We have already had one sunny spell in advance of the first predicted for 9am this morning. It doesn't look impossible that we could get another before then. The general outlook is "cloudy", and no sunny spells are predicted for after 9am, but I suspect that may be wrong, and the sun might break through for a few minutes, or more, any time during the day. Once again a cool-ish day is predicted with a top temperature of just 21° C. Tomorrow may see 23° C, but otherwise will probably be the same as today.

   Yesterday was different to how I imagined it, although the basic idea of what I actually did was briefly thought about, but not in any great detail. During the morning I proceeded with my plan (plan ? desire ? intention ?) to go out, and get more pictures of trains while travelling to Watford Junction - another limit of free travel on my Freedom Pass, but it was not to be.

  What actually happened was that I left home to walk to the station, and I had barely gone 5 paces before it rained on me. That dampened my desire, although the rain was too light to actually dampen me. What it did do was to remind me that the weather forecast was basically fantasy, but worse than that, that I hadn't bothered to see what sort of weather I might expect on my travels. I would not expect to see accurate forecasts, but if the weather looked as variable as it did in Catford, then maybe it would not be a happy journey.

  I did have a plan B, and turned around and walked the few paces back home. I went in and exchanged my camera for my rucksack, and went out again. All that took 2 minutes, and of course the rain had completely stopped by then, and I wouldn't actually see any for the rest of the day. My plan B was to go to Savers. I had been wanting to visit there to particularly buy a couple of tubes of Arm & Hammer sensitive toothpaste.

  Having recently started using a new toothbrush I also had a look at what "Sensitive" toothbrushes they had. I didn't actually see what had hoped for, but I did see a couple that looked suitable, and bought those. I also bought some bleach for the toilet. Some stuff that I thought was shower gel, but was actually described as bath body soak, or something like that, but I am sure it will work just as well as shower gel.

  There were a couple of other minor things in my shopping basket, and it all ended up in my rucksack for ease of carrying it home. Just opposite Savers is the new Catford Library. It opened yesterday, and to mark the occasion there was a steel band to make a tremendous racket while people were trying to shop. Lewisham Council are a very inclusive council for all the borough residents, but presumably they think that Catford is somewhere in the Caribbean. That probably explains why the attendance or rock gigs in The Catford Ram/The Black Cat were always so poor.

  When I got all my stuff home, and put away in the correct places, I had a rest. I also broke my fast with a 25gm bag of "Spicy Thai" flavour Ringos (another purchase from Savers). Just that little bag would inspire me to have some cheese on rice cakes later in the afternoon. I read for a while, and I think I almost had a snooze, but something was nagging at my mind. It was to investigate where the sounds of gnawing in the night were coming from.

  The first thing I had to do was to move all my cameras, in their padded bags, plus other photography stuff, out of my bedroom, and into the spare room. That revealed a lot of thick dust, but little else initially. One of the first positive things I found was a Smart Media memory card that must have dropped down the back of the table. It must have been a good few years ago when I last did anything using cameras that use the rare, and now very expensive Smart Media memory cards. I have a vague recollection that I thought I had more than I could find.

  The only sad thing is that when I extracted the card, in a small storage box, from the dust, and checked it on my PC, I found it to be blank. That was a brief distraction from the next step which was to get the hoover out. There was so much dust, and hair, that wasn't very obvious until it was disturbed. Then it was obvious not from it spreading, but the amount the hoover was sucking up. I had to empty the hoover once, and clear a blockage in it's pipe on one occasion. Finally I could get a good view of what I expected to see.
  What I saw did raise more questions than answers. This picture tells a lot. but it may not be obvious. The white area is the skirting board, and the grey is the carpet that still has balls of fluff on it because I stopped hoovering for a moment when I realised I could see what I was expecting. Towards the bottom left of the skirting board there is a hole, and most of the hole is where the carpet has been chewed away, but you can see some of the skirting board has been chewed away.

  That hole is exactly where I thought I heard the noises in the night. There is another smaller hole to the right of the picture, and across the whole width of the skirting board there is a gap visible. Although it was way back in 1983 when I laid my bedroom carpet I can still remember thinking is was a bit useful the skirting board having that gap because I didn't have to make such an accurate cut to the edge of the carpet. I could just push the carpet into the gap, but it seems a mouse has taken advantage of it too !

