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Monday 16th
March 2020
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07:22 GMT
Apart from a few minutes of hazy sunshine
soon after sunrise, yesterday was a very dull and
grey day. An afternoon temperature of 11° C was
probably the best thing about yesterday's weather,
but it was nothing to get excited about. Maybe the
forecast rain not, or mostly not happening, might
have been a bonus, but on the other hand it might
just have well rained while it looked so horrible
outside, and some of my seeds and seedlings might
have liked a bit of extra water.
The penalty for the clear skies, which is
already bringing bright sunshine, is we only
escaped a frost by the skin of our teeth. Maybe we
didn't ! My thermometers are currently saying it
is only 4° C now, and a few hours earlier it might
have been lower than that. It is less than an hour
ago when I took the screenshot above, and the
forecast has changed already. Many of the sunny
hours are now shown as just sunny intervals, and
the afternoon temperature has lost it's predicted
brief blip to 13° C. The best we can hope for is a
few hours at 12° C, but that may feel nice in
sunshine - provided the wind doesn't blow it all
away. The big change in the forecast is that now
tomorrow is predicted to be lightly overcast all
day, and no more sunshine can be expected. At
least it might be 13° C all afternoon, but with no
sunshine to back it up it might not feel more than
mildly mild. The biggest disappointment concerns
Wednesday. A few days ago it was shown as sunny
with temperatures of 16° C, but now it is
predicted to be very grey, and just 14° C.
After being so busy, and writing up most of
my day yesterday afternoon, there is not that much
to add, but not much is not the same as nothing.
One significant thing concerns watching the BBC
London news in the early evening. There was a
piece concerning a GP from somewhere in South East
London. She went on camera, via some sort of video
app on a laptop, and she described her experience
of catching Covid-19 - the corona virus. Like most
people, she only had what could be called the mild
version of it. The symptoms she described for the
first 3 or 4 days of the illness seemed very
familiar to me. About the only difference was that
she said that as the illness ended she had a
metallic taste in her mouth. I don't think I had
that, but there was one morning when I thought I
could taste blood in my mouth. I assumed I had
bitten the inside of my cheek while sleeping - I
have a sharp bit of tooth that has done this
before, but now I think of it, I can't remember
spitting any blood into the sink. It would be very
handy if what made most of the week before last so
painful and unpleasant was Covid-19. It would mean
I now should have some immunity, and don't have to
worry too much about coming down with it in the
future.
One of the things I did to pass the evening
was to watch some TV, and specifically some
repeated episodes of 'Allo 'Allo. A few seconds of
one episode probably influenced the one dream I
can remember something about. In this dream I was
in an old building with iron staircases in it. It
was not that unlike the building I first worked in
at the last company I worked for. It was old
industrial buildings converted into small
workshops, and as we later learned, a bit
radioactive because the building had once been
used for making gas mantles which contain small
quantities of several elements that can be
radio-isotopes - mainly strontium, but others too.
That is beside the point. In the dream the
staircase seemed to wind around a central area
that contained something, but there was no access
to it. On the particular day of the dream I
noticed that at one place the wall seemed to be
made of wood. I gave it a good kick or shove (I
can't quite remember what I did exactly) but the
wall gave way to reveal a large dusty room with a
red carpet, and some chairs and a sofa. The
assumption in the dream was that there should be
an internal, and original, staircase that would
lead to other rooms. I can't recall exploring any
further once I was in the room.
I feel sure the dream was triggered by one
scene in 'Allo 'Allo. The scene need not be
described except for one specific thing in it -
the camera angle. It would never be seen on a
conventional CRT television, but on a digital
display the very edge of the transmitted picture
can be seen. What I could see, only for half a
dozen seconds, was the end of a wall that was no
more than painted plywood as a studio prop. There
was a very thin sliver visible of the undecorated
TV studio behind it. It is too much of a
coincidence that I saw a plywood (or something
similar) wall on TV, and then dreamed about a
plywood wall in my dream.
From time to time I felt a bit tired, and
had a few aches and stiffness yesterday. I
attribute that to too much sitting down at my PC
editing pictures, doing stuff on the internet, or
even using my PC to watch TV. This morning, after
what may have been a fair sleep, I sort of feel
OK. It is now part of everyday life to have a few
mild aches, and a bit of stiffness here and there
(but not there very often), but I think
that I could enjoy a bit of walking today, but
maybe not a lot of walking. This morning I will
give my legs a test. I need to go to the pharmacy
to pick up the last drug from my repeat
prescription - assuming they successfully ordered
it. From there I will go around the corner to
Aldi, and see what stock they might have left
after the weekend's panic buying. I want to get
beer and bacon among other stuff.
If that walk feels OK I may go for an
extended walk in the park to soak up a bit of
sunshine. By midday it should be 10° C, and
although there may be only sunny intervals, I
might dare to wear my sleeveless denim jacket.
Incidently, despite the forecast saying otherwise,
the sunshine still seems to be constant, bright
and sharp ! That is not surprising because the
bits of sky I can see to the south are all bright
blue. Hopefully Angela will be well, and able to
join me in the pub at lunchtime. Once I get home I
can....I don't know...do something I suppose. Well
a snooze is "something", and that may well be what
I do.
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