Yesterday was probably the last very warm
day for a while. There was plenty of sunshine, and
the temperature rose to 27° C in the afternoon. It
seemed to cool down a fair bit late in the
evening.
By the early
hours of this morning it was feeling
almost chilly by comparison with
recent nights. It seems to be 20° C
now. That is higher than the forecast
predicts, but the light breeze coming
through the window does feel very
fresh. The latest revision to the
forecast shows less sunshine than in
the screenshot above, but it should
still be a mostly sunny day. The big
change is the maximum temperature. The
afternoon maximum may only be 22° C,
but that should still feel fine, and
perhaps a welcome break from the 28 to
30° C we have been having recently. It
also seems like it is going to be
typical for most of he week ahead.
Tomorrow should see similar
temperatures, but it could be a wet
day...or maybe a dry day. The forecast
shows a 30% chance of rain for a lot
of tomorrow, but 30% is less than
probable, and more like "possible".
Yesterday was a good day except
for one small thing that I shall get
to soon. The first thing of note that
I did was to go to Poundstretcher. It
was a semi expensive visit. I bought a
lot of bird feed. Those birds eat far
more than you might think ! I also
bought a couple more solar powered
garden lights, and some soaps and
shower gel. It felt good to be able to
go in there without wearing a face
mask.
Yesterday I mentioned how happy
Angela was when we met the day before.
I did wonder if I was imagining, or
exaggerating it, but yesterday morning
I received a sort of confirmation of
it. It was a little after 11am when
out of the blue I got a text message
from Angela. It simply said "thank you
for being my friend xxx". It seems to
hint that there is some hidden sadness
in her life that I can help distract
her from.
I was going to attempt to have
a quick walk in the park to see if I
could spot Mouse, and her dog Freija,
yesterday, but I couldn't seem to find
the time, or maybe the energy. I don't
really know where all the time
went. I didn't even finish my second
project of the day, hand washing three
t-shirts, and rather a lot of
underwear until mid afternoon. I did
start doing it early enough, but it
was hot work, and so I did it in
stages so I could cool down in
between.
What finally messed it all up
was that I was expecting a delivery.
It wasn't an Amazon order, or anything
like that, but Michael had once again
volunteered to pick up some bottles of
Diet Coke while he was shopping in
Tesco. I didn't want to have to drop
everything, while up to my forearms in
hot soapy water, and dripping with
sweat, to open the door to him. So I
left all the washing in it's second
rinse water, and cooled off until
Michael arrived.
It was Michaels birthday
yesterday, and I persuaded him to drop
in for a quick drink a little later in
the afternoon. He said he probably
would, but just a quick one. We left
it there, and I could have gone back
to my washing, but I was expecting
Jodie to turn up for our regular
Thursday afternoon beer drinking
session, and probably not long
afterwards. Once again I left the
washing until later.
Jodie arrived earlier
than usual, but maybe this timing is
now the new normal. Certainly on a
warm dry day she now likes to
walk through the park from Ladywell
station to avoid the local school
emptying out. Once she had settled
down, and we had out first beer
poured, went back to my laundry, and
did the final rinse, and then the
fabric conditioner before hanging it
all on the line many hours after I
originally intended to do. It was
probably around 7pm when I brought it
in, and it was perfectly dry, and
feeling very warm where it had been
hanging in the sun.
It may have been an hour after
Jodie arrived that Michael arrived. He
insisted it was just a flying visit so
we could toast his health on his
birthday, but just one bottle of 5%
beer helped to change his mind.
Another help was that he suddenly
found he had so much to say. His wife
is now very hard of hearing, and so he
doesn't speak much with her. Playing
some music also tempted him to stay
longer, but the final thing was when
he heard that Mark was coming to pick
Jodie up. Michael can talk about
guitars and stuff to Mark - they are
both guitar players.
The cream on the cake was that
Mark had brought the new guitar
strings for my guitar that I had asked
him to buy for me (because he knows
what he is talking about, and I
don't). I can't actually play my
guitar, but other can, and so it is
useful having it. I was told that that
the strings sounded a bit dull, and
that was the reason for the new
strings. I could have changed them
myself, but Mark said he could do it
for me.
