Don't Look Back in Anger (Jan 23, 2012)
90 years ago today a medical researcher took a very risky decision and used human insulin to treat a patient with type 1 diabetes.
The patient survived.
I and many others are grateful for this every time we inject insulin to keep us alive.

Over the last week I've been working at a beer festival, something I do a few times over the course of the year. While I was there I was asked if I could do something on the saturday night after hours staff party. I was asked by a good friend if I would present an award to her husband. On hearing what it was I immediately agreed in fact I was very honoured to have been asked. I was asked to present the Alan Narbarro medal to my mate for the fact he has survived with diabetes for over 50 years. The medal is only given out after the diabetes care team apply to Diabetes UK on behalf of their patient. I was shown the complements slip enclosed with the medal after it had been sent to his hospital consultant. It pointed out that he was nearer 60 years with diabetes than 50 and the doctor should be planning to apply for the Robert Lawrence medal for 60 years survival!

This looking back makes my near 11 years with type 1 diabetes seem simple.
It hasn't been.

Having easily available insulins and simple almost pain free injecting devices makes it easier.
Having a friend who I can have a moan and laugh about it all with makes it easier still.
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(4 replies, Latest reply: Jan 24, 2012)

Are You Going To Scarborough Fair (Nov 29, 2011)
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

That's what I've added to my stockpot along with some roughly chopped onion (skin on), a carrot, some black peppercorns, mustard seeds, a bay leaf and the main reason all that and some water are in there is the pheasant carcass. Leftover from our Sunday tea.
Normally we get the meat from our local butcher, he's won awards and been on the telly you know, a piece to roast or nice chops or steaks or if the weather is very good s selection of things to go on the bbq grill. One a month though is different. On the last Sunday of each month in one of the next towns over is the farmers and producers market.
All sorts are there. Preserves and jams, specialists in spices and dried goods, fancy cupcakes and plain looking flapjacks, bread of all shapes and sizes, fruit and veg, smoked goods, cheeses and of course meat. The chap with his stall of highland cattle beef joints from yorkshire, all things turkey, the Welsh lamb and lamb from much more locally. One butcher comes down from the southern end of cumbria. His speciality is game. Fur and fowl. In autumn this is at its peak. Rabbit, venison, hare, wood pigeon, teal, partridge and pheasant. Oven ready birds that will make a nice roast for two people with little waste.
So now the leftover bones and meat are getting a second bite at stardom, the centrepiece to a tasty stock that could be used for all sorts of meals. Soup, risotto, or the base for a casserole made with a mix of cuts of game meat also bought at the market, long slow cooking to bring out the best favours served with fresh seasonal root vegetables. Food guaranteed to keep one warm on a cold dark night.
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(5 replies, Latest reply: Dec 1, 2011)

To Market, To Market (Nov 25, 2011)
To Buy A Fat Pig...

It is that time of year again. The sky is getting dark by late afternoon, people are pulling heavy coats around themselves to keep out the cold and dark. Towns and shops are setting out lights to make that oncoming darkness a more bearable, hospitable place. In the midst of all this in city centres springing up are extra streets within streets, a kind of second city overlying the real city of bricks and mortar, glass and steel. This is a town of wooden huts, tent like structures bringing thoughts of far away places and times long ago.
Like all towns, this one is full of people. Chattering, laughing, looking lost and looking found. Big people trying to fit through small gaps in the heaving throng, small people ducking and diving in the crowd. People are there to be happy, they are there to have fun, meet people (those they should brought meeting and those they shouldn't), there are no doubt those who are there for darker reasons. The voices cry out in all manner of languages and accents. Across the new streets greetings, farewells, exhortations from the huts and booths to examine and sample the wares on offer. "And for you sir". "not only all that but also". "see how easy it is".
There really is only one reasons that I'm there today, on the day after this secondary city arrived in my city. I'm there for my fat pig. Well not a whole pig but the long fat German bratwurst cooked over the big charcoal burner, bread kept warm and lightly toasted on another rack suspended over the main grilling rack. Covered in tomato ketchup and mustard. To wash it down there is only one choice on this occasion. Duck into the big tent like chalet and get a pint of German lager.

