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| Sunday 31st
January 2016 |
| 12:16 GMT As far as I can recall, the weather on Friday was close enough to how it was forecast to be. There was a little rain in the morning, and a few sunny intervals in the afternoon. The forecast also said it would be rather cool, and it was. I think just 7° C was forecast, and it was probably about that. Yesterday morning saw a few light splashes of rain, and that was rather less than I expected. Once they had finished there were some periods of lovely bright sunshine in between the longer periods of grey. By 3pm it was just grey, and it was rather cool too - I don't think I saw my thermometer go above 7° C again. The weather today is not very nice - although I realise that is a rather relative judgement. Further north of here some people have been, and probably still are, enduring some really terrible weather. Here in Catford the sky is grey, and every so often we are treated to a spell of light rain. Nevertheless, it is currently 12° C, and if it wasn't for the wind it would feel quite mild. The forecast for temperature seems quite accurate, and if it stays accurate the temperature will remain constant to well after sunset, and maybe even through the night. The forecast says the sky should be almost black rather than grey, and yet as I type these words the sun is trying it's best to break through. If it manages it, it could be a nice afternoon. Tomorrow could be even warmer - 13° C - but as well as a mix of grey and black clouds forecast for all day, there could also be a shower or two in the afternoon. I am unsure if I should think that good or bad for a month that is often associated with snow ! After a less than perfect start I didn't feel too bad at work on Friday. My chest didn't bother me much, but nose was a great annoyance. It wasn't dripping, but it did slowly, slowly fill with thick mucus which might, or might not have been oozing from the deeper recesses of my sinuses (if that is anatomically possible). Clearing my nose was a rather noisy process that resembled an elephant trumpeting ! It is worth noting that I could only do this in private, or out in the open air where there were no windows to shatter. I didn't feel in a very productive mood at work, and it might be a bit tricky to explain why I have not made better progress on a task that I am carrying out. In other words I felt bloody lazy. The only problem with that, apart from having to make some very creative explanations, is that it can be a bit boring. So it was with some relief that home time came around, and I could start out on the long boring journey home. I had a yearning for something exciting, and I did consider going to plunder Tesco, but I decided to go in the Turkish supermarket on my way home. I haven't been in there for some time now, but it is all mostly the same except for an increasing amount of rather fine bottled ales from some of the (semi) local small breweries (and some more distant ones). I didn't buy any of those, but I did buy a rather tasty bit of Polish smoked pork. It might seem strange to go into a Turkish shop to buy Polish products, but that's just how these things go. I had some grand plans for Friday night, and I carried out two of them. The first was to wash my hair, and the second was to finish selecting/editing/preparing some photos I took last Monday. I didn't have the energy, or enthusiasm to upload a photo album to Flickr....or more truthfully...my brain felt too foggy to caption and tag the photos if I had uploaded them. I finally did it yesterday, and you can see all the pictures here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/135353558@N03/albums/72157661768708504 - in glorious high resolution....well it should be glorious, but a few are not as good as I would like them to have been. Here's a couple of small samples of what is in the full album.  The dome of St Pauls.  Looking upstream along the south bank with Blackfriars railway bridge/station in the background.  New Thameslink class 398 train in platform 1 of Blackfriars station. Once it had departed my train (a class 319) to Sevenoaks via Catford arrived three minutes later. It was quite late after I had
done all the photo editing, and I had sipped a couple
of whiskys while doing it. That could have been a
recipe for a good nights sleep, but I don't recall it
being all that good...although in it's defence, it
probably wasn't that bad. Saturday morning, and a bit
of the afternoon, were fairly typical. I met my friend
Aleemah for breakfast in the pub, and a DVD
afterwards. Once Aleemah had gone home I could have
done all lots of exciting things - but I didn't !
I did upload the photo album, and provide some captions and tags for most pictures, but it felt like hard work. It was as if I had no enthusiasm for it. Captions and tags are not essential, but they are handy, and I always find them a terrible drag to do ! Another thing I did do was to wash a towel Now washing towels is hard work, and most of that hard work is trying to rinse them out. It seems impossible to do. I rinsed an wrung out the towel about 5 times, left it for an hour to get my strength back, and rinsed and wrung it out again another 4 or 5 times, and still the water would not run clear. I gave up at that point and just hung it up to dry. Unfortunately I seemed to do something nasty to my "floating rib" while doing all that. As well as the typical hand sized pain I get just below, and half a hands width to the right of my right breast, I also seemed to develop a new and exciting pain that continued round my right side to the middle of my shoulder blade. It was a little uncomfortable to lie on, but it would have been of no interest to my doctor because a couple of Ibuprofen reduced the pain to just a dull background annoyance. Prior to the Ibuprofen tablets doing their stuff, the pain was sufficient to make me think it would be a bad idea to go out in the cold. In particular I didn't fancy hanging around on cold draughty railway station platforms to go and see Chain playing in Longfield. That was a shame on several levels. The Railway Tavern pub in Longfield, where Chain were playing, is straightforward to get to, and although you have to be aware of the time of the last train (or for cowards like me, the second to last train), it is straightforward to get home again - at least it sounds like it should be. All I would have had to do was to walk to Catford station - which is few minutes extra walk compared to Catford Bridge station (but don't underestimate how annoying those few extra minutes are). From Catford station I can get a train to Bromley South station. When there are no engineering works further down the line, as there were yesterday, it is a quick connection to catch a train that runs fast to Longfield. The entire journey is only about 20 minutes station to station plus a 10 and 5 minute walk from home to station, and station to pub. Engineering works yesterday messed up all the timing, and add extra stops between Bromley South and Longfield. So I didn't go to see Chain, and I missed another chance to test my new (secondhand) Cannon EOS 400D DSLR camera at a dimly lit gig. Oh well, the day will come sooner or later, and unfortunately I think I will be disappointed. The pictures I took on Monday seemed to show similar levels of noise in dark areas when pictures were taken in low light. There were some pictures I took that I didn't include in the photo album that show that noise really easily - but maybe only when the picture is manipulated to make it more obvious. Imagine the underside of some of the bridges over the river when the sun is hidden behind a big grey clouds. It is very dim on the underside of the bridge, but I can still brighten the picture enough to see lots of details in the gloom, and with hose details comes loads of speckly noise. It is a similar problem trying to squeeze details out of a picture taken without flash in a gloomy pub. Last night I had a two part sleep. I slept well from about midnight to 5am when I woke up feeling lousy. Fortunately, it being a Sunday, I was able to get up and potter around for a couple of hours before going back to bed. It didn't take long to fall asleep, although I don't think I realised it at the time. I then slept for at least a couple of hours, and woke up feeling almost good ! I intended to do loots of things today, and I am beginning to think I will hardly do any of them. At least I have almost done one thing - write this very long blog entry ! I have also started to wash a few shirts. They are currently soaking in soapy water that must be almost cold now. I will definitely finish them, and hang them up to dry sooner or later. I think I definitely want to hoover a few select areas even if I can't find the energy or enthusiasm to hoover a wider area. Once upon a time I considered going out to take a few snaps, or do some shopping, but the showers have put me off doing that even if they are mostly very light and intermittent. I think I'll fill in the spare time, and it's looking like there will be more of it that I thought there would be, by reading. |
| Friday 29th
January 2016 |
