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Saturday 4th
April 2020
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09:10 BST
Yesterday seemed to be a bit brighter than
originally forecast, although there was little in
the way of sunshine. However there were some
sunny intervals, and most were at the end of the
afternoon. That agreed with the early version of
the forecast, and not the later versions of the
forecast. The best thing about yesterday was the
very light wind that was coming from a more benign
direction. The afternoon temperature rose to 12°
C, and it did feel noticeably mild.
The latest revision
of the forecast looks better than the
screenshot above. The hours of sunshine have
been moved forward to start at 1pm, and it
should stay sunny until at least mid
afternoon. At the moment, where the original
forecast shows grey sky, there is hazy
sunshine, and there have been hazy sunny
spells for the last hour or two. The afternoon
temperature is still only expected to reach
15° C, but in full sunshine, and a moderate
breeze from the south, that could feel very
nice. Tomorrow could almost be the first day
of summer - a sunny day with the temperature
reaching 19° C. Apart from a hiccup on Monday,
when there could be a splash of rain, it seems
like the temperature has now shifted up a
couple of notches for the week, or weeks to
come.
Yesterday was a satisfactory day, but
did expose a slight weakness. After getting washed
and dressed I walked up the road to what was once
The Turkish Supermarket, but is now "TFC" (Turkish
Food Centre maybe ?). Maybe the fact that a lot of
their stock seems more Polish than Turkish
explains the name changing to unexplained
initials. It feels sort of strange, even naughty,
to be out in the almost deserted side roads, and
quiet main road, but I can't say it felt that good
to stretch my legs. I thought it felt like I was
incredibly out of practice as I forced one foot
after another, but just as neared the shop I
remembered something. In the days when I would go
on some long walks, maybe along the coast, I would
complain that the worst, or hardest part would be
the walk to the station, and the shop I was
heading to is just around the corner from the
station.
There seemed to be a queuing system in
place when I arrived at the shop, but maybe I just
mistook someone waiting out side, as just someone
waiting for a customer to exit, and get out of the
way, before he went in. I dutifully waited for
someone else to leave, but then a man came along
and just walked straight in. After giving him a
head start of a couple of seconds I just walked
in. I found there were only about 5 people in
there anyway, and two of them, who were shopping
together, were just leaving.
This shopping trip was mostly good. The bad
was that they only had 1.75L bottles of Diet Coke,
and they appear to have stopped stocking the pots
of bean and/or grain salads. However, they did
have two types of fish fingers, and I remembered
to buy both tomato sauce , and mayonnaise. I also
bought a couple of packs of Polish smoked meats -
one was a big hunk of smoked bacon, and the other
was a couple of ready to eat (but better when
grilled for a bit) smoked sausages. Overall it was
a good "haul", and most usefully it seems an easy,
if sometimes a bit expensive, source of all sorts
of foodstuffs.
I took it a bit easier walking home and
tried to enjoy it a bit more. I went home via the
station to see if they had any copies of The Metro
left. They did, but for some stupid reason I
thought they were old copies. One of the problems
that I know many others are suffering from, is
keeping track of the days since all usual routine
has been put on hold. It wasn't until I got home
that I suddenly twigged that Friday the 3rd was
not an old paper, but one from the morning. For
some reason I thought it was Monday, and that an
entire weekend had passed since the paper was
published.
It has been quite some time since I last
used a train or bus. I know both are still
running. I was a little surprised to see the
ticket off closed at Catford Bridge station. I was
also surprised that no reason was given, although
it is obviously another casualty of coronavirus in
some way. Whether the ticket office is not
considered essential work, or whether it is staff
shortages because of illness, or whether the
ticket clerk was too scared to face the public,
may never be known.
When I got home I had developed that
wheeziness that isn't actually wheezy. I am very
sure that although feeling a bit odd, it would not
have made me want to stop walking if my walk had
been far longer. On reflection it is rather
similar to an effect I used to get from one of my
blood pressure drugs that seemed to go away. That
effect was that it would feel that I had walked a
long way when I had only walked a short distance,
but once that threshold was reached it would never
get worse. I am not sure if I learned to ignore
it, or if it went away, but it could have been the
make of one of the drugs. Some of my last repeat
prescription featured drugs by unfamiliar
manufacturers. It is possible that one of the
drugs may be less pure or something. I know my
friend Patricia much prefers the Ramipril
prescribed in the UK. The apparently identical
drug supplied in Argentina gives her a dry cough.
I didn't notice that it wasn't quite midday
when I arrived home with my shopping, and the
first thing I did was to start cooking some lunch.
It was freshly bought fish fingers. As I
mentioned, they had two different types in the
shop. One was expensive genuine cod fish fingers
from Birdseye, and the other was Youngs "icelandic
pollack" fish fingers. I thought we fought a cod
war so that we could keep plentiful supplies of
cod, and maybe because pollack is best left for
cat food. It was the cheap fish fingers I cooked,
and in a peculiar way they were more satisfying
than the cod burgers I had the day before.
