Instructions Not Included

Today ends two straight months of NaBloPoMo. Two months? I must have been crazy! Well, You've probably guessed that I'm not signing up to make it three months. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, but I may -shock, horror- have a day off soon!

What happened this evening though, was that I stared at this empty screen. And stared at it. Then stared some more. I could not think of a darn thing to write about. So I complain on Twitter, out of sheer desperation. Cara and Chris came to my rescue with the suggestion of memes, and Plinky. Whilst I am not directly doing either, they gave me a springboard.

It would have been very easy, even with just one day left, to have just quit. There would have been a sense of not having finished what I started, but I could have done it. Then it occured to me. I've been writing here over a year now, because I posted my first post on 23rd June, 2009. That surprised me! I honestly thought that I would have quit this before now, because I didn't really think that anyone would read, and if they did, they wouldn't really care about what I had to say. 

So, how surprising it was to instead of quitting, I ended up finding a whole wealth of amazing, inspiring people to draw knowledge and strength from. I also found friends. Some of whom, I believe even care about the ramblings that I jot down here. 

So instead of quitting time, I say here's to another year of my random musings, soap box ranting, and hopefully successful fundraising. 

What I would like to do is say a big thank you to all of you. To everyone who has ever sent me a tweet, an email, written a guest post, commented on a post, given me advice, become my friend on Facebook, listened to me moan, or even just read and never 'said' a word. 

Here's a toast to you...you can choose which one!

I've been reading the action on Twitter with a great deal of interest today. It seems like a huge proportion of the DOC are at the Roche Diabetes Social Media Summit in Orlando. 

I'll be honest, I'm more than a little bit jealous. I would love to be there, putting in some face-time for the UK, and having the chance to meet some of the amazing people I've been getting to know online for the past year.  So it's been fascinating reading the absolute flood of tweets coming from everyone there. Seems to have been more than a few ups and downs in some people getting there, but aside from that, a good time appears to be being had by all there. I'm very much looking forward to reading everyone's reports of the thing as a whole.

The question that comes to my mind though, is why don't we have anything like this over here? Or do we, and I've simply not been able to find it?

At any rate, I would love to be there to 'represent' next year. And if anyone wants to drop me a postcard from this year, I wouldn't say no!

Just a short one tonight. I sent an email to my DSN earlier this week, covering a few things. One of the points of discussion I also covered back in May, when I talked about my concerns over insulin sensitivity.

Many of you gave me advice on what to do regarding learning more about pumping, and I've been asked if I want an appointment with the pump team to discuss the whole issue. 

I figure it can't hurt to go along and talk to them, right? It's not like I'm committing to anything, and it's not as though I'm wasting their time. It might be interesting to discuss my suitability with them. 

So that's an email to be written tomorrow, then!

I went out for dinner on Friday with Nick. Tapas - yummy! 

Since the food seemed to arrive in parts, I decided to shoot for food as it came out. So some bread first, and then for some spicy tomato and potato things afterwards. Seemed to work in the end. However, we were set to leave, and I popped into the loos, and just as I was washing my hands, I realised that I hadn't actually done the second part of the injection. 

Now, I'm a firm believer of never hiding away injections - I have nothing to be ashamed of, and I would never choose to inject in a toilet over somewhere else. Yet, I just couldn't be bothered to go into the middle of the restaurant and do it there, so I decided to do it by the sinks. Just as I was inserting the needle, a little boy (maybe two or three?) and his mum came out of one of the stalls. As she helped him wash his hands, he looked at what I was doing, and turned to his mum and asked what I was 'putting in my tummy'. She didn't answer him.

I wish I'd been a bit quicker off the mark to understand what he was saying. I don't understand the voices of small children well, so it wasn't until that point where it just becomes a bit too late to reply back that I worked out what he'd been saying. So I just smiled at them, and finished what I was doing. 

I should have said it was 'medicine', but I missed my moment. And I think for some reason, that will always bother me a little bit.

