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Thursday
8th August 2024
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08:38
BST
Yesterday morning was
bright and sunny, but
the afternoon was quite
dull. At about 1pm it
tried to rain. I felt
some fine rain hitting
my face for a minute or
two, but then it
stopped. The temperature
felt OK, but it was only
forecast to briefly
reach 22° C. Most of the
afternoon was between 20
and 21°
C.
Today may be a more
extreme version of
yesterday. Once again the
morning has started bright
and sunny, but it will
very soon cloud over, and
by 1pm the clouds could be
very thick and dark. There
could be several hours of
light rain from 5pm. This
afternoon's high will be
just
20°
C, and that
seems very
poor for early
August.
Tomorrow could
start dull,
but the sun
should soon
break through,
and the
afternoon
could be very
sunny. That
should push
the
temperature up
to 25°
C.
Half of
yesterday was good, and
the second half was bad.
I'm not really sure why,
but I could blame the
weather because my mood
did follow the weather
quite closely. The day
before yesterday was a
busy day, I didn't expect
to see anyone, and so I
didn't stop to have a
shower. Yesterday it felt
good to wash my hair, and
have a good scrub under
the shower.
I took my time
after having that shower,
and blow drying my hair,
so I could cool off a bit
before getting dressed to
go out. I was basically
heading for my usual
(except the last two
weeks) Wednesday lunchtime
drink in The Jolly Farmers
pub. It was mostly a
normal visit there except
for two things. One was
that I took a big, but
lightweight Nikon DSLR
camera with me instead of
the usual Nikon S5300
pocket sized camera. I'll
explain that a bit further
down the page.
The other unusual
thing is that there was a
very slight tense
situation. With riots
being in the news recently
there was talk about a
demonstration taking place
in the middle of Lewisham.
It was supposed to be a
peaceful demonstration,
but some speculated the
far right thugs would
start a march in Catford,
and pass the local mosque
on their way to Lewisham.
The only official news we
heard was that the council
had asked the market
traders to stop trading at
2pm so the council could
clear up all the rubbish,
and potential ammunition
bbefore the 7pm peace demo
was due to start.
With a march
possibly going right past
the pub, it was speculated
that an early close might
be prudent. Today I am not
aware of anything
happening. I left, as I
usually do, after my
second pint of Guinness,
and also finishing all of
the quick crossword in The
Metro (but only managing a
few cryptic clues). One
bit of good news, although
it is more likely to
affect our friend Michael,
if he ever gets to The
Jolly Farmers, concerns
new beers. The beers have
not arrived yet, but there
is a new dispenser on the
bar for keg beers from the
Camden brewery. One of the
beers is an ale, and the
other is Helles lager - a
favourite of Michael.
One of the
things I wanted to do on
this outing to the pub was
to take some test shots on
my Nikon
D3200 DSLR camera.
Compared to my main Nikon
cameras it is quite light
weight. It is/was a
comparatively cheap
"consumer" DSLR camera,
and it is good, but maybe
not that good. The reviews
praise it, but I found it
did not seem to perform
well in dimly lit pubs,
and that left a negative
impression on me.
In theory it is a
good camera, and I thought
I should put it through
it's paces taking pictures
in daylight. The
particular use I had in
mind for it was to take to
Chislehurst Rocks the
Saturday after next. It is
a really tedious journey
to get there on train and
bus, and I really didn't
fancy lugging my big heavy
Nikons there. The two
bands I wanted to get some
snaps of are playing an
outdoor stage, and if the
day is not overcast there
will be plenty of light
available.
I took a lot more
pictures than these
couple, and on the whole I
think the camera passed
it's audition. I can
imagine taking a lot of
duff pictures with it at
an outdoor gig, but I feel
sure I could get a few
crackers from it. of
course it is all mute now.
The journey to and from
Chislehurst Rocks, is, as
I have already said,
pretty tedious (or worse).
Add to that the fact that
I was not principally
going to go to enjoy
myself. Like at Petts Wood
Calling, there would be
some enjoyment, but I
regard it more as going to
work.
