youth-info-sept-dec-082

Sunday 21^st Sept -AWE  ten pin bowling

Sunday 5^th Oct - AweSome Youth Cell group -Holy Communion

(7-8.30pm @ St.Luke's)

Sunday 19^th Oct- AWE  Treasure hunt around town

Sunday 2^nd Nov -  AweSome Youth Cell group- Your Kingdom Come

(7-8.30pm @ St.Luke's)

Sunday 16^th Nov-AWE  Ready Steady Cook

(7-9pm @ St.Luke's)

Sunday 7^th Dec- Sunday Express Special- Celebrate the Light

Sunday 21^st Dec- Carol service at St.Michael's followed by our AWE Christmas Bash in the Undercroft

+ THIRST youth café -Fridays 6.30-9.30 at St.Luke's during term time

Mercedes Cabral, the new face of Philippine showbiz who won the online voting "The Most Beautiful Actress" who walked the red carpet of the recently concluded 61st Cannes Film Festival. She has the typical Filipina [exotic] beauty that captured every foreign eyes.

Korean director Park Chan-wook, responsible for the ever famous and riveting The Vengeance Trilogy (2002 Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, 2003 Oldboy, and 2005 Sympathy for Lady Vengeance ), casted Mercedes Cabral on his new film Thirst. Mercedes will "play as a Filipina of wife of  a Korean national who is passionate about their love affair" (Starmometer).

Mercedes Cabral was introduced in the film "Serbis" (At Your Service) in 2008. The film was nominated for Golden Palm Award in the 61st Cannes Film Festival (the reason why she was on that red carpet). Although the movie was internationally recognized, it was not received well by the Filipino audience.

I haven't seen the movie myself but peeking at the trailer below makes me want to watch it.

I have seen two of Park Chan-wook's trilogy (Old Boy and Lady Vengeance) and they were rather intriguing and yet interesting and was masterfully done. The Serbis trailer kind of remind me of Park's films, hence, I  will not mind watching it [Serbis].

For Mercedes Cabral, congratulations on your debut in both Philippine and Korean films. Hopefully everything will go well. I have yet to see your talent, I am pretty sure I will not be disappointed.

Photo credits: Lightroom

Info Source: Starmometer

The National Weather Service issued excessive-heat warnings in several states, and health officials urged people and pets to stay inside air conditioning. ``People don't realize it but heat is generally the number-one killer'' among weather-related causes, said Ben Miller, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

Headlines across America read:

• "Heat Wave Settles In Across Tri-State, Much Of Nation"
• "As temperatures near 100, America braces for heat wave"
• "North Texas To Experience Hottest Days Of Year"

To help in surviving the heat with some measure of comfort, Dr. Ken Goldberg, an esteemed member of our Scientific and Medical Advisory Board has this advice:

Not many people really enjoy the hot summer days, but some sure seem to put up with the heat better than others. Ever wonder how?
They probably know some or even most of the following temperature-tolerance tips:
* Drink Before You're Thirsty
By the time you sense thirst, you're already on your way to dehydration. Without water, you can't sweat, and sweating is how your body keeps its cool. If your urine is dark yellow, you're not drinking enough water.
* Respect Humidity
It's the evaporation of perspiration that cools your body, and when humidity is intense, the sweat just stands on your skin. Heat and humidity are a nasty combination, but even a moderate temperature of 80° and 90% humidity can spell trouble.
* Wear Loose Clothing
Baggy pants and shirts let air circulate between you and the fabric so perspiration can evaporate before it drenches your clothes.
* Be Mr. Natural
Natural fibers are cooler than synthetics. Cotton is the first choice, but a light wool can also be comfortable.
* See the Light
Lighter colors reflect sunlight better than darker ones, so they keep you from becoming a solar collector.
* Wear Your Own Shade
A hat with a good-size brim can keep the sun off most of your body at midday and will at least protect your shoulders through most of the rest. Likewise, avoid short-sleeve shirts when you're out in the sun. Long sleeves can actually reject more solar heat than trap body heat. (Wear sunscreen with a protection factor of at least 15 on exposed skin.)
* Save Your Skin
Rashes may develop in nooks and crannies when it's hot. Try applying talcum or baby powder in your tight spots.
Finally, now that you're prepared for the worst, you need to know what it is. Heat stroke is serious business, and it's an even greater threat to those who are over 60 or who are taking some medications for depression, motion sickness, or nausea.
Any time you're working outside and begin to feel nauseated, weak or faint, Stop! Get somewhere cool and drink some water. If you try to tough it out "cave-man style," heatstroke can damage your kidneys or even kill you. That's not cool!

