Before I went to bed last night, the weather forecast for today looked really bad. The Met Office said heavy rain all day, and the BBC said light rain, with a few spots of heavier rain, all day. This morning the forecasts are far more benign. The latest revision to the Met Office forecast has changed some dark cloud to white cloud, with the first rain set for 11pm. The BBC still say light rain until 3pm this afternoon. Both forecasters say a maximum of just 8° C. Tomorrow may see a return to sunshine/sunny spells at a max of 10° C.

   Yesterday everything was almost back to normal. Most of my injuries gave little or no discomfort despite some bruises looking slightly worse. The only sore spot that really mattered was my tailbone area, and while it is still quite sore if provoked, I seemed to have adapted to doing things/ways of sitting down that avoid provoking it.

  It was time to return to the "scene of the crime" yesterday, or in other words to go to The Jolly Farmers for my Wednesday lunchtime drink. Although the sunshine was warming up my front, south facing rooms, it provided almost no heat when walking towards the station. I actually walked beyond the station to the cash machine nearer Catford station to extract some beer vouchers.

  My timing was about right for just a short wait for the 12:34 train. Unfortunately that train was cancelled at short notice (at least I didn't seem to notice it when I checked the trains before leaving home). I had to wait until the 12:50 train - which was running 3 minutes late. This was of some annoyance because on my way to the station I got a message from "Dik" (guitar player from the Entourage and other bands). We were going to meet at 1pm. I made it to the pub for 1pm by the skin of my teeth, but Dik only arrived about 15 minutes later.

  Dik's message came through at about the same time I was walking past The Catford Bridge Tavern. They had a couple of sandwich boards outside. One was advertising a pub quiz with a £50 bar tab as first prize. The other was a more interesting "price list" as shown in the picture on the left. Just £4 for a pint is pretty good. I know that V.E.S.T.A. or Very Extra Special Pale Ale, is rather nice even if it is a bit fizzy after being served from a pressurised keg. Notting Helles lager is a lager that Michael approves of !

  I did get some minor compensation for my cancelled train. The train I got was 707020, and it was a train i particularly wanted to get a photo of in Southeastern livery. I already had a picture of it when it was in red South West Railway livery. Unfortunately some idiot stood in front of my camera, and I could not get a clear shot until the train was almost upon me. I need a better picture than this, but this will do for the meantime.
  Yesterday was a bad day for train photography. I don't think I missed a picture of any train I needed, but with the sun so low in the sky I was getting a lot of glare. The rear of the train pictured above just had a huge sunflare over the back of it, and the picture I took was useless.

   Yesterday was another day where it would have been great to have one of my big DSLR cameras, plus zoom lens, with me. As I crossed the river at Ladywell there was a heron standing in the water, and closer to the bridge than last time.  My little Nikon S6300 camera didn't have enough zoom, and manual control of the camera is difficult. I had to crop this picture a lot to get the heron looking big enough, and I had to boost the brightness a lot. The sun was glinting off the river to the left of the picture, and it adjusted the exposure for that instead of the heron. If I had had more time I might have tried to take a picture from a different viewpoint.

  Once at the pub I could tell my tale of falling down in the park twice, and probably twice at home (possibly 3 time) after leaving the pub drunk as a lord the previous Wednesday. Ayse had finished her shift as much as an hour before I left the pub last week, but she said even when she left we were putting a lot of booze away. I then had to re-tell the story when Dik arrived.
  One curious thing was that Dik wanted to hear what I knew about Chris retiring as guitar player for Chain. It was curious because Dik was telling me the same sort of stuff that Chris had told me. There was no specific reason, but it was just old age beginning to catch up with the two of them (and me). Being in a band means making commitments, often well in advance, but one thing I can attest to is not knowing more than 5 minutes in advance how you feel....well maybe not 5 minutes, but there are good days and bad days.

  I shouldn't complain because all I have to take to a gig is a camera (although my latest kit with usually two heavy lenses is far from light), but both Dik and Chris usually have to carry the bands PA equipment, and set it up. Once upon a time I used to help out when I would get to Chain gigs very early, and lugging that stuff around does take it out of you - probably more than be expected for men well on their way to 70 years old. I feel sure I am winning the race to 70 by at least a few years !

  Most of what we talked about was music and band life. I gather that Dik has been in more stable bands in the past, but since I have known him he has always been searching to get together a more stable band, but he does not have a lot of luck with singers - they come and go like the tide ebbing in and out. After three pints of Guinness I felt we had covered most point. That was one more pint than I was going to have (but I did allow a third if I needed extra time for the crossword). Dik's final offering was "one for the road" - that is how last Wednesday turned into a very enjoyable disaster. I turned down just one more little drink.
  I'm not sure why, but I decided to walk home instead of getting the train. When I arrived at the pub I saw the footpath was closed off beyond the pub. I sort of guessed it was for tree cutting. It was only when walking home that I spotted the tree that was the centre of attention. It was a big mature tree, but it looks like the centre may have been dead, and perhaps a few big bits of it had fallen off in the recent very strong winds.

