Having looped around through
the Vineries I came out back
on the path that would give me
a choice of going up the short
hill to Catford Hill, or back
the way I came - passing
Wickes, the builders
merchants. For as long as I
can remember there has always
been some sort of van, or
modifed caravan selling
refreshments to the builders -
usually tea and a "wad"
(Sandwich - often a bacon
sandwich). The latest offering
is The Jerk Shack offering
mostly Carribean style food. I
didn't look carefully, but I
imagine they must sell mugs of
tea (a disgusting thing) and
bacon sandwiches.

I must admit that I was in a
fair bit of discomfort when I
got back to Catford Bridge
station. It was good to stand
still there, and wait for a
train in each direction and
the chance of a couple more
train photos. After 10, maybe
15 minutes I was back walking
towards home.
By the time I arrived
home I was actually starting
to feel slightly better. I've
known since the earliest times
of doing this, and other
walks, perhaps dating back to
before 2009 (by which time I
started making a record of
some walks) that the first
mile was hard work as I warmed
up and got my knees bending
smoothly. After that I could
walk OK for another mile, and
then there was the hard slog
home again. My actual walk is
shown on the map on the left.
I think I'll say it was 1.5
miles (rounded up from 1.493),
and that is longer than a walk
to Ladywell and back. I hope
that suggests that I am still
slowly building my stamina up
after all those weeks spend in
hospital bed, plus the weeks
and week before that when
Angina type pains limited the
exercise I could do.
I didn't feel too bad
when I got home. It was
definitely good to sit down,
but it also felt like I could
have pushed myself to walk
more. It is probably good that
I didn't push myself further,
or was it ?
Most of it would have
been dehydration, but I was
300gm lighter when I got home.
I have not checked to see if
"Simply Walking", the app I
use on my phone to track how
far I have walked, has my
current weight set in it.
Assuming it has, then the walk
apparently burnt off 209
calories. That could have been
good if the first thing I did
when I got home was to have a
single spoonful of my terrible
Walls ice cream. The other
spoonfuls were just plain bad
for me.
I would normally have
felt fairly tired, and
deserving of a snooze after a
walk like this, but I seemed
to have enough energy left to
copy all the photos to my PC,
and do the usual selecting and
editing. In the case of the
train photos I took, I think
it was 2 or 3 of them got
added to my train photos
spreadsheet. Actually I think
it might have only been two
now I think about it. It was
two class 376 trains that I
had pictures of when they were
in plain white livery, and now
have them in the dark blue
Southeastern livery. There
were 36 class 376 trains, and
I only have 12 of them in the
new livery. I guess that means
I have more "train spotting"
to do.
After I had dealt with
the photos, had a sort of
lunch, and finally a snooze, I
did very little more until
dinner time came near. My
dinner was a box of ready to
finish cooking, tandoori mixed
grill. It came from the same
series that includes all the
spare ribs and stuff - cooked
enough, and then sealed in a
thick plastic bag. Take out
from the plastic bag, and heat
in the oven for typically 25
minutes. It was interesting to
try it, and it was sort of
nice, but I don't feel
inclined to buy another. It
was good, but not that good.
My evening was not a
typical evening because it was
a Saturday night, and there is
not a lot of entertainment on
TV on a Saturday (or Sunday)
night. I found a few things I
watched with maybe less
enthusiasm than I would on a
weekday evening, but I gave up
around 9pm - an hour or even
two sometimes, earlier than
usual. I didn't feel quite
ready for sleep, although
maybe I should have tried, but
it seemed a great time to read
a bigger than usual chunk of
the current book I am reading
(Isaac Asimov's "The Winds Of
Change").
I thought all the sugar
in The Walls ice cream I had
had earlier would have kept me
up peeing a lot last night,
but if anything I seemed to
pee less in the night than
some nights. Maybe I just
don't remember some occasions.
I don't really remember a
dream I had this morning, but
I do remember the consequences
of it. The dream had featured
several people visiting me
fairly late in the evening. I
assume, but I don't remember
it to have been a beer tasting
session.
It was the very end
that I part remember. I was
saying goodbye to everyone.
Jodie slightly delayed things
because she saw a stripy bug
by the living room door.
Normally she is not keen on
bugs, and particularly not
ones with yellow and black
stripes - although this was
not a flying bug. She decided
she should rescue it by
picking it up on a comb, and
saying it would safer in the
middle of the road outside !
Everyone had gone, and
I was feeling really tired. I
went to bed, and tried to
sleep. Nothing seemed to
happen, and so I opened my
eyes and saw it was 4.30am in
the very early morning. I
seemed to have made the
transition from dream to real
life because I realised I was
looking at the real time on my
PC monitor (the screensaver is
a big digital clock). I seemed
to have actually woken up
because it was time for a pee.
I held almost no hope
that I could have gotten away
with all I ate yesterday, even
taking into account I had done
a little bit of exercise.
However it seems I did lose
600gm since yesterday morning.
There was no such luck with my
blood glucose. Once again the
Walls ice cream takes the
blame for my blood glucose
going from an average of all
three meters yesterday of
9.43mmol/l to 9.47mmol/l this
morning. Both are very
similar, and both are still
under the red line
(10.0mmol/l), but both are
equally very bad. The trouble
is that it is only 8 days
until I see the nurse again,
and I ought to get my readings
out of the pink and into at
least light green. Ideally I
ought to increase that drop of
600gm by tenfold !
Today brings it's own
problems. Being a Sunday, and
with the trains running
normally today, I should be
seeing Jodie for a beer
tasting session. It is good to
break the monotony of a
Sunday, but I usually try and
dull the tedium with more beer
than is good for me - and my
appetite ! While I was out
yesterday I picked up a day
old, but still unread by me,
copy of The Metro. I have read
most of it, but I have saved
the crosswords, quick and
cryptic, for when Jodie is
ignoring me as she doom
scrolls through all her
Instagram pages on her phone
(mostly looking for cat and
squirrel photos).
I had a late start
writing this because of an
error which screwed up all the
formatting of this page. I
ended up deleting the whole
page, and using yesterday's
page which I have edited as a
new page for today. It is now
late, but I reckon I can
squeeze in a snooze, followed
by a shower, and then doing
the usual stuff in the kitchen
and dining room - washing up,
and cleaning and polishing the
beer glasses. It is probably a
good thing that I doubt I will
have time to go to do a bit of
shopping because I would
probably also have brought
back some common beers that
Jodie would have no interest
in, but I would be happy to
guzzle down by myself with no
permission from the head beer
taster needed !