I was hoping that today would be a bit brighter. Earlier forecasts said it would be, but the latest forecast has been changed to reflect the fact that it is rather dull outside. Without sunshine it is going to feel like a cold day. Well I never, the forecast has changed again. Maybe there could be some sunny spells after all. Despite being very dull it did look like there was the potential for the sun to find away through the clouds while I was walking back from the station with a paper.
 Tomorrow should be a whole degree warmer than today, 14° C, but it is forecast to be a very dull day - except at 4pm when a sunny spell is predicted just as the sun sets !

  The highlight of yesterday was seeing Angela in the park at lunchtime. I guess I must lead a very sad life when the only thing I seem to live for is 25 minutes in the company of the woman I love, but who doesn't love me. Today I am counting down the minutes until I see Angela again. If it stays this dull outside I may get a message to meet her in the pub. That will be nice.

 I didn't really do anything of any great note yesterday after seeing Angela. One reason was because my chest was really playing up. There were several times when I wondered if it was just the usual "wonky ribs", or if it was my heart complaining about something. I don't think it is my heart, but I do wonder if there is an added dimension to this - maybe something along the lines of a viral infection or something.

 It would have been so easy to go to bed extra early last night. I was feeling rather tired, but the chest pains were keeping me alert. There was also the fact that it got dark so early. That made me want to go to bed as early as 7pm because it had been dark for a few hours, but on the other hand I knew I had to try and fight the instinct to sleep as soon as it is dark...well, sort of.

 Going to bed early while I was feeling rotten would probably have been a waste of time, or it may have been initially. I went to bed at about 10pm, and I am unsure when I went to sleep. I suspect it was a lot quicker than I might imagine. I was asleep until about 1.30am. When I woke up I found I had been sweating heavily. My pillow was very damp feeling, as was the bottom sheet where it had been in contact with my chest and belly.

 My bedroom was not particularly warm last night, and so I am unsure why I should have sweated so much. The next time I woke up, maybe 90 minutes later, I seemed to have been sweating more. When I woke up this morning I felt strange - strange in as much as I didn't feel as bad as I have done the last few mornings. That is not to say I felt particularly good. It did remind me a bit of when a cold breaks during the night - lots of feverish sweating in the night, but many of the symptoms gone in the morning.

 I don't think I've had a cold, but some sort of viral infection could be responsible for some of how I have been feeling recently...it's all a bit vague though. The first test of how I feel was when I walked to the station to pick up a copy of The Metro. I didn't feel like rushing there, but even so, I was still feeling slightly short of breath when I got there. I was not happy about that, but on the other hand it didn't feel any worse than many occasions when I was going to work. The bigger stress test is that once I've got the paper I turn around and walk back again. I probably walked even slower on the return journey, but it was still a lot faster than all the dawdling kids going to school with their mums.

 I arrived home feeling like I had been walking hard for 12 minutes, and I think I have to blame that on my weight. The fact that my trousers still seem to fit as usual, and my belt is still done up to the usual notch does not distract me to the idea I feel heavier, and sometimes bloated. Trying to do anything about it is really hard, and doubly so when the weather is cold, and double doubly so when you are tired of life, and food is about the only pleasure left to you.

 This morning I've had a rummage through the fridge. I have grubbed enough stuff together to make a feta cheese salad. That is now prepared and in the fridge ready to eat - probably after I come back from seeing Angela. I have also prepared, and 90% cooked the scariest meal in the world ! It is sprout curry ! It is no more than sprouts cooked in stock with half a jar of green Thai curry mix. In theory it will be very low in calories, high in fibre, and very filling. It will also probably make my guts explode !

 If I could just eat the salad and the curry today it might be a good start to loosing a bit of weight. The only trouble is that I am not sure if I can just stick to those two meals. Boredom could be the real killer here. All I can do, is to do my best. Tomorrow I need to go and get some shopping. If I shop well I can continue the low calorie stuff, but the temptations for other stuff can be huge !

 This morning started a lot cooler than the forecast said it should be. My thermometers may have given slightly different readings, but the 3.9° C pictured on the left was about typical at 7.26am. Hopefully it will warm up a bit during the day. The forecast says it should be a nice bright day, and as I write this the sun is shining. Apparently it may only warm the day up to 11° C, but if the wind is light enough it may not feel too bad outside. I think I'll wear a coat when I go out though.

  The summary for tomorrow, as shown in the screenshot - a low of 9° C, and high of 14° C with light cloud is (hopefully) misleading. At the moment the actual day is shown as being quite bright with many sunny intervals. The temperature range is probably right though.




 Yesterday was a typical Sunday. It was boring and uninspiring ! I sometimes feel that my main activity yesterday, photo editing, drains the psyche in a similar way to exercise draining energy. There were quite a few things I could have done yesterday if only I could have been bothered. Maybe chief among them was to go to the Chain gig in West Wickham. It started at the sensible hour of 6.30pm, and finished at 9.30pm, but I hardly noticed 6.30pm approaching - which is sort of strange considering I believed myself to be bored.

 The thing that threw me most of all was it getting dark so quickly. Night had fully fallen by 5pm, and by 7pm I was thinking it must be bedtime. I didn't actually go to bed then. I did a bit more photo editing, and I watched some TV. Once I had had my fill of TV I retired to my bed with a book I am reading. After that things get a bit hazy because I was engrossed in the book, but I think it may have been sometime around 10pm when I put the book down, and went to sleep.

 I slept in two parts last night. It must have been around 2.30am when I woke up. It is hard to describe how I felt when I woke up. It felt like I was in pain, but I wasn't really. I just ached here and there is fairly familiar ways. I couldn't get back to sleep like that, and so I stayed up for about 90 minutes before going back to bed. My sleep was a bit lumpy after that, and I think I was dreaming a lot. One dream included Marion. She was the first woman I ever managed to "chat up". My memory is extremely hazy, but I might have thought about her before going to bed, or it was my subconcious doing the work while I slept. The reason for her memory surfacing was that today is her birthday. So happy birthday Marion wherever in the world you are.

 This morning I have only tested my body while washing my hair and taking a shower, but most of it seems in working condition, and firing on at least 4 of it's 8 cylinders. Showering was quite interesting. While in the 99p shop yesterday (going to the 99p shop was one thing I did yesterday that I forgot to mention) I bought a back brush to replace the limescale encrusted one I haven't used in 25 years ! The new brush seems to work quite well, or maybe even very well. It sort of felt good to scrub not only my back, but a few other areas where a good scrubbing would seem beneficial. I wasn't expecting the end result to be my skin feeling smoother and shinier (can skin feel shinier ?) but that seemed the end result.

 There are a couple of things I'll be doing today, One is to go and get a paper from the station, and the other is what I was impatiently waiting for the whole weekend - meeting Angela in the park. There could be an unlikely chance that she will contact me to say it is too cold in the park, and that we will meet in the pub, but I think that while it is dry and sunny it will be in the park regardless of temperature. Every time I think of it I conclude that it must be a form of madness that just 20 minutes with Angela makes my day. It is a reason for living, and there are very few of them.

 Maybe I'll do other stuff today, but I have no idea what. I'll have to reveal what, if anything, I do later today tomorrow. In the mean time a few pictures from Red Post Hill's gig last Saturday night. It is hard to choose just a few pictures. Do I select the highest quality photographs, or the photographs featuring the most interesting bits - or a bit of both. I have no idea so I'll fall back on almost random....

 The clocks have changed, and we are now on Greenwich Mean Time. This year the change means little too me because I don't have to go to work. Sunset tomorrow is at 16:37, and that is about the time I would typically just be arriving home. Give it another week and I would be arriving home in darkness, and it would see that the day was fully over. It is still a fight to believe that anything can happen after sunset, but some days I seem to be getting there.

 Anyhow, today is going to be rather cool according to the forecast. I'm not convinced that the day started at 15° C. I think it was closer to 12° C, but I guess even that is not bad for this time of year. The trouble is that the forecast says the temperature will fall during the day, and not even rise a tiny bit when, after a lot of dull and sometime very gloomy skies, the sun breaks through this afternoon. The forecast for tomorrow is both better and worse. Tomorrow at 6am it may only be 6° C, but it should be bright day with a fair amount of sunshine. There is a good chance that it will be joyfully sunny when I meet Angela in the park tomorrow, but sadly it might only be a rather chilly 10° C. In my most pessimistic thoughts I fear we may not see it warmer than about 14° C until next spring now. My more optimistic thoughts remind me that in the middle of the day, new years eve 2015, it was warm enough to walk without a coat under brilliant blue skies. Pictures of that day here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/135353558@N03/albums/72157660781769314

 I was suffering from a bad night's sleep, and my wonky chest yesterday. It made me inclined to do very little, although that is not the same as nothing at all. It took a long time to psych myself up to do it, but I washed some t-shirts and stuff. It always feels odd how doing laundry by hand, working hard enough to raise a good sweat, and straining assorted muscles as I wring stuff out, can actually make my chest feel better. It did it yesterday, and I feel sure I am still reaping the benefits today.

 The main thing yesterday was going out to a gig in the evening. I'm not sure if I would have raised the enthusiasm if it had meant much travelling, but last night's venue was The Black Cat, and that is just 6 minutes walk away. The band were Red Post Hill. They are a strange band. They often tackle songs that are beyond their capabilities, and that could be because no one knows their capabilities. Last night I came up with a new theory. It is that they are actually two bands cut-n-shut together. Both are good in their own right, but don't seem to work together well.
  Despite some of their weaknesses I had a good time, and even my friend and neighbour Michael, who loves to moan about stuff, musicians in particular, had a good time ! I took loads of pictures, and maybe I'll have a few to show tomorrow. There was only one little problem yesterday - except it was more like an anti-problem. I rather fancied a takeaway after the gig, but I walked Michael back to where our paths diverge to our own homes, and that meant not going past a takeaway. It was a good thing really because I had drunk quite a lot of Guinness, and I could have bought quite a big meal if I had the chance !

 What I actually ate was an alleged "calorie controlled" meal that I zapped in the microwave. I think it was quite nice under the excess of really burning chilli sauce I poured on it. Whether that had any bearing on what happened later is anyone's guess. It was all a bit complicated with the clocks changing from BST to GMT, and doubly complicated at 2, 3 or 4am (who knows ?). I have no idea how much sleep, and probably rather good sleep, I got before I woke up in the early hours of this morning.

 It seemed like a fairly normal thing - time for a wee - but it was more than normal. While I was heading to the bathroom I thought it might be a good idea to sit down on the toilet - and it was ! I was not in any discomfort at all, but as soon as I let my muscles relax I sort of exploded ! I needed two more visits at 10 minute intervals after that before I felt comfortable to go back to bed.

 I have no idea how much sleep I got after that, but it was probably more than it seemed. The big clue is that at one moment it was pitch dark outside, and the next moment it was bright daylight. That could only have happened if I was soundly asleep for at least an hour. It just didn't feel like I had slept for more than a few minutes. Having finally got up, and assessed myself, I found that I was mostly comfortable with no significant aches or pains - just the usual background aches ! 
 Before I could have a shower this morning I had a little job to do. It was during my third visit to the toilet in the early hours of the morning that I heard a rather loud, deep buzzing. I couldn't see what was making the noise, but from the sound of it I knew it was something big. I was rather happy to finish my business and get out of the bathroom. This morning I found the owner of that deep buzzing noise. It was a big hairy bumble bee, and it was sitting in my bath. My first reaction was to take a picture, and my second was to grab a glass and a beer mat. Using the glass and beer mat I scooped it up and tipped it out of the bathroom window. I hope it had a soft landing.

 Two things could amuse me today. The first is actually more an annoyance than an amusement. it is to go through the pictures I took last night, and select and edit the best. What could be an amusement is a late afternoon gig today. Chain are playing at The Wheatsheaf pub in West Wickham at 6.30pm today. If the trains are running, and I think they are, it is a relatively straightforward journey to get there - train to West Wickham, and then a few stops on the bus along the high street. I think it is a Halloween themed gig, and I am not really into Halloween this year (or should I say I am less into Halloween than ever before this year). I might go, or I might not. I'll make a decision much nearer the time.

 It it nice and sunny at the moment, and it has been for the last couple of hours, but now there are signs that the clouds are starting to shut the sun off. The rest of the day is forecast to be quite dull and miserable, but at least it should stay dry. The other thing about this morning was just how cold it was. I took the photo on the left at 8.45am, and it shows 6.5° C, but an hour or so earlier it was saying 5.7° C, and I would not be surprised if it might have been lower still before that. It can't be long now until we wake up to a frost (the morning of 6th November always seemed like the first frosty morning in family legend).

