Still still here

Just a quick post to let you know I'm still here! There's nothing really much to report at the moment, just enjoying having some time to myself before the stresses of final year and my new student union position start.

I've also decided to stick around on blogspot for the foreseeable future - I just don't have the motivation to up sticks and restart at the moment, blogging should be fun, not stressful I think!

I'll be back soon with an update on what's going on with me - I have something very exciting potentially happening, but I don't want to say too much about it yet in case I jinx it.

Hope everyone is doing well!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Still here!

Just a quick post to say I'm still around and intend to blog again soon. I'm currently attempting to move over to Wordpress as Blogger's starting to drive me a bit insane, so I'll keep you posted on that when I have it all set up and pretty-looking. I've had a couple of really good few weeks - my work experience in London was amazing and I ended up making a five-minute speech in our parliamentary group in front of MPs, transport bosses and the Transport Minister - scary but so exciting! Hope you all are doing well, I promise I'll make it up to you for abandoning you all for so long.

Updates

I seem to have started many of my last few posts with apologies for not posting for a while, and this one looks to be no different! I've attempted to blog a couple of times over the past few days, but I've got so much to fill you in on that it's been a bit daunting. However, I finally have enough time and energy to get you up to speed on what's been happening in my life over the past few weeks.

1. Summer is here! I moved back home on Friday for the holidays and won't be going back to Lancaster until (hopefully, barring any resits) at least the end of September or the beginning of October. My exams went as well as could be hoped, so am trying to push the thought of them to the back of my mind until 14th July which is when I get my results. Fingers crossed I will have done well! It also means that I'm finally free of my problem volunteer, here's hoping that I will get some great volunteers next year.
2. My brother's wedding was last weekend (the 11th). It was a really amazing day and will remembered for being so special and a great big party. I will try and do a dedicated wedding post over the next few days with photos, if anyone is interested?
3. I go to London for my work experience a week on Saturday. I will be working for three days, so have the rest of the time to do some touristy bits and bobs and hopefully see a show. Any recommendations for places to go to?
4. I got a position on my student's union for next term - Liberation Campaigns Officer. You might remember me mentioning this a while back and I decided to go for it. I won by over one hundred votes which is pretty amazing considering I don't consider myself very well known. If you're interested in reading my manifesto, take a look at the Facebook event I set up here.
5. I also mentioned in that post that I was considering applying for a tv thing called Battlefront. I did apply with one of my Trailblazer friends, but I got a call today saying that we weren't chosen. I'm not too disappointed as they had tons of applications and wasn't really expecting to be picked - of course it would have been nice! - but I'm glad we tried, as nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Sorry if this post has bored you to death, hehe, and I will hopefully be writing something more interesting soon!

Tasty Friday!

Yes, I know it's not Thursday, but I couldn't wait until next week to share this recipe with you. I'm not sure what the weather is like where you are, but it's really sunny here, and this is the perfect recipe for this sort of weather!

Strawberry Shortcake (from Sorted Recipes - also has a video tutorial on making it!)

You will need:

• 225g unsalted butter
  
• 100g caster sugar
• drop of vanilla essence
  
• 225g self-raising flour or 225g plain flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt
• 150g white chocolate (chocolate chips are easiest)
• 300ml double or whipping cream
• 2/3 large punnet of strawberries
  
• spoonful of icing sugar to serve

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 150oC
2. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl until smooth, light and fluffy
   
3. Sieve in the flour and stir it in to form a dough
4. Chop up the chocolate (if using a bar of chocolate) and mix it into the dough
5. Push the dough into a round cake tin so it's around 2cm thick
6. Bake for 20-25 mins depending on your oven until cooked through. It shouldn't be too dark-coloured and will look quite soft, but will harden up as it cools.
7. Leave it in the tin to cool and harden up a bit before you try getting it out of the tin (we were a bit impatient, so ours broke a little down the centre!)
8. Whip the cream (either by hand or with an electric whisk) until it forms stiff peaks and spread in over the cooled shortcake base
9. Slice the strawberries and place on top of the cream
10. Dust with icing sugar
    

We had a bit of a disaster getting ours into the fridge at uni, and unfortunately it crumbled into a big mess! It still tastes amazing though and is a really great way to enjoy the summer strawberries!

Before it broke!

Cinema campaign

My posts are like buses, you wait ages for one and then two come along at once! :)

Anyway, our latest campaign with Trailblazers is campaigning for better access to cinemas. We've been doing research for a couple of months now, and are currently working on a documentary about it, which will (fingers crossed) be shown at cinemas before a film.

As part of this, we are also making a petition to present to the cinema manager big-wigs about access to cinemas in the hope they will make some changes in order to better accommodate people with disabilities, particularly those in wheelchairs,

I'd really appreciate if you could sign our petition here; every single signature counts and hopefully we can make some progress in ensuring our trips to the cinema are as enjoyable and pain-free as possible!

Spoon theory

I feel bad that yet again I've not posted in a while, but with revision, exams, wedding prep and more volunteer trouble, I just haven't had the "spoons" to be able to write anything.

"What are spoons?" I hear you ask?

I touched on this briefly early on in my blogging 'career' in my post about defining tiredness but I guess now is a good time to go into it in more detail.

The term "spoons" comes from Christine Miserandino's Spoon Theory in which she talks about her life with Lupus; you should definitely check out this link if you haven't already, it's very insightful and puts into words what a lot of people with chronic disability go through everyday.


For me, I do have to ration my "spoons" to make sure I make it through the day. Even getting a shower, sitting in my wheelchair too long, or just wearing uncomfortable clothes uses up spoons I could be using to go out, read a book, write a blog or any of the other things I enjoy doing. It's definitely a balancing act between making the most of opportunities that come up and enjoying life and making sure that I keep well. For me, if I use up my spoons, or overspend one day then I pay for it with next day's spoons, meaning I'm completely exhausted. Conversely, if I know I have a spoon-intensive day coming up, I'll try and save some up in the days before.


I hope this gives you an insight into my life a little, it's sometimes difficult to explain these things, but I hope I've done it justice. Thanks to Emily Ruth for inspiring today's post; she's also talked about spoon theory from her perspective today, it's a really interesting post and definitely worth a spoon to read it! :)

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!