Once again we are promised a sunny afternoon. Today the first bit of sunshine may be earlier instead of later according to the latest revision to the forecast. Midday could see the first sunny spells before full sunshine dominates from 1pm. It might even feel warm in the sun. The afternoon temperature is still expected to rise to 11° C, but it might take until 3pm to get there. It is going to be another cold night with the temperature dipping to 5° C (and maybe less), but it should climb to 11° C again. However tomorrow is unlikely to feature any sunshine. From midnight until 9am there could be mist or fog. From 9am heavy cloud is predicted. The afternoon will probably see some showers. Apart from the temperature, a thoroughly horrid day !


  The reason I am writing so late today is that I have already done a miles worth of exercise this morning. I paid a relatively early morning visit to the Post Office (which is now 90% mini supermarket instead of the huge Post Office with something like 12 counters for general business, and one or two for parcels). More about my morning walk later.

  Yesterday was a big disappointment. I was expecting a visit from Sue who would be bringing a VHS tape she wanted digitising, and ultimately used to make a DVD, at some later time. She first claimed that I didn't respond to her message om Sunday night to ask if it was still OK for yesterday. I most definitely did respond to say yes, and I said I would check the train times for her, and let her know about them yesterday. I did that, and sent her a message with the times of the trains, and which train I would prefer her to get. She later said that her phone didn't make a loud enough notification of the messages coming through.

  Prior to Sue's non arrival I did some useful housework so my days wasn't completely wasted. I even did some hoovering - probably the first time this winter !
One of the things Sue was supposed to do was to call/text me to say she was on her way, and to call me if she needed guidance on getting here. She has been here twice, but I am not confident she could find here without me having to go out and guide here here in person.

  I waited and waited and waited, and there was no contact from Sue. I ended up watching on of my old VHS tapes - rather rare 5 hour tape. It had loads of of TV recording on it. Most of them were from a Discovery Channel series called Trainspotting. It was a good and bad series. It certainly showed lots of good railway stuff from around the country, but it was presented by a couple of goofballs. They both seemed to be rail enthusiasts, or if not they learned their lines really well, but they seemed to use any opportunity to try and be funny - and frequently failed to be so.

  By 4pm I was almost certain that Sue would not be coming. By 5pm I changed to my slouching around on my own clothes, and thought about dinner. I had almost forgotten that I had bought a "50% Off" pack of battered fish in the morning, and being fish it really couldn't hang around much after it's use by date - which was yesterday. Ideally I should have made two meals from it, but I ended up eating the whole pack with a small tin of processed peas.

  As bed time approached I realised I was burping a lot, and some of those burps were starting to taste a bit acid. I needed, and took an antacid before I went to bed. I had to take another in the middle of the night. I slept fairly well last night. Before I went to bed I turned the heater up so it wouldn't matter if I shoved the duvet aside. By about 4am it was starting to feel cool enough to put an arm and/or a leg under the duvet, and just before I got up I covered all of myself, except my head, with the duvet.

  Curiously enough, once I was out of bed the room felt perfectly warm enough. I had a task to do this morning that I wasn't looking forward to, but it is now done and I can relax. It was going to the post office. Before all that I checked my vital signs, and had a shower. My blood pressure was quite low, as it was last night as well. I think I can now move on to plan B which is to take 5 and 10mg doses of Bisoprolol on alternate days while monitoring my blood pressure daily. My blood glucose was a lot less satisfactory. I think I partly blame the battered/breaded fish for the 9.3mmol/l I measured this morning.

  My visit to the Post Office was to send a card, carrying a little extra, to Spain. It will (hopefully) be "couriered" to Argentine at the end of the most by Patricia's son's brother (presumably born to her ex-husbands new wife). I was expecting a lot of kerfuffle in the Post Office. The first negative thing was having to wear a mask to go in, and then face huge queues. The queue was actually just 3 people, and they moved really fast. It was all ridiculously simple. There were no customs forms to make out as the Royal Mail web site suggested their might be. The envelope and contents were weighed, and the appropriate stamp stuck on it. I knew it would probably be £1.70 based on what the web site said, and I had the correct money ready. I paid the money, and it was all over - just like that !
  Road works prevented me getting a better picture of the "Catford Supermarket and Post Office" !  I'm not sure what the roadworks are for, but I have a suspicion it is preparatory work in advance of a plan that that has been simmering for about 50 years now - to route the South Circular behind the town hall/library (St Lawrence House), and get rid of the Catford Gyratory road system. At the present rate it should all be done in about 60 years time.
  The council have great hopes for Catford, but I sometime wonder how much of a town we will have left. I noted that another shop has closed down. I think it was previously Percy Ingles cafe and cake shop. It was a shop I don't think I ever went in because it used a tea pot as part of it's logo, and I found that extremely distasteful.

  As I write this it is cold and gloomy outside. There is nothing tom lure me outside except hope, and hope seems to be fading. The first sunny spells at midday have now vanished from the latest weather forecast revision, and although full sunshine is still forecast from 1pm, I would not be surprised to see that put back another hour in a later revision. So I know what I am going to do next. I am going to lay on my bed, and do some reading. Maybe later I will go for a walk in the sunshine, but maybe only if the sunshine actually starts, and more importantly, starts before I have given up on the idea in despair.