06:53 BST

  It seems rather cloudy at the moment, and so no sunny spells as per the forecast. Although the forecast shows it as dull until 6pm, I would npt be surprised if there were no sunny spells before that. 4 and 5pm may feature some light rain - which will be not ideal when I am out in the open ! It is going to be a fairly cool day with the temperature only reaching 23° C. Tomorrow might start with sunshine or sunny spells, but the afternoon may be quite dull, but dry, and quite cool at no more than 22° C.

  I had intended yesterday to be a fairly restful day after two days with some walking - some of it semi fast walking (compared to my recent maximums). It was not as restful as intended for a variety of reasons. I did two jobs that took a bit of effort.

  I wrote 2,335 words yesterday, but seemed to finish quicker than many times. That gave me time for some intense laziness, but that didn't last very long. I seemed more keen to get on and do one important thing. That important thing was shopping. I had not been shopping for about a week, and i was getting very low on supplies. Before I could go out I needed a shower, and when that was finished I put in a single t-shirt to soak in detergent. At the time I thought I might want to wear it today.

  After I was all clean and dressed to go out, I took a walk to Aldi. I think I was saying I wanted to go shopping in Aldi since the middle of last week. Finally I was on my way there. It was one of those walks that seemed a bit like hard work, and I wondered how bad the walk home would be. The odd thing is that although it seemed hard work walking there, I felt fine once I was in the store.

  I was partly topping up all the stuff I had eaten during the week, and so I got a couple of alleged calorie controlled, frozen, ready meals. Then there was just an assortment of stuff like I would usually buy. Finally there were some thongs bought specifically for today and tomorrow. Apart from breakfast I will be unable to have any usual meals because I will be out this afternoon, and tomorrow afternoon, and I don't expect to be home until after dark on both days.

  The simple choice was some sandwiches for a quick snack like meal as soon as I get home both evenings. While I was looking at the sandwich section I spotted some cold, not salad, but similar, ready meals that I had not tried before. Both were based on a bed of rice with herbs and stuff. One had "bang bang chicken", and the other had lumps of onion bahji in with the rice and stuff. Both were nice-ish, but not nice enough to want to buy more.

  As expected, the walk home was fairly arduous, and I did stop once to get my breath back, although it was probably more to give my arms a short rest. I had two semi heavy bags, and a heavy rucksack to carry home. I was definitely happy to get home, and minutes, maybe seconds later I wondered what all the fuss was about (of course in those seconds I had put all my shopping down, and a sort of spring returned to my step).

  After putting the food away I had an almost dinner sized lunch as I ate the two almost but not quite salads - the bang bang chicken and the onion bahji and rice and stuff dish. I then had a nice rest. It took me some time to raise the enthusiasm to get back to, now, two t-shirts (I had added the sweaty t-shirt I had worn to Aldi as well). When I did finally get back to that little bit of laundry I did the three rinses and the fabric conditioner in one not stop job. I hung those two t-shirts on the clothes horse, with the fan on them. This morning they were dry, and I could wear one today, or more likely, tomorrow.

  After that I had another rest, but there was one more important job for me to do, and it was to pack my big Nikon camera, with extra lenses, flash gun, and other stuff in my camera carrying rucksack. I also wanted to make sure the camera was set up correctly, and to charge the battery in it (I also have two spare batteries - just in case, although one battery lasts for hours and hours of continuous use).

  My dinner was unusual, not exactly healthy, and spread over as much as an hour. I started off with a couple of scoops of raspberry ripple ice cream. I had bought in Aldi earlier. It looked like it could have been super sweet, but the sugar content was quite low for ice cream. I had about two scoops, possibly less - I seem to be able to mentally divide up a tub now to a fairly safe portion. However, it was still not ideal to eat it too late in the day when my whole day is semi planned around my blood glucose readings at the start of the day.

  A little bit later I had a small portion of alleged hot chilli flavour crisps that were nice, but nothing special. A little bit later than that I could not resist another small portion of "Japanese style", beef teriyaki flavour crisps. Once again, they were nice-ish, but nothing to get excited about. I also had a small handful of salted peanuts to round things off. I ate all that while watching TV - first the news, and then two fairly good Star Trek episodes - one being The Next Generation, and the other Deep Space Nine.

  I was not feeling all that tired when I turned the TV off, and I probably read an extra page or two of the book I am reading. I then put the book down, and I think I was fast asleep minutes later. It seems like I slept really well. I have a few hazy memories of getting up to pee, but at 5am I woke up feeling like my bedroom had cooled off a bit more than was comfortable for my mostly uncovered body. I put the heater on low, and tried to sleep more. I did fall asleep after a while, but I was awake just before 6am, and my bedroom was now feeling a bit too warm.

  I got up, turned the heater off, and then I went for a pee. I had hoped I would have a poo, but it didn't happen then (but had happened now). I was still rather pleased when I weighed myself. I had lost 800gm since yesterday morning. I had also lost 4kg since 1st April this year. That is probably just over half a stone - which is not much. It sounds far grander to say I have lost the equivalent to two 2 litre bottles of drink since the start of April. On a few rare occasions in the last month or two I have been a little lighter, but I rather expect after this busy weekend, I may be even lighter still.

  The late afternoon ice cream left it's mark, but my blood glucose is fairly reasonable this morning. The Contour, and GlucoRX meters both read 8.2mmol/l. That is under my old target of 8.5mmol/l, but over my current target of 7.5mmol/l. These are arbitrary self set targets, and they mean I can't say 8.2mmol/l is that good. The Contour Plus meter read 8.4mmol/l. Once again another higher reading than the other two, but maybe a bit closer since putting fresh batteries in the reader.
  Today is the first day of Chattfest - and the first time I go out with camera to take pictures of bands for ages. This was what all the fuss was about today - and also this morning. I need to get a bus which will take ages to thread it's way through all the Saturday shoppers in Bromley, and I think I have to aim to get that bus around midday to get to The Chatterton Arms at just before 1pm.

  I hope to get pictures of every band, although I will not be staying for long once Devanna start playing inside the pub. It will be hot and packed in the pub, and I will get out as soon as I can. If it is too packed I may not take any pictures inside at all. All the other bands will be playing on the small stage (with a support pillar down the middle of the view) in the huge back garden behind the pub.

  One band I will strive to get some good pictures of are Retro Rock Icons. Angela's husband is back playing the drums for them - maybe just on this one occasion. I probably ought to take some pictures of him to keep Angela happy. I will be happy (I hope) because Angela will be there. Like me, it will be her first outing to a gig for ages. - err, maybe not strictly true. I did see Caz and Steven at the Brookmill pub in Deptford one afternoon a month or more ago, and I think Angela might have gone to an open mic where the husband was doing some of the drumming.

  I seem to have written quite a lot, but somehow I have written faster than usual (which probably means more typos and other silly mistakes). I started writing extra early, and now, as I finish this, it is still only 8:38am, and I have hours to wash my hair and have a shower. I will still have plenty of time to maybe even allow myself to have a quick snooze next !