This morning there are straggly clouds that occasionally dim the sun, but at the moment it is quite sunny.  By midday the forecast promises full sunshine, but it will only raise the temperature from this morning's 15° C to 26° C for a couple of hours. From 7pm some more light clouds will change the full sunshine to sunny spells until sunset. It is going to be another cool night. Tomorrow may start at 17° C, and it will be cloudy. The cloud will lift by 11am, and then we may have full sunshine until sunset. Tomorrow afternoon's high may be a warm 19° C.

  Yesterday should have been a good day, and a lot of it was not too bad. It is a shame I rather wrecked everything later in the the afternoon. The important thing is that I achieved a couple of things I wanted to do, and doing so made me feel extra hungry, and I guess I would have to accept it if you said I ate like a pig !

  I knew what I wanted to do, or would have liked to do yesterday morning, but I had no confidence I would actually do it - but I did. After washing my hair and having a shower (after I had my usual late afternoon snooze) I got dressed, grabbed my camera, and headed out to Catford station.

  I initially started out to do two things with an optional third. One thing was to give my cheap Chinese shoes a better test. At £14 (including shipping) I was not expecting too much, but I thought those shoes may have been OK for semi light use for extended periods of time. I was wrong !

  My next objective was to get a train from Catford station to Bellingham station - the station that has been temporarily re-named as Jude Bellingham in honour of a footballist, or possibly a football manager. I am still unsure who, what, why, or ..... I was just curious about the temporary signage. I believe that a tube station or two has a new temporary name because of football, but I am not that interested in travelling far for a couple of photos.

  The walk to Catford station was not pleasant. At that point my new, wide toe, shoes were not feeling too bad, but my knees and ankles were complaining earlier than expected. It made me wonder if I was going to do much more than walk home again. I gritted my teeth, and pressed on, but I took full advantage of the lift to take me up to the platform.
  I did not have to wait long before the first photo opportunity appeared. It was this class 375 train, number 608. It was not a stopping train, and it was heading towards Dover Priory station. The significance of it was that when I checked my big spreadsheet of train photos I found I had not got a picture of it. It was one of several I could add to my collection.
  It is only one stop to Bellingham station, and I found the sign above just a few feet from where I had got off the train. I had expected to see every single sign with the new name on it, but many were still showing the correct name of Bellingham. I guess economics was the deciding factor, and so there were only a handful of token signs.
  This was possibly the only sign on platform 1, and it was right at the start of the platform for a train on it's way to Blackfriars station.
  I think this was the only sign outside the station. I am not sure if it is a vinyl sticker over an existing sign or not. If you can see the fastening on the top right of the sign it is fairly obvious it is a vinyl stick because it covers the top of the bolt (or screw).
  While waiting for a train to return the way I had come, I took a snap of train 700011. It too turned out to be a train I had never taken a picture of before. Another one for the spreadsheet.

  Although I was waiting for a train back towards Catford I was not going to get off at Catford. I was heading to Denmark Hill. It is not ideal for train photography because there are 4 platform faces to keep an eye on, and there is too much clutter in the way to get a clear shot from platform 4 to platform 1. My feet were starting to ache a lot, and I decided not to go running around, but to get the next train back to Catford.

  Had I felt more comfortable I may have spent some time on platform 2 so I could get some clear shots of London Overground trains on what is called The Windrush Line (and I only remember that because my memory was jogged by several announcements as I waited on the station. The new London Overground trains are really annoying because their number is not on the front, but low down on the side near the drivers door. I think I got one clear shot of a London Underground train that I needed for my spreadsheet, and a couple of useless shots that were of trains I needed, but couldn't use.
  This was the one clear shot I got of 378219 - another train photo I wanted for my collection. It was taken while I was on platform 2. The other problem I had is obvious once I point it out. While I was there the sun was shining at full strength, and if the trains were in the right place, which most were not, it could have been good for photography. The reality was patches of blinding sunshine, and patches of deep shadow.
  One of the things about photography is that so often you have to be very patient. I am not very patient, but sometimes I get lucky. One of the things I wanted to get a snap of was seeing the name "Jude Bellingham" on a customer information display. I had gone over to Platform 4, and was waiting for the 15:54 Sevenoaks train to get me back to Catford. As I watched the information display I saw Jude Bellingham scroll by. I got the camera focussed, and only had to wait probably a minute or less for the name to scroll past again. I was lucky to get this good clean shot. Some of these display look solid to the human eye, but the camera does not always see all the information at the same time. This display seems better behaved than some.

