London - 25th July

When Donor Day happened back in April, I attended a drinks evening afterwards to socialise with everyone else who'd been involved. However there were lots of TV cameras at the drinks evening filming for Holly S's Battlefront documentary, so we didn't get much of a chance to talk to each other. So Holly S suggested we could all meet up in London for a meal at a later date to chat to each other a bit more. That was last Saturday.

I was worried that I might not be able to attend as I felt awful on Thursday and Friday, but luckily I had a good day on Saturday :)

7 of us were able to attend the meal, which was at Las Iguanas on the South Bank in London:

• Holly S - the organiser of Donor Day and the Gift of Life campaign. She received a kidney transplant last October.
  
• Holly C - who is currently creating a photography project about living kidney donors, which you can read more about here. She received a kidney from a friend last October.
• Emily - the vice-chair of Live Life Then Give Life. She received a double lung transplant in January 2007.
• Abby - who is Emily's sister.
• Tom - who is Abby's boyfriend.
• Freya - who is Abby's friend and is also from a donor family.

I've been to London many, many times, but Saturday was the first time I'd ever been to London on my own and all went well. It was also the first time I've had a meal out with friends. I had a fantastic evening :D It was also great to be able to chat to other transplant recipients about transplant related things. For example we discussed having to avoid high risk foods, medications etc.

I took my camera with me, but didn't take that many photos, so some of the photos below are Holly S's, Holly C's and Abby's. Thank you for letting me steal your photos ;)

In the restaurant:

After the meal we wandered around South Bank. So here are some photos from when Holly S and Abby played in the fountains:

And we all went on a carousel, which made taking photos a difficult task. But Holly S got the hang of it:

Wandering along South Bank:

And heading home on the Tube at the end of a great evening:

Not feeling well

Sorry it's been a while since my last update. I've not been feeling very well over the last week or so. I've just been exhausted and have been struggling with tummy aches too. My tummy aches have been going on for quite a while now, so I mentioned it to my consultant at Hospital A at my last clinic. He suggested eating more fruit and also prescribed me some tablets to take before eating. However, the suggestions didn't help and since the clinic my tummy aches have actually been more frequent and more painful. I've suspected for a while that it might be related to something I'm eating, so am currently experimenting with cutting rice out of my diet (which is tricky because I love rice pudding!). I've only been avoiding eating rice since yesterday, but as I'm writing this I've had no tummy aches for over 24 hours :) So I'm going to continue with no rice for a few more days and see how it goes. I'll keep you updated.

My exhaustion has been making me quite fed up, but my first appointment with the ME unit is on Aug 11th, so that's just over 2 weeks away now. I'm hoping to get some advice and support there. I'm still planning to attend the British Transplant Games next weekend, as I'm really looking forward to the social side of it :) I was originally planning to compete in 2 swimming events and 10 pin bowling, but because of my health I've withdrawn from the swimming events. But I'm still hoping to give 10 pin bowling a try if I feel up to it on the day. I'll be away from Thurday til Monday.

While I've been very tired this week I've taken the opportunity to watch some films :) I borrowed the DVD of 'Marley and Me' from the library and really enjoyed it. Then on Thursday I went to the cinema with my mum and my friend Claire to see 'The Proposal'. That was great and very funny :D I think Sandra Bullock is a brilliant actress. I've also just read a really good crime novel called 'The Power of Three' by Laura Lippman, which I'd highly recommend. And on Thursday I bought a new Wii game called Wii Sports Resort which I've enjoyed playing on when I've had some energy.

Luckily I felt much better yesterday, so was able to meet up with some friends in London last night for a meal. Later this week I'm hoping to make a blog post about yesterday as I've got quite a few photos to share and had such a fantastic night :D I'm feeling very tired today though.

Florida

In March 2008 me and my family went on an amazing family holiday to Florida. Some time ago my cousin had been seriously ill and he'd had a wish granted for him by the Make-A-Wish foundation. His mum (my aunt) had told us about this fantastic charity and suggested that I would probably be able to have a wish granted by them too. So at the end of 2007 when my health was stable after my transplant I though about contacting the Make-A-Wish foundation. I did some research and found that they granted wishes for children aged 3 to 17 living with a life-threatening illness. At this point I was 17, so realised I had to act soon. I contacted the charity and after lots of paperwork two local representatives came out to meet me at home to discuss my wish. I came up with 3 options and they went away to see what they could do. I was soon contacted and told that my first wish, to swim with dolphins, would be granted and with my family I would be going on holiday to Florida!

