Today has started off dry, and about 9° C. It seems to be light grey outside now, but if the forecast is correct we could see sunny spells from 11am. They should help take the afternoon temperature up to 16° C. It will be dry all day, and so should tomorrow. There could be sunny spells almost all day tomorrow, but the afternoon temperature may only rise to 15° C.

   I am unsure whether to call yesterday a good day, or something closer to average - what ever that is. Of course there were also some bad bits, and they tended to happen in the late afternoon/early evening. As usual they mostly involved food. One big plus was a couple of trains I saw, but I'll describe those a bit further down the page.

  It was a great temptation to have a very lazy morning yesterday. This was mainly on account of recovering from my arduous "exercise" the day before. I was nearly recovered from it, but my legs still felt a bit stiff. However it was one of those days when I had to overcome some reluctance to go out and enjoy my lunchtime in The Jolly Farmers. I allowed myself to rest until just gone 11am.

  In theory I had enough time to wash my hair and shower, but at the last minute I decided my hair still seemed OK, and just had a shower. I did use my new shaver to give my cheeks a quick "polish". After getting dressed I grabbed the things I would be taking with me - a camera, a spare battery for the camera, and a couple of pens to do the crossword with. (I say crossword in the singular because in the mere minute or two I looked at the cryptic crossword I could not see a single clue I could answer).

   As I was walking to the station a train passed me heading towards Charing Cross station. If it were not for the barbed wire, and the train already moving fast, I would have like to have got that train. I would have liked even more to have taken photos of it. The front four unit were of train 376027, and it was the first of the class 376 trains that had been re-painted into the blue SouthEastern livery. It is possible it had been refurbished inside as well.

  After getting home I did an internet search, and discovered it had only just been released back into service. https://railway-news.com/first-refurbished-unit-enters-operation-on-southeastern-metro/ . I must admit I didn't twig that it was a class 376 train despite seeming to make a mental note of it's number. It was not until I saw the more recognizable class 376 unit it was coupled to that I realised what I had seen. Sadly I didn't have my camera on and ready.

  It was very quiet in The Jolly Farmers when I got there, but more people came in soon after I was there. It then seemed quite busy, and one woman whose name I do/did know, but can't seem to remember, asked if it was OK for her to join me at my table. I didn't think that meant sitting next to me, but that is what she did. She is friendly and chatty, but not quite my type.....then again I am not sure I fancy anyone these days. Sometimes it seems to take all my love just to keep my own body warm and working.

  I was doing quite well doing the quick crossword, but it was typical that I could not answer a couple of clues because they needed knowledge of recent media. One was about a song by The Stereophonics. I was told the answer by two other people sitting near me. The weird thing is that I sort of know the song having heard it covered by one or two other people. The song was called Dakota, and although I claim to know it, I can't seem to remember what it sounds like.

  About half way through my second pint I went to the toilet. I spotted a tobacco pouch sitting on the toilet roll holder, and took it back into the bar to ask who had lost it. It was quickly claimed, and Ayse (my favourite barmaid) suggested it was worth a reward of a pint of Guinness. The owner, who I think was fairly pissed by then, readily said yes. I didn't want to drink a third pint, and I asked Ayse to "leave it in the pipe" for next Wednesday, and she duly noted it in the log book.

  I did contemplate trying to walk home, or indeed forcing myself to walk straight home. I didn't need to get any shopping, and so I could have gone straight home, but decided not to. Now the weird thing is that the walk from the pub to Ladywell Station often seems like hard work (it includes walking 2/3rds of the way down the platform). I can't say it was actually easy, but it did seem less taxing than usual.

