Flattening the curve

Juma Lake Inn, Amazonia, April 2019

What with work only being two days a week, I have a lot of time confined to Lola Towers except for my one exercise break a day. I signed up to the zombie-based Couch to 5K programme and it's going pretty well, as it's quite easy to find time for a run three times a week, and on the zombie-free days I usually go for a walk somewhere local, especially in this lovely weather. That was fine for three weeks, then I unexpectedly discovered that you have to pay to continue so I have reverted to a different app. I do miss my zombies, though.

Shopping for fresh goods is no more than once a week, and for two weeks I had a HelloFresh food delivery. The first one was because they offered a hefty discount, and the second was because I forgot to cancel after the first. I'm still on the calorie-restricted diet, which has been quite tricky with the HelloFresh meals because they are pretty rich. I've had to divide their recipes for two meals into three and in one case into four to get them to fit into my daily calorie budget, but it is getting slightly easier to manage and I'm not feeling hungry absolutely all of the time, which I was at the start. Weight loss is only a paltry 1 kg in three weeks, but at least it's going in the right direction and I think it is sustainable.

Along with cooking and running there's been quite a lot of online activity with this great communication tool, Zoom, which nobody seemed to know about a month ago but now we are all experts. I've had Zoom meetings for dinner, three times for games, for several sessions of Buddhist meditation and discussion and team meetings, and for a tour of four paintings in the National Gallery led by Lola II. At one point I actually felt I'd had enough of this social activity and was longing for the old days when I could be properly anti-social. Now everyone knows where you are: at home.

Sometimes there's extra online time with mum now that our remote control system is working nicely. I'm still grappling with the task of changing my email address and passwords with about a hundred different people and organisations - alphabetically I've reached the letter M so still some way to go. I've got my DVD subscription and I'm also ploughing through all the episodes of Friends and ER, although I don't like sitting watching the TV for too long. And, due to my pestering mum about the food in her kitchen cupboards I found myself in possession of nearly a kilogram of out-of-date ground almonds, so I've made a couple of cakes and taken them to work.

But I'd say the Buddhism has taken up the most time, all via Zoom or YouTube. On Mondays our study group continues, on Tuesdays it's the local group and on Thursdays I can join a meeting with the Birmingham group if I want to. One weekend there was a day-long online retreat (we weren't online all day - that would have been exhausting). Another weekend there was a seminar for people like me who are involved in the organisation of groups, all about the different ways to take our groups online. And I also watched a public ordination, where an individual became a member of the Triratna Order and took on a new name, all within the confines of the current social distancing restrictions. And I'm meditating regularly, which helps with the confinement.

For the first time in ages my list of Things To Do is getting shorter rather than longer, and I've got out some old jigsaws. Of course what I ought to be doing is going through the stuff I put in the loft to get it out of my line of sight, which worked so well that I've hardly thought about it until now. Maybe next week. And there's the garden, which I thought would be so manageable with the help of a gardener, but I'm back on my own again and it just keeps growing.

Social distancing

Rio de Janeiro Botanical Gardens, April 2019

This is certainly the strangest period of time I have lived through. Nothing has come close to this level of disruption to ordinary habits that I previously took for granted.

Apart from the cancellation of all formal social activities and gatherings, the guidance on what we should individually do is making me think hard about my daily routines. I am more happy than most to spend time alone and avoid social contact, but I have been surprised by the extent to which I miss seeing people. Work is now the only place where I get to talk face to face, and so my work colleagues have become quite acceptable people to talk to where previously they were a long way down the list. I'll be writing more about work in a future post; there's a lot going on.

This period of social isolation has coincided with an interesting conversation with an old friend about an online weight loss program with which he has achieved amazing success (he's lost enough weight to reverse his Type 2 Diabetes). I was persuaded to give it a try, and have been restricting myself as it advises, to 1200 calories a day for the last 12 days.

There is an app, and you log your food and your steps and it gives you little pep talks every day based on evidence of what it takes to lose weight and keep it off. There is very little there that I don't already know, but it is the first time I've tried to log everything that I'm eating, and I have to admit that it works quite well to keep me on track. I still feel deprived - 1200 kcal isn't very much - but I have managed to save enough of my calorie budget to include some chocolate on a couple of days. The app is free for two weeks and then they propose to charge me an absolute fortune - my friend is on a much cheaper plan, perhaps because he had much more weight to lose. So I plan to unsubscribe, but if I keep on tracking my calories and steps using free apps I might actually achieve the change that I'm looking for.

Of course the other side of weight loss is calories expended in movement. No badminton! No unnecessary excursions out of doors! What am I to do?

Well, walking, cycling and running are all that's left while we're still allowed out of doors for our one form of exercise per day. I thought I would have another go at running, and a friend recommended an app for listening to while running that ought to make it a bit more interesting - it's called 'Zombies, Run!' It provides a story to accompany the tedium of running which, as you might guess, involves running away from zombies. I've only listened to the introduction and the first 'workout' so far, so we'll see how I get on. It lets you play your own music in the background as well, which is a great help.

Then there are my Buddhist groups which all shut down for a period of active online discussion about what we should do next, resulting in the use of various online methods. I've done my first two using Zoom and Skype and it's certainly better than nothing, but not as good as face to face meetings by a long chalk. All of the retreats I was so looking forward to in the spring and summer have obviously been cancelled, and the Leamington Peace Festival, and the cousin from Seattle's visit, and family weekends, and even a work study day that I'd somehow been allowed to book. I haven't given up on July and August yet, but I think the chances are slim that the restrictions will be lifted by then.

Water and mud

November 2019

Last week we endured lashing rain, which caused flooding in more unfortunate parts of the country. Here it only caused my Thursday badminton to be cancelled because the roads around the school were impassable. But on Wednesday it started to rain inside the kitchen again.

This has happened before. The dripping came from around the roof light, so when I phoned Ulf the builder the first time he sent Doors and Windows Ulf round, who couldn't find anything obvious but added some sealant. It happened a second time, and even though Doors and Windows Ulf came round again, he declared it wasn't his problem and it stopped raining so the dripping had stopped. At that time I hadn't worked out how to connect my hosepipe to the outside tap (don't ask) so I just left it. One can only worry about a certain number of things at a time.

This rainstorm was different. The dripping came from the edge of the roof light again, but this time the flow was faster and it was clear from staining on the ceiling that the roof light wasn't the problem. I contacted Ulf and he sent Son of Ulf and his mate to see what was going on. They arrived looking as though they had been swimming - they had been working outside - and finally agreed that the problem must be their responsibility. Those poor boys spent another hour on the roof. I offered them refuge inside and a hot drink, but they refused despite their teeth actually chattering as they spoke. They have added some more sealant - I must get up there and have a look some time - and I must also get back in touch to see where we go from here. Wait for another rainstorm, or play a hose on it and see what happens? (I have very recently worked out how to connect my hosepipe to the outside tap - still don't ask.)

