Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Feb 2, 2012, 5:56 pm
The ADA has just released their 2012 Position statements on several issues. A clickable set of pdf files can be found in the latest Diabetes Care Table of Contents page. The most important document is probably the overall position paper: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes 2012 I am posting the li...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Dec 8, 2011, 1:25 am
Travel Dates 25th-27th May 2011. Click on any picture to see a larger version. Before this trip I hadalmost no experience of European railways. I used Seat61 and theserail web-sites for research: Stansted ExpressEurostarTGV Lyria, SNCF, RailEuropeSwissTrenitaliaCroatianParis Metro, RERBiH Rail I al...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Dec 8, 2011, 12:00 am
Statue in the cathedral.  Travel Dates 24th-25th May 2011. Click on any picture to see a larger version. I spent a very briefafternoon and evening in Milan. Effectively it was just a convenientovernight stop between Switzerland, Venice and places beyond. Iapologise to the Milanese who would be horr...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Dec 3, 2011, 4:29 am
Travel Date 24th May 2011. Click on any picture to see a larger version. I unashamedly love Venice. Yes, it's tourist central, and it can be kitsch and it is over-the-top and it is slowly sinking into the Adriatic. But it is also one of the most fascinating cities in the world to visit; a living mu...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Nov 28, 2011, 4:05 am
Travel Date 24th May 2011. Click on any picture to see a larger version. I decided to spend theevening between the two Alpine Expresses in Chur, rather than StMoritz. The timing worked out better and I thought it may be nice tostay in an ordinary small Swiss town rather than a tourist resort. I arr...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Nov 28, 2011, 12:49 am
Travel Date 23rd May 2011. Click on any picture to see a larger version. I spent a lot of time and frustration arranging my bookings for the two special Swiss Alpine trains. Overall I wasn't disappointed. But there were a few flies in the ointment so I'll get them out of the way first. It was a pity...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Nov 27, 2011, 11:28 pm
Travel Date 22nd May 2011. Click on any picture to see a larger version. The Gornergrat Bahn isa special railway that connects Zermatt with the spectacularGornergrat Alpine viewing platform at over 3100 m or 10200 ft. I was surprised to findthat the original track was completed over a century ago ...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Nov 10, 2011, 1:14 am
Travel Dates 21st-23rd May 2011. Click on any picture to see a larger version. I passed through Londonon the way to Paris, but I will mention that part of the trip laterwhen I devote more time to my return to the UK a month later. I deliberately plannedthis trip across Europe using trains and a boa...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Oct 25, 2011, 12:45 am
WhenI reached my '50s I mistakenly thought that my learning years werelong behind me.  How mistaken I was. My double diagnosis in 2002 ledto a whole new world where I was a naïve ignorant student learningabout a host of mysterious things neglected from my education in myvarious earlier stages of l...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Oct 19, 2011, 7:37 pm
A couple of years after I was diagnosed I spent a fascinating few hours reading a Canadian web-site titled “The Discovery of Insulin”. Recently I went looking for it again and was sorry to see it was no longer directly available on the web. However, all is not lost! The marvellous way-back machi...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Oct 17, 2011, 7:25 pm
For those who are discovering cooking as a survival skill for the first time this is the first in a short series of tips for new cooks. I first started using a steamer saucepan set when I was wandering around in a caravan in 1997-98. I discovered a set in an op-shop while we were wandering an...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Sep 25, 2011, 12:41 am
I flew six AirAsia legs on my recent trip; four on AirAsiaX and two on AirAsia. The flights and durations were: Coolangatta, Australia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 8: 20 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Kochi, India, 4:00 Kochi, India to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 4:00 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Stansted (Lo...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Sep 9, 2011, 1:36 am
Travel Dates 15th-16th May 2011. Click on any picture to see a larger version. We left Munnar in the early morning to descend from the cool peace and tranquility of the Western Ghats to the mid-May heat, humidity and bustle of the Kerala seaboard. The road was initially steep, narrow and and winding...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Aug 8, 2011, 9:24 pm
I enjoyed this brief moment immensely yesterday while watching an old movie. With all due respect to Ian Fleming and Sean Connery, "Never Say Never Again" was not the greatest Bond movie ever made. But it had one sterling moment: For those unable to load youtube: M: Too ma...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Jul 27, 2011, 9:05 pm
A British research group reported the following a few weeks ago. I had hoped the results would be a brief news report which would shortly go the way of many similar reports and disappear again. I was wrong. Suddenly new people are appearing on every forum I am on. They are either enthusiastically tr...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Jul 15, 2011, 12:01 am
Yet another meta-study implying that tight blood glucose control is dangerous for us was published this month. Here is the Press Release: Benefit of blood glucose lowering to near-normal levels remains unclear The study is published by a German group called IQWiG, the Foundation for Quality and Effi...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Jul 2, 2011, 2:59 am
