07:37
GMT
Like last
Monday, yesterday was a nice
sunny day, but at just 11° C
it wasn't exactly warm, but
warm enough..
Today should be starting
with full sunshine, but
there seems enough thin
cloud to make the sunshine
quite weak and watery
(although as I write this it
is still very low in the
sky, and I think it is still
below the roof line). By
late morning the full
sunshine will give way to
sunny spells, and once again
the temperature should reach
11° C. Tomorrow should also
be very sunny, but once
again it may only reach 11°
C.
It's very early start
today because I am due to
give blood samples at
8.45am. At some point I will
have to pause writing to go
and see the vampires. Back
to yesterday, and on the
whole, it was one of the
better days. Like Monday of
last week, I managed to get
myself out for a walk.
I don't think I did
it consciously, and it may
have just been because I had
a lot of pictures to show,
but I seemed to take my time
yesterday morning. It was
gone 11am when I washed and
conditioned my hair, and
then had a shower. It felt
good to be clean again. By
the time I was ready to go
out, almost 1pm if I recall
correctly, the sun was
usually shining (it was more
like sunny spells), and the
temperature had reached 11°
C.
I guess the prime
reason for this walk was
exercise, and it does seem
to be helping. It was also
to take some pictures using
my Canon 600D camera with
what I hoped was the good
Tamron, 18 to 200mm zoom
lens. It turned out that it
was the good lens, and the
18mm part meant it was a
wider angle shot at minimum
zoom, and that seemed a good
trade off, on top of the
improved picture quality,
for losing the extra 100mm
zoom range of the bad
camera.
My walk might have
been a duplicate of last
Monday's walk, but while
last Monday's walk took me
over ground I hadn't seen
for maybe a year or more, it
did not provide all that
many photo opportunities. I
decided to keep totally
inside Ladywell Fields,
apart from two small
diversions. One was to go to
Ladywell station with the
intention of picking up a
copy of The Metro, and then
promptly forgot about it
when a train came into the
station.
The other small
diversion was to go into the
St Mary's Therapeutic garden
for some photos of squirrels
and stuff.
This was the view as
I walked towards the
entrance of the park -
lovely blue sky with just
some patches of thin white
cloud.
I took almost an
identical picture of
possibly the same Ring
Necked Parakeet on exactly
the same branch last week,
but I didn't show it because
it had the soft focus look
that the bad Tamron lens
gives. This picture looks a
lot better, although it's
not quite perfect.
Some trees in their autumn
colours. It is not a very
vivid display, and as I
think I said last week, it
is now probably too late
to get good shots of trees
which turn vivid read in
autumn.
08:16 GMT - Time to
take a walk to see the
vampires to give my blood
samples.
09:32 GMT - Back
from the vampires and
pharmacy, and also I have
had my breakfast. The
story continues.....
It was not my
specific intention to take
pictures of trains, but
when one arrived at
Ladywell station I had to
take a snap. Unfortunately
this made me forget the
main reason I went to
Ladywell Station - to pick
up a copy of The Metro so
I could do the crossword
later in the day. I did
get as far as crossing the
footbridge to the side
where The Metros are kept,
but maybe the effort of
crossing the footbridge
blew out my last
braincell.
I haven't seen the
Egret (I am pretty sure it
is an Egret and not a
heron even though I can't
see a plume out the top of
it's head) for ages, but
it was almost posing
nicely for me, and only
the good Tamron lens and
Canon camera could have
got this shot.
My other
slight detour was to go
into the St Mary's
Therapeutic Garden which
often provides a photo
opportunity like this
squirrel sitting on the
edge of one of the
planters.
I am sure I have
seen it before, but this
seems like the first time
I have seen, and
definitely the first time
I have photographed a
squirrel standing up on
it's hind legs. I am
pretty sure this is a male
squirrel in a pugilistic
pose.
I am not very good
at identifying flowers,
and so I'll just say it
was violet. It, and quite
a few more, brought a nice
splash of colour to the
garden. If I had managed
to get the camera pointed
and focus a second or two
before I would have
snapped a bee on the
flower.
Apart from the
light and shade, and the
sharpness of the photo
showing every hair of it's
fur, the interesting thing
in this picture is that
the squirrel seems to have
hold of a yew berry, They
are poisonous to many
things, including us, but
maybe not to squirrels.
