Friday 26th June 2020

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Friday 26th June 2020

Lockdown day 95

07:12 BST

Yesterday was another very hot and sunny day. The afternoon temperature reached at least 31° C.

Today is still going to be very warm. The afternoon temperature should reach 27° C, but things are changing. The first change was at 5am (and possibly earlier) when there was some rain - probably enough that gardening may not need watering today, but not heavy enough for the potential thunderstorm that had been predicted (although I might have hear a very distant peal of thunder). The latest revision to the forecast says no more rain today, but nothing else has changed. Tomorrow is going to see a more definite change. The current prediction is for rain from morning through to mid afternoon, and with practically no sunshine. The temperature may not rise any higher than 20° C. Sunday may see the return of some sunshine, but it will probably be cooler than tomorrow.

Going out into the fierce sunshine, and heat yesterday, may not have been the most sensible thing to do, but I did it anyway. I can't say it was the most enjoyable walk I've had, but it had both pleasant and unpleasant moments.

One good thing was that both my main phone, a Huawei P20 Lite, and a second phone, a Cubot Dinosaur, agreed that I definitely walked 3.1 miles.

Another good thing was taking up the self set challenge of walking in the fierce heat, and doing it - even if there were consequences.

Less good was that my feet were uncomfortable for the entire walk. They were quite uncomfortable rather than painful.

One of the first things of note that I saw on my walk were these barrels outside The Catford Bridge Tavern. I am unsure if they were new barrels, full of fresh beer, or if they were empties ready to be picked up when new beer was delivered. It was seem that The Catford Bridge Tavern is preparing to open after lockdown. I won't be rushing to have a drink there when it does open. All advance information is that pubs will be opening again more like restaurants where tables have to be booked in advance, and beer has to be ordered by phone from a table - and people at the table must be 1 metre apart from each other, and tables may have to be 2 metres from each other. That will not be a pub as I know it, and I will patiently wait for pubs to open their doors to everybody, and allow ordering at the bar. I do support no sitting at the bar, but maybe not when the pub is almost empty.

huge log that
must have come down the river when it was
a lot higher

I took very few still pictures while on my walk, and this is the second of just two. This huge log must have been washed down the river when the water was much higher - probably after the heavy rain we had a week or two. It has become stranded where the water is very shallow as it cascades down a shallow slope under the bridge of doom in the park.

This is another of my silly videos of bits and pieces shot while walking. I think most of it describes itself, but it is worth re-mentioning how quiet it was in the park. There were very few cyclists, joggers, or even people out for a stroll. However there were a lot of kids, with a parent or two, clogging up my favourite bits of the river, and initially I could not get down to my favourite rocks in the river. However, it seems that my timing was such that on the way back all the kids had gone home for dinner. It was quite surprising considering little more than 20 minutes had passed since I had first passed all my favourite river views when walking away from home.

I remembered to take a picture of the thermometer in my bedroom yesterday afternoon. The outdoor sensor is on the back bedroom windowsill on the north facing, shaded side of the house. It said it was 30.2° C out there. Inside my south facing room, that had been soaking up the sun all morning, it was 30.9° C. It is perhaps fortunate that at this time of year the sun is so high that it can't really shine through the window, and that might take the edge off it....but maybe not much, if at all.

When I got home I was probably suffering from sun stroke, and I was definitely dehydrated. My weight was the lowest I think I have ever seen in it kilograms. After two pints of chilled orange juice, plus a tub of low(ish) calorie/low(ish) sugar ice cream, my weight was still looking quite good !

I felt very tired during the afternoon, and the dehydration had given me a mild headache which slowly faded after a while. I suspect I may have a bit of sunburn, but it has given no discomfort - yet. I have a nasty feeling that it is going to be a bit painful when I take a shower. I probably ought to turn the temperature of the water down. The annoyance with that is that I will have to turn it back up in a few days as this peak in temperature fades into memory.

I didn't really eat much more than the ice cream until dinner time when I had a grilled cod salad. I'm not sure why, but it didn't seem as nice as the last time I had something similar. Maybe there was too much cucumber in last night's salad, or maybe I slightly over cooked the cod. It could have been terribly healthy, but I washed it down with beer - including two bottles of extra strong Belgium beer. I think that beer would have some consequences this morning, but nothing notable last night.

The last thing I did last night was to water the garden. I didn't think I could trust the forecast rain to do the job today, and it seems I guessed right. Despite the sweltering heat, I had very little trouble getting to sleep last night, and I think I was asleep before it was fully dark...maybe around 10pm. I am not sure how well I slept. I am sure I dreamed a lot, but no memories of those dreams seem to have survived. Like the previous night, I woke up feeling a bit cool at around 3am. Once I turned off the fan I felt more than sufficiently warm !

This morning my blood glucose is back to average, and I think I blame that sweet beer for that (but it was nice). Average isn't bad though. It is just that I would prefer to bring my average down a bit more - lower reading usually suggest a bit of weight loss is happening. Happily enough, despite the level not being as low as I might desire, the scales still showed a very friendly reading this morning. Until something comes along to mess things up, it does seem possible that the trend I thought I had spotted, more out of optimism than science, that I may be over one of those periods where my weight gets stuck, and it is back to slowly, agonisingly slowly, going down again.

Today I have three rather vague plans. The first is to try and having a shower without stirring up and sun burn, and feeling like I am pouring boiling water over the reddened bits. The second plan is to go to the corner shop where I hope they will have taken delivery of the latest New Scientist. My third plan is a a lot more tentative. I think I am going out for a walk again. I doubt it will be a long walk, but you can never tell. If I feel good it could be a long walk, but if the air feels "sticky", and hard to breathe, and/or if my feet feel uncomfortable, it could be a short walk, or even no walk at all.