Fortnight2007_webb1.gif (image) [Fortnight2007_webb1.gif]

Monday, July 31, 2006

Good news! I'm getting on better with my I-neb. Phew, I had this vision of me taking my poor little blue I-neb back to the hospital and having to tell the physios that I was sorry but we couldn't work together and would have to part company. Luckily I don't think that's going to happen any more as we're slowly getting used to each other's idiosyncratic ways.

Also, more good news, I applied for a job at Ethical Consumer magazine today. I had to write about all the campaigning type things I've done, so I told them about this blog which is campaigning-ish. So if you are reading this Ethical Consumer people, please give me a job as I'd be very good and keen! (Please don't read the next bit though, as you might think I'm a bit silly...)

Oh dear, bear of very little brain strikes again. Firstly, despite not very sunshiny weather this morning, I wore my most summery clothes today and as well as getting somewhat wet while walking Noodle, I also slipped on the pavement as flip-flops aren't exactly the most gripping of footwear. Secondly, I sent Adelaide (the first person in my address book) 53 blank text messages as I forgot to lock my phone. Sorry! I've now invented an 'A' person with a 00000000000 phone number so it shouldn't happen again, I hope.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

I went to a Prescription Art class yesterday, thanks to my friend Emily. The classes are held for psychiatric inpatients at St James's Hospital but because I knew Emily and she helps run them, she said I could come along. :) It was nice and relaxing and we chatted and did a bit of art (well I wrote a few words and drew some flowers in felt pen).

Bob, who set up Prescription Art, knocks up over 50 hours a week running sessions in hospitals, day treatments centres and hostels across Leeds. He carries the paints, paper, pens, pastels, crayons and colouring books in a big black suitcase as he travels between the different venues which reminded me of a magician. Although Emily and Bob aren't art therapists, the session made me realise how much I miss art therapy and my art therapist Alice who I used to see it London.

I don't think I'll get to see an art therapist here as there are only four to cover the whole of Leeds and they do mostly private work and the Leeds Mental Health Trust can't afford to recruit any more. The trust is pretty cash strapped to say the least; three years ago there were about 600 inpatient beds for Leeds and West Yorkshire and now there are just 96.

Thank goodness for people like Emily and Bob who, erm by the way, don't get paid for the work they do. Hurrah for them!

Friday, July 28, 2006

Boo! The shortest love affair in the history of the world is over. For today, at least, it could be back on tomorrow, who knows? I don't like my I-neb anymore, it makes me feel sick and is annoying to wash. There's no reason why is should make me feel sick as I'm using the same drug - it probably just means I've haven't been inhaling it properly before. Oops!

Hurrah! Noodle walking is back on. Vanessa's had no problems with her so as long as I don't let her play with boys, all should be OK. I'm putting my 'other dog' radar on high alert.

Wow! Richard Madeley of Richard and Judy fame went to visit Angel the other day. I mean, how cool is that? I am v jealous as am a big fan. More good news is that Angel's super speedy recovery continues and she's even posted her own blog update today. A big YAY for the maker-upper of that word.

Ha! Comedy moment during H's work presentation the other day. He had a slide that just said flible on it!

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Oh My God!! I can hardly contain my excitement but that's OK 'cos, I've just got a new I-neb, which is really very exciting indeed. Not made by Apple, but so damn stylish that it could be. OK, I may be a bit sad because it's totally made my day and even possibly my week but it really is v cool. (Katie - I'm sure you'll be pleased, you always like cf-gadgetry.)

It's just soooo radics, I want to do my nebs all the time which is, umm very un-me like me to say the least. Instead of being loud and vibrating and taking forever, well about 20 minutes (or sometimes longer when the compressor has broken and I hadn't realised), it takes just a few minutes. When I tried it today at the hospital it took about five minutes but apparently the record is two!! (It depends on how deeply you breathe in, I think.)

Also, instead of being tethered like a goat twice a day while you do it, it's rechargeable so you just have to charge it every week or so and in the meantime you are free! Free to do whatever you want, except you're not that free because you have to concentrate on your breathing but it's only for an ickle bit of time which is OK.

But you are free to go to the far flung corners of the world where they may not be any electricity and you don't have to lug a big white box around with you at all times because it's teeny tiny - I've just measured it as my approximations are not so good and it's 14.5cm x 6cm. Which is the nebs bit and the compressor bit all in one. Hurrah!

