08:21 BST

  This morning the sky looks more hazy than clear. It is more white than blue, but there is some hazy sunshine now, and maybe it will get stronger later in the day. We are now in the run up to warmer days, and today it should reach 23° C. Having said that, tomorrow may be disappointing. Only sunny spells are forecast, and while it should be another totally dry day, the temperature may only reach 21° C.

  Yesterday was an odd day. I kept thinking I had no energy or enthusiasm, and yet I achieved a lot. Somehow it was a most satisfactory day, and that satisfaction continued this morning, but not for my night. I can't say I slept well at all last night.

  I started yesterday saying I was feeling better than the previous day, but I would still have to steel myself to do almost anything. After I had finished writing, and had had a short rest, I was looking forward to a shower, but who wouldn't after not washing the previous day, and feeling very stinky. After showing I added to my burden for the day by putting a t-shirt and half a dozen pairs of underpants in to soak in detergent.

  After my shower I got myself dressed and sort of ready to go out. My fear was that my legs would complain, and I would suffer breathlessness, and other symptoms of my faulty heart valve, like I did going to, and from Petts Wood last Saturday. I may have subconsciously lowed myself down a bit, but my walk to and from Tesco was as good as perfectly normal. I took that as good news.

  In Tesco I topped up my instant noodle supplies, found a few things on the reduced price shelf for dinner and snacks, and bought some soft drinks. I only bought two bottles of Diet Coke to leave room in my rucksack for a couple of bottles of "flavoured water". The one I tried yesterday was pear and blackcurrant flavour, and although I would only describe it as "low sugar", it was quite nice when ice cold.

  One other thing I bought was a small tub of about 6 ready roasted chicken thighs (or was it breasts ?). They were quite small whatever they were, but the whole tub was quite filling, and I made them slip down easily with dollops of tomato chutney on them. The chutney, like almost any chutney, had a high sugar content, while the chicken had a very high protein content and little else. It might have been almost a healthy lunch if it had somehow included a lot of fibre.

   After the walk to and from Tesco, and then stuffing myself with lunch, I felt I needed, as much as deserved a lie down for maybe as long as an hour - during which I read my book and had a snooze. As odd as it may sound, but I can't recall which of two things I did next. It was either photo editing, or it was doing the rinses and conditioner of the laundry I had left soaking in the morning.
  If I did the laundry first I can simply dismiss that as being done. My photo editing, plus selecting the best, or maybe just the better pictures for editing, concerned the first band on stage at Petts Wood Calling - The Dead Beat Poets. It was pure luck that I found them behind the stage resting while waiting for 12:30, their official start time. The sky was very dull when I took this snap, and it looks a bit dull, but otherwise it was great to get such a snap.
   The dull sky meant that the on stage pictures were a bit flat - except for the stage lights shining in my camera lens. I made the mistake of selecting auto colour balance, and those stage lights often gave quite a colour cast to the photos. Sometimes it gave interesting effects, but at other times it was annoying.
  The eye auto adjusts it's exposure for different parts of the picture, but the camera doesn't (although AI in mobile phone cameras now do it quite well), but the camera saw the stage as being almost dark when looking over the top of the brightly dressed people. I had to selectively brighten up bits of this picture. With Simon with his back to the audience it was not a great picture, but it gave an idea of the view.

  No matter which way around it was, I finished the laundry and the photo editing of the first photo album before dinner time. After my very high protein dinner I decided I should have something a bit different for my dinner. The easy answer was even more instant noodles. I had bought a selection from Tesco earlier, and chose a big packet of Kimchi flavour noodles. I think it described it as a "jumbo pack", but in reality it was only about a quarter as big again as most packets.

  I had something after those noodles, and it was either a handful of peanuts, or two small packets of crisps. I definitely had both, but I am unsure of when. I am sure the news I saw was all terribly important, but I seemed to be more concentrating on my dinner, and thinking ahead for the rest of the evening. I seem to remember very little of the news, and perhaps it was some of the political stuff that went in one ear, and out the other.

  When the news had ended I started to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation. I think it was one of the better episodes, but I didn't see all of it. I started to edit another photo album during the commercial breaks, and often I carried on after the commercial break was over. The same was true of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, except that did my attention a lot more. By the time it had finished I had also finished my second photo album.
  The next band was Thursday's Child. The first time I saw them, several years ago, I remember enjoying them. Maybe all my concentration was on my camera, trying to be creative and get some good pictures, and this time I felt their music was quite bland.