Random Run Forest Runner

In other (slightly) weather-related news, I went along with Lola II and Mr M to support Run Forest Run, the 10k run + obstacle course event that is staged by our friends in Surrey. Highlights included the family friend (with the lovely photogenic dog pictured above) who I would like to adopt as my son (the friend not the dog - although I wouldn't rule out the option of the dog not the friend), Lola II being given a flashing yellow light to put on the top of her car (her life is now complete), and the returning runners who told me (as I supervised the kitchen activities producing hot drinks, cake and bacon butties) that it was the most fun event they had ever participated in.

Kitchen Goddess and Mega Marshal

Run Forest Run, November 2018

My last trip to London combined a study day for work, staying with Lola II and Mr M, and a gathering for mum's birthday. I'm writing about the study day separately, and because it's taking ages and I've been rather busy, I'll do a quick round of other news in this post.

Mum's birthday gathering was slightly marred by Lola II losing her handbag, but the story ended happily when it was handed in without loss. The following day I accompanied Lola II and Mr M to a Games Cafe in Richmond where we tried out three new games: Quirkle, Exploding Kittens, and Sushi Go! We liked Quirkle best.

Between then and now I had a busy week with the usual work, a District Council meeting on Monday evening, a car mini-service, chimney sweep visit and meditation on Tuesday, a trip to Birmingham on Wednesday evening, badminton club on Thursday evening and a match on Friday evening (we lost, but it was good fun with friendly opposition, which isn't always the case).

The Council meeting was about the proposed replacement of a decaying car park combined with the relocation of elderly Council offices. Many local businesses are dismayed at the 'parking displacement plan' and feel that shoppers will be put off by a potential reduction in car parking spaces in the town. Residents are also up in arms at the loss of 42 mature trees (although more saplings will be planted in their place) plus the failure of their planning proposal to follow the Council's own guidelines of including 40% affordable housing. By attending the meeting I achieved my aim of understanding what all the fuss is about while being depressed by the poor standard of debate and the attitudes and arrogance of the Council leader and officers.

The trip to Birmingham was much more fun: I went to a meeting of 'Skeptics in the Pub' at which The Angry Chef was speaking. As the name suggests he is a chef, and I have been following and been hugely entertained by his profanity-filled blog for some time. He writes very eloquently and at length about the rubbish that is promoted by celebrities and others aimed at telling people how and what to eat, or 'nutribollocks' as he terms it. I enjoyed the meeting a great deal - he talks a lot of sense backed up by proper levels of evidence, and I bought his book and he signed it for me.

This weekend was the fifth annual 'Run, Forest, Run' event in Surrey, where this year there were more runners than ever. Lola II and Mr M were marshalling out in the forest along with J from Family JJL&J, and another two J's actually did the 10k plus obstacle course. I was again put in charge of the kitchen, and apart from running out of bacon and teabags it all went very well. I was very proud to be awarded the 'Mega Marshal' trophy for services rendered to mass catering.

Weight loss has stalled, but it has remained 4kg below what it started at (rather than the 5kg I was aiming for), so I'm going to take that as a win. Nothing new with the LTRP except that I briefly went into a carpet shop and now I need to decide who to invite to estimate for the job and whether to choose wool or synthetic fibre (any opinions from readers would be very welcome).

The television saga continues - the price of the TV I am after did drop to a level where I was happy to buy, but by the time I got to the website in a secure WiFi zone there were no more in stock. Stock suddenly appeared a week or so later, but the website claimed that delivery was not possible to my postcode, and when I followed that up with the retailer we agreed that there was actually no stock and it was a website error. However, I guessed that the American phenomenon of Black Friday might influence prices, and so it did. The television appeared on the website at an even lower price on Thursday evening, I placed an order successfully, and all being well it will be delivered today.

Several new beginnings

Walking in the Cotswolds, January 2017

The New Year has started in the most terrific way, at least after the noise from the pub died down so I could get to sleep. Incidental news - Smurf has announced on Facebook that he's stepped down from running the pub, so I need to get over there and find out who my neighbour is now, and what's going on.

Anyway, I started the year proper with a parkrun, but forgot my barcode. This means that my run isn't logged against my name in the big parkrun database and I have to do an extra run to get to my Big Numbers (you can have a special T-shirt when you've done 50). I thought I would be a bit peeved, but it didn't matter. I just felt happy to be out there. Even though it was pouring with rain all the way round.

Starting the day with a parkrun generally means I don't do much for the rest of the day, and this was certainly true for New Years Day. However, I had finally joined Meetup, which is a website that allows people to create groups around particular interests and activities and then recruit others to join them. I joined the 'Out and About in Warwickshire' group and signed up to a long walk in the Cotswolds that took place on Monday. It was bright and sunny and even a little bit warm out of the wind, and the walk was wonderful and all the other people I talked to were lovely. Really lovely. Someone saw me just grinning with pleasure, and commented that the endorphins were very evident.

The highly unexpected bonus of all this unusual socialising was that one of the people I met turned out to own a kitchen design business. This kitchen project has been weighing me down a bit, being a lot more difficult than I was expecting, so the prospect of actually finding someone prepared to help was such a relief. I need to get along to her shop.

During the Christmas/New Year lull (Twixtmas) I finally got to grips with starting to list dad's collection of ephemera on ebay. It's very time-consuming - each listing has to have at least one photo, I need to check for similar items previously listed and/or sold so I can get an idea of how much to charge (I've mostly been putting on fixed price listings) and then work out postage. Even the description is tricky when I don't really know why anyone would want a manufacturer's leaflet about a Third Generation Coding Desk or a Philatelic Presentation Pack Assembler in the first place, let alone a poster exhorting you to use the postcode or celebrating 350 years of the Royal Mail in 1985. So I took a load of photos and got a load of listings ready in draft, all the while thinking "what's the point", and who'd have thought it, someone went and bought one. And now another two (same buyer)! So I'm carrying on and watching the pence flood in (we have made just over a fiver so far).

We mostly lose badminton matches

Krakow Cathedral, July 2016

Lots of badminton happening now - one or two matches a week, one or two club nights which may or may not coincide with the matches. My regular mixed doubles partner decided to change his serve this season so that he uses a different serve for men's and mixed matches. The advantage should be improved serving in both types of games; the disadvantage so far in the mixed game is that half his serves fail. My regular ladies doubles partner takes at least two ends to get going, so we've usually lost the first game by the time she's ready to play well. Of course I'm not perfect either - at the moment in the mixed I keep standing too near the net and in ladies my high serve is rubbish. So that just about evens it out - we're all as bad as one another. Which explains why we mostly lose.

