Thought for the day

I'm sorry but I don't really have time for a proper blog post today - I'm currently swamped with revision for my exam on Friday. I have a meeting tonight about the officer position at the student union, so hopefully I'll have something positive to report back from that!

I saw this today, so thought I'd post it - it certainly made me smile!

Opportunities...

I have a couple of things which have popped up in the last week or so which I'm interested in getting involved in, but not sure if I'm brave enough! If I talk you through them, could you let me know what you think and whether I should get involved?

1. Battlefront - it's a Channel 4 thing looking for campaigners. It looks like a great opportunity to raise awareness and get some experience. I could either apply alone or with some Trailblazers.
2. There's some Cross-Campus Elections going on in a few weeks at my university student union for Officer positions for next year...there's a couple of campaign ones which look interesting and it would be a great chance to make some changes benefitting students like me.

What do you guys think? I'd be really interested in your feedback and support!

Tasty Thursdays

This week's recipe should be a blast from the past for a lot of you - Crispy Cakes!

I made these on Monday after my exam as I needed a chocolate fix! Apologies for the lack of photos, my iPhone battery is playing up, so it was in my room charging.

It's a bit of an unusual recipe (I found it online when I was looking for measurements) as it uses syrup. I've never used syrup in crispy cakes before, just chocolate, but I'd definitely recommend it, it makes them more chewy and gooey than without. This is just the recipe I used, you can variate from it quite a lot - try Mars Bars or marshmallows melted in with the chocolate if you fancy something a bit different!

Crispy Cakes (makes 10-12, depending on case size)

You will need:

• 90g rice krispies
• 60g butter, cubed
• 3 tablespoons maple/golden syrup (golden is more subtle and less strong, but I only had maple!)
• 100g chocolate
• Cake/muffin cases

Instructions:

1.  Melt the chocolate, either in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water, or in short bursts in the microwave.
2. Mix the butter into the melted chocolate (you shouldn't need to heat it any more to melt it, the residual heat from the chocolate should be enough).
3. Add the syrup.
4. Spoon into cake cases and leave to set in the fridge. 

Musings...

Alone

Surrounded by a sea of faces

Who stare at me

Judge me

Pity me

Before they even know my name

Why don't they reach out

Smile

Look like they understand

See the real me

Not the wheelchair

Not the disabled body

Just me

(Sorry, I am horrifically bad at poetry!)

New look!

Ok, this is going to be a bit of a disjointed post today as I have lots of little unrelated bits of information to fill you in about:

1. New look for my blog - I did like my old layout, but it was just a bit too pink for me to be entirely comfortable with it. I'm quite proud of my new layout as I did a lot of the images and coding myself. I hope you like it too - let me know what you think in the comments!
2. Blogger broke - I'm sure most of you know Blogger was down half of yesterday and half of today - hence no Tasty Thursday this week (I didn't think Tasty Thiday had the same ring to it!)
3. Revision - not going fantastically, I'm getting really nervous about my first exam on Monday now...I just hope I don't panic in the exam, then I should hopefully be okay.
4. My Bipap broke again on Wednesday night - it's been overheating a bit over the past couple of months, I've kept sending it to be fixed but it just keeps doing it again after a couple of weeks - very annoying! Because I use it at night, I can't get anyone out to fix it until the following day, luckily my wheelchair charger uses the same connector so we were able to rig it up to work overnight until I could get the engineer (or Bipap man as I refer to them) to come out and look at it the next morning. I've got another loaner machine to use until mine is fixed, or, hopefully, replaced.
5. I'm having a few problems with one of my volunteers - I'm meant to be coming back to Lancaster for a week after my brother's wedding to pack up my things and meet with my dissertation supervisor. I'd already moved my end date for her - her mum and stepdad are going on holiday so she needs to be home to look after her grandma. However, her birthday is that weekend, and she said she doesn't want to come back after it, and if she did she would want me to pay her return fare! It was not a lot of money (around £10), so I was going to pay it, but my other volunteer and carer have both told me not to, as she is being out of order - the rules say that the project fund only pay for the journeys at the beginning and end of the project, and the university holidays. I've spoken to my volunteer manager, as has my volunteer (not the one I am having problems with), and hopefully she will sort it. I've already said to her that I need her to come back, but she fobbed me off by saying we need to "discuss" it - what is there to discuss?! I'm just worried she'll freak out (she is quite a confrontational person) that I have gone to the manager behind her back, but I have exams coming up and enough stress to deal with, right? Any thoughts on handling volatile people?

How has your week been?

