There was a little less sunshine yesterday,
or maybe it would be more accurate to say that
sometimes it was hazy sunshine filtering through
some very thin clouds. Those clouds were supposed
to thicken enough to bring rain and
thunderstorms. They didn't ! It was another hot
and dry day. The temperature probably peaked
slightly above the forecast 31° C.
Today has started correctly with rain,
although I think I would describe it as more
light than heavy. It started about 6.30am, and
may have lasted an hour. It is now sunny. The
sun is a bit hazy, but I would say this is
more like sunshine than just a sunny period.
Maybe it will cloud over in the afternoon, and
maybe it will start to rain at 6pm. Maybe
there will even be a thunderstorm today, but
the reliability of even the Met Office
forecasts recently has been such that it is
difficult to believe too much of them.
Hopefully the temperature prediction is right
- it is usually the most accurate prediction.
27° C is still very warm, but will feel almost
cool (but not actually) compared to the 30°
plus we have had for what feels like ages.
Tomorrow could be cooler still. 22° C is the
maximum predicted after the days starts with
rain, continues overcast, and more rain late
afternoon and evening.
I wanted to go for some sort of walk
yesterday to ease some of the stiffness of
doing almost nothing the day before. I had an
idea I might walk in the direction of Crofton
Park station because I had never walked that
way before. That is what I did, but without
intending to go there I also found Brockley
& Ladywell cemetery. I had only briefly
glimpsed it when passing the Ladywell end, and
I never realised how big it was, and how old
parts of it are.
One place I didn't visit was Hilly
Fields. I just skirted along the bottom of it.
It may have been the humidity rather than the
actual heat, but I found the walk far more
taxing than the walk all the way to Blackheath
two days earlier. That was very hot, but it
seemed to be dry heat. Yesterday it felt like
soggy heat. I had only walked a single mile
(actually 0.98 of a mile) when I got to the
base of Hilly Fields. I looked up, and thought
no !
By contrast, walking in the shady
cemetery was very pleasant. Maybe I have some
latent goth in me, but I like cemeteries.
Maybe only if they are old cemeteries. I think
they show off the stone masons art much better
than in some fusty old museum, and some of the
Victorian tombs are so ornate as to be almost
comical !
This was almost my first view when I
got to the gates of the cemetery, and I knew I
just had to go in an explore the place. It is
almost like a maze in there, and there were
many side paths I would have loved to explore,
but I concentrated on just trying to do one
circuit on what seemed to be the main paths.
You are probably not supposed to find
humour in a cemetery, but these three tombs
reminded me so much of the famous sketches
done by John Cleese, Ronnie Barker, and Ronnie
Corbett. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_sketch
I never know whether this is just the
chapel, or the chapel of rest. Maybe it
depends on the type of cemetery, or it's age.
This is the one to be found in Brockley
Cemetery. I think there is another at the
Ladywell end of the combined cemeteries.
I can almost imagine a spiv mason
saying "On the left is yer basic monument. No
fancy artwork, and quite reasonably cheap. If
you want to spend a bit more money we can do
the small angel in the middle. Of course if
money is no object then I would recommend the
tombstone on the right with the big angel with
big wings. Gets you to heaven in no time on
those big wings."
Seen on the road bridge across the
railway on the London side of Crofton Park
station.
It seems no walk can be done these
days without an accompanying video.
I don't think there are any real
highlights in this one. It is just a
lot of sweat and grumbling about
hills, but there are more views from
inside the cemetery.
I was very happy to get home after
my walk. It was only 4.2 miles, but it
felt more. My legs seemed to be aching a
fair bit, although with hindsight,
possibly not as much as at the end of my
last Blackheath walk. I can't seem to say
that my feet were aching more. Perhaps
aching differently would be more accurate.
The big difference is that they were
feeling very hot, and sweaty. Even after
my longest previous walks I have never
been aware of my feet getting sweaty. They
are usually dry. Maybe it says something
about humidity. I am sure it was the
humidity that made the walk so hard.
