Today the forecast is changing by the hour. This is not unusual !  The latest revision shows all the rain will be over by 2pm, and the two hours shown with rain are only shown as light showers. Most of the afternoon, and into the evening may  feature a fair few sunny spells. The afternoon temperature should reach 22° C. The BBC shows a slightly more benign forecast with sunny spells (which we have yet to see) until light rain at 1 and 2pm, and then quite a lot of sunshine for the rest of the afternoon and early evening. Both forecasters agree that tomorrow could be very wet, but the Met Office shows a current bias towards the rain only being in the late afternoon and evening. It might be no more than 19 or 20° C.

  Once again I am writing the start of this the evening before the morning of the publish date. This time I shall ignore trying to mangle the past, present and future tenses, and write it as if I were writing it in the morning as I used to do, but maybe not any more. Yesterday was a a good bad and indifferent day. I was mostly resting in preparation for a long day tomorrow.

  Tomorrow should have been the first day of Chattfest, but I learned in the afternoon that it has been postponed until sometime in August when the long range weather forecasts predict some proper hot and dry summer days. The forecasts for today (and also Sunday, the second day of Chattfest), as published yesterday, showed that both days could be rather wet, and the BBC even threw in a thunderstorm for Sunday.

  The problem with Chattfest is that it takes place in the very large garden behind The Chatterton Arms, and very little is under cover. As well as being rather unpleasant for those standing for those standing in the rain to watch the bands (who are under cover), the P.A. equipment would be exposed to rain. It can handle a bit of damp, such as a bit of spray blown onto it, but not full rain.

  In some ways it was a relief that it was called off. Early in the afternoon my guts were still uncomfortable, and I even had to make a few short visits to the toilet in the early afternoon because evidently I was still not empty after the visits I made in the morning. Some hours later I did begin to feel OK - I think. On the other hand I did spent a bit of time selecting my cameras and lens for the next day, and making sure the camera batteries, and spares, were fully charged. Now I have put the cameras away - possibly for the weekend and more, but there is a chance I could go out tonight if I manage to get myself in the right frame of mind, and if it doesn't mean waiting for buses in the pouring rain.

  I've tried to eat carefully today - sort of. I guess dosing up the medium sized instant spicy noodles with extra chilli sauce was not a clever idea while I have dodgy guts. My lunch was a pack of ready to eat (but they would probably have benefited from being heated up in the mini oven/grill) so called "Buffalo Wings". I guess they are spicy too, but to my taste buds it was all very mild.

   I also had two small portions of salted peanuts when I felt the need to nibble. I did keep my dinner simple. It was two sandwiches made with Polish Sourdough bread with salad leaves, some mayo, some slices of tomato, and sliced of cheese in one, and slices of ham in the other. That sourdough bread seems to have almost no sugar in it, and somehow it seems that the carbohydrate in it either turns to sugar very slowly, or impossibly, not at all.

 
 Yesterday was a sort of sad day, and I felt depressed at times. It was a mix of the really dull weather, with only a view of very dark grey clouds outside, and boredom, plus, to some extent, Chattfest being cancelled. It seemed the wrong time to take another step in a project that I started a day or two ago. I have been collecting Haig whisky bottles. They are a wonderful blue colour, and rectangular rather than round. I had a made idea to build a wall out of them in the garden as part of a flower bed, but I realised it was never going to happen.

  I have over 20 of those bottles (some 70cl and some 1 litre), and a couple of days ago I decided to put two of them in the recycling bin. Yesterday I disposed of an other two. It is sort of sad to do it, but I can't lecture Jodie about hoarding crap if I don't get my own house in order first !

My TV habits last night were unchanged - three lots of Star Trek, an hour with the TV off (and when I wrote the start of this page), and then QI. One of the Star Treks I had not seen before (I think it was The New Generation, and that is most odd because I could swear I had watched every single one of them in the past). QI was one of the better ones, but only a bit above mediocre. QI finished at 10pm, and I had already brushed my teeth during a commercial break. I turned the TV off, and went straight to bed. I felt a bit tired and decided to see what would happen if I didn't bother with any reading, and just turned the light out. As far as I can remember, I was probably fast asleep in 5 minutes.

   The only trouble is that I only slept for about 75 minutes before waking up for a pee. I suspect that had I read a few pages I might have gone for a pee before I turned the light off. It didn't take long to fall asleep again, but once again I only slept for about 90 minutes before I woke again for another pee. After that I slept for longer periods, although I can't really say how long those periods were. Let's just say they seemed normal - if anyone knows what that is.

  I did have a few linked dreams last night. One was a horror/Sci Fi crossover dream. I really only remember one bit, but I can sort of describe the background. "We" (me and one or two others who had no names or even faces, but were there) were going into what looked like a shed. When we opened the door we were confronted by Frankenstein's monster. I had a futuristic weapon that shot out what looked like a very thin, and very straight lightning bolt. I remember there was a worry that because the monster had been animated by electricity, it might be impervious to a lightning bolt. It wasn't, but I seem to think it might have only been stunned.

  There was another a dream that seemed to involve the monster in a different, and maybe less harmful context, and somehow also involved ordering beer in a bar somewhere. it is annoying that the details were fresh in my mind at 6am, but what little I have described seems to be all I can remember. I "know" I had another dream, and me feeling is that it was quite an entertaining dream, but I can't seem to remember a thing about it.

  It was almost on the dot of 6am when I woke up, and it felt like a good time to get up. I tried to go to the toilet (for "number twos" but nothing happened except for a bit of gas. After that I checked my blood glucose level. As I explained further up the page, I had tried to eat more carefully yesterday. It had the positive effect of no bloat and other stomach discomfort, and also had the desired positive effect on my blood glucose this morning. My new blood glucose meter gave a very nice reading of 8.0mmol/l, and the old meter gave a less good, but still very acceptable 8.8mmol/l. All things balance out in the end, and the rolling average for the month now stands at 8.67mmol/l on the new meter, and 8.66mmol/ on the old meter. That is remarkably close, and also a generally good figure.

  The main thing originally on the agenda today was to be Chattfest - up to 7 hours of musical entertainment in the big garden behind The Chatterton Arms pub in Bromley. As mentioned above, it has now been cancelled because of adverse weather. The weather forecast for today is now not looking that bad, but it is a 2 day event, and the weather forecast for tomorrow is still looking pretty awful (although the BBC no long think there will be a thunderstorm - the BBC love their thunderstorms).

  It leaves me with nothing to do today*, although I might possibly go to see Chain playing in Blackheath. The trouble is that I don't really like The Railway pub in Blackheath, and I have an alternative idea that seems a bit more attractive. It is to have several, or more, bottles of beer, and to stuff my face with Aldi style southern fried chicken. The chicken is not frozen, and has to be used sooner or later, and tonight could be a good night. It is a shame I don't have a deep fat fryer to cook the chicken, but it usually cooks OK in the mini oven/grill.

* I was thinking along the lines of no trains today because of a rail strike, but some research shows there are plenty of trains running along many line, including a once an hour service from Catford station, but no trains from Catford Bridge station today. Anyway, if it is too dull for live music, it is too dull for train spotting too.