Diabetes, life and all that - personal diary

Sisiphus

A new dawn.
Hope made light.
The endless potential of a slate wiped clean. The bursting excitement of a journey not yet began, a road not yet taken.

If only we could look beyond Tartarus, if only we realized that Zeus and his commands are now but vanishing mists, shadows banished by the light.



Pavlos

An outing with a difference last night.

A family gathering in fact. I say family but there were more than a hundred people there!

One of my wife's cousins is getting married on Saturday and one of the traditions in Cyprus weddings is for the father of the bride to throw a dinner for the bride's family and guests, during the week preceding the wedding.


We were greeted at the door by our hosts in the manner dictated by tradition. They used the silver utensil and olive branches in the photo to sprinkle us with rose scented holy water from church.

Actually strictly speaking a traditional wedding celebration is supposed to last a week with different activities held, amongst plenty of drinking and dining, on each of the days. Luckily we were spared some of the more colorful of these, such us being invited to inspect the bride's dowry - bed sheets, tablecloths and the like that the virtuous maiden would have spent years preparing in times gone by.

One tradition that we did not escape was that of the relatives being called upon in humorous rhyme to the accompaniment of a violin to come forth and show their generosity towards the bride by placing money in the container, a traditional flour sieve, held by the singer.



This can be an expensive business especially for the bride's immediate family as the singer is free to hit on anyone at his discretion often repeatedly and it is considered very poor form not to respond to the singer's call to contribute to the bride's future prosperity.

I suppose it is good fun and makes for a nice gift to the couple, something that was not lost on the groom to be, who according to tradition should not even have been there, but I guess will let that on go for now.



Pavlos

5,9 this morning.

Forced myself to go on my usual morning 5km walk despite feeling a bit under the weather.

For a couple of days now my counts, although by no means high, have been somewhat elevated: sixes where I would normally expect to see fours and fives. Today I am finally showing symptoms of the cold these counts have been indicating.

So rather than the usual source of pleasure, today's walk was all about getting myself from A to B and back again, putting five more kilometers and about 7000 more steps on the clock.

I was not even in the mood to take any photos, which really is not like me at all. So here is one I took yesterday of a flowering oleander bush.



If I am honest, the main reason I did go on the walk was in order not to spoil my perfect record of the last month or so.

Pavlos

Went to a hotel reception/dinner for the wedding of the wife's cousin last night.



Probably ate a bit too much, the food was delicious but At least I managed to stay away from anything too carby: no rice, potatoes or pasta and no bread for me.

I was the weirdo picking just the strawberries from the mixed fruit display and skipping on all other deserts.

Although you would never guess it from this photo,



I was also the boring one who sipped nothing more than water all night.

Sometimes diabetes does get in the way of fun.

Still at least I am not nursing a sore head this morning and my sugar level is at a satisfying 5,7.

Have a great day.

Pavlos

The weather forecast predicted rainstorms for today.

Fortunately, although we did have some overnight rain, as I set out on my morning walk the sun was shining, the temperature was already in the twenties and the roads of Nicosia were blissfully deserted.



I soon headed for one of my favorite Sunday morning destinations the grounds of the nearby Kykkos monastery, a place I consider a haven of beauty and tranquility. What is more, as when I visit, early on Sunday mornings everyone else is either asleep or at mass, there is nobody else around to shutter the illusion that this is my own personal bid of haven.

A shady path


The band pavilion


The Abbots' rose garden


A bougainvillea covered pavilion.


The Aviary


Some of the plants surrounding it



And some of it's exotic and very colorful residents.









The birds were not having it all their own way, some of the plants coming up with very colorful displays of their own.

An orange Brugmensia, as beautiful as it is deadly toxic.




Some white and pink Hibiscuses



The Hibiscuses were planted together with Date Palms, either side of a shady path, and their were plenty of bright orange dates ripening on the trees,




As well as citrus fruit of various types ripening in the orchard




My walk ended up extending to almost two and a half hours of what I really consider not so much a workout ( although 11,2 km and over 14,000 step is quite a lot of activity) but relaxation therapy.

