07:38 BST
Yesterday
was a very warm day with plenty of
sunshine, mostly strong sunshine,
although a few hours only had sunny
spells. The temperature reached 28°
C, and it was very humid. That was
enough to trigger a few
thunderstorms around midnight. There
had been rain from as early as 8 or
9pm. Most of it light rain, but a
patch of cloud crossed over us that
produced heavy rain, and the
thunderstorms. I saw quite a few
bright flashes, but the thunder only
arrived many seconds, perhaps 10 or
even 20 seconds later. Somewhere in
London was getting the full force of
it, but there seemed nothing local
to me.
There are no sunny spells so
far this morning, and from how the sky
looks it could be some time before we
see the sun. We have even had a
splattering of rain, and it looks like
we are having another as I write this.
With one of my outside temperature
sensors saying the humidity is 84%, it
would not surprise me if I heard more
thunder in the distance. Eventually
the sun will break through, and
although the maximum temperature may
only be the forecast 23° C, it could
still feel like a hot and sticky
day. Tonight may feel much
fresher, and tomorrow may start as low
as 14° C, but it could start with just
2 hours of full sunshine. After that
there will be mostly sunny spells
until 8pm when full sunshine could
return for an hour and a bit before
the sun sets. Midday could see some
heavy cloud and a shower or two.
Tomorrow's warmest hours could be just
22° C starting at 3pm for a few hours.
I had plans and ideas for
yesterday, but they came to nothing
because I was not feeling too good
after the many visits to the toilet
late in the night before. I felt only
just a bit tender, but worse was that
it felt like it was still not fully
over. With hindsight I cans say that
it was. I ended up doing something
completely different.
I really was hoping that I
would end up frolicking in the hot
sunshine yesterday, and I sort of did,
but not how I imagined it. At a
minimum I hoped for as simple a walk
as from home to Ladywell and back, but
I was thinking that I could attempt
something longer. I had hoped that
after I had had my lie down after
writing yesterday's piece, I might
feel up to that longer walk. I even
had fantasies about going on train and
tram rides.
So I had my usual lie down, and
at the end of it I went to the toilet
for a pee, but thought there was going
to be more - more than just some wind
! There was definitely some wind, but
that was all. I still wouldn't want to
be doing that on a train, and that was
one limitation for me. I washed my
hair and had a shower, and felt better
for it, but not in the way |I wanted
to feel.
One thing about yesterday's
shower, and hair washing, was that I
fed all the water through the shower
head. Usually I have to allow a fast
dribble out of the wash basin hot tap
to allow enough water to flow to
trigger the water heater to heat the
water to maximum. With only the shower
head on the heater only heated to
water to slightly more than lukewarm,
and that was far more pleasant to
shower under. Even cooler may have
been nicer - particularly several
hours later.
I have absolutely no idea when
I started, but I think it was not long
after midday when I went out into the
garden armed with my cordless
strimmer. The garden path was almost
inaccessible again, and the nettles
around the old bird feeder were almost
chest high. Also the tree I had cut
back to a bare stump, albeit about 3
ft high, had sprouted new branches,
and a few were fairly thick. All these
things needed to be tackled with the
strimmer, or loppers for the tree.
I wore an old pair of walking
boots, without socks, and for this
work they seemed comfortable. I also
wore my gardening trousers - a pair of
old jeans that were too big and baggy
for me, and needing a good belt to
hold them up. Other than that I was
working topless in the hot sunshine,
and it felt great ! It was very sweaty
work, but the sweat didn't seem to
bother my like it might have. Somehow
it mostly kept out of my eyes.
I am very certain I was working
for over one hours, but although
slightly possible, I don't think I
worked for more than 2 hours. By the
time I was finished I was feeling
tired but good. I can't recall at any
time feeling even the tiniest hint
that I might need the toilet. As such
I could have gone for a walk safely,
but it is easy to say that with
hindsight. When I say safely I expect
I mostly, but perhaps not exclusively,
mean comfortably.
When I came indoor again I
stripped off my gardening clothes, and
had a plain and cool shower to rinse
off the sweat and bits of vegetation
clinging to my wet skin. I felt
relaxed after the shower, but also
rather good. I sort of wish I had
taken a before picture because taking
a picture of my hard work without
anything to compare it with would have
shown nothing, although literally
nothing would really be the absence of
stuff. It is not knowing what was
there before that would make an after
picture pointless, but at least
I
know what I achieved.
