youngest cities, beans

london 2.07pm 12C sunny monday 2019 it will be raining on and off

its warm today. went out to lidl to do shopping and whilst there bought a croissant as a treat.

on the way back, i had to shed one of my hoodies. only yesterday, i had to go back to my flat to put on another hoodie. this kind of topsie turvy weather is par for the course in uk.

i dont really know what to buy nowadays… the idea of buying beans just does not fill me with joy… unlike buying meat.

anyway i bought two cans of baked beans, because i know i can wash out the tomatosauce and use the beans as beans without all that suger in the sauce. i leant that from jack monroe’s cookng on a boot strap. its a cheap way of getting the beans. these cans cost only 22p each, unlike if u want to buy the kidney beans, or any other types in a can;  it can be as high as 49p each.

of course i should do like what simon does, he says it is easy to buy the raw beans and soak them overnight and then cook them in the pressure cooker. he does it regularly, but i have not done it before. but canned beans are all cooked and so it does not take a lot of energy to make a dish out of them. beans by themselves are very bland, and so need to add lots of spices and herbs. i find i have to eat the beans very soft, and mashed up, because it is really hard work on the jaw to eat beans when they are still hard. no wonder so many indian bean dishes are eaten as purees. 

do you know that london is the 6th youngest city in uk? slough is the 1st. my friend cary who is as old as me lives there, but it seems it has a lot of immigrants and they have  lots of kiddies that is why it is the youngest. the source  

oxford and cambridge are in there because of their high student population.

in london, people in their 20s move in from all over uk, in huge numbers, and those in their 30/40s move out but only to the surrounding commuter belt.

youngest cities average age

• Slough 33.9
• Oxford 34.4
• Luton 35.1
• Cambridge 35.4
• Coventry 36.2
• London 36.5
• Bradford 36.7
• Cardiff 36.7
• Blackburn 36.9

oldest cities

• Mansfield 40.8
• Wakefield 40.8

• Barnsley 40.9
• Sunderland 41
• Swansea 41
• Birkenhead 42.1
• Southend 42.2
• Bournemouth 42.8
• Worthing 43
• Blackpool 43.2

i think if you are an old person, living in london sounds ideal. where there are not that many other old people to use up the services and hospital waiting list. i was not surprised to learn that bournemouth is one of the old cities. all that seaside and sunshine attracts the retired. but blackpool is a surprise. it must be the old having fond memories of their childhood spent on the seaside in blackpool holidays.

 

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diagnosis

london 5.58pm 8.6C dark clouds sunday 2019

its quite cold today. it is the wind . i went out to the library in paddington at about 12pm, it was sunny, and i thought just one hoodie should be enough. but the wind was so biting cold, that i returned and put on another hoodie. on the way to the bus i saw two children  wearing only t-shirt and shorts . my ears got so cold ,that in the bus, i was trying to warm them up with my hands and had to put my woolly hat and gloves on, as i was getting a headache from them being so cold. can children generate so much heat that they dont feel the cold? those two kids did not look like they are frozen with cold. yet when i look up the weather website, it seems the temperature was about 8C. normally other  days when we get that temperature it feels very mild but then they were windless days. maybe the wind makes all the difference, or where it comes from. if nothern wind, that makes it a cold wind.

the bus was busy, which surprised me; with many people getting on and off. this is a sunday. there was a herd of kids at the bus stop. is it some kind of school outing, do you think? i dont recall it so busy in other sundays’ past. the library was busy too, with all the seats taken. i wonder what is happening. either school is on, or it is the school holidays again. (all the adult computers were taken, but the children area with its computers and seatings was empty, and when i sat there to read the papers, the library lady told me not to sit there. they are trying to separate the children from the adults. these are the times nowadays, you mix with children at your peril. )

my foot is much better now. i have finished off the gout medicine the hospital gave me, and it makes the swelling go down quite fast. so it must be gout then. in the previous attacks when no one suspect gout, it took a long time for the swelling to go down. it is a strange thing, diagnosis, and is quite an art as well as a science to make an accurate one. 

added. 10.22pm i was reading a blog and was reminded it is st patrick’s day today.so that was why it was so busy today with so many people moving about. must be some kind of do going on some places to celebrate this saint’s day.

council tax2019/20

london 11.39am 11.7C cloudy saturday 2019

its the weekend, so that means i shall be going to the library to read the saturday papers. such is my life now, so humdrum. the post came today with the council tax demand. i expected it to rise, 

city of westminster      2.1% increase  £401.45

adult social care precept       2.0% increase  £31.89

greater london authority  8.9% increase  £320.51

council tax for band D 2019/20   6.1%increase     £753.85 (for a year)

so we pay £78.85 on 1.4.19, then 9 months of £75 a month. direct debit. and have feb and march next year free .

so the biggest increase is the mayor of london’s office. supposedly to pay for more police they say. though i suspect some of it will be because he froze the tube and bus fares, for 3yrs, and have to make up the shortfall by taxing us council tax payers. westminster has the lowest council tax, so other will definitely be paying more than this. it is quite bearable because it is a rise from a low base. 

