Wedding!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Guess who I met
Look who I got to meet while out at a scouting event yesterday!
It was amazing. There was no fanfare or anything that she was there helping out (in a tent that was planting seeds of different varieties), so were a little stunned at first. We recovered enough to ask for a photo to be taken. Didn't have anything to get an autograph on, otherwise I would of asked for one of those too!!
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Clinic update
Well that was an interesting clinic appointment and not really in a good way.
Since my last clinic appointment 2months ago I have lost 3kg in weight (I thought it was only 1), this is not good. My lung function has remained the same at 55% (lung function is worked out on your gender, height and weight of an average person. So it is possible to get more than 100% as you have better scores than expected of an average person of your gender, height and weight).
So yay lung function isn't worse but this is still not great. As when you look at it, it's only really 1 working lung out of the 2.
Then the dietician came in! She started looking back on my notes which show what my weight and lung function have been previously, in a nice handy sheet where they get written on. This time last year my lung function was 20% higher and my weight was 7kg heavier. To think that 55% has now become my accepted baseline is worrying.
Even at the start of this year I was about 65% so in 6months I've lost 10% and they aren't bothered and think its ok.
It's a little bit scary and depressing when you look at the numbers like that.
However as is the case in Cystic Fibrosis numbers aren't everything and you have to go on how you are feeling as well. Sometimes the numbers can be great but quality of life and how you feel can be rubbish and the other way round. My numbers aren't great but I feel ok. I am capable of doing pretty much everything that I want to do without too much trouble. Ok it takes me longer to recover than most people but that's life and I deal with it.
All I know is the dietician is going to bring these points up at the end of clinic in the team meeting that they have. So who knows what will happen next, if they will continue to just see how I do, or if they will want to make changes now.
After this clinic appointment all I know is- my annual assessment review (a yearly thing where there is a day of lots of different tests to assess overall health and then an afternoon where the results of said tests and review of the years events are relayed to you) is not going to be a particularly positive one!
Since my last clinic appointment 2months ago I have lost 3kg in weight (I thought it was only 1), this is not good. My lung function has remained the same at 55% (lung function is worked out on your gender, height and weight of an average person. So it is possible to get more than 100% as you have better scores than expected of an average person of your gender, height and weight).
So yay lung function isn't worse but this is still not great. As when you look at it, it's only really 1 working lung out of the 2.
Then the dietician came in! She started looking back on my notes which show what my weight and lung function have been previously, in a nice handy sheet where they get written on. This time last year my lung function was 20% higher and my weight was 7kg heavier. To think that 55% has now become my accepted baseline is worrying.
Even at the start of this year I was about 65% so in 6months I've lost 10% and they aren't bothered and think its ok.
It's a little bit scary and depressing when you look at the numbers like that.
However as is the case in Cystic Fibrosis numbers aren't everything and you have to go on how you are feeling as well. Sometimes the numbers can be great but quality of life and how you feel can be rubbish and the other way round. My numbers aren't great but I feel ok. I am capable of doing pretty much everything that I want to do without too much trouble. Ok it takes me longer to recover than most people but that's life and I deal with it.
All I know is the dietician is going to bring these points up at the end of clinic in the team meeting that they have. So who knows what will happen next, if they will continue to just see how I do, or if they will want to make changes now.
After this clinic appointment all I know is- my annual assessment review (a yearly thing where there is a day of lots of different tests to assess overall health and then an afternoon where the results of said tests and review of the years events are relayed to you) is not going to be a particularly positive one!
Monday, June 18, 2012
LinCub
So my weekend was spent in the grounds of Burghley House on LinCub. Which was a county camp for all cubs. We went as a district contingent (there were 10 districts there in total), with a total of 90 cubs and 37 adults camping in our contingent alone! I think in total there were about 800 cubs there and then enough adults to cover every groups required 1 to 8 ratio plus 1 and then whoever they had as their catering teams for the weekend!! Thats alot of people.
