Yesterday had a fantastic,
warm and sunny morning, but the
afternoon, while even warmer, was
a bit dull, and the sun did not
return until early evening. The
afternoon temperature was forecast
to reach 20° C, and I think it
did.
The sun hasn't broken
through yet, and the sky looks
more misty than cloudy.
Hopefully the weather forecasts
are going to come true, and
sooner or later the sun will
break through, and from late
morning until the end of the
afternoon, we will get non stop
pure sunshine. Only 19° C is
forecast for today, but that
should still feel hot when in
direct sunshine. Tomorrow may
reach 21° C, but most of the day
may only see sunny spells
instead of full sunshine.
Yesterday was a
great day - warm and sunny - and
it featured a sort of healthy
three mile walk, but in the end
I sort of ruined it all by
taking a few chances about what
I was eating. The problem is
that I accidently rewarded
myself more than I had earned.
After writing yesterday's
piece I must admit I had a rest.
I laid on my bed, and read for a
while, and I think I might even
had had a short snooze.
Fortunately I had written so
little that I had time for all
that, plus having a shower,
getting dressed, and taking some
precautionary drugs (Paracetamol
and soluble aspirin) for what I
knew was going to be a
challenging thing to do - a 3
plus mile walk in the sunshine.
It was plenty warm enough
even as early as 10am to not
need a coat, but it was almost
midday when I went out. One good
decision was that I put on my
proper walking boots. My walk
through the Linear park featured
walking along side the river,
and the banks were quite muddy
from recent rain, and without
those good boots with their
grippy soles I could easily have
slipped into the river in a few
places.
My aim was to walk as far
as the bow string bridge,
approximately behind the
Sainsbury's superstore in Lower
Sydenham, and then return home
again. That walk always comes
out to just over 3 miles
depending on the exact route I
took. On this occasion it was
3.14 miles. It would be
challenging for two reasons. One
was simply that my legs are only
now starting to get a bit
stronger after hardly doing any
exercise during the winter
months, and secondly the angina
I continue to suffer with.
It was 11:42 am when I
set off according to my
screenshot on the left. Along
the way I carried out a test
which is supposed to predict
long term health, usually in the
elderly - which I claim to be
part of these days. I can't
recall the exact details, but I
seem to recall the target was to
walk 365 metres (0.365 km) in
less than 6 minutes. I took a
screenshot at 5 minutes and 43
seconds, and I had walked 389
metres. I think I passed the
test, but I had reached my limit
before the first angine pains
kicked in.
By the time I had reached
the park I had had to take a
couple of short pauses, which I
filled in by taking pictures of
some passing buses, and a longer
pause just inside the entrance
of the park. As the picture
above shows, the sky was almost
a perfect blue, and the sun on
my bare arms felt wonderful. It
was a great excuse to be
masochistic, and keep pushing
myself to the point where the
angina was building up to very
uncomfortable. Fortunately there
were many photo opportunities
that demanded a short pause in
walking, and in a few longer
cases it was just about enough
to reset the angina to nothing
for a while.
It was not until I got
home, and saw pictures such as
the one above, that I knew the
new (secondhand) Nikon lens I
bought 6 or more weeks ago had
been a very worthwhile addition
to my lens collection. It gave
far sharper looking pictures
that the otherwise identical
Tamron lens gave. Yesterday was
the first time I had actually
taken my Nikon D3200 camera out
with that lens fitted to it.
There was one occasion when a
lens with a bit more zoom may
have been useful, but 18 to
200mm seems to cover most uses
quite well.
This was the one occasion
when a bit more zoom would have
been handy. This picture, or
what I think is a jay, has been
heavily cropped to give an extra
zoom effect, but I was still
surprised how sharp it was,
thanks to the new lens. The last
time I did this walk (12th
April) I saw the same bird in
the same tree, but I never
managed to get a snap of it -
and I had a 300mm zoom lens on
my Canon 600D camera. It was
only by luck I got this picture.
I was actually lining up a
possible shot of a crow standing
on some shingle in the river,
when this bird flew down as if
to land by the crow, and both
birds shouted rude bird words to
each other. I then saw it had
alighted in the tree, and took
as many as six shots hoping that
in one it would be facing the
right way. I guess I got lucky.
This was the best shot I
got of a red admiral butterfly -
or at least the best shot I got
of it's distinctive colouration.
The best shot was actually when
it was sitting on a drain cover,
with nothing in the way of a
clear shot. The only trouble was
that I never managed to catch it
there except when it's wings
were folded up. The picture was
pin sharp, but you could see
nothing of interest.