Don't drink too much though or you'll swear blind you heard the reindeer singing...
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(3 replies, Latest reply: Nov 26, 2011)

Planning Ahead (Nov 7, 2011)
Sometimes planning ahead is quite simple or one of those things that HAS to be done (like thinking about a shopping list or weighing the bread used to make your lunchtime butties). Othertimes it can be a bit more spontaneous.
Tonight for example.
I'd known that MC was going to be out this evening doing something musical and that after I'd met her for some food I'd be going home and having an eveing in on my own. I also knew that I'd got som slices of belly pork at the weekend from the butcher and had been thinking about one or two ideas to cook them with.

Of course I've done something totally different to what I first envisaged when I was standing in the butcher's shop watching as the particular number of slices were cut from the slab of pork belly by the sharp knife of the butcher.

What I've gone for is a slow cooked pork and bean casserole.
Cut the belly pork up into big chunks and fry off to caramelise and hopefully render a bit of the fat out from the meat.
Some choped up onion and garlic were added to the casserole dish and heated up to start them cooking. Herbs and spices added (pepper, smoked paparika, cinamon, ginger, mustard seeds, chilli flakes, bay leaves) along with some chopped tomatoes and half a pint of good cider.
A drained tin of mixed beans was also added, everything stired up and alowed to come to the boil on the hob.
The casserole was then transfered to a medium hot oven and cooked on for some time.

When we come to eat it tomorrow it will have cooked for a long time and then been reheated to serving temperature.

Now the only dilemma I have is serve it with mash potato or rice...


(and yes that is the kind of detail you'll get off me if you ask for a recipe of this kind. It's not exact and it's all down to what you want/like to taste in the end).
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(10 replies, Latest reply: Nov 8, 2011)

Spud U Like (Feb 3, 2011)
At the end of january garden centres having cleared heir shelves of the leftovers from christmas start to look forward to the coming spring with flower bulbs, seeds and propagation equipment being thrust to the fore. Growing vegetables is increasing in popularity and it's at this time of year that seed potatoes are bought. This allows them some time to sprout (or chit in gardening terms) before being planted out after the last frosts.
In most places seed potatoes are sold in either 1.5 or 2Kg net bags which is quite a lot of potatoes and only the most popular varieties are sold. Increasingly the seed companies realise that this is too many for people who don't have a large garden or allotment to grow in and now you can buy smaller packs, 6 or 10 of the potato tubers to grow in a small space or containers.
For some even this is too many, or the selection is not of the varieties they want to grow. For those growers there are events like Potato Day organised by Garden Organic at their display garden and base near Coventry. In a marquee you can buy potatoes by the tuber, paying just for those you buy, so you get the number you want. There were over 100 varieties from heritage spuds claiming to be one of the oldest cultivars still available to some of new on the market this year with all sorts in between. First early, second early, early maincrop, maincrop, late maincrop, when do you want your potatoes to be ready? Slug resistance, blight resistance, eelworm resistance, what problems do you suffer from we have the spud for you! Waxy, floury, salad, general purpose. Red skin, blue flesh, white flesh, golden skin, smooth or knobbly you can choose.
Along with this myriad of choice of potatoes to grow there were talks given by potato experts on cooking potatoes, the problem of blight and what is being done about breeding resistant varieties and more.

This year we weren't so phased by seeing the large number of potatoes on offer and had an idea of the kind of potatoes we wanted to buy. This is unlike the first time we went a few years ago where we were overwhelmed by sheer numbers but then we did ask for some help from the many volunteers and got some very good advice then. A selection of first earlies (Casablanca), maincrop (Pentland Squire) and salad (International Kidney) potatoes were bought and should give us a good range of time from when the first potatoes are dug to when we finally finish eating them from storage next winter.
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(7 replies, Latest reply: Feb 6, 2011)

Walk This Way (Sep 11, 2009)
Finally I got to see a specialist at the Podiatry Musculoskeletal clinic (aka the funny walks place, the gait clinic). A brief check through the referral letter from the physio and check on this sort of medical history from me then it was down to business.
Walk to the end of teh room and back a couple of times. Now get changed into shorts and do it again barefoot. Then it was a physical check to see how my joints moved and which muscles were affected.
Then I was told about what she had could tell from all this. My feet, ankles, knees and hips aren't quite as aligned as they should be, one leg is shorter than the other and that most of the problem is with the lower leg.
To try and sole the problem I'm going to get some custom made insoles - an impression of my foot was made in a box filled with expanding foam that crushed down when I carefully stood into it. This was a much easier experience than twenty years ago when they took a cast using plaster bandages of my foot! Till they custom ones are made I've been given some off the shelf orthotic insoles to get my body used to using this sort of insole.
I did find one of the insoles I'd had made previously and the podiatrist asked if I could remember who I had seen all those yeas ago, no chance but it turns out that one of the possible people who did it all still works there. The podiatrist also knew the consultant who was my specialist as a child, Mr Weeble who helped me and a lot of other people to not fall down
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(11 replies, Latest reply: Feb 10, 2010)