This mean bit of cf technology costs about £3,000 but luckily neither I nor the hospital have to pay for it as the company who make it just give it to us. Yay! Of course, they're not that nice, they've put a chip in it which means you have to buy their expensive drugs to go in it. But I think I (or more importantly the health authority) can live with that.

So you'd think I'd be happy to get this wizardry which is quieter, quicker and more convenient and generally improves my quality of life and of course, I am, except me being me, it wasn't that simple.

The first thing I said when I saw the box was: "Umm, there's not going to be a lot more waste is there." She said there wouldn't be because it doesn't use filters but then I found out that there is a bit of waste with more water than you need in the vials. So with my eyes going wide and a look of panic on my face (yes, really), I said, "Do I throw it away?" Repeat scenario for learning that I have to throw away (gulp) syringes used for mixing (which I somehow, probably illegally, avoid using at the moment). The physio said: "Yes, I know it's wasteful. (I think she was slightly taking the mickey by now.) But such is life." To which, I replied: "Not my life."

I think she thought I was a bit weird, to say the least, as I kept stressing about this and at the end I said I'd bring my un-used filters back which she said was fine but then I panicked and said: "Um, um, but if everyone's using these now, who's going to use the filters?" She reassured me that other people using different drugs would still use them and said, "Don't worry, they'll be recycled," and patted me on the arm as if to say goodbye and good riddance you waste-saving weirdo!

So, I left the hospital all smiley with my new best friend in it's box and I'd been given strict instructions that you have to keep the box as the I-neb remains the property of the I-neb making people, but obviously I'd managed to break the box before I'd even got it into the car to take home. Whoops!

Luckily it got home in one piece and I've just realised that it's I-neb time now. Yay! I-neb's rock.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Back to me, myself and I, I'm afraid as I've been feeling quite 'wobbly' recently. Although, I am feeling a bit better this morning. :)

It started last week when I decided I wanted job. Not just any old job, mind you, I want to work for Friends of the Earth or Oxfam in campaigns or publicity. At first, I saw it as a really positive 'This is what I want to do with my life' thing but then I realised the reality of trying to achieve it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I'd be up against all the super-bright Oxbridge graduates who've been reducing their ecological footprints since they learnt to walk and have wanted to work for these organisations since they were 13 and first heard about animal testing. On the plus side, both do have small offices in Leeds but they are hardly mass recruiters.

So I have been looking quite hard (for me) and I have found a few jobs in Leeds that are more journalism and less environmental and I think maybe that'll be OK, until I remember it's not what I really want to do. Oh and they're full-time as well...Although aren't you meant to be able to ask any employer if you can go part-time now, or is that only if you've got kids?

Also, I've realised that I really want a house. Vanessa is moving and I've been looking around for houses for her when I've been walking Noodle and have decided that I want one too (in true me-toddler style). But house prices around here have gone up in the past year and H wants to live in Huddersfield anyway. But, I'm not sure I could cope with moving somewhere new. I like Chapel Allerton and have a couple of friends in Leeds, which isn't so speedy, after one and a half years!

Although, on a non-selfish note, H is getting some www.idgiveyouone.co.uk stickers for his kit car, so hopefully that will happy an Angel up. Hurrah!

Also, we raised £45 for my Oxfam walk at our BBQ the other week. :) This means I hit my target of £150...so obviously I've had to increase it! So far, I've raised £199.23 (including gift aid) so a BIG thank you to all my sponsors. My justgiving page is still active (until August 17) so you can still sponsor me if you want. Thanks.x

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Noodle is on heat which means I can't walk her for a couple of weeks in case she tries to mate with all the other dogs in the neighbourhood! I am quite sad about this as she has been providing me with much needed Noodle therapy. (I really think I should pay Noodle for letting me walk her - rather than the other way round.)

She has been entertaining me with this cute habit she has of rolling on her back in certain patches of grass rather like a cat rolling in catnip. Is this normal dog behaviour or is it further evidence of Noodle being half-cat? (I hope Vanessa doesn't read this as she is not a believer of the part-cat theory.) Anyway, I can understand rolling in the grass, but yesterday she rolled in some mouldy white bread!

Noodle also has a new favourite activity - eating bubbles. She loves washing-up liquid and she loves chasing things, so jumping up and trying to catch bubbles in her mouth is pure Noodle bliss. Licking up the washing-up liquid residue of the one's that she didn't catch is her second favourite activity.

Monday, July 24, 2006

More good news, Angel's recovery continues at Speedy Gonzales pace and she even went on an exercise bike yesterday! Is there no stopping this girl? No, thank goodness. So thank you lots for your getting better thoughts.

