After being so bored and listless on Saturday I knew I had to do something more constructive yesterday. I was spurred on by early morning sunshine, and wasn't too deterred by the forecast saying it could be overcast by the afternoon. Maybe I didn't really believe that the forecast could be correct - and it wasn't !

  Before I went out I watered the garden, and I suppose doing that helped me get the feel of the weather - and it was good. One thing made yesterday's walk different - I had thought of an objective, and a route before I even left home. That objective was to reach Beckenham Place Park. I knew I had got close to it on some previous walks, but to use those earlier routes would mean my walk would be very long.

  I decided to use the most direct route to get to the park, and then allowed for a slightly longer route home if I felt up to it, and more importantly once I had found out just how long the outward walk would be. I did contemplate making the walk home even less direct than the route I actually chose. Had I done so I could have pushed this walk to over 6 miles.

  6 miles could have been good, and I may try it in the not too distant future. On the other hand it might be good to around a bit more of Beckenham Place Park to rack the miles up to 6 or more. On the other hand, 5.3 miles did feel about right. I was beginning to tire for the last mile, but I didn't feel exhausted when I got home. I think there is a barrier to overcome for longer walks, and it is the fear that at some point I will reach the stage of being too exhausted to continue, but resting would be impossible. In the past that could mean finishing a walk on a bus or train, but with no face mask that option is not an option.

  I saw one of these settee like seats, apparently carved from a solid lump of wood, at the far end of the Bellingham Estate on a previous walk. This one, in Brookhowse Road, near where it joins Fordmill Road, is the second I have spotted. I would spot one more on this walk. As yet I have not found any information about them.
  This "Leisure & Lifestyle Centre" is near Bellingham station. What caught my eye was the size of the sign. It must be 15 to 20 feet long. The ironic thing is that the whole place is shut down while Covid-19 restrictions are in place.
  I made a short detour to view this old piece of brickwork. From a passing train (between Bellingham and Beckenham Hill stations) it looks like an old bridge abutment. Yesterday I met someone who lives next to it, and who told me about it. It was indeed part of an old bridge over the railway, but it was not a public bridge. It was to allow cows to cross the railway from one side of a farm to the other side. Behind me was a strip of grass that was the steep run up to the top of the bridge. There is no sign of the bridge on the other side of the railway except for a single house in the middle of a row of terraced houses. The farmhouse was to be found near to where the bridge landed on the other side, and it was Bellingham Farm. It gave it's name to the whole area when it was sadly re-developed for housing.

  Once upon a time I used to pass this old Manor House when I tried to walk to work in Beckenham for a while. It was only a one way walk until after 8 hours of resting I would walk back home. I don't think I kept it up for much more than a week, but in those days, probably around 1991, the Manor House was in a sorry state with the front supported by scaffolding. After some heavy refurbishment it is looking magnificent both inside and out. I saw the inside on a visit a few years ago when it was easy to take the train to the park.
  This pit of green slime is what is found by following the sign to "The Woodland Pond". I can imagine it can look very nice in spring or autumn when the pond slime retreats (probably), but it is hardly inviting at the moment.
  This was the second carved wooden bench I saw on my walk. This one is on a small triangular green at a junction of Firhill Road. I can imagine finding more of these if I explored the Bellingham estate a bit deeper.

  When I got home at the end of my walk was feeling very happy, and not that exhausted. Before I did anything else I prepared some lunch - which was actually more like a cut down Sunday dinner. it had two of the main ingredients - beef and sprouts. The beef was in the form of steak. It could have been steaks plural, but there was a problem. One of the steaks was a long way past it's "best before" date. With steak that doesn't matter - up to a point - and provided you don't reach that point it can make the steaks even nicer. In this case the meat did smell slightly suspect. It was not reeking, and I thought it might still cook OK.

