The latest revision to the forecast doesn't look quite as good as the early version in the screenshot above. Some of the sunny hours are now shown as sunny spells, and an additional hour, 1pm, is now shown as just white cloud. However, the temperature is still forecast to reach  18° C, and to stay there for 5 hours of the afternoon. Tomorrow may be just as warm, but the Met Office predict no sunshine, but white clouds all day. The BBC are far more pessimistic; They predict mist in the morning, and light rain for most of the day.

   Yesterday was a very good day. With the bright sunshine, and the warmth, it could hardly be anything else, but the cream on top was going out in it for the whole of the afternoon wearing just my sleeveless denim jacket over a sleeveless t-shirt. It was great to feel the sun on my arms and face.

  My afternoon out was to visit Sue, over in North Cray, to exchange Xmas presents. For such a social occasion I washed my hair, and had a good scrub under the shower. My aim was to get a train from Catford station at about midday, and I was washed and dressed early enough to allow myself to cool down before I ventured out. I must admit I was having mild feelings of agoraphobia about going out for a long journey that would last for about 6 hours, but once moving I enjoyed myself.

  There were a few parts of the journey I was not looking forward to, and the walk to Catford station was one part. It is a slightly longer walk than to Catford Bridge station, and I was feeling in a bad way by the time I got there. I was most happy to find that the lift up to platform 2 was working, and I used it. I don't know how long the lift takes to get from street level to the platform, but I doubt it is longer than a single minute. It was enough time to let the growing angina pains to mostly fade away.

  The train I intended to get, and did get was the 12:10 train towards Sevenoaks. By intention I had made sure I got there early enough to take pictures of the London bound train that was 5 minutes before my train, and so I got an extra few pictures that I hoped I might be able to add to my big spreadsheet of train photos, but the one disappointment of the whole journey was that none of the dozen or so train pictures I took was of a train I had not photographed before.

  It is about 20 minutes from Catford to get to St Mary Cray station, and while that is far, fa faster than a bus would take, it still feels like a long time. In my ideal fantasy world there would be a high speed train, going at about 300mph direct from Catford to St Mary Cray station ! I was happy to find a working lift at St Mary Cray, because it is a bit of a walk to the bus stop, and starting that walk, probably just 3 minutes or so, by having to climb the staircase, might have brought on some signs of fatigue, or even Angina.

  I was joined in the lift by a moderately attractive East European (not Polish, but she did look Polish) woman who said she couldn't see the stairs. Maybe so if she had got off the very front of the train. Outside the entrance to the station she stopped me and asked if I knew where she could get the R11 bus towards Sidcup. I said "follow me" because it stops at the same stop as where I would be getting the R6 bus. She was quite chatty, or maybe I was, but it helped to pass the time until her bus arrived - about 5 minutes. I had to wait 15 minutes because the R6 only runs every half hour.

  It was about a 7 or 8 minute ride to the bus stop for Sue's place. It must have been well before Covid, so maybe over 4 years ago since I last saw her, but I didn't seem to have forgotten the walk, and the right front door. It was a shock to see Sue. I had seen pictures of the terrible state her feet were in after sepsis started rotting the toes away, and I had seen pictures how she had resumed her size prior to her barometric surgery to help her lose weight.

  While one of her feet is not looking too bad, the other was well bandaged, and is still in a very bad state. I think the bigger shock was seeing how fat she was. The last time I saw she was as skinny as a rake, maybe a bit too skinny. I guess that is what zero exercise, basically being housebound, and eating through boredom can do. I felt lucky that over the winter when I mostly stayed in, I could, and did go to the local shops, and moderate my eating enough to occasionally lose some weight, but generally, on average, I have kept my weight very constant.

  It was also a shock when I entered her place to see how messy it was, and how smelly it was. It smelled of her dog, stale cooking smells, and maybe some other unpleasant smells. I will give her her due, she did have the backdoor and a window open to try and air the place, but it still took a little while before my nose became accustomed to the smell. I still couldn't manage to completely ignore it.

