This
morning has started off bright
and sunny, but both forecasters
I check say it won't last long,
and the middle of tyhe day will
be dull. The BBC raise some hope
that sunny spells will resume
from 6pm, but the Met Office say
it will continue dull until
sunset. Once again the highest
temperature we can expect is
just 17° C - more suited to mid
spring instead of summer.
Tomorrow may be a bit brighter,
and a single degree warmer at
18° C
I seem to be having
a lot of days that are sort of
medium, or good and bad,
recently, and yesterday was
another of them. It was
definitely good in places, but
it left me feeling disappointed,
and also a bit guilty. I'll
explain it a bit further down
the page.
Yesterday was a
Wednesday, and the day for my
(usually) regular weekly
lunchtime drink in The Jolly
Farmers pub. It was also the day
of the week when I have not just
a shower, and not just washing
my hair, but also having a beard
trim and wet shave. Suitably
clean and sparkling, I put on
jeans, my Pisshead t-shirt (see
picture on left), plus my
sleeveless denim jacket. It was
just about mild enough to not
need a coat, but the sleeveless
denim jacket has some useful
pockets, while still allowing my
arms to catch a bit of sun.
I did my best to walk
slowly to the station. I allowed
plenty of time to get there, but
I still found myself speeding
up, and had to try and slow
myself down again. I got to the
station, where I grabbed two
copies of The Metro, in time to
see the train before the one I
intended to get pull in on the
opposite platform. Had I been
even fitter and healthy than I
once was, I could have sprinted
across the footbridge and caught
that train. I did see one young
man actually do just that, but I
just treated it as an
opportunity to take an extra
train photograph from the
platform In was on.
It was when I got to
Ladywell station that disaster
struck. I had taken a picture of
the back of the train I had
arrived on, and then waited the
few minutes for the next train
heading towards Hayes. As I
waited I became aware of another
train approaching the platform I
was waiting on. I snapped a
picture of the front of the
train, and then went to take
what I hoped was a better
picture of the back (which was
more favourable for the position
of the sun - i.e. the sun was
over my shoulder). As I was
about to click the shutter the
camera shot down saying the
battery was exhausted.
I had no choice but to
use my phone camera to take
further pictures. Although I can
override the automatic setting
using the "Pro" option on my
phone, in bright light it would
automatically use a fast shutter
speed, and the pictures I did
take using it showed no
noticeable motion blur. In fact
I was very happy with the
quality of the pictures it took
of trains - even moving trains.
The pub was strangely
quiet yesterday. There were no
dogs running around for extra
amusement, and not a lot of
banter going on. What was on,
and was bloody annoying, was
Heart FM, or some such radio
station. It was coming through
the TVs, rather than through the
jukebox system, which I think
was out of order. I am not they
played a single song that didn't
make me want to vomit.
It didn't take long to
finish the quick crossword in
The Metro, and I seemed to get
off to a good start to the
cryptic crossword. I managed to
solve about 4 clues with a bit
of head scratching, but after
that I just drew a complete
blank. I ended up reading some
of the news while I finished my
second pint of Guinness. There
was very little real news in the
paper, and I guess it was to be
expected with a general election
coming up, a lot of it was
politics. As far as I can see,
it doesn't matter who wins
because we all lose whatever the
outcome.
After leaving the pub I
headed for the station. It often
saves no time at all going back
by train, and it only saves a
few hundred yards worth of
walking, but getting the train
splits the walking into two,
and
gives more opportunities to
"spot trains". I didn't get very
far, little more than a 100ft or
two, when I spotted a face that
was somehow familiar, but I
couldn't think who it was. I was
saved from the dilemma by her
saying "hi Bill", and adding,
"it's Kay". Then it all fell
into place.
Kay, pictured on the
left, has occasionally been the
singer for The Entourage Band.
When singing she used to wear a
lot of make up, almost
theatrical make up, and sometime
a wig. That is why I didn't
recognise her, plus I think I
last saw her in 2019. It was
quite a surprise to see her so
local because I knew she moved
around a lot. She explained that
she didn't like some new
neighbours in the flat she was
living in, and was going to look
at a flat in Catford.
I suggested that is she
was in the area next Wednesday
she could join me and Dik, lead
guitar for The Entourage Band,
in the Jolly Farmers at
lunchtime. Whether she makes it
or not, I am supposed to be
seeing Dik to have another chat
about cameras next Wednesday
lunchtime. It was nice having a
short chat, but then she carried
on to wherever she was going,
and I continued to the station -
at medium fast rate. One oddity
is that I was able to go up the
slope to the end of the park
before going back down to the
station, at quite a pace, and
with no hint of any chest pains.
They came later, but only
lightly, after I had walked
almost the entire length of the
12 car platform.
I didn't really see any
trains I had not photographed
before, but when checking my
spreadsheet I saw I had added a
note for 707020 that it was a
poor picture, and indeed it
didn't look very good. I
replaced it with the picture
above. It was taken with my
mobile phone camera, and it
shows no obvious motion blur
despite the train having picked
up a fair bit of speed as it
left the station.
This train was not new
either, but the original picture
of it was described as being in
Connex livery, although that
couldn't really be seen because
the picture was almost exactly
head on, and the sides couldn't
really be seen. I added this
picture as an additional picture
rather than replacing the first
one. Showing different liveries
on the same train is one reason
for the collection, although I
didn't take train picture so
intensively in the days of older
liveries.
