Today seems like it may be like yesterday was supposed to be. The important difference is the sky looks bluer than yesterday when it was sometimes milky looking. I note the breeze is from the east, and that may make the predicted 21° C feel a bit cooler, but it should be a pretty fair day. Tomorrow may start with a couple of hours of just sunny periods, but they should give way to continuous sunshine, he afternoon may be a nice warm 24° C.

   My potential trip to the seaside came to naught yesterday. Maybe that was just as well in view of the weather being not as good as hoped for. I got as far as checking train times, and discovered that the journey would be very irritating. At the moment the train service outside of the main commuter area, where essentially a Sunday service is running, is a sub-Sunday service. There are no direct trains to Hastings. You have to go to Tonbridge and change there for a Hastings service.

  That meant a slow train to Sevenoaks. At lest they run twice an hour. At Sevenoaks there is an hourly service to Tonbridge, and from Tonbridge an hourly service to Hastings. The connections, providing you choose the right half hourly service to Sevenoaks are reasonable, but all it all adds up to a journey lasting just over two hours. Had I gone I may have spent less time in Sevenoaks than I would have spent travelling there. I felt very disappointed by that, and ended up deciding I deserved another day of rest.

  I did go out to Poundland though, but I didn't enjoy the short walk there and back. It sort of felt like I was walking with the brakes on. I suppose I could describe it as feeling a bit wheezy, but it wasn't exactly like that. Maybe it is always how I feel until I get warmed up, or maybe I was just not feeling terribly enthused. Probably a bit depressed. Anyway, I bought the plant food I wanted, but some other bits and pieces.

  One job I did complete, and that I was quite happy with, was burning a special DVD. Back in the very early 1980s I acquired a video called "White Powder Xmas". It was a special Xmas tape made by the BBC video tape department using out takes and all sorts of things to make a very professional programme that was never intended for public consumption. My original copy was on an ancient Philips VCR format video tape, and at some point I must have made a copy to VHS. I recently found that VHS copy, and painstakingly copied it to a digital mp4 file.

  I was getting ready to make a DVD from that mp4 file when I wondered what year it was originally made. An internet search showed that it was the 1978 Xmas tape, and it also showed there was a very good quality copy, probably direct form the master, that could be downloaded from the Internet Archive pages. There was also a high quality copy of "Good King Memorex" the Xmas tape from 1979. The two tapes were the pinnacle of these special tapes. After 1979 the BBC shed loads of staff, and started using outside programme makes more and more. Subsequent Xmas tapes were very "thin" by comparison.

  Yesterday I did a bit of graphics work to make a DVD of White Powder Xmas - a simple background for the DVD menu, and a simple label design to be printed on the disk. It is a long time until Xmas, but I may give a couple of these disks as Xmas presents to a very few select people. On the other hand I may not wait until Xmas. Today, or tomorrow, or soon, I will do the graphics and stuff for "Good King Memorex".

   I can't really think of anything else I did of note yesterday. I can't even remember my eating choices beyond trying to be careful what I ate. I suppose I can remember virtually all I ate if I think about it, but what I can't quite work out is how I managed to select what I did to give the result that I got from it. In some ways it felt like my quantities and choices were a bit poor, and yet this morning it seems my weight might be shown to have dropped a tiny bit once I have been to the toilet. More immediately, my blood glocose has dropped down to where I very much like it, 6.3mmol/l. I must have done something right.

  I must have spent a lot of time reading Robert Heinlein's "Friday" yesterday. It is a thick paperback, and I seem to have read about a third of it so far. I was reading it in the morning, in the afternoon, and when I went to bed last night. I think I put the book down quite late ~ maybe around 11pm, but possibly later. Once I put the book down, and turned out the light, I was asleep in minutes. I think the first time I woke up was around 4am - just as the first hint of dawn was visible as a glow in the eastern sky.

  I can't remember any details beyond an sort of idea that I was dreaming about finding a toilet just before I woke up. That was not surprising because I was busting for a pee when I woke up. With that urge satisfied I went back to bed, and was soon asleep again for about another 90 minutes. By that time I needed another small pee, and having got up for that I stayed up. It was partly because I was feeling mildly uncomfortable. I still am. It seems some previous meal has left me a bit constipated again. A steaming curry last night would have prevented it, but the cure would probably be worse than the constipation. Solving that is just a matter of waiting for the right moment.

  I am pretty sure that constipation will resolve itself some time this morning. Until then I can't bring myself to go out, and if the resolution is too late in the morning it might mean that I won't be going again today. In one respect that wouldn't be too bad because I have plenty to do at home. On the other hand, just as I was finishing the previous sentence it felt like a good time to go to the toilet - problem half resolved !

  I strongly suspect another visit will be needed, but it now seems possible that I will be going out today. I have it in mind to walk the south half of The Waterlink Way today. I have actually walked half of it with my walks through The River Pool Linear Park. I estimate that it would be little more than 3 miles from home to the southern end of The Waterlink Way, and like I didn't fancy walking back from Greenwich, the north end of the walk, I don't fancy walking all the way to the south end, and then back to home. What I think I'll do is to get a train to New Beckenham station. From there it is probably half a mile or so to Cator Park, where the Waterlink Way starts. I can then walk back home from there with the sun on my back. Before committing to that I need to feel comfortable, and if I am not then there is always another day.