It wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to describe today as cold and wet. The BBC predicts this morning will be very dull, but dry, and then there will be drizzle for a couple of hours this afternoon. The Met Office predict a bit more rain, and shows light rain from as early as 10am to midday. The rest of the afternoon, according to both forecasters will be very grey, but possibly dry. Both also agree on some sunny spells of early evening. The BBC are convinced there will be a single hour at 20° C, but generally 19° C can be considered the high today. Early tomorrow could be wet, but the middle of the day could feature strong sunshine, and that could push the temperature up to at least 23° C.
 ° C. 
   Soon after I finished writing yesterday, I had a shock that cast a black cloud over yesterday, and there are still echoes of it this morning. I looked more closely at the order confirmation I got from Amazon for the order I was expecting by yesterday at the latest. On my original look I was word blind. When I checked yesterday I saw that it was not due to be delivered at the start of this week, but in a months time !!!

  There is nothing essential in that order, but I was really hoping to find out if the class 5 Bluetooth dongle(s) would significantly speed up the data transfer speed from my phone to my PC - generally when transferring photos. Originally it was much faster to transfer photos by a USB to USB connection, but now there are so many photos on my phone, it takes an age for my PC to list them. The main slowdown is that my PC wants to generate thumbnails for each individual photo. One is quick, but multiple hundreds take an annoying amount of time.

  There were more annoyances to come yesterday, but I can at least say I enjoyed having a good "scrub up" (shave, shampoo, and shower) before going to the pub. I did have a plan to get to the pub extra early, so I could also leave extra early in case my Amazon arrived in the afternoon. Once I realised that was not going to happen I could slow down a bit. I did get to the station a bit early, but that just gave me an extra minute to catch my breath before going over the footbridge to get to the platform on the other side.

  Despite that short wait (which could have been another minute or two) I still found that the only real angina pain I had all day was going over the footbridge. I thought that was an interesting observation, and I made use of it on the way home, as I shall explain later. As usual I took photos of the front and back of every train I saw, and this time I got lucky. On the other hand, I was not happy with the performance of my Canon Powershot camera (in auto mode) at coping with the light.
  It is very annoying that this photo seems to be in soft focus. It is odd that nothing seems to be in focus - usually something is even if it is the wrong thing. I look forward to getting a better picture of 707004 some day. I had never photographed it before, at least not in Southeastern blue livery. Curiously enough, the picture I took of it in it's previous red Southwest trains livery, was also a pretty poor picture.
  One problem with this picture is heat haze. I think I took it with maximum zoom. The colouration is a bit odd too. The story of the class 707 trains is that they were ordered by Southwestern, but once they arrived they decided they didn't like them, and there was a lot of customer complaints that they had no on board toilets. They had to use them to cover a stock shortage, but gradually offloaded them to Southeastern. In an ideal world I would have pictures of all of them in both train companies liveries, but I reckon I only got about half of them while in red livery, but nearly all in blue livery.
  I was also lucky enough to snap this picture of 465187. It was one of the last three class 465 trains I needed to complete my collection (although there is some uncertainty about a small range of number that may have been renumbered to reflect the installation of a small 1st class compartment), Judging by the thick muck on the windscreen, I suspect this train has been in store for a long time for reasons unknown. I think it was out for a test run yesterday.

  It seemed to be busier than normal when I arrived at the pub. There may have been a whole ten of us in there ! That meant there was a lot of banter going on which was interesting or amusing, but a slight distraction from the crossword puzzles. I managed to do the quick crossword, but quickly gave up on the cryptic crossword. I don't think I was in the right mood for doing that sort of thinking.

  With the knowledge that I didn't have to rush home to accept my Amazon delivery, I did give thought to having three or even four pints of Guinness, or maybe a couple of shorts, but in the end I decided that 2 pints of Guinness was enough. As I was leaving I was offered, for free, a black leather jacket. I was told it would definitely fit me, and I was talked into trying it on. On reflection, it might have fitted if I had not tried to do it up over my camera bag ! However, I must admit I wasn't too keen on wearing a secondhand coat from an unknown source.

  Spending a minute or two trying on the coat meant that I arrived at Ladywell station just as a train arrived. If I had rushed I might even have managed to get on the very last carriage, but I decided to relax, and let it go. The next train was only about 15 minutes away. During that wait I got pictures of the next London bound train, although I didn't need them for my collection.

