07:37 BST

  This morning has started bright and sunny as per the forecast, but we may only get sunny spells for a few hours at the start of the afternoon - however the latest revision now says it will be full sunshine all day long. This will be like yesterday if it happens. The temperature should peak 27° C, and possibly higher. It should be a fairly warm night, and tomorrow could start at 18° C. Another day of full sunshine is forecast for tomorrow, and the temperature could rise to 28° C or higher.

   Yesterday was quite a good day. The day started with reasonably low blood glucose, and some weight loss. These were trends I managed to keep up during the day. Of course there were some negative things, but overall it was a very pleasing sort of day.

  One of the things about yesterday is that I finished my morning writing a bit earlier than usual, and maybe I even had a shorter rest afterwards, although I remember feeling very relaxed about it. I did some reading during that rest, and my eyelids started to feel heavy. I was quite happy to close my eyes, and if it happened, to have a snooze. In fact I think I may have had a short snooze.

  Once my rest was over I washed my hair and had a shower. After that I put three items of clothing in to soak in detergent. I then decided I ought to go out straight away for a walk I wanted to do - purely for exercise. I admit I shun other peoples ideas of exercise, but over the long years I have developed my type of exercise. It is just walking, although once, and maybe in the future it included a bit of hill climbing. The useful thing is that it works.

  There was one thing bothering me. I knew I was due a delivery yesterday, but I did not know when, and would not know until 1pm - after I was home again. I made the bold assumption that it was highly unlikely to be until early afternoon at the earliest, and so I boldly stepped out...or something like that.

  My aim was just to walk to Ladywell and back, but at about halfway to Ladywell I thought I may as well detour to Ladywell Station to pick up a copy of The Metro. I tried to keep my walking speed down to around 2mph so I would have to stop for a short rest less frequently. Maybe it was because I paid extra care to pausing the tracker almost every time I stopped, I still managed an average speed of 2.3mph, and that is a little bit higher than recently. It seems all my exercise is doing positive things for my body.

  I did not bother taking a separate camera with me, and so I had one less excuse to stop, but I did have my two current working phones with me (my usual, and the new phone I am still evaluating/getting used to it's quirks), and I did take a few pictures with my usual phone.









  One such picture was taken at Ladywell Station.  I have seen the letterbox in the wall of the station, adjacent to the ticket office entrance, many times before, but I had never actually looked at it. I was quite surprised to see it was from Victorian Times. The station apparently opened on 1st January 1857 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladywell_railway_station), and although I am not really a history buff, and don't know the dates of Queen Victoria's reign, 1857 sounds like it would easily have been in her reign. It is rather good, in some undefined way, to know that the Ticket Office building dates back to when the railway was first built, although I am very sure the interior has been changed around a lot over the years.

  It wasn't an instant decision, but I decided that I would not attempt to lengthen my walk in any way, but to go almost directly home from Ladywell. One obvious reason was that I was worried about missing the courier delivery the stuff I had ordered from Premier Man (https://www.premierman.com/). Another reason was because I started to fart a bit too often, and it seemed very likely I would be needing a toilet sooner or later.









  I stuck to my usual route back from Ladywell (or the pub) by walking between each of the bridges across the river, and take a rest while on the bridge, looking up and down the river for a minute of so. By the time I got to the second to last bridge I was feeling some discomfort in the posterior region, but I still thought I had time to spare getting a pictures of these shopping trolleys that has been rescued from the river. I have no idea who did it. In theory it could have been Thames Water, who "own" the river. It could have been Glendale who look after the park, but it was most likely The Friends Of The River Pool who are responsible for much of the clean up and improvements to the river (even though the River Pool has become The River Ravensbourne by the time it reaches Catford.

  I had two more quite short rests before I arrived home. By that time the idea that I might need the toilet had become rather strong. While I tried to be relaxed about it, I got to the point where I could not take my shoes and shorts off fastest enough, and get to the toilet where I exploded. It was evident in the extreme that I most definitely needed the toilet. I was amazed at just how much I needed the toilet, and how much I deposited in it.

  Once I was finished in the toilet, and only wearing underpants, I weighed myself. I don't think I have seen such a low weight for ages and ages. I only have patchy weight records prior to 2023, but the last time I may have seen myself weigh this low would have been when I was doing miles and miles of walking during the long hot summer of Covid lockdown. There was no angina in those days, and I was doing some 6 and even 7 mile walks.

  I felt no guilt under such circumstances in having a light lunch yesterday. It was simply rice crackers and farmhouse pâté.It may have been while munching my way through lunch that I got an email advising me my parcel would be delivered between 2 and 3pm. It actually arrived about 2:10pm. I took it indoors and quickly opened it all up. The black shorts I had ordered were more like dark grey to my eyes. That might have been a good thing because I have had black jeans that smelled like they had been died with smelly industrial soot.

  The other item I had ordered was yet another pair of Adidas trainers. The last pair I bought are the most comfortable walking shoes I have had in ages. I hoped the new ones would be as good. They are a different design, and in some ways a nicer looking design, but sadly they seem to have a very inflexible sole. I may be able to wear them in, but they seem too much like a couple of other pairs of trainers I have that are very comfortable to stand in, put really tiring to walk in.

