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My Diary/Blog For the Month of September
2012 |
Monday 24th September 2012 |
12:29 BST The main weather feature yesterday was rain - lots of it ! It was also cool enough that from time to time I had to fire up the heaters. This morning saw copious amounts of rain, and although lighter, it is still raining now. Currently it is 14.5° C, and that's a degree and a half more than the BBC predicted. If the trend is correct, rather than the actual temperature, it should warm up by a degree or two my mid afternoon, and there could even be a small period when the sun might break through later in the afternoon. I continued doing nothing of note yesterday afternoon as I conserved my strength for the evening. The rain did dampen my enthusiasm for going out, but I knew it was a gig not to be missed. So I got the 19:29 train to St Mary Cray station where I caught a bus for the short ride to The White Hart pub in Orpington. I got there just in time for the sound check - which was definitely needed. Matt Hemsley, ex-owner of TMT Music (now closed), organiser of Party In The Priory, and bass player for the night, had provided the P.A. and also a small lighting rig. Once the P.A. was set up properly, and my ears had grown accustomed to the sound of it, it sounded great. Initially it sounded rather bright. Rather like the sound of a CD after the more mellow sound of a vinyl record. Dave Griffiths provided some excellent keyboatds, and the multi talented Dave provided some excellent drumming. The last time I saw him he was playing bass at a gig in The Catford Ram. His day job concerns chilli sauces ! I'm not sure if he makes the sauces, runs one of the market stalls where they are sold, or runs the web site, but he evidently is very keen on his product..... Here's Dave wet from enthusiastic drumming, or from the pouring rain, and his missus on the right showing off their mad-ass chilli tattoos. And in close up...... As well as being a very wet night, it was also a colourful one. It really was an
excellent
night, but there was one problem, or annoyance at the end - getting
back to Catford. There was no problem actually getting a bus home from
Orpington. There were several more day buses available after the 23:26
service that Kevin and I got, and after that, although at reduced
frequency, there are nights buses from right outside the pub. The huge
annoyance was that the timetable, that the bus driver followed exactly,
seems to need the bus to travel at about 3 miles per hour ! It was only
a half hour or so journey, but at that speed it seemed to take for
ever, and feeling was made three times as bad because I was busting for
a pee by the time we were halfway back to Catford.
We arrived back in Catford just 5 minutes before the London And Rye Wetherspoons pub was due to call last orders. We had already decided that we would probably call in for once last drink, but as soon as I got off the bus I just sprinted straight into the pub, and straight in their toilets ! Once I could uncross my legs we had a pint, and a double Jamesons Irish whiskey to finish off. As I walked home I noticed that the chicken shop was still open, and they had plenty of cooked chicken wings available. So I called in and bought some. I munched my chicken while flicking around the TV channels trying to find something worth watching. I think I found something, but I can't remember what it was. Whatever it was obviously caught my attention because it was almost 2am when I got in bed and fell asleep. That's my second extra late night. In theory I should have slept through to midday, but I was awake again before the sun had risen. I tried to get back to sleep again, but it just wouldn't come. I didn't exactly get up then, and it wasn't until around 9am before I showered and dressed properly. What I did before that is probably unusual enough to be mentioned in despatches - I washed the kitchen floor ! My excuse for hardly ever doing it before (apart from isolated spills etc.) was that I didn't want to leave it wet with soaps, bleaches, or other stuff that might harm Smudge's paws. Now I have no excuses, and now I have taken off a couple of layers of grease from around the gas cooker, I'll have to do it more often until all the floor tiles are visible :-) Washing that floor while it was damp and raining may not have been the choicest time, but it seemed to dry a lot quicker than I imagined it would. That may not be the case for my trousers after I went shopping to Aldi a bit later. It was raining when I went there, and I had my hooded waterproof top on. So I felt cosy and dry. Once I had paid for my shopping the rain turned to an utter cloudburst. That tempest of rain just rushed over my waterproof top and straight onto my trousers. My bottom half was dripping when I got home, and so was my shopping. I had to tip about half a cupfull of water out of one shopping bag ! I bought a mixture of good and bad stuff from Aldi, and it was sort of bad that I had for breakfast - German bratwurst sausages in French bread with tomato and chilli sauces. Tasty ! It's now roughly half way through this special day I took off work, so I could stay out late last night, and I have no plans to do anything at all except rest, read, and possibly snooze.....or will I ? If I find I can't rest I may do some laundry, or I may do some tidying up in the front room, but none of these things are important right now. So it's time to lay on my bed and see what happens :-) |
