Diet Bore: A new experience

I would never say I had tried "everything" - but I have been through many of the major diet fads of our times.  If in the last few years I have tended to be more conservative - erring towards the Atkins end of the spectrum - this has been chiefly out of consideration for my pancreas...a description of "insulin resistance" began to ring bells for me, and I fear my fate has come upon me - however, my GP has given me 3 months to attempt to get the blood sugar down, or else he will make the diagnosis.

Obviously there are all sorts of psychological reasons for dieting - I discovered years ago that I would diet if I thought I was in with a chance of going to bed with someone new.... but this is an incentive I lack at present.  I also know I eat when I am angry, stressed or sad.  This covers a large percentage of my time it sometimes seems - which also makes things tricky.  I find it hard to develop "mindful" eating - considering every mouthful seems utterly tedious.    What I have discovered is that because I have so much weight to lose, being "good" for more than a few weeks, becomes unbearable - I get so bored, I hate restrictions [the subject no doubt for another excoriating entry some other time] and being told I can't brings out the worst (or best?) in me.

So, having arrived at a critical point in health terms (it was always in the dim and distant future before) I have embarked on a new thing.... the dreaded 5:2 diet seems, at this early stage, to be a possibility.  It harnesses my determination for very short periods (24 hours) and I am less worried about the restrictions since I know that if I wish, I may pig out the following day... also, since the objective is lower blood sugar, not weight loss, I am less fixated on fluctuating weight - but I think over all I have lost 5-6lbs in the last 10 days - which isn't bad.

The low calorie day is a test of ingenuiity - a search for very low calorie foods presents me with pollack, tofu and quorn sausages - or a very small bit of chicken breast.... but quorn sausages aren't as bad as all that (although rather bad in carb terms).  Today I managed to include figs and dark chocolate - so it isn't all bad.  I've often found it easy not to eat breakfast - and skipping lunch isn't impossible - if you don't mind being wobbly while you try and cook supper without consuming the fridge...

The following day one's stomach capacity has decreased - and one eats less. I could eat carbs, but I'm trying to cut that down too.  We shall see - in February - whether I have succeeded, and whether I can keep it up over Christmas and New Year.

In other diet news:

I may be becoming allergic to wine.  I've noticed since summer that wine consumption has frequently prompted a runny nose, or a blocked nose the following morning.  A pharmacist who was staying with us said "a runny nose is usually a sign of allergy" - so, that's my alcoholism knocked on the head.  Of course I can probably stick to gin - but I suspect the new low drinking regime could be attractive too - on Saturday - for the first time in some years, I went to a party without drinking (well, I had 1.5 glasses of wine - because I was eating cheese) and drove home.  I cannot help wondering if I was less fun than I might have been.  But I guess I had better get used to it.  One can't demand spirits at other people's parties - have to start taking a bottle of voddie with me everywhere - like a teenager!

Attracting a following....

I never started this blog with the idea of attracting a following - and in this I have had a riotous success... there are steady numbers in the US and UK - the largely ignored Russian and Ukrainian "readership"... something to do with international internet crime I suspect - and then suddenly a spike in the French viewing figures - or a sighting from Indonesia - or Venezuela... but really, this is not that sort of blog.   I could make it more followed if I wrote more about popular culture or news items or put recipies in or treated this as a serious professional effort, rather than as a sort of glorified diary (from which I have edited all the more "interesting" personal revelations!).

A selection of my devoted followers (actually, these are elephants on their way to a "funeral" - so it may be appropriate)

Anyway, the fact is that as soon as I write about a film or an event or even a book, there is a sudden spike in activity.  Presumably everyone is seeking out Effie Gray - and they get all the way down the list and find my review.  I still find this a little weird.  A pity I did not review Pride  - or perhaps I did.  Do I want a following?  If I ever get published my publishers will want me to have one - on the other hand, if they read this they might want me to have a different blog with different followers - but that's another subject. 

Effie Gray

This was a very nice little film - like many British films it took a familiar story - stuck in some very recognisable actors (Jacobi, Suchet, Walters, Coltrane, Thompson & Wise) flung in some attractive newcomers, paid vast attention  to production values - and  voila!  

