My Belfast Black Friday

"I went window shopping today! I bought four windows."

Tommy Cooper

I assume unless you live under a rock, you'll probably have heard that yesterday was Black Friday. Or as I've been calling it, Black Eye Friday. I swear I made that joke before I'd seen anyone else had. Although I'd been battling a cold and missed class on Thursday, I felt I'd picked up enough to venture out to Belfast on Friday with Eva and our friend Hannah. We weren't going because of Black Friday, but because it was the only day Eva could go. I'm not going to lie, after hearing all the horror stories about how people were fighting over bargains, I was a tad nervous about going into Belfast. My mum didn't ease my fears any by telling me how they didn't care if someone was in a wheelchair or not! 

Well, I'm happy to say I survived. In light of some of the stories people have to share of the day, ours was your average shopping day in Belfast. We seen none of the battle scenes and even if it would make an interesting blog post, I'm quite happy to say it. Town was busier than you'd expect on a Friday afternoon, but no more than you'd usually see on a weekend. Well, at least in the stores we were in.

We got off at Botanic and planned to go to a place called Maggie May's that Hannah wanted us to try, but there was a step in. Botanic is the worst for places not being wheelchair accessible. I guess it's because it's all old buildings. We ended up walking across one side of Belfast to the other for no reason. Luckily it wasn't a long walk, plus it meant we could stop off at a vintage store called The Rusty Zip. It's always fun to explore. I wish I could go up stairs. My sister's pretend it isn't that good up stairs, but I know they're lying.

Anyway, Eva bought a top and I bought a cute little brooch.

Bloo's Christmas Wish List 2014

So Christmas is well and truly on it's way. This time next month (at the time of posting this entry at least) it will be Christmas Eve! I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Christmas is my favourite time of year. I love tradition and hate change, so our Christmas routine has changed very little over the years. If anything we've added traditions rather than take any away. I can't wait to tell you more about them in later posts. But on with my Christmas Wish List! Every year we write a list for Santa of ideas. So no, I don't expect to get everything on this list. I'm not a greedy monster. 

Click on the collage for a larger view.

Under The Weather Week

"I am sick and tired of being sick and tired."

Fannie Lou Hamer

I mentioned in my last post, I felt like I was coming down with something. Turns out, I was. As I also mentioned, I have a few ideas for future posts, but I really haven't felt up to writing. Friday was a particularly bad day. I was in a lot of pain, felt very warm and even a bit faint. Which resulted in me having a panic attack. It wasn't very nice at all. Because of my cough, I had decided to get an antibiotic. It might seem a little rash, but doctors prefer me to nip any potential chest infections in the bud. So on Friday night my dad picked up my prescription for Augmentin. It really just made everything worse and gave me ANOTHER panic attack. I felt very nauseous, which made me nervous going to bed. The rest of the night I had to rationalise and keep my anxiety in check. Luckily I got through it without any more attacks.

After that I decided to hold off on taking any more of the antibiotic and see if the cough really did take hold or if I could get over it myself. Taking an antibiotic that was making me feel so ill seemed counter productive, because it would only make me weak and it more difficult to fight off whatever it was that I'd picked up. Once the effects of the antibiotic wore off, I felt a lot better. I'm hoping I'm on the mend now in general. Hopefully I'll be ready for class on Thursday and I get those planned posts under way!

Christmas Baking Practice

"People have got to learn: if they don't have cookies in the cookie jar, they can't eat cookies."

Suze Orman

I hadn't planned on doing a post today, but my sister and I had a practice run for some baking we plan to do on Christmas Eve. So I figured I would show you how it went. I do have some ideas for future posts, possibly even a new weekly series... but I think I'm in the process of getting a cough, cold thing. Hopefully it won't develop into a full blown chest infection, but at the moment I'm feeling a bit crumby. It started as just a little bit of a scratchy throat this morning, but has steadily got worse over the course of today. I'm usually unproductive as it is, but headaches and a cough make it a lot worse. But I digress, hopefully this will pass in a couple of days and I'll be back on track with what I wanted to do. Now on with the baking!

We asked our mum to pick us up what we needed when she was out, and well... we probably should have just got it ourselves. We wanted to make sugar cookies and decorate them. The end game being something a long the lines of these...

This Week In Words

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
Abraham Lincoln

I've been feeling a little off my blogging game this week. I started a couple of posts, but decided to put them on the back burner because I just wasn't feeling them. I'm not sure if there was actually anything wrong with them, or I'm just over thinking it. I've been feeling a little antsy the last week or so and I didn't want to push myself to blog when I felt like that because don't want to associate blogging with that feeling. I don't know why I've been feeling my anxiety levels rising again. I hate to say it, but it's possibly because Christmas is right around the corner. I'm excited for it, but I feel totally unprepared. Which is something I'm going to rectify as soon as possible. I did finally start Christmas shopping this week, so I guess that's a start. More about that in a bit. Lets start at the beginning of the week!

Operation Christmas Child

I was going to include this in my weekly round up, but instead I thought I would write it in a post of it's own so it's less likely to be over looked. My posts tend to be a little long, so I imagine a lot of people tl;dr them. 

I've always wanted to take part in Operation Christmas Child, but every year Christmas tends to just come out of nowhere for me and I always end up missing the date. The lovely Dee reminded me of it this year when she wrote a post about it. I thought this year would end up another year I'd be unable to participate as being disabled it's difficult for me to get out to buy stuff and such on a whim. I looked up and found out the boxes have to be dropped off by the 18th of November, so it definitely was looking like I'd ran out of time. 

