Today could be one of those days when the weather is in too much flux to forecast accurately. When I first opened the curtains, some time before sunrise, it looked like there could be some sunny spells on the way, but now the sky looks very grey - which agrees with the forecast. The latest revision to the forecast shows light rain for just 10am (The BBC almost agree by saying drizzle instead of light rain). From 11am there may be light cloud - no rain, and no sunshine - although the BBC suggest light rain at midday, and a couple of hours of sunny spells later. The temperature should reach 13° C today. Tomorrow may see a splash of rain in the morning, and maybe a sunny spell in the early afternoon. The temperature tomorrow may be an almost constant 11° C except at the very ends of the day where it will be a few degrees cooler.

  Yesterday was a good day, although not quite as good as hoped - a fact only discovered this morning. Of course the morning sunny spells did a lot to make the whole day more cheerful. I did very little yesterday morning except prepare to go out.

  I was ready in time to get out to catch the 12:34 train the one stop to Ladywell. Along the way I grabbed a couple of copies of The Metro, and I did some rail photography too - although the position of the sun was very poor for photography.
  The first rail photograph was this reminder that services finish early on Xmas eve. It can be particularly early for trains going up to London. I have been invited, and indeed would have liked to have gone to a Xmas eve Whitestar gig in The Shortlands Tavern. It would probably be crush loaded, and lots of hateful Xmas songs included, but it was at The Shortlands Tavern, and that is easy to get to by train. The gig starts at 8.30pm (but will probably actually be nearer 9pm), and the last train back to Catford is at 8pm !
  The Hayes (Kent) train, which arrived 4 minutes before my train, had 465929 as the rear 4 coaches.  That was a train I had never photographed before, and so this poor quality snap, taken straight into the blinding sun, will be added to my spreadsheet listing all the trains I have photographed. I have done another count up, and including some trains that may be in storage, and never out to be photographed, I have just 10 more trains to complete the class 465 photos.
  Taking pictures in the other direction was not a lot easier. The front of this train, 376013, is partly over exposed as it catches the sun almost straight in the face. The heavy graffiti makes it all look worse. I will try and remember that I need a better picture of this train, but it is good enough for now. I now have just 4 class 376 trains to photograph to complete the set. I have an unconfirmed feeling that one may have been damaged in some sort of accident, and scrapped. i guess I'll never get a picture of that one if true.

  I got to the pub at about 12:45, and after giving Ayse, my favourite barmaid, a copy of the Metro, and a Xmas card, I got a pint of Guinness and sat down to start the crosswords. This time there was one or two clues I couldn't seem to solve in the quick crossword, but I did manage a lot more of the cryptic crossword than I have done for ages. It was while studying the cryptic crossword that Ayse noticed my glass was almost empty, and came over to ask if I wanted another, and it would be on the house as all regulars get as a Xmas present. She admitted that the first pint was supposed to be the freebie, but she was distracted by the front page of The Metro.

  I was due to meet Kevin in the pub. He sent me a message saying the hospital was running late taking blood samples, but he would be there as soon as possible. I think I was coming to the end of my second pint when he arrived. that was potentially a dangerous situation, but we (or I) didn't go over the top, but for me I think it might have been a 5 pint session - but with no spirits as "one for the road" - my downfall the last time I was drinking with Kevin there.

  It was a good session, and Kevin even managed to not go off on too many tangents as he usually does. We mostly stuck to business, but my last bit of news and information for Kevin had to wait until we were walking down the main road towards home. Now Kevin is in quite reasonable health again he is contemplating some days out, although his ideas are more about visiting pubs, and mine is more to do with photographing stations and trains (plus other local views).

  Whether we ever get out on some of these days out remains to be seen. I have a few destinations in mind that are not terribly exotic, and I may well end up doing them on my own. One thing I would like to do with some company is to get a Greater Anglia Trains Ranger Ticket. For £16.50 (after railcard discount) it gives the freedom to explore their whole network beyond Ipswich, getting on and off trains as we desire.