 Today could actually be a whole degree warmer than yesterday - 15° C - and the thickening cloud will keep some of the heat in. Tomorrow morning is forecast to start at 14° C, but rather unusually the temperature will drop during the day. By the time the sun is forecast to come out at 2pm it will be down to just 12° C - and it will continue to drop even with the sun shining. By midnight it might be just 8° C, and by 6am on Monday morning just 6° C.

  I had two plans for yesterday, and neither came to fruition. The first plan was to stay in and rest, but also to feel exhilarated by the bright warm sunshine pouring through my front room windows. I suppose bits of that plan did happen, but my idea of doing intensive resting was rather spoiled by my internet firewall playing up again. The initial diagnosis was that the hard disk in it had failed. It is a 14 year old hard disk, and so that idea was entirely feasible, but it wasn't correct. After a lot of mucking about I have concluded that it is the motherboard in the PC that does service as a firewall, that is failing. I've bodged it to work for the moment, but I am going to have to build a new firewall box as soon as possible. I am considering using an old laptop for the job.

 My other plan for yesterday was to go to a gig last night. As evening approached I found myself in the wrong mood to go out. Some of that wrong mood was triggered by a few aches and pains - probably as a result of laying on my back for too long instead of doing exercise, and possibly by having to adopt a very poor stance while working on my firewall box. I had to lean over lots of stuff to work on it at arms length. I think that made for a few aches and pains that my have come to the fore much later.

 So I stayed in reading, watching TV, and boozing. I'm not sure why, but I suddenly had this desire to drink some Ouzo. Maybe it was because Angela told me that they sell it in Sainsbury's. Buying from there is easier than going to every mini mart/convenience store/off licence in Catford....or maybe it's not because there is no Sainsbury's in Catford !

 When I finally went to bed last night I felt very uncomfortable for two reasons. Maybe the Ouzo accounted for one reason. I had a sort of undefined mild, but annoying, belly ache. The bigger problem was a flare up of my wonky chest. It could have been triggered, or maybe made worse by the way I was working on my firewall box earlier, but whatever the underlying trigger, it was decidedly uncomfortable. When I turned onto my right side my ribs went "crunch", and when I turned on my left there was a different sort of crunch. The actual crunches were painless at the time, but left a legacy of aching. If I just lay on my back some of the aching went away, but every time I breathed in or out my ribs would pop or grate together (or something that sounds quite unpleasant).

 The short version of this story is that I had a lousy night. It didn't feel like I got any sleep at all, although I know I did - I would glance at the clock and realise half an hour, or even a full hour had passed with no memory of that time passing. I got up really early this morning feeling totally lousy, but after a couple of hours I went back to bed. Once again I was hardly aware that I slept, but I was aware that a chunk of time had gone missing without me noticing.

 I've had a shower and washed my hair, and I've been sitting here for quite some time as my hair dries, and I type these words. I don't actually feel too bad at the moment, but I reckon that as soon as I have finished writing I will lay on my bed, and try to distract my mind by reading. If I am lucky I will be able to have a nice long snooze. While I ought to be building a new internet firewall box, I don't feel inclined to start that just yet, and in fact I don't feel inclined to do anything in particular until tonight.

 Tonight I am definitely going out. There is no need to be mucking about on buses and trains because tonight's gig is in The Black Cat, and I can crawl there if necessary ! Tonight's gig is from Red Post Hill. They are not brilliant musicians, but they are very entertaining. I think my friend and neighbour Michael will be going too, and so I won't be on my own. I don't know why, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Angela in there - perhaps only briefly. Logic says there is no way that she will be going anywhere but to The British Oak in Blackheath where her daughters band, The Life Of Brian will be doing a Halloween gig. The band includes Paul, Angela's beau, and of course she will want to be there for both him and her daughter. So the idea that she will pop into the Black Cat is ludicrous, but an itch at the back of my mind gives it a one in a million chance that she will.
 Another reminder of Autumn. I've never seen fungi like this in my own back garden before, but now I have. The biggest heads are 3 or 4 inches in diameter. It is growing on the decaying stump of a Buddleia bush. I have no idea if these fungi are edible, mildly poisonous, or completely deadly, so I think I will leave them alone even if it does look like something has nibbled on them.

 It was supposed to be 10° C at 9am, but by my reckoning it was barely 9° C (one of my thermometers said 8.7° C). However it is nice and bright, and sooner or later all the sunshine should take the temperature up to 14° C - not really t-short temperature unless you keep moving - as I might do later. It might not happen tonight, but we seem to have some rather chilly mornings in store for us. It can't be that long now until we get our first frost. We should escape that tomorrow, but while it might be a degree less cool than today, it is forecast to be rather dull and uninspiring it is now forecast to have some sunny spells ! I wonder what reality will bring ?

  Yesterday was a rather good day. It was another day where I was quite active, and I got a fair amount of fresh air, Sadly there was no sunshine to top up my tan. I did wonder how well my body would work after my very hilly walk in Brighton the day before, but it seems it was still in fair working order - possibly equivalent to a 20 year old car that just scrapes through it's MOT.

 My first bit of exercise was to go and get some shopping from Aldi. I've got a bit bored with stewed stuff so in addition to some vegetables and diced, skinless chicken, I bought some "calorie controlled" ready meals too. It is possible I missed a shower while in Aldi, but it was dry enough when I walked back home. If only I had been wearing more comfortable shoes it might have been an almost pleasant walk.

 My next venture into the fresh air was to go and meet Angela for a quick Friday lunchtime drink. I know it wasn't actually a Friday, but Angela has today off work, and it was like a Friday to her. I decided to walk through the park to get to the pub where we were meeting. I now wish I had taken a better camera with me - one with at least x10 zoom. The camera in my pocket was my tiny little Sony DSC-W350, and while it has some nice features, and is as light as a feather, it's x4 zoom lens is not terribly good. In fact it may be worse than that. I sometimes think that at full zoom the image is degraded more than if I enlarged and cropped the picture using my photo editing software. There was one special picture where this is very relevant.
 It is so hard to see, but inside the red ring is a rat "messing about on the river". Any of my bigger cameras would have allowed me to zoom in and capture the rat close to full frame, and then it could be seen in all it's glory. Instead it is just a grey smudge amongst the carpet of leaves.

  At the moment it is only supposed to be 10° C, but the consensus of three thermometers here is that it is between 12 and 13° C. It is certainly dull though, and possibly more dull than the forecast suggests. If the forecast is correct it could get even duller later on. That could be deeply depressing, but a little light may come into my life at lunchtime. Here's what the small print says about today :- "A generally cloudy day, after any overnight fog lifts, with outbreaks of light rain or drizzle at times. Cloud may thin for some in the afternoon, especially in the south, giving brief brighter or sunny spells." Those dark clouds could well produce some rain or drizzle, but it would be rather nice of the forecasters to actually show some rain drops on the chart if they think it will rain ! Tomorrow is currently shown to be rather cool, but it may be sunny all day long !

  It's been a busy couple of days. On Tuesday I met Angela in the park, and it was a very warm meeting. I feel sure that if she hadn't given in to Paul's chat up line (or whatever) she would be going out with me again, but she will be faithful to Paul unfortunately for me. Oh well, at least she is happy (even if I am very miserable about it). We chatted for about 20 - 25 minutes before she had to go back to work, but before we parted we made plans for today. She had a day off yesterday, and so I didn't see her, but today we are meeting for a very quick drink at lunchtime.

 I had mentioned that I was thinking about it, and on Tuesday night I put that thought into action, and went to the open mic night in The Halfway House pub near Sevenoaks station. It seemed a very long way to go, and the travelling time felt even longer because I was travelling after dark, and there was no passing scenery to distract me. The train I was thinking of getting was delayed, but so was the one before it, and I got that one. The timing worked out quite well because I arrived at the pub about 5 minutes before it all started.
 The session was hosted by Lisa Copley (pictured above).  She started off by singing karaoke style to a backing track, but then came a series of acoustic guitar players. Several of them made me think that they were local farmers, and one of them even smelled a bit "agricultural". It was interesting to see and experience it once, but it wasn't really my thing. As 9.30pm approached it seemed like I had seen everyone play once, and I decided to get the 9.30pm train back to Catford. Unfortunately, contrary to the forecast (both for Catford and Sevenoaks) it was raining when I left. To make matters worse it had seemed like a warm(ish) night, and I hadn't brought a coat with me. Fortunately it was only very light rain, and it didn't seem cold.

 I had some naughty food when I got home. After that I stayed up for a bit before going to bed earlier than I had imagined I might. I think I was in bed, and maybe even asleep by 11pm. I seem to be going through a phase where I am getting very little trouble from my chest, and that makes sleep easier, and I think I slept through most of the night again. It would be nice to say I woke up yesterday morning feeling nice and fresh, but of course that would be fantasy....however, I didn't feel that bad.

 It was forecast to be a brilliant sunny day yesterday, and although it wasn't forecast to be that warm, it still seemed like the weather for frolicking in the sunshine. My initial thought was that I would just spend a few hours almost taking random trains or tubes, and taking pictures of where I ended up, but while on the train heading for Charing Cross I decided that what I really wanted to do was to go to the seaside. I quickly evolved a plan to try out a route I had never tried before - London Bridge to Brighton. I am not a great fan of Brighton, but at least it has a pier and the remains of a pier to photograph.

It is a fairly fast run to Brighton from London Bridge, and the train only stops at 4 or 5 stations along the way. The entire journey takes about an hour, although about 45 minutes can be added to that for the time taken to find the ticket off, buy tickets, and then wait an awful long time for the next departure - there is only one train an hour in the middle of the day ! The train was one of Thameslink's new class 700 trains, and it was 12 cars long - it's quite a walk from one end to the other. As shown on the screenshot on the left, some of the journey is done at 80 mph, and I suspect we may have hit 90 mph from time to time. (I took the screenshot on the return journey). Using my 60+ Oystercard for free travel as far as "Croydon Stations", and my Senior Railcard for a third off discount, meant that the return fare was just £10.10.


 My walk was recorded at only 2.56 miles, but that was horizontal miles ! Brighton is extremely hilly. The long walk from the station to the sea front is mostly downhill, and I was sure that it would be a bugger to have to walk back up again.

 I hatched a plan that I would take a zig zag route back to the station. By going a small way up the hill, and then walking on the level for a bit, it would spread the load, and it would allow me to see a little more of Brighton than just the main road.

 It was a great idea with just one terrible flaw ! I was unfamiliar with the area, and the map showed no contour lines. I ended up getting so high that I had to walk down a very steep hill to finally get to the station to start heading for home !

 I guess I had two real objectives for my visit to Brighton, and they were to photograph the pier and the remains of the other pier.

  The forecast suggest today is going to be a very dull one. At the moment, when I look out my window at a miserable grey sky, I think they have the forecast right. The only positive thing is that it if forecast to feel warm today. I've already been out this morning, and at 15° C it felt pleasant enough without a coat. By this afternoon it should hit 18° C, and while that may be poor by summer standards, it should feel quite warm at this time of the year. Tomorrow is currently forecast to be dry, and the temperature range should be similar to today. The big difference is that the sun may just about break through enough to give some sunny intervals from mid afternoon.

  Work began on my roof yesterday. The pushy builder kept the pressure up right until the last moment - and I kept the pressure on him. He gave in more than me, and we reached an agreement for quite a bit more to be done for considerably less money than originally quoted. I'm not sure that it was quality work, but it comes with a 7 year (7 ???) guarantee. Considering that all the work was done in just one day - a lot of it by just one man - I think that even after heavy discounting they made a good profit on it. All that is left to do now is for the scaffolding to be taken down, and that should happen this morning.
 At lunchtime I went out to meet Angela in the park for a chat. On the way there were a few unusual sights to be seen. There is a road just before Lewisham Hospital where the local funeral directors wait for the appointed time to pick up dead bodies from the morgue, and occasionally it is by horse drawn hearse. It was a week or two ago that I snapped a white hearse, but yesterday it was a more traditional black hearse. It seemed odd that it was being pulled by a pair of white horses.
 I was just too late to capture the initial conflagration, but there was still plenty of smoke and steam as the fire brigade put out a fire under the bonnet of a Tesco delivery van. Judging by the smell it was an electrical fault - possibly chafed wires causing a wiring loom to burn up - but it spread much further and seemed to even shatter the windscreen.

