Instructions Not Included

 

I talked recently about going down to London for World Diabetes Day. I did. and it was great.

I got to London on the evening of the 13th, which meant I got to join in with a JDRF Type 1 Discovery Evening - I'd always wanted to go to one, but travel and finances have always prevented me. Boy was I glad to be there! The speakers were excellent, and included Fredrick Debong, from mySugr,  Kyle Rose (of Team Type 1, Delta PM Diabetes and about a million other places), an update on artificial pancreas research, and diabetes poetry. I ever got to plug my show quickly, and hand out a few flyers and press releases. Oh and a free bar. Excellent. 

On the 14th, I woke up, and joined in with the #wddchat13 24 chat, still lying in my sleeping bag on my friend's settee, with her cat still staring at me.

 

And we were off! I had people responding to me, loads of which had already been going for a couple of hours already. It was great. As were my levels that morning. 7.6 (136) - I'll take that happily. I threw on my Hello Kitty onesie, and got on the underground.I'll be honest that, with my tube-anxiety, I thought I handled myself very well all day in that regard!

I met up with Shelley, the wonderful founder of Circle D and we hit the streets. We weren't really trying to collect money, we were more about making people look at us, and hopefully ask questions. We got into some great conversations with members of a London bus tour company, an owner of a souvenir stall, a taxi driver and a bunch of commuters. We joined in on a JDRF coffee morning. Then I sadly had to part ways with my other Type Onesies, who had to go back to work. I found myself hypo in a coffee shop, and whilst I was waiting to come back up again, I joined back in with the chat.

I dropped in and out throughout the day. I went walking down the river and took pictures of buildings that had gone blue for the evening. It was great. I got back on the train to go home, and chatted away. As I pointed out...

 I really did feel tuned in and switched on throughout the day. I love the DOC, I really do, and I've made some wonderful friends over the past few years, but I do think that my location sometimes makes it difficult to join in things like DSMA. Much as I want to join in, I can't ever really justify staying awake to participate, because there's always work the next morning. So the 24 hour chat was a revelation to me. I met all sorts of new people, who cared about what I had to say, and I was fascinated with their answers to the questions. As I travelled back, I was tweeting away. And then it went past midnight. World Diabetes Day was over for me. 

And the world continued. And my levels were RUBBISH by the time I got home. I was not enjoying the glue-mouthed 17's (300's). And that's the thing, I supposed. WDD is just one day - there's still the other 364 every year, where there's less visibility for us as a community, there's less of everything. Or is there?

When midnight hits, and we leave the ball, we're still like Cinderella. We might have to put our ball gowns away, and our carriage might be a pumpkin again, but we're still there despite all the finery being put away. And we've still got a job to do, and it's an important one. We've still got to keep supporting each other, managing to stay alive, and stay strong. Even if it's in a slightly less celebrated way for the other 364 days.

Posted by Becky at 23:59 | Labels: advocacy, dsma, friends, jdrf, worlddiabetesday | 0 comments |

Just can't wait to get on the road again...

Well, on the train, anyway!

I'd been trying to make this work for a while now, but you can imagine how thrilled I was that shortly after my first Blue Fridays picture for November was taken, all the pieces fell into place to send me southwards for World Diabetes Day!

Hoorah! Now, I will admit I am far from the biggest fan of London. I'm a northern girl through and through - it's noisy, dirty, busy and expensive, and there aren't enought trees. But many of the people I love tend to end up there, so I try to go when I can. But it's been a while. 

So when my wonderful friend Shelley, of Circle D fame said that she was running a Type Onesie Day for World Diabetes Day, I wanted to do everything I could to be there. And yesterday, all the required bits came together to make it all systems go. So I shall be donning a Hello Kitty onesie and parading around the streets of London, praying that it doesn't rain! 

What is also wonderful is that it's turned out that due to timings of travel, I will be in the Big Smoke in time to join in the London Type One Discovery Evening on the 13th. I've never been in the right place at the right time to join in one, so it seems things are very much on my side at the moment! UK DOC, do let me know if you're going to be along, so I can say hi!

