Getting Ready To Go…

I’m actually feeling fairly organized with regards to uni. A lot of my stuff is packed into boxes and ready, 12 days ahead of schedule, and all that really remains is the bits and bobs that I have in my bedroom that I can’t pack until the last minute – my lava lamp, TV and ps2 etc.

It’s been weird seeing people go back to college and school this year – my brother and sister have both gone back to school, and some of my friends in the year below have been posting on Facebook about how they’re back at college, and it really is strange to see. It sounds stupid but I can’t help wondering who’s sitting in my seat in class, who likes the teachers who taught me, what they’re studying right now. Saying that, you couldn’t pay me enough to get me to go back there and do two more years. Whereas when I finished secondary school, once I started college I would have loved to re-do my last year at school, because I had a great group of friends and enjoyed it, now I just can’t wait to get to university. It’s a shame I didn’t enjoy college, but there’s no point sitting and moping about it – time to look to the future and enjoy it.

I’m struggling with the thought of leaving my family behind. Most people seem to be really excited about it, but I’ve always been so close to my family that it is going to be very hard – and my dog is definitely included in that, I’m going to miss her and I really hope she recognizes me when I come back! My plan  of going home every weekend isn’t going to work out too well – for starters, the first three weeks are going to be so hectic with pre-freshers, freshers and re-freshers, so there’ll be no going home in that time. Also, I don’t want to be backwards and forwards every weekend, because travel will cost a lot. Still, I really want to see my family – and especially my fiance – as often as possible, because words can’t even describe how much I’m going to miss him. I’m already dreading the last time we see each other before I leave, because I know I’m going to cry buckets.

On a brighter note, it’s not like we’re not going to see each other at all – we’re going to talk over video chat as much as possible, and it’s not even like he won’t see me until Christmas – as many weekends as I’m able to, money and work permitting, I’ll be back to see him, and hopefully he’ll be able to come and see me sometimes. Also on a brighter note, and regarding my fiance – well, it’s a brighter note for me, but not so much for him – is his sponsored walk this Saturday! He’s in a medievel re-enactment group, and part of that involves wearing the armour – all 8 stone (5okg) of it. So, he and two other knights are doing a 30 mile walk from one castle to another in full armour to raise money for Diabetes UK – that’s 30 miles carrying the equivalent of 50 bags of sugar, each! They’d really appreciate it if you could sponsor them – http://www.justgiving.com/ardudwy-knights-glyndwr-march

I’m hoping to blog more often once things are settled, but I’m also doing some video blogs for http://www.thestudentroom.com all about the experience of going to university, so that’s going to take up some time. However, if you’re a fresher this year – or will be next year or the year after etc – and you want to check out the video blogs so you know what to expect, I’ll post a link to them once it’s all up and running.

All Change!

I DID IT! I would have updated earlier to let you all know but, as you can imagine, I’ve been knackered! We did it in around two hours and a bit, which is great, and it was such an amazing feeling to cross the finish line, especially considering even up until the start of the walk, I wasn’t sure if I’d finish it. I’ve had some extra strength painkillers today because I really am hurting but it’s so worth it – as soon as we passed the hospice on the walk and I realized that there are people in there, right this instant, for whom the money we raised is so important, and regardless of how much it hurt I needed to carry on. I’m so proud – and I’m SO proud of my mom and sister who did it with me! We had a great night, and we’d like to thank Nightingale House Hospice for organizing it and making it brilliant.

So, the reason for the title of this post is because I have dyed my hair. Yeah, not really “all change”, but it’s a start. Well, I suppose there’s been a change of motivation too – I’ve decided that I’m going to do a lot more walking and get really healthy, because I enjoyed last night so much. But back onto the subject, I have dyed my hair. This picture doesn’t show it very well – I’ll try and get one in natural sunlight at some point – but I thought I’d show you guys 🙂

My hair is usually kind of mousy brown, recently it seems to have been bleached by the sun so it was going a bit ginger, but it’s now nearly black with red in it 🙂

It’s getting closer!

This Saturday, my mom and little sister and I are taking part in a charity 6 mile midnight walk to raise money for a local hospice! Now then, 6 miles doesn’t sound like a lot – but when you consider that I’ve done next to no exercize the past three months thanks to this illness (although somehow I’ve lost weight!?), and my mom has a serious back condition, it’s a pretty big ask (and as for my sister, she’s only 10, and I think 6 miles is a big ask of any ten year old, even one as sporty as my sister!).

