Diabetes, life and all that - personal diary

I took the day off work yesterday, which felt like a wonderfully decadent and self indulgent thing to do.

With the wife at work and the son at school it ended up being a whole day of "me" time.

Why did I do it?

I guess partly because I needed to and partly because I felt I deserved to.

It gave me the opportunity to do a number of things I've been wanting to do for a while now but somehow was not finding time for.

I went to the gym in the morning, when everyone else was at work and so it was not crowded. Not only could the instructor afford to spend more time with me and show me the ropes but with less people there, the potential for me to publicly humiliate myself was significantly reduced.

I then spent some time relaxing tired muscles in the gym's spa. Bliss!

The afternoon was spent going round a couple of bike shops; first researching and then buying a new mountain bike.

I guess boys will be boys and nothing makes us happier than having a new toy to play with.

I even found time to take it out for a spin, after dinner last night. My son was thrilled to receive new night lights for his bike and insisted that we should take our bikes for a ride immediately to test them out.

In fact he insisted that we should make a "pit stop" as he put it at his uncle's place "to say hallo"; actually to show off the new bike and the fact that he was now allowed to go on nighttime bike rides with me.

Bless him, he was so excited, I had to humor him.

All in all, a very nice day not spoiled in the least by the fact that two hours after dinner my glucose meter was indicating a very satisfying 84mg/dl (4,5 mmol) and 91mg/dl (5,1 mmol) this morning



I came across this cactus flower during my morning walk and decided that it would make a very appropriate photograph for this post - each cactus flower, exquisitely beautiful though it is, only lasts for a day.

Pavlos

I really like the message engraved on the steering column of my new bike.



The Classical ideal of a pursuing a healthy body in a healthy mind "nous igiis en somati ygies", is unfortunately one that we often forget these days, often pursuing one to the detriment of the other.

That other classical ideal of "pan metron ariston" or "everything in moderation", is also often forgotten in our modern society which is obsessed with the excessive. More is not necessarily better.

I guess the trick is to find the happy balance between what is beneficial and what is enjoyable.

Of course the ideal would be if the two coincided. We would be much more likely to keep to a diet and exercise regime if we actually enjoyed the food and activities involved

That is the challenge I face, marrying what I know to be good for me with what I know I enjoy.

The only way to do this is to keep trying new things, new meals, new activities in hope of hitting on the magic combination.

Pavlos

I have really shifted the level of my physical activity to anther level this week, adding daily gym work outs and nighttime bike rides to my morning walks.

I have muscles hunting in parts of my body that I did not know I had muscles to hurt but it feels great.

I feel I am in a good place at the moment

Pavlos

I will turn 50 in April next year.

That is a nice round number that feels significant somehow.

If nothing else it makes for a nice target.

I find myself determined that by then I will be in the best physical shape of my life; that spare tyre round my midriff will just have to go.

Pavlos

Just been to the medical lab to give a blood sample to run a number of tests, glucose and a1c, full lipid counts, kidney and liver function indicators and vitamin B12 and D.

I am not sure how best to interpret the results as they will reflect two very different periods: the last three weeks when I have been exercising regularly and been on a more or less low carb high fat diet and the preceding couple of months when I was not taking much care of myself at all.

Therefore unless something really disturbing comes out of these tests, my intention is to take no action on the basis of the outcome and just treat them as a benchmark for comparison purposes with the next ones that my intention is will be in about three months time.

So, given the limited intended use of the outcome of these tests, why do I feel as if I am waiting for my A Leves results all over again?

Pavlos

Helen

BY GEORGE SEFERIS
TRANSLATED BY EDMUND KEELEY AND PHILIP SHERRARD

Teucer: . . . in sea-girt Cyprus, where it was decreed
by Apollow that I should live, giving the city
the name of Salamis in memory of my island home.
. . . . . . . . . .
Helen: I never went to Troy; it was a phantom.
. . . . . . . . . .
Servant: What? You mean it was only for a cloud
that we struggled so much?

— Euripides, Helen


‘The nightingales won’t let you sleep in Platres.’

Shy nightingale, in the breathing of the leaves,
you who bestow the forest’s musical coolness
on the sundered bodies, on the souls
of those who know they will not return.
Blind voice, you who grope in the darkness of memory
for footsteps and gestures — I wouldn’t dare say kisses —
and the bitter raving of the frenzied slave-woman.

‘The nightingales won’t let you sleep in Platres.’

Platres: where is Platres? And this island: who knows it?
I’ve lived my life hearing names I’ve never heard before:
new countries, new idiocies of men
or of the gods;
my fate, which wavers
between the last sword of some Ajax
and another Salamis,
brought me here, to this shore.
The moon
rose from the sea like Aphrodite,
covered the Archer’s stars, now moves to find
the heart of Scorpio, and alters everything.
Truth, where’s the truth?
I too was an archer in the war;
my fate: that of a man who missed his target.

Lyric nightingale,
on a night like this, by the shore of Proteus,
the Spartan slave-girls heard you and began their lament,
and among them — who would have believed it? — Helen!
She whom we hunted so many years by the banks of the Scamander.
She was there, at the desert’s lip; I touched her; she spoke to me:
‘It isn’t true, it isn’t true,’ she cried.
‘I didn’t board the blue bowed ship.
I never went to valiant Troy.’

