It’s… TOMORROW?!?!

June 30th has come around a lot quicker than I thought it would. A couple of months ago, when we signed up to do this six mile Midnight Walk, to raise money for Nightingale House Hospice in Wrexham, I thought it’d be easy – we did 10 miles last year, 6 miles is nothing! I was ready to get out training nearly every day, and if I couldn’t get outside and walk I’d be on the exercize bike or at least jogging with the Wii Fit.

Then, along came a niggly little illness, and that put a stop to all of that. This niggly little illness refused to go away and is still with me three months later, and because of that, I’ve done next to no training whatsoever. That doesn’t mean I’m going to give up though. I signed up with my mom and my sister, and we’ve raised £115 in sponsorship money combining the amount we’ve raised online with what we’ve raised offline, thanks to some amazing people who’ve sponsored us. We are going to finish the walk, even if it takes us until 6am the next day – it’s going to happen!

So, when you think about it, considering everything that’s happened six miles is no mean feat for us, but we don’t care about that. We don’t care if it’s six miles or sixty miles, it’s worth it for such a fantastic charity who do such a great job. Now, I appreciate most of you who read my blog aren’t local, and may never be helped by this hospice, but think about those who will and their families, and how much even the smallest donation could help. There’s now 1000 women signed up for the walk – if we’ve raised over £100, think about how much help 1000 of us can give, but the hospice needs more to keep doing its fantastic job, and I’d really appreciate it if anyone reading this blog could just donate even a tiny amount. We don’t mind how much you donate, whether it’s £1 or £10 or whatever, but you’d be helping to maintain a service which is so sorely needed by people in this area!

http://www.everydayhero.co.uk/mommyandtheslutdrops

Thank you!

Inspirational People

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2162578/You-win-Schoolboy-terminal-brain-tumour-amazes-friends-family-brave-attitude-illness.html

A schoolboy dying from a brain tumour has stunned his family with his bravery after responding to his terminal condition by saying: ‘You can’t win them all.’

Sometimes it’s nice to see an inspirational young person in the news, combating the stereotype that we’re all horrible yobs who spend our time smoking and frightening old women and don’t give a damn about the future. However, sometimes it’s awful, and you find yourself wishing that the young person you’re reading about had no reason to be in the newspaper. This is one of those times.

This young man is sixteen years old and he’s had a brain tumour for the past five years. They thought he was recovering, but he relapsed recently and it is terminal – he has a matter of weeks to live, but he’s bravely responded by refusing treatment and saying “You can’t win them all”. It’s an unimaginable situation to be in at any age, but at sixteen? It’s a reflection on his incredibly mature attitude, because I have no idea what I’d do in that situation, but I doubt I’d be as accepting of it.

His aim now is to make it to his school prom on the 28th of June, but they are unsure as to how many weeks he may have left to live. I really hope every effort is made – even if they have to bring the prom forwards! – to allow him to go to his prom, and I also urge all of you to look at HeadSmart, a movement started by the Samantha Dickinson Brain Tumour Trust, to encourage faster diagnosis of brain tumours – http://www.headsmart.org.uk/home/

Hello there!

Yes, ’tis me, venturing out of my revision-induced seclusion to say hello and, once again, apologize for the lack of posts. I keep saying that normal service will resume shortly, and I assure you all that it will, but “shortly” might actually translate as June 20th, the date of my last exam. I’m going to try and keep coming in and posting, but I can’t guarantee how frequent it’ll be. In better news, my first exam is on Thursday! It’s drama, which I’m not too worried about but the way I’ve been recently, I can’t guarantee how I’ll be on the day of the exam or how it’ll affect my performance. I’ve tried to revise today but today is a painful day so I didn’t get much done.

I’ve started writing again! Not my old story, which probably isn’t a good thing because I do need to continue it, but a short story which I may even post at some point. It’s got a while until it’s finished – when I say “short”, it’s probably going to be around 20,000 words (is that a novella? Novelet? I can’t remember) but I’m quite proud of the idea so I hope it’ll be good enough for you all.

So, some exciting things that have happened/are happening at the moment.

 

– Exams are nearly upon me, which means they have nearly finished and then it’s the summer and then university!

– Christopher Maine has something very exciting coming in the next three weeks (check his blog http://www.christophermaine.wordpress.com or his twitter, @CMaine_Official for details).

– I have my face paints! So I can now paint faces. Whether I’m any good at it remains to be seen, but I now have some semblance of a face painting kit and I like it.

– I saw the Olympic torch relay! It was exciting and fun to see and something I shall tell my grandchildren one day, so that’s always a good thing.

– I have finally read the Hunger Games trilogy. I will review them at some point but I’ll give you a little taste of what you will find in my review. The word “awesome” will appear a lot, as will the phrases “up there with Harry Potter”, “Katniss is so much cooler than Bella Swan” and “if you never read another book series in your life, make sure you read this one”. I spent the day absolutely enthralled from the moment I started “The Hunger Games” to the moment I finished “Mockingjay”, and I’m convinced reading those books is what has made me feel like writing again 🙂

“Why Yes, I AM Procrastinating”

So, I have been doing essays and work, but I need some procrastination, so I’m going to post up the five videos that have been keeping me going through revision, in the hope that you might enjoy them and even find them useful whilst you’re writing/working/doing whatever else you’re doing/not doing anything even though you should be doing something (like me!).