| 08:18 GMT It stayed fairly cool yesterday, just 9° C with a bit of breeze to make it feel even cooler, but it was a lovely sunny day. It started to get cloudy as I made my way home from work, but there was still a few glimpses of sunshine while my train from Waterloo East was halfway to Catford Bridge. Sunset is now around 16:45, and so it was still perfect daylight when I got home from work...well I say perfect, but the light was beginning to dim, and the increasingly cloudy sky did add a bit of added greyness. That cloud may have dropped some rain in the small hours of this morning, and I felt a few light raindrops as I walked to the station, but it also kept the temperature up. My thermometer said 10° C. That would almost be nice if it wasn't accompanied by a very chilling breeze. There will probably be an hour or two of rain soon. After that the cloud should break up, and we are supposed to have some sunny intervals. It will stay dry, with temperatures up at 12° C for a while, until mid evening when it will (or may) pour down. That is forecast to continue until 8 or 9am tomorrow morning. After that it is forecast to stay dry for the rest of the day. There might even be some extended sunny periods, but it may well stay rather cool. Perhaps no more than 7° C ! My plan was to rush home after work, eat a sandwich or two, relax for 10 minutes, and then check my blood pressure. That is exactly what I did, or tried to do. I don't think I got the relaxing bit quite right because my blood pressure was moderately high. On any other day I might have left it for an hour and tried again, but I had to rush out to join the rest of the Thursday night drinkers in the pub. That's probably why I couldn't relax properly. Last night's drink was in The London & Rye - Catford's Wetherspoons pub - which was rather handy for me. Last night was one of those nights where there was some unknown ingredient in the air, and everyone was on good form. I enjoyed myself enough to have an extra pint - making four pints in total - before putting my coat on, and walking home again. Now there is a theory that booze raises blood pressure in some mysterious way. It is possible that this is a rumour put out by some teetotal killjoys, or maybe I have just misunderstood it. It wasn't all that long after I got home that I re-tested my blood pressure. I expected it to have gone up, but in fact it had gone down - right down to the sort of figures that my doctor could only dream about. In terms of actual numbers I can usually only remember the systolic pressure. That is usually the first number quoted. It's been a long time, but I have a vague memory of the hospital being moderately satisfied when they got it down, and kept it down to 133. My doctor, and the nurses I have seen, are usually looking for a figure around 120. Last night, with four pints of booze in me, I managed 121. That may be a record for me ! Having lower blood pressure didn't seem to do anything for the quality of my sleep last night. It was still a bit lumpy, but not too bad. Of course I woke up with a mild hangover. It wasn't painful to any degree, but it did feel like I was wrapped in grey fog. Unfortunately the effects of the booze didn't hang over into my blood pressure. This morning it was it's usual morning high. Maybe it was a slight improvement over the average, but only a very small improvement. Mind you, if my blood pressure was directly related to how I feel this morning it would be pretty bad. I seem to have a bit of a hangover from my recent cold. My nose may not have dripped for a few days, but it still occasionally fills up with thick mucus from the depths of my sinus system. I also seem to be intermittently coughing a slightly wet cough this morning...although maybe it has stopped again for now. Then there is my chest with, in the words of my doctor, it's muscular problem. It does feel quite crunchy this morning, and I have provoked it to low levels of pain a few times this morning. Now I am sitting down in my office, and the heating is taking the chill off the air, I feel moderately comfortable, but I do have a hankering to lay down and have a snooze ! It was back in June last year that I showed some pictures of the electric vehicle charging point near Catford Bridge station.....  There are more pictures here - http://www.sunnyside.homelinux.org/subpages/journal/2015/June_2015.html#28  I have some grand plans for tonight, and I reckon there is a fair chance I will carry them out. Most important is that I wash my hair. I have left it unwashed for too long again on these cold damp days, but tonight I really have to wash it. When that is done I hope I can raise the energy and enthusiasm to edit/prepare the photos I took along the south bank last Monday. When they are done, and maybe uploaded to Flickr, I can look forward to a nice untroubled sleep. |
| Tuesday 19th
January 2016 |
| 08:09
GMT After a depressingly dull, grey, and cold day, the sun just managed to shine a few rays onto the top of a few high buildings just as it dropped below the horizon. Even if the sun had broken through the clouds much, much earlier, even mid morning, it would not have influenced the temperature that much. Once again, the temperature may have hit 5° C for a few seconds, somewhere, but 4° C was about right for most places. With the clouds broken up the temperature dropped even lower last night. One of my thermometers said 0.6° C and the other 0.5° C when I got up this morning, and that seems pretty cold to me. (Yes, I know it is probably minus 99° C in Canada, and the snow is 24ft deep, but this is England where two snow flakes can block the entire rail network !). The sky doesn't look all that clear right now, but today is forecast to be very sunny, and that will raise the temperature to more than 2° C - maybe even 3° C !. This is going to be the pattern for the next few days, but early, and perhaps premature forecasts are suggesting temperature up near 10° C at the weekend - and rain ! My optimism about how I felt yesterday morning was a bit over optimistic. Thanks to my office being so bloody cold for a lot of the morning I started to feel rough in all sorts of ways. I felt a bit stiff, and incredibly unenthusiastic about doing any work, plus what had only been sounds, or sensations that felt like sounds, from my chest soon turned into actual aches. Some five hours after arriving at work my office was just warm enough to be comfortable, and I started to feel considerably better. When I had finished work, and headed out into the cold I was feeling tolerably well, but more than that, I seemed to have an unguessed amount of energy. It was another of those days when my legs were working extremely well - even if other parts of my body seemed to be in a rapid state of decay. I had a quick look to see if a bus was coming up the hill, and when I saw there wasn't one anywhere in sight I strode off towards the station at a moderately fast pace, and it felt fine doing it. On a warm sunny day it might even have been enjoyable. I don't know where all that energy came from, but it lasted all the way home, and then a bit longer. Considering how sleepy I had felt after what I was convinced was a terrible night's sleep, it all seemed rather amazing. Maybe it had something to do with having a couple of sandwiches for breakfast instead of salad, but usually that slows me down instead of speeding me up. I've had a couple of sandwiches this morning to see if it work again. At the moment it seems to have slowed me down, but you never know - maybe I'll feel like Superman when I go home this afternoon. (Now that seems most unlikely !). I'll confess that I did have a few packets of crisps last night, but my actual dinner was one of my lowest calorie dinners for some time. It was a two part dinner. The first part was an Iceland "Slimming World" cottage pie. I did spoil it and improve it by a spoonful of chilli chutney. It added a nice kick as well as some unwanted sugar. Dinner part 2 was a bowl of steamed green vegetables that I improved/ruined by a very generous application of mayonnaise. Having had my dinner I started a very important job on my PC - a long overdue back up. I use a free program called Lucky Backup. I would have to agree it sounds a stupid name - particularly for something so important, but it does work well, and it is available for Windows PCs too. I use it on my work PC now and then. The only problem with last night's backup is that it failed for lack of disk space. Lucky Backup doesn't do anything fancy like compress files, and so what it did manage to copy to my back up disk is valid data - it just didn't manage to copy all files. I guessed this would happen sooner or later, and I pre-empted what would need to be done by ordering a new USB connected 2TB hard disk yesterday afternoon. It will take a few days to get here because I opted for free postage, but once it is here I will make a fresh backup to it. That will take ages to do, and it may take a while to decide whether to leave the disk in it's original Windows compatible format, or to reformat it to a Linux filesystem. I am thinking that a Linux format like ext4 may be better. One of the reasons my current back up disk is apparently full is that all the thousands of tiny files, some only containing a handful of bytes, are allocated blocks of disk that can contain many more bytes. I can't put a figure on this off the top of my head, but 925GB of data on my Linux PC's ext4 file system seems to translate to 938GB of data a FAT32 Windows formatted hard disk. It took quite a long time for Lucky Backup to do it's stuff, and while it did it I lay on my bed reading. Before getting too relaxed I took a couple of Ibuprofen tablets to reduce the inflammation of the cranky bits in my chest. By the time came to go to sleep those tablets were doing their stuff quite well. As I turned onto my right side, and shifted my arms, legs, and a few other bits into comfortable position, my chest creaked, popped, grated, and groaned, but it did not hurt. That allowed me to get to sleep quite easily. The strange thing was that despite a large sleep deficit, or the belief in one, I didn't seem to feel particularly tired last night. Nevertheless I fell asleep quite quickly, and I think I probably slept really well. I am sure I woke up at least once to have a pee, but while I am convinced I did it, I can't actually remember anything about doing it. I am sure it must be a sort of sign of getting a good sleep, and being refreshed and re-juvenated, that I am very sure that the dream I woke from just before my alarm was due to go off, was what you could call a bit sexy. Maybe it was erotic, or perhaps even totally pornographic, but rather annoyingly I can't remember enough details to do a repeat day dream. In fact the harder I try, the less I can remember about it. It is like remembering the name and author of a book, but not being able to remember a single word of the plot. Shame really ! This morning my chest is still rather crunchy, but apart from the occasional twinge it seems to be mostly comfortable...although I am wondering if that should all be said in the past tense. It's been another struggle getting my office warm, and there is still a long way to go. I think that maybe the cold is getting to me. I doubt it helped when I had to hold a container up at shoulder height to drain about a couple of pints of condensate out of the top air con unit to get it working again. The rest of my body seems to be close to normal working tolerances, but it could be a lot better (mainly on hot sunny days !). I have one plan for tonight, and that is to go home via Tesco and buy a bit of shopping. It won't be my principal reason for going in there, but I fancy looking out for something that approximates to a large bowl of hot stew. I think what I want has to be home made, and needs a working gas ring and patience to make, but maybe I'll find some sort of substitute. If I am feeling particularly good tonight, and how I felt last night would suggest that it is possible even if unlikely, I might do a bit of laundry. I would like to wash my hair too, but washing it in a cold bathroom is not terribly appealing ! |
