There were some clear skies during the night that let the temperature drop to 7° C (one of my thermometers said 6.8° C earlier on) by this morning. I will slowly warm up as warm winds, and warm gales, and even stronger winds blow from the south west. By 8pm the temperature may reach 15° C. It is dry now, but very dull. The forecast says that any minute now it will start to rain, and like yesterday, the rain won't stop for "hours", and today's version of "hours" may extend to 1am tomorrow morning. Tomorrow may start at 10° C, and from the moment the sun rises we may have non stop sunshine until sunset. That will only raise the temperature to 13° C, but in full sunshine that may feel fairly good, or would do if the wind is not too strong.

  Yesterday was horrible and there is nothing positive to say about it, but I'll see if I can reduce my description of the day to less than 99% moaning and groaning !

  First of all it rained, and then it rained some more, and more, and more and more....... Not only that, but there was not a single break in the clouds to let in even a few seconds of sunshine. That miserable grey sky was very depressing. I tried to sleep through as much of it as possible, but I doubt I managed more than about an hour in total. I must admit that the best of the day was laying on my bed just reading, or snoozing when I could.

  I still hoped that maybe the rain might ease of in the early evening, or that somehow I would feel like I would go out in the filthy weather. To that end I rummaged through my cameras. Actually I didn't really do that - I made a beeline for my Nikon D3200 camera. It is high resolution in terms of pixel numbers, and it is also my lightest Nikon DSLR camera. It is only mildly let down by facilities and maybe the quality of the internal image processing, although for most use cases you would hardly tell the difference.

  As well as choosing the camera, I also selected a lens. I went for a Nikon "Nikkor" 18 to 200mm zoom lens. That would give a nice wide angle view at one end of the zoom, and a fair bit of zoom at the other end. It seemed a good combination for travelling light. I also packed a flash gun (with spare batteries) because I know the gig would be very poorly lit. I set the camera up to use the flash gun, and did other things like top up the battery (plus a spare).

  In terms of the camera I was ready to go, and if the rain had finished earlier I may have well tried to go, but.....

  It seems storm Austen had blown a tree (or my guess would be a heavy branch) onto the railway. The disruption information said it was at (or near) Ladywell. If the weather wasn't so crap I could have taken a walk towards Ladywell to see if I could get a picture of it. This morning I've checked to see if I could find any "official" pictures from Southeastern, or Network Rail, but I found nothing.

  My intended route was to get a train from Catford Bridge to Eden Park station, and from there get a 194 bus up the hill to West Wickham, and The Swan Pub. With all the trains cancelled I didn't have a chance to possibly (but unlikely) be brave and go out into the cold dark, and wet night.

  Once I knew I was not going out I could indulge in a more liberal dinner - I could have, but I didn't....well not much ! My dinner was two "Tiger" bread rolls with each stuff by a couple of grilled sausages. It was only spoiled by the sausages not being cooked (grilled) as well as I would have liked. There was no sign of any raw/pink meat inside, but I was still a bit worried (but not enough to take them out the bread rolls and put them under the grill again.

 After the "sausage rolls" (obviously not sausage rolls in the conventional sense) I had a decent helping of chocolate ice cream. My lunch also included some ice cream. Together it added up to a possible excess of sugar in my diet. It did leave it's mark, but was fairly minor.

  Instead of wallowing in the rain I watched some TV last night, and when that became boring I spent maybe half an hour reading. By then I had lost all track of time, but I think I was in bed, and fast asleep before midnight, and probably before 11pm. I do remember having a dream during the night, but the first bit of the dream (if it actually existed) seems to have faded to oblivion. I do remember being in a pub, and trying to buy a round for  4 or 5 people. I definitely remember that the others were outside in a beer garden, and I remember handing over a £20 and £5 note to the barman. He gave me the £5 note back. I had overestimated the cost. That is all I can remember of the dream.

  This morning I felt uncomfortable because of what was actually minor constipation. I passed a small bit of poo before going back to bed. Later on (maybe an hour, but that is just a wild guess) I got up, and after counting out my tablets for this morning, I went back to the toilet, and passed a dead alligator *.

 * This bit of toilet humour I first heard described by an ex naval officer, and currently a prison officer. It is a type of heavy, dense poo that sinks to the bottom of the pan, and lays there like "a dead alligator". Maybe I have a warped sense of humour by I thought it very funny !

  After that second, and more productive visit to the toilet I weighed myself. It was not great, but I do seem to have lost 200gm since yesterday morning. Sadly my blood glucose was up this morning, although 9.07mmol/l is not a calamity, but it is higher than yesterday's 8.23mmol/l. On the other hand it is slightly lower then the preceding 3 or 4 days. I must admit I was hoping my last Ozempic injection would do more to keep my blood glucose down. Maybe I am assuming too much and taking too many liberties. Maybe the rotten, cold, wet and grey weather just makes me eat more.

  My blood pressure is very good (I think) this morning. Just now it was 109/73 with a heart rate of just 75. The latter is particularly low for me, although not the lowest. It is maybe just under the typical figures I found on a couple of website, including the British Heart Foundation's web site.

  There has been no heavy rain yet, but I note the road outside does look damp, and I can see a few raindrops on my bedroom window. It may be starting a bit later than forecast, but it seems the rain is now starting, and even the very latest update to the forecast shows the last of the rain may fall at 1am tomorrow morning.

  The rain means I am unlikely to go out anywhere today. I suppose I could try and grit my teeth and head for another Chain gig. They play The Railway in Blackheath tonight. It is shown as a 9pm start - which is annoying because that is when I am thinking about bed ! It is easier to get to than West Wickham. I can get a 54 bus from the end of my road, and it stops right outside the pub. Apart from the cold and rain, and the late start, I don't actually like the pub. I can't really see myself making any effort to get there.

  The most likely things I will do today include eating, laying on my bed, reading, snoozing, and very little else. I have some washing up in the kitchen sink I might do, and I am starting a build up of clothes to wash. I could do either, and possibly I might do both, but either may take more discipline than the horrid grey weather inspires me to have.