Sunday 23rd August 2020

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Sunday 23rd August 2020

Lockdown day 153
Shopping embargo day 31

09:27 BST

The weather forecast didn't quite match reality yesterday. During the morning some of the forecast light cloud turned out to be thick and dark grey. The sunny spells for 9am turned up at about 11am, and then continued with very long spells of sunshine until 1pm which was when the next sunny spells had been forecast. That is when it rained - on a day when no rain was forecast. Admittedly it was just a 5 minute light shower, but.... There were more sunny periods after that, but I paid little attention to when, and for how long they may have lasted once I was indoors. One other feature was wind. It wasn't as strong as the day before, but it did get quite gusty at times. Even in the wind, 22° C felt quite comfortable.

Like yesterday, I think the weather is still changing too fast for a reliable forecast. The sunny periods forecast for this morning are extended sunny periods. The type where it is mostly sunny, but the occasional cloud flits across the face of the sun. What is more is that the sun has only just gone in, and I can still see blue patches of sky over half an hour after the sunny periods were supposed to finish. I think today is going to be a lot like yesterday. The latest revision to the forecast now acknowledges the extended sunny periods, but still says we can look forward to thick cloud from 11am, and now it will continue to 3pm, and at 4pm there is a 60% chance of heavy rain. After that the forecast continues as above. It will be a degree cooler than yesterday, and that might feel slightly cool under those black clouds. Tomorrow may make it to 20° C, but not until early evening. The afternoon may be a lot cooler - and wetter. Rain is forecast for tomorrow, and some of it may be heavy.

This was how yesterday's weather looked before I had a shower, and got dressed. I was convinced I would not be going out for a walk yesterday, but while showering the weather did a rapid change. By the time I was dressed the same view was of blue sky and the sun was shining.
A longer walk than expected

I quickly changed my mind about going out, and while I can't say I really looked forward to it, I knew I had to do it. I wasn't feeling all that good when I set out. I was feeling very creaky...at least I think that is the simple way of describing it. I was also testing another old pair of boots, and I wasn't sure they were going to be comfortable.

As usual, I began to feel better the more I walked until after about a mile I was walking fairly freely. At 1.5 miles I had the idea that I might extend my walk by taking the long way home. This mean exiting to park at the far end, and then walking around to Bell Green. From there I walked up, and over Perry Hill. On this occasion, apart from a brief pause to cross the main road, I walked up and down the other side without pausing to take a breather. Another reminder that practice does improve things.

I arrived home feeling only slightly tired. While 5 miles walks can leave me feeling really knackered, and in need of a good rest, 6 miles walks even more so, I didn't feel the need to immediately put my feet up, and before doing anything else I watered the plant pots on the front windowsill. The boots I had been testing proved to not have damaged my feet, but my feet were still sore after the battering they took several days earlier.

This campfire, with the leaf litter carefully brushed away from the fire, and the logs to sit on around it, seemed like it could have been done by boy scouts, but boy scouts would not have left a pile of old bottles, cans and other litter behind the rear logs.

These are not my favourite rocks now, but they were until I discovered my now favourite rocks in the river. I have always thought that with a bit of rearrangement they could form stepping stones to the far side of the river.

These are my favourite rocks, although I have no idea why. Maybe it's because of all the exposed shingle river bed that can be walked on to get to them.

Another look at my favourite rocks. This time looking up stream at them while standing in the flowing water. This was another test of the old boots I was wearing - to make sure they were waterproof in, maybe, 1.5 inches of flowing water.

After the old gas works were closed down there was so much new building work, and changes to the roads around Bell Green, that I have no idea exactly where Bell Green green originally was. I suspect it may have been where this traffic island, with it's hideous plastic thing, modelled on a French pissoir, sits.

Another remnant of the days when the gas works was a major landmark, and industrial centre in the area. This building, was, as it's green sign says, the old bath house. It was presumably built by the South Suburban Gas Company for their workers. Many of those workers would have worked with coal, and at the end of a shift could have looked as dirty as coal miners.

These were the boots I was testing. I have no idea how old they are, but it could be 10 years or more. I did have a vague memory that they used to be quite comfortable. Their weakness is that they are very lightweight, and maybe rather flimsy. I thought that some proper hiking boots would be better for some of the long distance walks I was doing 10 years ago. Once I had the new boots I took these ones out of service, and put them at the back of a cupboard. If it wasn't for the damage I have done to my feet pounding the pavements in bad shoes and boots, I think these old boots would have been comfortable for a 6 mile walk. They seem to have more room around the toes than my proper hiking boots. I may wear them more often, although I don't they will last much more than another 15 miles before the soles wear through.

It was probably a bit silly to attempt to start this video while the wind was so gusty, but it did calm down for a few tens of seconds in the middle. I sometimes wonder why I make these videos. It is probably because I can, and maybe even if my commentary is off the cuff, and often pointless, it may give a sort of feel of where I am walking.

