Royal wedding

I hope everyone who had the day off yesterday for the royal wedding had a good time and enjoyed themselves. I had a really great day, to be honest, I had a much better time than I expected! I'd invited one of my friends to stay over to watch the wedding and to come to a BBQ of one of our mutual friends. We got up around 10.30 and watched the wedding whilst eating breakfast. I really liked Kate's dress, quite understated but very flattering, and I thought the bridesmaids were really cute! Prince Harry looked so nervous, bless him, but you could see the support he was giving to his brother and how proud he was of him. I was slightly disappointed the Queen did not have a blanket which matched her dress, I mean, a couple of billion people were watching, she could have at least colour co-ordinated! (sorry, I looked for a photo, but can't seem to find one)

After the wedding, we made our way over to Kathryn's. The weather was lovely, so we spent all afternoon and evening in her garden, just chatting and laughing. It was so nice to have a day off, where I didn't think about uni work at all. I'll leave you with a photo of my cupcake which I had at Kathryn's, very appropriately themed!

What did you get up to?

Tasty Thursdays

I've decided to christen Thursdays Tasty Thursdays in order to share some of my favourite recipes and treats. For my first Tasty Thursday, I'm going to share something I made last summer at uni with one of my volunteers.

Cake pops (from Bakerella)

As you can see from the website linked above, you can get really creative with your cake pops, depending on your skill and patience. For our first attempt though, we decided to keep it simple!

The finished product

You will need:

• Sponge cake (we used ready-made plain sponge cake from the supermarket, but you could make your own in whatever flavour you fancy)
• Buttercream icing (Again, we were lazy and used ready-made plain buttercream icing/frosting, but like before you can make your own in whatever flavour you like)
•  Decorations: chocolate, icing pens etc
• Kebab sticks/lollipop sticks
• Something you can use to stand the sticks in (we found a chunk of polystyrene which worked quite well)

Instructions: 

1. Chop up the sponge cake into chunks and combine it with the buttercream icing - you're aiming for a mouldable consistency which isn't too wet.

Me chopping the cake (with ridiculously frizzy hair, sorry!)

2. Mould into balls and spear on a stick, using a touch of melted chocolate (whatever type you're using to coat the entire pop). We used the non-pointy end of the kebab stick so we could use the pointy end to stand them in the polystyrene.

3. Chill. We were impatient so shoved them in the freezer for 20 minutes or so, and they seemed to be okay.

4. Decorate. We melted some white chocolate in a shallow bowl to coat them and then drizzled some milk chocolate on some for a marbled effect. We also used icing pens to decorate. The weight of the chocolate is sometimes an issue at this point, so keep your fingers crossed they stay on the sticks, as we had a few casualties!

Starting to decorate

Happy cake pop!

Cake pop casualty :(

Punk!

Happy baking!

Remembering...

Monday (25th April) would have been my mother's 61st birthday. She passed away almost seven years ago from cancer. I was only 13. I know it's hard to lose your mum at any age, but it really hit me hard. She was not just my mum; she was my only carer, my best friend, my advisor. I didn't know how I was going to cope without her.

Seven years on, I still think about her and miss her desperately, but not as much as in the early days. It does make me a bit sad to think that I don't think of her everyday, but I know she would want me to get on with my life and not dwell on her passing too much. When she passed away, I was worried that I would forget her; her smell, the feel of her skin, her laugh, her mannerisms. But I don't think I'll ever forget. I see her everywhere; a song on the radio, a certain smell, a snippet of conversation. They all bring back wonderful memories of her and our life together.

I think I've been thinking about her a lot more lately as my brother's wedding is getting closer. It will be a difficult day without Mum there, but I know she would have been so incredibly proud of Jammy and will be there in spirit.

Mum's favourite flower

Happy birthday Mum! I love you and miss you so very much.

Happy Easter!

 
Happy Easter everyone! I hope you are enjoying the lovely weather on this long weekend, even if you do not celebrate for religious reasons. I had a really nice Sunday lunch with my family and am just going to relax at home for the rest of the day I think :)

Apologies for the lack of updates lately, I am still pretty snowed under with uni work and revision, so I don't really have the time to update as frequently as I'd like. I'm hoping to be able to post something at least once a week.

Urgh...

Today has not been the best day for me. I'm such a procrastinator, but with 3 essays due in the first few weeks of May, the pressure is really starting to get to me. I'm currently struggling my way through essay number 1 (the one due in first, two weeks today) and at the end of play today, I've gone from around 400 to 1039/2000 words. This may sound like a lot to some people but I'm so used to writing around 1000-1500 words a day once I've done all the research needed. I think I've got writer's block!

