Yesterday was yet another not very nice
day. Once again it was overcast and grey, and
while there may have been a brief peak of 9° C
(and I am not sure if there was), it seemed to be
rather cool all day. Maybe not bitingly cold, but
most definitely very cool.
For a few hours this morning the
weather was not quite as bad as the forecast in
the screenshot above. The cloud was not that
dense, and some of it was thin enough for it to
get almost bright (although I don't think the sun
was ever actually visible). At 9° C it wasn't that
cold either. It almost felt that with a bit more
effort it could almost feel nice. Of course it
didn't last, and even before the forecast time of
2pm the rain had started to fall. It's is fairly
light rain, but it may not stop until almost
midnight. At the moment it is around 10° C, and it
merely feels quite chilly instead of bone
numbingly cold. Tomorrow is still forecast to be a
couple of degrees cooler, but it should be dry
until almost sunset. After that light rain is
forecast to fall until 10pm or later. The forecast
doesn't show it, but maybe tomorrow morning could
be bright if the thin cloud is thin enough to have
gaps in it.
Everything I did yesterday was leading up
to going out in the evening. I did a bit more
housework, and more reading, and basically not
much. I was conserving my energy for the evening,
but I wasn't entirely idle. The housework I did
was mostly in the morning, and on reflection it
was actually quite extensive...or to put it
another way, I spent several hours doing it. The
most noticeable thing I did was to clean the back
room windows - and not just the glass, but the
framework too.
There were no paw prints actually visible,
but some of the "mud" on the window ledge was a
legacy of past cats coming in with muddy paws
(sometimes with live prey that they would then
lose indoors !!). So I cleaned up the paintwork as
best I could, as well as the glass. I also fitted
a couple of bolts to the lower (sash style) window
to improve security. I still didn't get around to
do anything with the unruly bookshelves next to
that window, but I did some tidying up near there.
I am not sure why I needed to grit my teeth
to do it, but it seemed I had to before throwing
away an old amplifier and a couple of speakers. I
originally bought the amplifier from a second hand
shop for about £10 (or maybe less) in about 1975.
It was used as a mixing desk monitor in my old
radio studio. In later years it was to drive my PC
speakers. The speakers were a couple of Toshiba TV
surround sound speakers retrieved from a skip.
They were small(ish), and designed to be used near
CRTs, and so ideal near my PC monitor. Their own
problem was that they were really supposed to be
mid-range speakers (the bass would have originally
been a separate woofer), and so sounded a bit
thin. They, and the amplifier can be currently
found at the bottom of my wheelie bin.
One other bit of housework involved the
kitchen - and it was more than just doing the
washing up, and wiping down the work surfaces and
inside of the microwave - although it did include
that too. Until yesterday there was an unholy mess
behind the garden door. Odd bit had been dumped
there, and the whole lot was covered in cobwebs,
dirt, dust, and even old cat litter. With all the
crap cleared out there was a nice space to store a
couple of old tower PCs that were previously in
the back room. Eventually I will probably dispose
of them, but not before removing a few things I do
not want to throw away (which includes a couple of
almost unused 3TB hard disks from a project that
was never fully realised).
It was while I was working downstairs that
I missed a call on my phone from Angela. At first
I got a bit excited. I thought that maybe she was
ringing me to discuss doing something together in
the evening. I called her back and found she only
wanted some travel advice. It turned out that she
was going to spend the evening with her daughter
(and stay overnight), and she was unfamiliar with
most aspects of the journey. First of all I had to
tell her to get the DLT train from Lewisham, and
then how to change at Canary Wharf to get to
Stratford. With her heading in the right direction
(still on the bus to Lewisham) I did some research
to try and find what platform to send her to at
Stratford.
It soon became apparent there were no
National Rail services running at Stratford
yesterday (and today). Angela would have to catch
a rail replacement bus which would take over 50
minutes to reach Romford (her destination) - at
least 30 minutes longer than by rail. To make
matters worse, Angela jumped on the first bus she
saw going to Romford. Instead of the rail
replacement bus it was an 86, and according to
TFL's website, that would stop at hundreds (or
maybe tens) of stops, and take 1 hour and
17minutes - if it went as fast as timetabled -
which in Saturday shopping traffic cannot be
assumed.
