Once again the weather is in a state of flux, and it is changing faster than the forecast can keep up with. There have been a few short sunny spells this morning, but now we are going through a grey period. The timing of this grey period is a bit vague, and so is when it might, or possibly not, rain. The latest revision of the forecast says no rain, and that the sun should emerge again at midday. From them one there should be sunny spells like yesterday - maybe with one sunny spell lasting a full hour. Let's hope that the sunny spells last until sunset today. If the forecast is correct it is now almost the warmest part of the day, 14° C, but most the afternoon will be a degree or two cooler. Tomorrow may see 15° C, but it seems that beyond that the forecasters have just thrown in a bunch of random things at random times. Tomorrow may see random showers, random sunny spells, and random overcast periods - and no one knows when they might be yet !

   Yesterday was generally a good day, but one or two points were bad. I seemed to spend the morning flitting about doing a bit of this, and a bit of that, and at the end of it I really didn't have a lot to show for it....well, except a few charged batteries. One task I set myself was to check and charge some of my very old camcorder batteries. While doing so I had a quick check to see if replacement batteries were still available for my 30 year old (approx) Sony Hi8 camcorder. To my surprise I found they were. It was no surprise to find that they were made by a Chinese company.

  It was also a surprise to see that these replacement batteries probably used Nickel Metal-Hydride cells, and so were of a higher capacity by some way compared to the original Sony batteries. The last surprise was that they were fairly cheap - about £24 if I recall correctly. 20 years ago they were around double that price. I was tempted to order one, but I seems I have managed to retain one sane brain cell, and told myself that I don't need a new battery for a camcorder that is obsolete in this day and age. Besides which, I think one of the original batteries may still retain enough life for 10 minutes of filming...maybe.

Live update: The forecast said it would rain, and then it wouldn't. back in the real world it is looking very dark outside now, and it is most definitely raining !

  I also decided to recharge the batteries for my semi-pro Sony VX1000 handycam. It is a great camcorder, and I noted that second hand models were still going for an average of £500 on Amazon. Batteries are still available for it, and they are almost cheaper than tapes for it now. Despite being such a good device, it too has to be considered obsolete in this day and age. It is only standard definition, and only does widescreen recording by clipping the top and bottom of the picture - and that reduces the definition to something slightly less than "standard definition".

  Fiddling around with the batteries from both camcorders did not really take up much time - just a few minutes here and there, but it was sort of important. Rechargeable batteries tend to die if left uncharged for too long. A couple of them may have reached the end or their life already, but the older camcorder does seem to have at least one battery with some life left in it, and the other camcorder possibly have a couple that seem in fair condition. I have a loony plan to take each one out on a bright day, and do a few minutes test shot - probably of the river in the Linear Park. There is a chance I might try one test shoot today, but maybe not.

  The highlight of the day was the afternoon boozing session. As predicted it was just me and Jodie, but we did hear from Michael. It turns out that he was reluctant to say the real reason why he couldn't see us. He has not been banned by his family, but he has an ongoing medical problem that has flared up. He is under the care of his doctor and the hospital, and he was told that boozing may make his condition worse. It is something that will mostly heal by itself, but I think he has medication to speed it up, and probably to prevent side effects. Once it has healed then he will be back with us for our Thursday afternoon sessions.

  Jodie brought over a selection of beers, and in my opinion, none of them were that good. I was the culprit for providing the worst beer of all ! It was from the "case of 'World Beers'". It was brewed by the Yeastie Boys brewery, and was a pale ale flavoured using Earl Grey tea !!!!!!!!!! Once I realised I would not touch it with a bargepole, and Jodie had no interest in it at all. The can remains unopened, and may stay that way until I suitable person passes by. Maybe Michael might like it, and maybe I'll tell him to take it home with him before opening it.

  Jodie was irritating in several ways yesterday. She was drinking very slowly because she spent most of the time on her phone - much of it in the Untapped website where she records the beers she has drunk, and compares notes with others about their experiences. One annoyance goes back to before the invention of the mobile phone. It is that Jodie has to collect the labels from the bottle of any beer she has that is new, or if the label has changed. Some labels come off cold. Some labels needed to be soaked off, and some need very hot water in the bottle to soften the label glue.

