At the moment it does look like we will transition from hazy sunshine or sunny spells to full on sunshine soon. Maybe today's forecast, as shown above, and hardly changed in the latest revision, and also agreed on by the BBC forecast, will be reality today. 17° C should feel good in bright sunshine, and maybe it will actually climb a bit higher. Tomorrow should also feature almost non stop sunshine after maybe an hour or so of just sunny spells at dawn. Tomorrow's temperature is predicted to reach 20° C for quite a number of hours.

  On the whole, yesterday was pretty fair, but the evening was a bit of a disappointment, although still partly enjoyable. I had a very slow start to yesterday, and it wasn't until almost midday before I had a shower and got up. That is becoming a bit of a habit, and there are reasons I can see that happening again today.

  One of the first things I wanted to do once I was washed and dressed, was to go to Tesco and buy some stuff for salads, and other stuff as it caught my eye. One thing I didn't want to do was to bump into Michael. He had generously offered to pick up 4 two litre bottles of Diet Coke for me in his car while he was shopping. I would have felt like a fraud or something if I had bumped into him. On the other hand, I had bought sufficient stuff that I only had room in my own bags (actually my rucksack) to carry 2 bottles.

  I think Michael went to Tesco about an hour later than me in the end, and it was past 2pm when he dropped off my Diet Cokes. One of my intentions while in Tesco was to also buy something that might be part of a large lunch because part of my plans for the day were not to have any dinner. The only thing I bought to that end was a pack of thin quick fry peppered steaks. I had to cook them in the mini grill, and sadly I overcooked them and they turned out to be rather dry.

  The rest of my lunch was another bowl of instant noodles and a chunk of cheese. It wasn't quite the lunch I was thinking of, but it was enough. After lunch I had to keep myself alert for Michael's message so I could go outside to meet him at his car. While grabbing the bottles we discussed the evening. The plan was that we were going to go to The Honor Oak pub, in Forest Hill, and see Caz & Steve Duo. There was a chance that Angela would join us, and also a chance that Michael wouldn't because he was complaining about his hip hurting.

  Once Michael had driven off, and I had put my bottles f Diet Coke away, I could sink into intense relaxation mode.....sort of. I was both excited, and relaxed, and sort of apprehensive. Eventually the clock crept round and at 7.30pm it was time to leave. I had told Michael that I would be setting out at at 7.30pm, and I wondered if I would see him, either at the end of the road leading down to the main road and bus stop, or even parked at the end of that road.

   Little did I know that he had gone to a completely different bus stop - a bus stop where only one bus went near the pub, and he would have to change buses to get one that stopped a bit nearer the pub. I ended up on the bus Michael probably got first, but he got off at the stop before I got on it, and waited for the better bus in vain. He ended up getting the next bus on the same route he had started on.

  I must admit the 185 bus, which stops around the corner from pub actually stops round a rather large corner. I guess it was a 5 minute walk compared to the 1 minute walk from the 171 bus stop - the better bus route to get. When I got to the pub I was surprised not to see Carrie and Steve, but I did see a mike stand and a guitar ready for action. I was still waiting for my Guinness to settle before it was topped to the brim when Michael walked in. Probably little more than 5 minutes behind me.
  We sat down on the comfy sofas near the musician. He was called John Clapper, and fairly soon he started his first set. Prior to that I had had a message to say that we were on our way. It was obvious that this meeting was going to include lover boy. That was a shame, although probably only to be expected. Our private meetings can probably only occur at lunchtimes when he is out at work.
  This is John Clapper. I have to confess that I was taking very little care when taking the few pictures I took last night. I think I only got a couple of usable snaps of him. One problem was the lighting was very variable. The windows were letting in a lot of bright daylight, but inside the pub the lighting was of fairly yellow/red electric lighting. The contrasts were often high, and the colour temperature different from every angle. It was one of those times where my mobile phone would probably have done a better job.

  As for John Clapper - he was a very good guitarist, and could sing OK, but his PA was underpowered, and would clip on loud bits. In particular he was using a looper pedal, and often feeding it a sort of beatbox type of sibilants and stuff to substitute for drums. Some of those sibilant sound really distorted through that small PA. Although he was good, I don't think I really liked his style, although he did play some good stuff, but Hendrix to a sort of hip hop backing just plain sounded wrong.
  This was an interesting looking dog that a man brought in. As well as that cute face, he was wearing a collar wrapped with bright, multicoloured LEDs - which was rather striking. Soon after the dog arrived, Angela and lover boy arrived. I was a little disappointed when Angela sat down next to Michael on his sofa, and lover boy sat next to me. It wasn't long, maybe 2 minutes, before Michael started rabbiting away to Angela like he does when he comes here for a beer session.
  I have to admit I was getting a bit bored just listening to the music, which was all I could here (the PA speaker was just over my left shoulder). I thought I might take a few more pictures, but there are only so many picures you can take of one man standing at a mic stand with guitar in hand.
  As can be seen, this picture isn't terribly different to the first picture further up the page - although the colouring is a bit different because the sun had sunk low enough that there was less daylight coming through the windows.