So, yesterday I told you that I managed to get over myself, and actually perform at an open mic night. Hooray! That's one to cross off the list. I've had a couple of people ask me about this on Facebook. To answer these questions:

1: I sang a song called 'Out The Door', by Kate Micucci (watch it on YouTube!) Most people haven't ever heard this song, and they're more likely to have come across her as either Gooch on Scrubs, or as part of Garfunkel & Oates

2: There is no video, as I didn't take my pocket-cam with me. Maybe next time! Andrew did take a couple of photos though, as seen here. Sadly the lighting wasn't particularly flattering to either me or photography in general

It did not go perfectly. I did made mistakes, and I was unbelievably nervous. Andrew suggested I try a bit of Dutch courage to 'bring down the nerves, and bring down the crazy' - or something to that effect! So I had a rather large glass of wine first, which is a dangerous chance for me, really, as I'm a notoriously easy drunk. Sometimes one glass is all it takes for me.

But I did it. It was terrifying, but it was great as well. All the people there were really lovely and supportive. I'm only really sad that where we went is so far out that it might very well be difficult to go out there again, as I don't drive. 

Training wise: I did my workout proper yesterday. Today I did my weights, but not the WiiFit routine, because I didn't go to bed til very late, and spent the whole day walking around a theme park. 

Many thanks for all the lovely sorts who have offered to fill in for me here whilst I'm away for a week next month. I do still have one spot left, so do send me an email if you're interested in writing a guest post.

On another note, I must apologise if you've been waiting for a reply to an email, comment, or private message from me for a while. My laptop has not been working for some time now, and I currently don't have it in my possession. I'm using Andrew's laptop to blog, which means I don't often get time to respond to most emails. So if you've not had a reply from me over anything, that's why. Oh, and I have my friend Nick visiting this weekend, so I'm rather tied up over the next few days!

Just a quick note, because I'm very tired now! 

No boat trip, because I missed the last one going out. But I DID play at open mic. It went slightly wrong, but I'm told really no-one noticed.

Photographic evidence tomorrow.

I have a bit of a list, that I add to as I think of things. It's not quite a 'bucket list', but rather a list of things that I've never done, and want to get round to doing.

So far this year, I've crossed climbing a tree off that list. I've quite a few things on there, which vary from visiting Italy to actually seeing a firefly. Between now and Sunday, I'm hoping to cross one, and possibly two things off the list. 

Number one is going on a boat. No, seriously, I've never done it. Lots of people find this bewildering, but I honestly haven't. Boat cruise down the River Ouse - oh yeah.

Number two isn't a definite, but a strong possibility. This is playing my guitar in front of people. Singing at the same time, obviously. Of course I've sung in front of people many, many times before, but I've never successfully made my way through playing a song on a guitar in public.

I'm very nervous about it, and I'm not sure if it will actually happen. I feel it's probably going to be more of a case of putting my guitar in the car, and seeing whether or not I chicken out when I get there. I'm having a lot of problems as well with my fingers causing me pain on the fretboards, where I lance. Serious ouchies. 

Anyway, I'll let you know what happens.

In other news, workout was HARD this morning. I did not want to get out of bed, and I almost stopped half way through, because my arms were hurting me an awful lot. Thankfully I managed to get through it.

Something went rather wrong with my bolus for dinner tonight, and I ended up at somewhere between 14mmol/l and 16mmol/l (252-288 mg/dl). Managed to do a decent correction though, and at last check I was at 4.9mmol/l (88mg/dl). So I'll probably end up actually having to eat something before going to bed, as it turns out!

Hoorah! The Wii Fit Guy actually had some nice things to say to me this morning! Which was good, because I needed to hear him say something nice.

So, I promised to tell you what this was all for. Here we go!

What is it about?

It's about me, and friends (who will now be referred to as The D Team!) taking on a high wire obstacle course in Dalby Forest, Yorkshire. The date is yet to be securely fixed, but it will either be in mid August or very early September.

