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My Diary/Blog For the Month of August
2012 |
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| Friday 31st August 2012 |
| 07:12 BST There was more rain than I anticipated yesterday. Fortunately none of it inconvenienced me. It had stopped when I walked to the station. So I didn't bother put a coat on. There was some rain while I waited for my train at Waterloo East station, but I was under shelter, and it had practically stopped a minute or two before my train drew into the station and I left my shelter to walk along the platform. That was the last rain of the day, and an hour, maybe two, later the sun was shining, and much of the sky was blue right up until the sun set. This morning it is rather cool, but the sky is clear, and the sun is shining. The forecast for today says that most of it will be sunny, but that there could be a rogue shower at some time. It's a bit of a shame that on this last day of August the temperature is only forecast to reach about 18° C. That's a bit of a poor shower for a summer month. Tomorrow is forecast to be a bit warmer, perhaps 22° C, but there will be a greater chance of a shower or two. I developed a cunning plan on my way home from work. Prior to that I just intended to go straight home, but my new plan changed that. It started with the idea that I might walk all the way to the 99p shop. Then I decided I would break that walk by calling into The Catford Ram. One of two things could happen in there. Either I would have one pint, and then walk to the 99p shop, or Chris (from Chain) would pop in, and would abandon the 99p shop and stay drinking with him and his workmates. The latter option availed itself, and I stayed boozing until gone 7pm - I think. I lost track of time after the second pint. It just didn't seem important. What I do know was that it was getting dark by the time I got home via the Kentucky Fried Chicken shop. isiting there was another cunning plan - tonight I will get to test how well my new microwave oven reheats food. It will be interesting to see just how terrible reheated chips are. I think once fast food shop chips have gone cold they are usually past redemption. I feel certain that microwave oven heating will do nothing for them, but miracles could happen. I have no idea what time I went to bed last night. I know that sunset was about 8pm, and that it was completely dark, or as dark as a London night can be, when I finished eating, and I went straight up to bed after that. It took zero time to fall asleep last night, and if I had managed to stay asleep until 5am I would be very pleased. Unfortunately I woke up at 3am, and couldn't get back to sleep. My pillows, that were as soft as a bag of kittens when I went to bed, seemed to be filled with concrete when I tried to go back to sleep at 3am. I also had a bit of a hangover that was a bit uncomfortable. After a few attempts at getting back to sleep I gave up. If I didn't have to come to work today I would not be bothered about it. I would have pottered around for a few hours, and would probably be successful going back to sleep then. Maybe I got 6 hours sleep last night, or maybe I got less, but I think I should make an attempt at an early night tonight. In other respects I feel reasonably OK. My food intake over the last 3 or 4 days has been less than usual (though not as less as when I am specifically trying to lose weight). This morning I feel a lot less bloated than I did on Tuesday morning, and I noticed my trousers seemed looser this morning, and half way to work I took my belt up a notch to stop them slipping. If I keep this up, and today is another day when I didn't get anything from the shop by the station, and I'll be fasting until I get home from work, I may be able to comfortably wear my red trousers for Halloween (should there be a suitable themed gig to go to). Work has become quiet over the last couple of days. Once I was left alone to get on with it, I was able to race through all the repairs that had built up, and until someone gives me a new task I have very little to do. To use up some of the time I did some experiments on an old laptop I have here. It's an ex-company one that was deemed too primitive to be of any use. It is a little slow doing some things, but with Linux Mint installed on it, it is very useable by me. The experiments I did yesterday concerned server stuff. The Apache web server is possibly still the most widespread web server in the world, it's currently serving this web page to you, but unless you do it for a living, it's a bugger to configure. So with a view to upgrading my server sometime, I decided to investigate some alternative web servers. I decided that I would try Lighttpd. It's one of those curious programs that start simple and yet can be stretched to do all sorts of things. In it's basic use, just serving static web pages like this one, I found it a doddle to get working. Maybe there are refinements I could make to the configuration, for security for instance, but within about 20 minutes I had it running very smoothly on the old laptop. I think I'll be using on my new server whenever I build it. I had less luck with an ftp server. I chose PureFTP mainly because there is an optional control panel that can be installed to configure it. I am currently using it on my server at home, but there are some issues with it that I had hoped a fresh install of the latest version on my laptop wouldn't have, but still does. The big problem is that it has authentification failures. It always fails safe, but it is a source of annoyance. I did lots of google searches about the problem, which only concerns setting up virtual users, and some solutions came up, but only with partial success, and I am wondering if some of those solutions contradict each other. I think I'll be doing more research about this today. |
| Thursday 30th August 2012 |
