A web page with no adverts, no cookies, and no scripts
Page composed using
Seamonkey composer1
home
site map
May 2022 June 2022

previous day
next day

Thursday 2nd June 2022
07:31 BST

  There was a change in the weather at about midday yesterday, and neither weather forecaster got their predictions right. The day started with a few sunny spells, which the BBC forecast did anticipate, but they soon gave way to grey skies. It seemed like yesterday could be as bad as the previous few days. At midday there was a fairly short, moderately heavy fall of rain, but after that most of the clouds just dissolved, and we had sunny spells for the rest of the afternoon, and into the early evening before the sun set. I'm not sure when it got there, but the highest temperature was 17° C.
   probably a nice
                              day
  As I write this I would describe it as sunny, and in that respect the Met Office forecast has it right, but then goes on to forecast a frequently dull day until early evening. The BBC forecast only says sunny spells now, but it is more optimistic by saying they will continue through all daylight hours. What I cans see at the moment is a lot of thin and streaky cloud. Both forecasters say it will be a warm day. The Met Office says 19° C, and the BBC goes one more at 20° C. Both forecasters say tomorrow will feature loads of sunny spells, and the temperature reaching as high as 22° C.

   Yesterday was a good day, and it was so for two reasons - Angela and sunshine ! I guess it also felt good to go the full mile with a shave, shampoo and shower. There were two days this week when I just couldn't be bothered to do any more than brushing my teeth. It just didn't feel worthwhile doing more when I wasn't expecting to go out, or to see anybody. On second thoughts, it was only one day. I was thinking I stayed dirty and smelly on Monday. I felt miserable enough for most of the day for that, but I remember I did go to Aldi, and I did have a shower before going out.

  Early in the day I was hoping I could go out without a coat, but the reality was that there was a semi heavy downfall of rain at midday, and that made me be a bit wary of going out completely unprotected. I compromised by wearing my sleeveless denim jacket. I must admit it was handy having a few extra pockets so I didn't have to carry my little Nikon camera in a trouser pocket.
white clouds
                              with blue sky visible
  If I was using one of my DSLR cameras set to manual I might have taken this shot a few times at slightly different exposures so I could select the best. The automatic exposure on my little pocket sized Nikon Coolpix S6300 has set the exposure to make the clouds not too over exposed, but it has left the blue parts of the sky looking a bit pale. The sun was behind me when I took this shot, and it does show how nice the sunshine was, and how deep the shadows were.
red rose
  If you know where to look (by the tennis courts) there is one single rose bush in the whole of the park that has red roses. Unfortunately over hanging trees make getting a well lit view tricky. Maybe in coming days or weeks there could be more blooms to choose from for a better picture.
helmet on litter
                              bin
  I am positive I saw this crash helmet sitting on this waste bin last week, and I think I saw it a week before that. It is sitting there like some piece of existential art piece (or some such twaddle). I doubt if it's original owner will ever reclaim it, and so I guess it could be there for weeks to come. Maybe someone should sneaks in and epoxy glue it to the top so it is there for all time !
opium poppies
 I admit this isn't a very clear picture. It is of a poppy plant by the path that leads around the back of St Mary's church. Unless someone from the church gets there first, there could be a nice little crop of opium once all those buds have flowered, and the seed heads have matured.

 This is a very short video (about 8 seconds), and the camerawork is awful because I was using full zoom, and just couldn't keep the camera still, but the sound isn't bad. The star of it, the blackbird, was sitting quite high in a tree, but was in easy view.
 
    After a slightly late start, and then spending a bit of time in the park, I only arrived at the pub about 20 seconds before Angela. I didn't bother to check, but I think it only seemed like I was a bit late because Angela was a bit early. It was wonderful seeing Angela, but it was another occasion when it was just very comfortable rather than being magic. I am not sure what defines "magic", but I know it when it happens.

  I think one problem was that there was little to talk about. Both our lives seem to have been uneventful for the last few weeks. I ended up talking about the old Toshiba laptop I've been playing with. I know it must have been very boring, but Angela was very patient, and even seemed to show some interest, but I am sure she was just being polite...On the other hand, she does seem to draw things like this out of me, and the week before we even talked about train spotting !

  It does occur to me that Angela has no special hobbies, or indeed any hobbies. Although she claims to be not so, my experience, admittedly of several years ago now, that Angela is very house proud, and must do loads of housework. Maybe, and I admit it is a huge maybe, Angela finds my hobbies interesting because she has none of her own. After walking Angela back to her office, and saying goodbye with a nice warm hug, I walked home to pursue my hobbies.