Sunday 23rd September 2012 |
11:49 BST Yesterday was mostly bright and sunny. Although it was comfortable, the temperature remained fairly low. It's all change this morning. It is now officially autumn, and the weather gods know it ! This morning it is grey, wet, and rather cool. It's currently 12.4° C, and it feels unlikely it will get any warmer today. According to the BBC weather forecast, it is actually going to get cooler, by one degree, in the next hour ! Not until midnight will it start to warm up - if you can call two degrees significantly warmer. Friday night was both good and bad. One thing that was good was that the rain had all but fizzled out when I left to go to the gig. I had tried my best to eat very moderately when I got home from work, but only achieved just about moderately. With more in my stomach that would have beenn ideal, I didn't fancy walking up the hill from the station to The Swan pub in West Wickham, and even less so in the event that it could easily be raining. So I devised a cunning plan. I got off the train at the station before, Eden park, and caught a bus from the bus stop right outside the station that deposited me right outside the pub. The only problem with that plan was that the three times an hour bus leaves 2 minutes before the train arrives ! After a long wait for the next bus I arrived at the pub. As much as I try, I can't learn to love that pub. I don't like the Crystal Palace football club theme of the pub, not that I have anything against Crystal Palace, I hate all football clubs equally. I also don't like the shape of the pub. It's because of the shape that it tends to be an all seated affair. In other venues I tend to stand up for most of the time the band is playing. For one thing it makes photography easier, and I like to move around a bit - though not actually dance - I leave that to others....... I can't remember the song that inspired this troop of dancing girls. Apart from Chris in the middle, I don't know their names, but I do know the girl in the white top, black leggings, and black boots had a most wonderful bottom - particularly when it was jiggling only a foot or two in front of my face ! Also in this picture is the govenor of the pub sitting on the bar stool. During the interval had tried his hand at a bit of drumming. Maybe he has done it before because it didn't take him long to get a good rhythm going. I'm annoyed that I just clipped Jo's head in this picture. It would have been a good shot otherwise. I didn't stay until we
were
thrown out of the pub, but I did stay until the very last note had been
played, and had time to say goodbye before leaving the pub to get the
00:23 bus. That made for a bit of a change because on previous
occasions I've left in time to get the last train home at the
ridiculous time of seventeen past ten. Going home by bus was not as
painful as I thought it might be.
The bus from West Wickham was a minute late, but easily made up it's time on the almost empty roads to Elmers End Green where I had to change buses. If I had been on the previous service it would have made for a better connection - 4 minutes instead of about 15 minutes. During that wait I found I had to indecently expose myself to a brick wall in a dark bushy corner of the forecourt of some sort of commercial premises. Once my bus arrived it was almost full speed ahead back to Catford. I think the timetable suggested it should take about 16 minutes, and it was probably was around that time. I must commend the bus driver on his speed, but more so for stopping just beyond my bus stop, which was out of use because of roadworks, instead of continuing to the next stop. The next stop was only a few hundreds yards down the road, and would have been no trouble to walk back from, but it would still have been mildly annoying. I think the fried chicken shop may have still been open, and if they were they would probably have been quite generous as they cleared the last food. I've scored quite well in there just before they closed once or twice in the past, but on this occasion I resisted the temptation, and went straight home. I arrived indoors a little while after 1am. I didn't go completely hungry before going to bed. I had three small bags of Hula Hoops (or potato rings) while I checked my email etc until almost 2am. It would be tempting to say that I slept well after all that, but the complete definition of that would mean that I would have had to slept right through to gone 9am. Instead I started to get up at 6.30am. I didn't really need to get up that early, but I had stuff to do before a visit from Aleemah, and I didn't dare go back to sleep again. The curious thing is that I didn't feel all that sleepy through the day, and didn't even attempt to get to bed early last night. Aleemah brought around a DVD of a BBC film called the "The First Men In The Moon" It was a rather good adaptation of H.G. Wells story of the same name. It was funny without being slapstick, and the story was very neatly woven in to the Apollo moon landing in 1969. The special effects were effective without being in your face. In short, it was a movie that Hollywood could not possibly do, and could really only have been made by the BBC, or maybe Channel 4 - entertainment