Today may be a better day than yesterday. This time the forecast admits there may be a few clouds in the afternoon giving some short periods without sunshine. The afternoon temperature may reach 25° C, and possibly more. Tomorrow should feature loads of sunny spells, but the temperature may only reach 22° C, and there could be some rain in the afternoon.

  Yesterday was a pretty good day. The weather was very nice, and I managed to get a bit of exercise and sunshine. Unfortunately it seemed quite a tiring day, but by the evening I seemed to get my second wind and couldn't get to sleep until around midnight.

  After I finished writing yesterday morning's piece I had my usual rest, and then I washed my hair and had a shower. I was not expecting to see anyone, and so I didn't bother with a shave. I was still not exactly sure what I was going to do, or where I was going to go. I checked the trains and the route to one destination seemed clear of any engineering works or the like. It was basically to Clapham Junction, and with no difficulties in going a bit further.

  I had in mind some train photography, and there shouldn't have been much walking involved, although I would be on my feet for a long time. It seemed like a good time to give my new wide fitting trainers a longer test. The previous night I had re-laced them again with what I hoped was a better choice of laces that gave a bit more slip to allow the trainers to "breathe". They seemed to be generally comfortable until the very last bit of my outing.
  The walk to Catford station seemed very slightly easier than usual, although I still had to stop for half a minute to get my breath back near Catford Bridge station. Once I was on the platform I had my first photographic "model". A green-shield bug flew up from track level, and settled on the tactile strip near the platform edge. I thought it was a beetle, but later at home I found it was not a beetle but a bug ! There are important differences that I can't seem to remember this morning.
  One of the aims of this outing was to get some photos of Southwestern Railway's much delayed coming in to service, class 701 trains. I suspect that there may have been more about during the morning and evening rush hours, although Clapham Junction and other stations seemed almost have been as busy. I saw this one, 701036 twice - it's heading towards Waterloo in this picture, and it was heading away from Waterloo the next time I saw it. I did see one other.
  The other thing I wanted to see and photograph was any class 455 train.  These are the type of train that Southern Railway declared to be clapped out and so scrapped all theirs. I think Southwestern Railways inherited better train engineers, and they keep these train running smoothly. They will eventually be replaced and scrapped. Yesterday I probably took snaps of 10 or more of these trains that I had never photographed before, and added them to my huge spreadsheet of class 355 pictures.
  This was another shot of 701036 taken at Earlsfield, and it is the better picture, but the previous one was the one I added to the spreadsheet (mainly because I was feeling too tired to edit it). Like the last time I was in the Clapham Junction area, I only ever saw these new class 701 trains from the wrong platform to be able to get on one, and see what the interior is like.
  It almost seemed that most of the trains I saw were class 455 trains. This one, 455721, is seen leaving Clapham Junction platform 9 (I think) towards Waterloo. The position of the sun meant that all my best pictures were taken looking in this direction. Pictures taken looking away from Waterloo sometimes needed a few tweeks.
  This picture of 455738 was taken into the sun, and the front was looking rather dim and indistinct. I managed to brighten it up a bit without loosing any detail, but it doesn't look quite right.
  This is the rear 4 car unit of the train seen in the previous picture. 455731 looks a bit grubby at this end, but at least the number was clear with no editing. If you look carefully at the man getting off the train you can see the huge and wide drop from the carriage to the platform. It is because of the curve of the platform, and also because the track is banked to as would be needed for high speed passes. I expect the latter rarely if even happens, and I am surprised such a huge health and safety issue is allowed to continues. Even 20 years ago when I was a lot more sprightly, I was never happy leaping over that big gap.
  I was in the right place at the right time to capture this slightly rare picture. The 458/4 trains have only quite recently been in service. They are a 4 car train that started off as a 5 car train class 460 train, but when refurbished they were reduced to just 4 cars trains, and then renumbered in the 458/4 series. It does look bright and shiny as if it has not been in service long after it's refurbishment.
  If I had had more patience I could have had my first ride on a class 701 "Arterio" train, but I did not want to wait for 19 minutes. The biggest reason was that although I was not desperate, I knew that I would soon need to use a toilet. A bit earlier I did go to the toilets on Clapham Junction. Some time ago they had been rebuilt in a new location, and they seemed very good on my first visit some months ago. Yesterday they were very busy, and while still bright and well appointed, the last user had left the floor and seat of the stall was in wet. There was evidently a blockage (that was being attended to as I left) a few stalls away, and it was smelling very ripe !!! I couldn't relax enough to do all I needed to do.
  I got the next Overground (Windrush line in new parlance) train back to Denmark Hill station so I could change to a Thameslink train back to Catford. I had about a 10 minute wait, and while I waited I saw, and got a fairly good snap of this diesel loco, 66757, hauling a long line of cylinders that were filled with who knows what. It may have been aviation fuel, or it may have been some sort of nasty chemical. Those cylinders somehow seemed most sinister, and there were an awful lot of them (maybe more than 10).

