It looks like we have just had the first rain this morning. It looks like it was just a light sprinkle of rain, and it is still doing it now. 10am could see some heavy rain followed by light rain again until midday. The current revision of the forecast shows midday to 8pm as being dry, but the rain could start again at 9pm. I think it was later yesterday that the forecast showed a thunderbolt at around 10pm, but that has disappeared. There is still a yellow warning of a thunderstorm some time today. The maximum temperature today could be 22° C, but maybe only for a single hour. Tomorrow, the day of Chislehurst Rocks, is currently forecast to be mostly sunny spells, and 23° C, but that is really only the forecast for Catford. Looking a lot further ahead to next weekend, and the new dates for Chattfest......The last dates were cancelled because of wet weather. The BBC forecast next weekend to have......wet weather !
 
  This morning I feel physically OK, but maybe the very dull, and wet weather, has worked it''s evil into my brain, and this morning I had little enthusiasm to write this. I would rather just be very lazy - as I have for the last few hours where I did little more than flick through pages on the internet. More about this later.....

  Maybe I felt a little like I do today, yesterday, but my priorities were different. Maybe I was give a minor boost when I finally got an email from one of the organisers of Chislehurst Rocks. It was in response to my email asking if it was possible to get a back stage pass. She said no because they already have an official photographer, and don't need two. I was not wanting to be an "official photographer" - I just wanted to be able to take pictures from the side of the stage, and from the very edge of the stage, plus chat to the bands backstage, and take some full band pictures in some sort of conspired pose. My query was not totally in vain because she said if I gave her my full name she would leave it on the guest list (or equivalent) at the fast track entrance as used by bands and VIPs etc.

  There were three things I wanted to do yesterday morning, and I did two of them. The one I didn't do was to finish washing a hand towel and a some underwear. As I write this on Friday morning that washing is still soaking in bio detergent, and I really must force myself to get it done before I do anything else this morning.

  The first of the two things I did do was to walk to the pharmacy to pick up my repeat prescription. To my amazement it was all bagged up and ready to take away, and it was all completer ! I seemed to feel OK walking to the pharmacy, but I guess I was starting to warm up a bit. A fairly fast walk home again caused me to break out into a sweat once I got indoors. I could feel it coming on as I walked, and did my best to slow down a bit, but I find it so hard to walk slowly.

  The other thing I did after I cooled down for half an hour, and it was to go shopping in Tesco. Top of my shopping list was ingredients for more (hopefully) very low sugar content casseroles (as I now call my stews now that are cooked in the slow cooker). As well as some diced chicken and some diced lamb, I got some stock cubes, but I already had a head of  cauliflower and a white cabbage.

  I did find and buy other stuff. I found the single pot of the only ice cream hat seems safe to eat (because it seems to contain very little sugar). This one, like the last one, seemed like it had been found right at the back of the freezer in the store room. I know that summer is just about over (although a few more very warm days could be on the horizon) but it is no excuses why the buggers can't get a lot more stock in of this valuable ice cream. I picked up a few reduced price lumps of cheese, and the main weight in my rucksack was 12 cans of sugar free soft drinks (buy 6 for £1.80) instead of 50p each.

  I needed a rest, and once again, to cool down when I got back from Tesco. Maybe I rested for an hour, maybe less, before I started getting things ready for the traditional Thursday afternoon beer tasting session. The dining room only needed a very minor tidying up, but I had quite a bit of washing up to do in the kitchen. What made it seem like a lot was the ceramic bowl from the slow cooker. Once that was done the rest seemed almost trivial.

  It was too late in the day to start a casserole brewing...err, cooking. I knew that in advance, and so I bought a pacvk of what I thought was four, but actually was two thick burgers. I started them cooking before we started drinking, and I cooked them over some thick slices of onion in the mini oven/grill. I would have them with added salad leaves after Michael and Jodie had gone home.

  Yesterday was a fairly good beer drinking session. A few of the beers were very nice, and some were just nice - although sometimes it is hard to make a good judgement when only drinking about a third of a pint - a mere taster. As usual, Jodie spent much of the time on her mobile phone, and Michael talked ten to the dozen about how he was in every pub, every night, in a thirty mile radius of Catford, watching the most wonderful bands. Nostalgia is such a wonderful thing !

  One problem last night was that I felt very sober - even if I wasn't. Maybe it was the barometer falling as today's weather was moving towards me, but I felt restless, and even three Star Treks failed to amuse me. The best thing in the evening was my burgers, onion and salad, but that didn't last long. It didn't feel like I would sleep well, and so I felt no need to rush to bed early to get the day over and done with. Maybe that was a self fulfilling prophecy.

  It may have been 10pm when I laid down to try and go to sleep. As soon as I laid down with the lights out, my favourite aches and pains were all magnified, and brought almost to the surface, but they were beaten by how sultry it seemed last night (that being the posh way to say I was sweaty and sticky). At 11pm I gave in and once again I took a couple of Paracetamol tablets. By midnight they were helping enough to finally get to sleep.

  I didn't seem to sleep well, and woke up frequently, and it felt like it took ages to get back to sleep again. I thought I would be able to remember many of the dreams I had, but apart from a common theme, they have all slipped from my memory. The common theme was that none seem enjoyable. There was nothing that I can remember as being actually negative about the dreams, it is just that they brought no positive entertainment. It was like forcing yourself to watch a popular soap opera.

  My blood glucose readings were mildly high this morning. I think it was a combination of two things. There were a couple of things I ate that may have caused a small rise. The rest of the problem was most probably some dehydration. I know I had a couple of big pees in the night, but the bigger cause of dehydration was sweat. I had to turn my pillow around several times in the night because it was soaking with sweat ! My new blood glucose meter said 8.8mmol/l, which if it were not the recent days of much lower readings, would be unremarkable. The old meter just tipped the balance at 9.0mmol/l - not that different to the new meter, but crossing the threshold from still safe but undesirable.

  There are two things to do today. One is the laundry. I must finish washing the hand towel and other bits. Once that is done, and they are hanging on the clothes horse to dry, I can put all my energy and enthusiasm into being blood lazy, at a profession level today ! (Unless something more productive should grab my attention, but I can't think what that could ever be.)