| Sunday 17th
January 2016 |
| 18:53
GMT I don't know what time the snow started to fall last night. The last thing I saw before going to sleep was rain, or wet sleet. This morning I saw that it had snowed at some time in the night.  I didn't get a wonderful nights sleep last night, but it was an awful lot better than the night before. I took the precaution of taking a couple of Ibuprofen tablets a little while before I went to bed, and that calmed down my inflamed chest muscles/ligaments/ribs/blood vessels/lymph nodes/all the diodes down the left hand side, or whatever it is that ails me. They probably wore off by about 6am, and although I think I got a little sleep after that, it wasn't that good. I think it was about 7am when I decided I could sleep no more, and I got up. One of the first things I did when I got up was to do something I've been meaning to do for a couple of days now. I removed the two memory foam mattress toppers from my bed. One of them I put under the mattress where it doesn't really do anything useful, but at least it will get flattened out. Plus it is somewhere to store it. I then put on a brand new topper that I had been airing for 24 hours to get rid of the smell of the fire retardant chemicals. I think that with a different pillow, that seems less lumpy than one I was using, I might just possibly have a more comfortable sleep tonight - although it is more to do with my chest rather than the bed itself. Doing all that to the bed, lifting and turning the mattress for instance, did have the potential to jar my chest, but it didn't seem to do anything bad. That is not to say that my chest has been all sweetness and light today. It remains on the edge, and feels a "bit odd" in a way that can't be called painful, but is still not comfortable. It is at times like this that I wonder if I have two problems with my chest, and that while the "floating rib" can be the source of quite intense pain when it "floats" to the wrong place, there is also a sort of "old injury" discomfort that just gently aches from time to time. I guess having your chest opened for heart surgery could be called an old injury. After doing my bed, and getting washed and dressed (and after a phone call to say she was on her way) I walked to the station to meet Aleemah. It was fortunate that there was no wind blowing, and I felt no need to do my coat up. I think that the tightness of of my coat across my chest on Friday night was responsible for much of the pain I endured. This morning I wore a different coat that is far looser, and I didn't need to do it up anyway. I arrived at the station with plenty of time to spare, and feeling mostly comfortable. With time on my hands I took a couple of pictures using my new Olympus X42 camera (bought from Cash Converters for £15). I think some of the reviews that said they didn't take very good pictures were probably correct - but probably only under conditions of poor light. It was rather grey and miserable out this morning (and all day), and the pictures I took did sort of reflect that. To make matters worse I took most of them under the shade of the platform canopy.  
After Aleemah's train arrived we wandered down to the Wetherspoon's pub for some breakfast. Just like on a Saturday, Aleemah had coffee and a cooked veggie breakfast, and I had beer ! A small twist on the usual is that Aleemah fancied a second mug of coffee - which is on a free help yourself system - and so I decided to have an extra pint of beer two. That did leave me feeling a bit sleepy when we came back here to watch the second of a four DVD set documentary about The Beatles. After Aleemah when home in the afternoon I cooked myself some "Irish Recipe" sausages. It was only today that I realised "Irish Recipe" meant that they were quite poor quality sausages. Maybe if I had given them another half an hour in the oven so they came out crispy they would have been better. They certainly would have had a better texture ! I didn't really enjoy them, but they filled a hole for a while. I have hardly done anything since then. I have tried out laying on my re-jigged bed to do some reading, and I think it is going to be more comfortable. A little while ago I had a proper dinner, and now I have nothing to look forward to until salad for breakfast at work tomorrow. Tonight I had a cheese salad starter followed by an Iceland "Slimming World" chicken sagg curry. The only problem is that I am not sure if I enjoyed it. It was nice enough but I was in a funny mood, and I was after something else. Something far more satisfying in a way that I could not work out. I don't know what I wanted, but whatever it was, I probably didn't have in the house. I think I am over that unknown want now...or am I ? I do feel a bit edgy, or restless, or something. It doesn't bode well for relaxing prior to sleep, and bed time is not far away now. Maybe I ought to lose myself in my book, and hope that will relax me. |
| Saturday 16th
January 2016 |
| 20:05
GMT The thing about yesterday was it was very cold - positively freezing !! I must admit that was more true of the morning when I spotted a frozen puddle, but it was also true of the evening. After a sunny day of basking in sunshine that heated the air to a glorious 4° C, the temperature fell back to just a couple of degrees at best, and maybe damn close to zero late at night (and if it didn't actually hit zero, then the wind made it feel like it). Today has almost been a re-run of yesterday, but I don't think the temperature even got up to 4° C today. I think the highest I saw on my thermometers was 3° C. We could be in for a treat tonight - a perverse treat - snow ! The forecasters on TV seemed quite adamant that a band of snow was heading our way, and even though it will drop much of it's load further north, we could still get a sprinkling here in south east London. 10pm was the predicted time of it's arrival, and with the ground now pretty cold, it will probably settle. Tomorrow could have some photo opportunities with some thin snow on the ground, and maybe a freezing fog too ! I decided I just had to be brave and go out. I mentioned I had two choices (plus the choice of staying in with some booze). The two choices were to go all the way to West Wickham to a pub I don't really care for, or to head out into the unknown to find The Catford And Cyphers Cricket Club's clubhouse where there was an open mic session. I opted for the open mic session, and it was both good and bad. The good was that it was relatively easy to get to. There were people there that I knew - albeit not too well, and being in a clubhouse he beer was likely to be cheaper than a pub. (I'm not so sure it was, but £3.50 for a pint of Guinness was not bad.). Two other good things were that there was space to move around in without getting in too many people's way, and (as I guessed there might be) there was some decent stage lighting. That all added up to me taking some of the most professional looking musician/band photos ever (even getting a compliment from a pro). As usual it need a lot of photos to choose some good ones, but the best 23 can be seen right here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/135353558@N03/albums/72157661271699334 There were two problems last night. One is simple to fix using a lot of cash, and the other rather less easy to fix. The first problem is that my photographic techniques now seem to be getting good enough to expose limitations in the camera I am using. My Canon EOS 1200D DSLR is described as an entry level DSLR camera, and it is now becoming rather obvious that the sensor in it is rather noisy. On very dark pictures there pictures is marred by (mostly) red speckles everywhere in dark areas. This is no problem in brightly lit scenes, but it is a bit of a nuisance for a lot of the gig pictures I take. The cure would be to spend £500 or more on a semi-pro camera, or even a lot more on a pro camera. It is very tempting, but can I justify it for a bit of fun - probably, but not yet. Maybe a future Xmas or birthday present to myself. The second problem concerned my chest. It has been very clicky and poppy recently, and from time to time it has been mildly painful (with occasional very, very brief far stronger pains). Last night a (presumed) combination of freezing air, plus wearing a coat that when done up is a little tight around my chest, caused some rather unpleasant chest pains. They rather spoiled my evening until I had enough Guinness (4 pints) to