07:20 BST

  There was very little wind yesterday, and that made it feel a bit warm in the sunshine when it was 11 or probably even 12° C. Later forecasts for yesterday showed less sunshine than the early versions, but the amount of sunshine seemed to be even more than that early forecast. It felt to be a rather nice day except from late afternoon when it seemed to cool down a lot, but I think that was just that the sun was no longer at a good angle to warm the front rooms of my house. It was still 8° C at 11pm.

  

  The latest revision to the forecast hasn't changed a thing compared to the earlier version above. There should be sunshine or sunny spells until 2pm, and the afternoon temperature should reach 13° C. It is a shame that the second half of the afternoon will be cloudy, but at least the temperature should stay up until almost sunset. Tomorrow, the sunshine, albeit only as sunny spells, will start in the afternoon, and with luck the prediction of the temperature reaching 16° C by 2pm will turn out to be right.

  I did it ! I finally got out and went for quite a long walk. It was a bit touch and go during the morning because by guts seemed to be playing up again, and while I think I only had to go to the toilet 3 times, the last time was around midday. That is one reason why I didn't start off on my walk until 12:40pm. It was also good to wait until the day had warmed up a bit.

  Apart from once or twice when I wondered if I might need to visit a toilet, but didn't, it felt rather nice outside. There were quite a few fluffy clouds in the sky most of the time, but it seemed to me that I was walking in sunshine the whole time. I doubt that was the case, but it does seem that my arms and face caught enough sun to leave some hints of browning. This has always been good for me in the past - very slowly building up a tan while the sun is not very strong, and being unaffected by full strength sun in the summer months.

  I chose an ultimate goal for this walk, but I knew the route had plenty of places where I could bail out if the going seemed to be too much for me. My ultimate goal was to walk all the way to Elmers End station, and get a train back to Catford. There were a few times when I nearly gave in and came home early, but I stuck with it, and made it all the way to Elmers End.

 The last mile was a bit of slog, but maybe because the final approach to Elmers End station was gently downhill, I didn't feel exhausted when I got there - which was good for a reason I will explain a bit later.
  This picture, taken halfway through the Linear Park gives a fair idea of what the weather was like. The deep shadows behind the people walking in front show how bright it was even if the picture looks dull. That was deliberate so that the structure of the clouds could be easily seen. If I had made the foreground bright it would have just bleached the clouds out, and made the blue sky look very pale.

  One other thing this picture shows is the lady in the blue coat bending forwards near the railings on the right. She is another walker and bird watcher. I first spoke to her when she stopped right in front of me. I could see she was looking at something, but I couldn't see what. She said she had just seen a wren in amongst some ivy clinging to a tree. I didn't see it, but we did have another fairly long chat, perhaps 15 minutes, at the spot where she is in the photo above.
  This is what provoked that conversation. I had spotted this egret a couple of times, but it had always flown off before I could get a snap of it. I referred to it as a heron, and while they are of the same family, I was corrected, and told it was an egret. I was also told that they are notoriously hard to photograph because their bright white feathers come out over exposed. I guess I was lucky with this snap.
  This picture shows that over exposure problem. There is just no detail to be seen in those white feathers. There is also a tint bit of motion blur because I was using full zoom on my camera. It was all a pity because the bird and it's reflection would have made for a great picture. While I talked to the lady we saw the egret duck it's head down and come up with a fish, but I didn't manage to capture that.
  I like the way robins will often seem to pose for a photo. I still had to take this photo from 20ft away using a fair bit of zoom, but the robin sat perfectly still in complete contrast to most small birds that can't seem to stay still even for a single second.
  Much of my walk was through parkland, but the last mile was just along roads. One particular road, Mackenzie Road, a side road connecting Beckenham Road, and Elmers End Road, seemed never ending, and it was rather boring. At it's far end there was Birkbeck station*, and I did pay that a short visit. The next train was due in 8 minutes time, but I didn't want to wait that long. I quickly got back on the road and carried on walking the last quarter of a mile (eighth of a mile maybe ?) to Elmers End station where I got an unpleasant surprise - all the trains were cancelled, including the 15:09 which at the time was saying "on time".

*Birkbeck station was a station that used to fascinate me when I had a spell working in Streatham. I would get the train from Beckenham Junction station, and it's first stop was at Birkbeck. It was a single line railway, and that was a bit of an oddity for a London station. I could see a disused platform there that showed that once it was a dual track railway. That platform, and the space where the second line used to be, is now used by the Croydon Tramlink service.