When I got home I fancied some breakfast, but it was too late for that, and so I had some lunch. I don't think I was really that hungry, and I should have fought the feeling, but I gave in and opened up a couple of cans. The first can was pea and ham soup. It was an Aldi own brand soup, and maybe not quite as luxurious as, for instance, Heinz, but it was nice enough. The second can was a can of "Alpine" bean stew. What I found inside the can was more like thick baked beans with some bits of bacon in it. It should have been very good, but the bean "juice" seemed bland, and the bacon was a bit sparse.

With lunch inside me, and my video and photos "processed", I could finally relax, but I don't think I snoozed....or did I? Maybe I did, but I don't think it would have been for long. Mostly I just read, but I'll admit that it didn't seem to take long before dinner time to roll around. Dinner was another can - much of my remaining food is now canned. This one was a can of German meatballs in a mushroom sauce.

I thought it would go well with some German beer, and I ended up drinking three bottles of German beer. Two of them were wheat beers, but the last was a rauchbier. Wikipedia says these are made by roasting the barley over an open flame, but I can remember a TV programme called The Beer Hunter which showed a German brewer tossing hot sooty rocks, heated in a wood fire, into the beer to impart the smoky flavour. I must admit that last night's beer did seem more sooty than smoky. It didn't seem to taste as nice as when I last had a smoked beer. That would have been when I was still smoking, and maybe that made all the difference. Drinking it did trigger a desire for a cigarette.

One thing I did yesterday was to change the bottom sheet on my bed because it was probably getting smelly, although I never noticed it to be so. What it definitely was, was sweat stained after some of the very hot sweaty nights we had not so long ago (even if it feels like last summer now). I had actually started out to put a duvet in the duvet cover because the nights, or more specifically the early mornings, are getting quite cool now.

I was looking forward to going to bed last night. It did not turn out as well as hoped. I felt very uncomfortable for a variety of reasons. One reason was some muscular pains that seemed to originate from when I was scrubbing the dining room door the previous day. I was also getting some "twisted rib" pains - not actually twisted rib(s), but a legacy of my operation in 2013, and some sort of inflammation of the ligaments (or something like that). It flares up every now and then.

I was also suffering some heartburn (probably too much chilli sauce added to the lush mushroom sauce the meatballs were in), although I didn't realise that until gone midnight when a couple of antacid tablets cured it. They didn't cure the bloat and wind I was suffering from. The latter not really surprising after some of the stuff I have eaten recently. It was possibly as late as 3am before I settled down and got some proper sleep. Prior to that I also had the problem of the duvet feeling far too warm to use.

I managed to keep sleeping until gone 8am this morning. That is a bit of record these days. During those last hours of sleep I had two dreams that I seem to remember. One was about walking down a road, and passing a pub. I think it was supposed to be the music venue known as The Borderline. It is in the basement of a building, but while it couldn't be used as a music venue (because of Covid-19) it was being used as a pub. I decided to just look through the door to see what it looked like.

As soon as I looked in I was warned by the young woman guarding the door that they only had room for one. I said that must be me then, and went in. It looked very barren with the just a scattering of tables, but there were still seats by the bar. they had been nailed down to be 2 metres apart, and the bar was not in use. Beer was served from a couple of tables in the corner of the main, or biggest, room. I ordered a pint, but I can only remember the glass being half full, and the beer tasted warm and flat. I think I probably left without even finishing my beer.

The second dream was centered on Catford Bridge station. It had been rebuilt in the style of a tube station. Behind the station, the other side of the railway lines from my perspective, a new football stadium had been erected. (In reality the new development is blocks of flats, and the station remains not that different to how it has been for the last 100 years). That was the setting for the dream, but I can't really remember much about it, although the image of a an selling beer from a barrel in the station springs to mind, but I think I wanted to see something else, and not drink beer. I was probably trainspotting or something.

This morning has already been busy. I am expecting two deliveries today. One is more beer coming via Amazon. I don't know when it will arrive, but experience says it will probably be late this afternoon. The other delivery could be beer and Diet Coke, and delivered courtesy of my friend from round the corner, Michael. He messaged me yesterday to say he was going shopping by car, and was there anything he could pick up for me. I said yes please ! I expected he would be going to Tesco early this morning, but I have just heard form him that it will be early this afternoon.

Having woken up a lot later than intended I wanted to quickly get several things done in case Michael went t Tesco as soon as they opened (9am, I think). I had a fitted sheet soaking overnight, and I wanted to get that washed, and on the line so I could wash my hair and have a shower before I was ready for the world. After hanging the sheet out to dry I also watered the garden. I had been hoping for a bit more rain yesterday, but the garden was looking quite dry this morning. I must have done all these things quickly because I was ready to greet the world before 9.30am (even if I still had wet hair).

This morning there is good and bad. My blood glucose is a lot lower than expected, and actually around my usual monthly average, 7.5mmol/l. My blood pressure is slightly higher this morning, and tomorrow I think I had better start taking the tablet I have not been taking for several days now. It seems to be taking some time for it's effect to wear off. The bad news is my weight. It is going back up again, and it is the junk food I am eating....or maybe it is something else. I can't seem to get into the right mood to restrain how much I am eating lately. Maybe it is the feeling that autumn is coming early, maybe it is self isolation. Maybe it is boredom at having to invent new ways to walk long distances locally. Maybe I need a holiday, maybe......