  The first thing I did when I got home was to have some lunch. It started out as a bowl of bacon and lentil soup, but I followed that with some rice cakes with cheese and corned beef on them (plus a sprig of lettuce). I probably didn't need the rice cakes, but I thought I felt hungry, but it turned out to be something else. After lunch I had a snooze, although it actually started with reading a page of two from the book I am reading before I felt my eyelid drooping.

  The real task in the latter part of the afternoon was waiting for my Amazon order to be delivered. It was just some high capacity (800mb) CD-R disks that I didn't really need after changing the optical drive in the old Toshiba laptop to a DVD drive. I double checked the estimated delivery time, and eventually I guess the delivery would take place around 6pm. It was actually more like 6.30pm.

  The worrying thing was that during the afternoon a little grumble from my belly, that I thought was hunger, turned into mild pain. I had a pretty good idea what was happening. I had been to the toilet twice in the morning, but it seemed like my output was less than my input. The same happened the day before. With the Amazon delivery getting uncomfortably close I had to make a long visit to the toilet, and this time my "output was quite large". No more than 5 minutes later I had to pay another visit to the toilet. At least 50% of that was gas, and the combined amount was quite a lot ! I felt much better for that - I actually felt thinner, and I could relax.

  I partly relaxed by getting back to the Toshiba laptop. I wanted to do a few experiments on it. Both of which were successful, albeit it in a limited way. I managed to get Linux Mint 17.2 (my once favourite Linux) to run in live mode of the CD. That surprised me, but I knew it was running at it's very limits, and would be no good in practice. I then rebooted into the Antix Linux that I had installed on it. Once running I installed Lighttpd - the same webserver I use to show these pages.

  Once again I found that although it would run, and serve a default web page, it was pushing things to the limit. I could see that default web page on my desktop PC, but there didn't seem to be enough resources left to run a web browser properly on the laptop. There are other problems too. Antix-21 (the most up to date version) can't seem to get the sound card working - something that Linux Mint had no trouble with.

   It also seems to have difficulty using a Wifi card adapter. That is not essential, but is useful, and for me the sound card is essential because without it I can play any music. All this has got me thinking that maybe I should install another spare hard disk, and see if I can install Windows XP on it. I think it would have to be Windows XP Home edition because it uses less resources, but I am not sure if I have a copy that doesn't need to be registered/authenticated with Microsoft.

  Last night's dinner should have been very safe, but I made the mistake of forgetting that Aldi's Peri-Peri mayonnaise is loaded with sugar, and then used it far too liberally on the mixed lettuce leaves I had with the two warmed up southern fried flavour chicken breasts that I had cooked the night before.  Maybe I was remembering that sugar problem as I was eating because I didn't really enjoy that dinner...pr maybe I am just getting bored with lettuce or something.

  One good thing about that lettuce is that it is a soporific. I am sure I get better sleep after eating it, although last night, and the night before, I did take a couple of ibuprofen tablets before going to bed to help some of the aches I am experiencing lately - particularly my right elbow. It did take a little while to fall asleep because I was trying to go to sleep an hour or more earlier than seems to have become my habit over the last week.

  Once asleep, and I think that was not long after 10pm, I slept quite well. I think I remember getting up for a pee twice before 5am when I also turned the heater on.  I think I remember having a few bland dreams - bland enough that I can't remember a thing about them. There was one dream that I do remember, although most of my memory is of the concept of it rather than an all action, full colour, and probably Supervision, and Supermarionation dream.

  The bit of dream I remember, albeit rather patchily, was about a man who was growing grape vines, and apparently had to select the best, and destroy the rest. It seemed like this was some sort of government edict. I, and many others set up a protest movement about it, as well as stealing the vines that were to be destroyed for planting in our own gardens. Somehow so little action seemed to last quite a long time, but then again, time in a dream has no relation to real time.

  This morning I blame that Aldi Peri-Peris mayonnaise (and the Tesco version is just as bad) for raising my blood glucose to 9.1mmol/l. There might have been other reasons too, but it is not a terrible reading to get. The worst thing is that it ruins my average for the month - or may do. In theory I can take more care, and over the next few days get that running average down closer to a typical 8.3mmol/l.

  Jodie is busy today, and we will probably have our Thursday beer tasting session tomorrow. That leaves me free to do other stuff. I am not sure if the trains are running as usual today. Today being a platinum jubilee bank holiday). If there is a reasonable service I would like to get out, travelling on my Freedom Pass to a couple more limits of it's validity. It could be Chessington South and West Ewell. There is also the possibility of an afternoon gig. The Birds Nest are having a sort of mini festival that is free entry with bands on from 3pm until 11pm (or maybe midnght). If I go it will be for the forst couple of bands in the afternoon. Mostly I will make up today as I work out how I feel at the appropriate time. I may end up doing nothing !
  previous day