Huge queue of cars at the Morrisons garage in Tiverton this morning. Gazed at it in wonder but then suddenly realised it must be a bunch of motorists filled with the Gordon Brown terror. For us the expected rise in road tax for big towing vehicles will be a blow. We have to have a big vehicle to tow a trailer full of alpacas as part of our business, doing deliveries or mobile stud services. Sadly we are not all yummy mummies delivering children to school in central London, not that the Chancellor seems to notice that.
We have had a hard frost with ice everywhere but it is the most beautiful sunny day, ideal alpaca weather, and they are looking very skittish.
However I have to spend this afternoon at the hospital in Exeter having a diabetic MOT. This is a very dull experience as you get nagged by all and sundry about your blood sugar levels but they never offer up any positive solutions or ways in which you could improve your control. You have to find out that for yourself. The NHS was very good when I fell over nearly two years ago and they diagnosed the diabetes but once over the crisis, they have been pretty useless. There are supposed to be intensive courses to train you up in managing diabetes but the waiting list is over two years long and there is no money for more courses. Pure insanity when you consider how much uncontrolled diabetes is going to cost the tax payer – the effects of this condition are not pretty being heart disease, strokes, blindness, amputation and kidney failure. What is even more depressing is that you rock up at the hospital feeling fine and end up in a waiting room that is a sea of hospital green, mostly full of very ill people and unhelpful receptionists. I am an insulin dependent late onset Type 1 whereas the majority of diabetics are Type 2, mostly old and usually overweight. I have a very active lifestyle and each day is different so control is tough. The consultants tell you to lead a predictable lifestyle so that your insulin requirements are always the same – my answer to them is normally quite rude! I shall probably end up with very high blood pressure today having being driven insane with rage by having to wait for hours to be told absolutely bugger all by some overpaid consultant.
Frocks – Jenny Randall is in the process of making a whole range of sample garments for me from UK Alpaca yarns ukalpaca I saw some of them at the weekend and was very thrilled. There is a sweet little grey cardigan with pink and red edging and a lovely jacket with very interesting detailing at the front and back made from our rose pink yarns. I am really looking forward to seeing the rest of the samples as several are stylish men’s jumpers – and there are certainly not enough of those made from alpaca yarns in the UK.