Sunny and cold Roman amphitheater in Pula, Croatia

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The first day of the new year turned out to be very quiet and peaceful for Masayo and I: we stayed in our room at Apartments Ljiljana in Pula, Croatia until 4:00 pm, and when we did go out the town was much warmer and less windy than New Year’s Eve was. My blood sugars even behaved mostly. Good start to 2015!

My last BG reading of last year was 422 last night and I hoped for better things here on January 1. And I got it: first reading of the new year was a balmy 78 mg/dL. It was 10:15 am; I was well-rested and my eyes were puffy, but waking up to a reading like that is always pleasing. For my selfie I smiled blearily – look at the photo to see what “just slept off a 400” looks like!

Masayo took advantage of the kitchen in our functional little room and made eggs and ham for breakfast to which we added cereal, yogurt, and a sliced orange, all of which we wisely picked up yesterday at a shop in town. It’s nice to have a refrigerator to put food like this; booking.com has really turned out to be a boon for us. So easy to find affordable but nice places that have whatever amenities we want (which isn’t many, but a refrigerator is nice. Good place for insulin storage too, if you don’t forget it when you check out like I once did in Malaysia.)

We stayed in the room most of the day on the internet (we have good wifi here). I updated t1dwanderer.com. At 2:30 pm my BG had gone up to 214 – not too too high, and fair enough since I’d had a lot of cereal and then barely moved for several hours. For lunch we had yet more cereal and I took a nice big Humalog shot for it all.

But as cabin fever was setting in we went out to check out Pula on New Year’s Day. It was quiet – only a few other souls wandered the streets and just about everything was closed. And it was noticeably warmer than yesterday, and the icy wind of the last couple days was gone. The atmosphere of Pula was one of pleasant, approachable inertness.

We strode by the old Roman amphitheater, sturdy and huge as ever and seeming good-natured in the warm new year air, plus a church and a monastery. All were closed and serene as the late afternoon sun clung still to the sky.

We saw people taking down last night’s New Year’s Eve decorations in the town square (strangely, Christmas decorations remain) and went down by the water’s edge to watch the bobbing boats and see the purple-grey clouds. I felt I was low, and indeed I was: 55. Under the nearly-full moon in the still-blue sky I had a Twix bar, one of my more scenic lows on this trip.

And that was about it for us in Pula today: we went back to the room and Masayo again made a meal for us, fried chicken patties and vegetables with some sliced bread. It was coziness itself, salty and delicious and coming after a pre-meal blood sugar of 89. All hail Twix bars by the Adriatic Sea!

The capper to the day was my last blood sugar check before bed: I was 175. A month ago I would have been twice that before bed; I’m getting much better at forcing myself psychologically to take the injections I know I need at dinner. Post-dinner readings are still a problem but much less frequently these days.

It just goes to show you that by conscientious checking of BG and intelligent experimentation with insulin timing and dosages, you can fix diabetes problems eventually.

And if you’re going to be doing that anyway, why not do it in a charming and peaceful little town full of character on the Istrian peninsula of Croatia on New Year’s Day?

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