  I like the way they have chamfered the edge of the stump. I don't know if that was a health and safety thing, or if it might be for some other reason. It might be possible to graft a new, healthier tree on top, but that feels unlikely. One thing for sure is that 3 or 4 new young trees have been planted near where this tree was cut down.

  In some respects it was a pleasant walk home. I was wearing a pair of light shoes that I didn't think would be all that comfortable for more than a short walk, but they didn't feel too bad. The worse thing was the cold wind. I had my thin(ish) leather-like coat on, and had it full zipped up, but I could still feel that cold wind on my arms and, worse still, on my chest. My scar tissue, from the bypass operation, was starting to feel increasingly uncomfortable as it got cold.

  I was very happy to get home and in the warm. What I should have done was to have a hot bowl of soup, but instead I had rice crackers and salami as a fairly big snack. I then transferred the pictures I had taken on both my mobile phone, and Nikon S6300, to my PC before selecting and editing the pictures I have used here. By the end of that I was feeling really weary, and I laid down on my bed. I didn't attempt to read, but I closed my eyes, and I think I had as much as a half hours snooze - maybe more, maybe less, I wasn't really clock watching.

  I had a fully cooked stew in my slow cooker than I could have eaten last night, but I had a strong urge to have a proper kebab. I waited until just after 6pm before I tried to ordered from my preferred restaurant, but they seem to have closed down or something. I ordered from another place, and the kebabs I got were nice, but not great. I ordered the two usual chicken and lamb shish kebabs, and a message came up "spend another £8.50 for a 15% discount". The first two parts were £8.50 each, and so I assumed they were small portions, and so getting something else was an easy decision.

  I opted for a lamb donor kebab - mystery meat on a spit. I got my discount, and sat back to watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine while I waited for delivery. My food arrived just seconds before the latest estimated time arrived. I first tucked into the donor kebab. It was not very warm when it arrived, but was still quite tasty. The chilli sauce came in a little pot, but was very nice - hot and slightly tart.

  It seemed quite a big meal, and I should have stopped there, but I was curious as to what the chicken shish kebab was like. It was OK, but I have had plenty nicer. I'll be having the lamb shish kebab for lunch today - probably. I don't think I'll be using that restaurant again. Although there was nothing particularly wrong with what I ate, it just didn't seem any better than very average, and I know there are better places around.

  After Star Trek: Voyager I went to bed. It was only just after 8pm, and I didn't even bother to read before trying for sleep. I fell asleep quite quickly, but I didn't stay asleep for more than an hour or two before I woke up again. I woke up from a dream, but all I can remember from it was just a few words that were fading away. Those words were "...as long as they have some good ales and a few Welsh lassies". I have no idea what that was about, and I can't think of anyone in real life or in fiction who has a thing about Welsh women.

  Last night I didn't think I needed any painkillers before going to bed. Prior to going to bed it seems that all my injuries were giving me no trouble, and I guess they gave me no trouble during the night, but maybe some collateral injuries, stuff I hadn't noticed before, did. I ended up having a fairly lousy night. During the night I had two very short lived, but rather strong pains. One was my right little toe. I have no idea what that was complaining of. I don't think it woke me up, but it definitely delayed getting back to sleep.

  An hour later, or was it before (?) I found that what felt like the surface of my right kneecap was really painful. It was like a recent burn, although there was no physical evidence of any trauma. Then at various times in the night I had a selection of my more common aches and pains cropping up. The worst thing was my temperature regulation, or maybe my perception of temperature. It often felt like I was burning up under the duvet, and yet it was freezing without the duvet. it wasn't until almost 6am, and hour after turning the heater up full, that I was able to part kick aside the duvet, and get what seemed like a good solid 90 minutes of sleep.

  I was glad when the night was over, although I wish I had had several more hours of good sleep. My later hours of broken sleep featured a string of dreams, some rather scary, about having a holiday in Argentina. I had been invited to go there by Patricia, and I had assumed she would be looking after me, but in many of the dreams I was on my won, and lost. One good thing ( I think) was that in one dream I was speaking a small amount of Spanish, albeit just a few short sentences. The only problem is that I didn't seem to know what I was saying !

  I had hoped that my kebabs would be good for my blood glucose readings this morning, although I knew the greasy donor kebab was far from healthy. Once again the cheap Chinese Sino Care meter gave a very high reading of 9.2mmol/l. That is in the awful, but not terrible area, and I am forced to ignore as just wrong. My Nexus GlucoRX meter, the one I get test strips on prescription, and theoretically (for some reason) trustworthy, gave a very good reading in the light green of 7.8mmol/l. One of my best readings in ages. The Contour meter almost confirmed that low reading. It said 8.2mmol/l, and that is at least in the same ball park.

  Incidentally, the Sino Care test strips have almost run out. I think I'll abandon them for my last full container of 25 fresh test strips. Maybe they will give readings that tally with the other meters. If not I shall throw away that meter as being faulty.

  The main thing on today's menu is an after beer tasting with Jodie and Michael. Today we have a grand choice of beers from last Saturday's beer delivery. it includes a lot of so called "dessert" stouts and porters - dark and thick beers flavoured with chocolates and caramels. They are probably very bad for me, but some are delicious. Some other beers will be very tart, and I can't say I care for most of them, but the occasional one can be nice.