09:41 BST

  For once I almost agree that it was 10° C at 7am, although my thermometers actually said 9.9° C ! It is certainly a bright and sunny morning, but by 11am it might reduce to just sunny spells. By 1pm the cloud may be thick enough to stop even sunny spells, and from 3pm we may see light rain. At 7pm we may get a thunderstorm, but the odds are it may just be some moderately heavy rain. 8pm could see heavy rain, and the day will be it's warmest at 18° C. Tomorrow may see one hour as high as 18° C again. There will be two main features tomorrow - there should be sunny spells all day, and it could be very windy almost all day. In the middle of it all, perhaps 2pm, the wind could reach 45 mph.

  Yesterday seemed to be a good day, although the day didn't end as well as I hoped it would. I had been thinking of going to a gig, but I didn't, and that was partly because I was a bit tired after a very pleasant session of lots of fresh air (apart from occasional diesel fumes), and as hoped, seeing lots of vintage* buses.

* They were often described as vintage, but none seemed that old to me. The truly vintage buses that I know are preserved, and usually in running order, are probably a bit too fragile to be let loose in public service on busy London roads.

  I only had a very vague plan for a "bus spotting session", but strangely enough, what I did was very close to how I imagined the core of it. There were a few things I thought I might do, but didn't. Before all that I had to finish writing yesterday's piece, have my usual rest, and then wash my hair and have a shower. The hair washing was mostly in case I went out to the gig in the evening. I didn't need it to stand at the roadside with my camera in hand.

  I think it was coming up to midday before I went out, and walked to the main road, and to a place where I thought I would have a reasonable view in both directions. I took my Nikon D3200 DSLR camera with the wide range Nikon, "Nikkor" 18 to 200mm zoom lens. It was a good choice. My biggest photographic problem was that the buses would be running in both directions along an approximately north south road. It meant any bus coming from the Catford direction would be strongly back lit by the bright southern sky. The reverse is also true - the front of those buses looked very dull.