  As I walked from Catford Bridge station to home, I was thinking about how I had not really had any angina pains when walking to the station. My walk from the station to home was not very comfortable, but I didn't get any angina pains. It seemed more like I was a bit short of breath, but in a strange, not easy to describe way. It also seemed that my legs were feeling very stiff. I tried doing some forced deep breathing, and maybe that helped to reduce the discomfort.

  I was still glad to get home, and be able to rest, although laying down for a really relaxed rest came a bit later. First of all I wanted some lunch - a fairly light lunch of sugar free choc chip cookies with cold milk. It was nice, but not very healthy, although it could have been a lot worse. I also transferred the picture I had taken from my Canon SX240 camera to my PC. I also charged the battery for next time I use that camera, but I don't think it will be train photography again.

  After finding that two pictures I had taken were needed to fill in empty spaces in my great train photographs spreadsheet, and then doing some simple editing/improving of them, I entered them into my spreadsheet. After that I was free to lay down, read, and have a snooze. When I woke up it was after 4pm, and that is when I usually take my second lot of drugs for the day - if I am at home.

  With hindsight it was probably stupid to try and take all those pill in one mouthful while still partly laying down. One pill seemed to get momentarily stuck in my throat, and it seemed like it burnt it. I was more or less forecast to bring my lunch forward, or at least to have something to eat. I opted for a couple of small bag of crisps, and the last of a small tub of coleslaw. It was both nice or not nice. I can't decide which. All I know was that it was probably very unhealthy, but it worked.

  It was only almost Star Trek time by then, and once that started I would have my real dinner. That dinner was a "microwave in two minutes in the bag" bag of Korean BBQ flavour rice. I had it with a pack of 5 BBQ flavour chicken drumsticks. It was not a great dinner. The Korean BBQ flavour rice was not as good as hoped, and I think I won't be buying another....although maybe it might be good when served with something other than chicken drumsticks. It probably did not help that the cheap, Iceland branded, BBQ chicken legs/drumsticks, were not the greatest. I think I am getting very wary of Iceland products.

  I had a rest between the last of the Star Treks - the last being another unmemorable episode of Voyager - and the next thing I wanted to see. That was a new (to me) episode of The New Avengers. It was a curious episode. It tried to mix humour and drama, and it came across as a bit weird. Anyway, I watched (and recorded it) before turning off the TV and going to bed. I read for a bit before turning over and trying for sleep.

  As I turned over, and shut my eyes, I became aware of some weak heartburn. I should have been able to still get to sleep, but I guess I am a bit sensitized to it now. After a while I got up, chewed on a couple of antacid tablets, while reading some news on the internet. I guess it might have been an hour later that I realised there was not hint of any heartburn, and so I dived back into bed, and I was soon asleep.

  I half remember one dream about a newscaster who made a great effort to make sure her name was said in full because her surname sounded like a French word. The flaw with this description of a dream is that I can't remember what her name was, and what the French word was. In the dream it seemed so obvious, but now....zilch ! Apart from getting up to pee 2 or 3 times (which is almost routine these days) it was otherwise an unremarkable night, although I did close my eyes when I was supposed to be getting up, and had an extra hour of sleep - which was nice.

  It was and still is, a rather gloomy morning, but there was at least a little bit of good news. When I finally got up I went to the toilet, and with no special effort, I did a very regular poo. This is only newsworthy in so much as I can't remember going at all yesterday. That and a good pee didn't do much for my weight, which seems to have increased another very small amount.

  My blood glucose was "acceptable" this morning, but not very good. The Contour meter read 8.5mmol/l, and once upon a time I would have called that average, but now I call it a bit high. The GlucoRX meter was even worse with a reading of 8.9mmol/l. Fortunately the Sinocare meter was in a good mood, and gave a better reading of 8.2mmol/l. Even that is not good when I am trying to get most of my readings in the sevens or lower. At least my blood pressure was really good, if it wasn't a bit too low at 98/45.

  The main thing this afternoon should be a beer tasting session with Jodie. After not seeing her for a week I hope she has something interesting to say - even if most of what I would like to say, but probably won't, at least not in full, is all very negative. before than beer tasting I hope I will find the time and energy, and enthusiasm to go out in possible drizzle, and buy some stuff from Aldi. I think I'll go in long trousers, but with the feint hope for some warmer and sunny days at the end of this month, I don't think I'll be packing away my shorts just yet.