  Had I walked straight home I expect I would be feeling the strain and pain when only half way home. That may have been worth it as part of trying to strengthen my legs and stuff, although I am unsure if that is happening now, but it would have meant never seeing another special train that I didn't even know had existed in it's present form sme some time in February. It was a class 465 Networker reliveried into the old Network South East livery.
  I had been walking down the platform from the far end, and the front of this Charing Cross bound train had a class 465 in the usual SouthEastern livery. As I approached the rear unit I suddenly realised there was something different, but familiar about it. My initial thought was that they had found a train at the back of the shed that had never been reliveried to the current form, but then I noticed the paintwork (probably actually giant vinyl stickers) was not quite right.
  The reason for it all was actually spelled out on the said of one of the carriages. It was "repainted" as part of the 200th anniversary of railways in Britain. Apparently it will be going up to Derby in the summer as an example of this rolling stock at a huge collection of trains and other stuff as part of the anniversary celebrations.
  I am not sure they got the Network SouthEast branding quite right. I think the outlining of "SouthEast" should have been in a darker grey. The other big difference to the original livery was that disability regulations meant that the red blue white colours could no longer be extended over the doors. Regulations state that the doors need to be in a different colour so people cans see them. They have been left a light grey colour.
  These trains originally carried the sub branding as "Kent Link Networker", but at some time that was dropped, and they just became generic "Networkers", and in various forms, including 3rd rail, or overhead 25KV power, and even diesel power, they could be seen in north London as well.

  It was not an idea that worked all that well on some lines, but 20 to 30n years later Transport For London took the same idea to extremes, and they refurbished the stations on many little used lines, and started running brand new trains with brand new logos everywhere as The London Overground. As they hoped, given a good service, all the lines sprang back into life, and instead of empty trains some are now rammed full at times.
  I had a look and dug out one of my old photo that I had actually taken with a 35mm film camera - probably my Practika SuperTL SLR camera. It shows a class 465 Networker calling at Ravensbourne station on a service to Blackfriars in 1996. Note that the livery continues over the doors - against modern disability regulations, although the shape of the door windows provides a strong clue as to the position of the doors. Another difference is the window frames of the main windows are picked out in white. I must admit I had to see the old and new side by side before I noticed this big difference.

  After the excitement of seeing the train in Network South East livery, I started walking home. It was a hard slog. What I feared would happen if I had walked straight home from the pub, did happen. My legs started to ache, and my feet began to feel quite painful. It was so very good to get home. Once I stopped walking I seemed to recover very quickly. I was not desperate for a pee this time, and made my lunch before I went up to my computer to eat lunch while checking on the trains I saw.

  I must admit that while I said I recovered while making lunch, my legs still mildly complained when going up the stairs. One oddity is that I am not 100% sure what I had for lunch. I am fairly sure it was two Ciabatta rolls filled with beef, salad leaves and horseradish, but there is a little element of doubt about that itching away at the back of my brain. If it was not that, then I am at a loss to say what it was.

  I know what I had for dinner, and it was a bit stupid with hindsight, but before dinner I had other stuff to do. There was an internet search to see if there was any other information I could find about the trains I saw. What I think was very recent news said that 376027, the train that has gained the latest blue SouthEastern livery, was not yet back in service. That news was dated the 18th of the month. So when I saw it could have been it's very first day back in service with it's new coat on (and some improvements inside).

  There was quite a bit about 465908 in it's NSE livery. The sad/annoying this is that it has apparently been out in service since the 25th of February, and in theory I could have had plenty of chances of seeing it since then. As usual, I was feeling really tired after my Guinness, fresh air and exercise. I couldn't wait to get all the pictures ready to show (and to weed out quite a few other pictures that showed nothing new or exciting), but once done I laid down on my bed to read, but was soon snoozing.

  The only problem with that snooze is that I woke up feeling quite chilly. It was the kind of chill that made me want hot food instead of eating the two salads I had bought from Sainsbury's the day before. I did have a ready meal in the fridge I could have heated up, but for some reason I thought I would try one of the small tubs of instant noodles that I bought from Aldi a few days earlier.

  It was the type of "instant" noodles that were not really instant - the type where you pour on boiling water, and leave to stand for 5 minutes. You than strain off the water, add the other stuff, and then eat. It was a most disappointing experience. It seemed very dry and powdery. I wondered, but did check if this particular flavour was not supposed to be made up like that. One significant thing was that the "soup base" was not an oily liquid by dry powder. I meant to check, but didn't bother.