 

 

i tried to copy and paste one of his photos of the beach here, but it did not seem to take.

london 4.33pm 14C cloudy friday 2019

palolem beach goa (from john’s photos.)

i had a email from john, my friend in poole. he had sent me pics of him in goa, and in sri lanka. he went there for a 5wk holiday in feb this year. he must have just come back. those photos gave me some pleasure, seeing the beach and sunlight and him enjoying himself. even though at first it makes me want to go there, i know it is not the same for me. i would be quite bored after a week. sunlight and the beach sounds lovely, but it can be very monotonous after a bit. if u like chatting to the locals, that will help alleviate the boredom, as any human interaction is good. and i think in india, and also thailand, the locals are willing to interact with tourists, even if most of them just want to sell you things, or services. his photos reminds me this is one way of enjoying life, travelling and so forth. not for me though, as i seem to have gone off travelling. though maybe i should rethink it again. travelling can still bring in new experiences, and in india and thailand, you can eat delicious vegetarian foods. but my health makes me hesitate to travel outside london.

so what is there for me to enjoy. i thought i could enjoy foods, but now i got gout i have looked it up and it seems there are lots of food i cannot eat. i thought i could eat fish, and ate a sardine for lunch today but i found that is forbidden too. from the list below you can see practically everything is forbidden.

only lentils, peas, beans are left and vegetables. interestingly no mention about cheese being forbidden. i have always thought eating cheese is one big reason why you get gout. the list did not include beef, chicken, or pork. but i bet you they are forbidden too. it seems to me it might not be the purines in these foods but your own kidneys being unable to excrete them… that might be the reason why i got gout, my kidneys are not functioning well. if that is the reason, i dont know what is causing the kidneys not to function. 

• All organ meats: These include liver, kidneys, sweetbreads and brain
• Game meats: Examples include pheasant, veal and venison
• Fish: Herring, trout, mackerel, tuna, sardines, anchovies, haddock and more
• Other seafood: Scallops, crab, shrimp and roe
• Sugary beverages: Especially fruit juices and sugary sodas
• Added sugars: Honey, agave nectar and high-fructose corn syrup
• Yeasts: Nutritional yeast, brewer’s yeast and other yeast supplement link

it seems i got gout

london 7.38pm 11.2C dry thursday 2019

i thought i had a fractured left foot again, when it came up about 3days ago. there was no reason for it, and i read that it might be a stress fracture. today i decided to go tothe A&E in st thomas hospital, to let them check it out, and to ask them if it will affect the prostate biopsy that i will be getting in chelsea westminster hospital on 21march. i thought i will just get an antibiotic from them, and crutches and told to rest the foot… but they took one look at it and said it was gout. it surprised me so much. and later the urate was found to be high in my blood. so it looks like the other time when my right foot got swollen might have been gout instead of a fracture. that time there was also no history of trauma to the foot. 

added. 3.48am saturday 16.3.19. i got prescribed colchicine 500micrograms , 4x a day for 3days.  then he told me he is also going to give prednisolone, but i take it only after a day or two of the colchicine, with the pain getting no improvement. and pain killers paracetamol. i allready made up my mind that i wont be taking the prednisolone or painkillers, and i know i can tolerate the pain. i am glad i dont have to pay for these prescriptions. it cost £8.80 for each medicine. i wonder if i can return them but i know they dont like taking back medicines .

today saturday, (about 2days) it is working. swelling going down and not so painful . colchicine is given to reduce inflammation. he was telling me not to take ibubrufen, whcih used to be given for gout, but i should not take it it seems. even though it is a anti-inflamatory medicine. 

i did not think i eat that much red meat… though they say it includes chicken and pork in the cause of gout. and that i do eat. so it looks like i will need to reduce my intake of those , if not cut them out entirely. and eat lentils and peas instead. oh well, i will change my diet if it will help prevent any more episodes of gout. i wonder if it is old age that is giving me so many medical problems these days. for someone who have no medical problems at all before i retired, it shocks me that i am getting so many now. 

the internet is 30yrs old

london 10.56am 9.6C cloudy (forecast to rain heavily at about 11.30am) tuesday 2019

added. 11.12am light rain now.

i got an email from steve telling me of a freebie tonight. it is a  free truffle burger in brick lane. east london. i emailed him back to say i got this foot fracture and cant make it. much as i would like to. i am housebound till this foot gets better.

today google doodle celebrates 30yrs of the internet. i have only yesterday said how much i like the internet. though it has given rise to lots of fake news and spreading of hatred and fear. but you could argue that itself is not the reason for the spread, it is the people who uses it… and also for those who cannot keep a level head and notice fake news when they see it. perhaps it just reinforces your own prejudices, so that people find it easy to search and find anything that will confirm their prejudices. 

i would say on the whole, it is a good thing. and it is up to you to make good or bad use of it.  i thought it has been here longer than 30yrs. just goes to show  it has pervaded our lives so much that i had the impression  it has been here longer than it has. 

 

i think i have fractured my left foot again. it seems to be about yearly, around this time, in 2017, i fractured the left foot, that has a clear cause, i banged it against the door , in 2018, my right foot got fractured, i thought at first that it is due to my circuit training, but this year 2019, yesterday in fact, i fractured the left foot again. this time the fracture is quite a small one. and there is no obvious cause why .

london 10.41am 8.3C sunny monday 2019

when i mentioned it to the doctor who checked my prostate, he said it can occur to the elderly. stress fracture it seems. from just walking.

ah well, this morning i noticed the sunlight streaming into my lounge, which normally it does not do. but the sun has moved high enough now to shine right into the flat. i was thinking of going outside to catch the sun, by sitting in the courtyard but i can see it is quite windy out there and it wont be very comfortable. but since i can sun myself in the flat, basking in the sunlight streaming in the windows, i can do all that in the comfort of the flat and in a sheltered place, and can let the sun shine on my skin to generate vit D. i figured it must do some good to get some vit D made and hope it will strengthen my bones. it is very pleasant to be sitting , or in my case, lying on the settee, in the sun. i see old people doing it all the time, and it seems i have joined their ranks. such is old age, the littlest thing i can find pleasure in doing and i am quite satisfied with it.

and it is great we got the internet, i can browse away and see what others are up to. and maybe even get into chatting with them.