Apart from some disagreement on timings, both the Met Office (as in the screenshot above) and the BBC agree that today is going to be very wet. Well they are both off to a good start. My garden has been given a good watering, and Although the rain may become a bit lighter soon, it will continue to be watered for most of the day ! There is currently some disagreement on when there will be a break in the rain that may last from between 1 and 4 hours. The BBC reckon in will start at 4pm, but the Met Office think it will start at 1pm. Both forecasts say it will be a cool day. The Met Office says a maximum of 18° C, and the BBC are a bit more generous at 19° C. Tomorrow looks like it will be a very dull day with light rain in the morning, and heavy rain in the evening. The afternoon may actually be dry, but still very gloomy.

  I have just re-read what I wrote about yesterday morning. I wanted to check I had mentioned going to the pharmacy, and then buying beer from Aldi. I was a bit shocked to see at least one misspelled word, and a couple of words omitted. I really ought to take time to proof read some of my scribbles here, but I just bash it all out as fast as I can (and it still takes ages), and I don't feel I have time to check it all. I should get into the habit of proof reading each paragraph after I have written it, but I probably won't....except maybe today when it is so miserable outside that I have plenty of time on my hands. I expect I'll still let through all sorts of mistakes though.


  Despite how the weather would turn out - being gloomier earlier than expected - it was nice when I went out for a walk yesterday. I don't think I really intended to walk very far, and as can be seen on the left, I walked just under 2.5 miles. I think that was still enough to count as some sort of exercise, but the main point of it was to see if The Jolly Farmers had re-opened, and to be in the park at the right time to meet Angela is she should appear.

  Angela did not appear, and I would not be surprised if she had gone to the pub instead of the park. I did think that I should try to walk past the pub, and towards where Angela works at about the time she might be walking to the pub. Then if I didn't pass her I could then check the park, but my timing was bad, and I walked past the pub nearly half an hour before Angela could have got there (unless she bunked off work early).

  As far as I could see, the pub had not changed a bit since I last drank in there before lockdown. If there was one small change it was that the door was locked open to allow fresh air to blow through the pub. I didn't notice any change to the bar, like perspex screens, but maybe I didn't look hard enough during the few seconds I peered in through the window. I did notice the same 3 or 4 men in there who may well be screwed to the floor, and have been in there for the last 106 days since the pubs were officially shut.

  I slowed down a little as I walked through Ladywell fields to take a few snaps. For weeks now, maybe even months, the main river has been so low that the man made stream through the north playing field has been dry. This picture shows the dry bed of the stream. Maybe today's and tomorrow's rain will raise the water level enough to get some water on that dry and dusty stream bed.
  I think it was only yesterday that I realised how similar are teasels and thistles. Even now I am not 100% sure this is a thistle, but I feel sure it is not a teasel. If anything it looks halfway between the two. Anyway, the picture is all about the bee - probably.
  The Jolly Farmers - I bet if I had checked half an hour later I would have spotted Angela in there. I did have half a mind to do just that, but in the end I thought that if Angela wanted me there she would have said where she was going. It makes me think she didn't enjoy our lunchtimes together in there before lockdown, but it always felt like she did.
  Every now and then a squirrel will pose, or put itself in a good position to be photographed. This one was crossing the path in front of me. It seemed to briefly hesitate as I took this picture.
  Here's something you don't see every day - a leopard skin hearse ! I suspect it was just a vinyl covering rather than a paint job, and that the underlying colour was bright pink (as can be seen on the back door edges). I have no idea if it is a working hearse, or just someone's plaything. I sort of suspect the latter, but maybe it is available for hire for the occasional eccentric funeral.

  I could feel the weather changing as I walked home. I was walking south, and I could see the thick heavy clouds piling up while I was still walking in sunshine. That change of weather, on top of the disappointment of not seeing Angela, left me feeling rather down. At other times it might have made me want a big lunch or something, but I wasn't feeling quite that miserable for a while after getting home. Initially I had no food at all, but I did open one of the boxes of Carling lager.

  I had been looking forward to trying the stuff with some lime to give it a better taste, and two cans of it went down quite well. I had chilled 4 cans that I intended to drink yesterday. For the third can I tried "Lager And Black" - adding a measure of blackcurrant cordial. That did not work out well, and I tipped half a pint of it away. I think the problem is that the Tesco backcurrant cordial has a terrible taste - at least the batch that my bottle came from does. It tasted like the juice had burnt as it was heated to concentrate it. My first taste of it, just with water, tasted pretty nasty. I think I shall tip it down the sink, and keep a look out for an alternative brand, or wait 6 months for the bad batch to be sold out. The fourth can of Carling I had on it's own.

  While drinking that lager I did have a few nibbles - some peanuts, and a some hot Pepperami sticks. I don't think it was the snacks, and I don't think it was the lager, but when it came to dinner time I didn't feel hungry enough to want to bother making dinner. I also decided I didn't want to order a takeaway. Maybe half an hour, perhaps three quarters of an hour later I decided what I really wanted was a bowl of soup. I think if anything it was inspired by the dull wintery light outside. I started off with a can of mushroom soup, and then had a can of "beef with chunky vegetables" (although I think the label on the can made you think the beef was chunky - it wasn't !).

  The hot soup, and a just one very large whisky seemed to set me up for a fair night's sleep. I think it was 10pm when I turned out the light, and I think I fell asleep very quickly. I seemed to stay asleep for longer than usual except at 4am when I had woken up as if it was time to get up. After a pee I managed to get a a couple more hours of fitful sleep. By 6am it seemed like I would have to get up. On such a miserable morning I would have liked to sleep through to midday, but that was impossible.

  When I first got up I felt terrible, but that is not uncommon for the first 5 minutes. I felt stiff and creaky, and it felt like my blood pressure was terribly high, or low, or something. It was like my head might explode, and my chest collapse, but these were only impressions of an instant. After a wee I did my usual health checks. My temperature was absolutely normal (for me in the morning). My blood pressure was 116/76 - which I think is pretty good. My blood glucose was a very nice 6.8mmol/l. The only bad reading was my weight. It has got stuck at least 1 kg higher than the last time it got stuck. It really is quite annoying.

  I think today it is more a matter of what I won't be doing rather what I will be doing. In have no desire to go out in the rain, and so today I will have to amuse myself at home. One of the first things I will have to do is to finish washing a bath towel that I left soaking in detergent yesterday. I was supposed to finish washing it yesterday, but I didn't fancy doing it before I went on my walk, and I just could care less about doing it after my walk. I have to do it this morning because it is sitting in the bath, and I can't have a shower until I have dealt with it - not that I need a shower today because I won't be seeing anyone at all today. Quite what I will do for the rest of the day is anyone's guess. All I know is that I have the whole day to do it in.