  The trouble at Elmers End station was that there had been trespassers on the line in the Lewisham area, and all the power had to be switched off while they were arrested (assuming they were caught). I wasn't there all that long before a few trains came down the line where they should have gone to Hayes station. Hayes station is a terminus, and they would then leave again to form the London bound services from Elmers End, but they actually terminated at Elmers End.

  Back in the day when I used to use Elmers End station for work it wasn't unknown for an occasional mishap somewhere to cause big delays, and like yesterday, the first train would terminate at Elmers End where it would form a London bound service. I couldn't understand why the two trains I saw arrive, and which were terminated there, were not used for London bound (and Catford Bridge bound) services. Once they had actually left the station empty, they did go back in service from Clock House station, the next station, onwards.

  The reason for this ludicrous situation is that there are no platform CCTV monitors at the London End of the station, and so the driver cannot check that there are no bodies trapped in the closing doors. Also that there are no platform staff to check for the driver. In fact there was one person there who could have seen the train off, but I guess he wasn't trained to do so (how hard can it be ?). The second train was one of the new "City Beam", class 707 trains, and I believe they have external CCTV cameras that allow the driver to see down the whole length of the train without needing platform monitors.

  I was rather cross at having to stand around so lone, and watch two perfectly good trains go off without me. An app on my phone said there was another train on it's way that might go through to Hayes, and that would eventually take me back to Catford, but I gave up waiting and got a 54 bus back to Catford. It made for a tedious end for what was an enjoyable walk. I could really feel my feet and legs after getting off the bus, and walking up the road to home, although after about half way they did seem to free up and feel less stiff.

  It did feel sort of odd when I got home because I didn't feel nearly as tired as I thought I would do. That may have been an endorphin inspired fantasy. I heated up a can of Polish beans and sausages, and after eating that I did lie down and have a snooze, but I don't think it was a long one. I certainly had enough time to go through all the pictures I had taken, and select and edit the best - a few of which I have used here.

  With that done it was getting near dinner time, and I thought I deserved a takeaway. That turned out to be a bad choice, and not just because takeaways are really expensive compared to something I could have cooked at home - except I can't cook shish kebabs at home. Normally I find shish kebabs to be very healthy, but I had bad suspicions about the chilli sauce the restaurant used. It seemed suspiciously sweet....

  I ate my kebabs while watching one of the Star Trek films, The Journey Home. It is probably one of the better Star Trek films, but is still a little crap. Unlike some of the Star Trek films it does have a story line, and doesn't just consist of a load of special effects held together by a flimsy story.  I can't remember what time it finished, maybe it was some time after 8pm, I retired to bed and read for 30 or 40 minutes.

  It seemed like I had a good sleep, but I can't seem to stop yawning as I write these words ! There was one reason why might sleep could have been disturbed, and that was the extra loud party taking place in a house somewhere out the back of my house. At first I thought it was reggae, but the beat seemed wrong, and the chanting like singing was also wrong. I suspect it was an African party, and not a Jamaican party. It seemed quite loud at the back of my house - in the toilet, but all I could hear in my bedroom was the dull thud of the drums. Now the peculiar thing is that what I could hear in my bathroom did not sound bassy at all. It was as if they had the bass speakers in the front of their house, and the bass was echoing along the road, and round the corner to get to me. Fortunately it was not at an intrusive level.

  I probably woke for a pee in the night about the usual amount of times, but I seemed to fall back asleep again within minutes of getting back in bed. The only exception was like the previous night when I woke up around 1am, and turned the heater on low, and then at 5am when I turned the heater up full (we were only a degree or two away from frost this morning).

  My suspicions about the chilli sauce used on my kebabs seemed to be proved this morning. It was the only thing I ate that could have pushed my blood glucose up to 8.7mmol/l after it slowly going down in the previous few days. This is very annoying, and more so after expending all that energy on my long walk. I had been hoping that this morning might be the morning when I go out and buy some simple cake for breakfast. I can't even remember why I developed this obsession with the idea of having cake for breakfast, but it now seems to be one of my goals in this life.

  I don't seem to feel all that wonderful this morning, but on the other hand there is little wrong that I can blame on yesterday's walk. I feel that I should try and get out for another walk today. If I wait until midday it should be as warm as yesterday, and still getting warmer. The sunny spells should last for a couple of hours, and I could top up my tan a bit. Before all that I have a freezing cold bucket of laundry to finish washing, and get on the line in time to get partly sun dried.