 I got to the park quite early, and I had a good 20 minutes wait before Angela turned up. We had a nice chat, and she told me a little more about her relationship with Paul. Contrary to what I had been told earlier, perhaps 12 months or more ago, when my relationship with Angela was a lot more intimate, Angela's previous affair with Paul didn't end up as a complete disaster. I fear that this renewal of their relationship could be a result of Angela being on the rebound after John's death, and once again it will go wrong and she will be hurt again. If I had some confidence that it would turn out happy ever after for Angela I would do my best to ignore and forget her, but I feel like I need to hang around, ready to pick up the pieces if things do go wrong. I may not have said it in those words, but that is what I told Angela yesterday. I actually said that I continued to love her when she sidelined me for John, and I shall continue to love her now she is going out with Paul.
 I don't know why, but I thought I might be told off in some way for saying I still loved her, but she took it in her stride, and I think she appreciated it. I think she is even looking forward to seeing me again this lunchtime. I know I am definitely looking forward to seeing Angela. Just a mere 20 minutes in her presence makes me feel good in a way that is hard to describe. It is as if it makes some sort of sense of this world, and the effect can last a long time.

 After seeing Angela I hurried home to have some very late breakfast. I really wanted to catch up on some sleep, but with a builder on my roof I just couldn't relax despite feeling desperately tired after a poor night's sleep. I spent a lot of the time just reading. Every now and then my eyes would start to close and I would put the book down and try to sleep, but seconds later I would hear the builder do something and bring me back to alertness.

 By the time the builder had finished, and it all went quiet, I had got my second wind and didn't feel like sleeping. Besides which, it was time to start preparing my dinner. It was to be diced lamb with sprouts and leeks cooked in stock - a stew by any other name. It was very tasty, but the lamb, which I had bought in Aldi, didn't seem so tender as the slightly more expensive diced lamb from Tesco. I am wondering if it is worth paying the extra for better quality.

 I would have expected to have gone to bed extra early last night, but it was 11pm before I turned out the lights. I was probably asleep within 10 minutes. It seems highly unlikely, but I can't seem to remember anything from then until I woke up at about 5.20am this morning. I can't remember the last time I slept right through the night like that. It wasn't enough sleep though. So after getting up for a while I went back to bed and got about another hours sleep.

 This morning I have been to the station to get a copy of The Metro, and on the way back I went to Tesco to buy a few bits and pieces. Amongst those bits and pieces were a couple of sandwiches for later on, and one strange sort of sandwich/roll that I've eaten for breakfast. It was a bit like a bagel, but it didn't have a hole, and it was filled with pastrami and sauerkraut. It was quite pleasant, but best of all it was reduced from £2.35 to just 75p. I would definitely buy more if I saw them for 75p !

 I now have one definite plan for today - seeing Angela at lunchtime - and one possible plan for tonight. I noticed there is an open mic session at a pub quite near Sevenoaks station tonight. It allegedly starts fairly early - 7.30pm. Sevenoaks is a long way to go - about 40 minutes on the train - but it is just one single train from Catford station. Google maps reckon that from the station to the pub should take less than 10 minutes on foot, and that the walk should be fairly flat. Using my 60+ Oystercard to cover travel as far as Swanley, and then a Senior Railcard discounted ticket from there, should only only cost me around £2 return. The only downside is that I don't like travelling in the dark - it's boring when there is no view - but I think there is a fair chance that I'll go, but I can't stay late. The last two through trains are at 10pm and 10.30pm, and I would aim for the second to last at 10pm - just in case !

  The trouble with today is that rain is expected at a possibly inconvenient time. On the other hand, maybe it might end up as being convenient. Today has started off rather cold. The forecast reckons it should have been 11° C at 6am. I reckon it was just under 10° C ! Maybe the 16° C forecast for late afternoon will feel sort of warm-ish. Tomorrow is forecast to start with some light rain, but only for an hour or two. The rest of the day could be dry, but the chances of seeing any sunshine seem close to zero. The only positive thing is that it could get up to 18° C.

  I seemed to spend a lot of yesterday editing photos, but in the evening I mostly relaxed with a book. I am currently reading the second book in Ben Bova's New Earth trilogy. I am not so sure it is as good as the first book. What I have read so far is all set on Earth, and features what seems like Ben Bova's favourite themes - power mad businessmen and politicians, kidnappings, and concealment in disused, or used military or government bases.

 I ended up reading until quite late last night. It was probably to distract my mind from thinking about today's verbal battle with the builder who wants to do more work than I am prepared to pay for. Thinking about that kept me awake for a lot of last night, but I did think up a strategy to bolster my argument with him. I don't know when it will be, but presumably soon after it is fully light is when he will turn up with his workers.

 This morning I got up a lot earlier than I would have liked to considering how badly I slept last night, but curiously enough I didn't feel too bad. I quickly washed and dressed, and I went to the station to pick up a copy of The Metro. I arrived at the station just a little later than I used to when going to work. I used to get the 06:33 Charing Cross train. I was there, albeit on the wrong platform, in time to see the 06:39 Cannon Street train.

 In theory my day will probably go like this - at some point this morning I will have a "discussion" with the builder. Just after midday I will go out to meet Angela. It will probably be raining and so I may wait for her outside the hospital, and we may end up in the local pub for 20 - 25 minutes. That will be nice. This afternoon I would ideally like to have a good snooze, but with builders clattering around on the roof I expect that will be impossible. The only good thing is that they should finish for the day quite early when they lose the light - although I guess that would probably be around their normal finishing time anyway - say, 5pm.
 A picture I had forgotten was on my phone. I took this picture on my way to Longfield on Saturday night. It was on the first leg of my journey from Catford to Bromley South station. It is not the first time I have encountered a train saying it is not in service while it obviously is. I think Thameslink's new class 700 trains have some software bugs that need a good ironing out !

  I guess I could stretch my imagination to say that today hasn't been so bad a day, but I don't think I will. It was definitely very cool this morning - barely above 9° C, and even with some pleasant sunny intervals earlier, the temperature struggled to reach the forecast 13° C. In fact I am not sure if it did reach 13° C. The highest I noticed was a tad over 12° C. Tomorrow is forecast to be a couple of degrees warmer, but it comes at the price of more cloud, no sunshine, and rain during the morning. The afternoon may be dry.

  One of the worst things about yesterday was arguing with the builder about what work he will be doing for me. He is ever trying to make it a bigger job, and while some of his "suggestions" do have valid reasons, he seems unable to grasp that I am working to a strict budget. I am not looking forward to tomorrow when he will no doubt start again. I have a written contract where we have agreed work to be done, and an agreed price. That is all the work I can afford to have done, and he will get no more !

 Despite the aggravation of the builder, or maybe because of it, I found the energy to go out last night. Of course having bought my rail tickets in the morning it would have meant wasting £2.95 if I didn't go out and use them. Before I went out I took some painkillers, and had a quick puff of my rarely used asthma inhaler. That meant I had a mostly comfortable journey all the way to The Railway Tavern pub in Longfield. It's a long way to Longfield !

 I think Chain were rather stunned to see me arrive at the pub, and even though I was wearing a Neil Young t-shirt, I was still rewarded with a big hug, and a pint of Guinness, by Jo ! Apparently Jo does not like Neil Young, and would have preferred me to wear my John Foggety t-shirt (I will next time !). I could only stay for the first set, but it was very enjoyable. Unfortunately the lighting, although quite bright, was unable to be used to best advantage, and that made photography difficult. It was often the case that Jo's face was lit brightly enough to cause the photo to be effectively over-exposed while the rest of her was in near darkness. It made trying to use my wide angle lens particularly troublesome.

  Today's weather is a bit schizophrenic ! Sometimes it is wet, and sometimes sunny - and sometimes it is both ! At least one of the light showers, specifically the one around 11am, was actually a very heavy shower, but it was a very brief heavy shower ! The sunshine is going to make today a degree or two warmer than yesterday, but tomorrow, a generally more dull day will mean the temperature will revert to a more typical temperature for late October - 12 - 13° C.

  There was a lot wrong with yesterday, and it all combined together to give me quite a miserable and depressing day. The weather was one thing, some aches and pains were another source of depression, but the worst thing was that Angela finally posted on social media that she was !In a relationship". Of course the weird thing was that she didn't actually say who it was with ! I am pretty certain it is not with me, and I am very certain it is with Paul.

 It came as quite a shock that she admitted it publicly, and maybe it was also a shock that she felt so confident about their relationship that she was prepared to admit it. The last time she went out with Paul it was a complete disaster, or so I was lead to believe during some of the initimate talks we used to have a year ago.

 Oh well, it has it's plus side. The money that I had originally put aside to take Angela on holiday (or even holidays - plural) is now going to be spent getting the pointing sorted out above the roof line. Some of it has been needed to be done for quite some time now. Of course there is always the hope that this revived relationship might end as a disaster too, and then I might have a second chance with Angela. Our lunchtime meetings have been getting warmer and warmer with lots of little positive signs. It may not the height of passion, but being complimented on my t-shirt, and having stray hairs picked off it is a little warmer than just friendship !

 Trying to think of positives like that is just torturing myself, and I feel it is actually causing some physical health problems. My chest was aching a fair bit yesterday, and on top of that I think what is probably a stomach ulcer is flaring up again after being quite dormant for months and months and months. All the things conspired together to dampen my enthusiasm to do anything....except a lot of reading.

 I was going to go out last night to a gig in Beckenham. I thought it would be a safe one to go to - i.e. no chance of Angela and Paul turning up - and I thought it was likely that Fran would be there. Fran would have given me a hug and a kiss, as she does to many people, and that would have cheered me up a lot. Unfortunately my chest and gut ache were enough to put me off going out...plus there was one other silly problem.

 For some mad reason I decided to reboot my PC and select my old Windows XP installation in the boot menu. I wanted to just do a few updates. It turned out to be a longer process than I expected. Any Windows installation is a good time waster, and one that needs so many things updated can waste a lot of time. There was also a strange problem in that for some reason the clock on Windows XP was showing what must have been GMT instead of BST. So I thought it was almost 9pm when I finished. Being so late meant that it would have hardly been worth going out. Of course, having decided I definitely wouldn't be going out I rebooted back to Linux, and the true time was revealed - almost 8pm. At that time it could still have been worth going out, but I had already decided not to.

 I watched a bit of TV, and did a lot of reading before going to bed. The great thing about reading is that it can transport your mind away from the nastiness of reality into a fantasy place that is far happier. I think it was about 11pm when I decided to put the book down and go to sleep. Like many nights recently it was a two part sleep. At about 2.30am I was wide awake for nearly an hour. Rather than fight it I decided to turn my bed side light on and start reading again. Eventually I felt like sleeping again, and I slept until about 7am this morning.

 This morning I was determined to feel better, and I did - sort of. The ache from my guts was very much like hunger, and I managed to ignore it. My chest felt a bit creaky, but I decided that a walk might help, and I think it did. It took some willpower to get out walking, but once I got moving I felt reasonably OK. I decided I would just walk to Catford station and buy a ticket for tonight.

 If I can raise the energy and enthusiasm I will be going to Chain's gig at The Railway Tavern in Longfield. It is outside the Oystercard zones, and the reason I bought a return ticket in advance is because it seems the only way to buy a ticket that starts from the boundary of Oyster validity plus Senior railcard discount, is to buy it from a manned ticket office. Now I have spent the grand sum of £2.95 I really ought to make an extra effort to go out tonight !

 It is a few degrees cooler this morning - just 13° C, and unfortunately it is not going to get more than a single degree warmer ! On top of that it is, and will continue to be horribly dull and grey, dark grey, all morning, but maybe we will get a respite from that for a few hours late this afternoon. It's not actually shown on the forecast, although it could be in the small print, but I think it is likely to be a bit drizzly for most of this morning. Tomorrow is going to be a tiny bit warmer (or less cool) thanks to the gale force winds that are predicted. It is also going to be wet as well !

  By comparison to some recent days, I was quite busy yesterday. Washing a fitted sheet and a couple of pillowcases took a bit of time and energy, but I did more. I wanted some new shampoo yesterday, and in particular I wanted some Alberto Balsam strawberry shampoo and some strawberry conditioners. It is very nice stuff, and so strawberry like that it is almost tempting to taste it, or drizzle it on ice cream. I am pretty certain it would taste disgusting, and so of course I have never tried it ! I have enough for about three more washes, and I am getting desperate.

 First of all I went to Savers. They had no shampoos that tempted me, let alone the one I wanted, but they did have some Original Source hibiscus and pomegranate shower gel. It is pleasant stuff, so I grabbed a couple of bottles while I had the chance. Next I went to the Pound shop. That was where I had bought my original bottles of strawberry shampoo. They didn't have any, but they did have "sun kissed raspberry" conditioner. I had a hunch about that so I bought a bottle.