| 07:35 BST Yesterday morning was pleasant enough. There was some sunshine, and it felt just a hint better than mild, but then the rain came early. There was a very light sprinkle of rain between 11am and midday, but the main show began around 1.30pm. There was a really torrential fall of rain for maybe 10 minutes. After that there was just drizzle. By 4pm, as I made my way home from work, it was still raining, but it was almost, but not quite light enough to ignore. The evening seemed dry, but there was some moderately heavy rain in the small hours of this morning. Just like yesterday, everything was dripping as I set out for the station this morning, but the rain had stopped. It's now bright and sunny, but slightly cool. There are supposed to be sporadic showers today, but between them there could be some sunny periods. I guess it is just pot luck if I go home in sun or showers tonight. I felt quite ready for bed as I left work yesterday, but some fresh air, and a walk woke me up. As I walked to the station it was drizzling, but it was light enough that I could have left my coat off without getting too wet. As planned, I did some shopping in Tesco on the way home. I had been hoping to get some hot chicken, but they had run out. As an alternative, well sort of alternative, I bought a couple of Rustlers microwaveable burgers. Tesco did not have many of them in stock, and the only choices were a chicken burger (the last one on the shelf) and beef with bacon and cheese (just 4 left on the shelf). I bought, and tried one of each.Hmmmmm, they're OK, but I don't think I'd waste my money on more of them in the future. I also bought, and tested, some Bachelors 76% fat free (or 76% less fat - can't remember which) beef and tomato instant noodles. Unlike the beef and tomato noodles I bought from the 99p, the sauce was strong and tasty, but sadly the noodles themselves were rubbish - also unlike the 99p shop ones which had nice noodles. I made sure I got to bed early last night. I was in bed and asleep before, but not much before, 8.30pm. Getting to sleep was easy. I just turned out the light, and I don't remember much more than that until I woke up in the night at 3am (I think). I seem to recall having lots of dreams, but they couldn't have been important because none come to mind now. I was soon back asleep, and if I had slept right through until my alarm woke me I would have been very happy. Instead I woke up over half an hour early. It was pointless trying to get another 30 minutes sleep so I got up. This morning I seemed to get myself ready to go out very quickly, and for the first time in ages, maybe this year, I caught the extra early train at 06:03. Between Catford Bridge and Waterloo I wore my lightweight plastic rain jacket, but it gets so hot and sweaty under it, so because the rain had stopped I took it off and stuffed it into my bag for the rest of the journey into work. It was a good move taking that jacket off when I did because the train from Waterloo had the heating on full, and was initially unpleasantly hot. It definitely felt nice and fresh when I got off the train at Earlsfield. It felt good enough to divert my walk to work through the scary estate, and into the park. I was still at work at five past seven - or 55 minutes early !  Despite it still being
rather damp, it was nice in the park. The sun was only just over the
horizon, and all the shadows, and patches of sunlight seemed to extend
into infinity.
 I snapped this snail as I
crossed over the river on the footbridge. It's head is in shadown, and
it's tail end looks like it is being cooked in the sun. I took this
photo, and the one before on my mobile phone camera. If I had bothered
to get my proper camera out of my rucksack I could have taken a picture
of a snail that looked to have an almost green shell. It was on a plant
behind some railings, and out of range of my phone camera.
 I also took this picture
on my phone camera yesterday. This antique Remington Noiseless
typewriter was sitting on a small table by the waste bins. I expect it
was probably worth a bob or two, and I think someone else thought so
too. Within an hour it had gone, and is probably on Ebay now !
It is possible that I ate more than I should have done last night (it was more than the burgers and noodles). I think I feel a little hungry this morning, but I still steered myself away from the shop with the nice sandwiches near the station. Apart from some sugar free sweets, I'll have to wait until I get home again before eating. Still, it might be worth it because I have some lamb rogan ghosh curry waiting to be popped in the microwave when I get home :-) It's now 8.23am. The blue sky has gone, and it's raining ! That was quick !! |
| Monday 27th August 2012 |
| 17:47 BST It got fairly cloudy yesterday afternoon, but the sun still managed to peep through the clouds frequently, and overall it wasn't a bad day. This morning did see a couple of light showers, but they fizzled out, and although it has been more overcast than sunny today, it has been pleasant enough most of the time. It is rather grey outside as I write this, and that makes it feel cooler than the 22° C registered on my thermometer. It seems there will be some rain after dark tonight, but tomorrow will probably be similar to today. Last night's sleep was sleep in two parts again. I woke up, pottered around, and then went back to bed again. This morning my second sleep did not last long, and I got up feeling nicely refreshed. I had high expectations that I was going to do a lot today. As usual, some hoovering killed that enthusiasm, but not before I had done a passable job on the living room carpet and rugs. Before I relaxed too much I went out to Poundstretcher and bought some new mats for the bathroom. If I had any green credentials I would have arranged to give the old ones a good washing, but they were pretty smelly, and getting the blood stains out of one of the mats would have been too much like hard work. The blood was my blood in case you were wondering. I've concluded that my attempts at getting this house looking spic and span (or something) is like nuclear fusion power. We know how to do it - almost ! For the last 60 years it has always been just 10 years away from being a reality. One day it will happen, and maybe one day my house will be clean and tidy. One of the reasons I slowed down today (and yesterday and the day before) has been the lure of my new microwave oven. I've been too tempted to experiment with in, and in consequence I have over eaten every day with the possible exception of today if I can avoid eating any more today - which is theoretically possible, but in practice....... Yesterday I