Today seems to be one of those days when the weather forecast is being corrected hour by hour, and whatever is published can only be taken as a rough guide. It seems that today will feature fewer spells of continuous sunshine, but most of the gaps will be filled in by sunny intervals. There could be some periods when light cloud covers the whole sky. Once again it should be a dry day, and the temperature, at maybe 22° C, will be a little warmer than yesterday. Tomorrow could be the best day for some time to come. It is probably going to be mostly sunny, and the temperature may briefly rise to 24° C. The following days will see the temperature drop, and the amount of sunshine fade away.

  Yesterday was a good day. In fact probably the best for almost a week. Two important things happened. The first was that I got out for a walk. It wasn't a long walk, but it felt quite long. I was actually a bit disappointed when I got home and saw how short it was. It seemed as if it was longer than it was because it involved going up a lot of hills, and covered some ground I had never explored before.

  One thing I realised yesterday was that I was looking forward to the hill climbing rather than fearing it. I don't mean to say I was wildly enthusiastic about it, but as my legs continue to strengthen it is interesting to see how these hills become less taxing than they once were. I emphasise less, rather than not.

  The main hill was walking up to the top of Blythe Hill Fields. I can remember earlier in the year, or maybe it was last year, having to make quite a few brief stops along the way up that long hill. Yesterday I did stop very briefly to take a picture at several points, but it was probably closer to non stop than ever before. Of course yesterday may have been a fluke with an unexpected burst of energy. I have had that before, but the trend is still upwards if you smooth out the peaks and troughs.

  The last time I was out, and taking pictures, I was trying to capture the first signs of autumn colours. It was not a vivid example, but these trees are definitely looking more yellow than green.
  There is a small tree in the middle of this picture that looks very purple, but I decided to go for a long shot, and make the blue sky the subject of the picture.
  It is a sort of ritual for me, and I suspect others, that once you reach the top of Blythe Hill Fields, you have to take a picture over the roofs of the houses that are down on the level you started from, towards Canary Wharf. The air was fairly clear, and the distance looks almost sharp.
  This a new park for me to visit. I don't think it has a name. It is a "proper" park because it has grass and a kiddies playground area....which is possibly the vaguest definition of a park possible. I had noticed this rectangle of green, a bit to the west of Ladywell station, on maps, but it was never terribly obvious how to get to it. On some maps it looks to be surrounded by houses with no access from the road. I found it by the simple expedient of missing my turning on a new(ish) housing estate, and semi getting lost. I had to partly back track to find the little footpath that I had intended to go down. As a park it seems to have no special qualities, but I can now tick it off my list of local parks to visit.
  We've all seen bags of dog poo hung on trees and bushes, but in this day and age there is something worse - discarded germ and virus dripping facemasks hanging on trees. I will admit this is the first I have seen blatantly hanging from a tree, but I must have passed well over a dozen discarded on the ground during my walk.

  After such a short walk, albeit a very hilly walk (there were more hills than just going up to Blythe Hill Fields) I felt reasonably OK when I got home. I still fancied a quick lie down, but I couldn't spend the afternoon being lazy. I had work to do. Admittedly not much work, but it did include things like cleaning the dining room table, and putting beer in the fridge to chill them.

  At about 3.30pm, and to my surprise, Jodie being the first to arrive, Jodie and Michael came round for another beer drinking session. It was a special session because it was the first time I showed off my new video projector. I showed my own videos of a selection of bands I had seen over the last couple of years. It wasn't quite dark enough for really good pictures, but seeing Miranda Bell (Angela's daughter) singing almost life size (among others) was the closest we could get to actually being there.

  After a couple of beers, Michael was getting quite emotional about all the good times we had before Covid-19 came along and ruined everything.....well that, and The Black Cat not really being a successful venue because it is too hidden away to get many turning up to see the bands they put on. For Michael and myself it was a great venue because it is so close to home. Of course it did have other problems. It was very lively acoustic wise, and few could get the sound they wanted. There was also the "psycho mode" stage lighting. No one could control that awful strip of lights !

