It was quite dull earlier, and we even had some light rain, but it is brighter now, although it looks unlikely that the sun will break through for quite some time. 15° C was a nice mild start to the day, and we should see 21° C by mid afternoon. There may be sunny spells from 5pm until sunset. Tomorrow should see sunny spells for most of the day, but full sunshine for the last 3 hours of daylight. It should stay dry, and the afternoon temperature may reach a pleasant 23° C.

  There were only a few, almost minor things, that made yesterday seem like a better day than some recently. Obviously the sunny spells were one of the good things. I got a little bit of exercise, and that was good thing, but more about that later, and more about everything else later.

  I managed to start writing a bit earlier yesterday (although this morning I have started even earlier), and that gave me a little more time to rest afterwards. I can't quite recall when it was, but Kevin messaged me during the morning to apologise that he would not be meeting my at lunchtime, but that he hoped he might be able to meet up today. Once I had finished writing I had my usual lie down, and I think I might have even had a short snooze.

  After my rest I had a simple electric shave, washed my hair, and had a shower. I rechecked the weather forecast, and also consulted my own outside thermometers, and it was looking good to go out in shorts and a t-shirt. I also put on my new Adidas trainers. It would be the first time I would be able to show them off to Ayse (my favourite barmaid) in the pub. It was her wearing them, and looking so comfortable in them, that inspired me to try a pair.

  I wasn't sure I would be happy walking all the way to the pub. The easy way out was to split the walk in half and get the train. That had the advantage of being about to pick up two copies of The Metro (one for me and one for Ayse) without having to detour via Ladywell station to get them if I had walked all the way. There was also the consideration that there was a small possibility of a shower, but it stayed dry.
  It turned out to be a good decision for another reason. The train I caught was a newly re-liveried class 376 train, 376017, all shiny in it's blue Southeastern livery (it's all done with gigantic stick on vinyls !). I first saw one weeks ago, and have been hoping I would be able to travel on one. I originally thought the interiors had been refurbished, but I later learned that would be coming a bit later.
  I am unsure if the interior is exactly the same as the day they first went into service about 20 years ago, but I think it is. They first came into service around 2005, and are about half way through their life. A mid life refurbishment is a typical thing for railway rolling stock these days.
  This close up of one of the seats shows it to be still in good condition except for it looking faded. With all the bottoms that have sat on those seats over the last 20 years they are probably very durable - or maybe they were re-covered at some time.
   The train I was one was formed of two five car units. It was the front five that were in the blue livery. The read 5 car unit had been stripped of all logos and stuff, and was back to "factory issue" white. I saw another one or two class 376 trains yesterday looking the same. I think these are next in line to have their new vinyl liveries. There is more about class 376 trains here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_376

   My walk to Catford Bridge seemed slightly easier than usual. Wearing my more comfortable Adidas trainers could have had the opposite effect because I was tempted to walk faster, and maybe I slightly did, but I still didn't feel as bad as usual when I got to the station. I had quite a short rest at the station, almost only long enough to pick up two copies of The Metro, detach the full sheet advert from the paper, and fold the paper to put it in a pocket.  Then I went over the footbridge to the "Up" platform with almost, but not quite, ease.

  Walking up the steps to the top of the road bridge at Ladywell is always a bit challenging, and that was probably similar as most weeks. The walk from there to the pup is mostly downhill, and generally OK, but sometimes it is nice to stop on the bridge over the river at the back of St Mary's church, and I tend to do that regardless so I can check both directions to see what wild life is on the river. I tried to take a picture of what I thought was a blackbird. It was certainly black, but with full zoom on the camera, and extra magnification in my picture editor, it was just a very grainy shot of a crow.

  The pub was fairly quiet when I got there, and that often makes the banter going around easier to hear, and oddly enough more lively. It was a very enjoyable lunchtime. Ayse did not exactly compliment me on my Adidas trainers, but did correctly suggest that I would be finding them very comfortable. They are, but sometime they feel a bit too soft and spongy. Ayse suggested that when I wanted to buy another pair I should go to TK Max in Lewisham. I shall bear that in mind, but I checked online and they don't seem to be any cheaper there...or at least not online.

  After my two pints, and finishing the quick crossword, and being completely bamboozled by the cryptic crossword, I headed towards home. By then the sun seemed very bright, and it felt lovely outside. I came close to walking home, but I wanted to get the train so I could go to the little supermarket on Catford Bridge. Maybe just over half the walk to Ladywell station is uphill, and that was a little taxing, but it did seem less than usual. It was as if my two pints of Guinness was slowing me up lass than most weeks.

  Back in Catford I bought a lot of fruit from the little supermarket. I bought some flat peaches, a few large conference pears and both golden and red apples. I also bought a lot of packets of instant noodles, and very little else. That very little else was a small can of Giant Beans, and a small can of beans with rissoles, plus a pack of sliced angel cake. I nearly forgot that I also bought another chunk of super strong garlic sausage for Michael when I see him next - which might be today if I am not out drinking with Kevin.

  The walk home from the supermarket was quite taxing, but less than usual. My ankles and knees were starting to complain, but I guess it was good that it never got to the point that I could not resist stopping for a moment or two. Apart from a a few seconds waiting for the road to become clear to cross it, I walked essentially non stop to home. That is a welcome minor improvement, but a far better improvement would be to get back to how it was 2 or 3 years ago when I could almost have run home, although I obviously couldn't because I haven't really run any distance for something more like 40 or 50n years, and then only quite short distances (to catch a bus as an example).

