Today is another day when I don't think the forecast can be relied on. It has already changed a lot. The Met Office has changed 11am to full sunshine, and 1 and 2pm to dark grey clouds with light rain. The BBC were originally showing another of their favourites, a thunderbolt, around midday, but now they just show light rain or drizzle for the start of the afternoon. It is looking likely that the start of the afternoon could get wet to some degree or another, and late afternoon and the evening will be bright with at least sunny spells. The temperature should reach 21° C today with the possibility of some of a single hour reaching 22° C. Tomorrow is currently forecast by both the BBC and Met office to be grey and wet.

  I knew exactly what I wanted to do yesterday, but the chances of it happening seemed quite slim until a couple of hours before the event. More about that later. For most of the day I did very little, but I did do one thing that was quite important in the morning. In fact it turned out to be more important than I realised !

  The job in question was cleaning work surfaces where the recently deceased mouse had been roaming in the kitchen. I will admit I did see some droppings weeks ago, but for some reason I thought they may have been there for a long time, and I was trying to memorise them to see if any more appeared. As far as I could tell there was no change at all, and so the problem seemed minor. Then to my great surprise a trap that had been down for over a year suddenly caught a mouse.

  Yesterday morning I decided it was time to get the bleach out and clean the entire area. While doing this I had to move a few tins around, and behind one tin (of completely disgusting, alleged, low sugar Heinz chicken soup) I found a trap I had set years ago, and in the trap was a mostly decayed mouse. NOT NICE ! Fortunately I was wearing disposable latex gloves, mainly as protection from the bleach, and while it was still very unpleasant I was able to remove the trap and remains, and throw them straight into the bin.

  It felt good to get that job over, and I could, and did, relax a lot after that. The rest of my day was acted out as if I was going out in the evening. The weather forecasts kept changing, and for a long time it looked like the evening could be very wet. The BBC kept forecasting lightning bolts. I guess I was feeling optimistic because I still went through the drill for going out in the evening. Mostly that meant having a large lunch later in the afternoon so it was more like a very early dinner.

  I think I passed some of the morning having a snooze, and more of it just reading. The afternoon could have been boring, but something triggered an idea. I cannot remember where, but I saw the name Sherlock Holmes written somewhere, and decided it might be nice to watch a couple of episodes of the Granada TV productions of all the Sherlock Holmes stories. I watched 2 episodes, and enjoyed them once again.

  The large lunch I mentioned was actually split into two sessions. One was some grilled chicken with salad leaves, and the other was rice cakes with thinly sliced "continental" sausages on them. There were three different types of sausage in the pack, and the presentation of them in the pack was for them to be spread out, but overlapping. It looked like there was a lot of sausage in there, but if each slice was stacked on on another it would probably barely reach an inch high. There was possibly less meat than one "standard British Banger" in that pack.

  That was all I ate from mid afternoon yesterday until I had my breakfast this morning. Probably once an hour I would look at the hourly updates to the weather forecast. The Met Office started to look more optimistic, but the BBC still seemed convinced that the end of time had come complete with lashing rain and lightning bolts. At ten minutes before 5pm I took a picture looking north from the back bedroom window.
  This is what the BBC described as thick dark cloud with heavy rain ! It was actually rather glorious out, and the sky would get even clearer than this later in the evening. I had already checked my camera was ready to go, and so the next thing was to take my morning shower - at just after 6pm ! I then cooled off while watching Star Trek. At about 7.15 I was dressed and ready to go out.

  There seemed to be some problem finding the time for the next bus to Bromley. One was shown in 28 minutes time, and I was sure that must be wrong - as far as I knew there should be a bus every 20 minutes. Indeed there was one due in under 8 minutes, but it wasn't shown on the bus Countdown app. The bus had probably been delayed because I was 5oft or som from the bus stop when the bus came roaring along, and didn't bother to stop at the bus stand. It pulled up at the bus stop while I was still 20 or 30ft away. A few people got on which helped delay it's departure while I ran for it - bit at barely more than a fast walking pace.