I almost rushed home from
the station because I had a
treat waiting for me. I didn't
actually rush, but I did try not
walk that slowly. I guess I got
the balance about right because
I was only in moderate
discomfort when I arrived home.
My special treat was some ice
cream for a post pub lunch. It
was all because I had eaten
about a third of a tub of ice
cream bought from Aldi (although
yesterday it seemed closer to
half the tub), and the next
morning my blood glucose
readings were almost slightly
better than normal.
The ice cream was just a
plain vanilla, and nothing
exotic, but still very nice.
Curiously enough, it didn't seem
to taste very sweet despite it's
stated sugar content. Anyway, I
just enjoyed it, and I enjoyed
it enough to finish off the
whole tub (which I am sure was
about half full when I started
on it yesterday). The stupid
thing is that I continued to eat
it when my tongue was almost
numb from the cold, and the
vanilla taste had saturated my
taste buds to the point where I
could barely taste it.
After eating the ice
cream I went through the
pictures taken on both my Nikon
S6300 pocket camera, until the
battery died on me, and then on
my mobile phone. [At this point
I have just got back from having
a second poo this morning, and I
seem to have bruised my brain
somehow. I seem to be having a
lot of difficulty controlling my
fingers on the keyboard - lots
of words seem to be coming out
with bizzare spellings. I am
doing a lot of editing as I
write, and I may be catching 90%
of my worst mistakes, but I
guess I am still missing many)].
I spent the next hour or
so laying on my bed reading
another chapter from the book I
am reading. My eyelids started
to droop, and so I put the book
down, closed my eyes, and
prepared for a snooze. I
can't be sure, but I don't think
I fully fell asleep, although
time did seem to pass without me
noticing it. It was still to
early for dinner, but once
melted, the ice cream didn't
leave any sense of eating
anything. I decided to have some
rice crackers and cream cheese
to tide me over.
While eating the rice
crackers I had a flick through
the electronic programme guide
for anything to watch on TV.
There was nothing that grabbed
my attention, and a bit later,
when it was dinner time I ate my
dinner watching an old recording
of The Avengers. My dinner
started out as a simple salad
bolstered up with some ready
cooked, flavoured, and sliced
chicken. I must admit it was
quite a well filled pack, and I
should have stopped there.
The only trouble is that
I had set my mind on using up a
second "simple salad" that was
on it's use by date, I did use
it up, but I added some finely
sliced salami to it more
sparingly than the chicken added
to the first salad. Having
the two salads seemed OK at the
time, but later in the evening I
started to suffer from heartburn
when I was laying in bed trying
to sleep. The only option was to
get back up, and try and do
something about the heartburn. I
tried Bicarbonate Of Soda, and
initially it seemed to help, but
it made me burp so much that the
heartburn started to return. I
then took a couple of Rennies,
and that calmed it all down
enough to get to sleep, but it
was getting on for midnight
before I was sleeping.
Once sleeping I slept
really well again. My sleep was
only disturbed twice in the
middle of the night when I had
to get up to pee - possibly
slightly less frequently than I
have become accustomed to. It
was just prior to waking up for
one of these pees that I had a
rather nasty dream. I dreamed I
saw some sort of movement behind
some curtains (which don't
exist) in my kitchen. Thinking
it might just be a fly, or
spider, I pulled the curtain
slightly aside, and blew at it
(for some strange reason).
Suddenly a rat leapt out, and
went behind the fridge. It came
out again, and I am not sure
what exactly I used, but it was
some sort of stick that I used
to press on the rats neck to
hold it still. I realised/knew I
was wearing some pretty tough
boots, and in desperation I
crushed it's skull by treading
on it. It was all very
unpleasant.
There were more pleasant
things after waking up a bit
later than my bodies first
attempt of trying to get me up.
I managed an extra 30 to 45
minutes sleep ! The first good
news is that when I went to ton
toilet, initially just for a
pee, I also managed to do a nice
poo. The downside is that I seem
to have put on another 10gm or
so, although since than I have
had another fair sized poo, and
a pee. The optimistic version is
that my weight has not actually
changed....
There was real good news
about my blood glucose. It seems
the more ice cream I eat the
lower it gets - which is
obviously complete nonsense,
but.... This morning the Contour
meter read a magnificent
6.9mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter
wasn't quite as good, but only
by a semi-smidgin. It read
7.0mmol/l. The Sinocare read a
wonderfully low 6.5mmol/l.
Getting two readings low enough
to be coded dark green in my
spreadsheet is unprecedented. It
is rare for a single dark green
(6.xx mmol/l) reading !
Incidently, my morning blood
pressure readings are again in
the "optimum", or better than
normal area.
I think my day should be
very simple. The first thing I
have to do is to finish washing
another hand towel that I left
soaking in detergent and
antiseptic yesterday. It was
supposedly fresh out the drawer,
but smelled nasty on first use.
Hopefully it will smell fresh
when I have finished. Once I've
done that I can have a shower.
It is now so late in the morning
that it will probably be after
midday when I have my shower. A
few hours later I think Jodie
will be over for some beer
tasting, but something in the
back of my mind says she may be
off to a gig instead of coming
here. If she hasn't appeared by
about 4pm I shall relax, put my
feet up, and doing something
else - reading, and/or snoozing.
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