The Met Office are having another go at predicting a gloomy day, and judging by how the sky looks at the moment, they could be right. In the latest revision all but 5pm are shown as dark clouds. There is a persistent 10% chance of rain for he whole day, although none is actually shown on the forecast. The afternoon temperature should reach 11° C.  The sky should partly clear tonight, and that will mean a much colder night, but sunny spells for a lot of tomorrow. Unfortunately the maximum temperature tomorrow may only reach 8 or 9° C.
 
   Most of yesterday was pretty quiet and almost boring. It was because the evening would be very different. More that later, but during the day I probably spent a lot of time just reading or trying to snooze. I don't think I actually managed to fall asleep, but I definitely spent a few odd 10, or so, minute periods with my eyes closed.

  I think there were three departures from reading and trying to snooze. The first was at lunchtime. My plans meant I would not be having dinner, although a very late supper was possible. My lunch was therefore a bit bigger than usual. I had three Aldi fish burger patties. It was originally only going to be two, but I found a packet in the freezer that only had one in it after some time in the past I had another lunch or dinner of three of the big square fishfinger style fish patties.

  In the end I didn't exactly eat all three, although it was close to it. The timer on my mini oven/grill failed with just a few minutes on the clock, and by the time I had realised it, those burger patties were getting very brown, almost black. That didn't worry me too much. The bigger problem is that they had almost welded themselves to the tin foil covering on the baking tray. Some bit were left behind on the foil !

  The next departure from reading and trying to snooze was getting my Nikon D300s camera out, and selecting lenses, topping up the batteries, and other stuff in preparation for it's use in the evening. The third departure was to wash my hair and have a shower. I did that so late that it was essentially dark outside. Although the bathroom is, of course, lit, the dark window was still dark. I haven't experienced that since the days of having a shower before going to work.

  It was about 7.45pm when I put on my coat, grabbed my camera, and took a walk to the bus stop where I was probably going to get a 336 bus. When I got to the bus stand, about 100 feet from the first bus stop where you can get on the bus, it looked like the bus was just about to depart. The doors were closed, but I shouted through the doors to ask if I had enough time to get to the bus stop. The driver signalled one minute, and so I walked on to the bus stop where I would get on the bus.

  The bus arrived about 15 seconds after I reached the bus stop. So began a 40 minute ride on a bus whose route takes it through all sorts of back roads - most with speed humps at frequent intervals, and if there was no speed hump it managed to find a pot hole. It felt like I had been rattled to pieces by the time I eventually got to The Lord Homesdale pub where Chain were playing a gig.

  They had already started by the time I got there, although it was mostly a sound check that just ran straight into the first set. The Lord Homesdale pub is not a good shape for gigs. It doesn't take more than 6 or 7 people in front of the band to almost completely block the view of anyone behind - which included me and my camera. The first shots I took were with the camera held as high as I could. That meant I couldn't see the viewfinder, but that didn't matter too much. At first I tried to use the ambient light, but very soon I gave up on that and used flash.
  This was a high angle shot using flash. It was not as good as it could have been. Without using the viewfinder to centre the picture, I think the camera focussed on the background leaving even Jo slightly soft focussed.
  I ended up shooting some picture with the camera almost resting on others shoulders. It was like shooting through a keyhole, but at least this close up picture of Jo came out OK (although it was not a great pose).
  One way of getting the whole band in shot was to use my fish eye lens. I usually heavily crop the picture to eliminate the worst of the distortion at the sides, but this time I couldn't. I don't think this picture will appear in the "official" photo album. The only way to get the whole band without a fish eye lens would have been to stand behind the bar, and clear everyone from that corner of the bar.
  It's always a problem taking pictures of Chris. For reasons I don't really understand, his face always comes out very red looking. If I were to correct that Jo's face would take on a very strange colour.

  I took many more pictures than these four. Some of them were not of the band but of other people I know from the Bromley music scene. Many said it was good to see me again after not going to any Bromley gigs since mid last November, and even that was a fairly rare appearance (it was the Liz Vass memorial jam). I'll probably show a few non band pictures tomorrow unless I do any other photography today.

