I started out the
day thinking I was going to go out for a walk,
and to get some shopping yesterday, but when
it came down to it I found I couldn't be
bothered. It was another touch of depression
brought about by still not getting any
response to my messages to Angela. I am unsure
why she is ignoring me. I have a horrid
feeling that she has some sort of troubles
that is bringing her down. Back in the real
world she would reveal some of it over a
lunchtime drink, but we can't do that now, and
even then any information trickles out at her
own pace. It 's just not the sort of thing you
can do over the phone. Either that or for
unknown reason she now hates me.
Instead of going out I contented myself
by doing two lots of laundry by hand. The
first was a t-shirt, a pair of lounge pants, a
hand towel, and some tea towels. The latter I
had only used for cleaning and polishing
glasses. The second bit of laundry I did was
the hand towel from the kitchen. It was just
getting a hint of being smelly. I also washed
a tea towel I had used for drying the
occasional plate or knife, but most messily to
take stuff out of the oven. It had some greasy
stains as a result of that.
The first bit of laundry I hung up to
dry on the clothes horse indoors, and with a
fan on it to speed up the drying. Everything
from that seemed more or less dry by late
evening. The second lot I hung on the washing
line to dry. That was the first time I have
used the washing line since the weather
changed last year. There seemed enough wind
outside to dry the towel and tea towel very
quickly, but the hand towel was still slightly
damp when I checked it just before 6pm. I left
it outside overnight, and I expect it will be
dry by the time I am up and dressed.
Apart from the two bursts of physical
activity when doing the laundry I did nothing
more strenuous than read - either magazine or
from my PC. I was probably getting ready to
snooze away the afternoon when I got a phone
call from Jodie. She is still quite mobile,
and goes out far more often than I do.
Yesterday she suggested that she might come to
Catford for an arms length meeting where I
could hand over some things I had bought from
Amazon for her. The timing was such that they
arrived just after the lockdown, and poor
Jodie had finally run out of patience.
The original plan was for her to get
the train, and I would meet her at the
station, but all the trains were cancelled
because of a reported fire on a train at Lower
Sydenham. I suggested we should try again
today, but she opted for the slower way of
getting here - the 54 bus. We arranged that
she would call me as she neared Catford, and I
would meet her near the Poundshop. I suggested
the Poundshop because I still wanted to buy
some plant food from there.
I left home as soon as Jodie called me,
but she reported that she was actually a bit
further away than "just outside Catford". That
gave me time to cross the main road, and do a
little bit of shopping in The Catford Food
Market. As usual there was a very minimal
queue, and once a couple of people had exited
the shop I went straight in to grab a couple
more bottles of Diet Coke, and another bottle
of sugar free orange squash. Then it was back
over the main road just in time to see Jodie's
54 arrive.
I thought my first face to face (with a
decent gap between us) might feel a bit odd
after not having a face to face chat with
anybody for so long, but apart from keeping
our distance it seemed surprisingly normal.
There was a fluctuating queue outside
Poundland. When I first got there I think
there was only one person outside. After Jodie
arrived there seemed to be quite a few people,
but at least a couple of them were just
waiting for friends to finish shopping in
there. By the time Jodie and I had swapped
what very little news there was to swap, there
was just one person ahead of me. A minute or
so later I was in the shop, and Jodie came in
about 30 seconds after that.
There were very few people in the shop,
but a few were really annoying, and none more
so than one person who decided to start
talking on her phone right in the middle of
one of the aisles. The second most annoying
was some bloke shopping with a female partner.
He insisted on standing in the middle of an
intersection, blocking 4 aisles at once, to
guard their shopping while his partner carried
on perusing what was on the shelves. I had no
option but to ignore the 2 metre spacing.
I bought quite a few things in the
Poundshop. As well as two small bottles of
plant food I bought a couple of bottles of
bleach, 2 large cans of sugar free Irn Bru,
and some Lavender and Camomile fabric
conditioned. I also bought some nuts too. It
was quite a heavy bag to carry around. I did
take my rucksack, but that had the bottles of
Diet Coke and orange squash I had bought
earlier. Jodie went round the shop a lot
slower than I did, and my bag seemed to be
getting heavier and heavier as I waited
outside the shop. I was starting to think that
maybe she decided not to buy anything, and had
left the shop before me, and was on her way
home again when she finally emerged with a bag
stuffed with all sorts of weird stuff.
