I wondered how I would fare walking to the pub, via the Hospital entrance where I could pick up a couple of copies of The Metro. I set out at 12:35, and as can be seen I arrived at the pub 16 minutes and 59 seconds later. I had managed to walk at 2.717 mph, and that is the best I have done in ages. I can't say it was easy though. Towards the end my legs ,a nd ankles were complaining a lot....or maybe it was not "a lot". If I remember correctly, I did think I could have managed a bit further without needing a sit down.

  It is worth noting that back in the days when I used to meet Angela in the pub, I once did the walk from home, direct to the pub, not stopping to pick up a copy of The Metro, in just over 13 minutes. Doing it in 17 minutes (rounding up the last second) seemed rather good to me, and to top it, I didn't arrive breathless and sweaty like I did when I did it in 13 minutes.

   I did stop to take a few pictures during the walk to the pub, and that would have slowed me a bit, but none of the picturs showed anything useful. I took some semi interesting pictures on the way home when I definitely needed to stop a few times. I'll come the walk home later on/further down the page.

  I didn't expect, and didn't get the same very warm welcome as I got last Saturday - the first time I was in there since going into Hospital on the 15th December. I was thanked for the copy of The Metro, and I was thanked for the packet of biscuits I gave to Ayse, my all time favourite barmaid. No hugs though this time.

  I still had a most pleasant time, but I only stayed for 2 pints of Guinness. I might have stayed for another one, but I had two reasons not to. One was that I was expecting an Amazon delivery, and I hoped I would be at home when it arrived, although I was thinking it could be late afternoon, and if it that were the case I could have stopped for another two pints. The main reason is that when I got up to go for a pee before leaving, my feet felt funny. It was like they were too cold and stiff, or something like that. I had no intention of stumbling my way home, and so it seemed a very good time to leave.
  I decided to take the slightly longer route home by initially walking away from home through the footpath behind St Mary's church. I had just entered the footpath when up ahead I spied what I initially thought was a squirrel. Seeing them on the path is nothing unusual, but when I gave it a close look I saw it had a bald tail, and realised it was a rat. I was not fast enough with my camera before it spotted me and raced away. I just managed to catch it's rear end as it went through the railings.
  While passing through the triangular bit of land bordered by the river, and two paths, I spotted what initially looked like an old Cadbury's chocolate wrapper. On closer inspection I saw it was a lovely coloured blue/violet crocus. I expect new week there may be more, but at the moment the grass in mainly covered in snowdrops, and a few yellow crocuses.
  There are fish in the river since it has been cleaned up of the pollution that used to enter it as run off from the now closed Sydenham Gas Works. Not only are there fish, but the keen angler can often bag a hire bike. This one shows plenty of muddy signs it has spent weeks in the river.
  Once again, because of the wet weather, the playing fields, or at least one of them, was covered in seagulls. This one gave me that "Oy, you looking at me ? I'll come and steal your chips" sort of look....probably.
  Near the Ladywell Arena entrance of the park lies the fabled Xmas Tree Graveyard. Like the Elephant graveyard of legend, this is where shagged out Xmas trees go to die.
  I saw this brightly coloured fire appliance (I think that is the official name for what we call a fire engine) from some way away, and wondered what was going on. When I got to it I looked around, and saw no fires, not car cashes, or any other disasters. I came up with an unlikely theory that the drivers mum lived around the corner, and he had come home for his dinner.
  When I reached home I found my Amazon delivery had been delivered - tucked behind the wheelie bin ! It would not be ideal if it had something expensive in it, but in this case it was another pair of pyjama bottoms. When I made the order I saw two lots that seemed like they might be suitable. Rather than put my money on one type I went for both types, and it looks like both types would be good to wear in hospital instead of a gown (except where a gown is needed for doctors access to bits of my body).

  While I had managed to walk almost non stop to the pub, the walk home again was quite a painful walk. My knees were complaining a bit, but they seem much better now. My Ankles were a different matter. They wee getting quite painful on the way home. I stopped to test for the odd minute here and there (mostly while taking photos, but there were other times). Standing still does not really rest the ankles, but it does help a bit. It was good to get home, and be able to sit down, although ultimately I laid down and snoozed for a bit.

