07:31 BST

  Yesterday was a very nice day. There was loads of sunshine, blue sky, and at 21° C it definitely felt warm. By 6pm the breeze was starting to feel a little cool, and sometime well after dark, maybe at 10pm, when it was forecast, there was a bit of rain to water the garden.

  

  Today the weather takes a step back in time. It looks damp outside after some rain in he night, and the look is enhanced by the dull grey sky. Several showers are forecast for today, but with only a 40 to 50% chance for each I suspect that today may be mainly dry, but it will still be very dull, and the sunny spells shown for 7 and 8pm above don't appear in the latest revision to the forecast. It still says the temperature will climb to an 18° C peak at 4pm before declining again. Tomorrow may be a lot brighter, with even some full hours of sunshine, but it may not be any warmer than 17° C.

  I think I can say that yesterday was a good, and very successful day. It all started with replacing the metal hose on the shower head. It was not a difficult job with the right tools, but I must admit the join between the flexible plastic hose, and the more flexible metal hose, does slightly leak on the plastic hose side of the coupler between the two. I'll fix that some other day, but it is a very small leak, and it all goes straight into the bath where it does no harm.

  With the shower hose replaced I had a good shower, and then when I had finished that I hand washed a few bits of clothing. There was nothing particularly taxing about it, and at the end I hung it outside, on the washing line to dry. It was bone dry when I took it in after being out for a large bit of the day. Another good thing when I got home was finding the book I was expecting on my door mat. I still haven't finished part one of the trilogy, but it is getting close, and so having the second part ready is good. Curiously enough I already had, and have presumably read the third and final part of the trilogy. I wonder if it all made sense after never having read part 2 ?

  The most satisfying part of the day was when I went out just before midday to explore more of the rail network with particular regard to going as far as my Freedom Pass would take me for free. Yesterday it was to explore part of the Southern Trains network. It may not the the fastest way onto the southern routes, but my now preferred way is to get a train from Catford station the three stops to Peckham Rye. It avoids going to Elmers End, and then getting a tram to East Croydon station - a place I don't really care for.
  It is a conveniently times change at Peckham Rye. The Southern Service train to Caterham arrives about 10 minutes after the train from Catford Arrives. It's destination is Caterham station after quite a long ride, and calling at many stations.
  I took the picture of the train at Peckham Rye at 12:25, and the picture above, of the outside of Caterham Station, at 13:20. That makes the ride, from leaving Peckham Rye to arriving at Caterham something like 50 minutes long. It was while at Caterham that I bumped into a far better informed train spotter than myself. He put a date on something I was expecting to happen within a year or two. He said that the last class 455 trains, as seen in the picture of the train at Peckham Rye, will run on the 14th May - in just a weeks time. I must try and find out if that date applies to South Western Trains class 455s and 456s as well.
  From Caterham station I had to get a train back to Purley station where I could change for a train to Tattenham Corner station. Once upon a time this was a very grand station with 5 or 6 operational platforms to cater for huge crowds going to Epsom horse races. It must also have had a very grand station building. Now it just has this overgrown garden shed....
  Upon consulting Open Street Map on my phone I realised I could take a short cut to my next station of interest. I think it worked out to about 3/4 mile to walk from Coulsdon Town station to Coulsdon South station. That was a bit more than I expected, and it was also a bit of an up and down walk. I found it quite taxing, but I think it was because I was covering virgin ground, and I didn't know when to speed up, or slow down, plus things like the best places to cross the road, etc.
  From Coulsdon South station I had to get a train back as far as East Croydon where I could change to a train going south again to Upper Warlingham. It was interesting, although hardly exciting, to see stations that I have previously only travelled through - sometimes on fast trains. Upper Warlingham is unlike the other stations (except Coulsdon South) on this Freedom Pass quest in that it is not a terminus like Caterham or Tattenham Corner.
  One interesting thing about Whyteleaf station is that it is very close to Upper Warlingham station, and the walk is down very steep hills. It would have been a killer to do the walk in the opposite direction. Another interesting thing is that Whyteleaf station is next to a level crossing. There are not many of these left within the London travel zones area. It is sad that it's ticket office is just another shed, and it didn't even have the station name on it - hence the rather unsatisfactory picture above.