The course in question is run by a company called Go Ape. Since they themselves say it best, this is what they describe themselves as:

So that's zip wires, nets, tunnels, bridges. Oh, did I mention I'm claustrophobic, and I still have remaining issues with heights? Quite honestly, I'm also not in the right shape to take on a challenge like this. Which is why it's a challenge at the end of the day! Let's see what the course we're taking on has to offer during the two-three hours that it's estimated to take to complete it:

 I will complete this. Why am I doing it? I want to raise money for JDRF. I know I'm not alone in thinking this is an amazing charity that is doing really important work. They need our help. If that means I have to do something stupid, something beyond my capabilities, and something that's going to be really hard work for me, so that I can try and support them as much as I can - well, then I'm going to do it.

I'll be keeping you updated along the way, with more training reports, videos (almost certainly complete with the A Team theme tune, I'm sure), and more. What I'm hoping for is your support. 

I will be setting up a fixed page on here in the next couple of days, with all the details - details of the event, members of The D Team, and links to a page where you can make secure donations if you feel so inclined (which I hope you do!) I hope that when these details are up, you'll help spread the word, so you can all watch my quite probable humiliation, and help the team raise money for a fantastic cause.

No, it's not a marathon in the literal sense, but getting ready for this is going to be just as gruelling for me, if not more. 

And that's Day Four

I was determined that I would get up this morning, and do my work out before heading off to work.

I've not exactly made a secret of the fact that my sleep routine is rubbish. I struggle to get up. However, if I know I have to get up for a thing, I'll quite often wake up hours in advance, because I'll be paranoid about oversleeping. 

So, I aim to get up at 7:40, so I can do weights, jogging, my 20 minute yoga/general exercises, and a few of the balance games. What time am I awake?

5:30am. Urgh. Of course it is. I'm not going to get up then, though! But can I get back to sleep? No, not really. So I did get up eventually. 

And....drumroll, please! I did work out! I was a good girl! 

Now, just the other how many days until the event happens to go...

The Wii Fit guy. If you've played Wii Fit at all, you know who he is. That's not even the right guy, I think, but it's the best shot I could find. 

He's the 'trainer' who leads you through all the muscle and yoga exercises. I've not selected the female trainer, because I don't think I could cope with a perfectly-computer-generated woman telling me how well or badly I'm doing. I think I'd imagine she was laughing at me. So I use the man. 

First thing after getting up, I check my waking levels. 7.3mmol/l (131 mg/dl) - good to go. 40 reps with the weights, then load up Wii Fit Plus. Twenty minutes of yoga and muscle exercises.

During this time, I did find myself yelling at the Wii Fit guy (who needs a name - suggestions?). Stop telling me my body is shaking. I know my body is shaking! It's because what you're asking me to do is difficult!

Did it all though (with some minor cursing), and then did the obstacle course (most annoying game ever?), Step Plus (because it's hilariously easy) and jogging to cool down. 

That's Day Two done. Let's see if I can manage to do this all before going to work tomorrow. Place your bets, please!

Yep, that is me. With weights. Andrew has a new camera (which is really awesome), and took this one of me.

I'm working out. This is a new thing for me. Admittedly, these are fairly wussy weights - which I have just noticed say York on them! - only a total of 10lbs, but you've got to start somewhere.

Why am I working out? Well, several reasons.

Reason 1 - I was hoping to take part in this event, which I mentioned a while back now, to raise money for JDRF. Unfortunately, it looks like this isn't going to happen, because although 'my team' can afford the entry fees OK, the cost of travelling, accommodation, and food in London is not cheap, and has just been brought to my attention. So sadly (and this is sadly) that particular event has had to be put on the back burner. I would have loved to do it, and would like to do it in the future - and perhaps do the whole event - but it looks like it's not meant to be this year. Unless some kind soul out there feels like helping me out with the practicalities, in which case, drop me an email!

However, there's now a new event in mind, which actually should end up being harder work for me - and make me have to face several fears! No more on it just yet, but as soon as I've got confirmed team members, and dates, I'll be putting up a sponsorship page, with the whole story. Keep looking out for it!

