Yesterday was a busy day. It was only in the evening that I had nothing to do, and no energy to do anything anyway. As days usually do, it all started in the morning when I washed my hair and had a shower. That left me feeling really hot because I need to turn the water temperature down on these hot days. I didn't have much of rest, or time to cool off, before I started hand washing two towels, and a t-shirt, I got them done in time for them to almost bake dry in the sunshine.


  I had a crazy idea to go out for a special walk yesterday. I wanted to see if Mouse, and her big white dog were in the park. The dog has cancer, and is close to the end of her life. I hope to get a good picture of her before she passes away. I left home a bit later than intended, and felt I would have to rush if I was to stand any chance of seeing them.

  I don't know how I did it, although not stopping to take photos would have helped, but I managed an average speed of 2.7mph all the way to the bow string bridge behind the Bell Green Sainsbury's store. I was feeling really hot by the time I got there. Unfortunately I was either too early, too late, or Mouse didn't got to the park yesterday. I hope if that was the case that Freija, the big white dog, wasn't too ill for a visit to the park.

  It was an arduous walk back home. I tried to keep the speed up, but I was feeling far too hot, and I could feel the hot sunshine frazzling me. My feet were playing up too. With hindsight I should never have used a pair of Converse trainers for the walk. I wasn't planning on walk through mud, or up and down steep river banks, and nor was I planning to walk far (although I knew it would be a 3 mile round trip), but I thought a pair of lightweight shoes might be better. To some extent they were OK, but the soles of my feet felt uncomfortable, and despite wearing small trainer socks, the side of my right heel seemed to be rubbing enough to get sore.

 I didn't take it that easy getting home again, and did the entire round trip at an average of 2.5 mph.  I used to reckon that my average speed was 3 mph when going to work, but that was lots of short walks with rests between them (like sitting on a train, or just waiting for a train). It is possible that I was walking a fair bit faster in short bursts yesterday, because I did stop for a few moments several time to mop my face while in the shade of a tree. I was more than happy to get home.

  I may have been more than happy to get home, but I couldn't rest on my laurels for too long because I was expecting Jodie for out Sunday afternoon beer drinking session. A strange transformation has come over Jodie since the start of all this covid business. She used to hate green places, but now it seems she is often in parks. Yesterday she took the train to Ladywell, did some shopping in Ladywell village, and then walked through the park to me. She even stopped for an ice cream in the Good Hope café on her way through the park.

  To my surprise, Jodie arrived soon after 3pm, somewhat earlier than usual, and at that time I hadn't fully prepared the dining room, or even polished the beer glasses. Fortunately it didn't take long to get things ready. Jodie was a bit excited because she had discovered one of the shops in Ladywell Village not only sold a wide range of vegan/vegetarian stuff, but also sold beers - beers she had never seen before ! The shop had an oriental flavour, and the beers were from the east. One was strange because it was supposed to be Taiwanese, but was brewed by San Miguel, a Spanish brewer, in The Philipines. Both the two beers she bought were rather nice. In fact on of them was very nice.

  Most of the beers we drank yesterday were of the lager variety and so seemed suited for a hot sunny day. After an early start, and possibly with plans for later, Jodie left a bit earlier than usual, and I was able to start cooking my dinner early. The main part of my dinner were some pork belly strips. With hindsight I should only have cooked half of them because they were too cramped in the container I cooked them in, and they could have done with a bit more cooking when I ate them. The tops were crispy enough, almost like pork scratchings, but lower down they were rather pale (but not pink).

  I was a bit impatient waiting for that pork to cook, and looked around to for something else to start my dinner. Considering the heat I should have had a salad, but my eyes alighted on some tins of Heinz lentil soup. I wasn't sure if I had tried Heinz lentil soup before, and I wanted to see if it was better, or the same as Aldi's own brand lentil soup. I think it was possibly just a smidgin better, but that may be attributed to it's slightly higher sugar content.

  I was under no illusion that I wouldn't be feeling even hotter after the hot soup, and then a bit later, the pork belly strips. I was pouring with sweat after dinner, and at that time the outside temperature seemed to be heading for a second peak of 30° C or higher. Earlier on the temperature seemed to have past a peak and was cooling down a bit.

  I don't usually consult the two old style, non electronic thermometers that sit on the kitchen windowsill, but at about 5.15pm I rushed outside to shoo away a cat that was about to make a deposit in my back flower bed (or flower bed to be once all the seeds germinate - if they germinate). While out there I used my mobile phone camera, which does excellent close up shots, to snap the two old thermometers. Their readings were similar, although not exactly the same. One said 28° C and the other 29° C.

  It was several hours later, with the possible threat of a thunderstorm approaching, and seeming like the humidity was rising, that I noticed my electronic thermometers were saying the temperature was almost 31° C, and it still seemed to be rising. We never did get that thunderstorm, and instead had to endure a very, very sticky night.

  It took me a long time to get to sleep, well over 2 hours after I first tried to get to sleep, before I managed to actually fall asleep, but it didn't last long. It felt like I was awake more than asleep for most of the night. My pillow was saturated with sweat, and it was all very horrible. This morning I just had to get up when I did for two reasons. The first was that it felt like I wouldn't be able to get to sleep again no matter how I tried. The other reason was that I had to get up because I was going shopping in Aldi early this morning.

  My blood glucose was disappointing this morning. It was 8.6mmol/l. At least that was lower then than yesterday morning, but after not eating that much, and a three mile walk, I had hoped for a bigger drop. One probable reason for the high figure, both this morning, and also yesterday morning, might be because I was dehydrated after a long sweaty night. I guess I shouldn't complain about the weather now, no matter how sweaty, after spending the last two weeks of June, and the first two weeks of July complaining because it was too cold, and too wet.

  Yesterday I tried on some of my old pairs of shorts, and while one pair still seems just a little too tight to be comfortable (although not so tight as to make it impossible to do them up), another pair seemed fine. I wore those shorts on my walk in the park yesterday, and they seemed fine. It wasn't that long ago that they seemed too tight to wear, and I was looking forward to loosing a kilogramme or so, and to when I could wear them again. With the fearlessness of a complete idiot, I got on the scales this morning, for the first time in ages, expecting to see I had lost weight. The scales said otherwise. I now seem to weigh more than when those shorts were too tight to wear. That is not logical !

  My walk to, and maybe from Aldi was both easy, but hard work. I know that sounds stupid, but it is too different ways of looking at it. In one sense I didn't feel any difficulty walking there and back, and so it was easy, but in another sense I could feel all sorts of muscles and joints gently aching (or mostly gently), and in that sense it was like walking uphill. It was perhaps fortunate that I didn't buy enough to have a very heavy load to bring home.

  I did make one stupid purchase today. I spotted, and bought, a 30% off packet of non frozen fish fingers. I didn't really need them, and I shouldn't have eaten then for my breakfast, but I did. Now I feel the need to rest rather than rush around as I let them digest. I did have ideas about another walk into the park to see if Mouse and Freija are there today, but as much as I would like to see them, I don't think  have the energy, or stamina. I do feel like laying on my bed quietly reading, and if I feel my eyelids dropping, just letting myself go to sleep for as long as I can stay sleeping. In other words, I feel very lazy today. Maybe I'll do something more active once I have had a rest.