Last weekend saw me and Lola II in Surrey where we were volunteer marshals for Run Forest Run. This is the 10km plus obstacle course that I actually ran last year, but this year Lola II and I were put together in the kitchen, handing out tea and coffee, bacon sandwiches and lemon drizzle cake for 150 runners. Most of the hard work had already been done - the bacon and the cakes were already cooked - and the only serious mistake I made was not putting the veggie sausages in the oven in time. Making people with alternative diets wait longer than the rest of us is something I abhor, so to be the perpetrator of this crime was particularly mortifying.

The organisers of the event are longstanding friends who accommodated us while working really hard to make the event run smoothly. Lola II and I volunteered to manage the catering for the evening beforehand, so I made a chilli for ten that ended up being not spicy at all, and Lola II made a classic trifle (my request). The main outcome of the weekend for me, apart from the satisfaction of the volunteering itself, was that a skiing trip to France is being planned, and despite my resolution not to ski this season I immediately committed to taking part. So much for resolution.

---

There has now been a whole week and a weekend since the Run Forest Run event, and nothing of note has taken place except that, unusually, we won a badminton match. I have completed many things on my list but they are fairly trivial. The loft is nearly empty, so I've been in touch with Ilf the Handyman to come and attend to the lights in the upstairs room that he couldn't access until the loft had been cleared. I've been foolish enough to ask him to re-decorate the bathroom too, which means I have to choose paint and a new bathroom cabinet. Choosing things is always very difficult - I think I'll be able to manage the paint, but I'm not sure about the cabinet. Oh well, it isn't on the critical path.

Krakow City Gate, July 2016

Difficult decisions

Art deco hotel, Borovetz, February 2016

I don't want to write much about last week because it's been dominated by family stuff that's not particularly suitable for public airing. I haven't felt like doing much in the evenings, which is unlike me. On Thursday I decided to go for a run anyway, but two thirds of the way round my usual route I decided to stop because I just wasn't enjoying it. I haven't even started sorting the stamps and envelope collection.

I have started to clear the loft and took a couple of boxes of books to Oxfam. There's a load of old papers from the loft in the downstairs hall that need to be sorted and shredded or recycled, which will leave quite a few ring binders and suspension files that I can't bring myself to throw out, so I'll have to find a good home for those. I also responded to a conversation on the local website Streetlife, offering the trampoline to a good home, so now I need to get that down from the loft too.

Getting the tenor sax serviced was on the list as a priority for this week. I was given contact details for a local chap who came highly recommended, and so far I have sent an email, left a voice message and sent a text without any form of response. I think this suggests either he isn't that interested in the work or is on holiday. There is an alternative but it's in the centre of Birmingham, so nowhere near as convenient.

At work there's been an interesting discussion about my job. I trained to deliver the 'DESMOND' education for people with Type 2 diabetes when there was a huge waiting list in the neighbouring city, and got some extra paid hours to help clear the backlog, and since then I've continued to deliver a course there about every two months. However, in the town where I actually work the course is delivered by two nurses once a month and a waiting list has now built up there, so we enquired about whether I could be paid to help them clear the backlog too.

This has opened a can of worms. It has exposed my ignorance of how the whole edifice of NHS funding operates. I find it very frustrating, but I had pretty much come to terms with the fact that there seems to be no way to find out, let alone understand, how our diabetes services are paid for, apart from the fact that ultimately the funding is allocated by the Clinical Commissioning Group. But are we paid per consultation? Do they give us a fixed amount for all we do in a year? How is my salary allocated between the Dietetic department, the Diabetes department, the hospital where I work and the Trust that employs me? Does the Diabetes service pay the Dietetic department for my support, and if so, what exactly am I supposed to be doing? What exactly are my responsibilities within the Diabetes service? Should I be delivering DESMOND at all, and if so, how often, and where?

This is further complicated by the fact that I am aware there are circumstances where I shouldn't see someone - if they are referred by their GP to a Dietitian but not to a Consultant then it ought to be a Dietitian from a different service, despite the fact that the Nurses in the same building can accept these referrals. And recently one of our Diabetes Consultants asked me to see someone for dietary input who doesn't actually have diabetes - should I accept that referral? Apparently I shouldn't, but what if I do? What difference will it make? Who will care?

Our Diabetes service is going to be reviewed, and I don't want it to appear as though I'm not fully occupied simply because I've been recording my activity wrongly. I'm not in the least bit interested in any of this but it looks as though I'm going to have to ask some more questions. The NHS is a wonderful institution, but it is mind-bogglingly complex.

Lola Towers Renovation Project

Lead runners entering Victoria Park, April 2016

It's all going quite well. Handyman Ilf has turned out to be quite a find. I have been told rather a lot about his misspent youth and past history along with some details of his current situation while he has run his hand disapprovingly over my damp walls, tutted at my leaking tap and dodgy door hinges, and frowned at the situation with the loft ladder. We have discussed where I might acquire door handles and light fittings and he has expressed the surprise I am accustomed to hearing at the idea of a woman who has trouble with shopping.

I came home from work to find that the door which has been falling off its hinges now opens and closes as if by magic. I even opened and closed it several times, like an imbecile, just for the joy of being able to do it. I could not have anticipated the pleasure of shutting a door that previously would not shut. I feel I have already said too much on this subject, but I am going to get up, go to the door and open and close it again. Now I will stop talking about the door, but in terms of the pleasure to cost ratio, this is looking like a pretty high number.

Ilf has also been working on the loft ladder, polyfilla'd a few holes, done a couple of small electrical jobs and fixed the outside tap. He has advised me against using the shower for a while so as to allow the room to dry out thoroughly, at which point we may be more successful at getting paint to stick on the ceiling. I await his invoice but unless he wants to be paid in unicorn tears there's very little that will stop me from insisting that he continues to minister to my every whim, at least in terms of DIY.

The shopping didn't go too badly either and I only had to go back two or three times to decide what I really wanted and just once to replace a thing. I have bought light fittings and door handles and made decisions on other aspects of the Project, and Ilf is planning to return next week for more. Meanwhile, Olf and his assistant have arrived to start on the garage.

At the weekend I managed to make the final push towards emptying the garage, right down to taking the oil-soaked pieces of carpet to the tip, along with four bin bags of assorted small rubbish and some bigger pieces. It is a surprisingly large space and I am faced with the real prospect of actually being able to put my car inside. Not yet, because the door is still not independently lockable - it relies on a couple of lockable shackles set into the concrete in front of the door. But soon.

While I was outside working on the garage clearance I had time to have some lovely conversations with neighbours, and I even went and watched the Regency Run, a local 10k race that goes pretty much past my front door. The weather was fine, as it is today for Olf and his assistant. Further henchmen have visited to measure up the garage windows and assess the state of the electrics. It will not be finished this week, but I am confident. Now I'm going to open and close that door again. Oooh, lovely.

