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July 2022 August 2022

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Wednesday 10th August 2022
 08:01 BST
  
  Yesterday was warm and sunny. The forecast temperature was 26° C, but I think it reached 27° C.
  hot
                              and sunny
  The sun was a bit hazy before 8am, and there are a few thin clouds in the sky. I suppose it is possible that this hour could degenerate to sunny spells, but it doesn't seem that likely. The latest revision to the forecast, which starts at 9am, shows non stop sunshine until sunset, and an afternoon high of 27° C. Tomorrow could be same but even hotter. From tomorrow, for the next 4 days. there are weather warnings for extreme heat. Tomorrow and the day after could see the temperature reach 31° C, and the two after that could reach 32° C. Maybe the day after that could feature a splash of rain, but any forecast so far into the future could be very wrong.

   I was, or thought I was, too tired to be very productive. I expect I believed that more than was the actual case. For instance I didn't seem to lack any energy when I went to Tesco in the morning. Before going to Tesco I put some laundry in to soak, and it was still there this morning because I couldn't raise the enthusiasm to finish it.

  The real problem was the magnitude of the work needed to finish all my photo editing. Last Saturday, at Petts Wood Calling involved some very intense photo taking. Ideally I should have paced myself more. I saw seven bands, and on average I took as many photos of each band as I would have if it was just one band on in a pub on a Friday or Saturday night. Dealing with photos of just one band is rarely hard work, but seven lots is like climbing a hill that never ends.

  Yesterday the only photos I finished were of MT Pockets. I had taken just over 400 shots, and most of them were useless, and I whittled the photo album down to 34 shots. One thing that became apparent was that the sun was lower in the sky, and the back lighting was getting stronger while the front lighting was getting weaker. I should have realised it at the time, and changed settings on my camera. Towards the end of MT Pockets set my photos were starting to get a little grainy, and that meant some extra processing to be done to smooth some of the grain out.
Dan and Jamie
 Some shots needed a lot of work on to make them look good. The shot above was a special moment that needed to be captured. Jamie was called on stage by Dan to sort of reprise their days of performing together as Stone Blind.  It went down a treat with the audience, and I am happy I got a few good pictures of it.
Jamie and Dan
                              again
 It was a curious situation. I wanted to get all these pictures edited, and yet I didn't want to. I often wanted to just lay on my bed quietly reading, and maybe even have a snooze. Of course I did that too, but by dinner time I finally complete the MT Pockets photo album, and made a start on the Jaime And The Jets photo album. I didn't take as many photos of Jamie And The Jets as I did of MT Pockets, but I still took a lot. I wanted to be sure I could take at least a few photographs that would please Jamie's dad - the photographer John Bull who takes some very high standard pictures.

   His pictures stand out because they are less photos, and more art. I have a theory that he, like most of us, started taking photos in dimly lit pubs, and spent a lot of time playing with ways of improving poorly lit, grainy pictures. While doing that he stumbled up a mix of effects that have become his signature style. I would like to match that, but on the other hand I don't consider myself an artist, and prefer to go for a more photographic style with just a few tweaks to enhance contrast or whatever the photo seems to lack.

  Going shopping in Tesco meant I had food in the house that may not have been that good for me. I did my best to resist the worst thing, but the Asian style nut salad may not have been very good for me, but I must admit it was very tasty. The most dubious thing I ate was two rounds of pate on rice cakes - each round eaten an hour or two apart, and each round was of 4 rice cakes with some added salad leaves. In theory the sugar content of these snacks should have been low, but I am expecting a shock when I check my blood glucose. My dinner, two chorizo and fish cakes, jut by themselves, may not have been too awful, but there is the cumulative effect  of lots of small things adding up to a big thing.

  Last night I treated myself to an early night, and I was asleep soon after my head hot the pillow just after 9pm. I seemed to sleep quite well, and only got up for a couple of small pees in the night. It was almost as if my blood glucose was not that high, but on the other hand my pillow was soon damp with sweat. Last night was another night when I closed my bedroom window on the theory that it would have got chilly in the night. With hindsight I don't think it mattered.

  One of the first things I did this morning, after a pee, and taking my morning medication, was to finish the laundry that had been in soak almost 24 hours. The soapy water was horrible, cold, and slimy, but the rinses, and the fabric conditioner were done in tepid water. I got it all hanging on the line just before 8am - which I thought was pretty good. When I went to hang it on the line I was mobbed by hungry pigeons. There seems to be a flock of them constantly watching for me to put food out. I did put some food on the bird table, and within seconds there were 5 or 6 pigeons all trying to eat at once on it.

  This morning my blood glucose is a bit lower than yesterday, but only just ! It is 9.8mmol/l, and that is only just under the red line. Once all the Petts Wood Calling photos are out of the way I must try and do a bit more exercise, or maybe just going out for the day when I can stay away from all food. While I wasn't paying attention a new railway station has appeared on the map. It is Barking Riverside, and as far as I can guess it is just a new station built on the end of some old dock lines. It is another station to add to my list of extremes of travel using my Freedom Pass, and the map suggest there is a pier nearby to explore. As far as I can gather it is another old area of dockland that has become gentrified (otherwise known as covered with high rise blocks of flats on sale for obscene amounts of money).

  Three things are possible today. The main one is meeting Angela at lunchtime for a drink together. After that it is possible I may be joined by Jodie for a beer tasting session, but it is now so close to Thursday that she may decide that is the better day. The third possibility, but it does depend on how much the booze may hit me, is to finish the Jamie And The Jets photographs. Once they are done that will just leave Glamstar, and I went home halfway through their set, and only took about 67 pictures to sift through to select the best for a photo album.
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