Apart from this morning starting off bright and clear, today could be a duplicate of yesterday - blue sky, non stop sunshine, and about 23° C by early afternoon. Tomorrow might start a bit cloudy, but the cloud may clear by mid morning, perhaps earlier, and after that it could a slightly warmer day than today.


 
  After a couple of days where I didn't feel like going out yesterday was different in ways that I just cannot explain. Admittedly there was the complication of my guts not feeling stable the previous two days, and two days ago the weather failed to excite me. Yesterday it felt right to go for what could have been quite a long walk. I didn't really know quite how far it would be before I set out, but I had a figure of about 4 miles in mind. I started my journey with a short train ride, and if I were to include the quarter of a mile (and possibly a little further) from home to the station it would take the total up to around that four miles I was either aiming for, or feeling that the total distance would be. Probably more the latter.

  My aim was to walk the southern portion of The Waterlink Way. I had done the north portion, the walk to Greenwich, last Monday. That was a 5 mile walk, and apart from the crowds in Greenwich town centre, it was quite a pleasant walk where I saw some sights I had only seen from moving trains before.

  Yesterday's walk covered a fair few parts that I had never seen before - or in one case that I hadn't seen for something silly like 60 years. The actual start of The Waterlink Way is the southern end of Cator park in Beckenham. Unfortunately Bromley Council, who own the park are so stingy that I only found one sign that actually said the name of the park on it.

  As far as I am aware, the last time I had been in Cator Park was as a kid, possibly as young as 5 years old, and when I was visiting my grandmother. She used to live probably about half a mile from the park, and it was possibly the nearest, or best green space available. I have to admit that apart from remembering going to the park, I have no memory of what the park was like.


  After walking from home Catford Bridge station I caught a nearly empty train to New Beckenham station. From there I walked further south, and then looped around to the most southern entrance of Cator Park.
  The south end of Cator Park features a lot of tress, and under the blue sky, and bright sunshine, it looked very nice, although maybe not terribly exciting. I guess I prefer a more rugged look.
   Running through the park is the rather scummy looking Chaffinch Brook. I can't seem to trace it's exact origin, but it seems to be somewhere towards Shirley. A bit further into the park the Chaffinch Brook is joined by The Beck - presumably part of the derivation of Beckenham. At the point they join together there are some thick bushes that block any sensible view from my camera. Both rivers seem to be encased in ugly concrete channels.
  I entered and left the park at two different places, and I could see other entrances in the distance, but only one actually had a sign to say it was Cator Park. Bromley council are really stingy !
  The Chaffinch Brook exits the park, and goes under a fairly busy road. I emerges on the other side of the road as The Pool River. It is my belief that it is now cared for by Lewisham council, and their contractors seem to know how to make a river look really attractive. The path it follows is really no more than a narrow strip of land, but I can imagine there is far more wildlife around here than in Cator Park.
  Sometimes I really love my little Canon camera. I had to use a lot of zoom to get this picture of these poppies, and to do it I had to lean out over the river while holding the camera high enough to get a clear view over the nettles and other vegetation. Somehow the camera managed to produce this really crisp picture of the main subject.
  The path by the river exits out onto a very industrial road that is lined with all sorts of factories and industrial units, plus what appears to be a bus depot. It's been a few years since I was last down the road, and there was no bus depot there then. I have no idea what bus company owns it, but I did see a couple of buses showing 199 on their blinds, and I thought they ran out of Catford bus depot. One of the first things you encounter after leaving the side of the river is this rather strange site. It looks like it could be used in a scifi movie (where they make the aliens food), or something from Blakes 7. It is actually the Kangley Bridge Road Water Treatment Plant. I think they probably take water from deep boreholes and convert it to drinking water.

  After walking past loads of grimy industry I arrived at Lower Sydenham station. If I recall correctly I had walked 1.8 miles at that point, and I could have caught a train back to Catford Bridge from there, but I didn't want to give up too quickly. There is a path alongside the railway that I have known about for years, but had never explored before. It was quite a pleasant walk - at least now it is. Until very recently it was a bit like an alley with a brick wall one side, and a jungle of out of control plants on the other side. By the look of it there has been a new path made through the "jungle" very recently. While the cyclists go far too fast considering some of the blind bends, down the old path, the new path is quiet and pleasant for pedestrians.

