Unlike yesterday, today seems like it may be mostly dull until mid afternoon. The BBC weather forecast gives a bit more comfort by saying there could be sunny spells scattered through most of the day. Both forecasters agree that today should reach 19° C. Tomorrow could be far sunnier, and warmer too with 22° C possible.

   Imagine the stress levels of going to the dentist for a root canal job. That was the stress I felt yesterday going to Angela's wedding. It was a day when I had to be up, washed, shampooed, and dressed ready to go to the bus stop, for a bus to Bromley Civic Centre, at midday. It didn't improve my temperament when there seems to be a 55 minute wait for a bus that should be every 20 minutes, and possibly every 15 minutes during peak Saturday shopping time.

  I didn't plan it, and initially I didn't want it, but I think Michael planned it so that I would find him waiting at the bus stop. A bit of company did help, but Michael mystified me. he said he didn't really want to go, and yet he revealed he had contacted Angela the night before to make sure he was invited to the wedding ceremony because he thought he should have been. Maybe he wasn't until that message, but he was then.

  The ceremony was set to start at 1.30pm, and because of the long wait for a bus, plus the usual slow moving traffic through Bromley on a Saturday shopping day, we arrived at 1.29pm, and found the service had already started. I guess we missed no more than a minute or two - which was fine by me because it was all rather boring. As I predicted, my main role there was as cameraman. Of course there were a dozen people all wielding mobile phone cameras, and I expect the more talented uses got some fair or better pictures, but I was the only one there with a proper camera.
  I think I managed to get some photos that would have passed muster with a professional wedding photographer. Inside the room where the ceremony took place, the lighting was fairly low, and that added some fine grain to my photos, and sharpening up these small versions shown here just highlighted the grain.
  Pictures taken outside were a bit better, although it was hit or miss if the sun would be shining. I took a lot of pictures with the couple, plus friends and family standing on these steps in the grounds of The Civic Centre, and sadly, the pictures taken when the sun was not shining do look a bit flat. I have to say they I was generally disappointed by the pictures I took because i am more used to the dynamic pictures I take of bands on stage !

  It was all a bit of a quandary. I really didn't like being there watching the woman I think I have more deeply than any other getting married to another man. The ceremony, and all the hanging around bored me, but I still seemed to put on my "professional hat" and take the best pictures I could of it. Much credit must go to the wedding guests who knew the drill better than I did, and generally posed them selves with having to be herded.
  One thing I refused to do, or would have refused to do if ordered to do it, was to dress up for the occasion. I naturally put on my best clothes, but for me that was black jeans and a black t-shirt. I was supposed to appear in some of the group pictures taken by others, but the only one I was in I can't be seen because I was hiding at the back of everyone else. Just to complete the set (sort of) I took this selfie on the train home using my big Nikon camera with wide angle lens.  I had the camera propped up on the table in the first class (which is actually classless south of the river) section of the train

  A couple of people offered me lifts to the reception, but I wasn't keen to go to that as well, and I made the excuse that I wanted to get the pictures on my camera copied to my PC at home, and to edit the pictures before I did anything else. I was not happy with the very slow (and late) bus ride to The Civic Centre, and decided I would get the train home. I have to confess I didn't know what a long walk it was to Bromley South station.

  I tried to walk it at top speed, but luckily, but also annoyingly, I was slowed down on the high street because it was full of shoppers who didn't know if they were coming or going, and seemed to be randomly blocking my path. When I got to the station I found that by pure chance the next train was due in a few minutes, or at least it would have been if it were not delayed by trespassers on the line possibly somewhere near Shoreham (Kent). Instead of a 2 minute wait, I had a 10 or 12 minute wait.

  Once I was on the train, and sitting down, I could, at last, partly relax for the 12 minute ride to Catford station. The reception for the wedding was due to start at 3pm, and I arrived at Catford station 13 minutes before that. I think that if I had wanted to go I could have walked there from the station in little more than 15 minutes if I tried hard. Despite the time it took to walk to Bromley South station, and the wait for the delayed train, I suspect I might still have made it before some other going by car.