relax my chest muscles. I wasn't feeling so bad when I left the venue at about 10.30pm if I recall correctly. The booze helped me feel warm, and so I didn't do up my coat when I walked to the bus stop. It is a moderate uphill walk to the bus stop, and because of the cold I walked fairly fast. I was breathing fairly heavily when I got to the bus stop. This actually made my chest feel even better, and I hope I am not deluding myself too much when I believe this proves these chest pains are nothing to do with my heart, and thus while being quite unpleasant sometimes, are otherwise harmless. It is typical of these pains that they return when I am slumped down in a chair after walking. So my chest became quite mildly sore after I sat down and started eating some chicken wings and fries that I "accidently" bought on the way home. Now I don't know if eating that greasy stuff also gave me a bit of heartburn to add to the muscular/skeletal/ligament problem, but I ended up having the most lousy night I've had for ages. In what should have been my most comfortable position my chest hurt in the most mild way possible. The pain, if pain is the right word, was so mild as to be usually ignorable doing anything else but trying to sleep. It was no more severe than being poked with a marshmallow, but you try sleeping when someone is doing that to you ! I think I got no more than 4 hours of crap sleep before I got up and started editing the photos I took last night. Since then I have tried to snooze many times but despite being comfortable, it seems I just don't need sleep that badly. I've stayed in the warm today, and I've decided I won't go out tonight in the cold - which is a shame because Chain are playing an easy to get to gig in Biggin Hill. I think it may well be on a small, but proper stage, and it is possible it may be reasonably well lit. It would be a great opportunity to practice my photography, but not tonight. My chest has had a few grumbles today, and that is after trying to avoid stressing it too much. I think going out in the cold and dark....and maybe snow (!!!) would be asking for trouble. I am not sure what to do about my chest. I have a hope that it will be a lot better behaved when the winter is over, and the temperature rises, but that is going to be some time yet. In 9 days time I see the nurse at my doctors. This is primarily to piss me off about my blood pressure, and raise it umpteenfold, and to check my blood glucose level, and piss me of about that. I think I am going to try and distract her by going on about my chest, and see if she can escalate things to one of the doctors. Unfortunately I don't think they can do much for me apart from check that it is not my heart, lungs, or anything else important, and maybe prescribe some more powerful anti-inflammatories to calm things down a bit better than Ibuprofen does. The other unlikely alternative is to get a surgeon to pull me apart again, and put me back together correctly - and then to follow his instructions about not carrying heavy weights to the letter this time. Tomorrow promises to be rather unpleasant - cold, snow, and maybe fog - but I have to go out in it to meet my friend Aleemah at the station - assuming a millimeter of snow doesn't bring the capital to a standstill. I look forward to a couple of halves of beer for breakfast, and then watching some (possibly) terrible DVD with her. After she goes home I think I intend to be completely lazy. I wonder if I can manage that ? |
| Thursday 14th
January 2016 |
| 08:15
GMT It was pleasantly bright yesterday. There was lots of blue sky, and plenty of sunny intervals, but of course it was also rather cold. I'm not sure if the temperature went any higher than 6° C, and of course for some of the time it was a degree or two lower. It seemed to be a clear night and a clear morning, and yet there seemed to be fresh puddles in the road when I walked to the station this morning. I presume it rained sometime in the night, and maybe that added just enough heat to stop there being a frost this morning. The thermometer on the windowsill of the back bedroom was registering just 2.5° C at 5am this morning, and it had dropped to 2.4° C when I left to walk to the station. The thermometer outside the kitchen window said it was a little warmer - just 3.5° C. These temperatures are getting into the right region for snow to fall, and while there is still plenty of blue sky to be seen now, the weather forecast does hint of a possible shower or two later this morning, and then again later this afternoon. The top temperature today is forecast to be just 4° C, and it is possible that any rain may look like rather soggy snowflakes until it hits the ground. That is too warm for any snow to settle today, but if the temperature continues to fall...... Once again I felt fairly rotten at work yesterday. Some of it can be attributed to it being a bit cool in my office. One of the two recently installed "climate control" units has failed already, and even when it and it's compatriot were running flat out they could only just cope when the temperature was a couple of degrees higher. My next task after writing this is to see if I can find my old fan heater. I don't recall feeling so cold when that thing was rattling away ! The other reason for feeling rotten was my busted chest. The cold probably didn't help that either, but poor posture was surely a major contributor too. The only problem is that no other posture is feasible when using a microscope for precision micro-soldering. As usual, a couple of Ibuprofen tablets helped a lot with the background mild ache, but there were a few occasions when one particular rib (I assume) was unusually painful. Once I left work, and started walking, the discomfort seemed to fade away, and on the whole I had a comfortable journey home. That, and the fact that it was still sort of light when I got back to Catford (although technically after sun set), inspired me to actually follow the plan I suggested as a possibility yesterday. So I went home via Iceland where I bought several of their "Slimming World" meals, plus a full fat ready meal, and a three litre bottle of Diet Coke. The "full fat" ready meal was beef in black bean sauce, and I suspect it was actually quite low in fat, but I suspect it may have had more sugar in it than I would ideally like. The tragic thing was that it was less nice than my imagination thought it would be, but it was quite small, and only supposed to be a snack. I also had a "Slimming World" cottage pie with some shavings of Parmesan cheese on it for added flavour, and a bowl of steamed green vegetables - also with some shavings of Parmesan cheese on it. That was the second part of my plan completed. I'll admit I did feel a bit full after that dinner, but after giving it half an hour to settle I completed the third part of my plan - I washed my hair. While it dried I did the last part of my plan, and that was to upload the pictures I took at Chain's gig last Saturday to Flickr, and to add all the tags and some brief descriptions. Most pictures range from a bit grainy to very grainy because of the poor light. You can see them here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/135353558@N03/albums/72157662925101140 There was one optional part of my grand plan, at least I think there was, and that was to get to bed early and do a bit of reading. I'm not sure how I did everything else so quickly, but not only was there enough time to read a whole chapter of my book, even if it was a small chapter, but to put the book down, turn out the light, and fall asleep very soon after 8.30pm. I guess that last night was very average - I got some good sleep and some bad sleep. I think one of my projects for the weekend will have to be to change the foam memory mattress topper on my mattress. I thought they should last longer than mine seems to, but then again I can't remember when I first added it. What I do know is that it is now feeling lumpy in places, and I don't think that is helping my sleep. I am feeling on the far outreaches of good this morning. This is partly because I don't seem to be in much pain this morning, and partly because I think I have just got over a mild cold. I still have not come to terms with what a non-smokers cold is like. What I had seemed too mild to be a cold - just a cough here, and a cough there, plus the occasional bit of nose drip. I mostly thought they were a reaction to breathing in cold winter air, but even though the air is even colder this morning, I seem to be doing both less, and I feel a bit less crap. So it is only with hindsight that I realised I probably had a cold. It is strange to get one without chronic bronchitis and pneumonia these days. There are two more reasons why I feel better this morning. One is to do with work - the mad panic has subsided for the moment. There was a deadline to ship an order by this coming Saturday, but some vital parts for that order won't be arriving until the middle of next week, and that gives me far more time to do the stuff that I have to do (and I am the only one capable of doing it !). The other reason for feeling good is that it is Thursday, and that means it is booze night ! The cream on top of the cake is that tonigh'ts venue is The Black Cat in Catford - which is very, very handy for me. I could be tempted to drink too many pints tonight, but I think I ought to restrict myself to just three pints if I can. I have a strong suspicion that I will be giving a blood sample to check my blood glucose level on the 25th of this month, and those blood tests can "see back in time". So just to keep the nurse happy (and off my back) I had better try and be good until the vampires have drawn the blood sample from me. |
| Wednesday 13th
January 2016 |
| 09:30