 The next shop I went in was Superdrug. They didn't have the shampoo or conditioner, but they did have a couple of flavours of Original Source shower gels that I had not tried before. Unfortunately they were priced at £2.95 a bottle, and I am used to buying them from the Pound shop (or even the 99p shop) so I didn't buy them. What I did buy was some Superdrug own label raspberry and macadamia shampoo and matching conditioner. I used some this morning, and it seems quite pleasant.

 My final port of call was the other Pound shop on the high street. My earlier hunch was right - they didn't have any "sun kissed raspberry" conditioner, but they did have the matching shampoo. Having bought the conditioner from the first Pound shop I then had a matched pair. It's a silly way to buy shampoo and conditioner, but it worked.

  My tour of the shops took longer than I imagined, and once I got my shopping home I had no time to waste before rushing out to meet Angela in the park during her lunch break. I managed to get there before her, but only just. The seat we usually sit at was all soggy, and I had to dry it off. Having done so I sat down and prepared to wait - possibly for up to half an hour if needed. Angela never quite knows when her lunch break will be - it depends on what work she is doing at the time. As I sat there I spied someone in the distance that could have been her - but wasn't.

 Today should be mostly dry until 9pm, and it could be a degree or two warmer than yesterday, but it is still going to be dull and uninspiring. At the moment the road outside looks all wet, and while today should be "mostly dry" it is obvious that there are some unscheduled exceptions ! Tomorrow looks to be grey and definitely cool. Nothing to look forward to there ! The weather warning in this screenshot refers to Saturday ;-

  Before I went out yesterday I did some laundry. That got me nice and hot. Then I had a hot shower, and that got me hotter still. To make matters worse I wore my waterproof coat, and I always get hot ans sticky under that coat. I sometimes wonder why I wear it - unless it is a particularly cold day I get just as wet from sweat in it as I would if I just went out without a coat. Hmmm, maybe that it a big exaggeration on most occasions, but yesterday, when it wasn't raining, it was definitely damper inside my coat compared to the outside !

 I think it may have been the weather as much as anything else, but I felt mildly asthmatic, and didn't fancy a long walk yesterday. I went straight to Lewisham Park to meet Angela. For once I got my timing about right. I walked once around the park, which takes less than 10 minutes, and completed the circuit a minute or two after Angela arrived. We had a nice chat for about 25 minutes, and I showed her a few sights in the park.

 The forecast for today keeps changing, and those changes are when it might, or might not rain. The idea that it is going to be a cold, grey and very miserable day seems to be a constant. The most recent update shows there could be some light showers between 11am and midday - which is bad. It also shows that more of the afternoon will be 16° C - which is sort of good. The current prediction for tomorrow is that it will be a dry day until about 10pm. It will also be an overcast day, but maybe, if we are lucky, if we send our entreaties to the right Gods, it will only be a lightly overcast day. It should be as much as a couple of degrees warmer than today.

 
  My morning walk is shown on the left. I walked just over two and a half miles, and mostly it felt OK. The statistics for the walk show I only managed it at 1.59 mph, but that is not quite correct. I forgot to pause the app I was using to track my walk while I sat in Lewisham Park chatting with Angela. The reality was that on the longest continuous stretch, between home and Ladywell station, I averaged 3.5 mph. That surprised me a lot ! I thought my typical walking pace, over a distance, was around 3 mph - and that was back in the days when I actually felt a lot fitter !

 Most of the walk was semi pleasant in as much as I didn't feel too cool. It was even more pleasant at the start of the walk because it was sunny. By the time I got to Ladywell the sky had become stubbornly grey, and sometimes seemed quite threatening.

 I got to Lewisham Park about half an hour before Angela did, and it was decidedly chilly as I sat doing a crossword in The Metro newspaper I had picked up at Ladywell station. Eventually Angela turned up, and I felt much warmer in her presence. I don't think she expected me to be there, and seemed grateful that I was. She even thanked me in a message later in the day. That was encouraging, although I am unsure exactly what it means - if anything !

 Today should be fairly pleasant, although it is going to feel cool compared to yesterday. The small print does suggest there is a very low risk of a shower late afternoon or evening. A the moment the sun is dazzling bright to look at, but the sky still seems hazy. I presume there is still a lot of dust in the upper atmosphere. Tomorrow is currently forecast to be very dull, but it may still hit 17° C. The downside is that the clouds that will make it so dull are very likely to leak, and while heavy rain may not be forecast, there could still be a fair amount of rain tomorrow.

  The big thing yesterday morning was having both my electricity and gas meters changed for so called "smart" meters. These meters should radio back their own meter readings to the gas and electricity companies. That could be handy because my electricity meter was probably only read about once every 3 years, and I have built up quite a lot of credit on my account. Once I get more accurate reading I will attempt to reduce that credit down to a reasonable level - but still leave enough to cater for any unexpected usage.

 Having the gas meter changed was only a very minor inconvenience. The meter is outside the house, and I didn't need to do any clearing up out there. The loss of gas for ~20 minutes was of no consequence - although it could have been if the pilot light in my water heater had refused to light ! Changing the electricity meter had more consequences. I have already moaned about having to empty the under stairs cupboard, and take it as read that I have moaned about filling it back up once the job had been done.

 Having to shut down all my computers, including my server and firewall, meant that this website was off line for some time - an extended time because my firewall refused to start up again. It was only 6 months ago (or something like that) when I had to replace the power supply in that firewall PC, and in the intervening time the new power supply (which was actually some ancient old power supply that I probably found in a skip, or something like that) also failed. It was OK while it was running, but as soon as it was powered down it was unable to start again.

 If I was still at work, with all the facilities there, I could repair it without too much trouble (just a matter of replacing all the capacitors in it). I didn't have another power supply that would fit in the case because it is a non standard size. I had to hastily take out the power supply from a spare PC, and balance it on top of the case to get the firewall up and running again. I wonder how long it will stay like that before I do a proper repair ?

 By the time I had re-filled the under stairs cupboard, and got my firewall working again, I was feeling very hot and sticky - and the temperature hadn't hit it's peak by then. It was still before midday, and I might still have decided to go out to frolic in the sunshine, but then the sunshine started disappearing. I decided that I would go out, but only to Tesco, and it was a very weird experience. Before I went to Tesco I took some pictures of the sun. As in the pictures I have shown, it was very red looking, but it was still shining.

 After getting some shopping in Tesco I came out to a very weird sight. The sun was completely covered by the dust clouds (maybe some real cloud too), and the world looked very strange. It was a sort of reddish twilight, and the effect was made even more apparent when stepping out from a brightly lit supermarket.

 I did nothing of note except cooking, eating, and reading for the rest of the day. Some of that reading was from my computer screen, but in the late evening it was from the printed page. It seems I read the whole of one of the books I recently bought in just two long evenings. It was the book "Transhuman" by Ben Bova. It's a story that is very superficially sci-fi about an ageing molecular biologist attempting to cure his granddaughter of brain cancer using experimental therapies.

 I finished reading the book at about 11pm, as far as I can remember. I fell asleep very soon after. I woke up once or twice in the night, but essentially I slept right through to 7am this morning. It must have been one of my better night sleeps recently. I think I feel fairly good this morning - at least good enough to go for a bit of a walk soon. I think I'll be walking to Ladywell station to pick up a copy of The Metro, and then I'll go on to meet Angela in the park - or at least I hope to meet Angela.

 After that I will come home, and have some lunch. It is after lunch that my plans get very hazy. I think I may go to an open mic session in Forest Hill tonight, although I have a feeling that I might not enjoy it. What I will do after lunch, and before I go out, if I go out to Forest Hill, remains a total mystery to me !

 There is a little video I have been meaning to show. It was taken a couple of week ago while I was waiting for a bus that never came to get from Greenwich to Bromley. There is a low wall by the bus stop in Greenwich, and someone had dumped the remains of what I think was an old sandwich on it. It was looking soggy and unpleasant, but not to everything. This is what I saw.

 Today is most likely going to be the hottest day this autumn. It has been a bit of a cloudy start to the day, but we are promised sunshine later. This screenshot of the forecast shows several hours of 21° C, but on the TV last night the forecaster suggested even 23° C might be possible - maybe just in central London where it is often a degree or so warmer than the suburbs. Sadly, tomorrow is going to be a lot cooler, although the morning might be quite sunny.

  I seemed to do little beyond prepare food, eat food, read and snooze yesterday. During the evening I watched some TV, but by 9pm I had had enough of TV and decided I would read in bed. I started reading one of the new books I had got from Amazon - "Transhuman" by Ben Bova - and I read quite a lot of it ! I am unsure what time I finally put the book down, and turned the lights out, but I think it might have been after midnight !

 Staying awake too late was not what I intended for reasons I'll come to soon. Once I decided to go to sleep it happened quite quickly (at least I think it did). It was little more than 2 hours later when I woke up feeling rather cool because I had fallen asleep with most of my duvet pushed to one side. It took a long time to get back to sleep again, but eventually I managed it. I ended up sleeping a lot later than I intended.

 I woke up from a dream that I think I was really enjoying, and wanted to share. The only trouble was as soon as I saw the time I panicked to get up and get washed and dressed. In doing so I completely forgot anything about the dream apart from the idea that it was a good one. The reason why I was in a mad rush to get washed and dressed was that at some point this morning, from as early as 8am, I am expecting an engineer to change my electricity meter.

 I managed to get myself ready fast enough to have time to rush to the station, and back home again clutching this morning's copy of The Metro. That fast paced walk certainly got the blood stirring ! I don't feel too bad now, and while my chest is very easily aggravated, my worst medical ailment at the moment is what appears to be a zip growing on the end of my nose. I don't think it is visible yet, but it sure is bloody painful !

 The next thing I have to do is to wait, and maybe wait as late as midday. That rather spoils my plans to go out frolicking in the warm sunshine today. I did have visions of going to the seaside today, but unless the engineer gets here very quickly, and does the changeover job very quickly, there seems little hope of going too far today.

 When the engineer finally arrived I will lose all power for maybe an hour, although hopefully less. That means my web site will be off line until the power is restored, and hopefully all my computers start up properly again.

 It has been nice for most of the morning, and it looks like the afternoon is going to be nice too. I am unsure of the exact current temperature, but I wouldn't dispute the forecast 18° C. In a couple of hours it could be 19° C ! It is going to be a mild night, and tomorrow is going to be unusually warm, but maybe not as sunny as older forecasts reckoned. One feature tomorrow is liable to be wind. There are the remnants of a hurricane heading towards Ireland, and we will get some overspill of it's remaining strong winds.

  I felt rather tired and uninspired after my sleepless night yesterday, but I did manage to do a couple of things. I went out to Tesco and bought more salad ingredients. I also bought some more diced meats and assorted vegetables for stews. Going to Tesco actually felt good. It woke me up a but, and got the blood circulating.

 It left me feeling good enough to tackle a very important job - after I had rested for a short while. That job was to finish clearing out the understairs cupboard ready for the new electricity meter to fitted tomorrow morning. In theory it wasn't a big job because I had done most of the heavy stuff last week. So maybe it was some of the bending down to pick stuff up, and strange twisting movements as I hoovered in awkward corners that seemed to leave me with an assortment of aches and pains. One of my shoulders (and for some strange reason I can't remember which one it was) was particularly painful.

 A couple of paracetamol tablets calmed the worst of the pain, but I was still feeling tired and aching as evening approached. I was already wondering if I wanted to go to Chain's gig in Greenwich earlier in the day, and when I factored in the discomfort I was in, I decided that it would be better if I stayed in last night, and that is what I did.

 I made no attempt at a particularly early night, but at 10pm I knew the time was ripe to go to sleep. I think I was probably surprised that I fell asleep quite easily (although I don't actually know I was surprised because I was asleep !). At about 2.30am I woke up for the traditional pee. I couldn't get straight back to sleep after that, but I think it was a lot sooner than it seemed. I next woke at around 5am, but on that occasion I turned over and went back to sleep. I slept quite lightly from then on, but I didn't wake up properly until it was light outside.

 It seemed to be quite a successful sleep, and when I got up I didn't feel terrible - merely as bad as usual. So far today I have done an awful lot of nothing - where nothing can include reading stuff off the internet. I've have had a shower, but I didn't wash my hair - and it needs washing desperately ! Finally I have been to the corner shop to pick up another two books from Amazon. I now have the complete "New Earth" trilogy from Ben Bova, plus one other book to read. That should keep me amused for a while.

 Next on my list of things to do is to construct a salad for my Sunday lunch. After I have eaten that I have no idea what I shall do. I suppose I could spend a little while preparing a stew for dinner tonight, but that is about the only definite prediction I can make. I ought to go out in the sunshine, but I find it incredibly hard to motivate myself to go out any time later than mid morning. I guess I am just weird that way.