I think it was fast approaching
3pm when I had dried myself off, and
laid down to rest. By then I was
definitely feeling hungry, but I
resisted the temptation to have any
food. One of the original reasons for
going out on a longer walk was as a
distractions from food. I still had a
couple of hours to pass before I would
consider dinner, but the hunger pains
could have busted through my resolve.
I was helped by a new
distraction from eating by a phone
call from my friend Kieth. Sometimes a
call from him can be quite tedious. He
has some strange hobbies, like
spotting cell phone towers, and
remembering all the news of mergers
and changes in the mobile phone world.
The call did end up like that, but
before it, he had a serious question,
and I guess many people would not know
what I thought was very obvious.
He had been asked to send a
copy of a letter than confirmed he had
paid a bill, but every time he tried
to send a photo of the letter his
email was rejected for being too big.
He is used to social media websites
accepting any pictures, and then
resizing them as needed. He did not
know that that does not happen when
sending emails with pictures as
attachements. He was wailing that
there was something wrong with his
phone or his email app.
He thought he might have to buy
a special app to send big pictures
through email. It seems he had never
knew it was possible to edit the
pictures he had taken. I patiently got
him to take another picture of the
letter, but this time to not zoom in,
and leave lots of blank space around
the border of the letter. I then
talked him through noticing the edit
button, which was in plain sight once
he looked for it, and then to drag the
edges of the frame in to meet the
edges of the letter. After that he
could save it over the the original
picture, or save the cropped version
as a new pictures.
The new copy was about a
quarter of the size of the picture he
was trying to send, and it was easily
accepted to send as email from and too
a google email address. Prior to this
he thought he knew everything about
mobile phones, this proved he didn't.
He also admitted his ignorance when he
claimed crappy Samsung phones were the
best of all, and he had spent a
fortune to buy his current one. I
suspect my new phone, the Honor 200
Smart, that is still in testing before
I transfer the sim card from my
current phone, could match his in all
but one feature. He had bought the one
with the highest storage space. My
Honor phone only has half the storage
space, but to me it is a lot, and cost
approximately on tenth the price he
paid !
The end of that phone call took
me nicely to dinner time. I had about
20 minutes to prepare my dinner ready
to eat while watching the 6 O'clock
News. In fact my preparation time was
a lot less because I had a ready made
"basic side salad" that I had bought
from Aldi, and it was high time I used
it (although it might have had another
day before the best before date). All
I had to do was to fish out the bits
of cucumber, add some slices of corned
beef, and a big spoonful of coleslaw.
It was quite a nice dinner, and
it seemed semi filling, but not
filling enough to stop eating for the
day. I had an apple, a small "easy
peeler" orange and two Sharon fruit
for a dessert. I wish I had not bought
that Sharon fruit. It is very sweet
usually, and the three pack I bought
had three almost over ripe fruit in
it. I had two of them because I knew
they could not last much longer. I am
unsure if it was purely because they
were so soft and over ripe, or if it
was some sort of guilt because they
were so sweet, but in the end I did
not enjoy them.
After the 6 O'clock news I
started to watch Star Trek: Voyager,
but it was not a very exciting story,
and I ended up reading through some of
the backlog of technology news items
in
https://www.theregister.com/.
When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
started, or maybe it was before it
started, when I realised I was in the
wrong mood for more TV. It was only
8pm, but I found I preferred to get
ready for bed, and spend maybe an hour
reading in bed.
In fact it was less than an
hour before I had finished reading the
first Red Dwarf book. That book was a
double book and it also had the second
book, but I had read that previously
as a separate book. There was some
additional stuff, including the very
first script for a preview/test
version for the TV series, and that
was a little bit interesting, and I
read that, but I thought I could
probably go to sleep straight
afterwards.
I turned out the light, turned
over, and tried to sleep. That didn't
work. It was obviously too early even
if after my hard work in the garden
made me feel like an early night would
be nice. That hard work in the garden
did leave a fairly mild legacy of
aches, and while they would be easily
ignorable if I was very tired, they
helped me keep awake. And then there
was the fact that it was a very sweaty
and sticky night.