GMT It stayed predictably cold, no more than 6° C, but yesterday was sunnier than I thought it would be. This was most noticeable when I left work to go home. I walked through several pools of sunlight where the sun managed to filter between houses or trees from it's position so near the horizon. Although the sun had set over half an hour earlier, there was still a lot of afterglow giving a sort a psuedo dim daylight effect even as I was opening my front door to go in. The clear, or semi clear sky continued through the night, and so we had the same thing in reverse with some welcome pre-dawn light. Oddly enough, the temperature didn't drop low enough for a frost overnight, but it was very close - a tad under 4° C when I walked to the station. Today should be a fairly bright day, but there could be some showers this afternoon. It's looking like tomorrow will not be quite as bad as thought. It is still going to be a very dull day, but less rain is forecast now than in earlier forecasts, and that probably reduces the chances of any snow - which was originally described as "wet snow" at best.  This was the view towards the west from platform A of Waterloo East station while I waited for the 16:20 train to take me back to Catford Bridge yesterday evening. Yesterday I said I felt pretty rotten in the morning. Soon after writing that I took a couple of Ibuprofen tablets, and although they took well over an hour to work, they sorted out my aching chest. From then on I felt reasonably OK, and I guess I continued to feel that way until I got home, and probably through the evening. Going home in daylight helped my mood a lot - even to the point that I came closer to eating in the healthier way that I aspire to than I have for ages. That's not to say I couldn't have improved on what I ate by a long way, but it was heading towards the right direction. Maybe that helped me to sleep better than I did the night before. I am feeling that I could have done with an extra hour or two in bed, but there could be other reasons why I feel a bit off colour and tired this mornings. (Although I wouldn't care to speculate what those reasons are.). The one thing I do remember about the night is that I had at least one, if not several, severely weird dreams. One of those dreams should have been deeply disturbing, but it seemed all terribly normal in the dream. This morning my guts were playing up, and I had to get the later train. that was so full that I had to stand all the way to Waterloo East. That came as no real surprise, but having to stand all the way from Waterloo to Earlsfield was a bit of a surprise considering that when I am on time I can sometimes have an empty carriage all to myself ! When I got to Earlsfield my feet were aching a bit, and that made walking to work seem more of a chore than usual. It also seemed to make my legs feel stiff and aching a bit. It is difficult to say what it is that is worse, and responsible for me feeling rather fed up this morning. The journey into work was annoying. Being late, despite it having almost no consequences is annoying. My legs, feet, and a general sort of feeling of fatigue is annoying. I might be developing a headache, and that's annoying. To top it all my chest feels sore again, and I have taken Ibuprofen to calm it down again. I am doing a lot of work hunched over a microscope, and I don't think that is helping my chest at all - although I don't think it is the root cause of the current problem. Overall, I feel pretty fed up...although I do feel better for moaning about it here ! Tonight I have a perfect plan all mapped out. If I follow it I will go home via Iceland for some more low calorie meals (and maybe a high calorie one too). The first thing I do when I get home will be to have dinner. After that I will wash my hair. while my hair is drying I will upload the photos from Saturday night to Flickr, and do the tedious business of tagging them and adding a brief description. Once that is done it will probably be time for bed. If it is still a bit early I might read for half an hour before turning the light out, and hopefully getting a pleasant, and refreshing night's sleep. |
| Tuesday 12th
January 2016 |
| 08:39
GMT Yesterday morning it was pouring with rain when I started my journey to work, but the rain stopped for a while when I walked from Earlsfield station to work. Going home again was sort of opposite, but also the same. It rained, or perhaps drizzled would be more apt, as I walked from work to Earlsfield station, but the rest of my journey home was dry. It might have only been drizzling when I left work, but it was still incredibly gloomy as I walked to the station. When I got back to catford it was almost as if the day had got lighter. It was only a sort of illusion, and it was actually darker, but by that time the clouds had started to break up, and lighter patches of sky were visible. Meanwhile, yesterday's temperature was a rather cool 6, or maybe at the very best, 7° C. Today there is a welcome change to the weather. It might only last until midday, but there is loads of blue sky to be seen, and in places with a clearer view to low down in the east, there will be some sunshine. It comes at the price of it only being 4° C this morning. By the time the sky has clouded over, and rain starts to fall, it will probably rise to 6° C, but the longer term trend is for the temperature to continue to drop as winter bites harder and harder. Thursday might see some "wet snow" (presumably it could also be called dry sleet) is forecast to fall, and while no mention has been made of any precipitation yet, the forecast says Friday will be no warmer than 4° C at best, and 0° C at worst ! I didn't feel very good yesterday. After no heating on all weekend it took ages to warm up here at work. I put on a jumper I keep here for such occasions, but I still felt cold for three quarters of the working day. During the morning when it was particularly cold, I found my nose starting to run as if I had a cold. My chest seemed to be suffering too. It felt quite tender even if it didn't hurt. What became far more obvious as I walked to the station is that it was going through one of it's phases where every movement makes popping, clicking, and ratcheting noises/sensations from within my chest. It was no worse than it has been at any other time, but it does seem to happen more frequently in this cold, damp weather. It was just bloody typical that on a day where a bus would have been damn handy, there was no bus. I can only conclude that I must be a very evil man, and this is karma in action, or maybe it is just the universe having a joke at my expense. Of course it is far worse now that I can get free travel on buses using my 60+ Oyster Card. It is now my right and mission to use that card as much as possible, and in any other part of the galaxy it is usually very easy to do......but not from the bus stop in Garratt lane that is a mere 2 stops from Earlsfield station. Buses only appear at that bus stop when you don't need them. At any time that you really need a bus, maybe with a damaged foot, or when it is raining, they just aren't there ! So I walked in the drizzle to the station, and it was both easy and hard, and it was wet and it wasn't. It is a tedious walk that seems like a wasted chunk of life, and it raises the heart rate, but it only takes 9 minutes, and is no longer painful like it was when I had angina, but that seems no reason to attempt to enjoy it - even on a warm sunny day. So it was nice to reach the station where I could relax for 20 seconds as the lift took me up to the platform, and I could wipe the rain off my glasses. I had barely time to walk to the far end of the platform before a train turned up to whisk me to Waterloo station, and finally, about an hour after leaving work, I was approaching my own front door. Last night was one of those nights when my dinner was carefully planned out, and the plan followed. The only trouble was that the plan was not designed to be the most healthy of options. Dinner was basically in three parts. Part one was a Tesco "Oriental noodles with peanuts" salad-like pot. to be honest I have no idea where it came on the scale between deadly and healthy. I would guess it had more calories in it than was obvious. Dinner part two was one and a quarter pieces of "southern" fried chicken left over from Saturday night, and part three was a salad. Now a salad should have been healthy, but the generous quantity of mayonnaise I put on it probably ruled that out, and the generous amount of sliced garlic sauasage I had with it had an unknown amount of fat and salt in it (maybe even some sugar too - who knows ?). I wolfed that lot down before the evening news had even started on TV. I switched off the TV as soon as I had finished eating, and went straight up to my bedroom, and PC, to start editing photos. The first photos I tackled were ones I had taken at Catford Bridge station yesterday morning, and also on Sunday while I was waiting for my friend Aleemah. I showed a few here, but there are more that I tacked onto the end of my Flickr photo album about Catford Bridge station. The album is supposed to be a sort of historic document that may one day be viewed in the future - if there is any way that Flickr can continue to exist into the future. You can find the photo album here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/135353558@N03/albums/72157660161089108 the latest photos are to be found by scrolling through to the end passed some far old photos I've taken over the years. After I had uploaded the Catford Bridge station photos I made a start on the photos I took at the gig on Saturday night. There are probably more usable photos than I thought there would be, but there are also many, many absolutely terrible photos ! I probably got about halfway through all the photos I took before it got too late and I had to stop. I hope I can go through the rest tonight, but I may not have time to upload them to Flickr tonight. Maybe you'll be able to see them after tomorrow night. It was a little after 9pm when I turned out the light and tried to