  It was with hindsight that I realised we didn't actually drink all that much. It seemed more, particularly the jangling of the bottles in the recycling bin, but in reality I doubt we drank more than 3 pints of beer each. Jodie and Michael had each brought some beer, but Michael's single bottle, and Jodie's bottle and can, had to be split three ways so we could all have a taste. The bottles of New Zealand beer I provided were only 330ml bottles - about 0.6 of a pint. Maybe Michael had a hint of being drunk, but I suspect he was just acting it because he thought, like I did, that we had drunk more than we did.

  I think the big clue that got me thinking about how much we had really drunk was that I hadn't eaten a thing all day, and I didn't seem to feel drunk at all. After my excesses the previous day I thought I had better be careful, and I was determined to eat no more than dinner yesterday. I succeeded in this aim, although what I had for dinner may not have been ideal... I think it was probably the lady next door cooking some fish (probably some sort of Thai fish curry) that implanted the idea that I fancied fish for dinner.

  I could have opened a can of tuna or something, but that would need some support like a salad, and gallons (!) of mayonnaise.  It was easier to order fish and chips - albeit considerably more expensive. I ordered from one of the shops/restaurants that was a "chippy" and kebab shop. Once I saw what I got I realised it was rather expensive, but it did have some plus points. One such plus point was that the fish came with a more reasonable sized portion of chips. Now I know that getting less for your money is not usually considered a good thing, but on this occasion it did prevent me from over stuffing myself.

  The kebabs were unusual. They looked like they were quite small, but that is because the salad came in separate containers. I made use of this by having one of the salads (I had ordered two shish kebabs) with the fish and chips. Oh, I must add at this point that the chips tasted exceptionally good, and the fish was rather good too. The grilled chicken was in pitta bread, but it was dry, and while I didn't look too closely, it looked as if the meat could be removed, and the pitta bread used for something else. Tonight I shall have the meat from both kebabs with the remaining salad (and some hot chilli sauce).

  My night was like recent nights. I had no trouble getting to sleep, but I did read a bit longer than recent nights, and I didn't put the book down until a little after 9pm. I had one long block of sleep, and then some smaller periods of sleep until it seemed time to get up. I was up earlier than I thought I wanted to be, but my upper back was really aching, and I couldn't get comfortable again.

  That back ache, right across the two shoulder blades was a feature yesterday morning, but it seemed worse this morning. Like yesterday it is fading now, but depending on my posture it is still there. I can also induce some sharp pains just below shoulder height (sort of armpit height) on/in the front of my chest if I move in a certain way - which I try not to when I can figure what what those moves are !

  As I sit here typing away, my right knee, and underside of my right thigh, are aching a lot, and sooner or later I will have to stand up, and walk around a bit to relieve it. This particular discomfort is getting to be a nuisance. There is good news though. The annoying peak in my weight seems to have almost passed, although it is still not as low as it has been in the last week or two. The worst is over, but my weight seems to be hovering again. It is something I have observed a lot over the years, but provided nothing happens that causes any special gain, the downward trend should continue sooner or later.

  The other good thing is that despite the beer, and despite the chips, my blood glucose is OK this morning. It is just 7.9mmol/l. That is under 8, and as ever, lower would be better, it is good enough. In theory it could be lower still tomorrow if my plans for today work out. The first part of the plan is to try and fast through the day until dinner time. Dinner could be as little as grilled chicken, aka chicken shish kebab, and salad, but it could involve something more.

  I intend to go for another walk today. It should be a minimum of three miles. I don't know yet what time it will be, but I expect it will be around 3pm that Richard "Dik" Towkarski and a singer will be busking in Hither Green again. Last Sunday it was a 3 mile round trip to see them, and other musicians, doing a gig outside the hairdressers. This time I might try and extend that 3 miles by walking a longer route to get there. I expect I will want to walk home via the shortest route after standing around for an hour or so.