Tuesday 9th May 2023

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Tuesday 9th May 2023

08:35 BST

A lot of rain was forecast for yesterday, but most didn't fall. There were a couple of very light, very brief showers during the day, but there were heavier showers at night - very late at night ! There seemed to be very little wind, and my thermometers suggested the temperature rose to around 19° C instead of the forecast 14° C. If only there had been some sunshine it would have been a very nice day.

The latest revision of the forecast still insists that there should be sunny spells at 9am. There were none at 8am, and it doesn't look likely there will be any at 9am either. The problem is that the weather is coming in from the east, and the forecasters have no way to tell if the the thinner clouds will pass just to the north or the south of us. The same goes for the rain bearing clouds that may, or may not, arrive at midday. The BBC forecast includes an animated map of the clouds, and despite their main forecast throwing in loads of thunderstorms today, it actually shows the only time we may get rain is around 1pm when the southernmost tip of a large wet cloud will just brush over us. The afternoon temperature should rise to 17° C. The weather tomorrow, which being a Wednesday is of particular interest to me, is going to be quite uncertain, like today. It was forecast to be very wet, with possible thunderstorms. The BBC still say that, but the Met Office show the morning as being sunny, and the afternoon dull but dry. Rain is then forecast from 4pm, but like today, it is all highly variable and unpredictable.

Despite some dire weather predicted, yesterday was almost a nice day. I did encounter the lightest shower possible at one point, but I think most of the rain evaporated before it even hit me. Two things stand out about yesterday, another shopping trip to Tesco, and a beer tasting session in the afternoon.

Although it was quite important to get to Tesco I didn't rush to get there. I went at about what seems to be my normal time now, between 11am and midday. That seems to be a good time to find a lot of stuff on the reduced price shelves. Much of the stuff is of no interest to me, but I did pick up a pack of diced beef with a mere £1 knocked off the price. Another "sort of" bargain was some mini scotch eggs. I wouldn't have bought them at the full price, but with another £1 (or maybe slightly more) knocked off the price they made for a pleasant snack.

It was while walking home from Tesco that I encountered some rain. As I said further up the page, it was very light rain, almost a mist. It lasted for maybe a minute or two, and when it was over I was almost perfectly dry ! I ought to mention that I had taken a chance and gone out without a coat. It just didn't feel like rain was imminent despite what the various revisions of the weather forecast might say.

I had those mini Scotch eggs for my lunch. I accompanied them with another new purchase - pickled gherkins. I saw them on the shelve, and had a sudden desire for some, a desire which increased to "must have" after inspecting the nutritional information, and confirming them to contain very little sugar. Once I had eaten, and become relaxed I tackled a little video editing job - the first of three.

This is a banned video ! It is of G Force playing Radar Love without rehearsing it enough. It has a few errors, but that sometimes makes it feel more real. It is a great song, and 99% of the performance was excellent. I defiantly include it here for two reasons. Only you and I ever see these pages, and I thought some of my camerawork was quite good - except for the tilt of the picture. I must have suffered a stroke or something, and couldn't keep the camera straight.

I didn't have too much preparation to do for the beer tasting session, but one thing I did do was to get last night's dinner prepared and slowly cooking in the slow cooker. I had actually started simmering the diced beef in the morning. In the afternoon I added the spices, and vegetables (cabbage and some runner beans). Maybe for the first time since buying the slow cooker a fortnight or so ago it really did it's job well. The diced beef, that can sometimes be quite chewy was lovely soft and tender.

Yesterday's drinking session was unusual in that most beers were quite light (between 4 and 5%), and for once I didn't get very drunk. I would almost go as far as to say I was close to sober at the end. Even listening to a big playlist of Motorhead tracks failed to get me reaching for the hard stuff. The reason for the Motorhead was that the 8th of May is official Motorhead day !

Of course Jodie spent about a third or more of the time on her phone ! Jodie had originally planed to meet Alan, her boyfriend, at The Star And Garter in Bromley at about 6.30pm. It got to about 5pm when Jodie suddenly got very animated. Apparently she saw on her beer drinkers app (untappd) that someone she knew was in The Three Hounds, close to Clock House station, was drinking a beer that excited her. She was straight on the phone to Alan to change plans, and later left to get a train to meet Alan at 6pm in The Three Hounds.

It was a bit early, but only a little bit, for dinner when Jodie left. In fact I think I am coming around to the idea of having dinner closer to 6pm than 7pm to allow a little extra time for dinner to settle down before bed, and also a little extra time for the sugar to be processed and expelled from my body in my urine. I felt confident enough that my dinner was sufficiently sugar free to have a dessert of half a tub of the Oppo ice cream that I seem to tolerate well.

After dinner I fitted in a bit more basic video editing between watching some TV. I had missed the first Star Trek of the night, but watched Enterprise and Voyager. A little later I watched Have I Got News For You, and then QI. It all finished at about 10pm and I felt ready for sleep. I tried to read for a bit, but put the book down, and fell asleep quite quickly. I would say I slept perfectly, but starting to get up at 5am because I thought it was later was not a good idea. I actually got up around 6.30am.

This morning there was the usual excitement when it came to measuring my blood glucose level. After considering all I ate, and also that maybe at least one of the beers may have been a bit sweet, I hoped for a medium above average figure. In fact it was just 8.3mmol/l - slightly below typical average. I "celebrated" with two small bowls of instant noodles. Have two bowls is happening to often now, and I ought to stop it !

The state of the weather means it is highly likely I will not be going out today. The BBC still insists on 3 or 4 hours of thunderstorms this afternoon. The Met Office has now issued a weather warning for thinderstorms, but the only change to the forecast is that 4pm is now shown as hail - not thunderstorms are actually shown on the chart. Apparently there is only a 40% chance of the hail at 4pm. Thunderstorms or not, it does seem like it could get quite lively from midday !

There is one thing I really must do today, and it is a bit of housework. I need to get the hoover out. Jodie was eating mostly the inside of a Greggs vegetarian sausage roll, and had left pastry crumbs all over the floor where she was sitting. I really should have hoovered it up last night that because that sort of thing attracts mice. As far as I am aware there are currently no mice in the house, and I would like to keep it that way !