We said our goodbyes, and I headed
home. I think Jodie was heading to the Polish
shop almost opposite the Poundshop to see if
they had any interesting beers before getting
her bus home. Going out was a pleasant
interlude to make the afternoon feel a bit
shorter, but it was still nice to get home and
unload all the heavy bottles (and cans) of
assorted liquids. It was because so many of
the things that I bought were liquid that my
shopping was so heavy !
As dinner time approached I cooked two
dinners. The fresh chicken I had bought the
day previously was not frozen, and nor was it
packed in a "protective atmosphere". I thought
it wise to not keep it, even in the fridge for
too long. Even after that short time I thought
I could detect a bit of a smell from it (but
not a stinky smell). I cooked one of the
fillets in the oven/grill over a selection of
diced vegetables - including some diced
chillies.
The last fillet I sort of stewed, with
some other vegetables, in the microwave. The
vegetables included more chillies, spring
onions, and a head of pak choi that was just
starting to wilt. It was good to use that up
before the leaves turned yellow (as part of
one leaf already had). I also chucked in some
Chinese 5 spice powder to give a sort of
Chinese-ey sort of taste. Once it was fully
cooked I sealed the container, and it had
cooled off I chilled it in the fridge ready
for a microwave zapping for dinner tonight.
There was one trouble with my
oven/grill cooked dinner, and it must have
been one or more of the chillies. The previous
time I used the same chillies they just gave a
nice warm tang to the meal, but last night one
of them, or maybe more, seemed to be really
burning hot ! I finished that meal with a few
bits of chilli still on the plate. My mouth
was just burning too much to eat those last
couple of bits.
Compared to the first meal I cooked
that featured 3 of those fillets, last nights
meal was a lot smaller, and I topped it off
with some sugar free vanilla wafers. I thought
they might be OK in my burning mouth, and on
the whole they were. Later on I would snack on
some sugar free digestive biscuits with some
sliced Gouda cheese. That cheese was
interesting, by which I mean the label was
interesting.
The cheese was produced in Holland, but
the slicing and packing was done in Greece,
and the final thing was sold in England. That
was a rather long round trip. The amusing
thing to me is that I know there is a lot of
prejudice against that shop because it was
once a Turkish shop, and Greeks and Turks are
at loggerheads with each other over Cyprus. I
have no idea what the nationality of the
owners, or operators of the shop are, but it
would seem that have put their differences
aside, and get their produce from anywhere
that produces good stuff. I think the shop
could now be called a European Shop instead of
Turkish.
Before I had even started eating my
dinner I had that feeling that all was not
right with my gut again. It is a paradox that
some of the feeling I had from my gut felt
like hunger when it was probably the opposite.
Sure enough, at 9pm, just as I was thinking
about bed, I had to dash to the toilet 3 or 4
times for some explosive outbursts. It wasn't
quite as bad as almost the same thing a few
nights previously, but it was still bothersome
not being able to relax and go to bed. The
most annoying thing was that a lot of it was
liquid, and I expected to weigh a lot less
this morning, but apparently not !
Once I had finally finished on the
toilet I could turn out the light, and go to
sleep. I had aimed for bed at 9pm, and it was
almost exactly 10pm when I turned out the
light. I doubt it was much more than 5 minutes
later before I was fast asleep. I almost slept
quite well, but after waking up just as it was
getting light I still seemed to feel very
tired. After a bit I went back to bed, and I
seemed to sleep for another 3 hours. It seems
like I got a lot more than my 8 hours sleep
last night. I can only conclude that I didn't
sleep well even if I can't work out why.
It was actually annoying that I hadn't
seemed to lose a single gram of weight since
yesterday. I must have ate a meal that I don't
remember for this to happen. It would also
explain why my blood glucose is really high
this morning (9.5), but where that mystery
meal came from is a complete and utter mystery
because nothing is missing from the fridge or
cupboard. The most annoying thing is that my
blood glucose seemed to be really well
controlled yesterday. Perhaps thosed chillies
contained extra sugar as well as extra fire
and brimstone !
I have some definite plans for today,
or actually, this morning. I want to trim my
beard before washing my hair, and having a
shower. Once I am dressed sufficiently to go
out in public I will water my window boxes
with plant food. Once that is done I have no
idea what I will do. I ought to take a walk in
the sunshine, but I don't know if I will, or
if I won't, and if I do I have no idea where I
will go. I am tempted to see if Angela is in
the park, but I also have a preference to go
the other way to the Linear Park to walk by
the river. That preference is based up on the
stupid idea that the park was only really busy
last time because it was a Sunday, but now
every day is a Sunday during the lockdown. I
have no idea what I will eventually do.
1
