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Thursday 27th
February 2020
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10:02 GMT
Yesterday started bright, sunny, and rather
cold. Later on it warmed from a chilly 3° C to a
still chilly 8° C. The forecast said there would
be a splash of rain yesterday, but the predicted
time kept changing. I think there was a light
splash of rain - it may have only been 37 light
drops - but I can't seem to recall when it was,
and so it's probably ignorable.
The forecast doesn't show it, but there has
been some snow...well I suppose it was actually
sleet mixed in with rain this morning. It has only
just stopped as I write this, but the dark sky
promises more precipitation of one thing or
another. The latest revision of the forecast
has the rain stopping at midday - which is better
than 1pm, but only just, as shown in the early
version of the forecast for today. After the rain
stops we should have sunny spells until sunset,
but sadly not the couple of hours of sunshine
shown above. It was also be warmer than shown
above. The latest prediction is that the
temperature will briefly hit 8° C for maybe 5
minutes at 3pm, but 7° C would be more
representative of the afternoon. The first couple
of daylight hours tomorrow should be dry, but very
cold (3° C), but it will slowly warm up to 11° C
by 4pm. It will probably rain, maybe only light
showers, from 8am to 5pm.
There was one thing I wanted to do
yesterday morning before taking a walk to meet
Angela in the pub, and that was to go to the
British Heart Foundation shop. I had noticed a
photographers light stand in the window for £9.99.
I'm not sure I have a need for the first light
stand I have, but a pair could be more useful than
just the one. Unfortunately I found it had been
sold a few hours earlier. While I was there I had
a look through their second (or more) hand CDs.
They had a lot of good stuff, and I sorted out a
small pile to buy.
What I failed to do was to notice the
outrageous prices on some of them. When I got to
the till I was asked for £39. I queried that
because I thought that all the CDs would be no
more than £1.99 each - the price I have been
paying in there for quite some time now - some
double CDs excepted. Some of the single CDs I had
selected were priced at £5.99, and that could have
been the price for them new once upon a time. I
declined to buy any of the £5.99 CDs, but I did
buy a couple for £3.99. The rest were still the
old price of £1.99 (one was just £0.99). One of
the £3.99 CDs was rather special as I shall
explain later.
Spending a bit more time in the shop, and
then having to stop to rip one CD to mp3, made me
too late to go out for even a short walk, and I
abandoned trying to record my walk because I just
went straight to the pub by almost the shortest
route possible. My route did take me through a bit
of the park, but not where there are many (any ?)
photographic opportunities, and so I didn't even
bother taking a camera with me.
I arrived at the pub with 5 minutes to
spare, or actually more like 10 minutes to spare
because Angela does not get there at exactly 1pm,
and maybe 10 past 1pm is more typical. She was
pleased to see me, and even more pleased when she
saw what I had left on the table for her. It was
one of the £3.99 CDs I had bought (and ripped to
mp3) earlier. The CD was an album by Gordon
Lightfoot - an artist I know to be one of her
favourites. She was absolutely delighted to
receive it, and I won a little hug, and a kiss (on
the cheek) right there and then.
Needless to say we had a nice drink
together, and then I walked her back to work. This
time I walked her much closer to the building she
works in. Sometime earlier, maybe last week, she
mentioned that our mutual friend Michael had
walked right past her office by taking a naughty
short cut through the grounds of the hospital. I'm
not so sure it is actually a short cut - it just
two different sides of a triangle with
approximately equal sides. I said I would have to
investigate it one day, but that I felt reluctant
because I had no official business in that part of
the grounds, and I didn't want to appear lost
while navigating between buildings and the staff
car park.
Yesterday I had a guide ! Angela walked me
past her office, and pointed out the exact window
to wave through the next time I passed, and then
far enough to easily see the way to the staff car
park exit that is next to one of the exits from
the park. Angela says she looks forward to a wave
the next time I pass. That probably won't be until
Monday. I have in mind a route, using that short
cut, that should extend the walk to the pub to
almost a mile and a half. From there it is about
0.6 miles directly back home, or even a bit more
if I take a slightly indirect route.
I probably won't be seeing Angela again
until next Monday, but there is a small chance she
might turn up to a gig in Greenwich late Sunday
afternoon. There is nanoscopic possibility
that I could see her on Friday. She is out on the
razzle with her daughter Miranda. I know where
they are going, and could gatecrash, but I don't
think I should. That tiny, tiny, tiny chance is
being offered an invite to join them for a drink.
Nothing has been mentioned, and I doubt it ever
will be, but we live in hope.
When I got home from the pub I spent the
rest of the afternoon ripping my new CDs to mp3
files. It is a curious fact that I have no CD
player at the moment, and generally listen to all
my CDs as mp3 files on my PC. While doing the
ripping I had a liquid lunch - liquid with some
lumps in - aka soup ! I am still uncertain if I am
not reading the nutritional information on the
soup packets correctly. They seem harmless, but
they could be another source of hidden sugar. In
the case of yesterday, I think any hidden sugar
would be outweighed by my dinner.
My dinner was a devil may care sort of
meal. It was 4 big hot dog sized sausages that
contained cheese and chilli served on a big bed of
baked beans with some extra melted cheese. It was
very nice, and very unhealthy. I haven't dared
weigh myself this morning, but I do know my blood
glucose is high again, although lower than the day
before, and not too far off my average. I have a
theory that says it is good to reset your eating
to crap every now and then so the body,
particularly the pancreas, gets a reminder of what
it is supposed to be doing. Either the theory
works, or the effect scares me enough to start
toeing the line more conscientiously for a few
days or more (ideally more months !).
Once again, I took a couple of Ibuprofen
before going to bed, and had a comfortable night,
but it still seemed to involve some vivid dreams -
one dream featured smells. I can't seem to recall
smelling anything in dreams before. I probably
have, but have just forgotten them. In last
night's dream I was walking towards home from
Catford Bridge station. As I approached the first
turning I would pass I could smell a horrible
smell. It was the smell of rancid dustbins.
I knew instantly that I would see the
dustcart and dustmen just around the corner, and
of course I did. From then on things got a bit
weird. Instead of the road continuing to my house
I found myself walking in, or past the school
playground. There were big heaps of rubbish to be
collected by the dustmen. Some were packs of
unused bubble wrap, and I was tempted to try and
rescue one. As I walked the rubbish seemed to turn
from something that a school might put out to more
like what might be produced on an industrial
estate. I noted quite a bit of electronic stuff
that I would have liked to salvage, but there
seemed to be too many people watching me. The last
thing I spotted was an old hard disk, and I didn't
dare take that in case I was accused of being a
hacker. The dream sort of faded out at that point.
This morning I feel basically OK, but I
will be saving my energy for going to my regular
"Thursday Club" drink at about 4pm. Before then I
have some important, and very traumatic stuff to
do. I have to pay my credit card bill, and my
phone bill. It doesn't matter how much or how
little is in my bank account, I really hate paying
those bills ! One other important thing before I
go out this afternoon is to have a good shower,
and probably wash my hair. Before doing that I
ought to wash some t-shirts and underwear, but
first priority before anything else is to pay
those bloody bills !
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