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Monday 18th April 2022
08:21 BST

  Despite anything any of the weather forecasts might have said, yesterday seemed to be mostly sunny, and the temperature peaked at around 20° C. The first hour of daylight featured mist, and sometimes the sunshine was just in the form of sunny spells, but the times when the sun went behind a cloud don't seem to have registered on my memory.
   cooler today, and
                              maybe a lot less sunshine
  Maybe today it is better to believe the BBC weather forecast because it promises sunny spells all day long. The Met Office forecast (above), which usually comes closer to reality, give a fairly grim view of today. Both forecasts agree that the top temperature will be 16° C today. Tomorrow gets worse: It will be another degree or two cooler, and rain is predicted from mid afternoon. Oh well, I guess the garden needs it.

  Yesterday was a day when everything that was important happened in the evening. During the day I seemed to do little except read and rest. I think I even had a snooze or two. One other thing was to regulate my eating. I had one packet of instant noodles for breakfast, and two cans of soup for a late lunch. I don't think I ate anything else until very late in the evening.

  The main even was to go out, in daylight, and when it was still warm enough to not need a coat, to a Chain gig that was starting at 7pm in The Chatterton Arms, the other side of Bromley town centre from me. Prior to going out I had a good shower, and washed my hair. That was the first very definite thing I did since getting up 10 hours earlier in the morning. I then resumed resting until it was time to get ready to go out.

  Going out for the evening meant putting on "gig trousers" - which are nothing more than black jeans. The only trouble is that it has been some time since I last wore them, and they seemed rather tighter than desirable. I think they have always been one of those pairs of jeans that is smaller than other despite allegedly having the same measurements, but they were certainly a wake up call to stop concentrating on sugar content of my food, and to take calories into account as well.

  It was sort of nice to go out in daylight to the bus stop to get the 320 bus. The sky was looking a bit cloudy in some directions, but there was still some sunshine to be seen on the long and tedious bus ride to the pub. I allowed about 45 minutes to get there, and I made it with 5 minutes to spare (although Chain, like every band, didn't actually start at the billed time !
Jo and Chris
  I did have some trouble with photography because of the sunshine. It was shining through the window giving strong back lighting for the first half hour of the gig. On the other hand, at least there was enough natural light at first to not need any flash. Nevertheless, I had to slightly lighten Jo's face on the picture above, and also do a few other tweaks.
John, Jo, Chris
                              and Steve
  It was tricky trying to get a shot of the whole band, and I only managed to get most of John the drummers head in this shot. At least since the pub was refurbished some years ago there is a bit more space for the band to spread themselves out a little bit. When I first saw Chain at The Chatterton Arms the space was so tight they were almost sitting in each others laps !
John, Jo, Steve
                              and Chris
  This was a better effort at getting all the band in one shot. I think that at this point I had got my flash gun out, and had it on low for a bit of front lighting.
Chris playing
                              some Hendrix
  This picture was definitely taken with a fair amount of flash. You can see the light outside is fading through the window.

  The pub was less busy than I feared. They had had events on there all day, and many would have had their fill during the day. Some seemed to wander off around 7.30pm, possibly to go to The Partridge where Whitestar were playing. I felt comfortable to stay for some time, but eventually I started developing sciatica in my right thigh. Fortunately the end of the first set was approaching, and the pain was not too bad, and I stayed until I could say my goodbyes to the band before walking to the bus stop.

  Walking is always the cure for my sciatica, but it did leave my leg feeling a bit stiff, and once the pain was a lot less I began to notice my right knee was getting mildly sore. On top of all that, I think it was my left ankle was starting to creak. I guess I was putting more strain on it when my right leg was playing up so much. All this made it very difficult to run when I saw a bus approaching the bus stop. It was more like a fast hobble than running, but the bus driver was either running early, or was just being very kind as I ran at a tiny fraction over a medium walking pace, and he kept the doors open for me.

  As the bus started towards the centre of Bromley I could see the last minutes of the sunset from the top deck of the bus. From Bromley onwards it was purely dark outside. I had only drunk one pint of Guinness, bought for me by Jo, while at the pub, and so I was comfortable in that respect, but as I walked from the bus to home I was starting to feel a little cool without a coat. It wasn't so cool that I felt any need to rush home, and in a curious way I enjoyed the walk in the dark.

  Until I put the jeans on that I was wearing, I had grand plans for some very late dinner, but I thought I had better rein in my appetite. What I did have was possibly not ideal. I had precooked some new potatoes well before going out, and I decided to just eat those. I drizzled some olive oil on them in the stupid belief it might be healthier than butter, and warmed them in the microwave. I then sprinkled them with a fair bit of freshly ground black pepper. Despite being very simple, I found it to be a very satisfactory supper.

  It was still relatively early when I got home, and I didn't feel very tired. I had taken two videos at the gig, and I edited one of them to show here - if it will play on your web browser. It should on most modern web browsers.
 The song is a cover of an Alanis Morrisette song - Hand In My Pocket

  With the video edited I decided to read in bed until I felt sleepy. It wasn't all that long until it felt like I could fall asleep. It must have been approaching 11pm by then, and I don't really remember anything after turning off the light. I think I slept solidly until almost 3am when I woke up feeling damp. I think my generous amount of black pepper on my potatoes had brought me out in a fierce sweat. It was slightly odd in that my face didn't feel that damp. but my chest, presumably because it was covered up, was really damp.

  The worst thing is that I felt really cold as I went for a pee still damp with sweat. It had seemed like it would be a warm night, but I felt compelled to put the heater on low before I could get back to sleep. I slept OK after that, but with the (outdoor) temperature down to 8° C this morning, that extra warmth was very welcome when I got up. The other good news was that despite the late consumption of potatoes, my blood glucose was a satisfactory, or maybe even good 8.3mmol/l.

  I got up at about 6.30am this morning. That wasn't by any intention, but it just felt like the right time. Before I did anything else I went through all 103 photos I took the previous evening (many were multiple burst shots), and selected the best (or most interesting) for editing, and a few to show here.

  I don't know what I am doing for the rest of the day, but I am hoping that the BBC weather forecast, with it's day of sunny spells turns out right. If so than I think I will have to force myself to go for a hopefully long walk today. I will be doing it on an empty stomach. Until the novelty wears off, or something comes along to piss me off, I want to make a start at getting the black jeans I was wearing last night to be a more comfortable fit. The difficulty will be resisting food if I come home after a tiring walk, but like everything from here on, after I have finished writing here, I'll just make it up as I go along.
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