We arrived friday evening at about 5.30pm after delays before leaving which due to proper lack of communication shouldn't of happened but there we go. It certainly wasn't our fault but the actual leader in charge of our contingents fault (which was just 1 of many really over the whole weekend but there we go). So we arrived to find that due to the high winds that the tent we were going to have our cubs sleeping in was now broken as the pole had shattered and that our 5 cubs would now be sleeping in a tent really designed for 4. We weren't too worried as a few of them were quite small and it just meant they wouldn't get cold at night! All the cubs were in bed by half 10, quiet by 11 and asleep by midnight. This is pretty good going for a first night on camp, so no complaints there. I was in my tent at about half 11 and was all comfy cosy. I always share with my fellow leader Jo, who I have known literally all my life (she is 5years older than me and was good friends with my older sister but now we are the close friends and she held me as a baby!). We share a double air bed in our own sleeping bags, it just helps to keep us both a bit warmer at night. So double air bed, blanket over the air bed (helps retain warmth better), then I was in a vest top, my pjs, a hoodie, wrapped in my camp blanket (just an ordrinary blue fleecey one but it has all my badges sewn on it from camps and stuff, which you show off round the campfires normally hence 'camp blanket'), then inside my sleeping bag. I also had my pj trousers tucked into my socks so my feet warm and they didnt ride up in the night making my legs cold. I must say despite the wind I was quite toasty so all good :o) (I am aware this paints quite an image!).
Saturday morning I was woken up at 5am by the noise of lots of cubs making lots of noise for such a very early start in the morning. I dozed until about half 6 where I gave up and realised there was no chance at all of anymore real sleep, so I got up. I was pleased to see that my cubs had listened to my instructions (of staying in their tent even if they were awake and had got dressed until I told them it was ok to get out of their tent). I couldn't believe that groups were letting their cubs get up and roam around and make as much noise as they were doing. Some groups cubs were playing football at half six in the morning as if that was acceptable- not overly impressive! By the time breakfast was served at 8am, most of the cubs were absolutely starving because they had been awake since 5am. Breakfast was cereal followed by a full cooked breakfast of bacon, sausage, beans and eggy bread.
Most of saturday was spent checking the cubs were happy on the many activities they could do, helping out on the activities we as a district were running (camp donuts, fondant icing sweets and a craft activity. The cubs coloured in some pictures that were on a sticky acetate and we then transferred them to plastic tumblers, so they had a plastic cup with the lincub logo on as a memory of their camp). I was also our districts camp first aider for the weekend. Which meant I was in charge of all the kids meds (inhalers, hayfever tablets mainly) and dishing them out when needed and any minor injuries such as grazes, bumps and bruises. Anything more major than that they were sent to the first aid tent. So my day was also spent sitting in the marquee we had set-up doing basically nothing just incase one of the cubs came back hurt. This was the plan of the other leaders to ensure I didn't over-exert myself (which I have a rather large tendency of doing).
The evening meal saturday wasn't overly impressive choices for 8-10yr olds to be honest chilli or curry. I know at least 2 of my kids sat there with just a plate of plain rice and 2 slices of french stick. I think that planning could of been a bit better but never mind. The pudding was swiss roll and custard. Lunch had been sandwiches, packet of crisps and a slice of swiss roll. Fruit was available freely all day and quite a few cubs made good use of that.
There was a 'campfire' of sorts in the evening. The weather was too windy and rain was threatening for them to light an actual campfire but we all sat around for about an hour singing campfire songs all together. One of my cubs was so tired he fell asleep during one of the songs. Which was quite impressive as the song was 'Everywhere we go', and I'm sure if people are familiar with this song they will realise what a feat that is. So at that point I sent him away with one of the other leaders to go to bed, which he went to with no complaint. He is one of our youngest cubs though, as he has only just moved upto cubs from beavers and also has some behavioural and learning difficulties which he gets over 20hours of statemented one to one time at school for. So I wasn't surprised to see him falling asleep, and he did fabulously all weekend and caused us no trouble at all. At his previous group he had the nickname of 'the runner' as if they were in an open space or the hut door was left open he would wander off. However we have found he likes to know where we are at all times, so never really strays so that we have to worry about him at all and if anything you begin to wish he would wander away for a short while. You ever had the feeling you would like to change your name because you have just heard it too many times in to short a space a time??????