Regency Run 2016, in Victoria Park

Sports Headband with built-in speakers

Harrogate, July 2015

My mobile contract is with EE, and not long ago they notified all their customers about a free offer of a 'Power Bar'. This turned out to be about the size and heft of two of those large torch batteries, with two sockets on one end and a short cable. The idea is that you charge it up by connecting the cable between a USB port (e.g. computer) and one of the Power Bar sockets, and then if your mobile phone runs out of juice when you're out and about, you turn the cable round and charge the phone from the Power Bar. The other part of the offer was that if you were in town and your Power Bar wasn't charged up, you could take it into an EE shop and simply swap it for one that was. All for free. It seemed too good to be true.

So I went and got one, and even used it once, and then it wouldn't hold its charge any more. So I popped into an EE shop and tried to swap it for a new one, but they told me that the scheme was on hold because of a problem with overheating. True, the gadget did get very hot when it was working. They expected to be able to re-start the scheme once the problem had been fixed.

It clearly wasn't fixable, because the next thing was that the Power Bars were being recalled, and what's more they were prepared to give us all a £20 credit to spend on EE accessories online if we brought our Power Bars back to the shop and handed them in. So that's what I did next, not knowing what I would do with the £20. Back home I browsed the online shop, and was thinking about getting a better cover for my phone when I saw the Sports Headband with built-in speakers for your mobile device. And then I saw a Sports Headband with wireless bluetooth capability as well as built-in speakers for your mobile device, so I could listen to music on my phone while it's in my pocket rather than trailing a wire through my clothing.

I dithered somewhat about which option to go for before deciding on the wireless bluetooth one, and only after I'd placed the order did I remember that my iPod doesn't have bluetooth, so I'd only be able to listen to media via my phone, which has only a fraction of the music and books that are on my iPod. Never mind, it's only for my running a couple of times a week, although because of all the badminton I haven't done any running for a while.

On Tuesday I spent a hour at the Snowdome to remind myself how to ski. It was the perfect opportunity to road test the headband, and it worked a treat - except for the fact that the Snowdome wireless connection wasn't reliable enough to stream music from the Internet so I had to rely on either my downloaded tracks or use some of my data package. But it was still good, and the skiing went very well too. When I got home I managed to buy travel insurance and some Bulgarian currency, so now I'm all set and looking forward to the forthcoming ski trip.

Good riddance

Wastwater, December 2015

The year end approaches, and reflection on the past year is often indulged in at this time.

2015 has mostly been a bit rubbish. But not quite all of it.

I have read 54 books (and another two on the go at the moment).

I am currently having a lovely walking holiday in the Lake District with friends. Despite all my supposed fitness achieved from running and badminton, my legs suffered a bit of a setback due to an enormous steep downhill stretch, and I had to take it easy the following day. Luckily the worst weather arrived on that day, so I didn't miss much. Unfortunately I took part in another epic walk the next day and now my left knee is officially defunct. My badminton team will be almost as cross as I am.

My family has had a mixed year, and dad is still recovering from an operation intended to relieve various unpleasant symptoms. The stairlift has provided much cause for discussion and debate in the last few months. Lola II and Mr M are well, but are in the doghouse because they abandoned me to spend New Year in Seattle with other family members.

Work has been mostly interesting and enjoyable, although there are frequently issues that demand no little amount of forbearance. The vacant Dietitian post has now been filled and we are in training mode with the new incumbent. We may be getting cover for the nurse who has been on sick leave for a few months, but again it will be an untrained replacement who will take some time to get up to speed. In terms of doctors and management, I can only observe and usually despair at the lack of any form of rational strategic thinking.

Friends: well, let's say I need to work a bit harder on this aspect of my life. I have plenty of acquaintances but few real friends, and almost none in the region where I actually live. This has to be a priority for the coming year.

In terms of hobbies, I expect that badminton and running will continue, as soon as the knee recovers. I don't have any particular ambitions - no plans for half-marathons or even any more 10k runs. I might go back to marshalling at Run-Forest-Run next year, but we'll see how it goes. I'm still making the dress for Sister D, and because the pattern works much better with stretchy fabric I've volunteered to make yet another one for Lola II, because the one I made for her before wasn't stretchy.

My home environment is about to undergo a great deal of change, and this is another aspect I'm planning to concentrate on over the next 12 months.

On the whole I am glad that 2015 is coming to an end, and rather looking forward to a fresh start for 2016. Happy New Year!

Run, Forest, Run

The River 'Jump', Run Forest Run, November 2015

It feels as though I've been building up to this for ever, because it has been a year since the idea of taking part in this event occurred to me. A year ago I was part of the support team, serving bacon butties and cake to around 40 runners who had run 5k from the village of Chiddingfold to a nearby bit of woodland, then gone round an obstacle course before running 5k back to the start. This event was named 'Run, Forest, Run' which is a reference to the classic movie Forrest Gump - you'll have to look it up if you haven't seen the film. At that time, as you can read in my contemporaneous report, I dismissed the idea almost immediately.

Run Director Bruce
and Timekeeper Freya

Back then I hadn't been running for very long, but as I continued to surprise myself by keeping up with the running program I decided it would be a challenging but achievable target to work up to. Also, because the organisers are my friends, it would be less daunting than a public event run by strangers. So at the weekend I packed a wide range of clothes to address as many types of weather as I could imagine, and took myself down to Surrey (stopping en route for a quick visit to mum and dad, who are remarkably well at the moment).

Lola II and Mr M were there too - naively I thought it was for the social aspect and as a public-spirited gesture to our organising friends. In fact, I found out it was only in order to support me, so I am very grateful. They were allocated marshalling duties in the forest obstacle course at the log pickup and deposit.

Log pickup marshal Lola II

Race Relations Officer Mr M

The weather this autumn has been unseasonably mild - until the weekend arrived and forecasts were for plummeting temperatures. Knowing how Lola II fares in the cold (hint - not very well) I was slightly concerned for her, and also for myself, not wanting to freeze during the running either. In the end we were both fine, and it was the mud rather than the cold that slowed me down. Although it didn't actually rain, the going was 'soft' underfoot. At the point where the mud came over the top of my shoes I decided that I would focus on remaining upright rather than clocking a fast time.

The Forest Marshalling Team

So now I've done a competitive 10k plus obstacle course race, and in fact my time was perfectly decent especially taking into account the sections where it was so slippery that I could barely walk let alone run. We had a good laugh about the obstacles afterwards - my short stature put me at a significant disadvantage when it came to climbing over bars and jumping across streams. I'm planning to carry on running, but I think I'll stick to 5k Parkruns for the time being.

Two busy weeks

View of Chicago, June 2015

Remind me - what day is it? What am I supposed to be doing? Where should I be?

I like it when my days are full and it's busy, lots to do, people to see. A long afternoon stretching out with nothing scheduled and I get a little twitchy. But I have made a rod for my own back and overdone it a bit recently.

