The latest revision to the forecast says there should be sunny spells right now, but it is looking quite dull outside. Maybe the weather is working to the earlier forecast (above), and the sunny spells will start at 9am. Both the forecast above, and the latest revision, say the sunny spells will finish after 11pm, and then there may nit be another until 5pm, or later. It should be another dry day, and the temperature may peak at 21° C. Tomorrow will be dull, very dull at times, but there is currently no more than a 10% chance of rain, and once again the temperature should still reach 21° C.

   I reckoned there was a 75% chance of going for another walk yesterday, and with the sun shining when I was ready to go out, that is exactly what I did. Unfortunately the sun was quite intermittent, and I rarely had the joy of walking in sunshine.

  My plan was to walk to Forest Hill, and then re-visit some of the parts I had walked around with my mum maybe 60 years ago. The significant parts I had seen from train travel between Forest Hill and Sydenham station, and I noted that things had changed. It was possibly 5 years ago that I last travelled that way by train, and yesterday I found things had changed even more.

In total I walked 4.875 miles, or 4.9 miles when rounded up to one decimal place. I did have a potential plan to walk back via Sydenham Road, but I think I am glad I didn't. I didn't really expect the walk I did to be so far. Had I gone home via Sydenham Road I might have added another 2 miles to the walk. It is something I will face in the not too distant future, but after my hill climbing the day before I don't think I was ready to start breaking records !

  I hadn't walked that far before I passed The Blythe Hill Tavern, and saw this sign. I suppose it made for a more symmetrical layout, but I thought the first two cases, temperature over 37.8° C, and fever or chills, were the same thing. I was happy to see that only a continuous cough counts. Waking up with a dry cough that is cured by a drink of water, is probably more a sign of snoring than Covid-19. I could pop in for a drink, and I did go home again again at the end of my walk, because I definitely had muscular aches, and fatigue. I might have something to do with longs walks though. Once upon a time, and we are talking nearly 60 years ago, I would walk past the pub on my way home from school. I would find the warm smell of cigarette smoke, and beer, quite enticing. I couldn't smell that yesterday, and so I guess I have a loss of smell and taste, and thus a Covid-19 sufferer. I am sure it couldn't have been because the pub had not been open when I walked past, and smoking forbidden inside when it is open.
  This is Forest Hill telephone exchange. I used to work there in 1981 when I embarked on my first, and most effective weight loss project. A lot of the weightloss could be attributed to walking to work, and home again everyday, come rain or shine, and even snow. I used to reckon it was a 3 mile walk from where I used to live. Yesterday I measured it as a 1.7 mile walk from where I live now, and that is very roughly half a mile away from where I was living in those day. 3 miles was an over estimated, but even of it was only 2.2 miles, that is still 4.4 miles every day that I was at work, and I kept it up for well over a year. I lost at least 8 inches around my waist back then.
   Once upon a time this subway was owned, and operated by the railway company, but now appears to be in the care of Lewisham Council. The significance of it is twofold. I would often walk through it with my mum. In those days Forest Hill railway station had 4 platform faces, although the centre island platform may not have been in use. The subway was part of the entrance to the station, and there were ramps leading up to all platforms from it.
  I was hoping to see evidence of those ramps up to the platforms yesterday. I knew that the middle one was out of use even in the mid 1960s, but it used to be easy to see where it was, The other two ramps were still visible, but were gated off, and the litter building up behind the gates showed they had not been used for years. None of this is visible now because anything that can still be seen is behind the bright white cladding that can be seen in this picture. With hindsight I seem to remember it has been there for quite a few years now.
  This was probably my main objective. It is hardly noticeable that this is the start of what was once about a half mile long footpath alongside the railway. I can remember walking along it with my mum, and later on either on my own, or with a friend, but not for maybe 30 or more years ago. To say it has changed is an understatement !
  I have a vague recollection of there being a few cottages that faced onto the footpath at the station end, but there was nothing like this new block of flats. There are more further along the path, and part of the path is now like a narrow road.
  Looking through the fence, and across the railway lines. The Forest Hill Industrial Estate stands on what was once many railway sides for coal, freight, and parcel traffic. If I could go back in time it would be fascinating to see the railway workings in that huge yard.
  One thing I spotted from a passing train was what looked like a bit of woodland, or a park. I never remembered anything like it as a kid, and I had resolved to investigate it one day. Yesterday I had that pleasure. There seem to be few moderately old trees in there. Most being quite young, or very fast growing like silver birch. That made me wonder if it was all growing on contaminated ground. There were various factories along the path, and one of them made asbestos products. Back in the days when asbestos was a wonder product, and not the dangerous mineral it is known to be now, there was little control, and the area was often very dusty - asbestos dust ! There was also a strong, and rather unpleasant smell of the resins they would use to bond the asbestos fibres into things like brake pads.
  The park actually has a name - The Albion Millenium Green.  I have a very vague, and quite possibly incorrect idea that the asbestos factory may have been on part of this site. Some of it may have been the back garden of one of the bigger houses along Dartmouth road. There is an access path to Dartmouth Road behind me from where I took this picture.
  Another of my objectives was to cross the railway on this footbridge. I can remember standing on it, with my mum, when a steam train passed underneath it. That was very exciting !  I was very happy to find that despite crossing 4 tracks, and two of them fast lines, the bridge has not been enclosed.
  This was the very clear view from the footbridge toward Sydenham. The train approaching is a fast Thameslink service that would probably have been running non stop, at full line speed (70 or even 80 mph) for much of the way between East Croydon and London Bridge.
  This was the only disappointment on my walk. Dacres Wood, a nature reserve, is only open on Saturday afternoons. I was there on a Sunday afternoon, and it was closed. The small print on the sign board says it is part of the old Croydon Canal that follows the path of the railway, or rather the newer railways follows the path of the now long gone canal. It seems part of the old canal has been excavated, and is now a long pond for wildlife.

