The forecast for today has started off a bit too pessimistic. Until now there have been a few very light sprinkles of rain, and as yet the heavy rain forecast for 8am, right now, has failed to materialise - yet ! The sky is looking pretty grim, and it seems it is going to stay this way all day. Even if it is not doing much now there is a high probability for a lot of rain today, and it seems likely that some of it is going to be heavy. To add to the grimness the rain could be accompanied by high winds tonight. The afternoon is going to be a very cool 8° C, but by midnight the temperature could rise to 11° C. Tomorrow afternoon may be 10° C. There could be sunny spells at any time, but also some showers, probably in the afternoon.

  Yesterday morning was mostly dominated by waiting for my Star Bargains delivery. It was 9.23am when an email (and text message) arrived to say my delivery would be between 12.04 and 13.04pm. That gave me some freedom to do other things instead of having an ear permanently trained on the front door bell.

  About the only thing I did of note was to hand wash a hand towel, a t-shirt and a couple of pairs of underpants. I was almost tempted to do it in two parts because I knew the hand towel would need extra rinses to get all the soap out. It actually took two extra rinses until I was happy with it. Once it was all hanging up to dry on my clothes horse I could relax until my big box of goodies was delivered.

  The delivery was about midway between the two estimated time, or roughly at half past midday. As I unpacked the box I couldn't help but drool over all the things I had ordered that I couldn't eat yesterday because of my stupidly high blood glucose. There were many other things that I could of eaten, but it was the things like Sensations smoked cheddar crisps that I dared not eat - not even a few for fear I would want to eat the whole bag.

  With the box unpacked, and everything in it's right place I spent some time cutting up the box, plus a lot of the cardboard used as packing in it, to dispose of in the recycling bin. I could then go out for a walk in the glorious sunshine. That was at a quarter to one, and it was still warming up then. I judged it to still be a bit too cool to go out without any coat, but warm enough for my sleeveless denim jacket with short sleeved t-shirt. I was very comfortable in that respect.

  My feet were less comfortable. I correctly guessed that most of the park would be dry, and not muddy, and so I thought I would try and get a bit more use out of the boots I was wearing for much of last year. They used to be very comfortable, but the tread on the sole and heel was almost worn to nothing, and they didn't provide the grip I wanted in the mud. I really don't know why, but those once very comfortable boots seemed very uncomfortable yesterday. They were 50% of the reason I didn't try and push myself to do a much longer walk.

 I did still push myself a bit though. Instead of my now usual minimum walk of up to the bow string bridge and back again, I walked to within 50ft (or something like that) of the very end of the park, and then walked back on the wrong side of the river. I was aware that it was possible to walk along the other side of the river, but I had never done so before. It was nice walking on grass instead of a paved path, and the view was a novelty, although apart from the change of perspective I didn't really see anything new - except a fox the other side of the fence. He saw me watching him, and slowly slinked off into deeper undergrowth.
  The last repair to the "Bridge Of Doom" never did look to be completed, and it is already starting to fall apart. I wonder if we will have to endure another bridge closure while they try to do a better job of repairing it ?
  After some time with no significant rain the water level in the river has dropped to almost summer levels. The shingle has become exposed again at my favourite spot on the river (by my favourite rocks).
  I was able to walk to near the centre of the river for the first time in many months to take this snap looking downstream towards the confluence of the two rivers, and Catford. The water was still too deep to get at my favourite rocks though.
  Some trees are in blossom. I think, although really it is a stab in the dark, that this may be Blackthorn. One thing I do know is that the pollen triggered some coughing for a while.
  There were two adjacent trees covered in those white flowers (and possibly more). Just thinking about them makes my nose twitch. I can't wait until the hay fever season starts because I am not sensitive to grass pollen, and I am fine while everyone else suffers !
  This is the water abstraction plant that Thames Water operates. Apparently the river water is now so clean it only needs filtration and light chlorination before it is fit for public consumption. Even when heavy rain was making the river a raging torrent I didn't notice any standing water in this compound. I think they may have a leak. I did try and phone the emergency number on the sign outside, but it seemed like they don't take such calls seriously, after going through their selection of numbers (push 2 for.....) I gave up when it was announced that I was umpteen billionth in the queue, and all their calls were important to them....
  This is the view from the "wrong side" of the river at the Lower Sydenham end of the park. The "official" path can be seen on the other side of the river. It was interesting seeing a different perspective, but the best thing is that now I have tried this route once I can use it again, and make it part of my "standard" walk. Until now I had always crossed over the river on the bow string bridge to reduce the distance when I am re-tracing my own footsteps. Now I can walk to the far end of the park without having to walk back along the same path. There are several parts of this walk where I have to retrace my own steps, but as much as half the distance where I don't.
  Just before the bridge of doom, when walking towards Catford, is this scraggy old tree, and it is much loved by the ring necked parakeets that infest the park (the are an invasive species). There is another tree about 30ft away, and there were more parrots on that tree. There was a very loud shouting match going on between the two trees as I passed on my way back home.