Reason 2 - Ginger Vieira and I are working on a project. Pretty hush-hush right now, but it WILL happen. If you don't know Ginger, do go check out her site. She's really awesome, and I'm having a lot of fun getting to know her. She's also an record holding powerlifter, and bench press champion. Hopefully she'll bear with me whilst I work up from wussy weights.

So what's my workout plan? Well, I'm still putting it together, but I'm having some help from the Wii Fit, and have put together a 20 minute yoga and muscle exercise plan, which I'm hoping to do before work every morning (giving me further motivation to GET UP), as well as reps with these 5lb weights. I'm looking to do four sets of ten reps, and work up from there.

What else? Well, sadly Dancesport has broken up for the summer, as far as I can tell. Silly university terms. So to fill the gap, I'm visiting a climbing wall, and I'm going to be taking up running.

You probably have no idea how much actually saying that fills me with dread. I hate running, I really, really do. I can sprint OK, but sustained distances? Let's just say that one of my proudest moments running was putting on a sprint at the last minute doing cross country at school, which meant that I came second from last in my year group as opposed to last.

So why am I doing it? Well, I want to try and raise as much money possible for JDRF. So I need to be able to do the event I'm planning on. I also need to be seen to be making a serious effort. I'm hoping that by tracking my progress with this, I'll be able to give you a good laugh - it's going to be thoroughly unglamorous, and maybe you'll take pity on me, and pass on the word of what I'm going to do.

Like I say, keep your eyes open. Probably next week I'll have details for you. And possibly a first vlog on the subject. I also need to get pre-exercise levels right. First 'training hypo' happened today.

We're off to a good start.

Shunk! Chu-chuck! Ti-di-dit!

Name those noises? Can't? OK, fair enough. I can though. 

1) Lanceting device firing

2) Pulling back the lanceting device to fire

3) Demipen injecting

All very familiar sounds to me now. So it turns out you can hear diabetes. Who knew? I certainly didn't, until the thought occurred to me when my 'Lantus Alarm' went off on my phone nearly an hour ago. 23:00, every night since I started using Lantus. I think I need to get a better alarm noise, because that one really annoys me. I don't know if it's the noise itself, or the fact the noise is actually playing that annoys me. But I wonder if there is a 'remix' of every day diabetes sounds to be had?

Maybe this is because I've got myself in a musical mindset at the moment. I'm practising for an open mic night coming up soon (one of my first times playing the guitar in public!), but also, I came across a few rather hilarious bits and pieces today.

I know that I'm rather behind the times in coming across these, but they cracked me up all the same, and in case you're as behind as me, I suggest checking them out.

First up is the always great Weird Al Yankovic with a lovely little ditty about our favourite organ, the pancreas.

Second up is something that I discovered today, and wished I known about months ago. That would be Christiaan Van Vuuren, the Fully Sick Rapper. This guy is the business, and has a special place in my heart. I would love to see what would happen if you got him together with Flight of the Conchords, and Garfunkel & Oates. I have had his tunes in my head all day. I wish I had just 1% of this guy's creativity :D

Like many others at this time of the year, I'm going to be offline for a week next month. Sadly, not on my own holidays though. Every year, my work packs up the entire office for a week, and decamps to boarding schools in North Yorkshire, for the annual Riding Lights Summer Theatre School (still places available, by the way!). 

This means that I'll be working away from an internet connection - meaning no new posts from me for that time. So I'm looking for your help, DOC!

I need guest posters for 24th - 31st July. I don't have any particular theme in mind, but if you're interested in filling in for me for a day, please do get in touch. Leave a comment, or drop me an email, and we can sort something out.  Looking forward to hearing from you!

We humans are an interesting bunch, I'm sure you'll agree. We do all sorts of strange an bizarre things. One thing we do is find personality in the most every day of things. I mean, have you seen Happy Chair Is Happy, as a prime example? 

So it's no surprise that you constantly come across people in the DOC giving personalities to things - D as a whole, pumps have names, so do lows, highs, CGMS and meters. I haven't got to the stage of naming things myself (apart from numberwang, which is pure quality, obviously)

I love that we do this. It takes something that can be so sterile, and gives it character. It's all about playing games with our imaginations. Stops us from growing too old, or going too crazy. I guess as well, it stops the gadgetry that we use day to day from being too imposing and 'scary'.