It was shortly after
taking these pictures that I got
into conversation with a woman
sporting a clipboard and a pair
of binoculars. She saw my
camera, and asked if I had got
any good pictures. I said I
might have a few that were OK,
but it was difficult to tell
using the cameras little LCD
display - particularly in bright
sunshine. It turned out that she
was planning a survey of
butterflies in a section of the
park, and was scouting out parts
that volunteers would cover at
some time in the near future.
They would be counting
butterflies, rather than
attempting to get good photos of
them.
Even though the image of
the butterfly with folded wings
on the drain cover was so dim
looking in the bright sunshine,
she immediately recognised it as
a red admiral. I wish I had more
patience to try and get snaps of
more butterflies in the park
because there are many varieties
to be seen. One, maybe rainy
day, I will have to sort through
thousands of pictures to find
the few good photos I got of
some several varieties.
Stopping to talk for
maybe 5 minutes allowed my
angina pains to fade to complete
zero. The timing was very good
for that. I was very near the
bow string bridge, and the
halfway point. It is short but
steep climb up to the deck from
near river level. That pause
also rested my legs enough so I
was able to enjoy the brief
surge of power as I walked up
that slope to come out onto the
path that crossed the river.
When I did the same walk last
month I found my aching legs
were worse than the angina
pains. This time my legs started
to ache much nearer home, but
the angina pains were just as
troublesome as when I started
out.
It was a challenge
to walk back on another bit of
the riverside path. It felt both
good and foolish to do the
challenge or walking by that
section of the river. The path
is not as clear, and there are
two fallen trees that have to be
crossed, and there is short
section where you have to go
around a tree with a perilous
slope of slippery mud straight
into the river. It would have
all been very easy if I were 20
years younger - far more nimble,
and no angina pains.
At the end of that bit of
path there is a bit of slope to
get up to the main path through
the park. The very last bit
means ducking down under some
very low hanging branches. I was
very happy to see I had come out
just 30ft or or so from a bench
seat - and there was no one
sitting on it. I was in a lot of
pain, possibly building up to a
heart attack after all that
effort, and I just had to sit
down and wait for 5 minutes
before continuing.
I did my best to keep up
what seemed like a fair pace as
I headed homeward. There were
few places to stop and do any
more photography as I covered
the same ground I had on my way
coming in to the park.
Fortunately I had to cross the
river twice more in the park
(and once outside it) and
stopping to look down at the
river was a good way to get my
breath back - although I was
never able to work hard enough
to raise my breathing much at
all.
After exiting the park I
decided that as I was so close
to the Sainsbury's Local shop by
Catford station (about 40 ft at
a guess) that I might as well go
in and see if I could get a
couple of their ready made
salads. Sadly I only found one
left in the shop, but I did get
a small bag of quite tasty
oranges, plus 4 jazz apples. I
also bought a bar of chocolate -
but it was no ordinary
chocolate.
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The thing to note about this
chocolate is the sugar
content per 100gm of
product. The bar itself was
only 90gm, and so the whole
bar would be slightly less
than 2.7gm of sugar. I
compared it to a nearby bar
of high cocoa content, Green
And Blacks chocolate. There
was no comparison - the
Green And Blacks bar said
something like 32gm per
100gm. That is a hell of a
lot of sugar. There is
another reason this
Montezuma's chocolate is
good for those of us
avoiding too much sugar -
after a couple of small
squares it goes from tasting
nice and chocolately to just
a horrible, almost black,
sludge. I think this bar
could last me for a week or
more it I just have a couple
of smalls squares a day.
The last bit of the
walk, about 0.6 miles, was
the hardest of all. My legs
felt like lead, and I could
barely raise the speed to
raise any angina pains, but
somehow I still managed it.
Like the last walk, I felt
to be on my last legs when I
got through my front door,
and once again I wondered
how I would ever get
upstairs to my bedroom. Also
like last time, I found
going up the stairs to be
quite easy, and once again
was my guess I was using
different muscles going up
stairs.
I really wanted to
lay down and rest, but I
more wanted to eat my lunch
and to see what my pictures
looked like on the big
screen. I ate first. The
salad was very nice, and the
two oranges I had after the
salad were nice. Once I had
washed the sticky (and
acidic) orange juice off my
hands I transferred the
pictures, from my
camera, plus the screenshots
from my phone (I also had
some video I had shot along
the way, but I decided not
to use it here). As
mentioned further up the
page, I was generally very
happy with the pictures
using my new lens.
I was less happy when
I started eating a few
squares of the extremely
dark chocolate. The initial
taste was very nice, but it
seemed to saturate my taste
buds really quickly, and
maybe the fourth or fith
little square tasted like
mud. Once I had selected,
and edited the pictures used
here I allowed myself to lay
down to read, and ultimately
to take a short snooze. I am
not sure there was a
specific point when I
decided to reward myself for
all my hard and painful
walk, It was just an idea
that grew until it
overwhelmed and sense of
safety.
