The weather is changing so fast recently
that no forecast seems to come close to reality.
The Met Office forecast seemed to get closer and
closer to reality with each revision, but was
probably still off by a few hours. Yesterday
morning was overcast, but dry. A check on the
latest revision just before I went out at midday
said there was an 80% chance of rain. In fact the
rain didn't start until a couple of hours later.
After a while it dried up again, and once again I
was left wondering if I should get the hose out
and water the garden, but it wasn't too long
before it was raining again. From then on it was
hard to keep track of whether it was raining or
not. The rain continued for unknown lengths of
time, with unknown gaps between showers, for much
of the evening, and probably through the night.
The maximum temperature may have only been 23° C,
but until the rain seemed to freshen the air it
felt very sticky.
Like yesterday, and a few days before
that, there is another warning of a
thunderstorm today, but no time is shown for
it on the forecast. Last night was a lot
fresher than recently, and I was quite happy
to sleep with the window closed, and the
curtains drawn. I woke up to it looking very
damp outside.Most of the rain is so light that
it is hard to see, but it's effect is clearly
visible. The latest revision to the forecast
says there will be very thick cloud until 4pm
when it may lighten up. There could even be a
glimpse of the sun after that. On the other
hand it could be the second period of rain.
The first (as shown on the latest revision
that starts about now) could be between 10pm
and midday when an 80% chance of rain is
predicted. The second second, starting at 6pm
may continue into tomorrow, but with the
chance of rain for the first two hours being
shown as just 40%, and after that just 30%, I
expect it may be dry for a lot of the evening.
No time for thunderstorms in all that ! It is
going to be a comparatively cool day of just
21° C. Tomorrow could be a re-run of tomorrow
with a few times slightly changed.
It felt really good to give my hair a
good wash and condition, plus give my body a
good scrubbing (not literally !) under the
shower yesterday morning. Before that I felt
horrible and greasy after not having a proper
wash the day before, and and after so many
sweaty days.
Meanwhile, outside it was all horrible
and grey, but it was at least dry. The latest
forecast said at midday there was an 80%
chance of rain, and yet it didn't really look
like it would rain - although I can't say why
I thought that. The sky was horrible and grey,
and so there was the potential for rain. Maybe
I just thought I would be lucky, and it seems
I was when I decided to go for some exercise.
There was also the fact that I thought
I might even enjoy a short walk in the rain -
just for the novelty value until I got too
soaked. I went out with a real idea of where I
was heading beyond setting out for the River
Pool Linear Park. I think my plan was to keep
walking until it started to rain. I didn't
really expect to walk even a mile before it
rained, but it stayed dry for the whole walk,
and for maybe an hour after I got home.
When I first started walking it seemed
cool and fresh, but I found it wasn't long
before I started to sweat. Once I got near the
river it felt almost like tropical jungle. It
felt much warmer by the river, and extremely
humid. It freshened up a bit when I left the
river, and I ended up walking to Lower
Sydenham station. At that point I had walked
2.3 miles, and reasoned that if I took the
same route home I would end up walking 4.6
miles. I wasn't feeling too bad so I thought I
would take what I thought would be a slightly
longer walk home via Perry Hill. I was a bit
disappointed to discover that my walk ended up
as a smidgen under 4.6 miles and not the 5
miles I was aiming for !
I only took 3 still pictures on my
entire walk. This was the first - a couple of
anarchist posters. They were on the fence that
borders one side of the alley that runs from
Lower Sydenham station down to the main road.
It is mainly used by cyclists, and the posters
probably thought that some of them might be
interested.
In some locations these sign posts can
be heavily covered in grapphiti, but this one,
in the same alley as the posters above, seems
to be in almost pristine condition. I find
them to be a bit weird, but their worst
problem is that the writing is too small, and
often cramped. To be of any use you have
to get up close to study them.
This tree is at the end of the alley,
and is about 100 ft (maybe 200ft( from the
main road. When I first saw it I wondered if
it had been struck by lightning, but there was
no obvious sign of that. I think it has
succumbed to some disease, and is now dead. It
is the only reasonable thing I can think of to
explain why all it's bark is peeling off. The
small yellow poster is a missing cat appeal,
and doesn't say anything about the tree.
I
was going to document much of my
walk by way of videos, but I
couldn't think of much to say most
of time - probably because I was
sticking to well worn paths I have
used too often. The start of the
video would normally have a
commentary, but just as I was
leaving home I got a call from my
friend Lee. He kept gabbling away
for the first mile of my walk, and
was still talking in my ear while I
visited my favourite rocks. I can't
remember a thing he said !
