2011 and more books April 6, 2011

It’s been hard getting back on track with doing the book reviews and interviews but with the advent of the London Book Fair next week 11-13 April things are gathering apace with more books beeing read.

Annabel Pitcher 2011

I have found children’s books to be much easier to read and my favourite so far this year has been Annabel Pitcher’s book My Sister Lives on the Shelf – I was able to do a 20 minute interview with her recently at Orion publishers. Annabel was a joy to meet with such a fresh outlook on life.

With Spring getting warmer and a new kitten companion for our big ginger cat I’ll be looking to sit out in the garden to do my work! there’ll be more reviews and interview along the way after the London Book Fair.

Not on Insulin and Diabetic Books April 6, 2011

Life has been a bit of a roller coaster since I was forced of my insulin last November (2010) with my emotions yoyoing around all over the place, and getting used to not injecting myself twice a day.

I’ve also pretty much now become allergic to  insulin or its additives so am on nothing. It’s been quite a journey because I thought I’d become type 1 and was going to die if I stopped taking the injections, but lo and behold I have discovered that I’m still type 2 and still producing my own insulin!

That was quite a shock but it has given me something to work with – so inbetween the brain cells disappearing and getting peripheral neuropathy I’m not as bad as I thought  I would be. My blood sugars are screamingly high but I am able to walk everyday, do yoga once a week and go to my Rock Choir practise and sing and dance – all of which is helping to bring my blood sugars below 30 mm. Actually they are now down to 16-25mms now, but it has been hard work and I do get really fed up with having to think what I’m eating and how much exercise I must do. But it is worth it.

I’ve also been reading books on how to heal/cure diabetes the natural way (not for type 1s) and there are some good sensible books that have given me a lot of food for thought in how high glycaemic our western diet it! Still it does give me a challenge to work with and along with an absolutely brilliant diabetic team of dieticians, diabetic nurses and of course a brilliant diabetic psychologist and filling in diet sheets etc I seem to be slowly getting there. My eyes are still intact as are my kidneys and heart and prayers from my local church are definitely helping.

The interesting thing is that dropping down off a precipice to low blood sugars is not good because apparently that could cause quite bit of damage to the body – so slow it is but we’ll get there – my goal is blood sugar level of 8mm but I have lost weight and my energy is getting better.

What have I learned from this is that there are always people worse of than myself who are battling cancer or other serious diseases and that for me I have a truly fantastic diabetic team who understand that working with allergies is not easy. I’m really thankful that we have and NHS and local to me it appears to be very good. So if you’ve been forced off your insulin through allergy or intolerance don’t give up because there are people out there to help you.

The Cameron Delusion December 7, 2010

Peter Hitchens

Earlier in 2010 I interviewed Peter Hitchens on two of his books – Rage Against God and The Cameron Delusion – since then the Tories have come into power via a coalition with the Liberals, but I keep coming back to Peter’s books because they are so relevant to what is happening now.

I find myself feeling ingredibly angry as to why Cameron is so keen to give away our life blood (taxes/money) to the EU and Foreign Aid.

Why is it so hard for this Govermnent to stand up for Britain and England against people and countries who are seriously not interested in our well being. Why is it so hard for this Government to stand up for our Christian Faith – is this not what gave us our laws and morals since the 6th century? Why does this Government find it so hard to get rid of the Human Rights law that pulverizes us with the PC  ethos.Why does our Governement cravenly follow the rules – any rules to the letter rather than the spirit?

Why is our so called Government not listening to the people on the street? They seem to be particularly deaf to what we need or want – Peter Hitchens in his Mail on Sunday Column a few weeks back said that Cameron and his Government wear the colour yellow very well, and judging by the Wikileaks I agree with him.

What would it take for someone – anyone to stand up and say NO to all those people who are harming us. And another thing why is our government also so keen to sell of our heritage and British companies to countries who are blatently not interested in our workers.

I feel that with our recession our borders should be shut with a very loud bang, call centres by law should be in Britain – NOT Asia and people who speak so violently against us should be deported back to their home country and if they are born in Britain – then what should we do – jail them! Or make a camp of some sort and give them seriously hard labour like in Siberia!