 Today is a bit of a mixed bag. It seemed fairly bright earlier this morning, although there was no sunshine. Eventually the sun started to break through, and as the forecast predicted, it is now nice and sunny. It is also quite mild outside, and it is supposed to warm up a little bit more to a rather pleasant 19° C. Unfortunately it seems that the clouds will get very heavy again, but maybe the forecast for sunny intervals between 4 and 5pm will come true. The good thing is that it should be dry tonight - very handy because I want to go out this evening. The really sad thing is that forecast for warm and sunny days on Sunday and Monday seems to be failing, and while it may be unusually warm on Monday, it is now looking like it will be quite dull.


 Yesterday afternoon was yet another period of time that seemed to fly. I wasn't doing anything of note, and I would have guess that time would have dragged by, but it seemed to go by in a flash. Maybe it would have gone by more slowly if I had been looking forward to going out in the evening. It could have actually happened. Not only was Angela looking stunning in a picture she posted to social media (that I copied and reproduce on the left), and making me wonder if I made the right decision not to go to the gig she was going to, but making that decision blinded me to the fact there was another gig on in Bromley that I could have gone to.

 In the end I stayed in and watched some TV. There was another episode of the "rebooted" Porridge on last night, and maybe I am warming to it a bit. Despite the distraction of TV, some reading, and a few large whiskies, I couldn't help thinking about Angela. In particular I was thinking back to last year. Just 12 months ago it would have been me she would be taking home after the gig, and it was about 12 months ago that I was starting to get the hang of actually sleeping with her - as in being asleep ! I had gone from barely sleeping at all to 3 hours or more. If she hadn't transferred most of her affections to John, I doubt it would have been long before I would be able to sleep the whole night with her, and feel even more like a human being.

 These thoughts kept spinning around in my mind, and I just could not get to sleep last night. It didn't help that thrashing around in bed, trying to find that ultimate comfortable position for sleep really stirred up my chest, and before long my chest was so sore that it was stopping my sleeping as well. It is ironic that last night was another night where I got no more than about 3 hours sleep. A year ago getting 3 hours sleep seemed like a triumph. Last night it felt like a disaster. The most ironic thing is that I am not 100% certain that Paul actually went to the gig - at least there seems to be no record of it on anyone's postings on social media.

 I felt pretty dreadful when I woke from my 3 hours of sleep, and it took a long time to get my body in gear. Since then I have washed a towel, and maybe my chest feels a bit better for the exercise involved in hand washing a medium sized bath towel. I have also been to the corner shop to pick up a parcel from Amazon. That parcel was both good news and bad news.
 The good news is that the original estimated date for deliver was from late November to mid December. So it was rather good news that they came today. The bad news might be, although I haven't checked my theory, that these two books are the second and third part of a trilogy. I ordered all three parts so I could read them in order. A little while before I started writing this I received an email from Amazon to say the third book was estimated to arrive on Monday.

 Today I have two definite things to do, and I am not sure if I am looking forward to either. It is most important that I finish clearing out the under stairs cupboard today, or tomorrow at the very latest. The man with my new smart electricity meter will be installing it on Monday morning, and while I've got the biggest stuff out, there is still clutter in there, and all the mouse droppings, and cobwebs need a good hoovering. I'm not looking forward to doing it while feeling tired. I would far prefer to by laying on my bed, reading and dozing off - preferably for hours at a time.

 It is because of that tiredness that I am also not terribly keen to go to a gig tonight. Chain are playing in The Mitre in Greenwich tonight. It is an early start (8pm), and that is a good thing. Maybe it is also a good thing that I now have a reputation from leaving the place quite early when it starts to get too busy with drunken dancers. Hmm, that reminds of something else it would be handy to do - go out and buy a couple of sandwiches, or perhaps something else, to try and stop me buying a takeaway on my way home from the gig.

 The forecast for today is a bit disappointing. The sunny spells failed to materialise this morning, and we have several hours of thick dark cloud to look forward to this afternoon. Maybe the only saving grace will be that it should be 18° C for most of the afternoon, although I think I would gladly swap that for 12° C with blue skies and sunshine. Tomorrow is forecast to be another degree warmer, but with only a few minutes of sunshine forecast for about 6pm. The very worst thing is that the promises of sunshine for Sunday and Monday seem to be evaporating, although the warmth, possibly as high as 23° C is still forecast.

  Yesterday was quite a good day that was only spoilt by my health. My "twisted rib"/"soft tissue damage" was causing a lot of discomfort around my chest, and I also felt strangely bloated. The latter was particularly noticeable when I was walking. It left me feeling slightly breathless without actually being breathless. That sounds a contradiction, but I can't think of a simple explanation. One contributory problem is that I think I didn't want to breathe too deeply because of my chest aching. So I was taking smaller breaths more frequently...or something like that.

 I mentioned my first little walk yesterday. It was when I walked to the station to pick up a copy of the Metro. Later on in the morning I walked to Aldi and back to buy some shopping. I think that walking with 6 litres of diet cola in my rucksack actually braces my back and gives a better stature that makes my chest pains less. I suppose that is rather surprising considering that the genesis of my chest pains was damage done to my chest while carrying a similar load of shopping (rucksack plus a bag in each hand) 5 days after coming out of hospital where I had major chest surgery - a quad heart bypass operation.

 My next walk was just after midday when I went to the park to meet Angela. As I explained yesterday, it was my intention to leave Angela alone since there was plenty of evidence to show she was going out with another man. What changed that was a couple of things she posted on social media that strongly suggested she was not happy about something. When I finally found her in the park she denied she was unhappy, but she did thank me for thinking of her, and that made me happy. We only had about 15 minutes together before she had to get back to work, but as we said goodbye she thanked me again for coming to see me. It could have been a very good act, but I think it was genuine.

 Unlike walking back with a load of shopping from Aldi, walking to the park, admittedly rather faster, stirred up my chest, and with the slightly bloated feeling I had, it made me feel quite uncomfortable. I'm not so sure that it didn't trigger off a few extra pains too - pains which could possibly indicate worse problems ! Maybe I walked back from the park a little slower, or maybe seeing Angela had released some tension, but I didn't feel nearly as bad when I got home.

 Once I got in I had a couple of sandwiches I had bought in the morning, and then I had a rest. a few hours later I had a bizarre snack of ready cooked poppadoms with peppered smoked mackerel pate. As I stared eating it I had some regrets. Not because it was a big snack, but I was concerned the fishiness would repeat on me and spoil the beer that I would be having a little later.

 Later on I left in plenty of time to take a walk to Catford station to get a train to Shortlands. Even when I was going on 7 or 8 mile walks, I always thought the very worst bit was walking to Catford station. Walking as far as Catford Bridge station has always been mildly taxing no matter what my state of health or age, but to get to Catford station you have to walk up and over the road bridge that crosses the railway going to Catford Bridge station. Once you have crossed the peak it's all downhill again until you have to climb the three flights of steps to get up to the platform. Having arrived there, practically out of breath, I then have to walk almost the entire length of the platform to get on the train at the right place to be opposite the way out at Shortlands station. Just to make things even worse, my train was running almost 10 minutes late !

 Just for a change there was a nice beer at The Shortlands Tavern. It was from the Bexley Brewery, and it was a pleasant enough IPA style beer that I stayed with for my three pints. There was also some good banter in the pub last night. I left in time to catch the 7.02pm train, and it was only running 1 minute late ! In theory the sun had set almost an hour before I got to the station, but there was still some light on the western horizon.

 I took the picture above on my mobile phone. The original was quite grainy, and I tried some noise reduction, but it just converted the noise to a sort of granular looking noise. I think the problem is that my phone applies too much sharpening to every picture, and it can't be turned off as far as I can see.

 It was fully dark when I got home, but that was not the reason I did a fairly fast walk from the station to home. The alcohol helped lubricate my chest, and that made the walk more comfortable, although another effect of the beer was that it made for some mild discomfort lower down, and it was good to get home to use the toilet ! My original intention, once I had had a pee, was to eat a couple more sandwiches, but for some reason I had more will power. It may have even been bolstered by a sense of curiosity. I had this burning desire, at least I think it was a burning desire, to see what sprouts and cashew nuts might taste like. I've never managed to cook them properly before, but I love ready made sprouts and chestnuts. Tesco used to stock frozen bags of them around xmas time, but sadly they no longer seem to.
 Last night I finally found what sprouts and cashew nuts taste like, and it was a bit of a disappointment ! ...........

13:37 BST

 .......continued after a long break that included a good 20 minutes of walking and some lunch.

 The problem with my sprouts and cashew nuts was that the strong flavour of the sprouts overpowered the delicate flavour of the cashew nuts. Just for completeness, the only other two ingredients were chicken stock (made from stock cubes) and some chilli infused olive oil. I think the latter just gave a nice glaze to the sprouts, but nothing more. My next experiment might be sprouts with butter beans, but I'll use up the rest of the current bag of sprouts in a lamb stew.

 My original intention was that the sprouts and cashew nuts were going to be the only thing I ate after getting home from the pub, but after a while I became peckish again (I was probably just bored watching TV). I dealt with that hunger by having a couple of apples. They were not the nasty, hard green, sour apples that are allegedly good for you, but a couple of nice, semi-sweet, Fuji apples.

 I think it was about 10pm when I went to sleep - unless that was when I went to bed - in which case it might have been 11pm when I fell asleep. I seemed to sleep perfectly OK until 3am in the morning. I woke up feeling uncomfortable, but I couldn't really work out why. My chest was sore, but there was something more. It turned out to be the bloated feeling I was experiencing during the day coming to an end. Initially I went to the toilet for a wee - not unusual for me at 3am, particularly after drinking beer - but I quickly realised I wanted more than a wee ! I am sure that it was impossible that the sprouts could have transited my system in such a short time, but the effect was similar - most spectacularly the second time when I had to dash to the toilet at full speed. I did have one more, much briefer visit, before I was comfortable enough to go back to bed. I amused myself on the internet, reading news stories, during the 20 minutes or so that I was awake (and not sitting on the toilet).

 I managed to get another 3 or 4 hours of seemingly good sleep once I managed to fall asleep again. The only strange thing is that I seemed to have a dream that was all about some pictures I had taken of New Zealand. What made it doubly strange was that in the dream I knew I had not been to New Zealand, and didn't know how I had managed to take these pictures. I woke up feeling rather confused about that, but otherwise I felt sort of OK.

 It was one of those morning when time seemed to race by. I had a shower, and washed my hair, and as my hair dried I started to write this. Suddenly midday was approaching and I wanted to go out and see Angela in the park during her dinner break. Sadly it was was (and still is) rather dull and overcast, but it was almost warm at about 18° C, If the sun had been out the same temperature would have felt much warmer !

 When I got to the park I found that Angela was already there, but I guess we sat and chatted for almost 20 minutes before she had to get back to work. I do enjoy these brief lunchtime chats with Angela, and I have come to the conclusion I should not stop doing them (except when it is raining) even if I actively avoid Angela at certain times. Such a time will be this evening. Miranda, her daughter will be singing in Beckenham tonight, and in different circumstances I would be happy to go along, but Angela has confirmed that she will be there with Paul, and so I said I would not be going.

 I don't know what I'll be doing tonight. One possibility is that I might go and sit in the pub with a crossword for an hour, and have a few pints of Guinness, but I think that is unlikely. I reckon that reading, snoozing, eating and maybe some TV is a more likely scenario for tonight. Well , all are enjoyable, and so why not ?

 The sun is still very low on the horizon, but it is looking bright over to the east. Whether that will translate to a sunny morning is anyone's guess. The forecast has already changed twice since I took the screenshot above. Each iteration shifts the time and amount of sunny periods around. The very latest update says we will lose the sunshine after midday, and that at 2pm there could be a short period of very heavy cloud, but apparently it should stay dry. It was rather cool this morning - I reckon 10° C - but it should be up to 16 - 17° C this afternoon. Tomorrow may not include much sunshine, but it marks the start of a spell of warm weather. Sunday is still forecast to be very sunny, and on Monday the temperature is now predicted to reach 21° C !

 There is one thing I did yesterday that I failed to mention - and I don't know why ! In the morning I got the hoover out and hoovered around my bedroom. It looks a bit nicer now - not that anyone is likely to see it. The reason why I wonder why I didn't mention it was because in doing it I managed to pull a muscle in my back. Having said that, it was only painful for a short while, and I guess the pain was gone and forgotten by the time I started writing.

 I definitely didn't feel good yesterday. I can only describe as being light the lightest possible dose of 'flu possible. It obviously wasn't 'flu, but the tiredness was a bit like 'flu, and the aches and pains were like 'flu, but at a tenth of the strength, or less. Everything sort of hurt, but only just, and maybe it was the cumulative effect of all the little mild aches that added together to be an annoyance.

