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Wednesday 11th
March 2020
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09:15 GMT
Yesterday was forecast to be dry, and warm.
It wasn't ! The thick clouds happened as forecast,
but there was quite a lot of rain. Most of the
rain was very light, but it spoiled any chance of
it feeling warm. I guess I could say that there
were a few times when it did feel milder than of
late, and the actual temperature did seem to
briefly peak at 16° C, although 14 and 15° were
more representative of the day.
This forecast, posted at 6am seems to suggest it
would be a fairly nice day. An hour later,
disaster struck...
My (so called) daily exercise was rather
different than normal yesterday. It consisted of
lots of little walks - some done at a rush. The
first bit was a quick walk to the pharmacy to
order my next repeat prescription. To save time I
had tried phoning the pharmacy instead, but there
was an answerphone on the number with a two part
message. The first part said "please don't leave a
message because we have no way of retrieving
them". The second part was the usual "please leave
a message and we'll get back to you". Fortunately
I was in less of a rush than I thought I was in,
and had plenty of time to walk to the pharmacy,
and order that repeat prescription. They confirmed
that all the paperwork was in order, and that I
could pick it up on Thursday morning. Well maybe.
On Thursday I'll see if they have really made it
up, or forgotten something.
My "exercise" continued with a walk to
Catford Bridge station. The train I really wanted
was shown as cancelled, and so I left later than
intended, and didn't rush to get there. I was
still in time to watch my cancelled train go
racing through the station. I can only imagine
that what I actually saw was a late substitute for
a failed train, and it was racing to get to Hayes
station in time to turn around, and depart from
Hayes on time.
This was the cancelled train racing through
the station. The next train, which was on time,
arrived soon after this one had cleared the line.
My next destination was Elmers End where I hoped
to get a 54 bus to the Beckenham Beacon
hospital/health centre. Unfortunately there was no
54 bus at the bus terminus, and I didn't have time
to wait for one. I rushed to the next stop on
foot, and it was a good 6 or 7 minute walk at the
highest speed I could maintain. After a few
minutes wait a 358 bus turned up. It then annoyed
me by waiting a long time at each bus stop it
stopped at. I finally arrived at the hospital
almost on time, but I was 4 minutes late by the
time I found the waiting area, and sat down.
The "AAA" is nothing to do with alcoholics
anonymous, but "Abnormal Aortic Aneurysm". Not
needing to tell anyone you are waiting seemed a
bit strange, and it would turn out to be not a
good idea. Maybe 5 or more minutes after I sat
down a man out of a room, and mentioned to me that
I would be called in eventually. There was a
strange emphasis on the word "eventually", but I
didn't think anything about it until later. I sat
there, twiddling my thumbs, for at least another
15 minutes. It seemed a very long wait, and I
couldn't imagine it took that long to update the
records of that last man, and then give the
examination table a quick rub down with alcohol.
I have my suspicions that the young lady
technician, who was doing the ultrasound imaging,
was probably distracted by her mobile phone or
something. Eventually the door opened, and she
looked out, and spotted me. When I went in she
asked what time my appointment was, and when I
told her she glanced at the clock, and apologised.
Oh well, if she had been on time I would have been
put down as a non-attendee because I was 4 minutes
late. It turned out that my visit was a waste of
time. The little, portable Ultrasound scanner she
was using was not powerful enough to see through
my belly fat - and that was despite her pressing
the probe so hard that it felt like she was trying
to image the table under me !
Apparently I will be recalled for another
scan, but it will probably be in St Georges
Hospital in Tooting where they have an ultrasound
machine big enough to examine battleship welds.
The only trouble is that I don't really want to
have to go to Tooting - even if it is near one of
the tube stations ! After the manic rush to get
there it was all a bit of a let down. If it hadn't
been for the start of unexpected drizzle, albeit
very light at that point, I might have enjoyed
myself more when I gave a quick look at the park
next door.
It was the Croydon Road Recreation Ground,
and is famous, or infamous for having the so
called David Bowie Bandstand in it. I saw it, and
although it has a nice garden around it, the
bandstand looks very rusty and sad. I believe it
was due for demolition some years ago, but an
outcry from those weirdos who think Bowie is God
lead to a stay of execution, and a badly done lick
of paint.
