The most recent revision to the forecast is both good and bad. It now shows the sunny spells, following the full sunshine at midday, will continue to 3pm, but then make the evening rain potentially more annoying. There could be heavy rain at 6 and 8pm, and lighter rain at 7pm. Then also adds light rain at 10pm. Oh well the afternoon could feel quite warm at 15° C. Tomorrow could be a really miserable day. Rain is expected for almost every hour of the day, with the heaviest in the first half. With a top temperature of just 11° C as late as 4pm, and a degree or two less earlier on, it is going to feel cold, wet and miserable as well as deeply gloomy in the first half of the day.
 
   I guess I have to admit that yesterday was a mostly enjoyable day. It was annoying to find that the book I thought might be delivered yesterday did happen, but not when I was in, and I have to go to the sorting office to collect it today. The annoying thing is that UPS, who carried it all the way from America, and got it through customs (hopefully without an attached charge) just dumped it on Royal Mail for the final bit of the delivery. It would have been nice if their tracking page admitted it, but the tracking just suddenly stopped.

  It was fortunate that yesterday morning seemed a bit warmer than the day before, although it may have just been a change in the wind direction. The day before yesterday there was an icy blast coming through the bathroom window. Yesterday there was no more then an occasional waft of light breeze that was not enough to spoil washing my hair, and having a nice refreshing shower.


  I managed to get my timing right when I walked to the station to pick up two copies of The Metro (one for me, and one for Ayse the barmaid), and then get the train to Ladywell. I arrived there in time to take a snap of the train going in the wrong direction for me, towards Hayes. The previous few weeks I got there late and only managed to take a snap of the back of the train as it departed. Yesterday my luck ran out, and I didn't manage to take a snap of any train I had never photographed before.

 It was almost very quiet when I arrived at the pub. It seems that if I had arrived 10 minutes earlier I would have been the only customer, but about 5 of us arrived almost at the same time. Pretty soon there was interesting banter to listen to, or to take part in. Nevertheless, I managed to almost finish the quick crossword in little more than 10 minutes, although I think there were two clues I didn't seem to get. One was of one foreign word I didn't know the meaning of, and I could have cheated and done an internet search for it, but didn't.

  I enjoyed myself, and once again I went for a third pint of Guinness to give me a bit more time to do the cryptic crossword. It was either a very hard one, or my brain had gone soft because I think I only solved 3 or 4 clues - and I am not convinced one of them was the correct answer.  In theory I should have walked home in the sunshine, but I wanted to get a bit of shopping on the way home, and the train would take me nearer to the shops. The only flaw in the plan was in my timing. To avoid too long a wait for the train I stopped for a double Jameson before leaving the pub.
  I still had a few minutes to spare, and so I stopped to take a couple of snaps of the St Mary's church Therapeutic Garden. I have to say it was looking very nice. I think the sun had dropped behind a thin cloud so it was bright, but there was no direct sunshine to cause any deep shadows. Maybe some shadow would give a bit more perspective to this flat looking picture.
 Spot the crow ! I didn't get a better look, but it looks like the crow may be on a bird bath. If so it is a new feature I have never seen before. I know from observations in my own garden, that crows like to wash their beaks, and presumably have a drink at the same time.
  As I said further up the page, I didn't manage to "spot" and trains I didn't already have photographs of (although I had to wait until I got home to check the pictures against my spreadsheet listing all those I have photogrpahed before), but I thought I would include this picture because it shows the nice blue sky at the time.

  Yesterday I mentioned that if I had time in the morning I might go to Tesco because I wanted to get a couple of bottles of Diet Coke. After 3 pints of Guinness (and a double Jameson) I didn't think my bladder would hold out to go as far as Tesco, and probably wait in a short queue for a checkout. The little supermarket on Catford Bridge was essentially on my way home, and although they only had annoying 1.75 litre bottles of Diet Coke, they did have other stuff.

  I bought four of the little salad pots - a couple couscous and beans and two others - some packets of tomato flavour instant noodles, and two big packets of crisps.....well, who could resist lime and chilli crisps, and also tomato flavour crisps. You don't see those very often. I was in and out of the shop almost in the time it would have taken to walk down to Tesco.
  I showed this stand of tulips over a week ago. They are just a few minutes walk from home, outside a small block of flats. A week ago they were predominately all red, but yesterday there were more colours, and the whole stand looked thicker and lusher.