Now I'm wondering about the names of everyone's kit, and all their characters. Anyone up for a 'parade'? I'll bring the mardi gras beads!

Over the last few days, I've had some issues of serious failure cross my path. Some of them got me so riled up that I feel I need to share them. 

First up, the rather wonderful Kelly over at Diabetesaliciousness™ came across something really rather rage inducing. 

Oh, it's so easy to think that you've hit your stride. That you're in the swing of things. You get into a routine, and certain things just become habit.

After those things become habit, the,...n you start branching out and experimenting a bit. So it's always more than slightly annoying when you realise that something you thought you'd totally got to grips with knocks you on your arse.

I'd got to grips with splitting doses, or so I thought, at any rate. Tonight though, I found myself so preoccupied with trying to work out the right amount of NR to cover my meal (which required a split dose), that I just injected it all at once, feeling proud that I'd worked out the amount correctly.

It took me a few seconds before I my heart sink, and I shouted out something a bit rude. Still not all second nature then, it appears!

I'm terribly sorry, but I actually don't have anything to say today that's well....worth saying! So instead, I would like to point you to the cutest site I've seen in ages.

Check out Flimsy the Kitten, because it's adorable. And witty. And British, dammit!

Something about weekends, and not wearing my watch throws my internal clock all off. Which means sometimes I end up eating later than I plan to, because I just plain old lose track of the time. 

I found myself having some strange old thoughts earlier. I was sat in my bedroom doing a sudoku puzzle, and I had a shining moment of well...weirdness, I suppose. I realised that I had done something that I believed no-one had ever done before. I had worked out the genders of all the numbers! Genius! So 9 was female, 8 was male, 7 female, 6 male, but it doesn't just carry on in sequence... Looking at the clock. Oh, it's 21:00. That's later than I thought, and thinking about it, isn't thinking about what gender all the numbers in sudoku are just a bit strange if you stop and consider it a bit more?

Probably a good idea to get something to eat, all things considered.

Today has been difficult. I ended up having one of those hypos that isn't even that low, but ends up knocking you for six. Felt so grotty all day, and then ended up in double figures. Just lovely.

As I mentioned yesterday, I had a black tie drinks thing for a friend's birthday this evening. At about 18:00, I wasn't entirely convinced that I would be able to go. I'd been feeling totally shaky, sweating loads, and just couldn't seem to process things right. To be honest, I felt utterly rubbish. Yet I didn't want to let this win.

What I wasn't sure about though, was that if I went out for drinks, still feeling rough, would I then feel even worse for the whole weekend? Not a definite outcome, to be sure, but certainly a possibility. I wasn't willing to sacrifice my weekend for it, but I wanted to go.

I did end up going, and thankfully I seemed to level out and I started feeling OK. I think I might have been lucky though. It felt like it so easily have gone the other way.

Not being a 'girly' girl, as I've mentioned before, you might be a bit surprised to know that I like to dress up as much as the next person. I'm rather pleased that I've got a friend's birthday drinks tomorrow night, and he's said it's black tie. 

I don't tend to spend much money on clothes, and even on smart dresses, but I do have a rather nice handful of dresses for smart occasions. 

This might be the post that makes a few people hate me - and trust me, I'm not trying to make this an 'oh poor me, my diamond shoes are too tight' type post. The thing is that, pre diagnosis, I lost quite a bit of weight. I know this isn't unheard of, but I've not put any of it back on, and I've actually lost more. I'm really happy about this of course, but the problem I've got is that an awful lot of my clothes actually don't fit me any more.

I tried on several of my nice dresses to decide what to wear, and most of them are going to need some serious alterations before they'll be suitable to wear again. The two that I tried on that still looked ok were, amusingly enough, the ones that had already been altered, since I've worn them more recently.