  It was hot work doing all that hoovering. To make it worse, while I had the hoover out, I gave much of my bedroom a quick once over. I did pay particular attention to under my desk where I sometime drop crumbs and stuff, I gave that a good going over with the hoover to pick up anything that looked like food. At the end I was sweating profusely from my forehead, but also from my hands. I don't think I ever realised my hands could sweat so much, but when I took off the rubber gloves I was wearing they were dripping wet.

  My initial thought was to cover the hole, and gap under the skirting board, with duct tape, and I did try to do that, but access was so difficult that I could not do a good enough job. Even if I had cleared the tabletop, and moved the table out of the way, it would still mean going down on all fours as I tried to get the duct tape in place. I decided a better solution was to use some proper filler, and that is what I did.

  The big unanswered question was whether I had trapped the mouse under the floorboards, or if it was hiding in my bedroom somewhere. The only positive thing I can say is that at no time have a smelled rodent pee in my bedroom. That suggests it does not have a nest in my bedroom. In fact I haven't smelled rodent pee anywhere in the house for years, but I know that there is at least one mouse at large in my home somewhere.

  I was still very hot some time after finishing the job, and I laid down with the fan on me to cool off. After a while I decided it was time for a quick snack because dinner time was still some way off. I had four more rice cakes with ham on two of them, and cheese on the other two. I think my cheese intake, via these rice cakes, was probably a bit high yesterday. The next thing I did was to have a search on Amazon for plastic storage drawers.

  One thing I always seem to lack is sufficient storage space. With a bit more I could attempt to keep the table in front of my bedroom windows clear. I thought the Amazon prices were rather high compared to Poundstretcher, but I did find a set of drawers that looked to be identical to the ones they usually have in Poundstretcher. The cost a couple of Pounds more, but that was sort of worth it of I didn't have to carry them all the way from Poundstretcher. The only catch is that some product reviews say the drawer were a lot smaller than expected. The product page doesn't say specifically if the measurements were in mm or cm. If it was in cm then they are exactly the size I want. If it was mm than I can still use them for something, but I think I will be getting the ones I actually want from Poundstretcher.

  Eventually it was time for dinner, and to watch the Simpsons on Channel 4+1 while I ate my dinner. It was a simple dinner of lettuce leaves and both ham and haslet. The ham was the remainder in the packet, just a couple of slices, after using the rest on top of rice cakes. I dressed the salad leaves with balsamic dressing. It was a fairly tasty dinner, and I don't think I ate anything more later.

  The only other thing I might have watched on TV last night was QI, but it was a Xmas themed edition, and I didn't really like any of the guests. I opted for reading in bed quite early. I think I tried to get to sleep as early as 9.30pm, but it may have been as late as 11pm before I fell into a fitful sleep. I didn't hear any gnawing last night, but I was wearing ear plugs to attempt to get a better sleep. I did think I heard a few rustlings from behind my computer desk, but I also heard a light thump. I am certain that was next door, and maybe the rustling noise I heard once or twice could have been next door as well (maybe wishful thinking).

  My first few hours of sleep were very poor, and I seemed to wake up at least once an hour, and maybe every half hour ! From about 3.30pm, after the presumed peak time for mouse activity, and still no gnawing sounds, I was able to stert getting some better sleep. The only problem by then is that it was starting to feel a bit cool. I didn't want to go into the spare room to drag my duvet back because I knew the duvet would be far to hot. What I did do was to use my very seldom used dressing gown to partly cover me, and that seemed warm enough.

  I was up earlier than I thought I would be this morning. It wasn't long before I had a pleasant surprise. My blood glucose reading was just 8.0mmol/l. That is most satisfactory, and maybe another hint that the string of high readings I had were the result of something like fighting an infection. It is all the more remarkable considering I thought I ended up eating far more than intended yesterday.

  One other thing that happened yesterday was that I got a text massage from the hospital to say my diabetic eye test, originally booked for 11.25am today has been deferred after they had an I.T. calamity of some sort. I have been promised another appointment at the earliest opportunity. That means my original plans for today have changed, and maybe changed for the better. I can spend a bit longer getting ready to go out at lunch time to meet Angela for a drink. That assumes that Angela is at work. It is possible she may not be if all their I.T. systems have failed, although it seems their telephone system may still be working. After lunch I can be as lazy as I want to be - if I want to be !

P.S. It is 9.20am, and we are still getting some hazy sunshine - enough to cast a feint shadow, and the temperature seems to have risen to 22° C already. I think today's weather has the potential to be better than faorecast.