As I write this, at 8.36am, it still looks dry outside, and although the sun has gone behind a cloud now, a little while ago we enjoyed some watery sunshine for at least 15 minutes. Today I think I want to believe the BBC forecast It is not quite so doomy as the screenshot of the Met Office forecast above. The BBC says sunny spells for 9am, two hours of light rain between 11am and midday. There will be some sunny spells in the afternoon, but after those two hours of light rain it will stay dry for the rest of the day. Like the Met Office, they say the afternoon high will be just 10° C. Tomorrow it could be as cold as just 4° C at 6am, and it could be misty too. Both forecasters predict a dry day with some sunshine and sunny spells, but it will be another very cool day with a high of just 10° C again.

   I started yesterday feeling very fragile. I began to find bruises and scrapes that I had not been aware of earlier. I think I can safely report that I did almost nothing of note in the morning except for a lot of resting. While I was warm, and resting none of my aches and pains was too bad, and so I decided to not take any painkillers at that stage.

  In the afternoon I did do some light household duties, stuff like some washing etc. This was in preparation to "hair of the dog! time, or the Thursday afternoon beer tasting session with Jodie and Michael. I both feared, and looked forward to it. One other useful thing about it was "light household duties" seemed to loosen up some stiffness, and so reduced some of the pains. One thing I am ashamed to say was that I didn't have a shower yesterday. I put on clean clothes, and sprayed a bit more deodorant on, and then hoped for the best.

  Our roles were almost reversed at the start of the beer tasting. It is often Jodie who complains she is "all beered out" after a heavy session the previous day. Yesterday it was me who was not exactly complaining of being "beered out" but after my misadventures walking home through the park, and falling down twice (and at least twice more when I got home) I was initially a bit wary of beer. Of course, after a couple of beers the analgesic effect kicked in, and I wanted more so I could feel even better.

  I almost think it was Michael who drank the most yesterday. Both he and Jodie had a couple of shorts to finish the session. I stuck to just beer, and it did seem to work really well even if it was a slightly short "cure" of my battered and bruised body.  I think Jodie left to catch the 6.30 train to Clockhouse, and Michael probably left 10 minutes later. As soon as they had both left I had my dinner.

  One departure to normality yesterday was that I had a substantial lunch. I didn't want to be eating on an empty stomach again. With a complete disregard to all my personal eating rules, I had two corned beef sandwiches, and a small plate of chips ! My dinner involved another complete disregard to the rules, and I had a large dinner of sausages and baked beans. Apart from the fact the sausages were cheap and nasty, it was a most satisfactory meal.

  As usual, I watched two of my usual Star Treks. The first of the usual three had finished by the time I had my dinner ready, but I watched some of Deep Space Nine. A lot of the plot revolved around Ferengi and Klingons, and I could ignore the sub plot of the baby, and other dross. Star Trek Voyager was a good idea of a plot, but somehow ruined by the actors, or at least the characters they play - such as the simpering Janeway.

  When I went to bed I discovered a new pain I had not noticed before. As I carefully laid down I could feel what must be some strained neck muscles - almost like a whiplash injury, but probably not nearly as bad as the real thing. It was still painful as I held my posture until I could rest my head on the pillow. While I didn't have any painkillers during the day, I did take a couple of Paracetamol tablets before going to bed.

  I'm glad I took those painkillers. They were not as effective as hoped, but probably buffered me against some of the worst discomforts. Once I found a comfortable position I was comfortable, but I can't sleep in one position all night, and I did need to get up for a pee three times in the night (although the third one was when I would usually be getting up). Each time I had to get up brought a return to this ache, that ache, and many more !

  Oddly enough, I did seem to sleep well last night. I left the heater on low all night, and that must have helped. If nothing else it meant that if the only comfortable sleeping position was with an arm or a leg, or both sticking out, that is how I slept. I do seem to recall having a lot of dreams. One involved trains and/or railway stations, but the only dream I can recall a few bit of was a dream about being back at work again.

  I was back in a telephone exchange, but I was my natural age, or long after retirement age. I think I even mentioned to someone in the dream, possibly even my boss, that I was only there for something to do, and for the "free" heat. The wages were nice, but not essential. I think that was my way of saying that I don't care if you sack me because I don't appear to be doing much. On the other hand, with all my years of experience you would miss my input if there was a serious problem.

  I don't recall if I made that exact speech, or if it was just implied somehow. Like a lot of dreams the events are remembered as more of a blur than anything exact, but I do remember one thing fairly sharply. I had reason, although who knows what the reason was, to search under my bench for some socks. While down on my hands and kness I spotted a bank note on the floor near the back of the bench. A closer looks showed it was a £50 note. I had a good idea who might have dropped it, but I didn't like that person, and so I pocketed the note and told no one.

  I possibly didn't need it, but I forced myself to have a bit of a lie in this morning. I think it was about 7.30am when I finally got up, and it was probably because I needed to go to the toilet....and not just for a pee ! After that it was time to check my blood glucose readings. I expected them to be very bad after all I ate yesterday, and they were, but not as bad as I feared. The highest reading was on the Sino Care meter, and it was 10.0mmol/l. That is right on the red line ! The Nexus GlucoRX meter read just 9.0mmol/l, and if that had been the highest I wouldn't be too bothered about it. The Contour meter read 9.7mmol/l, and that confirmed that my blood glucose level was far too high.....and yet lower than maybe I might have guessed based upon what I ate yesterday.

  There are three things I would like to do today, but I am not sure I will do any of them. I might prefer to stay home and lick my wounds. I would like to go to the Tesco cash machine outside the Tesco Express store on the Lewisham end of the high street. I would also like to get some shopping from Tesco, and as I wouldn't need much  for dinner tonight, I guess I could get a few things in the Tesco Express. I assume their prices are no different to the big stores, but are they really ?

  The third thing I would like to do is to go to a gig tonight. Chain are playing in the Bromley Bricklayers Arms pub tonight, and the 320 bus does stop almost outside the pub.  However, the odds feel against it. I am well out of practice of going out in the evening, and doubly so when it is very cold out. Then there is the problem of all my aches, pains, scrapes and bruises. It may well be painful just getting there, but any decent photography could be tricky when getting into some positions could be very painful.

   I'll have a better feeling about it when, and if I get to the Tesco Express shop, and home again. Before that I need a shower, and ideally to wash my hair as well. I'm not even looking forward to that because clambering in and out of the bath, plus the bending over the bath when washing my hair, could be more painful than I would prefer. Maybe I'll leave my hair for another day, and ....... Oh well, I won't know until I try it.