Yesterday started with rain, and snow !
Well maybe not exactly snow. It was probably just
sleet, but some of those soggy flakes were quite
big. None settled because it was just too wet
outside. The "snow" actually only lasted for as
little as 10 minutes. The rest of the time it was
just (mostly) light rain. By early afternoon the
clouds started to clear, and from about 3pm, or
soon after, the sky was a lovely clear blue. After
dark it was a less lovely clear black - which let
all the heat out ! The afternoon temperature may
have very briefly peaked at 8° C, but as little as
4° C was more like the average temperature, and
the wind chill made it feel like below zero at
times.
At the moment the forecast is uncannily
correct. It was dry until 5 or 10 minutes ago, and
now, just about on time, it has started raining.
The latest revision of the forecast says the rain
will be light except between 10 and 11am when it
may be heavy rain. The rain should stop just
before sunset. By that time the temperature will
have risen from 5° C this morning, to 11° C. It
should stay that high through most of the night.
With only light breezes it could start to approach
feeling warm, or maybe "mild", but with no
sunshine to back it up it the reality will
probably be that it will still feel quite cold. It
will start to cool down tomorrow morning - aided
by a lot of rain until just after midday. From
then on there may be sunny spells for the rest of
the day, with the temperature in the region of 8
or 9° C.
This is what yesterday
mornings sleet/snow shower looked like - not
very impressive, but the best this year so far.
I really didn't want to pay my credit
card and BT phone bills yesterday morning, and my
mind sneakily distracted me by getting me to start
washing some t-shirts and underwear. I had done
the wash and two rinses before I realised that I
needed to go to the toilet - which I did. After
that I convinced myself that I could not put off
paying those bills any longer. I really don't know
why I hate paying those bills. It has been the
same since time immemorial regardless of whether I
have been rich or poor.
Just recently I have been feeling not poor,
but very aware that may savings are running low
now, and it is still 14 0r 15 months to go before
I get my state pension. In some respects I am just
playing it safe because I've been living on saving
(plus my small pension from BT) for a couple of
years now, and I have only burned through about
half my savings. I should (I hope) still be in
surplus when I get my state pension.
In one respect it was good to pay that
credit card bill. For one thing it turned out to
be a bit smaller than expected (but not by much),
and that my current account was not quite as low
as I feared (but only be a few hundred pounds).
That sort of gave me the go ahead to indulge in
another waste of money - maybe, or maybe not. I
have two portable mini disc players, and both have
dead batteries (rechargeable lithium). For years I
have had no use for those players, but just
recently I have been thinking of doing some audio
recording, and a portable machine would be ideal.
I am thinking along the lines of bird song, but
also "bootleg" recordings of some songs at gigs.
The mini disc machines are fairly high quality,
and coupled with a decent stereo mic, which I have
a couple to select between, could make some
excellent recordings.
Before ordering new batteries for the two
portable machines, one is a Sony, and the other is
a Kenwood, I checked they both worked on a mains
power supply - they do ! It is a shame that both
the Sony and the Kenwood have theor own good
points, and their own bad points. The Sony is a
little more versatile, but the Kenwood has a
better disc loading mechanism. Other than that,
they are otherwise very similar - most probably
because the inside of the Kenwood uses Sony
technology. Mini disc was invented by Sony, and
they probably were the only maker of the chips
inside that made them work.
Apart from the laundry, and banking stuff,
I did very little until it was time to go out for
my Thursday Club drinking. It was fully dry when I
left home, and I decided to wear trainers instead
of boots. They made quite a difference to my walk
to the station. I don't think I broke any records
getting there, but somehow it felt like less
effort. I didn't record the walk because I wanted
to stop for a minute at the cash machine outside
the Sainsbury's Local shop by the station. That
was notable because I got my first look at the
new, plastic, £10 note.
The picture above was taken while waiting
on Catford station for my train. I guess that I
had walked fairly fast because I had a 10 minute
wait for my train. You may think that wait was not
bad under that lovely blue sky, but you would be
wrong. The wind at ground level was moderately
strong, and felt very cold. Up on the station,
with no windbreaks, that wind tried to chill me to
the bone. It was fortunate I had put on a thick
coat that was comfortable when done up. I had it
done up tight until I was safely in the pub.