Of course, part of the problem is the extra-curriculars. If I hadn't agreed to be part of both Ladies and Mixed badminton teams, and continued to attend two different clubs, there would be a bit less badminton in the evenings. If I hadn't volunteered to do this 10k + obstacle course run in November, I wouldn't be doing so much running (although I haven't had time or strength to run for about two weeks). I've joined the work choir again this year, and we're having weekly rehearsals again. The basics of the choir practice haven't changed - a lovely leader with much more enthusiasm than musical knowledge who has again chosen carols that are pitched a bit too high for any of us to sing comfortably. I've admitted that I can play the piano in the hope that she will let me at least pick out the notes to help those singing the harmonies, but she hasn't yet called on me for assistance so I sing along with the rest.

So that's Monday to Thursday evenings fully committed most weeks - when I'm not playing or singing I'm too tired to run or even cook. At the weekends I sometimes run (I am very excited that I've now managed to do Parkrun 5k in under 30 minutes for the first time!), and plan and prepare meals for the whole week, assisted by the fact that I don't eat much on badminton nights and we've managed to get sponsorship for our structured education so that some Thursday lunches are provided. Which brings me on to work - there's quite a lot happening there too. The main thing is that we've been Windows Sevened. Is Windows 7 a verb? Yes, it is.

Apparently a few key people were aware this was in the pipeline but I was notified by email one afternoon that it was happening that night, so the next morning the Windows 7 tech team turned up to make sure everything was running as it should. Of course it wasn't. The basics were in place so we could use email, MS Office and most of the systems used everywhere in the Trust, but the specific diabetes systems were all over the place. The Windows 7 team asserted that they hadn't been told about any of those systems, while our team claimed that everything had been fully declared in advance.

Most of it has now been sorted out, the one remaining issue being an application that is used to download the data from a certain type of blood glucose meter and insulin pump, which is needed on six computers but is only working on one - mine. So every time a download is needed, my computer has to be used - actually that's not quite true, some of the meters can be downloaded onto a laptop, but only some of them and then we can't print anything. Chasing the Windows 7 team about this has been entirely fruitless - they are refusing to fix anything until the manufacturers of the software have sorted out how to download the data to a secure networked drive. It's very frustrating.

Would you like an update on progress towards having a ceiling-mounted data projector connected to a net-enabled computer? This is something that I asked about shortly after I started working in the Centre nearly two years ago. I started to make more of a fuss about it a year ago, and those holding the reins of power finally caved in and we started to apply for funding in December last year. The funds we targeted are in a specific charitable account that is managed entirely within the Diabetes service, which contained enough money to pay for the equipment, and our application met all the necessary criteria. Despite all this, we were up against a particular 'Jobsworth' character in hospital management - during the ten months that has elapsed one episode that stands out was when this person sent all the forms back to us by post because one box had not been ticked.

We were told, finally, that the whole scheme could go ahead about a month ago, but nothing has happened yet. Up to this point I have managed to resist becoming involved, mainly because I have no status with this charitable fund so could play no part in the application, but also because I knew the whole thing would wind me up - and it certainly has done that. I could hold off no longer, so now I am phoning our IT department and the equipment supplier at least twice a week until the ruddy thing is installed. I'm aiming to get it done before the first anniversary of the application starting. I am not confident that this is possible, not least because the quote is nearly a year old and I expect prices may have changed.

Meanwhile, my weighing scales have broken. I got in touch with people in the relevant department who arrived commendably promptly but were unable to fix the problem, so the scales have gone away with them. They were incredibly pessimistic about them ever coming back, and told me not to expect anything for a number of weeks. The scales were also provided by the Friends of the Hospital's charitable funds. It is sad to think that a department in a teaching hospital uses charitable funds for weighing scales and data projectors, but there are far worse troubles in the NHS than these minor issues. The NHS is pretty much broke, as far as I can tell from media reports.

My joy at having Tuesdays off has abated, but again it's my own fault. The DESMOND education that I am now qualified to deliver is also delivered by a different team, and I have long wanted to sit in on one of their courses to see how they do it and steal any good ideas. The disadvantage to this plan is that they deliver their courses on Tuesday mornings, so my lovely free Tuesdays have disappeared for the last two weeks while I watched them perform. I did get a few good ideas, but I'm still looking forward to a lie-in on a Tuesday. This coming Tuesday I've arranged for the boiler to be serviced at 9 o'clock. I should have asked for an afternoon appointment...

Alongside all of this bureaucratic mayhem I am still seeing patients, and our group education continues. Some of the patients on the very low carb diet are doing really well, everyone else is struggling as people will struggle when they try to changes habits of a lifetime. I'm getting a bit more proficient with insulin pumps, and was edged out of my comfort zone when I was asked to stand in for a nurse with one patient - this means advising on changing insulin dosage based on results of blood glucose monitoring, and is a bit scary. Luckily a nurse was around - in fact she was in the room using the software that only works on my PC - and helpfully chipped in now and again to agree with the advice I was giving, so that helped my confidence a lot.

Travel and work and badminton and running and shopping and cooking

Courmayear, February 2015

There's been another trip south, which is why there hasn't been much blogging action recently. I've been fully occupied all of one weekend on family stuff, and during the week there's been work and badminton and running and shopping and cooking, and the sole TV programme that I actually watch (The Great British Bake-Off) has started a new series. And I went out with work colleagues to celebrate my birthday, and met a friend while I was in London that I hadn't seen for more than 25 years. So blogging has had to take a back seat.

Lola II and Mr M and I ate well as usual during my visit. We decided to try somewhere we hadn't been before that offered Caribbean food from Trinidad. It was a fairly new restaurant and they were very keen to tell us all about the food, which had a more Indian influence than the Jamaican style food that's more commonly found. I had mutton, Lola II had chicken and Mr M had salt cod, and it was all very good indeed. Next day I wore my newly made dress for the Family Birthday Celebration (and I wore it the week before for the Works Night Out), and it looks so good and I was complimented so much that it all went to my head and I offered to make another one for Sister D. Using stretchy material it shouldn't take too long...

Badminton - the good news is that following rest and changing my mouse to the other side, my racquet arm is as good as new, possibly better. Running - I'm getting along OK, I'm nearly half way through a training plan leading up to this pesky 10k plus obstacle course that I've signed up to, but I have a feeling that the race will arrive before the end of the training plan... not that it matters that much.

Work - lots of interesting things and still many frustrations. We tried to entice as many 16 to 21 year-olds as we could onto a specially designed education course for Type 1 diabetes, but out of the thirteen or so who had verbally agreed to come, only two turned up (and for a period of about 15 minutes we thought it would only be one). One of the meter manufacturers has offered to sponsor a course that would include go-karting so as to attract the target audience, but I'm not sure if we'll take them up on it because we don't actually like their meter very much. The company that makes the meter we do like hasn't provided us with a rep since last December, otherwise I'd be very keen to put a bit of pressure on them to help us out.

