Once again I have checked the latest revision to the forecast hoping for good news, and there was none ! Until 4pm it is going to range from a 100% cover of light, or dirty grey clouds. From 4pm to close to sunset there may be some sunny spells, but I find it hard to be optimistic that this will happen. The only good thing about today is that it is going to be a little warmer - but only just ! The temperature may now hit 21° C, but only for one single hour according to the latest revision. 20° C will probably be more representative of the afternoon. Tomorrow may see 21° C for more of the afternoon than today. There may be sunny spells in the morning and late afternoon, but the main part of the afternoon may be rather dull.

  A short postscript about today's weather. As I ended the previous paragraph the sun came out for a minute or so. Looking around I can see a few very small patches of blue sky among the suffocating clouds.

  As I mentioned yesterday, the start of yesterday morning was all about collecting pee and poo samples. Getting a pee sample is easy enough, and I managed that without spilling a drop, or at least I kept my hand dry ! Getting the poo sample was not so easy. The important thing is that the tiny amount wanted, scraped onto a special little stick, had to be taken before the poo got wet. Intercepting it before it fell into the toilet bowl was an interesting test of ingenuity, and muscle control. I'll say no more apart from the fact I succeeded.

  Once I was washed and dressed I went out to post the poo sample, and drop the pee sample into reception at the surgery. After that I went and had a look in Cash Busters. Months and months ago I spotted a Nikon DSLR camera that interested me. I think the same one was still in there yesterday. It was a Nikon D40x, and it was priced at £475. Initially that seemed like it might be a good price, but when I got home I checked to see what Amazon could offer. They had some secondhand, allegedly fully refurbished, for £199 (but that was "body only"). I could almost be tempted with the Amazon offer. The D40x is an older camera than my D3200, but it is not an "entry level" model, but a "serious user" model (or just below professional user). It is only a 10 megapixel sensor, but that means little at this quality, and it has got some good reviews about it's quality. It is also noted to have a very good low light sensitivity.

  Well I didn't go rushing back to buy the D40x, but I am still tempted to buy one from Amazon. What I did buy was a much smaller Nikon camera. For £40 I bought a Nikon Coolpix S3500. It reminded me a lot of a Nikon S6300 that was really good for a pocket sized camera. I gave that one to Patricia (or it may have been a loan - I'll only find out if she offers it back, but I am not going to ask for it). My first looks at the S3500 are quite favourable, although it would be better to test it on a day which wasn't gloomy !
  My first outdoor test shot was of my front garden. The dull weather makes it look a bit flat, but the colour rendition, and the sharpness seem fine.
  The last picture I took of the poppy plant, that I think I showed here, was using my Huawei P20 Lite phone camera. I recall that being "good enough", but I think the picture above is better, although once again it suffers from being taken under a cloudy sky. That makes the picture less vibrant, but otherwise it seems pretty good. Apart from not actually needing another camera, I don't think my £40 was wasted.

  Yesterday, being a Thursday, meant another booze session in the afternoon. I deliberately said booze rather than beer because Jodie decided it was high time she drunk the small accumulation of fruit flavoured ciders I had accumulated. I just had a small taster of them. I was worried about their potential sugar content, and so declined to drink too much of them. I restricted myself to beers - even though they can be a bit pot luck when it comes to sugar content.
  This picture was taken after Michael had left. He joined us for about 90 minutes, and had some light beers and lagers (including a can of Bud-light that he brought round). In this picture Jodie was strongly back lit by the window behind her, but my new camera seemed to handle it OK. This was very near the end of our drinking. I can tell this by the two shot glasses on the table that are filled with icy cold Jaegermeister as a sort of a "one for the road".

  Jodie left in time to get the 2 minutes to 7pm train. Whether she did or not depends on how many cats she stopped to stroke between here and the station ! In the meantime I had nothing prepared for dinner, and with a bit of booze in me I went for the easy way out - a takeaway. On this occasion I fancied an Indian. I probably saw something on the internet of something that planted the seed for wanting an Indian in my subconscious !

  As is my way, I ordered far more food than I needed for one meal, and in fact I ordered enough for 3, and possibly 4 meals if I eat it carefully. Last night I ate two main dishes - a chicken Dupiaza and a chicken Bhuna. I ate both with no rice or any other accompaniments. Both were delicious, but with no rice to anchor them down I did wonder if a series of belches just before going to bed was going to result in something worse. Fortunately it didn't, and I didn't even have to take any antacid to kill and possible heart burn.

  Last night my sleep was like it has been quite a bit recently - fairly good. Although I woke up once or twice for a pee, I slept soundly until just after 3am. That was probably almost 5 hours of good sleep. I did have a brief, 10 to 15 minutes of insomnia then, but it was over before I really had time to time it. From then on my sleep seemed to be a lot lighter, with lots of dreaming. Some of those dreams involved train travel, but  I can only remember one detail because it was a bit strange, but actually possible.

  I don't know if this bit of dream involved a tube or surface rail station, but it was a big station. It's novel feature was a moving floor. I think "floor" is the only way to describe a 25 to 30ft wide flat and level travelator. Just like a travelator, or escalator, it's surface was grooved aluminium, and at the end it went through a comb as it plunged down to go around to come up at the leading edge. Such a thing could be possible, but there would be no real world use for it - unless it was scaled up even bigger to become a "rolling road" as imagined by R. A. Heinlien.

  While my sleep was good up to a point, this morning was another morning where I felt I had woken up too early, and could do nothing about it. As yet I haven't actually got up according to my views on the subject. To get up would require a shower, or some sort of wash, and to dress in clean clothes. All I've done is to pull on a pair of shorts to provide enough decency to go and feed the birds. I noted that few of the Poundland "suet pellets" I had put out yuesterday afternoon had been eaten. Perhaps they are as they look, made from 75% cement powder !

  It was was with much trepidation that I checked my blood glucose this morning. It was high yesterday morning, and after booze and curry I expected it to be high again, but I was wrong ! This morning it was only 7.7mmol/l, and just 0.2 above my self set target. That was cause for celebration, and so I have had a vegetable curry side dish on a naan bread. It was very nice, but maybe a bit ambitious for a breakfast.

  Some of my day is out of my control today. I am expecting a delivery of 16 cans/bottles of beers brewed in New Zealand (but shipped by an English company) to be delivered today. Whilst writing this I received a text message to say it would be delivered between 10.33 and 12.33. That could be as soon as half an hours time as I write these words, and that means no time for a shower now (but I will have one after the beer is here). I have no idea what I will do this afternoon, or not what I will definitely do. I do have the option of going to The Birds Nest pub in Deptford for their 5 day music festival. It started last night, and resumes at 7pm today. I doubt I will go, but at least I have the option.

  There is one other confounding factor about today - as I write this the sun is shining, and there have been a lot of sunny spells since I mentioned the first near the top of the page. These were not forecast, and that puts the rest of the forecast for today in doubt. Will it actually be sunny, or will there be thunderstorms, even snow storms - nobody knows (least of all the Met Office !).