Sunday morning was a little better and most cubs didn't surface until between half 6 and 7am. Another morning of activities was held for the cubs, whilst the leaders spent the time getting all the tents down (about 40 for our contingent) as quickly and safely as possible whilst they were dry before the rain started and meant we would then have to find space inside huts and meeting places to dry them. The closing ceremony for camp was 2pm and was finished by half 2. One set of our parents was already there and the others weren't far behind. So all of our kids were gone by 2.45pm. I finally left the campsite at 4pm, by the time I was allowed to get my car on site to load up kit and finished helping the other groups and loading up the van with all the big kit.
I was extremely tired when I got home as I always am after any camp. However I was so proud of my cubs. Not one leader from our contingent had anything bad to say about our group, and I can't say that for any of the other cub groups in the contingent. I don't recall having to tell any of my 5 off for any reason, so a very successful camp.
I am still extremely tired now and going to bed for a nap!
We arrived friday evening at about 5.30pm after delays before leaving which due to proper lack of communication shouldn't of happened but there we go. It certainly wasn't our fault but the actual leader in charge of our contingents fault (which was just 1 of many really over the whole weekend but there we go). So we arrived to find that due to the high winds that the tent we were going to have our cubs sleeping in was now broken as the pole had shattered and that our 5 cubs would now be sleeping in a tent really designed for 4. We weren't too worried as a few of them were quite small and it just meant they wouldn't get cold at night! All the cubs were in bed by half 10, quiet by 11 and asleep by midnight. This is pretty good going for a first night on camp, so no complaints there. I was in my tent at about half 11 and was all comfy cosy. I always share with my fellow leader Jo, who I have known literally all my life (she is 5years older than me and was good friends with my older sister but now we are the close friends and she held me as a baby!). We share a double air bed in our own sleeping bags, it just helps to keep us both a bit warmer at night. So double air bed, blanket over the air bed (helps retain warmth better), then I was in a vest top, my pjs, a hoodie, wrapped in my camp blanket (just an ordrinary blue fleecey one but it has all my badges sewn on it from camps and stuff, which you show off round the campfires normally hence 'camp blanket'), then inside my sleeping bag. I also had my pj trousers tucked into my socks so my feet warm and they didnt ride up in the night making my legs cold. I must say despite the wind I was quite toasty so all good :o) (I am aware this paints quite an image!).
Saturday morning I was woken up at 5am by the noise of lots of cubs making lots of noise for such a very early start in the morning. I dozed until about half 6 where I gave up and realised there was no chance at all of anymore real sleep, so I got up. I was pleased to see that my cubs had listened to my instructions (of staying in their tent even if they were awake and had got dressed until I told them it was ok to get out of their tent). I couldn't believe that groups were letting their cubs get up and roam around and make as much noise as they were doing. Some groups cubs were playing football at half six in the morning as if that was acceptable- not overly impressive! By the time breakfast was served at 8am, most of the cubs were absolutely starving because they had been awake since 5am. Breakfast was cereal followed by a full cooked breakfast of bacon, sausage, beans and eggy bread.
Most of saturday was spent checking the cubs were happy on the many activities they could do, helping out on the activities we as a district were running (camp donuts, fondant icing sweets and a craft activity. The cubs coloured in some pictures that were on a sticky acetate and we then transferred them to plastic tumblers, so they had a plastic cup with the lincub logo on as a memory of their camp). I was also our districts camp first aider for the weekend. Which meant I was in charge of all the kids meds (inhalers, hayfever tablets mainly) and dishing them out when needed and any minor injuries such as grazes, bumps and bruises. Anything more major than that they were sent to the first aid tent. So my day was also spent sitting in the marquee we had set-up doing basically nothing just incase one of the cubs came back hurt. This was the plan of the other leaders to ensure I didn't over-exert myself (which I have a rather large tendency of doing).
The evening meal saturday wasn't overly impressive choices for 8-10yr olds to be honest chilli or curry. I know at least 2 of my kids sat there with just a plate of plain rice and 2 slices of french stick. I think that planning could of been a bit better but never mind. The pudding was swiss roll and custard. Lunch had been sandwiches, packet of crisps and a slice of swiss roll. Fruit was available freely all day and quite a few cubs made good use of that.
