Yesterday was not a great day. In fact it was a bad day. The grey sky, and the imminent threat of rain, sapped all my enthusiasm to do almost anything. It was made worse by two other things. One was the long, meandering, phone call from my friend Lee. That took a big chunk out of my morning when I may have managed to raise some enthusiasm for something. I have no idea what that something may have been unless it was to realise that the rain was a long time coming, and I could have done at least a short walk in just shirt sleeves without getting wet.

  That option was made less likely by the second reason. The second reason had an effect on me that was not obvious because there was absolutely no pain or discomfort. It was just a sort of negative subconscious feeling. It derived from the fact that I was sort of constipated - except it was only a half cousin to constipation. I'm sure there must be a more technical name to a state where you know you haven't "been", but know you will sooner or later. More significantly, when it actually happened it was almost the opposite of constipation. Quite why it had to wait to the inconvenient time of just as I was going to bed is a mystery.

  I did actually complete two small projects yesterday, and so the day was only 90% wasted. The first project was to hand wash a pair of ????? trousers. I am not sure what they are - possibly track bottoms - maybe some sort of sports trousers. I really don't know. I tend to wear them for just slobbing about in the house, but I have also worn them when gardening. The trouble with the latter is that they can have a tendency to fall down when I wear them. I also washed a t-short and some underwear too at the same time.

  The other little project was to "process" some more pictures I had taken on my long walk the day before yesterday. My route home from that walk got increasingly convoluted as I tried to make it a longer and longer walk. One such diversion, which to be honest added almost nothing to the length of my walk, was to walk past my old primary school. It has been there for well over 100 years now, and while it has changed, it is still basically the same.
  In my day it was Rathfern Road Infants and Junior schools. The two halves had their own head teachers, but now it looks like it has just one headteacher. I can't recall the name of the headmistress of the infants school, but I remember as being grossly fat, and somehow squeezing into a mini (car). The headmistress of the the Junior school had the more easy to pronounce name of Mrs Radford.
  I feel joyously happy that I made it through my education when education was education, and not just a load of snappy marketing slogans. Maybe in this day and age teachers really do expect pupils to work hard, but as far as I can recall we were just expected to learn stuff. Personally I don't think I had the module installed in my brain at birth to work hard. It has always been an anathema to me.
  I am not sure if I remember this from 60 years ago, but it obviously was there, although probably dulled by soot as so many old buildings were. The logo is for the London School Board - one of the first education authorities.
  You can see where the original "Boys" entrance to the school was. Further down the road, to the left of the picture, was one that I think was marked as Infants and Girls. Just behind the wooden fence, and through the trellis on top, can be seen a white lintel. That still has BOYS marked on it, and I seem to recall it had a more substantial metal gate, although I can never remember a time when I saw it closed. The outer gate to the road was also always open, but it had an invisible barrier across it. I can remember we would sometime go up to it to peer out onto the road, but never crossed that invisible barrier.
  At the end of the first year came the traditional yearly school report. I think we have to give the English teacher (plus whoever typed in the stuff at the top) an "E" for spelling my name wrong. Although I dropped the Y at the end 30 or more years ago, it should technically be Billy.

  Yesterday morning my blood glucose level was rather high, and so I tried to eat stuff that should help it reduce yesterday. I was successful, but I could have done better if I had tried harder. Lunch was a ham salad, and apart from being very generous with the ham, it should have been mostly healthy. Dinner was a sort of very spicy chicken stew - skinless and boneless chicken thighs cooked in stock with kidney beans, spices, and green peppers. I probably did eat some snacks, but I can't remember what or how much.

  I don't think I would have eaten any snacks that would not have been OK for my blood glucose level, but I have a suspicion that an ingredient of the stock cubes I used for dinner may have had sugar in them. Maybe it was just that I never did any exercise that stopped my blood glucose level falling further than it has done. One thing about that dinner was that I tried to eat it before it had cooled own a bit, and apart from almost scalding my mouth, the Thai spices, and extra hot chilli sauce I added, really trigger my throat. I started coughing like I was at the terminal end of dying of Covid-19. Fortunately it calmed down before too long.

  I thought I deserved an early night last night, and made tracks for bed by about 8.30pm. As usual it was my intention to read in bed for maybe an hour before turning the light out. No sooner had I got into bed, and started to read, my stomach started rumbling. I had a pretty good idea what was coming next. It wasn't quite like I expected, but my "constipation", for want of a more accurate word, was soon over - where "soon" was actually more like 40 minutes. I took my book into the bathroom for the 3 or 4 visits I needed to make (the last being more precaution than needed).

  After all that I was less sleepy than before, and also a lot closer to the end of the book. I ended up reading to the end of the book before turning the light out. I'm sure it was after midnight when I got to sleep. I seemed to sleep OK last night. In a way that even extended to waking up sometime after 5am, going back to bed, and then finding it was 7.30am - I don't think I realised I had fallen asleep again until I woke up.

  This morning I feel a bit stiff after my lack of movement yesterday. As I have mentioned, my blood glucose has dropped a bit to a less worrying level. Hopefully it will be even less tomorrow morning - if I am careful with my eating. The bothersome thing is my weight. I seem to be going through one of those times when my weight has got stuck. It is going up and down by a few hundred grams, but the downward trend has halted. Maybe it is waiting for another hot sunny day.

  I can't remember if it was last night, or the night before, but I became aware of one facet of weight loss. While I have done a lot of exercise, and lost a few kilograms, my trouser size hasn't really changed for some time now. It was while laying in bed that I noticed something about my thighs. They have always been fat, and used to be flabby, but now I can feel muscle and sinew under the skin. I can't ever remember feeling that before, and it was probably only by chance that I noticed it recently. I guess it was inevitable that all that walking would effect my leg and thigh muscles most. Shame I don't walk on my belly. Some might say there are exercises that would improve my belly, and although I am not keen on exercise for exercise sake (walking is exploring and adventure) I do wonder if it is something I should think about.

  Today I know what I have to do, and will probably do it despite not being keen on it at all. I should go for at east a couple of miles walk, even under a gloomy sky, even in the rain ! I think I intend to do it - at least up to the point when I don't ! First thing first though. I need a good shower. I didn't bother yesterday. If I don't go for a long walk, I do have a fall back walk. I have a desire to go to Poundstretcher for some plant pots and more compost if they still have any. I think the best way to get more flowers in my garden is to plant them in pots, in clean compost. At least that way anything that grows should be wanted, and not just more weeds.