This morning it has been what I call overcast. At midday the forecast says it will be overcast, but I would call it overcast with grey cloud. After midday the clouds should start to break up, and the latest revision to the forecast says 2 and 3pm will feature sunny spells, and 4pm will feature full sunshine. After that the sun will set, and then it doesn't matter. I do find myself sceptical of this forecast. The last similar one turned out to be complete nonsense. The bit that is almost certainly right is the temperature. It could be 4° C this afternoon, but only 2° C this morning, and 3° C after sunset. Tomorrow there is a warning of snow, but only some very early morning sleet is actually shown on the chart. The morning is almost certain to be cold and very wet, but whether that means snow, or even sleet is something I think we will only find out tomorrow.

   There were only a few things that happened yesterday that are worth commentating on. In brief these were another Thursday beer drinking session, getting drunk enough to order a takeaway, and....and that is about it until bed time. Prior to the beer drinking session I did very little. I just read and snoozed. I suppose I can add that I put a few beers in the fridge to chill, and I cooked a few sausages for lunch. The idea being that the greasy (despite being grilled) sausages would line my stomach before drinking the beer.

  As usual, a wide selection of beer was drunk, but only in lots of small quantities. I doubt it even added up to a 4 pint session, but most of it was quite strong (6% was probably typical). I must admit I am beginning to miss chugging back ordinary ales. Some of the weird ones may have a sort of attraction because they are "off the beaten track", but many now seem to be following the path of insanity - pineapple flavoured beer ???????????????????????????

  I had plenty of food in the fridge that wouldn't have needed much preparation, although it would have taken a bit of time to cook. I could have cooked my own dinner, but the beer made me give in to the desire for a kebab - the well acknowledged perfect meal after beer ! I did my usual trick of ordering enough for three meals - that is providing I kept the portions medium sized - I didn't ! Actually there is more to this that I shall explain further down the page.

  It was soon after I had eaten my dinner, and while I was checking some stuff on my computer, that I realised that my left forearm, that was sort of laying on the computer desk, was getting painful. By the time I went to bed it was really annoying. It had some similarities to the knee, leg, and ankle pain I had a fortnight ago. That seemed to spring up out of nowhere, and then, after a couple of days it faded away really quickly. I was hoping this arm pain wouldn't last that long !

  Like the leg problem, this arm pain superficially seemed to be mostly the elbow (being equivalent to the the knee), but it must have been from one or more of the muscles in the forearm that attach to the elbow, and to the wrist. Some of the pain would seem to be from the attachment points. I have no idea what can have caused it. Two possibilities spring to mind. Both the leg and the arm pains could be a sort of covid after echo, or both could have been caused my a blood clot blocking an artery. The latter could be a worry if it is the same blood clot, and that clot gets into the brain or heart. Maybe it is better to continue to blame it on covid.

  While the pain in my arm was not nice, it was easy to live with while moving around, or even sitting at my PC, but it was 10 times worse when trying to get to sleep. It was one of those times when there didn't seem to be a comfortable way to lie in bed without that arm being really bloody uncomfortable. There is another parallel there with the pain I had in my lower leg, ankle and knee a fortnight ago. I had to wait until some Paracetamol kicked in, and allowed fatigue to send me to sleep. I woke up a few hours later, and it was still really painful in some positions.

  The idea that it could have been caused by a blood clot gained some credence when that pain seemed to be almost completely gone a few more hours after that. By morning it was like it had never happened. If it was a blood clot than I am probably in bad trouble. On the other hand, one of the drugs I am on, Clopidogrel, thins the blood, and should prevent blood clots. The low dosage Aspirin I take has a similar effect.

  The only negative thing this morning was my blood glucose was predictably high. The kebab I had for dinner included chips, and I ate some crisps earlier in the day. Neither contains added sugar, but all that carbohydrate turns to sugar as it is digested. Then there was the beer. It seems only in New Zealand (and possibly Australia) do beers say how much sugar they have in them. Some I had yesterday could have had had some sugar in them - or a lot. Some of the beer had fruit in them as part of the ingredients - things like passion fruit purée.


  Despite my difficulties getting to sleep because of the discomfort I was in, I started early, and so I didn't get to sleep that late. That meant that when I woke up at 6am I felt ready to get up, and carry out a plan I had on standby for a dry morning. It was to go out before dawn for a walk. It could have been a short walk because the idea was to intercept Angela as she walked to work.

