We Decided To Beat The Showers And Have A Ice Cream At Swensens,

so it was off to Tesco Lotus,

surprisingly crowded considering it had been raining a couple of hours ago, worse as we arrived there, some more storm clouds started gathering in the distance,

 but that was all forgotten as our ice creams arrived,

 smile for the camera!

I had a strawberry surprise, Diana had this months special, chocolate covered chocolate cake and fresh slices of chocolate covered bananas,

as we were eating the entrance hall beside us was beginning to fill up with people waiting for the rain to stop, after 20 minuets or so it finally started to fall less heavily so we made a move, but first bought two plastic macs,

 the bottom of our road was flooded,

 again!,

looking the other way along the street, the owner of this house is putting a new floor in the house and retiling it, hopefully this will mean that his floor, like ours, will only flood in extreme conditions, as the floor will now be 3 or 4 inches higher than before and not flood every year as some homes do,

 looking on the bright side yet again I did not have to water the plants!

 I also noticed a guest on one of the plants, a dragonfly,

I must admit they must have been terrifying in prehistoric times, the largest member of extinct Dragonflies had a wing span of about 70-75 cm or about 30 inches, also as an aside modern day ones do not bite people, they may appear to but can not break the skin,

next stop after the rain had finished was the Friday night market, it was still raining a little so Diana stayed at home, 

 the skies looked a bit ominous,

 some of the stall holders thought so too,

 many had put the rain covers up, but had not yet made the decision whether to put their goods on display,

 just two stalls opposite the bar this evening,

 the food aisles were empty of customers,

 as was most of the space near the pet/plant section,

 normally all of this area would be covered by stalls,

 one of the mobile drinks sellers doing his rounds,

as Diana was not here it was down to me to buy some fruit for the weekend, 4 apples, 2 kilos of mango's and I was good to go,

 this is the stall that Diana some times buys her drink from,

 the contents are put into a blender with ice and a touch of condensed milk,

I bought a couple of limes here to go on the top of my San Miguel light, yes light, it is a sort of diet thing,

whilst waiting for the guy to quarter them I could not help noticing yet again these boiling soup bowls, an accident waiting to happen! but at least not as hot as the boiling oil ones,

 a few more clouds rolling in,

 whilst at the bar a long time friend of mine and his girlfriend called into the bar, Hans and Nan, I caught up with all of their travels and news,

also at the bar was James, another South East Londoner, we had a great chat about the print trade and how much it had changed since my time in it which was in the late 1960's,

 although a bit dark to see, the house along the road had another truck load of sand delivered,

we then settled down for Doctor Zhivago, I think this critic sums the film up better than I ever could, 'this is one of the most hauntingly beautiful, timeless epic romances of all time, set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, stunning cinematography combines here with a turbulent historical setting, an unforgettable idealistic hero, and one of the most compelling fictional love triangles of all time',

the book the film was based on was about the effects of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath on a bourgeois family, although published in Italy in 1957 and made into a film in 1965 the book was not published in the Soviet Union until 1987, written by Boris Pasternak, he won a noble prize for literature but could not accept it in the political climate of the times,

what better way to round off the evening than Midsomer Murders? tonight Down Among the Dead Men, a blackmailer is shot to death in his kitchen, but with so many people having guilty secrets who pulled the trigger? then for us off to bed.