The latest revision to the forecast has suddenly added heavy rain for 9am. It is certainly very wet outside, probably from recent rain, but doesn't seem to be raining again quite yet. Rain will now resume at 3pm, and at 5am it will turn heavy for a few hours before stopping. The chances of these time being correct is slim, but the forecast for just 7° C today is probably correct.  Tomorrow may see some sunshine or sunny spells, and the temperature could reach a pleasant (by comparison) 11° C.

   Yesterday was not a good day. In fact at times it was very bad, but it did have it's good moments. It felt nice to do the complete shave, shampoo, and shower in the morning, and I felt all nice and fresh to go out, but that was when the trouble started. I think, or I hope, it was the cold air that got to me.

  I knew there were no Southeastern trains from Catford Bridge station yesterday, but I still walked to the station in the hope of picking up 2 copies of The Metro. The side entrance, where I usually pick up The Metro, was closed, and so I walked on to Catford station, which did have trains running, to look for a Metro there. I couldn't see any, but with later knowledge of what the cover looked like, I think I did see some on the other platform of Catford Bridge.

  I was looking forward to a walk through the sunny park, but by the time I had got to Catford station the cold air was making me chest ache - even though I had a warm coat on, and the outside of my chest was nice and warm. It seemed that breathing in the frigid air was causing the trouble. On top of that the back of my neck developed an unpleasant ache. The two aches together were a bit like Angina pains, but  as far as I can recall I never had any pains in my arms (beyond a typical stiff right elbow).

  Although it was as unpleasant as Angina, I don't think it was actually Angina, but I'll keep an eye on it. Rather than walk through the park, I opted to get a bus to the pub. I noted a lot of bus stops in Catford had signs saying "closed when work in progress". I have no idea what the work may be, but I saw none, and a 75 bus did stop at the bus stop. It felt incredibly hot on the bus, and I had to open my coat up before I melted.

  I got off the bus one stop early to pop into Lewisham hospital - another source of The Metro. They didn't seem to have many left in there, but I grabbed two copies, and then walked the short distance to the pub where I gave one copy of The Metro to Ayse, my favourite barmaid. I noted that the heating was still not working in the pub, but they did have some halogen heaters that were enough to make drinking with bare arms comfortable.
  The pub had it's Xmas decorations up, but no new money had been spent on them. Some looked slightly tatty, and there seemed to be few of them. I completely forgot to get a snap of the Xmas tree near the entrance. I only stayed for two pints of Guinness, but that was enough to complete the quick crossword, but only 3 or 4 cryptic clues. Then I was on my way again, heading to the pharmacy to pick up my latest repeat prescription.
  All along the main road, almost back to my own road, there is a grass and trees alongside the west side of the road. This is all that remains of what was once a stream that started somewhere near to where I live, and eventually drained into the River Ravensbourne somewhere near St Mary's Church in Ladywell. It looks like that stream is trying to regain it way in this little access road. It is often flooded, and the middle of it looked moderately deep (actually only a few inches) yesterday.

  By the time I got to the pharmacy I was in pain again. The way it came on was very similar to Angina. It was nice to have to stop in the pharmacy to wait to be served. It was only a short wait before I was handed my ready made up, and bagged, prescription. Then I continued towards home. Once again I was in pain by the time I got there. The first thing I did was to put some chips in the mini oven/grill for a hot lunch.

  It was not until the heater in my bedroom had been on full blast, and the room starting to feel warm, that all my aches and pains melted away. Maybe having the hot chips helped a bit, but mostly it seemed to be a case of breathing in warm air. I had to fight off the temptation to also have a very large whisky, although I did have a couple in the evening. After the chips I lay on my bed to read, and to snooze, although I don't think I did snooze.

  In the evening I had a perfectly slow cooked dinner, with added pasta in it to bulk it up, but it was another occasion when I didn't fancy it. I decided I was going to have a shish kebab dinner. Among the small selection I contemplate most times when ordering kebabs, was one doing a 25% discount for orders over £20. My order was just over £20, and so I got my kebabs for just over £15.

  Last night my three Star Treks were actually only two. What would have been first, an episode from the originals series, was a tedious one, and I opted to watch a really crap program on the "ancient aliens" theme. I guess it was just someones hobby horse, and was presented with almost no proof what-so-ever.  It started off by showing ancient "cart tracks" that were a mystery, and couldn't be explained. To my untutored eye they looked like scraping from boulders trapped underneath glaciers in the last ice age, but what do I know ?

