Sarah Barker

The self-directed professional developement course CPD23 Things has started again this year albeit at a slower pace than last year.  I completed last year in with a mix of highs and lows and got a shiny certificate to add to my folder and to brag about. 

So why revisit?  Well I really enjoyed the group support, camaraderie and buzz about the course.  It was fun (and at times frustrating!) to explore new things, but some of the Things I couldn’t spend a huge amount of time playing with due to lack of time, lack of inclination in some cases! and for some the fail of technology, either my laptop, which is seriously old and decrepid, or work technology being on an old browser, notably IE and IE7 at that.  So I thoughtI would revisit my cpd23 blog posts and see if I can up date them, give a bit of reflection on them.  I think it might be useful for others venturing into the world of cpd23 to see what we did too.  And to provide help and support to anyone who needs it.

So this was my post for Thing 1 http://sarahgb.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/thing-1-here-we-go/ and for Thing 2 http://sarahgb.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/thing-2-where-we-get-to-go-visiting/ and I can still say I am an inconsistant blogger.  I have lots of ideas for blog posts but just not the time to do them, which I am working on.  Since CPD23 I do follow a lot more blogs and have subscribed to some of them so I get email notifications when they are updated.  This does save a lot of time.  I tend to visit other people’s blogs if it appears in their twitter bio.

I regularly read these blogs and note, not all of these are library people.  I don’t read the “newspapers” that appear on the twitter timeline because, despite network updates, I still can’t access them!

• The World according to Sog  
• The World according to Kate
• Thoughts from the Window
• The Lovely Librarian
• Joeyanne Libraryanne 
• Phil Bradley’s weblog
• Juniper’s Jungle
• Alyson’s Welsh Libraries Blog
• The Hobbit Hole
• Tina’s Library Related Stuff

There are other blogs but I tend to read them when people post a new blogpost link.  Since CPD23 I have set up more personal blogs to document my personal life and journey.  The main one being NoCakeforSarah which has been sadly neglected of late and really needs me to update it. And the same for my sketching blog Sketches from a Silk Box which is really neglected.  Must do better!!  Comes back to that old chestnut, not enought time in the day.

My life seems to be on “permanent catch-up” mode at the moment.  Project deadlines, new things on the horizon, trip away bookings, studying and of course, not to mention blogging, exercising, and reading.

Give something up! I hear you cry, but all of this is self imposed, well most of it.  I have lots of excuses why I can’t do things, like, the laptop keeps crashing, I’m tired/cold/hungry/fed up, the sun’s shining, the cat’s sitting on my work or more recently “I don’t understand/I can’t do this.”

But these are mere excuses, procrastination, anything other than actually sitting down and planning what I need to do.  Which is why this weekend I Really need to sit down and plan what I’m doing with deadlines.  Which is why I’m sitting writing a blog post about how I’m feeling and not actually planning anything!

I thoroughly blame access to the internet, twitter, facebook (I’ll just have one more go with Words with Friends and then I’ll get down to it, becomes a half hour bonanza with 3 friends and getting no flipping vowels and really! how many Zs are there in a match).

And don’t even mention the washing, ironing, cleaning and getting the house ready for a friend to visit later in the month!  I used to be so good at planning, knuckling down and getting things done.  It’s all a bit up in the air these days.  Is it taking on too many things?  am I over reaching my abilities? or am I just really too tired and can’t be bothered?  My brain says “go for it” and my body and state of mind says “forget it! it’s too hard”.  Somewhere there is a happy medium, I just need to get my mojo back and this weekend is it.

I’ll just have a cup of tea first ……

yes! finally Friday, I don’t work weekends and after a loooooong week I’ll be glad of the rest.

Very cold today, not helped by students leaving the LRC entrance doors open despite notices.  Flurry of excitement this morning as our Internet Safety Awareness events kicked off with a visit by our Assembly Member, Lesley Griffiths.  She enjoyed sitting in with the first session and stopped by to chat to the students taking part in Challenge Africa.  They are fundraising for an educational trip to South Africa.  It’s a fantastic opportunity for them.

The day pretty much consisted of normal duties with issues and returns etc.  Talked to a couple of students about the Express Yourself Exhibition.  Showed students how to use the photocopier.

In the afternoon, set our work experience student the task of sorting out our overdues and tidying up borrower records.  After a tutorial using our Library Management system and then observing, I was confident she knew what she was doing and happy to come and ask when something other than what she was told cropped up.

Dealt with a number of ILL requests through our Linc y Gogledd scheme.  One a request for us to supply a book and the other 6 requests for us to get books from our partner organisations.  One of the these we can supply from our own catalogue but as an e-book from ebrary.  As the student will be accessing the e-book from home they will need an Athens username and password, so I set one up for them and emailed them details and instructions.

The last hour was spent putting finishing touches to notices being sent out, letters, making sure all laptops, netbooks and ipads were returned and on charge ready for the following week.