I have never had to
pay to go to work, and
although it would have
been a very special
definition of "work" it
was such that I was
already on the edge,
deciding to go or not.
Last night I was tipped
over the edge when I saw
that this year there is an
admission fee. It would
only be £5, but it put me
off. I would not mind
paying that if I had a
back stage pass, allowing
me easy access to the
stage without being caught
up in crowds. Last year
was so horrible that I
vowed never to go again,
but with Hell On Tap doing
a special dedication to
the late Paul Newham, it
would be good to get some
pictures, but I just don't
think I can face it.
Back to
yesterday.... I don't know
if it was the beer, the
bad news about potential
riots, or a slight relapse
of my last cold, but I had
not gone very far from the
pub, on my way home, when
I seemed to feel very
tired. Curiously enough, I
did start to cough a lot
when I sat down with my
first pint of Guinness,
but after a few
embarrassing minutes the
cough dwindled away, but
for a short while it was a
lot like I was suffering
from a week and a bit ago.
I tried to ignore
the tiredness, and even
tried to find a position
to get a snap of a rat, or
vole, I had seen on the
river bank. I failed to
get a picture (or even a
better sighting) of the
rat, and then continued to
walk to the station. That
didn't feel too bad, but I
was quite happy when the
train arrived to take me
to Catford Bridge station.
It was than that I made a
bad decision. I thought it
would only be a short
detour to go home via the
little supermarket on
Catford Bridge.
As is often the
case in there, there were
a few things I had
intended to buy, and
several other things I
didn't intend to buy, and
also should not really
have done so. I
particularly wanted some
sugar free biscuits. They
often have a selection of
them. They did have a load
of new boxes of stuff to
be put on the shelves, and
maybe there was sugar free
biscuits on one or more of
those boxed, but I could
see nothing out on the
shelves.
I also wanted some
of their instant noodles.
They usually stock more
exotic flavours than Tesco
stock, and indeed I did
get half a dozen or more
packets of interesting
flavours. I also bought
some weird stuff that
looked like it might be
nice, but was quite
possibly very unhealthy.
One such item was herrings
and onions in a small tub
that had almost no English
writing on it. It sort of
tasted ok, but I hated the
texture because it was all
puréed. It was not too bad
when scooped up on crunchy
rice crackers, but by
itself....
I also bought two
cans of Polish beer to add
to everything else I had
to carry home. It was not
really heavy, but the walk
home felt like a real
drag. It was like all my
energy had drained
away. That was bad
enough by itself, but it
left me feeling sort of
hungry. Not real hunger,
but just a mad desire to
eat. So I ate all the
herring with onions purée,
and then I ate a tub of
finely diced vegetable in
a sort of mayonnaise-like
sauce, and then I ate a
small tub of mixed bean
salad. I finished off with
a rather nice, very easy
to peel, Clementine.
There was one other
thing I did, and it was to
transfer the pictures I
had taken to my PC, and
put the Nikon's battery on
charge. I then laid down
on my bed to read. I think
I managed to read a single
sentence before I decided
to rest my eyes. A few
minute later I fell
asleep. I was very
surprised to see it was
about 5.10pm when I opened
my eyes again. I can't be
sure, because I was not
really watching the clock
when I closed my eyes, but
I can almost believe I had
a full hour of dreamless
sleep.
As is sometimes the
case, I felt worse when I
woke up. I guess it was a
very light hangover,
although a mere two pints
of Guinness should not
have given me any
hangover, and shouldn't
even have induced such a
deep snooze. It was time
for two things. One was to
prepare dinner, and the
other was to watch some
episodes of Star Trek (and
check and edit the
pictures I took during the
ling commercial breaks).
My dinner was to be
the same as the night
before - mini roast
potatoes, and re-roasted
chicken (the other half of
the chicken I had the
previous day). Starting
from cold the potatoes,
Cornish new potatoes
according to packet,
needed a good 45 minutes
baking in my mini oven,
and another 10 minutes on
top of that might have
been better. That does not
include the 25 minutes or
so when cooking continued
under the half a chicken
torn roughly into two
quarters.