  We used a similar ticket back in 2001, but on that occasions I think we were trying to get the most miles out of it, but this time, if it happens, I would like to get pictures of some of the smaller station, and also to visit Felixstowe, plus it's pier if there is time, but a lot depends on the frequency of the services. it will be no good getting off a train if there is not another for a whole hour. What might be possible, with some careful planning, is to go something like 4 stops, and then go back 2 or 3 stops before going forward again for 4 or 5 stops. Ideally I would prefer not to go into every pub we pass, and leave drinking until we are heading homewards again.

  It was dark when we left the pub, but I was still just about sober. We walked down the main raod until we got to the end of my road. Kevin decided he wanted to go into Aldi, and I continued towards home. I was carrying a heavy-ish rucksack*, and the air was cold. By the time I got home I was feeling a bit wheezy, and my chest was starting to hurt. I am not sure if it is just lack of exercise, something like Covid, or another dose of heart problems brewing, but it is noticeable that these complaints are definitely worse in cold weather. it was good to get home, and into the warm again.

* I had used the rucksack to take 4 x 500ml bottles of beer that I was giving to Kevin as a Xmas present. By coincidence he had the same idea as me. It makes a change to the usual bottle of whiskey. As well as the four bottles of beer, there and back, albeit different bottles, I also had a bottle of Vodka toffee liqueur wrapped in Xmas paper in case Angel  turned up in the pub. I thought that if she ever turned up there again it might be the last Wednesday before Xmas.

  Once home I was just sober enough to have some discipline over my eating, but evidently not sober enough to want to do my own cooking. Actually it was more that I wanted to sit in my warming bedroom rather than muck about in a freezing cold kitchen.  I managed to hold out until I ordered some kebabs for dinner at about 6pm. They didn't arrive until almost 7pm, and they were only just tepid when I ate them. The odd thing is that I have had good stuff from the same restaurant, but I didn't think much of last nights dinner.

  After Star Trek: Vogager finished (on of their better episodes) I couldn't see anything else I fancied watching. I turned the TV off, but spent maybe half an hour catching up with some technology news items before going to bed to read for maybe another half hour. I think it was a few minutes after 9pm when I turned the light out. I was asleep within about 10 minutes (or so a wild guess says), and I seemed to sleep well last night.

  I have no idea what the inspiration(s) were for a seemingly long dream that has left a few memories. Of all strange places, it was set in Japan. I am unsure how I came to be outside what seemed to be a lift shaft. maybe I was waiting for somebody, but nobody I knew arrived. I did see several people go past, and most of them were women who stopped to check themselves in a mirror. one asked me if she looked OK. I said, very nice, but with compliment accepted she walked around the corner never to be seen again.

  It was soon after that the lift doors opened, and something very odd happened. Instead of looking in the lift I seemed to be looking at some very ornate CD or DVD disks. I don't think I could read what the disk labels said, but I knew them (somehow) to be high quality versions of Pink Floyd disks. I wasn't sure if they were audio or video disks, but I was aware they were trying to make them un-copyable, but that there was a very easy way to copy them. The dream seemed to fade out at that point.

  This morning I had hopes that just a single portion of instant noodles for breakfast, and then nothing until my double kebab portion for dinner, would give me a very low blood glucose reading this morning. Sadly it was not as low as hoped, but I guess it was better than typical average. Three of my blood glucose meters all agreed that my blood glucose reading was 8.4mmol/l. At least that was considerably lower then the previous morning. I was having trouble squeezing enough blood out for the fourth meter, the new Vivachek meter, and that gave a very different reading of 9.3mmol/l. I expect if I had pricked another finer for fresh blood it might have agreed with the other three, but with three the same I just ignored the outlier as being wrong.

  Most of my day is ruled by the Thursday afternoon beer tasting session. I have some housework to do before I get any visitors. Top of the list is to give the toilet bowl a good scrubbing after a very splattery visit to the toilet before going to bed last night. Then I have some washing up to do, and that includes the still unwashed glasses from Sunday afternoon's drinking. If I can raise the enthusiasm I might give the dining room a quick hoovering.

  One thing I need to do before starting to drink is to get dinner cooked, and ready to warm up after the boozing is finished. Tonight I think I am going to have grilled/roasted lamb with sprouts. If I have time I might try for a quick shopping trip to Aldi. There are a few things I could usefully get from there before the most maddest of the mad xmas rush for shopping starts - people buying a months worth of groceries because Aldi will be closed on Xmas day !