Today started off dull, but the clouds were soon parting, and as I write this (9:16am) we seem to be having a very long sunny spell. Maybe the full sunshine shown in the forecast is happening early. This afternoon may only see 25° C for a single hour, and most of the afternoon may only be 24° C. The chances of any rain today are shown as 0%. Tonight may be a bit cooler than last night (which seemed to be several degrees warmer than forecast). Tomorrow may start at 15° C and full sunshine. Tomorrow afternoon may reach 25° C for several hours, but by then we may only see sunny spells. Once again, not a drop of rain is forecast.

  A few notable things happened yesterday, and I guess that made it a good day. The day ended with a beer tasting session, and included a notable breakthrough. That, and other stuff, will be revealed in the entire narrative for today.

  Yesterday morning felt like a rush. The first thing I had to do after writing yesterday's piece, and having a simple sandwich for breakfast (I think it was a plain, and I have to admit a bit boring, ham on white bread sandwich) was to finish the laundry in the big buckets blocking the use of the bath tub. With that done I could wash my hair and have a shower so I would be less stinky for my guests later in the afternoon.

  Once I was washed and dressed I should have tackled the small backlog of washing up in the kitchen sink, but I did something else. As I have previously mentioned, and possibly shown a very bad picture of it, my head got sunburnt at Chattfest last Saturday, and although I never saw it, I saw the result of what much have been a large blister breaking - the "water" inside the blister dried around the roots of what very little hair I have on the top of my head, and left a sort of crunchy residue.

  In previous years we may not have had such a hot sun, and I did not spent hours under it like I did last Saturday. I realised I had to throw my dislikes to the side, and invest in a hat to keep strong sunshine off my head. I checked what Amazon had to offer, and I ordered two very slightly different straw panama style hats. I could not decided if a £8 hat would be better than a £17 hat. I ordered both, and one or both of them should be delivered today so I can wear one at Petts Wood Calling tomorrow if the sun seems very strong. I actually thought paying for faster delivery was worth it in this very rare case.

  While I did not finish doing the backlog of washing up in the kitchen sink, I did spent a bit of time in the kitchen. It is hardly the time of year for it, but I dusted off, and washed my slow cooker. I started a stew consisting of the rest of the carcass of the ready cooked chicken I had just one meal from (or was it two ?), a couple of chicken stock cubes, and a sliced sweet potato. Later on I added a small tin of butter beans, although with hindsight I am not sure why. There is plenty of meat on the chicken carcass, and I didn't need to add any more protein.

  The stew has been slowly cooking all night, and I reckon there is enough there to feed half a dozen Dickensian orphans - provided they don't choke on all the tiny bones - something I'll have to be careful of when I eat it. I am not sure when I am going to eat it. If I leave the cooker on "warm" tomorrow I could have a few bowls of it when I come back from Petts Wood Calling. It would probably be more healthy than "Southern Style" fried chicken and chips - which I have even if I have hot sew waiting for me. What I should probably do is let the stew cool off, and then try and extract as many bones as possible before freezing it for another day - it would be great on an icy cold winters day !

  Jodie was running late again for the Thursday (late) afternoon beer tasting session. In her message she also mentioned that Mark would be joining us. With (eventually) four of us it made for a good session, and I even discovered that I was starting to find limited pleasure in a type of "beer" I try and avoid. It is so called "pastry beers" that are brewed with stuff like blueberry muffins. I have no idea what insane brewer decided to try this weird stuff, but maybe the head brewer at "Vault City" ( a Scottish brewer I think) may be getting the hang of making it almost drinkable.

  We tried two cans of Vault City pastry beers, and while both were initially rather too sour for my tastes, I did discover that one, and maybe the other was leaving a more pleasant after taste. I fear it is utter madness, but I think I may check Tesco for a few more cans to drink in private, and see if I can eventually learn to love them.
  I rarely bother taking pictures of beer tastings sessions. Jodie always looks away, and Michael just grimaces, but at least Mark can manage a smile.

  My three visitors all left at about the same time - I think it was around 7pm. I was looking forward to dinner. The obvious thing was my slow cooked chicken and sweet potato stew, but I fancied something a little more compact. I microwave a Keema and Peas (curried minced lamb with peas and some bits of potato). Maybe it was the beer I had been drinking earlier, but that Keema did not taste as wonderful as some past examples. It was still nice, but not excellent.

  I also finished off the rest of the tub of plain vanilla ice cream I had in the freezer. Now that was very nice, and the extra sugar should not have done me any good at all. After dinner I watched some TV, but I think I missed the last option (Have I Got News For You) and headed to bed early. I can promise I am guessing the times correctly, but I am pretty sure I was fast asleep by 11pm last night.

  I do remember getting up twice in the night, both in the small hours of this morning, to have a pee - and both were quite large pees. When I finally got up I had another pee, and on the second attempt I passed a substantial bit of poo. That seemed like a good time to weigh myself, and sadly I seemed to have gained 400gm - not much, but I would have been a lot happier if it was a 400gm loss instead.

   On the other hand, to my great surprise, my blood glucose, even after eating all that ice cream, and doing it late in the evening, was rather splendid. I got readings of 6.9mmol/l (extremely good), 7.9mmol/l (pretty good), and 8.2mmol/l (quite good). That averages out to 7.67mmol/l, and I have only had one other average this month that has come close to it (7.53mmol/l on 14th July). I think I half starved myself to get that reading, and I would have done it because the day before I had three readings that were all absurdly high.

  Today is almost a day of rest - except of course that never happens because something always comes along to fill any gaps. One thing will be tying me to staying in is that I am expecting my new Panama hats (2 of them) to be delivered today by Amazon. I am guessing it will be a late afternoon, and maybe even mid evening delivery, but sometimes they play a googly (or whatever the term is) and deliver not long after midday. (I don't think I have ever had a deliver by Amazon earlier than midday.

  Staying in will give me a chance to be very lazy and/or edit a few more photos. It was my original to have them all done before I start taking more tomorrow at Petts Wood Calling. I am not sure if I will managed to go through all 253 photos I took on my big Nikon 610D of The Life Of Brian, but I may well manage a few more today. I did make a start yesterday, and here are a couple saved in the correct size for these pages.
  This is Miranda singing. I was going to ask why I should I bother with more pictures of Miranda and the rest of the band, but I think this one answers my question. I am sure I have more pictures of Miranda or others in the band being very expressive.
  Another expressive pose from Miranda.
  Brian Bath (Kate Bush's original guitarist who is credited as co-writer of a few of her songs on the her first one or two albums). I managed to snap him with a very happy look.