On a side note, it would be great to see your photos filling my inbox soon. In case you missed it last time, I'm very keen to end my show with hope, and would love you to be involved. I am putting together a video, which I am inviting you to be a part of. If you would like to be part of the video, all you need to do is take a picture of yourself holding a sign with your name on it, and the words 'I live in hope'. Then email it to me. Simple as that.  I really hope to see your pictures soon so I can start putting this together for a brilliant end to things!
 

Posted by Becky at 21:26 | Labels: advocacy, friends, jdrf, worlddiabetesday | 0 comments |

Posted by Becky at 22:11 | Labels: fundraising, jdrf, the d team, vlogging | 4 comments |

Posted by Becky at 00:26 | Labels: being thankful, fundraising, jdrf, the d team | 0 comments |

Posted by Becky at 03:30 | Labels: exercise, fundraising, jdrf, the d team, training, vlogging | 3 comments |

Posted by Becky at 09:44 | Labels: friends, fundraising, jdrf, the d team, training, vlogging | 2 comments |

Posted by Becky at 23:45 | Labels: fundraising, jdrf, the d team, training, vlogging | 2 comments |

So that's two days in a row that I'm talking about hitting things. I promise you that I'm not a violent person, really!

I had to force myself out of bed this morning, and it took half an hour longer than it normally does. I knew from the start that this morning's workout was going to be a difficult one. 

I did my weights - now up to 10 chest fly reps per set, which is great, but after that, I just couldn't bring myself to turn on the Wii and do the rest of my routine. I sat on the carpet with the weights beside me for a few minutes. Right then I just wanted to go back to bed. I didn't want to do this any more. I'd really just had enough. Why was I doing this, when I was tired? What was the point?

The point is that I've committed to a fundraising challenge. JDRF are worth my being tired. It's about getting money for hours of crucial research. It's about support for the newly diagnosed when they're overwhelmed, and a voice for all Type 1's. It's about care until a cure. 

So I ran did a 20 minute free run. It wasn't my whole routine, but it kept me going. For the first time doing 20 minutes instead of 10, I didn't think 5.5k was too bad.

I'm also thinking about getting hold of a Rufus the Bear to take with us as a mascot - what do you guys think? I could make him a little camouflage outfit? I keep laughing as well, because Orange (mobile phone company) currently have huge cardboard cut-outs of all the actors from the A-Team remake in their shops. Shall I go and get my picture taken with them?

Now, I have to say a huge thank you to Dana from I Already Gave My Right Arm To Be Ambidextrous! She commented on my last post to let me know she'd given me the Versatile Blogger Award! This is my first blogging award, so I'm thrilled!

Rule #1: Thank the person who gave you the award.  

That would be Dana Morton from I Already Gave My Right Arm To Be Ambidextrous! Seriously, thank you!

Rule #2: Share seven things about yourself.    

1: I'm learning the ukulele at work. Sometimes my job is awesome

2. I kill all plants, which really makes me sad, because I love them

3. For a long time, I really didn't understand what Twitter was about. Now I'm hooked

4. I'm always nervous getting on and off escalators, because I'm scared they'll eat my trouser cuffs

5. The first night I was in hospital with DKA, I slept in my clothes, because they'd hooked me up to the syringe driver before I could get changed, and I was too nervous/embarrassed to ask how I was supposed to take my shirt off without taking it out

6. I cannot do a front roll, back roll, cartwheel or handstand

7. I moult everywhere. There's something about my hair that makes me think I must be part feline

 

Rule #3: Pass the award onto 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and you think are are fantastic!! 

Not all of these are 'recently' discovered, but they are certainly all fantastic!

1. Kelly @ Diabetesaliciousness™ 

2. Chris @ A Consequence of Hypoglycemia  

3. Olivejooice 

4. Alexis-Nicole @ Justice's Misbehaving Pancreas 

5. Holly @ Arnold and Me 

6. Lorraine @ This is Caleb 

7. Ginger @ For Bete's Sake!

8. George @ NinjaBetic

9. Michael @ The Diabetic's Corner Booth

10. Allison @ Lemonade Life

11. Alan @ Poems For Active Diabetics

12. Cara @ Every Day, Every Hour, Every Minute 

13. Rachael @ Flimsy the Kitten 

14. Chris @ The Life of a Diabetic

15. Chris @ Type 1 Tidbits 

Just picking 15 was really hard!