Breasts girded high, the sun in her hair, and that stature
shadows and smiles everywhere,
on shoulders, thighs and knees;
the skin alive, and her eyes
with the large eyelids,
she was there, on the banks of a Delta.
And at Troy?
At Troy, nothing: just a phantom image.
That’s how the gods wanted it.
And Paris, Paris lay with a shadow as though it were a solid being;
and for ten whole years we slaughtered ourselves for Helen.

Great suffering had desolated Greece.
So many bodies thrown
into the jaws of the sea, the jaws of the earth
so many souls
fed to the millstones like grain.
And the rivers swelling, blood in their silt,
all for a linen undulation, a filmy cloud,
a butterfly’s flicker, a wisp of swan’s down,
an empty tunic — all for a Helen.
And my brother?
Nightingale nightingale nightingale,
what is a god? What is not a god? And what is there in between them?

‘The nightingales won’t let you sleep in Platres.’

Tearful bird,
on sea-kissed Cyprus
consecrated to remind me of my country,
I moored alone with this fable,
if it’s true that it is a fable,
if it’s true that mortals will not again take up
the old deceit of the gods;
if it’s true
that in future years some other Teucer,
or some Ajax or Priam or Hecuba,
or someone unknown and nameless who nevertheless saw
a Scamander overflow with corpses,
isn’t fated to hear
messengers coming to tell him
that so much suffering, so much life,
went into the abyss
all for an empty tunic, all for a Helen.

George Seferis, "Helen" from Collected Poems (George Seferis). Translated, edited, and introduced by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Copyright © 1995 by George Seferis. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.

More about this poem

*In the beginning and the end of the poem Seferis quotes Euripides, from the ancient play “Eleni (Helen),” written during the Pelopponesian War between Athens and Sparta. According to Euripides’ version, the beautiful Eleni was not stolen by Paris, but spirited off to Egypt by Aphrodite; in her place a false image of her was taken to Troy.
The poem was written while Seferis journeyed to Cyprus in 1953, after the disastrous carnage of the civil war which followed WWII in Greece, and at a pivotal moment while things were heating up for the liberation of the island nation from British control.

Planning to visit Platres tomorrow and so this poem from my school days has come to mind.

Good morning



A really spectacular sunrise over Nicosia this morning had me reaching for my camera once again, even if I am not planning a morning walk today.



I am conserving my energy for my tennis lesson and a hike from Troodos to Platres later on along the beautiful Caledonia Falls nature trail. I have been looking forward to this for days now. More later!

Have a great day

Pavlos

4,8 mmol fasting this morning, so doing well

My treat for an hour's worth of tennis and an eight kilometer bike ride to and from the tennis club.

I've forgotten how deliciously crisp Granny Smiths taste

On a sadder note, just had my first flat tire so it's back to the shop for some emergency repairs.

At least it will give me the opportunity to get some riding helmets for the son and I. I guess I should give him a good example by wearing one myself if I want him to do the same.



Then it's up to the mountains.

Pavlos

Slight change of plan in the end for today, no Platres and no Caledonia Falls. They will have to wait for another trip.

We did make it to the Troodos mountains though. In fact almost at the top of the mountain, where a friend of hours has rented a house for the winter



and invited us for lunch there.



An hour's drive and we left Nicosia behind basking in thirty degrees centigrade, rose about 1500 meters to find ourselves in a different world, a world of log fires and falling leaves.


The highlight was our afternoon two hour walk through the pristine forest, which at times offered vistas which extended from our eagle's eye view all the way to the sea, tens of miles away and about a mile below.

I will make no apology for posting more photographs from yesterday's trip to Troodos, as, even if I say so myself, they are rather beautiful:

























Best of all, while we were enjoying this lovely scenery in bright sunshine, down below Nicosia was being hit by a thunderstorm.

Pavlos

As I take my walk this morning, the sun is shining brightly yet again but the aftermath of yesterday's rain are all around me,

Pavements are not completely dry yet

There are plenty of fallen leaves on the ground

And lots of glistening condensation on the grass

leaves


Fruit

Even on flowers



With the rain having washes away month's worth of accumulation of dust, the whole scenery looks cleaner and all colors seem more vibrant.

Pavlos

Fasting level at 5,0mmol this morning.

Just dared the scales again and I lost another kilogram again this week.



I am now exactly 95kg or 14,96 stone. On the 16th of September I was 102kg or 16,06 stone.

Really pleased with the progress!

Pavlos

In the end, we did manage to get out of Nicosia again yesterday, traveling to the nearby village of Mosphiloti for some meze at a nice taverna there.

Meze is a selection of (most would say far too many) traditional meals, served to be shared amongst those at the table. Luckily it includes plenty of safe choices such as grilled meat and salads and high carb food can easily be ignored as one picks his way amongst the various dishes.

Being in the countryside, I did not let the opportunity for a short walk after lunch.

At an altitude of 250 meters the scenery is very different and a lot less dramatic than Troodos, gently rolling hills replacing the steep mountain peaks.

Pines, a much younger forest this time, still dominate but they are joined this time but that other emblematic tree of the Mediterranean the olive tree.







It's Monday morning so back to work and the daily routine until next weekend when I can be let loose again.

Take care

Pavlos

Getting myself in place to take these shots of the sun rising this morning over a nearby olive grove, added 3km to my normal 5km morning walk and reduced my glucose level from 5,1 mmol on waking up to 4,6 before breakfast.






Who knew photography would be so good for my health!

Pavlos