So that was Library day in the life Round 8.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Oh, and don’t forget tomorrow February 4th is National Libraries Day.  Get out there and visit your local library.  It’s not just books you know.  You’ll be amazed at what goes on in libraries these days.  Go and ask a Librarian.  They know everything about anything.  Have fun

Ffffffreezing cold day, and I mean seriously cold.  First time ever that I’ve worn my woolly scarf all day at work.

Morning was spent tutoring and supporting our work experience student while she started to take on basic duties.  She’ll be fine once she works out what the students are saying.  We all reassured her that it wasn’t her, that we found students hard to decipher at times too.  Students do have a habit of mumbling!!!

This afternoon was spent on the top floor of the LRC. This is the quiet study floor.  I managed to tweet about the afternoon but the following encapsulates what I did.

• tackled the 900s shelving, which also included tidying up and reshelving after students had “attacked” Russian history!
• Filled staplers with staples.
• caught up with emails.  Particularly interested in one from Quick Reads.  We ordered reading sets of each new 2012 book which we use with community reading groups.  Liked the title of one of the new books “Quantum of Tweed“.
• Researched our current staff reading group book “Crooked Little Vein” for ideas that I can use when we meet next to discuss the book.
• Spent time looking at Gardners Independent Book shops website www.hive.co.uk  with a view to discussing further with manager about launching our bookshop on there.  Listed advantages and disadvantages from users perspective and from a bookseller perspective.  On paper it looks really advantageous.  But needs a lot more discussion.

No late night on a Thursday which meant herding people out of the LRC by 5pm.  On such a cold night there were a few reluctant stragglers but my colleague and I were away by 5.05pm.

Treated myself to a Chai Latte from Cafe Nero and an Apple and Pecan nut muffin.  Very naughty but I’ll run it off over the weekend!

Friday tomorrow and one of two Internet Safety Awareness training day events.  Lots of stuff to do which means it will be really busy.

Today has been so busy I had no time to attend to any major tweeting for #libday8.  This morning was spent putting the finishing touches to the Express Yourself exhibition and also manning the desk.  This afternoon was spent trying to set up the audiovisual aspects of the exhibition.  Needless to say this was fraught with setbacks but utilising my ninja librarian skills meant it worked eventually.  Again this was while also manning the desk.

It’s always interesting to read about other librarians’ days working on enquiry desks/counters, issue desks, reference desks etc.  There are so many names for so many desks serving so many functions.  Our LRC has 3 floors.  The top floor has a desk where whoever is manning it looks after computer bookings for that floor, can help with search enquiries, printing issues and password resets.  Any requests for issues need to be sent to the ground floor.  The same can be said for the two desks on the middle floor.  The desk on the ground floor is where it all happens.  Pretty much all traffic coming into the LRC is seen by the staff at the ground floor desk.  It’s a large wraparound desk which was installed over a year ago.  It’s a great desk because it’s bright, it’s funky and best of all, it has no obstructive upper part to it so we can see everything that goes on and the LRC users can see us too.  It’s a very open aspect.

Any type of query you care to suggest will have been dealt with by the ground floor desk at some point or other.  Along with all the usual library enquiries we will also get broader enquiries about college in general, transport enquiries, course enquiries, directions to anywhere in College.  It gets manic at times and the noise levels can go through the roof.  It takes a special kind of person to be able to work the ground floor desk.  You need to be able to multitask, think quickly on your feet and diffuse situations before they arise.

In winter the ground floor desk is the coldest place in College.  It is directly adjacent to the doors to the foyer, and consequently to the doors to the outside.  Every few minutes we get up and close all the doors to stop the Siberian blast of wind that whistles through the wind tunnel created by people leaving all the doors open.  If you are working on our ground floor desk in winter you need to double up the layers.

It’s also interesting to see how other institutions rota staff on their desks.  Me? well my job is Desk Services and I run the ground floor desk.  I’m there at 8.30am and I leave at 5.00pm.  I have a short break in the morning and in the afternoon (sometimes not).  I get an hours lunch.  I do this 5 days a week.  After some gruelling days it is so relaxing to get on the bus and just close my eyes.  Or plug in some relaxing music and just unwind.  The sheer volume of traffic that we get through on the ground floor desk can be overwhelming and thoroughly draining.  Add to all that the need to maintain peace and harmony on the floor.  Keeping noise levels down, reminding students  that no food is allowed anymore, and that certain behaviour is not acceptable.  Patience and tolerance levels can get tested and that’s when you need to step away from the desk, step outside, go for a walk or get a coffee.

Recently I’ve managed to get a couple of afternoons away from the ground floor desk and man the topfloor desk.  This is the floor for quiet study.  It’s a refreshing change from the hustle and bustle of the ground floor.  Here I can look after my area of responsibility, the 900s.  Check condition, shelving and stock levels.  I can also take the time to catch up on projects I am currently working on.  Projects that hopefully will be taken up and improve the teaching and learning of both students and tutors in College.

So that’s pretty much what I do in general terms.  I man a very busy desk which gives out every and any information, help and guidance that is asked of it, I do this 7 hours a day, 5 days a week (with 2 half days in the quiet zone for good behaviour).

