The clear sky during the night meant the temperature was down to just 1° C by daybreak. More clear skies, and non stop sunshine might warm the day up to 6° C. Once the sun sets the temperature will fall back down to 3° C. Tomorrow promises to be a truly awful day. Once again it will start very cold, probably 2° C, but no sun is forecast. Instead there could be copious rain starting at about 1pm. Fortunately the temperature will have risen to 5° C by then, and so snow won't fall, but I would guess some sleet might be possible, although the forecast shows just rain right up until the end of the day. The day after tomorrow could be wet as well.

   It would be close to the truth to say that absolutely nothing happened until 8pm yesterday. Then, after 8pm, a lot happened and it was better than expected. Two smallish things did happen during the day. One was cooking and eating, and the other was some very light laundry.

  I suppose there was one other thing I did yesterday, and it was to wash my hair before having a shower. As I think I mentioned yesterday, or maybe the day before, I had been reluctant to wash my hair because the hot water was a little too hot. Yesterday the feed water for the water heater was colder (and still getting colder), and the temperature was bearable. My head did become partly acclimatised to the heat of the water, but only just.

  After drying my hair I did practically nothing except some reading, until I cooked my lunch. On this occasion it was closer to dinner than lunch. It could have been very nice, but it included just three Aldi own brand frozen sausages (with Oakmead, or something rustic, as the brand name they use). Compared to Tesco own brand frozen pork sausages, they really taste like they are made from mechanically recovered pink goo ! I had those sausages with a small amount of chips - the same type as I said were a bit tasteless, but on this occasion, cooking them with the sausages in my mini oven/grill gave them some added flavour.

  For some reason I can't seem to remember if I did some laundry before or after I had my large lunch/early dinner. It was quite a small wash, and consisted of one white hand towel, and two white, with blue decorations, pillow cases. The pillow cases were very cheap ones, and very thin. They were very easy to wring out. The hand towel was not particularly taxing either, and I managed to wring most of the water from it before hanging it up to dry.

  Once again nothing happened until I had watched the first two Star Treks, and this time without eating anything. Once Star Trek: Voyager started I started getting myself ready to go out, instead of going to bed ! The only slight deviation from an otherwise unremarkable act of putting my clothes on was that I decided to take a chance on a barely used pair of trainers.

  I bought those trainers in a sale for just £13. They are Dunlop "Canvas Highs", and it must have been over 6 years ago when I bought them, and possibly 10 years ago. At the time I expect I thought they felt too stiff to be comfortable, but I predict they just need wearing in to soften up. Last night I thought I would give them another go. Perhaps trying to break in a new pair of stiff trainers on a night when the temperature had fallen to 4° C was not a clever idea, but I didn't find those trainers that uncomfortable, and maybe after 4 pints of Guinness I barely noticed any discomfort.

  The great lack of doing much during the day was part of the process of psyching me up to be able to go out in the evening (no, I have no idea how that could have worked either). Maybe it did sort of work because I felt some sort of elation once I started walking to The Catford Bridge Tavern. The pub is right next door to Catford Bridge station, and it is not a long walk, but the cold night air did take it's toll on me as I walked.

  I arrived at the pub breathing heavily, but by the time I had walked across the warm pub to the bar, I felt perfectly OK. However I was slightly perplexed that I couldn't see the band setting up. It turned out that they had set everything up, and were actually waiting for a food order before they would start to play - almost 25 minutes later than their advertised time.