  The path eventually comes out opposite the entrance to the southern entrance of The River Pool Linear Park. That is now well worn territory for me, and I walked back through there without stopping, and at a fair pace too. At the far end I still seemed to feel quite good. I was still about half a mile from home, but I still seemed to have spare energy, and even my feet weren't particularly sore. I think I would have been good for at least another mile if it were needed. It wasn't needed, and I almost went straight home, but I did call into the little supermarket on Catford Bridge.

  There were a few things I wanted from there - mainly fresh vegetables - but I did buy something naughty. I wasn't feeling particularly hot despite walking in the bright sunshine, and as I have already said, I wasn't running out of energy. So there was no valid excuse for buying ice cream. That is a habit that I have to stop....well maybe for any walk less than 5 miles ! The big trouble yesterday is that the shop only had "full fat" ice creams. I seem to get away with it when I can get the low calorie/sugar ice creams, but there were consequences with what I bought yesterday.

  I will admit that I did feel tired when I got home, but it was more a sort of sleepy tired rather than muscle fatigue. The first thing I did once I had stripped off my outdoor clothes down to my underwear was to jump on the scales. I hit a new record low ! Of course I knew it was mainly just dehydration, but it still felt good. Then I ate my ice cream and sort of ruined it - but not completely.

  I think I the transferred my pictures onto my PC ready for editing, but I didn't do anything with them at that point. I decided to lay on my bed and read for a while. I was not surprised when I found myself waking up maybe as long as an hour later. I'm not sure exactly when that was, but I knew I became active very quickly. One of the first things I did was to check on an Amazon delivery, and found it was due to be delivered rather sooner than I expected. I think it arrived around 4pm.

  I did my best to knock up a very healthy dinner for last night. It was basically a chunky, crispy salad with a mix of a small(ish) amount of diced smoked cheddar, and just a couple of slices of a rather nice smoked, Polish, ham. I dressed it in just olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I also ate a small tub of four bean salad, and later in the evening a small(ish) portion of peanuts. As a novelty I sprinkled black pepper on the peanuts before eating them. They didn't seem to taste that peppery, but the pepper gave me a dry, coronavirus, type cough, and the cough plus the spice brought me out with a short live sweat.

  Last night I had another incident of going to sleep mostly uncovered, and then waking up in the middle of the night feeling cold. The next step is to pull the duvet over me and then feel too hot. Finally, with the correct amount of arms and legs sticking out from under the duvet, I got back to sleep, and seemed to sleep well - apart from waking up earlier than I thought I deserved.

  This morning that ice cream has taken it's revenge. My blood glucose was up to 8.1mmol/l. It is still a couple of points below where it would cause any great problem, and it is mostly just annoying that it has spoiled a good run of readings. On the other hand, my weight would appear to have dropped a bit. Like yesterday morning, I still have not gone to the toilet yet, and yet this morning my weight would appear to be a few hundred grams less than yesterday under similar circumstances. It is probably that the extra glucose running in my blood will stop any more weight loss, and possibly slightly reverse it over the next day or so, but I think my dehydrated weight is a pointer to where I am going provided I don't eat anything stupid again for a while.
 
  Today would be a good day to work off some of the high glucose with another 3+ mile walk, but there is a potential problem. I am expecting another delivery from Amazon today, and it is a fairly important one. It is more blood glucose test strips. I should get them on prescription, but for reasons unknown they are not on my repeat prescription list. I didn't get any with my last repeat prescription, and I am close to running out. Buying them is not that expensive, but expensive enough - £32 for two packs of 50 (including p&p). I estimate they won't arrive until late this afternoon, and possibly very early evening, but I can't be sure, and I don't want to miss the delivery.

  If I feel ready early enough I might walk around Ladywell Fields once or twice, but I don't think I'll managed 3 miles - maybe not even two. Fortunately I have stuff to do here to amuse myself. I bought a few things for my back room, and I will probably install them as part of my re-rehabilitation of that room. I might even do some gardening - basically much needed weeding.