On the
left is the results of my walk on
my current phone, the Huawei P30
Pro, and on the right the new
Honor 200 Smart phone. As they
stand, I think they are closer to
each other than my current phone
and my old Wileyfox Spark phone. I
am at a loss as to why the time is
longer one phone than the
other. I tried to stop and
start them within a few seconds of
each other, but for some reason,
when I came to fully stop the
tracking, the stop button didn't
appear at first. I think I
remember something similar with a
previous phone, but only on day
one.
At least the actual
distance walked was almost the
same on both phones, and the
amount of Calories burnt was very
close. That extra time trying to
stop the tracker would account for
the slightly lower speed of my
walk, but even that is close
enough to be relevant on this
occasion. At the same time there
was another test taking place. I
was not sure it was possible to
switch apps during use on the new
phone, but the tracker continued
when I swiped left to close the
window so I could try out the
camera in a more real life
situation than the simple snap
taken through the bathroom window
that I showed yesterday.
There is a small flower
garden near the tennis courts at
the Ladywell end of the park
(there are also tennis courts at
the Catford Bridge end). To the
naked eye the yellow flowers on
this bush or shrub, look really
bright, but I think most cameras
struggle with yellow against a
background of green, and
particularly under poor light.
I noticed that the new
phones camera could not focus very
close to an object, but it went in
close enough for a nice sharp
close up of one of the yellow
flowers on the bush in the
previous picture.
Near the bush are some rose
bushes, but most of these seem to
be past their best now. The best I
could find was a white rose, but I
could not get the angle right to
see deep inside the flower (at
least without doing myself an
injury).
I have no idea what this
mauve flower is, but there are
lots of them on the river side,
but none close to the water.
I think it was about
the time that the BBC said there
should be a thunderstorm when I
took this picture of blue sky. I
must admit the treetops look a but
dull, but we did have some nice
sunny spells around this time.
The penultimate test of the
new phone's camera - train
photography ! You'll note that
hardly anyone in the picture is
casting more than a light grey
shadow because it was rather dull
when I took this picture. It seems
pretty good, but I feel there is
something not quite right about
it, but I can't seem to put my
finger on it. The reason why it is
the penultimate test is because
the train is stationary. I'm not
sure how the camera would fare
when taking a picture of a moving
train - and particularly so in
poor light.
While at Ladywell I saw
that the signal level bars were
almost at the top, and more
importantly the connection has
switched to 5G. My home is just
0.8 miles ways (approximately) and
yet I only saw 5G for less than a
second when holding the phone in
some unknown optimum way somewhere
near the bathroom window (which
looks towards Ladywell).
I already knew that in
Ladywell I got a far better 4G
signal, and the download speed was
around 10Mbps. The 5G download
speed was measured at 34.74Mbps.
That is quite a good download
speed, and enough for most things
done even on a PC. One day Catford
will get it's own 5G mast for the
3 network (which owns
"Smarty - their cheap pay as you
go service).
One day, when I have
put that new phone fully through
it's paces, I will swap SIM Cards
between the two phones, and the
Honour 200 Smart will become my
main phone. It will be interesting
to see if my current fairly good
4G signal at home (and most other
places) will also have a good 5G
signal, although to be honest,
nothing I usually do on a mobile
phone needs a fast data
connection.
From Ladywell station I
walked direct to home. I was
starting to get a little tired,
and like on the way there, I still
needed to stop now and then to
"get my breath back", although the
main problem is my ankles and legs
starting to ache. The good thing
is that I seemed to be slowly
building up some stamina. It is
far from what I could managed a
few years ago, but it does seem to
be improving. In the last third of
a mile I only had to stop for a
few seconds just twice (I think).
It was gone 1.30pm when I
got home, and I was looking
forward to some lunch. I thought I
deserved it after one of the
longest walks I have done
recently. (I did manage 2.94 miles
in February, but it was bloody
hard work !). Before eating I
transferred the pictures and
screenshots from both phones to my
PC via Bluetooth - which was a
slow way of doing it. When that
was done, and I had a quick peek
at some of the pictures, I went
down to the kitchen to prepare
lunch.
Lunch was basically
Ciabatta rolls with fish. The
rolls were old and starting to go
stale so I cut them in half before
toasting them. I only had room to
toast two halves at a time, and so
the process took a bit longer. The
fish was from little cans of
mackerel in spicy tomato sauce in
one can, and chilli sauce in the
second can. The chilli sauce was
rubbish if judged by hot it was,
but the flavour was OK. I
sprinkled white pepper on both,
and gave a small squirt of
mayonnaise on each.
I think that mackerel on
toast is the best way to eat it. I
must admit rather enjoyed my
lunch even if it did leave a fishy
taste in my mouth (and even my pee
seemed to have a fishy smell !).
After lunch I went through all the
photos and screenshots, and
selected and edited those I wanted
to use. I then had a rest, but I
was soon a bit busy again, and
didn't have time for a snooze, or
even read much.
The thing that took a big
chunk of my afternoon was playing
with my Canon Pixma printer. There
seemed to be strong hints that the
inkjets in it were becoming free
of dried ink, and most could
produce some colour, but not at
the right time. The printer uses 5
ink cartridges. As well as the
usual yellow, cyan and magenta, it
also has two black inks. The
smaller one seems to be for
darkening colours, and the big one
must be just for printing full
blacks - such as text.