Uneventful ride into work on the bus, but arrived at work in freezing conditions.  Left my scarf on and my fingerless gloves and hugged a heater for most of the morning.

Today was a day of two halves.

First half was spent tutoring our lovely work experience person on all things to do with desk management, which included returns, issues and renewals, housekeeping, PC bookings using MyPC, print credit topups and password resets.  Also stock maintenance for our bookshop including ordering.  Printer maintenance and collection points for LRC post and papers.  I could see her eyes glazing over by about 11am.  Tomorrow I’ll be observing and she will be doing.

Second half – some time was spent in the basement checking on the condition of the Express Yourself exhibits and associated notes.  Also trying to match what was there with the inventory downloaded from the website.  Some of the exhibits are truly magnificent, very creative.  I only hope our students will appreciate the creativity and workmanship that has gone into the making of some of these.  Anyway, brought everything up to the ground floor and started laying out the exhibits, changing my mind, rearranging and starting again.  By 4.30 I was pretty happy with the layout and started on all the labelling.  Also decided that some of the information needs to be reprinted and refreshed, so I’ll work on that tomorrow.  Hopefully by the afternoon everything will look great and that I have done enough to do the exhibition justice.

More fun capers with me tomorrow.

Yes it’s that time of year again.  A chance to let non-library folk catch a glimpse of what we do all day.  Hint – it’s not all shelving and stamping books!  It’s now Library Day in the Life round 8 and this will be my fifth foray into the project.  My previous encounters were all blogged, twittered and last year photographed.  Just use the search term librarydayinthelife and you’ll find them including links.

Briefly, I work in an FE (Further Education) College library.  It’s spread over 3 floors and is a noisy, vibrant popular space with the students.  There is never a dull moment and we need to know everything about anything, provide support from paperclips to IT technical advice and no, we’re not the IT department!    My job is that of a Senior Librarian and I’m in charge of Desk Services.  The first point of contact when students and staff come in.  I manage procedures, complaints, noise levels, infractions and well, pretty much anything that crops up throughout the day.  The ability to think quickly on your feet and come up with solutions at the drop of a hat are essential.  A sense of humour, thick skin and a broad back are also essential tools of the trade.  I have a number of extra projects and responsibilities which include digital resources, reader development and current awareness.

So today I tweeted pretty much everything I did from the mundane to the rather exciting.  The mundane being normal routine everyday library things such as issuing and returning books, renewals, computer bookings, topping up print credits and resetting passwords, issuing laptops, netbooks and ipads, restocking paper in the printer and photocopiers, replacing ink cartridges in printers and toner in photocopiers.

The rather more exciting was

• welcoming our work experience staff from Germany and Spain and showing them what we do.  They are going to be with us for a few weeks and are a welcome extra pair of hands.  They both seemed to enjoy their first day and are returning tomorrow.  Always a good sign!
• receiving the exhibits for “Express Yourself” exhibition.  We will be hosting this exhibition for all of February and it is the last chance for everyone to see these wonderful exhibits all in one place.  It’s done a year long tour throughout Wales and after a few weeks here in Yale will be disbanded and all the exhibits returned to their owners.  I can’t wait to get it all unpacked and set up ready for Wednesday.  The logistics of where to place everything is already proving challenging!
• received new banners and posters for our SMART Internet

  SMART banners promoting Internet Safety Awareness

  Safety Awareness week.  We’ve run this before and will continue to do so pretty frequently.  This year we have badges (made by my own fair hand) available, quizzes and a number of workshops for groups of students.  It’s an essential part of service we provide, making sure everyone stays safe online and to recognise the dangers and pitfalls of oversharing information online.

So that was today.  Tomorrow will throw up its own set of challenges.  Noteably, exhibition logistics, overdue reminders and the banning of students, and the location of the key for the cupboard where the Kindles are stored!  Join me

Finally in a position to get this honours part of my BSc degree done and dusted.  Started a course 18 months ago but various trials beset me so I had to cancel.  Anyway, hitting the dirt running with Evolution course.  Bit of a departure for me but hoping I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew.  Only time will tell.

So, what does S366 involve?  Well here is the course description on the OU website.  I can’t improve on the OU explanation!  If you are ever looking to do an OU course I highly recommend reading student comments (if you’re lucky there are sometimes tutor comments too). These are from past students and give a good indication of the course and any problems.

So far I have had course materials and a DVD with gorgeous flamingoes on the cover.  A book called “Evolution” which has an associated website which is really cool.  The companion text which is the course text and looks really well illustrated with colour plates. And a home kit comprising over 30 fossil casts of Brachiopods and measuring callipers oh and a magnifying lens.

These look really interesting and will no doubt provide many hours of fun measuring the brachiopods and probably cats too.

So although the course doesn’t officially start until 4th Feb, I’m getting familiar with all the tools and making a start.  I have my pens ready, fresh notepad and oodles of enthusiasm.  Just finishing off blog posts, catching up with twitter, taking a few photos and I’m sure it’s nearly time for a cuppa and damn! it’s nearly lunchtime already!  Procrastination.  Love it

I haven’t made any New Year resolutions this year, and I’m not going to.  Made a load last year and didn’t stick to any of them.  Instead I have a number of “projects”.  Some of these are a continuation of things I did last year, some are a completion of things started some time ago and some are new, exciting and slightly scary!  So what are they?