The only catch in all this was
that the tuning mechanism for the G
string seems to be very worn, and
while the old string seemed to be
tuned OK, the new string just wouldn't
reach the right tension before the
mechanism would appear to jump a tooth
on it's cogs. Getting a new mechanism
and changing it looks like it could be
an easy job, and it is something I
will look into. In the meantime the
temporary solution was to retune the
guitar around the G string. That would
be no good for someone learning the
guitar unless playing Guns and Roses
songs which apparently use detuned
guitars.
Michael seemed to have no
trouble banging out a few
tunes on my guitar with it's
non standard tuning. Mark
also played a few tunes, but
not while my camera was on
him. He prefers to play
rhythm guitar while hiding
behind the lead guitarist at
his gigs ! Actually I think
he was just feeling shy
after not playing a gig
since lockdown.
Michael might have had
three beers instead of the one
that he intended to, and he had a
great time. I hope we will be sing
more of him at the Thursday (and
maybe the Sunday) drinking
sessions. He definitely likes it
if there is another musician
there, but I think he can put up
with just me and Jodie. Michael
left 20 or so minutes before Jodie
and mark left. It was gone 7pm,
and it was one of the longest ever
sessions.
I had neglected to
pre-prepare any dinner for myself,
and I was almost tempted to order
a takeaway, but then I thought
there was a faster way of getting
food ready. I opted for soup, and
quite a lot of it. Three tins in
total. All were chosen to be low
in sugar, and fairly low in
calories too. Maybe three tines
was an excessive amount, but
otherwise it was almost healthy.
The only reason it wasn't was the
lack of more vegetable content.
Two of the soups were Lentil
soups, and the other was a chunky
chicken and bacon. The latter was
not as nice as the lentil soups.
The best lentil soup, but only by
a tiny margin, but maybe at the
cost of a little extra sugar, was
Heinz lentil soup. The runner up,
right on the heels of the Heinz
was Bramwells, Aldi's own brand.
Having hot soup for dinner,
particularly with added chilli
sauce, might have seen like
madness on a hot evening, and I
have to admit I did question my
own sanity, but last started
cooler than recent nights, and it
actually felt almost cold by the
small hours. I didn't try to get
to sleep too early - partly to
practice for some later nights -
but I think I was asleep very soon
after 11pm. At that point I had
the fan on low. A couple of hours
later I turned the fan off, and as
sunrise approached I was partly
covered by the empty duvet cover.
It was another night that
didn't feel like I slept well, but
I am not sure why. I don't think I
woke up any more than is usual
these days, and I can't recall not
being able to get back to sleep
after waking up. I'm not sure if
it should be classified as a
disappointment, or a minor
triumph, but this morning my blood
glucose was down to 8.3mmol/l. I
guess that is lower than many
Friday mornings after a beer
drinking session, but I was hoping
the soup for dinner might have
helped it be a bit lower. I can't
recall eating anything else that
would raise my blood glucose
yesterday. In fact I didn't eat
much at all before dinner.
Two cans of Lentil soup
last night has had a predictable
effects this morning. I am happy
that my digestive system must be
almost a pure vacuum by now, and
that I didn't get the runs a lot
later in the day. That would
seriously impact my plans. I have
two conflicting plans for today,
although on some days they could
have been all part of one plan. I
want to visit the park once again
to see if I can see Mouse and her
dog Freija. My intention would be
to get there about an hour earlier
then the last few times, and maybe
even wait for her.
I also want to go to
the Rumanian shop next to the pub
to buy some beer from there.
I could do it at anytime, but I
thought that if I did it this
lunchtime there might be a chance
that Angela would join me in the
pub. I did tell her I was thinking
of going there today in a message
I sent last night, and she said
she would try and meet me if I go
- so obviously I will. I did have
a bold idea I could go South to
see if I could see Mouse, and then
go north to the shop and pub, but
walking in opposite directions
doesn't appeal. The other factor
is that I would like to waste a
bit of time resting after the
convulsions my guts have only
recently stopped going
through....at least I hope they
have stopped now.
It wasn't so late that the
sky was black, but last night I
went out into the garden to see
how my latest solar powered garden
lights look - and they look
underwhelming. It probably didn't
help that I snapped them when they
were both showing blue. The cycle
through red, green and blue. I
think they would look much better
if among flowers, Hopefully they,
and probably others, will one day.
On the fence to the left are the
three solar power spot lamps I
bought a week or two ago. They are
very bright, but strangely don't
give off much light. They make the
lawn look like it would in
twilight. I can see myself buying
random designs of solar powered
lights when I see them. At least
they are cheap to run !
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