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Saturday 1st
February 2020
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09:54 GMT
It was fairly mild yesterday with the
afternoon temperature around 12° C. During the
morning the clouds were thin enough to let through
an occasional flash of hazy sunshine, but it
wasn't long before the clouds thickened up. As I
suspected, there was more rain that the forecast
predicted. Some was very light, and almost
ignorable, but from as early as 6pm, and maybe
beyond 8pm, there were some periods of heavier
rain.
Since 8am it has been reasonably bright,
and while they were quite hazy, there have been
some sunny spells already. Just as I wrote that
the sun has broken through again, and it was a lot
less hazy than earlier. The latest revision of the
forecast says the sunny spells will now start at
11am, and continue through until sunset. Based on
what I am seeing at the moment, some of those
sunny spells may last long enough to be described
as just "sunny". With the temperature predicted to
rise to 12° C this afternoon (after a reasonable
start of around 10° C), it might feel quite nice
in the sunshine. Tomorrow might see 13° C in the
afternoon, but it is forecast to be a very cloudy
day with rain for most of the morning.
Yesterday was another day where I was
saving myself for late afternoon/early evening. It
is hard to remember just how I passed most of the
time prior to going out at a little before 3.45pm.
What I do remember is that the time seemed to pass
quite quickly. The only negative thing was that in
the last couple of hours before I needed to go and
get my train I felt uncomfortable, and had to
visit the toilet every 30 - 40 minutes. It was 50%
just wind, but never before has the crude phrase
"you're full of shit" been more appropriate.
With just 13 minutes to spare I made my way
to Catford station, comfortable, but sore, if you
know what I mean, to catch the 15:55 Luton bound
train. It was important to catch that exact train
because trains that run through as far as West
Hampstead are a bit sparse, and any other train
would mean changing trains at Blackfriars, or
maybe St Pancras. It takes 42 minutes to get to
West Hampstead, and I spent much of the journey
reading stuff on my phone. That did make the
journey more pleasant. Had it been light outside I
would probably have admired the view, but despite
being before sunset, the thick clouds made it very
dim outside.
At 16:37, right on time (probably) I
arrived at West Hampstead (Thameslink) station (to
give it it's full name). I was due to meet Aleemah
outside West Hampstead Jubilee Line Tube station
at 16:50. I think we actually met about 5 minutes
before that, and we then wandered down the road,
past the Railway Signal pub where we had last met
as much as 5 years ago, and to the bar/restaurant
that Aleemah wanted to visit.
I can't quite remember it's full title, but
it was a large house that had once been a meeting
point for Czech people who had escaped from behind
the Iron Curtain during the cold war (or something
to that effect). Now the whole house, and it is a
very big house, is this bar and restaurant serving
Czech beer and food. It is curiously OK in there,
although the bar we elected to sit in, rather than
the more ornately decorated dining rooms, did
remind me of the rather bland and bleak bar that
featured in the film 1984. I imagine this was by
intent to reflect the rather austere times behind
the Iron Curtain.
Many (most ?) of the beers on offer were of
Czech origin - or from close by areas. Pilsner
Urquel, and Budvar
were prominent on the bar, but they also had
others. I just had two pints - one each of the
beers in the picture above.
The Bohem brewery is not in the Czech
Republic, but in London, but their extensive range
of beers are brewed by Czechs in equipment
specially imported to London. The
brewery's web site states that the brewery
sprang into existence when the head brewer, Petr
Skocek, found his home brew, brewed because he
found London beer prices to be too high, was
thought to be good enough to start a commercial
brewery. It is somewhat ironic that I found the
price of the beers to be rather high last night !
The Kozel
was £5 a pint (and it seemed like a short
measure).
It was nice catching up with Aleemah again.
We both surprised each other by having gifts. My
gift from Aleemah was a small plaque saying
"Bill's Garden". My gift to Aleemah was a couple
of framed photos I had taken of her in 2007.
This is one of the photos. I think in 2007
we were "dating", and we booked a lunch session on
the Orient Express, luxury Pullman coaches. It was
off season, and "relatively cheap" for a ride to
Paddock Wood station and back to Victoria station.
