We've had a few unscheduled short sunny spells this morning, but now the sky seems to be getting darker. The mist shown on the screenshot above disappeared from later revisions of the forecast. The current prediction is that the rain will now start at midday. Not all of it will be heavy, but most will. The hail shown for 3pm (above) has now disappeared off the chart, and 4pm is now shown as light rain, but..... More importantly, reality has diverged from the forecast. Quite some time has passed thanks to another long rambling phone call from Lee. During the last half hour, and maybe full hour (I was only semi-conscious while Lee was rabbiting away) the sun has been shining ! There was also a light shower before the sun came out. At the moment most of the sky is white, and the sun is an ill defined blinding patch of light that can still cast a strong shadow. Presumably the rain will still catch up with the forecast, and that the temperature will start to fall away soon. The current temperature in the shade, but at the height of the upstairs windows, is 10° C. That is higher than it should be, and probably puts a crimp on tomorrows forecast for lots of snow.

  Until now the forecast from both the Met Office, and The BBC (Meteogroup) was for a considerable amount of snow tomorrow. The latest update now shows only rain from midnight to 3am instead of snow, but heavy snow is forecast for 3am. It was supposed to snow all day, but now the snow is shown as finishing at 7am, although there could be some short falls of light snow a few more times during the day. It is possible there might still be 4 or 5 hours of light snow on Monday, but it feels like the chance of some good snow photography is getting less and less.


  I felt the need for some exercise yesterday, and the weather finally lured me out for a walk, although it took some time before I felt ready, and the weather felt ready for me to go out. I actually went out a bit too early to get the best of the sunshine, The sun was a bit variable on the outward half of my walk, but was more constant on the way home. With the sun on my back as I walked home, I could feel it really warming me up. Not only that, but I could even see where it was starting to dry the ground and stuff. Of course there were some places when it would need full equatorial sun over a week or two to dry out some places "

  I think I felt a bit less creaky than expected when I first started walking, and for a while it seemed like maybe I might walk a lot further than I did. I was pondering missing out the really boggy field, and maybe walking up to Lower Sydenham station. In a moment of complete fantasy I imagined walk as far as New Beckenham station. By the time I reached the bow string bridge, via the dry path instead of muddy field, I realised that I was starting to tire a bit.

  I crossed the bridge and then walked back across the quagmire of a field. Actually the first half of the field wasn't too bad because it is on a slope, and the worst of the water just runs down the slope. Crossing the second half was hard work. It was a combination of having to walk really carefully to avoid slipping, and trying to find a path where the mud was not too deep. After crossing that bit I was back on the proper path, and out of the mud. That made the going a lot easier, but I did detour off the path to check the ponds by the Vineries area.

  I was just in time to see Glendale, the councils contractors who look after the park, drive up to inspect, and ultimately do something for the huge puddle by the Winsford Road entrance of the park. I had a chat with the guys and learned a few things. The drainage in the park, and I had heard from other sources, is the responsibility of Thames Water, but they don't see this path blocking puddle as a priority, or maybe they already know it will be a major job that needs to be done by a specialist crew. The Glendale guys said all they could do was to find, and lift the drain cover, and then pump the water out. They say they have tried rodding the drain to clear an obstruction, but a few metres from the drain it seems like the drain pipe has collapsed. That would probably be where National Power was installing new underground power cables. National Power should probably take the blame, and pay for the repair, but as it always seems to be the case, the blame is just going around in circles. I predict that as the weather dries up the worst of the problem will go away, and nothing will get done until it floods again next winter....and then the story starts all over again.
  It is a lot clearer when you walk through it, but the river was running high enough to slightly overflow the edge at this point. Judging by the way the vegetation is all bent over on the right hand bank, it has been a lot higher earlier.
  This is the part of the field that is a complete quagmire. Now, how does that song go ? Mud, mud, glorious mud, there's nothing quite like it for cooling the blood..... I'll be a lot happier when it has all dried out, and the grass is back to growing thick and lush.
  This was the view walking back to Catford. A lovely blue sky, and the sun was on my back feeling deliciously warm. If only there were leaves on the trees, you might think it was summer (although the length of the shadow of the lamppost is another clue that the sun is still very low in the sky at this time of year).

  I was definitely tiring as I reached home, but I still felt good for stretching my legs, and feeling some warm sunshine. There was another reason to feel good as well. One the way to the park I checked my bank balance. I have been paying for my weekly shop, and occasional shop in the mini supermarket on the bridge using cash from my savings account. My savings have been slowly evaporating away, but I think my main bank account has actually gone up ! I usually think my spending on Amazon, and other online stuff, on my credit card, has been a bit excessive, but once again it seems that it is less than the little pension I get for my 22 years working for BT. It makes me think that once I get my state pension I will be quite comfortable providing I don't have any holidays, and my house doesn't fall down. A serious problem with my house could be complete doom, but with luck I will be dead before that happens.