  Sue, who doesn't/can't go out while her feet are in such poor conditions, and so mostly only gets to talk to others by phone, could barely stop talking. A lot of it was about her experiences during the long and ongoing illness. Other stuff was about her getting so fat, but that it a good side. While she was very skinny her boobs were quite small, and she hated that they were lopsided more than anything else. Now they have filled out, and are no longer lopsided. I know this because she showed me !!
  This is Sue's dog Peanut, and the cause of some of the smells in her house. There is a general doggy smell, but also the smell of old food and stuff. The picture also shows the state of Sue's carpet because she finds it very hard to do any hoovering while her feet are painful to spend to much time on, and with the remains of her toes not working well, she finds it hard to balance properly.
  I am not a great admirer of Peanut. He is only slightly bigger than cuddleable cat size, but has none of the attributes for it. He is evidently also sexually deprived, and I saw him try several times to have sex with the yellow toy seen beside him. He needs is claws to be clipped, and a good run through the woods to sort him out - neither of which Sue can do.
  This is Sue sitting on her hospital bed in her living room. I think I managed a very sympathetic picture, with the help of the way she posed, that doesn't show just how big she is, although the size of her right thigh, on the left in this picture, gives a strong clue. Fortunately the eye is drawn more to the centre of the picture and her face. The bags under her eyes have almost been a fixture for many years, but her face does not too bad here.
  As I said earlier, the real reason of my visit was to exchange Xmas gifts. I had been wanting to go since soon after Xmas to pick up my present, although I didn't know exactly want it was until yesterday. It was this 3 beer gift pack of Old Fart beers. I suspect that if I look at the small print I will see they were actually brewed by the Whychwood brewery. That means that I will probably like them, but Jodie won't when we sample one or more on Thursdays;s beer tastings session.

  I gave Sue 6 cans of Carling Black Label, her favourite beer, that I have had here for a couple of years in case she visited me. There was a possible plan for her to do so, for some reason, but that didn't happen because of Covid, and then her sepsis illness. I also gave her two cans of Carter's Lager which I saw in Aldi earlier in the year - her old surname (and maybe that is still her legal name) was Carter !

  I also gave her two cans of ready mix Jack Daniels and Coke. Unfortunately for me I realised too late when I bought them that it was made with full sugar Coke, and I dare not touch it. Finally I filled a newly emptied miniature of vodka with a taster of Orange Jameson's whisky that intrigued her. She had a few sips of it, and declared it tasted nice, but it was a bit harsh - she has no real experience in drinking neat spirits.

  I had only intended to stay for about an hour, particularly when the first whiff of the smell of the place hit me, but I think I may have stayed nearly 3 hours. I was very happy to find that the Buses Countdown timer app seemed to be showing real data for the bus stop where I would get the bus to start heading homewards, and I only had a 3 or 4 minute wait for the bus. Things have changed since the last time I did that journey. The bus used to stop, and turf everybody out at the bottom of the shallow hill up to St Mary Cray Station. Now they let you stay on until the stop nearer the station.

  It also seems possible that the buses have been re-timed to fall between the half hourly trains. So like when I arrived there, I had a 15 minute wait for the train back to Catford. I managed to get several more pictures of trains while I waited (it on a busy part of the mainline), but once again I never seemed to photograph any trains I had not photographed before. Going home often seems a bit faster, but that is just an illusion. I sort of enjoyed the ride, but it as till good to get back to Catford.

  I was about to say I didn't really know when it was that I got back to Catford, and then suddenly remembered I still had a till receipt from the Sainsbury's "Local" shop by the station. I went in there to buy some of their tasty, ready made salads, and some other edibles - some of which were included in my dinner. The till receipt said 5.45pm. That was roughly five and a half since getting the train on my outward journey. It was quite a long day out for me !

   After about the first 5 minutes of walking to home my chest started to burn, and I think that is more accurate than "tightness" of "pressure" which are the more usual descriptions of the start of Angina. It does make me wonder if it really is angina or something else, and yet the way the pain began to rise up my neck, and was starting to head for my arms, is a classic symptom of angina. By the time In got home it was not bad enough to stop, or slow down, but I was definitely feeling very uncomfortable when I went through my front door.

