Until I got going I was not terribly enthusiastic about going out for more exercise yesterday. As I suggested yesterday, I had an extremely loose plan to travel to Knockholt (by train), the furthest I can travel on my 60+ Oystercard, and have a walk around the country lanes and footpaths. I had a vague idea that I would do a sort of loop, and come back to Knockholt station. Soon after I started walking I realised it would be simpler to walk to Chelsfield station. I really had no idea how long this walk would be, but it turned out to be almost 3.5 miles (I can see one glitch on the tracker that might have added a tenth of a mile or so). It was actually a nice sort of distance - long enough to be significant, but not so long as to be crippling.

  Getting to Knockholt meant changing trains twice, and that was a mild annoyance, but the connections were all quite quick, and all the trains were just about on time. It was going home again that really annoyed me. All the connections were really long, although there was one potential connection at Orpington I missed because my phone app only showed the departure time of the train I was on. In fact the train waits at the station for over 10 minutes (which was annoying), and had I jumped off as soon at the train arrived, I could have easily changed to another train, and only have to suffer one 20 minute wait to change train again to get to Catford.
  The Bo-Peep pub. I don't know what this pub is like these days, but back in the 1980s it was an early convert to become an expensive "gastro-pub", and it's clientèle were all rather toffee nosed !
  If I needed a reminder that I was still in London, this was it. An R7, red London bus on it's way to Chislehurst. It was only in the middle of the last century, say 1950, for the sake of argument, that the border between London and Kent was just a few miles down the road from Catford. It is like London has become a ravenous monster gobbling up all in it's reach.
  The Five Bells - a pub made famous by the musicians who drink in there. For the last few Xmases they have recorded a Xmas song featuring contributions from many of the locals, and one year it featured on a BBC news programme.
  It wasn't easy to find this this memorial. The directions, given by a local were very vague - including "if you find the gap in the hedge.....". It was described to me as a memorial to a Spitfire pilot, but this distinctly says he was flying a Hurricane. I guess it is possible that I found the wrong memorial.

  My walk was really pleasant until I neared Chelsfield station. I couldn't see it, but I heard the distinctive sound of a train pulling into the station, and the beeping of the doors closing. I really hoped it was a train going in the other direction, but when I finally reached the station I found it had been my train, and it was a 25 minute wait for the next train. That was the start of a string of calamities that spoiled the day.

  While I waited on Chelsfield station I used the National Rail app on my phone to see what my options were for getting home. It made for grim reading - grimmer than I expected. In the homeward direction there were long waits at each change - except there didn't need to be. If I had paid more attention to the time I would have seen that the train I got waited at Orpington station for over 10 minutes.

  Had I got off that train when it first arrived at Orpington I would have had enough time to cross over to platform 7 (I think) for a train that calls at Shortlands. There is still something like a 20 minute wait at Shortlands, but about 9 minutes later I would have arrived back in Catford, and I could probably have got some shopping in the Sainsbury's Local shop by Catford station. Instead of that I stayed on the train at Orpington, feeling really bored, and got off the train when it arrived at Lewisham station.

  I could have waited 20 minutes for a train back to Catford Bridge from Lewisham, but I thought I would take a chance on a bus. It was getting very close to the rush hour, if indeed it wasn't rush hour already, and I had fears about over crowded buses. That turned out to be no problem, but the traffic was a bit heavy in Lewisham, and so my progress was initially quite slow. Once clear of the high street progress was faster except when a couple of youths got on expecting a free ride (many buses have opened the front doors now and expect passengers to tap in with their cards now).

  It felt like it had been a slow and frustrating journey since arriving at Chelsfield, but the worst blow was when I got off the bus, and saw there was a big queue at the Tesco Express store. I didn't fancy waiting in that queue even if I did want to buy some drink, and had a strong yearning for a reduced calorie/sugar ice cream. I just had to0 walk by, and head straight for home where the only solace was a couple of chilled Corona beers in the fridge.