The printer settings give
about 5 different options - two
different types of colour
printing, plus full black,
greyscale, and one other. Then
there are several choices for what
sorts of inks are available. Each
setting has to agree and in the
end I tried so many combinations
that the simple thing was to
delete the printer and re-install
it. I did that, and tried the
printer test. That gave all the
colours in the correct places, but
the black was a bit streaky in
places where that ink nozzle
probably was still a bit sticky.
I tried printing out a
fairly decent photo. What came out
was definitely very psychedelic,
but that was not what was wanted.
However, when I printed out the
spreadsheet recording my weight
since the start of the year, every
colour came out correct, although
I did think the colours seemed a
bit muted instead of vibrant. It
was certainly good enough for
printouts to give the nurse. I am
unsure how to proceed with full
colour photo printing, but that
can wait for now.
Sometime while playing and
cursing the printer I semi stopped
for a snack. I don't think it was
particularly healthy, and it was
also not as tasty as hoped for. It
was giant beans (to my eye they
looked like butter beans) in a
tomato-ish sauce. As I heated them
up I also melted some cheese on
them. I don't know how, but they
seemed to have hint of fish about
them. At first I thought it might
be because I had forgotten to wash
the fork I was using for the
earlier fish on toast, but that
fork was still in the sink waiting
to be washed.
It got to about 5pm and I
turned the TV on. I watched the
news on BBC1 at 7.35pm (earlier on
a Saturday than the usual 6
O'clock news on a weekday). While
watching the News I ate my dinner.
It was ready roasted, cold chicken
breasts with Branston chili and
mustard pickle. I could see red
flecks in the pickle mustard
sauce, but I could not taste any
chilli. That had the unfortunate
effect of using more and more of
that unhealthy, sugar laden pickle
to try and find evidence of any
chilli in it.
After the BBC news I tried
to find something else to watch.
All I could find was the E4
channel playing back to back (plus
adverts) repeat episodes of The
Simpson that went right on to
10pm. There were maybe 3 or 4
episodes that didn't warrant
watching, and I spent most of that
time reading. At 9pm I decided to
watch no more, and headed to bed
to read for a while. I sort of
lost track of time, but I think I
may have fallen asleep around
10pm.
It was quite a typical
night...or was it ? Maybe I woke
less frequently but did bigger
pees when I did wake up. It was
also one of the nights where I
woke up feeling like I could get
up an hour or two earlier than In
thought I should. It was around
5am when I thought I would never
get back to sleep. About 10 or 15
minutes later, while still
grumbling about it, I fell asleep
until I woke up a bit after 6am -
a better time to get up.
I can actually remember one
dream I had, although it seemed to
get more and more complicated as
the dream went on. As far as I can
recall, the dream started with me
sitting on the toilet when
suddenly a black animal darted in
and out of the toilet, and there
was some commotion and growling
from downstairs. I was too busy to
investigate what was going on, and
when I had finished my business it
all seemed silent again. I went
back to bed, and I think I fell
asleep again.
Maybe I did not sleep for
long before I realised someone was
downstairs. I pulled on some
trousers and went down stairs.
There were two young women sitting
at the dining room table. I seemed
to known them, but didn't know
their names. There was a black
kitten asleep on the table, but no
sign of any dog that might have
chased it while I was on the
table. I then heard more people in
the front room. They turned out to
be friend for tens of years ago.
There were more old friends
sitting at a table in the kitchen.
They seemed to be discussing
putting on a pirate radio
transmitter from some woods. One
had a very expensive pocket mp3
player that he proposed to use as
the source of the programmes. I
then notice quite a few people
doing gardening in my garden. Two
of them were an old and a slightly
younger women Indians. It seemed
like my house and garden, that
usually had just one person in it
- me - had as many as 20 or maybe
even 30 people in it.
I woke up at that point,
and went to the toilet. I expect
the beans I ate to contain enough
fibre to guarantee I would being
going for a poo. That may still
happen soon, but not then. That
was a shame because a decent poo
may have made my weight gain this
morning less, or possibly even
removed any gain. As is now
recorded, I seem to have put on
300gm since yesterday. The
annoying think is that the last
digit was flickering between two
readings. Sadly it settled on the
higher figure I would have claimed
I only put on 200gm.
I was pretty sure that the
giant beans, and that chilli (not)
flavoured piccalilli, would play
havoc with my blood glucose this
morning. It was not as bad as
expected. The Contour meter read
8.7mmol/l - high-ish but
acceptable. The GlucoRX meter was
slightly lower at 8.6mmol/l. The
Sinocare meter gave the really bad
reading, as it too often does. It
read 9.3mmol/l. I am definitely
going through a period if slightly
high readings, and that may be why
I have been asked to make an
appointment at the surgery to
discuss my recent test results. Of
course it could be something else
than my blood glucose readings -
many things were to be checked
from the blood samples I gave last
Thursday.
The only definite for
today, or as definite as can be
relied on, is that that later this
afternoon Jodie will be popping by
for a beer tasting session. This
could be my big chance to get
drunk, and ruin all my health
readings again ! Before all that I
could do one of three things. One
of them could be shopping in Aldi.
Another one could be shopping in
Savers and Poundstretcher. The
final option could be to go for
another walk around the park. I
supposed there is a fourth option,
and it is one that does seem a bit
attractive, it is to do nothing at
all !