It didn't seem as
nice as the day before -
maybe because of
different mini potatoes,
but also because the
chicken seemed to be a bit
dry in places. I suspect
the stuff I ate earlier
probably didn't help. I
was feeling near enough
full when I had eaten it
all. It made the idea of
having a dessert of ice
cream and two flat
nectarines (which I
managed to use just as
they were on the point of
getting well over ripe) a
bit of a stupid idea, but
I did it anyway.
One problem was
that it was getting semi
late by the time I
finished my dinner. I
think it was 7pm, or maybe
even a little past that,
and it did not allow much
time for it to settle down
before I was in bed,
trying to sleep. I felt
tired enough, and also
pissed off enough after
finding out about the new
ticketed entry for
Chislehurst Rocks, that I
started the slow process
of going to bed soon after
Star Trek: Voyager ended
at 8pm.
Even before I had
turned over to try for
sleep, I was burping up
food tastes, and the
predominant one, despite
all the food I had
shovelled in later, was
the herring and onion
purée. Once I turned over
I started to get some very
mild heartburn. In theory
it was mild enough, and I
was tired enough, to
ignore it, but I got up
and read some stuff on the
internet for maybe an hour
before trying for sleep
again. That time it
worked, and I was soon
sleeping.
I have no real
evidence that I didn't
sleep well, and yet it
doesn't feel like it. I
can't remember getting up
to pee more than twice,
and apart from a sort of
foggy memory that I did
have some dream, not a
single frame seems to have
lodged in my memory. One
curious thing is that part
of my not feeling all that
good, was a strong, and as
it turned out, a true
belief that my blood
glucose was stupidly high
again - despite such
things as an absence of
thirst or desire to pee,
pointing in the other
direction.
(As a slight
interlude, I have just
looked back at some of
the things I have
written so I can see where
I got up to after taking
a break to go to the
toilet. I have corrected
some really stupid
spelling mistakes - real
words used instead of
the words I wanted to
use, and so my spell
checker did not pick
them up. My brain must
be running at about 15%
efficiency today !)
It turns out that
my blood glucose level is
very high today, with one
reading right on the red,
or danger line ! The
Contour meter read a very
bad 9.7mmol/l. The GlucoRX
meter came in slightly
under at 9.6mmol/l. The
Sinocare meter hit the red
line with 10.0mmol/l. In
theory I should be very
careful about what I eat
today, but there are
complications....I've got
off to a naughty start by
having two small/medium
packets of instant noodles
for breakfast.
Later on things get
a bit tricky because beer
will be involved. Before
drinking I might be safe
to go for rice crackers
and slices of strong
cheddar. The fat in the
cheese should help "line
my stomach" to slow the
influx of beer. My dinner
will be really tricky with
a few beers inside of me.
My current thought is to
have no more than ice
cream with a few
Clementines. The type and
quantity of ice cream have
been shown to be safe
several times in the past.
My weight is also
up this morning, but it
seems to be up more than
can be blamed on just one
bad day of eating. This
morning was another
morning when I seemed to
have passed a lot more poo
after eating breakfast,
and so there is no point
getting back on the
scales. Both my
temperature and blood
pressure are very slightly
higher today. My
temperature fluctuates
hour by hour, and a change
of just 0.1 of a degree is
actually meaningless, but
that is the increase
between the same time
yesterday and today. It is
a bit like my blood
pressure. Today it is a
tiny bit higher at 101/47
compared to yesterday's
unusually low 92/41, but
it is still very safely in
the "optimum area". Maybe
my possible bad health is
all in the mind, maybe it
is just waiting for the
dark clouds to arrive and
make it officially
depressing.
This afternoon may
bring some cheer in the
form of another beer
tasting session with
Jodie. I hope that Michael
may join us, but I have no
reason to believe he may
do, but after a very long
absence, his visits are
getting ever so slightly
more frequent. Hearing
some of his gloomy tales
about his dementia
suffering wife may put
some of my misery into
better perspective.
2748 words
today
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