• Photography – continuation of taking a photograph everyday with flickr group 2012 Photo a day challenge.  Thinking about what I photograph with new group Friday Photos 2012, centred around a weekly theme and Elite Bugs. I’m hoping to improve my macro photography and skills in photographing things that scurry a lot.
• Health and wellbeing – continuing with my exercising particularly running.  To lose the rest of the weight that needs to come off, decrease my HbA1C levels to normal, lower cholesterol even more and lower blood pressure.  To run more races.  My first is in March.
• To finish what I started – namely my Honours degree.  My last course is imminent S366 Evolution.  All the stuff has arrived, still waiting for the Home kit of fossils (squeeeeeee).  Looking forward to completing it, then booking the awards ceremony.  Who’s free early 2013 for my graduation ceremony?
• Learn something new – after reading an inspirational book by Michael Nobbs, I am now attempting a sketch a day and am recording it at my new blog Sketches from a Silk Purse.  The other new thing to learn is code.  This is the scary bit.  My mind doesn’t really work logically (well I don’t think it does) but loads of people I follow on Twitter are attempting it too.  We get an email a week and work through lessons at our own pace.  I’ve signed up to the website too which means I can look at the lessons in advance.  I’ve done a few and now I’m stuck.  So I’m going to have to go through them again and this time pay attention!
• Have fun – self explanatory really.  Days out, weekends away, you  know the drill.

So there we have it.  2012 “Project Year”.

I awoke this morning to the sad news that my favourite author had passed away.  Anne McCaffrey.  She was 85 years old and an author known for her Dragonriders of Pern series and “The Ship who Sang”.  Just a small portion of the sheer volume of work she produced.  She was also a past winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards. The Huffington Post have a look back on her life here.

I own nearly all her earlier work, and have read all her books thanks to various public libraries.  Some of my favourites are shown in the above picture and I have an Anne McCaffrey bookcase.

My first read of Anne McCaffrey was “Dragonsong”.  I was instantly attracted to the cover illustration which showed an incredible Dragon with two people riding on it.  Inside the blurb read:

Death Rained from the Sky

Thread!  Fear rooted her to the ground.  If only she could run fast enough to stay beyond the reach of it.  She ran, one eye on the Dragon Stones, one for the ground ahead of her feet.  She heard the whoosh, heard the fire lizards’ startled chirrups, saw the shadow and fell to the ground, covering her head instinctively with her hands, her body taut for the first feel of flesh-scoring Thread.  She smelt fire-stone, and felt the air heavy against her body.  ”Get on your feet, you silly fool! and hurry.”  Incredulously, Menolly looked up, right into the whirling eyes of a brown dragon …

I was hooked, who wouldn’t be, Dragons, Fire-Lizards, Thread … what on earth was Thread?  I laughed and cried reading it.  I’ve read it so many times now I know it off by heart.  From there I found the first of the Dragonriders of Pern series and started from the beginning.

Anne McCaffrey rekindled my passion for reading.  The alien landscapes, the fantasy creatures, the strong female leads in the novels, the community, bravery and heroism.  This passion was quenched while studying for A’levels.  It became such a chore reading books and constantly analysing them and in my opinion overthinking what the author meant by certain statements blah, blah, blah.    During the wilderness years after school, reading books was low on my list.  Reading was no longer the fun activity I enjoyed as a child.  Studying English at A’level was traumatic, exacerbated by an awful teacher.  Discovering Anne McCaffrey rekindled that passion.  The fire was lit and I was off on a fantasy ride of my own.

But Anne McCaffrey didn’t just write about Dragonriders, she wrote “The Ship who Sang”, a science fiction story about brainships who sang.  Helva – a “complex, loving, strong, weak, gentle savage – a personality, all woman.”  There are a number of Brainship novels.  The one that always makes me cry is “The Ship who Searched”.  About Tia, a precocious child who contracts a deadly virus, there is no hope, she will always be crippled, but she gets her dream to undergo the transformation into a Brainship.  Who could read the lines Tia speaks to her Ted “It’s not fair, it’s not fair, I never did anything, ” she wept, as Ted watched her tears with round, sad eyes, and soaked them up for her. “It’s not fair.  I wasn’t finished.  I hadn’t even started yet…”  without reaching for the tissues.

Anne McCaffrey created many worlds and communties within several series, Pern and the Brainships were a small part.  There were also “The Talents” series “the elite of the Nine-Star League.  Their gifts were many and varied, ranging from the gently telepathic, to the rare and extremely valued Primes, those whose mental powers were so strong they could shift cargoes across space with their telekinetic abilities.”  

I love all of these in this series, particularly “The Rowan”.  I so wanted a Barque Cat.  I also love the cover illustration.  Glamourous women in stunning costumes.  Fabulous.