Meanwhile, I've been hanging out with Noodle. Which is nice. Then, this evening I drove to Vanessa's (Noodle's mummy) to take her to Homebase - just as she was walking to my house to meet me! Oh dear, my usual lack of communication strikes again...

H is being his usual wonderful chickeny self - he really is very good at making chicken noises (they are the best of his whole repertoire of animal sounds), I think it's 'cos he grew up being called Hen! I dared him to answer the phone with a bwaarkkk, and he did which was pretty impressive and funny.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Hurrah! The fighting one is fighting on. :)

Angel's sister has posted on her blog to say that yesterday afternoon she was transferred from intensive care to the high dependency unit where she is doing well and last night, was even sitting up and eating soup!

**STOP PRESS**
Have just had a text from Emmie who said Angel texted her saying she'd sent her mum off to get her shampoo as her hair is in a right state!! Yay! :D :D

Saturday, July 22, 2006

:( :( Angel is in intensive care after her lung collapsed again. :( :(

As she is an inspiration to me and lots of other people with and without cf as well as the inspiration behind my blog (and where would I (or you) be without lucyism?), I need you to send her all the getting better thoughts you can muster. So, come on Ms Yayness, keep up pink fight. You know we're all rooting for you. C'MON!!

Someone on the cf forum has christened her our pink leader, which I like a lot. So, please (pretty pink please with sweetiebobbles on top) oh pink leadery one, get well soon xxxx

Friday, July 21, 2006

No more wittering, tritely posts, much more serious matters are afoot. Emily-Tinypoppet-Angel is in hospital and needs lots of lung-inflating and getting better thoughts. (Actually I think Angel is the only person who reads my blog if the dearth [I love that word] of comments on here are anything to go by. So that'll just be me and the computer sending lots of mendy lung thoughts Brompton way, then.)

Yesterday, she had the most awful day - a haemothorax (major bleeding) as well as a pneumothorax (collapsed lung) and her oxygen sats dropped to 40% (which is most definitely NOT good) but the docs managed to stabilise her (BIG phew, sigh of relief and YAY!) and her lung is now inflating. :)

While Angel's excruciating wait goes on, I've only got one thing to say. Are you all donors? If not, click here to register NOW. And make sure you've all bought your fabulous t-shirts as modelled by my mum at sports day, (click to get this year's hottest look). Err mum, where are the other people in the race??! And err, I'm not sure you've got your running technique quite right - it looks like you are running in slow motion! He, he. Well done, really.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Wot no sunshine? Just when I'd worked out how to keep the house a bit cooler. Typical! ...Although it seems to be hotting up a bit now.

When I woke up and heard the three tiny pitter-patters of rain on the sky-light I was really happy because I thought I wouldn't have to leave the house purely on account of its oven nature. In fact, it might mean that I'd actually be able to go into our sitting room and stay there for a few minutes without feeling like I'm entering a sauna every time I walk upstairs.

But then I realised I didn't have an excuse for not washing up anymore which has been my excuse for the past few days as it has been much too hot in our kitchen (which is part of our sauna sitting room).

Oh, I've just realised that I've been happily managing to cook, as well as spending much time devouring food and drinks...but not wash up. Interesting.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

OK, I was just messin' with ya. I'm not intelligent at all. In fact, I'm pretty dumb. For example, I have only just realised that if you keep the blinds shut in our stupidly hot upstairs living room, then it is actually much cooler, although obviously it's still too hot to sit in but going in there to get something isn't quite as uncomfortable. (Have I told you about our upside-down house which you can only get into by going through garage? Only H could find such a place.)

Anyway, when I went out, I realised that all our neighbours had already cottoned on to the shutting-blinds-makes-your-house-cooler-thing. So d'oh to me (again)! And better late than never (again)!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

There's a cool 'Then and Now' cartoon in the current edition of Private Eye (see I am intelligent really).

Then - picture of a woman writing her diary, "I confide to you my most intimate thoughts..."
Now - woman sitting in front of her computer. "FANTASTIC! More than 2000 hits on my blog!

Does that come out as funny when it's written? Probably not. But 2000 hits...only in my wildest blog dreams.

I know it's not big and it's not clever but I've got quite brown arms and feet and it makes me feel really good about myself. Why is that?

I didn't mean to get suntanned and I know that your skin turning brown is evidence of sun damage, ages you and gives you wrinkles and, of course, there's the risk of the big C.

