Birthday Girl

It’s been a week and a half since my all-important 21st birthday. I really don’t feel like I’m 21, but I guess I don’t do anything that 21 year olds are actually able to do. I don’t drink, gamble, haven’t had a kid or gotten married and still live at home. Wow aren’t I a bundle of fun! I said at 16, 18 and now I’ll repeat myself at 21 I really thought I’d be more mature at this age. My mum got married at 21 and I’m certainly not ready for that commitment.

The day before my birthday Jack came over and my family, Jack and me went to Spice 45 for a late buffet lunch. It was pleasant enough. The morning of my birthday I was woken up early as Jack was leaving for work and needed to be back in London for 10am. I was hyper for about 5mins and then got tired again! I was shouted to come downstairs, but refused, as I was too tired! What I didn’t know was that my mum had already got a birthday cake out!

Anyway, Jack left without cake since I was being lazy and I tried to sleep until about 8am when the phone rang and I had my uncle and aunt singing Happy Birthday full blast. Argh, I just wanted to sleep!

At 9am I was dragged out of bed kicking and screaming! My mum insisted we had to cut the cake before my brother went to the Day Centre. The cake was circular and had pretty colourful stars on it; I had candles that spelt out 21. The cake was lush, but not exactly what I’d normally eat for breakie!

Let’s get down to the presents. You already know about my diamond ring and white gold charm bracelet. I also got a variety of clothes, a monkey holding a banana saying I love you this much, monkey key cover things, hot pink computer chair, flowers, 10 thousand bottles of Lucozade don’t ask and for the life of me I can’t remember what else! Oh yeah I got a key, bit upset I only got one key, as I remember seeing my mum’s about 10years ago and harped on how beautiful they were and how I couldn’t wait until I was 21 to get my own keys! After moaning my mum did offer to give me hers!

I went for lunch and bowling with Amy and Cara from 11am. Afterwards we got a hot choc from Starbucks and browsed the shops not that I found anything I liked. It was nice spending time with them anyway, as we don’t get the chance much these days. I was meant to see the new Harry Potter film with Emma, but she cancelled on me and haven’t heard from her since!

I was pretty exhausted by the evening; you wouldn’t believe I’m only 21! I had another birthday cake, which was the head of a monkey, but couldn’t eat it, as it smelt of awful chemicals! Never mind.

The following day I got the train up to Sheffield and met up with Katie, Beth, Rachel and later in the day Michael. Us girlys went to Frankie and Benny’s for lunch where the service was appalling, but at least I got the birthday song played to me and the musical candle Beth bought for my cake failed to sing. I had another star cake since I enjoyed it so much. Beth and Katie spoilt me with gifts from a Paul Frank t-shirt and pillow, to a Lush gift set, Ferrari key ring, a little blue monkey and cup cakes.

I’ll add in here that Jack forgot my card at home, didn’t buy me a present, but my fave white and red roses arrived on the Monday from Inter Flora so can’t complain too much! He did later post my card with a balloon that after my mum and I got pumped up flew out of the car window and resulted in my mum running through a car park to catch it!

All in all a great birthday. I was in Miami for my 16th and Venice for my 18th, but although I didn’t have the sun this time I was happy to have my friends.

I know I’ve been harping on for a while now, but need to quickly tell you about my competition at Crystal Palace on Sunday. It was the biggest comp and most important of the year. The morning featured up and coming athletes like myself and the afternoon was an international Paralympic comp.

Peter Eriksson the Head Coach said hi to me along with Keith Antoine a Paralympic coach, Marie Yates from UK Athletics and Paula Dunn the Performance Manager. Most of the parents of the athletes know me now too and all stopped to wish me luck and have a chat. It was all really friendly.

Paul Dickinson from the BBC commentary team was doing all the intros in the stadium and when I was standing on the 100m-start line I was thinking wow Usane Bolt was exactly here yesterday! I got a great start, but when I came out of my drive phase I didn’t fly. I blame my guide runner Sophie as she didn’t pull me along in a sense and I felt my arms weren’t going all the way back and forward, which shortened my stride length. She’s stronger than me and so I couldn’t alter the way my arms were going. I came 3rd behind the 2 T13s bearing in mind I’m a T11 so they’re partially sighted. They both ran 15.2 and I ran 15.8. I really should have been up with them on top form. There was some wind which prevented fast times.

I was determined to do well in the 200m and advised Sophie to stay within 2 seconds of Natasha who is a T13 and I know can run 30secs. Bearing in mind my PB was 34.1secs. I ran a really good race, but typically the electronic timing system broke didn’t it! My coach clocked it as 32.8, but the time I was given was 33.66. A PB but disappointed with the time. Apparently, the other T13 only just beat me by less than half a second. I’m at such a disadvantage by not being able to see because if I had known I was that close I’m sure I could have found an extra gear to over take her.

To finish off I failed to secure any funding as apparently I need to get more muscle on me. So winter training will be delightful pumping those weights! My next comp is August 5th, the Charnwood Open.

Ice Ice Baby!

First of all my interview on Thursday didn’t go too well. The test was ok, but quite long and intense. However, the actual interview was tough. Considering it was just a clerical assistant post they asked questions, such as do you have experience in training others? They had interviewed 6 people prior to me, so it’s very unlikely I will get the job.

On Friday I went to Blackpool with 6 friends and came home last night. My friends included Amy, Cara and then 4 lads. It was one of those £9.50 holidays from The Sun newspaper.

Since it was so cheap it wasn’t likely we were going to stay in a 5 star hotel and had a lovely icebox, I mean caravan to stay in. God I’ve never been so cold in my life! Thermals, vest top, long sleeved top and big jumpers still left me freezing!

