Tuesday 29 September 2009

A little bit of history...



Tuesday, London, 20 degrees. 
First stop British Museum. Lots and lots of stone... and history and plenty of school kids, seems we can't escape them this week. Realised how little I remember about history from school, found myself eavesdropping on teachers conversations to brush up on my knowledge...

I like the roof by the looks of it.
A funny looking statue that made us smile. We stopped for a coffee in the cafe, just as I hit 3.9mmol so coffee was accompanied by a few jelly babies and a cereal bar, felt I needed both, we still had the whole of the mummy section to tackle yet! (couldn't not get any diabetes talk in) Hard to work out what caused the low, perhaps the 'holiday' drinks the night before or perhaps the soda farls we had for breakfast that were so stodgy I could only eat half as one bite took about five minutes to chew.

After a massive lunch we headed off to the Criterion Theatre to see The 39 Steps. Wish I was allowed to take some pictures of this inside, was just like sitting in you Nan's pink furnished living room, bit like a marshmallow. We were probably the youngest people in there, that was until the school trip walked in, must be following us. With a cast of only four actors playing over 150 parts this play was very clever and funny too, plus a bargain considering you would pay the same price to go the cinema in some parts of London.

So that was Tuesday, pretty much, won't go into the football results...

Pictures via Flickr and Flickr and me.


Monday 28 September 2009

Autumn Days...


So once again I have been slack in posting, apologies. Hope you haven't lost interest, slap on the hand and all that...I promise I will try harder!

First, a quick diabetes round up then onto other things. A couple of weeks back I had my first appointment at the hospital since converting to my pump, disappointing my hba1c had only dropped by 0.1% (to 8.0%) although my diabetes team ensured me this was good as most peoples goes up, but I wasn't so sure as I thought I had been doing much better. Then I have been doing some experimenting with basal rates, which has meant me scouring for no-carb alternatives, brazil nuts currently top of the list and testing on the hour. Serious science experiment.

But, I wanted a bit of a change to my blog this week and it means I probably won't be writing about diabetes that much. We have decided to take a week off work from the trials and tribulations of making magazines and toys and go on holiday. Well, we're not actually going anywhere, we're having a holiday in...London. Not so much big red buses and Harrods, more along the lines of the arts and culture of this fair city.

Let's back track to Saturday as our holiday started with some excitement as we had two gigs in one night, first was the talented and up and coming singer songwriter Chris Macaree in Camden then a quick cab across to Kentish Town where we were on the guest list for Gang of Four. Rock and Roll.

Skip to today and one of the more blog-friendly activities (you don't want to hear about a trip to the dentist and the the town hall surely?) was a stroll around Holland Park (hence the opening shot) where we saw lots of dogs, autumn leaves and little people playing. I wish I had taken this picture myself, but it's just from Flickr, tomorrow camera will be in hand and maybe (no pressure) I will bring you some visual delights of my own.

Tuesday 8 September 2009

My old friend


I've been a bit slack with posting recently, work has been my number one excuse, much to the disgust of everyone who keeps asking me when am I going to post again so they don't have to look at that picture of that boy...

Actually I think it was the busyness on Friday (nothing to do with rushing to the pub for a drink) that made me accidently leave my blood meter at work, in the toilet cubicle, on the floor, all alone, all weekend. 

When I got home at 8.30pm on Friday night I rummaged in my bag and my heart stopped, I remembered it falling on the floor vividly. At first I panicked then I realised I could just use a spare one. Only thing is my spare one is dodgy (see here) and the test strips for my other spare expire 09/09. Argh! So I spent most of the weekend using the dodgy one and then comparing the results with the other meter with the close to expiry/expired strips. We were away at the weekend and I stuck to using dodgy meter, Sunday morning I woke up high and I corrected but I think the meter was reading high as I went low 90 mins later. 

My meter was waiting for me on my desk on Monday morning, a nice samaritan must of left it there for me, or perhaps one of my colleagues who always sees me clutching that little black pouch...
What I had missed most though was my finger pricker. My beloved finger pricker that I have owned for years and is the most comfortable one yet and also the one that has been redesigned and is no longer available exactly the same (it's an Accu-Chek Soft Clix) A few years back I had the same type which broke, I then had to suffice with a different finger pricker only to uncover a spare one day at home, much to my excitement.

The thing is I dread the day this one breaks or I lose my meter bag. I can feel that happening soon, the other night I left it in a restaurant. As we walked out we suddenly had this man running after us in the street, we thought we hadn't paid enough money, but no in his hand was my little black meter bag. So a restaurant and a toilet cubicle within a couple of weeks, they say things come in threes, lets hope not!