Life after burnout

Good morning all

Sugars at 100mg (5,6 mmol) this morning. Happy enough with that, though it would be nice to dip below the psychological 100mg barrier every now and then.

Just finished my 4,25 km morning walk and I am making sure to drink lots of water to replace that lost to sweat. In fact I am determined to put the theory that the reason I was having the symptoms I was describing yesterday is insufficient water intake.

It's almost the weekend and I have a good one to look forward to. Going to our summer house by the beach in Protaras again Friday but what I am excited about is a day trip I have planned with a FB group on Saturday. We are going to the Karpas peninsula, which is a remote undeveloped peninsula in the far north east of Cyprus (the pan handle on the map of Cyprus), full of ancient churches and unspoilt beaches. Only challenge is we have to take packed food with us so I will have to think of something appropriate to take along now that sandwiches are out of the question.

Have a nice day everyone.

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I was tempted to leave my walk until this evening when I will be in Protaras, a walk by the beach is after all infinitely more attractive than walking in Nicosia.

The view of the sun rising over my neighbor's roof got my out on the track though.

Another 4,25 km under the belt therefore.

I also got my wish for a fasting count below 100mgdl (5.6 mmol) , today I was at 91mgdl (5.1 mmol). Silly that this should make me happy but it did.

Probably it's the effect of all the extra water I have been drinking! I can't say it has cured all other symptoms but I will persevere with it. If nothing else the kidneys must be appreciating it!

I am not sure if this is the right season for pomegranate trees to be in bloom but I came across one that was today



Have a great Friday everybody.



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A month ago when I bought these trowsers they fit me perfectly. Now they are a couple of inches two big around the waist.



Just about every other pair I own are an even bigger size!

I am putting my faith in belts to ensure my modesty.

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Amazing day yesterday.

If anyone had told me I would spend a day driving four complete strangers for free, over ten hours and over 400 .

Yet that is exactly what I did and loved it.

Will write more details later but for now here are some photos







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I am aware that I have not posted many photographs from Saturday's trip but I will save these for another day this week.

Instead here are some photos from this morning.

I forfeited my morning swim in order to save time for two quick stops/visits during my drive back to Nicosia and work.

The first was at a location known as sea caves in Cavo Greko,


a small national park area between Protaras and the nearby busy and infamous tourist hot spot of Agia Napa.



My reward was that I had the place entirely by myself, not another sole around





Not surprisingly, this is known as the "sea window"

I noticed some fossils on the rocks







While the play of the surf on the rocks was as always a multisensory delight





My second stop, was even briefer and also involved a rock formation, the natural footbridge on the outskirts of Agia Napa itself that has come to be known, for the benefit of the tourists one suspects, as "love bridge".






As for the diabetes, things seem to be progressing well, yesterday I had my first sub 5 fasting count a 4,8 and weight is down to 87,2 kg (a loss of 3 kg since 8 August). I am now only 2kg away from a "healthy" bmi.

Have a great day and rest of the week everyone.

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Min min our calico cat posing shamelessly as I set out for my morning walk.

I made an earlier start today and it worked out well as I did by far my best time

I left my glucose meter at the office yesterday so no fasting count today.

I have been experimenting a bid with my medication.

After increasing my metformin initially from 2*850 daily to the maximum dosage of 3*850 on starting to watch my glucose levels (not as crazy as it sounds as the doctor had put me on 3 at some point in the past buy I cut it back to 2 with his consent), I have for the last week cut back to 2 with seemingly no adverse effect on my readings.

I have also taken myself off my blood pressure medication. Since I have been monitoring my BP and it seems steady at 110/75. I will keep monitoring.

To be honest I reduced both as I thought perhaps they were part of the reason I was struggling with low carb diet.

Have not raised up the courage to either do a proper blood test or see my doctor.
Building up to it!

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And I still have not told you about my trip on Saturday!

Partly this is because I don't know how to describe why it was such a special trip to me. At least not without going into a long discussion of Cyprus history and politics and of the Cyprus problem, which I am reluctant to do in a forum such as this.

Suffice to say, that all the places I visited were for decades and until only a few years ago completely inaccessible to me, which naturally served to make their appeal all the greater.



Also the monastery of Apostolos Andreas pictured at the tip of the peninsula has always been a place of pilgrimage for Cypriots - in the past they would travel for days to reach it. That I would be there on the second anniversary of my dad's passing and I could have memorial prayers for his soul. I can't say I am very religious but this was still important to me.

The Karpaz peninsula is known as the peninsula of the Saints and the reason for this is simple, it has a very high number of important and historic churches.

One such church that we visited was that of Panagia Kanakaria in the village of Lythrangomi, originally built in the 6th century but rebuilt in the 10th.

The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and is famous for its beautiful wallpainting and mosaics.

Unfortunately it was heavily looted with many of the mosaics stolen by a Turkish Art smuggler. Fortunately these have been recovered and are now in the Byzantine museum in Nicosia

Remnants of mosaics left in the church





Mural of the Virgin Mary above main entrance



More murals



Detail of the ceiling








On to the next village and back even further in time to a 2000 year old tomb carved in bear rock. Cyprus is like that history in layers one on top of the other



And then on to the coast, this particular one seemingly made of marble!







We drive on to the monastery where we feed carrots to the wild donkeys who have learned to shamelessly beg treats from passing tourists







Now were you too distracted by the donkey to pay attention to the beach in the background. Here it is then, just breathtaking, literally so





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More, lots more of the beach later but for now we move to the very tip of the cape, the easternmost part of Cyprus (and Europe) with its rocky coastline, ridiculously gorgeous waters and rocky islets that serve as seabird sanctuaries.









