This BBC predict a sunny afternoon, and 13° C. The Met Office are a lot more pessimistic and say only light cloud this afternoon with the temperature only reaching 12° C. At the moment the clouds seem thick and dark, but I can see some lighter areas, and the idea of a brief sunny spells before this afternoon doesn't seem too far fetched. The latest revision has removed the rain shown for tonight in the screenshot above, and it should stay dry. Tomorrow will start very wet, but there could be sunny spells from mid afternoon, and the temperature could reach 13 or even 14° C.
 
   Yesterday was one of those days that made me feel mostly happy, but which didn't end well. Naturally the morning, and very early afternoon sunshine was a great boost, but there was better to come. Despite starting to write a lot earlier yesterday, I seemed to get off to a slow start yesterday. It was gone 11am before I had a shave, washed my hair, and had a shower.

  Being a Wednesday I was heading for The Jolly Farmers to have a drink without Angela. There is usually enough banter going on in the pub to amuse me for some of the time, but I still wanted a copy of the Metro so I could fill in time doing the crosswords (or trying to). Once again, to get The Metro I went by train so I could grab a copy at Catford Bridge (with a possible second chance at Ladywell. At Ladywell I tried something and made a complete hash of it.
  I was particularly unhappy with this selfie. I seem all hunched up, and I was scowling instead of smiling. There was a reason for both. I was not using my mobile phone, with it's handy front facing camera, but my Nikon S6300 pocket camera. I had to guess where the camera was looking because the viewfinder was round the back. It is a tricky camera to hold and arms length, and on my first attempt at using the camera the wrong way round I pushed the power button instead of the shutter button. That was part the reason fro the scowl. The other reason was that a train was approaching.
  This train, going back towards Catford Bridge, class 465 465175, was one I had never taken a picture of before, and it was another to record in my ever expanding spreadsheet. I guess it is some sort of luck that on a very brief journey, in which I only saw two trains, one would be a new one for my collection.
  Another case of being in the right place at the right time was when I crossed the footbridge over the river at the rear of St Mary's church. I spotted these couple of Mandarin ducks at just within zoom range down on the river. I haven't seen any mandarin ducks on the river for maybe a year or more, and I was lucky to catch them when I did. On my way home there was no sight of them.
  There was only weak sunlight when I snapped these daffodils in the St Mary's Therapeutic Garden.  Some stronger sunshine would have made these dense clumps glow nicely.

  This was a far better selfie, and I almost managed a smile ! I took it for a very specific purpose. I sent this picture to Angela with the message " Just to let you know, we are all missing you. Hoping you recover as fast as possible, and hoping you can make it here again one day xxxx". For the first time since her accident, Angela replied, and replied fairly quickly to say "Bless you. I am in a very bad way xxx". After a couple more messages I finally heard she had broken her pelvis, sacrum, and fibula.

  The sacrum is the last couple of vertebrates of the spine as it joins the pelvis. I have yet to get any details about how the accident happened, but it seems she came down heavily on her bottom. The fibula is the small of the two long bones of the lower part of the leg. It is no wonder she is very unhappy, and on top of everything else she had said elsewhere that she was suffering from bad nerve pain.

  Once she is closer to being healed I am curious to find out out what they do to a broken pelvis. It is not the sort of thing you can put a cast on. Maybe it can hold itself together if it is just a simple fracture. Even so, it must be a dammed uncomfortable thing for when you need the toilet.

  Back to the pub, and while I drank my usual two pints of Guinness I tried to do both the quick and cryptic crosswords. I fairly quickly did all but one of the quick crossword clues. I did finally get that last one with some inspiration from Ayse the barmaid. I think the clue was simply "Pine", and because I knew it started with a "Y" I kept thinking of a tree. Ayse wondered if it could be the other meaning of pine, and indeed it was. The answer was "Yearn".

  There were too many distractions when it came to the cryptic crossword, although I did get one single answer. It was a long word, and it was an anagram. Sometimes, and it is often for shorter words, that I just can't see anagrams without writing the letters out in random order, and playing with them in my mind. For the one clue I got yesterday the letters of the anagram seemed to sort them selves at first glance. It was rather a shame that every other clue completely went over my head !