  The pain went away very quickly after I stopped walking, but I could only rest just long enough to take a few things out of my rucksack - principally my Nikon D3200 camera - before I had to rush upstairs to have a long needed pee. After that I went back to unpacking my rucksack, and shopping bag. Then I headed upstairs to have some dinner, and to see the pictures I had taken. I started off my dinner with some little spinach and feta triangular pockets - like Samosas, but being Greek inspired they had a different name that I can't remember.

  What I do remember is that they would probably have been much nicer if I had followed the heating instructions. I ate them cold, and the taste of cold grease seemed to be the strongest taste. I followed that by a Greek Style salad, and then an Italian and tomato inspired salad. At that point I should have said no more, but I did a silly thing. While I was eating I was also doing photo selecting and editing, plus checking the train number of the trains with my spreadsheet of trains.

  I seemed to be more concentrating on the photos instead of the food, and it seemed like I hardly noticed I had eaten two salads, plus a starter. I couldn't resist then eating a Greek style wrap. The trouble with that is the wrap contained a fair amount of both calories, and sugar. On the plus side, I still felt far from full, and later on I had no troubles when I went to bed. I don't think I even bothered to see if there was anything on TV last night. I spent the next hour or two just doing stuff on my PC.

  It wasn't "in my face" like after a long walk, but the day's outing had left me feeling a bit weary, and it was good to get to bed where I then spent as much as an hour before turning out the light, and falling asleep far quicker than I seem to have done for a week or two now. I didn't have to take any painkillers, or antacid tablets last night, and I didn't have to have any heating on when I went to sleep.

  I feel sure I must have had dreams, and I can almost remember something to do with a dream, but any hint of a memory has now faded. I do remember waking up a few times for a pee. At about 3am I turned the heater on low because it was starting to feel cool. At about 5am I turned the heater on full so I could get get up in a nice warm room. That had the side effect of making it too easy to sleep. I am sure I woke up just after 6am out of habit, but I turned over for "just another 5 minutes". It was about 7.30am when I woke up again, and got up.

  I can't say I felt all that great when I got up. One little task I started, got wrong, and will have to do again, was getting the correct days of the week in my spreadsheets for my blood pressure, temperature, and blood glucose readings for May. In fact I only had to do one correctly and I could copy and paste it to the others. I started off on the assumption that tomorrow, 1st May" was a Tuesday - which is of course today. And even then I found my eyes sort of blurry when trying to fill in some of the small letters. It in now back to another the tasks to do ready for tomorrow - including designing a page for May in this "electronic diary".

  I had strong reasons to think that eating that final Greek style wrap would sabotage my blood glucose readings this morning, and my first reading agreed with that idea with bells on ! The Contour meter read a nasty 9.3mmol/l. That was even higher than I feared, but the GlucoRX meter read a better 8.5mmol/l, and the Sinocare meter read an even better 8.3mmol/l. With two meters roughly agreeing on the same territory I re-did the Contour meter, and this time it read a far more wholesome 8.1mmol/l.

   I never really know the cause of these anomalous readings. It could be a faulty test strip, or it could be some sort of contamination on the finger tip I have drawn a pin prick of blood from. What I do know is that it is very useful to use three meters every morning, and so make it easy to see that one is very different to the others. The average of the three readings (after the 2nd test using the Contour meter) was sufficiently low that I feel I don't need to take and drastic precautions today, although I will try and strive to get the readings back down in the sevens tomorrow morning - which is easy to say at this time in the morning, but the reality of the day could be very different.

  Today would be an ideal day to go out to stretch my legs, try and regain a bit of leg muscle power back, and generally try to do it without invoking too much angina pain. The trouble is I am now expecting a very important deliver from Amazon today. It is my very expensive bottle of Redbreast Irish whiskey. Until that arrives, and recently 3pm is a typical time, I can't really go anywhere unless I can get out very early, and get back before 1pm (about the earliest Amazon delivery time around these parts).

  I doubt I can get out that early because I have lots of stuff to do this morning, although I admit I could do most of it this afternoon, but some of it is the sort of stuff that if you put it off for a couple of hours is the same as putting it off to the next day - and the next day is ultra important. If I am very lucky, Angela will be able to stick with her plan, and meet me in the pub at lunchtime tomorrow.

  The chances of getting out this morning are almost down to zero, and it is mainly because I have written an awful lot this morning - 3137 words in total - maybe a record !
        







3107 words today