The worrying thing is though, I don't feel THAT stressed...I don't know if I'm in denial about it all or if I just don't care. I'm so fed up of this degree, I'm so looking forward to next June when it's all over and I can get on with what I want to do in life (hopefully). I really need to knuckle down tomorrow though, I've got quite a lot on this weekend and next week; my brother and fiancee are home this weekend to sort out wedding stuff, some of which I need to go to, Tuesday I am taking my sister to get a dress for the wedding, then Friday I have a royal wedding BBQ at my friend's house and then Sunday I go back to Lancaster. So I have, from today, about 8 days to do around 5000 words, as well as packing to go back to uni....eep!

I had some good news yesterday though. My work experience at Trailblazers in London has been confirmed! I'll be there for the first week in July and I'm really excited for it!

Hope everyone is well and enjoying some sunny weather, it's been really sunny here for the time of year. I just hope it continues for my brother's wedding, as the ceremony is outside!

Ear pain

I realise this is not the most exciting topic to broach, so apologies if it's not your cup of tea! However, I guess I should detail all aspects of my life, from the interesting to the mundane!

Now for an exciting picture of an ear to help me explain my tale of woe:

Basically, I've developed a sort of pressure sore on the helix and antihelix of my ear (see picture). It's been there a while, as due to my scoliosis, I can only lie on one side to sleep, as I have nightmares/sleep paralysis attacks if I sleep on my back (sounds weird, but apparently it's not mega uncommon). However, I think something must have exacerbated it as it's suddenly really painful - I had no idea how painful a tiny sore could be! I have had it before, but I can't remember how I treated it...do I put cream on it? Do I keep it dry? Do I try and find a dressing for it? I've seen these ear pillows, like a donut with a hole in for the ear, but I don't know anyone crafty enough to make me one, and they don't seem to be sold anywhere.

If anyone has any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated!

Trailblazers

A couple of posts back, you might have seen me mention Trailblazers, the campaign group I am a member of. Since the theme of ChronicBabe's Blog Carnival this time is Causes I Stand Up For and Support, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about us, what we do and why I got involved.

Trailblazers is a part of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, the main charity in the UK fundraising for research into muscular dystrophy and related muscle disease, as well as supporting the individuals with the condition. We're a group of young people aged 16 to 30 who fight against the social injustices faced by people with muscle disease, and have published five reports on key areas we feel need change; public transport, access to university, access to work, tourism and leisure facilities.

I joined Trailblazers almost two years ago, and first got involved with the access to university report. Since then I have been fairly active within the group, helping with media awareness for the reports. When the leisure report was released, I spoke to journalists of local newspapers, and on two local radio stations about my local zoo charging ticket price for carers, meaning a disabled person needing a carer to accompany them effectively pays almost double an able-bodied person would. I've also attended regional group meetings in Manchester, and last month went to Parliament to help launch an All Party Parliamentary Group for Young Disabled People.

Since joining, I've realised how passionate I am about challenging people's perceptions of disability and how social barriers can be overcome. I never thought I could make a difference, but through Trailblazers, I've seen for myself what changes we have made and how much more progress we can achieve. After university, I think I want to pursue a career in campaigning in order to make further advances in the equality of disabled people.

Katy Perry!!

I got home yesterday afternoon from a great weekend away which really lifted my spirits. I went down to Birmingham on Saturday with my dad to spend a bit of time with my friend and carer from uni, and her mum and dad. We'd (me, my friend and her mum) booked to see Katy Perry about six months ago for the Monday night, but since I'm at home for Easter we decided to make a bit of a weekend of it. And it was lovely! Pretty chilled, but it was really nice to spend time away from the pressure of uni workload and carer issues and have a laugh with people I really care about.

Small things

I've been a little down lately (nothing in particular, just lots of little things building up), so I decided to make a list of all the things that make me smile.

Firstly, the important stuff, which go without saying:

1. My friends. I don't have the biggest group of friends, but the ones I have are amazing, always there to make me smile, listen to me vent and love me for who I am. I'm getting to the point now where I am being more choosy with who I spend time with; in my opinion, life's too short to spend time with negative people, or people who make you unhappy, so I'd rather have a few close mates who make me happy rather than a bunch of people who I don't really 'click' with.

2. My family. I know you can't pick your family, but I think I did pretty well with mine! Sarcastic and mental, but I know they have my back and will support me no matter what I do.

And now for the small things:

1.  Sunshine. I always feel more upbeat when it's sunny, even if it's not very warm outside. We don't get many sunny days where I live, so we definitely make the most of them!
2. Sleeping in a freshly laundered bed. I love the smell and feel of clean sheets on my bed and always feel I sleep better, don't know if that's psychological or not?
3. Hearing an old favourite song on the radio - the cheesier the better! Yes, I'm talking Steps, Spice Girls, S Club 7, Bewitched, Aqua and so on (with dance moves as applicable)!
4. People watching, making up stories about who people are and what their life is like.
5. Planning something special (doesn't have to be big or expensive) not too far into the future (like 2 or 3 weeks away) so I have something positive to aim for when I'm finding things tough.

Sorry for the sentimental soppiness, but it has cheered me up! Promise I'll be back to my cynical self next time ;)