More of the same

Still raining. Projects for today include rewiring the bedside lamp, attempting to solve the mystery of the non-working phones and redecorating the kitchen.

12.30.   Phones working ( a dodgy wire in the drinks cupboard).

3.00.     I Was beginning to feel like a bacon sandwich at a bar mitzvah (Owen was almost finishing the kitchen first coat and Lynne was in great phone demand by the family, with her sister due into hospital any time soon as her breast cancer may have returned and her ex Mother in Law is in hospital following a stroke, whilst her alcoholic ex husband is "broke" and knows nothing about it, similar to his alcoholic and broke brother in Spain. Visits to hospitals and AA centres loom large). Anyway, I retired to bed, out of the way.

The hypo mysteries have also been solved, simply by swopping insulin. Whilst all insulin phials carry a manufacture and use by date, their structure can alter if exposed to non-refridgerator temperatures, even for short periods. The new phial seems "normal".

Rain,rain and more rain

To say today is wet would be a major understatement. Apart from replacing the bedside light terminated by me recently and purchasing some masking tape for the kitchen decorating there is little to report. 

It stopped raining lunchtime, allowing us to buy the lamp and gubbings without drowning. Lynne was suffering with sickness but soldiered-on regardless.

I have narrowed down why my hypo occurred a couple of nights ago. A series of unplanned encounters caused my injection/meal routine to go way off course. The type of insulin I use acts over 8 hours, thus injections should be done roughly 8 hours apart. On this occasion  the "action periods" overlapped and were not countered by properly spaced meal times, as they normally are. I'm going back to basics and a more controlled routine. At the same time I am attempting to lose half a stone I have accumulated which makes balancing insulin/exercise/foods more delicate and difficult.  Watch for later reports.

Sole survivor

A two day blog today due to "technical problems" ( I couldn't get my hands on the iPad ).I've started reading a best selling book by Dean Koontz entitled "Sole survivor" which I picked-up cheap in Sainsbury's during a lull in the excitement of food shopping yesterday. Spookily the author describes a state of mind very close to mine during a hypo. Something I can relate to.

Today I opted to "do" my old circuit of Bradgate Park, approx 2.5 miles. By the halfway stage I was physically done-for and suffering right hip pains so I phoned home for a lift. Very disappointing, somewhat deflating my previously high confidence. I am obviously not at the fitness point I thought I was. Back to the drawing board.

A friend has offered to paint the kitchen for us later in the week, providing we get the paint and other essentials.

Arsenal FA Cup/ Sainsbury's

A foggy start to the day in which we plan to undertake our oft-postponed trip to Sainsbury's for basic supplies and be back in time to watch Arsenal v Hull on TV at 17.20, a repeat of last year's FA cup final.  Which Arsenal won, by the way. Exciting stuff. Be Still, my beating heart, which no doubt Leicester Royal will have a tablet for, but thankfully euthanasia is still illegal in the UK, isn't it ?

Parallel universe

I had a hypo (low blood sugar) at 0300, which strangely stranded me in a parallel universe for a couple of hours. I have excellent memories of what I thought was going on at time (as opposed to what actually was going on), which is unusual, but I will "keep my powder dry" and postpone sharing/blogging my thoughts  and theories on this occasion, for fear of those imbecile self-important top managers and consultants at Leicester Royal mis-enterpreting them to support their own agenda's.

As usual Lynne handled the incident brilliantly, even playing along with the scenario for some considerable time, which allowed me to catch up with reality fairly quickly.

Today started wet and mild so our proposed shopping trip was put in the "pending tray", to allow us to catch up on some lost sleep.

Lack of sleep apart I feel OK, which is encouraging.

Technology 2

Further to yesterday's blog I recalled the first Daewoo TV's arriving in the UK, one of which we unfortuneately purchased but it was impossible to set-up using their instruction booklet. We became increasingly frustrated, as did several technology geeks subsequently. Rather than throw the thing out of the window we phoned Daewoo, who happened to be based on an industrial estate less than a mile from where we lived at the time. The guy there asked if we were using the Daewoo instruction booklet, when we replied "yes" he laughed and recommended shredding or burning it as it was apparently an early badly translated example of the original Korean version. True to his word he sent a properly translated version the next day, which worked perfectly, as did the TV for many years. The TV quality control system obviously worked, but why not have a similar one for the set-up booklet ?

However, I do not intend criticising anything Korean at this time.

Happy New Year and technology.

A mild, damp start to 2015. Boringly we saw the New Year in sipping whiskey and cokes watching a brilliant film "The Help" on TV. Thoroughly recommended ( the film, not the whiskey ).

Have you noticed how new technology is often a step backwards rather than an advance? Over Christmas two examples revealed themselves, as follows:

1) Lifespan, blood sugar monitor Verio iQ? Having very successfully used the battery powered original unit for more years than I care to recall,those clever Sod's have "improved" it by adding a rechargeable battery pack. The "old"unit got me across the wilds of Africa, Australia and Malaysia without the need for an electric supply and bulky carry-case. They sent it to me unrequested so I have requested they arrange it's return.

2) Clas Ohlson digital alarm clock. Deemed ideal for our on-board needs it was purchased as a replacement for an old-fashioned tick-tock decrepid example, only to discover the set-up instructions failed to match reality. The internet revealed this is a universal fault and a help forum has already been implemented.

With set-up now complete we are still left with an annoying fault, whereby the "illuminated dial" ( one of the reasons we bought it ) has to be  manually switched on each time you need it, but unfortunately accompanied by a very loud "bleep",not  ideal in the middle of the night. We will need to sleep with a torch on our pillow.

Who the hell checks these things?

We can land a spacecraft softly on Mars but can't produce a bloody working alarm clock you can read at night or a blood sugar monitor that does not require a generator in tow.