Night Shining (Jun 24, 2009)
Over the years I've been fascinated by various natural optical phenomena that can be seen. Sundogs and halos, parhelic arcs and circumzenithal arcs have been seen over the years (the last of those is great by the way, looking like an upside down rainbow grinning at the top of the sky). Of course manyh rainbows have been seen. Single, double, partial and the last one looked like it was going down into the valley we were driving into. Moon halos are harder to see in that you need a dark sky and bright moon as well as the right conditions for halo formation.

I've managed to see aurorae from home, nothing spectacular but certainly green glowing in the sky where normally there isn't any.

Once thing I've not seen for certain is Noctilucent Clouds. Not till last night anyway. Over the years during the summer months if I've woken in the night then I'll have looked out of the window at the back towards the north to see if any were there. Often I did think I could see something but was never sure if what I was looking at was noctilucent clouds or just a slightly woozey addled brain making up what I wanted to see when I'd just woken up.

Overnight I woke up again and after dealing with what needed dealing with I thought tonight would be a good night for looking out to see noctilucent clouds. The night had started quite still and very clear and would have been great for stargazing had it not been just after midsummer. At about 2 in the morning though the sky had gone as dark as it could get. I stepped out into the garden and looked towards the north and northeast. There for a few degrees above the horizon was a blueish, whitish glow. Within the faintly glowing area there was some form of cloud like structure. I think that must be it. Finally, definitely noctilucent clouds. Maybe even if the weather today stays fine have another look this evening.

For more information about the how and why of all the phenomenon I've mentioned and many more, Les Cowley's Atmospheric Optics website is the best - http://www.atoptics.co.uk/
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(2 replies, Latest reply: Jun 25, 2009)

Sweet toothed vampires (Jun 2, 2009)
So more blood tests and more results to write about.

The frequent HbA1c results round up.
From the doctor on the 18th May I had a HbA1c of 7.0% according to the bit of paper I was given when I asked for printouts of the results. Not too bad considering that in march when I was at the hospital for a routine clinic appointment it was 7.3% Maybe the suggestions of the doctor at the hospital are working. I hope so as I've incorporated some suggestions of the DSN who I saw in may as well and I think it should drop further (I hope so).

In other results I had a liver function test as well and everything was fine. Not bad considering my liver will have had some use over the few days before my blood tests, it had been my birthday on that weekend
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(8 replies, Latest reply: Sep 6, 2009)

Bend at the knees (Apr 30, 2009)
Once more I'm subjecting myself to some physio treatment on the NHS. Every so often I need to go and see someone about the fact that my knees hurt. I know I'm getting old but it's not just that. I've been seeing physios and related specialists for a long long time (sine I was just a wee one in fact). I've not seen any for since I was in my late teens and have just been ignoring any aches and pains but I've decided to go back now (things have got a bit more painful recently).
The physio thinks that generally my legs aren't in too bad shape but I could do with some stretching on the leg muscles and also that I should be put on the waiting list to see the podiatrists at the gait clinic.
These are people who look at how the joints work together as you walk and move. When I last saw these people in my teenage years I heard the phrase "hmmm, interesting". Not the things you like to hear from a medical specialist! Hopefully the stretching and if the gait clinic can make up some orthotic insoles then it should get a bit better.
Still I've made the first step now so I hope it goes smoothly from here.
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(11 replies, Latest reply: Sep 10, 2009)

Pictures at a festival (Jul 24, 2008)
Well I've finally got round to uploading the pictures I took at Glastonbury.