There was a 'campfire' of sorts in the evening. The weather was too windy and rain was threatening for them to light an actual campfire but we all sat around for about an hour singing campfire songs all together. One of my cubs was so tired he fell asleep during one of the songs. Which was quite impressive as the song was 'Everywhere we go', and I'm sure if people are familiar with this song they will realise what a feat that is. So at that point I sent him away with one of the other leaders to go to bed, which he went to with no complaint. He is one of our youngest cubs though, as he has only just moved upto cubs from beavers and also has some behavioural and learning difficulties which he gets over 20hours of statemented one to one time at school for. So I wasn't surprised to see him falling asleep, and he did fabulously all weekend and caused us no trouble at all. At his previous group he had the nickname of 'the runner' as if they were in an open space or the hut door was left open he would wander off. However we have found he likes to know where we are at all times, so never really strays so that we have to worry about him at all and if anything you begin to wish he would wander away for a short while. You ever had the feeling you would like to change your name because you have just heard it too many times in to short a space a time??????
Sunday morning was a little better and most cubs didn't surface until between half 6 and 7am. Another morning of activities was held for the cubs, whilst the leaders spent the time getting all the tents down (about 40 for our contingent) as quickly and safely as possible whilst they were dry before the rain started and meant we would then have to find space inside huts and meeting places to dry them. The closing ceremony for camp was 2pm and was finished by half 2. One set of our parents was already there and the others weren't far behind. So all of our kids were gone by 2.45pm. I finally left the campsite at 4pm, by the time I was allowed to get my car on site to load up kit and finished helping the other groups and loading up the van with all the big kit.
I was extremely tired when I got home as I always am after any camp. However I was so proud of my cubs. Not one leader from our contingent had anything bad to say about our group, and I can't say that for any of the other cub groups in the contingent. I don't recall having to tell any of my 5 off for any reason, so a very successful camp.
I am still extremely tired now and going to bed for a nap!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Feeling happy
Is it worrying to anyone else that we are now into the sixth month of the year??? As in half way through 2012, I still remember celebrating christmas 2011 as if it was only a few days ago let alone 6 months ago!
So much has happened in the last 6months, some of it bad, some of it good, some of it excellent but overall right now I am feeling very happy and content with life. It's a nice feeling to have. I've discovered many things in this year and learnt quite alot.
I am still so very happy with the new love in my life, we might of only been together about 3 months but I don't remember ever being this happy in any of my last relationships. This person makes me want to have a family and get married and settle down. I've never wanted children of my own, so to suddenly feel this way is a little bizarre but nice.
I've discovered that being near the coast is highly beneficial to my health. I spent a week in Wales right near the sea and that was the best week I have had in a long time in regards to the amount of coughing I did. Normally I will have at least 2 or 3 very long coughing sessions in a day and in that week I maybe had 2 or 3 all week. When I realised this it felt pretty amazing. Ok, so my health still isn't in the best of places it could be, I'm pretty sure when I go to hospital next week my lung function still won't be its greatest and I know my weight is down (not a good thing) but still I'm feeling pretty happy that I could spend a week away and not feel overly ill.
My diary is filling up with lots of good things to look forward to over the next few months. I have a week in Cyprus to see my sister, I get to spend 3 days with my 2 favourite doggies Buddy and Alfie while my friend goes away. My twin brother is getting married in August and I am also using a raffle prize which I won in August. The prize is a 1 night stay in a very posh hotel with dinner included for 2, I have just got that booked in and also hopefully another week in Wales as long as no health issues get in the way.
I've just realised I have gone 3months without IVs, which is pretty good as I think I will leave clinic next week without any either. Which will then make it the longest I have gone without IVs (At least 4months) since leaving university 3years ago. Also a pretty remarkable achievement.
Overall I have lots of things to feel happy about right now and hope it continues for quite some time!
So much has happened in the last 6months, some of it bad, some of it good, some of it excellent but overall right now I am feeling very happy and content with life. It's a nice feeling to have. I've discovered many things in this year and learnt quite alot.
