It was almost like a summer's day
yesterday. The sun was shining all day. The sky
was blue, and in the afternoon, when the
temperature hit 17° C, it was warm - but maybe
only when actually in the sunshine.
The forecast today
seems like it should be a good day with a few
caveats. There is hazy sunshine at the moment,
and that seems better than the sunny intervals
that are forecast for early this morning. The
sun should burn off the haze soon, hopefully,
and then we should have full sunshine until
2pm. After that we may only get sunny
intervals. I am keeping my fingers crossed
they will be long periods of sunshine, and
short periods without. If all goes well, by
3pm the temperature should have risen to 22°
C, and then it should really feel like it is
summer. Tomorrow is currently thought to be
almost exactly the same pattern as today, but
the temperature may reach 23° C.
Once again I was not feeling that good
yesterday morning, but rather than depression
it was some leftover aches from the long walk
the day before, and just a general creakiness.
The thing I can describe, or offer an
explanation for, was a strange discomfort in,
or on, my chest. It might have been my
sternum, and the ligaments connecting to my
ribs, but it sometimes felt it was deeper than
that. Maybe it was my lungs being invaded by
some sort of virus, but if so it doesn't seem
like the invasion came to anything. It didn't
stop me going for a long, and arduous walk.
Yesterday was the day I
tested my other new boots. For this
walk I wore some thick (and long)
socks to see how they felt. I guess
they did help the heel end of my
foot sliding around too much (which
was the problem with the other boots
when wearing thin socks), but the
toe end of my feet did feel a bit
tight. Maybe next time I will try
with medium thickness socks.
It is nice that both my
phones agreed exactly that I walked
3.08 miles yesterday. They almost
agree that I burnt off a similar
amount of calories. I have my doubts
about that figure because I cannot
confirm that it takes into account
that walking up a long hill burns
more calories than a walk on level
ground. This walk involved quite a
climb to reach the top of Hilly
Fields !
Taking an
occasion picture was a good excuse to stop
and get my breath back. The rather
surprising thing, although it should no
longer be a surprise because I have
observed it quite a few time now, is just
how brief that rest stop needs to be. I've
never actually timed it, but I would guess
that in 20 seconds, or less, I seemed to
have recovered enough to carry on walking
uphill. The next time I must remember to
try and work out exactly what I am
resting. I may have been breathing heavy,
but I can't recall being anywhere near
gasping. Maybe it it my legs that need
that short rest. Anyway, this is the view
from halfway up Hilly Fields (remembering
that it is uphill all the way from
Ladywell station to get to the bottom of
Hilly Fields). The hill in the distance,
just to the right of the centre of the
picture, is Nunhead Cemetery.
My main objective in going up Hilly
Fields was to have another look at
"Hillyhenge" (a name of my own devising),
aka The Hilly Fields Stone Circle. This
was erected for the start of the new
millenium in the year 2000. There are
technical names for the various stones,
but basically this is the view the rising
sun sees on the summer solstice (or is it
the winter solstice ?).
I've come
down from Hilly Fields, and now in
Ladywell Fields. Unlike Bromley
Council, who appear to need to stop
people resting during their exercise
(nasty bastards), Lewisham council
have decided that provided there is no
evidence of abuse (which was the case
of a small shelter near the basketball
court) there is no need to rope off
park benches, or even these picnic
tables.
Every now
and then I am lucky to catch an
animal, or in this case, an insect
posing for me. I think this is a
Damsel fly, although there is
something similar looking called a
Common Darter.
Here's another bench,
near the river, that is not taped off,
or has any annoying notice telling you
not to sit there. Oddly enough,
because this one is screened from the
main path, I have seen evidence of
beer cans and fag ends in the past,
that show that it was a favourite
place for yoofs to meet, but it was
clean and tidy yesterday.
That bench is near the south
end of the park, and I took the
opportunity to see if the Sainsbury's
Local shop, by Catford station, was
very busy as I passed it. It wasn't
busy at all, and I noted there wasn't
even anyone guarding the door,
counting people in and out. I took
advantage of this to get a few bits of
shopping. Until yesterday I hadn't
grasped the significance of the red
price labels on the shelves. The
previous time I noted that 1.25 Litre
bottles of Diet Coke was just £1 each
- according to a red price tag.