To see them try these links

Thursday - a day of wandering round when not too much was going on:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phil55494/Glastonbury2008Thursday
Friday - First day of the festival proper:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phil55494/Glastonbury2008Friday
Saturday - Everything is going on. Sorry no Amy Winehouse or Jay Z pictures as I didn't see those, I was watching the things going on elsewhere (the aerial stuff in the circus field):
http://picasaweb.google.com/phil55494/Glastonbury2008Saturday
Sunday - Last festival day lots of good stuff still happening all over:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phil55494/Glastonbury2008Sunday
Monday - It's all over. Time to pack up and look at the aftermath:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phil55494/Glastonbury2008Monday
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(4 replies, Latest reply: Jul 28, 2008)

Not quite as good as I hoped (May 30, 2008)
The latest HbA1c result that is. Last time (in feb) my HbA1c was 7.7% It has now come down, only to 7.0% though. This is a little disapointing as I had thought it would have come down to a bit lower than that (somewhere around 6.8% I thought). I guess it means that my diabetes hasn't been quite as well controlled as I would like. The current guidelines are for the HbA1c to come in at 6.5% or less, that's roughly an average BG level of 8.6 over a couple of months before the test. That's hard.
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(3 replies, Latest reply: Jun 3, 2008)

Watering The Garden (May 29, 2008)
Was I the only foolish looking person out in the drizzle last night watering the garden?
Well I wasn't just watering the garden but that is what it will have looked like to anyone who saw me. What I was doing was pest control. Specifically slug control with nematodes bought mail order. Mix the stuff up in a watering can as directed and then water the garden with it. You are supposed to wter them in afterwards but as it was raining I thought I could leave that bit out. I did do a bit of a general feed with the seaweed liquid we've got to try and give some things a bit of a boost (the flowers and edibles - the grass can fend for itself).

So why in the rain? Well these wee critters need the ground to be damp to work so I needed a bit of rain to wet the ground enough after a week or so of nice dry warm sunny weather. If it remains dry over the next few days I'll need to be out with the watering can again to keep them alive.
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(3 replies, Latest reply: May 30, 2008)

I no Pod, iRiver (May 13, 2008)
I've just updated my digital music player. Well it's probably older than the one it's replacing but it's probably the one of the best hard disk music players designed. Unfortunately it's a discontinued model. It's the iRiver H340 A 40Gb model that comes with radio, recoding capacity (internal and external mic), usb host capability, a colour screen for pictures or text, firmware upgradable.
In fact it's great!
It should be possible to upgrade the drive if I want to and replace the battery if this one has been cooked (I can wield a small screwdriver when I need to).
For now I've just got to get my music on it.
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(7 replies, Latest reply: Jun 2, 2008)

I think I might just believe it now (Apr 6, 2008)
This morning was spent along with probably about a million or so other people trying to get tickets for the Glastonbury Festival 2008.
After several hours of not even seeing any trace of the ticket sales site or even getting an engaged tone on the telephone I was getting demoralised and was going to give up. Then I'm told by MC that the ticket site was coming up so I gave it a few more goes and yes I was in.
It seemed to think the registration numbers were ok. Then there was the paying part. They want all UK sales to be using a debit card rather than a debit or credit card as is more usual. I do have one but it wouldn't have sufficient funds so a call to MC to use the one she would have used to pay with and I get through to the confirmation page. At this point MC suggests I take a screenshot and so I try and do that. Unfortunately my computer crashes at this point.
I try and re enter the site but it tells me the registration numbers have been used - a good sign. Just to wait for the confirmation email.
I finally get the confirmation email at about 19:50 a whole 8 hours after booking the tickets, though I did know that we had got the tickets as we checked with the online tracker system at the ticket site. It managed to send me a confirmation email within a few minutes of inputting the details I needed.
So that's it then.
We're off to the Glastonbury Festival this year.
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(9 replies, Latest reply: Jul 8, 2008)

Poetry in Motion (Feb 18, 2008)
When I usually go out to a gig for some words and music it's normally words sung to music, usually in the modern style.
Saturday night was a bit different. Saturday was a trip to see the Ian McMillan Orchestra. You might have heard of Mr McMillan, story teller, broadcaster, Barnsley boy, poet. This latest project is poetry set to music and spoken songs.
Poetry about people and places and happenings. Some sad, some happy.
The orchestra was five people playing folky type instrumentation, guitars, accordian, fiddle, double bass and then also a couple of more unusual instruments, a hurdy gurdy and a nyckelharpa.
The last two are medieval keyed string instruments, the hurdy gurdy having a hand cranked wheel that rubs against the strings playing a drone and then the keys change the pitch of the melody strings by changing their length. The Nyckelharpa seemed similar as a keyed instrument with drones and keyed melody strings like the hurdy gurdy but bowed rather than a rotating wheel to vibrate the strings.
A very different for us night out but a good one just the same.
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(7 replies, Latest reply: Feb 18, 2008)

Round and round and up and down we go again. (Feb 15, 2008)
Sometimes when you do the wrong thing it turns out right and when you do the right thing it turns out wrong.