I am still so very happy with the new love in my life, we might of only been together about 3 months but I don't remember ever being this happy in any of my last relationships. This person makes me want to have a family and get married and settle down. I've never wanted children of my own, so to suddenly feel this way is a little bizarre but nice.
I've discovered that being near the coast is highly beneficial to my health. I spent a week in Wales right near the sea and that was the best week I have had in a long time in regards to the amount of coughing I did. Normally I will have at least 2 or 3 very long coughing sessions in a day and in that week I maybe had 2 or 3 all week. When I realised this it felt pretty amazing. Ok, so my health still isn't in the best of places it could be, I'm pretty sure when I go to hospital next week my lung function still won't be its greatest and I know my weight is down (not a good thing) but still I'm feeling pretty happy that I could spend a week away and not feel overly ill.
My diary is filling up with lots of good things to look forward to over the next few months. I have a week in Cyprus to see my sister, I get to spend 3 days with my 2 favourite doggies Buddy and Alfie while my friend goes away. My twin brother is getting married in August and I am also using a raffle prize which I won in August. The prize is a 1 night stay in a very posh hotel with dinner included for 2, I have just got that booked in and also hopefully another week in Wales as long as no health issues get in the way.
I've just realised I have gone 3months without IVs, which is pretty good as I think I will leave clinic next week without any either. Which will then make it the longest I have gone without IVs (At least 4months) since leaving university 3years ago. Also a pretty remarkable achievement.
Overall I have lots of things to feel happy about right now and hope it continues for quite some time!
Monday, June 11, 2012
So to randomly start this blog post I was just looking at my stats and since I started this blog in May 2008 it has had 5268 views. I thought it was alot until I realised how long I have had this blog for and then realised it really isn't. I don't even know who it is that is viewing my blog for the most part, can maybe guess at a few of the people!
So for the last week I have been away on holiday in Wales. I went away with my boyfriend and his little boy. We stayed with my boyfriends parents. It was a good week with lots of fun times and laughter. We even managed to get to the beach one day (yay!). A birthday was celebrated (my bfs), a jubilee party was held. I saw ALL of the tv coverage of the Diamond Jubilee. Now this was alot more of the jubilee than I ever thought I would watch but I'm glad I saw it.
So for the last week I have been away on holiday in Wales. I went away with my boyfriend and his little boy. We stayed with my boyfriends parents. It was a good week with lots of fun times and laughter. We even managed to get to the beach one day (yay!). A birthday was celebrated (my bfs), a jubilee party was held. I saw ALL of the tv coverage of the Diamond Jubilee. Now this was alot more of the jubilee than I ever thought I would watch but I'm glad I saw it.
Monday, May 21, 2012
So another week has passed by and we are now firmly into the second half of May. This seems very scary. Where does time go??? It's now been 8 weeks since I first met my boyfriend, and it still only feels like yesterday.
So what has happened in this last week since I blogged about my sign language course. Not a lot really! I waited in on wednesday for British Gas to come and do the yearly gas inspection required for my landladys homecare agreement that she has with them. This I find a pointless concept as the only gas related appliance in my house is the boiler and if there was a problem with it they would know about it. So I don't really know why they have to come and look at it and run a test on it to check its working ok, when I can tell if its working or not (My thermostat rarely goes below 20degrees and i have yet to actually turn my heating off completely this year).
So after that pointless excercise I then had beavers with the 7ths colony. It was actually a very fun evening filled with lots of exercise type challenges. It was here we discovered I can't draw a large figure of 8 with chalk on the floor without getting very dizzy and nearly falling over and without making the lines very wibbly. I also discovered I cannot walk round this figure of 8 with a book balanced on my head, I can still hula hoop whilst doing the macarena and I'm not a fan of star jumps. Most importantly the kids enjoyed it.
