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Sunday 8th March 2020
09:02 GMT
 
  Yesterday was not quite as bad as the forecast predicted. There were a few hazy glimpses of the sun for a short while after sunrise, and then almost the rest of the day was overcast - or so the forecast predicted, but later in the afternoon the sun did make a few more appearances. As per the forecast it was a dry day, and the afternoon temperature was 11° C.
a sunny start, but later.....
  As I write this the sun is shining, and it has done so for well over an hour, and maybe for two hours. There are clouds in the sky, and sooner or later one will come along to block the sun for a while. Some of those clouds could be rain bearing, and the forecast has made a few attempts to predict when it might rain. The latest revision to the forecast above still shows the first shower at 10am, but no rain for the next couple of hours. The forecasters are still convinced that there will be showers all afternoon, but they also show the chances of rain to be in the region of only 30%. I would hazard a guess that there may be more sunshine than rain this afternoon. In any sunshine the predicted 12° C could feel nice. It should stay mild (for night) tonight, and tomorrow is predicted to start at 5° C and rain. Once that splash of rain is over it could be a nice bright day with a fair amount of sunshine, but the temperature may only be 11° C.

  I thought I felt reasonably OK yesterday morning, but only after having some doubts about it. It turned out those doubts were right, and although quite attenuated, the aches and pains of my recent illness, whatever it might have been, still rumble on. It first became apparent when I went to the corner shop. It is only a 2 minute (maybe even 90 second) walk at full speed, and unless there is some good reason, I do tend to walk there at top speed. When I got to the shop it felt like I may have pushed myself a bit too far. On my return I slowed a bit and took a few photos.
Forensic services
  Here's a sight you don't see everyday around this quiet neighbourhood. At first I thought it was just parked there for no apparent reason. When I was in the corner shop the lady who work in there, and knows everything, said it was there as a result of a raid on a cannabis farm in the house of the corner. It was more obvious the house had been raided when I cam back from the shop because I could see the front door propped up against the fence between the two houses. There was a also a very distinctive aroma wafting up and down the road once the house had been unsealed.

immobilisation notice  While I had my camera out I took a short wander to the car with the wheel clamps on it that I showed a picture of a few days ago. This time I had a proper look at the notice stuck to the drivers window. The car has been immobilised because of some unspecified debt. It is presumably unpaid parking fines, but it might possibly be for an unpaid Hire Purchase commitment (or whatever the modern version of H.P. is).
window box
  The final thing I did before going indoors again was to take this snap of my middle window box. Fresh shoots are still emerging from the compost, but it all seems to be growing so slowly. I guess I am just impatient. At least there is still hope that in the weeks ahead I might have a gloriously coloured load of flowers on my windowsill. I'm not so sure about the seeds I sowed in the front garden. There are a few hints of different shoots appearing there, but most new shoots are in places I don't think I put any seeds, and I think that they are a mix of weeds, and Michaelmas daisies. The latter are very hardy, and spring up every year whether I want them or not. They would be fine if they were not so random. If my other seeds do finally grow I might make a better attempt to do something with those Michaelmas daisies.

  I didn't really intend to have a very lazy day yesterday, but quite a lot of it was very lazy - but not all. It was another of those days where I seemed to do lots of very little jobs at random time - typically while walking through the back room and thinking "I can move/shift/throw out that something", and then spend 5 to 10 minutes doing it. It is actually turning out to be an effective strategy. It shouldn't be too long before I can make some major changes in that room, and apart from a few intensive spurts of work, most of the preparatory work has been done in small painless increments.