  The band were called Weird Moon Rising, and they looked to be in their mid twenties - considerably younger than most of the bands I see. They had an air about them of impoverished students who had put their kit together on a shoestring. The drum kit was very small, but seemed to make an adequate noise. I am not enough of an expert to say anything about their guitars, but one obvious thing was the two mismatched PA speakers.
  I suppose it is not rare, but still a bit unusual in that the bass player was the singer. About the time that the band started Michael turned up. Originally he had said he wouldn't be going, but decided at the last minute to join me. That was handy having someone to guard my camera bag, bee and coat as I wandered around taking photos.
  I never did get a great photo of the guitar, but I think this a reasonable shot of player and guitar. The band didn't have any lighting, and it was quite dim in the pub. I had to use flash to get any pictures, but I did my normal trick of bouncing it off the ceiling rather than directly at the band. It almost seemed like they didn't even notice it. I did get the flash power low to try and get the look more natural. I think it worked.
  This picture gives the best view of how brief the drum kit is. The bass drum couldn't have been more than about 18 inches across - most drummers I see usually have one at least 2 ft across. This kit may have started lfe as a kids practice kit.
  I don't know if it was my stealth, or the drummers professional dedication, but he didn't even seem to notice me when I took this picture. Not even the flash going off seemed to provoke any reaction. Maybe if the band ever get to see these pictures the drummer might be surprised to see himself in action. Most drummers hide at the back, and many photographers ignore them.
  With my new found confidence, mostly from now carrying a big camera with a big lens, I had no trouble asking for the band to pose in a line up at the end of their first set. I think this is the best of the three snaps I took of the band.

  The bands playing was not as slick as more seasoned bands, and their Jimi Hendrix cover started out a bit weird, but I enjoyed the first set, and was almost tempted to stay later. Michael had already said he intended to leave early, and I thought it best if I didn't stay too late. The end of the firsts seemed like a natural time to than the band, and to start walking home with Michael. I am glad I put on a warm coat because it was bloody freezing on the way home.

  Once I got home I decided I would have a bowl of hot soup to warm me up. I also had a couple of large whiskies. I could have rushed straight to bed, but I was feeling a bit too alert, and so I copied all the pictures from my camera to my PC, and went through the whole lot selecting and editing the better snaps. Maybe I had kept the flash gun power a little too low because every picture needed a bit of extra brightening. Thanks to my Nikon D610s camera, I could brighten the pictures without adding any noise - which is one of the great things about semi-pro cameras !

  I guess it was 11pm, or maybe a little later when I went to bed. I had left the heater on low while I was out, and kept it on low while photo editing. I decided to keep it on low all night, but by about 3am, with the temperature outside down to just a degree or two, I was feeling a little cool even under the duvet. It may have been 4am when I turned the heater up full blast. It didn't feel more than pleasantly warm when I finally got up.

  Before getting up I had some dreams. One was a nasty one involving people I prefer to associate with, and haven't done so for the last 23 years. Another dream was more memorable despite there being almost no action in it. I seemed to start with me taking a walk just before sunrise. I was walking along the road behind Catford Bridge station, but it was in a time before all the new flats had been built, and I suppose it could have been further back in time before the long demolished Greyhound Stadium was built.

  My walk was like it was down a sort of country lane. It started off on tarmac, but that gave way to gravel, and in turn that gave way to a grassy path. At the end of the lane was a footpath, and as I started walking along that it started getting lighter as if the sun was rising. The only thing of note was at the start when I could hear what sounded like a mad man shouting from the platform of Catford station. It made the walk, by myself, with no one in sight, just a little more tense.

  I had a pleasant surprise when I got up, and checked my blood glucose level. I had two very low readings and one low reading. The Sino Care meter read 6.9mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read even lower at just 6.5mmol/l. Sadly the third meter, the Contour one said 7.4mmol/l. At any other time that would be cause for celebration, but of course it was poor compared to the other two. I guess my sausage and chips for lunch time dinner, and just a can of soup for supper must have been a good combination.

  Today is going to be manic. My plan, and I think there is a possible chance I may see it through, is to get a train at 2pm to Petts Wood. I will hang around there for maybe 3 hours taking pictures of three bands on the live stage as part of the Xmas lights turn on celebration.  The bands are: 2.45pm, Thursday's Child, 4pm, Jamie Bull, and 5.15pm, The Coyles. I've seen Jamie many times, and I hope his dad, John Bull, "Mr Rockrpix", photographer will be there to  for a brief exchange of photography notes.

  Once I have enough pictures of the last band, The Coyles, I will head home again, have a brief rest, and maybe a can of soup, before heading out again to The Black Cat pub where a band called The Cygnet Committee will be playing from 8.30pm (if they start on time). I hope to meet Michael there, and there is a microscopic possibility that Angela could be there. I think she would like to go, but needs permission from the husband, and wouldn't be allowed out alone, and so it would not be a great meeting if she did go.