For a bit of extra
novelty I took three phones with me to plot,
and measure my route. The first picture, on
the left was from my Alcatel "One Touch" phone
that uses the Firefox Operating System - which
is now obsolete. It provided the most accurate
track of all, but it has one major downfall.
The tracker has no pause option. It wouldn't
have mattered anyway because I forgot to pause
the other phones when I went into
Poundstretcher. That is where the track
finishes on the Firefox phone. It seems that
once it has lost the GPS signal for a short
period of time it assumes you have finished
your run (it is actually an app for runners),
and it then stops and exits.
The middle trace was taken on my old
Wileyfox Spark phone. In most respects it was
a great phone, but I was unhappy about it's
camera. The camera is fairly good, but I knew
there were better ones, and bought another
cheap phone to repalce it. It now appears that
it's GPS reciever, or the way it process the
GPS information, is very suspect. It reaally
went haywire when I went into Poundstretcher,
plus the next shop on my walk. I checked all
three phone as I passed Catford station, and
at that point they all more or less agreed
with each other. Going into the shops, without
pausing the tracker, has added well over half
a mile to the real figure.
The final track, on the right, is from
my current phone, a Huawei P20 Lite. It was
because that showed some bad glitches when
walking to Lower Sydenham that I started to
take 2 (or in this case 3) phones with me, but
in this case it was the best behaved of them
all. It too lost control when I went into the
shops without pausing it, but it didn't seem
to go completely insane. I think that based on
it's reading of 2.21 miles I can say that the
real distance I walked was probably near to 2
miles, and 2 mile is what I claim for this
walk.
My walk was either good or bad
depending on which foot you ask. For thsi walk
I gave my old Regatta hiking boots another try
out. They date back to when I was doing lost
of long distance walking prior to developing
Angina in 2013. They show little sign of wear,
and I can't remember if this is because they
were still relatively new when I had to
abandon long walks, or if it was because they
were too uncomfortable to use. These boots are
described on the label on the tongue as being
wide fitting (or maybe just mid wide - the
description is open to interpretation), and it
was because they were wide that I didn't go an
extra size up. Maybe that was a mistake.
The annoying thing is that my left foor
was very comfortable, but my right foot ended
up being very painful. I guess the sort of
lump I have that sticks out just a little bit
where the big toe joins the rest of the foot,
is a bunion. Yesterday the top of that bunion
was ground away leaving the remnants of a
blister over a very red, very sore spot. I now
wonder if I am brave enough to wear these
boots again if I cover the raw remains of that
bunion with a good sticking plaster. My theory
is that eventually the boot will learn to fit
my foot, but it might be a stupid idea. I
might still give it a go though because, as I
said, my left foot did feet particularly
comfortable.
There were three things I wanted from
Poundstretcher that they didn't have. Two were
predictable - single use latex gloves, and
Paracetamol. The other was sugar free Irn Bru.
If I recall correctly the original Catford
branch seemed to have a fair amount of stock
on the shelves, but alas not the Catford Hill
branch. They did have some cans of sugar free
"Tropical" flavout Tango, and I bought 4 of
them. They look a quite disgusting colour, but
are fairly pleasant as a novelty. The one
thing I wasn't expecting was that the store
seemed to have loads of bleach, and I bought
two bottles of theor cheap stuff - 45p per
bottle - it smells like bleach, and it cleans
like bleach, it just doesn't have a well known
brand on it.
The second shop I went in was the
Turkish Suprmarket. As usual there were a
trickle of people going through it, and so no
queue outside. I bought more fresh fruit and
vegetables plus a couple of bottles of Diet
Coke (and if I am honest that is all I really
wanted). I did have an idea that it was an
expensive shop to buy stuff from, but I am
beginning to think the only expensive things
are some of the weird and wonderful imported
stuff. The last few time I have used the place
I seem to have always over estimated how much
I would be paying. Maybe it is because their
fruit and vegetables are generaally cheaper
than Tesco's !
