08:37 BST

  This morning had definitely not started as good as the forecast predicts. So far this morning it has been dull and cloudy, and it looks like that could continue for a while yet...maybe all day ! To make matters even worse, I can see a few fresh raindrops on my windows as I write this. once again we are back to a high of 21° C. Tomorrow may be bright and sunny almost all day, and the temperature may peak at 23° C. From Saturday until next Friday we might have strong sunshine and temperature as high as 27° C.

  Yesterday was mostly an enjoyable, but tiring day. It was also a day where only one thing got done, although that can be split into two things, but both were enjoyable in their own way. It was later in the afternoon when I went into pure lazy mode...or is it lazy when it doesn't feel like you have enough energy left to do any different.

  All my health readings were pretty good yesterday morning, and yet I can't say I felt that good, but later on it seemed that I did feel good after all. I seemed to finish writing a bit earlier than usual, and I had a nice lie down, and read a bit more of the book I was reading (and finished last night). After that I had a shave, washed my hair, and had a shower. I then got dressed to go out. So far, so normal.

  I thought after that things my not be normal at all. Last Saturday I had struggled to walk to Catford station (and indeed even as far as Catford Bridge station). On Monday (or was it Tuesday ?) I walked to and from Tesco, and while it was not really arduous, I still worried about walking all the way to The Jolly Farmers, via Ladywell station (to pick up copies of The Metro). It turned out that I needn't have worried at all.



  On the left are the results of yesterday's and a few past walks to or from The Jolly Farmers. Now I must admit that I was careful to pause the tracker whenever I stopped for a breather. I didn't stop to take any pictures, when I might have forgotten to stop the tracker yesterday, but I may not have been so careful on previous walks.

  Yesterday, 6th August, I managed an average walking speed of 2.392 mph. That is not very fast, but it was the average for the entire walk. The first time I felt the need to stop was just after 0.25 miles, although yesterday it was force of habit to stop where I did - on the first bridge over the river I came to. I could have probably pushed myself to go a little further, but it would probably have been little more, and the bridge is convenient place to stop and watch the river flow by. At that point my average walking speed was about 2.54 mph. Still not fast, but closer to the 3mph that I used to manage over a mile or two.

  A week previously, on 30th July, I only managed 2.219 mph, and if I had been diligent at pausing the tracker whenever I had a short rest, which I certainly intended to do, it was slower than yesterday.  The biggest improvement was walking home from the pub. Ayse, my favourite barmaid, sort of challenged me to walk even fast walking home. I said that was highly unlikely with two pints of Guinness swilling around inside me. To my great surprise I found myself going faster, and with less pauses than usual. I managed 2.372 mph, and that is only a fraction slower than my walk to the pub.




   Yesterday's visit to the pub was very pleasant, but their were no super highlights like being given a hug by Ayse. It was slightly unusual that I barely bothered with the crosswords in The Metro, although I did read most of the "news", but there was a lot of great banter that kept my attention off the paper. It helped that several of the regulars were not in, and one rowdy lot were at the other end of the pub. Ayse's attention was mainly on the few of us at my end of the pub. I've said it many times, and I'll say it again, it is great to be a real regular at a pub. It hasn't been the case since the early 1980s !
  I seem to be doing all this out of order.... Back when I was collecting copies of The Metro from Ladywell station, I was lucky enough to be there at the right time to get a couple of snaps of trains. First of all was 376022 in it's new Southeastern Blue livery. As can be seen, the sun was in the wrong place for a good pictures, but it was a good enough picture until I get a better version.
  On the back of of 376022 was 376005 (making up a 10 car train). This was another train that I had not recorded in it's new livery before, and so joined 376022 in my spreadsheet listing pictures of all 36 of this type of train. I have pictures of ll 36 in the original plain white livery, but as yet I only have pictures of 8 in the new livery. I guess I should spend a bit more time train spotting.

  I felt pretty tired when I had finally walked home from the pub. It was not a sleepy sort of tired, but a fatigue sort of tired, although a few hours later I did have a big snooze. First of all I wanted some food. I think if I had not been imagining what I might have as I was making my way home, I might have possibly skipped lunch. The trouble was that one of the things I had made myself look forward to was a small-ish helping of Sicilian Lemon and Limocello ice cream.