  When I got home I found the energy to go through the pictures, and the little bit of video I took. I also checked my blood glucose level. Just as I expected, it was quite high, and I am still at a loss to explain why. I stuck to my plan of trying to avoid any food that might raise it, and to satisfy a strong need to nibble (because I had not eaten much at all before going out) I just ate some peanuts. Peanuts contain a lot of energy, and so I will probably continue to get fatter, but they take a lot of digesting before producing any sugar.  A few hours later, after eating quite a few peanuts, and also after having a nice snooze, I checked my blood glucose level, and it was really nice and low - just 7.1mmol/l - lower than my target of 7.5mmol/l. Quite where all the glucose went to is a complete mystery.

  I tried to continue the theme of low sugar foods when I made my dinner. I just had two chicken thighs - I often have 3 or even 4 in a meal - and some green vegetables in a very spicy gravy. I must admit I didn't think it was that spicy until a tiny speck of a splash caught me in the eye. That really stung for a few minutes ! The only "bad" thing about that dinner was it that I didn't use skinless chicken, and it really brought it to my attention just how much oil/grease can come out of chicken skin. I should have roasted it before stewing it, but it wasn't that bad. The oil was only in patches floating on the gravy, rather than the oil slick from my recent lamb stew.

  There were a possible 5 episodes of Star Trek on TV last night. The Pick Channel is now showing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, followed by Star Trek: Enterprise, and then Star Trek: The New Generation. Over on the Horror Channel they are showing Star Trek: The Original Series followed by Star Trek: Enterprise. Both channels start it at 6pm, and the first two hours overlap. The episode of Star Trek: Enterprise that Pick shows is the same as The Horror Channel shows the next day. It is all very frustrating...or maybe not. I watched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on Pick, and then turned over to watch Star Trek: Enterprise on the Horror Channel.

  I could have then gone back to Pick to watch Star Trek: The New Generation, and indeed I did, but I found I was over saturated with Star Trek by then. Not only that, but it was one of the early episodes of the new generation, and they were still developing the characters in those early episodes. I tend to forget how crappy they seemed until the series matured, and ended up as probably the best of all the Star Trek world. I decided I would go to bed early instead.

  I had quite a good sleep last night. It wasn't perfect, but there were few time when I was awake thinking I would never get back to sleep again. There was a short pause in my sleep at about 3am, but I hadn't finished grumbling about it before I was asleep again. I almost got up at 6am, but somehow fell asleep again after a wee, and I think it was 7.15am when I woke up to the first grey rays of daylight coming through my window.

  My sleep was only notable in that for the first time I can ever remember I dreamed about time travel. It seemed to be a common narrative through several short dreams. The first dream featured a rather attractive young woman in Victorian clothes. She had apparently just become homeless, but told me that he mother had arranged for he to stay in a posh hotel just off Cambridge Circus (London, Charing Cross Road). At that point I could have been in the past, but the road traffic said otherwise. I lost her when the traffic lights changed, and got caught on the other side of the road. I wouldn't see her until a few dreams later.

  In the next dream I was actually in the hotel where she was supposed to be staying, but it was not a posh hotel now. In fact it was quite run down. The only thing I can remember from this dream was standing in reception hoping to see a receptionist. The only two people there were a couple of "Ladies of The Night", and one was still partly undressed - which might have been exciting, but in these dream it wasn't. They were grumbling about there being no receptionist. I tried to talk to them to ask if it was always like this, but they ignored me. It was more than ignoring me, and more like I wasn't actually there...sort of as if I were in a different time to them.

  In a later dream the young woman in Victorian attire re-appeared again, and we seemed to be getting nice and close. Of course that was the cue to be joined by all sorts of people - some very annoying, and all annoying to some degree. I can't remember how that dream ended, but it definitely wasn't in the "naughty" way I was hoping for.

  This morning is one of those morning where I feel more or less OK, although I use "OK" in the modern sense rather than the old fashioned sense where it meant OK. I do feel good enough that if I had known this morning was going to be bright, sometimes sunny, and any rain would be no more than a brief light shower, I could have been tempted to go for a short walk. It still doesn't look like we will get much rain, but I guess it could still happen. the 11am revision to the forecast is still adamant that heavy rain will start at 2pm.

  I checked my blood glucose three times earlier this morning, and all three readings were different. I started with a pin prick to my right hand little finger, and that gave a reading of 10.1mmol/l. That looked very wrong, and so I tried my index finger of my left hand. That said 8.3mmol/l - a far better reading, but still higher than expected after what I ate yesterday. (could it have been the 4 little tangerines I ate ?). I began to theorise that the readings were high when my blood temperature was low. That could explain my high reading after walks on cold days (my temperature after I got home from my walk was just 34.7° C). I tried again after a hot shower, and it seemed to have gone up a bit from the 8.3mmol/l, but I can't remember what it was exactly - 9.something I think. One possibility is that errors are creeping in as I get to the end of another pack of test strips. I think I have seen this before, but I have at least a weeks worth to use before I open fresh test strips.

  Today there are two things I have to do. The first is to finish washing a few t-shirts and some underwear - they are soaking in detergent as I write this. Another thing is to pay the council for my brown wheelie bin. They want the full year even though it was never out for collection through most of the year of lockdown, and then will be demanding more again in April (or March). I probably out to check and pay anything on my credit card today. One other thing I am contemplating, based on the idea that my bank account remains quite healthy, is to treat myself to a takeaway tonight. All I have to do is to avoid ordering "doner meat with chips" no matter how orgasmicly wonderful such a meal would be !