 It was obviously a case of "Sods law" that it was not until the evening that most of the symptoms lifted. By that time I had already decided I would definitely not be going out, and I am sure it would have been tempting fate to do so. It was actually annoying that one symptom, tiredness, went away in the evening. It meant that any attempt at an early night would be useless. I watched some TV, and then read until 11pm before I attempted to get to sleep. I did get to sleep soon after that.

 This morning I feel like I only got half the sleep I wanted. The problem was that my chest felt really tender this morning, and I couldn't roll on my side and fall asleep again. So I got up, washed, and took a brisk walk to the station to pick up a copy of the Metro, and stretch my legs. As I walked I could feel my ribcage moving around, and the occasional feeling of something rubbing against something. That didn't seem to make my chest feel more tender, and I experienced no more extra discomfort. The brisk walk certainly raised my heart beat, but the fact that it did not alter the discomfort from my chest I am assuming means that my heart is running OK. Had I died I would have had to assume differently.

 Today looks as if it could be a lot worse than yesterday - in so much that rain was and is forecast. I think that maybe some rain did fall earlier - just enough to spot the pavement. Whether the rain forecast for 9pm will be any worse remains to be seen. As I wrote this I should be in the middle of a period of sunny spells, but I am sure I haven't seen any yet. It is very much like yesterday - it's grey, dull and uninspiring, but mild. However, in the last few hours the forecast has been updated, and it now says that it will rain any minute now (for convenience the 5 second sunny spell while I was writing that is best ignored). Rain is now also forecast between 6pm and 9pm. Tomorrow may see a similar range of temperature, and it might be brighter. No rain is currently forecast for tomorrow. I expect it will snow on Sunday despite the unbridled optimism of the forecasters. In the screenshot I took this morning the long range forecast for Sunday was sunshine and 19° C. It is now showing as 20° C !!!

  I deliberately conserved my energy yesterday afternoon, or to put it another way, I was exceedingly lazy prior to going out in the evening. I can't recall achieving anything at all during the afternoon. I managed more, although only photography, in the even when I went to "Stretchy's Open Mic" in The Bricklayers Arms in Bromley. It was a pleasant evening that was only marred by a vague feeling of being unwell by about 10pm.

 Today fails to excite any or my senses. It has been grey all morning, and it looks as if it will be grey for the rest of the day. Like yesterday, it is possible there could be a light, isolated shower, but it seems likely to be dry. About the only positive thing you can say is that it won't be cold - it should be a tiny bit less cool than yesterday, and it was comfortable enough to go all the way to north London, and back home again in the the mid evening in just a t-shirt. Tomorrow is going to be as grey as today and yesterday, and the temperature range will be similar, but some light rain is forecast from about 6pm for several hours.

  Yesterday was a busy day. During the morning I went to the 99p shop to get some cleaning stuff, and a few other odds and ends. I was feeling semi-good as I went there and maybe more so coming home again. That meant that I was walking a little faster than was wise considering my elevated blood glucose levels - the result of eating ice cream on Sunday. At least I presume my blood glucose was high because I felt quite sweaty when I got home.

 I didn't have all that long to cool down again until I rushed off to meet Angela in the park opposite the hospital where she works. It didn't help that I left it a bit late, but I managed to get as far as the hospital just before 1pm. The only trouble was that Angela had gone to lunch earlier than last Thursday, and I bumped into her going back to work. My rushing around was almost wasted, but I did get to ask her of she knew what she was doing going out with Paul Gunn (drummer with Life Of Brian) again. The last time she tried going out with him it was apparently a disaster, but it seems she is confident that it will be OK this time.

 So I wished her every happiness, in what was actually a rather terminal sort of way, and went back home. I have concluded that it is probably a good idea not to pursue Angel any more. It was not an easy decision to make, and several things could weaken my resolve - the most obvious is if Angela decides to contact me in a friendly sort of way. I suspect she will want to avoid doing it, but if things go terribly wrong with her liaisons with Paul, she might want me to cheer her up.

 A little later yesterday afternoon I set out on an adventure to north London. I had arranged to meet my friend Aleemah at a pub a few hundred feet from West Hampstead tube station on the Jubilee line. It was a chance to catch up on gossip after not seeing her for the best part of a year (she told me it was almost exactly a year since I last saw her). My original intention was to get a Thameslink train direct from Catford station to West Hampstead Thameslink station (there are 3 different "West Hampstead" station within several hundred yards of each other on the same main road). Unfortunately a broken rail caused mega disruption of trains through West Hampstead, and made that route unviable.

 An alternative route was to get a train to London Bridge station from Catford Bridge station, and then get the Jubilee line from there. That is what I actually did, but I wish I hadn't ! Although the rebuilding of London Bridge (National Rail) station is nearing completion, there is still a fair amount of work to do, and that includes opening up the direct path to the tube station. At the moment it is a very circuitous route. I would have done far better to stay on the train to Waterloo East, and done the far shorter walk to Southwark Jubilee line station (it is essentially underneath Waterloo East station).

 I arrived at West Hampstead tube station on the train following the train that Aleemah had travelled on. With only a few minutes between them, I spotted Aleemah still on the platform checking her mobile phone. We exited the station together, and I quickly spotted the pub I had suggested. It was to the left instead of to the right of the station, which confused me, but it was literally 1 minute walk away. It was a pub that gives a small discount (typically 30p) off a pint of real ale on production of a CAMRA membership card. I had a suspicion it would before I asked about it. The only trouble was that I decided to drink Guinness, and I know that does not count for any discount.

 I had three pints of Guinness while I was there, and the reason why I stuck with Guinness is that I think I pee less when I drink it compared to drinking ales. During that three pints I had a good chat with Aleemah, and we caught up with each others doings over the year. Then it was time to go. Aleemah got back on the Jubilee line - her usual route home after work - but I decided to take a chance on a Thameslink train. Doing that could have been a complete disaster, but in fact it turned out OK in the end.

 When I got to West Hampstead (Thameslink) station I found that the next through train to Catford was almost an hour away - and that was assuming it actually ran, and ran something close to time. I decided the best thing was to get on the first train that arrived, and go to Blackfriars station. That first train was only a few minutes wait. Once on it I reviewed my options. There were four possibilities when I got to Blackfriars. One was to get a District line tube train to Cannon Street station, but a quick check showed I would never get there in time to get the last direct train to Catford Bridge. A second possibility was to get the District line in the other direction to Embankment station, and then slog it up the hill to Charing Cross station for a direct train to Catford Bridge.
 
 The third option was to wait and hope a Thameslink train to Catford would eventually arrive. The fourth option was to do something else - walk or get a bus to ?????? I chose the third option, and although it was a bit of a panic, it worked out quite well. Using the National Rail app on my phone I kept an eye on departures from Blackfriars. Suddenly a Sevenoaks service (that call at Catford station) appeared out of nowhere ! The only problem was that it was due to depart as the train I was on arrived, but fortunately that was not so. The train that mysteriously appeared was actually a train that was destined to go to Bedford, but was terminated early into the terminal platforms at Blackfriars. It actually arrived as my train was departing - and it was still saying Bedford on the front as it pulled into platform 3 - which is a terminal platform.

 The platforms at Blackfriars are incredibly long- easily long enough for a 12 coach train, and possibly even a 16 coach train if such trains existed. Getting from the middle of platform 1 to the middle of platform 3, via the stairs, is a major dash. I actually made it with plenty of time to spare. We actually departed about 10 minutes later than the scheduled time. It is possible, if not probable that it might have been quicker to go home via the Jubilee line. I think that had I changed changed from National Rain to The Jubilee line at Waterloo East/Southwark it would have actually been quicker than getting the direct train from Catford to West Hampstead (had it run).

 After the excesses of Sunday, I made a point of eating as little as possible before going out yesterday, and in fact all I had eaten was a small handful of flavoured peanuts (the type that have a crispy, almost batter like, shell of flavoured "stuff" around them. After a lot of rushing around, and three pints of Guinness swilling around in me, I was more than ready for some dinner when I got home. Fortunately I had pre-prepared my dinner, and it just needed blasting in the microwave for 10 minutes. It was quite simply diced skinless chicken and spinach cooked in a rather greasy gravy. The grease came from some Aldi "Quixo" branded gravy granules. and although it gave a nice thick texture to the gravy, otherwise spoiled what should have been a very low fat dinner.

 I think I was fast asleep in bed by, and possibly before 10pm last night. I slept solidly until I woke up at 3am feeling completely wide awake. I probably spent 40 - 45 minutes on the internet reading news and stuff before I got back into bed.I seemed to lay there for ages thinking I would never get to sleep, but then the next thing I knew was that it was daylight outside - almost 8am ! Since then I have done almost nothing, and I find it amazing how much time has passed while doing almost nothing. Maybe I'll do nothing for some time yet, but tonight I want to go to "Stretchy's Open Mic" at The Bricklayers Arms pub on the far side of Bromley.

 One thing I didn't show yesterday was a small video clip of Dan Murphy doing his "party piece" at The Swan And Mitre pub in Bromley on Saturday night.

 
  Yesterday ended up completely different to how I thought I had planned it, although things went perfectly to plan earlier on. The earlier plan was to rest and get ready to go out in the evening. I can do resting really easily, and I accomplished it with flying colours. The big thing that went wrong in the evening is that I never got a reply to the test message I sent to Angela. It was a simple query asking if she would be going to The Swan in West Wickham to see The Belles playing there. It seemed an innocent enough query, but, as I said, Angela did not reply. It seems likely she disconnected from the connected world from about mid afternoon until gone midnight, and has been suspiciously quiet ever since. I could easily believe she is with a rival. Oh well, maybe I'll have her to myself on Monday if it is sunny enough to meet her in the park at lunchtime.

 I waited, and waited, and waited for a response from Angela, and the more I waited the more my desire to go out faded away. By 7.30pm, when I should have been close to hitting the road I was very relaxed at home, and was eating the dinner I might have had when I got home from the gig (if I didn't buy a takeaway - which to be honest was more likely). So I put my feet up with another glass of whisky (an earlier one or two had seriously contributed to my more relaxed feeling), and relaxed even more.

 After a bit I turned on the TV and found several things to watch. There were two programmes of particular note. The first was being shown on The Horror channel (which shows less blood, guts and gore than it might sound). It was an early, black and white episode of "Lost In Space". I used to watch it when I was a kid, and even at that tender age I could never understand why they didn't just chuck the meddlesome, bad, and sometimes plain evil, Dr Zachary Smith out of the airlock. Now I am older I realise that without him there would be no series. I don't think I ever saw the final episode of the series, and assuming it was allowed to come to a natural end, rather than just cut off in it's prime by the American TV network who was the paymaster, I really hope that the awful Dr Smith came to a terrible end !

 The other programme I watched was interesting, but I haven't made up my mind if it was good. It was the reboot (as they say) of that old TV favourite "Porridge". In this new series "Fletch" is actually Norman Stanley Fletchers son (or grandson). It is clever that the actor who portrays him has picked up many of the original's mannerisms. My only beef with that is he comes across more as an Essex jack the lad, rather than a warm old cockney. A clever twist, and one that does seem to work is that the new "Fletch" is a young man, and he shares a cell with a very old school, old man. That reverses the original role of the cell mate "Godber" being the young man to Fletcher's older man. I will grant that it is very cleverly written, and updates the story to the current world, but I am not sure if I can warm to it or not. If I get the chance I'll watch next weeks episode and see how it goes.

 I drank a fair bit of Irish whiskey last night, and that evidently helped me to get quite a good night's sleep. I think I was definitely fast asleep by 11pm, and it could have been earlier. The only problem was that I felt hot when I got in bed, and fell asleep with no heating on, and with the duvet mostly shoved to one side. At 3am I woke up feeling most definitely cold. For some reason I found I needed to more than pee when I went to the toilet. On top of that I noticed that my phone was flashing. I had an almost unwanted message on it - it certainly wasn't a long over due reply from Angela (I have a suspicion she once set a silent notification on her phone to my text messages, and she hasn't changed it since). I was probably awake for 20 - 30 minutes before I got back to sleep.

 The really annoying thing about that message on my phone was that as soon as I noticed the phone flashing I instantly forgot all details about a wonderful dream I was having before I woke up - at least I think it was wonderful, but I can't remember a thing about it - only that I had it. Once I got back to sleep again I must have slept solidly for at least another 3 hours. I woke up sometime after 6am, and this time I do remember something about the last dream. I dreamed I was going to a gig with my friend Jodie. I used to go to gig with her in the 1990s, and one place we frequented was The Underworld at Camden.