I didn't sunbathe and always wore a hat and factor 25 suncream but when you go camping you spend a lot of time outside and getting suntanned just seems to happen. I'm more suntanned now than I was when I went to Turkey two years ago! Although obviously not on my legs which are still as white as ever.

However, I do look a bit stupid with white stripes from by flip flop bars (what is that bit actually called?) on my feet so I'll guess I'll have to fake tan anyway...But it just takes too much effort. Not for my mum though who wondered why she was so brown (or rather orange!) and realised she'd been using self-tanning cream instead of moisturiser!

Maybe it's all the Vitamin D I've been receiving from the sun that makes me feel good? (Of course, this would just be a boost as I'm really good at taking my vitamins...honestly!) Or maybe it's just good old vanity? But I did read an article recently that argued that the sun has been demonised too much and that avoiding it totally does more harm than good. Also, I've probably already done any potential damage to my skin/self/life when in my teens I got very pink and burnt and in agony a few times or when I tried to burn my face so my spots would peel off with my skin. Probably not the best idea I've ever had. (Oh dear, I seem to say this quite a lot on here.)

Anyway, I think it's the shade for me today as it's too hot in my house. Yesterday I took Noodle for a walk but we didn't do much walking, thank goodness. Noodle found it a bit hot too and was very content to sit in the shade of the lovely big trees in the old graveyard and chew sticks, which means I got to sit in the shade and watch her for an hour. :)

Monday, July 17, 2006

Typical.
Grrr, grrr, grrr. Moan, moan, moan. Just when I need lots of catch-up sleep, THEY (gardeners who tend the communal gardens around our road), decided to cut down all the overgrown grass at the back of our house.

Why couldn't they do it last week or any other time when I haven't been here? Do they have to do it at the crack of dawn on a Monday morning when I am muchly sleep deprived? Also, I really like the long grass because it is, or it was :(, like a mini-nature reserve with butterflies and bees. So, what's happened to all the lovely insects now?

Have they been chopped up by the hedge-trimmer-type-thing, or have they moved underground, or flown away to a happy new home?

Thursday, July 13, 2006

**Stop press**
It's National Transplant Week. OK, it's nearly the end of National Transplant Week but better late than never, that's what I say. There's still a couple of awareness-raising days to go, so don your t-shirts which, of course, you've all bought and spread the word.

Without even realising, my mum helped to promote it when she wore her 'Live Life Then Give Life' t-shirt to her school sports day yesterday where she ran the last 100m of the relay. At least she knew how to pass the baton this year - last year when they included a teachers' race for the first time, I had to teach her how to receive it (we practiced with a kitchen roll inner bit).

And to my surprise, I did help... Although I almost messed up the whole race. My mum didn't know that you have to start running BEFORE your teammate reaches you, so I helped out there but I also told her to use the wrong arm (making her go all twisted and confusing her teammates). Whoops!

Anyway much fun was had by all, although obviously they lost...again! Well they were racing against super-fit P.E. teachers.

However, lots of people commented on my mum's t-shirt to tell her they were on the donor register. :) (Hilarious) pictures to follow, I hope!!

Emily (Angel, Tinypoppet etc) has also been doing lots of awareness-raising which you might have seen. She's been on GMTV and ITV news, spoken at the House of Lords (Which you probably won't have seen, although I might have a secret Lords' readership, who knows?), as well as a WHOLE article on the BBC website, (Read it here.)

Oh dear, seems like I'm the only person who's not doing anything. Umm... I think I'll wear my t-shirt with pride and give out some leaflets at our BBQ on Saturday. H has appointed himself social secretary and has organised a BBQ for the racing types this weekend. About 30 people are currently coming and numbers keep rising, eek. This wouldn't be so bad but H has promised chicken, steak, burgers, salad and kebabs!

You can think of me having loads of fun making about 100 kebabs outside our tent all Saturday afternoon. (I hope it's not going to be too hot as it's not going to be the most hygenic enterprise...) And I have all that to look forward to once I've got over the stress of going to an evil supermarket to buy all the food and then after the BBQ, I'll be stressing about all the non-recyclable waste that we've created. It's soooo much fun being me! Enjoy your weekend.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

It's weird, because I haven't been writing regularly, the posts on the bottom of this page are about college, THE exhibition (all that stress) and art work but all that stuff now seems a lifetime ago. I guess it means I'm sufficiently relaxed and in full holiday mood.