I decided that my
reward was to be a kebab.
Usually a shish kebab, or
even two, is very safe, but
I wanted, and did get a
donor kebab (sliced mystery
meat from the upright spit)
with chips. Even on a good
day that can still be fairly
safe. I also bought a spare
shish kebab for today, plus
tow "side dishes". For today
that will be a portion of
potato wedges. they will
hopefully be safe. For last
night the "side dish" was 6
spicy chicken wings. As soon
as I opened the container I
knew it was an extremely bad
choice. Instead of being
frilled wings with a
marinade of chilli sauce,
they were in a thick batter,
and sometimes that batter
can contain an awful lot of
sugar because it makes it
more crispy. This morning it
seemed to be the chief
culprit of a disaster.
I have to admit that
the bad and worst part of
the takeaway I ate last
night was delicious, and set
me up for an almost early
night. I watched just one
thing on TV last night, and
that was another repeat of
an episode of Secrets Of The
London Underground. It
finished at 8pm, and there
was nothing to do after that
except to read in bed. I
lost track of time, but it
seems like it was around 9pm
that I decided to try for
sleep.
Like has happened so
frequently lately, I was
fine until I turned the
light out, and turned over
to try for sleep. At that
point I started getting some
heartburn. I guess that is
now the reality of eating
rich food before bed.
Fortunately it did seem to
be quite mild (but maybe so
much angina pain during the
day had de-sensitised me a
bit - the pains can be very
similar). I took a couple of
Rennies, and that was almost
effective. What seemed more
effective was water.
Until last night I
avoided too much water
because even a single
mouthful could trigger more
reflux, but last night I
found that if I followed one
mouthful by another that had
to be almost forced down, it
seemed as if the water
washed away the acid reflux.
Once it was washed away it
was easy to take another
mouthful. It was not long at
all until I was comfortable
for sleep. I slept for an
hour or two before I woke
with some heartburn pains
again, and once again,
forcing down two mouthfuls
of water seemed to be a very
quick cure.
From then on I seemed
to sleep well. I remember
having two notable dreams,
but now I try to think about
one of them I can't seem to
remember a single thing
about it. The other dream
was a very, very short
dream, or at least the bit I
remember about it was no
more than a single frame. I
dreamed that I saw a bunch
of key had been left in a
lock on my front doors. What
I am not sure is if the
dream continued, or if I
woke up and did the
reasoning while awake. Two
things about it made me not
worry about it. One was that
in the dream I could see the
two real locks on the right
of the door, but they keys
were in a non existent lock
on the left of the door. The
other thing is that I knew my
keys are fixed to my
trousers by a chain to one
of the belt loops.
I woke up just before
6am, and decided I might as
well go back to sleep for as
much as an hour, but maybe I
did get a good sleep last
night, because it was not
long after 6am when I got
up. Things got off to a good
start when I went to the
toilet. Not only did I have
a much needed pee, but I
easily did a reasonable
sized poo. Things were
looking good. I don't think
I peed much in the night
despite several large gulps
of water near the start of
my sleep. Sadly, reality
intruded.
My blood glucose was
actually dangerously high
this morning. I feel the
blame lies with the batter
on the spicy wings I ate
last night. All three meters
were in close agreement: The
Contour meter read a
disastrous 10.5mmol/l well
past ythe pink zone, and
into the red. The GlucoRX
meter closely agreed with an
even worse reading of
10.8mmol/l. The Sinocare
meter just rubbed salt into
the wound with a reading of
10.4mmol/l.
Today I should be
fasting, but I'll be
drinking at lunchtime,
probably only 2 pints of
Guinness, but even so, I
don't want to do that on a
fully empty stomach. I have
had one single, small packet
of instant noodles this
morning, and that is all I
will have until after I get
back from the pub. I shall
try and resist eating even
then, but maybe I might
allow something moderately
safe like an apple or two. I
think I had better leave out
the potato wedges from
tonight's dinner, but I will
be guided by a blood glucose
reading before dinner.
I hope that Angela
will be back in the pub this
lunchtime. Last weel she
seemed to suggest she would
be. The only fly in the
ointment is that I think I
will be getting a beer
delivery today that Jodie
ordered, and paid half of
it. As yet I have had no
notification of when it
might arrive, or even if
that might be today, or
another day. It is all a bit
annoying, but even if it
clashes, I still intend to
go to the pub. My only great
fear is that it will arrived
while I am in the middle of
having a shower this morning
!
P.S. While my blood glucose
may be a disaster area, my
blood pressure, 112/50, is
still nicely in the
"optimum" area = one better
than "normal".
3144 words today
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