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Wednesday 18th
March 2020
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07:25 GMT
After an hour or two of sunny periods in
the morning, yesterday was mostly lightly
overcast. It was still bright, and there were
times when the sun could be seen behind the
clouds, but there was precious little any
sunshine. The wind was quite low, and the 13° C in
the afternoon felt quite mild.
I have just rechecked the latest forecast
to see if there is yet any hope of seeing any
sunshine today. It appears not. The only change to
the screenshot above is that there will now be
about 5 hours when it is 14° C this afternoon. The
wind speed is shown to be about the same as
yesterday so it should feel quite mild even in the
gloom. There is a slight background chance of a
shower, and the time this might happen keep
changing, but generally the forecast says it will
be a dry day. Tomorrow could be similar with the
same thick clouds, but the temperature may only
peak at 8° C, and while no rain is specifically
forecast there seems to be a 10 to 20% chance of
some precipitation through the day.
I decided against trying to get any
shopping yesterday, but in the end that is exactly
what I did. I knew I would not be seeing Angela at
lunchtime, and so I didn't have to work to any
schedule. For some reason I thought it might have
been a bit earlier, but it seems I went out for my
daily exercise at two minutes before midday. I
guess that is a little bit earlier then usual, but
pretty much about the same as when I have intended
an extra long walk.
It turned out to be even longer than I
thought it would be. It may have been because I
took a slightly more wiggly walk to explore a few
places, but I thought walking as far as The
Sainsbury's Saver Centre, in Lower Sydenham, was
only a 3 mile walk. Yesterday my GPS tracker said
3.61 miles. There were a few glitches in the
tracking in the vicinity of the Sainsbury's Saver
Centre, and so 3.61 miles is a bit too high, but
upon checking back to 2018, I note that a very
similar walk came out at 3.55 miles. I guess my
idea of it being no more than 3 miles was in
error. Maybe I was thinking of another walk that
didn't go all the way through the park, and was
only 2.54 miles.
On the whole it was a nice walk. Walking
alongside the river was a pleasure, and despite it
being lightly overcast all then time, there was
still the general air of spring I had noticed the
previous day. I do have one problem with early
spring, and it is tree pollen. I am mildly
allergic some some types (but I have no idea
which). There were a few times when I could feel
that pollen getting in my eyes, nose and throat.
My nose was very far from pouring, but needed an
occasional blow. The only thing I can't remember
doing was coughing.
A dry cough that gets worse and worse is
one symptom of Covid-19, the corona virus. I did
have some occasional dry throat coughing during
the night, and before I went out. I was half
expecting to have to turn back early when that
cough became too annoying, but as I say, I can't
remember coughing at all while out. I probably
cleared my throat now and then, but it was so
insignificant that it didn't really register on my
memory. Probably the only thing I did get was some
aches from my rib cage. As usual they were
quite random, and very mild - just strong enough
to register without being bothersome.
The last time I walked through the Pool
River Linear Park the path along the river bank
seemed to be an unfinished, but new feature. I am
happy to say that it is now much longer. Walking
alongside the river is really nice. There are
plenty of places where the river is quite shallow,
and the river bed can be seen to be clean pebbles.
I would not be surprised if in summer, when the
water is a bit warmer, I might even go for a
paddle in it - purely to get more interesting
photographic angles, and definitely not for any
pleasure. No I am sure there would be no pleasure
in it......:-)
I noted many clumps of this weed or herb
growing right at the water's edge. It did pass
through my mind that it could be watercress. Maybe
it is related to it, but I can't ever remember
seeing watercress with flowers in any photo or
film. On the other hand, I seem to recall reading
that cress was grown in Catford once, and possibly
only stopped when the run off from Sydenham
Gasworks, a particularly large gasworks, poisoned
the river. Now the gasworks have long gone, and
the river is clean again, perhaps the people who
care for this park have decided to plant new
watercress.
I spotted several strange things in the
river. I don't appear to have captured them with
my camera very well. They are V, of chevron shaped
structure made from thick branches from
(presumably) recently felled trees nearby. They
are pinned to the riverbed with wood stakes. I
would imagine that they will trap silt and other
debris, and perhaps the idea is to form new
islands in the river. I find there is something
appealing about islands in a river - possibly it
is because they seem mysterious when you can't
easily cross the water to get on them. The real
reason for them would more likely be because
nesting waterfowl find them a safe place,
protected from predators.