 The dream I remember was set around a similar venue. On one side was a normal pub, and the "auditorium" was around the back. The main event in the dream was trying to buy a beer from the bar that was outside, and round the corner from passage that lead to the auditorium. I only got as far as that bar so I never got to see the stage. The trouble with that bar is that they didn't seem to serve any beer - not even any lager. I am unsure what it was they did sell. It seems I was at that bar trying to buy a drink for ever - and indeed it was 90% of the amount of dream I can remember.

 I had a very slow morning this morning, and I don't know where all the time went. I know I got a bit more sleep, and I read an assortment of news items on the internet. I also had a fairly long phone call from a friend who thinks I am the source of all knowledge ! He has recently discovered an old cine camera, plus some cine film, among the effects of his late uncle. Even though I have never owned, or even physically touched a Super-8 cine camera, I managed to answer many of his questions by applying common sense (and maybe a base appreciation of the photographic process).



 It was just gone midday when I decided it was time to have a shower, put some clothes on, and draw the curtains ! Maybe I might have been faster if I had noticed any sunshine outside. The only thing I've done of note since then is to go to Tesco.

 I wanted some more fresh lettuce for more salads, but I also had a strange urge to have some liver and bacon. I actually ended up buying rather more than those things on my shopping list. I bought two packets of Birds Eye fish fingers because they were 50p off. I noted that quite a few ice creams were half price, and bought a big tub of "Cornish clotted cream" ice cream. I've hidden that at the back of the freezer, and I shall try and forget about it.

 The other bargain was Haig Club whisky - as pictured left. I have to confess it was a combination of the pretty smoky blue bottle, and the £3.50 off that conspired to make me buy it. I've tried a small glass of it (neat), and it is not bad. It is not smoky, a whisky taste I am not keen on, but I can taste other stuff. It suddenly occurs to me that maybe I am beginning to never a "nose" or "palate" for whisky, and can start to talk bollocks like wine tasters. Well I can taste "old saddles", or "decaying ferrets" in it, but I definitely can taste a hint of a floral taste. Other than that it tastes like a quite smooth whisky !

 I fear I am going to do almost bugger all for the rest of the afternoon, but finally, after yesterday feeling like it, it is Saturday, and that somehow makes it all OK. Tonight I really ought to go out. There are three gigs I would like to go to. I could go to see The Life Of Brian in Greenwich. That could have the advantage, or disadvantage of Angela being there. It could be OK, or even good if I knew for definite that she was there essentially on her own, and not cuddling another man. There are things my eyes should never see.

 On the other hand, if I go to Bromley I can spend some time in The Swan And Mitre watching M.T. Pockets, and some time a few minutes up the road in The Partridge watching Chain. Angela, if she remembers our conversation in the park on Thursday, thinks I am going to Bromley, and indeed that is most likely. There is a third possibility. I could go to Greenwich and see how warm my reception is. The gig in Greenwich should start at 8pm, a good half hour before The Swan and Mitre in Bromley, and a full hour before Chain start in The Partridge. If Angela was there early enough, and gave me a warm enough reception, I could stay there, and if not I could go on the Bromley after taking a few snaps. The only problem with that plan is that there is no direct bus between Greenwich and Bromley, and I would have to change buses in Catford (going by train would be terribly complicated, and is not even worth considering).

 
  Today is even sunnier than yesterday, although it is noticeably cooler. Early morning seemed particularly cool. My thermometers reckoned it was only about 8.5° C at 6am this morning. As I write this the sun is pouring into my room, and it feels quite warm in here as a consequence. It is certainly warm enough outside for a sunny walk in the park without having to wear a coat.  Tomorrow it all goes horribly wrong. The morning might be a degree or two less cool, and the afternoon temperature could be every bit as warm as today, but it is going to be grey, grey, grey, and possibly black ! Not a single ray of sunshine is currently forecast to shine on Catford tomorrow !


 Yesterday was a good day....a very good day ! Thanks to the warm feeling sunshine I was inspired to go out for some fresh air, a bit of photography.....and some stalking !

 My destination was to be Lewisham Park, and while I had ideas of possibly going beyond there, I didn't, in fact, go any further than that. I could claim it as a two park walk because I did go home through some of Ladywell Fields, but that was a matter of convenience more than anything.

 A while before I set out I sent a text message to Angela asking if she would mind if I met her in the park where she generally goes for her lunchtime ciggie when she is at work. I urged her to say no if it would inconvenience her, and I also asked what would be the best time if she was OK with it. I didn't get a reply, and that worried me, but I knew roughly when she would be in there if she went there, and went anyway.

 The only problem with those photos, and as a so called photographer I should have realised it, was that the sun was brightly lighting her face on one side, but was leaving the other side in too much shadow. A light shadow would have been OK, and indeed it might have been good to give a slight hint of a 3D effect, but I wasn't happy with a deep shadow. I am beginning to feel confident that there will be other opportunities for better pictures.

 We seemed to stay in the park for quite a long time, and I suspect Angela was late back from lunch. If so, then it was because she was enjoying out meeting too much. I walked with her back to the hospital where I was surprised with another bit of affection. At the gate where she goes in we said goodbye and waved, but after taking two steps Angela came back and offered a quick hug. I am almost beginning to believe that I no longer have to fear walking on broken eggs shells when dealing with Angela*.
 
 * "Walking on broken egg shells" - is that a real phrase that means what I think it means, or is it just some sort of word salad I have vomited from my brain ? Also, "dealing with Angela" - dealing sounds awful, but I couldn't think of a better word, and still can't !

 I got back home feeling really rather good, and the day was not yet over. The thing I did was to have some lunch. It was a rather small, and rather simple chicken salad using some flavoured, but hopefully low fat skinless chicken. It filled a small hole, but only a small one ! The next thing I did was to quickly check the pictures I had taken of Angela had come out OK. Once I had seen them I was happy to relax.

 I did some reading, had a snooze, and then got ready to go out again for my early Thursday evening drink. That involved the only bad bit of the day. When I got to the bus stop I found that I must have just missed a 320 bus, and then next would not be for 20 minutes ! Eek !! So I carried on walking to the closest 208 bus stop. When I git there the Countdown display said it would be a 10 minute wait. Well that was better than 20 minutes, but the only problem was that 10 minutes later it was still saying the next 208 was in 10 minutes time ! That was no better than waiting for the 320. However, it seems that the 320 was also delayed too for reasons unknown. Eventually a 208 turned up with the 320 only about a minute behind. I arrived at the pub a good half hour later than I should have. Fortunately I had made the right decision to get the 208. Had I waited for the 320 I would have been 15 seconds later !

 I think I have gone off real ales. I can't say I really enjoyed any of the ales I had in the Wetherspoons pub. I had 4 pints last night - 3 of one brew, and a single pint of one other. The single pint tasted almost nasty, but the three pints were "pleasant" without being exciting. At least I enjoyed the banter while I was in the pub. Four pints after only eating a light salad got me feeling close to being drunk. It was certainly enough to scrap my will power, and send me into a takeaway for some more substantial food !

 One of the few meaningful things I did when I got in was to send Angela a special photo I had saved for her. It was one of several snaps I had taken of roses in the park. Most of them were looking worse for wear as the season ends, but one rose looked nice, and I decided that Angela should see it first. She only gave a brief reply to my picture message. It was simply "xxxx".
 I don't know if I can say I slept well last night or not. I guess not considering I did get up for about 15 minutes in the night to check something on the internet, but otherwise I slept OK. I woke up this morning earlier than I would have wanted to, but I felt almost good. Yesterday's sunshine, and maybe the lifting of some psychological pressure (or some such) undoubtedly helped to lessen some of the usual aches and pains. About the only significant pain I had (and have) is a most worrisome one. It is a form of toothache. If I am lucky it is weher I have damaged the gum by overenthusiastic use of a tooth pick. I have done that before on many occasion, but I fear this feels a bit different. The only good thing is that the pain seems to be from some sort of inflammation, and if I keep everything clear of that bit of gum, which is almost impossible when eating, I am in no pain. It's been a long time since I went to the dentist, and I fear that it won't be a long time until I am forced to go again !

 I guess I am taking things easy today - at least I don't seem to have done anything of any great significance today. Maybe if I pace myself I'll have the energy and enthusiasm to go to a gig in West Wickham tonight. It is The Belles playing in The Swan, and it is not one of my favourite pubs. I think Angela will be going too. It will be interesting to see how we interact if we are both there. Provided she is not seeing anyone else it could be nice there. It was from that very pub that we first shared a cab home together. That would be the preferred outcome tonight, but if she is with anyone else then I will probably end up slinking away once I feel I have taken enough pictures.

 
  This screenshot of today's weather forecast was taken at 6am. Since then the forecast has changed a bit. The main change that I can see is that some periods of sunshine have been downgraded to "sunny intervals". The maximum temperature of 16° C hasn't changed. One thing that was wrong with the forecast above, that may have been corrected in an intermediate version of the forecast that I didn't see, concerns the rain in the morning. What was shown as light showers (single drip of rain) were in reality very heavy showers ! It is a rather windy day today, and those commuting in the morning rain could have had the rain blowing straight into their face, or even up their trouser legs !! Tomorrow could see a very chilly start, but it is predicted to be a sunny morning and there may be some sunshine in the very early afternoon. The best temperature is forecast to be just 14° C - Brrrrr !

  As I reported yesterday, my Virgin Media broadband internet connection failed again yesterday, but like the last time, it came back all by itself a few hours later. It was not the end of the world, but it was still most annoying !

 Yesterday was mostly a boring and disappointing day, but it did end on a high note ! I don't seem to be making great use of all my time now I am retired, but at least I spent some time clearing out the under stairs cupboard yesterday. I was a bit disappointed that once again Tesco only had the previous day's Evening Standard when I went out for my Guinness and crossword session. In practice it didn't matter - it was still a fresh crossword to tackle, and the news these days is generally depressing and most of it best ignored.

 I think I managed all but one or two of the easy crossword answers - I feel I should have been able to complete it. I was more happy about the cryptic crossword. I don't think I managed to get even half the answers, but I think I got more than last time, and I think I am beginning to get attuned to the style of that crossword. I need more practice, and I think that in time I'll get at least close to finish that crossword.

 I was disappointed once again that Angela was too tired to join me in the pub after work, but I was not surprised about it. I have to confess I had dark thoughts about being ignored, but on reflection I think Angela was quite genuine about being tired. She would normally have gone to the Whitestar open mic last night, but I am sure she stayed in, and may have even gone to bed early. I'm not sure why I did it, but last night, at about 8.45pm, I sent Angela a (head and shoulders) selfie of me laying on my bed with a caption saying I had brushed my teeth, and would soon be in bed. I expected it to be ignored, but to my great surprise I received a picture back in return of Angela wrapped in her dressing gown with a beautiful smile on her face. It quite made my day, and gave me hope for the future. I can't seem to help it. I still love her so much it hurts.

 Despite the earlier two pints of Guinness, a rather nice, but excessive dinner, Angela's picture, and a large whisky, I found that sleep did not come easy yesterday. I think I'll blame it on the changing seasons. My bedroom was definitely at a certain temperature that was delicately balanced between too warm and too cold. It was too cool to sleep without the duvet, and too warm to sleep with it - and of course the pillows and mattress had developed new lumps that weren't there an hour earlier ! Instead of being fast asleep by 10pm it was probably gone midnight when I finally fell asleep.

 I'm not sure if I got a good sleep or not in the end. I certainly had a few long periods of sleep, but I also went through several periods of very light sleep when I kept waking up. I first got up at 5am, and at that time it is still pitch dark outside. After a while I thought it was silly to be up so early. So I went back to bed. After a few false starts I obviously must have fallen into a deeper sleep, and it was fully daylight when I next woke up - not proper daylight because it was overcast and pissing down with rain outside !

 I think that now I have recovered from sleep, showering, and washing my hair, I feel fairly OK - not particularly dynamic, but OK-ish ! I have no idea how I will fill in most of the hours of today, but there are a few things I am most likely to do. Unless the world turns upside down before than, I will almost certainly be going for my early even Thursday drink with the lads. Tonight we are in the Greyhound in Bromley - armed with out Wetherspoons 50p off CAMRA vouchers. I think I may go to Aldi today. It's dangerous to do so because of all the temptations, but not having any interesting food in the house lead me to order a naughty takeaway again last night. It's nice to do that now and then, but I can't afford the cost or the calorie overload to do it too often. The final thing that I am sure I will do is to ask Angela if I can join her for her lunchtime ciggie in the park for 10 minutes. Maybe I'll get a bit of exercise in the park after all if she says yes.