It was a treat to ride on the famous train, but
there were two downsides. It was just after the
total ban on smoking on trains came in, and I did
that rise with a couple of nicotine patches on my
arms, and had to get one of the waiters to let me
off the train for the few minutes we were at
Paddock Wood station (fortunately smoking hadn't
been banned on platforms at that time). Normally
the doors are kept locked while at the station -
so I was lucky. The other thing was the "high
class" food we were served. Like many posh
restaurants the portions were very small, and I
was so hungry on my way home that I think I bought
some fish and chips - Catford had a proper chip
shop in 2007 !
I drank my two pints of beer while Aleemah
had her meal. She chose the set menu of the day.
It cost £25 and was a soup with meatballs for a
starter. A bowl of shredded cabbage and onion with
dumplings and bacon for a main, and then a pudding
with custard. It looked quite pleasant. With the
beer drunk, and the food eaten, we called it a
day, and I walked Aleemah back to the tube
station. We agreed that we would meet again in
another 5 years - or maybe less ! Then I walked as
fast as I could to get to the Thameslink station.
Our exit from the bar/restaurant was sort
of timed for me to get a direct train home,
although it did seem touch and go. After saying
goodbye to Aleemah I really had to walk as fast as
I could to get to the station. It transpired I
could have taken it a bit easier. I arrived with a
couple of minutes to spare - if my train had been
on time. It actually arrived about two minutes
late, and so I had a 4 minute wait on the platform
- in light rain !
The train was fairly lightly used until we
passed back through the middle of London, and at
approx 7pm there are still a lot of people going
home from work in the city. By the time we left
Blackfriars station the train was standing room
only, and I was crunched up against the window for
the rest of the journey back to Catford. It became
increasingly uncomfortable. There were three
toilets on the train, but the way to the nearest,
a mere 20ft away, was blocked by people, and so I
just had to put up with the increasing discomfort.
It wasn't quite so bad when I stood up, and
I thought I would be OK spending 5 minutes in
Sainsbury's on my way back home. When I finally
got home I just dumped everything on the floor
before racing upstairs to the toilet. I made it
with about 37 microseconds to spare ! While in
Tesco I had bought some salads, and a couple of
packs of reduced price coronation chicken
sandwiches. (Why is it always coronation chicken
?).
I didn't touch any of the stuff I bought
because I had already prepared, and 90% cooked, my
dinner. It was simply bacon and sprouts in an
enhanced beef stock. It just needed 9 minutes in
the microwave to heat it through and fully cook
the bacon. It was quite nice, but after cooking it
seemed quite small. I discarded almost all the
stock which was full of bacon fat and juices. It
wasn't long, perhaps, half an hour, before I
decided to eat the coronation chicken sandwiches.
After flicking around the TV channels I
found myself watching the film "V
For Vendetta". It seemed so appropriate for
the night we officially withdrew from the European
Union, and the last shackles have been removed
from Boris Johnston becoming dictator for life -
at least that sometime seems to be the path he is
following. I missed the beginning of the film that
may have explained the rise to power of the man
who would become dictator, but the rest of the
film seemed so prescient is many ways. There were
many parallels to the film/story 1984.
The film ended just before, or just after
midnight, and I went straight to bed afterwards.
Maybe I was tired, or maybe it was something else,
but it seems I slept well last night. I don't
recall having any dystopian dreams, or indeed any
dream at all. I didn't even seem to wake up to pee
many times. This morning I feel sort of OK, but
maybe not very dynamic. My blood pressure
continues to be low, and to my surprise, after
drinking sweet beer and eating sandwiches, my
blood glucose was still under 8 (it was 7.9), and
10 is the danger level.
There is only one thing I am definitely
doing today, and that is going to the corner shop
to buy the latest New Scientist magazine. I may go
to Poundstretcher to buy a few things - possibly
garden related things. I may sow the flower seeds
in the front garden today while it is bright and
(hopefully) sunny. Maybe I might finish
clearing/cleaning/arranging/filling the
bookshelves in the back room. Maybe, but perhaps
more unlikely, I may go to a gig this evening. If
I do it will be a great shock to most because it
will be to a venue I don't like (too small and
cramped) to see a band I don't generally care for
(but their front man is a good bloke).
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