Yesterday morning was dominated by my strange quest to see how long it might take to get from home to Romford, and how long to get home from there. I stuck to using trains for all but a bus ride to and from Lewisham, and the routes I used on the trains, and Docklands Light Railway, were all familiar to me. I left home at 9.14am, and arrived home again at 12.24 - 3 hours and 10 minutes later.

 The route I took to get to Romford was, I thought, going to be fairly fast, but I was slowed down at Upminster when I just missed the shuttle train to Romford. I had a 24 minute wait for that train. Had I left home 10 minutes early, and kept that 10 minute lead all the way to Upminster, than my route would have been almost as fast as the more direct route home via Stratford station.

  In one respect I just missed a train at Romford to go home. Had I got a direct train to Stratford I would have saved at least 5 or 10 minutes. Instead the next train was only a one minute wait, but it was the TFL Rail, soon to be Elizabeth Line service to Liverpool Street station that stopped at every station it could find all the way to Stratford (the penultimate station before Liverpool Street). It was my first time aboard one of the new Elizabeth Line trains. I was not impressed. Most seating is longitudinal - which I hate. It was only when I examined a photo I had taken on the train that I noticed a transverse seat in the next carriage. I think it is cruel to subject people to that horrible seating while expecting them to travel stop and start all the way from Shenfield to Reading. I feel sure that it will never be used for that route, and as such it is a bit of a white elephant.

 Once I got to Stratford I made quick progress - apart from the down to the subway, and then back up to get to the DLR platform. I had a 2 minute wait for the DLR train, and then a 1 minute wait when I changed DLR trains at Canary Wharf to get to Lewisham. At Lewisham I had another very short wait for a bus - actually it may not have been a wait, I think the bus arrived at the bus stop the same time as me.

  Somehow the bus ride back to the end of my road didn't seem that tedious. I had to rush when I got off the bus because I had further plans. I arrived home at 12.24 - three hours and 10 minutes after I had started out. The first thing I did was to go for a wee, and then I changed my shoes because my left foot was feeling a bit uncomfortable. It seemed like I had done a lot more walking than I thought I might. I had put on a pair of shoes that were moderately comfortable for short distances, but once I took my socks off I found that the skin had been rubbed off in one small part, and it was lightly bleeding. No wonder my foot was uncomfortable.


 For my next walk I put on my comfortable, but squeaky hiking boots. I only seemed to have enough time to do a short walk, but it still totalled 1.54 miles. Unlike the day before it was sunny for much of the walk, and I didn't have to worry about getting caught in the rain again.

  The object of the exercise was to meet Angela in the pub at lunchtime. I sent her a message to say I was on my way there, but I didn't get any return message. After finishing my first pint of Guinness, and it getting on for 1.20pm, I didn't think Angela was coming, and I put my coat on to go home. I was just placing my empty glass on the bar when there she was standing at the bar. She had just come in, and I couldn't see her from  my table because there were a couple of people in the way.

  We had another magical sort of meeting. Angela was fascinated to hear about my journey to Romford and back. One odd thing is that yesterday was the day that Miranda, Angela's daughter, had to attend a clinic at Lewisham Hospital - despite now living in Romford. Had I left home a bit earlier, or left Romford a bit later, I could have bumped into her on my travels.

  The only negative thing about my drink with Angela was that I thought I would show her how I test my blood glucose. I took along my old meter, with the new, and in date, test strips. Yesterday morning my blood glucose tested a nice round 7. In the pub I was so astonished that the first reading was nearly 9 that I double checked, and the second reading was 9 ! I was expecting after my exercise a lower reading than the morning reading. All I can think is that the single pint of Guinness I had drunk had caused a short spike in the level.