  Before I drunk anything I got on the scales, and I was very pleased to see I was 200gm lighter than when I got home after my long walk the previous day. Maybe the positive feeling about that, and feeling very tired after that horrible journey home, somehow made me feel not hungry. I had planned to eat a simple salad as lunch when I got home, but another factor was that it was well past lunchtime. I think it was around 4pm.

  As the rest of the afternoon drifted by I felt too tired to do any photo editing, and then as 6pm approached I decided I couldn't be bothered to cook any dinner, and that I would order a takeaway. For a change I ordered some grilled Indian food from a shop/restaurant I had never used before. I opted for a Tandoori mixed grill even though it seemed a little expensive. When it arrived I realised why it was a bit expensive - it was huge ! It was also very nice !

  As usual I ordered some spare food for today, and if that is as good then it would not really be an expensive order after all - although I could obviously have cooked something simpler for far less money. My dinner was mostly meat, and while that has lots of energy in it, it usually doesn't affect my blood glucose level in any way but in a positive direction. Today may tell a different story because I have a feeling I won't be letting the nan bread go to waste like I do with pitta bread in a kebab.

  One thing I did yesterday evening was to drink a lot. At least a pint of that drink was "no added sugar" orange squash made up with chilled water, but I also drank three 330ml bottles of beer. (two of which I didn't really enjoy). The end result is that my sleep was a little bit more disturbed than usual with at least one more pee in the night. It was strange though. I felt slightly annoyed about waking up for a pee, and I was thinking that I was not getting a decent sleep, and yet after each wee I was back asleep again in seconds.

  This morning I can't really say if I slept well or badly. I don't seem to feel that tired, and so I guess I slept well. My assumption that my meat heavy dinner would keep my blood glucose level down turned out to be true. It measure just 6.6mmol/l, and that is just where I like it to be (although 5.8mmol/l would be even better for what is probably going to be a day with little exercise). My weight was rather good too. Even this late in the morning I have not had a poo, and so I haven't managed to weigh myself in the most optimistic way, but this morning's weight was as low as when dehydrated after a long walk a week or so ago. It is not happening fast, which could be a good thing, but it is still dropping.

  Today is probably going to be a holiday from dieting and exercising. I had already decided I was not going out because the weather forecast predicted rain, and I don't fancy walking in the rain - particularly when I shouldn't have to wait long before the sun comes out again - maybe a few days at most. However, I have already gone out for a very short walk. For the first time in a couple of months I have been shopping in Aldi.

  I was going to wait until it was actually raining before going out because that always discourages queues. With the rain now forecast not to start until midday 11am it seemed a long wait, and so I thought I would take a chance a lot earlier. To my great delight I found no queue, and the store not that busy. I was able to do a fairly big shop, and not pay a fortune for it. I bought some chicken, beef and bacon, plus some beers, shower gel, nuts, watercress, big bottles of Diet Coke, and some cheese. On my next visit I need to top up my Brexit stash of toilet paper and tinned food - both have been useful since lockdown.

  I did buy one other thing. It was a high calorie/high sugar content version of what I wanted to buy yesterday afternoon - ice cream. I can only think that the disappointment of not getting any (which should have been low calorie/low sugar) yesterday must have twisted my mind because I have no need for it today when it is cool(ish) and dull, and I have not just done a long walk. It was delicious though !

  I had basically three plans for today, and I have already done two of them. One was to go to Aldi, and was semi important. Another was to empty the waste bin in the bathroom of old bottles, and add them to a bag of other assorted recycling and put it all in the recycling bin. That was fairly low priority, but it is done now. The high priority is to clean up the kitchen. There is washing up in the sink, some waste food to go into the garden waste bin (to compost), and the kitchen bin to empty. The kitchen is currently a bit whiffy, and I need to do something about it real soon ! I have watered the flower boxes on the front windows, but I won't bother watering the garden unless the forecast rain has not happened by this evening. Other than that I could be really lazy today, and I think I intend to do my best to be so, but I suspect sooner or later I will get bored and end up doing something else.