  When I got back indoors I didn't seem to feel so ravenously hungry as usual, and I could have maybe just have had a bit of fruit or something, but I knew that I had two crusty rolls in the fridge that were going stale. In fact they seemed quite dry when I cut them in half. I had a plan for this - I toasted the two halves of each roll, and then piled on fish from two small cans. One was smoked mackerel with pepper in olive oil. The the other was mackerel in mustard sauce. I fished out the fish with a fork to leave most of the liquid behind, and put it on the toasted rolls. It was as delicious as I hoped.

  Most Wednesdays I feel quite tired after a couple of pints of Guinness, some exercise and fresh air. Yesterday was different for some reason. I can't say I didn't feel tired at all, but I didn't have to fight tiredness to go through all the pictures I took, about 18 if I recall correctly, but only the four used here were of any good. The picture of 376017, in it's new blue livery, had to be added to my spreadsheet, and was the third blue class 376 in my complete collection of every class 376 train made !

  I did have a bit of lie down later, but I was up again to watch the second half of Star Trek: The Original Series on The Legend Channel. As 6pm approached I "cooked" part one of my dinner. It was to reheat the small can of beans and rissoles with some added cheese on top. Incidently they were not small baked beans but medium sized beans in a tomato based sauce that is very different to that offered by typical "baked beans".

  Part 2 of my dinner was a flat peach, and apricot, a large conference pear, and an apple. It all felt like enough to not need the usual chunk of cheese I usually have with fruit. You could say that part three of my dinner was a laxative tablet because I seemed to be quite constipated yesterday (although I think I did do something small in the morning). Then it was just a matter of whiling away the evening watching selective stuff on TV.

  At 10pm I headed to bed. I intended to read, and I did for longer than intended. I was kept awake by the feeling that ma=y constipation was getting uncomfortable, and that sooner or later things might move. They did, and it was close to midnight when with quite some effort I squeezed out a rather hard poo. Maybe it was aided by finding a big spider in the bath. I put a glass over it so I could concentrate on the work at hand (except it was bottom and not my hand that was working hard !).

  I got to sleep soon after that, and a few really vile farts. Once asleep I seemed to sleep rather well, and once again I seemed to wake less frequently for a pee, and maybe the total amount of pee I passed in the night was a little less than usual.  Towards morning I had a dream, but that one seems to have slipped my memory, a dream much earlier in the night left better memories.

  I can't say if it was a good memory because I remember it as if I was just reading about what happened. It was like I was only an observer rather than a participant. It was a dream about a British space attempt to land a series of rovers on the moon. Each rocket could carry 5 landers - each with a rover on it. On the first attempt all but one landers perished, and the other was not in good shape after the landing.

  It was decided that there was a software error, but that the software for the one that landed was OK, but that had suffered a mechanical fault. Copies of that software were installed on the next batch of landers, and the mission was retried. Unfortunately one simple mistake was made. The software not only determined how the lander landed, but also where it landed. Unfortunately with all having identical software they landed perfectly - one on top of the other !

  I remember going for a pee at about 4.45am. It was almost light then. I assumed that I would probably wake one more time for a pee before finally getting up. To my surprise I didn't wake up until just gone 7am, and that seemed like it was time to get up. I went for a pee, and I managed the first of what so far is 4 lots of poo (the beans, fruit and laxative is really doing their stuff !) When I weighed myself I found I had put on just 100gm this morning. I had hoped I might lose 100gm.

  I was hoping my seeming lack of peeing in the night might mean my blood glucose was a bit lower this morning. No such luck ! It was actually a little bit higher. The Contour meter read 8.6mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read 8.3mmol/l, and the Sinocare meter read 8.8mmol/l.The average of all three is 8.57, and yesterday it was 8.43, so only a very small increase. That is probably actually quite good considering my dinner last night. I didn't check the beans, but they can often have quite a lot of sugar in them, and that sweet fruit obviously added a fair amount of sugar. I probably got off lightly.

  I'm not sure what I am doing today. Until very recently I had a stomach ache, and that seemed to be to do with the need for a lot of pooing. The beans, fruit and laxative tablet have really been working hard this morning. I think I am now up to 5 very productive visits to the toilet, and I feel like I am getting the 100% clear out treatment. I can't believe there can be much more, and I hope after a lie down I will feel OK again. The current extent of this can be judged by the fact that I am currently 200gm less than yesterday now, instead of a gain of 100gm as per when weighing myself early this morning. Also bear in mind this current weight loss is after having breakfast, and that might have added another 200gm to my weight. In total I might have lost 400gm this morning.

  Jodie is off to a gig and overnight stay in Brighton today. That means no beer tasting with Jodie. It is possible I will meet kevin for some real ale tasting this afternoon, and if that doesn't happen I could still have a drink at home with Michael. As much as I would like to see either, or both - although I can't imagine Michael wanted to travel to (probably) Hayes (Kent) for a beer, plus he is a lager drinker - I am currently thinking that maybe I would like to have a short break from beer, and try to live a bit healthier again. I will probably being going to Tesco early this afternoon, and so I doubt I will be eating that healthy !