  I just could go no faster. It was partly the shoes I was wearing. I have only worn them a couple of times before, and I am still wearing them in. The doors closed while I was still a few feet short of the doors, but fortunately the driver must have noticed me and opened the doors at the last second. I got on, and went upstairs. I was breathing very heavily, and I could feel some interesting aches that without prior experience I might have thought was something like Angina. It definitely seemed I was suffering from COPD, and yet my symptoms don't match all those in the Wikipedia article.

  Having caught the bus earlier than expected, and the bus being so lightly used, it raced to Bromley, and I had over half an hour to wait before the Whitestar open mic started in The Partridge pub. The pub was almost empty, but I knew a few people there. One was Chris Mayer, and the other was Paul Newham. Paul took the opportunity to thank me for the picture I took of him at The Hell On Tap gig the previous weekend. He said it was only one of two he had seen (the other not being one of mine) that he liked.

  One of the reasons for going last night was to pick up the Whitestar t-shirt that I ordered and paid for almost a year ago. Unfortunately, or so the excuse when, Simon Whitestar said he thought I meant to pick it up when Whitestar play the Shortlands Tavern new garden on Saturday. I was hoping to get it last night so I could give it a wash before wearing it on Saturday. It looks like I will have to change t-shirts mid gig on Saturday.

  I ended up staying out later than I thought I would, and I really only left when the batteries in my flash gun failed. It wasn't just that on it's own, but also included in  feeling miffed was that the new batteries I put in the flash gun were actually old batteries. Some time in the past I didn't do what I made damn sure of doing when I got home last night. I put fresh batteries in the flash gun, and put fresh batteries in the little plastic holder I keep in my camera bag.

  I was lucky that I only had a very short wait for the bus home. It was no more than a four minute wait for a 208 bus to arrive. I usually prefer the 320 bus, and generally only get that when going to Bromley, but either bus will do, and the walks from their different bus stops is pretty similar. Once upon a time I would buy some supper, usually fried chicken, or make some sort of supper to mop up the beer I had drunk (3 pints of Guinness at £6 a pint last night), but somehow I don't seem to do that any more, and after pottering around for 10 minutes I went straight to bed, and it seems I went straight to sleep.

  I think it was about 10.30pm when I went to sleep, but definitely before 11pm. Once again I seemed to sleep well, and only woke up for a pee a couple of times in the night. A little after 5am was the last time I woke for a pee, and my bedroom was feeling a bit cool by then. I went back top bed and tried to sleep fully under the duvet, but that felt too hot. Hald covered seemed fine, and I thin slept until just gone 6am.

  I was hoping for an extra good blood glucose reading this morning. It was good, but not extra good. The new meter said 8.0mmol/l, and the old meter said 8.2mmol/l. This morning was one of those slightly rare mornings when I opened my bowels (as they say in the hospital trade) soon after getting up. I bravely decided to weigh myself before I had any breakfast, or even washed down my morning pills. There was no notable improvement, but 700gm below my officially recorded weight at the doctors surgery is not too bad.

  Today could or ought to be a busy day. To start with I have no idea how many pictures I took last night - I'm pretty sure it was well over 100, and I have to select the best of them, maybe as few as a dozen, but possibly double that, and edit, and maybe beautify them (if I can).. That should easily take up all morning, and well into the afternoon.

  The plan for the afternoon was, or is, for Jodie and Michael to meet here, and then if it looks dry, bright and warm, to go and visit the roof garden of The Catford Constitutional Club (mk2). It all hinges on the weather. The later revisions of the forecasts seem to suggest it may be mostly dry, 21° C, but perhaps not that bright. The chances are it will completely different in reality, maybe even one of the BBC's beloved thunderstorms. Whether here or there, this afternoon will be a drinking session, and nothing much will get done after that !