The pollack fish is a bit grey compared to
cod, and the taste is not as good, but these
things didn't matter because I was able to drown
them in tomato sauce - and it wasn't just any old
tomato sauce. My initial thought was that the
writing on the bottle looked Polish, but I am
wondering if it could have been Turkish. One word
on it was easy enough to translate because it
looks very similar to piquant, and the red chilli
next to the tomato on the label is good
confirmation. It is a spicy tomato sauce, and it
seemed to very nice. As far as I could tell (the
print was tiny, and contained very little English)
it does not contain a lot of sugar.
Prior to my dinner, which was much later
than hoped for, my blood glucose level was back
down to quite a reasonable figure. A little bit of
hard work maybe helped it to go down a bit, but
probably not because it wasn't a sustained effort
- just enough to hand wash a double duvet cover.
That brought my laundry completely up to date, and
I doubt I will have to do any more now for several
days - unless I am brave and wash another pair of
jeans.....which maybe I might.
My crowning achievement yesterday was to
complete clear the dining room table, and give the
top a clean and polish. The underside and the
chromed metal legs will also need a good clean,
but it really feels like I made some good progress
yesterday - even if it was done a few minutes
here, and a few minute there, rather than one big
push. Seen from this angle I also realise there is
far less crap under the table than I thought. The
large cardboard box contains carefully selected
stuff, and there is nothing in it that can be
thrown away. I am unsure how I am going to spirit
that away, to be out of sight, and out of the way.
Just behind the table is a plastic set of drawers.
They contents of that need a good sorting out, and
it may end up in the cupboard under the stairs,
but it is very full in there already.
I needed to make a bit of room in the
fridge yesterday. I found that over some unknown
period of time I had lined up cans of soft drinks
in such a way as to hide what was behind them.
Upon moving them I made this gruesome discovery.
With the use by date of 18th February long gone,
what was inside was not a pretty sight. Consider
it fortunate that the photo only gives a hint of
what is inside !
I know it was a terrible extravagance now
that I seemed to have found some easy sources of
food, albeit sometime extravagant in themselves,
but last night I treated my self to another
takeaway. The last one was good. The food arrived
in 50 minutes instead of the predicted 1 hour, and
it came with a free bottle of drink that I didn't
expect. Unfortunately it was a full sugar drink
and so I told the delivery man, who appeared to
work directly for the restaurant, to take it away
again. He promised that next time he would make
sure it was Diet Coke or some other sugar free
drink.
Last night I ordered from the same place,
and this time I noted that it did say a free
bottle of drink for orders over £25. So I put my
order in for three nights worth of dinners, and
added a note to remind them that the free drink
should be sugar free - Diet Coke preferred. This
time the estimate was for a 70 minute delivery -
which seemed fair enough considering it was a
Friday night, and busier than a Tuesday night.
To my great annoyance they busted that
estimate of 70 minutes, and it was over 2 hours
before my food arrived. I had almost given up hope
of getting it. To rub salt into the wound I didn't
get any kind of free drink. Note to self -
only use that place mid week when they are not
insanely busy. It feel like I am not the
only person who thinks that this is a simle way of
getting food that is not excessively expensive
(still fairly expensive - but how much is sanity
valued ?).
I finally seem to be getting the hang of
sleeping on my smooth, wrinkle free, new mattress
topper, but last night still left a bit to be
desired. I still found it a bit hard to get
initially get to sleep. One problem is the old one
of trying to get the perfect temperature. I had
left off the heating quite some time before going
to bed, and it was rather cool without the duvet,
but too hot under it. It was only later this
morning that I realised some of this was probably
my own fault for liberally pouring on the red hot
chilli sauce over my dinner. It was also an
unfortunate fact that I was forced to have my
dinner much later in the evening than desired.
I went from tossing and turning into a
quite long deep sleep. I woke up partly covered,
and my pillow was wet with sweat. I had no
intention of turning on the lights to check my
temperature, and I am pretty sure it was the
chilli sauce that was the culprit. It took
some time to get back to sleep, but once I did I
slept better, and I think I slept for a good three
hours before I woke again to the first hints of
daylight seeping around the curtains. I did get up
briefly to visit the toilet, and to update the
weather forecast, but I felt very sleepy - until I
went back to bed. I suddenly didn't feel like
sleeping again - which was obviously very wrong
because I suddenly realised it was sunshine trying
to seep around my curtains, and at least 90
minutes had passed in a flash.
I felt very bunged up when I first got up,
and even did a bit of dry coughing. Since then I
have settled down a bit, and I probably don't feel
so bad, although my nose still seems a bit stuffy.
I note that for the first time this year (I think)
the weather forecast shows the pollen estimate as
high (having seemingly not bothered to stop at
medium first). Maybe that might explain my nose
feeling extra stuffy, although really and truly,
with the windows closed, I should be isolated from
any pollen for now.
Today I don't have to do any rummaging for
food. I think it is going to take a lot of will
power to get going, but I really ought to try and
enjoy a long walk in the afternoon sunshine - my
one, legal form of exercise for the day. Other
than that, I don't think I have any other exact
plans. I will probably continue to clear and clean
my back room a few minutes here, and a few minutes
there, through the day, but the extent of that, or
the lack of it, will only be known later.
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