Once again rain is predicted for the middle the end of the morning, but instead of it not appearing on later revision, even more has been added. There is now a 70% chance of a thunderstorm now forecast for 11am, but maybe it will just be heavy rain  with light rain an hour either side of it. Light rain has now been added for 2, 3, and 4pm. All other times should be sunny spells or full sunshine. The highest temperature could be 22° C, but it may only be 18° C when, and if the thunderstorm happens at 11am. That doesn't seem warm enough to "brew up" a thunderstorm, but maybe conditions are different in the upper atmosphere. A lot of tomorrow could be dry but dull, although there should be some sunny spells, and it may be a degree warmer than today at 23° C.

  Yesterday was another moderately busy day. After an unusually early shower I got dressed ready for a short but long foray into the outside world. My principle target was to get some shopping from Tesco, but I went the long way around to take a picture of the notice board outside The Catford Bridge Tavern.

  This confirmed, and added to what I remembered when I saw the small, A4 sized, poster advertising the new open mic night at The Catford Bridge Tavern. There were a series of weekly open mic nights in there for a while under the old management, but they didn't attract much attention, and fizzled out. The new management of the pub are now trying again, but it seems there was just the one solitary poster to advertise it. They probably need some good exposure on social media if it is ever going to attract more musician, and heaven knows how they will ever attract the multitude of musicians from Bromley. The Bromley lot hate Catford, and that was before the ULEZ (Ultra Low Emissions Zone) made it even less attractive from those "over the border".

  My shopping in Tesco was relatively sane this time, and once again it was because the new layout seems to discourage finding stuff that you didn't know you wanted until you saw it. I guess it will all settle down soon, and I will eventually learn where everything is, but while it is still in a state of flux it is hard to do that. One thing I was suckered into buying, mostly because I knew where to look, was a bottle of Haig Whisky because they were giving a £11 discount on the 70cl bottle when bought with a Clubcard.



  I think there was only one purchase that was truly unwise, and yet it was very delicious. It was a pack of pork belly strips in some sort of spicy marinade. I thought it had a reduced price sticker on it, but maybe I picked up the wrong pack. Oh well, it was exceedingly scrumptious when I ate the whole lot for a late lunch. It was a bit of a mistake to eat them then. There was, as is always the case with pork belly, an awful lot of fat on them - almost 50% meat and 50% solid fat ! Although I can't pin the blame solely on the fat, once again it was about 50% to blame, it would have repercussions  later.

  Before I started filling my face I did another little job. It was to hand wash my new Whitestar t-shirt, plus another t-shirt and some underwear. I thought I had no hope of drying it on the washing line, and so I dried it on the clothes horse with the usual desk fan on it all overnight. In fact I could have dried it on the washing line, and the only risk would have been in blowing away during one of the stronger gusts of wind.

  One job I almost forgot about was to finish going through the pictures the pictures I had taken at the Whitestar gig the day before. It was gone 1pm before I finished that job. I was doing it all a few pictures at a time between other stuff I was doing. I had my marinated pork belly strips, with a pile of salad leaves, as a sort of Sunday dinner, after the last pictures were done. I then could relax until about 6pm when I started to get things together to go out at 7pm.

  I am sure it was because I had eaten such a big pile of dinner that, despite giving it over 5 hours to settle, I found the walk to The Catford Bridge Tavern, nit much more than 6 minutes walk away from home, to end up almost as a struggle. I had to do my best to slow my walking pace, something I am terrible at doing, because I was getting something like, but not exactly like, winded while I was still a couple of minutes walk away.

  It was sort of odd how I recovered within a few seconds of walking in the door of the pub. The first thing I saw was the set up for the open mic. it was near the side entrance, and in a far better place than where it used to be held....On the other hand, if it does ever get busy there is only a limited space for the audience and those waiting their turn at the mic. I was just getting the pint of Guinness when the man who gave every indication that he couldn't be bothered to come, turned up.
  Michael ended up looking very happy. It was partly the music, and a lot to do with his sudden great liking of Portobello "Notting Helles" 4% "craft lager". He wasn't going to drink much after getting drunk the day before, but he put away 4 pints of that lager before we left. I was trying to pace my Guinnesses, but to keep up I had to drink 4 pints as well.
 Centre front in this picture is Eleanor Kane, the hostess for the open mic. She was from somewhere in Scotland, but her accent was not too bad.....but through the PA I could only make out about two out of every three words she said. I'm not sure if it was the mic, the amplifier or some sort of mic processing that seemed to make all vocals sound a bit sort of mumbled. The rather rustic looking man behind, on the cajon, is either Harry Demmon or Alexandra Rochford.
  Whoever it wasn't I named in the first picture must be this young man. He had a nice gold guitar, and he could play it, but his style was a lot like the hosts. Michael trier to explain to me that he (and she) were picking like it was an acoustic guitar, but of course it was an electric guitar. It was very staccato playing, and I didn't like it, but at least he did actually do a cover song that I knew, but I would still only give him 5 out of 10. Maybe if he played his electric guitar like an electric guitar, along with someone on bass, and someone on the cajon (to simulate drums) it might have sounded a lot better.
  The irony is that this young lady, who reminds me a lot of my old friend Imogen, played that big electro-acoustic guitar more like an electric guitar. She certainly seemed to play very confidently, and sang confidently to. It was a shame the PA sort of ruined it. As I remarked to her just before we left, if she ever gets the chance to play in a good studio with a good mic, and a good sound engineer, she should sound really good.