I just struggle to bring myself to spend money on clothes, when I have decent ones! The fact that they don't fit me seems beside the point. I'm just a real tightwad when it comes to money!

I had the day off work today, in order to go to what I believed to be a 'user involvement' day, run by Diabetes UK. As it was being held pretty much opposite where I work, I figured it couldn't hurt to go along. It'd be a good chance to network, perhaps promote DiDkA, and promote, and perhaps recruit a few people for Circle D North Yorkshire. 

Did you ever go to a party where you turned up dressed in something vastly inappropriate? I felt a little but like I'd turned up to a black tie event dressed in fancy dress - perhaps dressed like a bear.

Whilst everyone was really lovely and welcoming (and the DUK staff seemingly thrilled to see someone under thirty), it became quite clear that the event had a) been slightly misrepresented, and b) I may also have got slightly the wrong end of the stick about the whole thing. The day was about 'Service User Reps', and getting feedback. Do you know what one is? I most certainly didn't.

That's not to say that the day wasn't interesting, because it was. I never knew that the NHS had a constitution, for one thing! I don't know if I would become a Service User Rep - I get the impression that it may well be a time heavy commitment, and especially closer to the autumn, when my Master's course starts, my time is somewhat of a premium. But like I say, I didn't know there was an NHS constitution, and that it turns out that they're legally obliged to listen to us. All interesting stuff. I did also have an interesting chat with someone from the DUK head office!

Maybe I'll just leave my bear costume at home next time!

I talk about myself a lot on here - no surprise, this is my blog after all. However, the wonder that is Statcounter tells me that I have people from all over the world popping in all the time. I've also noticed a wonderful influx of new people leaving comments over the past few weeks - thanks so much to all you guys, I really appreciate it! 

So I'd really like to throw open this one to all of you, and have a chance to get to know who you are! How did you end up here, what were you looking for? (did you find it?) Have you ever wanted to ask me anything?

So sit down, grab a (virtual) coffee, or whatever's your poison, and let's chat! :)

I've been told that I'm clumsy before now. You know what? That may very well be true to some extent. Yet I don't think that I'm complete klutz. However, I still have some bruises up and down my legs from last week's fun and japes with the Lindy Hop.

They don't bother me though, because I know where they came from. I can attribute them to something. What I have found recently though, is that I've ended up with some fairly colourful bruising from injecting over the past week. Just seems a bit strange, really. I haven't changed my technique particularly, although I have been injecting in my thigh more. Still, last night in particular, I injected (I think) my Lantus, and whilst I was changing to go to bed an hour later, I saw that the spot was now a vivid blueish purple, and had bled a surprising amount. What the heck is going on here?

On a completely different note, if you haven't seen it, I really recommend having a look at Chris' blogroll on Type 1 Tidbits - it's the most fun and creative blogroll I've seen.

Despite my wardrobe malfunction, my prescription review the other day was actually fairly useful. I managed to increase it so I get two boxes of needles in one go, rather than one. I also got a prescription for a glucagon injection kit. Now that is one scary looking piece of kit. It's currently sitting in my fridge. 

According to the instructions, it will last for up to eighteen months in the fridge. I really hope that it's one of those things that I will need to replace after eighteen months because it's expired, rather than because I've had to use it. Or rather because someone has had to use it on me. 

I think that human beings universally like to talk about the weather - it's a very 'safe' topic. It can also be a very boring topic as well. However, it is warm, and I know many people (including myself) have pointed this one out recently. It is true though. 

Warm weather is pretty much the only non-black tie reason that I will break out skirts and dresses. I don't own many, because I hate my legs. Nothing shorter than just above the knee either, because nobody needs to see that!

Skirts and dresses however, tend to mean no trainers. No shoes that, however comfy they might be, are ugly as sin. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I hate shoes. I hate shopping for shoes, I hate pretty much everything about them. This is mainly because I have ridiculously wide, fat feet. I can never find any shoes to fit properly. So if I find a pair of shoes that work, I generally buy them in bulk. Problem is though, that I never have any nice ones to wear with dresses. I only really wear flats, unless I'm wearing a really smart dress. 