We seem not care in our country about each other – the I society – and not the WE society built on families and communities. Back in the 60s when I was a nurse we cared about patients and their every need – from back sores to feeding and all in the middle. Making beds and doing bed baths was fun – we enjoyed it. We even washed the walls and floors in the sluices and operating theatres – we enjoyed it. Why don’t the nurses enjoy nursing anymore – is it that because we have lost our Christian Faith and along with that Faith in ourselves that society no longer cares?

Again Peter is right in both his books Rage Against God and The Cameron Delusion – but for all of us I feel we need to be pro active and write to David Cameron at 10 Dowing Street, London SW1 and tell him how we feel as well as writing to our MPs and demand that they take notice of us. But shouldn’t the National papers be standing up for our country as well – after all aren’t our soldiers – our war heroes fighting for Queen and Country? Or more to the point why are they fighting – is it not for the egoes of Bush, Blair and now Cameron rather than for the safety of our country.

Read Peter’s books and his Mail on Sunday Column at least he does care about our country.

SAVE OUR COUNTRY – we need it.

ereaders i.e the Kindle et al. December 4, 2010

I’m still in a bit of a flux with the ereaders. Recently at my book group a very new member showed us Amazon’s Kindle and I have to say it was most impressive. It was very light and easy to read, but my problem is – what happens to our literary history if we go completely over to the ereaders?

To me a hard copy even a  hundred years from now can still be picked up and read, but on an ereader that is lost because technology changes so fast.

When I go into a book shop I’m attracted to the colour of the dust jacket and then I look inside to view the writing style or illustrations of the author. How can we do that on an ereader that only has different shades of grey?

I’ve read the reviews and spoken to various friends as well as holding the one brought in to the reading group, but I still can’t make up my mind. I feel disloyal to the hard copy versions of books because once downloaded they then become invisible. They disappear from the shelves at home.

My sister for instance swiped one my Robin Hobbs trilogies because she saw it on one of  my bookshelves, but with an ereader the trilogy would have been invisible!

Still not sure – it all looks very glamerous and for travellors or people short on space I can see the practicalities of it, but don’t a shelf full of books also make for part of the character of a home?

I think this will be a decision that will take a long time to make.

I think the one thing that does disapoint is the fact that you can’t give an ebook to the charity shops, nor can you lend it to a friend, also you can’t buy it cheaply in the Market Place on Amazon.  All of this lot make me hesitate. I want to be able to hold a book – feel it and look at the writing style to see if I like it – you can’t do that with an ebook as far as I know.

Think I’ll wait a while and see what happens in 2011!

HUman Mixtard Withdrawal Dec 31 2010 December 2, 2010

The above reason is why I haven’t been writing in my blog. My life ground to a halt when I had to start trialing new insulins and a tablet!

I just feel so angry that Novo Nordisk are just so greedy – that is the only reason that they have put 90,000 peoples lives through hell fire and brimstone. Most of the people are elderly and find analogue insulins much much to vicious and they end up ill and emotional. I’ve actually had to be taken off eveything because I became ill on the new insulins and the tablet.

I thought I was going to die! But I didn’t and have discovered that I’m not type 1 as I thought but type 2 – apparently the older you get the less insulin you produce and that’s what I thought had happened to me, but I’m still producing!!

How can our Government just roll over and not put up a fight?

Of course our Health Minister just rolled over and okayed the whole deal with Novo Nordisk – what does he know about Diabetes, the elderly and insulin.

My Diabetic Consultant is now refuing to put any more of his patients on the Novo Nordisk product – maybe a few more consultants should do this to bring about change for the elderly – as one size does NOT fit all. We all have different needs as well as our digestion slowing down as we get older – but hey what do Novo Nordisc care. They are not here for the patients only for the investors – more money made more dividends for them.

They absolutely do NOT care about you or I in anyway shape of form.

I’ve written to the CEO’President Lars Rebien Sorensen at Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Alle, 2880 Bagsvaerd, Denmark - I haven’t heard back from them yet, but I suggest that anyone reading this post does write to him and maybe just maybe they may change their mind and stop the withdrawel of a brillaint insulin for the elderly.

For me I have to wait until the new year to try out a new insulin but I will now only go with Sanofi Aventis because they have commited themsleves to the old style insulins and will not be taking them off the market for the foreseeable future, unlike Lilly and Novo Nordisk.

Please let me now what you all think about this.