  One new thing in the pub were a few of the posters pictured on the left. I can remember back something like 40 years ago when an idiot spiked my pint of Courage Directors bitter with a double vodka. The idiot thought I would never notice it. I noticed it instantly, and said so. I also said that it was so nice he could buy me another. Funnily enough, he possibly did end up on the sex offender register after he managed to get a young girl pregnant, but I never heard of the outcome of it all.
  Like last time I decided to go back to Catford on the train, and go the slightly longer way home via the little supermarket on Catford Bridge. It must have been my lucky day because the train I caught from Ladywell station was another I had never photographed before. There are about 150 class 465 trains, and I think I am right in saying it is the biggest fleet on our railways. I think I worked out I still have about another 30 to photograph to complete the set. Unfortunately there is some uncertainty about the exact number. Some were converted to have a first class area, and were renumbered, at least one was scrapped (possibly after it served it's purpose as a test bed for a new traction system that was later used on a different class of train). I'll probably never get every one of these trains, but I am quite surprised just how many I have got, and like yesterday, mostly without putting any special effort into it apart from having a camera with me.

  Special update: Contrary to even the BBC's more optimistic forecast, we are now (10:42am) having another sunny spell, and this one seems to be lasting longer than the slightly earlier one.

  There were a few specific things I wanted from the little supermarket on Catford Bridge. One was more packs of Polish instant noodles. I also wanted some more strong beers, but their selection seemed a bit thin yesterday. I did get two cans of Tyskie. It was probably a mistake to get another Polish Sourdough loaf before completely finishing the last, and four little "salad" pots - bulgar wheat and red beans and similar "salads".

  When I got home I had a late lunch of two of the little salad pots and a sandwich of a semi spicy Mortadella with paprika. With hindsight none of it was particularly good for me, although there was worse to come. I'm sure I had another naughty snack before dinner, and that another was on top of scoffing the other two salad pots as a pre dinner snack. The problem was that I was in a strange state of mind.

  I was happy because there was the earlier sunshine, and I had been to the pub, plus I had finally heard from Angela. Maybe it was hearing from Angela that made me less happy, but only to the extent that it made me miss her more, and that having heard the extent of her injuries, it could be a long time before she is fit enough to come to the pub again. Coming to the pub again depends on her being back at work, but there is the fear that she will finally decide that retirement is her best option. On top of everything she is still due to get married in September now, and in theory that will have a very negative effect on our relationship.

  During the evening I drunk my two cans of Tyskie Polish beer, watched some TV and ate dinner. Dinner was not exactly healthy, and it seems it did not do much for my blood glucose level, although other things, like those salad pots could account for it. It was no more than 4 grilled burger with a scrape of mustard, and some low sugar ketchup. The worst thing is that I did not enjoy it - cheap frozen burgers are never very good quality.

  I watched QI last night, and so I wasn't in bed until just gone 10pm, and then I read for at least half an hour.  It did seem to take a while before I fell asleep, but once asleep I seemed to sleep quite well, although I did seem to get up a bit earlier than desired, and then spend a futile attempt to try and get back to sleep for about an hour. I probably did get a whole 5 minutes extra sleep in that hour.

  I can't really remember any dream from last night - except for maybe one - if indeed it was a dream. It was about 10 past 2am when I woke up needing to go for a pee. The odd thing was that I was convinced I could remember getting up for a pee little more than ten minutes previously. When I went to the toilet I didn't do "the full pint", but it was over a half. If I really had got up for a pee just 10 minutes earlier I doubt I would have had enough to fill an egg cup. I guess I must have dreamed the first time, but it seemed so realistic. It makes me wonder if other times I have remembered getting up for a pee were just dreams.

  My blood glucose, while still not being over the red line (10.0mmol/l) was still atrociously high after a day when I had originally wanted to try and get it lower than  yesterday mornings 9.2mmol/l. This morning it had gone up to 9.6mmol/l ! I obviously need to get it down soon, but it could be tricky today. It's a Thursday, and this afternoon should be a beer session with Michael and Jodie. Unfortunately there are no trains, and I assume that Jodie will get the bus over.

  Even if Jodie declines I expect Michael will still join me for a beer of six. It does seem that my blood glucose is often reduced after drinking good, strong Belgium ales, but I fear today there could be less good beers on offer. Oh well, if I pre-prepare my dinner to be something very simple like stewed beef with white cabbage, that might help a lot. I just hope I don't get too drunk and start to eat a packet of crisps I "accidently" bought yesterday !