Yesterday was nice and sunny, and I am
wondering if the temperature rose even higher than
the predicted 24° C.
Today should
feature a lot of pure sunshine, but it
seems there is a chance of a few
clouds bubbling up for a while later
this afternoon - and then thy may go
away again before the day has
finished. It looks like it is going to
be hot today ! 27° C. Tomorrow may see
a bit less sunshine - once again in
the afternoon - but the temperature
should rise another degree to 28° C,
and maybe more if the cloud is thinner
than predicted.
I don't think I did anything
except shower and wash my hair
yesterday morning. I was saving my
strength for the afternoon, and with
hindsight I am rather glad I did. The
main part of the afternoon was another
street gig by The Coxymorons (as they
dub themselves). Once again this was
Dik on guitar, Steve on bass, Abby on
vocals, plus Angela's lover boy on
drums.
I think that once upon a time,
like last year, I started to find the
walk up the hill to Hither Green Lane
was getting easier, but yesterday it
was as taxing as ever - particularly
in the hot sun. From Hither Green Lane
it was all downhill to the gig, but
that means it was uphill from the gig
to Hither Green Lane, and I was
starting to feel tired when I had to
tackle that.
I made the day out a little
more arduous by taking a walk to Manor
House Gardens at the end of the first
set. That probably added almost a mile
to my walk taking the total to 3.25
miles. As soon as I got to the lake in
the park this dove/pigeon hybrid (if
such a thing exists) looked straight
up into my camera lens, but it didn't
produce any breadcrumbs, and it got
bored waiting for me to set the
exposure (I probably could have left
the camera on auto yesterday 0 there
was plenty of light for it to work
on).
One of those pictures which
seemed like a good idea at the time,
but I am not so sure now. I thought
the greenish water as a background to
the pigeon sitting on an old branch
that was sticking out the water, would
look cool...or something.
This swan is always shy, and
avoids the main part of the lake in
favour to the end with the thickest
vegetation around it.
The swan, seen here hiding it's
head in the overhanging foliage, had 4
cygnets, but only 3 are visible here.
There must be a mister swan, but I
have never seen him. Maybe he only
flies in from another pond for a bit
of nookie, and then flies away again.
The main part of yesterday's
exercise was the street gig. It was
good to some extent, but I look
forward to when all Covid restrictions
are lifted so I can have a pint or
more of Guinness in a pub while
snapping away. On this occasion there
were seats available, and I could have
sat down. I could even ave sat down at
the same table as Angela who did
attend (with lover boy), but I didn't
want to sit down for fear that my legs
would seize up, and I would never be
able to walk home again. The only
trouble with that was, just like last
time, I started to get sciatic pains
in my right thigh. Part of my reason
for walking to the park was to relieve
those pains. It worked, but not for
long.
This
was some video I shot on my
mobile phone mounted on the
3 axis stabiliser. It has
come out far better than
when I use the Nikon camera.
The stabiliser has an
occasional twitch, but is
far steadier than plain hand
held. The automatic
exposure, and sound level
have kept it bright, and the
sound seems pretty good. In
this video Abby sings a song
called "Mercy" which is a
cover of a Duffy song.
After my
walk to the park I watched a few
more songs, and tried to chat a
bit with Angela, but we could
hardly hear each other over the
band. Just before the end of the
first set Michael, my neighbour
from around the corner, turned up,
and maybe I should have tried to
cadge a lift home from him, but I
was back in pain after standing
around for another few songs.
Eventually I shouted my goodbyes,
and headed off home. The walk to
home felt like really hard work -
even when going down the hill !
I think I probably got
quite dehydrated walking in the
hot sun. I did have a bottle of
water with me, but I only took the
occasional sip when my throat
started to feel dry and tickly. I
started to re-hydrate myself
because I wanted to see how my
blood glucose was doing after
eating nothing but a handful of
peanuts all day. My blood glucose
had started at a very nice
7.5mmol/l in the morning, and I
expected it to drop a point or
more after that walk.
I waited until just before
6pm when I was about to eat dinner
when I checked my blood glucose.
It hadn't gone down but had gone
up to 8.9mmol/l ! I feel sure it
was because I was probably still a
bit dehydrated. My dinner was two
(alleged) Greek sausages with a
very weak mustard, followed by a
salad that was described as a
Greek salad, but was nothing like
one. The sausages were nice, but
not exciting, and the salad was
nice enough once I had removed all
the cucumber (I can't stand
cucumber since my Covid infection
over a year ago).
For a while I watched a
documentary on Sky Arts. I was
just about to say it was about
Deep Purple, but that was the
night before...I think..... I have
no idea what it was last night,
but I know it was followed by a
Stevie Nicks (from Fleetwood Mac)
gig. It may be heresy around these
parts to say it, but her
Californian whine really starts to
grate on me after a while, and I
only watch about 30 minutes before
turning the TV off.
During, and after dinner, I
kept drinking - just lime
flavoured Diet Coke. It is rather
nice ! It may have been 90minutes
to 2 hours after dinner that I
checked my blood glucose again.
Normally it would be peaking after
that length of time, but it was
down - down to 8.5mmol/l. Things
were looking good for this
morning, but that was many hours
away. I passed at least one of
those hours, and maybe two by
reading my book until the end.
From today I start yet another.
I reckon the afternoon walk
must have tired me out because I
seemed to sleep like a log last
night. I do have vague memories of
getting up for a wee or two, and
an even vaguer memory of not being
able to get back to sleep after
waking up, but I reckon that
period of being awake probably
didn't last for more than a few
minutes in the real world. One
thing I noticed when I got up was
that my legs felt extra creaky.
The good news is that my blood
glucose is back to 7.5mmol/l - a
good figure and the same as
yesterday morning.
This morning is the morning
when I an intending to fix that
leaking waste pipe from the bath
(where it joins the main downpipe
to the sewer). Of course intending
may not be the same as actually
doing. I must admit that as I sit
here typing my knees, particularly
my right knee, are aching, and I
feel like laying down for a while
before doing anything else. Later
today I think I am expecting a
visit from Jodie, and more beer
drinking.
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