Many squirrels seem to
make their homes in the
many yew trees around the
church.
There is a historic
reason for those Yew trees
being there. It was
because the berries,
leaves, and the whole tree
is poisonous to cattle
they were only allowed to
be grown in churchyards
where cattle were
forbidden. The whole
reason why Yew trees were
allowed to grow at all
because Yew wood is
essential for the original
English long bow !
I may have left it
too late to get the best
pictures of any trees
whose leaves turn red in
Autumn, but not too late
to get another picture of
this small group of trees
(3 I think) with this
glorious crown of golden
coloured leaves.
This walk was 0.2
miles shorter than the one
the week before, and I
managed to do a small
fraction faster. For most
of the walk I felt it was
going rather well. I
probably stopped to take
more photos so I was able
to have more mini rests.
Stopping more frequently,
and yet my average speed
being that small fraction
faster, probably means
that between stops I was
walking a fair bit faster.
It seemed to
go really well until maybe
the last 200 yards when I
quickly began to feel very
tired. I didn't really get
any angina pains, although
I was often slightly short
of breath. The only malady
I can blame for the
tiredness at the end was
just that - tiredness,
albeit tiredness mainly of
the legs rather than a
desire to go to sleep.
It was just gone
2pm when I arrived home,
and although it would have
been nice to lie down, and
put my feet up, the first
thing I did was to start
to prepare some lunch. All
the fresh air and exercise
made me feel extra
peckish. I think I got a
bit carried away, although
there was another reason
for it. That reason was I
wanted to use up the loaf
of Polish zero sugar bread
before it gets too old
(although it does seem to
have quite a long life
after opening).
I started off
toasting four slices of
bread (which are smaller
than typical white sliced
bread), and then cooking
them further in the
microwave to melt slices
of mature Cheddar cheese,
plus some hot chilli
sauce, between each pair
of slices. They seemed so
nice, but also fairly
insubstantial, that I had
two more slices of toast
and cheese. I rushed those
last two slices of toast,
and the bread was very
lightly browned, and some
bits not browned at all.
It still made for a
delicious toasted cheese
sandwich.
I needed, or at
least deserved a lie down
after that lunch on top of
my walk. I did have a lie
down, but it was not a
long one because I had
about 60 pictures in my
camera to consider. I
think I chose the best
dozen or so pictures for a
record of the walk,
although maybe 50 of 60n
taken were perfectly good
enough to use.
After so much toast and
cheese for lunch I decided I
should try and have another light
dinner. It was not as light as the
night before, but one small
orange, one golden apple and the
last persimmon was not exactly a
grand feast. I also added a lump
of mature Cheddar cheese just to
make sure it was even less healthy
!
Once again I had a dessert
of Sugar Free Choc Chip cookies
(as pictured on the left). I had 5
of these biscuits, and I thought
that was a semi restrained amount.
Besides which it was all that was
left in the packet. This morning
there were strong hints it was all
very healthy.
There were a few odds
and sods on TV last night, but by
8.30pm I turned the TV off and
went to read in bed. I did feel
very slightly uncomfortable, but I
think it was just a few rucks in
the lower sheet making it feel
like some lumps on me or the
mattress had grown since the
previous night. It was a little
after 9pm when I tried to go to
sleep. I thought I ought to be
very tired, but I could not seem
to get in the right relaxed mood
for sleep to come.
It got to 9.30pm and I felt
like I was starting to head for
sleep. At 9.34pm I got a message
from Angela replying to a message
I had sent nearly 4 hours earlier.
I have a theory that she likes to
wait until her husband is asleep
before she will reply to me. The
first message was a very simple
one saying she was in so much
pain. The next message confirmed
it was due to her radiotherapy.
She said that CoCodamol
(Codeine and paracetamol) tablets
help a lot, but that only seem to
last a few hours. That should be
good enough to get to sleep, but
apparently she wakes up in the
night when the pain returns. She
has been given some sort of
medication on a patch, but I am
not sure she has used it because
it apparently can take a couple of
days to start working.
