Yesterday started almost cold (11° C) but it was nice and bright and sunny. The afternoon was forecast to be rather dull, but I seem to remember a few, rather short, unexpected sunny spells. I also seem to think I saw a few spots of rain, which lasted fore mere seconds, during a time when it became very dark in the early afternoon. It was never a warm day, but came close to it with a maximum temperature of 17° C.
       

  It is very wet at the moment, and heavy rain could fall until 10am according to the latest revision to the forecast. There could be a couple of hours of light rain at 2pm, and more at 6pm when it will also start to brighten up a bit. Most of today will range from grey to very grey. The temperature today will peak at just 15° C, and that only for a single hour (two hours if the BBC is right). I am sure that today would not even be considered to be a good day if it were in February. Tomorrow could start bright, but the temperature may not rise to higher than 15° C, and the afternoon will probably be wet, although possibly just from a lot of light rain. It is hard to believe the summer solstice is under a fortnight away.

   Yesterday was very productive, but not an enjoyable day. Much of the day was spent editing all the photos I had taken the day before at Hilly Fields. I was generally pleased with the results, but it seemed a never ending chore. The fact is that I took far more photos than I should have needed to take, but there was that little fear nagging me that I might that "special shot".
  This the fake Axl Rose from the Guns 2 Roses, Guns 'N' Roses tribute band. His singing style was probably based on later performances by the real Axl Rose - i.e, a bit gruff. I was quite pleased with this photo. It may be good enough to appear in a 30 year old rock magazine like Kerrang !
  I guess Slash, from Guns 'N' Roses had the easiest style, and appearance to copy, and while I have no idea of his real name, this "Slash" did look, and even sounded pretty authentic.
  This is one of a couple of photos that (just about) show all the members of the band. I have a feeling that the band draws on a selection of people to make up the full band, and is often seen with different members, although possibly with always the same three at the front.
  End of the Guns 2 Roses set, and end of the festival. The band say their goodbyes, and seem pleased with their show.
  It was an odd quirk that the file numbering in my camera reached 9999, and rolled around back to 0000. I should have selected these pictures in the ordering I took them, but didn't, and so I showed Guns 2 Roses before Caz and Steve who were on before them !
 Steve doing a solo spot. It was surprising the sound he could get out of single guitar.
  I like this picture for a special reason. I am sure Steve was smirking because he thought that the camera might have seen more than was intended. That outfit Carrie was wearing on top often seemed only a single bit of string away from a "wardrobe malfunction". I'll confess I would have like to get a picture of her tits, but at the same time I would feel very sorry for her for embarrassing herself.
  I blatantly said it - "While we are all bored waiting for the interminable raffle to place, how about a line up of all available from Guns 2 Roses" ? I'm sure they would do it for someone just holding a mobile phone, but I feel that using a professional looking camera and lens gives me a bit more authority.  It was handy that the stage manager and compère, whose name I think is Gerry (or Jerry), knew me from other outdoor gigs, and it seems seen some of my camera work. He suggested that I could go backstage, through the flap at the back of the inflatable stage, to take some shots there - which I did, although none were really notable.

  I also edited up some pictures of Mahogony Soulz who were on before Caz And Steve. I can't say I cared for their musical style, but took some picture anyway - trying to act like a professional. I have not included any here, but they appear, along with a selection of my other pictures, on the Brockley Max Facebook page. In fact, the last time I looked, about 90% of all pictures on it were mine. It made me feel sort of proud, and that the expense of all the cameras I have gone through to find the perfect one, and the time spent practising the art has been worthwhile.

  With John Bull (Mr Rockrpix), the man who inspired my photo taking, and gave me a few tips in the early days, now going more "international", and spending much more time at big venues, with big ticket prices, I feel that is down to me to cover more of these smaller festivals. It is just a shame that when I am probably needed most, I am not very mobile because of my current angina problem, and lugging camera gear across the home counties by bus and train is not a lot of fun.