  I didn't realise how late it was when I got here. The next train was the 17:25, and that was going to London Bridge fast from East Croydon. The next was only 10 minutes later, and that was going back to Peckham Rye. I considered waiting for that, but realised that it would be gone 5pm when it got to Peckham Rye, and I would have to face the worst of the rush hour to get back to Catford. I opted for the first train back to East Croydon, and then endure a very busy tram to Elmers End. The trains at Elmers end were very sparsely used in the direction of Catford Bridge, and so I had plenty of room to sit down and relax for 9 minutes.

  I had done the entire day out on an empty stomach, and I was feeling extremely hungry by the time I had got back to Catford. I also thought that I had done a fair bit of exercise - two walks between stations, and who knows how many walks up and down stairs, and along platforms etc. I thought I had earned a takeaway of fried chicken and chips, and that is exactly what I had - plus 6 chicken wings. Unfortunately, although it probably made little difference, those wings were battered and deep fried rather than just grilled.

  It felt really good to get home, but before I could relax I had to bring my washing in off the line. With that done I could relax with my breakfast/dinner and watch a bit of TV - the 6pm showing of The Simpsons on Channel 4 (although I did miss the first 5 minutes of it. I felt rather tired, but also rather elated. It felt like I had had a very good day. That elation meant I found the energy to make a start on going through all the pictures I had taken, and to pick out the ones I used here after a bit of light editing (mostly cropping and shrinking to the dimensions I used on these pages.

  With that done I could relax again, and watch an episode of QI on TV. I could have watched a second, long, episode after the first, and I did watch a little bit of it, but I decided that an early night wouldn't do any harm. Before that I thought it would be interesting to check my blood glucose while I was very relaxed, and had a full stomach. it was "interesting" !

 I don't think I have ever seen my blood pressure so low, but I seemed to feel fine apart from the expected tiredness after a busy day. It is possible that such a low pressure might impair my "renal function", but it didn't stop me getting up a few times in the night for a pee - as usual.  Having said that, I did drink a lot last night. It was mostly to rehydrate myself after not drinking anything at all for the six hours or so that I was out. I had certainly lost a lot of liquid, and much of it from perspiration, in that time. I dared to weigh myself before I ate my extra late breakfast at dinner time. I haven't seen a reading that low for well over a year !

  I was asleep not long after 9pm - maybe not much longer than 5 minutes later ! It seemed to be pretty good sleep, and it seemed like it was dreamless sleep - at least I can hardly remember anything about dreaming. I think I probably had at least one dream about my travels yesterday, and while I don't remember any details, I am sure it inspired a strange series of thoughts I had in one of the periods when I was awake for 5 or so minutes in the night.

  That idea was based on the very hilly countryside I was passing through, and it was the almost, but not quite, crazy idea that one valley was so narrow that the only way out of one end was a tunnel. The odd thing was that the tunnel had to carry a small river, trains, cars and pedestrians. I can't think of a single example, but the small river could have been been put into pipes under the tracks. The idea that trains and cars could share the same tunnel is not that insane when you consider cars and trams, which are lightweight trains, use the same roads in central Croydon. Once upon a time the Limehouse tunnel under the River Thames was a tunnel for pedestrians and cars until latter day 'elf and safety decided it was too dangerous to let people walk through all those exhaust fumes, along quite narrow pavements.

  This morning I seemed to be up early, and feeling basically OK, although my legs do feel a bit stiff. I knew I was not doing my blood glucose any good by eating chicken and chips last night. This morning it was up even higher at 9.8mmol/l. I think, or at least I hope it is that high because I ate the worst so late in the evening, and my digestive system was still processing it when I took that early reading. I expect, or maybe it is just undeserved hope, that if I checked it now, almost 3 hours later, it would be dropping a fair but by now.

  Today is a perfectly miserable day. After being a little brighter than expected, really horrible dark grey clouds have taken over the skies, and it looks very probable that it will rain - and maybe more than the light shower forecast. Of course the forecast is saying it should be brightening up about now, and the really heavy skies, and heavy rain now, will be happening at 1pm. Anyways, the timing is irrelevant, it is going to be a filthy day, and I will be staying in the warm and dry, feeling depressed all day. I do have a load of train pictures, taken yesterday to check and edit for possible inclusion in my great spreadsheet listing all my best train photographs ( or some pretty lousy photos if that is all I have of some particular trains). Apart from that I can imagine myself reading a lot today.