The BBC seems more consistent in it's forecast for today. They say there will be sunny spells all day until early evening. There could be a light shower at 9pm. They predict a high of 22° C for just a brief period this afternoon. Back to the Met Office whose forecast is usually use, even if sometimes it is a bit pessimistic.... They say the sunny spells will finish after 11am, and apart from one sunny spell at 5pm, the afternoon will be dull. They think there will be a single shower at 8pm, and that the afternoon temperature will be 22° C - the same as the BBC. Apart from no evening rain, the forecasts for tomorrow are approximately the same as for today - from each forecaster. One difference is that both say it will be one degree cooler than today.

  Before finishing with the weather it is "interesting" to see what is forecast for Sunday. It is this coming Sunday, the 23rd July, that there is to a be a "food, folk, 'n' fun in the fields" day in my local park. Fortunately there is plenty of time for the weather forecast to change because it currently says it will be a wash out !

  Yesterday was, on the whole, a good day, but later in the day it did become guilt laden ! The first highlight of the day was going for a Wednesday lunchtime drink in the pub. Apart from keeping an eye out for the postman because I am expecting maybe two small packets to be delivered some time, I did very little apart from washing my hair and having a shower during the morning.

  I am sure I mentioned I felt possibly constipated early yesterday morning, and that I did "go" a little later. I also probably mentioned I thought there was more to come. There was ! It was, as expected, quite a substantial amount, and it left the wisdom of going out a bit questionable. One tiny bit last minute extra was timed to make me just 2 minutes late for the train I was intending to get. I did see the back of the train as it left from the other platform.
  The shot of 465916 just leaving Catford Bridge is one of two lucky shots. This train was one I had never photographed before, and so it has been added to my huge spreadsheet ledger of train photographs.
 This train, 465155, is just entering Catford Bridge station on it's way towards Hayes (Kent). It was another never before photographed train to enter into my spreadsheet.
  Also photographed while I was on Catford Bridge station - a reminder that there are no trains today, on Saturday, and next Saturday (29th July). Elsewhere, on a paper poster, it adds that on strike days no rail replacement buses will run.
  I spotted more bad railway news when I got to Ladywell. At some time in the not too distant future the ticket office will be closed at Ladywell station. I have no experience of the ticket Office at Ladywell, but I know that the ticket office being open at Catford Bridge seems very sporadic. There is one thing that ticket office are essential for, and that is buying tickets that are difficult to buy from self service machines.

  Now I must admit it has been some time since I last looked, but there doesn't seem to be an option of buying a ticket for travel from anywhere except the station the ticket machine is located at. One common purchase for me in the days before Covid stopped it all, and later not feeling up to it, was to buy a ticket from zone 6 (the end of free travel on my Freedom pass) to, for instance, a seaside station. Only the man behind the ticket window could do that. It is going to be a royal pain in the backside to split a journey at the zone 6 border to buy a ticket for the onward journey. On a Sunday it could mean a wait of a full hour until the next train. I shall be very cross if the ticket office is closed,a nd the self service machine doesn't have the option of not only a to station, but a from station as well.

  Maybe we are lucky in Catford in that we have two stations in Catford - Catford and Catford Bridge stations. The odd thing is that Catford station is historically a Southeast station even though services are provided by Thameslink. Southeastern staff still man the ticket office, and it is open for much longer than Catford Bridge station because Southeastern grab a small percentage of the ticket price despite providing no trains, and Catford station is the usual station for journeys to far more distant places than Catford Bridge - so Southeastern can make good money by keeping it open !

   It was lovely to see Ayse back behind the bar of The Jolly Farmers after he holiday. She looked brown as a berry after soaking up hot sunshine. It was great to indulge in all the banter that goes on in the pub when she is there. I also indulged in serious stuff. Before I left I finished the quick crossword, and half the cryptic crossword. It has been a long time since I have managed as much as half, although in the past I could often nearly finish it completely. After three pints of lovely Guinness I made my way home.
  While I was making my way to the pub the sun managed to shine for a few very short periods through a pinhole through the clouds. Three pints and a couple of hours later the sky was mostly blue, and the sunshine was magnificent. I was feeling really good, and I was also starting to lack some self control.

  The firsts slip in my self control was when I decided to pop into the little supermarket on Catford Bridge to but some bits and pieces. I mainly wanted to buy about 10 packs of Polish and Vietnamese instant Noodles (Amino and Koka brands). In particular I wanted tomato flavour instant noodles, but I got other varieties as well - including the famous beetroot flavour. The main trouble was the other stuff I got. It included 3 big oranges. Sometimes I can easily tolerate eating one a day, and sometimes not, and I think I am heading into another "not" time.

  More minor madness when curiosity had me buying a sliced loaf of a quite dark brown bread with pumpkin seeds in it. I have yet to try and read the small print to find if it has any excess sugar in it. Some bread they sell in the shop, notably the Polish style bread has no sugar in it at all, and I can tolerate a few slices of it with no bad effects. I hope this dark brown bread is also no or very low sugar. There were a few things like sliced sausage that should be OK apart from the temptation to put them in sandwiches if the bread turns out to have a lot of sugar in it.

  There was one thing that was a bad choice. It was from the small basket of breads and cakes on the counter by the till. I saw something that looked too tempting to ignore. It was like a sausage roll, made with the finest puff pastry, but filled with feta cheese instead of sausage, and flattened. The outside was a lovely brown colour, probably made by coating it with sugar water before cooking, and it was all soaked in butter or some sort of oil. It had quite a leather-like texture, and needed a lot of chewing. It looked far nicer than it actually was, but I definitely enjoyed it straight after I got home.

  Not that much later I couldn't resist trying some of the sliced "chicken and paprika mortadella" sausage in the dark brown bread. It was good, although that bread is rather chewy. My actual dinner was cold chicken shish kebab left over from my takeaway the previous night. A bit later I tried a couple more slices of the mortadella, but on a two rice cakes. it goes with those nicely as well.

  I did my usual last night, three Star Treks, and hour reading followed by one more TV programme - a QIXL. The latter finished at 10pm, and I went straight to bed. I read for maybe 20 minutes before falling asleep. I don't remember a lot about the night. I know I woke up to pee two or three times, but I don't know when, and I know I had some very disjointed dreams - the type where they change so much you can't remember, and even less describe some sort of story or plotline.

  The one thing I do remember was waking up just before 6am. Most time I would have got up then, but this morning it felt like I needed more sleep. It seems I did need more sleep because after a pee I got back on my bed, and almost instantly fell asleep for another 70 minutes sleep. I wasn't sure even then if I wanted more, but I decided to get up regardless. One of the first things I did, after washing any sweat or other contaminants off my hands, was to prick my right thumb (the next in my ten finger rotation) and check my blood glucose. I knew it was going to be possibly very high, and it was, but also wasn't ! My new meter said 10.2mmol/l - very high and across the red line. It was very peculiar that my old meter said just 8.7mmol/l from the same bead of blood on my thumb. That is a very unremarkable reading, and I am at a loss to explain it being so comparatively low.

  I do feel a bit sluggish today, and in an ideal world I would go out to get some exercise, and skip lunch. With no trains today I can't go anywhere distant (I refuse to get buses for all but the shortest journeys), and I don't really feel like walking too far, and definitely not some where I have been to so many times before - like the Linear Park. It definitely won't be healthy, but there are things I could usefully do today if I stay in. One thing is to pay off my Tesco Credit Card. I will definitely need a lie down after doing that !