At the end of my walk I was feeling
a bit tired, but nowhere near as bad as my
walk to Crofton Park. Walking in that hot
sun, with the humidity very high, was far
worse than yesterday. As usual I weighed
myself before I did anything else (except
strip down to my underpants). Taking into
consideration that I can't have sweated
out half the water that I did 2 says
earlier, I was extremely pleased to see
the scales reading another 100gms lighter.
It is not much, but still heading in the
right direction.
Having weighed myself I used my
soda syphon to make up half a pint of
fizzy, sugar free, Vimto. It went down
very nicely! I still seemed to have the
energy to transfer pictures and video to
my PC, and edit the video. Once the video
was rendering to it's final mp4 format I
laid on my bed, and shut my eyes. I
expected to have a snooze, but it seemed I
wasn't tired enough for that. On the
other hand I didn't feel inclined to much
else than rest until dinner time. I think
I probably did have a snooze at some point
in the afternoon.
One thing I did in the afternoon
that needed a lot of a different sort of
energy, was to fight off the desire for
food. As early as the previous night I had
the notion that I would treat myself to a
takeaway for dinner yesterday. Once again
I tried to order from the German Doner
Kebab place, but still failed. I did not
that I couldn't crash their website this
time, and so some progress has happened. I
found another place that seem to have a
similar trouble with nested menus. I had
perfect success with a place I have used
before.
I think the place was called Hither
Grill, and my order arrived almost 30
minutes before the predicted time. On this
occasion I went for a few different, and
less healthy things for my dinner. I had a
doner meat burger with chilli sauce. Ito
was easier to eat without salad, but with
hindsight it would have been much nice
with salad. Part two was a lamb shish
wrap. It was an interesting experiment,
but I didn't really enjoy it as much as I
hoped I would. I also ordered a part 3 and
a part 4. They are in the fridge ready for
me to eat tonight !
Last night was the first night in
ages that I went to sleep with the window
closed, and the curtains fully closed. The
night air was feeling quite chilly even if
it would have seemed gloriously warm in
something like January. I think I probably
fell asleep around 10pm, and I slept
solidly for just over 4 hours. When I woke
up I was feeling a bit cool, and I spent a
bit of time trying to find the optimum
amount of duvet cover to cover bits of me.
I think I ended up with just one foot
covered !
The only dream I can remember in a
vague way was set in a place very much
like one of my old work locations, but it
added a bit of pandemic panic. I don't
think the disease was Covid-19, but
whatever it was it was known to be
dangerous, and two employees were off with
it. The boss decided that the workplace
would have to be stripped bare, and
disinfected. Like at the place I once
worked in the company had rented more
rooms than I knew existed. All these, plus
the main workshop had to be stripped bare.
Everything was just thrown away, and there
were several things I wanted to try and
keep. It was curious in that there was a
lot of activity, but no progress. Maybe I
got bored with the lack of progress and
woke up.
The first I noticed this morning
was how chilly the bathroom was when I
went to the toilet....hmm, maybe chilly is
an exaggeration, but it was definitely
"fresh". I am pleased to say that the
scales read less than the previous
morning, and that my blood glucose was
down to 8.3mmol/l. That is not bad
considering my dinner was not the healthy
grilled meat and salad I would usually
order. Both parts of my dinner were
slightly greasy, although the burger bun
mopped it up and kept it hidden for the
burger part of my dinner. The wrap was a
slightly unknown quantity, but the bread
like stuff it was wrapped in must have had
a large carbohydrate quantity. It is also
worth mentioning I washed it all down with
three cans of Guinness (the last of my
supermarket bought Guinness).
I think I feel in one of those
moods where I probably wouldn't need to
grit my teeth too much to go for another
walk. Maybe today I will take a short walk
in the rain. Maybe just to Ladywell and
back or something, but like most walks it
could turn out different if it feels good
once I get started. An alternative would
be gardening in the rain, but I can't see
anything positive about that, and it seems
very unlikely I would even bother going
out there when it is going to get
adequately water today (it has already
been water quite well by last nights, and
overnight rain. Maybe I might wash
yesterday's t-shirt, and dry it indoors.
Maybe I might get the hoover out.
Maybe....well anything's possible. The
only definite thing is chicken shish kebab
for dinner !
1