Three notable things last week

Back garden, May 2015

Two people I know featured in the news last week. The first was Emma Percy, who hit the headlines by asserting that the Church should feel free to refer to God as a woman. We were at secondary school together, and I met her again a few years ago when she led the memorial service for another schoolfriend's mother.

The second media appearance was by a regular visitor to this blog, known as CERNoise. As the name suggests, she works at CERN and has contributed a guest post to this blog in the past. The Large Hadron Collider was fired up again this week, and is now ready to operate at higher energies than ever before. CERNoise appeared on the BBC Today programme this week (segment starting at 2 hours 24 minutes). Her explanation of the slightly strained nature of her contribution was that it was incredibly noisy in the control room and she could hardly hear herself speak.

The third notable thing was to do with my running. [It occurred to me this week that we used to call it 'jogging' - when did we make that change?] I have an app on my phone that monitors my location, speed and elevation. It is very complimentary about my performance, and tries to find anything to congratulate me for - as well as fastest and furthest in many distance categories it has also commended me on the most outings I have made in a month, number of calories burned, meters climbed and so on.

Anyway, this app - called RunKeeper - also contains a few different training programmes. As I'm planning to Run Forest Run in November, I thought I'd try the plan that offers to help you achieve 10k in under 65 minutes. It is a set of 61 'workouts' over about 4 months at a rate of 4 runs a week. As there isn't a chance that I'll be going out 4 times a week, I have started it already as it will probably take me more like 6 months to get through that many runs.

It starts with shorter, slower runs, but mixes things in an interesting way, giving a bit of variety. The longest run scheduled so far coincided with this week's Parkrun - the regular Saturday morning run that is held every week for all comers. But RunKeeper wanted me to run 8 km, while Parkrun is only 5 km. My solution was to run 3 km from home to the start of the Parkrun - I usually go by bicycle.

8 km is definitely the longest run I have ever done, and it went surprisingly well given that I misjudged the timing/distance a bit and ran for 8.4 km. I was only 40 seconds slower than my best ever Parkrun time!

A couple of weeks ago I volunteered to marshal for Parkrun instead of running, and it was quite entertaining. I went for a lonesome run afterwards, and this is when I realised that after a year, I have actually come to enjoy running - probably because I can do it without constantly feeling like my lungs will burst any minute. So, it takes a year. Definitely worth it.

Nothing much to report

Peckover House, August 2014

Nothing much has been happening that I can blog about. There's been badminton, a trip to London, a visit from a builder to look at the damp patches on the hall walls, an attempt at running which was curtailed by a very welcome phone call from Lola II, a second visit from the builder to look at the same problem in daylight, delivering a two-part DESMOND course, more badminton, renewal of the house insurance and another run - a proper 5k Parkrun this time. It was very cold - frosty and icy - and I cobbled together an outfit that I thought would do the trick. Only my elbows were cold, so I consider that a success, given that it started to snow at one point.

Nothing else of any particular interest, although the trip to London produced all the highlights: an urban fox jumping over the fence within a couple of feet of the window we were looking through, my first ever sighting of a jay (although my second sighting came within a week in a completely different location), and participation in the Gulloebl Chinema.

Work is still good, very good. I am practising and learning and practising some more, and reflecting on my performance and receiving and giving feedback. Some patients do very well, in which case their success comes from their own efforts. Some don't do so well, in which case I try to find a different way to help them help themselves. We discuss changing long-established dietary habits. "You're not going to tell me what to do, are you?" said one patient. "That's right," I replied. "You have to decide for yourself what you're going to do, because I'm not going to be there when you're faced with a choice."

The very low carb group is thriving - at least, those who attend seem to be getting on very well. I have had a quick look over my past blog posts, and I don't think I've written about the group before. It comprises all those people who have adopted the very low carb lifestyle to help manage their diabetes, and since September we have been meeting once a month to chat about various aspects of the diet - sometimes someone brings some food they've made for people to taste, we swap recipes, and we had a speaker talking about retinal screening at one meeting. My Broccoli and Stilton Soup was very well received, as were the cheese biscuits that one of the group had made.

I have been recruiting patients to the group at a fairly slow rate, and about half of them decide after the introduction that they aren't going to carry on, but we have about ten regulars now. Everyone is weighed and has their blood pressure measured, and one of our nurses is available to consult about medication changes. They seem to enjoy the meetings and, more importantly, most are enjoying the diet, losing weight, reducing medication and are keen to continue. Only one has dropped out so far, but may return now that the festive season is over.

I participated in a small meeting to discuss our pump clinics. An increasing number of people with diabetes are using insulin pumps, and our existing provision is inadequate, leading to lengthening waiting lists for clinic appointments. There were just four of us: the main diabetes doctor who leads on pumps, our two nurses and me. At the end of the meeting I felt that things were clearer than they were at the beginning, and that is such a rare event nowadays. It looks as though we have found a way to expand the pump service, and I may have a part to play which will also increase my knowledge and skills, which is just what I like.

Race report and news of Lola Towers

Groombridge Place, June 2013

The trip last weekend was to the darkest depths of Surrey, to assist at a 10k forest race organised by our friends. The race consisted of running 5k on road and forest tracks, then round an obstacle course including a river jump, then 5k back to the start. For a fleeting moment when it was first announced I considered actually working towards running the course, but I came to my senses and dropped that idea pretty quickly. I haven't been running recently - it's dark, it's cold, and I've got a lot of other stuff on my plate at the moment (as mentioned in one of my previous blog posts).

We headed south on Saturday and arrived in time to glimpse some of the immense amount of organisation that has been put into this little enterprise. Permission had to be gained from all sorts of different agencies including Highways, Forestry Commission, St Johns Ambulance and probably others, plus the advertising, timekeeping equipment, signage, clothing, T shirts, medals and prizes, catering and much, much more. Lists were very much in evidence - lists of runners, marshalls, equipment, tasks, schedules, phone numbers. There was a slight relaxation of organisational duties for a period on Saturday night, but the day of the race started at 6am with signage being put up.

Unfortunately it turned out to be one of the wettest days of the year, and didn't stop raining heavily for the whole of the race. The part of the obstacle course when runners had to jump across the river was usually just a bit more than a step over a bit of a stream, but the water level rose by at least a foot during the morning and runners were having to wade across a torrent up to their knees. When they returned to the start it truly looked as though they had been swimming rather than running, and some of the marshalls were in a similar condition.

Mr A and I had volunteered to be marshalls, and Mr A was put in charge of car parking while I was dealing with catering at race HQ. Mr A was clad head to toe in weatherproof motorcycle gear but I was thankfully indoors, serving up bacon butties, tea and cake. It all went very well, the St John's team weren't needed, and the home-made lemon drizzle cake went down particularly well - home-made by the organisers, not by me. They put such a lot of work into the event, but the turnout was good and despite the saturating conditions the runners seemed to enjoy it. There's going to be another one next year too; maybe I'll volunteer again.