  Predictably enough, the first thing I did when I got home was to go for a pee. Once comfortable I could check my mail. The only thing of significance was a card from the postman saying my book (I assume it is the book) will have to be collected from the sorting office. I then took my camera and the packet of lime and chilli crisps up to my PC. The plan was just to have a few, but they were a bit too nice, and I ended up eating the whole packet. I did it in such a voracious way that somehow I seemed to cut the inside of my mouth.

  I hadn't taken many photos, and used even less of them. I dealt with them before laying down for a quick snooze. Actually I am not sure if it was quick or not. I hadn't got home until just gone 3pm, and I think I awoke from my snooze at just after 4pm. I was woken up by my phone ringing, and to my great astonishment it was Angela calling. I was rather over enjoyed by it.

  Since her accident we have only briefly communicated by text messages. I am always reluctant to call Angela because I never know if she is on her own, or at least whether she is with lover boy. I worry it would get her into trouble if he were listening, and Angela would not want to talk so freely. So it was wonderful when she phoned me, and I was able to find out a bit more about her accident.

  She confirmed she fell down stairs after too much vodka, and sadly she doesn't dare have any in the house now in she drinks too much. I think she said that she still has the occasional glass of wine. She confirmed that she still has not had a cigarette since the accident, and like the money she is saving, but say she still has very strong cravings after 6 months of no smoking.

  Apparently she is signed off work until the end of June, and then will have to make a decision about how, and maybe if she will return to work. She says she definitely wants to go part time if she does return to work. She says she is now able to take short walks with the aid of one crutch, although it is still quite painful. I suggested that if she wanted some entertainment she should consider The Honor Oak pub on Thursday nights while Carrie and Steve have their residency there. Angela said she knew the pub because she once went to some open mic nights there in the past, and sounded quite interested in going to a gig there some time. It is unlikely, but not impossible she could go there tonight.

  It was so good and such a relief to talk to Angela. It perked me up a lot for what could have been a fairly miserable evening. At about 6pm I had a fairly plain, and reasonably safe dinner of stewed chicken and pak choi cooked in the slow cooker. One thing that seems easy to do with that slow cooker is to cook more without having to wash the heavy ceramic pot it uses. Last night I didn't even drain the spiced stock away. I just added a bit more water, and then more chicken and stock cubes. I gave it a few hours on high to bring it up to boiling point, and left it on low overnight. Apart from adding some vegetables, my dinner for tonight is already cooked.

  I stayed up to watch an old edition of Have I Got News For You, and then went to bed just after 10pm. I felt quite tired, but read for a while. I was tempted to try and finish the last novella in the book I have been reading, but with just one more short chapter to go, I didn't think I could keep my eyes open for long enough. I was soon in quite a deep sleep. The only thing I can remember about my dreams was a dream where my younger sister looked a lot like Jodie, but that is about all I can remember.

  I woke up just after 6am, and I felt that was a bit too early. After attending to a few things including having a pee, and then taking screenshots of the early versions of the weather forecasts, I went back to bed to try and sleep. I did seem to get to sleep for a bit, but I was up again just before 7am. When I checked my blood glucose I found I had just about got away with stuffing myself with crisps yesterday. My blood glucose was a reasonable 8.6mmol/l, but I expect it could have been a fair bit lower if I had eaten something safer than crisps for a sort of late lunch.

  This morning I feel a bit tired, but otherwise mostly OK. I am unsure why I feel tired because I thought I had slept well. Maybe it was the big portion of instant noodles I had for breakfast making me want to lie down and digest them or something. My plans for this morning are theoretically simple. After I've had a shower I will try and get to the sorting office before they close for lunch, and on the way back do my shopping in Tesco.

  This afternoon I can be as lazy as I want because the action starts this evening. Unfortunately I think I'll be daring to go out in the rain to go to The Honor Oak pub to watch an hour or more of Carrie and Steve doing the first of the acoustic residency there - every Thursday night. When I last communicated with Michael he said he will be coming too - assuming he has recovered from the back pains he had a week ago. He said he was much improved, and fairly confident he would be OK for tonight. All I will need then is for Angela to turn up to complete the set. That is unlikely, but not impossible.