 
  I can only describe today as cool and dull. There was some nice sunshine for a few hours this morning, and if the forecast bears some resemblance to reality, there could be a final glow of sunshine just before the sun sets. Like yesterday it is feeling cool - even indoors, and I have the heater on low while I am not being particularly active. Tomorrow should be brighter, and a tiny bit warmer, although I think the forecast on TV did warn that a fairly stiff breeze would make it feel much cooler than the thermometer says it is.

  The interesting thing about today is that my Virgin Media broadband internet connection has failed again. It did this a few days ago, but came back after a few hours. I am crossing my fingers that it will come back again today without having to go through the palaver of having to report it as a fault.

 Most of my plans for yesterday came to nothing. I just could not bring myself to do the clearing and cleaning of the understairs cupboard. I'm not really sure why I didn't. It was just one of those things that didn't happen. One thing I did do, and in a strange way it was semi enjoyable, was to go out to The Black Cat pub to drink a couple of pints of Guinness while attempting The Evening Standard crosswords. There was a slight hitch in this in so much as the latest Evening Standard hadn't arrived at Tesco, but because I really only wanted to do the crosswords, the previous day's edition was OK.

 Maybe it was the Guinness, or maybe it was just the compiler, but I found the Evening Standard's cryptic crossword to be a lot easier than The Metro's. That is not to say it was so easy that I managed to finish it - far from it, but I managed in excess of a third of all the clues. I hope to do far better with more practice - it's been ages since I've done any crosswords, let alone cryptic crosswords, but once upon a time, and I am talking mid 1970s, I was pretty good at The Telegraph cryptic crossword. It is often a case of having to get into the mindset of the complier, and that can take some time.

 The only disappointment about that exercise was that I wasn't joined by Angela, although I wasn't really expecting it. She claimed, with some justification, that she was just too tired after a full day at work. I have some sympathy for that. I remember my first day back at work after a three year absence from work (rather longer than her 10 months), and that first day was really gruelling. I came home and virtually went to bed without having any dinner. Of course I also had to endure  an hour and a quarter commute to work, and the same coming home. By comparison, Angela can walk to work in about 25 minutes if she doesn't bother with a bus.

 After just two pints of Guinness I was keen to have some dinner. I had pre-prepared a sort of chicken stew - and it was very nice - and it was very relaxing ! As soon as I started eating it I knew I was never going to get out again to go to the open mic night at The Railway Telegraph pub in Forest Hill. Whether I missed anything good will remain a mystery, and that is sort of annoying, but at least there was nothing, or no one, I particularly wanted to see. Maybe I'll get to the next one.

 I ended up passing much of the evening just reading, and the fact that I didn't put the book down until way past when I thought I would be going to sleep, suggests it was a most enjoyable experience - which of course it was ! I think it was close to 11pm when I tried to go to sleep, and not long after when I was asleep. I slept with few interruptions until just gone 6am this morning. I woke up feeling like I was close to death - as usual - but gradually my body restored all it's waking functions, and apart from a stiff right shoulder, I felt like I would get through the day without serious death.

 Today is one of those days when many hours have passed, and it is difficult to account for them. I know the major thing I did today didn't take up many hours. In fact I am nt sure it even took a complete hour. I finally got around to tackling that dreaded under stairs cupboard. I have thrown out a big extra strong bin bag of stuff - probably a lot of it should have gone in the rubbish, but there is nowhere else for it to go. My back room now has a pile of ancient computers cluttering it up. Disposing of them will be a job for the future. In the meantime the cupboard, although not clear, and certainly not clean, won't take much work to get it so.

 At about half past 4 today I will reprise my crossword antics in the pub. I'm going out half an hour later in the hope that there will be the latest edition of The Evening Standard in Tesco, but if not I will be OK if they still have a copy of yesterday's edition. Once again I will tell Angela of my intention, and give her the choice of joining me or not. I am not expecting her to do so because I feel I am being politely avoided, but maybe my luck will change.

 There is an open mic session on in The Partridge in Bromley tonight (at least I think there is - until my internet connection starts working again it is difficult to check). I am not sure of I want to try and go to it or not. It is always very dark in there, and that takes some of the fun out of photography, and the last time I went there I had to contend with Angela cuddling another man - after she herself persuaded me to go there in the first place ! Maybe I'd like to stay in again tonight and cook (or even order) a nice, and possibly even healthy dinner.

 
  Even more sunshine is forecast for today, but it is going to be a fair bit cooler. At 7am this morning, the thermometer outside my back door was saying just 8.5° C ! That is pretty chilly, and it still feel rather cold even after several hours of nice sunshine. By the end of the day it is going to get quite cloudy, and those clouds should stop it getting so cold at night. Tomorrow morning should start a few degrees less cool than this morning, but it is going to be a rather cool, and rather grey day. At the moment I am pinning my hopes on a few minutes of sunshine currently forecast for 6pm tomorrow.

  After all the fresh air yesterday morning I didn't feel inclined to do much more yesterday, and yet I had some laundry to do. It felt like hard work, and aggravated one of my serial maladies - my wonky chest ! I can't quite remember which night it was, but I recently "unhinged" one or more of my "twisted ribs" while thrashing around in bed...or just turning over a bit too enthusiastically. I was hoping that my walk would let all the loose bits settle back into place (or whatever it is that usually happens). On that occasion it didn't work, and I suffered several pains while actually walking.

 If past experience hadn't shown that these pains don't kill me they could be most worrying. Instead they are just very inconvenient - doubly so when the pain suddenly switches off in one place, and appears in another place. It's usually a diagonal movement - either from a sharp stabbing pain above my left man boob, to a sharp stabbing pain below my right man boob. One day, when the pain is annoying enough at the right time, I'll have another go at getting my doctor to take some sort of interest in it. For now I just endure it.

 Doing my laundry completely by hand sometimes click the loose bit(s) back into place, but yesterday it just seemed to make things worse. Most of the time there was no constant pain, but a certain movement would cause some sort of pain. The bit problem with that is that it is hard to predict what movement will cause pain, and sometimes the movement would be almost unavoidable. Twisting around to look over my shoulder for oncoming traffic when walking is one known movement that can trigger a lot of (usually) short lived discomfort.

 One of the most annoying aspects about this problem is not actually the pain, but something rather different. It happens almost exclusively when lying in bed, because that is when I am hyper aware of it. It is this - when laying on my back I can hear clicking, rubbing, and grating sounds from within my chest whenever I breathe in (or out, or both). It is surprising it doesn't hurt because it really seems to sound like bone rubbing against bone !

 While my chest goes through another session of being annoying there is good news from another quarter. I recently mentioned that I had a sore bottom. It was, as far as I can judge, a late after effect of the antibiotics I was on 3 or 4 weeks ago. I have never experienced anything like it before, but I am now happy to announce that the problem is nearly fully healed, and for the last day or two I have been close to fully comfortable. I still have to be a bit careful, but for the moment everything at that end seems benign.

 One thing about last night was that it was very boring. Maybe it was boring because I was feeling tired. I'm not sure why I should have been so tired, but for convenience I'll blame it on the fresh air and exercise. By 8.30pm I was already thinking about bed, and I'm sure it wasn't many minutes after 9pm that I was fast asleep. I slept solidly for 3 hours, and then after a break of 10 - 15 minutes I slept solidly until sometime between 4 and 5am. From then on I slept lightly until I semi got up just after 6am.

 This morning it was my intention to go and frolic in the sunshine again, but that doesn't seem to have happened, and I am not sure why. There doesn't seem to be any physical reason why I shouldn't be out enjoying this pleasant bit of autumn sunshine, but I just don't feel like doing anything physical this morning. Maybe it is because I know I really have to pull my finger out very soon, and clear out the understairs cupboard. On the 16th the man from the electricity company will be coming to change the electricity meter, and the working area needs to be clean and free for him.

 Clearing out and cleaning the under stairs cupboard should be my plan for today, and I see no reason why I shouldn't make some progress in doing just that, but I am looking forward to other possible entertainment. Some extreme optimism beyond being rational, makes me hope that I might meet Angela for a drink after she finishes work. The likelihood that it will really happen is negligible, but where would we be without hope.....maybe happier ! Another possibility for tonight is an open mic session in The Railway Telegraph pub in Forest Hill. It is easy to get to - I could even walk it if needed - and so I ought to at least sample it. I fear it won't be quite to my liking for reasons I can't really explain...or even think of right now, but we'll see.

 
  It is possible that this morning's weather was slightly better than the forecast predicted. Maybe the sky never completely cleared of cloud, but there were a couple of sunny periods that had good strong sunshine. It's a bit later than forecast, but we have now reached the time when the clouds have won for the day, and while it is not exactly gloomy, it is rather dull out now. Maybe there will be a splash of rain later. The wind has been a bit stronger today, and in exposed places it has felt a bit cooler than 17° C would suggest. Tomorrow should see some even stronger sunshine until mid afternoon when it will become overcast again. Unfortunately only 16 ° C is expected.

  I didn't really do anything of note yesterday, although I did repair my shower hose in the morning, and I did go to Tesco later in the morning, but other than that I sort of idled all through the day. Maybe I needed to or something. One thing that seems counter intuitive is that after doing nothing all day, I slept unusually well last night. More about that in a minute because I've just had a flashback, and I realise I was so bored that I did do a few useful things after all.

 I did some cooking - two lots in fact. I cooked a chicken and mushroom and vegetable stew for my dinner last night. It was nice and tasty, and relatively healthy, but while getting a bag of mixed vegetables out the freezer I noticed a couple of bit of smoked haddock that had been in there for ages. It seemed OK, and so I cooked a very simple smoked haddock and spinach "stew". In theory, if I don't adulterate it with other stuff, it should be extremely healthy. In a very rare move, I cooled it down as fast as I could (putting the bowl in cold water) and I have frozen it. I'll probably eat it in a day or two.

 Maybe my discovery of that fish prompted me to do a bit more clearing up in the kitchen. I keep an overflow selection of assorted beer glasses (and a few other types) in one of the cupboards in the kitchen. Over the years the glasses had become very dull, and some spillages, plus condensed fatty steam, left it all rather unpleasant in there. To my surprise it all cleaned up very easily, although cleaning and polishing the glasses was a slow process. So that was another thing I did on a day when I didn't think I had actually achieved anything. Sometimes I seem to under sell myself.

 Whether all that elbow grease helped me sleep well last night is a great unknown, but I did sleep exceptionally well - I think. I only have the vaguest, the most dreamy memory of waking up once between about 10pm and 4am. After 4am I did wake once or twice, but it was 6am before I seemed to have slept as much as I possibly could.

This morning it was nice and sunny, and I didn't have to twist my own arm too much to get me out of the house doing a bit of exercise. On the left is the route I took. It was supposed to be an almost circular route, but it seems to have turned out more like a trapezoid !

 The original route I had in mind was going to be longer than this, and it may have approached 5 miles long. That idea didn't take into account tow factors. The first was that the it was a very hilly route. The one hill I did climb was a real bugger, and it felt like I was over taxing myself. The second factor was that I had chosen to walk in my blue Vans trainers, and they are not comfortable.

 It is a strange discomfort though. Some shoes start off slightly uncomfortable, but get more comfortable as you walk, and then can suddenly get very uncomfortable after many miles. My blue Vans start mildly uncomfortable, and then they slowly become more uncomfortable in imperceivable intervals, but never get agonising. Well, it was a mistake to wear them, and I cut short my imagined route to get home faster - although as I neared home I decided to lengthen it a bit by taking the long way home via the Iceland store.

 
  What can one say about today's weather forecast - apart from "I hope it is wrong" ! I don't think it is raining right now, but it must have been until recently because everything is wet and soggy outside. I'm not sure if it can be described as good in any conventional sense of the word, but the best thing about today is that it should be mild - 17° C. Apart from that, unless reality decides to depart from the forecast, it is going to range between grey and nasty grey with unpredictable rain showers. Tomorrow provides some hope for the occasional ray of sunshine, but there may well be more showers, and late evening marks the beginning of colder nights.

  What did I do yesterday ? I guess a fair bit of the afternoon was taken up with going through the pictures I had taken of Chain at The Coach And Horses in Beckenham. The lighting there was much better than for The Life Of Brian at The Elm Tree, but then again no lights at all would be better than that horrible pink glare there. Incidently, I saw some video taken at the Elm Tree last night. I happen to know there were two experts there, and if anyone could reset the lighting controller there, they could, but the videos I saw were dark and pink still. At The Coach And Horses there was almost enough light to use my wide angle lens. A little bit more and I could have taken some good snaps through it.