Thursday I met up with one of my friends who I hadn't seen in over 6 weeks. She is now moving back to her home town so I'm not really sure when I will meet up with her again either :( However we had a good few hours together and we went out for lunch to a local pub where I thoroughly enjoyed my duck enchilda :o). In the evening it was my beaver colony meeting, where I was also then running the cub pack meeting straight after. So my thursday evening was filled with planting sunflower seeds in eggboxs, fat ball making for birds and bug collecting. Well I didn't so much do any bug collecting nor let any of the cubs bring their containers filled with bugs come anywhere near me (I'm not a huge fan of bugs especially when they have 8 legs). I did the best thing a leader can do and that is delegate to my young leaders to check their bug collecting boxes for the kind of bugs they had collected.
Friday was the ever delightful food shop day again with my grandma. Now whilst I love my grandma to pieces, food shopping with her can be very draining. Normally me and my mum go (because quite frankly it needs the both of us to keep each other sane!) but my mum was away this week so it was just me. I normally leave my house to go food shopping at 8.15am, if I get by home by 11am it is a good morning, it is usually nearer 11.30am! So we shopped and I then had the standard cup of tea when back at my grandmas house (anything to keep us there longer!). Just as I was about to leave she asked me if I could photocopy some knitting patterns for her. So home I went, put my shopping away and then spent half an hour photocopying knitting patterns for her. I then went to the pharmacy to collect my prescriptions (a sign you are well known when you can walk in and they already go looking for your prescription without having to ask your name and know they need to look in the 'big' area as opposed to in the tiny plastic baskets) and then take the photocopied patterns back round to my grandmas. She tried to get me to stay for another cup of tea but I pleaded I was busy with jobs and escaped within 10mins of walking into her house (practically a miracle).
My weekend was spent with my boyfriend and for a few hours on the sunday with his little boy also. The weekend consisted of a lot of lego!!! I really don't think I've ever seen so much lego in my life in one room that wasn't a nursery/classroom or similar type setting!! After this weekend I think I'm almost savvy with all the required lego talk (well there was definitely less puzzled looks from my bf towards the end of the weekend and 'i need to see the diagram' to work out what lego piece I was after). The point of all this lego making?? To work out which lego kits he didn't want anymore and whether they were complete. I was also then informed on the saturday morning that there was football that evening that he reallly really wanted to watch. I was then given the remotes for the whole day up until the football started. I feel I chose well when I saw that the sound of music was on. Also who knew football could go on for so long!!! However to give him his due, he cooked for me all weekend and apart from the incinerated chips for one meal it was all very yummy and he made lots of cups of tea. So I think I can cope with football :o)
As for the upcoming week- well who knows what will happen???? things in the diary (something I can't live without and if I don't have it with me then I have no idea what I am meant to be doing or when) include sign language, babysitting my god-daughter, beavers, my mothers birthday and my nephews birthday! I'm hoping my friend will be free for a cup of tea and catch-up and get me out of taking my grandma food shopping this week.
So what has happened in this last week since I blogged about my sign language course. Not a lot really! I waited in on wednesday for British Gas to come and do the yearly gas inspection required for my landladys homecare agreement that she has with them. This I find a pointless concept as the only gas related appliance in my house is the boiler and if there was a problem with it they would know about it. So I don't really know why they have to come and look at it and run a test on it to check its working ok, when I can tell if its working or not (My thermostat rarely goes below 20degrees and i have yet to actually turn my heating off completely this year).
So after that pointless excercise I then had beavers with the 7ths colony. It was actually a very fun evening filled with lots of exercise type challenges. It was here we discovered I can't draw a large figure of 8 with chalk on the floor without getting very dizzy and nearly falling over and without making the lines very wibbly. I also discovered I cannot walk round this figure of 8 with a book balanced on my head, I can still hula hoop whilst doing the macarena and I'm not a fan of star jumps. Most importantly the kids enjoyed it.
Thursday I met up with one of my friends who I hadn't seen in over 6 weeks. She is now moving back to her home town so I'm not really sure when I will meet up with her again either :( However we had a good few hours together and we went out for lunch to a local pub where I thoroughly enjoyed my duck enchilda :o). In the evening it was my beaver colony meeting, where I was also then running the cub pack meeting straight after. So my thursday evening was filled with planting sunflower seeds in eggboxs, fat ball making for birds and bug collecting. Well I didn't so much do any bug collecting nor let any of the cubs bring their containers filled with bugs come anywhere near me (I'm not a huge fan of bugs especially when they have 8 legs). I did the best thing a leader can do and that is delegate to my young leaders to check their bug collecting boxes for the kind of bugs they had collected.