1. Nick Pitera; the One Man Disney Movie

2. Mike Tompkins; “Forever” (Chris Brown cover with every sound you hear made by him!)

3. Train; “Drive By”. Train are just amazing anyway.

4. Tangled; “When Will My Life Begin”.

5. Brother Bear, “On My Way”

 

Put on your charity hat!

In just over two months, I’m going to be going up to Wrexham and doing a 6 mile midnight walk around the (big) town to raise money for a great cause; the Nightingale House Hospice, which provides end-of-life care for people from a large area of North Wales and the borders with England. They desperately need as much funding as possible to continue doing the amazing work they do, and I’m proud to be supporting them.

Last year, my mom and I did the 10 mile walk, and this year it’s been shortened slightly to make it more accessible to people who wouldn’t be able to do the full 10 miles. Thanks to this, my little sister is also going to be taking part this year – she’s only 10 but she’s really excited about doing the walk and raising money. We’ve set a fundraising target of £50, but if we could raise more than that, it’d be brilliant – and if any of you could help us to raise that amount and more, we’d be eternally grateful! If not for me, for my little sister – she’s only 10 and yet she’s determined to do this, and any amount of support you can offer will be amazing for us all, and a great motivator for her if it gets tough.

If you do donate, either put your blog name down when you donate or comment to let me know you’ve donated online, and once I’ve done the walk, the page of my blog about the walk will become a list of recommended bloggers, so that everyone who comes to see my blog will get to see the name of yours there too, and will check you out. Make sure you let me know your blog name and I’ll make sure I make note of it so that it will go on the page.

When I posted the link the other day, there was a problem with the page, but we’re assured that it’s fixed now. If there is any donation you can make at all – it doesn’t have to be huge, any money you can give will help the charity immensely and motivate us to reach that finish line a little bit quicker – we’d be so grateful!

http://www.everydayhero.co.uk/mommyandtheslutdrops?9749892

Theatre Review – “Avenue Q”, Rhyl Pavillion Theatre

Last night my mom and I were lucky enough to get front row seats for Avenue Q’s UK tour in the Rhyl Pavillion Theatre. I’ve known of Avenue Q for a while – I had the soundtrack for my birthday one year – but I’ve wanted to see it for a couple of years now, and it’s finally come on a tour which comes close enough and isn’t too expensive for us to go and see it! We went to the 5:30pm performance and although there was a fairly good crowd there, it was by no means packed. Our seats were almost exactly in the centre of the front row, absolutely brilliant seats, and because of the theatre’s layout, there was no craning our necks.

To be honest, I don’t think either of us knew exactly what to expect. We both knew that it was foul-mouthed puppets – Mom’s been telling everyone the past few days about how we were off to go and watch Muppet Porn, including my Nan – but I don’t think either of us realized quite how good it is. It’s like a social comment – they, uh, “tackle” issues such as racism (by concluding that everyone is a little bit racist and we should all just admit it), and education (exactly what do you do with a BA in English?) – with lots of comedy, amazing music (sung by an amazing cast who not only have to, like most musical theatre performers; act, sing and dance – they have to do it all whilst operating puppets. Some actually operate two or even three – and they do it all brilliantly) and just a dash of that essential puppet sex which makes Avenue Q what it is.

It’s not recommended for children under 12, and unless she’s got a great sense of humour, it’s not one I’d suggest taking your granny to for a “nice day out to see a show” – that said, there were some women “of an age” in the theatre last night, and they didn’t seem to be complaining as they left! – but if you want to laugh until you cry, maybe shed a tear at “Fine, Fine Line” (an amazing performance by Katharine Moraz, who has a stunning voice), and end up naming your new sat-nav “Lavinia Thistletwat-nav”… or maybe that’s just us?, book tickets to see this musical! You will not be disappointed, and, if you’re anything like us, the second you step out of that theatre you’ll be wishing you could get back in and watch it again. It’s one of those musicals you can just watch again and again and again – and you’ll almost certainly be spouting quotes and singing the songs for days afterwards!

Why My Life Is Awesome :)

These are the reasons why I love my life 🙂

– It seems that I have a pretty bright future ahead of me.
– I don’t need the reassurance of others all the time – sometimes I get insecure, but most of the time, I know if I’m doing something right.
– I don’t lie about serious matters just to get attention and sympathy.
– I know the value of friendship – it’s not something you just throw away for the sake of attention.
– I can write my own stuff – it may not be any good, BUT at least it’s original.
– I’ve got a fairly good idea of what I want to do with my life – I’ll work out the fine details later on, but for now I’ve got plans and I know how to achieve them.
– I’m not afraid to do what I enjoy for fear of what others might think of me.
– Only a few more months left at college and then I’M NEVER GOING BAAAACK 😀
AND now the more important ones.

– I have an amazing family who are always there for me, even if other people turn against me.
– I have the best boyfriend a girl could wish for.
– I’m actually, genuinely happy 🙂