I think that Angela may be
unusually sensitive to her
treatment. I have heard many tales
of people suffering bad nausea,
which Angela did get from the now
stopped chemo therapy, but none of
severe pain. Mostly people seem to
complain of terrible
tiredness/lack of energy because
of Radiotherapy, or maybe they
just leave that bit out. It feel
so sad that Angela is suffering so
badly from her treatment, but at
least she does recognise how
essential it is.
After we had exchanged the
last message it took around 2
hours before I finally got to
sleep. During that time I did have
some chest pain, and it was a mix
of mild indigestion and just
creaking muscles and ribs. Once I
was sleeping I seemed to sleep as
good or better than normal, and
more importantly, after getting up
for quite a few visits to the
toilet in the night, I had no
trouble getting back to sleep
again (and all the lumps and bumps
in the mattress, and pillows had
all vanished for the rest of the
night).
I know I had dreams in the
night, and I feel sure there was
at least one that would be
worthwhile recording, but this
morning was all a bit too hectic
to bother trying to try and
remember anything about that or
those dreams. I had to make sure I
was up early enough to have a
shower before getting out to the
vampires under the roof of the
surgery (and also to pick up my
latest repeat prescription).
I had a nice pee after I
got up at just before 6:30am, but
I couldn't seem to have a poo.
When I weighed myself I found I
had lost some weight since
yesterday. It wasn't a lot, but if
I could lose 300gm every day it
would soon add up to something
good. After a lot of peeing in the
night I feared that my blood
glucose measurements might be very
high. They were, and they
definitely were not !
The Contour meter got the
first blood and it read a fairly
good 8.1mmol/l - almost, but not
quite in the light green, very
good zone. The GlucoRX meter did
get into the light green, very
good zone with a reading of
7.8mmol/l, albeit still a bit
higher than my personal target of
7.5mmol/l. The Exactive meter went
insane again, and gave a reading
of 9.2mmol/l - into the pink zone
between white (good enough) and
red danger zone.
For some reason my blood
pressure seems quite low at the
moment. It was just 94/47. it may
be why I seem to feel more tired
than can be accounted for by
getting up a bit early, and going
for the 6 or 7 minutes, there and
again back, to the group practice
building with the pharmacy and
phlebotomy (vampires) in it.
Of course I am almost forgetting I
did finally get to bed quite late
last night.
I was fortunate that
I manage to finally have a decent
poo about 10 minutes before I set
out to go to the group practice
building. It might have been a
slightly uncomfortable outing if I
had not done it. The walk itself
seemed OK. I left in plenty of
time for a slow walk, but I just
can't seem to do slow walks. When
I arrived at the building I
stopped at the stairs up to the
vampire attic to get my breath
back for all of 15 seconds. Then
going up the stairs seemed easy,
although I didn't seem to be able
to run up the stairs.
I knew I got up to the
waiting room with plenty of time
to spare, although I must admit I
didn't actually check the time. I
was surprised that it didn't seem
to take more than 5 minutes before
I was called into the room for my
vein to be opened, and enough
blood to fill two test tubes was
drained off. After that it was
time to go down to the pharmacy to
see if my repeat prescription,
ordered last Thursday, was ready
to be picked up. It was, but I had
to wait for two other people to be
served.
I have to say that the NHS
is a marvellous institution: I
bartered 2 tubes of blood and a
tube of urine for all these
marvellous (I hope) life saving
drugs. It is a shame they forgot
the test strips for my GlucoRX
blood glucose meter. Maybe I
should have added some other
"sample" to my barter offerings to
get those test strips.
I definitely feel like a
lie down now. It is currently nice
and sunny, and I am tempted to go
out again later. I think it will
only be to Tesco, but I suppose it
is possible I could go further,
and take a camera with me, but I
wouldn't like to over do the fresh
air - some say it can become
addictive !
Talking of fresh
air....when I got home I noticed
an unpleasant sort of smell, and I
thought it was coming down stairs
from the toilet, and it was a sort
of rotting wood smell. It would
not be a good thing if the
floorboard in my bathroom were
starting to rot. A bit later I
could smell it in my bedroom, and
the bathroom seemed to smell fine.
I have a dark idea that I may have
trodden in something like fox pee
(or poo) on my way back from the
pharmacy, and it is one on of my
shoes !
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