  I walked Angela back to work, and said goodbye to her feeling like she had really wanted to see me. She certainly seemed to want my company - which was a nice feeling to have. I told her that I wouldn't monopolise her time, and would probably not see her today, but I could if she wanted, and got in touch to say so. I guess it sounds a lot like a test, and in one respect it is, but it is more the case that I want to try and have a more productive day today. I want to get some shopping in, and I want to tidy up the bookshelves in the back room. However, a drink with Angela is always nice.
  There were some clouds in the sky as I walked through the park, but much of the sky was this rich blue colour. If only it had been warm enough to match how that sky looked, but sadly it was bloody freezing !
  On my way to the pub I walked through the park far enough to cross the river by the back of St Mary's Church. There were many squirrels skittering about in the small field on the far side of the river where this squirrel, and all the snowdrops can be seen. There were even more among the gravestones and yew trees in the graveyard. I got the distinct impression it is the mating season. Maybe this is why Angela seems to be getting closer and closer to me.

  I felt cold and tired when I got home. I definitely wanted something to eat, and after careful consideration I couldn't think of anything other than having a soup feast. As a rule, soup is fairly safe to eat, although maybe not three cans in one meal. I had lentil, pea and ham, plus chunky beef. All claimed to be low sugar, and generally each can was fairly low in calories. Even so, maybe three can was overdoing it !

  I had a lot of photos to do stuff with - many documenting my race to Romford and back. I still have quite a few to go through. I didn't fancy tackling them at first, and opted to read for a bit. That ended up with me falling asleep for almost an hour. I woke up feeling freezing. I had only put the heater on low when I came in because it was sunny, and that usually keeps my bedroom fairly warm. When I woke up the sun was too far around the sky to give any warmth. I had to put the heater on full, and leave it there until almost mid evening to feel warm again.

  The fact that it is cold in the kitchen seemed to be a good enough excuse to order a takeaway. Once again I ordered shish kebab, but at least this time I didn't order a double large shish. I did order one large and one small - and as usual it was to meet the minimum order value for delivery. That is a great excuse for gluttony, except grilled meat and salad continues to seem very healthy in terms of weight loss and glucose control. This morning my blood glucose was a very nice 6.2 !

  I tried to do some photo processing while watching some TV last night, but in the end I gave up on both and went to bed. I thought I had gone to bed relatively early, but I must have been reading for more time than I thought. It was after midnight when I put the magazine down and turned the light out. I then had had my far to frequent "I don't think I can fall asleep", and before I knew I was asleep nights. I probably slept quite well, and seemed ready to get up a bit earlier than of late.

  One peculiar thing....or maybe "peculiar" is not the word I am looking for.... One something thing is that my reading about the Apollo moon landings, read mainly as a sort of adventure, has also given me a mild lesson in geology, or maybe in this case Selenology. One particular rock type seems to have captured my imagination because it was incorporated in a dream. It is a Breccia. A breccia is collection of gavel, and other small fragments bound together by something like mud. Usually pressure, from being buried, welds it all together to make it more solid than a ball of mud. Clicking the link for Breccia will explain it properly.

  For my purposes it was just mud that was the binding agent, and so easily undone. In my dream I notice an eddy in the river that runs through the park, and in the middle of this eddy was a sphere of river gravel held together with mud. It was sitting on gravel, and just about dry. As soon as I saw it I thought "breccia". Once I moved it, and it got wet it started to fall apart - which made me feel sort of sad.

  This morning I feel generally OK. As I have already said, my blood glucose has come down to just 6.2 after being careful with what I ate, and 6.2 is very pleasing. I hope that in warmer months when eating control is easier, and exercise more pleasant, that I can keep it closer to that all the time. My feet are not in good condition this morning. The area where the skin was rubbed away is still rather sore, and to make life more interesting, I managed to kick the frame of my chair, and split a toe open. If Angela asks for me I will still be happy to walk through the park to meet her, but otherwise a walk to the shops, either Aldi or Tesco will be quite enough.

  There are two, maybe I should say three things I want to make some progress on today. One is to today the bookshelves up in the back room. I want to finish processing the photos I took yesterday, and probably to make up a special web page to document my race to Romford and back. Some additional tasks might be good to do as well - as the end of the month approaches I need to prepare another monthly page for these diaries, and also spreadsheets to record my blood glucose and blood pressure in February. I could end up having a very busy day !