And who can forget the wonderful Killashandra Ree.  Perfect pitch, vocal student who is betrayed by her singing tutor Lanzecki which causes her to leave without a backward glance, have an affair with a enigmatic stranger and end up becoming a cutter of crystal and having adventures on Worlds far away from Fuerte.  ”The Crystal Singer” is another firm re-read when things get too much.

More series?  Doona.  Humans populate a supposedly non inhabited planet due to overpopulation on Earth, it’s redneck stuff but they are horrified when they discover that the planet is indeed inhabited by a race of people called Hrrubans.  Heartwarming friendships are solidly formed in this series particularly between the young of the two species Todd and Hrriss.  (Todd being the son of Anne McCaffrey).

And then there are the one offs “Restoree”.  Haunting tale of Humans being snatched by slave trader aliens and “restored”.  The blurb is excellent:

There was a sudden stench of a dead sea creature … there was the horror of a huge black shape closing over her … there was nothing… then there were pieces of memory … isolated fragments that were so horrible her mind refused to accept them … intense heat and shivering cold … excruciating pain … dismembered pieces of the human body … sawn bones and searing screams … and when she awoke she found she was in a world that was not earth, and with a face and body that were not her face and body.  She had become a Restoree …

It is so hard to narrow down favourites within the sheer volume of work that is Anne McCaffrey.  She also co-authored a fair few books too, but here is my attempt at my Top Ten must reads.

1. Dragonquest
2. Dragonsong
3. The White Dragon
4. Get off the Unicorn (short stories that are simply out of this world)
5. The Ship who Sang
6. The Ship who Searched
7. The City who Fought
8. The Crystal Singer
9. The Rowan
10. Restoree

For a full bibliography and more about Anne McCaffrey visit http://www.annemccaffreyfans.org/biblio/index.html or visit her own official website http://pernhome.com/aim/

Finally I’ll leave you with her own sign off:

My eyes are green, my hair is silver, and I freckle.  The rest is subject to change without notice.

Just when you think you’re all set for tackling 2012 head on, WHAM! something else comes along and bites you in the bum.  Or in my case, the gall bladder.

Woke up Saturday morning before last with terrible stomach pain similar to indigestion/heartburn.  In fact that’s what I thought it was.  Took the usual doses of Gaviscon, Neurofen, made a hot water bottle and went back to bed.  Much better in the morning enough to get up and go shopping.  Abdomen bit bloated but no pain, just minor discomfort.  Sunday OK,  Monday went to work, had a hospital appointment for my eye photographs, Diabetic Retinopathy tests etc.

Monday late night/Tuesday morning all came back with a vengeance.  Nothing took away the pain and the discomfort.  So off to Doctors in the morning.  Diagnosed suspected infected gall bladder, possible gall stones.  Dire threats of hospital and to CALL the out of hours if gets worse in night.  Prescriped antibiotics and Zapain painkillers (Paracetamol and Codeine).  Got home took tablets and basically passed out for rest of day.

In the evening, sweaty, clammy, nauseous and actually being sick.  Rang out of hours suspected reaction to Zapain, possibly antibiotics.  Stop taking them, and to see Doctor in the morning.  Back to Doctors feeling very poorly indeed.  No stomach pain, but very distended, killer headache, nauseous.  Got new antibiotics and told to take just paracetamol.  By the nighttime, pain was back, paracetamol on their own have no effect on me.  Rang out of hours again, and told to take ibuprofen on top of paracetamol.  Cracked it.  In fact I dropped the paracetamol all together. I just don’t like it.

The worst part about this is working out what to eat.  Completely off food, but being diabetic, I have to have something otherwise I’ll crash out with the shakes.  I was guzzling water like a fish and basically lived on porridge and digestive biscuits.  A quarter of a biscuit every half hour.  And dry toast.  At one point I even had chicken soup.  It was disgusting!

A week later and I feel fine.  I’ve had a blood test to check for anything nasty and it’s all clear.  I’m waiting now for an Ultrasound scan, which apparently was classed as urgent by the Doctor.  This was nearly two weeks ago.  Food wise I’m pretty much back to eating normally.  Although cheese, sausages and marmite are completely off the menu!  I am drinking much more water though.  I take two bottles of water to work with me and make sure I drink one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  This is on top of cups of tea.

More importantly the running is back on target.  I’ve switched training apps and am using the NHS couch to 5k as it is much more user friendly.  It’s a podcast and has the lovely Laura talking to you.  It also has a great music soundtrack which keeps you on pace.  Lots of motivational phrases too.

I really hope nothing untowards comes out of the scan as I really can’t afford any more set backs.  Of course there is a silver lining in any situation, lost 4lbs last week

Well here we are at the end of yet another year.  I have no idea where most of it has gone!  Years just seem to fly by these days.

2011 has been a year of highs and lows, challenges met and not met and a change in lifestyle.

I’ve had some fantastic trips away with very lovely friends, some real belly laughs and met some extraordinary lovely people.

I’ve also had to endure some pretty awful times too and it’s at times like those that I remember the good times.  Fortunately they outweigh the bad.

