Today we are back in the twilight zone. The 30% chance of rain at 8am was 100% rain, and I think there were showers on and off through much of the small hours. The surprising thing is that at just 3° C it didn't rain. I can only conclude the temperature up near the clouds is higher than near the ground. Later today it may reach 5° C, but it won't be from sunshine ! The latest revision to the forecast says that there is only light cloud at the moment (you could have fooled me), and that it will stay light cloud until 2pm when it will turn to thick cloud, and soon after may start to rain again. The exact times for rain keep changing, but I think we can assume there will be showers at any time from the afternoon until midnight. Tomorrow may see a similar temperature spread, and will also feature showers at unpredictable times. The day after tomorrow may well follow the same template.
 
  The day before yesterday I felt terrible, but yesterday the promise of some sunshine perked me up. I can't say I felt that wonderful at first, at the end, or even in the middle, but I gritted my teeth, and went for a walk. With the temperature up to a whole 4° C I thought I wouldn't need my thick winter coats, and I opted for a fairly well padded, but otherwise rather ordinary leather-look jacket or coat.

  I'm sure it was the effect of the first part of the walk, actually getting to the linear park, of the sun shining strongly, non stop, straight into my eyes that did something to my brain. By the time I had walked half a mile into the park I started to realise it was less the arduous slog I thought it was going to be.

  Before I reached the bow string bridge I sort of knew that I was going to push myself to walk a bit further than normal. By the time I reached Lower Sydenham station I had a mad idea I was going to walk a fair bit further than usual. When I reached Beckenham Junction I started to think that if it was warm and sunny I would probably push on further.

  I can't say it was easy getting that far. It was a bit of a slog, and I was feeling tired, but the important thing is that I didn't seem to feel uncomfortable. What discomfort I did have was that by then the sunshine had become very sparse, sunset was not that far away, and some of the gathering clouds looked a bit threatening. It seemed important to head for home before it rained. It didn't rain for many hours after, but the threat seemed real enough when 3 or more miles from home, and not dressed for wet weather.

  It doesn't look it in this picture, but it was sort of sunny when I took it. The trouble is that the sun was very low in the sky behind me, and behind me there was a lot of trees. Just on the far left of the picture is one of my favourite rocks. The rest are almost underwater - but not that far underwater.
  I was quite surprised that the river was not a lot deeper yesterday, but on reflection, although the days have been gloomy, there has not been a lot of rain recently. I was able to walk on the shingle bank about 4ft out from the river bank to take the picture above this one. Had I been braver I could have gone further, but 4ft was quite enough to give the illusion I was able to take the picture from a bridge that isn't there (or something like that).
  This picture was taken from the path that starts at the end of Kangley Bridge Road, and leads to Lennard Road (with an entrance to Cator Park on the opposite side of the road). There is a small stream that seems to originate in some allotments in a Penge direction, and joins the River Pool here. The novel thing is that the far side of the bank of the stream seem to be made of old and discarded cold water tanks. Some have fallen into the stream, and one can be seen just left of centre of the picture.
  The River Pool looks quite nice as it flows alongside the path (off to the left of the picture). My only complaint is that bank is almost vertical on the path side of the river, and that doesn't allow easy access to the river itself. Maybe I am the only fool who wants to get right down to water level, but a few areas with a gentle slope, almost like a beach, would suit me fine.
  These signs are on a lamppost just outside New Beckenham station. The Green Chain walk points the way to Beckenham Place Park. It is possible that the direction to Grove Park is also through Beckenham Place Park, but my first thought is that it would not be the way I would go (but without consulting a map I am not sure what route I would use). Late last summer I walked some of the way towards Crystal Palace park following the direction of the third sign, but stopped at Penge East station before turning towards home, but maybe one day....
  I really ought to check my facts before calling this a griffin, but I think that is what it is. It guards the entrance to a house along Copers Cope Road. I think it looks very handsome.

   I felt quite weary as I approached home, but I didn't feel the same urgency of getting indoors as I would get on some of my longest summer walks. Maybe not being dehydrated made a difference (I did sweat a little, but nothing like on a fiercely hot summers day), but maybe it was because it was not as long as some of the longest walks I did last summer - although upon checking I see 5.7 miles is only about a mile less than some of the longest walks I did last year.

  One of the first things I did was to pop some food into the microwave oven. It was the portion of donner kebab (mystery) meat and chips left from Thursday night's big takeaway. By the time I had taken my boots off, and changed into indoor, slouching around, clothes, the meal was ready and I tucked in with great relish. The reheated chips were both awful and wonderful, and the mystery meat was as nice as it always is (even the chilli sauce that the shop put on it was one of the better ones). Of course it was completely and utterly unhealthy, but in my mind I was excused that because I had walked 5.762 miles !