  Unfortunately it still didn't taste right after cooking, and I threw it out for the foxes to find. It looks like they did find it, and disposed of it as I suspected they would. In the meantime, before eating my single steak and sprouts (which I had cooked with a sprinkle of Terriyaki sauce), I cooled myself off with a couple of alcoholic popsicles. I didn't actually need two, and I didn't even really need one because I was not feeling hot and parched like I was last Friday when I was walking under a blazing sun in 34° C heat.

  The second one I ate gave me terrible neuralgia as it froze the back of my throat.  Fortunately it only last a few tens of strong pain. It was like someone had stabbed my brain with a frozen dagger. That wasn't the real reason why I should have had only one, or preferably none. They are loaded with sugar, and my blood glucose rocketed by early evening.  Soon after I was able to warm my throat again with my steak and sprouts. Adding a sprinkle of terriyaki sauce to the sprouts was a spur of the moment thing, and it worked really well. I learned to like sprouts less than 10 years ago, and now I know a way to enjoy them even more.

  I had a lazy afternoon and evening after that walk, but I think it was mostly justified. I have to admit that after a few hours rest I was almost feeling normal apart from a slight tiredness. I could have done something like get the hoover out, or even weeding the garden, but I preferred to spend more hours reading. Maybe that was a mistake because I kept feeling hungry - sometimes because the characters in the book were eating a delicious sounding breakfast, lunch and breakfast during the chapters I read. Such things can play on the mind - probably.

  Halfway through the afternoon I ate 4 rice cakes with peri-peri mayonaisse on them, plus cheese on three of them (I have no idea why I didn't put cheese on the fourth). They were nice, but not noticeably filling. By 7pm I was ready for some real dinner, but I thought I would keep things simple, and use more of my canned food that is up to several years past it's "best before" date. I had a can of Irish Stew, and with a bit of chilli sauce it was delicious. I should have stopped there, but I had a dessert that wasn't a dessert at all. It was can of spaghetti in "tomato sauce". I crumbled some cheese in it before zapping it in the microwave just to make sure it was as unhealthy as can be. It was nice.

  Finally it was time for bed, and like on Friday there was that sort of hesitation where I suddenly didn't feel sleepy, and then I was suddenly fast asleep. I seemed to sleep really well again last night. I had to wee once or twice in the night (It could have been more, but I barely remember going twice). I remember some dreams, but not enough details to make any sort of recollection worthwhile. Like yesterday, at least I think it was yesterday, I woke at an almost reasonable time to get up, but decided to try for more sleep. Maybe 90 minutes later I got up.

  My excessive eating, particularly of bad stuff, wiped any weight loss I should have got from a 5 mile walk. On the other hand, despite that eating my blood glucose wasn't too bad at 7.8mmol/l. My blood pressure actually seemed very slightly lower than most mornings, and my temperature was a typical 35.1° C.  I guess I feel fairly OK this morning. Maybe there is a bit of stiffness in my legs, but usually that would ease up once I start moving more.

  I feel tempted to go for another walk today, but there is a problem. Yesterday's walk managed to rub off the scab and blister on the middle toe of my right foot. I had hoped that a small sticking plaster on it might have protected it, but I think that plaster was probably moving around, and in doing so caused more damage. I ought to give it a good chance to heal before embarking on any long walks, but that could take ages, and I don't want to wait ages. It is often only my walks that keep me what I laughingly call sane !

  Maybe I will use an extra large plaster, and tape it down with extra surgical tape to keep that toe (hopefully) comfortable. It would be some sort of excuse to go for a walk to test it, but there is other stuff to do first. I have actually started doing "stuff" this morning. In the middle of writing this, when sitting down too long was making my right knee painful, I hand washed a t-shirt, a pair of underpants, and a hand towel. I might have done more, but it was a white t-shirt, and I didn't want to wash it with, say, a black t-shirt for obvious reasons. The next thing I shall do is to have a shower, and wash 2 or 3 days of sweat out my hair. It feel bloody horrible this morning ! After that it is anyone's guess what I will do for the rest of the day.