09:35 BST

  My outside, radio connected, thermometer were reading very slightly different at 6am this morning. All but one, which probably has some other source of warmth (maybe a better view of the sky) tended to agree it was just over 11° C, and that perilously close to single figures - aka bloody chilly for August. The good thing is that the forecast sunshine turns out to be what we are having right now, and it looks like it will last longer than the forecast end at 10am. There may be a few dull hours to come, but most of the rest of daylight hours shows sunny spells. We could see a warm-ish 21° C by late afternoon. Tomorrow may start at 15° C with sunny spells, but most of the day may be dull, and it may only rise to 20° C in the late afternoon. It is looking like Monday may be the last day of summer - unless we have an Indian summer.

  I expected that I would have time to go shopping in Tesco yesterday, but yesterday, very much like today, was one of those days where everything seems to be in slow motion. I did get most things, that needed doing, done, but shopping was not one of them.

  I wrote 2,147 words yesterday morning, but I think I finished writing a little earlier than expected. One thing that held me back was deciding to look up Robert Silverberg on Wikipedia. He was the author of the book I finished reading the day before yesterday. It was a strange book, but I enjoyed it, and I wondered what else Robert Silverberg had written. The answer was "quite a lot !". I decided to make up a spreadsheet to list all his main novels (he also has a fair few collections to his name and other similar stuff). It is my intention to purchase more of his novels, and tick them off my spreadsheet (as I have done to quite a few other authors).

  When that small project was done I could only spare a little while for a rest, and than I had to finish rinsing two hand towels I had started washing the previous day. That was a very tedious job, and I think I gave up early, before the rinse water was running completely clear and froth free. Hopefully they won't suddenly go smelly when i first use them - as inadequately rinsed towels have a nasty habit of doing.

  It got to about 1pm, and I decided the next thing I would do would be to have some lunch. Later on I would be boozing, and I wanted to line my stomach before that. Out of several possibilities, I chose to have a couple of cans of soup. It may not have been quite the weather for soup, but it seemed quite close to it. I tried to add some old croutons to the first soup - Oxtail soup. The croutons had been stored in a sealable container, but they had been stored for possibly more than a year. The olive oil in them had gone rancid !

  I tried toasting the croutons, but they still tasted nasty, and I fished out those I had already put in the soup and threw them away along with the rest of them. The second can of soup was a "chunky beef and vegetable" soup. That probably didn't need any croutons, but if they were fresh I would still have added some. It was not a heavy meal, but I still didn't fancy walking to Tesco with soup swilling around inside me. I had a short snooze instead.

  It was soon time to do the last minute preparations for a beer drinking session. Jodie arrived at about 3:30pm - her average time. She was quite happy to see the beers I had ordered, and which were delivered last Tuesday. The first two we had were supposed to be radlers, but I don't think they were described as such on the bottles - maybe because they were not lemon flavoured. The were both weak (2.5%) wheat beers with added fruit favours. One was cherry and the other was passion fruit. Neither was a very strong flavour, and neither made the beer taste tart or sour. I approved of them !

  It was maybe 2 hours later that Michael joined us. He seemed in a better mood than how he has been for months or more now. He never quite explained why. One unusual discussion was about the differences between pilsners and lagers. I must admit I thought they were the same thing, but it does seem that lagers seem to be sweeter tasting. Two Wikipedia articles show that they are almost the same, but also show the differences. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lager  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilsner

  We were later visited by Mark, but it was a flying visit. He came to drive Jodie to one of her favoured specialist beer bars. Michael left about 15 minutes later. Then it was time for my dinner, and it was an unusual one. It was grilled, smoked haddock with mixed vegetables. Those vegetables, peas, sliced runner beans, carrots and broccoli were cooked with a very generous amount of butter - basically I finished using the last of a pat of butter that I must have bought quite a few years ago. It was still in perfect condition.

  It was obviously a very fishy dinner, but I enjoyed it. One thing I didn't enjoy was the stinkyness of it. When I went down to the kitchen to get my breakfast this morning, the dining room and the kitchen smelled very strongly of fish ! I followed the fish and vegetables with a dessert of some ice cream. I didn't feel all that drunk, although I had drunk a fair bit of beer, and I did find it hard to control my appetite for the ice cream. I managed to keep it down to a fairly safe quantity.

  I was too late to see the 6 O'clock news last night, but I watched the usual two Star Treks, and then I almost went to bed, but I started watching QI (on Dave), and it was one of the better editions, although at about halfway through I started to remember that edition, and it didn't feel like it was all that long ago since I last saw it, but I suppose it was probably over a year ago. I went straight to bed when it finished at 10pm, but it would be at least an hour before I got to sleep.

  One delay in getting to sleep was that it felt like I needed to poo, and I did, although it was not a very big one. I was also on the edge of a bit of heartburn. I didn't actually have any heartburn, but I was burping a lot, and that often goes along with heartburn. I also had trouble ith the temperature in my bedroom. I guess I need to get my duvet back on my bed. I fiddled around with the heater trying to get the thermostat set to keep the room just gently warm. I don't think I ever did find the perfect setting despite adjusting it at least once during the night.

  It was trying another setting at about 5am that messed up what had been mostly good sleep. At 5am it was very cold outdoors, and it was having a cooling effect on my bedroom. I wasted half an hour, maybe a full hour, trying to get the thermostat (simply a rotary control with no markings on it) to get the room a bit warmer for when I would eventually get up, but not too warm. I did eventually get back to sleep, and in the warmth I slept for well over an hour before I got up later than usual.

  After all the beer I had yesterday I did a lot of peeing before I went to bed, and that is why I didn't seem to pee much during the night, although while I was awake between 5 and 6am I think I had a big pee, and I certainly did after getting up. I also had a decent poo. I weighed myself twice this morning, before I had any breakfast. The second weighing was after a second visit to the toilet, and that one showed a lower weight, and that I had only put on 500gm after the boozy afternoon/early evening. That was better than many Friday (or Monday) mornings after a boozy session.

  My blood glucose was quite pleasing too. The Contour meter, and the GlucoRX meter both read a pretty good 7.8mmol/l. The Contour Plus meter read 8.2mmol/l - typically higher than the other two, but not by much this time. The new GlucoFix meter gave a sort of half way reading of 8.1mmol/l. I think thought these readings are pretty good for a Friday morning, but I now see they are actually pretty typical - while I am still going through a period of generally good readings.

  I was about to say that I seem to feel fairly good this morning, but it would be more truthful to say that I am feeling the absence of some of the worst things, but no actual very good things. I think the next thing I will do is to have my usual post-writing rest, laying on my bed reading and/or snoozing. I am thinking I will put the heating back on when doing that. After that I will wash my hair and have a shower.

  I'll feel fresh and clean to go to Tesco. I must be very careful what I buy in Tesco today. My fantasy is that I am going to a gig this evening. If I do then I will want something like a very light, very early dinner, or maybe a slightly more, and late, lunch. What I buy in Tesco may determine what I do. I certainly do not want to go out after eating even a light dinner just hours earlier. The reality could be that I start watching TV and forget all about going out until it is too later.