did some experiments with instant noodles. The 99p shop has a variety to try. One type was labelled as ramen noodles, and they were ribbon like instead of round. They were rather nice. Some round ones I tried were really rather insipid. Apart from the dried noodles they just had a sachet of rather bland tasting flavouring. The ramen noodles had a very small quantity of dried vegetable to add along with a much fuller flavoured flavouring. Today, amongst other stuff I've eaten today was a couple of ready meals from Tesco. They come in microwave proof containers the same as many takeaways use nowadays. One was a Thai dish with beef and coconut. It wasn't bad, but neither was it wonderful. The other was Chinese dish of duck and noodles, and I don't know if it was off, but I didn't care for it at all. Tomorrow, having eaten most of the unfrozen ready, or instant, meals in my fridge, it's back to experimenting with peas and potatoes. I think (or hope) that the microwave version is going to turn out rather well. For one thing it won't be in the form of a stew. I'll just be cooking the peas and potatoes in their own juices. It will increase the amount of calories tenfold (possibly) but I'm going to sprinkle some grated cheese on top when I zap it with microwaves. One final touch, that might be foolish, or it might be a touch of genius, will be the addition of some anchovies. I haven't mentioned wildlife for some time. Starting indoor, I had a GIGANTIC spider in my bathroom a couple of days ago. I heard a rustling behind the litter bin in there, and I feared that it was mouse. That would have been rather tragic after Smudge dying, but it wasn't a mouse. The rustling continued until this huge great hairy beast emerged. Considering that I was sitting on the toilet at the time I felt rather defenseless, and in a vulnerable position. Sadly (maybe :-) ) the spider just happened to pass under my foot. It didn't survive. Cutting back some of the jungle that I call my back garden doesn't seem to have dissuaded a lot of the birds I see in it plucking insects off the bushes and trees. The robin that used to scold Smudge so persistently is still there, as are a few other small birds. One bird I see quite frequently now is a bit peculiar, and I probably should do some research about it. I think it is a transgendered blackbird. It has a black body like a male blackbird, but it's neck and head is brown like a female blackbird. |
| Sunday 26th August 2012 |
| 10:47 BST As expected, the warmth did trigger off some thunderstorms late yesterday afternoon. The rain was really torrential for a while, but somewhere got it a lot worse. I don't think that the thunder and lightning, where presumably the rain was heaviest, got closer than a few miles from here, but it still made plenty of noise. The good thing is that is cleared the air, and it was a cool fresh night. This morning dawned bright and sunny. It's currently 18° C outside, and getting warmer all the time. Today is forecast to be dry and sunny this morning, but with more cloud in the afternoon. After doing some tasks in the morning I sort of gave up doing anything significant yesterday. I ended up getting to bed fairly late, and it is hard to imagine where all the time went. Some of the time I spent in front of the TV. I had a few recordings to watch, and later on I started watching a really cheesy scifi film. It was called "My Stepmother Is An Alien" and starred Dan Akroyd and Kim Basinger. As a scifi story it had it's moments, but it tried too hard to be too cutesy. I think it was mostly aimed at kids, and yet it may have been better if it was a bit more adult (probably with more boobs). I think it might have been near midnight when I got to bed, but I wasn't really watching the time. I recall falling asleep very quickly, and I slept solidly until nearly 6am. Like the morning before, I got up for a while, and then went back to bed again. Unlike the morning before, I only slept for another 60 - 90 minutes, although I may have slept longer if my phone hadn't chimed with an incoming email. So far I've been a bit busy. I've swept a little of the garden path - just the bit running from the back door to the back of the house - beyond there it is still rather untamed ! I've done some laundry, and hung it outside to dry. The gusty breeze should dry it quite quickly - or so I hope. Finally I've emptied several waste baskets. Now I am not sure what I will do next. I need to do more hoovering in various places around the house, and I expect I'll do some of that. I probably ought to make a big effort to tidy up my living room. There is still unsorted stuff dumped in there from when I brought loads of my stuff home from work. I should probably make a start on either of those two things before I do one other thing I have a hankering for - going to the 99p shop. I do fancy a short walk, and so it may be the 99p shop will come first. I am hoping that they still have some lavender and aloe vera moisturising creme left. One useful attribute of the stuff I bought from there some time ago is that it protects my ankles from flea bites. After my severe hoovering of where Smudge was laid out after she died it's fairly safe to walk across that bit of carpet, but it's still a bit dicy where she actually died. It's the most urgent part of today's hoovering plan, and because it involves an armchair it is going to be a really fiddly bit of hoovering ! |
| Saturday 25th August 2012 |