It was a joy to get home, and to get
the right boot off. Once I had taken the sock
off too I could see the gory damage the boot
had done to my foot. Actually it wasn't gory
in as much as it wasn't bleeding, but it was
defintely looking very raw, and the bits of
skin hanging off told the tale of there once
being a substantial blister there. I was
relieved to take the weight off my feet once I
was home, and spent quite a time being very
lazy. A 2 mile walk should not have taken so
much out of me, but the walk wasn't on flat
ground. It is a long uphil walk across the
south end of the park to the peak of
Ravensbourne Park Road, and I had to stop at
the top for 30 seconds to get my breath back.
It was a convenient moment to check that my
three phones were all registering roughly the
same distance walked.
It was not long after getting home that
I had some lunch. It was a semi exotic lunch
of 4 more of those Hunters Sausages I've
mentioned over the last few days. The more
exotic part was probably the "vegetable salad"
I had with the sausages. The closest
comparison to that vegetable salad would be
Heinz "Sandwich Spread", but this stuff,
possibly Turkish in origin, was much more
coarse, and had a wider range of finely diced
vegetables in it. I liked it, but perhaps only
as a novelty, and I don't have any desire to
rush out and buy more.
Nothing of any note happened after
lunch until it was dinner time. My dinner last
night was a variant on the dinner I had the
night before. It was a sort of stew, but not
actually a stew of a lot of diced white
cabbage, diced spring onion, some mange tout
that had been in the fridge a bit too long,
and was on it's last legs, and finally, the
last of the Hunters Sausages cut into half
inch long section. This time I cooked it all
in quite a small amount of oxo, plus some
assorted spices. Once again it was very nice -
for me ! Iam not sure I would want to offer it
as a meal to anyone else.
I kept getting hints of going down with
a cold yesterday. During the afternoon I found
my nose would start running every time I want
downstairs where it was cold. I think it was
after eating some cheese that I started a dry
cough that while intermittent, lasted for
perhaps half an hour. I also seemed to get a
sore throat, but that was one of those things
where you could feel it start, but a bit later
realise that it had just faded away almost as
quickly as it faded in.
I can't seem to remember much about my
sleep, and that must be a good thing. I have a
sort of dreamy memory of going for a wee a
couple of times, but it wasn't until 5am that
things got a bit clearer. After a wee I took a
screenshot of the latest weather forecast (as
discussed above). After that I went back to
bed, and once again I seemed destined to not
fall asleep, and then a couple of hours passed
and I was waking up again.
This morning my health varies from very
good to disappointing. The disappointment is
my weight. It seems to have gone up a bit
more. I think I have to blame the fat in those
Hunters Sausages. I can't think of anything
else that I have eaten that would cause weight
gain. I didn't even have any beer yesterday.
The very good is my blood glucose. I have just
about got it back to normal again. It was
suitably low before I had my dinner last
night, and this morning it was 7.0 mmol/l. As
always a bit lower would be good because it
would give a bit more leeway for accidents,
but it is fairly typical of the level that
earned me a metaphorical gold star from the
Diabetes Nurse.
My temperature has shown no rise above
"normal" (for normal humans) all this month,
and this morning it was it's typical couple of
degrees below "normal". My blood pressure was
a little higher than usual - it was almost up
to my recommended target for someone who has
had heart problems - a systolic pressure of
120mmHg. There is probably a reason for that.
I was reading about the explosion of Apollo
13, that happened 50 years ago, and I think
the tension caused my blood pressure to rise.
At the moment I can't be sure if I
still have any symptoms that suggest a cold.
My nose does run a bit when I yawn, and I can
feel something at the back of my neck, but I
am not sure what. It could be Covid-19 having
another go having probably failed once before,
but at the moment I feel quite good in most
other respects. Even my legs feel generally
OK. Provided a good sticking plaster over that
raw bunion makes it comfortable, I want to go
for a walk in the park agan today. I have a
funny feeling it might be an extended walk,
but I'll start by heading towards Ladywell,
and adjust the route based upon how I feel.
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