To help out in your battle to replace electrolytes while staying hydrated - check out AdvoCare's Rehydrate Electrolyte Replacement Drink that includes antioxidants, carbohydrates and other nutrients to effectively promote optimal hydration and recovery

This post is for the students who will be presenting an oral presentation next term.  The slideshow is another example of the power of imagery and it demostrates that PowerPoints don't have to have lots of text on them to be effective. The slideshow is an educational presentation exploring humanity's water use and the emerging worldwide water shortage. It was designed to act as a stand-alone presentation.

On the other side is a land, full of flowers, full of shade trees. The grass looks soft and tender, the shades of colors everything from dark green to wild purple bring an eye pleasing look to the world. The people there are happy, each tending their own job, each helping each other out. In the center of this verdant side which completely surrounds the chasm, there is a fountain, a pool, a gleeful source of water. It shoots high and strong out of the firmament, it fills rivers, lakes, aqua ducts, anything that could contain it is filled and overflows.

Picture, if you will, you are standing in the dry dust of the one land. The parched ground seems to suck at your feet. Your shadow wavers and shimmers in the heat. A man came and gave you water to drink and you felt refreshed, strengthened. You search for this man now. You pass through villages. They laugh at your silliness for seeking and following a man who must be dead already if he gives away his water. No, they are quite content where they are and they recommend that you settle down and find the real answer to life. Their filth is accepted as finery, the dust becomes a badge of honor. They drink from their filthy pool of water and say that it is enough. You continue your search.

You see people trying to build bridges to the other side, but at some point, each and every bridge collapses and falls into the depths, carrying all those working on it. The masses of people pushing against you eventually take you to the brink, the edge of the scarring wound in the earth. A man runs past you and leaps screaming "To become one with everything!" and he falls, falls, falls and then is touched by one of those leaping bits of flame. His screams of ecstasy change to screams of pain and horror and....understanding. Another man walks off, saying that we must all accept fate, while another says as he is going over that he must atone for his sins. Some believe that the chasm is a trick of the eye, some believe that you travel the chasm and return to the land to try again until you are changed enough to be at peace.

As you watch this macabre scene, a man behind you says "I'll help you over"
"Over the chasm? But there is no bridge?" And you turn to the one who spoke. Your breath catches, this was the man who gave you the pure water! He smiles
"I shall be your bridge"
"Yes! please!" you answer.

The man stretches and impossibly you see him grab hold of the other side, his feet dug into the dirt. "Hurry!" he calls. You weep as you start treading across his body, the tread of your shoes ripping holes in his clothes, the stones and burrs stuck on your shoes, gouging, tearing his flesh. The scars on his body remind you of the scars in the land you are leaving. Plentiful and abounding, you wonder how anyone could go through all this man has.

At the end you just left, people start jeering and pestering you and the man. They start kicking his feet, they start throwing stones at you, but most seem to be at him. "We don't want your kind" "Fools!" "Go ahead and try to escape, the chasm gets everyone!" they cry. Your balance falters, but the man shifts his weight and you regain your balance, you keep inching slowly across the man's back while the stones and jeers continue to follow your back.

Soon you realize that you are hearing calls from the other side. You look up, and see people, hands outstretched to you, waiting for you. "hurry!" "You can do it!" "Soon! Very soon" they are calling. You make the other side, and you tear up at the sight of this land of plenty. You turn back to help the man who helped you across, but he is already getting up, on the other side. "But sir! Stay here!" you call.
"In time I shall, but there are many more that need a bridge" you hear him shout back.

Imagine, if you will, what will you do when this man came to you?

This man is looking for you.

The 'I am a friend of God' group I created on Facebook a few days ago is now up to 46 members. Growth is not as rapid as I'd have expected.  However, I am now seeing that people are becoming members who I don't share any mutual friends with, this is a sign of the group going 'viral' and spreading outside of my friend network.  God willing the growth of the group will start to pick up some pace soon. 

P.S. Above is one of my favourite images entitled 'my soul thirsts for God' I think it's the most fitting graphic for the Friends of God group.

