Finding the chase and cutting to it

and the chicks for free is the line from Dire Straits.

Totally unPC these days but with Brexit and interest rates in the UK finally making a difference to our exchange rates, it makes sense to invest some free time into something productive.

Eh, what are you on about?

Many moons ago, we asked our son if he’d outgrown his Buzz Lightyear curtains and got an affirmative grunt.

A trip to John Lewis and we found some curtains he liked that were the right width for his dormer windows.  Great, only thing was the length.  Our dormers are short, 91cm wide but only 127cm tall.

It took me 5 years, but a couple of months ago, with the help of youTube, I trimed off 43cm from the top of each curtain and reattached the curtain header and low, half a days effort we all had made to measured curtains.

And a load of fabric.

You binned it right, or recycled it?

Today, I used 90 minutes of my time (don’t ask, I don’t do this very often) and finished this task.

Step 1:

Buy cushions from Hobbycraft, Ipswich – I chose a 43cm square one as that made the most of my spare fabric.

Step 2:

prep fabric – I took out the black out lining still attached to the off cuts.

Set up your iron ready to iron in the hems for the cushions.

Step 3:

measure out the fabric as specified on Home stories a to z envelope cushion cover.  43cm is 17″, so I measured out 40″ by 17″.

Cut it to length.

Step 4:

iron in the hems for the short edges.

Step 5:

sew in the hems and fit the fabric to the cushion and pin where the overlap is.

Step 6:

do the long edges as per Home stories a to z envelope cushion cover.

Step 7:

take your photo 🙂 and place in room for a very coordinated look.

A big thank you to Home stories a to z envelope cushion cover and N Kinsey. This would have taken me forever to figure out without your help!

I think I still have enough fabric to recover the lampshade…

For those in the UK and Europe

If, like me, you live in the UK or Europe, we do not measure in inches and so our cushion pads are not sold in inches.

This means Beth’s measurements are not directly transferable.

This is her method in metric:

The very sharp eyed will see that basically it’s the width of the cushion by twice the width and 15cm (width by (2width+15)).

Or you could try my cushion tool.

If you’re like us, you woke this morning to find some things had magically changed their time and some things haven’t.

It’s been a very long time since you couldn’t rely on your computer and phone to align to the change in time but if like us you have some smart/programmable systems in your home, they are for a period behind the times.

As a ritual, I do my testing meters and pump together – having one out of alignment is not at all what you want.

Then I do the kitchen clocks (cooker, microwave and wall clock).  The DAB radio sets itself but the land line phone will wait for someone to call us – I sometimes call home early to jog it to the right time.

The TV and boxes now all change automatically as do our radio clocks.  The cars and motorbikes though tend to be done in one sitting.

Fun times 🙂

I’m trying to write this while I’m still hypo becasue I’m kinda interested in what comes out.

My blood sugar measured 2.3 mmol/l on my freestyle libre about 3 minutes ago. I’ve had 2 mars bars and they are going to take a while to kick in.

My head hurts – the pain is over my left hemisphere, about the size of my palm. I’m full of mars bars and I’m having a little difficultly focusing.

I must try to edit this after wards – that would break the point.

I’m functional, I could probably say some proper sentences though they’d be a little slow. I can still think – I have some mess in my life at the moment, and that’s pretty prominent but mostly I just want to sleep. I just want to close my eyes and drift off.

I’m focusing better, water seems like a good idea. I’m up to 2.7 mmol/l on the libre so probably about 3.4mmol/l via blood – it takes a while for the sugar to seep out from the capillaries in to the fluid the sensor measures. Mars bars are a bit slow but they’ve got a serious punch.

Yes, feeling much more normal (whatever that is anyways). Night all 😉

Why do this?

Good question; because when I was very small, I could never remember hypos.  That changed a little when I got into my twenties.  Never anything useful, but some of the psychedelic nightmares did stick.

I sometimes get an enormous amount of peace when I’m hypo, but sometimes the physical short falls are terrifying.  I had one hypo in 2007 where I was completely paralysed down one side and that was awful.  Even when I came round.

Some people do a great deal to never be hypo.  Thing is, however bad it feels, this is preferable to being high.  Every time, I’ve never had a great high blood sugar, it always hurts like mad.

In May 1990, my parents bought a Stag Dinning Set: an extenable “ebony stained” table, six chairs including two carvers, finished in dusky pink velour.

Today I finished renovating the last carver in Antique Gold damak material.

Now I am heading for a relaxing soak before enjoying the fruits of my labour by having take out on the chairs.

Have a good one 🙂

Hold on a second, why do this?

Well, through the years, my family have built their own fortune, in 1990, the purchase of this dinning suite was huge for my parents.  When my husband and I moved into our first joint owned house, my parents lent this to us as a stop gap.