Effie Gray-Ruskin - Millais - by Millais

 It was very enjoyable...it's a well known story of course, so no surprises. Part of me wonders, why?  I suppose the drama is in "can she stay in the marriage? how will she leave him?" (and was Lady Eastlake really so dramatic in her gestures and expressions as Emma T performs her?) However, the sense of drama is severely mitigated by a respectably straight telling of the tale.  There is a slight sense of jeopardy at the end... but you know it's false.
I enjoyed it - it made me think about Ruskin again - whether he had a personality defect, was aspergic or what?  (The amateur Freudian in me always enjoys these things)  It also made me think - are these films being made in the same "educational spirit" as 1940s biopics - i.e. if no one makes a film about this sad marriage, no one will know about it.

I suppose the Ruskin marriage is a basic part of the culture - I heard about it as a child - and we must pass it on,.  Is there anything edifying about it?  No, it's just a scandal - I don't suppose Ruskin enjoyed the way he was - probably, given the choice, he would have liked to have a normal marriage... I am sure all the awful things he said in the film about women were probably direct quotes trawled from his letters etc.  Does this story tell us anything heartening about the human condition...well, yes, that Millais was a jolly decent chap... and Effie was a Victorian woman who actually wanted to have sex (there is some sort of received opinion that no one enjoyed sex until WW2), is that enough?  Actually, given the paucity of knowledge amongst schoolchildren and young people, it is probably an excellent thing - and the film should be put on the National Curriculum - along with the study of Millais' paintings, and Ruskin's writings - especially the socialist ones!

News from UKIPIA

Today's bulletin: well, actually this is slightly old news.  Of course we are all reeling with shock and surprise that UKIP has allowed a holocaust denying neo-fascist Polish party to form party of their coalition in the European parliament.... who could imagine that they would do such a thing!

But while I am in now way wishing to diminish that horror, the thing that gives us a really good taste of things to come in UKIPIA is a bit more subtle and domestic.

Once upon a time there was a concept called "the head of the household" - perhaps it is still used in some contexts.  Just as when a child answers the door, the electricity supply salesman will ask "Is your mummy home?" in the past, if a woman answered the phone to an official caller she might be asked "may I speak to the head of the house?".

It has an evocative historic ring to it...the head of the long house, ruling his extended family in some New Guinea clearing - or the Irish chieftain, presiding at his table, rod of office by his side.   But on the whole the question nowadays is "who pays the bills?" "Whose name is on the card?"   In our house that's effectively me.  I wouldn't say for a moment I was the head of the house though...or indeed that Mark was.   This usage died out at least 20 years ago.   So it was fascinating that when we received an electoral communication from UKIP it was addressed to M only.  I didn't get one - nor have any of my female friends - the men did though.  Presumably because they were "head of the household".   So us women needn't worry our pretty little heads about politics... our hubbies will consider the issues carefully - see that UKIP offers a "common sense" alternative and tell us how to vote.   I expect once they are in power they will take the vote away from us.  I think I ought to try to write to the Gazette about this...    Or maybe a special pink girly letter is coming out to us separately. I am keenly awaiting its arrival - perhaps it will have recipies on it?  or cleaning tips?

And once we've finished the hoovering - we can mow the lawn - we don't have time to go out and vote!

.

Ebola in Thanet 2

Due to the fact that half the kids in Finn's school seem to be related to personnel at the QEQM Hospital, it has now been revealed that the Liberian man did not have Ebola - but some other virus.   While the nurse involved had quick on the spot training, in fact other nurses have been trained up to deal with Ebola during the last few months.  Interesting.   Our visitor Filip, a pharmacist, thinks people are getting over-anxious about it.  Perhaps he is right, but the statement by Margaret Chan about the extent of the disease is not especially reassuring.  However, it appears that Thanet is safe for the time-being.