  When I got back to Catford I debated with myself about going into the Sainsbury's Local shop just outside the station. I almost didn't go in there because I thought that by that time of day, about 4pm, they would have run out of their nice made up salads. I did go in, and I found they still had a few Greek "style" salads, and one I had not seen before - a Cheddar cheese salad. I also discovered loads of very marked down (often as much as £6 discounted to around £1.50) stuff. I shamelessly piled a load of it in my basket.

  I had a carrier bag full, and the bill was only just over £10 ! As I walked towards home I couldn't help but thinking my new trainers had done well. Most of the time I was not aware I was even wearing them. That changed when I got to the top of the steps leading up to the brow of the road bridge from Catford Bridge station. It was like someone had flicked a switch. From then on they were not agonisingly uncomfortable, but were almost painful.

  I wanted to get home and take those trainers off, plus, and probably more so, I wanted to start eating some of the yummy food I had bought. I think I did the entire walk just about non stop, and maybe a fraction faster than what would have possibly have been a bit of a slow plod. When I got to my front door I was getting angina pains. It seems a bit unusual now to be able to walk far and fast enough to get angina pains recently.

  Once home I dashed up to the toilet where I did both a pee and a poo. I then stripped down to my underwear, and before putting on indoor clothes I weighed myself. As expected, a bit of exercise, a good pee, and no drink since I had left home just after midday, and my weight was very nice and low (compared to typical). It would not stay that low because I had rather a grand dinner, or was it lunch...actually it was a combined late lunch and early dinner.

  I had a pretty nice, but maybe not quite as wonderful as it sounded like it might be, pulled pork and cheese wrap, starter. Then I had two weird dishes. One was a Japanese inspired dish of rice and chicken and vegetables and....I can't remember a better description. The other one I had was called a something poke, and once again was rice and vegetables and chicken. Both the two weird things were nice, but not great, and were almost filling. I had a small amount of ice cream for dessert.

  I was feeling tired before I ate, and dreadfully tired after eating. I wanted to lie down, but I forced myself to do all the post production stuff of the photos I had taken. I had taken 128 photos in the nearly 4 hours I was out. Some were complete rubbish, but many were perfectly usable, and many (maybe 30, possibly even 40) needed to be edited to use on my train photos spreadsheet. Once a photo had been cropped and resized, and any other improvements made, I then had to fill in all the details on the spreadsheet. It was doing that spreadsheet that took ages. The few photos I have shown here took a small amount of my time.

  I mostly listened to some TV while I worked. Having the TV on slowed me up a bit, but I needed a few breaks from the photo work. I don't think those breaks took up much time, but I suppose they must have taken some time. It was almost 11pm before I finished and could go to bed. The only problem is that by then I had got my second wind, and then it took ages to get relaxed enough to fall asleep.

  My sleep was a bit weird in so much that I can't remember having any meaningful, and apparently long dreams. All I can remember is little more than snapshots that make no sense at all. Maybe one dream was a cartoon because the sub one second bit of it I can remember was of a cat and a mouse dressed up in WW2 army uniforms. Maybe I was actually hallucinating or something.

  It feels like maybe I woke less frequently to pee last night. It also seemed I nearly got up extra early. I think it was just before 5am when I woke up for a pee, and saw that it was getting light outside. I went back to bed thinking I would have maybe another hour of sleep. Evidently that was not enough because it was almost 8am when I woke up again...although I have a very foggy memory that maybe I might have had a pee at about 6am.

  When I did get up I went to the toilet convinced I needed a poo as well as a pee. The poo was just wind, a lot of it, and the pee didn't seem all that big. After I had counted out my pills for the day I went back to the toilet, and had another small pee, but no poo - and I mainly went back to the toilet thinking I might need one this time. The extra pee was useful because it took my weight down a little, and it seems I have lost 700gm since yesterday morning.

  I did not expect my blood glucose measurements to be good after the ice cream I ate last night, and although I didn't really examine the nutritional info on most of what I ate, I was fairly sure that it was not that low. The Contour meter read 8.6mmol/l. That is still just about OK, but no more. The GlucoRX meter read 7.7mmol/l, and that was actually rather good. The Sinocare meter read 8.4mmol/l, and that is almost just about, right on the edge, good !

  My blood pressure is pretty good this morning, 103/42, but I do not feel very good this morning. I notice my feet seem to ache a bit this morning. I presume it was after standing around in my new trainers for so lone yesterday, plus the walk home. My legs, which I didn't think I taxed much, seem to be a bit stiff this morning. Despite a good lay in, I still seem to feel tired. Once I have finished this morning's writing I will lie down as usual, and I predict I might end up having a long snooze.

  I think I should go out in today's lovely warm sunshine for a walk, but I feel like I don't want to. I may still go out even if just to the shops. On the other hand I could just be thoroughly lazy, or I could go into the garden with my strimmer, and see if I can clear a bit more of the overgrown bits. I have a fantasy that I will get the whole garden clear, and keep it like that over the winter so I can sow new seeds as spring is starting. That is probably a bigger fantasy than Jules Verne's 20,000 leagues under the sea !