go to sleep last night, but sleep didn't come for ages. It was one of those nights where I just couldn't seem to get comfortable. The bed was too hot and too cold. The pillow was filled with bricks etc etc, but worse than that was my chest - but only if I tried to sleep on my right. It felt like my chest was a ball of paper being scrunched up. It wasn't painful, but was still uncomfortable. My chest was fine if I tried to sleep on my back, but then my back was uncomfortable. Sleeping on my left side just didn't feel right. So I thrashed around most of the night - or at least that is how it felt. The peculiar thing is that while I was reluctant to get up when my alarm went off at 5am, I didn't really feel very tired, and even now I don't feel tired, but I predict I may feel different about it by this afternoon. Many bits of me seem to be in fine fettle this morning, but my chest, left elbow, and right wrist are an exception to that general idea. My elbow and wrist do feel actually painful from time to time, but my chest has only generated a light ache. That is not surprising considering how ratchetty it is this morning. Even breathing in too deeply can get my ribs popping and grating, and at times every step I took on my way into work would cause the same. The worst was the walk from the station to work. Although it was almost entirely painless, there were a few times it felt like my chest would unzip itself and fall off. It was no great surprise that once I got to work, and could sit down to consider the matter more, I found my chest to be a little sore. Fortunately a couple of Ibuprofen tablets have calmed it down again - which is a pity because I am sure my doctor would take a bit more interest if they didn't.....no, who am I kidding ? Doctors are not concerned with pain and discomfort any more. They are only concerned about blood pressure these days. I derived no joy from Xmas decorations and stuff this year, and indeed most of the previous 10 to 40 years, and yet I couldn't help but admire the effort that went into the decorations put up by Pimlico Plumbers at their headquarters by the railway line between Waterloo and Vauxhall stations. If you never saw it you still have a chance. I have no idea when they will take it down, but this morning 3 or 4 days after the last day of Xmas, they were still lighting up the pre-dawn sky as my train conveniently stopped by them at approx 07:15am for a few moments.  |
| Saturday 9th
January 2016 |
| 16:58 GMT Most of yesterday was quite bright, but there was still some rain in the afternoon that left the ground looking wet and soggy when I left work to go home. It warmed up a little bit after the frosty morning - if you can call 8° C warm. The rain returned in the night, although I don't think it was very heavy, and there have been some showers during the day too. The sun did manage to break through the clouds a couple of times this morning, and almost made it once in the afternoon, but the day must be recorded as a dull miserable sort of day. It is currently 11° C - which is sort of surprising - and more rain is expected at any time in the next 36 hours.....maybe. I wasn't as productive at work as I was meant to be, but at least I was more productive than the day before. Perhaps I'll get it right when I go back to work on Monday. Anyway, it was a great relief to go home yesterday. I went home via Tesco where I bought a couple of essentials, and a selection of bargains - most of which I shouldn't have bought, and many of which I shouldn't have eaten when I got home ! Yesterday evening didn't go quite right for several reasons. I ate enough of the bargains I had bought (which were hardly bargains at all) to make me feel a little too full to want to go out, but on this occasion I had a sort of excuse. When I got home I took my two bags of shopping into the kitchen, and as I put one down I did a sort of twisting motion that "spiked" my dodgy rib/cartilage/muscle system rather painfully. As usual it was one very brief sharp pain followed by a sort of tender ache. The actual ache never lasts that long, but the tenderness can linger for ages sometimes. It was all enough to make me doubt whether I wanted to go out like that or not. This doubt was bolstered by the idea that my chest seems to ache more in the cold night air (or any cold air) - just like many old injuries do. I guess that idea set me up to eat more than was good for me - or at least enough to make me feel too uncomfortable for travel. There were a few things I could have done about the tenderness of my chest. Ibuprofen tablets are good for reducing the inflammation. Paracetamol are fairly effective as painkillers. Sometime doing stuff like hand washing some shirts can pull the ribs back into the right, or less painful positions, although that only really works when something is out of place rather than just "spiked". The other rather pleasant thing is to get drunk - and that is what I did ! One of the things I bought from Tesco on an earlier visit was some own brand bourbon. I think it was called Samuelsons or something. It may not be as good to create a "Lemmy", which by tradition can only be made from Jack Daniels and full sugar Coke (at least I think it has to be full sugar Coke), but when mixed 50 - 50 with Diet Coke, still tastes damn good. I had 4 very large one last night, and although I thought I didn't feel any more than very slightly tipsy, I certainly didn't feel and pain from my chest. Not only that, but it seems I slept rather well...or did I. Events this afternoon would seem to contradict that. I did a bit of reading in bed, and finished the book I was reading. I went out like a light when I put the finished book down and turned out my reading lamp, but I am not sure when that was. It is possible it was before 9pm, and I doubt it was much later than that. My last three hours of sleep were not all that good, but they weren't that bad either. By 8am I decided I probably couldn't sleep any more, and slowly, slowly got up. It took a little while for me to wake up, and get my body running as best it can these days, but eventually I felt good enough to do some laundry. I hand washed 5 shirts, three of them long sleeved, and some underwear. It was hard enough work to raise a sweat on a nasty cold damp morning - although I did have have the heating on low in the living room overnight, and the heater running full blast in my bedroom from about 5am. So it was hardly freezing cold even in the bathroom where I do my laundry. Once I had hung up the clothes to dry, and cooled off a bit I finally got to wash my hair, and I had a shower. It is possible that there was something wrong with time this morning - or possibly all day today - the hours seem to be slipping by a lot faster than they should. So it was gone midday when I felt ready to go to Aldi to do some proper shopping. I managed to get that home, and to put the bags down without doing myself any damage this time ! Since than I have eaten enough for the whole day, and little else. I started reading another book, and only managed one page before my eyes started to droop. So I had a little snooze of undetermined length before stretching my legs, and checking a few pages on my PC. Then I lay on my bed again and started to read. This time I managed two pages before I felt like having another snooze. I slept for another indeterminate time before waking up to write this. It does suggest that I didn't sleep that well last night even if it seemed to feel that way. A bit of extra sleep today could be useful because I want to go out tonight. Chain are playing their second gig of the year in Greenwich tonight (last night it was in West Wickham), and hopefully I'll get there tonight. As has become my habit now, I think I will only stay to see the first set, but maybe I'll stay to see some or all of the second set. It all depends on how bored and isolated I feel after the first set I guess. If it was warmer and drier I might have gone out to join the smokers, and steal some of their second hand smoke for some amusement. Going outside for a smoke was always far more satisfying than standing in a corner twiddling my thumbs. |
| Friday 8th
January 2016 |
| 08:04 GMT There was some absolutely torrential rain yesterday. I'm surprised there was no thunder and lightning to go with it. The very heaviest fall was around midday if I recall correctly. After that the rain slowly petered out, and with 30 - 60 minutes to spare before I left work to go home, the sun came out, and I enjoyed a bright, often sunlit, journey to Waterloo. Sunset is around the time I arrive at Waterloo now, but with the sky mostly clear, there was still a lot of afterglow when I arrived in Catford. So what started as a thoroughly despicable, soggy wet morning, ended with bright clear skies. The only problem is those same clear skies allowed the temperature to drop quite a lot. By the time I got home after spending 90 minutes or so in the pub with Jodie, the temperature had fallen to 4.5° C, and it continued to drop over night. I expected it to be sub zero, but my upstairs thermometer said 2° C, and the downstairs thermometer said 3° C. However there was frost on the cars parked outside, and some of the puddles on the station had ice crystals on them. It is forecast to be quite a cool day today - perhaps no more than 6 or 7° C - but it should stay dry until at least late evening, and there should be a fair bit of sunshine. Tomorrow might see the return of lots of rain, and temperature a couple of degrees higher. I have a rather important job on at work right now. It is for an order that is supposed to be shipped in 8 days time. It is never going to happen then because a rather vital part was not ordered until 2 days ago, and it has to be made and shipped from China ! This is to my advantage because yesterday's rain really pissed me off and slowed me right down. I was indoors and fully isolated from the wet, but the noise of the