I got up again, and took a
couple of Ibuprofen tablets to ease
some of the aches. While they did
their stuff I read more news items
from The Register. Eventually I
started to feel tired - as I should
have done anyway at just after 9pm. I
went back to bed, and although it
probably took as much as 20 minutes, I
did finally get back to sleep, but it
was quite a disturbed sleep.
One annoyance was that I woke
up thinking I could here a mouse
nibbling at something, but I later
realised it was rain hitting the
window. The first flash of lightning,
and the almost long wait for the the
thunder was a big clue it was raining
outside. I got up to go for a pee, and
I saw and heard a few more flashes and
distant peals of thunder before I was
back in bed. It seemed like I had only
managed to get to sleep after a fair
wait when my new phone woke me up.
It announced there was an
operating system software update. I
could have and should have waited for
the morning to deal with it, but
decided I may as well get it over and
done with. I was awake for at least
another half hour. After that I did
seem to almost sleep OK, but I had
another period of insomnia at around
5am. Maybe it was because it was light
by then - albeit an overcast sort of
light.
I managed a bit more sleep, but
not enough to make up for the 2 or 3
hours of sleep I felt I had missed in
the night. I may pay for that later.
It was obvious I would probably not be
able to fall asleep again, and got up.
It was about the time I would have got
up if I had had a perfect night's
sleep. I went for a pee (but no poo),
and like much of the night's pees, it
was quite small, but I was fairly
pleased to see that I had managed to
lose 400gm since yesterday. I must
admit that after no lunch, and a very
healthy (or so I deluded myself)
dinner, I had hoped for more.
The seeming lack of peeing
suggested a low blood glucose, but it
never seems to work how the text books
say it should. The Contour meter said
my blood glucose was 8.4mmol/l. That
is fined but I had hoped for lower.
The GlucoRX meter read 8.8mmol/l, and
I thought that a bit high. The
Sinocare meter went bonkers and said
my blood glucose level was well into
the danger zone with a reading of
10.2mmol/l. That is unbelievably high
compared to the other two, and there
must be more going on than meets the
eye.
Today has finally brightened
up, and although it may be a little
cooler, and a little less sunny than
yesterday, it still seems like it
should be well good enough to revive
my plans of yesterday - but with some
modification. I am still unsure how
far I can walk. Maybe about three
quarters of a mile is my maximum
without several minutes of rest -
standing up rest ! I have come up with
a plan that could make for at least a
3 mile walk, but done in small stages.
The plan is very flexible. I
will start by walking through the
River Pool Linear Park. If I walk to
the bow string bridge over the river,
and then return it is about a 3 mile
walk. My plan starts with walking as
far as the bow string bridge, and if
all is well after a couple of short
rest periods, I will continue as far
as Lower Sydenham station. The walk
home from there is about 4 miles, but
I have doubts I could manage that
without a few good rests. I could get
the train back to Catford Bridge, but
I am thinking of getting the train to
Elmers End. That would give me about 5
minutes of sitting down rest.
At Elmers End I could take a
few tram pictures and then get the
train back to Catford Bridge. If I was
feeling a lot better than I could
imagine I could walk to Arena Tram
stop. I could also get a tram from
Elmers End, but once on the tram
network I could take lots of short
tram rides and take more pictures of
trams. With luck I would get to ride
on one of the newer 12 trams of the
total of 34 trams that are running. I
could probably fill in a lot of the
blanks of my Trams spreadsheet if I
did this.
As I write this I am not
totally sure I will be going out at
all. I can feel my lost sleep catching
up with me, and I feel like I might
have a long snooze during my post
writing rest. After that I can
consider if I am going out, and maybe
how far I dare try to travel or walk.
I definitely want to skip lunch again
today, and being out of the house
would make that very easy.
On the subject of eating, I am
conducting a very dangerous experiment
this morning. Instead of my usual
instant noodles I have had two halves
of a, heading towards stale, Pannini
roll toasted with melted cheese on
both halves. I have also had a small
pot noodle. I think it was an Aldi
special, and I am sure I thought the
other of the pair I bought was
rubbish, but this one, apart from
being small (possibly just 60gm or
less) was a bit nice. I also had 4
blocks/segments from a bar of a mint
Aero bar. That did involve quite a bit
of sugar, and that would seem to be
unwise, but..... in the past it has
seemed that an occasion burst of sugar
would seem to wake my pancreas up, and
my my blood glucose to actually drop
the next day. Doing that today may be
foolhardy, but maybe it might work
again.