  Although I finished the last of the photo editing as late as 7pm, I didn't spend the whole of the day doing it. I took a few breaks to just lay back and read for a while, and I took a few breaks to eat. Sometimes it was just a snack that I ate at my PC while photo editing. I tried to eat sensible stuff, but I did end up eating quite a bit in lots of small quantities. It had repercussions on both my blood glucose and my weight.

  I don't think I watched any TV last night, not even while I was eating my dinner. I can't seem to remember just what my dinner was. Even looking in the kitchen sink to see what might need washing up this evening shows no clues. I do know what I had for lunch, and it was not exactly healthy. It was a toast sandwich with a lot of melted cheese and Salami in it. It was nice, but not the ambrosia I hoped it would be. Ah, it just came back to me I known what I had for dinner, and I remember tasting it long after when burping. It was just a pair of Scotch Eggs because I had a bit of more like junk food only an hour earlier.

  I felt tired and ready for bed fairly early yesterday evening, but I had to read in bed for at least an hour to wind down after all the photo editing. It almost seemed like I had photos dancing in front of my face at first. I finally turned over and went to sleep around 10pm. At that time the heater was off because it didn't feel all that cool in my bedroom. The first, and only really significant time I woke up in the night was a few hours later when I felt cold and creaky, as well as needing a pee. In turned the heater on low, and left it that way until this morning when In turned it off before turning it on again 45 minutes later. It really feels like we are in early spring, or perhaps late autumn at the moment.

  I don't think I have any dreams to report this morning, or at least not enough remains of any memories remain to make any sort of description possible. In a way that is surprising because I did wake up very quickly this morning with cramp just about to cause agony if I didn't leap straight from bed to put weight on my left leg. That killed the growing cramp pain, but maybe it was a big enough distraction to erase any memories of dreams.

  I think I have to blame the weather for not feeling too good this morning. There is nothing I can really put my finger on, but it is just typical signs of old age, and the bad weather blues. My head feels sort of foggy and dull, a bit like the weather, and many joints feel sort of stiff, but fortunately not actually painful - at least while I am mostly sitting at my PC.

  My health indicators have taken a small dip. All the eating I did yesterday, mostly undescribed, has increased my weight this morning by a few hundred grams. It is still pretty good compared to weeks ago, but I hope it is not a trend, and it will go down again without having to wait for a warm sunny day - those being best for regulating my eating. The good news is that halfway through writing this paragraph I went to the toilet. The amount I did must surely have offset some of the additional weight of my breakfast, and drinks so far this morning. had I done it before I ate and drank, my weight increase may not have been quite as bad as it seemed.

  The worst thing this morning is my blood glucose measurements. They are up a lot, but still well clear of the danger zone.  The Contour meter read 9.0mmol/l, and the Sinocare meter read 9.1mmol/l - both readings in the pink area, but well short of the red danger area. The GlucoRX meter read a more OK, but still high compared to recently, 8.7mmol/l. I should try and do better today, but on such a dull, wet, gloomy and depressing day it is going to be hard.

  There is one possibility I could try, and that is to scare myself into more careful eating. I could have a small tub of chocolate ice cream for lunch. It is not very appropriate on a cold and sunless day, but it would still be nice, and although the tub I have in mind is relatively low sugar compared to the gigantic amounts in some ice creams, it is still high enough to make me very careful about what else I eat during the day....well that seems to be how it has worked in the past, but on a day like today.....

  Despite the weather looking terrible, it does seem likely there will be some dry hours even if it is still as gloomy as night out there. I may go out at some time to buy some stuff from Poundstretcher. I particularly want some bleach, and topping up my stock of pot noodles (by style rather than trade name) would be useful. I expect I'll spot other stuff to buy as well - I usually do. Other than that it could be a slightly boring day, although I can think of one special project I could get started. It is Steve Blessing's (half of Caz And Steve Duo) birthday soon, and I could dig out a selection of pictures I have taken of him over the years. Other than that, I still have a lot of book to read, and more books after the current one.


 





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