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Sunday 16th
February 2020
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10:44 GMT
It was bloody horrible yesterday...well
maybe not all the time. Sometimes it was just
unpleasant. The only slightly good thing was that
at 12 or 13° C it wasn't chilly, but neither was
it warm. The all pervading feature was how dull
and grey it was. The occasionally torrential rain
was just an added feature in case we weren't
pissed off enough.
There obviously has been some heavy rain,
and there are raindrops on the windows now, but I
couldn't describe it as raining heavily. There
seem to be occasional squalls of heavy-ish rain,
and perhaps an invisible from indoors, light
drizzle at other times. While still very overcast,
it seems lighter than the doomy forecast might
suggest. The latest revision to the forecast shows
some periods of heavy rain are now periods of
lighter rain, and the strong winds that were
supposed to rattle the tiles earlier, and which I
didn't notice, are now behind us. The day is now
cooling down, and from a morning start of 13° C it
should slowly get cooler and cooler until it is
just 8° C tonight. Tomorrow may only be around 8°
C, and there will probably be some scattered
showers through the day, but it seems like we have
got through storm Dennis without any mishaps.
I was not keen to do much yesterday - or at
least nothing outside, and I had little enthusiasm
to do much indoors either. I was mostly saving
myself for the evening, but I did go and get some
shopping from Tesco. I know I have mentioned this
at least once in the past, and possibly many
times, but I must mention it again because it is
both amusing and annoying at the same time (to
me). The till at Tesco spewed out several
"discount tickets". I'll just ignore the savings I
would get if I bought some expensive "electrical"
equipment I don't want, and move on to the stupid
thing.
It is popularly thought that the whole idea
of a Tesco Club card (or any store card) is that
the store invades your privacy to learn everything
about you so they can target you with off they
hope you can refuse. Once again I got a discount
ticket for 5p off a litre of fuel at Tesco petrol
stations. I cannot understand why Tesco think I
might possibly drive a car. While some things may
be dual use, maybe some cleaning products, I
cannot think of anything I have ever bought from
Tesco that has anything to do with cars.
"Tesco - I don't drink petrol, and I never
have, but I do drink whisky (and whiskey). How
come you never give me discount vouchers for
whisky ?" Fortunately Tesco (or at least the
Catford branch) does have that silly, but oh so
useful, offer on again - a One Litre bottle of
Haig for £3 less than the price of the 70cl
bottle. I like Haig, and I currently seem to have
5 litres of it ready to drink when I feel the
right time comes. At the moment I am drinking
Tesco Special Reserve - and by "at the moment" I
mean that is the bottle that is currently opened,
but I am not actually drinking it for breakfast.
I had to take a picture of this book to
send to someone, and while I had the picture to
hand I thought I would show it here. The "Owners'
Workshop Manual" is a fascinating read. I have
recently learned that Haynes, famous for their car
repair handbooks, branched out to include manuals
for all sorts of things. They have handbooks for
all sorts of space hardware, as well as things
like the Sopwith Camel biplane. It may just look
like a novelty, but it does go into a level of
detail that takes some serious understanding. I
will admit that so far I have only sampled a few
pages, but once I have finished the current book I
am reading this Skylab manual will be my next
read. I could be tempted to buy more of these
manuals.
Yesterday afternoon's weather was filthy,
and I wondered if I would really be going out in
it in the evening. In fact there was less rain in
the evening than there was in the afternoon, but
the wind was just as fierce featuring some very
powerful gusts - enough to make the bus stop
wobble as I waited for a bus.
At 7pm I set out for The Pelton Arms pub in
Greenwich. (It is the pub that featured in Only
Fools And Horses as everybody kept telling 0 like
I cared !). I have definitely come to the
conclusion I prefer travelling north to go to gigs
- Bromley, to the south, is boring, and frequented
by some people I find annoying to some degree or
another.
If it had been a warm summers evening I
would have done part of the journey as a nice walk
along the banks of the Thames, but not in the dark
on a stormy night ! It is, unfortunately a two bus
journey there and back, but fortunately I was very
lucky with my buses, and never had to wait more
than 6 or 7 minutes. On the way home my wait when
changing buses was just 3.5 seconds. I leapt off
the bus at a compulsory stop, and hoped that the
following bus, which I wanted, would stop there.
