Dieting

The diabetic nurse is keeping strict eyes on me. When I arrived in the UK I was on insulin, 40 units Lantus at night and 24-28 Humanlog before meals. Now she has me on 36 lantus and 10-12 before meals. I am having frequent blood tests

I am told I can reverse my diabetes

6 Dec 2018
When my friend John told me I could reverse my diabetes I was totally dismissive. I thought he refereed to some fad diet but he challenged me to look into it. I found some lectures on YouTube and that encouraged me to buy his book the blood sugar diet.

10 Dec 2018
The book recommended you speak to your diabetic nurse or doctor before starting so I went. The response was so supportive, the nurse said Dr Glenn wanted all his diabetic patients to try it. I had lost a stone since coming to the UK, healthy food and stress stopping me eating. At that time I was 16 stone 38.2 BMI with a waist of 50 inches

So far so good

I do like Barry, the people are so friendly. In Morrisons the other day and a member of staff offered me a Trebor Mint. My little flat is so convient for the shops. Morrisions is literally 2 minutes away and you have to go oast poundland and argos to get there. How cool is that!

Been buying a few bits and pieces, warm clothing and a book case.

Lots of old friends have been in contact made me life so happy. Even got an invite for Christmas to a friend in Exeter. We were on the same TOPS course in 1980 and we worked together at the same company. I lived at her place for a bit and we went on holiday with her kids.

Back in Blighty

For various reasons I am now back in blighty, actually Barry Wales. I posted on Facebook

Well it looks like I am staying in the UK, I must admit I am enjoying it much more than I expected. I can get out and about so much more easily. The doctor has pointed out the improvements in my health and well being and I am still waiting for referrals, hearing, back, etc.. Her professional opinion is I should stay in the UK both to get all these referrals sorted (back being the prime one) and because my health will deteriorate again if I return to Luxor. Add to that the nagging of my daughter, God, children are a pain. So I am going to stay
Mahmoud and I haven’t been a couple since 2014, just business partners (his decision not mine sadly) so that is not an issue. He is running the business no problems. Reviews since I left have been excellent
I had a brilliant time in Egypt, saw loads and loads of things I never expected. Made a success of my life there (the business, books, my blog, disabled access) but everything comes to an end. With decreasing mobility and poor health I have got to make that a priority.
Onwards and upwards to the next challenge.

And got the most incredible comments from people. It was like reading your own obituary.

I am trying to work out what I do next. It is a toss up between retirement and doing some thing (studying, volunteering, online work). I sort of want to do stuff but I am very conscious of the limitations of my body.

I have been exploring Barry a bit and just along the road is the Dock Office which is a calendar building. The blurb about it says "The Dock Offices at Barry cost £59,000 to build. Constructed of red brick and Portland stone, a clock tower was added at an additional cost of £6,000. It has a ‘theme’ of the calendar. There are four floors – the seasons of the year; seven lights in the traceried fanlight window – days of the week. The porch has twelve panels – months of the year.
Within the building are 52 marble fireplaces – weeks of the year. The windows number 365 days, one for each day of the year. Each window has four panes of glass – weeks to a month. In the east and west walls of the entrance hall are two circular windows – Sun and Moon. The staircase, made of Portland stone, has 31 steps (days of the month) from ground to first and second floors and has an ornamental ironwork balustrade with circular foliage and fruit trails."

Somebody commented that these used to be a big thing and according to Wiki there are others Calendar_house 

Seem like everywhere has history if you look

Back to me I have got a Blue Badge, freedom and have ordered a radar key for the toilets. Now in the UK there are certain advantages in being cripple. I have also been connecting to people from my past. Old friends and work colleagues and been lucky enough to have them visit. We have been remembering Gaynor Roberts, such a good friend, died back in the mid 80's I think 1987 when I was in the cult. I wasn't allowed to go to her funeral but Julia did. Gaynor came from Barry

Email from an old friend

Got an email from John

An old Facebook post

When I was in the UK prior to 2002 my life was pretty selfish. Sure I looked after my husband and child but that was all I looked after.
We were married in 1989 and I worked for corporate banks and insurance companies earning really good money. I ought to have had really good savings as well but with no job and no prospects my husband was quite depressed. He had no control over his life. The only control he had was spending money and how much we were in debt. If you ever wondered who bought all those TimeLife mood music sets I can tell you. In fact he had so many videos, CDs etc. we had duplicates. I am not sure why we needed 9 TV’s and 15 video players plus 3 satellite dishes but Ayman reckoned they were vital.
Fast forward to 2002 and he died. One thing I had taken care of was life insurance. In fact 3 months before he died we got an offer for an extra 5k of cover with no questions asked. We could not believe it, he was diagnosed terminal at this point but they absolutely didn’t ask any questions so we signed up immediately. We only paid 2 months premiums before he died. Insurance Company Nil Akshars 1. The money still left a mortgage but it was comparative tiny 50k instead of 250k
Then I was deciding what to do next, I realised I could not continue to be an independent contractor working silly hours as a single parent. I was investigating going to university and studying Egyptology so our holidays and work hours would be more in sync. I was entitled to lots of help as a single parent.
Then Mahmoud came into my life, we rapidly became an item. He suggested that we have a business in Egypt. So I could either study Egyptology or I could live it. No contest.
So I moved to Egypt. I put all my abilities into building our business. I saw myself as a conduit into getting business for the locals. We employed guides, drivers, cleaning staff, restaurant staff. Boat captains, caleche drivers all got business. We built more and more apartments employing more locals. As fast as Mahmoud built them I was filling them with guests. Our last Christmas party we had 84 people just from our apartments.
Then we had the revolution, in a few weeks I lost 10k of business. Things didn’t pick up. We were still trying our best but there just wasn’t any business out there. 2013 was our worst year. I had to email friends back in the UK and beg for help to buy insulin. Thank God they responded.
During all this time Colette Mason was helping and encouraging me, she suggested I sell my services to small business , I was running my own IT so I could do it for other people. Gradually I have built a very modest business which has cleared our debts and paid to keep us going. Our tourism business doesn’t even cover costs, all those apartments have property tax, electricity and cleaning costs. But we have survived and been able to help others less fortunate. We still provide for about 30 people with our reduced staff and family.
Today I needed help. It is technical but basically the database that holds my bookings was broken. It was not something I could fix, I don’t have PHP skills. I asked Colette if she knew someone with those skills and she made a couple of suggestions including a project manager who uses resources in India. He said his team could do it. And they did, he did not even charge me.
So I realised that by changing my life to help others, others help me. I am so very very grateful to all the people who have given me a helping hand over the last 6 years. You know who are but I am especially grateful to Colette. And to God who gave me the skills to help myself and good friends to help when needed.

Looking for old friends

I put a blog post up looking for John