  The food made me feel very weary, and I laid on my bed "just to rest my eyes", and fell asleep for at least half an hour. I was not keeping track of the time, but I do know that before I dozed off it was very close to sunset, and it was completely dark outside. Having woke up I tackled going through the few pictures I took, and edited the video I shot. I didn't attempt to do any commentary to camera for this video. I just made some observations from behind the camera at a few places along the route.

I have edited this video to be as short as possible, and still show some sort of information. It is just 2 minutes and 20 seconds long.

   Since getting home, and late into the night, it felt like my body was buzzing or fizzing. I think it was a sign of fatigue, but I am not sure. I have felt it many times before, but it was probably worse yesterday evening because I had pushed myself so hard.....and yet it didn't actually feel like I was pushing myself that much. I was certainly tired when I got home, but I didn't feel like I was on my last legs. As I said further up the page (I think), if it had been warm and sunny, and maybe with several more hours of daylight left, I could have been tempted to walk a bit further. This "buzzing" was of no consequence until I tried to sleep.

  After I had done my photo and video editing I watched some TV. The Horror Channel was still showing some Star Trek last night (as if it was still a weekday - the Pick Channel was on a crappy weekend schedule). After Star Trek there was another Fleetwood Mac documentary. I thought it was one I had watched several times recently, but this one was different (and so more enjoyable). That was followed by a Stevie Nicks (from Fleetwood Mac) concert. I am not a fan of her mumbling American singing, and so I opted to just leave it on while I diverted my main attention to a book.

  At some point during my TV watching, and I think it was when the second episode of Star Trek came on, I heated and ate the very last bit of my Thursday night takeway. It was a Chicken Shish kebab with salad (with pitta bread after the stupid web site somehow translated NO pitta bread to plus 1 pitta bread). Heating the thing up ruined the salad, and so I just ate the grilled meat with it's chilli sauce on it. It was pure gluttony really, but I enjoyed it.

  At 9pm the Stevie Nicks concert ended, and I turned everything off, and tried to go to sleep. I expected to almost fall into a coma as soon as my head hit the pillow. I couldn't have been more wrong. That buzzing, or fizzing of my entire body was starting to wane, but it seemed to keep me wake. I also found that out of the 1000 ways to lie in bed, 900 of them seemed to be very uncomfortable. If I laid one way my knees seemed to hurt, but when I changed position to stop that, my ankles seemed to hurt. Thrashing around a lot got my chest/ribs aching before long. It was 1am, or later before I got to sleep.

  Even after getting to sleep I don't think I slept well. There were no specific periods when I seemed to be awake for long periods, but I did seem to be awake a lot. I even had bad dreams when I did sleep. One such dream concerned a very good looking jogger who passed me on my walk. In the dream version of the real encounter she stopped and we chatted for a bit. We seemed to get on incredibly well, but I felt deep sadness that in this day an age we dare not even have a small hug (although given the chance I would have risked it - she was very nice). The even worse thing was the deep guilt that I hadn't showered yesterday morning (and I don't think I had a shower the morning before either). Under such circumstance I wouldn't dare get close to her.

  This morning I have a few enhanced aches after that walk, but in that respect I don't feel all that bad. I do feel like I am suffering from lack of sleep, and I expect I'll be taking a few naps today. The worst thing is that my blood glucose level is very high this morning, and I find it hard to explain it. It doesn't feel like I can blame it all on the greasy chips I ate. Apart from those I thought I ate slightly modestly yesterday - and I had a very big dollop of exercise too !

 My first reading was 9.8mmol/l, and that just seemed so wrong that I took another reading with blood from a different finger. That was lower - just 8.8mmol/l - but still very high. I am getting towards the end of the test strips I am using, and in the past I have had a few anomalous readings at the end of a pack. A bit later I decided to open a brand new container of test strips and try again. This time I got an even higher reading. That was rather shocking, but I had eaten a sort of breakfast of rice crackers and cheese. Previous experience suggests that in the long term rice crackers and cheese do not raise my blood glucose the next day, and maybe it is the next day that is important. It sounds like clutching at straws, but I am sure I have experienced these odd high reading before, and particularly when I think they ought to be lower, and fond that the next day my blood glucose is much lower without even trying to get it there. It is if there is some sort of time delay.

  Today I will not try too hard, but I will be aware of what I am eating, and I'll see what happens tomorrow morning. Other than that, I am not sure what I am doing today. I do feel I am owed some sleep, and I will take any opportunity for a snooze.  I definitely don't fancy any more walking today, but it is possible I might do something I was thinking about yesterday, but later in the day. My original idea was to go and buy some insane strength Polish booze from the mini supermarket on Catford bridge. The idea of some strong beer probably fitted better with my miserable day the day before yesterday, but Sunday afternoons can be bloody miserable too !