Pavlos

This Chorisia speciosa tree with its bright pink flowers and strangely spine armored trunk was a real highlight of this morning walk through the grounds of a nearby monastery





Pavlos

The sky got progressively more cloudy as the day advanced but luckily the forecasted rain never materialized.

Consequently, we were, for a fourth week in a row, able to visit a different part of the island; this time the neighboring villages of Kato Drys and Lefkara in the district of Larnaca.

Lunch was enjoyed all fresco under the huge branches of a hundred and eight year old plane tree that shaded the whole of the garden of the restaurant we visited in Kato Drys.




We spent the rest of the afternoon walking up and down the narrow alleys of Lefkara, window shopping the various hand crafted lace and silver works shops the village is famous for and enjoying some of the most beautiful and well preserved traditional architecture Cyprus has to offer.










After a brief visit to the village's church, dedicated to the Holy Cross,


as according to tradition the Church hosts a small piece of the timber of the original cross of Christ, brought here by St Helen and housed within the larger cross shown in the first photo below





We finished the day by enjoying a cinamon tea at a tea shop which looked almost to pretty to be true.







Pavlos

Weight down to 93kg from 102kg six weeks ago. So I have lost 9kg or 20 pounds during this period.

With all the exercise I have been doing my benefit in terms of reducing body fat is probably even better although I have not been tracking this.

Feeling vindicated!

Pavlos

No comment!

"I can resist anything but temptation" 0scar Wilde once wrote.

Last night was my turn to succumb to the tempting charms of some potatoes cooked in garlic, lemon and middle eastern spices at our local Syrian restaurant, where we were celebrating a friend's birthday.

I thought I would have just a small amount but as with all such temptations once you stop resisting, a little bid is almost never enough.

So at 6,6 mmol, I found myself with sugar to burn and time to kill on this public holiday morning. A long walk through the grounds of my favorite monastery the obvious answer to both.

I love mornings like today when dazzling morning sunshine seemingly sets the remnants of the previous night's rain ablaze. The whole scenery a continuously shifting interplay of light and shade, glistening pearls of moisture everywhere.









By the time I returned home, twelve kilometers and two and a half hours later, my levels were down to 5,5.

Giving in to temptation on the odd rare occasion may not be such a bad thing, it certainly relieves frustration.

Trick is not to overdo it!

Pavlos

douglas99 said:

I wouldn't worry at 6.6 after a meal.

Click to expand...

@douglas99

I agree and would not be concerned either with a 6,6 post prandial count either but 6,6 was my morning fasting level today.

Again, within NICE recommended range and probably not a major cause for concern but I do like to be under 6 normally.

Ironically, before going to bed last night I was at 5,4, but I am not sure how long after the meal that was. Dinner was a long drawn out affair with different courses being served for us to share at different times.

Anyway as long as I am generally well controlled, I try to stay under 6 pre prandial and 6,7, I am not concerned by any one wayward count.

In general, I want to control my diabetes but I do not want my life to become all about my diabetes, so I am prepared to cut myself some slack.

I did the extra exercise this morning to make sure I did not get too far off course though.

I woke up early this morning, tested my blood; a very satisfactory 5,2 mmol; and set out on my walk in time to catch this glorious sunrise.



I admired the rising sun considering what a hope giving sight it is; like God himself keeping a Holy Covenant with man.

Is it any wonder that early man, with no fire or other means of artificial illumination to break the night's dark, worshiped the Sun as a God?



The ancient Greeks considered fire (and the light it brings) the exclusive property of the Gods. So much so, that they imagined that when Prometheus stole fire from the Gods to gift to man by hiding a spark inside a giant fennel stalk, Zeus became so enraged with Prometheus that he banished him to suffer the most horrible of eternal torture: to be chained at the top of a remote mountain where he would have his liver eaten by an eagle, only for Prometheus, an immortal, to grow a new liver each night for the eagle to dine on the next day.

How like being cast in a world full of darkness, full of terrors both real and imagined, being first diagnosed with diabetes is.

And how like being given the gift of fire is the sharing of knowledge about how to fight this disease.

A fight, much like the rising sun's journey, we all must begin anew each morning.



Pavlos