My biggest challenge has obviously been adjusting to life after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

I’ve changed my outlook in life, my health comes first and I need to concentrate on keeping healthy and fit.  For me that also means enjoying myself both at home and at work.

This year I’ve achieved a number of targets I set myself, challenging targets but they had to be done.  One was to lower my Blood Haemoglobin levels to below 7% to avoid diabetes medication, the other was to lose weight, a couple of stone.  The photos below show a before and an after.  I still do a double take when I catch site of myself in a mirror.  I still have a fair way to go, some more weight needs to be shed before I’m happy!  But that’s another blog post. Anyway onto the photos.

For me Christmas has always been a mixture of sweets, chocolate, mince pies and cake, lots of cake.  With my no sugar, no cake, no nothing (well, no nothing naughty!) diet I was a bit down about Christmas.

Since being diagnosed with diabetes I haven’t touched sweets of any sort, nor chocolate, and up to a point I don’t really miss these.

At my last visit to the Diabetic Nurse she told me not to worry about Christmas.  Obviously don’t go mad, but the occasional treat is fine.  There will be plenty of time to get back on track.  Which is good news.

She affirmed this today when I mentioned, as she was drawing another pint of blood for my routine HbA1C test, that I’d had a couple of Xmas lunches and a few mince pies, that I did have a few sweeties after a disastrous day at work last week.  I’m still losing weight, still going to the gym and will get back on track with the running after Christmas.  My running schedule has taken a bit of a back seat with the really cold weather.  Unfortunately I find that the cold air really exacerbates my asthma and have had to stop for  a couple of weeks.  It is really annoying the hell out of me! and I really miss it! Anyway, she said not to worry and stop obsessing about results!

The Christmas lunch I had was at the Lemon Tree in Wrexham.  It was absolutely gorgeous and I heartily recommend a visit.  Good service, very friendly staff and a lovely, delicious meal.  For starters I had Sardine Impanate – sardines breaded and baked served on a bed of roasted red onions with side salad.  For my main course I had Agnello al Vino Rosso – Slow roasted Lamb shank in a rich red wine gravy served on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes and for my dessert I had Tiramisu.  Which I found sooooo sweet I could only eat half.  Would have wolfed it down a year ago!

Anyway back to today’s visit.  They are so pleased with my progress, weight loss and health (apart from the Christmas Cold) that if the HbA1C test results are similar to last time or less then my maintenance visits can be scheduled to every 6 months rather than every 3 months.  So keeping my fingers crossed.

As you all know I’ve got into this running and exercise lark.  I’ve been following various “training” regimes for getting into the running habit and some weeks ago I downloaded a running app called “5K Runner”.  There are similar apps about including one by the NHS called “C25K” (Couch to 5K).

Mine states “the start running couch to 5K program will take you from being on the couch, all the way to running 5 Kilometers/3 miles in 8 weeks”.  It is for beginner runners and is gradual, consistent and fun (hold onto that thought FUN).

Each week has 3 runs.  Each run starts with a 5 minute warm up walk, then a series of timed runs and walks for between 20 – 30 minutes followed by a 5 minute cool down walk.

It’s not easy.  In fact at times it’s bloody hard.  I’m also not enjoying running in the dark.  The more I do it, the more I get security aware.  So I’ve taken the decision to continue to run on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings straight from work, but to run between the village boundaries  under street lighting.  Going beyond the boundaries plunges me into total darkness, unless there is a full moon and a clear night.  I’ve tried carrying a small torch but this just gets in the way.  There is the option of wearing a head torch but I still worry about the security issue.

Adding to this I usually attend gym on Saturday and Sunday.  This is becoming a bit of a chore because this takes a whole morning and lunch.  Not the gym sessions, but waiting around for buses.  So Saturday is my allotted gym day and Sunday is now a running day.

I did my first Sunday outing today.  Normally I do half, turn round and head on back for the other half.  Today I did the whole run then turned back home and did my own thing which was mostly power walking with a few flat out 1 minute runs thrown in for good measure.  It was freezing cold, with freezing fog but it was light and at 8am it was very quiet too.  I covered about 8k in an hour.

Got home and had a lovely long hot shower followed by a second breakfast.

Next Sunday I shall be wearing my gloves and remembering to go to the toilet before my run!!!

The app I use is a good app, but I’m a bit worried about next week as the incremental increases jump from 1.5 mins to 2.5 mins running.  I think I need to work on the 1.5 mins for a few weeks longer!

A funny thing – certain running books are all very helpful with lots of advice and encouragement.  But the funniest thing I have read so far is “No huffing and puffing allowed on your run”.  WHAT!  Apparently if you are breathing heavily, and puffing then you are running to fast.  You need to slow down.  Well if I did that I would be walking.  I think a lot of books make a lot of assumptions about people taking up running.  I’m still two stone overweight and asthmatic.  Running up hills near kill me, but I take it slow and steady and huff and puff a LOT.  I also shout at the man telling me when to walk and when to run.  I’m sure his timing is off and he makes me run longer than I have to!

