Today is one of those days when no one can predict the weather. The latest revision has added 10am to the sunny spells shown for 9am in the screenshot above.  It still shows midday to 2pm as featuring dark clouds. At this point it is worth mentioning that the BBC forecast shows sunny spells through the morning, and now on to 2pm in the latest revision. They also show an afternoon temperature of 13° C compared to the Met Office prediction of 12° C. Both agree that from 3pm there will be white cloud for the rest of the day. The BBC show tomorrow as featuring light cloud all day, and The Met Office say heavy cloud all day tomorrow. Tomorrow after may be 10 or 11° C depending on which forecaster comes closer to the truth - which will be revealed as it happens tomorrow.
 
   Yesterday was a pretty fair day. It included some good drinking, and that was good. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, although there was some strong frustration around lunch time. That, of course, is a very brief précis of the day, but there is more to than that.

  Nothing of any significance happened yesterday morning, but at lunchtime I made a phone call. For about 20 minutes I was on hold with music that has no reason to exist even in this ragged and poor universe, but finally I got through to an "adviser" of Legal And General - the company who my my previous employer signed all the staff up to for a government mandated pension scheme.

  I was only in that pension scheme for about a year before I retired, and I didn't save much, although I later learned that it was worth about £1200 as a lump sum payment. It was probably a year ago that I tried to arrange to have it paid to me as a lump sum, but came up against an impenetrable barrier when trying to do it on line. In accordance with the "know your customer" laws that the CIA/America dumped on the rest of the world  they demanded proof of identity.

  As far as I am aware, those "know your customer" laws only kick in for money transactions of £5000 or more - rather more than my puny £1200 ! They demanded such things as passport or driving licence numbers to prove my identity, I have neither. I gave up because I felt very frustrated, but yesterday I wondered what would happen if I even go through to someone on the phone. The last time I did that, possibly last October, I gave up after being on hold for at least an hour.

  Yesterday, after listening to that awful music, that would be merely intolerable if it was good quality (it is in such foul quality that I was close to opening a vein) I was finally answered by an "advisor" who hardly seem to know what I was talking about. When she eventually realised what I was trying to do she found the right page on her computer, and reeled off other forms of identification that would accept. They included things like a shot gun licence (!!!), a Northern Ireland ID card, a government ID card, and probably a couple of other possibilities that probably less than 1% of the population might have.

  I thanked her very much, but said it would probably be easier to slash my wrists before hanging up on her. A bit later someone pointed out that to vote in future elections you will need an ID card (just like they have in totalitarian countries), and that apparently my local council can issue them - but how do you prove to the council who you are ? It increasingly seems that the price for avoiding government oppression is £1200. Oh well, it was generally painless saving it in the days I was paying for that pension, and I guess it will be painless to throw it away.

  Yesterday afternoon was more cheerful. Both Michael and Jodie joined me for a beer tasting session. A couple of the beers we had were known good ones, and more importantly for Jodie, were ones that Jodie had not had for such a long time that she had not entered them into her Untappd social media for beers account. Most of the beers we had were not that strong. I am unsure how many bottles/cans we got through, but with each being split three ways it was probably quite a few. Of course a small 33cl bottle spilt three ways does not give a proper opportunity to really taste all the nuances of a beer.

  Michael left before Jodie, and Jodie left around 6.30pm. As soon as she left I finished adding the vegetables to my dinner, and gaving it a 15 minute zapping in the microwave oven. The core was the second 6 meatballs from the pack of 12 I had started the day before. As usual recently, the bulk of the meal was white cabbage, but I also added a red bell pepper, and three red chillies.

  Those chillies were not the red finger chillies I buy from the small supermarket on Catford Bridge. They look fierce, but are quite mild. The chillies I used yesterday were from Tesco, and they were the shorter and fatter variety. The mild ones had left me with false sense of safety. The chillies from Tesco, which I even removed the seeds from, were bloody fierce ! I had to stop eating to let it all cool down because being burned with scalding gravy, and seared with red hot chillies was not the enjoyment I was looking for.

  During and after dinner I watched TV, but the last thing I watched was the first episode of QI shown on Dave. That took me to 9pm, and I couldn't stop yawning. I read for 15 or 20 minutes in bed, and then turned the light out. I must have been very tired because it didn't feel like it was more than 10 minutes before I fell asleep. It was quite a deep sleep, at least I think it was, but I woke up maybe 2, maybe a bit more hours later, and I was not feeling good.

  I went for a pee, although I don't think it was really needed, and than got back into bed. I sort of assumed I would fall asleep almost instantly - I didn't ! It was one of those times when it felt like I was really overheated. I am sure I wasn't, but every time I tried to pull the duvet over myself it felt like my skin was on fire. In some ways it could be compared to an allergic reaction. I had to do what I knew worked from previous experience, and that was to turn the heater up, and get to sleep uncovered.

  That worked well enough, but it was wasting electricity on what was a mild(ish) night. It might have been 3am when I turned it down again, and was able to resume sleeping almost under the duvet. I think I slept partly uncovered for the rest of the night, although I did slowly pull the duvet to cover a bit more of me until I could have got up. That was about 6am, and I thought that maybe it was starting to feel a bit chilly. I got out of bed long enough to turn the heater up full, and than laid on my bed and waited. I don't think I intended to have a lay in, but sure enough, suddenly over an hour had passed before I woke up, and this time got up.

  Maybe I had got a bit chilled in the night when sleeping uncovered, because I did seem to feel a bit stiff and creaky when I got up. That seems to have mostly passed now, but I do seem to still feel a bit off colour, in ways I can't really describe. However, my main health indicators all look good this morning. My blood glucose has come down to a very acceptable 7.9mmol/l. My blood pressure, after a bit of trouble with the meter, was 112/67. I think there may be a dry joint on the blood pressure mete circuit board. It may be repairable if I can find it, or it could be less trouble to replace it. Meanwhile my weight, despite making a fairly large contribution to the toilet this morning, has gone up by approximately 0.5%, or about 300 grammes.

  Today is the day (or evening) when I was going to be photographer at The KT Bush band gig at The Cart And Horses pub in Maryland (near Stratford, London). Today is also the day when the trains are on strike, and that could make getting there tricky. It does seem, that despite the original strike warning information, the Elizabeth line is running today, and so in theory I could get the Docklands Light Railway, which I presume is running, to Stratford, and pick up the Elizabeth line there, but I have sort of assumed that the rail strike would make it impossible to get there, that I have lost the enthusiasm for it.

  What I might do tonight is to go and spend half an hour or more at Chain's gig at The Lord Homesdale. The downside is that it is said to start at 9pm - just as when I am normally thinking of going to sleep ! Getting there is a simple one bus ride from almost door to door, but it is one of the small buses that slowly winds it's way through every housing estate it can find. If I do go tonight I might get a 320 to Bromley (from the same stop as I would get the little 366), and change to a 366 there. Unless the change of buses takes maybe 20 minutes (about the worst case in theory) it might even be quicker. That just leaves the rest of the day to consider, and I have no idea what I might do - although if the BBC weather forecast turns out to be the correct forecast, and the sunny spells continue, I guess I ought force myself out for a walk. If I do that it is unlikely I will go out tonight. Hmm, decisions, decisions....