  My feet and legs were getting a bit sore by the time I got home, but I have experienced plenty worse. There was only gentle hill climbing on this walk, and I probably could have gone the long way home via Sydenham, but just under 5 miles felt quite good enough for one day. As usual I stripped off my outdoor clothes down to my underpants before getting on the scales. I was rewarded by seeing the lowest reading yet (ignoring any better reading from back in 1983). It felt like I might even be justified in the stupid idea of eating the spare small portion of chips from my takeaway the night before.

  I think it was because they were proper chips, and not "fries" that they heated up in the microwave quite well. I can't say they were as good as fresh, but with a good sprinkle of salt and malt vinegar they seemed tasty to me. I then faced the still fairly long wait until dinner time. I passed most of the time editing the photos I took, and having a snooze. I also did a bit more reading.

  Finally it was dinner time. Rather than eat "alone" I found something to watch on TV, and had my chicken shish kebab that was part of my order the previous night. Once again I scraped off the salad, and heated the meat up in the microwave before putting the salad back on. It was very nice, but had one problem. The salad seemed rather soft. I think it was different to the salad that is more common from most kebab shops - more lettuce and less cabbage.

  That shish kebab should have been all that I was going to eat, but it didn't seem to hit the spot, and so I microwaved a couple of bits of Peri Peri chicken. That peri peri chicken was supposed to be dinner tonight, and now I'll have to pad it out with something else. I finished dinner with a small pack of sugar free vanilla wafers. I was going to wash down my dinner with Guinness, or other beer, but after checking my stock levels I had a few large whiskies.

  I expected to fall into bed, and be instantly asleep last night, but it wasn't like that at all. It was one of those nights when each of the four positions I could lay on, front, back, and two sides, brought different, but still very annoying pains. I ended up taking some Ibuprofen, and that must have helped because I woke up without even realising I had fallen asleep, and found that about 4 hours had passed.

  It was difficult to get comfortable to go to sleep again, but I did, and another 3 hours passed (maybe it was only 2 hours). The closer to when I got up the shorter the periods of sleep. That doesn't make sense because I seemed to get more and more comfortable the closer I got to getting up ! When I could sleep no more, and finally got up, it must have been around 6.30am. I found I didn't feel too bad. Even my legs didn't seem to ache much this morning, but note that not much is not the same as not at all !

  I am not so sure now, many hours later (another long meandering call from Lee added over an hour), but I was strongly considering another long walk today. There is probably no reason why I couldn't do it, but I feel I am getting a bit behind schedule doing house, and garden, work. I have some laundry to do. There is another festering pile in the sink. The garden needs weeding and watering. I could probably cut the grass too. Walking may be less pleasure under a gloomy sky sky tomorrow, but at least it is currently thought to be dry.

  One reason why I could easily have talked myself into another long walk today is to push my weight down still further. This morning I was upset that the scales had not budged when I got on them after getting out of bed. At that point I had not done anything in the toilet apart from passing a little wind. I was so intent on passing some poo that I forgot to have a wee. 10 or 15 minutes later I was back in the toilet, and this time it was to have a wee. When I got on the scales they seemed to take a while to decide where to settle, but once they did they were reading 200gm less than yesterday morning (in reality it was probably 151gm less, but the scales had to round it to the nearest 100gm).

  Not only had I lost weight (and I still have not passed anything solid in the toilet), but my blood glucose has dropped a bit. It is still over 8, but improving. My blood pressure and temperature are all in their normal range, and even my pulse oximeter says my blood is getting a good oxygen saturation. I guess that once again I am theoretically healthy, and once again it is a shame that it doesn't feel that way !

  Today, as already mentioned, I will concentrate on house and garden work. Between the various jobs, and maybe instead of some of them, I will be plain lazy. That is assuming you subscribe to reading a book as being lazy. Well, it is only fiction, and not even classic fiction, but it keeps me happy. Tomorrow I may well try and burn up a few more calories, but not today....although some gardening can be quite hard work !