  I guess it is just vanity, but with a bit of a twist that I was striving to get the best pictures I could. After all, my pictures are shared with the Petts Wood Calling official pages, and that effectively pays for my entrance to the festival (£20 for everyone else) and a back stage pass. All that adds another layer of enjoyment to the whole festival.
  I must admit I didn't get any pictures of Thursday's Chile that were any better than "adequate". On the other hand there were a few close ups that I thought were pretty fair. In later pictures the sky brightened up a bit, and later still there was some strong sunshine, but I soon added my own light using my big flash gun. It feels wrong to have to use that in daylight, but I learned how much it helped at Chatt Fest the weekend before.

  I was completely finished in time to watch the whole of Have I Got News For You (although still had to go and read stuff off the internet during the commercial breaks - which seemed to be half composed of adverts for assorted gambling facilities). It finished at 10pm and I was very happy to go to bed after that. I still found the energy to read for maybe 20 minutes before I turned out the light and fell asleep.

  I don't think I had a good night last night. One problem was the temperature. It felt like a very fine line between too hot and too cold. I know it was just me because I kept and eye on my room thermometer, and it didn't change much through the night. On a couple of occasions I woke up for a pee, and was feeling almost hot and sweaty. I know it was a bit cooler in the toilet, but once back in my bedroom I continued to feel almost shivery cold for ages. It is possible it might have been something like fever, but my temperature was perfectly normal when I checked it after getting up.

  Another thing that spoiled last night was some bad dreams. One could have been a very bad dream. In the dream I was watching a small cat trying to negotiate a busy main road. At one point it ran between the wheels of a big lorry. It seemed certain that it would be squashed, but it came out again unscathed. Eventually a woman on the other side of the road managed to grab it. That was basically the end of that dream, although there was a sort of an addendum. I was given a high visibility jacket for my cat (as were loads of other people). It was a nice idea, but by someone who has never met a cat who would refuse to wear it in a cataclysm of sharp claws in all directions.

  The second dream seemed to last a long time, and it was really boring. I was with friends, maybe work or college mates, in a large venue. I have no idea where it was, but in the dream I remembered having been there before. On that occasion there was a fairly heavy rock band playing with terrible, loud, "dance music" before and after. In the dream there was no band due on and no music of any sort. One thing I spotted was that the bar had three brand new hand pumps fitted to it, and I was hoping that at least one of the staff knew how to care for real ale.

  In fact there was only one member of staff to be seen. She was the barmaid, and it was the end of her shift. She put her coat on and left. There were no other staff visible  and not even any "security". I guess we could have helped ourselves, but we didn't. So the long lasting dream had no music, no drinks, and I was not even with good friends to start up some sort on interesting conversation. It felt like the dream lasted an hour, and every single second of it was boring !

  I could have got up just before 6am, but I felt cool, of not actually cold. I turned the heater back on (after turning it off a few hours earlier), and I fell asleep again. It felt much warmer when I got up just after 7am - a bit later than most mornings. As is my habit (and need) I went for a pee, and tried for a poo. Only the former happened. When I weighed myself I found my weight was exactly the same as yesterday, which was OK, but not as good as losing a few hundred grams.

  After all I think I ate I was surprised to see my weight stay the same, and even more surprised when I checked my blood glucose. I knew I didn't eat anything with lots of sugar in it, but I didn't think I had taken much more care, but...The Contour meter gave a rather wonderful reading of 6.8mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter was even better with a reading of 6.7mmol/l. Once again the Contour Plus meter read higher, but 8.4mmol/l would have been OK. I'll soon finish the current container of test strips for the Contour Plus meter. I wonder if a fresh lot may give better readings.

  It is possible I may find time for another photo album later today, but all my effort will be going into my regular Wednesday lunchtime visit to The Jolly Farmers for my two pints of Guinness - unless I am joined by anyone else. It is always possible that Kevin may drop in if he has any business at the hospital, Maybe slightly more likely, but in reality unlikely, could be Michael. I have told him to take a break if he is doing another of his long stints guarding his wife in hospital, and the pub is mere minutes walk from the hospital.