08:11 BST

  There was quite a change in the weather yesterday. After the heat of the day before, yesterday was a day of cooling off. The temperature briefly peaked at 24° C around midday, and then slowly cooled to just 13° C as midnight approached. Along the way there were some light showers. After dark I could hear thunder rumbling around, but the storm never approached Catford, and as far as I am aware we got no more than more light showers.

  To say it is cold this morning conveniently forgets that in January 11° C, with some sunshine to back it up, it feels like t-shirt weather. It still feels cold now ! The latest revision to the forecast says the temperature will peak at just 19° C in the mid afternoon, but the temperature will probably not fall as lows as it was last night/this morning. As yet we have not experienced any sunny spells. With luck there may be a few of them during the day, but light rain could start to fall by 6pm. Tomorrow could be a sunny day with the temperature possibly reaching 22° C.


  Yesterday was quite an eventful day. Apart from checking my camera, and having a shampoo and shower, I didn't do a lot in the morning. I was saving my energy (or trying to find some energy) for what was to come next. At midday I set out to go to The Chislehurst Recreation Ground where Chislehurst Rocks was taking place. It wasn't long before I caught me first bus, a 202, towards the Baring Road stop (the stop before Lee railway station).
  It was a good start, but soon to go wrong ! The 202 bus made very quick progress to where I would change buses to a 273. I had noticed little "nodules" on the back of bus seats before, although I can't remember where or when. Maybe it was at night and I couldn't see them properly. Yesterday I had a good look, and I found they are USB charging ports. They seemed a bit superfluous considering you don't usually spend much time on a bus.....

  If the battery in my phone was very low, and I had a USB-A to USB-C charging lead, I could have charged my phone up to the brim with an really long and tedious journey on that 273 bus. It wasn't long after I got on the bus that it did that thing that single decker buses do - it's route was a magical mystery tour around the back streets of Grove Park. I hadn't counted on that, but I guess it was the obvious reason why the estimated journey time was so long.

  I doubt the estimated journey time took into account really slow, often stationary, traffic on the approaches to Grove Park station. Having got past that the journey continued at typical bus speeds. Since I last went that way, on a 124 bus if I recall correctly, someone has extended Dunkery Road by a factor of at least three. I could swear it was never that long in the past ! Having got to the end, and turned right, it was basically a straight road to where I would get off, well over an hour since leaving home (maybe 90 minutes), for the short walk to the recreation ground.
  I arrived at approximately the time I expected to - which made me think that the journey was not any longer than the TFL website predicted, and it just felt really long rather than actually being so !  It was my intention to get there in time to see the band on before Hell On Tap, the band I really wanted to see on a big stage. That first band were called Xblue, and while they seemed perfectly competent, I can't really say I enjoyed them.
  I thought that a 15 minute change over from one band to the next was optimistic - particularly with the drummer changing over all but the kick/bass drum to his own personal kit, but they did it - just ! It was during the change that Carrie did a pose for my camera as we waited for everything to be ready.
  Trying to get the whole band in one photo was not easy because there was one character who, as always, hogged the best point of view. Until yesterday I thought I was the only one who got annoyed about it, but John, a professional photographer, remarked about it to me with no prompting. At one point I stood right behind this character and held the camera above his head to take a few snaps. I did take a rather silly amount of pictures of Hell On Tap yesterday, and haven't reached those pictures in my photo editing to see if the pictures are usable.

  There was one amusing incident during Hell On Tap's set. It was during their second, or possibly third song, that the sound or lighting man turned on a smoke generator. That seemed to overload the generator behind the stage, and suddenly it all went silent. It reminded me of Party In The Priory 2012 when back stage confusion meant nobody filled the generator with fuel, and like yesterday, there was sudden silence in the middle of a song.
  From time to time I would take a wander around to stretch my legs, and try and control the sciatica that was causing me some pain when I stood still for too long. I made a point of taking a snap of the stall selling Greek food. I thought it would amuse Angela. I didn't eat anything while I was out, and so I couldn't give an opinion on how good this food was, but it had to be better than doughnuts, burgers, or hot dogs !
  Another thing I spotted was this white van advertising Doom Bar ale. Oddly enough I came across a comment I had made back in 2012 (when checking the date of Party In The Priory, and the generator failing incident). That comment said something to the effect that The Catford Ram, a once strictly Youngs pub, had suddenly offered Doom Bar, and how it was rather nicer than Youngs own beers, but it was not as good as when Sharps was an independent brewer, and made it in their own brewery.

  The next band after Hell On Tap were called Victor And The Bully. I have yet to check and edit any pictures I took of them. They were what I could only describe as a Folk-Goth band - which probably makes the unique. They were good - technically - but I didn't care for them. In fact a combination of the growing pain in my right thigh, and being bored with the band made me decide to go home early. I had originally intended to get some pictures from no more than the starts of Dread Centre's set - the next band after Victor And The Bully.