  After eating those noodles my intention was to probably have a salad or two, but I was feeling very curious. I had also bought a few "cup noodles" that came in a more conventional sized carton, and they had a lid with straining holes in it. They also had the flavouring as an oily substance in a sachet. I decided I would try those two as well. I definitely followed the very brief pictogram type preparation instructions. This time the two I tried were not dry and powdery, but still far from nice. I have one more that I will make my way, and see if it is better, but it is always possible these are just crap noodles.

  I had a small two part dessert after the noodles. Part one was about 5 cheese biscuits (Cheddars), and part two was a handful of peanuts. By the end of the BBC 6 O'clock news I had finished eating, and I next watched an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. It was a fair, but not great episode. I guess I was feeling tired again, and decided not to watch any more TV, but to lay on my bed reading.

  I suppose I read for some time, and managed to finish the last short story in Philip K. Dick's book "The Preserving Machine". Having now read two of his books I think I can say that I can say that I do not like his writing. Some of it was weird enough to want to know how the story ended, although most came to a stop rather than had a satisfactory finish. Some days or weeks ago I checked and Amazon had quite a lot of his books available, but now I know his writing style I find I have no desire to read more.

  I don't really know what time I went to sleep last night, but I would guess it was 9pm plus or minus half an hour. As far as I recall there was nothing to recall - I seemed to go to sleep almost instantly. I am sure that I slept for longer than the more typical 2 hours before waking up for a pee. I think I managed a full 4 hours at one point, but than I seemed to have an extra big pee.

  I do remember having a dream, and it was, or seemed to be, quite a long dream. The only trouble is that it feels like it contained no detail. I can only compare it with crossing the sea. There are hours of nothing but sea and more sea to see. I am sort of surprised I didn't drift off to sleep in the dream, and possibly have a better dream in my dream sleep, but maybe that would be too exciting.

  When I got up I had another quite large pee, but no poo. At that time I thought I had pit on a fair bit of weight, and that would not be surprising considering my poor quality dinner. A little later I went back for another go, and this time I also did a fair poo. Back on the scales again, and now it seemed like I had put on a mere 100gm compared to yesterday - and yesterday was a very nice reading.

  My blood glucose did not fare as well as my weight. It was up quite a bit. The Contour meter read 9.4mmol/l. That is below the red line, but still very bad. The GlucoRX meter read 8.7mmol/l, and while a little higher than desirable, it was still sort of OK. The Sinocare meter sides with the Contour meter and gave a reading of 9.2mmol/l. That is not quite as bad as the Contour meter reading, but still definitely not desirable.

  I did not want to skip breakfast this morning, and I had two packets of Kimchi flavour instant noodles - the make/type that claims less than 0.5gm of sugar per pack - usually shown as 0%. My lunch will involve some stuff with more sugar and more of everything else desirable, except for the grease that will hopefully line my stomach against an influx of alcohol.

  Last night, shortly before going to sleep, and so very relaxed, I recorded one of my lowest blood pressure readings ever (probably) it was 89/53. I feel sure that is a bad thing, but I don't know why. This morning it is not as low, but 93/47 is still pretty low. Of course I would probably only have to blow my nose for it to go shooting up to something like 130/58. I shall keep a particular eye on it from next week. Next week promises some great walking weather.

   On Sunday I will take another weeks worth of Clopidogrel, the blood thinner tablets I had a small surplus of, and see if that really does help my walking. I will then have two more weeks supply, and when I am down to one week I might confess to my doctor, assuming it is possible to get to speak to one, and see what he says. I will probably also mention it to the cardiologist when I see him in October !!

  This afternoon should be a beer tasting session with Jodie, and possibly Michael. I will probably get quite drunk, and that means I could easily eat far too much. It is because of that, that I think I won't go shopping today. I have enough to see me through for another day or two. Tomorrow could be ideal for shopping if what I think will happen, actually happens today. That thing is the delivery of a brand new pair of wide fitting trainers That I ordered from Amazon. A walk to Tesco and back tomorrow would be an ideal first test.