This morning it definitely feels cool, and no matter whose forecast you trust, it is going to be a very cool day. The BBC reckon the afternoon temperature could have a few peaks of 19° C, but the Met Office say it will be a flat 17° C this afternoon. The latest revisions both say there will be rain this afternoon, and maybe a shower or two this morning. On the whole it is very probably going to be a horrible sort of day. Tomorrow should be several degrees warmer, and the cloud may be lighter, but there will be very little sunshine. Rain is also very possible.

  Yesterday I reported I had eaten some sandwiches after my shopping trip to Aldi, and that they made me feel tired. For a while I lay on my bed reading, and I think I may have even had a very short snooze. The more optimistic forecast from The Met Office made my desire to go out seem more worthwhile. I left it fairly late to go out, but not late enough to need to go for the shortest walk possible to get to Angela's favourite park bench. I felt quite sluggish when I first started walking, but that quickly wore off. I almost did more than a short walk !

  I walked the long way, but not the longest way to Lewisham Park where I hoped to see Angela. It was while I was walking that the sun came out for longer and longer periods. The wind felt rather strong, but it didn't feel cold as I walked in just a short sleeve t-shirt. In fact it felt almost warm.

  I arrived at the park bench at about 8 minutes past 1pm, and Angela arrived a few minutes later. My timing had turned out to be perfect. Angela was pleased to see me, and we spent about 45 minutes chatting in the sunshine. At least that is how I think I remember it, but maybe it went in a few times, and I filled the gaps with happiness.

  This time I walked Angela right back to the entrance to where she works, but sadly precautions against the dreaded Covid-19 meant no hug. I then walked down the high street to Poundland where I forgot to pause the tracking app I use.


   The total length of my walk was reported as 2.45 miles, but I knew that was nonsense. The reason is because the tracker went haywire when I went in Poundland. The right hand part of the picture above is what it looked like when I zoomed in on the portion of the walk by Poundland. It is all just random spikes that are nonsense. It couldn't even make up it's mind what side of the main road I was on. I think the true length of my walk was probably around 1.7 miles.
  This is a snap I took in the park. Until very recently there were two posts with a steel bar between them, and it was used by sweaty madmen to do pull ups in all weathers. I would speculate that it was someone pumped on steroids who ripped one post out of the ground, and snapped the remaining post in half....but it might have just been woodworm.
  Last year this tree was severely pruned back. I am sure it sprouted new twigs and leaves, but now it looks dead, and the bark seems to be falling off it. It is possible it was hit by lightning when we had some a little while ago, but I can see no burn marks. I guess it is also possible that the gardeners have levered off loose bark to stop it falling on someone.
  It looks like the path has been cleared of bark, but there is plenty on the grass. It will be interesting to see the fate of this tree in the near future. I think it is likely that it will be cut down, and just a stump left to rot away over the course of time.
  I wonder what, if indeed anything, will be done about all the debris trapped by the weir near the bridge into the back of Lewisham Hospital. It would look a lot nicer if it were all cleaned out, but I guess it is a haven for wildlife, although most of the wildlife will be just rats.

  I was in a very good mood when I got home. The weather was much better than expected - rather nice weather, in fact. I had spent some time with Angela, and I had the added bonus of a 20 minute roadside chat with my neighbour Michael. He had just come out of the corner shop as I passed it. Once I got home I munched on some Pepperami sticks I had bought from Poundland, and then I had a snooze.

  As dinner time approached I had two possibilities for dinner. It should have been fish salad, but I had some mini kebab type things I had bought a few days earlier with a reduced price sticker on them, and they needed using pretty fast. Plus I was very intrigued as to what they would be like. I think the packet made a strange claim that it would serve 8 people, and indeed it would - if they only had one apiece, but it would be a very small meal ! Each mini kebab type thing was the size of one third of a chipolata - basically one mouthful !

  They were interesting, and I would buy them again if I saw them at an even lower reduced price... With the oven hot from cooking them I then cooked some Aldi kebabs on skewers. They smelled delicious - all minty and lamb - but even with 5 minutes extra cooking time, starting off in a hot oven, they were dripping with grease. If I had the patience I would have put them back in the oven for a second 20 minutes, or even maybe more until they were almost crispy after much more of the fat had been rendered out.

  I couldn't be bothered to prepare a salad to go with those kebabs, as originally intended, and I ate them with no accompaniment. To balance things up a bit I ate 4 kiwi fruit I had bought in Aldi in the morning. The acid from the fruit sort of balanced the grease from the lamb. The one thing I didn't have as part of my dinner, nor later in the evening, was any of the bottles of beer I had bought in the morning (nor any of the other cans or bottles of beer). I did have a couple of large whiskies after dinner, and then a few more much later.

  By 10pm I was in bed and trying to sleep, but I just didn't feel sleepy. After half an hour I turned my reding lamp back on, and resumed reading the book I was reading. It didn't feel like it would be long before I finished the book. In fact it was 3am !!! I must admit my eyelids were drooping at least half an hour earlier, but with just a few pages to go I continued until the end. I think it was around midnight that I decided to enjoy another couple of large whiskies - probably because I thought they would help me get to sleep easier.

  Maybe they did, but probably not. At 3am it took seconds to fall asleep. I still woke up at around 5am for a wee, and then again an hour later. I was quite surprised when I went to sleep, and slept for another 2 hours. I was still a bit short of my 8 hours sleep, but I think there will be plenty of time for a snooze or two today. They will probably muck up my sleep again tonight, but I shan't fight them.

  Despite my diet not being ideal yesterday, and my walk not being very long, I still seem to have lost a little bit of weight. Maybe not drink beer helped. I think it probably helped to get my blood glucose level down to a very satisfactory 7.0mmol/l. I should potentially be feeling OK this morning, but I am not. My lack of sleep bears some blame for it, and probably the potential for some dull and wet weather takes care of the rest.

  One particular malady is my right knee. It always seems fine once I start walking, but when sitting behind my PC for long periods it can really hurt !  I ought to go out and exercise it, but it has just started raining, and that puts me off even more. I told Angela that if it was sunny I would probably see her again today, but it is more likely to be raining. If we could sit in the pub together, as we used to, I would still go out to meet her, but sitting on a park bench in the rain would not be fun no matter how all the old songs say it would be romantic - yeah, for 16 year old maybe, but not for old codgers like us to. I'll keep an eye on the weather just in case....anything could happen in the next three hours.