Anyway, here are some pics to bring you up to date with my life over the past week.
Here I am at Clevedon being very wussy and scared. I'm still a bit perplexed as I was always the brave adventurous one while my sister was the scaredy cat but she walked along it just fine whereas I started crawling pretty much as I set off across the wall.

Umm, not the best look. Here I'm modelling a beautiful flowery dress which I found in the loft and which aged me by about 20 years. And Mich, of course.








Last but not least, the beautiful Beal.

Monday, July 10, 2006

I’m back!! Well sort of. I’m now posting from Londenium-it’s amazing what you can do with modern technology. Then I’m going back to Leeds for a night (this was the result of total (and worryingly normal) lack of communication between me and H) as it turns out we’re going to Pembrey in South Wales this weekend as H is racing.

So I’m afraid (or maybe you’ve been putting to good use all this extra not-reading-about-my-life-in-minute-detail time to good use? – Recycling? Saving the planet? Shopping? Talking? Sleeping?) my blogs will continue to be few and far between for the next few days.

Anyway, I’m been spending lots of time with babies and little uns over the past few days and on the whole it’s made me realise that I’m soooooooooo not ready to be a mother.

Worryingly, when I was going through an extended ‘I’m bored with my life phase’ late last year, I thought that a baby might cure the boredom. Probably not the best idea I’ve ever had.

So, here are the reasons why it’s so not a good idea:

1. I have enough trouble looking after myself.

2. I sleep for most of the morning and don’t take kindly to be woken up early by anything or anyone.

3. I am surrounded by medicine and have a large supply of pills with me at all times which toddlers always seem to find in my bag and try and eat.

4. I called my friends’ baby Beal (my cat’s name) the other day. Well they are similar. They both lie on beds, are very sweet, don’t say much AND you can stoke them.

5. Worse than calling the baby Beal, when I realised I was lying quite close to her face, I moved away worried that she was going to scratch me!

6. When I was at Noodle’s house a few weeks ago, Noodle’s mummy was worried because Noodle wasn’t eating and me, thinking that Noodle looked very depressed, urged her to phone the vet. Luckily the vet wasn’t there because the next minute Noodle was jumping around the house and eating carrots (her favourite.) Umm, slight over-reaction I think.

7. Apparently, if you have a baby then it has to become the centre of your universe and not you. I mean, what’s all that about? How could I not self-obsess about myself?

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I'm at home and my mum only has dial-up and it's sooooooooooo slow so I think that I may have to go on a blog holiday.

I started writing my blog and my sister took over and taking the mickey wrote it as she thought I'd write it. Worryingly it's pretty close to what I'd have written, so here it is...

It's amazing what you can do if you get up early! It helped that it was a lovely sunny day. I got the train (Virgin and shock, horror, it was on time!) and then I got the flyer (bus) to Bristol Airport which is near my mum's (my dad thought I'd flown, as if). I got over my rejection of the airport because I'm saving the environment with one journey.

Then, I went to Grace's (my goddaughter) birthday party.

I'm not too tired even thought I've done so much today. (I think I'm really good at touch-typing but I make loads of mistakes.)

But what's with this weather? Boo. Apparently in Leeds it's sunny and too warm to sit in the living room but here it's rain, rain, rain. Hey-ho I'll get over it, I suppose (hopefully it will be better tomorrow.) Hurrah! Here's a photo of some rain (sorry no photo).

Bye bloggers, until next time x

ps. My sister and mum are being horrible to me and teasing me about how I write this. What do you think? Comments welcome. Thanks bloggers.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

I hope yesterday was a blip. I've been feeling so 'up' recently that I hadn't even thought about how I'd feel when my course finished. But yesterday I got all scared and worried that I was going to get really depressed again and that made me feel depressed. Typical!

I've got two whole months ahead of me, which normal people would relish and would want to fill with 101 different and memorable things, but not me. All that time without structure freaks me out. H kindly offered to write a timetable of cleaning and tidying duties around the house and garage to keep me occupied but I told him I wasn't convinced that this was what I needed.

Maybe I felt worse yesterday because I woke up early and was not feeling great. Or maybe it's because I've had so many visitors recently and been so busy that I haven't had time to think, let alone think about negative things. Or probably both. Also, after the excitement of the exhibition, my course seemed to end really abruptly and I don't think I was really ready for it.