  That ice cream is so delicious that after buy the first small (500ml ?) tub, I bought two the next time. I had resisted eating any until yesterday. I managed to limit myself to a small amount, but that seemed to open the flood gates for more eating. I ate a whole small tub of egg and mayonnaise sandwich filler by scooping it out using rice crackers. I think I had even more to eat after that, and I am sure it was more rice crackers with ????

  I think it was after eating that I had my snooze. I am by no means certain, but I think it could have lasted as much as an hour. The next thing I did was to sort out the photos (and screenshot) I have used today. I should have made a start on the next photo album of photos taken at Petts Wood Calling, but I had no enthusiasm for that. I also had no enthusiasm for washing a small hand towel I had left soaking in detergent after my (late) morning shower.

  I am unsure where all the time went because it was soon almost dinner time. I actually started dinner before 6pm when I usually start. It was probably about 5.40pm when I had my dinner. The main course was ready cooked, flavoured, sliced chicken accompanied by a lot of Tesco "Finest" coleslaw (the slightly more expensive "Finest" version seems to have less sugar in it). After that I had two small bags of modestly low sugar crisps.

  After the BBC news I started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. It seemed that Sky Mix has jumped a series or two, and is now showing the better episodes when the characters have settled into their roles...or almost have. It was a fairly watchable episode. I can't remember a think about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - except that I soon turned it off because it seemed like a boring episode.

   I took the opportunity to go back to the hand  towel I had left soaking in detergent. I hand wrung the detergent out, and put it in the first rinse water. I then wrung that out, and put it in the second rise water. Knowing that it could take 8 or more rinses to get all the soap out I stopped at that point. I might have had the energy to continue to go on, but I certainly had no patience. Maybe I should have persevered because when I checked who was on QIXL, which I might have watched, I decided to turn the TV off and go to bed.

  Although feeling a bit sleepy, I was in (actually on) my bed earlier than recent nights, and I started reading. I was almost at the end of the book, and I couldn't put it down until I reached the end. That was before 10pm, and I may have been asleep by 10pm. I was quite surprised that I seemed to fall asleep so easily because I was getting hints of heartburn, and some of my limbs were gently aching.

  By midnight I was awake again, and it wasn't just that I needed a pee. I still didn't have heartburn, but I was burping up the taste of the coleslaw I had eaten earlier, and heartburn may well have started at any time. I took some antacid tablets to calm that down, and I took a couple of Paracetamol tablets to calm some of the aches down. It took a good hour before I was ready to go to sleep again.

  I woke up a few more times in the night, and I still didn't feel very good. I think I was slightly delayed getting back to sleep once or twice, but only for short periods of time - except for 5am when I was also feeling a bit cold. I turned the heater on low, and perhaps half an hour later I did fall asleep for an extra hour.  Overall it felt like I had had a pretty poor sleep.

  One thing that slightly cheered me up was after taking a second pee since walking up, I weighed myself. This morning the movement is back to downwards. I seem to weight 300gm less. That is not a lot, but once again I have yet to go for a poo. I definitely need more fibre in my diet, and I hope the coleslaw I had yesterday may have provided some. Yesterday it was about 5pm when I had my "morning" poo. I had felt a bit uncomfortable until that time.

  My blood glucose was slightly up this morning, but because, yesterday it was so low, a small rise still meant for a good reading. In one way this morning was actually better than yesterday. The Contour meter read a very nice 7.1mmol/l, and the GlucoRX meter agreed with that. The Contour Plus meter read higher, but not that much higher at 7.8mmol/l. The average of all three was 7.33mmol/l, and yesterday it was only the tiniest bit better with an average of 7.30mmol/l. I say today was better because all three meters gave readings close to each other. Yesterday there was a huge difference.

  I have already done one (sort of) big job this morning. Before I could prepare breakfast I had to do quite a pile of stuff in the sink to get a clean bowl for my instant noodles. I think there were 3 mornings of instant noodle bowls, quite a few containers that needed at least a rinse before putting in the recycling bin, plus 4 or 5 bits of cutlery. It is all done now except for the bowl I used for breakfast.

  Once I have had my usual post writing rest I need to finish washing the hand towel mentioned several times earlier, and with that done I can have a shower. After that I am unsure what I will do. One plan is to go shopping to Savers and to Poundstretcher. By rights I should get back to the Petts Wood Calling photos, and maybe I still will get started on them again, but it all feels like a rush with another Thursday afternoon drinking session coming all too soon. It would be nice if Jodie took her head out of her phone for some of the session, and nice if Michael had some positive news, but I bet he will be as grumpy as always.