  I was semi glad to get back to Catford, except I was not looking forward to the walk home again. My knees, ankles, and my feet were feeling quite uncomfortable while I waited for the train. If all those bits were comfortable I may have spent longer at Denmark Hill. What I was looking forward to was a visit to the little Sainsbury's "Local" store by Catford station. I hoped they may have had some of the great ready made salads that Sainsbury's sell.

  I was slightly disappointed that they only had their Greek (style) salad, and not (for instance) the incredibly rare (apart from maybe their bigger supermarkets) Beetroot and Goats cheese salad. I have not had one of those for years, but I remember them as delicious. Unfortunately, what they did have was some reduced price sandwiches. I first selected on Greek salad, and then a couple of interesting wraps, and I should have stopped there, but I also grabbed 3 or was it four (?) reduced price sandwiches.

  What was unfortunate was that the walk home was so uncomfortable that I felt starving hungry by the time I got home. There were two things I did not eat, and the salad was one (the other was a little ready made fruit salad), but I demolished everything else I bought. This was bad for my weight and my blood glucose. Fortunately I was too tired to feel guilty about it.....then !

  Apart from eating (excessively) I also transferred the pictures from my camera to me PC ready for selecting and editing. When I was doing that editing I couldn't help but feel that my Nikon 3200D camera had done a rather good job. It is a fairly lightweight camera, and that makes it good for day's like yesterday. It can't use my favourite lens, and so I don't use it for things like gig photography.

  It seems I am starting to compartmentalise my cameras. The big Nikon 610D is definitely my current favourite for gig photography, but now I have a good lens for it, my Canon D600 seems like it should be a good, lighter, alternative, but I have yet to test it at a gig with the new lens I bought for it (The Canon fitting version of the same Sigma lens as I find so good at gigs).

  I most definitely felt weary last night, and after the usual TV I think I was in bed soon after 10pm, and probably asleep 15 to 20 minutes later (although the actual time has slipped my memory like dreams tend to do. I don't seem to remember dreaming at all last night. The peculiar thing is that I can hardly remember getting up in the night for a pee. I drank a lot of chilled water last night (as well as some chilled Diet Coke) and I expected to be peeing half the night. Maybe I just don't remember peeing in the night.

  This morning my gluttony yesterday has caught up with me. I seem to have gained 300gm. That is possibly less than expected, but still 300gm gain I would have preferred to have been a loss. My blood glucose did not fare well either. It was, in fact, awful. To simplify things I shall just say the average of my three readings was 10.93mmol/l - not the highest this month, but among them, and definitely in the danger zone.

  My plans for today were once to do something similar to yesterday (without the excessive feasting in the late afternoon/evening). I believe that there are some new trains running on the line from Fenchurch Street to Southend (and Shoeburyness) , and I have been thinking of travelling on the line as far as my Freedom Pass allows for free, and see if I can snap a few of the new trains among the older trains.

  There are two reasons why I will not be doing that today, and possibly three. The first is that after my horrendous blood glucose readings this morning I have to try and fast today. Going out would be an excellent way of doing that (although yesterday pointed out the big flaw in the idea - getting too hungry and then going over the top), but I don't fancy going too far when I feel starving. Related to that problem is that after all I ate yesterday I am expecting to pass a huge poo, but nothing has happened yet, and I would not want to be in the middle of nowhere went the time comes.

  There is also that old problem - I am expecting a parcel today, and possibly two. One parcel may not be much bigger than a thick envelope, and it may well go through my letter box. The other should be a bit too big, and most definitely not foldable ! If, and it is unlikely, my parcel/packet arrives early enough I could possibly go for a walk in the park, but the reality is that I will probably have settled into high laziness mode, and will be going nowhere today. Maybe tomorrow.