  As can be seen in the route map on the left, I started out at 7.20am. I wasn't sure what time Angela would normally leave home to walk to work, but It seemed reasonable that I would probably see her in the first 15 minutes of walking. I actually reached her house before she had left for work.

  When I reached her house I sent her a text message to ask what time she had got to work. I was back home before she replied to say that she had been very late this morning. I said not to worry because I needed the exercise, and I would try again some dry morning. She gently (but annoyingly) reminded me that she was often give a lift to work by lover boy.

 It was only a few degrees above zero when I went out (and when I got home again) and so I wore my orange winter coat. I must be getting fatter because it felt tighter than it did when I did my Xmas morning pre-dawn walk wearing it. It almost felt comfortable that day, but not so comfortable this morning.
  First I read that the blocked drain across the path by the Winsford Road entrance to the linear park had been cleaned out. Then I heard the path was till flooding. This morning I saw it for myself ! Yep, that is a hell of a big puddle. To make matters worse, the grass on the left is a complete quagmire after the recent rain.
  As expected, the river was running fast and deep this morning, but maybe not as high as it could have been. There is occasional evidence of the path alongside the river being covered by water, but I saw little evidence of that this morning, but 12 hours or so after the last rainfall has probably given time for the water level to drop a bit.
  At the confluence of the two rivers (Ravensbourne and Pool) there was a fair bit of white water as it raced over the weirs, but once again, I feel sure I have seen it higher than this. That was probably the last time I wass there while it was still actually raining.
  On the way home I noticed this man (and his mate guarding the other end of the hose outside) jet blasting graffiti off the wall in Catford Bridge station. Another picture, taken before this one, didn't come out well, but it seemed to show that the two 650 volt conductor rails had been sprayed with paint at the point where the "artist(s)" had crossed the track.
  Just around the corner from home there used to be a small area that was once the base of the footbridge leading into the old Greyhound Stadium. It was only about 10ft by 10ft, and was frequently used for fly tipping. Eventually warning signs went up warning of CCTV surveillance, but not cameras could be seen - and out of curiosity, I looked very hard for them. Several years ago Network Rail fenced off that small square, and the fly tipping stopped. Now I see there are finally cameras to watch over that bit of road. They must have been only put up less than a couple of weeks ago. I guess they are really there to make sure parents don't stand too close to each other when dropping the kids off at the school.
  I know they have been around for years, but I still think of them as new, and I don't like them. "They" are condensing boilers, and the reason I don't like them is the huge plumes of fog they produce. When you turn the corner and see what could be steam or smoke, you could be forgiven at wondering if the school was on fire.

  I probably needed this morning's walk. Providing it is dry, and more importantly a morning when I feel  OK (in particular, no unstable bottom !) I feel inclined to do more early morning, and maybe pre-dawn walks. It wasn't great being wrapped up so tight in my winter coat, but in very slightly warmer weather, in a lighter coat, it could be very enjoyable to watch the sun rise from somewhere like the top of Hilly Fields.

  When I got home I was feeling a bit peckish. I hadn't eaten a single thing before going out. There were various things I could have had for breakfast when I got home, and most of them would have been better for me than what I actually had - grilled chicken wings and samosas. I ordered the chicken wings with the kebabs because provided they really were grilled, they would have been quite healthy, or at least not that negative. They were a bit greasy, and I think they had probably been precooked, and then dunked in the deep fat fryer for a few minutes before despatch. I included the samosas out of curiosity. You don't normally associate them with kebab shops. They did seem different to the sort that you would typically get from an Indian restaurant, but quite nice, and probably terribly unhealthy for me.

  Until an hour or two ago (writing this is taking ages because it is a very long one today, and i had another bloody hour long phone call from Lee in the middle of it) I was considering the madness of another walk this afternoon - when the sun is alleged to come out. Fortunately I have been saved from that by another parcel delivery now expected sometime this afternoon. The other day I got a bit carried away (while perfectly sober) and ordered another 5 paperbacks to read. Tow should arrive today directly from Amazon. Then others are coming by other carriers, and I have no idea when thet will arrive. I now wait with baited breath !