Saturday is Gym day.  The bus leaves at 9.45 am and I catch the 12.30 bus back.  I chose to go to the Gym today so this leaves me with an extra hour to either lie in bed tomorrow or watch the Indian GP.

I got ready, made myself a sandwich, got some grapes as well as my seeds and nuts container.  A heavy workout always makes me hungry.  Bundled myself up with lots of layers including gloves and fleecy, thermal hat.  Armed with rucksack and bus pass I headed down the hill towards the A5 and the bus stop.

I stood at the bus stop and waited, and waited, and waited, and thought “Not again” thinking the bus wouldn’t turn up.  At 9.55 a red car drives past towards Corwen, slows down, stops and then reverses back up to me.  The driver, a lady with daughter, hangs out the window and announces that the road is blocked by an overturned lorry and the road has been closed.  The bus won’t be able to get through.  Great!

Then she asked where I was going, I told her Corwen and she offered me a lift.  Which was extremely kind.  I took the lift.  She said she noticed me when she drove past the other way to get into Llangollen and didn’t want me to be hanging around all day waiting for a bus that wasn’t going to come.

She dropped me off in the middle of Corwen and headed on her way to Llangollen over the HorseShoe Pass.  I headed off to the gym not really thinking how I was going to get home, because it will all have been cleared by then, won’t it?????

The workout was good.  I’m still amazed that the more I push and achieve, the easier and quicker my body adapts itself.  I use the time when working out to think.  Today’s thinking included when to run.  I run in the evenings but find it a bit scary and dark (obviously) and this weekend the clocks go back making it even more dark.  One suggestion is to run early morning, but this would mean I’d have to get up really early to run, get back, shower and then still do everything else I need to do before going to work.  Something to think about and mull over.

While thinking and rowing I noticed a police car and ambulance rush past the gym, followed by a council lorry with a load of signs in the back.  Two men get out of the lorry and proceed to place “Road Closed” signs and “Diversion” signs at the junction.  Uh Oh I thought, this does not bode well for my journey home.

Having finished up my workout, I had a quick chat to the lads on reception and they confirmed that the A5 was still closed and all traffic was being diverted.  For bus users along the A5 between Llangollen and Corwen, this means forget it.  The buses drop off and pick up at Corwen but divert over the Horse Shoe Pass to get to Llangollen completely missing out all villages and stops along the A5.  Effectively stranding those without alternative means of transport.

Walking down to Corwen town centre I rang Rowland who confirmed everything as he’d heard on the radio.  I resigned myself to walking home, which was OK, I had water, food, warmth but I didn’t have a waterproof coat, which was a bugger because it looked like it was going to pee down with rain.

I upped the pace, got into Corwen centre and thought, I’ll just call into the bus terminal and double check and met my next door neighbour coming out the carpark.  He stopped and told me about the road closure and the fact there would be no buses and “You’re getting a lift with me”.  Which was the best news I’ve heard in a long time.  In fact by getting a lift with Brian, I was home half an hour earlier than if I’d caught the bus.  And I got to eat my packed lunch in front of a roaring fire sharing my tuna sandwich with the lovely Emmy.

I’d like to thank both the lady stranger and my lovely neighbour for their acts of kindness today.  You are both mega superstars

As I get more into running and walking as a fitness regime, I find myself thinking about more challenges.  On my other blog I’ve been working through a “23 things” aimed at Continual Professional Development and the latest one has been looking at your strengths, weaknesses, goals, achievements etc.

Hearing and reading about other people signing up for races and runs got me thinking.  I know, it’s a bit of a worry all this thinking malarkey!

I’ve been thinking that 5K is pretty much what I’m doing now.  Albeit a mixture of walking and running.  With a lot of hard work and determination I could run that by next year.  So with a click of a button I search for 5K races early next year and this one caught my eye St David’s Day 5K, Cardiff.

Before I knew it I’d registered …. eeek, no backing out now.  Plans for the weekend have been sorted with a place to crash out with a lovely librariany friend, who is also a non-runner member of Team Flamingo, and the third member will be coming down too for flamingo fun, frivolity and much needed support.

I’ve also decided to see if I can raise some money for the charity Diabetes UK and have set up a fund raising page.  Diabetes UK is the largest funder of diabetes research.

My fund raising page is called sarahgb’s mad dash round Cardiff and tells you a bit about me, my blog feed and the chance for you to donate online should you so wish.  Get those donations coming.  It really does make a difference

Those of you who follow me on twitter will know the results I had were excellent for my latest HbA1C test.  It came in as 51 mmol/mol which equates to 6.8% which puts me in the green zone.  My diabetic nurse was overjoyed.  Her advice? to keep doing what I’m doing because it’s working.

But why the excitement.  By keeping your blood sugar below 7% means it is well controlled by diet and exercise.  There is no need for any medication.  This is my main goal, my main target to combating the effects of diabetes.  No medication.

To celebrate I did have a little bit of cake and my weekend away saw me having two wonderful meals out with lovely friends.  But that was last week and now I’m working on new targets.