I read this book a couple of years ago. I saw it on the shelf today while preparing lessons for my week of deaning junior high church camp next week. I saw one of those small green post-it flags attached to a page so I turned to it to see what had caught my eye two years ago. Here it is:

My father believes, as I do, that the church is the place where the incompetent, the unfinished, and even the unhealthy are welcome. I believe Jesus agrees.

Christianity is not for people who think religion is a pleasant distraction, a nice alternative, or a positive influence. Messy spirituality is a good term for the place where desperation meets Jesus. More often than not, in Jesus' day, desperate people who tried to get to Jesus were surrounded by religious people who either ignored or rejected those who were seeking to have their hunger for God filled. Sadly, not much has changed over the years.

Desperate people don't do well in churches. They don't fit, and they don't cooperate in the furthering of their starvation. 'Church people' often label 'desperate people' as strange and unbalanced. But when desperate people get a taste of God, they can't stay away from him, no matter what everyone around them thinks.

Desperate is a strong word. That's why I like it. People who are desperate are rude, frantic, and reckless. Desperate people are explosive, focused, and uncompromising in their desire to get what they want. Someone who is desperate will crash through the veil of niceness. The New Testament is filled with desperate people, people who barged into private dinners, screamed at Jesus until they had his attention, or destroyed the roof of someone's house to get him. People who are desperate for spirituality very seldom worry about the mess they make on their way to be with Jesus."--Mike Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality, 33-34

You know what the problem is with us Christians? We become so certain of our faith in Christ, that we have forgotten what it means to be desperate, we forget how to be desperate. We are so confident in our Justification that we forget about Sanctification. We settle. And badly.

Perhaps it would behoove us to remember what it is like to be desperate, starving, dying of thirst. Perhaps if we remembered these, satisfied as we are, it would be much easier for us to understand those who still are in such dire straits. Perhaps we have forgotten how parched the land really is and why we came to Christ in the first place. Perhaps we need, quickly, to remember.

Soli Deo Gloria!

During the event a couple brought their small children who were very interactive with the adults watching the boys who were playing. We were playing hand claps and slaps with them. They were having a great time even though the heat was making their faces turn red.

As the "Home Run Derby" was finished I brought the cooler of water to the spectator section by the bleachers for anyone to get an ice cold cup of water. These two small children asked for a cup of water and as I served them this water on a hot summer day these words of Jesus came back to memory.

"I tell you the truth, anyone who gives a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward." Mark 9:41

These little ones were refreshed with the simple gift of a cup of cold water on a hot day. They were thirsty and hot and needing a drink. What is that cup of water that we offer to those in the need of the moment? For some it may be a listening ear to a broken heart. For others it may be mowing a lawn or weeding a garden for one who is unable. It may mean bringing a smile to one who needs to see the lighter side of life. Whatever that cup of water is for that person offer it up to them gladly in the name of Jesus. I will be watching for opportunities even today to give that cup of water because that is what Jesus would do. And my reward will be the joy of the Lord.

I was reading in a recent article that each year a area the size of Belgium is cut down (12,500 square miles). The total area of the Amazon jungle today is 3 million square miles. So in a matter of 267 years there will be no more Amazon. Doesn't sound so bad actually. That's just the problem. That we live in a society that puts band aids on the world problems instead of looking for long term solutions. Even our way of solving problems is merely superficial.

I was eating dinner with my great friend Åse yesterday and she was telling me about when she arrived in Sweden in the 70's how all political decisions where discussed on the television and radio constantly. And the question politicians always asked themselves was, "How is this going to affect our children?" How wonderful it would be to live in a society that thinks in this way, where the leading factor in making decisions is not money, but the well being of all children. What governmental actions would take place immediately if the leaders of the USA began to think this way? More money to schools, free medical health, economic assistance to families with children, more paid leave for parents after childbirth, homes for all families, more parks and green areas, social assistance for homeless children and those with physical and mental illnesses.

All of these things remind me of Sweden. Schooling is free (even University studies) and all children are fed free lunch everyday (up to High School graduation). Health care is free for everyone. Every family receives about 200 USD per child per month. Parents have the right to 450 days of paid leave (to be split between the mother and father). If a family does not have the means to pay rent, the government provides assistance. All cities are full of parks and green areas and excellent public transportation to minimize the need for cars in the city! It's to bad that most of this is quickly going down the drain...

