It is certainly raining now, and it doesn't look like it will stop after 9am. In fact the forecast has been revised, and 9am is now shown as featuring hail, and rain, probably just light rain most of the time, will continue until 3pm. The last couple of hours of daylight could feature some sunny spells. It is going to be a cold day. The temperature is at it's highest, 8° C, right now, but will slowly fall through the day until it is just 4° C at 11pm. It shouldn't fall any further during the night, and tomorrow might end up quite mild, maybe 10° C, with a lot of sunshine.
  Yesterday was a good, very good, and very bad day. Actually that should be a very bad night rather than day. All will be explained in due course. It was good that the morning was nice and sunny, and it was good that I would be seeing Angela at lunchtime. Before going further there is the matter of a couple of photos taken the day before yesterday, that I meant to include yesterday.


  These two pictures show two of my hanging baskets. There was a bit of storm damage that bent over a few delicate flowers, but the crocuses are looking good, and the miniature tulips (top picture) look like they are coming on well. I am not a good enough gardener to have planned it, but I think that maybe those miniature tulips may come into flower as the crocuses die back.

  Back to yesterday, and as I mentioned yesterday, my plan was to set out to meet Angela a little bit earlier than usual. This was allow time to walk in the opposite direction so I could buy a couple of Kohlrabis from the little supermarket on Catford Bridge. After buying two nice looking kohlrabis I decided I would go to Catford Bridge station, pick up a copy of the Metro, and do a tiny bit of train spotting before getting a train to Ladywell.
  This train, a soon to be retired class 465, was heading towards Hayes (Kent) from platform 2 at Catford Bridge station.
  This wasn't a great shot - shot into the sun. It is the rear of the train in the previous picture.
  You can easily see that I was "shooting into the sun" by the shadows of those on the right of the picture. For ideal photography those shadows would be behind them, and not in front. However the camera, my recently bought Nikon S6300, handled it well (although I did touch it up a bit in my photo editor). The picture shows the 13:34 train to Cannon Street station that I used to go the one stop to Ladywell.
  It was in the Therapuetic Gardens of St Mary's Church in Ladywell that I found this bunch of daffodils in flower. It was another sign that spring is almost here. This was a sheltered spot ( there is a 6ft brick wall just behind these daffodils, and in the shelter the sun did feel very warm, or even hot when it fell on the back of my black leather(like) coat. I arrived at the pub feeling very warm.

  I was about 15 minutes early at the pub, but I had things to do while awaiting for Angela. After ordering my Guinness, and Angela's vodka and Diet Coke, I presented Asia, the barmaid with a Kohlrabi. It was in the pub, a couple of weeks previously, that I first learned of Kolhrabi. Asia said she loved it, but I got the impression that she had not had any for a long while. She was delighted to be presented with one, and said she wondered if she could hold out until she got home to eat it.

  When Angela arrived I presented her with the other Kohlrabi, and she too was delighted. In fact I almost achieved what many men hope to achieve with a dozen red roses. It is amusing to think I did it with a green vegetable. Angela was very warm for the hour we were in the pub, and would later show her appreciation in two ways. It seems it has also inspired her to think about another drink tomorrow lunchtime. I didn't quite catch what she said, but it seems her work circumstances on Friday may allow for a slightly longer drink, but until tomorrow morning the drink is uncomfirmed.

  I walked Angela back to work, and got my first reward was we parted. It was almost the now usual peck on the cheek and a hug, and maybe it was just my imagination, but there seemed to be extra warmth in it. Sadly there seems little chance that she will ever drop lover boy - not that such a thing was even mentioned, but I know Angela so well. Incidently, yesterday was another occasion when the sun burst through a gloomy sky to dazzle us as we walked back to her workplace. Sometimes it seems that someone up there likes to see us together.

  The sun went back in soon after I said goodbye to Angela, and it started to feel quite chilly. I was happy to get home and have some hot lunch - two cans of soup substitute. One was actually Aldi's own brand Irish Stew. It has double the amount of sugar that the Tesco version, but it was really, really nice. That was probably because it has an unhealthy amount of mutton fat in it. It was enough to make it just slide down as I ate it.

  I felt rather tired after my two cans of soup, but I resisted laying down, and got on with selecting and editing the pictures I took earlier on. Once again, I was really pleased with the way that little Nikon S6300 pocket camera works. It is better than the best of my Canon pocket cameras, and far, far better than the little pocket sized Nikon S3500 camera I have. That latter camera is really poor unless the lighting and subject matter is something it likes, and you have the patience to wait while it's slow processor does all it's work setting the exposure and focus - then it can take a good picture.

  I didn't have long to wait until I heard from Angela again. She said she was home, and enjoying her Kohlrabi. That was about 4pm. Almost an hour later and I heard from her again. I shan't describe her communication, but it was obvious she was feeling really great. Maybe there is something in Kohlrabi that affects her in a very positive way. Her message certainly made me feel wonderful, but it was sort of downhill from there. It was the typical come down from a high.

  My dinner was very simple. It was 4 southern fried flavour chicken steaks that were already a few days after their best before date. They were fine, but I don't think I would have liked to leave them in the fridge for much longer, and that is why I ate all four. Two would have made a fair dinner with some vegetable or something. They probably left me feeling a bit stodgy, although I didn't seem to think so at the time.

  Since the TV season has evidently changed, there was very little on TV for me last night, and I spent some time catching up on technology news stories before reading from a book in bed. I wasn't paying too much attention to the time, but I probably tried to get to sleep at about 10pm. Maybe that southern fried flavour chicken steak was hanging heavy in my gut, or maybe not, but I couldn't seem to find a comfortable position to sleep.

  To make matter worse, I couldn't stop thinking about Angela's last message to me. It was very sweet, although in practice sort of meaningless. (Actually it is hard to explain without revealing too much). I eventually got to sleep, and it was probably quicker than it seemed, but I did seem to wake up to pee more frequently than usual, and each time there was a period, usually a short period, of insomnia as my mind started think again. One theme that came up in various ways was what I said above about how I almost seduced Angela with a green vegetable instead of a bunch of red roses. I can see that becoming a long standing joke.

  I didn't feel like I had a full night's sleep when I finally got up at nearly 8am. I can see that on a dreary and wet day like today I will be taking any opportunity for a snooze. The amount of sleep was the bad news, but the good news is that my blood glucose reading was a bit lower this morning - down from 7.9mmol/l yesterday to 7.7mmol/l this morning. That means I don't have to try too hard to get it a bit lower tomorrow, and that could be very good because this afternoon should be featuring another beer tasting session with Jodie.