that doesn't treat the view as a sort of mindless dribbling idiot ! If I had had time it might have been ideal to do some laundry early in the morning to allow it maximume drying time in the garden, but I had to wait until early afternoon when Aleemah had gone home again before doing it. It was only three shirts, and one t-shirt, and in the hours that they were outside they managed to dry a bit, but I had to let them dry more indoors overnight, and finish them off with a bit of warm air from the fan heater until they were fully dry this morning. Apart from that bit of laundry, I did very little for the rest of the day. I did clear most of the kitchen floor with the idea that I might wash it. Doing that only took 5 minutes, but I couldn't raise the enthusiam to actually wash the floor, and with today being horribly damp, I doubt it's worth doing today either. I did do one other thing in the kitchen - experimental cookery ! The first thing I prepared was probably very healthy. I gave some skinless chicken strips a few moments marinade in a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dried oregano, garlic puree, and some black pepper. Then I grilled them. Most of the oil and grease dripped off them, and served with plain peas, it was possibly a low calorie, low fat, healthy, and very tasty sort of meal. Later on my, my dinner was less healthy. I ordered a big Chinese takeaway. There was a sort of very vague healthy(ish) aspect to that meal. I ate less than I could have because I was looking forward to microwave re-heated left overs for breakfast this morning. Tasty !! I've done nothing of note so far today - except have my "Chinese" breakfast, and take a quick stroll to the corner shop for some Diet Coke. I am considering washing a couple of pillow cases this afternoon, but they are not important just yet, and so maybe I'll wait for a drier day. What I will do is to wash my hair after having a shave, and before having a shower so I can look, and smell my best for an exciting gig tonight. Sunday night is an unusual night for Chain/Jo Bangles to play, and apart from Party In The Priory, Orpington is an unusual place for them to play. It should be an excellent night with Matt Hemsley on bass and Dave Griffiths on keyboards. It would be extra nice if Matt Sharp was on drums, but I don't think he is. I'll be getting to Orpington by train and bus, but coming home it's to be just the bus. That will be slightly irritating, but at least on a Sunday night it is over half an hour quicker than on a Saturday afternoon when the roads and buses are clogged with shoppers. I feel sure that it will be another very late drunken night. Lucky I booked tomorrow off work ! |
Thursday 20th September 2012 |
08:03 BST It seemed to take a long time before it warmed up yesterday. Even when it did, it was hardly anything to write home about, although it might just have been half a degree or so warmer than the forecast. When the sun shined it was very bright and hot, but it was too often obscured by big heavy clouds. This morning started off a little warmer. The temperature was just a bit below 11° C, and just a degree or two made all the difference. A lot of today is forecast to be overcast, but it should stay dry, and there could be some sunshine this afternoon, but the temperature is only forecast to rise to a very uninspiring 16° C. I thought I had last night all mapped out, but an unexpected text message had me drinking with Kevin after work. It was a fairly leisurely drink that finished at about 7.30pm. I think I had about three pints and a couple of shorts. It was about right to feel good without feeling drunk, but enough to lure me into a takeaway to buy some dinner instead of cooking my own. By the time I got in it was too late to wash my hair, and too late to wash my shirts. It was also too late to get an early night. It must have been almost 10pm when I fell asleep. On the whole I slept well, and only woke up a couple of times in the night. When I woke up for the last time I felt pretty dreadful. One of my cheeks, or the area near it, felt sore. I think I have probably got another little infection under one of my teeth, or more likely the big hole where a tooth fell out a couple of years ago - it was one that originally had a root canal filling, and was held in by a titanium screw. I think it got badly damaged when the adjacent tooth was excruciatedly extracted some months before. I've had this before, and it usually clears up in a few days. While the problem persists it is tender, but if untouched is not painful in the least. It's mainly after sleeping on it that it feel sore. Other bits of me felt sore too - legs, knees, ankles etc, but not my head. Even after last night's booze my head felt clear. I did something I rarely do this morning. In fact so rare I can't remember ever doing it before, although I guess I must have. I went straight from my bed to the bathroom where, after a few moments on the toilet, I washed my hair. I usually have to build up to washing my hair, but it just had to be done, and I wanted to give it the longest time possibly to dry before leaving for work. So I did all my email checking, and checking some of my favourite web sites after washing this morning. It certainly made a change, and if I could bring myself to do it more often, it is actually the better way to do it. So tonight I don't have to