There was something about last night's
drink that was unusually good. It was probably a
combination of two things. One thing is that we
could not sit at our usual table - the oval table
- because it was reserved (although not until
7.30pm). We sat at the octagonal table, and that
meant we were closer to each other compared to
either ends of the oval table. The other thing
that made it better than usual was whatever it was
we were talking about. It was just usual, mostly
forgettable drinking talk, but somehow more
interesting, and more amusing than usual.
I had my usual three pints, and last night
all three pints were of the same beer. I would
have taken a picture of the beer pump clip so I
could accurately name it, and say something about
it. Unfortunately there were a bunch of builder
hogging the space in front of the beer pumps, and
I could barely see enough to select what I would
be drinking. There was a couple of other beers I
might have tried if those annoying bastards were
not in the way. That was only relevant when I
first got there. Later I just asked for the same.
It was cold in the wind going to the pub,
and although the wind seemed to have dropped, it
was still very cold when I left the pub and walked
back to the station. Up on the platform it is easy
to see a very wide expanse of sky with very little
to block the view. The bright platform lighting
made it a bit difficult to see many stars, but
over towards the west there was still light
seeping over the horizon from the already set sun.
In the picture on the left there is a crescent
moon shining brightly, and just a little higher,
and to the right is Venus.
I don't think I have ever attempted to
put two videos on a page before, but I shot
this second one last night, and want to use
it. It shows Shortlands station at night, and
also shows how well modern phone cameras can
cope with night time illumination. By
comparison, my first ever colour video camera
would show nothing but faintly green noise for
most of this scene. This video also shows a
fast train going through platform 2, and then
pans around to show my train home, the 18:25
service, arriving at the station. Note how
accurately I managed to align myself with the
doors when the train stops !
On my way home I called into
Sainsbury's to buy something to eat. I didn't
have anything at home pre-cooked, or which
could be cooked quickly, and I was feeling
hungry (I had eaten very little before going
out). I thought I might buy a ready meal or
something, but I ended up buying two lots of
Greek Salad, and also two Greek style chicken
wraps. The latter had reduced pricestickers on
them, as did a egg and bacon sandwich, and a
pack of "firecracker" flavour (whatever that
is) chicken slices. Before the evening was
over I had eaten all that lot !
Those Greek style chicken wraps were
rather nice, but they weren't the highlight of
the evening. The highlight was a short message
from Miranda, Angela's daughter. She simply
said that the vodka I had given Angela earlier
in the week (when she had said she was feeling
low) was very nice and going down well, and
that she was having a very nice evening. I was
very surprised to receive that message. It was
a rare one. I can only imagine that they were
talking about me, and that the talk was good.
Maybe it was the beer, which at 4.2%
was not very strong, or maybe it was the food,
but I suddenly felt very tired last night. I
was in bed just reading at about 10pm when I
found my eyes closing. I can't say when it was
that I went to sleep. It may have been as late
as 11pm, but once I had turned the light out I
must have been asleep in no more than a minute
or two. I slept well, and I can only remember
waking up for a pee about twice in the night.
The last hour or two of sleep was strange
because I think I was dreaming about being
awake in bed. I'm pretty certain that I wasn't
awake most of the time, but.... The only thing
I can say is that the time seemed to pass
very, very quickly if I was awake.
This morning I dared to check both my
weight and blood glucose level. Neither was
good, but neither were terribly excessive.
However I do think I have reminded my body
enough of some of the worse it has to accept,
and now I ought to try and get back to a more
serious diet. The flaw in that idea is that
the grey skies and rain do nothing to enthuse
me to eat less, or properly, and in fact quite
the opposite. It is all made worse by today
potentially being a boring day. It is
definitely an indoor day today - at least
until sunset, and after the rain has stopped.
There is stuff I will probably do, but nothing
to gain my enthusiasm. I don't think there are
any gigs on tonight that I would want to go
to, but of I did it would at least be dry and
almost mild out tonight - maybe.
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