Then on Tuesday, back at Lola Towers, the long-awaited fuse box replacement started. The electrician turned up exactly when he said he would, which is always a good sign, especially as I'd taken the day off work. He thought the job would take a day and a half, but knowing how unpredictable Lola Towers can be I wasn't surprised when the timescale started to slip. The installation of the new box took the first half day as anticipated, but one of the new switches kept tripping, suggesting a fault somewhere on one of the circuits. Electrician Bill spent the rest of the day a) narrowing down the possible location of the fault while b) ensuring that the heating would be operational at the end of the day, which it was.

On Wednesday he returned, and managed to improve things to the extent that the switch stopped tripping, but was still not happy with the test results, plus he had to do the bit of the job that entails connecting the gas and water supplies to the electrical earth. I had to go back to work so I didn't see how he got on, but at the end of the day we had a chat on the phone and he admitted he'd have to be back on Thursday. This has been an expensive week - the electrical job is going to cost a bit more than what was quoted, plus the car had its service on Tuesday and needed a new battery and two new tyres.

On the plus side, I got a lot done on my day off work. After twenty years I'm having the living room curtains cleaned for probably the first (or possibly the second) time, and then after twelve years of being temporarily tacked up I'm getting them shortened properly. I'm not even doing it myself - they were cleaned at a launderette and taken to a shop for shortening. That's the kind of mood I'm in.

I also went to another 'Diabetes Education Club' lecture at Warwick University - this is a bi-monthly evening event for Diabetes Healthcare Professionals. Last time it was my colleagues talking and demonstrating low carb items, this time it was all about Sodium-Glucose Transporter (SGLT2) inhibition as a treatment for high blood glucose. Want to know more? All will be revealed shortly.

Not at work

Groombridge Place, June 2013

See what happens when I don't have to go to work and I'm not away from home? Blogs happen, that's what. And I am told that Lola II is working towards her contribution to the Wedding Presence camping trip blog post (I think Mr M has done his, although he hasn't sent it through yet). So we are backing up a little now to report news from a week ago...

At work, I agreed to cover the ante-natal clinic, which takes place in the other Trust hospital - we don't have any maternity services where I usually work. As regular readers may remember, I am not a fan of ante-natal clinics, and this was no exception. There are too many patients and not enough time, and I felt rather exploited although the consultant and the nurse took care to thank me very appreciatively. Next time I will be more 'assertive' about time-keeping.

Back at my usual hospital I observed a patient being started with an insulin pump, which took quite a long time but wasn't very complicated really. I think that the hard work starts afterwards, to try and fine tune the background delivery of insulin to match the patient's needs from hour to hour. Being away from work this week I'm missing that part of the job, but I'll try and catch up with a different patient some time, to see the follow up.

And then there were a few things not related to work. It was a red letter day on Thursday: the first time I managed to run 5 km in under 30 minutes (all on flat tarmac). My timed runs on Saturday mornings with Parkrun are getting faster too, but despite planning to go out this week, I haven't felt up to it yet, partly because of the trip at the weekend, to see Landrover Man (LRM) and Bee Lady (BL).

This was actually me gatecrashing one of Mr M and Lola II's wedding presence, and it was lovely as usual. BL provided an extensive food preference questionnaire which also included attitudinal questions to see if she should be sticking with conventional choices or going a bit experimental. After a tour of the LRM/BL mansion and grounds, then the enormous and delicious dinner followed by games on Saturday night, we were looking forward to the usual standard of walking on Sunday. We only got a bit lost once and had to do a bit of off-piste mountaineering (Lola II was very brave and I got stung by nettles) but it was excellent, if exhausting. I had to have a sleep on the motorway on the way home, and was very glad not to be going to work on Monday. I think I felt the effects of the indulgence followed by the exertion for a few more days, but it may be the unaccustomed freedom of not being at work.

[Bee Facts: there were many, mostly about how to manage your hives - BL doesn't like killing a perfectly good queen just in order to limit the number. So she has ended up with ten hives, which is A Lot. LRM was very patient and listened to many, many Bee Facts without much complaint. Unfortunately it isn't quite so interesting to hear about his energy management spreadsheets.]

So this week I have welcomed my tradesmen about whom I have already written, and the latest carpenter says the job isn't big enough and has suggested another carpenter. I have donated blood without incident, and even managed to visit the charity shops for long enough to acquire the clothes that I was after. Yesterday I made an enormous effort and cleared out about two thirds of the clutter that was getting in my way, and then it was time for badminton. Today I had lunch with an old friend, and I am looking forward to the weekend, which holds the annual Food & Drink Festival.

Half a century

Block C, Bletchley Park

I can't believe it's a week since I last wrote something. Maybe time is passing more quickly, or more likely, there's much less that I feel like sharing publicly.

I have reached my half century without serious setbacks, and I feel most thankful. I enjoy what I do most days, and have been taking a bit more care to pursue activities that are both mentally and physically satisfying. Watching films and reading books as well as working, learning, writing and listening to music fulfil the intellectual criteria, and I've continued to play badminton twice a week even through the recent heatwave, when drinking more than a litre of water over two hours is often not enough.

Then there's the running. I completed my challenge of learning to run, and wrote about doing two Parkruns, so I knew I could run for 5 km. Looking back, I wrote at the time that I wouldn't rule out doing more, and in the last couple of weeks I've been out running on my own and did another Parkrun, and faster than before. It's incomprehensible. I still don't really like running, but I'm still doing it, even when it means getting up early at the weekend. If you'd told me even six months ago that I'd be running for the joy of it, I would have laughed in your face. I'll let you know when I've worked out what's going on.

Just to add to all of this, I decided not to let a whole summer go by without skiing, so I took myself off to the Snowdome to have a bit of a practice, thinking that it would be pretty quiet on a midweek day in July. It wasn't that busy, but still a few groups learning to ski. I found I hadn't got as rusty as I expected, and that an hour on the slope was enough to get me back in the swing of things. Time to book the next holiday?

Mr A has got a contract job, which is very good news, but as with all things relating to Mr A, it is stressful. There is a major deadline imminent, and no doubt some other deadlines to follow, which always puts the pressure on. He has, however, been getting some very good results in his latest Open University module. No particular news to report from Lola II and Mr M, who continue to get up to mischief at every opportunity. No news from the pub next door, and our house is still shabby but functional. The garden is even more overgrown than before, which is to be expected since I haven't been out there except to pick some mint and unblock a drain after a thunderstorm.

We still have no working doorbell, and our (landline) telephone system relies on four handsets with rechargeable batteries, of which three seem to have stopped recharging. The batteries seem to be custom models soldered into the handsets, making replacement complicated. Note to those who telephone the house - if you leave a message we can play it back on the base station and then hunt down a handset that works, or phone back using a mobile. There is very little chance of us actually finding a working handset in time to answer your call. Or if we do, the handset will probably fail within a minute, cutting you off. And our mobile phones will probably not be in the same room as us...