   Apart from being dark grey instead of black, there is another (possible) problem with the new shorts that came yesterday. They seem to be exactly the wrong length. If the legs were an inch longer or shorter they would probably be fine, but their length seems to be such that they come down to exactly to my kneecaps, and I think they will catch on the kneecap itself. Like the trainers, they may be fine once they have been worn enough to soften the fabric.

  On the plus side, like the trainers, they do fit almost perfectly (except for that potential kneecap problem). Time will tell, but right now I wonder if I may have spent money foolishly. I could return both items, but I don't feel desperate enough to go to all that trouble. I think the shorts will probably be OK when I come to wear them for real - and maybe after washing and conditioning them. I'll probably start of wearing them, and the new trainers on short walks to the shops to see how I get on with them.

  There were two other good (although maybe strange usage of the word good) things I did yesterday. One was to pay my TV licence, although I sometime wonder why I even bother with most TV these days. I also paid off my Tesco credit card. Apart from my MBNA credit card, I think that is all my financial stuff done for the rest of this month. It felt like I had very little time to rest before it was dinner time.

  As usual, I ate my dinner while watching the BBC 6 O'clock news - probably why I should pay my TV licence fee. My dinner was a corned beef salad with 5 thinly sliced slices of corned beef with a heap of salad leaves. I also added the last of my tomatoes, some potato salad and reduced fat coleslaw (which seems to have small amount of sugar in it than full fat coleslaw). It seemed pretty filling, but I did have a small snack afterwards (I can't really call it a dessert) of a small handful of salted peanuts.

  I watched, or really just half watched Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine after the news. On reflection, I am sure I remember switching off Deep Space Nine less than halfway through. I think I made that decision when I checked to see what was on at 9pm. It would have been an edition of QI, but it was a Sandy Tokstig edition with her very often very weird friends on the panel as guests. It seemed the perfect time to switch off the TV, and do other stuff.

  Other stuff included spending some time on the internet, and going to bed, to read in bed, earlier than usual. Once I got lost in the book I lost all track of time. I can remember feeling like my eyelids were drooping, and conveniently I had just one more page to read until the end of the chapter. I put the book down, turned out the light, and I would not be surprised if it was not quite 9pm before I was fast asleep.

  I woke 3 or 4 times in the night for a pee, but it feels like I otherwise slept very soundly last night. I can remember the highlights of a very unusual dream I had in the last hour or two of sleep. I am unsure of my role in the dream. Sometimes it seemed I was just an observer, but at other times I did seem to take part in the action. The dream was set inside a school, although some times it seemed more like a prison.

  The dream started with a possible class mate saying, or reported to have said something to the headmaster that was taken very badly. The headmaster was a Trump like character, very thin skinned, and very keen on revenge. There could have been dire consequences for the classmate, and potentially for the rest of the school. It elicited a situation of complete chaos as the school erupted in rebellion.

  My viewpoint seemed to jump to looking at the main school building from outside. There seemed to be pupils clambering all over the building. A few of the the thinner ones seemed to have climbed up through the chimney stacks. One missed his footing when getting out of the top of the chimney pot, and fell 3 or 4 stories to splat on the hard ground. My view quickly changed to the outer walls (which gave it a prison sort of appearance). They had been completely covered with graffiti and other stuff using paint from the art room.

  It seemed prudent to get away from the madness, and I led a few people through an opened gateway, and along a sort of alley with the back of the perimeter wall on one side, and a barbed wire fence. I knew it lead to the main gate, and somehow assumed that would be open. We passed more people clambering over the outside of another building. We were almost at the main gate, and it did seem to be open, but I woke up then.

  I seemed to get up a bit faster than some morning. As per my usual, or even forced routine, I went to the toilet, and had a pee. After my explosive visit the the toilet early yesterday afternoon, I was not really expecting to have a poo, and I didn't. I then got on the scales and weighed myself. I had lost another 700gm, and was 200gm less than when I had part starved myself before seeing the nurse for my diabetic check up almost a fortnight ago. For the moment I am on a roll (by not eating any rolls !).

  My blood glucose could have been better this morning, but it was still very good. The Contour meter, and the GlucoRX meter both read 7.9mmol/l. The Sinocare meter tried to catch up with these two, but only managed 8.5mmol/l. That is still pretty good for that meter. If my blood glucose had been a bit lower, the Sinocare meter would probably be even closer to the other two.

  The main thing for today is a walk in the park, and a couple of pints of Guinness in The Jolly Farmers served by my favourite barmaid, Ayse. With the way my walking has improved lately, I am wondering if I dare take the long way around to the pub. That would mean getting my two copies of The Metro, one for me and one for Ayse, from Catford Bridge station. I could then walk to the southernmost entrance to Ladywell Fields, and then walk by the most direct route to the pub. Direct from home that would be just over 0.8 miles. Via Catford Bridge could take it up to 1.25 miles at a guess. Do I dare or not ??????