  Another reason for feeling bored, or maybe not bored, but perhaps unsettled, was the prices in the pub. Guinness, of which I had three pints was just over £6, although I didn't count my change enough to give an accurate price. After three pints of Guinness I had a couple of double Jameson's whiskey. They were over £9 each. It was a rather expensive night for a night I was not enjoying like I hoped I would. I was also feeling trapped. If I was on my own I would have just slipped out after a couple of drinks, but I didn't want to walk out on Angela and lover boy too early, and I felt a sort of responsibility to see Michael home safely.

  I'm not sure what time we left, but it was probably around 10pm. It was certainly fully night as we left. I had used the Bus Countdown app on my phone to time our exit (Angela had arrived by cab, and would be going home by cab which she would order when ready). My phone app said we had a 6 minute wait for the 171 bus, at the bus stop barely a minutes walk from the pub. I think it actually arrived in about 4 minutes. It was lucky I had allowed for some uncertainty of we could easily have missed it.

  I can't remember if it was on the bus, or after we had got off, and were walking up the road towards my home, when Michael came up with an interesting comment. He said he had been observing Angela carefully, and maybe interpreting some of the stuff she said. His observation was that there was very little love between Angela and lover boy, and their upcoming marriage must be a matter of convenience than romance. That tallies with some of my own thoughts about it after hearing various things.

  I felt quite tired when I got home. I had already decided I would not eat when I got home, and I stuck to that. I could have, and maybe should have at least made a start on checking the photos I had taken, but I couldn't even bother to do even that last night. It wasn't long before I was in bed, and quietly reading a few pages. I can't be sure, but I doubt it was any later than 11pm before I was sleeping quite soundly. Maybe the extra Jameson's I had when I came in out of the cold helped. One thing I do know that my extra large glass (a quadruple, or maybe a quintuple, would have cost more in the pub than the whole bottle when I bought it from Tesco !

  I seemed to sleep with few interruptions last night. Like the previous night, I only seemed to wake for a small pee once or twice. I think I woke up once to reset my pillows, and as seems usual lately, I woke a bit after 3am to turn the heater on low. I did wake up around 5am because a dream I was having was turning towards a nightmare. I was in a big house with a few friends, and wanted a pee, but the usual toilet was out of order, and the other was busy. It was suggested I use the one the ambulance drivers used (was it a house, or hospital ?). To get to this toilet I was directed to get out a window onto a flat roof, and then holding onto a drainpipe, while standing on a wobbly wall, to swing myself around the corner onto another flat roof. The only trouble was that it felt like the wobbly wall was about to collapse, and the other flat roof was criss-crossed with assorted pipe work, and I could see a safe place to land on.

  Some inbuilt safety feature woke me up at that point before anything nasty could happen. The odd thing is that while the theme of the dream was wanting to pee, I had no strong desire for one when awake. I did go to the toilet, but very little happened. On my way back to bed I turned the heater up full. When I was probably going to get up I felt toasty enough to almost sleep through past 7am.

  Since then I have checked my blood glucose, and it was as hoped, fairly low at just 8.2mmol/l. I would have expected/hoped it would have been lower still after no dinner, and the lack of night time peeing should signify a lower glucose level. I find myself still doubting the accuracy of my current test strips. Oh well, in another 4 weeks I should be getting my next repeat prescription and hopefully it will include brand new, from a reputable source, test strips, and I won't have to order more from Amazon.

  I have done two other things this morning. I have copied all the photos I took last night to my PC, and I have selected and edited the few I have used here. I have also treated myself to two small bowls of instant noodles - one was tomato flavour, and the other was "amazing chicken" or what ever superlative they use to describe it.

  The rest of the day is tricky to predict. It is going to be lovely walking weather, and great photography weather. I'm not sure how keen I would be for a long walk, and maybe some rail photography could be a better choice, but there is a sort of fly in the ointment. There is a gig I want to see, but don't really want to go to. The downside is that it is in The Partridge in Bromley. The place was OK at the open mic last Wednesday, but with a full gig it gets so crowded in there that it is difficult to take pictures, and even get to the bar.  I guess I had better make a decision some time in the next hour or so.