rain hitting the tin roof of these industrial units did little to fill me with enthusiasm. Worst of all was the night like gloom that crept through the windows, and strangled the enthusiasm centre of my brain. Instead of completing the custom modification of 15 units I only managed to do 3 ! It was somewhat of a relief to leave work and go home yesterday, and of course leaving in sunshine cheered me up a lot. I had already sent an email apologising for my absence at the Thursday night drink when Jodie phoned me to ask if I was going, and if I wasn't, would I like to meet her for a quick drink in Catford. I must admit I was looking forward to going straight home, but I said I would meet her for no more than 2 pints. Things didn't go as planned last night ! The first part of the two part not going to plan was when I was waiting for my train at Waterloo East. As I waited I heard an announcement from the other platform which blew away my main reason for not going to Petts Wood to meet up with the usual Thursday night guys. I thought that had I gone I would have had to mess around with trains, and probably catch a train from Victoria station. I am unsure why I thought I couldn't get a train from Waterloo East when, as was clearly announced, the 16:09 train from there to Sevenoaks does call at Petts Wood. What's more is that it was the same train that I had used to get to Hither Green and to Grove park for other Thursday night drinks late last year. The second bit which didn't go to plan was Jodie's fault. She decided she wanted a bowl of hot soup. I can have some sympathy for that. It wasn't very warm, or warm at all in The Catford Constitutional Club, and I mentioned earlier, it was only 4.5° C outside when we left there. I had to wait for Jodie to receive and consume her soup before I could leave, and that meant I had to have an extra half pint of beer. Now that was good and bad. It was good because it was an unusually nice beer. It was Titanic Stout, and unlike some stouts it didn't taste too much of burnt beans. On the plus side it did have a pleasant vanilla-ness about it with strong hints of chocolate. It was also fairly strong - perhaps 6% - or so I thought, but Titanic's web site says 4.5%, and also describes a completely different taste - a taste that I would have avoided ! The bad was that two and a half pints of beer was just enough to tip me over to the idea of getting fish and chips on the way home. I think the rather cold air outside, particularly when I was only wearing a light jacket chosen for it's waterproof qualities rather than it's almost non existent insulation, may have helped quite a lot too. I had planned to have a couple of Iceland's "Slimming World" cottage pies when I got home, but it was nice not having to wait for them to cook, and being able to plunge straight into fish and chips when I got home. Now I don't know if it was the cold, or whether I was more drunk than I imagined, but I have never managed to make such a mess with tomato sauce before. I got it on the sleeves of my shirt, down the front of my shirt, and on the carpet - mainly as the result of the same accident ! I was eating with my fingers when the piece of fish broke as I lifted it to my mouth, and lump heavily doused with tomato sauce bounced down the front of my shirt, hit my sleeves as I tried to catch it, and ended up on the carpet ! Oh well, the shirt will wash, and I think I got most of it out of the carpet. After my dinner I went straight up to my bedroom, and after checking a few things on my PC I ended up on my bed reading for half an hour. Then I turned the light out, and I was fast asleep before 9pm (if I recall correctly). I slept until 2am when I woke up in mild pain. I couldn't work out where it was worse, but it was part chest pain from my dodgy ribs/muscles/ligaments, part from what felt like trapped wind (of which there was no later evidence of it being so), and part indigestion. I assume it was probably something terrible like a heart attack or my innards being gnawed away by cancer, but maybe not because it was an almost ignorable discomfort that could have been lost under the noise and confusion of normal life, but refused to be ignorable in a quiet dark room. Eventually I got out of bed and went to my PC. I did have the heater on full blast at that point, but still the cold was far more uncomfortable than anything going on in my torso, and all pains except for feeling cold were forgotten within a very short while. After half an hour I got back in bed, but I found it very hard to get comfortable. It was probably my chest that was troubling me then, but eventually, after at least another half hour of being awake, I managed to fall asleep. It wasn't the best of sleep, but I got close to two hours worth. This morning I don't seem to be suffering from lack of sleep....well, not yet. The rest of me is not happy with it being so cold, but once again it is my chest that feels most delicate. It feels, or felt like any wrong movement could trigger some strong pain. Fortunately I have made it into work without any more than the very merest of twinge from my chest. It probably helped to keep it warm by wearing the warmest coat I can currently wear. I have several coats, all bought from the same shop - Peacocks - and with a peacocks label inside. All the labels say the size is XXL. My lightweight jacket seems to fit well, and it is easy to do up when needed. My leather look jacket is a bit warmer, but I try not to wear it for work. I can do the zip up on the front easily, and while it feels slightly tighter than my lightweight jacket, it seems quite comfortable to wear. This morning I wore a coat that is much thicker and is padded with much more insulation. It is surprisingly lightweight, and also a surprisingly good fit. Apart from being stiflingly hot on when on some trains, I could almost forget I am wearing it because it is so light and roomy. The last coat I will describe is orange, and looks far more like a foul weather coat with it's hood. It says it is the same XXL size as the other three, but doing it up is like doing a corset up. I can do it up, but I can hardly breath when I do, and I can hardly bend my arms ! How does that work ? I hope that somehow I can manage to be a bit thinner for next winter so I can wear it. If it were snowing I could wear it now, but I doubt I would be able to make it into work without collapsing, but it could be just about tolerable for a quick walk to the shops - maybe ! Tonight I could go to a gig if I can find the energy and enthusiasm. It will mainly be the energy that is lacking, and if it is raining, or likely to rain, my enthusiasm will go into heavy negative figures ! Before going to the gig, if indeed I do go, I really will have to wash my hair as matter of urgency. I've been meaning to wash it for the last three nights, but on each occasion I don't seem to have managed for one reason or another. I still haven't done the washing up either, but maybe that could wait unto tomorrow morning now. I think it will be too wet for any outdoor activities tomorrow. So I could do lots indoors - except for the depressing effect of cold, dark, wet skies. Oh well, as usual, I'll just have to see what happens tonight and tomorrow. |
| Sunday 3rd January 2016 |
| 15:44 GMT Yesterday ended wet, and today started wet. It wasn't supposed to be quite like that. This morning was supposed to be dry, but it certainly seems like it was raining at dawn, and has been raining ever since. A consequence of that is that today has been the most soul crushingly, depressingly, and several other ????????ly dull grey day. A greyness that saps all energy and enthusiasm. To make matters worse it has been barely more than 9° C today. The fact that this was forecast doesn't make it any better, or excusable ! The current theory is that there could be a few glimpses of sunshine for a couple of hours in the morning, and then a couple of hours of rain in the early afternoon tomorrow. The rest of tomorrow will just be rather grey, and the temperature will struggle to reach 9° C. For a lot of the day it will be 8° C or less. It wasn't a cure, but ordering a curry last night was a distraction. I enjoyed it, but somehow it lacked the excitement that a curry could once bring. As I tend to do, I ordered quite a few portions, and had enough left over for not only breakfast this morning, but also a dinner later this afternoon/evening. There was one other thing I did to help blot out the rainy weather last night (beside closing the curtains and pretending the outside world didn't exist), and that was to have another couple of large Jim Beam "Devil's Cut", extra strength bourbon and colas. I guess I should have had enough to get drunk, but I didn't notice it, and nor was it really the reason for having them. It's just a way of having an exotic tasting drink. Exotic tasting or not, it all helped me have one of those nights that starts off so nicely that you wish it could go on for hours and hours more. Unfortunately by 5am I start to wake up as the bed starts to feel lumpy, and the wrong temperature - plus bits of me start to ache. So I have to get out of bed and start moving around a bit - just a tiny little bit. Then, being s Sunday, and with nothing happening, I can try going back to bed to sleep a little more, It almost worked, but eventually I had to get up and start doing stuff. Unfortunately there wasn't much to do today....well nothing much that I wanted to do on a depressing cold, wet, and grey day. There were many things I thought I might do over this holiday period, but I seem to have done very few. On the other had I did things like going to Herne Bay that I never imagined I might do. One thing I could do, and needed to do to get the bath free for use, was to rinse out and wring out the sheet and t-shirt I had left soaking over night. It was hard work rinsing and wringing that sheet, but I've tackled worse - but never on an energy