Back past more beautiful scenery





For an afternoon spend swimming in the sandy beach I showed earlier



















I never saw so much sand, so empty.


And finally a race against time to catch the sunset from the top of a hill back at the foot of the peninsula before heading back home.








A 400km, 10 hour drive of pure heaven

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No walk today as right knee is giving me some trouble. Saying this makes me feel really old but if my body is giving me a warning there is no point ignoring it. I will try resting it today and hopefully I will be able to resume tomorrow.



Another photo from my Karpasia trip.

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Right knee is no longer giving me any pain but decided not to risk a walk today just the same; wife is off to Greece for a girls' only long weekend and was up at 4:30 am for this, waking me up in the process, so a bit of extra sleep was welcome.

Which all means that I will have a whole weekend in sole care of my son; time for some father son bonding, if I can get him away from his PlayStation.

Sugars continue to behave and were at 100mg/dl (5,6 mmol) this morning.

According to my scales, I weigh 86,4 this morning, which, if correct (I have my doubts), makes my bmi 25,5, only 0,5 above the normal rate.

I note with satisfaction that one important side effect of knowing that my glucose levels are under control at the moment is that I am no longer scared of weight loss.

I now know it is a sign if my newfound discipline rather than of diabetes wreaking havoc on my body.

Have a great day all!

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I convinced myself that I had to get back
walking again and I am really pleased I did.

Today was the first day it felt like I was walking like my old self again, more freely, less out of breath and feeling that there was always more in the gas tank if I wanted to push it. Definetely a good feeling.

Hopefully my level of aerobic fitness is improving (mind you, when you start at the bottom the only way is up).

My times for the walk are showing a steady improvement anyway which is always pleasing to see and good for motivation

.


Out of curiosity, I weighed myself before and after the walk. The difference was a surprising and significant one kilogram (2 pounds). That's a lot of fluids!



Weekend coming up so one more reason to be cheerful

Enjoy everyone!

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There is always a silver lining in every cloud they say, you just have to keep your eyes open for it.

My original plan was to head out to our summer house and the sea yesterday afternoon. But my son put a stop to this by announcing he was spending the day yesterday at a friend's house and then on getting back home that a group of them had arranged to go see a film at the cinema. He can be a bit of a loner, he is an only child and has always been more mature than his peers, so I want to encourage him to socialise more.

So trip to the seaside has been put back to today.

And where is the silver lining?

All this gave me time for an extra long walking session this morning 9km instead of my usual 4km over an hour fifty minutes instead of my usual forty five.

And I had time to head to my favorite walking spot, the grounds and gardens of nearby Kykkos monastery, a real oasis of green and tranquility in the urban jungle of Nicosia.

I had to start early of course, 6:00 AM before sunrise actually







The photos are from an olive orchard on the way to the monastery caught in the pre dawn glow.

The orchard actually belongs to the monastery and is probably now one of the prime bids of real estate worth millions being one of the few remaining big pieces of undeveloped land in the centre of town.

Sugars at a very satisfactory 5,4 mmol/l, this morning

Have a great weekend all

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Managed to convince my son to join me in exploring the bay next to "our bay", so that added another forty minutes walking followed by some swimming/soaking in the sea.

What we found is a couple of small but very crowded beaches, a small fishing boat harbour









and some interesting rock formations.








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Up early again today for a chance to photograph the sunrise and swim in the tranquil dawn sea.



So early I actually beat everybody to the beach, even the Germans See not a towel in sight



Only other people there were some fishermen







The water was almost transparent in its clarity



Another solitary swimmer arrived and set himself up at the beach







Swimming done I headed back to the house and some waiting breakfast





Sugars at a happy 5,4 by the way

Have a great Sunday

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Managed my first glucose count in the fours today, a pre-lunch 4,9.

Amazing how something as trivial as that matters to me but it did make me happy to see it!

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It's actually my twenty second wedding anniversary today.



My wife and I have found a novel way of spending it, in separate countries, I in Cyprus, she in Greece.

To be fair she is flying back today and will be joining me and our son very soon, all things going well.

Had to find a way to entertain myself, while I waited for my son to wake up this morning so I decided to head back to Cape Greko exploring again.

First stop, was when this wild flower caught my attention growing at the side of the road. Oddly it seemed to have no leaves just stem and flower growing straight out of the ground. Odd but beautiful.









Next a natural footbridge known as Crow's bridge



And finally on to my intended destination, a place I remembered from my school years and learning to scuba dive: the Chappel and cave of Agioi Anargyroi



























And my wife just landed...

Drove back to Nicosia this morning but not before getting up at the crack of dawn for yet another of my beloved early morning swims











My morning fasting level was a slightly high 6,7 but by the time I finished from my swim it was down to a much more pleasing 5,4

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I did make time this morning for some more exploring of the nearby area.

In particular I decided to go explore what looks like a pile of rubble on top of the stone wall in the distance.



I know this to be a neolithic settlement but it is fenced off (for its own protection) and I had never visited it up close.







Somehow I managed to overlook the fact that the fence and the locked gate were there for a good reason, to keep out people like me.



In my defense, I was extremely careful not to step on anything even remotely significant and leave everything just exactly as it was.

To my untrained eye it looked quite fascinating. Looked like a main enclosure defended by an outer perimeter thick defence wall containing a number of smaller circular buildings. Of course only the bottom parts of the walls survived but baring in mind that this thing is several thousands of years old we can not ask for more!











I have no idea what they used these carved stones for but there was a few of them about





It would be nice if a way was found to safely exhibit this area, perhaps using elevated glass corridor, rather than just having it fenced off.

Some information about what exactly this is would also be very useful.



As it happens I recognised some features from visiting a similar though much larger neolithic settlement elsewhere in Cyprus in a place called Chirokitia.

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