| 13:57 BST During the night there was some rain, possibly heavy rain, but this morning seemed bright and dry. The forecast for today was for rain, but so far all I've seen is a couple of very light showers. The potential for worse, far worse has been there though. There have been some very heavy looking black clouds passing overhead from time to time. It's currently 23° C, warmer than I expected, and rather nice, but it could have a sting in it's tail. That warmth could add enough energy into the atmosphere to trigger thunderstorms later on today. I felt really sleepy last night and I should have been in bed earlier, and asleep earlier than I did. I'm not sure what time it was that I fell asleep, but once I did I went out like a light. I slept well until just a little later than I would normally get up at 5am. I half got up then, and spent a couple of hours catching up on my usual web browsing before deciding that going back to bed might be nice. I didn't really expect to get much sleep, or even any at all, but I did ! It was 11.45am when I woke up again. I think I feel rather refreshed after all that extra sleep, or at least I do now. Initially I woke up feeling rather dazed and confused (as Led Zepplin would say). Since then I have achieved three things if you count showering and getting dressed as one of them. I've done the most essential hoovering in the areas where the fleas abandoned Smudge's dead body, and a little bit more. I've still got a lot to do, and awful lot, but the rest is mainly cosmetic rather then essential, but of course every bit will help. The third thing I've done is I've been to Lidl to get some shopping. I didn't but a lot in there because I didn't want to carry an excessive load back from the most distant supermarket in Catford that I use. Once the deed was done I realised that I still bought too much. I seem to have bought loads of very tempting stuff that it will be hard to not consume too soon. Some of it is ingredients for microwave cooking experiments, and it's going to be hard to resist cooking far too much for myself today and tomorrow, and maybe the day after. There were only two items that I had on my mental shopping list prior to getting to Lidl. One was some of their own brand diet cola. It's not bad for a supermarket own brand cola, and although not quite as nice as genuine Diet Coke, the difference is only small, and far outweighed by the fact that it is only 39p for a 2l bottle. I bought three bottles. The other thing I was hoping they had, and they did, was tomatoes. Not any old tomatoes, but these rather interesting ones....  All
these different colour tomatoes all taste like basically like tomatoes,
but there are subtle differences that make them intriguing from time to
time. Some are sweeter, and some less so. Funnily enough I seem to
recall that the green one with the red streaks, almost like khaki, is
one of the sweeter varieties, while one the most red ones is most tart.
I'm not sure what I'll be doing next. I don't think it will be more hoovering, and I don't think it will be laundry. Both are fairly important, but I think I fancy either some reading, or some TV, or maybe some cooking.......... |
| Tuesday 21th August 2012 |
| 07:58 BST Sunday ended up being very sunny, and very warm. The temperature definitely hit 30° C. Yesterday was a little cooler at only 25° C, but it was still nice and sunny and dry. Overnight the weather changed, and this morning is very cloudy. The temperature dropped to 18° C this morning, and that should have felt very fresh, but high humidity has taken the edge of the freshness. Much of today will be cloudy, or so it's forecast, and that forecast includes a high probability of light rain later this afternoon. The temperature is forecast to only hit 21 or 22° C at best today. Yesterday was a mostly nice day, but one with an annoying sting in it's tail. I took the day off work so that the gas board could fit a new gas meter. Apparently the reason why it had to be changed was that it was measuring in imperial units (cubic feet of gas), and not in metric units as per how it appears on the gas bill. The appointment for the work was set from any time from 1pm to 8pm, but with a request for the job to be done as early as possible. During the morning I found time to go to Aldi and stock up on cat food, and stuff for myself. I also cleaned up Smudge's litter tray, and the surrounding area. Then I tackled a job that should have been done ages ago. I cleaned the second end of the kitchen worktop. I had done the left hand side maybe a couple of months ago, and used some cheap wooden "shoe racks" from Poundstretcher as shelves to store tins on. I did that job mainly to clean up after I had a mouse (or mice) living in the kitchen during the winter. The right hand side of the worktop contained even more clutter, tools, and other misc stuff. It was also where I had put down loads of bait that was supposed to kill the mice. All it, or more likely all they did was to strip off the green poison from the grain, and live a life of luxury on free food ! That corner of the worktop really was pretty disgusting with green flakes from the bait, and block dropping everywhere. The only thing that wasn't there was a dead mouse ! So much for Rentokill mouse bait ! (and I spent a fortune on about 5 boxes of the stuff). The reason for this massive clean up and disinfection was that I knew the gas fitter would probably want to see my gas appliances, plus there was a good chance that I might have needed to open up the water heater to relight it after my gas supply was restored. There is quite possibly another reason why it's just as well that I did clean it all up. It is probable that I'll be investing in a microwave oven in the near future, and having made that end of the work surface tidy, and having thrown away some old junk, there is now room for the microwave oven. The gas fitter arrived early enough at about 1.45pm, and proceeded to fit the new gas meter. When it was done he checked for leaks, and pronounced that there was one. It turned out to be my gas cooker, although with hindsight I am sure that it has a pilot light inside it that would account for the gas leakage. The pilot light functioned so poorly that for the last 25 years I have ignored it, and had forgotten about it. My oversight meant that my cooker is disconnected, and effectively condemned. It has had a long life though. It was second, or even third hand when I got it in 1983. So it hasn't done bad, and may still have life left in it if I do something unethical (or even illegal), but I can feel the day of the microwave getting closer all the time. Once the gas fitter had left, having taken longer than the suggested 30 minutes for the job, I changed clothes and rushed over to Orpington via my new route I used for Party In The Priory. I wanted to hand of a disk of pictures and videos taken on Saturday to Matt who organised the party, and who occasionally steps in as bass player for Chain. His shop, TMT Music, was supposed to be open until 5.30pm last night, but I guessed that he might close early after a completely exhausting weekend for him. I