  I set myself up at the roadside and waited, but it was not a long wait until the first two buses turned up - about 3 or 4 minutes apart. I felt I had got off to a good start, although it was not long before the bright, and even sometimes sunny, view to the south was going to spoil half my photos (the other half were photos taken of buses heading to Catford.
  The very first picture I snapped was not of a vintage bus, but was just a reminder of what buses are on the 54 route at the moment. It was just a happy accident that it appeared before any of the vintage buses.
  For a man of my age, this Routemaster bus doesn't seem very old at all, although the first ones were being developed at about teh same time as I was being born ! I am unsure if they still run, but some Routemasters did run a shortened route for tourists in central London. It was possibly the best ever bus design, and several thousand were made. I don't know any official statistics, but I would probably not be that wrong if I said 50% of all preserved London buses are Routemasters.
  This was an oddity. It is certainly not in London Bus red, and to me it seemed an unfamiliar design, but it is presumably an old bus that someone has lovingly restored, and was taking passengers on the 54 route. All the buses would stop at regular bus stops, but they were not allowed to charge a fair for a ride. However, they would sell you a "souvenir ticket" for a small (or big) donation.
  I'm not really a bus spotter, and so I can't describe most of the buses I saw. This looks like one of the early one man operated buses where you either paid the driver, or went through a turnstile. It looks like it is about the squash a pigeon, but the telephoto/zoom lens foreshortens everything, and the pigeon maybe 10 of 15 ft from the front nearside wheel. The other curious thing is that it looks like the picture was taken at the top of a hill, but while there may be a very gentle rise, the road from Catford to Lewisham always seems to be flat to my eyes.
  After a while I had started walking toward The Jolly Farmers pub, and I was almost there when I got this shot of a "Top box" RT bus. Top box refers to the route number near the roof line. I think there was a similar route number box on the back, and only a few early examples of these buses had the boxes on the front and back. This bus had "RT 1" on the side, and was possibly the prototype of this style of bus, and I think it pre-dates WW2.
  There were a few ex- London and Country buses and coaches in their green livery. This was just a small coach, and I doubt that it ever ran on the 54 route - some of the London Transport buses possibly did once run on the route. I think I am right in saying is that all these green buses/coaches had doors instead of an open platform. Some of them would have done quite long routes, and some of those routes would be over fast roads, and possibly motorway running as well.
  This bus was not on the 54 route, and is not a "vintage bus". A very fast shutter speed on my camera means the LCD display on the front was caught between refreshes, and only the bottom half of "VICTORIA" can be seen, and the route number, i85 is not obvious at all. To the naked eye it read perfectly normal. It seems to be advertising books that are possibly written by a Mr Patterson. The clever thing is that like most liveries on trains, it is not paint at all, but stick on vinyl plastic with the printing on it. After the advertising period is over the vinyl film is removed to reveal the normal red bus under it.
  These last few pictures were taken while outside The Jolly Farmers pub. I had popped in for a pint while waiting a phone call from Kevin who was on his way to join me once he had got a bus from outside Catford Garage, where he was visiting as part of the 111th birthday of the garage. After my pint I went outside, got these last pictures, and 5 or 10 minutes later Kevin got off an ordinary red bus. This particular bus would be relevant later.
 This bus was made by Volvo (I know this - it clearly says so on the front). It is another bus that doesn't seem very old. The pale gold colour suggests it was in service during the late Queen's golden jubilee celebrations. Maybe it was snapped up by a collector before it could be repainted.
  This RT bus has a silver top, as well as just a single "top box" on the front with the route number in it. I am unsure of the significance of the silver top, but I have a theory. It may have been in the very hot summer of 1975 that London Transport were experimenting with making buses a bit cooler inside. Many buses started appearing with white roofs to deflect the hot rays of the sun. Maybe silver was also tried. It is possible this was applied to a bus that was not in use, and in store so it could be scrapped soon after - but an enthusiast made a bid for it, and here it is. Of course it may have been part of a silver jubilee celebration.
  Kevin and I had finished our drinks in the pub, and we had been waiting outside for over ten minutes, and had not seen any "vintage" buses. It was Kevin's plan to get a vintage bus as far as Lewisham, and see if he could get on one that had terminated at Lewisham, instead of Blackheath. The idea being that he could get on an almost empty bus, and so have a pick of seats. Most, but not all of the vintage buses seemed almost standing room only when they passed us. I had photographed this bus travelling towards Blackheath, and it was one of the first we saw when we had finished drinking. Kevin decided to rush over the road and catch this bus to take him back to Catford Garage for another look around.

  I decided I would walk home again, and take more pictures along the way. I seemed to feel quite comfortable on the walk there and back - except with my coat on, and out in the sunny spells, I was feeling boiling hot when I got to the pub. There was possibly less sunshine on my way home, and I was taking longer breaks for more photography on the way home. I did not feel lightly boiled when I got home.
   I thought this might have been the second picture of this Routemaster bus, but maybe it wasn't. At this point I am just walking past Lewisham Hospital. It maybe the camber of the road, which is hardly noticeable to the eye, but the bus seems to be leaning towards the nearside. It is possible the suspension on that side is weak, but it is nowhere near as bad as another bus that will come up soon.
  I can't be sure, but I think this was an very early Routemaster before the design was finalised. It certainly looks slightly odd, but maybe that is because it has no advertising on it anywhere. The other thing to note is how bright the front looks because it is travelling south into the sun (or brightest sky), and I am photographing from the south. (Many of these photos I am photographing in technically the wrong direction, but I can't change the direction of where the buses are moving, or where the sun is ! There is more about this bus here > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Routemaster_bus_RML903
   This is an old Maidstone And District bus, and I am pretty sure it's suspension is failing, or has failed on the nearside. The tilt is far greater than other buses on the same bit of road. It is a wonder it was allowed out like this - unless it is carrying 24 Sumo wrestlers on the left hand side of the bus !
  In all the years I have lived in Catford I don't think any route has used coaches instead of double decker buses (with the exception of some mini bus routes). To me they still seem a rare sight around these parts, but shouldn't because there are a few routes than use them now.
 
