Well, I got up at the quiet frankly awful hour of 4am to get a train to Nottingham. The wind had the trees sideways, the hail was pounding down so I must admit that I was quiet happy as it did mean I would be avoiding having to battle with myself to force myself to go for a training ride.

Seeing sunrise while on a train, and later sunset was also quite different. Did feel rather caged by it. Going through Lancaster was very strange, I was on auto pilot almost to jump off and wonder up the hospital, yet I did manage to resist the urge. The countryside was very interesting though. So incredibly flat when I got down to places like Crewe and approaching Nottingham. I guess I’m sounding like some kind of country bumpkin, which let’s face it I am, but it was strange being able to see the land stretch into the distance without the points of the local fells reaching to the sky.

The conference was very interesting though and in the Boots Headquarters which was nice. I thought I was in the wrong place to be honest as the address on the site said Building DH6 at Media City…no map had Media City on it, and didn’t know it meant the Boots campus. Very cool place though, and loved the pictures of the old Boots lorries and products.

I did feel a bit of a loaner though as it seemed many were busily grouped together chatting. A nice lady though named Caron introduced herself and broke the ice. Thank you so much Caron, you made my day and I really did enjoy our chats throughout the day.

Conference wise I don’t have any comparison as this is my first since I was about 5 or 6 when I messed one up right royally by having a hypo at one…yeah that’s me! We all grouped up then proposed ideas for topics to discuss, then went off into smaller groups to chat about the subjects brought up. I joined the medical technology, diet, and mental issues discussions. Unfortunately missing the exercise one as it clashed with the medical technology discussion.

The medical technology discussion was nice. Discussing pumps and CGM and the people from Input on about how to acquire the tech. I got into a bit of a rant about the cost of the tech and brought up wouldn’t it be nice if the NHS made all the tech itself like it used to in the old days. Yeah, chance of that would be a fine thing! Would save a fortune though in reality but can’t see any of the political types ever having a bright idea like that though.

Diet was very low carb brigade stuff which I’m quite frankly tired of arguing. Was some interesting chats on GI based diets which I have to admit am a huge fan of.  Always been a fan of the not being restricted by food, grab your energy from any source and use it. Just adapt your injection pattern for the food not limit what you can or can’t eat.

Mental health was urmm well we’re all nuts! I think I upset someone by calling psychiatrists all shrinks as I always trip over my tongue trying to say psychiatrists and calling them psychos really would of upset her. Did discuss my issues way back when though and many of us shared a lot of information.  Sadly had to run off early though to catch my train home so never heard the end of the discussion, or the closing of the conference.

I must admit though I am utterly kicking myself for not saying goodbye to Caron as I owe her badly for being a good friend throughout the day and having someone to chat to. It meant a lot to me, thank you so much!