wash my hair, but I'll have one more shirt to wash. The good thing is that my long sleeve shirts seem to be easier to wring out, and so drip less when I hang them up to dry. I guess it's probably worth hanging them outside for an hour, maybe an hour and a half before the sun sets at 7.02pm, but I don't expect them to get any more dry than just enough to not drip when I bring them inside for the night. By the time I bring them in the news will have finished on TV, and after that I think I will slowly make my way to bed. I think it would be nice to try for another 9 hour sleep tonight. Getting in extra sleep will make tomorrow night easier. I should be going to see Chain play at The Swan in West Wickham, and this time I think I am going to stay a lot later. It is so tempting to get the last train home because it is so simple, but that last train is ridiculously early. The alternative is two buses. I had a quick check on bus times, and if it works as well as the TFL journey planner claims it should, it shouldn't take that long to get home by bus. After Friday night's gig there is an even better one on Sunday night. I can't remember if it's billed as Chain or Jo Bangles, but it should probably be the latter. The great thing about it is it will be featuring the excellent Matt on bass guitar, and Dave Griffiths on Keyboards. Hopefully Matt the drummer will be on drums, but I am not sure about that. Being on a Sunday it will be ending earlier than most gigs, but it may still be too late to get the last train from St Mary Cray station (the gig itself is in The White Hart in Orpington High St.). The alternative is one mega long bus journey whose only saving grace is that it is almost door to door. With luck Kevin will be there, and if it comes to getting the bus we can keep each other amused as we slowly trundle through the streets of S.E. London and Kent. |
Saturday 15th September 2012 |
16:36 BST As had been promised (or forecast), yesterday was a nice sunny, and slightly better than mild day. It was the build up for today. It was cool first thing this morning, but not desperately so. Lots of continuous sunshine soon warmed things up. It's currently 21° C, but the sky has become much more cloudy in the last hour or so. It's unlikely there will be any rain today, and tomorrow is supposed to be dry too, although it will often be cloudy, and the temperature could be a degree or two less. Once again I rushed home from work in high anticipation. In doing so I almost gave myself a heart attack as I attempted to rush as fast as I could up the two sets of steps/stairs at Earlsfield station. I definitely felt I had reached my limit by the time I was on the platform waiting for my train. It was a fairly stupid thing to do because it would only be a 3 or 4 minute wait for the next train, and that would still get me to Waterloo East in plenty of time for my train to Catford Bridge station. I guess it was good exercise though. I had my doubts as to whether I really would see Patricia last night. I had to wait patiently for nearly an hour before she notified me that she was definitely coming over, and then I had to wait patiently for another hour because she was meeting one of her other friends for a coffee in Lewisham before coming here. My patience was eventually rewarded. We had a lovely chat over two halves of cider each. During that chat she confirmed a suspicion of mine that she wasn't going to Argentina permanently, but, in effect, only for the winter (summer in the southern hemisphere). The only problem is that she still maintains that it is too expensive to live here, and thinks that she is more likely to move to Spain (where her sister already lives). So it wasn't absolutely the last time I'll see her. With flights to and from Spain being considerably easier than from Argentina, she will probably make occasional visits to London. It is possible that I'll be seeing well before that. Last night she intended to return a table lamp that I had forgotten I had loaned to her, but she had forgotten to bring it. I told her not to bother about it, but she says she will try and return it anyway, and it may even be today. Tomorrow is more likely, but that will be the cut-off point because she'll be leaving for the airport sometime on Monday. We had a very couple of hours in each other company, and I enjoyed it tremendously. It is sad that it is only on rare occasions like last night that we actually feel very close to each other. There was a lot of hugging and even a damp eye of four. I am, it seems, one of her very best friends. There have been times in the past when I would have disputed that, but it seemed very genuine last night. When accused of being a very nice person (or words to that effect) I disputed it and said that I was actually evil, and to prove it I was going to do the same thing that I naughtily did a year ago when she was leaving for Argentina possibly for good (it obviously wasn't, but there was a bigger chance on that occasion). On that occasion I grabbed her head and planted a kiss on her lips (normally it would only be a peck on each cheek). Last night there was no half hearted attempt to dodge my kiss, and if anything the opposite was true. If it was a beginning I would be in ecstacy, but it seems these things can only happen at the end. I should have felt sad last night, but maybe lots of past practice meant that