was right because when I got there the shop was closed, but I was lucky enough to find his wife waiting for him in the car. She said that he was just locking the back of the shop up, and would be along in a minute. In less time than that he appeared and I handed him the disk and another little present in appreciation of a great Saturday. After that it was back on the bus to the station, and I was home again about 90 minutes after I had first left. If only I could do a round trip to work in that time I would be very happy ! Considering the disconnected state of my gas cooker, it was fortunate that I had already planned a salad for dinner last night. I must admit it was a bit of a strange sort of salad, but quite tasty. It was prompted by an special offer I saw in Aldi in the morning - jars of small, ready to eat, cocktail sausages ! I just drained them, and tipped them on top of a family sized bowl of ready prepared salad, and garnished the whole thing with olive oil, vinegar, and English mustard. Tonight I planned to have garlic and herb chicken thighs. They are ready defrosted in the bottom of my fridge. All I need now is some way to cook them. I have an idea, but I can't tell you what it is yet. To take your mind off it, here's some music.... |
| Saturday 18th August 2012 |
| 09:02 BST I don't think there was a single instant when the sky was filled with white cloud as forecast by the BBC yesterday. By mid morning the blue areas of sky grew big enough to fill half the sky, and often more. Four or five hours before it was forecast we had brilliant blue skies and strong sunshine. I guess it got hot, but it didn't seem that hot to me. Even the evening, and into the night seemed relatively fresh rather than the hot and humid that was suggested. This morning the sun is shining brilliantly, and it really feels like a summers day. The temperature is forecast to hit 30° C in some parts of London today, and tomorrow might even see that raised by a degree or two. I was quite surprised that I didn't feel too bad at work yesterday. It being a Friday would have helped a lot, but even so I expected to feel exhausted at the end of the day. I didn't feel much like racing to the station after work, but I seemed to keep a reasonable pace. Perhaps even more remarkably after a full five days at work, I didn't feel inclined to get an early night either. I think I went to bed at about my normal time of 9pm, and then read for maybe as much as an hour before feeling sleepy enough to turn over and go to sleep. It was too warm to get under the duvet, but I didn't feel all hot and sweaty as I expected to. I guess whatever it was that was ailing me for as much as a couple of weeks was finally over once I took those days off work last week. Now if only I can start to eat a lot healthier food, and maybe lose a couple of pounds (or ideally a lot more) I really will be feeling fit as a fiddle again. I don't think that will happen today. In fact I know it won't. I have already eaten some stuff to line my stomach against an onslaught of beer today (assuming that there will be some beer worth drinking). For today is the day I go to Party In The Priory music festival.  I've got a VIP ticket
that certainly gives me free admission, but I suspect little else. The Party In The
Priory
website is not very helpful in giving times when all the bands are on,
and is actually misleading because their listing of bands is not in the
order they will appear. Fortunately I have found out the times for the
bands I particularly want to see, and found out the approximate times
of some other bands based on searching their websites etc.
I think that for today I'll be taking along my old Sony VX1000 camera. It doesn't do proper widescreen recordings, but it's standard screen format (4:3) usually produces some cracking pictures, and being quite heavy it pans and tilts so smoothly. I did consider doing a multi camera extravaganza, but while previous multi camera experiments were good fun, and came out well, I am currently under the impression that a single camera can convey just as much entertainment, and is far easier to do. I expect to capture a lot of footage today, and no doubt some of it, together with a pile of still pictures will appear here, there and everywhere sooner or later. On my way to work yesterday morning I had my camera with me, and was able to retake a picture I had attempted using my mobile phone camera. The original picture was almost OK, and gave a hint of the vertiginous nature of the scaffolding built down from the top of the tower at Guys hospital. The picture I took yesterday really shows just how scary that dangling scaffolding really looks, and just how terrifying it must have been to build it !  |
| Friday 17th August 2012 |
| 08:01 BST I am more and more convinced that I live in a different reality to the weather forecasters. Yesterday was not humid, nor was it notably warm. Eventually there was some sunshine, but it was more often hazy than bright, and contrary to the forecast, there were some showers in he late morning, and one brief was was very heavy indeed ! The afternoon was dry, and it continued dry until sometime during the night. I think it was raining when I first woke, but it had stopped, and the ground was already drying when I left to come to work. The BBC's website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2634812) is currently saying there should be white cloud in the sky. They are partly right if you ignore the large blue patches. During the day the temperature is supposed to rise from 19 to 27° C, and at 4pm the sun should finally break through the cloud to shine at full strength. At least that's what they say. I am torn between a part repeat of the yesterday, with some showers this morning, or the cloud clearing a lot quicker with bright sunshine this morning. Provided it is bright and dry tomorrow, I don't really care what the weather will be today provided it doesn't do anything extreme.  This was my view as I walked to the station this morning. It was still a little dusky,
but not so much that the streetlights needed to be on. You can see that
the cloud was already quite broken up, and although the camera on my
mobile phone couldn't capture it properly, the band across the middle
of the picture was really quite blue.