  I had filled one bottle with boiling water, and out of curiosity I tried to see how easy it was to peel the label off. It needed to be done slowly, but it was far easier than I imagined - until the bottle slipped. It was still very hot, and difficult to hold the bottle firmly. As it slipped about a couple of dessert spoonfuls of hot water gushed onto my mini laptop. The screen almost instantly blanked. I very quickly removed the power adaptor, and the battery pack. I hope that once it has completely dried out I will find no damage has been done. I will keep my fingers crossed when I power it up - probably some time this afternoon.

  As usual, Jodie was not ready to get the train home that leaves at 5 past 6pm, and for which she would have to leave here by 5 minute to 6pm. 6pm is my dinner time, and is times to coincide with Star Trek on TV. Once again my Thursday viewing has been spoiled by Jodie's tardiness. The worst thing is that in the intervening time, until she finally left to get the next train, I had drunk an extra bottle of beer, and some shorts.

  I ended up not actually feeling drunk, but stupidly hungry. My original idea was that I would have the kebab and chips I had ordered as part of the takeaway the previous day, and maybe to top that off with an apple or something as my dinner. Unfortunately I was drunk enough not to stop there, and my dinner turned out to be very unhealthy. There were obvious consequences of that, and less obvious consequences.

  I was feeling very tired when I went to bed, but decided that I would read until I had finished the book I was reading. It might have been 10pm when I finished the book, and I was soon asleep, but at about 1am I woke up when I heard a noise. I heard another noise when I turned the light on. I was very certain I had heard a mouse behind my computer desk, but maybe I was mistaken. Bits of this desk do creak when the temperature in the room changes, and also after I have been using it.

  Whether what I heard was a mouse or something else, it still put my brain on high alert, and I found it very difficult to get to sleep again. I can't be sure, but it felt like I only got a few snatches of sleep between 1am and about 5am. Even when I did start to sleep properly I seemed to have some unpleasant dreams. Not scary dreams, but sort of depressing dreams. I can only remember part of one of them, but it was really rather depressing.

  For a start I seemed to be back at work again. I have no idea what my function was in this new work. I was in a big factory room that had loads of women in it hand sewing dresses. It was the posters on the wall that were the most depressing part of the dream. I only remember two of them. They, like all the other posters, were printed using a single colour ink - sort of like war time "economy" posters. One said "Your dentist can no long do fillings, and only extractions can be done", and the other poster said "Milk is no longer available".

  My impression of that bit of dream was that it was a premonition of Brexit Britain still being run by the Tory party in a few years time. I wouldn't be surprised if the factory was actually a workhouse ! It was a relief to wake up from that dream, and it was a relief to go back to bed, and sleep for nearly 90 minutes (I think), and waking up again a lot later than most days.

  This morning my temperature was it's normal low figure. My blood pressure was a lot higher than usual on my first reading. I waited a couple of minutes, took a deep breath, and checked it again. That gave a very good reading 0 one very slightly lower than my usual morning readings. It was my blood glucose that was inevitably bad after lots of beer and an excess of food. Part of my plan today is to try and eat as little as possible before dinner, and make sure I choose my dinner ingredients wisely.

  My initial plan for this morning is simply to get through this rather dull, and now rather damp morning. The rain seems to have stopped now, and maybe there is a slight hint that it may be starting to start to brighten up. What I would like to do this afternoon, when it should be sunny, is to go for a walk in the park with my oldest camcorder, and hope the best battery has enough life to record a few minutes of video, but there is a problem. That problem is that I have another parcel delivery today, and I don't know when it will arrive.

  The parcel/box is more booze - specifically another flavour of Jameson Irish Whiskey. This one has been aged in IPA barrels, and seems to have the green label I remember from sometime last year - which was the inspiration for this crazy quest. The last Jameson, the stout barrel aged version, seemed to arrive quite early in the afternoon. Maybe it takes priority to other stuff the courier delivers. I should be able to see when it leaves the Dartford depot, and it could then turn up any time after about an hour has passed. Maybe I'll find a safe slot to go for a walk in the park, or maybe I will just have to stay in.