.....but Jodie decided she wasn't in the mood for lumpy beers, and preferred something lighter.  I am both disappointed and relieved because while I would like to know what muck is in these cans, I am dreading trying them. Of course it is possible that one or more may actually be drinkable. We decided we would consider trying them this coming Sunday, but then Michael would miss out - maybe only miss out on the looks on our faces as we try and swallow the "beer" - Michael is usually too busy with family stuff to get drunk with us on a Sunday.

  Further forward planning concerned next Thursday (25th May). Jodie is off to a gig somewhere, and will be unavailable. Michael and I will be having another go at seeing Caz And Steve Duo at The Honor Oak pub. If the weather is good it could be a nice evening out. If it is pouring with rain we may stay in ! The current forecasts for next Thursday are looking good, possibly very good, but they are likely to change, and the only direction they can go is for the worse, or even the worst !

  While Michael and Jodie were trying to keep their drinking fairly light, I had a beer or two on the side. One was a very strong, and rather delicious beer. As usual Jodie left almost sober, Michael complained that he was too drunk again, and I was really drunk, although far from falling over drunk, but I was in a very happy state ! Once the other to had gone I could sit down to watch TV (Star Trek episodes), and eat my dinner.

  Dinner was beef and cauliflower stew. I had originally cooked it for the previous day, but didn't eat it then. There were several times during the day I had given it a short boil to make sure it didn't start to grow any nasty bacteria or something. That did have the effect of making the cauliflower softer and softer until it was almost soupified. It was still nice to eat, and I don't think I could describe it as "rich", but......

  I headed for bed early last night - not too long after the third Star Trek (Voyager) had finished at 8pm. I did read for a while before trying for sleep - probably around 9pm. Unfortunately I had started burping a lot, and each burp tasted of my dinner (unsurprisingly). It included just some light reflux, but enough to trigger off heartburn again. Once again the first hours of sleep were ruined by chest pain that was almost, but not quite like a heart attack. I have a feeling that another possibility, that of stirring up a stomach ulcer was unlikely too.

  Like the previous night I took a couple of paracetamol to help reduce the pain. The pain wasn't all that bad, and the paracetamol did turn it down quite a lot, but it takes little to keep me awake. I didn't take an Ibuprofen this time because while it is good to reduced inflamed scar tissue, I didn't think that was as likely as the night before. I did take a couple of doses of antacid tablets. That, and maybe a visit to the toilet to pass an unexpected fair sized stool, eventually calmed things down enough to finally get to sleep near midnight.

  From then on I slept almost normally, but maybe not the best normal. Maybe my dreams were influenced by some farting in the night. One dream I do have quite hazy memories of was being on top of a building where there was a canopy of something like raffia, and a big fan was blowing clean air into it. When I think back the dream was almost more like describing the dream rather than living in it.

  I was surprised to see my blood glucose was the same as the day before at 9.1mmol/l. That is not terribly high, and well below the red line, but lower would be a lot better. This morning I could blame it on an exceedingly nice Xmas ale I drank - choco malt flavour, and probably containing a fair bit of sugar. If that wasn't a fair reason for it I would begin to doubt the accuracy of the new test strips I started to use a week or so ago. I know it is clutching at straws, but it feels like every measurement I have made with these new test strips is high.

  I have just tested one of the new strips using some past-it's-use-by-date test solution. I am not sure what it should have read, but the reading it gave was 9.0mmol/l. A test strip from another packet said 8.7mmol/l. I feel I ought to pop along to the pharmacy to claim my prescribed test strips instead of using the test strips I bought from Amazon, but I have probably left it too late now. Tomorrow I will try test strips from each carton with the same prick of blood to see if one gives a very different reading.

  Today's main task will be to finish selecting, editing, and sometimes beautifying more of the pictures taken on Wednesday night. I am increasingly tempted to do some extreme effects on some pictures. My old mentor, the man from https://www.rockrpix.com/ has a rather distinct style, and I am beginning to realise how he does it. It is no more than a guess, but I think once upon a time, as we all struggled with taking picture in dim gigs, he used to use extreme noise reduction, and then very heavy sharpening to recover some detail from the picture. I've found that does give a similar effect, and then increase the contrast plus colour saturation, and I sometimes, but only sometimes end up with a picture that could be mistaken for one of his.
  Because no one reads these pages I can say what tricks I used on this picture. It is Eddy leo on guitar, and Lee Bates doing the vocals for Strange Fashion. I partly masked the edges of this picture, and mad them darker while brightening up the centre of the image. I used a bit of sharpening, but that is about all.
  Eddy does do some wonderful guitar player poses, and apart from brightening up the centre of the picture I didn't need to do much more to this shot.
  I really ought to remember the name of this guitar player. He was in Kings College Hospital at about the same time as me while we both had heart bypass operations. As far as we can tell one of us was on the ward while the other was in a single room, and vice versa. He suffered a similar but worse fate than me after being discharged from hospital. We both tried to carry far too heavy shopping with a weak of being discharged. I don't know what damage I did to my self, but I definitely felt something go ping inside me, and have suffered form occasional pains ever since. He managed to give himself a hernia that has left a strange, soft and springy bump in the middle of his chest.

  In this picture I tried an effect I had not tried before, and it seems to have worked. I masked the centre of the image to keep it untouched, and than did a zoom blur that seems to be coming from the middle of the picture. This may not have been the ideal picture to try it on, but I can imagine that for some picture it could be an interesting effect.
  I know it is Louisa Hodge singing. I've already admitted I don't know the guitarists name, and I have no idea who the drummer was, but I do know the bass guitarists name, although I am unsure how to spell his surname. I think it is Kieth Eggleton. .....and now. with midday looming fast, it is time to get back to selecting and editing he rest of the pictures. These is a tiny chance I might go out and take some more tonight - possibly of Simply Retro in The Swan in West Wickham.