Once I got home I stripped off my
outdoor clothes, and got on the scales. I
didn't expect the reading to be so low !
As usual, most of it was dehydration. Half
my body weight seemed to be soaked into my
t-shirt. I could almost wring it out when
I got home. Once I had drunk a few (small)
glasses of water, and had been sitting in
the breeze from a fan, I started to feel a
lot better. It was a quicker recovery than
from many other walks, and I barely rested
before processing the pictures and video I
had taken.
I think I gave in and had
some breakfast at about 3pm, but it was
just a single apple, and a chunk of
cheese. My dinner was just as simple,
although rather more substantial and
flavoursome. I had found some frozen
chicken thighs in the back of the freezer,
and cooked 4 or so of these thighs in a
jar of Aldi's own "Tikka sauce". I perked
it up a bit with some extra hot chilli
sauce. It wasn't exactly a healthy meal,
but with no rice or other side dishes, it
was probably not too high in calories and
stuff. I did have some sugar free vanilla
wafers for dessert.
In the evening there wasn't much to
do, but that doesn't mean I did nothing.
On the contrary, I hand washed a white
t-shirt, and a light blue bath towel -
which may have imparted a very light blue
tint to the t-shirt, and hence made it
look even brighter white...probably. I
have to admit that while I had the energy
to do this I didn't like to do it in one
process because it felt too hot. The BBC
reckoned there should have been
thunderstorms for most of last night. It
did feel sultry enough, but the rains
didn't come (until this morning). I did
most of the washing in small increments
during commercial breaks in Star Trek.
In defiance of potential storms I
hung the washing on the line outside to
dry. Maybe an hour later I went to bed. I
took a Thermos branded cool bag with three
bottles of chilled water with me (two of
the bottles were semi frozen). I don't
know why I haven't done this before. It
was nice to have a mouthful of chilled
water in the night. I kept the fan on all
night, and it seemed to keep my naked body
cool enough to get quite a reasonable
sleep.
I had to get up early this morning.
The weather forecast, as revised late
yesterday, said that rain would fall at
6am. I was up at 5.30am to bring my
washing in. It wasn't perfectly dry, but
close to it, and I hung it indoors to
completely dry. Then I went back to bed
again. I am not sure, but I think I slept
again for at least half an hour. I then
got up to go to the toilet. After doing
the necessary I weighed myself. My weight
was still low. Not as low as when
dehydrated after my walk, but not much
higher.
Everything pointed to increasing
health except my blood glucose. I did have
some water to rehydrate myself, and I did
have as much as half a litre during the
night, but my blood glucose was very high.
It was just above the danger level of
10mmol/l. This is not good, but I hope it
is just the result of this very hot
weather. I don't feel thirsty, and I am
not peeing much - two of the signs of high
blood glucose. At least I didn't feel
thirsty until I started thinking about
chilled water !
Today, or at least this morning, my
movements are constrained by the
expectation of my case of 24 x 440ml
Guinness cans being delivered. I had a
text message from the courier company to
say it would be delivered between 8.15am
and 10.15am. At about 9am, perhaps a
little earlier, I saw the couriers van
outside. The courier git out the van, went
around to the back, went inside and
rummaged around for a minute or two, and
then drove off again. I hope that my
Guinness had been accidently left at the
depot, and that the depot is not far away,
and that my Guinness might still get here
within the allotted time slots - he still
has 3 minutes to go !
Once I have some news about my
Guinness delivery, maybe a new delivery
slot, and it finally arrives, I will be
free to do anything. I am not sure if I
will go for a walk today. At the moment I
don't feel very keen about it, but if the
air clears a bit more (the little rain we
had earlier did help a bit) I might try
and get a couple of miles in. I think it
may be more likely that I will do some
housework instead. I haven't really
fancied getting the hoover out, for
instance, when it has been 33° C, but
maybe I can cope when it is "just" 27° C
it won't be so bad. In fact if the
thunderstorms do happen between 3 and
4pm - a 50% probability according to
the latest revision to the forecast - the
temperature will drop another degree !
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