Travel Dates 12th-14th May 2011. Click on any picture to see a larger version. I was pleased to see my name being held up by the man from the Angamaly Elite Palazzo hotel, booked via Agoda, when I passed through customs at the Kochi Airport. There is nothing worse than wondering where your "greeter"...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Jun 29, 2011, 2:17 am
Travel Dates 10th-12th May, 16th May and 22nd-23rd May 2011. Click on any picture to see a larger version. Kuala Lumpur was a surprise. Once again my preconceptions were destroyed. I was at Primary School in the period when Malaya was still a British colony, then at High School during its period of ...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Jun 12, 2011, 7:18 am
Travel Dates 18th-21st May 2011. Click on any picture to see a larger version. I am now at the Club Quarters Hotel near Trafalgar Square in London and finally have access to a reliable free high speed wi-fi service. I will take the opportunity to post a few entries on some of the places I have visit...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - May 13, 2011, 1:44 pm
You know how you get one of those tunes running ceaselessly through your brain sometimes and you can't get rid of it? It happens to me every time I head off again on one of my odysseys. It's Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again". Yeah, I know, you can't leave Australia by road, but it gets in my head ...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - May 3, 2011, 10:16 pm
One of the most frequent questions asked on travel forums is "how much foreign currency should I obtain before I leave home" and "how much should I purchase in Traveller's Cheques". My answers are "as little as possible" and "nothing". Instead, join the 21st Century and use ATMs (Automatic Teller Ma...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Apr 29, 2011, 10:56 pm
I have a terrible memory for birthdays and anniversaries. I usually have to use memory aids such as calendars and computers to remind me of them. But there is one I never forget. Today is the last Saturday in April. That is a day I need no reminders for. On the last Saturday in April 2002, exactly n...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 15, 2011, 5:59 am
For some travellers those questions are irrelevant. You know why you are travelling because you are meeting a specific need. Whether it is for business or personal reasons, to attend a conference or your great-aunt's funeral, you know where you are going and what you intend to do. But for others, su...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 14, 2011, 10:37 pm
As I write later posts I will return to up-date and improve this index. This initial index is a list of intended posts, but it may change as I write them and think of other things to include, If you can't click on it, then it hasn't been written yet. As of right now - that means none at all :) W...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 9, 2011, 12:08 am
G'day All I have been relatively immobile over the past year since I returned from South America, restricting my travels to a few brief trips to see our family 2000km to the south in Melbourne, Victoria. This pause, before I head off to Europe and Russia via India in May, seems an opportune time to ...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Jan 18, 2011, 8:13 pm
Please click on any picture to see the larger version.Travel Date 5th-6th May 2010. I don't post a lot of pictures taken through the aircraft portholes, but these are a little different to the usual. The flight from Buenos Aires to Sydney appears short on paper. Take-off is at 2 pm, arrival at 5:50 ...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Jan 14, 2011, 1:27 am
Please click on any picture to see the larger version.Travel Date May 2010. One of the things I enjoy most when I arrive in a new city is to wander by foot, bus and rail looking at the architecture and style of the suburbs and the city. As an Australian one of the first things that struck me was the...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Jan 9, 2011, 1:26 am
Please click on any picture to see the larger version.Travel Date 29th April 2010. When I planned the trip to Buenos Aires I was able to find an excellent apartment in the Recoleta Barrio, or district. The Recoleta Barrio is famous for two main reasons. In the 1730s the monastic Order of Augu...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Dec 16, 2010, 4:18 pm
Life is full of unexpected surprises. There is no way in the world I could have envisaged ten years ago that one day I would publish a book. Even less credible was the possibility that it would be a book to help people with type 2 diabetes find a way of eating to assist in individually managing thei...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Oct 26, 2010, 5:34 am
I experimented for a while with various quiche recipes, but almost all included either flour or milk leading to carbohydrate content higher than my goal . Eventually I made this simple version myself tonight from basic ingredients. It was intended to be the next in a series of new experiments. I was...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Sep 23, 2010, 12:50 am
Quite often type 2 diabetics appear on forums that I read announcing that their goal is to become medication-free or to avoid needing insulin. Although that sounds like a good goal, and for some individuals it may be, I think they may be confused about the true goal. To me the true goal is to de...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Aug 10, 2010, 10:12 pm
I've been wandering around the internet since Netscape and Internet Explorer first appeared. I've seen it grow and change. Lately it has changed again with the dramatic increase of activity by multitudes of people posting overwhelming volumes of their most intimate personal details on places lik...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Jul 26, 2010, 2:39 am
Please click on any picture to see the larger version. Travel Dates 28th April - 5th May 2010. Also see On My Way Again for my first day in BA. The first thing that struck me about Buenos Aires as the plane circled to land was the size of the city. And the smog. I planned to end my South American...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Jul 21, 2010, 6:30 pm