Blogging community

I've only been blogging for around 2 months now, but already I feel welcomed by the blogging community. Through ChronicBabe.com and their bloggers' group, and people who's blogs I've stumbled upon along the way, I've already 'met' some wonderful, inspiring bloggers who've offered me support, friendship and advice during my short time as a blogger, and for this I'm truly grateful. I started my blog during a time which has been quite emotionally difficult for me, in order for me to work through my feelings, and I think it's good for me to do this. I could've just written down my thoughts, problems and worries privately, but I'm so glad I decided to start a blog; my followers have made me realise that I'm not alone. You've also helped me take a step back and look for and write about the positive things...so thank you!


In a similar vein, a couple of weeks ago, the lovely Rosie gave me a blog award. For this, I'm supposed to:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Write a post about it.
3. Pass it on to 12 blogs that you think really deserve it.
4. Insert the link to their blog.
5. Send them a message to tell them about it.

So a big thanks to Rosie for giving me this award! I started my blogging journey shortly after Rosie, and her blog is one of my favourite reads at the moment. She has a number of different features on the go (I don't know how she manages to keep track!) and always has something interesting and inspiring to say. She's also a really lovely person who I keep in touch with regularly, and is one of the bloggers I refer to above.

My favourite blogs at the moment are:

1. Uncommon Sense 
2. Assimilate This 
3. 2nd chance @ life? 
4. Infectiously Optimistic 
5. What Sadie Did 
6.  Chronically Creative
7. Phylor's Blog 
8. Creaky Girl 
9. Living for Lucy 
10.  Touch and Tickle
11. A Lovely Little World 
12. Welcome to my world 

How has everyone's weekend been? Unfortunately mine has been filled with a phonetics essay which is due in tomorrow. I finished it a couple of hours ago, so am just about to go back over it, do references etc. My first exam is a week tomorrow, in a weird way I'm actually looking forward to getting it out of the way!

Tasty Thursdays

Yes, it's Thursday again, so time for another recipe for you to try. After last week's fiddly recipe, I'm going to share with you something that's really quick and easy for those times which you want cake and you want it NOW!

Five minute chocolate mug cake

You will need:

• 1 mug
• 4 tablespoons plain flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa (don't use hot chocolate powder like I did, it doesn't taste great!)
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 3 tablespoons oil
• Optional extras: chocolate chips, peanut butter, jam, nutella etc
• Optional: cream to serve

Instructions

1. Mix dry ingredients together with a fork.
2. Add the egg, and mix well.
3. Add the milk and oil, and mix well.
4. Add in any optional extras.
5. Microwave on 1000 watts for three minutes. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, so don't be alarmed!
6. Leave to cool for 2 minutes.
7. Add cream if desired. Enjoy!

10 reasons why being disabled is cool

I've been feeling a bit down this week, back at uni after an amazing Easter break has been a downer really. I just feel so alone here, I feel as if I'm balancing on a tightrope trying to keep my emotions in check and not break down into tears - I've been really close a few times and I've only been back 4 days. I'm so close to just packing it all in, but I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't here, and I need a degree to do all the jobs I want to do :( so it's a bit of a catch 22 situation. I'm just taking it one day at a time at the moment, I have a lot of deadlines coming up, so that's keeping me occupied for the moment...just trying to keep busy I guess!

In trying to cheer myself up, I thought I'd compile a bit of a light-hearted list on why being disabled (specifically my disability and how it affects me, though obviously there's overlap with other disabilities/conditions) is cool* (or you might just think I'm a bit of a freak!). So without further ado, being disabled is cool because:

1. ...you feel like a celebrity because you get stared at so much.
2. ...your shoulder dislocates spontaneously whilst in a conversation with a friend, and, without flinching or stopping the conversation, you pop it back in with one swift motion whilst said friend looks on in horror/disgust.
3. ...you have an encyclopaedic knowledge of pain relief, and your friends ask you to advise them on the best painkiller to take by describing their pain to you.
4.  ...you have enough pain relief in your medicine cupboard to sedate an elephant (according to my dad, anyway!)
5. ...despite never being able to walk, you've sprained your ankles 6 times...twice which you're not sure how it happened.
6. ...your emergency pain relief kit consists of paracetamol, ibuprofen, codeine and chocolate buttons.
7. ...like your friends, you sometimes wake up with random injuries you're not sure how they happened...unlike your friends, you were not drinking the night before and went to bed as normal.
8. ...your best friend plays 'guess where Catherine's internal organs are because of her scoliosis'
9. ...and you join in.
10. ...you can never decide whether you're hot or cold because each part of your body is a different temperature, ranging from boiling hot to ice cold.

*Disclaimer: I hope my readers see the intention in which this was written in is just meant to be a bit of lighthearted humourous fun. In no way do I want to make fun of any disabilities or symptoms, as I know from personal experience how debilitating they are and how hurtful it can be to be mocked.