What inspires me to mention the Amazon today? Recently Greenpeace celebrated a protest in Brasilia in honor of Sister Dorothy Stang who was assassinated in the area of Anapu, Brasil where 31 illegal lumber industries which, despite working 24 hours around the clock, where unable to quench the thirst both the USA and Europe has for wood. What is the solution? We could put all of the workers and their illegal bosses in jail (just put a band aid on the issue) or we could reevaluate our own lives and the society of consumerism we live in.

For whoever is interested, find out what Greenpeace is currently doing and how we can all be involved in helping stop the deforestation of the Amazon jungle.

Macrina Wiederkehr

Most of us have to taste our need in a fierce sort of way before our hungers jar us into turning our lives over to God.... In the Divine Arms we become less demanding and more like the One who holds us. Then we experience new hungers. We hunger and thirst for justice, for goodness and holiness. We hunger for what is right. We hunger to be saints. Most of us are not nearly hungry enough for the things that really matter. That’s why it is so good for us to feel a gnawing in our guts. Macrina Wiederkehr, A Tree Full of Angels

Often I think society teaches us to hunger for the wrong things. Things, looks, conditions of our body are all obsessions we feed on through media, unsaid words, the passing down of familial views on items of non-importance in God’s eyes. We hunger for the perfect body, the right clothes, another pair of shoes. We hunger for retirement and 401Ks. We hunger for security in finances, the right ‘wheels’ and the perfect life of the “Rich and Famous”. When we hunger for these types of things, we are consuming junk food. We cannot fill a God-shaped hunger through filling it other things.

When we fill ourselves with what God desires, we see through God’s eyes, what we should hunger for instead, and in the process, are less tempted by that junk food, understanding what an impoverished diet we are consuming. We understand the need for more substantial, lasting nourishment.

What are your thoughts?

]]> http://christov10.wordpress.com/?p=137 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:59:19 +0000 christov10 http://christov10.wordpress.com/?p=137 It's been awhile since I've awakened and been unable to get back to sleep.  Today, evidently, is my lucky day.  The house feels too hot, my pillow and t-shirt are damp with my perspiration, I could hear the baby restless in his bassinet.  I wake up a couple of times every night thirsty, get some water, go back to bed, and sleep again.  Babies can't do that.  Ours sometimes makes sounds that make me think he's got dry-mouth.  If that's it, it must be pretty horrible.  What if he's too hot?  He's zipped up in his little footed sleeper.  What a torment that must be.

Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said:

A prostitute saw a dog moving around a well on a hot day and hanging out its tongue because of thirst. She drew water for it in her shoe and she was pardoned (for this act of hers).

Whether you are a sceptic or a believer you cannot deny our end. To do so would disbelieve our own beginning, our own existence. And if no such monsterous creature, no demon as if a zombie lurks beneath hallowed cracks of earth, why not await a nightmare with a shield at the ready?

This is how the Zombie Hunter Coalition (ZHC) has formed, to plan ahead! Because the time is now that we living and breathing human beings standup for our right to walk tall amongst the clouds of heaven and the waves of sea. For at the ZHC all weakness is rendered ill as you, a potential Zombie Hunter, prepare yourself for survival against the ugliest of beasts!

See that?? I'm an "ultimate survivor"! Take the The Comprehensive Zombie Combat Test and be aware of your status as a potential Zombie Hunter!

I have spent a fair amount of my career, my career as a drinker, thinking about that sublime melange combining gin and dry vermouth in propitious proportions.  My conclusion is this: it's a good thing.

As we speak I am conducting further research, with gin from the freezer.  As the aim in these recent days is to run out of everything in time for my departure on Friday, I am prematurely out of vermouth, so I am making do.  Making do with a bit of citrus is not a very bad thing, so sometimes the mix-master on duty tosses in a bit of lemon, lime, or even a slice of pear.  On stranger days, when such luminaries as Kingsley Amis or Hunter S. Thompson come to mind, I add a pinch of cinnamon or ground cloves.  OK, weird, I know, but cloves has always been my catnip, and there are worse things to dump into the shaker.  I won't list them here.

What kinds of things do you do?  What sorts of gin do you prefer?  What botanicals, additives, condiments or accessories do you toy with?  What martini stories do you know?  Please share.