Yesterday I was dismayed to see a
white price label, and they were £1.65
a bottle. That is some increase, and I
won't be shopping there for Diet Coke
in the future. In fact I noted that
several things seemed very expensive.
It was only Sainsbury's own brand
items that seemed to have sensible
prices.
Wearing the thick socks with my
other new boots was both good and bad.
My feet were sore when I got home, but
seemed to recover far more quickly
than the previous day when I tested
the other new boots with thin socks. I
still don't know how the two pairs
differ in terms of fitting. They look
slightly different, but as I said
yesterday (or sometime) they seem to
be built on the same "chassis" with a
slightly different external trim.
Anyway, it was still a relief to get
my boots off and semi relax. I was
feeling really hungry, and slightly
strange - sort of edgy, but still with
the unexplainable mild discomfort from
around my sternum - but before I had
anything to eat I transferred my
photos, screenshots and video to my
PC, and did the necessary editing.
This is
a short video I shot of
"Hillyhenge". I stood on
what I think is called the
calender stone, and albeit
rather lumpily, turned round
to video one complete
revolution inside the
circle. The calender stone
is the centre of the stone,
and there are markings on it
(that are now getting
indistinct) that show the
approximate date by the
shadow cast by the two thin
upright stones at sunrise.
Once again, or maybe I
should say "as usual" I did very
little of any significance after my
walk except for the aforementioned
editing work, and eating. My lunch was
a salad from Sainsbury's with some
added Tesco cheapo ham. Dinner was
part two of my takeaway order from the
previous night - cold chicken shish
kebab. Somehow the latter didn't
satisfy - probably because I was
feeling "edgy". I supplemented it with
a couple of Polish "Weekend Sausages"
- ready cooked sausages that are
better after a 4 minute zap in the
microwave. The final, rather desperate
thing, was three alleged sugar
free cookies.
I think I blame those cookies
for my blood glucose being higher (but
not high) than desired this morning.
It would not be so bad if those
cookies were actually very nice, but
they are very "average". Evidently I
didn't eat enough to make me sleepy. I
tried to get to sleep soon after 9pm,
but I think it was getting close to
11pm before I fell asleep. Once I was
asleep I seemed to sleep quite well. I
can't recall any difficulties getting
back to sleep after waking up a few
times in the night. The only bad
thing, or maybe it was a good thing,
was that I seemed ready to get up very
early this morning.
I was up in time to take a
screenshot of the weather forecast
before the 6am revision. Since then I
had been sort of busy. As well as my
usual morning routines I have actually
hand washed a pair of jeans, and hung
them outside to dry ! Apart from my
blood glucose being higher than hoped
for, but still only 7.6mmol/l, my
blood pressure seemed to be initially
high this morning. I had to relax a
bit, and then take a second reading.
The systolic pressure was then still
122mmHg, which is a tiny bit high for
my usual, but still perfectly
acceptable.
Today could be a busy day. If I
do everything I would like to do, I
will have washed some t-shirts and
underwear in another bit of hand
laundry, and the separately hand wash
a bath towel before going out for walk
rather later in the afternoon than
usual. There is a reason for this.
Yesterday afternoon I phoned the
pharmacy, and to my great surprise I
got through to someone to request my
next repeat prescription. He said that
would be fine, and even after
reminding him that one drug needs to
be ordered from his suppliers, he said
I could pick up the prescription this
afternoon.
I find it hard to believe that
it will all be there today, but I'm
game for a laugh. I intend to go out
for just a short walk mid afternoon,
and call into the pharmacy on the way
back home. I may do one other thing as
well. I shall take a peek at Aldi, and
if the queue is not looking too bad I
might venture in to buy some shopping.
I dread to think what it is like in
there. I am imagining all sorts of
officious "walk this way", and "queue
here", like my last visit to Tesco,
but maybe I am being too pessimistic.
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