Take yesterday for instance, just an ordinary seeming thursday. Get up have breakfast go to work and so on. Apart from when I went out for lunch at a local noodle bar I make a guestimate about how much insulin I need and set up for the injection.
Oh dear.
Darn.
Drat.
Bother.
I've run out of insulin and have managed to get 3 units in. I was estimating needing around 10 units to cover the meal.
Oh well not a lot I can do about it as I didn't remember to put any spare insulin in my kit this morning (I had thought about it the night before but didn't do anything about it). So just get on with the afternoon's work and see how it works out.
Later on in the afternoon I test and the BG level is 6.8 what's happening? That's lower than it was before lunch. Food should make the BG level go up.
When I get home a few hours later I test again and the BG number is 5.3 even lower than before. What's going on? I'm expecting both numbers to be well over 10, probably upwards of 13 by the time I get home.

I'm unlikely to have got those numbers if I plan for it and try hard to get there. That's the problem with trying to manage this thing, the unpredictability and variability in what can happen when you do all the right things and then in doing totally the wrong thing it ends up being right.
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(4 replies, Latest reply: Feb 18, 2008)

A Disapointing Number (Feb 7, 2008)
Oh dear. It was all meant to go so well. You do the DAFNE course and then go away and it's easy and you get perfect scores all the time, but no things don't work that way.
I just got the results of a set of blood tests back and the HbA1c result is up. A lot. 7.7%
So the nurse and I try and work out why it's gone like that. I think it's due to the problems I had trying to get the DAFNE methodology to work for me (working out my carb ratios and so on). There was a period over about 4-6 weeks after the course where my numbers were all over but averaging quite high. Also the test will cover the christmas period which is hard to deal with.
The numbers over the last few weeks have got better and are lower (with a lower average bg level) so I hope that the next time I have a HbA1c test it comes out much lower with a more sensible number. Still the doctor wants a word with me about it.
The other things seem fine (kidneys, cholesterol) but the blood pressure is still a bit high. I guess I'll get the dosage of that tablet upped a bit. The only problem is I'm worried that I'm starting to get the 'ace inhibitor cough'. This is a common side effect of these class of drugs and while it's unlikely kill you it can be very very annoying.
Other than that it was the usual lose weight (currently 100.5kg, bmi 30) and drink less (I said I drank up to 40 units a week which is an average of 3 pints of ale a day).
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(19 replies, Latest reply: Feb 14, 2008)

Getting to know DAFNE (Nov 10, 2007)
The course I was asked about back in march has now happened and I'm all trained up in what the latest and greatest (so far) method of managing type 1 diabetes is all about.
DAFNE, Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating.
Well I was never one to do and eat the same things at the same time and so on so I've been adjusting my insulin doses around what I've been eating for a long time now. Still this course has been very good and useful.
The DAFNE course is a week long 9-5ish course with not many participants - there were 7 of us doing the course who had varying experiences with diabetes ranging from 27 to 1 year. The teachers were a diabetes nurse from the hospital and a community based dietician. A week long course might sound like a long time but a lot gets crammed into that week. From information about insulins and what the different types do, lots of food related stuff, a long session on hypoglycemia and much discussion on blood glucose levels and adjustmentsto insulin doses.
What the course tries to do is allow each participant to work out how sensitive to insulin/carbohydrate they are. This then means you can work out your insulin requirements with more than guesswork. As part of the working out of insulin requirements you also need to have some idea of how much carbohydrate is in the food you're eating. Lots of time went into this from an introduction to the DAFNE way of doing things to a morning of playing with food and scales to estimate how many carbs are in your typical portion.
With sessions covering what alcohol does, some drinks contain carbs but all alcohol can cause delayed hypos because of it's effect on the liver. How to adjust insulin if you're going to be doing any kind of physical activity. A whole session covered how to deal with being ill and what it might do and how to calculate how much extra insulin you might need (an awful lot more than might be expected it seems). At least it's all written down in the course handbook I've got so I don't need to remember it all.
I'm really pleased to have been able to do this course, the course has only been running here since the start of the year and now it's been run 5 times so I'm with some of the first in the area to get this training. It has drawn together bits and pieces of knowledge that I'd picked up over the years with this condition and placed them as a more coherent whole. I also think it will be good over time as it should take a bit of the guessing out of changing the doses at meals.
Of course it might all go to pot next week when I'm back at work but the principles will be there and I've now got the tools and techniques to deal with it.
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(4 replies, Latest reply: Nov 12, 2007)

