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Lichfield

Had a really nice day today. Woke up to good levels again (4.3) and levels have remained under 10 all day.

As it was a good day weatherwise, decided to go and visit a city we hadn't visited before - Lichfield. The main driver for this was because we had been looking for rice syrup and pear and apple spread that were in a recipe in a diabetes cookbook for flapjacks. We had heard that there was a good Waitrose in Lichfield. In fact it was an excellent Waitrose. We have a joke in our family that you can't get out of Waitrose without spending at least £40. We spent £39 today! The produce is just so much better than the normal supermarkets and the variety is great. We'll have to come back here for treats.

After Waitrose we went into the town. It is a compact town with lots of lovely shops and some nice independents. We went to the cathedral, which is a stunning building. It was 15 years ago that I last visited, singing Mozart's Requiem with the school music society. The scale of the building and the superb stained glass were a wonder. There was also a large duck pond not far away, which kept Abby amused. Adjacent to the cathedral is a lovely tea room/cafe. We had a superb lunch, in a baby-friendly evironment at very reasonable prices. We will be back. On the way back to the car, we found a model railway shop, and although the staff seemed disapproving of a toddler in their midst, she thoroughly enjoyed it.

Made a lovely Chicken Korma tonight, whose recipe was in a Splenda leaflet that I picked up at the Doctors' Surgery. It was low in carbs and tasted great. Not sure how to handle rice as I read it is slow release, but maybe not as much as pasta? Will try some other recipes and maybe make some up of my own.

Did some more reading and found articles on the bbc and wikipedia regarding artificial pancreas. These look great and are currently in clinical trials. It is basically the current technology of external insulin pumps, connected to an internal glucose monitor. This is nearly as good as a cure as far as I can tell. They reckon they may be available in 5 years or so, but will they be available on the NHS?

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