I wasn't. All in all it was one of those rare moments to treasure, and with that I went to bed feeling quite happy. I slept well until just gone 5am. Getting up so stupidly early for a Saturday was pretty useless. I did have a lot of stuff I wanted to do, but most of that was hoovering, and I don't think my neighbours would have enjoyed me doing that before the sun had risen. I waited until 8am before I got the hoover out. I started off with the back room where I am still finding a few of Smudge's discarded fleas. Thankfully they are starting to get rare now, but the survivors are getting pretty hungry ! Next I did the living room, but what I did after was enough to cause astonishment to anyone who knows me and my house well. I hoovered the stairs ! Admittedly I didn't do a very good job of it, but it may have laid the foundations for more hoovering in the near future. Finally I hoovered my bedroom. Later this morning I saw Aleemah. While she ate breakfast in the local Wetherspoons I had a couple of halves of ale. One the ales was a very dark, practically black ale brewed in Scotland. Initially it seemed to have a very intense liquorice like flavour, but after a few mouthfuls I got the flavour, and it was very nice. Maybe a full pint of it would be too much, but a half pint was very enjoyable (for breakfast !). Aleemah brough over the DVD to a recently made Disney version of Alice In Wonderland. It was one of those films that is good and bad in equal parts. So I both enjoyed, and didn't enjoy it. Maybe if I could forget my prejudices towards Disney (too sickly, sweet and nice) I might have enjoyed it a bit more. Once Aleemah had gone home again I made myself some lunch. I started with some instant noodles, but felt I wanted something more substantial. So I microwaved up a large spicy frankfurter like sausage with some tomatoes, and a few other bits and pieces. that managed to fill a hole, and maybe overfilled it. I had to let it settle for nearly an hour before I could tackle washing some t-shirts and underwear. I've still got some shirts to do, but they can wait until tomorrow. Tonight I should be seeing Chain/Jo Bangles playing at The Chatterton Arms. As I write there is some doubt in my mind about whether I will be going or not. It's unlikely that Patricia will be returning my table lamp this evening, but it would take precedence. Maybe it's because my lunch is still settling, and maybe it because doing my washing has used up more energy than I thought, or maybe doing my washing so soon after eating lunch has left me with slight indigestion as well as tired. Whatever it is, I am far from feeling ready to get myself dressed and polished up to go out, and I don't feel like a moderately long bus ride. I have tokeep reminding myself that once I am there, and have drunk my first pint of Guinness, I will be feeling wonderful, but right now I feel sort of bleaurghhhhh ! |
Wednesday 5th September 2012 |
07:56 BST There wasn't a hint of a shower yesterday, and after a couple of hours of thin misty cloud covering most of the sky, there was hardly any clouds in the sky to drop any rain on us. The sun felt fiercely hot, and yet the temperature didn't get much higher than 23° C. Today should be mostly similar, although paradoxically it will be a little cooler even with the sky already clear, and the sun shining. One reason is there is that the breeze has picked up, and it's almost windy, and the other may be because the temperature dropped quite low overnight. It was just 13° C when I left home, and maybe just wearing a t-shirt and shorts was a little masochistic. They should be nice for going home again though. It was nice going home in warm sunshine yesterday, and the only downside of it was that I found my south facing bedroom to be very hot when I got home. One way of cooling off was the incredibly unpleasant task of plunging my rubber gloved hands into a cold bowl of washing that had been soaking for 24 hours (it would have been nastier still without the gloves). Once again I had decided to leave some washing soaking in bio detergent to get some stubborn grease spots out. It worked well on the t-shirt I had soaked, along with some other random stuff, for 24 hours the previous day. It was less successful on a tea towel that had some really horrible grease spillage on it, but it was probably still better than I expected. I managed to get to bed early last night, and I even got to sleep early despite it being 25° C in my bedroom. The only trouble is, I have no idea what time I did get to sleep. All I know is that when something woke me up at 10pm it felt like I had been asleep for ages. What I should have done at that point was to either close the window, and/or pull the duvet over me, but the room had cooled little by then. I next woke at 3am feeling freezing cold. After that I didn't get much more sleep at all despite pulling the duvet over me. I gave up trying to sleep at 4.30am, and if I hadn't decided to wash my hair I could have been on the 06:03 train to work this morning. Instead I got the 06:33 as usual, and that gave my hair a bit of time to dry before going out into the chilly morning air. I've been thinking about my long term plans. It is possible that I might go home via the 99p shop tonight. There seemed to be a good reason for it earlier on this morning, but I'm blowed if I can remember what it was now. Even further into the future, on Friday to be exact, I think I might go to a gig to see a band (or singer) who I have never seen before. They're called Black Vendetta Baby and they are playing in Forest Hill. I've watched three of their rather strange videos, and one of them is not bad. Even further into the future is Saturday. The weather forecast suggests it could be as warm as 26° C, and I reckon I ought to go for at least one more trip to the seaside. I don't know yet if I will or won't, but I also don't know if the sun will have gone nova by then either. |