Friday was the ever delightful food shop day again with my grandma. Now whilst I love my grandma to pieces, food shopping with her can be very draining. Normally me and my mum go (because quite frankly it needs the both of us to keep each other sane!) but my mum was away this week so it was just me. I normally leave my house to go food shopping at 8.15am, if I get by home by 11am it is a good morning, it is usually nearer 11.30am! So we shopped and I then had the standard cup of tea when back at my grandmas house (anything to keep us there longer!). Just as I was about to leave she asked me if I could photocopy some knitting patterns for her. So home I went, put my shopping away and then spent half an hour photocopying knitting patterns for her. I then went to the pharmacy to collect my prescriptions (a sign you are well known when you can walk in and they already go looking for your prescription without having to ask your name and know they need to look in the 'big' area as opposed to in the tiny plastic baskets) and then take the photocopied patterns back round to my grandmas. She tried to get me to stay for another cup of tea but I pleaded I was busy with jobs and escaped within 10mins of walking into her house (practically a miracle).
My weekend was spent with my boyfriend and for a few hours on the sunday with his little boy also. The weekend consisted of a lot of lego!!! I really don't think I've ever seen so much lego in my life in one room that wasn't a nursery/classroom or similar type setting!! After this weekend I think I'm almost savvy with all the required lego talk (well there was definitely less puzzled looks from my bf towards the end of the weekend and 'i need to see the diagram' to work out what lego piece I was after). The point of all this lego making?? To work out which lego kits he didn't want anymore and whether they were complete. I was also then informed on the saturday morning that there was football that evening that he reallly really wanted to watch. I was then given the remotes for the whole day up until the football started. I feel I chose well when I saw that the sound of music was on. Also who knew football could go on for so long!!! However to give him his due, he cooked for me all weekend and apart from the incinerated chips for one meal it was all very yummy and he made lots of cups of tea. So I think I can cope with football :o)
As for the upcoming week- well who knows what will happen???? things in the diary (something I can't live without and if I don't have it with me then I have no idea what I am meant to be doing or when) include sign language, babysitting my god-daughter, beavers, my mothers birthday and my nephews birthday! I'm hoping my friend will be free for a cup of tea and catch-up and get me out of taking my grandma food shopping this week.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
A self-professed nerd!
I have always loved school. Whether it was primary, secondary, college or university I have always loved to learn. I was never afraid to admit that maths was one of my most favourite subjects and I went to school quite happily every morning and always found the school holidays long because I missed school for the learning!
I was always the child who had their homework done, I would get home from school and start doing my homework, eat my tea and then finish my homework off. I remember many a time where I was one of a handful who had actually done their homework on time for those teachers who were a little bit lax in whether they could be bothered to take the work in or not.
I am now in the middle of an introduction to sign language course. As has always been my pattern my nerd colours are truly showing in this class also! I am loving learning the language and frequently get complemented on how well I am doing by the tutor (who incidentally is completely deaf her self and sign language is her first language, which makes the learning even more true to life). The tutor knows I am a beaver scout leader and constantly refers to this fact and that i would of earnt my badge by now for this if there was one (I think she can see how much I am enjoying it). Last night towards the end I was picked to have a conversation with her in front of the class. In sign language you repeat what the person has told you with somethings to ensure you understand (and the grammar/syntax is different to the english language) but the conversation was along the lines of this:
T: Hello
H: Hello
T: How are you?
H: I'm good thank you. How are you?
T: I'm good thank you. What is your name?
H: My name is.........
T: Your name is........
H: Yes. What is your name?
T: My name is........
H: Your name is........
T: Yes. Would you like tea or coffee?
H: Tea please.
T: Would you like milk?
H: Yes please.
T: Would you like sugar?
H: Yes please.
T: How many?
H: 2 please.