I often see these questions, in one form or another, on the various diabetes forums I read: "How many carbs can I eat in a day?" or "What ratio of fat to carbs to protein should I eat?". I think that is the wrong way to approach the subject for us as individual type 2 diabetics. Very few of us will ...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Jul 11, 2010, 3:33 am
Last night I had some chicken pieces to cook but I didn't feel like baking them, so I made the following up as I went along. I'm not sure this could really be called a recipe because the quantities and directions are not exactly quantified or normal, but the result was delicious. I started with a ch...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Jul 10, 2010, 3:48 am
Travel Dates 26th and 27th April 2010.Please click on any picture to see the larger version. This may take some time to load. If you are on dial-up, I'm sorry but it's probably not worth the wait. I have rarely used the movie function on my Fuji F10, so I'm still a novice at movie making. That show...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Jul 6, 2010, 11:12 pm
Also known as Iguazú Falls and Iguaçu Falls Travel Dates 26th and 27th April 2010.Please click on any picture to see the larger version. The Iguassu Falls straddle the border between Brazil and Argentina, at the point just before the Iguassu River flows into the Paraná River, which is the border ...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Jun 24, 2010, 12:50 am
Iguassu Falls from the GOL 737 Travel Dates 25th-28th April 2010.Please click on any picture to see the larger version. I've been delayed by many things since I returned from South America, but I have decided to make the time to complete the record. My next post will be devoted to the mighty Igua...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - May 3, 2010, 11:25 am
Ipanema at dusk. Travel Dates 20th-25th April 2010. Please click on any picture to see the larger version. I did not do all the usual tourist things in Rio; I used it mainly as a pleasant place to rest and recuperate after the Galapagos. Which was just as well because not all the traditional visits ...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - May 1, 2010, 5:36 pm
Travel Dates 15th-19th April 2010. Please click on any picture to see the larger version. What an extraordinary place. After a lot of preliminary research on the web I chose the Seaman II, arranged via Gala Cruises. It is a nice change to be able to praise my travel providers. Initially I had some c...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 29, 2010, 4:45 pm
Travel Dates 15th-19th April 2010. Please click on any picture to see the larger version. What's the difference between a sea-lion and a seal? Apart from the fact that the seals are smaller and rarer in the Galapagos and we didn't see many the difference is extra body parts, according to our guide,...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 26, 2010, 7:29 pm
Travel Dates 15th-19th April 2010. Please click on any picture to see the larger version. Or lizards by another name... They are also similar to Australian goannas; squatter and fatter, but still very similar. As Darwin's next major port of call in the Beagle after the Galapagos was Australia I am ...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 26, 2010, 11:10 am
Lonely George, the last of his kind despite attempts to help him meet eligible ladies. Sadly, the resulting eggs have not led to new tortoises. Travel Dates 15th-19th April 2010. Please click on any picture to see the larger version. As I understand it a tortoise lives on land and a turtle lives in...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 26, 2010, 10:22 am
One of the four frigate birds which cruised with us, riding the air currents created by the boat, all the way from Bartoleme to Baltra. Travel Dates 15th-19th April 2010. Please click on any picture to see the larger version. What an extraordinary place. My camera is only 6.3 megapixels and each ph...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 23, 2010, 7:11 pm
Travel Dates 8th-20th April 2010. Please click on any picture to see the larger version. I am a little late with my Ecuador blogs; I had no wifi in the Galapagos and limited access since so I will be catching up over the next few days. I stayed in Quito for a week before going to the Galapagos Islan...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 20, 2010, 10:19 am
Travel Dates 31st-8th April 2010. Please click on any picture to see the larger version. I enjoyed five days in Cusco before going to Machu Picchu and another day after. I found it the most interesting city in Peru. After staying just one night at the Walk On Inn, which should be re-named the Climb ...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 13, 2010, 7:48 pm
Travel Date 5th-7th April 2010. Please click on any picture to see the larger version. This is a long one. Grab a cuppa and settle back and relax for a while. The ruins, of course, are fascinating; for those I will let the pictures tell the story once again with just a few explanations at the end. I...
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Alan S. posted an article on Type 2 Diabetes - A Personal Journey - Apr 13, 2010, 10:44 am
Just a quick post-script during my travels. The title does not refer to the Banting who wrote the "Letter on Corpulence" but to the Banting who discovered insulin. Although both Bantings appear to have had some similar dietary views. I was re-reading the fascinating story of Lois Jovanovic's grand-m...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 11, 2010, 10:30 pm
A ceviche lunch in Lima, after I finished. Travel Date 23rd March - 8th April 2010. Please click on any picture to see the larger version. The title may seem a bit high-faluting, but that's what it is about. If you prefer, this is about eating, not fine dining. I eat to live. Actually, as a 63yo ty...
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Alan S. posted an article on Born Under a Wandering Star - Apr 10, 2010, 12:50 pm
Travel Date 31st March 2010. Please click on any picture to see the larger version. A little dose of luxury can be therapeutic. After a week starting with the stress of flying Coolangatta – Sydney – Buenos Aires – Lima over two days, followed by jet-lag, traveller's curse, lumpy mattresses and...
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