My drink with Jodie went off smoothly last night. She arrived in The Catford Bridge Tavern about 5 minutes before me, and had already discovered a rather nice ale to drink. I started with a half of that, plus a half of another not so nice ale. I had a full pint of the first ale after that, and that was it. Jodie had her tickets, plus some travel hints, and she caught the next train home while I walked down the road to my home. I was indoors in time to see the end of the BBC national news. Now there are no olympics on, it seems that other stuff is happening in Britain and around the world ! After the BBC local news for London I started to watch Star Trek on Pick TV, but it was not an exciting episode, and I was feeling rather more tired than usual (although possibly about right for having two pints of good ale inside me). Fifteen minutes after it started I gave up, and went up to my bedroom to spend a few minutes on the internt, and a few more minutes answering an email. Although I can remember what it was I was reading in bed, I can't remember what time I got into bed, and I have even less idea what time I fell asleep. I think it was probably before 9pm, but it may have been sometime after. I am sure it was supposed to be a hot and sultry night according to our deranged weather forecaster, but I found it to be almost cool and fresh. Initially I think I slept very well, but my sleep became erratic in the small hours, and I nearly got up at 4.10am this morning. I did manage to fall back to sleep again, but only got another 30 minutes at best. One problem was that I was all stuffed up. I guess it was hay fever or something because I am fine now, but it seemed to take an age, plus lots of tissues before I could breathe clearly through my nose this morning. That was probably the worst ailment, but I had a good selection from the pot pouri of aches and pains I can suffer from. None of them were serious, and all of them were enough to make me want to go back to bed instead of going to work. Yet here I am, at work for the fifth day running, and really looking forward to getting back home again so I can start the weekend ! |
| Thursday 16th August 2012 |
| 07:55 BST There is a scientifically (or statisticly) proved fact that no matter how many supercomputers you throw at weather forecast it always turns out to be more accurate to say that today's weather will be just like yesterday's. On that basis I wondered if I really would be drowned on the way home from work, as predicted by the weather forecast, or if I would go home in bright sunshine. It turns out that neither of us was correct, by my forecast was closer to reality than the official forecast. There was a light shower of rain much earlier in the afternoon than forecast. Then it all but dried up. As I walked to the station I felt a few spits and spots of rain, but nothing that would warrant putting my coat on. I did put it on "just in case" but as sson as I got on the train I took it off to avoid overheating. I didn't need it the first time, and I certainly didn't need it again. By the time I got home the clouds were getting quite thin. Today has started off feeling slightly fresh, but it is forecast to be warm and very humid, probably with some bright sunshine. There are a few heavier looking clouds in the sky at the moment, and if today is like yesterday there could be a shower sometime around midday, but hopefully it's the turn of the weather forecasters to make the more accurate prediction. I felt very sleepy at work yesterday, but otherwise mostly OK. That sleepiness really only dissipated once I was on my way home, but it was still very nice to get indoors where I could slouch to my hearts content. I would probably have been in bed extra early last night but my efforts in that direction were thwarted by the Freeview TV channel Pick TV showing an episode of Star Trek (The New Generation) between 7pm and 8pm. I think I may have been the first episode of that particular generation of Star Trek, and it was only be watching it again after all these years did I realise how much the series improved as the main characters improved. The episode I saw last night managed to combine very wooden acting with over the top acting. I was in bed, and possibly asleep by 9pm last night, and once again I slept very well until I woke up far to early. I guess it was something like 4.25am when I woke up from a dream that featured an unusual subject. I dreamed that I was helping to disarm a bomb that had been built into a huge power supply cabinet for a telephone exchange. I don't remember any fear in the dream. It just seemed like the thing a Technical Officer in the pre-privatisation era of British Telecom would be expected to do. My colleague, whose name escapes me, and I managed to disarm the bomb successfully, and without any loss of telephone service. I am not sure how I felt when I first woke up. I think I was too busy reliving the triumphs of my dream, but a little later I began to feel that it would have been nice not to have to come to work today. I had a minor, but still annoying, and potentially worrying, stomach upset. It's just the sort of thing you don't want while travelling no matter how much you try and convince yourself that the problem has been dealt with befoe leaving home (as indeed it was). As I walked to the station it was my right ankle that gave me more problem than my guts. It was stiff and sore until I had walked far enough to loosen it up a bit (but still not completely). While I was on the train I began to get a bit of a headache. I guess it was a tension thing because I really would have preferred not to come to work today, or indeed any day ! When the train got to London Bridge station I got off to wait for the next train to Waterloo. It is only a minute or two wait, and the big difference is that the following train stops in the platform with the toilets on them at Waterloo East. I didn't actually need the toilet, but I just wanted to make sure. While waiting that one minute at London Bridge I glanced up at Guy's Hospital. It is being re-clad, and bits of it are covered in scaffolding - particularly the top of the tower section.  I
took the picture above on my mobile phone. It would have been so much
better if I had used my proper camera with it's zoom lens. The part I
would have zoomed in on is all the scaffolding from the roof down to
the part that sticks out on the left hand side of the picture. If you
look carefully you can see what looks like a black bar almost hanging
in space. It is actually a plank of wood supported by scaffolding that
is hanging down from above. The guys who construct scaffolding like
this obviously have no fear of heights at all. It make me go tense just
considering how they can build scaffolding from the top down with
nothing below except a very long drop onto hard ground !