New Books Arriving! August 23, 2010

The Autumn books are now arriving with authors such as Philippa Gregory’s The White Queen and The Red Queen and Michelle Pavers first adult book for Orion – Dark Matter – a ghost story! Looking forward to reading that one.

I’m really into the 10+ stories they have come on in leaps and bounds in the last few years – at the moment I’m halfway through The Maharajah’s Monkey by Natasha Narayan. She uses her journalistic experiences to very good effect with lots of high adventure.

Just finished ready Nigel Cutts book Love at Work – it is a brilliant look at how to set up a business using the right kind of principles and of course getting the head and the heart to connect! Don’t be put of by the amount of text on a page – it is a very easy read.

Just got Carol Drinkwater’s Return to the Olive Farm and have made inroads – she is such a brillant writter and I so enjoyed her last book – The Olive Tree.

More books are arriving by the day and we will get the reviews posted asap and add interviews along the way – Carol Drinklwater has already agreed to do an email interview with me so I’ll log of and carry on reading!!

Day Out with author Cassandra Clark August 23, 2010

Spent the day with Medieval Historical crime author Cassandra Clark, first of all doing a bit of internet jousting trying to sort out her blog, and then visiting both Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

Both of us where totally shocked by the attitude of the Westminster Abbey staff – money was defintitely on the agenda – £15 entrance fee to be precise! My question is – why does the entrance fee have to be so high – it feels like a greedy sum and does nothing for the integrity of England? Not even Canterbury Cathedral charges that much – last year £6 – which appeared to be plenty enough to do their ongoing resorations. And another question came up – why does our governement not care about our history and historical sites/buildings?

Westminster Cathedral was full of atmosphere – dark brickwork and beautiful mosaic ceiling pictures. We even took a trip up to the top of its tower and had a look at London and saw everything from the Guerkin to the Post Office Tower and Vincent Square which is near where I used to go to school as a child! The sun shone and of course the rains came down, but we missed most of it by having lunch or tea at the appropriate moment!

It was definitely a pleasurable way to get my walking exercise in with Cassandra being a fountain of information on all things Medieval as we walked.

MRI scan for Autism August 11, 2010

In the news today it would seem that in the not too distant future, adults and children may have their brains scnned for autism – this will only cost a few hundred pounds as opposed to several thousand a team costs now to come up with a diagnosis.

I feel this can only be good news – my own daughter Naomi was scanned on her brain over a decade ago but not for autism. It showed that she has a brain cyst – did it cause the autism? The doctors don’t know at this moment in time – maybe later on as these new machines come on board we shall see what that cyst means and how it effects her.

Wanted videos for Rural TV August 11, 2010

I had such fun with my interview on Siren On Line Fm radio that when sister tv station Rural TV sen me this picture asking for people to send in their videos of themselves singing I could hardly resist it.

Wanted Videos

£125 … this is all it takes to get your country music video on RURAL TV!

£125 is your dream, your 3-minutes of fame on a daily basis, access to millions of viewers across the UK and Ireland … and access to the UK’s new home to country music TV!

Promote your latest single, album, tour, label and new artists with RURAL TV’s innovative approach to both music video entertainment and advertising.

If you are interested please contact sarah@ruraltv.tv

As a big fan of all the country music shows shown on Rural TV and with a 10 million audience I have to say – if I could sing I’d be entering this as well. Good luck to those who do enter and I very much look forward to seeing you on tv!

Vicky’s interview with Southside Broadcasting July 30, 2010

Vicky

This interview came about in a very interesting way! I had sent an email complaining about the new schedule of Rural TV which is now on Sky’s  Horse and Country – I received in return an email from Alex Lewczuk who’s managing editor of www.southsidebroadcasting.com and founder of www.sirenonline.co.uk. who invited me to talk about my grievences live on air! Well during our get to know each other chat Alex discovered that I run on a voluntary basis several websites all to do with raising funds for the care of adults with autism and so I got to talk about BFKbooks and BFKautism – here’s the interview in it’s entirety!

I have to say I really enjoyed being interviewed by the three presenters headed by Alex – it was also very evident that they had had a very good look at the websites and even picked up on the fact that I’d inadvertantly called them Southern Broadcasting intead of Southside Broadcasting!

Thankyou to Alex and co for giving me the opportunity to give my first live on air interview – now I know how all my interviewees feel!