R.I.P. Sammy-Jo

I found out yesterday that my friend Sammy-Jo died. We had lost touch for awhile and I didn't know that she had been so poorly. It was another life taken away far too early because of CF. Sammy-Jo was a couple of years younger than me (i'm not sure on the exact age difference) so it made her no older than 21. Also the news reached us all very slowly as it was just over a month ago that she actually passed away, so this message is for Sammy-Jo:

I know you're in a better place,
but I wish that I could see your face,
I know you're where you need to be
Even though it's not here with me.

I miss you, I miss your smile
And I still shed a tear every once in awhile
And even though it's different now
You're still here somehow.

My heart won't let you go
And I need you to know
I miss you.

Breathe easy now Sammy-Jo, you are free but will never be forgotten

pictures from holiday

With the queen mother and Prince Charles (in the thing i mentioned on yarmouth seafront. you could stand in front of these pictures against the wall and see how tall you are in comparison to the royal family):
Celebrating my win against my mum at air hockey: (pic is abit dark sorry)

Abit lost and confused and not knowing which way to go in the maze:

I watched these playing for about 10mins in the zoo, they kept dive bombing into the water and pusing each other in:

On the carousel inside the thingy on yarmouth seafront again (same place as first pic, sorry i havent changed the orientation):

This is just a brief selection of my pictures, as some are abit rubbish for public viewing and others I don't have permission to put on even though I really like them!

Holiday time!

On saturday I went away to Great Yarmouth for 5days. It was the family holiday and should of been there until saturday but I've had to come home early due to my commitments onto breakthrough. Half the family are still there though just me and my dad came home today, as my dad also had some work commitments he couldnt get out of.

We had a really nice caravan, one of the nicest I've ever been in (which is saying something considering we owned a caravan for 10years!). When we arrived on the saturday we went to the seafront for a little bit before getting some tea and heading back to the caravan for an early night.

Sunday again was spent around the beach in Yarmouth, with a stroll along the seafront to a craft fair that was being held and then back again to the main pier. In the afternoon me and my dad attempted to fly a kite- to the amusement of the rest of them! In the evening me and my mum went into the club and played bingo before heading back to the caravan again.

Monday we travelled all of two minutes down the road to Hemsby and went in the mega maze!which was truly huge! Half of them gave up at the halfway exit point but I really wanted to complete it. So me and my mum continued on round (getting quite badly lost alot of the time!!). There were meant to be 10 boards hidden in the maze with stamps on that you had to collect to be able to work out a code at the end to find out the name of the robot (it had a junkyard/healthy environment/recycling theme thing) and what the robot could do to be more energy efficient! Well after 2hours of going round the maze and reaching the end (they estimate it will take about an hour and a half) we had only found 3 of the boards!!!!! We decided it wasnt worth going back into it and finding the others. In the afternoon we went onto Thrigby Wildlife gardens, where we had a picnic lunch before going to look at the animals. There was a very cute baby monkey who kept swinging round the cage and falling down it (not hurting itsself!) which kept us very entertained!! In the evening again me and my mum went and played bingo in the club after going into the onsite arcade and playing on the 2p machines!

Tuesday we went to Lowestoft for the day. As it was raining when we got there and discovered the car park was closed because they were setting up for the air festival (We didnt realise it was on at the end of this week) we had to park further away than we normally do, so when we had walked back down to where the fountains were we went into the cafe next to the soft play area. me, my mum and dad then headed into the town centre for a walk while a couple of the others remained behind at the soft play area for an hour. Then we had lunch in the cafe again (the burger with bacon and cheese on top was very yummy!) before being very british and heading down onto the beach near Nemo's cafe. There we were taking cover under the pier because it started to rain again! for most of the afternoon I was wearing my coat but had rolled my jeans up and taken my shoes and socks off and was making sandcastles. I just felt it was very british, it was like "you are on your holiday, you are going to be on the beach and you are going to enjoy yourself- i dont care if its raining!". some of the others were playing bowls with a game that we had brought (the multi-coloured kids one, not the serious kind that you see people playing in the white outfits!). In the evening me and my mum thought about playing bingo but when we got there the place was empty and it wouldnt of been worth the amount we paid out for the tickets even if we did win! So instead we took a walk along the road to a different arcade. Where we played 3games of ice hockey and I beat her in all of them with scores of 7-6,7-1 and 6-1 (we ran out of time on the last game!). We then continued a little bit further down and I ended up buying a sun hat!