My most important martini story by far started when I discovered, back in fall of 2006 in St Andrews, that Michelle liked martinis.  We went to a bar on South St called the Gin House.  We imagined speciously that they knew something about martinis.  But after I requested two martinis, and saw the very young bartender proceed to pour two large glasses of Martini and Rossi dry vermouth, I knew we were not on the same page.

As what happened at every bar in the UK, I had to instruct the man or woman behind the bar in the fine art of constructing a martini cocktail.  At a hotel in Stirling there were cocktail shakers behind the bar -- a good sign.  (The universal bad sign was the absence of olives; you simply can't find olives in a bar in the United Kingdom.)  But when I told the bartender to fill one of the shakers with ice, he used his ice tongs to carefully place precisely three cubes into the shaker.  I said, 'no', there should be more ice -- so he added three more small cubes.  At the brink I told him 'NO' you must FILL the shaker with ice, which must have been a wholly alien thought for him; I think he sensed wisely that I might erupt and destroy the hotel if he didn't end his miserly attitude towards ice, so finally he added a sensible quantity.  When at last we had our cold drinks in hand, with a bit of lemon instead of an olive, we calmed down -- I calmed down -- and we enjoyed the salubrious effects that gin and vermouth provide.

I hope I remembered to pack my shaker.

Do not suffer thirst.

Our planet is literally dying of thirst. Over one billion people lack access to a safe supply of drinking water. Water-related diseases are some of the leading causes of death and disease in the world, and over half of the world’s hospital beds are filled by patients succumbing to water-related diseases. Every 15 seconds, or the time it’s taken you to read this far, a child dies from a water-related disease. Less than 1% of the world's fresh water is accessible for direct human use, and the failure rate for water systems is over 50%.

The ripple effect in the filthy water is equally frightening. The water crisis is predicted to affect 40% of Earth's population in just the next few years and it will pose a tremendous threat to the world stability and economy. Recently, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world to put the looming crisis over water shortages at the top of the global agenda in order to prevent escalating conflicts over scarce supplies. In 1996, the then Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Human Settlements, Wally N’Dow, was even less ambiguous when he boldly stated that the world’s next wars would be fought over water.

Not oil. Not politics. Not religion. But water. In fact, the supply of this planet’s fresh drinking water is disappearing so fast, it would take a miracle to keep many of the people now living in the Earth’s most marginal areas alive.

Not long ago, three men, Chad Schwendeman, Dan Wolfanger, and Ricky Barnes witnessed that miracle. It came in the form of technology so revolutionary, it boggles the imagination. Yet, it’s so real and so viable; they immediately saw its potential to change the world. Born of their vision to make a difference in the lives of millions of people, they formed the XZIEX Company that will share their message of hope with the world. They are sharing with you the true miracle that the XZIEX Atmospheric Water Generator can bring to you and the potential this incredible machine has to help with the world’s lack of fresh drinking water.

The XZIEX Machine provides an inexpensive, limitless source of the original “health drink” nicknamed “the fountain of youth” for it’s ability to improve your energy, increase your physical and mental performance, eliminate toxins and waste, aid digestion, help you lose weight and keep your heart healthy, and make your skin radiate health. The XZIEX Machine creates fresh clean water out of thin air by extracting water from the humidity found naturally in Earth’s atmosphere. Since there are billions of gallons of water recycling in the atmosphere every day, the perpetual supply is limitless and accessible almost everywhere in the world. The XZIEX Machine extracts the water through a sophisticated condensation process and sends it through a series of state-of-science purifiers. The unprecedented technology removes all inorganic materials, undesirable odors and tastes, particulate matter smaller than .01 microns, and all forms of bacteria, metals, minerals, viruses and other elements that might pose any kind of health risk.

]]> http://christypovolish.wordpress.com/?p=367 Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:35:02 +0000 Christy http://christypovolish.wordpress.com/?p=367                                                                                                              Story of the day:  God shaped vacuum

   The vacuum in our house has a detachable platic container that holds all of the dirt once it has been sucked up off of the ground.  The vacuum knows only what it is designed to do at the hands of it's owner and that is to be filled  If I were to guess that if the vacuum had feelings, that it would desire a close relationship with it's owner so that it can do what it was created to do.

   "Our God is a personal, knowable God who desires a close relationship with the people He created.  Each of us has been created with a God-shaped vacuum, an emptiness that only He can fill--a deep thirst for God. 

