One of the things I was looking out for were new litter bins. I had seen the start of the work to install them last week, and I saw on the The Friends Of The River Pool web pages that quite a few had been installed to add to the 2 or 3 that were very widely scattered in the park. Not far from the Catford entrance there is a new, square, bin, and the old round bin, that had been knocked over, and partly rolled down the bank, has been reset on it's base next to the new bin.
  Some way off the main path is an less well trod area of the park known as The Vineries (although The Vineries is actually an area of land, now used as a housing development, that backs on to the park). There is a small stream that runs across the edge of The Vineries. Until work was carried out last week, it was choked with weeds and assorted debris. I found that it has been cleared for much of it's length, and is flowing nicely - particularly after the recent rain.
  Also, for the first time ever, I was able to see where the stream emerges from a culvert that goes under the The Vineries housing, and then continues underground to a spring somewhere on Perry Hill. It was too difficult to get a good clear shot of the end of the culvert, with the grill across the end, but considering I couldn't even find it before yesterday, it is not too bad.
  I think I probably covered this better in the video. It is the new berm that has been made to give the river a little jiggle as it flows past this bit. It improves the health of a river that can't really be allowed to find it's own path in an urban environment. Cavities below the water line also give the fish a refuge when the river is running fast and deep, and presumably when the water gets very low in a hot summer too.
  Once again I think I covered this in the video. Having a litter bin next to the only seat at this end of the park seems like an obvious choice. There is now the first picnic table a bit further up the path to sit on, and apparently more benches and picnic tables will be installed in the near future.
  As all the other vegetation dies away in winter, one daisy thinks it is a good time to flower. Weirdo !!
  The rain had just stopped, and this couple are sitting in the shelter of the bow string bridge (overhead), but I still can't help but feeling that concrete they are sitting on will still be cold and damp !
  The new litter bin by the new picnic table. Note how it is only about 10ft from the picnic table.
  The blanket rule is no barbecues allowed in the park. One reason is the risk of fire spreading during a dry summer, and another is because of the tendency for people to leave a mess behind. There is no fire risk during a wet winter, but there is still a mess. If the people who had a barbecue here had taken the foil, and cardboard the 10 ft to the litter bin, and had kicked the ash around a bit, I doubt if anyone would really care about the rules being broken.

  Once again I was feeling out of practice, and feeling tired as I made my way home. Although, having said that, I don't think I felt as bad as I did last week, or maybe the week before that. With hindsight I could have added an extra mile to the walk with out feeling totalled, but may it is better to just keep things ticking over, rather than try and break new records until the weather improves in Spring (probably late spring).

  One of the first things I did when I got home was to check my blood glucose level. Logic says it should have gone down as I used some of the excess sugar to power my leg muscles, but in fact it was really high. I have noticed this before on the few times I have checked my blood glucose after a long walk. I must admit that I have no idea what the mechanism is that makes my blood glucose go up, instead of going down. I don't think I will try measuring it again after a walk, but it is something I have to be aware of if I ever have a spot check at the doctors or similar.

  Despite my blood glucose being so high I still wanted something to eat, and in particular something hot. My body temperature, as measured under the tongue in the traditional way, was very low. I stared with a can of low, or no added sugar Heinz tomato soup, and then I couldn't resist trying out an Thai instant noodle pot. It was a kit of ingredients that comes in a nice blue bowl with lid. Of course it is just thin plastic, but after cleaning it seems the ideal container to make up more instant noodles. The Thai noodles were not exciting, but quite pleasant, and maybe I might buy another pot some time.

  After eating I made a start on selecting and editing pictures, but I didn't get far before I felt the urge to lay down, and have a snooze. I don't think I was asleep for that long, but it was dark when I woke up. (Less than a week to go now before the days start to get longer again !). I then got back to the pictures, and then started the process of stitching together, with some heavy edits, all the rubbish video I had taken. Very soon it was time to abandon all that to get dinner cooking.

  My dinner was actually easy to prepare because it was two ready meals followed by fruit. The two "ready meals" were not microwaveable, and one needed a bit of preparation. Part one was a chicken with hardly any leek with a cheese topping. It was nice, but not exciting. Part two was pork belly balls with Chinese inspired seasoning. They were rather nice, but were far from ball shaped (and nothing like the picture on the packet). They seemed to be odd chunks of pork belly with the special seasoning, and nothing more - except they did have a half price sticker on them !

  I was looking forward to bed time last night. I felt I had some sleep to catch up on. It did take a while before I managed to fall asleep, but once I did, I seemed to sleep mostly OK. I remember having some interesting dreams. I can't recount them blow by blow, but one of them concerned some weird scifi computer that was made in such a way that to erase files micro explosives had to used. I'm sure it all seemed logical in the dream, but I can't help thinking I have forgotten some important details along the way.

  Another dream was quite frustrating. The important detail is that I was with a woman, and we were walking away from work, or a gig, or a visit to a pub, and heading towards where we lived. She was someone I knew well a long time ago. As we walked we became physically closer. First it was just hand holding, and then an arm around the shoulder, and then we were just about cuddling. This is where it all went wrong, because to cuddle we were sitting down, and what was wrong was that we were still moving at the same speed as when walking. We were not in a vehicle of any recognisable type. It was like whatever we were sitting on was just moving with no sides, no wheels, or anything. The annoying thing is that rather than just enjoy it my brain started thinking "how is this possible". I woke up then.

  I managed to sleep until about 6.30am if I recall correctly. That was sort of handy because it gave me plenty of time to get washed and dressed, and out to Aldi just 5 or 10 minutes after they opened. I had it in mind that I wanted to buy one or two of the trays of Guinness they had at a special price, but evidently the few special price trays of 24 cans had all been snapped up long before I got there.

  I still came home weighted down with nothing but drink. I staggered home with 5 x 2.25 litre bottles of diet coke, 6 bottles of German Lager, and 12 cans of (Aldi own brand) French strong lager. It was quite a weight, and after I get another three bottles of Diet Coke next Monday, I must just have enough to make it through the Xmas periods when the shops become too crowded for my liking.

  The sun has just gone in after a couple of hours that were technically sunny spells because there were a few very brief dips in the sunshine....Err, I seem to have spoken too soon. The sun has just popped out again, but the sky is now starting to cloud over. It may well still stay dry for another 2 or 3 hours before, initially light rain starts to fall, followed by heavier rain. In theory I could go for a walk in the park, and stay dry today, but I think I shall act like a wimp, and stay in today. I felt OK when walking to and from Aldi, well, mostly OK, but since then I have had to take some paracetamol to calm down some aches and pains from my ankles, knees and thighs. The silly thing is I know that going for a walk, to loosen them up, would be just as affective as Paracetamol, but then I would probably need Paracetamols to cure the new aches after that walk ! I don't know what I will be doing, but I think I'll be staying in today.