  Bits of me were feeling a bit creaky on this walk, and that included my ribs. Fortunately it wasn't the start of another flare up. Once my legs got moving they felt fairly OK, and if it wasn't for my feet I might have extended the walk a bit further. Going to Lower Sydenham station would have added a mile, but the extra half a mile I walked was a good enough achievement, and rather good considering how uncomfortable my feet felt. I still think it strange that the boots I was wearing could have got so uncomfortable almost overnight. I should probably throw them away now.

  It felt good to be approaching home and the chance of putting my feet up. The trouble was that I wanted to continue my fasting until dinner time, and fighting the desire to snack was not easy. As seems to happen just after a walk, my blood glucose goes up even higher than the morning reading, and I don't really know why. I know there are two factors which could have an influence. The first is some mild dehydration, but compared to a hot and sweaty summers day, I doubt I was that dehydrated yesterday. The other thing was my body temperature. While I expect my core temperature hadn't changed much, the temperature under my tongue was just 34.3° C when I got home. I checked my blood glucose 2 hours (approx) after getting home, when I had warmed up to my normal low, and had had something to drink. My blood glucose had dropped over 2 points to 9.0mmol/l. That was far more acceptable.
  Before I forget, I finally remembered to look at the new road sign in the road outside. I had had plenty of opportunities to see it before yesterday, but yesterday was the first time, and I have now satisfied my curiosity about it, and also about the CCTV cameras that appeared a few months back. It seemed that for limited hours the road by the school is going to be barred to "motor vehicles". I presume it will be enforced by the CCTV cameras. I can foresee many motorists being incensed by this.

  I managed to hold out eating until gone 5pm, but only by minutes. I had started to make my dinner, and the thought of it was making me drool. One thing I thought would be OK was a small packet of dry roasted peanuts. My Star Bargains order included some dry roasted peanuts made by "Nobby's Nuts". I got very close to opening the packet when I noticed their sugar content was a lot higher than expected. I checked the ingredients, and sure enough they use sugar in the "dry roasting spice coating".  I put the packet down an opted for a bigger packet of slated cashew nuts whose sugar content was a tenth of the Nobby's Nuts.

  A 6pm, while watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, I was able to tuck into my dinner. It was a low calorie/sugar special. Basically it was little more than stewed lean diced beer with beansprouts and gravy granules. I spiced it up a bit with some added cayenne pepper.  It almost satisfied me, but I couldn't resist a small chunk of cheese as a sort of dessert.  After that I did no more than watch another hour of TV, read a few things on the internet, read for maybe half an hour from the latest book I am reading (or re-reading). Then it was time to turn the light out, and get to sleep.

  I am unsure what time I got to sleep, but I don't think it was much later than 9pm. I seemed to have quite a good sleep last night. I know I had dreams, but I can barely remember anything about them apart from one dream featuring cats and dogs. Even the period of time I often seem to spend awake at 3am seemed very short last night. It didn't seem to be long before I was waking up at around 6am.

  My exercise and fasting worked well yesterday. My blood glucose was 8.8mmol/l this morning, that is still too high, but well out of the danger zone, and a good drop from yesterday morning's reading. Unfortunately it wasn't a big enough drop, and today I will have to try and be very careful about what I eat. I feel the need to get my blood glucose down to under 7mmol/l if I can so I have more room for those occasional errors.

  The rest of my feels good enough except for my feet. They did seem to take a bit of a battering in those old boots. Fortunately I don't think I'll be going out today....or will I? It is dull and damp outside, but there has still not been enough rain to completely dampen the pavements (or so it looks from up here in my bedroom). The latest revision to the forecast predicts a 90% chance of heavy rain right now. Later on it goes up to a greater than 95% chance of heavy rain. I doubt we will escape all the heavy rain predicted. However, I keep thinking I could put a rain coat on and go for a walk in the rain. Such a thing has never happened before, but I suppose it will one day. It is either that or trying to avoid feeling hungry while doing absolutely nothing !