This morning we went to Yesterday's World which is a museum/exhbit thing along the seafront in Yarmouth which sold old fashioned sweets and had a full-sized carousel inside the building! After we had gone round there me and my dad came home ready for my dad to go to work tomorrow.

Pictures will follow when i get my camera back at the weekend as I've left it with my mum!

a week of not much happening

So I haven't really done loads this week.

Since I last blogged:

On friday I did a food shop with my mum and grandma. My grandma still isn't (and is highly unlikely to ever be) well enough to be able to manage food shopping by herself like she used too, so we now take her food shopping and my mum doesn't have a car as my dad takes it to work so she borrows mine. Which is why we all go food shopping together on a friday morning! Friday evening I was at my breakthrough rehearsal. I was asked to create the programmes for the show (which is on the 25th so next friday!!!!).

Saturday I created most of the programme for Breakthrough, its just a very basic simple design so was quite easy but was missing a few peoples names so couldnt complete it.

Sunday I didn't really do much-went to my parents house for some tea.

Monday I went to work for a couple of hours to have some training on how they run the card shop for when I do some holiday temporary cover. I knew most of it, just had to be trained on the paypoint machine that is mainly used for paying gas or electric bills and phone top-up.

Tuesday I was at the RBL branch meeting. There was an argument between two of the members and one of them stormed out! It made it a little bit more interesting, usually the meetings are quite boring because I'm just not interested in most of the branch stuff such as the accounts!

Wednesday I went upto my brothers and had some lunch with his girlfriend and her little girl. Who absolutely adores me! We seem to have a game whenever I go up there where we play "picnic". Which involves her putting her blanket on the floor and tipping out all her play plates and things and some play food and I have to sit on the floor with her, while she pours me a cup of tea and makes me "sandwiches". That just seems to be our little thing and theres no convincing her otherwise not to play the game. It was a nice couple of hours. I also got the programmes sent off to be printed/photocopied and they are now all ready for the show. In the evening I went kickboxing and got my new gloves for when we do the pad work and some kickboots, which just protect the top of my feet. Again this is useful when we do padwork as otherwise feet get very red quite quickly when practising the kicks. I'm enjoying doing kickboxing again and is a good chance to meet some new people.

Yesterday I didn't really do alot and haven't really done much today either except food shopping again.

Pics!

On saturday evening my parents took me to a chinese resturant to celebrate my degree results. When I got to the table there was a balloon on there and after our main course a cake was brought out!!
This picture isnt so good but is of my congratulations cards and 2 new home ones on the left handside of my windowsill:

On the right hand side of my windowsill:

And a clearer picture of my 2 new home cards with a congrats card on my degree as well! Also the vase with some flowers in:

Then finally, my collection of Slyvac:

These were my grandmas but she knew I liked them and gave them to me as a house-warming present. Until I can get a proper shelf or something put up to display them better they have to stay in there, but it is a bit low to the ground, so not 100% happy with them there but at least they are out of the box!

some pics from edinburgh

At the Edinburgh Zoo quite happy feeding the birds:

And not quite so happy:

(I suddenly got bombared by a number of birds which was a little bit scary and not as nice as just one bird on your arm feeding from the pot of nectar).

In a museum of childhood:

In the royal botanical gardens:

very long time no blog

Ok, so it's been a month since I blogged! I don't really remember all thats happened, so not going to try-will just give some bullet points of the main things and then keep myself more upto date from now on!!

• On the 17th June I got the keys to my bungalow and moved some stuff in!
• On the 22nd June I got a sofa and armchair delivered so I had furniture to sit on!!
• I went away for a weekend to Brugges between the 3rd-6th July
• On the 6th July I also found out my degree results and got a 2.1!!!!! (Insert massive smile here!). So that means I now hold an Upper second class honours degree in Pyschology With Clinical Psychology and can be known as Helen Turner BSc.
• On the 8th July I spent my first night in my bungalow so have now officially moved in.

Ok, so thats all caught up extremely briefly to today!

Today I was at normal CF clinic, where things went well. My lung function has gone up from 68 to 72%, which I was happy with as am recovering from a cold and halfway through a course of oral antibiotics. So for it to of gone up is alot better than I was expecting.

I dont really have much else to say, so will leave this one here for now.