I did hear later that Angela successfully
made it and met up with her daughter. I sent
Angela details of a possible route home that would
only take 10 minutes more (plus an unknown amount
of walking and waiting) from Romford to Catford
compared to that long bus ride from Stratford to
Romford. It was 15 minutes on a 193 bus to
Hornchurch Tube station. The 193 bus runs every 15
minutes. Then from Hournchurch to Blackfriars on a
district line train. They run every 5 minutes, and
the journey time is a rather long 42 minutes.
Finally it is a 23 minute journey on the train
from Blackfriars to Catford station. Unfortunately
those trains are only every half hour, and so a
long wait might be possible.
After some intensive resting on my newly
made bed - did I mention I changed all the linen -
a bit more housework achieved yesterday - it was
finally time to go out,a d I really had to force
myself to do it. As much as I was looking forward
to seeing Chain playing for the first time in
something like 3 months, I also really wanted to
stay in the warm, and go to bed early. However it
was a simple journey, and it took less time than I
expected.
The venue was The White Swan pub in
Charlton village - a pub I have never visited
before, and neither had Chain. Getting there was
simple. I caught a 54 bus from the end of my road,
and it stops almost opposite the pub. I didn't
time it accurately, but I don't think it could
have been any more than 5 minutes longer than 20
minutes. It felt quicker than getting to Bromley,
and in the summer it would be a nice ride in
daylight. I had a 30 minute wait before the gig
started, and maybe another 10 minutes before a few
sound problems were sorted out.
Here's the full band for the night. From
left to right: CC Harrison on keybords, Chris
Mayer on lead guitar, Guy Harris on Drums, Jo
Woodstock on vocals and guitar, and Steve Pitt on
bass. I get the impression that CC Harrison is now
a regular member of the band.
I did have a sort of worry that I may have
forgotten how to take photos last night, but some
came out rather well. The reason I am writing this
so late in the day is because I has 133 photos to
choose from to make a photo album, and everyone I
chose needed some work to improve it - sometime
things like selectively making faces at the back
look a bit brighter. I was trying to keep my flash
gun power down to retain some of the colour of the
lights, and on low power it wasn't quite reaching
Guy and Steve at the back. It also took quite some
time to prepare a shaky video of one song -
although the computer did most of the work - I
just had to wait for it to finish.
The video (if your
browser can play it - some can't) is of the
song Freebird. It also features the rather
cute looking Fiona Mairs, and her friend doing
what looks like country and western line
dancing to the song !
I didn't stay until the end of the gig.
I started home just before 11pm - my brain
still thinks that all pubs close at 11pm. I
believe the gig actually finished at near
midnight. After feeling slightly rotten going
to the gig I felt fine once there, and I felt
fine right up until I got off the bus in
Catford. It suddenly felt like I had run out
of energy. each step I took seemed like hard
work, and I was glad to get in. I was also
glad to get in to start eating my very naughty
supper I had bought from the fried chicken
shop very near the bus stop. I had grilled
wings - which were moderately harmless, and
chips which definitely weren't !
It wasn't long after eating my supper
that I was in bed, but it seemed to take ages
to get to sleep. I guess I was excited or
something. It could also be that my bed felt
uncomfortable in a way that was completely
different to how it was uncomfortable before I
changed the sheets, and duvet cover, and
straightened out the rucked up memory foam
mattress protectors. Maybe my body had moulded
itself to the previous lumps and bumps. I
eventually got to sleep, but I thought I was
not sleeping well. Maybe, but I was surprised
that it was gone 9am when I finally got up.
Since then I have done a lot of
photography processing, and I have been
shopping to Aldi. I have also stuff I bought
from Aldi - including some very nice reduced
price fish cakes - cod and chorizo flavour. It
may sound like an unlikely combination, but it
is very nice. Writing this is my last task.
Once it is all uploaded I can be as lazy as I
want, and I want to be very lazy because I
don't feel that great today. It's nothing bad.
Probably just a poor night's sleep, although I
would not be surprised if my blood glucose
level weren't running a bit high today. I
could have also had a sort of digestive
anomaly. I think it is over now, at least I
hope it is. Nothing explosive has happened,
but I have had several episodes of weapons
grade farting. It has been as if something had
died inside of me - maybe a rat !
Apart from being intensively lazy, or
intending to be for a while, I am
contemplating the idea of going out again
tonight to Stretchy's Open Mic in The Swan And
Mitre in Bromley. I doubt it will happen
tonight - a doubt strengthened by looking out
the window. It is not quite sunset as I write
this, but it is already as dark as night, and
it is raining. I very much doubt I want to go
out in that !
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