  Out of a choice of Deep Space Nine, or Enterprise, Enterprise looked the more entertaining Star Trek. Star Trek:Voyager, which followed, was only good because it didn't feature much Captain Janeway, and was set in the 20th century due to a time warp...... The young female astronomer was cute, and the survivalists were amusingly mad. I was going to watch more, but there were few choices, and the better choice of all was to go to bed, and read for half an hour.

  I slept well again last night, although I do seem to be able to remember a few dreams. The one dream I remember best, although not completely, featured a guitar player. At the time I thought it might be Chris from Chain, but it wasn't really his style. Whoever was playing seemed to be playing in what at the time I thought to be "Pink Floyd" style, but maybe it was more like something Jimi Hendrix might have done.

  The essence of it was the player had tied a couple of bootlaces to a couple of strings near the pickups. By putting tension on the bootlaces he could pluck them almost like a bass string. It was combined with a lot of feedback and echo to make some quite strange, but pleasant noises. Another thing, although I can't think how it could actually be done, despite seeming to be simple in the dream, was to rub the bootlaces together to make yet a completely different noise.

  I think I may have used my last brain cell to try and remember what I could about that dream, but maybe I had a half braincell left to remember the theme of another dream. I almost forgot it completely, but by the skin of my teeth.... In the dream I seemed to be "flat sitting" (like a house sitter, but in a flat) for someone I obviously knew, but I have no idea who they were. Many things happened, including a fire in the flat below, but was actually a false alarm. One thing in particular was being shocked when the owner of the flat said I would be looking after the flat for 2 and a half months. I believed it was only going to be for a day or two. I was left wondering who was going to look after my house for that long if I wasn't there.

  There was no particular end to that dream. It just seemed to fade away before I woke up. This morning my blood glucose readings were very good, medium good, and just good !  The highest reading was on the Contour meter. It read 8.2mmol/l, and that is below average, and so good. The next highest was the Sino Care meter, and that read 7.5mmol/l, and that is the figure I have aimed at for years, but only recently have been getting close to it. The very best reading was from the GlucoRX meter. It read a magnificent 6.6mmol/l. It has been very rare to get a reading starting 6.?? for the last 15 years, and for many years I never thought I would get a reading that low ever again, but this morning I managed it again. It is just a shame that it is probably wrong or the other meters would have had similar readings.


  Despite the chest pains I was getting yesterday, my blood pressure remains nice and low. I took the reading pictured on the left during writing this. 113/51 is very good, and the meters built in diagnostic gives it the ultimate diagnosis of "Optimum". That can't be bad.  Last night it was even better, but I think I did the measurement very soon after eating, and that always seems to lower my blood pressure. Last night it was 95/59, and maybe that is a little too low, although there is no real lower limit until you are dead !

  There could be two amusements today. If I can get ready in time I hope to go shopping in Tesco. At the moment the air temperature is about 8° C, which is not warm, but double what it was yesterday. It will be an interesting test to see if my chest plays up in that temperature. If it does, and I get the neck pains as well, I guess that after Xmas I might book myself in for a rebore or something, but not until Xmas is safely out of the way. I couldn't stand being stuck in hospital where Xmas is being celebrated.....however, I doubt if our already overstretched nurses have time for any of that stuff.




  The second diversion today should be drinking. I heard from Jodie yesterday evening, and she said she feels a lot better, and thinks she will be over for beer tasting this afternoon. If her chest infection was as bad as Alan said it was last Sunday I have doubts about it being good for her to come out on a cold and damp day. On the other hand, she has an advent calendar box of beers here, and I know how her enthusiasm can sometime overcome common sense.

  It could be a very interesting session because Michael is going to be very angry with me. My kebab order, via Just Eat, entered me into a prize draw, and as probably most people will, I won a prize. It was a free 4 month subscription to Spotify - the computerised juke box that plays you music. Michael thinks that the invention of Spotify was an even greater than the number one use of the internet - free online porn ! I have zero interest in Spotify, and will ignore my prize. Michael will suggest I am certifiable insane, and that I must be a music heater. Well I do hate that music, but I love this music, where this music is what I already own, and listen to almost non stop, albeit usually in the background, 24 hours a day on my PC.