  The one thing I didn't find out before we left was the date of the next open mic. I did hear it would initially only be once a month, and I thought I heard mention of the last Sunday of the month. So it could either be on the 20th or 27th of August. I was quite happy to go home because it seemed unlikely there would be anything new to be seen, and Michael was happy to go home before he fell off his bar stool.

  I was quite surprised how drunk Michael was. Walking down the road he started to have a rant about people leaving their wheelie bins out on the pavement when it was quite obvious they had nowhere else to put them. he then went on to rant that it was all so different when he lived on that road, and how with so few cars around in the 1950s he could skate down the road, or play cricket across the width of the road without having to worry about cars. This of course was all true, but had didn't half go on about it a lot !

  Apart from Michael's ranting, and having to walk a bit slower so he could keep up with me, it seemed like a very pleasant stroll with none of the discomforts of the walk to the pub. (I've just noticed that at 10am we have had our first shower this morning - amazingly this is in accordance with the forecast. Will it be the thunderstorm next ?). When I got home I decided I couldn't be bothered to look at the photos I had taken, but I did fancy a light supper. The lightest thing I could think of was a tub of icecream. It was the type that has very little sugar or calories, and  so I took a chance.

  I was in bed soon after eating my ice cream. I read for a little, and then put the book down, turned out the light, wondered if I would ever get to sleep, and then, perhaps 5 minutes later, I was fast asleep. I think I slept well last night, but I do remember dreaming quite a lot. A few dreams had some mildly unpleasant bits in them, and one resurrected the dead - it featured a deceased friend of mine.

  I can only partly describe one dream. It was slightly nightmare, and a lot strange fantasy. In this dream I wanted to chill some bottles of beer. I had three fridges, and all three looked like they had probably come from an old shop - big an upright. All three seemed to be more freezers than just coolers. I put some beers in the first fridge, but they didn't seem to get cold. The next fridge looked like it needed defrosting. it was full of frost, but weirdly the frost did not feel cold. The third fridge seemed like it might be the one to work. It had some sort of slider that had to be pressed in to move it. I moved it a fair distance, and I could hear motors start up, and strange noises came from it. Of course I never did find out if it worked to chill the beer because I woke up.

  This morning has been busy. After going to the toilet I checked my blood glucose reading. After my heavy lunch, and potentially naughty supper, I was ready to see a high reading, but in fact the new blood glucose meter said just 8.5mmol/l - a very average sort of reading. My old meter said even lower, just 8.0mmol/l. I seem to have things under control this month ! I also took two other readings. One was my weight after doing a moderate poo. It was still lower than my "officially recorded" weight at the doctors, but not low enough for any reason to celebrate. I also checked my blood pressure, and initially it was a bit high (but still a long way into the "normal" area). I then decided it would be better to check it when I wasn't busting for a pee. After that it came down into the optimum area 118/57. That's good enough for me.

  Before I started writing all this I went through and selected the best photos taken last night. Sadly most were not as good as hoped for. Initially I was having trouble balancing the natural light and the flash I needed to fill in the shadows (there was a window almost behind the microphone. I ended up not being shy and increased the power of the flash enough so it became the primary illumination. Many of the photos looked a bit soft, but not exactly out of focus. I was using my Canon 1200D camera instead of the Nikon I usually use now.

  That camera sometimes seems to focus on the wrong place, but I am inclined to blame the lens I was using. It is a Tamron lens a bit like the one I won't use on my Nikon camera because the pictures seem a bit soft. The odd thing is that I have another Tamron lens, currently on one of my other Canon cameras, and that has proved 100% perfect for train photography. It leaves me in two minds about whether Tamron lenses are rubbish or not. Maybe only some of them are, and that is why they can often be picked up second hand very cheaply - ideal for beginners, but after a while you get more discerning.

  Other stuff I did earlier was to do a lot of washing up, left from yesterday, and to make my breakfast. As usual it was a pack if instant noodles. today's was Kimchi flavour. With that enjoyable eaten I could sit down to write all this rubbish you are reading.

  Today is going to be a day of rest, but also a day of waiting. Sometime today I am expecting delivery of three boxes of 15 cans of Guinness. As I write this they have not left the depot, and at least initially it is going to be a typical Amazon "before 9pm" delivery time. Hopefully it will be early afternoon. I am also waiting for a delivery of 2 boxes of a dozen bottles of hot Caribbean sauce. Amazon thinks it will be delivered today, but this morning DPD, the couriers for this delivery, said it hadn't even been picked up to be taken to the local depot. I reckon this order will arrive tomorrow, and being DPD, possibly quite early in the morning.