  The one thing I did do yesterday that was hard work, and nearly beat me, was to wash a large bath towel by hand. I got to the end of the second rinse and my arm muscles were really complaining. I had to stop there, and take a rest. To prevent too much pain when I started again I took a couple of Paracetamol tablets to tame the pain. They worked OK, and 30 minutes later I did another three rinses, and then fabric conditioner/softener treatment before finally hanging it up to dry. It was a painful reminder of how what must have been a virus (maybe THAT virus) was still affecting my muscles and joints.
Kenwood Mini Disc
                          player and discs
  One job I did yesterday was rather easy once I had finished scrambling around to set it all up. It was to test the new battery for my Kenwood Mini Disc player, and to remind myself how long the battery would last. It is so long since I have used this (or my Sony) Mini Disc player/recorder that I have no memory of how long they would last on one a full charge. To make matters more difficult, the new batteries are of a higher capacity than the originals. I picked out some discs that had full albums recorded on them, and started playing them.

  I was using cheap PC speakers to monitor the sound, and they are far from HiFi. Their frequency response has a pronounced peak somewhere in the mid-range, and it was about the same frequency as Roger Waters whiney singing voice. It made listening to three of his albums rather unpleasant, although admittedly, out of the three albums there were only about 2 "radio friendly" songs to be heard.

  In total I played 6 albums before I had to call a temporary halt for the day (I should have re-started while doing this typing). Some albums were only about 45 minutes long, and others a bit longer. I can't actually say how long I was continuously playing music on that player, but it must have been over 4 hours. In that time the battery indicator fell one tick out of about 6. I suspect, and today I may well find out for sure, that a full battery charge could last 8 hours or so.

  One thing to note in the picture about is the Aerosmith's Greatest Hits on Mini Disc. It is the only prerecorded Mini Disc I ever bought new, and it was about twice the price of the CD version. No wonder that Mini Disc never really caught on, although it was the advent of the portable mp3 player that really consigned it to history. Shame really because they were handy little devices, and with a decent external microphone could do some cracking recordings - the main reason why I am resurrecting mine with brand new batteries.

  My evening was not very exciting, but even so, I still didn't get to bed until about 10pm. I did spend a fair time reading in bed (the brand new New Scientist magazine that was the main reason for my visit to the corner shop in the morning). If I recall correctly, I fell asleep very soon after putting the magazine down, and turning out the light. I took a chance on not taking any Ibuprofen before going to bed, and it seems last night I didn't need any. I seemed to sleep quite comfortably.

  Like the night before, and probably most nights - if you will excuse my saying night when I really mean morning - from about an hour before the first hints of sunrise I started to have semi-memorable dreams. This morning's was far too complex to remember anything more than an overview - as usual.  The first bit I remember was being at work, but in a slightly unfamiliar workplace. It was coming up to lunchtime and I left the workshop and ended up somewhere very unfamiliar.

  It seemed to be a college or university, but most of what I saw were dining rooms. I went through several of them while looking for an exit so I could go outside for a smoke. In one dining room security were trying to clear the room because they believed that a terrorist was about to commit an act of terror, but no one was interested in leaving because they knew the so called terrorist, and knew he was just a nutter full of wind and bile, but harmless. I think I eventually fond my way out of the building via couple of kitchens and a huge laundry room - which seemed to look similar to a brewery, but was definitely a laundry !

  This morning I have a feeling that I might feel OK. It is hard to explain or list the absence of something unknown, but it definitely feels like something negative is missing. The only way to be sure is some sort of test. That could be going for a walk, or even doing some work in the garden. The only flaw in that plan is the forecast rain hanging over my head like the sword of Damocles.  At the moment the sun is still shining, but a lot of cloud is starting to bubble up. I think that once I have washed and dressed I will go for a short walk to Poundland or Poundstretcher, or both.

  I have a cunning plan... I do a lot of microwave cooking, and do it in plastic containers. Those containers seem to pick up unremovable stains - particularly if something like tomato purée is used in the recipe (If throwing random bit in a container and boiling it is a recipe !). All efforts to scrub those containers clean have failed, and so I am replacing them, For small stews I have got some glass containers with clip on lids. For bigger "stews" I will continue to use plastic, but I now intend to put those stained containers to use as plant nurseries. I'll drill a couple of draining holes, and fill them with compost to raise new seeds. The old lids of the containers will now be used underneath as drip tray. Before all that I need compost, and I can get that at either Poundland or Poundstretcher !