I am not sure why I am looking forward to tonight so much. I always look forward to getting home from work, but tonight will be slightly better than most. I'm popping in the pub on the way home to meet up with Jodie to give her tickets to Party In The Priory. Although Jodie can tax my brain at times, it should still be a pleasant drink, and in some ways more pleasant than a drink with Kevin (which I could have done last night). I'm meeting Jodie in The Catford Bridge Tavern. That's right outside the station - so no long walk down to the high street. The second good thing is that I know that it is definitely only going to be a quick, probably two pint, drink with no temptations to carry on drinking far later than I should. Of course the best thing about today is that it is Thursday. That means tomorrow is Friday, and at the end of work tomorrow the weekend begins. Until last night I was worried that Party In The Priory might be a washout again, but according to last night's weather forecast the greatest worry now is being fried by the sun........or if the humidity is as high as it may well be, being poached in the sun! |
| Sunday 12th August 2012 |
| 15:21 BST The weather was really good yesterday. It was bright and sunny, but a nice breeze stopped it getting too hot. Unfortunately that breeze didn't extend into my bedroom where it seemed exceptionally hot and stuffy all night. This morning it was 22° C by 9am, and since then it has risen to 27° C. A mixture of sunshine, and hazy sunshine has kept it bright all day. There seems more cloud than there was earlier, and maybe the clouds will brew up into thunderclouds just in time for the end of the olympic games (tee hee !). Apparently tomorrow could see some showers, but it will probably stay quite warm. Yesterday was amazing ! My train arrived at West Wickham station a couple of minutes later than it's correct time of 12:22, but that was of no consequence. Jo and Chris were waiting for me in the "tour bus" ready to go to Highams farm for the Highams Festival. When we were arrived at the gates we were presented with our VIP wrist band passes. It felt a great privilege to get one so I tried a bit harder to be useful at some light roadie duties (including drinking free beer), and being official band photographer :-)  I
equated a VIP wrist band to
an "access all areas" pass, and though there was little to actually
abuse, I did take some experimental pictures from the back of the
stage. I
don't think any were particularly useful to show here, but it was a
good ego trip being able to take them.
The line for this Jo Bangles gig was Jo and Chris, as usual, Ravi on bass, special guest drummer Paul, and Dave on keyboards. With a big powerful P.A. it all sounded rather wonderful. The bass bins were particularly powerful. I was standing right in front of one when the drummer was being sound checked. I'm sure it drove all the bubbles out of my beer !  Paul the drummer is hidden behind Jo, but from left to right....... guest harminoca player Eamon, Ravi on bass, Jo Corteen, Chris Mayer, and Dave Griffiths on keyboards.  .....and not hidden behind Jo, here's Paul and his drums.  Looking down the stage - Ravi, Paul, Jo, Chris and Dave.  Dave plays the keyboards.........  ........and the tambourine (or whatever that instrument is called).  Jo Bangles band lined up in the bands car parking area at the end of their set. It was really a terrific gig that went beyond hearing some great music through a great P.A. system. One of the perks of being part of the band was that we were given beer vouchers ! They were real beer vouchers too rather than the old joke of calling £10 notes "beer vouchers". With Chris and myself being the only two who were not driving, we made sure than none went to waste ! I did pay for one can of Stella Artois, the best beer available, but all the rest, how ever many that was, were either bought for me or were paid for in beer vouchers. All I know is that my idea that I could allow myself to get drunk definitely came to fruition by the end ! Incidently, as I suggested yesterday, there were real toilet there rather than portaloos - nice, but not essential. The entertainment didn't end with the end of Jo bangles set. The next band had originally been listed as The Counterfeit Beatles, and I was looking forward to seeing them after hearing some good reviews. For whatever reason they pulled out, and the next band were billed as being M.O.D. I didn't think it was likely that they would be the thrash metal band of the same name, and they definitely weren't ! The M.O.D. we saw yesterday were a sixties mod era tribute band, and they were really terrific ! They played covers of Kinks, Who, and many others, and played them really well. They even did what is probably my favourite Who song "5.15" - I just love the line "Out of my brain on a train" for some unexplained reason. I haven't got any names for them, but I do have pictures.  Their one single fault of their entire appearance was that check shirt ! It just didn't seem to fit in :-)   I'd forgotten that I did have one picture taken while abusing my VIP wrist band by lurking behind the stage.  The bass player could be a throwback to the 1960s........  .....the lead singer even more so with his Ronny Lane scarf. At the end of The
M.O.D.'s set
we all headed for home in high spirits. Jo and Chris took me back to
West Wickham station. Their timing was most serendipidious. I just had
a 2 minute wait for my train, and 20 minutes later I was home feeling
wonderful except for a growing hangover, and a gnawing feeling of
emptiness in my stomach. The answer was a takeaway meal. Given my
drunken state it was no surprise that I ordered enough for breakfast as
well ! Last night I ate a huge burger and a small pizza. For a sort of
late breakfast I had cold chicken and cold stuffed potato skins :-)
