Unless something comes along to spoil it, high summer is back ! Today should be sunny from dawn (it was) to dusk. Even more amazing after some the rather cool days recently is that the temperature today should reach 28° C. After a sunny start tomorrow may see some cloud gathering from mid afternoon, but it will be another dry day, and still reach 28° C.

   Today we wake up to an England that is as close to martial law as can be got in peacetime. It is allegedly to keep the proles safe from a second wave of Covid-19 - the rather over-rated virus - but I see it as a rehearsal for next January when a "hard Brexit" happens. Shortages and incomplete laws could lead to rioting. For this rehearsal there is, from today, a 10pm curfew, and no more than 6 people can gather together. As yet the army will not be brought in to shoot people breaking curfew or in bigger gatherings. The same may not be true in January.

  Yesterday turned out to be a good day to end freedom. Not a lot happened in the morning, although somehow I wasn't ready to wash my hair, have a shower, and start getting dressed until midday ! Even when half dressed I didn't do anything useful like water the garden. I was just resting up until it was time to go out for a walk - a special walk.

  It was a three mile round trip to see a gig. Like the last one this was an open air gig, but in a seating area outside a hair dressers which is next door to a cafe. I think the cafe and hair dressers may share a common ownership - a family run business. Like the last gig this was over the other side of the hill that separates Catford from Hither Green. It seemed harder work than usual going up the hill, but apart from stopping long enough to check the time on my phone, I seemed to do it without any longer pauses. I estimated that it would take me half an hour to get to the gig, and it seems I was right. The curious thing was that it seemed a hard slog going home, and yet it seems my average speed for the entire journey was 3mph - a little faster than my usual walks.
  The group didn't have a name, and the line up changed a couple of times. I don't know the name of the drummer, but he does look familiar. From left to right there is Steve Cox on bass, the drummer, Abby Harte on vocals, and Richard "Dik" Tokarwski on guitar.
   Abby mid song
   After Abby had sung a few songs should stood down and Marta stepped up to the microphone. She often sings with Dik as a duo. They will apparently be busking outside Hair Deco, Manor Lane, Hither Green this coming Saturday, but I don't know what time - possibly 3pm, that being the time that the last two gigs were supposed to have started.
  It was difficult to get a good shot of Marta singing. She was rarely face on to the microphone, and maybe the bright sun in my direction meant she had her eyes closed most of the time.
  Dik can be a very good guitar player, but once again, he managed to play the wrong chords, or something, for the first song. What ever it was he played did not match what Steve was playing on his bass, and nor did it match what Abby was singing. I noticed her glare at him a couple of time.  His other failing was using something like an overdrive effect that sounded really discordant every time he used it. It would have been great if he was playing thrash metal, but did not go well with a pop-rock song.

   After a 1.5 mile walk, up and over the hill, my feet, and my right knee were starting to complain after I had been standing around for 90 minutes. It meant missing the headline act - the Steedtones - but I decided that if I didn't start walking soon I would seize up completely. One thing that made it worse was that the elastic of my socks was cutting into the bit just above the ankles. I doubt if it was, but it felt like it was cutting off the blood flow to me feet. When I am walking the blood flow through my legs is increased because of the pumping action, and the non-return valves built in the arteries.

  It felt like a slow slog to get home, but my legs did start to feel better once I got moving. I was surprised to see that my entire walk, 1.5 miles there, and 1.5 miles back, was done at an average speed of 3mph. That is faster than my normal walks - even walks that are on fairly level ground. I guess not stopping to take pictures speeds things up a bit.

  I was very pleased to see what the scales read when I git home, and took off all my outdoor clothes. My weight was 400gm lighter than my lowest reading after the long walk I did up to One Tree Hill just over a week ago. Of course yesterday was quite hot, and I did lose a fair amount of moisture as sweat. Dehydration is a quick way of losing weight, but it only lasts until the next glass of water. I started re-hydrating myself with a 330ml can of Beavertown "Gamma Ray American Pale Ale". That was fairly quickly followed by a 330ml can of Jaipur India Pale Ale. I drunk that a bit slower, and it was a while before I had my last beer - a 440ml can of Guinness.

  I spent a bit of time resting, and a bit of time doing photo editing while really just trying to pass the couple of hours until dinner time. My dinner was a special treat. It was my last can, a somewhat old can, of Cassoulet - bean stew. This one had a couple of sausages and a couple of bits of duck in it. Both Aldi had these tins, with their own labels on, in abundance 5 years ago, but I haven't seen them for ages. That is a shame because they really are delicious. Of course those beans do have special properties, but unless in polite company, their other effect, as a pull through, can be beneficial.

  I was feeling very tired when I went to bed not long after 8pm. At first it seemed like I wasn't going to fall asleep, and then I was - in the blink of an eye.  I felt disappointed when I first woke up until I realised that I had been sleeping soundly for nearly 4 hours. That is quite a long spell of sleep for me these days. After that I probably slept for two more blocks of about 2 hours each. That added up to my 8 hours, and I was awake again before it was light, and it was obvious I probably would not be sleeping again.

  By the time I checked the weather it was just about light. The beauty of last nights beans, or maybe it was still the curry from the previous night, is that I hit the jackpot (?) the first time I went to the toilet. Upon weighing myself it seemed that I am definitely back to losing weight. It is still a little at a time, but the trend is still downwards. It seems quite possible that provided I don't eat anything silly, and get out for at least a 3 mile walk, that tomorrow I may see the units digits go down one. I am probably less than 200gm from that target.

  As well as my weight going down, my blood glucose is returning back to more sane areas. 7.9mmol/l is definitely higher than I would desire, but it seems my current rule is anything under 8.0 is OK. My temperature and blood pressure are all normal (for me) this morning. All I have to do is keep things going today.

  I hope my right knee doesn't play up too much today because I really want to go for a walk, possibly a long one, in today's hot sunshine. However, before I can do that I have two tasks I need to do. The first is to wash some t-shirts and underwear. The second is to water the garden. The latter shouldn't take that long unless I get some sort of sudden urge to do some other work in the garden. While I have a loose plan, it is going to be another day of making it up as I go along.