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Saturday 24th July 2021
Lockdown day 420 484 (this clock is now stopped because lockdown has now ended [for now] I have now been on a train, to a pub, to watch a gig)

11:50 BST


  The most notable thing about yesterday's weather was how it was cooler than recently, and almost chilly late in the evening. The afternoon temperature only rose to about 22° C, but that was plenty to feel nice and warm in the sunshine. By 10pm the temperature had dropped to 17° C (possibly even 16° C), and there was a fair bit of breeze that made it feel very fresh.
dull and wet
  There was the potential for a lot more rain today according to early versions of the forecast. The reality is that we have had sufficient rain, generally quite light rain, to give the garden a fair watering, but it is possible it could be dry now for the rest of the day. Several hours could still be very dull, but it is possible that the sun could come out at 6pm. It has been a very fresh morning, but the temperature is slowly creeping up to a predicted high of 22° C according to the latest forecast revision. Tomorrow should still the temperature as high as 20° C, but it is likely to be a very dull day with a high chance of rain for the afternoon. Some of it could be heavy rain, and there could even be some thunder and lightning.

  Yesterday was definitely a good day. As I mentioned yesterday morning, the cans of lentil soup I had for dinner the day before yesterday did what was predicted, and made for a slow start in the morning as my intestinal tract purged itself. It did leave my guts with a hollow ache for a while, but by midday I was ready to go for a short walk, and it was a short walk. I basically took the shortest walk direct to The Jolly Farmers, but overshot to the shop next door.

  That shop is called Casa Transylvania, which I translate (very incorrectly) as The House of Vampires ! I particularly wanted to buy a couple of cans of the Bulgarian (?) beer they sell there. That was despite Jodie describing what the cans would probably look like, despite it possibly being 10 years since she tried them, and that if the cans did match her description they would contain horrible beer.

  They did match her description, but I bought them anyway. I also bought some smoked cheese from one of those old Eastern European, ex-Russian, countries (I say it like this because I can't remember where it actually came from). I am sure I have bought some cheese that was near enough identical that is supposed to have come from Turkey. Anyway, I've had a few nibbles of it, and it seems very nice. I also bought a pack of two Hungarian sausages. I am not expecting them to be wonderful, and they may even be unpleasant, but these things have to be tried.

  The reason I went to the shop yesterday, rather than any other day, was that I though it might be a good excuse to invite Angela to join me in the pub next door for her lunchbreak. She needed zero convincing, and I only just had time to order her Vodka and Diet Coke before she arrived. We had a very pleasant hour together, and I think it was virtually a full hour because Angela was in no great hurry to get back to work (although I don't think she was more than 6 or 7 minute late getting back).

  Once I was home there were a few things I needed to do. One was to try and have a snooze, but I don't think I managed one. I definitely had a play with one of my cameras - selecting lenses, making sure the batteries were charged, and the memory card had enough room. It is lucky I checked the flash gun because the batteries in that were totally flat after not being used for 18 months or more.

  The reason for checking the camera, and for having an early dinner, was because last night I went out on a train, to a pub, and to see my first full gig since I saw Chain in February 2020 - just days before the first Covid lockdown. With hindsight I realised my choice of dinner was a poor choice. It was grilled sausages that had been left to cool down to no more than tepid. They seemed very greasy like that, and I didn't have anything with them. They sat in my stomach like a lead brick sending up occasional sausage tasting burps.

  At one point I was wondering if it was wise to go out, but after taking a couple of antacid tablets, and a swig of whisky, I felt good enough that the lure of the gig, and of going on a train for the first time in something like a whole year, was too strong to refuse. It was lucky that the gig was in The Swan in West Wickham. It is not my favourite pub, but at least it wasn't mega busy last night. The luck element was actually to do with it being reasonably near a railway station, although it is a sod of a hill to walk up from the station to the pub.
Chris
                                      Mayer
  It was good to see everyone, and hear some live music again. The only downside is that it felt like I had to learn to use my camera all over again. I took loads of pictures, and a large proportion were really bad. This one, with Chris Mayer in the foreground, and Steve Pitt behind him, is focussed wrong. The guitar is nice and sharp, but Chris's face is in soft focus.
Jo
                                      Corteen
  Jo Corteen was one of the first persons I talked to when I got to the pub, and she gave me a big hug - which was very nice.
Chain
                                      plus Rob Todd
  Time has changed nothing ! As it was 18 months ago, it was the same last night. Rob Todd got up to sing "The Road To Hell". He tells me that next time he will finally sing a new song - the Bob Segar song "Turn The Page".
Steve
                                      Pitt plays his harp
  At the end of the Alanis Morrisette song, "Hand In My Pocket", which Chain cover, Steve Pitt gets his harp (mouth organ) out does a solo piece.

  I only stayed until just after the end of the first set. If I had stayed to the end I would miss the last train, and leaving during the break seems the best option. Jo gave me another hug, and said it was so good to see me again. There were a few hand shakes, and then I went out into the very pleasantly cool night air. It may be a bugger walking up from the station, but that means it is a pleasant stroll down the hill to the station. I timed it well so I only had a 5 or 6 minute wait for the train.
solar powered lights in
                                          window boxes
  When I arrived home I was greeted by the sight of the solar powered lights I had "planted" in the window boxes outside my front room. When I bought those lights, a fortnight ago, or thereabouts, I tried them in the back garden. I guess it was the scale of things, but they looked very underwhelming. Last night was the first time I saw them working from the road, in the dark. They seem surprisingly bright in those window boxes. I'm not sure they look "good", but they don't look bad.

  It was nice to get home, and sit down. I was tired, but I guess I was still a bit excited, and so not initially sleepy. One thing I didn't do, although I was tempted, was to buy myself any supper. If I had it would probably have been naughty chicken and chips. I decided I would have no more than a snack. I had a handful of peanuts, and another little chunk of the smoked cheese I had bought earlier in the day.

  It seemed too cool to open my bedroom window, and my bedroom did initially feel a bit hot and stuff, but it didn't seem to take long to get to sleep. Once again I had that bad good, or good bad sleep. There were about three times in the night when I wondered if I would ever get to sleep, and then realising that as much as 3 hours had passed since thinking about it. It could have meant that apart from those moments when I was awake, I was probably sleeping OK, but I couldn't stop yawning for hours after getting up.

  Not having any substantial supper last night was probably a good thing. My blood glucose was a very nice 7.7mmol/l this morning. Maybe it not being a sweaty night helped as well. In fact it was feeling rather cool when I finally got up. Overall I seem to feel OK this morning - apart from that belief that I may not have slept enough last night. I'm not sure if it feels odd or not, but my legs, including my knees, ankles and feet don't seem to ache as much as usual, but then again I didn't do that much walking yesterday.

  This morning I spent a fair time photo editing, and I probably wasted at least half an hour dealing with a phone call from Lee. As I write this I have just scraped the bird table semi clean, and put down new food for the birds. It is almost past lunchtime now, and my thoughts are turning to the idea of some sort of lunch. I did have fish fingers for breakfast, and so I shouldn't be that hungry. Maybe it is the thought of a grey afternoon, and nothing exciting to do that drives my thoughts towards eating. I have no idea what else I'll be doing for the rest of the day.
 
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