  I can't honestly say I was actually starving hungry when I got home, but I thought I was. Luckily I had two Aldi wraps in the fridge - one was filled with Tandoori chicken, and the other with chicken tikka. To be honest they don't seem to be that much different to each other. I scoffed those two, and than I think I laid down for a snooze. I had quite a lazy afternoon ! Sadly it couldn't last because there were things I had to do - but not much until dinner time was getting close.

  My dinner was intended to be roasted root vegetables with some re-roasted chicken thighs. Unfortunately the bags of "rustic roasting vegetables" look very similar, and feel very similar to ready prepared, and soaked in beef dripping chips. I just started to empty out the bag onto a roasting dish, and was rather surprised when chips came out. I should have put them back in the bag, but I was still on a lazy steak. Besides, those chips, with their beef dripping do taste wonderful.

  I ate dinner, as usual, while watching the news. I topped it off with some ice cream and a bit of cake. (I think I may have had some ice cream as a snack earlier, but I might have dreamed that - even if my blood glucose says otherwise). I continued to watch TV, but during the evening I felt increasingly tired. That tiredness was probably made worse by the fact that during each commercial break I kept going to the bathroom where my laundry was waiting for a few more rinses, and fabric conditioner.

  After two, maybe three, commercial breaks I was ready to hang all 7 pairs of underpants up to dry in the front room. I knew it would be a cold night, and so I used a fan heater on low to speed the drying. All seem to be nice and dry this morning. Despite feeling tired I still watched QI and Have I Got News For You. The latter finished at 11pm, and I went straight to bed. It all seems hazy now, but I think I fell asleep fairly quickly.

  Like nearly every night for the last 20 (?) years. I seemed to wake up to pee a lot, but it still felt like I slept well. Only one dream left enough memory to partly reconstruct the dream. I think that in the dream I was delivering new heart monitors t the hospital. Some of the story was a worry that there would be at least a day when no heart monitoring could take place while the new machines were put in place. I commented that with the existing single monitor, shared between about 10 patients, some could go hours of days without being monitored, and once the new monitors were in place everyone could be monitored non stop.

  This morning I expected I might have lost some weigh after all my exercise, but evidently I ate too much because this morning I seemed to have gained 400gm. That is not so terrible by itself, but obviously repeating that too often would be a disaster. My blood glucose was no the expected lows after restarting my weekly Mounjaro injection. All readings were good enough, but not the wonderful lows I had hoped for - once again I blame it on eating too much (albeit only in the sense of too much of the wrong things). I got readings of 8.6, 8.2 and 8.5mmol/l. Eights are good enough, but sixes or sevens would be a lot nicer.

  Yesterday I was having fantasies about going for a walk this morning. It would be good for me, but I feel no urgency in the grey and damp weather outside. I may still go for a walk to the shops, but there is nothing I really need enough to bother to go out. I can foresee a very lazy morning, and maybe some of the afternoon will be as lazy, but I will still have to prepare stuff for the Thursday afternoon beer tasting with Jodie, and probably Michael, and maybe others too. I had better prepare my dinner before getting too drunk.



  It was on the TV news the night before last, and then the same thing in print in The Metro yesterday - the news that unemployment is rising, and the young are being hit particularly hard.

  Having been job seeking in one of those earlier periods of high unemployment I have sympathies for those affected. On the other hand maybe this dark cloud has a silver lining.

  Back in the early 1980s, one response to high unemployment was the rise of loads of punk rock bands. Many were not very good, and they had one hit if they were lucky, but a few wrote good songs about the effects of unemployment, and also other songs loaded with social comments. Some are still around today, and filling big venues.

  I rather hope that from the gloom of high unemployment, some bright new stars are born. I just hope they take the punk rock route, and not something awful like rap, or hip hop music. If they come from the gritty north, and are not Trump lovers, I thing I can say they are bound to go the punk rock route. It may be true that out of every 10 records released in the 1980s (for instance), nine were awful, but one was brilliant, and it is still relevant today.