 This is bus DMS1, and the significance of it is that it was apparently built by Daimler, and that it was the first bus (or at least one of the first) fitted with a turnstile for fare collection instead of using a conductor (although fares could be paid to the driver as well). I couldn't see inside it to be sure, but I think it still has the turnstile installed as a preserved bus.
  This is Routemaster RM5. The first four were prototypes, but number 5 was the first production model. It is owned by the bus and train company Arriva, and they classify it as a "show bus" (and is apparently available for hire). There is a bit more here > https://onlineweb.com/buses-coaches/london/RM%205.htm
  This is a bit of an oddity. It seems it was once painted green and was a London And Country bus. That is about all I can find out about it. It seemed a bit out of place. It was the last bus I photographed, and it was at the end of my road. ^ or 7 minutes later I was back home, and slowly running up the stairs for a pee. That is what happens when you have recently drunk three pints of Guinness !

  I must admit I was looking forward to some lunch, although what I had was a very simple lunch or two slices of toast with mixed brown pickle and melted cheese on top. I seem to be going through a phase of liking cheese on toast. Apart from the cholesterol, that I assume cheese is full of, it is probably a fairly healthy meal (although the pickle would have had a fair bit of sugar in it).

  After lunch I wanted to go through my photographs, and I did get as far as copying them from camera to my PC, and having a quick look, but before I did anything else I had what seemed to be quite a long snooze - either that or I had got home a lot later than I thought. Once I was rested I started to select and edit the photos. At this time I was thinking I was going to go out to a gig in the evening, but I seemed to be losing interest in it very fast.

  I was saved (sort of) when I got a message from Kevin. He had expressed an interest in seeing Chain playing in The Partridge pub, like I was, but he said that he seemed to be developing a headache after far more running around than I did (including two visits to Catford Garage, and I think he had another ride on a vintage bus). had he said he was still definitely going I would have forced myself to have gone as well, but it seemed the perfect excuse to carry on photo editing, and to eventually be in bed at about the same time as halfway through the gig.

  Having decided I was definitely not going out I cooked my dinner (warmed up a ready meal in the microwave). It was a lamb hot pot, and with a bit of smoky chipotle chilli sauce it was quite nice. I had Dubai style chocolate ice cream for dessert. After that I just put my feet up and watched some TV until maybe 10pm, and then I went to bed. I may have read a few pages, but I am sure it was not long before I was fast asleep.

  Last night was another night that seemed very uneventful. I think I remember hints that I had some dream, but I have absolutely zero memory of what those dreams were about. I have a vague recollection of waking up around 4am and being very keen to go and have a big pee. I think I slept for another 2 hours before getting up, and once again doing rather a large pee - or so it seemed. After counting out my pills for the day I went for another pee, and this time I passed a mdeium sized poo.

  When I weighed myself, after that second visit to the toilet, I found I 200gm lighter than the same time yesterday. It is not a big drop, but this morning I was 400gm less than my average for this month so far. I think that should be good. It may have also been unexpected. I didn't think I had taken any special care with what or how much I ate, but it seems I took some care !

  It is a shame my blood glucose measurements were not that good. That is not to say they were bad - just sort of average-ish. The Contour meter read 7.9mmol/l, and that is semi good. The GlucoRX meter read 8.2mmol/l, and that is good enough. The new GlucoFix meter, which usually is very kind to me, read 8.6mmol/l - the highest reading of them all. It is not high enough to be of any concern, but it would be nicer if it were lower.

  So far this morning I have had breakfast, started writing this, and got interrupted again by gasbag of the century Lee. When the clock reached 11am I told him in emphasised words, it was time to hang up. He had started by saying he had two questions for me. I think he finally asked the first, after a lot of waffle, and I probably gave him some sort of answer. I am unsure if in all the blather he asked the second question, but I may have answered it somehow.

  Now it is just gone 1pm, and I need to have a shower before Jodie arrives for a beer tasting session, It would also be good to have some lunch to line my stomach before we start drinking. I had better save all this right now !