This morning has certainly started off bright and sunny, but it is also a cool start. The full sunshine may give way to sunny spells, and by 1pm we may lose any sunshine for three hours or so. There could be some sunny spells a bit later. Today's temperature could peak at 18° C. The weather tomorrow could be terrible ! The morning may feature mostly light rain, although 6am could see heavy rain. The afternoon could be dry, but still very dull, and rain could resume at 5pm. Despite all that, the temperature may rise to 20° C.

  Yesterday was yet another day which started well, but probably ended as a disaster, and if the evening wasn't a disaster, the night was definitely one. Yet for all that I seemed to have survived in fair condition this morning, or maybe "it could have been worse" is what I mean.

  Yesterday morning was a fairly typical morning. I wrote yesterday's piece, had a rest, and then washed my hair and had a shower. After that I played the waiting game. I had ordered a couple of lens hoods for two of my lenses - one for my Nikon cameras, and one for my Canon cameras. They were ordered from Amazon, and they estimated the delivery date to be around the end of the month, but the Royal Mail can do better than that.

  One curious thing is that although ordered from Amazon, they actually came from Fivercam, my go to place for second hand photographic stuff. They have usually been quite speedy when I have ordered stuff directly from them. I am unsure why I never seemed to find lens hoods on their own website. It may have been that I didn't know what I was actually looking for. I went to the lens makers website, Sigma, found my lenses, and only on the global website, and not the UK version, did I find the part number of the lens hood (or sunshade as they describe it). From then on it was very simple.

  I knew my parcel was on it's way the day before yesterday, and yesterday I saw it was out for local delivery. The Royal Mail website gave a very broad estimated time slot for delivery, but I thought I had a fair idea of what time the postman would arrive (it was a very light packet, and so it didn't need delivery in a van). My own estimate was half an hour later than it actually arrived - which was very handy.

  I quickly opened the packet, and tried the lens hoods on the two lenses. They fitted perfectly, and I was then left with the thought that I now need to go out and take some pictures with one of the lenses. I thought that I might do it today, but circumstance may make that unlikely. One snippet of information I read on the delivery note was something I imagined might be the case. The delivery note did confirm that the lens hoods were from second hand lenses that Fivercam deal in. I am left wondering why they leave them on the lenses, or even mention them as an extra when buying a lens. It seems I took a very long journey (maybe two or three years) before I could re-unite my lenses with their correct lens hoods.

  Once I had done with the lenses I grabbed my rucksack, and went shopping in Tesco. I bought quite an assortment of things that included two "calorie controlled" ready meals. I couldn't find any Ciabatta roll, and got crusty breakfast rolls as a substitute. I bought some fruit - Satsumas and Apricots - and the usual bits and pieces, including a 6 pack of mini pork and pickle pies from the reduced price shelf.

  When I got home, and had put my shopping away, I had some lunch. It was two mini quiches (about 3 inches across). One was strong cheddar and the other was smoked bacon. Both were nice-ish, and both felt like they should have made for a good plug to slow the onslaught of beer that would be following in a few hours time when the Thursday beer tasting started.

  Jodie didn't miss any trains this time, and may have even got an earlier train because she came here via Lidl. The news from Lidl is that they have increased the self service checkout area, and not a single till was manned. They have also put in security doors where you have to scan your receipt before they open. I suppose it is just tough luck if you go in to find a specific item, and they haven't got it, and you don't buy anything to get a receipt. I guess you just stay in the store until security come to interrogate you.

  Jodie had a skinful the night before, and so started with a bit of hangover. We started off with some low (between 3 and 4%) strength beers, but later on I hit at least one very high strength beer. We were joined by Michael, who was in fine moaning strength - usually about the traffic on the roads. I suspect he only travels in rush hour, and so always finds the worst traffic jams. Later we were joined by Mark, and he had driven all the way from Whitstable, and never mentioned any driving difficulties.

  I had not had a chance to to start cooking my dinner before everyone left, and so I wanted something really quick while my dinner was cooking. The trouble is that I can't seem to remember what it was. It may have just been some crisps of something. My main course was an Aldi, "Slimwell" salt and pepper noodles ready meal. I overcooked it a bit, but it seemed quite nice. I followed it with a dessert of some fruit - including one of the Apricots I had bought earlier. The packet suggested leaving them for 2 or 3 days to fully ripen, but the one I had seemed ripe enough to me.