Mobile Refresher (Aug 30, 2007)
Well I've finally gone out and done it. I've refreshed my mobile phone.
What this doesn't mean however is that I've gone out and bought a new one, no the one I have works fine so I've tarted it up a bit. Out has gone the old battered looking case and I've put a new one on.
Wow you think. Mobile phones with changeable cases have been around for ages. Well yes but the phone I have (a venerable Nokia 6310i) doesn't support clip on cases and so I bought a new case and a few other spares (keypad, on-off switch etc) and had to take apart the phone to fit it. Four small torx screws and plasic clips to hole the back on. Another small torx screw to hole the aerial and main circuit board to the front and then replace in reverse order.
So far so good. I refitted the battery and powered up. Things were looking good but no signal. I wander all over the house and eventually find a place with some signal but then it drops away. Taking the back off I find the aerial is a bit loose so that could be the problem. So how to fix it? A very small insulating washer of some sort would be ideal but I don't have any. Time to make one! Out comes the scalpel and a rubber band A small piece is cut and a hole put in the middle and attached around the screw holding the aerial down*. This time it works as it should and so I now have a new looking phone where all the keys work easily and I can see the screen as there is no built up layer of dust and scratches on it.
All in all much cheaper than a new phone.

*The one that worked was the second attempt as cutting the rubber band to make a washer.
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The Marvelous Mechanical Mouse Organ (Aug 13, 2007)
We will fix it
We will fix it

On our way to womad we travelled down the Fosse Way the current highway along the line of the roman road between Cirencester and Leicester. Traveling through the Cotswolds there were lots of brown tourist destination signs pointing to places big and small that wanted you to come and see their attraction. Near the southern end of the cotswolds is the town of Northleach. A small town with a fine medieval church built with money from the wool merchants who had got rich from their trade.
It is also home to one of those curios that seem to be found in small towns and villages in England - The Museum of Mechanical Music.
Here is a shop, workshop and museum dedicated to mechanically reproduced music.
The museum itself is housed in the upstairs room and is quite a cramped space full of the various types of self playing music machines. There is everything from a modern midi controlled organ and the antique it's based upon to many musical boxes based on pins pinging the teeth of a tuned comb - from ones where the pin barrels had to be made up specially and ones where the barrels (and so the tunes played) could be changed. The move from pin barrels to thins steel plates with the pins created by pressing out a small flap, played on a polyphon, the jukebox of it's day to be played by the insertion of a penny. Smaller objects include the mechanical singing birds which are played using a small swanee whistle and the bird's bead moves round as it's beak opens and closes. A number of self playing pianos where the tune is stored on a paper roll, including one that truley reproduced the performance that was taken when the roll was recorded (everything from timing to how hard the keys were hit and what pedals were being pressed - quite a complicated instrument). Barrel organs were on show including one built in the 1980's (I think) to traditional designs for a romany couple who used to take it to fairs and shows. Finally we were shown a few more of the automata, a model banjo player playing his instrument as a tune from a pin barrel plays in the base and a diorama of a ship on a rolling sea moving up and down whilst in the distance a train moves over the harbour wall.

All in all an interesting little museum that we were both happy to spend time looking round.
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(11 replies, Latest reply: Aug 16, 2007)

It's been a while (Aug 9, 2007)
Since I last managed to muck up.
I've had a good evening in the garden tidying stuff up, watering and feeding the plants, enjoying aglass of wine while I did so.
After that it was time for my tea. In I go to get my stuff and ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! It's not in my bag where I expect it. Have a look round and it's not to be seen. Deep Breaths! I have spares, upstairs to find it all. Go to test the blood sugar - error on the meter. Don't Panic! Try again, and again the same error. OK check the instruction booklet. The battery has gone. Find the spares and sort it out. 6.7 Not bad.
Right sort out insulin. Find the spare injection pens and the to the fridge for the spare insulin.
OOOPS!
I put the last cart of humalog (short acting insulin) in with my stuff as I'm about to run out. I do have a prescription for the main stuff (insulin, test strips, tablets I take daily) in my pocket. I was going to get it sorted out but I arrived at my local pharmacy just after it shut. Oh dear. What can I do. Not a lot really. Hope I don't get too high. Take a bit more long acting insulin.
Best check and try and get into the office a bit early to see if I can sort myself out.
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(7 replies, Latest reply: Aug 15, 2007)

So Follow Me Follow (Aug 3, 2007)
Way Down To The Hollow
And Let Us All Wallow
In Glorious Mud

Well Womad this year soon was christened womud for good reason. A lot of water and clay mixed together soon is a gloopy mess. It was it's usual good mix of music, food, talks and art but with fewer workshops as the stages they should have used were flooded out and deemed unsafe.
Still lots to see and do, including a bonus gig by the Blind Boys of Alabama supported by local school children on the thursday night before the festival officially started.

Here are some photos

Thursday - http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/phil5...tonPark2007Day0?authkey=T4uticFCzRU
Friday - http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/phil5...tonPark2007Day1?authkey=2whQR0Wf5Bc
Saturday - http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/phil5...tonPark2007Day2?authkey=_2-MHkLz2K8
Sunday - http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/phil5...tonPark2007Day3?authkey=RSubqHpscnE

And yes my boots did end up looking like that. I'm hoping that when cleaned up they can be repaired as the outer sole unit came clean off!
Thing is I think I must have been walking round for about five or six hours on the saturday night with the boot like that thinking "this boot doesn't feel right"
An emergency welly run had to be done (many thanks to MC for that ) and a pair of size 11 boots were found. Only about 1.5 to 2 sizes too small then, still better than nothing.
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(8 replies, Latest reply: Sep 5, 2007)

In An English Country Garden (Jul 23, 2007)
Sometimes you wish you did a few more things spontaneously. Deciding which day to take off on the basis of the weather forecast, rather than booking a day off some months ahead because you'll save money on event tickets. So instead of going to Tatton park for the RHS flower show in the glorious sunshine on the thursday, you're stuck with going on the friday when the weather is forecast to be wet, very wet.
At least it was forecast and so we were armed with waterproofs, boots and wellies ready to brave the elements. It also meant that the show probably wasn't as crowded as it might have been.
As the worst weather was going to be in the afternoon we took a wander round as much of the outside sections before heading under canvas to look in the marquees. So down through the big flowerbed displays, past a large chineese dragon, regal peacocks, dolphins, horses, treacle railways, a market stall, a roundhead and cavalier, even Wallace and Grommet all made from flowers and plants. A brief look at some of the many stalls and some of the small back to back show gardens and we were back to the entrance we came in by. Deciding to head round the large show gardens, most are in the middle of the site we went round again, enjoying some of the ideas presented and thinking that in at least one garden the best bit was hidden at the back (a formal garden with a rectangular pool in the centre, at the back partially hidden behind a couple of walls were some turf dolphins). Others of the show gardens we weren't inspired by but some looked great - the princes trust garden looked much better than the pictures we'd seen on tv and the suttons seeds formal garden where everything was edible looked fantastic - why aren't our plants looking that good?
Deciding to head for some cover to sit down and have lunch we eventually found some space in a tent and ate the brief picnic we took (rather than buy a picnic there) - some nice couscous salad and a cake bought at the local bakery on the way. We did see people who looked like they'd gone to town with their picnics, lots of sandwiches and salads and bottles of wine being consumed. Back into the fray and we headed into the floral marquee. A huge huge tent with people selling flowers and plants of all shapes sizes and colours. Some of the displays were a marvel to look at from gaudy looking chrysanthemums and gladioli to recreations of cottage gardens and the exotic and other worldly looking carnivorous and air plants. Then across the short space into the Country Living marquee selling all sorts of goods designed to meet the needs of the cheshire set and those that wish they were part of it. There was some very fine looking stuff in there but most it wasn't our sort of style. Down one end of the marquee though is where the fine food and drinks stalls are, that was more like it! The last of the marquees we had a good look round was the national plant societies marquee. Here there were national plant collection holders, representatives of the national allotment society and landlife wildflower groups, bonsai and cactus societies and even the representatives from the highly competetive world of gooseberry growing and showing the Cheshire Gooseberry Project.
Deciding to head out into the rain once more we had a quick look at some of the things we had missed out on earlier. It was during this time we found what was probably one of the best gardens in the show, one of a set of small back to back gardens sponsored by AstraZenica Alderley Park. The central feature of the garden was a large wooden arbor built from tree and branches all covered in moss and lichens and under the arbor in a cobbled area were seats carved from the root of a fallen tree. Around that space was an are fully planted looking like the plants had been there for a long time rather than the week or so for the show.
Then it was back to the car to sort ourselves out for the journey home, a change of dry and clean clothes taken along so we didn't have to be in wet and muddy stuff all day. Purchases stowed away and the start of the slow drive off site and on towards home.

So what did we buy, plants mainly it is a flower/garden show after all. Some ornamental grasses, some ragged robin (bothe the normal pink and a white variety) and eryngium and a chilli pepper. Some seeds more ornamental grass and a packet of delphinium seed - I will get some delphiniums from seed! - as well as some edible munchy seed mixes. A bottle of wine (dry damson - very dry it is too).
Is it worth going again of course, you can't control the weather but you can plan for it and we had done so it was just annoying, not life threatening (as it was for other parts of the country on friday) and it's the only RHS show that is put on anywhere near where we live.
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(3 replies, Latest reply: Jul 25, 2007)

Friday Night Is Music Night (Jul 9, 2007)
Another day another gig
Friday was the first night of the 10th Lift Global Music Festival.
Ten years, not bad for a volunteer organisation in a small town on the fringes of a big city.
So what did we get for the tenth birthday bash. First up was local jazz/funk fusion types the Woodbank Street Band. Nice friendly world ranging sounds that worked well as a warm up to the main act who were Shooglenifty. Introduced as a band that has been considered many times but has always been decided to be expensive to book. Well this year they're very expensive but finally have been booked.
Shooglenifty are long time stalwats of the modern 'acid croft' fusion of traditional scottish music with world and club beats. Launched into their set of tunes designed to get you dancing, or at least tapping your foot and nodding your head. After a while there wasn't anyone dancing so there were several exhortations for people to get to their feet. As the night warmed up more and more people were up on the dnace floor enjoying themselves. By the finish almost everyone was dancing and the band looked like they had a good time.

This year there was a new innovation for the Lift festival, a licensed bar. Normally for gigs at the town hall it has been a case of bring your own. This year a mobile bar had been set up from one of the local pubs so we were able to buy real ale (and other drinks) to slake our thirst with.

All in all a good night out and we'll wait to see who they have next year for the next festival.
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(3 replies, Latest reply: Jul 12, 2007)

A Night at the Opera (Jul 2, 2007)
It's not something we do very often. Go to the theatre to see a show, let alone an opera but this was different, very different. The show we went to see was Monkey, Journey To The West a chinese circus opera, part of the first Manchester International Festival. Developed by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlet the people behind the cartoon band Gorilaz and with Chen Shi-Zeng they retold the ancient tale of the monkey king and his journey to enlightenment.
If you're after knowing the whole story including all the spiritual and pholosophical aspects of it then you're in the wrong place. This owes more to the tv series Monkey from the 80s so if you want two action packed hours of song, dance and acrobatics then come along.
All the singing is in mandarin with english lyrics displayed below the stage area. There are acrobatic fight scenes, acrobatic dances, more fight scenes, contortionists bending thenselves in places that shouldn't be bent, people and gods flying through the air (and of course fighting) animated sequences, acrobats dancing while wound up in hanging silks, stick and sword weilding and ending up with a sequence of plate spinning acrobats on a grand scale.
In the end of course the Monkey King atains enlightenment, Tripitaka returns from India with the sacred budhist texts and Pigsy and Sandy earn redemption from their earlier sins and everyone leaves the theatre smiling having enjoyed themselves.
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(7 replies, Latest reply: Jul 10, 2007)