Flip flops? Wore my only pair into work this evening (where I am writing this as a show goes on upstairs!) , and I now have scraped up and blistered feet. Luckily I thought this might happen, and put my only pair of ballet pumps left that aren't rubbing me either, in my bag. Yet these are still rubbing me, because once my feet are blistered, that's it for the day.

As best I understand it, blisters, and shoes that rub the hell out of you aren't the best of ideas. Yet I can't find a solution to this problem. I don't want to wear my big, ugly, boiling hot winter shoes. It's warm, I'm warm, and I want something light and pretty that isn't going to cause me tremendous pain.

Is this so much to ask, really?

Late night back from riding out to Filey. Lovely evening riding on the back of my friend Tom's Honda Blackbird, eating fish and chips overlooking the ocean, then watching Blade Runner (not by the sea). The evening also involved half a bottle of cherry lucozade, but that's another story.

So now I'm sat watching Ponyo (if you don't know Studio Ghibli, rent My Neighbour Totoro or The Cat Returns now to begin your eduction!), which unfortunately has no subtitles, so guessing at the dialogue, whilst Andrew brushes out my hair. Doesn't matter what I do with my hair, whenever I go out on the bike, it ends up horribly matted. I think plaits might be the way forward! He has an amazingly light touch, which apparently comes from detangling his sister's hair when they were younger.

So being as I'm currently otherwise engaged, I thought I would borrow a meme I found from Kerri for tonight. Enjoy or skip as the mood takes you!

1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth? Morrison's White Grape and Blackberry flavoured water

2. Where was your profile picture taken? At my birthday party this year

3. Can you play Guitar Hero?  Yes, and I'm somewhat better at it than most people. But most people aren't good at it, so that's not saying much

4. Name someone who made you laugh today?  Andrew is at the moment, for his strange audio commentary to Ponyo

5. How late did you stay up last night and why? I believe till about 00:30. Mainly because Andrew wanted to watch a second episode of Early Edition

6. If you could move somewhere else, would you? Hmm, possibly. I love York though, so I'd rather just bring people here!

7. Ever been kissed under fireworks?  No 

8. Which of your friends lives closest to you on your FaceBook list?  Haha, again Andrew

9. Do you believe exes can be friends?  Possibly. I think it depends on the people and the circumstances

10. How do you feel about Dr Pepper?  We have an established relationship, but doctor-patient confidentiality goes both ways, you know

11. When was the last time you cried really hard?  I'm a somewhat 'middle of the road' crier. I don't cry all the time, but it's not uncommon. But for once, I really can't remember

12. Who took your profile picture?  It was either Jenny or my friend Rosie - I'm not sure

13. Who was the last person you took a picture of?  Myself. I was trying to do something for Olivejooice's beauty project, so I took a picture on my phone of me after an hour of Lindyhop, but I did look like pond scum, so it won't see the light of day, I'm afraid!

14. Was yesterday better than today?  Absolutely

15. Can you live a day without TV? Sure

16. Are you upset about anything? Right now all is right with the world

17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it?  Absolutely

18. Are you a bad influence?  There is a distinct possibility 

19. Night out or night in?  Depends what where with who

 
20. What items could you not go without during the day?  Meter (duh), but apart from that, I think I'd probably make do

21. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?  I really couldn't say

22. What does the last text message in your inbox say?  My friend Tom saying he'll see if he can find me a jacket. He did, as well

23. How do you feel about your life right now?  You take the good with the bad, and hope the good outweighs - it usually does

24. Do you hate anyone?  I don't think so. Strongly dislike, and would be happy never to see again, though? There are a few...

25. If we were to look in your Facebook inbox, what would we find?  Loads of group messages that I never answer

26. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass?  Yes

27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before?  Not to the best of my recollection

28. What song is stuck in your head?  The theme to My Neighbour Totoro

29. Someone knocks on your window at 2:00 a.m., a secret lover or George Clooney? Someone on stilts more likely, since I live in the roof!