Posted by Becky at 23:42 | Labels: doc, exercise, friends, INI let loose, jdrf, the d team | 5 comments |

Just so you know that it's not just me training for this madness, I challenged Andrew to take on my workout routine this evening. He did. So I took pictures. 

Loading up the Wii Fit, and putting together my usual routine on his profile, I got the response of 'that's quite....thorough', which I actually found to be reassuring! I had been worrying that the whole thing was too wussy, or too easy. I am however, now told that it is not. 

To be honest, I would have been satisfied with an assessment of the Wii Fit routine, but to his credit, Andrew wanted to do the whole thing, just as I do it. Which meant starting with the weights. They look ridiculously small in his hands, and after advice from Ginger, I plan to up the weight of my dumbbells, starting from tomorrow. Andrew has a much better general level of fitness and strength than I do, so the weights and ab crunches were no problem for him.

Yoga, which I've always thought Andrew had problems with, since he struggles to balance on one leg, didn't seem to be too much of an issue tonight. I was very impressed with his balance - and slightly miffed that my own isn't as good! However, I was rather pleased to receive the reminder that he is actually human, rather than an exercise-droid, when the air got a little blue during his attempt at the Grounded V. I hate that one too.

I'm also rather convinced that the female equivalent of the Wii Fit Guy (Wii Fit Girl, I suppose?) is really quite shamelessly flirty. It's a touch concerning, and reminds me exactly why I have Wii Fit Guy as my trainer, even if I want to wallop him over the head with something the majority of the time. 

The muscle exercises didn't cause much of a problem either, except for ones where you have to stand on one leg. Until we got to the Parallel Stretch. That thing is evil, and I'm starting to think this might be a fact universally acknowledged. I've yet to find a person who enjoys doing this, and if I did, I'd be a bit scared of them, to tell you the truth!

Lastly, an 'island lap' on the jogging option. I always, for some unknown reason, managed to score a better 'burn rate' on this than Andrew does. I really, really don't understand how. He did really well today though, and managed to do the lap in 10 minutes, which I didn't think was possible, and scored a personal best on the burn rate. All in all, I say a very well done to him for doing it. And having just asked him, what was his final verdict on the workout as a whole?

It is not a wussy workout - it's actually rather difficult...

Yey! I'm not a total wuss! Now to see if I can get Rob and Tom to take on the challenge, perhaps.

In other news, we've made it up to 4% of the total fundraising goal! Thank you so much to those of you who have donated already - you're absolute champions. As promised, I will be booking the date this week. I'm just waiting for news from Amsterdam to finalise the dates. I love that that sounds dreadfully exotic, but isn't really! Our fundraising pack from JDRF also turned up today, which I'm rather impressed with, and I'll be looking at that in great detail over the next couple of days.

Oh and yes, I did do this routine myself this morning. I didn't just watch Andrew do it!

Posted by Becky at 23:58 | Labels: exercise, friends, jdrf, the d team, training | 0 comments |

Last week, I gave you the full run down of the challenge I was planning to undertake to raise money for JDRF. Today, I'm kicking off the fundraising.

I've already had an email from the JDRF offices, and they're sending me out a fundraising pack. On my end, I've set up the info HQ for the challenge. Take a look at The D-Team Page. On there are all the details about who we are, what we're doing and why. 

I've also set up a Just Giving page here, and I'd really love it if you could consider donating. Every penny that's donated, whether it's through Just Giving, or if you want to send a cheque, will be donated to JDRF. If you're even considering sponsoring me and my idiocy, a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart.

The one big way that you guys could help me would be to tell others. Tweet the page, download the badge (made by the amazing Chris - thank you!) and display it on your blog, or website for a while. Tell your friends on Facebook, or a forum. 

We're hoping to raise at least £500.00 - there's no way we can do that without your help. 

It's time to get started! xx

Posted by Becky at 20:25 | Labels: advocacy, fundraising, goals, jdrf, nablopomo, the d team | 0 comments |