Anyway, today was better as I walked Noodle and tomorrow I'm going home to see my cats. :)

Monday, July 03, 2006

TAKE THAT IN PICTURES (apologies TT fans for the delay)
A BIG thumbs up, 'cos we're here! And a big thumbs up was a very apt response as there were a few hiccups on the way...Firstly, my sister forgot the tickets...but luckily she realised when she was only a tube stop from her flat. Then, I bought single tickets to Milton Keynes and not returns (muchly panicking resulted) but luckily the queue to the ticket man wasn't too long and I was able to change them for 20p before my sister arrived (phew).

And lastly but by no means least, the left luggage saga... I didn't want to travel across London just to drop off my nebs, so I thought I'd leave it at left luggage. But being a bear of very little brain, I hadn't checked what time it closed and just assumed, it being central London an' all that it would be a 24hr sort of place. (Though, I had checked that there actually WAS a left luggage place in Euston which was very organised and forward planning-like for me). It actually shut at 11pm so, I thought that we probably wouldn't be back for then (Oh, how right I was...) and decided to take my all my stuff with me.

My sister was convinced they wouldn't let me in and so a couple of frantic phone calls to H to ask him to look on the internet to see if there was a cloakroom at the arena ensued. There wasn't. But we hadn't been to Milton Keynes Bowl before and didn't realise it basically just a big field with a big bank like an amphitheatre.

Anyway, I offloaded some of my things onto my sister and I managed to stuff my massive rucksack (Which was mostly empty apart from my nebs. Why, on earth, did I bring a huge rucksack with me?) and my nebs into a smaller bag. When we got to the entrance I looked around for a friendly security guard who wasn't going through people's bags in too much detail. He opened my bag and asked, "What's that?", so I told him it was for asthma and he said, "I better leave it well alone then" and that was it. Hurrah! Plastic bottles are banned but nebs are allowed, remember that pop pickers if you're ever going to MK Bowl.

(So, back to the pics.) Sitting on the ground, waiting for Take That...










Let the show begin...








Look at all the people. All 60,000 of us!







Little Marky singing his heart out...








It's hair flicks and air guitar for the Beatles' medley. And they've moved into the crowd so they're nearer to us :)







A big scream for Lulu and 'Relight my Fire'.







Real rain for 'Back for Good'.








'Never Forget' and fireworks to finish.











And then another mini-saga to get home... Firstly we were stuck in a human traffic jam getting out of the arena. Then when we finally got to the station there were about a thousand people there (seriously), luckily we managed to sneak on a direct train that was just about to leave. We arrived at Euston at 1am (good job I didn't leave my stuff in left luggage) but then there were no buses or taxis going our way. :( Finally after 45 minutes a bus decided to turn up but it then took ONE HOUR to go to Victoria because someone had decided to dig up Oxford Street on a Saturday night (thanks, guys).

Despite the fact that I was beyond exhaustion and felt like I was never going to get home, I managed to keep my eyes open just enough to see all the hive of activity that was going on in central London at 2am on a Sunday morning. I couldn't believe how many people there were busying about in the middle of the night. Why weren't they asleep? Don't they need sleep? 'Cos I certainly do. After waiting for another bus, we got to my sister's, just after 3am and slept and slept and slept.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Having a slightly troublesome man cf cough, the old me probably wouldn't have gone out last night. But being the new 'making the most of things' me and being inspired by a certain someone who went clubbing with her oxygen, (I mean, how impressive is that?? Angel, you make cf cool.) I did.

It would've been pretty pathetic if I hadn't gone out for a meal and to watch some comedy just because I had an ickle tiny throat tickle and surprise, surprise I had lots of fun (apparently this is a common reaction if you actually stop grumping around the house and leave it for some form of entertainment venue). The comedy club even played some my favourite seventies and eighties tunes afterwards and I managed to boogie away with the best of them. Hurrah!

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Do you remember the song, Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)? It came out in 1999 and it used to happy-me-up every time I heard it on the radio. The song is based on a column written by Mary Schmich in the Chicago Tribune in 1997. It became the subject of urban legend and was later set to music and released by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann (a bit of background info for you there).

I'd completely forgotten about it until someone on my course suggested I use it as the soundtrack to my film. In the end, I decided it wasn't right and recorded some scratchy writing instead (well, it is art, y'know) but I still love it especially this line: Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself. For someone like me who gets jealous very easily, it's a good thing to remember.

Have a happy sunny Saturday blog fans and enjoy the football. Go ENG-ER-LAND!

Anyway, here are the rest of the words.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '99...Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded.

But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance... even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen...