain was forecast for midday, but I am sure it stayed dry. The afternoon temperature reached 12° C - which didn't feel too bad in the sunshine. By midnight the temperature had dropped to 7° C, and we had a cold night.
  The Met Office forecast said 6am would be just 3° C, and that was probably right because I saw some frost on one of the shed roofs a few gardens away from here. Both forecasters agree that today will be very sunny, and indeed there is strong sunshine as I type this, but the sky is not clear. To the north there seems to be a lot of white cloud, and there is possibly only about 50% of the southern sky that is blue. Hopefully the clouds will "burn off" to leave strong sunshine for most of the day. That should raise the temperature to 14° C this afternoon, or even a brief 16° C according to The Met Office (the screen shot above is of the BBC forecast). Tomorrow could be like today, only better. The afternoon temperature could reach 19° C !

   Yesterday was a pretty good day. I did a little shopping, and I did a bit of exercise, and I did some laundry as well as clearing the kitchen sink of a very small backlog of washing up.

  I guess there was something about yesterday that inspired me. The sunny spells were nice, but not exactly spectacular, and so it must have been something unknown that had me having a shower, and then going out shopping. Of course yesterday was Easter Sunday, and that limited the shopping I could do. The actual shop I wanted to visit first, Savers, was open, and I got some spare vitamins, some bleach, and a few other things - basically all I really wanted.

  I was going to go to Poundstretcher next, but they, like most of the shops, were closed. I thought that Poundland must surely be open, but after walking to and along the high street I found they too were closed. It made for a longer walk than I thought I would do, and while I didn't measure it, I estimated it to be almost a whole mile. I was certainly getting a bit of ankle pain by the time I got home.

  Once home I decided it was time for lunch (it was gone midday). I know I was intending to skip breakfast yesterday, but I am sure I did not do that. I am also sure I had just one, medium sized packet of instant noodles - maybe half of what I seem to have far too frequently lately. I blame buying instant noodles in bulk from a specialist Asian food wholesaler. Not ever flavour I bought is that tempting but many are.

  My lunch was two cheese and salad leaves rolls. I probably spoiled them by using too much butter. I have taken to leaving butter out of the fridge so it can spread more easily, and I think I probably spread a bit too much butter on those rolls. It was nice though ! I can't remember if it was before or after lunch that I did the washing up that had been left in the kitchen sink.

  After lunch I had a lie down, as I seem to do by habit now. I think I also had a short snooze. After I was rested I returned to something I should have mentioned a few paragraphs ago.... After my shower I put some laundry in to soak. It was a couple of t-shirts and many pairs of underpants. I didn't do the whole job, but I did get as far as the last rinse before taking a break.

  One reason for wanting to take a break then was that an idea had been buzzing around my head. Yesterday I finished the latest book I have been reading. It was "Speaker For The Dead" by Orson Scott Card, and was a sequel to "Enders Game". I wondered what other books Orson Scott Card had written, and had a look on Amazon. I found there was a 5 book boxed set of the "Enders Game" series, and so I have ordered it. Actually there are even more books in the series, and he also wrote other series. There is a bibliography here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card_bibliography.

  I am unsure how good a writer Orson Scott Card is. The one book I have read all the way through, "Enders Game" was sort of mixed. Sometimes it was not enjoyable, and yet I felt a strong need to know how it ended. I hope that the next book "Speaker For The Dead" turns out to be as good, but it could be more tedious, and if it is then I have just wasted money buying the 5 book, box set - two of the books I already own, although I have no idea when I bought them, and I have no memory of reading them when I did buy them (possibly from WH Smiths in Catford before they closed the branch a good 10 or more years ago).

  Another reason for taking a break from the laundry was to prepare my dinner. I was not sure what I would be having until I started preparing it. Actually that is not strictly true. I was looking forward to try some alternate potatoes to make some mash, and I had bought a bag of "Red Rooster" potatoes (which do have a red skin). Therefore part of my choice was already made, and mashed potato meant I would also be having sausages with it - I had an opened pack in the fridge that had to be eaten soon, and so that was one less choice to make.

  I was going to try and cut a long story short, but now I feel I have to say it all in a longer fashion, but still a bit shorter than a load of waffling. The Red Rooster potatoes did indeed make tastier mash than the other potatoes I bought (whose type must be on the bag they came in, and which I will try and remember to check before I finish them). Sadly it was all a bit spoiled by the timer sticking in my little oven again, and the sausages being over cooked (but fortunately before any bits were reduced to charcoal).

  One thing I am obviously not very good at is estimating how many potatoes to wash and cook (I don't bother peeling them). I selected three potatoes and two of them seemed small. It still made quite a pile of mash, and together with six sausages, it was rather a big and slightly stodgy meal...or maybe I should just say very filling. I also had a dessert of some Bakewell Tart flavour ice cream - very nice, but a lot less healthy than plain Vanilla (which is not exactly healthy to begin with).  At the time I regretted eating so much even if the end result was not actually that terrible.

  My evening was the usual watch stuff on TV. Sadly my enjoyment was very badly ruined, even devastated, by commercial breaks featuring ads for Bet Fair Casinos. They are vomit inducing. A man dressed as a complete Spiv attempts to influence the viewers that they should throw their money his way, and obviously it is to make him richer. I think Bet Fair Casinos should be first against the wall when the revolution comes !

  I was in bed, and I think I did a bit of reading, before slowly falling asleep around 10pm (or was it 11pm). I think  slept OK, but I did have one scare in the night. I was having a dream that seemed to feature my sisters and brothers. I can't quite remember what I was doing in the dream when I suddenly felt an urgent need to use the toilet. I knew that my sister had gone to the toilet 5 minutes earlier, and wondered if she had finished, or if there was another toilet I could use. As I started rushing to the toilet I could feel I was starting to lose the battle to stop any poo seeping out.

  I raced up the stairs to the toilet, and to me great relief my sister was just coming out of it. I rushed in expecting to see "skid marks" in my underwear, but happily there was none. It was as at that point that I woke up, and I was sure I woke up because dream was about to become reality. I raced to the toilet, and all that happened was a little fart. That reminds me of a little story of when I was out shopping.

  I should have mentioned this earlier because in a warped humour way, it is a funny story or not, depending on your point of view. I have to confess that I was a bit flatulent when I went out, but I thought I wouldn't fart more than once when I got walking. That was not true. I was in Savers when a bunch of late teen (at a guess) black girls came in the shop, and passed me just as I let a very smelly, small fart go (I had tried to bottle it, but I couldn't keep it in). My embarrassment was tempered by hearing one of the girls say "Sheena (at least I think that was the name), you've done it again. We need to buy some air freshener". "Sheena" protested her innocence, but it sounded like she had a reputation, and so she took the blame for me !

  Back to last night, or early this morning, and I also woke once or twice for a pee, but I did  not seem to be peeing that much. I wondered if I dare thing that maybe my blood glucose was moderately low after all the mashed potato and very sweet ice cream. After getting up I checked, and it was not that bad at all. It was the second lowest this month with an average of 7.33mmol/l from the three readings of 7.5 (good), 6.6 (very good), and 7.9mmol/l (good enough).

  My weight was initially not so good, but after two poos and a couple of pees I managed to get it down to a gain of 500gm. Of course that is not good at all, but I feared it could have been worse. I am going to try and make amends this morning, but the small handful of peanuts I had to help hold down the Cod Liver Oil  capsule, as part of my morning medication and vitamins, was probably almost as bad as having one small packet of instant noodles. MY blood pressure is descerbed as "Normal" on my blood pressure machine.

  I have a chance of losing a bit of weight today. I feel I ought to get out into the sunshine, and possibly even wearing shorts. 14° C is not very warm, but if the wind is light, and with the sun predicted to be at full strength, it may be just right for shorts. The unknown is how much walking I dare to try and do. I am still not happy that my ankles are getting strong enough for longer walks. I may have to do little more than home to Ladywell and back (or about 1.5 miles at best). The trouble is that is now a boring walk. I don't think I know what I am doing today until I am actually doing it !
   1961 words today.