Asylum of the Disappearing

Blood was down to 5.6 this morning, which suggests...
Well, not very much at all, I suppose, but is good blood sugar control considering I've actually managed to get through this week doing abbbbbbsolutely nothing in the way of exercise.

Saw my pal Sian for a bit this morning. She's the kind of person who runs marathons...for fun. Climbs mountains "because they're there". Aims to do "UltraMarathons" in unlikely locations and so on. She's a nutter, essentially. Still, this morning she was relaxedly knackered, having been camping (again...nutter), with four kids for a few days. Was nice, actually, to have a bunch of time in which I didn't have to think "Bugger, I've put two stone back on..." - which is a kind of gnawing, high-pitched whine in the back of my head, pretty much constantly at the minute.

Went up to see Dad this afternoon too. Not his best of days, so there wasn't much in the way of progress there - though it did get me thinking about the power of prayer.

There's a school of thought amongst some atheists that when people say "I'll pray for you", they're not actually doing any good for the recipient, but they are doing good for themselves, by thinking that they've had an impact, and therefore making themselves feel better. This, to me, has always seemed a rather uncharitable way of looking at the thing. There's also rather a smug trope in atheist circles that says believers will pray for you, and atheists will do something for you. Again, this seems to be assuming that believers will only pray for you, rather than praying for you and calling a doctor. Again, hardly the most charitable (or logical, if you get right down to it) view of things.

Sitting there, listening to my dad sleep, not wanting to wake him because waking was such an effort, it struck me that the whole visit was a kind of practical prayer. Did him absolutely no good at all, but did me some good in knowing that if he woke and needed something, we'd be there for him. Besides, in real terms there was nothing I could have done to genuinely help him today - except the little things we did - handed him stuff he wanted, made sure he took some liquids, told the nurses when he needed some medication and so on. Hence a practical prayer.

I'd be lying though if I said tonight was about anything other than Asylum of the Daleks. Yes, geekboys and dweebgirls across the nation will be sitting on sofas now, taking phones off the hook or turning off mobiles, settling down because Doctor Who is back tonight. One of my favourite musical comedians even wrote a song to describe the emotion we all feel on the day the show comes back.

It's called Call Me During Doctor Who and I'll Kill You...Go ahead, Youtube it, you'll have a laugh.

So this is me, bogging off from the lot of you to indulge in some pure pepperpot-shaped extermination-based fun...

EX-TER-MIN-AAAAAATE!!!