I really wanted to do something with the pictures and video I took yesterday, but I was feeling too tired, stuffed and hungover to do more than transfer the files to my PC. then I tried to go to bed. It was ridiculously hot and stuffy in my bedroom last night, and I slept very badly even after I remembered to switch on my fan at 1 or 2am. Eventually I gave up trying to sleep at 7am. One reason for this was that I seemed to suffering from a post festival stomach upset. I believe this is quite traditional, although I didn't touch any of the food there. The stomach upset passed quite quickly, but I felt too restless, and still too hot and sticky to attempt to go back to bed. So I made a start on reviewing the pictures I took last night, and preparing a couple of videos I shot for upload. I have uploaded them to my alter egos Myspace pages, you can see them there, but I'll wait until I've uploaded them to You Tube before embedding them here. It seemed to take ages to go through the 133 pictures I took yesterday, and then select some for upload. In actual fact I took even more than that - Paul, the guest drummer, saw me taking pictures, and asked if I would take his camera and take some for him. I guess I took a similar amount for him. I hope he likes my sort of skills as a photographer. It's now late in the afternoon and I am still hot and sticky, and as yet I haven't even taken a shower today - such decadence ! I think I'll give myself a quick rinse down before I go to bed though. Hopefully I'll sleep OK tonight. It's sadly back to work again tomorrow, but it won't be long before I take another day off. Those pesky people at the gas board still want to change my gas meter, and they are rather hoping I'll be home for them on Thursday 16th Aug. I guess this time, unless something urgent crops up at work, that I will be. Maybe I'll take the Friday off as well, but I am now seriously short of annual leave. I think I only have a disastrous three days left now. |
| Saturday 4th August 2012 |
| 18:09 BST Yesterday seems a bit vague now, but I seem to remember it as a slightly better than mild day with a few duller periods during a mostly sunny day. There were some showers during the night, and the puddles suggest some may have been a bit heavy, but during daylight hours there have only been a couple of brief light showers. Most of the day has been fairly nice with some sunny periods. The temperature, while comfortable enough has been a bit of a disappointment. Currently it is 21.6° C, and that must be about the top temperature for today. Either I am becoming numb to all the changes at work, or I have given up fighting, but the day went off peacefully, although not exactly enjoyable. It was still a gigantic relief to finish work for the weekend, and head for home, and ultimately to The Catford Ram for beer and music. Luckily, for my sanity, it was an uneventful journey home, and only the presence of all the olympic transport helpers lining the platform at Waterloo East ten deep reminded that the accursed sport thing was still going on. On the way home I bought a tuna and cucumber French stick so I could have a quick bite to eat before heading off to the pub. When I got there I wished Matt Sharp a happy birthday, and gave him a birthday present - a framed copy of Spinal Taps "Stonehenge" picture disk single. I also gave Jo an early prototype of what might have been Matt's present - a framed copy of Dire Straits "Sultans Of Swing" CD Video clip single. CDV disks, not to be confused with VCD disks, were all coloured gold. So it looks like the gold disk awarded to artists who sell a certain number of disks ( 100, 000 ????). I thought Jo deserved it because she always has a nice word for me whenever I complain about feeling ill or knackered etc. I also discovered who the mystery guest was. He was a keyboard player called Dave Griffiths (if I have spelled his name correctly). There were a few songs where his keyboard input really made a huge difference. Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water sounds great at any time, but with a "mad" keyboardist it takes on a new dimension ! Dave was "borrowed" from a band called Dupe, and they have a great website here that even features some mp3 downloads.  Here's Dave - the lower keyboard for piano, and the upper for synth.  I like this picture - it's such a beatific expression.  Something funny must have happened.  Kevin reprising his special role as cowbell holder.  This has to be the greatest line up of Chain ever - Matt Hemsley on bass, Jo Corteen on vocals and rhythm guitar, Matt Sharp on Drums, Chris Mayer on lead guitar, and Dave Griffiths on keyboards ! It was a fantastic night,
and the Guinness flowed smoothly ! When
it was all over Kevin and I helped lug some of the gear out, and once
the band had departed we went back into the pub for one more pint.
After that we went home, but I divereted via the Kentucky Fried Chicken
shop where I bought some dinner for me, and because of here pleading
eyes, an extra dinner for Smudge ! I ate that while watching something
on TV. I can't actually remember what it was again. This either means I
was very drunk, or some TV is so bland that it is instantly
forgettable. I suspect it is a bit of both !
I slept well last night - possibly too well. I had Aleemah visiting this morning, and after rising unusually late, I only just about managed to get the place looking reasonably tidy before she arrived. She brought with her a DVD of a rather good movie. If she hadn't showed it to me I doubt I would have given it a second look, but I really enjoyed it. It was called The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It is superficially a comedy, but the undercurrents go much deeper. After Aleemah went home again I had myself a quick bite to eat - leftover fried chicken, and then set about selecting and editing the pictures of last nights gig. I have also basically top and tailed a couple of videos I shot last night. I'll upload them to You Tube sooner or later, and embed them here tomorrow, or sometime later. I was going to have Kevin pop over this afternoon for some computer maintenance, but I wanted to press on with my photo/video editing. I should be seeing him tomorrow. The next thing I am going to do is to treat myself to a takeaway. I haven't decided what it will be yet, but I've just been paid, I'm feeling good after last night, and I just feel like it anyway. So there ! |