Saturday 16th October 2021

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Saturday 16th October 2021

09:36 BST

There was a little splash of rain yesterday, but it was a bot later than appeared in a later revision of the forecast. Apart from that it was mostly a rather dull and bland day, although I think I remember a few minutes of sunshine at some time in the afternoon. It was also a fairly cool day with the temperature not rising above 14° C.

There was a lovely coppery coloured sunrise this morning. According to weather lore that means a bad day. The latest revision to the forecast predicts a fair chance of a shower at 10am and 4pm. The sunny spell at 5pm, seen above in the screenshot of the early version of the forecast, probably won't happen now, and the majority of the day will be dull and bland like yesterday. The only improvement could be that today's high will be 15° C. Tomorrow will probably feature the same temperature, and the same dull blandness except in the last 2 hours before sunset. Those tow hours could feature sunny spells, but I feel sure reality will be very different.

I don't think I managed a single snooze yesterday, although it felt like I should have been able. I seemed to spend the whole day resting, and preparing myself to go out last night. I am happy to say I did end up going out. The other thing I did, and I seemed to do it better than I imagined, was to restrict my eating, and in particular what I ate. At 6pm, when I would usually be about to eat dinner, my blood glucose had fallen to a marvellous 6.2mmol/l.

I did reward myself with just 6 Doritoes of the triangular "Snax" variety. I bought the triangular tube of them out of curiosity because I had never seen them before. I can't say they are wonderful. They are semi-pleasant, but not exciting. They are fairly low sugar, and just 6 of them wasn't going to contribute much.

As 8pm approached I really wanted to go to bed, but I was determined to head to the station to get a train to West Wickham station. From there I faced the horrible walk up the hill to The Swan pub where MT Pockets were playing. I think I missed their opening song, but I stayed for the first set, and I enjoyed it. It was dark in pub, particularly where Dan (singer and guitar) was standing, and after trying a few shots without flash, I gave up and mounted my flash gun on the camera.

This picture was taken without flash. It's not too bad, particularly when shrunk to show here, but the larger version looks slightly soft, and slightly noisy.

Dan is a good singer, and a brilliant guitarist. Ashio the drummer, and the bass player, whose name I don't think I know, are great musicians too, but it was really Dan I wanted to see.

The thing that is confusing is that while much of the bands repertoire is of old soul ballads, Dan still accompanies them with almost heavy metal guitar. I'm sure there is a bit of Jimi Hendrix in his soul.

I think I incorrectly titled this song as "Soul Man" because the riff is very similar, but it is probably called "Hold On I'm Coming". Some web browsers can't play this video, but other can. My apologies if you can't see it.

I stayed until the end of their first set, and then had a quick chat with Dan before walking down the hill to the station. On a warm night it can be pleasant walking down that hill, and it is always far more pleasant walking down it at any time compared to the long slog going up it. The odd thing is that it was going down it that I had some discomfort from my chest. I am very certain it was the cold and damp air causing my operation scars to start aching again.

I should have done my coat up, and I would have if I hadn't been carrying my camera and gear in a special rucksack for camera gear. While it is a nice idea in theory, this particular rucksack is too small for me, and tends to pull my coat out of shape enough to make it hard to do up. It might have worked if I had done my coat up before putting on the rucksack, but than again the extra strain might have damaged the coat. Besides, I didn't know I wanted to do up my coat until it was too late.

On my way home I decided that what I really wanted was some fried chicken no matter how bad it would be for me. At least I resisted the temptations to get "fries" as well. I have to confess it did feel like some sort of luxury to get back into the warm, and feasting on greasy fried chicken ! The major downside is that I got bits of chicken stuck between my teeth, and I think I might have got a bit carried away trying to floss them clear. I hope I have cut/dislodged the gum by one tooth. If I haven't then I am doomed - I have a bit of a tingly toothache this morning.

As night be expected, I slept rather well last night. I think I did it in two 3 hour sessions. Getting up soon after 7am was not ideal, but it seemed like a good idea so I could have some time to go through last nights photos. It turned out to be a good idea for anther reason too, but more on that in a minute. After my late night supper, and maybe the mere two pints of Guinness I had in the pub, it was no surprise that my blood glucose was up, but at 8.6mmol/l it was only just over my typical monthly average.

At this point I have to go back to late yesterday afternoon. I had a phone call from Angela. That is quite unusual, but very welcome. She was generally enquiring how I was. It seems she was still worried about me, but not entirely. I formed an impression that all was not right with her, but she didn't want to give any clues as to what the trouble was, or indeed that there was any trouble, but I know Angela too well, and can read between the lines. At the end of the call I said that after not going out out for a few weeks, I was going to try and go out last night. I did go out, and I sent Angela a Whatsapp message with a picture of the band, and saying "made it".

It was about 7.50 this morning when Angela replied to that message, and was full of praise for me. That lead on to an exchange of messages where she confirmed she has more trouble, and is feeling miserable. I know it is based on pure prejudice, but I feel that lover boy, who is a very narcissistic person, just can't provide the sympathy Angela needs, but it seems I can. It is possible that I will see Angela at a birthday gig/open mic session at the Catford Cyphers Club tonight (it is little more than 5 minutes walk from Angela's front door). When this event was first announced it seemed likely that Miranda, Angela's daughter, would also be going, and doing a turn on the microphone, but now it appears there is a rift between them, and Angela will either be going on her own, which will be good because she can enjoy herself, or with lover boy, and have a very restrained time.

I now have to get myself ready to go out again tonight. That could mean a lot of resting, but I might go to Tesco at some point today. I did consider having sausages for my lunch yesterday. When I pulled the pack out of the fridge I noticed that a purple mould was growing on the sausages. I suspect the packet was damaged in some way because I am sure those sausages were barely past their use by date. If the foxes still lived in my back garden they could have has a sausage treat !