The one thing about this walk was that it
seemed almost effortless. That included the return
leg when I was walking almost non stop because I
had taken snaps of anything interesting on the
outward leg of the walk. I didn't really feel any
serious fatigue in my legs, and my feet felt comfy
in my most comfortable, but seriously worn, hiking
boots. My final test would come after buying these
!
On the outward leg of my walk I had a look
at the Sainsburys Local shop by Catford station.
It seemed quiet in there, and the shelves appeared
to be well stock from what I could see through the
window. My original plan was to possibly go home
via Tesco, but I decided I may as well check out
the Sainsburys Local again. They didn't have any
"Italian salad", my favourite, but they did have
plenty of "Greek Salads". I bought a couple of
those, and then wandered over to the beer. They
did not have a big selection, but I came away with
the bottles pictured above. It was only after
getting home that I realised the middle bottle is
an alcohol free beer ! It will be interesting to
see what it is like once I have found enough
courage to open it....
After buying my shopping I could
either walk up the long slope of the road bridge
over the railway, or go up the stairs by Catford
Bridge station to come out almost at the top of
the road bridge. I opted for the stairs. It is not
an exceptionally long staircase, but probably not
too far short of the staircase at Earlsfield
station that I was always moaning about. There
have been times when I have been totally winded at
the top, but not for some time, and yesterday,
even after walking about 3 miles by then, it
seemed hardly any trouble at all....maybe I did
take one deep breath at the top, but I didn't have
to break my stride to do so. If only it was always
that easy.
As well as the two Greek Salads I had also
bought a "Mediterranean salad" - just a plain,
unadorned salad with more grated carrot and
beetroot than is good for me (both hidden sources
of a lot of sugar). The first thing I did after
getting home was to have that salad with some ham,
and dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar,
for lunch. It could also have been breakfast
because I only had a small handful of nuts before
going out on that walk. After lunch I think I had
a snooze. I think I did, but now I am
unsure if I did actually fall asleep. Anyway, I
had some sort of rest before stating to check the
pictures I had taken along my walk.
I the evening I drunk the two wheat (weiss)
beers on the left in the picture above. One was
very nice, and the other just ordinary nice. For
some reason I didn't want to touch any of the
other beers I had bought. The two big bottles
seemed sufficient. I have a feeling my brain new
what it was doing, even if it did not explain it
to me. I watched some TV in the evening, but at
some time, and I am not sure when exactly, I
turned the TV off and went to bed. I am sure it
wasn't that long after 9pm before I was fast
asleep.
On the whole I slept quite well. I was
expecting to wake up coughing a lot, but it didn't
happen once. I seemed to sleep for longer periods
than usual. There may have been one 4 hour block
of sleep - it shows how good fresh air and
exercise can be I guess. One curious thing was
that I seemed to wake up for a pee less than
usual. That was curious because my blood glucose
was very high this morning. I can't be absolutely
certain, but I am sure the blame lies on the
bottle beer I have been drinking. On reflection,
one of of those wheat beers did have a slightly
sweet taste. I think my brain had worked this out,
and stopped me drinking those other beers.
Despite my high blood glucose level,
actually just hitting the danger limit, I feel
generally OK this morning. I can feel some
expected effects of the walk - a bot of leg
stiffness - the type that very quickly vanishes
once you start walking. I guess I am still feeling
a bit of hay fever from tree pollen, either that
or I have a very light cold. My nose feels more
itchy than runny. I have had a few brief periods
of coughing, but as was the case yesterday
morning, a quick swig of drink cure the dryness,
and the cough stops. If it were not for this
disruptive Covid-19 virus pandemic, I would have
thought nothing about an occasional tickle from
the throat, but now it all seems important. If
nothing else it is important not to scare people
who may think I am about to drop a bad disease on
them from one little cough. It is possible, but if
anything it could be the common cold rather than
anything of far greater concern.
I really need to do another long walk, and
then to eat ultra carefully to get my blood
glucose down, but I find myself unenthusiastic
about it under the current dull grey sky. While we
are in this dry spell (assuming it lasts for most
of the day) I might consider burning a few
calories, and wrecking a few more muscles by doing
some work in the garden. I am contemplating going
to Aldi, and if it is not too manic in there,
buying more bottled beers, but if bottled beers
are going to wreck my blood glucose level I should
probably go to a pub for some draught Guinness. If
Guinness has any effect on my blood glucose it is
to lower it a tiny bit. It seems impossible, and
there is no known mechanism for it, but it does
seem to work. Changing my sheets might be a good
thing to do today. I think they may be smelling a
bit farty - or worse !
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