It did.
It seems there was much talk that concluded
there was no way I was going to turn up to an
unfamiliar pub in the middle of a storm (although
the rain was actually quite light when I arrived
in Greenwich). I surprised many when I did turn
up, and well in time for the first band. It was a
slightly unusual night in that Chain had a support
band. They were a bunch of hopeful youngsters who
had persuaded the landlord to let them do a short
set, and persuaded Chain to let them use their PA.
They were actually very good, but on first hearing
they didn't really excite me, and left no
memorable tunes in my head. I thought they were
good enough that I would have bought their new EP
- except it doesn't physically exist. It is only a
bunch of ones and zeros to be downloaded from
somewhere. I want a physical product - even if
just on a CDR disk.
Unfortunately I have no idea what any of
their names are, but apart from the drummer,
hidden by the singer/guitarist, this is The Haze.
It is unfortunate that they have chosen a name
used by another half dozen bands. They will not
stand out, and people will not be sure they are
buying on line songs from the right band.
You can just see the drummers head over the
shoulder of the singer in this picture. I did try
taking some pictures without flash, but the sparse
stage lights gave everyone a strange cast,
although they did provide just enough light to use
when my camera was on highest sensitivity. I did
shoot a bit of video with no extra light, and it
doesn't look too bad, Maybe I'll show a clip
tomorrow.
The lure of a new band, and the chance to
visit a new venue, was 50% of the reason for going
out. The other 50% was to see Chain. I have found
that it is good to take a break from seeing any
band that you see too often, but I have taken a
break from seeing all bands for months (apart from
one Chain gig 3 or 4 weeks ago, and my aborted MT
Pockets gig a fortnight ago). Last night's Chain
gig was not exactly fresh, but I did hear at least
one new song. I also took a shed load of pictures
that I will be processing today.
I stayed until the end of Chain's first set
- which seemed quite a long set. I think they were
playing until midnight, but a 10.30pm end seemed
late enough for me. I expected to exit the pub
into pouring rain, but it was just spitting so
lightly that I didn't even bother doing my coat
up. Walking back to the bus stop seemed quicker
than walking from the bus stop, although I wasn't
exactly sure where the bus stop to go home from
was. It was probably closer than I thought. I just
missed a bus, but that turned out to be a good
thing.
There were a choice of buses I could have
got, but at least one would have meant changing
buses at a bus stop with only one bus going to
Catford on it. A couple of the others go into
Lewisham where I could potentially have a choice
of 4 or 5 buses going to Catford - but depending
on just where the bus went in Lewisham. I caught a
180 bus, a route that used to go through Catford,
but now terminates in Lewisham. The trouble was
that I did not know what stops it stopped at in
Lewisham.
I was very lucky in that the 180 bus I was
on overtook a 199 bus in Greenwich High Street. At
the next compulsory bus stop I got off the 180,
and kept my fingers crossed that the 199 would
stop there as well - fortunately it did. It was
useful that the 199 followed behind the 180 so I
could see where it stopped in Lewisham. It turns
out that it stops around the back of the DLR
station, and it would be a couple of minutes walk
to get to a bus stop for a bus to Catford.
Changing where I did turned out to be a good idea.
To avoid temptation I had pre-cooked some
supper in the form of some grilled, skinless
chicken thighs. I ate them with a bowl of Tesco
ready prepared "house salad". After supper I
was in a curious state of tired, and yet not
feeling that tired. I considered starting to
process the photos and video I should. It would
actually have been a good idea to do one of the
videos because I could have left it rendering
while I was asleep. In the end I decided I would
go straight to bed. That was probably a good thing
because I think I may have even been asleep before
Chain's last encore finished !
Today it's going to be all "multimedia". I
have already processed all the Haze photos, and
next on the agenda will be the Chain photos. Once
they are done I will play with the video I shot.
At some time I had better have a shower...although
I don't think I am seeing anyone today, and so I
could get away with just a quick rub down with a
flannel. At this point in time I feel like a
snooze. I probably won't have one, but it would be
good to rest my fingers for a while before my
tendonitis/Carpel Tunnel Syndrome/bad circulation
(take your pick) gets too uncomfortable.
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