  I couldn't face that tedious bus ride again, and so I opted for plan B. Plan B was strictly for going home because I thought in that direction it was mostly downhill. It was to walk out the back entrance of the recreation ground, and walk to Elmstead Woods station. In fact it started out uphill, but most of that was not steep, and not too bad. Having got to the peak of the hill it was steep going downhill, and I am glad I didn't try that route to get to the recreation ground.

  As an aside....it was getting late last night when I had a look at the map again. It is with the benefit of hindsight that I realised there was a much easier way there and back. It does involve the dreaded 273 bus, but it is quite a short journey from St Mary Cray station, and that is only 15 and bit minutes away from Catford station with no changes required. Next year I will know better, and can save myself much annoyance.

  There were/are 4 trains an hour from Elmsteads Wood station, but only two stop at Lewisham where I could change trains, and the other two are fast to London Bridge where I could also change trains. They are not regularly spaced around the clock, but the longest wait if I had missed one would have been 20 minutes. In fact I probably has missed one, but it was only a 10 minute wait for the next one - and it would be stopping at Lewisham.

  It was inspired guesswork, but I managed to stand right opposite the doors that lead into the coach with the toilet just to the left after getting on the train. That was very handy, and it was also very handy that the toilet was clean and working. I wasn't very desperate for a pee, but having one did make the journey home a bit more comfortable. There were plenty of portaloos at the recreation ground, but I would have needed to be a a lot more desperate to use one !

  The change of trains at Lewisham was very smooth. It was probably less than a 10 minute wait for my next train, and then, less than 10 minutes later I was walking towards home. It felt really good to get home, but before I could take the weight off my aching leg I got myself a very late lunch, or part one of dinner ready. It was a whole Little Gem lettuce with colesalw and smoked German ham. It didn't quite fill a big hole, and so half an hour later I had dinner part 2. That was no more than coleslaw and smoked German cheese with jalapeños in it.

  After that I felt very weary, but I forced myself to start going through the pictures I had taken. I did a full photo album of the first band - Xblue - and a few other pictures that I have shown here. I also played a bit with a video I shot on my mobile phone of Hell On Tap. I was not happy with the sound on it. Carrie's vocals seemed to be drowned by the rest of the band, and the hi-hats on the drums seemed really shrill. I don't think the man on the sound mixer was doing a good job on this song. Incidently, it was a song I didn't recognise - not a great choice to record with hindsight.

  I was very keen to get to bed last night, and I read for a while, but I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to read the last few pages of the book. The good thing last night was that it wasn't too hot. I could close the windows and curtains, and didn't need the fan on. I don't think I slept that well, and the blame must fall on the new pillow I put on my bed a few nights ago. It is too high, and rather too firm. It seems it took me three nights to realise why I was waking up with such a stiff neck and shoulder.

  Another problem was that by 3 or 4am it had got too cool to sleep without the duvet, although too much cover felt too warm. It must have been around 5am when I swapped the pillow back to the old one, and my last hour of sleep felt so much more comfortable - although the crazy thing is that in some positions that old combination of pillows feels too low !  Apart from a selection of aches and pains, and I continued feeling of weariness, the other thing this morning was how cold it felt. It was far from shivery, and really not actually touching the border with uncomfortable, but nevertheless, I did amd do feel cold after some of the recent mornings.

  The good news is that my blood glucose is in the green, but not the gold. I have been colour coding my blood glucose spreadsheet records. The green is any figure starting with a seven. This morning it was 7.9mmol/l. and only just under the uncoloured zone that is for figures starting with an eight. It represents my more average readings. Reading starting with a nine get an orange colour, and above ten it is red - the danger area.

  So far this morning I have one through 50 of the 500 pictures I took of Hell On Tap. I know that is a silly amount of pictures, but many are multi shots so I can (hopefully) pick the best of a quick series of movements. On the other hand I guess it indicates a certain amount of boredom with the band, and more amusement from my camera, but I try not to think of it like that. What it all means is that today I will be spending a lot of time selecting and editing pictures. That will also include the pictures I took of the third band, Victor And The Bully.

  I will sort of get a break when I plan to go out for an hour or two to see a 4.30pm matinee gig with Lord Algea at The Morden Arms in Greenwich. Lord Algea always make a most pleasant racket. It is a shame they don't do more accessible gig that I can get to. They often play in Plumstead in a pub that is not near any convenient bus routes, or a station, and they play a lot of gigs further afield in north and east London - all tricky to get to, and trickier to get home from late in the evening.