1. to lose another stone before the next diabetic clinic which is just before christmas.
2. to bring my HbA1C levels down even more.
3. to work on improving my cholesterol and blood pressure levels.
4. to keep up with gym sessions.
5. to improve interval training with my walkyruns.

Today was my second visit to the Diabetic Nurse.  The trip itself was a journey of a number of buses, notably the number 5 and the number X94.

Suffice to say she was ecstatic about the weight loss, ecstatic about the base level results and can hardly wait for the next set of results.  Her excitement was contagious.

We had a good chat about my exercising, laughed about road running in full view of traffic and discussed the merits of flu vaccinations.

Blood pressure was taken and was less than before.  Weight was taken and again was less than before.

Blood was taken for the HbA1C test.  This was done at my last visit and my results fell in the Good zone

It would be much better to be in the Excellent zone and both I and my Diabetic Nurse are hopeful the results will show this.  The test measures your average blood glucose level over 2-3 months and with the weight loss and diet change I’m keeping my fingers crossed I’m in the green zone.

Results should be available next Thursday.  I’ll keep you posted

For the past few weeks I have been attempting to run.  It is very hard work and the image I have in my head of how I look when I run is a far cry from reality.

One book I read giving advice for beginner runners is to walk and run alternatively.  They suggested a 30 seconds run followed by a 30 second walk and repeat this for 20 minutes.

I tried this on my first trip out and nearly died (honest!).  The 30 second walk was insufficient recovery time after the run.  So I walked and put in a run of 30 seconds when I could talk normally.

Since then I’ve managed to get my runs (about 3 or 4)  up to 60 seconds but still with a long walk between them.  I haven’t gone out for the last week as the weather has been really awful and while I don’t want to be just a fair weather runner, this was beyond the call of duty.

Today I was itching to get out as I had seen a staged regime on Runner’s World website for beginners which was much better.  30 second run followed by 70 second walk repeated for 20 minutes.  Work up to 40/60; 50/50; 60/40  and finally 70/30.

From the house I walk to the A5 and head to Llangollen.  The first 15 minutes is a long slog uphill.  I power walk that.  The next stage is downhill before levelling out for a while.  I started the 20 minutes from the top of the downhill.  The first 30secs went by in a flash and I couldn’t believe I’d run it!  70 seconds later and I’m on my second run and loving it.

Had to slow down though.  Tempted to run faster but then I need longer to recover so made sure I kept to an steady, even pace.  I was really surprised to reach my turn around point 15 minutes earlier than I’ve done before, which meant on the return, the last 5 minutes was uphill.  I slowed right down and took smaller strides and OMG I only did it.  I didn’t die.  I ran up a hill!

Finished off power walking home (about 15 minutes) to Taxi, Taxi by Cher (the proper one).

Can I just say how fantastic I feel.  I can’t wait to get out there and do it all over again.

By the way.  The cake.  This is a retro Black Forest Gateaux cake.  Click on the picture and it will take you to the blog “Antics of a cycling cook” and the recipe.  If anyone attempts it, send me a piece would you!  Love Black Forest Gateaux.  It’s the cherries

until my next visit to my diabetic Nurse.  All my tests will be repeated to see how they have improved (fingers crossed).  The target she set me was to get below 13st. At my last weigh-in I was 13st 4lb so I am well on target.  My ultimate goal is to be my ideal weight by Christmas.  With the current weight loss per week, this is doable.  My treat for Christmas is new clothes.

However, I have just bought a new swimming costume.  Yes I am going to add swimming to my weekly exercise regime mainly because on Sundays I have a lot of time spent hanging around waiting for buses.  I catch the 8.15am from home to Corwen and get to the centre around 8.45am.  I do a session in the gym which will take me to approximately 10.15am.  The bus leaves at 11.30am which means I have time to have a swim.  Well, that’s the plan anyway.  I’ll start Sunday after this weekend as I bought the swimsuit off M&S and am picking it up on Tuesday from the Wrexham store.

The running is going well and I’m starting to enjoy it more.  It’s still really hard work but I feel a lot fitter.  The distance I cover is approximately 3 miles now and I add in 4 runs which I can now do for one minute each.  I hope to increase that time over the next few weeks.  I include 3 of these runs on the way out, walk to the furthest point, rest for a couple of minutes then do a final run, and then walk for the rest of the way back.  There is scope for improvement by adding a couple more runs on the way back but that will come.

My gym sessions I am really happy with.  They too are hard work as I have increased some of the weights for the legs, arms and abdominals.  I can really feel the burn by the end of the last repetition.

I suppose in part it helps that I don’t have the use of a car at the moment, so there is a lot of walking everywhere.

I’ve started to add a few more pages to this site which record my progress, results and information pages.  These are work in progress and I hope to have them all sorted soon.  Please feel free to comment on them if you think they are a good/bad idea.

All in all I feel a whole lot better than I did a few months ago.  I have to keep this up as I have no intention of slipping back into old ways.  Plus I get to try all the cool stuff on in shops.  My favourite pastime, window shopping