  I watched some TV, as usual, and I think it might have been 9pm, but 10pm is also possible, when I went to bed. It took hours to get to sleep. I was feeling bloated, possibly (and later on definitely) needing the toilet for a poo, and I was starting to get really uncomfortable heartburn. I can't honestly say how much sleep I got, but I think it was probably near half of what I would hope for. The first couple of times I managed to fall asleep I don't think I stayed asleep for longer than 20 0r 30 minutes. I would then be awake for nearly an hour.

  I had to treat myself about 3 times to stop the heartburn. The first couple of times it just came back after a while. I went to0 the toilet maybe 4 times to poo, although only three of those times produced any. The first was quite hard like I had been constipated. By the third time it was completely normal in composition and size, except I was doing it at 3am ! By that time my bottom was getting sore, and that seemed to add enough extra discomfort to keep me awake.

  Despite all that I still seemed to find time for what seemed like a long dream. The dream started with the end of a lecture being held in a large room attached to a German railway station. It was Margol station, and I think I may have got the name from a film about the French resistance stopping a train carrying priceless pictures reaching Germany. A rumour went around that we would be charged for attending at the end, but I had a ticket that suggested I must have pre-paid.

  The ticket was actually an old style train ticket, and it was the ticket that gave the name of the station of Margol. Most of used moved to a large refreshment room which also had some ticket windows. I don't think I participated in any refreshments, but slowly built up my courage to make enquiries at the ticket window - assuming they might only speak German. In fact they probably all spoke English to some degree or another. I was told they no long sold tickets, and that all travel was done by touching in and out with a debit or credit card.

  I then asked how come I had a railway ticket ? Someone at the back of the ticket office said that the lecture organisers had found an old box of tickets, and thought it would be a novelty to re-use them. I then asked if that had any other old tickets that I might beg or buy for souvenirs, and they said sadly no. I think the dream seemed to fade out at that point, and like I can't remember how it all started, I can't remember if there was actually an end or if I just woke up.

  As well as getting up to poo in the middle of the night, I was also waking up to pee. It was the most disturbed sleep I can remember getting for ages and ages. Despite getting up to pee, I have a sort of feeling that I didn't pee a great amount in total last night. What I do know is that I had a long lay in this morning. It was gone 8am when I gave up trying to sleep more, and got up.

  The first thing I did was to go to the toilet where I seemed to poo more than pee. Fortunately I did the same just 15 minutes later, but it left my bottom sore, and it left my weight a bit high. It was only after that second visit that my weight came down to 700gm more than yesterday morning. That is quite a big weight gain. It seems I probably can't blame it all on water retention, and the blame mist fall on the beer and eating a lot more than I realised.

  It was with some trepidation that I checked my blood glucose level. I expected it to be dangerously high, but to my surprise in was high-typical. The Contour meter read 8.7mmol/l, and while I would always hope it might be lower, it was nothing outrageous. The same for the GlucoRX meter that read 8.5mmol/l, and for a long time that was my target until I made 7.5mmol/l my target. Most surprising of all was that the Sinocare meter gave a very reasonable reading of 8.8mmol/l, or just very lightly higher, instead of a lot higher, than the other two.

  Even my blood pressure is pretty good this morning. It read 102/45, and that is almost the same as my running average for this month. This is all a bit weird because I was going to say I feel awful this morning, but now I think "awful" is a little bit over the top....but only a little over the top. Maybe I am recovering quite well now, but I think, if nothing else, it is going to take many hours before my bottom is no longer sore. At that point I can't confirm I have finished going for a poo until tomorrow morning (hopefully).

  I had one slightly loose plan for today. It was go to the station around midday, or perhaps an hour later, pick up a copy of The Metro, and then go to The Catford Bridge Tavern. Today is the first day of their beer festival that lasts until Monday. I would have sat in there, doing the crosswords, and having a couple of pints of beer. I don't think I fancy any beer today. I'm not even sure I fancy walking to the station, but maybe I might still do that.

  One thing I am going to try and do today is to minimise my food intake. I have got off to fair start with just one 100gm portion of instant noodles for breakfast. I could and maybe should have had a 60gm portion, but part of me wanted maybe two 85gm portions, and so 100gm is a fair sort of compromise.  I feel hungry just thinking about it - which is not good - but my intention is to skip lunch. Once again I may only be able to have a smaller lunch, perhaps a single roll instead of two. One very likely thing I will do today is to snooze whenever I can.