30.Wanna have grandkids before you’re 50?  Don't really want kids full stop, so, erm....no

31. Name something you have to do tomorrow?  Finish off an article, and then domestic stuff

32. Do you think too much or too little?  Way too much

33. Do you smile a lot?  I guess so? You tell me!

Bonus Round...

34. How many hours a day do you spend on the computer?  I try not to count. But I work at a computer

35. If you could be anyone else for a day, who would you be?  A more confident me (with better thighs!)

36. Facebook or Twitter?  Depends on what I'm after

37. Chicken or Beef?  In what recipe?

38. Mac or PC? PC PC PC

39. Have you ever punched anyone in the face?  Nope. I'm not proud to say that I've slapped someone though

40. Last music received or purchased?  Strike! by The Baseballs - I highly recommend it :D

Up and about bright and early this morning, to be at my GP's in time for my prescription review. Nice, bright warm morning, so I pop on a sundress, with buttons down part of the front. Blue belt round the middle, good to go. 

Walk on down to the surgery, sat waiting for a while. Managed to get a couple of things sorted, which I'll talk about tomorrow. As I walk out of the consult room, I'm in a fairly good mood. Nice day, why shouldn't I be? 

Well, I happened to lower my gaze for a moment, and realised the top button of my dress was well and truly open. I quickly tried to button it up, but I guess I wasn't very subtle. 

No wonder the elderly gentleman in the waiting room gave me a bit of an interesting stare!

* Ring ring.....ring ring *

Huh. That's new, I think. OK, press two.

Oh yey, a queue. Jolly good then. A quick blast of 'White Flag' by Dido, then get through to the receptionist, who for some reason, sounds like she's stood in the middle of a field.

When I got my last prescription back, there was a note on my repeat slip saying I needed to have a prescription review before they'd give me anything else. I looked into my 'stash' boxes this morning, and realised I was really running low on test strips, and there was no putting it off any longer. 

I find it a bit of a pain to go and do these sorts of appointments, because they're always really annoyingly timed. I know I need to go and do these things, but I'm using all the same stuff, so I wanted to check that I couldn't just do it over phone with the doctor doing phone consults - would save an appointment for someone else, surely? But nope, I've got to go in and see someone. 

So when can I get an appointment? I wait, imagining, oh a week or so. How is 9:40am tomorrow? With interestingly, my boss's brother in law? Works for me.

Hopefully the actual appointment will be as quick and easy!

I'm none too bright or on the ball today. I was slightly on the low side before going out on the motorbike with Andrew, so I had some juice and a handful of cereal before going out, since past experience has shown that I go quite low when out on a ride. by the time that we'd got back though, I was actually fairly high. Still needed to eat dinner, but that ended up being quite late.  Also made the poor choice of pasta, which meant splitting the dose. Further high levels, and blah, blah, blah, meant I ended up going to bed at past 2am.

Tired now, as I'm sure you'll understand. But life goes on. It's all about getting the timing right. Food against insulin, against exercise. You know the score. 

Tuesday night is Dancesport night. Tonight Ben and I were doing the Lindy Hop. Now that is hard work! There were two classes lined up, but we only ended up doing the first. However, we actually seemed to be ahead of the curve for once! If we spent a bit more time on this one, I think we could end up being really good at it. What happened though, was that I ended up burning off my sports drink in the first hour, and we were both absolutely exhausted. 

Now, I take the bus from work up to the class and back, and if I stay for the second class, then walk the two miles back home. If I come home after the first, I can get a bus back from work to my flat. Exhausted as I was after the first hour, I would have loved to do the second - but was it going to be a good idea? Probably not. Being as I'd burned off that sports drink so quickly, I didn't think doing another hour that fast paced and then walking home afterwards would be a good idea. If I added all that extra exercise, and then didn't eat til late?

Moral of this story, I guess? Lindy Hop is amazing, but sometimes you can't always do what you want, when you want, because you know the timing will turn round and kick you if you do.

In other news, I'm featured in today's Blog Carnival over at Chronic Babe - lots of articles that are well worth a read!