sapping miserable grey day like today ! Having got the two items hanging up to dry I should have had a shower and washed my hair, but I just couldn't be bothered. I still intend to wash my hair before today is over so I don't have to go to work with wet hair in the morning. It seems pointless having a shower this late in the day, and I am not going to be seeing anyone today so it doesn't really matter if I stink. About the only other constructive thing I have done today is to prepare for uploading another 20 photos taken on my day out to Herne Bay. I have also upload those 20, plus another 20 I had prepared the day before, to Flickr, and you can see the glorious results right here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/135353558@N03/albums/72157660781769314 don't forget that clicking on a picture allows you to zoom in on the picture, and read a brief description about it, and see the location on a map. Tomorrow I am back at work. That is going to be a shock to the system ! It has it's plus points (as I keep trying to brainwash myself into believing). It is something to do on a day that is no good for anything else. It earns me extra pocket money, and it is a good opportunity to restrain my calorie intake and get a bit of exercise. However, I will have to get some shopping in on the way home. I think I had better get it from Iceland (the supermarket) where there is less temptation to buy random unhealthy products. Having said all that I have nothing to write about tomorrow -except to moan about the weather, and how much I ache ! |
| Saturday 2nd January 2016 |
| 17:56 GMT I think the rain fell more or less as forecast yesterday. It was a mostly grey day, and fairly cool, but I have a vague recollection that the sun came out for a few moments. During the night it may have actually warmed up a tiny bit, and today has been around 11° C - it's still that as I write this. There have been a few splashes of rain today, but it hasn't been as wet as I expected.....Although having said that, a peek behind the closed curtains shows it is rather wet outside ! It seems tomorrow is also going to be wet from about mid morning until some time after sunset. It's also going to be a little cooler. At best it will just about hit 10° C for a few hours in the afternoon. We still haven't suffered the depths of winter, but the weather is trying it's best to be horrible ! The only significant thing I did yesterday was to go for a drink with my friend Kevin. As expected, it went on for far longer than it should have. I met Kevin at 3.30pm, and we did a mini pub crawl from The London & Rye to The Catford Constitutional Club by way of The Black Cat. I'm not sure how we did it, but we seemed to be drinking quite slowly, and so by the time we said good bye at nearly 8pm I had only drunk about five and a half pints plus a couple of shorts. The reason for the odd half was that the last pint I had in The London & Rye was off, and was unpleasant to drink. So I left it half finished. I felt pretty hungry when I left the pub, and had any of the more convenient takeaways been open I would definitely have bought something to eat on the way home. When I got home empty handed I checked the couple of Iceland "Slimming World" meals I had in the fridge. Unfortunately they were all well passed their best, and the packages were bulging. It is possible they were still edible, but I threw them away to be on the safe side. That didn't leave me much to eat, or at least not much that didn't need some sort of tedious preparation. So I heated up a can of soup, and that went down well. I followed that by a can of German meatballs in a mushroom sauce - which I "zapped up" with some chunks of cheese and chilli sauce - and thus doubled or trebled the calorie count ! Despite these occasional detours off the road, I delude myself that I have shown remarkable restraint in what I have eaten over this holiday period. I may not have lost any weight, but I feel sure that unlike many people at this time of year, I have put none on. If I wasn't just about to order a takeaway, I think there is a strong chance that my calorie intake for today would be below the point where weight loss takes place ! After my food last night I went to bed not exactly early, but not late either. In theory I slept well. I can barely remember waking up more than once in the bulk of the night, but I still haven't shaken off the habit of waking up at 5am. That is, or will be rather good on Monday when I go back to work, but this morning, with quite a generous hangover, it was annoying ! It has taken quite a lot of time to shake that hangover off, and even now I feel the longer term effects, but the pain went ages ago. It was helped on it's way by some hair of the dog ! I saw my friend Aleemah this morning, and as usual we went to the Wetherspoons pub for breakfast. I thought I was going to be thirsty, particularly because they had one rather good beer on, but I found myself drinking my pint rather slowly. It was beer whose label Aleemah, who is into occult type stuff, found amusing.  Today Aleemah brought over another "terrible" DVD to watch. It was a back and white film made in France with English subtitles. It was a French take on the beauty and the beast fairy story. I will admit it wasn't as hateful as a Disnified version, but I can't say I cared for it. I think I would have preferred to watch a 20 year old Dr Who episode ! I haven't really done much today, apart from spending a few hours with Aleemah. Despite claiming to have slept well, or desperately trying to convince myself so, I has a snooze this afternoon - and I think it may have lasted over an hour. On the other hand it may have only lasted 5 minutes. I haven't been paying any attention to the time, but it seems an awful lot of it has passed today without me noticing. I did do one little tiny thing this afternoon, and that was to put a bed sheet, plus a couple of badly food stained (!) t-shirts into soak. Dealing with that will be one useful thing that I expect to do tomorrow. Other things I might do include getting some shopping, and just being totally, and utterly lazy - if I can ! |
| Friday 1st January 2016 |
| 10:53 GMT After yesterday's glorious sunshine it is a shame to report that we have gone back to it being overcast. The weather forecast feels that there should be a few sunny periods for the next couple of hours as the temperature slowly rises from the frost we had earlier this morning. At midday a light splash of rain may happen, but no more until 9pm tonight when some heavier rain will start to fall. By then the temperature may have made it up to 8° C - it's going to be a chilly day today ! Tomorrow may be a bit less cold, perhaps 11° C, but it is going to be very dull, and very wet ! I had a suitably relaxing night after my visit to Herne Bay yesterday. Although I adopted postures that minimised, or even stopped any pains from my chest, and some Ibuprofen helped too, my chest remained quite tender yesterday evening. It was a bit ironic that after going all the way to Herne Bay, and walking around there, it was stepping down into my own kitchen that twisted my ribs in the wrong way ! I passed some of the time photo editing, and some of the time drinking a couple of strong Jim Beam "Devil's Cut" bourbon and colas. They helped dull the pain from my chest, and helped me to get to sleep by about 11pm last night. If there were any loud celebrations around midnight, I didn't hear them ! I am a little surprised that I got to sleep so quickly and so deeply because I was sort of buzzing after my day out. I felt quite elated that I had managed to get out, have good weather for it, and found I wasn't quite as unfit as I thought. I guess the booze, but maybe more importantly, the fresh air and exercise helped a lot to get me to a well deserved sleep. It would have been nice to sleep a bit longer, but I guess I had enough, and I didn't get up until it was already almost light. This morning my chest is not bothering me much, but only as a result of taking care because it is still rather tender. The curious, or stupid thing is that I didn't seem to take much care when I stepped down into the kitchen a few time this morning. I would have thought I would be a bit wary of it after the (very briefly) very intense pain it caused yesterday, but I guess I was more interested in getting my sausages cooked ! I still haven't "officially" got up because I haven't showered yet, but I have been busy photo editing. I have finally uploaded the pictures I took at Waterloo, and the walk to Blackfriars on the 28th Dec. They have been uploaded to Flickr in high resolution, and you can see the set here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/135353558@N03/albums/72157662333628579 I've also edited the photos I took yesterday, but I have yet to upload them to Flickr yet. I have edited a couple of low resolution snaps to show here.  This is the front of the class 375 train that took me to Herne Bay station. It is painted in the same livery that South Eastern use for the high speed trains. I have yet to find out if this is to be their new standard livery. It looks better than plain white in my opinion.  I haven't seen one of these signs for years and years, and yet here is one seemingly in good condition above a shop that still sells booze (I think) on the high street through Herne Bay.  I probably should have shown this sign first, but it was one of the last pictures I took yesterday. If I get the chance, and
there is a good chance I will, I will upload the
complete set of pictures from Herne Bay sometime later
today. Before then, any time from about midday
onwards, I will probably be going for a drink with my
friend Kevin. It will start with the intention of just
being a few pints, but could very easily be many more.
Maybe today, with nothing important to do for the next
few days, I will allow myself a few extra pints, and
suffer the consequences !
|