   We thirst for so many things--for significance, success, comfort, peace, wisdom.  But our real thirst is for a closeness to our Creator who alone can give wholeness and peace.  Only God can satisfy our deepest longings.  He offers us the water that can and will satisfy these things.  All we need to do is come and drink."  Living Stone Corporation

Quote of the day:  J. I. Packer

"The fruit of wisdom is Christlikeness, peace, humility, and love.  And, the root of it is faith in Christ as the manifested wisdom of God."

Bible verse of the day:  John 4:14

"but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank You for filling me with Your wholeness and peace that gets me through my day.  God, I pray to continually draw near to You and to seek You in my life.  I am grateful that You desire a close relationship with me and it is through our relationship that I am able to know that I am Your child and that Your love for me is greater than anything anyone else can ever offer.  I thank You for this day!

In Jesus Name I pray,

Amen

What brings balance?

Perhaps it is not a thing sought but

Rather, the knowing how to seek-

I won't summon thirst and hunger,

Let them call me when they will,

Let them approach with steady paces,

I'll greet them them with slow, frugal

Hospitality, and hope they'll be the kind of guests

Who leave early, to beat the traffic.

I have just returned from the hospital. I was discharged with a clean bill of health. My EKG was "perfect" as the doctor said, my blood pressure was 131/75 and my blood sugar was 89. Great, I'm not having a heartattack and I am not diabetic (this was an initial concern dude to the fact that my dad is dabetic and I was incredibly thirsty upon arrival to the ER) So, since I am in good health, what brought me there?

Well, I went to bed early to try and get back on a normal sleep schedule because staying up until 4am and not waking up until noon or later was getting ridiculous and I need to do something with my life. So, I hit the hay after 10 and off to dreamland I go.

Fast forward to about 12:20am and I woke up..I figured it was because my body was just not ready to sleep...so on to facebook I go and I just felt completely disoriented...I thought it was because I woke up and hadn't adjusted to it yet. Back to bed I go. I was determined to get a good night sleep.

Laying in bed, my disorientation just doesn't go away. I knew something was wrong...I could feel that I was just starting to get anxious...and if last time this happened was any indication, my heart would began to start racing momentarily. I decided to walk upstairs, use the bathroom and I would be good.

I am just about to the bathroom and instead I go in to tell my mom..because she is a mom and she will fix it (I may very well be 22 years old, but my mom can still fix it all). I wake her up out of what I am sure was a deep sleep and tell her my heart is racing. She gets up, wakes my dad and tells him we need to go to the ER. My dad is curious as to what is going on, my mom feels my heart and says that it is indeed racing and we should probably go. I go to change and am ready to go, because at this point, I just want to not feel like I am...I don't know how to describe it, I don't feel sick it is almost like an anxious feeling. I grab a water and head out the door. That water was gone in seconds..and suddenly my mouth is incredibly dry and I can't get enough to drink.

We arrive at the ER, I tell the lady my heart is racing they take me into room, it isn't an exam room, it's the room before that, they ask you questions about your health, how tall you are, weight..things like that. The guy took my pulse (it was 126..in case you aren't aware...this is definitely NOT normal). The doctor comes into the room and says we need to move to and exam room (room #2 if you are wondering) because an ambulance was on its way in.

I am in the room, and that damn glass of water cannot stay full enough. They continue the questions to try and figure out what my issue is. In comes Deb, a very nice lady, to hook me up to an EKG machine. Now..if you have been lucky enough to NEVER have had to get hooked up to one of these machines...you aren't missing out. They take these..'conductors' and stick them..ALL over you..one one each ankle..5 around your heart..and a few others spread across your chest. and then they have to take these cords and hook them to they sticky things to get a reading. It isn't painful at all..there is just a lot of wires and it is incredibly annoying.

Anyways, back to the story...they get my EKG print out and Deb takes it to the doctor (Dr. Kim). He comes back in and he said that it was, and I quote "perfect."

Dr. Kim then sat down and started asking my questions about my life and am I happy and have I been having racing thoughts..or thoughts of suicide (I have not) and I answer him. And I tell him I am just stressed about not having a job..yadda..whatever. Dr. Kim says, he just thinks that I am stressed with everything and he was going to get me some Valium so that I could relax, but also take my blood sugar because I am so thirsty and he wants to make sure I am not diabetic.