My son will one day have this piece of furniture and in the mean time we get to enjoy it.  Maybe one day, when my folks downsize, it will be ready for them too.

0Having started my upholstery odyssey a few weeks ago, I have reached the magic half way stage and this is what I have learnt.

1. A staple removal tool is worth its weight in gold.  I stripped four chairs in less than three hours.
2. A staple gun is not enough, you need around 4,000 odd staples for a set of six chairs as for every single staple you successfully put in there are 10 which die through not going in properly, being ejected as test subjects, jam in the machine and come out as a second or even third which cannot be tapped in so need to be ripped out.
3. You do get faster and generally better, even with the staple gun.
4. There are upholstery shops in Ipswich that will cut the foam you need to replace to size and will sell you back fabric.
5. You can get to the stage where going from the calico stage to the seat being screwed back into the chair in three hours.
6. It is well worth making a template for the backing layer. It takes 30-45 minutes to install this last step if the piece is pre-cut.
7. The tools list is as follows:
   • staple gun
   • staples – 8mm (calico and fabric) and 10mm (backing and corners)
   • metal hammer
   • pen knife (for pulling the staple gun apart when it jams)
   • long nosed pilers (generally for pulling out broken staples
   • staple remover
   • ceramic magnet (for collecting the discarded staples)

Pictures below:

In the lounge

In the hallway

The next steps are to finish the last chair, it is currently sitting looking pretty in its calico layer so needs the gold fabric cut and stapled in and the backing layer applied.  The last step is then to screw the seat into the chair.

I then need to strip the foam off the two carvers and apply the new foam, calico, damask and backing layers.  The last three steps should take half a day each.

I am not too sure how difficult it is going to be to remove the old foam.

Putting in the new depends on a smooth surface being left and then spraying in a strip of vinyl floor adhesive.  Stick that strip then work backwards to do the rest.  The glue is very fast drying so doing it in stages should allow for accuracy 🙂

Since I’ve kicked off my training plan, my blogs are very focused.

What about the rest of life?  I have two main hobbies, riding my beloved motorbike and skiing.

This is not about motorcycling (I really need to get out on the bike…)

Taking a chill pill?

You need two things to alpine ski: snow and a slope.  We travel for these.  Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago.

The photos show the snow in Merribel, most of the way down the French Alps.

They show the weather, the sky, the peaks and slopes, fir trees and cafes.

This is our first holiday without our son, which was a bit strange.  He’s leaving home in September and it gave him space to concentrate on his A levels and us a chance to relax with just the two of us.

We drove down France from the channel tunnel: about an 8 hour journey with breaks along route.  We relied on our aging sat nav (2012 maps!) and google maps which got us all the way from home to the hotel.

Why?

I am very nervous about hurting myself on the mountains but I love the quiet of the mountain air and, if I’m honest, skiing itself.  It’s so different to my everyday.

It’s partly why I’m keen to stay fit and healthy and why I use an electric vehicle where I can.

Here is the plan in a box, with some tracking:

The route last year may be seen here.

Last year’s route

Most of the profile (the layout of the route against sea level) is mostly easy running for the first 40 miles.  Quite East Anglican.

The second 40 miles is “rolling hills” and some “more physically demanding” sets.

The last 20 is much easier, not quite downhill all the way but not too bad.

Following James Fletcher’s advice, energy management is the key – hence my long training period.

It would be easy to say do the first 40 miles as quickly as possible as it’s mostly flat.  But we’re down to physical limitations.  My heart recovers from exercise very easy but I never get close to the 174 beats per minute I could probably do.  I generally top out at 160 bmp.

If I could do that first set at 15mph average rather than my planned 12.5mph, I could do that first 40miles in 2 hour 40minutes instead of 3 hours 12minutes.   Lets do something similar for the last 20miles, which is 1hour 20minutes.   Out of 8 hours that gives me 5 of the hard stuff.  That would allow me to drop my average to 12mph.  Uphill.

Mmm, plenty of dedicated hill training should see me through…

I have six months to train for the August deadline of the 100 mile Prudential Cycle ride and that means I need six months to prepare.

Today was taking that first bite from the elephant and I covered 25.7 in two sets: one of 20.5 miles and then a return home of 5.2 miles.  In total the average is 10.8mph.

The sun was shining, my blood sugar was not behaving itself but actually this was an interesting view on what cycling with high blood sugar would be like with a safety net (son at home for half-term and able to drive).

Getting ready to head out did not take too long, though with hindsight, I should have taken my camel pack!

Whoa, where are you going with this?

I trained: averaged 12mph for the first set and 9mpg for the second.  On that evidence, 100 miles is going to take me 9hrs.  Not a bad stab but I really want to do the ride in 8hours (with 30 minutes of breaks).