If you're unaware of what Operation Christmas Child is, it's basically a scheme set up by a charity called Samaritans Purse in which you fill a shoebox with little gifts for a boy or girl of a particular age range (2-4, 5-9, 10-14). You then drop it off at a designated drop off point and they send them to disadvantaged children in countries such as Serbia, Haiti and Romania. You can watch a video on how to pack a shoebox here.

Like I said, I figured I'd left it a little late to do that, but when I was on their website reading about it I noticed they had a Build A Shoebox Online: Shoebox World option. For £15 + £3 for shipping you can fill a shoebox online, picking from a small assortment of items. 

If I Had The X Factor

"Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness."

Maya Angelou

Lets pretend we're in some alternate universe in which I am a super talented singer and musician, but for some reason feel my only road to musical success is X Factor. I started to wonder what songs I would sing if I happened to be one of the contestants, while watching X Factor this week. And so the idea for this post was born! Obviously in my alternate universe I am so talented I make it right to the end of the competition. I looked up all the categories they had week by week last year and thought about what I would sing. I think the trick is to try and pick something you like, but what you also think they audience will be familiar with and like. I know I tend to tune out when someone sings a song I'm not familiar with. So here are my picks, week by week!

Links 'n' Stuff

"I don't like to give advice. I like to give people information because everyone's life is different, and everyone's journey is different."

Dolly Parton

I wasn't planning on doing a post today, but I spent most of today doing some page tweaking and I figured I'd let you guys know!

First, I've updated my About Me page. I've attempted to condense it a little and make it more general so I have to update it less. 

Then finally finished my My Disability page. I had hoped to just link to an official fact sheet, but I couldn't find one. Plus I realised that because my disability is a spectrum I might be better explaining how it affects me personally. Sorry I couldn't keep it shorter, I didn't realise how much there was to my disability until I started explaining it!

Also in my about me I included a link to a page about my pets, complete with photos of each of them. I don't think I've done a post about them all so far. Can't believe it took me so long!

Lastly, a week or so ago I made a Facebook page for Bloo 'n' Stuff. I'd really appreciate any likes or shares. Thanks!

Gosh, I think this is the shortest post I've ever written. Don't get used to it! 

Not much to say about this week. I had class last night and it went well, although I almost cried because we watched half of Of Mice and Men. The scene where Carlson take's Candy's dog totally got me. We also learned we're doing a discussion based roleplay next week. I'm not too nervous, yet. 

This weekend I have a Belfast Giant's ice hockey match, and possibly some shopping on Sunday. Can't wait for ice hockey tomorrow night. Games against Cardiff are always entertaining, but we also have a new player! 

Anyway, have a good weekend everyone.

My First Liebster Award!

I've seen the Liebster Award tag floating around a lot lately and every time I see it I think how much I'd love to be nominated. I mean, it's basically writing a whole bunch of random stuff about yourself. Who doesn't love a chance to do that? It's basically the reason I became a blogger.

Well you can imagine how happy and flattered I was to have woken up a couple of mornings ago to find that I had been nominated for the Liebster Award by the lovely Prompts By Dee.

The Liebster Award is to recognise and help people discover and learn about smaller blogs and the bloggers themselves. The nominations are passed from blogger to blogger.

Rules

- Post eleven random facts about yourself.
- Answer eleven questions asked by the blogger that nominated you.
- Write eleven questions for your nominees.
- Nominate five to eleven bloggers (pref with less than 200 followers).
- Let those bloggers know you nominated them. 

So here we go...

Belfast Adventure Part Two

"On the one hand, shopping is dependable: You can do it alone, if you lose your heart to something that is wrong for you, you can return it; it's instant gratification and yet something you buy may well last for years."

Judith Krantz

Yesterday I posted up Day One of mine and my sister Eva's weekend staying in Belfast. Read all about where we stayed, our first night away without our parents and what we got up to here. Saturday was dedicated to shopping. I'm not going to lie, I'm not a BIG fan of clothes shopping. As much as I enjoy fashion, as I've mentioned before being a tiny out of proportion human being presents some challenges when trying to find things to buy. However every so often I will have a good shopping day, and I'm glad to say Saturday was one of those days. We decided to opt out of breakfast at the Premier Inn and had a lie in, getting up around 10am. We got dressed and headed into Belfast. We weren't really sure how to get there, but it was easy enough to figure out and was luckily wheelchair accessible the whole way.

I broke out one of my favourite jumpers I've not worn since last winter! And also realised my Belfast Giants' coloured nails went with it pretty well.    

For breakfast we hit good old Costa. By that time it was almost 1pm, so I guess you could call it brunch. Eva got this sandwich thing and an iced latte and I got a panini and tea. I never had one from there before, but it was so good. I'd definitely get it again. I usually don't like the premade ones from Starbucks etc. But yeah, that set me up for the day of shopping ahead!

Big Smoke Adventure Part One

"I know some sisters who only see each other on Mother’s Day and some who will never speak again. But most are like my sister and me... linked by volatile love, best friends who make other best friends ever so slightly less best."

Patricia Volk

As you might know if you're a regular reader of my blog or follow me on Twitter I had quite a big weekend away with my sister Eva Paige. At twenty four and nineteen, it was our first time away together by ourselves. Granted it was only a thirty minute train journey from where we live, we were excited nonetheless. It wouldn't seem like a big deal to most people, but it's slightly different when you're disabled and rely on the person you're with for everything. Not to mention the responsibility put on them. Then there's the regular nervousness of two young women in a city by themselves, but I digress. We got up early on Friday morning and got our stuff ready. We loaded ourselves up like pack mules and headed for the train. My puppy Edwin wanted to come with us. I felt so bad leaving him, as it was the longest I'd been away from him since I got him.  We'd hoped to stay one night, but as fate would have it by the time I booked they had a two night policy. Our little getaway for £80 between us turned into a little getaway for £180 between us. In hindsight, I'm glad.