Once again the weather turned out to be
better than the forecast. There were a few times
yesterday when a cloud passed in front of the sun,
but I can really only think of yesterday as being
a lovely sunny day. It was also a warm day. The
temperature rose to 15° C, and maybe I might have
seen 16° C. Definitely t-shirt weather !
Today is forecast to
be sunny and warm. The latest revision to the
forecast has not changed any obvious detail to
the screenshot above - actually I suddenly
note a small change - 7pm is now shown as
sunny instead of just sunny spells. The mid
afternoon temperature of 20° C should feel hot
in the sunshine after all the much colder days
we've had. One useful revision to the forecast
concerns tomorrow. Apart from the chance of a
shower in the morning, it is now shown as
having sunny spells all afternoon.
After not getting much in the way of
exercise recently, it felt good to get out and
stretch my legs, and being able to do it in warm
sunshine was a real bonus. It wasn't all wonderful
though, and I'll explain why later.
I decided to walk around the periphery of
the entire park, although the layout of the paths
meant that I cut a few corners at the south end of
the southern half of the park. I think I was
hoping this would work out to be be a bit more
than 2.33 miles, but it seems not.
I didn't stop to take any photos like I
usually do, and that meant my average speed was
over 3 mph for over half the distance, but I was
getting slower towards the end of the walk, and
the average dropped to just 2.91 mph.
I did stop once to not take photos, but to
shoot a bit of video that I wanted to send to
Angela and Patricia. I thought I could switch my
phone camera from front camera to rear camera, and
back again while still recording. It seems I can't
(or maybe not when the glare of the bright sun
meant I couldn't find the camera switching icon).
The selfie above, of me wearing my rose tinted,
anti-UV, glasses is a still from the video I was
trying to shoot.
It felt like the sort of day to travel
light, and I definitely did not need a coat in the
sunshine. I also thought I could wear lighter
footwear - specifically a pair of slip on white
plimsoles. Unfortunately I decided I would get
some more wear out of an old pair that hindsight
tells me need scrapping, or at least are not
suitable for long distance walking any more. My
right foor was perfectly OK, and so the general
principle of wearing them was sound, but my left
foot, specifically my left heel, got a bit
damaged. The interior of the the left shoe was
slightly damaged in the heel area before I
started, but seemed to be OK for the first mile or
two, but then I seemed to get some grit in that
shoe, and didn't get it out quick enough. By the
time I got home my left heel was feeling extremely
sore. This morning there is nothing obvious to
see, but it feels like it is deeply bruised.
When I got home from the walk it was lunch
time, and I treated myself to a smoked Polish
sausage with smoky "Spanish Inspired" baked
(mixed) beans, all with a too generous squirt of
spicy tomato ketchup. I say too generous because I
found it contained more sugar than I originally
thought. I think I had better use it with more
care in future. After my lunch it felt like
siesta time. I lay on my bed to read for a while,
and ended up snoozing quite a bit. I don't think
these walks actually make me tired as such. In the
past that can usually be blamed on the 2 pints of
Guinness at the mid point of the walk. However
they do fill me with a sense of satisfaction, and
with little else of any importance to do, I find
it very easy to relax - more so with warm sunshine
lighting up my bedroom.
I sent the two very short videos I shot,
one addressing the camera as a video selfie, and
the other a quick sweep around the view in the
park, to both Angela and Patricia. I added a few
notes to customise the messages. The first to
respond was Patricia a few hours later. Swapping
some news, via Whatsapp, is something we now do
regularly now during this lockdown. The lockdown
in Argentina, as I have mentioned, is rather more
severe - going out for exercise is not allowed,
although shopping still is. It may be that with
most properties in the rural part of Argentina,
where Patricia lives, having very big gardens, it
is considered that letting people out to exercise
is not required.
It is rather strange that sometimes
there doesn't seem to be time to do some things
even thought in theory there is plenty of time.
Maybe it is inclination that is lacking. I did
seem to be too busy doing nothing to want to
actually do something. I probably wasted
too much time thinking about the possibility of
doing some more work re-habilitating my back room
back into a dining room, and so never found the
time to actually do anything. Anyway, before I
knew it, it was time for dinner. It was part two
of my three meal order from the kebab shop - cold
chicken shish kebab with added red hot chilli
sauce. It was nice, but maybe the novelty is
starting to wear off.
Tonight I will have the third part, and it
will be slightly different. It is a "special"
chicken shish kebab. It has added grilled
vegetables. I intended to eat it hot when it was
first delivered, but without opening every
container up It was difficult to tell which was
which. I prefer to keep the containers closed
until I am about to eat the contents in the hope
that there is less chance for any stray bacteria
to get in, and start spoiling the food. Tonight
may be the first time I will have to try and
separate the grilled bits from the salad, and heat
them up before combining them again. I think cold
greasy mushroom would not be terribly appetising !
Last night was another night where I seemed
to feel uncomfortable in bed, and thinking I would
never get to sleep. As seems to be now standard, I
fell asleep while thinking that, and I then slept
for many hours before waking up again. I am unsure
how long my first bit of sleep was, but I woke up
feeling very cold. I had switched the heater off
several hours before going to bed, and sometime in
the small hours of the morning I discovered it was
far, far too cold to sleep with the duvet almost
kicked to one side.
Once I managed to get back to sleep, which
felt like it took half an hour, but was probably
less, I once again seemed to sleep quite deeply. I
woke up again just before 6.30am. That was close
enough to 6am to take my temperature, and add the
result to my spread sheet. Predictably enough it
was something low - little more than 35° C. This
morning I feel sort of good apart from too
annoyances. One I have already mentioned - my sore
left heel, although it has improved a lot
overnight. The other annoyance is a hay fever-like
bunged up nose. It feel far more bunged up than it
really is.
I could add a further annoyance. My blood
glucose level seemed to be going down quite nicely
yesterday, but it is high again this morning. I
also noted that my weight seems a tad higher than
expected. It make me wonder if I am finding stuff
in the cupboard that can only be seen while in
some sort of trance, and eating that stuff. Being
in some sort of trance could explain how the time
seemed to pass so quickly yesterday. It just make
me wonder what mystery food I seem to be able to
find and eat while in this trance. It's either
that or maybe I need a very productive visit to
the toilet !
Despite these negative things, I feel quite
happy this morning. At 7.30am I got a very brief
response from Angela to the videos and message I
sent her yesterday. It's briefness, and the fact
it was sent so early in the morning, suggest that
she is probably spending the weekend with lover
boy - which is strictly against all the
quarantine/lockdown rules. Her response used few
words, but in my fevered imagination it spoke
loads. It simply said "Bless you Bill xxxx".
And so on to today. I am hoping my left
heel will be comfortable in my proper walking
boots. They seem sort of clunky for urban walking
on a dry, and hopefully hot day, but it is the
sensible choice. This day of warm, even hot
sunshine, cannot be wasted. I would like to try
and get back up to 3 miles of walking today. I
might go through the linear park to Lower Sydenham
today. The real question is "should I wear shorts
?". I seem to have a selection that are now
wearable since losing some weight. I wonder if I
dare....
This is a video I meant to show yesterday.
It is part of an advert that was shown incessantly
on commercial TV, and I found it rather creepy.
Unfortunately it has now been replaced by a better
(for some definitions of "better") advert, and I
never managed to record the whole thing.
I think the man is
intended to look like a trustworthy doctor,
but he actually looks more like a child
molester. Note how below his face nothing
moves. It is almost as if his suit has been
electronically pasted over his Gestapo
uniform. This "advert" probably did more to
make us want to join the resistance, and go
out after curfew than anything else !
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