Deb comes back in with the testing thing that you use to test your blood sugar. She takes mine, it is 89..this is apparently really good. Dr. Kim comes back in and asks if I am feeling better..I am (hell if you give ANYONE 2 Valium..you better believe they are gonna be feeling better). He gives me and my mom a printout to read about anxiety...guess what one of the symptoms is...dry mouth!

Turns out, I suffered from what I would consider a mild/sever anxiety attack. He writes me a prescription for Valium for me to take AS needed if this situation were to arise again. By this time..the Valium..hits me and I just want to sleeeeeeep.

After all was said and done, all is well. I am relaxed...calm and tired. I am thankful that I am healthy. On a final note, I would like to address the ER:

Dear ER,

You and I have got to stop meeting like this. It seems that it always ends with my hooked up to and EKG machine fearing for my life.

Thank you for your cooperation.

[sC]

This is the first time I have had a chance to write anything for days. Lance has had one of his worst weeks in his diabetes history. I simply don't know where to begin.

I actually meant that, I don't know where to start.

Okay..well. He has 70 new holes in his fingers since I last wrote. He looks like he has had two small teething puppies chewing on his fingers for hours on end. For the first time ever, he is baulking at having tests. Because it hurts, and there is nowhere left on his fingers left to test. I have to move to the base of his thumb (the fleshy part on his palm) to test, which has gone down as well as a bunch of lead balloons.

Instead of being "Hypo-boy", he has turned into a walking toffee apple.

All week long, Lance has been been living in the 20mmol/L vicinity.  That's the roughneck part of Diabetes town. Really hard to escape unscathed. I have thrown insulin pens in the bin, and replaced them with brand new ones directly from the fridge. Nup..the insulin wasn't losing its potency. The due date isn't until September 09. It's NOT the insulin.

So it must be Lance. Something has gone beserk inside his body. He is well, fit, and shows no signs of infection or sickness. Growth spurt I hear you say? Maybe, although the last one has only recently died down.

I made a long appointment with our GP to discuss what to do. I can usually titrate and tinker around with a little bit of Novorapid here and there, however this week, he has been having 8 units extra, on top of his daily dosage. He has 16 units of Novorapid in total everyday, and it usually works like Pacman, gobbling up any tiny globule of sugar in his blood. It's so good, it's dangerous. Usually. This week, I could swear that I'm on Candid Camera..hey, have you guys done the ol' switcheroo on us? Put water into his insulin pens?

No. Sigh. DAMMIT. It couldn't possibly be something so simple.

Then there's the never ending threat of DKA sneaking up and tapping us on the shoulder. I mean, Lance has spent so much time in the toilet this week, his body desperately trying to flush away this overload of sugar that has left him so weak, achy, restless and responsible for his washed out, puffy appearance.

Ketone strips line the inside of the bathroom bin.

I decided that I would introduce an extra injection at lunchtime. By crikey, I cracked the code.

The whole of yesterday and today have been just perfect. 7mmol/L or thereabouts all day through.

Only this afternoon have the rosy apples returned to Lance's cheeks, He doesn't look like a clammy, sickly addict from the ghettos of Diabetestown anymore.

Lance's new pump is going to kick all of this seesawing to the kerb.

It's just a matter of patiently waiting..waiting..waiting...

In the meantime, I am struggling with the many thoughts of what a week of constant hyperglycaemia has done to his organs, his arteries...I try to push these thoughts away, despite the toment and fear they instill in me...

It's not like it's raining cats and endocrinoligists here, either.

It's not like I can get an appointment for tomorrow and plant the evidence of the past week in front of an endo and get some reassurance and explanations. I'd even settle for an understanding nod-of-the-head at the moment.

Our next appointment is over 2 weeks away, and I can't do a thing to change it.

Despite my fears and mournful revalations, I am so grateful that the hurri(sugar)cane has passed.

The voracious consumption of water has died down.

I don't have to cringe when the toilet flushes...Lance can actually celebrate the return of carbohydrates tonight, as they were enemy this week.

So now, we are up to 6 set injections a day.

7 new holes a week.

I don't think I could bring myself to complain about a lil ol' hypo for a while after this...

However, as usual, my boy smiles broadly at me, he hardly seems aware of the nightmare that was the past week. Despite the fact that he suffered, and had headaches, and legaches, and cried in sheer frustration, he is now at peace within his body.

Exhale.