I found this water fountain to be far more
interesting than the band stand. It looks like it
can still work, but I couldn't see any obvious way
of turning the water on, and it looks like the
spout has been ripped off anyway. I may go back
one sunny day to take a better look at the park,
but with the drizzle getting worse I rushed off to
Elmers End station to get a train to Ladywell
station. My timing was very lucky. The next train
got me to Ladywell at about 15:55, and by a minute
or two after 1pm I was in the pub. Two minutes
later I was drinking a pint of Guinness, and I had
a vodka and coke on the table ready for Angela.
I think all the rushing about had party
drained me because the walk from the station to
pub seemed almost like hard work. My legs felt a
bit stiff. After we had our drinks I walked Angela
back to work, and I was glad there was no rush to
get back. It was a more relaxed walk. Once I had
said goodbye to Angela I tried to speed up, but it
felt too taxing. I didn't completely give up
because I went back home through the park using a
route that is a bit longer than the most direct
way. I was happy to get home, and put my feet up
(or actually just sit down - after putting some
sausages in the oven for lunch.
About 40 minutes later I had my late lunch,
and then I laid down on my bed for a snooze. Well
it soon turned into a snooze, but initially
was just going to read for 20 minutes while my
lunch digested before checking the pictures I had
taken on my travels. I guess it was within 5
minutes that my eyes started to close, and I think
I slept for as long as an hour. I know I took my
late afternoon medication at gone 5pm instead of
my usual time of 4pm. I guess I probably had quite
a late lunch, and because of that I did not
consider dinner until almost 7pm.
I used my time to check my photos, and
"process" them on the PC. I also watched some of
the news, but as usual, spending 20 minutes on a 5
minute news story was boring. In the bits I
watched I saw no new news about Covid-19, the
coronavirus beyond endless speculation from all
and sundry. Sadly I missed the best bit of news -
apparently the Health Secretary has been diagnosed
as a Covid-19 sufferer. That is probably a good
thing. Most, if not all of the Tory party are
elitists who look down on the common man. Now we
know that at least one has been struck down by a
common disease, and will get to see the NHS from a
users point of view (I imagine that private health
care will not get it's hands dirty dealing with a
disease of the people).
My dinner was rather interesting. It was a
sort of ham salad, but I didn't have any
conventional salad ingredients. It was almost like
ham and coleslaw except that the white cabbage was
freshly sliced, and not pickled, and neither was
the sliced onion. It was put together in
desperation rather than any skill, but it worked
quite well. I may well be making it again -
possibly even today if I go out and buy more ham.
It was (relatively) mild last night, and
for the first time in quite a few days I left the
heater off in the last hour or so before bed, and
only turned it on again at about 5am this morning.
I can't say I had a comfortable night. I was back
in the situation where I often felt too warm under
the duvet, but rather chilly without it. Through
the night I probably slept with different bits of
me uncovered, until at 5am it had cooled down
enough to get all bits, except my head, under the
duvet (after turning the heater on).
My sleep was probably not that good, and
yet somehow I sort of feel refreshed this morning.
Maybe it is because today I have no reason to rush
to do anything. Angela is using the last of her
annual leave today, tomorrow and Friday, and so I
doubt I will be seeing her before next Monday. Had
the weather forecast not withdrawn all hope of
some sunshine I might have gone for a long walk
somewhere today. I think I feel OK enough to
attempt something, but I am actually feeling more
along the lines of spending a bit of time in the
garden. If I do, and I can manage to do enough to
clear the lawn-to-be I might even sow the grass
seed. I have decided I will simplify matters for
now, and only keep the strip of ground next to the
right hand fence, and a strip of ground by the
back fence, free from grass seed. I was going to
make a flower bed along the left hand fence, but
rather than dig a trench to put a border in, I
think I will sow grass seeds and flower seeds by
the fence, and see what happens.
Of course I may decide to just be lazy.
That could be a possibility, if not actually very
likely if the clouds get any darker. here are
currently some that look almost as black as
thunder....but of course as soon as I typed that
the sun has managed to come out between two very
grey looking clouds ! At this very minute I feel
it is safe to say I haven't got a clue what I will
be doing today. I'll just make it up as I go
along. I'll reveal all that is worth revealing
tomorrow !
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