The first significant thing about today's weather happened at just before 1am this morning. The sky was lit up by lightning flashes, but all the thunder seemed to be from some distance away (maybe 2 or 3 miles). This morning around 7 or 8am, we did have some weak sunny spells - as forecast, but they didn't last beyond 8am. The latest revision to the forecast has moved the forecast thunderstorms to just 11am and midday. There could be light rain at 2pm, and sunny spells at 3pm. There might be more sunny spells at 6 and 7pm after a light shower at 5pm. Of course all these fine details are certain to be wrong because the weather is in a state of flux. Today's high should be just 19° C, but now for only a couple of hours, and 18° C could be more representative of the day. There could be some strong winds for a few hours tomorrow, but it should be mostly dry, although rather dull for the whole day. The temperature may only rise to 18° C.

   Apart from the dullness, and the rain, I think I can describe yesterday as another good day. Any major badness happened after midnight. More about that later.  I had initially forgotten that yesterday was a Sunday (despite writing at the head of the page), and so had forgotten that I would probably be expecting Jodie to come over in the afternoon for a beer drinking session. I did remember before I had finished writing yesterday morning.

If I had been on the ball about the day, and what would probably happen, I might have made some effort to start writing earlier, and maybe write less. Obviously I didn't, but I still found time to do all I needed. I just didn't find time to practice some extreme laziness ! I didn't have time to fully rest before tackling the washing I had left soaking since the day before, but I got it all done, and hanging on the clothes horse with a desk fan blowing at it.

  That washing was of a pair of shorts, two t-shirts and 5 pairs of underpants. Later on I wished I hadn't washed one of the t-shirts in that wash. In the early afternoon, when I still had a couple of hours to spare, I dug my way to the back of the wardrobe in the spare bedroom to find one particular t-shirt. I actually found three of interest, and biggest interest is that it seems some t-shirts I put away because they seemed too small, and now wearable again - and I am not sure how because the scales say I have not lost any weight - at least not recently, but maybe over the last 20 years !

  The t-shirt I was looking for is the one I am wearing in the picture above. I saw Matt Fielding, lead singer from Ransom, wearing one of these t-shirts at the Ransom gig I went to in Purley several weeks ago. I asked him where he bought it. I was hoping he would say something like Amazon, but he said at a beer festival. I bought mine from a beer festival, but that was 20 years or more ago.  Over the years the black turned to a blueish grey, and I think I found it too small to wear. It seems to fit OK now though. I now need to wash it with a series of brand new t-shirts so the black dye runs from the new to the old - hopefully ! 

 Jodie arrived early yesterday afternoon. She had wisely tried to make a move before the rain started, but sadly she got caught by the rain halfway between the station and here. Fortunately the rain was moderately light, and she didn't get soaked. She brought the first three German Oktoberfest beers with her from the box of 10 she and Alan bought towards the end of last week.

  When talking about it before she had actually bought a box, she said there were 10x500ml bottles in the box. What she didn't say, probably because she didn't realise it, was that it was a very long and thin box with the bottles in a single line. that seems novel, but also stupid. It made the box hard to handle. Jodie is not very strong, and Alan only has one working arm, and they had to get help from the shop staff to put it through the self checkout.

  I think we had two of the festival beers yesterday, and as expected, they were very nice. Some of the other beers that I think I had bought were not very nice. Fortunately a few were very nice, including a couple that I was allowed to drink "unsupervised" because Jodie had had them before. One was a very delicious "pastry" stout. It was dark and chocolately, and almost oily. All of a sudden Jodie said she had only had it on draught, and needed/wanted to taste the canned version, plus she didn't have the can label. Drinking with Jodie can be very complicated !

  In the end I think I had two full 500ml cans that Jodie didn't want to try (one of which was probably because it was quite nasty), and so while Jodie drank slowly, and stayed close to sober, I was feeling quite "happy" at the end of the session. I can't quite remember what time Jodie left, but she was heading for the 320 bus stop for a bus to The Star And Garter in Bromley where she would meet Alan.

  After Jodie left I tucked into my recently reheated spicy beef and cabbage stew. It probably sounds pretty horrible, but I found it very nice. It was also very healthy - for my purposes in as much as it had a very low sugar (and carbohydrate) content. I think I ate while reading stuff on my PC because of scan of the TV channels showed nothing that might amuse me. I have a feeling I was in bed, reading, quite soon after it got dark last night. That could have been around 7.30pm, but that does sound very early. However I had nothing better to do, and it was dark outside.

  With hindsight I guess I could have got 4 hours sleep before I woke up next, although that does feel unlikely. The other unanswered question is what woke me up. It wasn't the usual, needing a pee. It could have been the thunderstorm that had started a long way away. Initially I could hear extremely distant thunder that was not louder than my own breathing. A little later the first lightning flashes became visible, but still the storm was very distant.

  meanwhile I had my own storm brewing. it was 1am when i went to the toilet, and it wasn't just for a pee, although I had one of those as well. It seems I had brewed up some, or actually quite a lot, of diarrhoea. I have no idea what caused it. The Scotch Egg I had eaten on Saturday did taste a bit off in one small spot, but I would have expected that to have caused trouble much earlier if it caused any trouble at all.

  I had to make two visits to the toilet before I could try and relax, and try for sleep.  I was still the same when I went to the toilet when I got up this morning. The storm had passed miles and miles away before I finally fell asleep, although it was not the storm that kept me awake. The lightning did get eye roasting bright, but the thunder always sounded to be more than a few miles way. I think it was my brain just decided to think about assorted things, and just wouldn't shut up until gone 3am.

  I was certain my beef and cabbage stew was going to be very safe for me. Some of the beers did seem to be quite sweet, and so they were cause for concern. After my dinner I had a sort of dessert of some sugar free biscuits, and some (alleged) sugar free vanilla wafers. Those sugar free biscuits still have some sugar in them, and I did have a fair few of them, but it seems everything was OK.

  My new blood glucose meter gave a good reading of just 8.0mmol/l, while the old meter gave a reading of 8.6mmol/l. That is sort of near average. Once again there was quite a discrepancy between readings. I am coming to the end of test strips for each meter, and soon, maybe a weeks time, it will be time to open new cannisters of new test strips. I am wondering if brand new test strips will make the readings come out closer to each other.

  Today I only have a few thoughts of what I might do. The current very grey sky, and the threat of rain and more thunderstorms early this afternoon dampen my enthusiasm to go out even to the shops, but I may still go if I think I can dodge any showers. After I have had a shower I might wash a couple of t-shirts.....or I might not. I could opt for a very lazy day, but if I can bring myself to make a start on it, I could select and edit the fabled second photo album of Chain at Chattfest at the end of last month. If I recall correctly I took so many photos that I had over 100 unused snaps left over when I completed the first photo album. If I was really enthusiastic I also have another 100 (approx) unused snaps of 52 Fridays that I could make a second photo album from.