That’s an average of 12.5mph no matter the gradient and I suspect there’ll be some big hills out there.  It’s not East Anglia after all.

One of the things I’d really like to do by June is be able to ride from Felixstowe to Cambridge 71 miles.  I’m working up to that slowly.

Last year I went from 10miles to 47miles in seven weeks.

I’ve kept a base fitness up over the winter, but two months out after getting a bad stomach bug.  So six months should allow me to do that easily.

Week 1 (this week): 1 ride of 25 miles and 1 ride of 10 miles.  Some hill training.  A day off in between.

Week 2 (w/c 25th Feb): 1 ride 35 miles and 1 ride of 10 miles.  30 minutes hill training.

Week 3 (w/c 4th Mar): 1 ride 35 miles (different route) and 1 ride of 10 miles.  45 minutes hill training (I have a route).

Week 4 (w/c 11th Mar): 1 ride of 25 miles, looking at how close I get can to 2hours and 1 ride of 10 miles aiming for an hour max.  60 mins hill training.  A day off in between.

This is important as that’s an average of 12.5mph regardless of local gradient.  The 21st Feb, I am significantly under that.

Week 5 (w/c 18th Mar): 1 ride of 40 miles and 1 ride of 15 miles.  20 mins hill training.  A day off in between.

Week 6 (w/c 25th Mar): 1 ride 40 miles and 1 ride of 15 miles.  20 minutes hill training.

Week 7 (w/c 1st Apr): 1 ride 40 miles and 1 ride of 10 miles.  60 minutes hill training.

Week 8 (w/c 8th Apr): 1 ride of 40 miles, looking at how close I get can to 3hours.  This is likely to be to Woolpit along route 51.

Week 9 (w/c 15 Apr): 1 ride 50 miles (aiming for 5 hours), 2 sets of hill training.  Possibly up the A137.

Week 10 (w/c 22 Apr): 1 ride 50 miles (aiming for 4.5 hours).  Gym work and 2 sets of hill training.

Week 11 (w/c 29 Apr): 1 ride 50 miles (aiming for 4 hours).  Gym work and 2 sets of hill training.

Week 12 (w/c 6 May): 1 ride 50 miles (aiming for 3.5 hours).  Gym work and 2 sets of hill training.

Week 13 (w/c 13 May): 1 ride 60 miles (aiming for 5 hours) (average 12mph), 2 sets of hill training.

Week 14 (w/c 20 May): 1 ride 60 miles (aiming for 5 hours).  Gym work and 2 sets of hill training.

Week 15 (w/c 27 May): 1 ride 60 miles (aiming for 4.5 hours).  Gym work and 2 sets of hill training.

Week 16 (w/c 3 Jun): 1 ride 60 miles (aiming for 4 hours).  Gym work and 2 sets of hill training.  Probably Felixstowe to Newmarket.

Week 17 (w/c 10 Jun): Week off.  Just walking and motorcycling.

Week 18 (w/c 17 Jun): 1 ride 70 miles (aiming for 6 hours).  Gym work and 2 sets of hill training.

Week 19 (w/c 24 Jun): 1 ride 70 miles.  Gym work and 2 sets of hill training.

Week 20 (w/c 1 Jul): 1 ride 80 miles (aiming for 7 hours).

Week 21 (w/c 8 Jul): 1 ride 90 miles (aiming for 8 hours).

Week 22 (w/c 15  Jul) : 1 ride 90 miles (aiming for 7 hours).

Week 23 (w/c 22 Jul): 1 ride 100 miles (aiming for 8 hours).

Week 24 (w/c 29 Jul): Hill training, 2 sets, 10 mins each.

Ride the ride 4th August.

The past two years, for me, have had some interesting times.  I came off my push bike, a panic attack while skiing, I forgot my cannulas in Canada and had to completely overhaul my insulin treatment for 8 days and the resultant big hypo and the removal of my fixation plate (remember to do that much earlier next time).

In some ways, it probably looks like I have taken all this in my stride.  I get up normally, get my arse to work and keep my levels pretty reasonable.

But it’s been exhausting.  My requirements have fluctuated wildly and I’ve lost many of my hobbies in the background.  Since the ride in October, I’ve lacked a focus outside of my obvious work.

I have discipline, with the type 1 that makes things so much easier, but on the odd occasion, that feels like going through the motions.  It’s one of the reasons I am so keen to do the furniture!

I’m planning to do a motorcyle ride in June (heading out with a group to France) and of course I have my 100 mile cycle ride in August and October.

I take the time to smell the roses too and now it is a bright and beautiful day, I do really need to clean the inside of my office windows.

That should tide me over 😉