  It was a joy to get home. At that point it felt like I had completely run out of energy, and I was almost feeling shaky. I didn't check, but after starting the day with an unusually low blood glucose reading, and only having a single bowl of instant noodles for breakfast, I might have been running very low on sugar. I would imagine I was quite some way from actually being hypoglycaemic, but maybe I was getting there.

  Before I started eating, but after I had copied all the pictures I had taken onto my PC, I poured myself a very large Vodka and Diet Coke (Angela's once favourite drink), and raised a silent toast to the Angela I had once known. I then started to get some food together. I started with a small plate of oven chips. Of course they took about 40 minutes to cook in the mini oven/grill. While I waited I started working on the pictures I had taken.

   I was feeling so weary, or maybe it was nervous exhaustion after a traumatic day, that I had to be careful doing the photo editing to avoid mistakes. I doubt I would have made any serious mistake to the pictures, but I certainly made mistakes in setting the file names. I added a "b" as a suffix to the cameras file name for versions of the pictures destined for social media, and a "p" for pictures I will be giving to Angela if she wants to get them printed by a proper photo printer (a service offered even by Boots once a time, but several high street shops offer similar services). I had to correct the suffix several times !

  After I had eaten the small plate of chips I looked around for more food, and remembered I had two of the little "salad" pots I like in the fridge. I finished those off next. I think I then took a short break from eating until it may have been 7pm when I had a tub of my favoured low calorie and sugar ice cream. By 7.30pm I had finished all the pictures, and I felt dead tired. I had had another couple of Vodka and Diet Cokes, and I guess I was slightly drunk, although the only thing I felt was very tired.

  7.30pm was rather early, but it was dark outside, and so I went to bed where I intended to wind down by reading for a bit. That might have been a mistake because I have just started reading a new book, and it is one where the opening chapter is a bit turgid as the author tries to set the scene, and give you too many things to try and remember - particularly when tired and drunk. I didn't get nicely relaxed at all !

  I turned the light out at about 8pm, and I tossed and turned for hours. As well as a maelstrom of thoughts whizzing around in my head, my pillow felt hard and lumpy. The mattress seemed to have lumps that weren't there when I got up in the morning, and sometimes the bed felt too hot, and sometimes too cold. On top of all that I was feeling bloated despite not seeming to eat much, and I was starting to suffer quite violent flatulence.

  At about 10pm I got up to see if I needed the toilet, but it was nothing except for wind. While Up I also took a couple of paracetamol tablets. I think it was probably midnight before I finally got to sleep. Even than I did not sleep well, and had several 20 to 60 minute periods of insomnia. Thank goodness it is not everyday I have to watch the woman I love getting married to someone else !

  I gave up trying to sleep, and got up at 5.50am. It was still dark then, but there was a glow on the eastern horizon. I was very disappointed when I checked my blood glucose reading this morning. I still don't consider I ate much yesterday, and generally what I did eat was stuff I thought was safe, but this morning two of my meters gave a reading of 9.2mmol/l. That is higher than I like at any time, but at least it is still in the relatively safe zone. It make me wonder if stress and bad sleep raises blood glucose. I know physical illness does, and maybe mental illness does too - somehow.

  I have just been informed in the last 10 minutes that I am to expect a delivery this morning, and it should be between 9.10am and 10.10am. It will be of 24 large bottles of Caribbean hot pepper sauce. That should keep me going for a while ! At about 11.30am, or perhaps I little bit later, depending on how fast I think I can walk, I will be walking to The Jolly Farmers for a quick drink. Ayse, my favourite barmaid, and who I think will be on duty to open the pub at midday, want to see any pictures I took at Angela's wedding, and I think I can surprise her with the full set shown on my laptop computer.

  This will be one of the few times I get to use my laptop - it is handy having it, but it is so rarely used. I think I will only stay at the pub for a single pint of Guinness today. A few hours later I think Jodie will be coming here for a Sunday beer tasting session. Michael knows we have a Sunday beer session, but I don't think he has joined us before on a Sunday. I wonder if he will today so he can scold me about not going to the wedding reception.