Today I have managed 10 minutes on an exercize bike! It doesn’t sound like very long and it’s not great – and I’m hurting now –  but it’s progress, it’s more than I’ve been able to do for a while and every little bit goes toward helping me to believe that I can do this walk. I’m nervous, but I’m determined that even if it takes six hours and we don’t finish until everyone else is home and tucked up in bed, we’re going to finish. So many people have been wonderful in their support, helping us to smash our target of £50 and even double it, and I feel like I owe it to them – and, even more, to the people who require the service provided by the hospice – to cross the finish line, no matter how long it takes.

Once I wake up on Sunday (it could be late in the afternoon, just to warn you all!) I’ll upload pictures from the event to prove we did it. I’d like to thank everyone who’s sponsored us so far and to plead with you all, reading my blog wherever you are, to spare anything you can – even a pound! – to sponsor us in this. It’s not going to be easy but it’ll be so much easier knowing you’re all supporting us 🙂

Thanks!

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

I think I’m getting my spark back!

Yes – it appears that, finally, I AM GETTING BETTER! The tell-tale signs are that I was well enough to get angry over something that really annoyed me today, well enough to conclude that the subject of my anger is too pathetic to warrant me wasting energy getting angry over them, and I sang a little bit! I’m not back to my usual half an hour singing sessions, but I’ve been singing along to adverts and doing my thing of randomly singing sentences instead of saying them (sometimes even I have to conclude that words get boring and need a little bit of jazzing up), so baby steps but good baby steps. I went to college and actually got some work done (although I’m not impressed with the pain relief side of these new painkillers, they’re certainly not knocking me out and turning me into a giggling sleeping crying mess like the old ones) and I feel quite bright today 🙂

So, that’s all good. It also means that I can hopefully soon make a start on training for the Sponsored Walk in June (PSSSSST, sponsor us please!). I wouldn’t have thought a 10km walk would need training for as it’s not too much, but having been ill, it’d probably be best for me to get a bit of exercize in first, and I could do with getting fit anyway. As soon as we have a lovely day, I want to get out for a walk – it feels like ages since I just went for a walk (probably because it has been ages!). The ballot applications opened for London Marathon 2013 opened today, but I think that might be just a tad ambitious for me at the moment. I’m going to keep 2014 in my sights – not sure who I’d do it to raise money for, because there’s so many charities that I feel an affinity for, but I suppose I have time to think of that if I’m aiming for 2014 at the earliest 😉

So yeah. It’s still all quiet on the writing front, but that’ll come too in time. However, I had a dream last night, and that is a dangerous thing. My current novels started off as a dream, which somehow morphed into a trilogy of books which I am now struggling to complete (although that isn’t because it was sparked by a dream, that’s because I have a pathetic immune system and am easily felled by a measly kidney infection. Please note the sarcasm; there was nothing measly about it!). BUT, I am going to write this dream down – it’s given me an idea which I like a lot, and although nothing is very clear about it at the moment – as in, I have a tiny ounce of a general theme with no plot and certainly no characters, title or anything resembling a novel – but, once this novel is over, should I decide to punish myself again by setting off on a literary adventure, I think I might have my basic plot idea.

Although I usually hate it, sometimes having such vivid dreams can be a very good thing!

Hello, Lovely Readers..

Now, I understand that most of you don’t know me, but in June me, my sister and my Mom (collectively known as “Mommy and the Slutdrops”) will be doing a 6-mile midnight sponsored walk in Wrexham, North Wales, to raise money for Nightingale House Hospice. The hospice provides specialist palliative care, free of charge, to people all across North Wales and the borders. They only receive enough funding from the local health board to fund the hospice for 69 days a year – the rest of the year, they need to rely on donations and fundraising from people to keep the hospice running – that’s 296 days of the year reliant on fundraising, and they require £2.54million each year to keep it running.

Now, I’m not asking that you donate £2.54million (although if there are any lottery winners knocking about who’d like to throw some our way we wouldn’t complain! 😛 ), but any donation you can possibly make would really help this charity in the great work they do. You can donate online and find out more about the charity and what we’re doing at this website – http://www.everydayhero.co.uk/mommyandtheslutdrops?3387223 – and we’d absolutely love it if any of you could sponsor us. It doesn’t matter what amount – it all goes towards this fantastic cause.

Thank you!

Maddy/Slutdrop #1 (and Mommy and Slutdrop #2)