T: (pretend to pass over a cup of tea). H: Thank you
T: Would you like cake or biscuit.
H: Biscuit please.
T: How many?
H: 1 please.
T: (pretend to pass over biscuit). H: Thank you.
THEN
H: Would you like tea or coffee?
T: Tea please.
H: Would you like milk?
T: Yes please.
H: Would you like sugar?
T: No thank you
H: (pretend to pass over a cup of tea). T: Thank you
H: Would you like cake or biscuit.
T: Biscuit please.
H: How many?
T: 1 please.
H: (pretend to pass over biscuit). T: Thank you.
T: It was nice to meet you, see you next week.
H: It was nice to meet you. See you next week.
Both: Goodbye
That was a long conversation to have, only 3 weeks into learning sign language.
Luckily my friend who is doing the course with me is also abit of a nerd and we are both doing as fab as each other!! (I think to be honest we are starting to get some jealous and evil looks from some other people on the course!). I would love to be able to take this further and actually do the Level 1 in British Sign Language course which would also give me a qualification in it, but mainly because I want to learn more and would love to be able to be alot more fluent in this language. Also it means as a scout group we would be able to advertise that we could have hard of hearing/deaf children in our group without their parents needing to stay with them all the time. How great would that be for those children to have some independence and have fun and not feel frustrated because they are not understood due to a language barrier.
So to end this post I will leave you with this picture for the difference between a geek, nerd and dork!!
I was always the child who had their homework done, I would get home from school and start doing my homework, eat my tea and then finish my homework off. I remember many a time where I was one of a handful who had actually done their homework on time for those teachers who were a little bit lax in whether they could be bothered to take the work in or not.
I am now in the middle of an introduction to sign language course. As has always been my pattern my nerd colours are truly showing in this class also! I am loving learning the language and frequently get complemented on how well I am doing by the tutor (who incidentally is completely deaf her self and sign language is her first language, which makes the learning even more true to life). The tutor knows I am a beaver scout leader and constantly refers to this fact and that i would of earnt my badge by now for this if there was one (I think she can see how much I am enjoying it). Last night towards the end I was picked to have a conversation with her in front of the class. In sign language you repeat what the person has told you with somethings to ensure you understand (and the grammar/syntax is different to the english language) but the conversation was along the lines of this:
T: Hello
H: Hello
T: How are you?
H: I'm good thank you. How are you?
T: I'm good thank you. What is your name?
H: My name is.........
T: Your name is........
H: Yes. What is your name?
T: My name is........
H: Your name is........
T: Yes. Would you like tea or coffee?
H: Tea please.
T: Would you like milk?
H: Yes please.
T: Would you like sugar?
H: Yes please.
T: How many?
H: 2 please.
T: (pretend to pass over a cup of tea). H: Thank you
T: Would you like cake or biscuit.
H: Biscuit please.
T: How many?
H: 1 please.
T: (pretend to pass over biscuit). H: Thank you.
THEN
H: Would you like tea or coffee?
T: Tea please.
H: Would you like milk?
T: Yes please.
H: Would you like sugar?
T: No thank you
H: (pretend to pass over a cup of tea). T: Thank you
H: Would you like cake or biscuit.
T: Biscuit please.
H: How many?
T: 1 please.
H: (pretend to pass over biscuit). T: Thank you.
T: It was nice to meet you, see you next week.
H: It was nice to meet you. See you next week.
Both: Goodbye
That was a long conversation to have, only 3 weeks into learning sign language.
Luckily my friend who is doing the course with me is also abit of a nerd and we are both doing as fab as each other!! (I think to be honest we are starting to get some jealous and evil looks from some other people on the course!). I would love to be able to take this further and actually do the Level 1 in British Sign Language course which would also give me a qualification in it, but mainly because I want to learn more and would love to be able to be alot more fluent in this language. Also it means as a scout group we would be able to advertise that we could have hard of hearing/deaf children in our group without their parents needing to stay with them all the time. How great would that be for those children to have some independence and have fun and not feel frustrated because they are not understood due to a language barrier.
So to end this post I will leave you with this picture for the difference between a geek, nerd and dork!!
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