We went to Pleasure Beach on Saturday and apart from the weather being Baltic it was quite good. The first ride we went on was the Pepsi Max that I didn’t realise until I got to the front of the queue that it was the ‘fastest in Europe’ and ‘a real vertical reality’! I don’t do upside down rides, but this roller coaster kept going up and up and up and up and up and up! Oh how I screamed! My favourite ride was the big Dipper that was built in the 1920s.

After the boys got drunk on Saturday night there was little movement on Sunday and we magically lost an hour with the clocks changing. British Summer Time has officially begun! So what better way to celebrate than go to the beach! Cara was dressed for summer, but I had my 10 thousand layers on and still shivered constantly!

Yesterday, before the long journey home we went back to the centre of Blackpool. Amy wanted to go to the Sea Life Centre, so I accompanied her so she could get my disabled discount. As we walked past the various tanks Amy described the different species that swam within. Some sounded ugly, others pretty and some interesting. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to stroke a shark or swim with the stingrays, so I honestly found it a tad boring! It was warm inside though, so I didn’t mind paying for that!

Overall, it was a good weekend. There were times when the boys picked on me for being blind, such as it will be really funny if we swap Selina’s drink and she won’t notice, but what can I say I’m an easy target.

Catching Up

Argh it’s 2009 already and I’ve been neglecting my blog. So before I talk about the coming year think I best catch up!

Work:
*Sighs with relief!* The torture is finally over! No more sitting at my desk with nothing to do, thinking about what I can look at on the internet or checking my watch to see if it’s nearly home time. Ok it wasn’t all bad, but the majority of it was. I did achieve an NVQ Level 2 in business Administration to add to my collection of qualifications and it’s a year’s work experience to put on my CV.

I was quite impressed on my last day, which was December 23rd, as I got £45 worth of river Ireland vouchers and a box of Miniature Hero’s. If that wasn’t enough they let me go at lunchtime. As of today I am now officially unemployed, which hurts. All I can do is keep applying for jobs though and hope someone gives me a chance. In the meantime I’m going to sort out some volunteering.

Christmas:
To be honest I’m a bit of a misery guts at Christmas these days. We didn’t have a tree yet again, but put up my little one from when I was a kid. I didn’t really want anything apart from the limited edition purple GHD gift set that Jack bought for me. I also got a vanilla scented monkey coat hanger, a lavender scented monkey that can go in the microwave, socks, new bedding and then a couple of other random things. On the day I treated myself to 4 pairs of pjs from Lasenza, 2 pairs of pjs from Littlewoodds and 4 cds from Amazon including Alexandra Burke, The Script, Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera. The joys of Internet shopping!

The day went pretty fast. We had brunch, lunch around 4pm and played a few games.

Jack’s:
On Saturday 27th I went down to London to spend a couple of days with Jack. We didn’t get up too much. Went to Hammersmith on the Sunday and Jack bought a gold bracelet, but I couldn’t find any clothes in river Ireland. We played cards, watched TV and generally relaxed which is right up my street.

Amy and Cara:
I met up with Amy and Cara for lunch on Tuesday, which was nice, as I hadn’t seen them for a couple of months. We exchanged Christmas presents and I got a nice bag from Cara and a few nice things from Amy including smellies. We went back to Cara’s after lunch and watched Mama mia. They’d both seen it, but I hadn’t. Glad I didn’t go to the cinema to watch it, as it wasn’t all that in my books.

Evita:
Maybe it was my own fault for not knowing the story previously, but I found it really difficult to follow. I couldn’t work out if Evita was good or bad. She came across as a bitch to me, but the public seemed to love her. The singing and whole performance was outstanding as per usual, but I can’t say it’s one of my favourite musicals. When I got home I researched the story on the net, as it’s a true one and it made more sense. Eva Perone died at 33 from cancer, which is awful.

Whilst we were there we booked to see Flash Dance in March and Chicago in May. I’ve seen Chicago in the West End and loved it, but there’s no harm in seeing it again! I need to persuade Jack to take me to see Oliver in the west End. What a nice Valentine’s present that would make!

The future:
I didn’t do much for New Year’s Eve, was just at home with my family and it was a struggle to stay awake. God 2009 it’s going to be a big year for me. I will be 21 in July; I should get a Guide Dog, hopefully a new amazing job and who knows what else will happen!

Looking back at 2008 it wasn’t a terrible year really. Work was a drag, but I went to Lanzarote with my family and then to Spain with Jack and saw Paula after 3 years. The Paralympic opportunity ended up being a disappointment, but it has made me more determined to achieve.

Amy's 21st

Today I went to Amy’s 21st birthday party. Amy is a friend from school and I’ve known her properly since year 10. She did come to the same play scheme I went to at the age of 8 or 9 and although we were friends there we didn’t stay in touch, as you don’t tend to at such a young age.

Amy is different and had her party during the day. There was a bouncy castle and all the children’s classics like Music Man and Superman!

I stuck with Cara who I also met at the play scheme and became proper friends with in year 10. She’s a motherly type and someone I can rely on to look out for me. Other old school friends were there too including amy’s boyfriend Leigh, Dave who was in my tutor group in 6th form and always guided me to my lessons, Phil who is generally crazy and Aaron who’s ex girlfriend had my name, but was a total bitch!

I bought Amy a charm bracelet with butterflies and bumblebees on it, which she seemed to like. Personally, I love charm bracelets. Overall it was a nice party and I won’t be seeing Amy and Cara until Christmas now, as they’re both at uni.