Sunday 2nd September 2012 |
13:21 BST As far as I recall, it stayed dry on Friday, and overall it was a nice day. Yesterday featured less sunshine, and might have been a little cooler too, but once again it stayed dry. This morning the ground was damp as if it had rained during the night, but it's been dry since. Unfortunately it is very overcast right now. Later today the clouds are due to get even thicker, but no rain is forecast. Sometime around sunset the clouds will thin again, and the forecast for tomorrow is for a bright sunny, at at 25° C a rather warm day. Today is not forecast to get any warmer than 18° C. That's not exactly warm, but it feels like the humidity is rather high, and doing anything resembling hard work seems to bring on a bit of a sweat. It had been my intention to get to bed a little earlier on Friday night, but with no work on Saturday my discipline slipped. In fact I think I went to bed half an hour, maybe even an hour late. That should have ensured that I would sleep late in the morning, but it didn't. Once again I woke up too early, and then had difficulty getting back to sleep again. It's hard to be sure, but I doubt I got any more than six hours sleep on Friday night/Saturday morning. Getting up early did have some uses though. I had a visit from Aleemah on Saturday morning, and I managed to do an unusual amount of hoovering before she came round. It must have been an unusual amount because it got commented on ! Aleemah brought along the film "Excalibur" for us to watch. It had some good reviews, but it was not to my taste, and at 140 minutes long, I was happier once it had finished ! After Aleemah left I had some lunch, and a rest before preparing myself to go out in the evening to watch Chain play in The British Oak pub in Blackheath. I was most fortunate in being offered a lift there by Jo and Chris because late in the afternoon, and continuing into the night, I had a severe dose of wind that left me feeling rather uncomfortable at times. During the evening I had to either go outside, or into the toilet to avoid offending people. By the time the gig had ended I was just about deflated, but getting a lift home again was a double bonus for a slightly different reason. I stayed to the very end of the gig, and help breakdown the bands gear, and carry it out to the cars. By the time everything was all, loaded the pub had locked the toilets. This was a bit unfortunate because I had been concentrating too much on deflating myself, and not enough on dealing with the result of drinking lots of beer. It sounds silly in retrospect, but it's true. Before we set off home I had to go and water a tree in a semi shielded place by some lock up garages, and by the time I was dropped off at home I had to get to the toilet pretty sharpish ! I am ever so glad that I did not have to keep that in while sitting on a slow, meandering bus back to Catford. It was very late when I got home, and gone 1am when I got to bed. It took very little time to get to sleep, but I still woke up around 4am. I did get up very briefly then, but it wasn't long before I was back in bed asleep. I woke up a couple of times again, but essentially I managed to sleep through to 11am even if it didn't always feel like quality sleep. This morning I didn't feel too bad, although I shall be doing my best to getting to sleep before 9pm tonight. It wasn't to this morning that I realised that the wind that was causing me so much discomfort during late afternoon, and into the evening, must have been building since yesterday morning. On Friday I recieved two new pairs of jeans that I had ordered. One pair is a plain black denim, and the other is I think described as black twill (it's like a fine corduroy). I put on the plain denim ones when I met Aleemah, and they felt a bit tight and uncomfortable. It was obvious that as well as them being new and stiff, I had put on a bit of weight. At least I thought it was obvious. I was so bloated with wind last night that any of my trousers could have felt a bit tight. So it came as a bit of a surprise this morning when I discovered that I had worn the other new pair of jeans that are mostly identical to the old pair that I usually wear to gigs. Now I am fully deflated I think those new jeans would be very comfortable to wear, and to prove the point I wore the same new ones that I had worn on Saturday morning when I went shopping today. The legs still felt a bit new and stiff, but I had no trouble doing them up, and they didn't feel tight around the waist at all. So things are not as bad as they seem, but it is still going to need a fair bit of effort to be able to wear my red jeans along with a red top, and red shoes for the Halloween gig at the end of October. Two months to lose an inch around my waist - easy - maybe, or maybe not :-( |