  I think I surprised myself by staying a little longer than the end of the first set. The band were just starting their second set as I went to find the bus stop. I was sure the nearest bus stop was to my right as I came out the pub, but I walked a short distance and still couldn't see it (it was actually just a little further around a band in the road). I then turned around and walked in the opposite direction. I had timed my exit from the pub so I wouldn't have to wait long for the bus. I was a bit perturbed to find it was a fair walk to the next bus stop, but I made it with a few minutes to spare, although I was a bit short of breath when I go there.

  I was determined to not endure 40 minutes of back roads with speed bumps on the way home, and I got off the little 336 bus once it was on the main road. The timing was perfect. I got off the bus just as a 320 bus was pulling up behind the 336. I had a zero minute wait for the bus, and from then on it was a fairly smooth ride back to Catford. I was a little surprised that it was not a lot faster, but then again, the bus had to stop at almost every bus stop, and was moderately busy. The 336 both going to the pub, and for the couple of stops until I got off it on the way home, was almost empty. In fact for about 75% of the ride to the pub I was the only passenger.

  It was gone 11pm when I got home. I found the walk from the bus stop to home was hard work. It was partly because I was breaking in a new pair of Converse trainers. They seemed to be very stiff, although otherwise comfortable. I am not sure why it seemed such hard work even with the stiff shoes subtracted from the problem. It was probably one of those occasions when it would have been better if only I knew how to walk slowly, and maybe savour the surprisingly mild night air.

  I didn't touch my camera when I got home. I felt too tired for that, but I didn't want to go to bed hungry, but I didn't want to go to bed feeling stuffed. I could have eaten the dinner I had already prepared, and just needed 5 minutes in the microwave to heat up. Instead I decided to just have a simple soup - lentil and bacon flavour.  It wasn't the lowest sugar content of my selection of cans of soup, but fairly low - which would turn out to be handy.

  I guess I was in bed by 11.30pm, and I read for 25 minutes to try and get in a more relaxed state. Maybe that worked this time because I think I may have been asleep by midnight, or very soon after. When I was asleep I seemed to sleep well, but I did need to pee quite a few times in the night. That suggested my blood glucose was fairly high. In the last couple of hours before I got, including the time I finally got out of bed, I woke up with agonising cramps starting in my lower legs. The first time it was so bad that I could barely stand - and I needed to stand to put weight on my legs - which is my instant cure for leg cramps.

  Once I had finally decided I was getting up I went for yet another pee, and then scrubbed any contamination of my hands (like the had cream I had put on my hands before going to bed) so I could get a clean reading on my blood glucose meter. From the amount of time I went for a pee in the night I was expecting a high reading despite thinking it ought to be low based upon what and when I ate.

  I still don't know why I seemed to pee so much. I am sure it wasn't the mere two pints of Guinness I drank last night. hen I checked my blood glucose I found it was actually a very good 7.4mmol/l - just under my rarely achieved personal target of 7.5mmol/l. Before I ate or drank any more, but before doing a poo, I weighed myself. This morning I was almost a whole kilogramme lighter than recently. Some of it was probably just dehydration, and a little bit of it was eating a lot less yesterday, and do stuff equivalent to exercise.

  I don't actually feel that great this morning. I sometime wonder if I should be doing stuff like going to gigs at my age... I was doodling with pen and paper yesterday, and worked out I am, discounting odd days, just 2 years and 4 months away from being 70 years old ! It does seem that I can't sustain doing a lot of things that were once easier, but I can still do them, sort of. Last night I was told I had powerful thighs when I did my (in)famous crouching down to take a low angle photo. After I just stood straight up with no problem...or maybe there was a problem, but I had to overcome a little stiffness before I seized up in that crouched position ! It did make me wonder if there would be any value in actually doing what I think are called squat thrusts, or something like that, as a proper exercise.

  Some of today is mapped out for photo editing. If I can I want to do some "cosmetic work" on some photos to beautify them...or something like that. It is probably useful having the time to do that because there is bugger all else to do on such a dreary and overcast day. Another job will be to wash a few t-shorts and some underwear. One very tiny possibility is to go out again tonight for another gig. That possibility is made even smaller at the moment by not knowing of any gig I might fancy going to, but I will check and see what's on in the unlikely even that I will feel like going out again.