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Monday 3rd
February 2020
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09:18 GMT
There were a couple of times when a bit of
hazy sunshine appeared from between the clouds in
the morning, but yesterday was generally overcast.
It was also quite mild with the temperature
hitting 14° C for a short while in the afternoon.
Once again, the clouds kept the temperature up
into the night - it was 11° C until gone midnight.
As I write this the sun is shining weakly
through the clouds. It is more of a hazy
brightness than sunshine. Maybe there is still
time for some proper sunny spells before the
clouds fully cover the sky just after midday.
Today should be dry, although in the latest
revision of the forecast there is a 13% chance of
rain at 11am. Once again it is going to be mild,
but only just. It may be 12° C for just one hour
(if at all), and 10 or 11° C is more
representative of much of the day. During the
night the temperature will fall a lot, but
probably not low enough for a frost. Tomorrow will
probably be cold, but the morning could be quite
sunny.
Yesterday was another day dominated by just
two things. The first of those things was a
shopping trip to Tesco. I ended up spending quite
a bit of money in there, and I didn't buy any
booze ! I'm not really sure why, I just felt like
it at the time, but I came away with more cheese
than usual, and a couple of the blocks of cheese
were more expensive than others because they had
some sort of exotic quality. One other unusual
thing was a couple of tubs of ice cream.
It was a day or two before yesterday when I
had a sort of desire for some ice cream. After my
stomach upset of the day before, my blood glucose
level was very low (for me) yesterday morning, and
that seemed to justify eating ice cream for lunch
yesterday. In one respect it turned out to be a
good idea. It was around lunchtime that I got a
message from Kevin to say that he was up for a
beer in the afternoon with a suggested time of
3pm. That suited me nicely, and the ice cream
would "line my stomach" without feeling too full
for beer.
I thought that after Brexit the
Wetherspoons chain of pubs were supposed to be
dropping their prices to 2/6d a pint, or 1 Guinea
for a Hogshead of ale. As you can see in the
picture above, their "London Beer Festival" beer
price was still the standard £2.10. The beer on
the left, the Hedgerow Pale Ale, was my favourite.
The tasting notes suggested it would be fruity,
but apart from a hint of acid, I tasted no fruit
in it. I didn't really like the Five Points Pale,
although I can't really remember why. It wasn't
nasty, but gave no pleasure.
To make the session a bit cheaper I took
along enough 50p off CAMRA beer vouchers for three
pints each. Kevin, who has a hospital appointment
today, switched to half pints at the end (it was
supposed to be just one half pint, but it went
down too fast, and he had another). The discount
vouchers are only valid for full pints, and so I
ended up having four pints during out 3 hour
session in the pub. Three of the pints were of the
Hedgerow Pale Ale.
During the three hours in the pub we caught
up with all the gossip, and made at least one
tentative plan for the future. On the next dry and
bright day, if Kevin is available, he will bring
his electric saw over, and we can cut up a bit
more of the tree stump in the garden. I have
decided that if it works as I think it could, by
simply trimming one of the branches it will become
more like a tripod, and I will use it as a bird
table - probably.
It was 6pm when we left the pub, and I was
keen to get home for dinner - but not so keen that
I had to eat immediately. I had the patience to
wait for some fish fingers to slowly cook in the
oven. I must admit I did nibble on a couple of
chunks of cheese, and some pickled onions while I
waited. With the distraction of dinner
behind me I had a flick around the channels on the
TV, and oh dear, what a load of rubbish !
I ended up watching the movie Star Trek :
Into The Darkness. In my opinion, apparently not
shared by many cinema goers, it was rubbish. The
plot was just a rehash of the original series
story about discovering Khan, and his genetically
enhanced comrades drifting in space in a state of
suspended animation. As with every movie treatment
of a TV series, everything was too big. For
instance, the bridge of the Enterprise was the
size of a large ballroom instead of being a small,
rather more intimate room. It was also very
predictable that there were more, and bigger
explosions, as well as unlimited phasor fire.
So the movie pissed me off, but there was
another negative treat in store. Channel E4
(whatever that is) was showing an episode of Star
Trek : Discovery. I had to consult Wikipedia to
find out what was going on. I found it hard to
believe that it was supposed to be set in future
time after the prequel series Star Trek :
Enterprise, and before the original series of Star
Trek. There was no explanations as to why the
appearance of Klingons had changed once again to
be unrecognisable. I thought that the appearance
of Klingons was fixed by the time of the New
Generation series, and then every series after
that, apparently not.
In the time line of Star Trek : Enterprise
the ship has a quite primitive look to it - sort
of almost analogue, and riveted steel plates. In
the original series the technology has improved to
give a sleeker look, but many analogue controls
are still shown. In Star Trek : Discovery,
apparently set between those two time lines,
everything is very digital with huge display
screens. Apart from no holodecks, the technology
in Discovery looks far in advance of any of the
Star Trek series. Even the uniforms show no hint
of continuity, and have been "re-imagined" by some
idiot who cannot have been a Star Trek fan.
I think I downloaded one episode of Star
Trek : Discovery a year or two ago, and I suspect
I came to similar conclusions because I certainly
never bothered to try and download any more
episodes, and I am not sure I even watched the one
I did download all the way through. I think I will
have to be very bored to even consider watching
another episode next Sunday. In some ways it was
quite a relief to turn off the TV and go to bed
last night.
I slept well again last night. I think it
must be something to do with the temperature over
the last few days that is the the reason for
sleeping well. The temperature has been such that
there doesn't seem to be any conflict between it
being too hot with the duvet, and too cold
without. I woke up the usual amount of times
in the night, but fell asleep again within
minutes. maybe even seconds, after going back to
bed.
This morning I felt like I would like more
sleep, but sleep would not come, and so I got up
feeling fairly good. I didn't feel the need for
any pain killers last night, and that seemed
justified because I seem to be between flare ups
of my chest/ribs pain. This morning my chest feels
fine, and as far as I can tell, most (but maybe
not all) bits of me feel like they are in fair
working order. Even my blood glucose level was
satisfactory this morning after ice cream and beer
yesterday. I think it was 7.9 - I would prefer it
to be 6 point something, but anything under 8.0 is
acceptable.
My plans for today are very simple. If I
have time I want to pop into Poundstretcher for a
few odds and ends, but the main thing is to go for
a walk in the park. Hopefully the sunny periods
will have started by then. In the middle of my
walk I will call into the pub with the hope of
spending an hour with Angela. I don't know what I
will do for the rest of the day after I get home
form my walk. I may do nothing more than catching
up on some reading, or I may do a bit more
clearing/tidying in the back room.
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