Other recent events: a trip oop north to a barbeque with H&B, which was lovely. The mid-season falconry centre barbeque, which was pretty good considering most people there communicate better with birds than with strangers (I don't necessarily exclude myself from that description). A trip back to Bletchley Park, which has developed enormously since my last visit back in 2008. Re-reading that post, I learned a lot more detail on that visit about the actual decryption methods, presumably because I was part of a small academic group. This time the information was much more general: how the place was run, who was there, how it felt to be one of the workers rather than the exceptional genius of Turing, Welchman and the rest. The entry fee allows repeat visits for a year, and although I was there for about five hours I didn't see all that I wanted, so I'm planning to go back next week before my holiday ends.

Mr A and I have also visited our southern friends who have bought a nearby area of forest, and are working to restore it to its original state by gradually getting rid of the planted softwoods and allowing native woodland to regenerate. They are also having fun camping there, and have started to create a mountain bike track and an obstacle course as well as hosting the annual 'Run Forest Run' (which, for those who have not seen the Tom Hanks film, is a rather amusing reference to Forrest Gump).

That's it. I've got stuff to do, packing for my birthday treat: a weekend at the Cambridge Folk Festival, where I have previously spent my 30th and 40th birthdays (and possibly also my 20th, although it's too far back for me to have recorded that attendance). Here's to the next half century!

Shopping and running

Just a nice picture from 2004

Good news

The gastroparesis article is finished, the editor seems to like it, and has sent a pro-forma invoice for me to submit. They are going to pay me! Given the amount of time it took, the hourly rate probably works out at less than the minimum wage, and I ought to declare it for tax, but on the whole I think this qualifies as good news. Finishing the writing has freed up my Tuesdays for more interesting things.

I have been on a shopping spree. Nearly all online, of course, but still, it felt like going into the street and throwing money at things that I've wanted to get for a very long time but it was just too much effort to go into shops. Quite ordinary things mostly: a dish drainer tray, oven gloves, electronic kitchen scales, a new kitchen bin. The bin is not ordinary because it is a luxury touch-top item from Brabantia and cost more than all the other purchases put together, but it is a thing of beauty while being utterly functional.

I also bought a new mobile phone, or more accurately, a phone contract that comes with a new mobile phone. It had taken me two years to bump up against the limitations of my first smartphone, but eventually I realised that I should be able to download more than two apps and use the camera without it seizing up. It took a few long sessions on the Internet and a fairly extended discussion in a shop, but my new mobile has changed my views on smartphones, and has excelled in an entirely unexpected field - my running.

I downloaded an app that used the GPS signal to track my location and speed. This was hopeless on the old mobile, but the new one coped very well. I turned the app on at the start of the run and then examined it at the end and it told me all about my route and speed and it was great. Then it emailed me a link to create a Spotify playlist, so I thought that would be fun. I no longer need or want the plinky-plonky music that came with the Couch to 5k podcast, but it's much less boring to run when listening to music.

The revelation came when I managed to put all these things together for my second Parkrun. The phone was robust enough to access and play the music, and I started up the running app alongside it and they both worked together, and I plugged in the earphones and I could listen as I ran. It wasn't even raining. All of a sudden, a few minutes into the run, the music was interrupted for a second and the running app gave me an update on how I was doing - how far and how fast I had run. I'm no newcomer to the power of the Interwebnets, but this was a combination of utility and ease of use that I found astounding.

So my running career has culminated in a time of 35-and-a-bit minutes for 5 km, which I am very pleased with. A friend was also there on Saturday, and speaking to him afterwards I was sure that I wasn't going to do any more runs, because all the way through I'd been thinking how tedious it all was, and how much more fun it is playing badminton. Subsequently, however, I looked back on the event with some pleasure, and now I'm not so sure that I won't do it again. I think our holiday will get in the way, but we'll see.

Lastly in the good news category, I spent the best part of a whole day cleaning the oven. Not good news in itself, but it doesn't half look nice when it's clean. That should last about a week.

Bad news

I mentioned that my ipod died and was revived - well, it has died again. Rather than ending my life, Mr A has generously lent me his, which is so far performing as it should, unlike my laptop. The poor laptop has been groaning and shuddering for a while, taking about 20 minutes to boot up and generally being more sluggish than a snail without a home. Mr A bought me a new hard disk and operating system, and once the gastroparesis article was finished I started installing it. Unfortunately, the new and powerful hard disk seems to overtax the geriatric laptop (born in 2009) so that after about 10 minutes of usage the fan fires up noisily and within a minute or two it shuts down without further ado. That's as far as we've got with the laptop. Mr A is experimenting with my ipod to see if he can keep it alive for a bit longer.

Meanwhile at work, there is bad news masquerading as good news. The Dietetic Manager is juggling her many fecund female staff who seem to come back from maternity leave for all of three minutes before admitting to being pregnant again, and that's not counting the ones whose family members require their immediate attention or are themselves needing some time away from the office. Not to make light of a distressing situation, one of the two hospital Dietitians where I work is unavoidably absent, and the Manager is taking none of my excuses or suggestions, and requires me to spend some time On The Wards.

I have tried to keep this to the minimum that is ethically possible, but I notice that I seem to think patients need a lot less attention than the Dietetic Manager does. I am going to have to see people in hospital beds who need nutrition support, and it is not the area of dietetic practice that interests or attracts me, which strongly suggests I am not going to be very good at it. Let's hope my attitude and out-of-date skill set doesn't land me in trouble. I really don't like ward work.

As a carrot dangling before my eyes, however, the same Dietetic Manager has suggested that more paid work may be available in Diabetes. This has been mentioned before, and timescales are vague, as are the actual content and location of the extra work required. I'm not holding my breath. I've started to enjoy my Tuesdays and I'm not quite so keen as I used to be to rejoin the world of full time work.

Also in the bad news category is the garden. I have done absolutely no work in the garden this year, which has left us with an attractive meadow instead of a lawn, an enormous amount of foliage covering every inch of soil, most of the walls, and causing the 'paved' area to resemble, well, more garden. We are about to go away for a week, and it keeps raining, so the plants may well have staged their bid to take over the house as well by the time we get back. If you look closely, the picture shows the dominance of the ten-foot thistle over the puny efforts of the human race. Although its two colleagues were broken by wind/rain, it has latched itself on to the rose bush and shows no signs of halting its assault on humanity. Luckily, its legs have not yet formed so we may yet be able to conquer it when the time comes.

Lastly in the bad news category, you may have noticed a lack of book reviews (good news for some, I believe). I have picked on the book 'Middlemarch' for leisure reading, and it is proving to be hard going. I've found a few good audio books though, and shall take some less heavy duty reading on holiday next week. I wonder how many I should pack?

Oh yes, our doorbell has stopped working too.