I must confess, that I am a tiny bit disturbed about having a pharmacist in the house - it puts us that bit closer to the path of transmission.  If someone comes into the chemist to talk to him about feeling ill and what can they get for it... transmission is difficult - but apparently it has spread through sweat in Africa - people jammed into minibuses - rubbing up against each other.  I didn't think things passed through skin...but perhaps there's more to it than that.  I can see that the English are going to stop kissing their chums soon!  We will return to our buttoned-up hysterical selves.

Ebola in Thanet

Having made hubrisitic comments about the low likelihood of Ebola in Thanet - I heard something a little alarming last night.  Apparently a Liberian man turned up in A&E and the local hospital a couple of days ago.  He had a fever and said he was worried about Ebola - presumably this will be happening throughout Europe now - but I rather thought the lack of racial diversity in this area meant it was very unlikely that anyone would be coming here directly from Sierra Leone, Liberia or Guinea.... wrong!

When this guy had been "isolated" the staff were called together and given a rapid training session on Ebola - the training took 10 minutes.  We do not know whether Ebola was diagnosed - I'm hoping it was one of those viruses you get on planes.


I had tweeted sarcastically a few days ago that if all the Thanetians in Spain started flooding back here because they were worried about Ebola, then we were in trouble... but fortunately we didn't have an airport.   I have now heard that St Pancras railway station, "our" London Terminal now, is one of the hotspots for Ebola testing because it's where the Eurostar trains arrive - I wonder will they be doing the same at Ashford.

Armageddon

There have been many times in my life when I have heard people say "We are living in the Last Days" - this is because I have hung about with a lot of Biblical fundamentalists who were endlessly checking through the prophecies to see if they had been fulfilled yet.

Certainly conditions now seem ripe for Armageddon - Isis are approaching fast - will the Western forces engage them at Megiddo, in Israel?    There have already been 3 great battles there, one against the Turks in 1918 interestingly.   Isis are the nastiest thing we have come across for years - but as someone said tonight, in the last month Saudi Arabia has beheaded 19 people - judicially - but we don't invade them do we?  Still, Isis are lot worse than that.

Tel Megiddo - south of the Sea of Galilee - an ancient town with generations of piled up habitations - like Troy

I understand that we have fulfilled all the international "rules" about intervention.  And we are hardly doing anything, anyway, but what shocks me is that although much is being made of the involvement of 8 islamic states in the attacks on Isis, well, it's only 8 - and they aren't doing much.  Turkey is contenting itself with putting tanks on its borders.   So much for its endlessly vaunted NATO membership. The poor bloody Kurds are bearing the brunt of it.   It's not that I want to have a war, I just want them to somehow destroy Isis without civilian casualties and for everyone to wake up and love each other.  I am squeamish in other words   I am happy on this occasion for us to use drones and go in and pick them off individually.

Isis is bad enough - War is one horseman of the Apocalypse, as for the others: Famine (wait till the bees die), Conquest?  how is that distinguished from War, and Death - well, we have Ebola which has reached the US and Europe.  It may be a while before it gets to Thanet, but it is very frightening. It is a disgusting disease to die from, but curiously difficult to catch, and easily defeated by bleach - I dare say we shall find bleachwipes selling out in the shops (actually, do such things exist? - disinfectant wipes are not the same) and perhaps all those domestic disinfectants will now proudly splash "Protects against Ebola" on the label.   Bleach is evil stuff - but I can see it becoming very popular in coming months - to the detriment of the environment.

It is at times like these when I can understand why Pentecostal Christians rather looked forward to the excitement of the Last Days - yes, times would be tough - but after the Tribulation there would be the rule of Christ - and Heaven on Earth - so if you could just sit tight for 7 years all would be well.

This brings me to the question of when I would say my own tribulations began - probably in 2008 - so we must be nearing the end of that time.  It'll be 7 years next year... things have shifted a lot this year - the new book, the prospect (still tantalisingly retreating) of money, and the final defeat of the LO.  Not that I really think these things go in 7 year cycles - although astrologers seem to, it's a quarter of a Saturn cycle, approx.  This could lead me onto the topic of Saturn returns - but I think Armageddon is a sufficient topic for tonight.