There is a great disparity between the Met Office and BBC weather forecasts for today. The Met Office shows just a scatter of sunny spells, and the BBC show non stop sunny spells until about 3pm, and then full sunshine until sunset. The latest revision of the Met Office forecast does show many more sunny spells, but some hours are still shown as cloudy. Both agree that the afternoon could be 16 or 17° C.  Tomorrow should see 18° C, but there will probably be less sunshine - maybe as little as originally shown for today in the screenshot above.

  I think I can describe yesterday as a good day, although it did have it's downsides. Rather perversely, I often felt to be lacking in energy - the sort of thing high blood glucose can cause, but my blood glucose was unusually low (compared to my typical average) yesterday morning.


  It seemed to take a long time to get ready to do anything. I was quite happy to lay on my bed reading until I noticed the time was getting on. Then I went and washed my hair, and had a shower. It did feel good to feel clean again. Once I was out of the shower I got my big laundry buckets out, and started soaking three t-shirts and and four pairs of underpants. Ideally I would have complete the wash, and got everything hanging on the line to dry before the morning was over, but....

  I can't seem to recall, or calculate how much I did, and didn't want to go for a walk yesterday.  In many ways it was something I thought I needed to do, rather than something I wanted to do. Once I was dressed, in shorts and t-shirt, I decided on a starting destination, and headed there. It was to go through the park to the Ladywell Road entrance, and see how I felt. If I felt good I could have continued to elsewhere. If I felt really good I might have tackled walking to the top of Hilly Fields - always a rather taxing walk !

  By the time I reached Ladywell I decided I had walked enough - except to walk back home. I did walk home via a slightly diverse route, and that lengthened my walk a tiny bit, and also, and maybe more importantly, gave me some extra views, and a hoped for more opportunities to take photos.


  The thing that was holding me back was the shoes I was wearing. As shown in the picture above, they were a pair of maroon coloured Converse trainers.  On the shoe box I had written July 2018, and that would have been when I first got them. I like the colour, and I wondered why they showed almost no sign of any wear. I assumed that maybe it was because they were a size 11. I did go through a phase of wearing size 12.

  Maybe I need that size in hot weather when my feet might swell a bit, or maybe after a lot of walking they flatten and grow wider, but for a few years now I have found that size 11 seems perfectly adequate. Maybe they were slightly, although only very slightly, a bit tight here and there, but the big problem was that they felt so stiff. Hopefully, if I use these shoes for lots of short walk, maybe just to the shops and back, I will break them in, and they will become soft and supple.
  I took this picture when I reached the Ladywell Road entrance to the park. It is a shrub of some kind, and was covered with these quite small white flowers. I think they may turn into small translucent berries, and because it is a park with kids in, I think they may even be edible, but I have no idea if that is true. Update: I think these are pyracantha firethorn, and they have red or orange berries that are not poisonous in small quantities. They are reported to have an insipid taste.
  Just a general view showing how lovely it looked yesterday. The only thing lacking was a more intense, and clearer blue sky. There was a lot of very high, thin clouds that often made the sunshine a bit hazy.
  A brief distraction from the discomfort of my feet (and ankles, because of the shoes feeling so stiff) was chasing this butterfly or moth ? I believe one way to tell a moth from a butterfly is to examine it's penis ! I couldn't even get close enough to get a good picture. Eventually it did settle, and although it took 5 wasted shots I did eventually get this shot.  A higher angle shot, had it been possible, may have given a better idea of it's wing markings.

  With that last picture taken I headed straight to home - although of course I kept my camera handy in case another potential photo made itself apparent. To be truthful there was one photo opportunity I decided would be too naughty to take. It was a young woman, maybe late 20s out jogging in black shorts and a black bra like sports top. It could have made for a very sexy photo, but it seemed better not to take it.

  When I got home I faced an interesting decision. By habit I would be, and indeed was, looking forward to something to eat, but I didn't seem to feel hungry. I'm not sure if I have ever noticed it before, but the change to longer days, brighter and warmer weather, seems to have affected my body. I decided not to eat, but to sit down and go through the few photos I had taken, and select and edit the few shown here.

  I then had a lie down and read for a while, but not for too long because I had my laundry to finish. I think it was as late as 3pm before I had finished it, and hung it on the washing line to dry in the sunshine. By 6pm it was all dry except for the bottom of one t-shirt that was in the shadow of something. I brought it all in regardless, and hung the t-short as if it were dry. I imagine it was perfectly dry a few hours later, but I didn't and still haven't checked.

  I did have a flash in the pan idea that maybe I might go out to an early evening (6pm) gig last night, but as the time approached so did my feeding time. It was about 5.30pm when I put together a salad. It was supposed to be a bit like a shish kebab. I had some diced lamb that was very close to the end of it's life that I gave a good grilling. I then added it to a salad of typical English ingredients.

  That grilled lamb didn't really go with salad leaves that included rocket, spinach and watercress. The spring onions were much too strong compared to what I think are "white" onions used in kebab salad. If I had thought about it I could have made a more kebab like salad using finely cut white cabbage and red onions (I had/have both). It was all still basically nice, but those spring onions left an unpleasant lingering taste. I needed something to mask or take away that taste, and I dared to have a tub of the ice cream that seems to be fairly safe.

  By 7pm, with the sun still shining brightly, I was already thinking about bed. There was very little on TV last night, or at least nothing that grabbed my attention. I did watch something, and I think I was thinking of watching more, but I just didn't seem to be in the mood to absorb it. By 8pm I was laying on my bed reading. I did get up to consult train times for today, and also again to check a few other things. I probably managed to make it to about 9.30pm, just after the sun had set, before I turned out the light, and fairly soon I was asleep.

  I remember waking up a few times either feeling too hot or too cold. I think it was closer to 3.30am when I turned the heater on this morning. I don't think I had to turn it up high, but I did still need to sleep some of the time under the duvet. I can't make up my mind if I slept well or not. What I do know is that after waking up around 6am, and then pulling the duvet back over me, I slept even later than even my best lie ins. It was almost 7.30am when I finally got up.

  I was very curious as to whether I had got away with eating the ice cream for dessert last night. It seems I did, although my blood glucose was higher then the previous two mornings, but it was still only 7.7mmol/l - which is rather good. I "rewarded" myself with a double helping of instant noodles for breakfast. That was probably a mistake because I can feel them sitting like a leaden lump in my stomach. That could interfere with my plans for today.

  The grand plan for today is to go to a matinee (3pm) gig by Chain at The Pelton Arms in Greenwich. There is not direct bus to the pub, and it is set back some way from the main road. The walk from Maze Hill railway station is not that much further away. My plan is to get the 13:50 train from Catford Bridge to London Bridge, and get the 14:18 train to Maze Hill. I should get to the pub about 2.50pm - which is actually a bit early, and I maybe get the next trains.

  The only fly in the ointment at this time is that the leaden weight in my gut is perhaps only partly to do with breakfast, but something I ate yesterday - maybe the rather old, a week after it's use by date, lamb. About 15 minutes ago I went from nothing to a rather extensive visit to the toilet, and a rather explosive one less than 10 minutes after that. there can't be much more to go, and hopefully over the next few hours it will all have settled down. If not I may have to do some gardening instead of going out.