So for a week in March 2008 we went to Orlando, Florida! The Make-A-Wish foundation organised and paid for everything for us, which was brilliant as we wouldn't have been able to afford it ourselves. It was fantastic as it was our first holiday since my transplant and we all needed a break. We stayed in a lovely resort just outside Orlando called 'Give Kids the World'. It has links to the Make-A-Wish foundation and provides accommodation for wish children and their families who are having a wish granted to go to Disneyland or to swim with dolphins.

While in Florida we all had a brilliant time and managed to pack loads of activities into just one week. The Make-A-Wish foundation and Give Kids the World also provided us with special passes that let us jump all of the queues at the theme parks we visited :D

On the Thursday we went on an airboat ride at Boggy Creek:

Sorry about the above photo. The boat was moving very quickly, so I only managed to get a photo of half of the alligator!

On the Friday my mum and dad met Popeye and Olive at the village where we were staying:
Then we went to Universal studios:
At Universal Studios we saw lots of film sets and I met the actual dog that starred in Men In Black 2:

On the Saturday we visited Disney's EPCOT where we went on some great rides and also visited scenes from countries all around the world:

On the Sunday we returned to Universal Studios, but this time to visit Islands of Adventure (the theme park):

On the Monday we visited Discovery Cove:

On the Tuesday we visited Ocala National Park where I fell in love with raccoons:

And on the Wednesday we went shopping before getting the flight home.

I was so grateful to the Make-A-Wish foundation for granting us this amazing holiday that I wanted to give something back. So for my 18th birthday (last September) I told all my friends and family that instead of presents I'd like them to make a small donation to the Make-A-Wish foundation. We made over £400!

If you want to find out more about the Make-A-Wish foundation they have a website at www.make-a-wish.org.uk.

Mika on the radio

Mika's new single 'We Are Golden' has had it's first radio play today, so Mika was on both BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1 this morning to promote it.

On Radio 2 this morning as well as playing 'We Are Golden', Mika was interviewed and played 2 acoustic tracks ('Blue Eyes' and 'Blame it on the Girls') in the studio. You can listen to it here - forward to just before 1 hour and 38 mins through. And you can see photos here.

Then Mika was on Radio 1, where 'We Are Golden' was played and Mika was interviewed. You can hear it here - forward to 1 hour and 43 mins through.

Let me know what you think of the new single - I love it :D I'm also really excited about the release of Mika's second album in September and of course trying to get tickets to see him again when he tours in the new year! :D

Throwing out school notes, my health, music, films and books

I've not done much over the last 10 days, but thought I'd write an update anyway because I've done a couple of interesting things. Sorry it's been a while since my last update, but I hope you liked the Japan posts :) I've got loads of photos on my laptop, so am going to try to do a few more memories/photos posts soon.

The day after my last update I sorted through all my sixth form stuff and class notes. I'm not very good at throwing stuff out and tend to be a bit of a hoarder, but was very happy that I got rid of loads and loads. All my work was in lever arch files which were stored in 2 crates on the dining room floor, so my parents are very happy to have the floor back! And the few bits I've kept (my Japanese notes and flashcards, my homework diaries, my yearbook, my reports and some bits for memories) now fit happily on the shelves in my bedroom :)

I've still been quite tired, so had to cancel my plans to run a stall to promote organ donation at my village Feast Day last Saturday. I've been quite fed up and frustrated with it all at some points this week, but I'm really hoping that I'll get some advice when I have my initial meeting with the local ME unit on August 5th. For the moment though I just want to do so much, but don't have the energy, which is very frustrating. I really want to try to learn to drive again, but I know I used to make mistakes and get very upset at myself when I was just a little bit tired, so I think that should probably wait til I feel better and less tired. And I also don't really have the money at the moment either, learning to drive is soooo expensive! I took my theory test when I was learning before, but that expires in November, so it looks like I'll have to take my theory test again. I'm not conerned about retaking it as I found it easy, but it's just more money! And I want to work too, but I just don't have enough energy at the moment. It's the British Transplant Games at the end of the month and it now looks quite unlikely that I'll be feeling up to competing. I'll definitely attend though as it's a big social event and I'm really looking forward to catching up with some friends there and hopefully meeting some new people too. However my weight has been staying stable, which is very positive and since my last hospital appointment I've been making a big effort to make my diet more balanced, so have been working hard to try new foods, especially fruits. I've discovered I love plums, but unfortunately so do the rest of my family, so other people keep eating the ones mum buys me when she goes shopping!

I think I've mentioned before that I really like Little Boots. Well, I've bought tickets to see her live in October, which I'm really excited about! She's doing a mini tour of the UK, but isn't doing any big cities, like London. However, she is coming to my nearest city, yay! The tickets were very reasonably priced, so I'm going with my friend Claire and my mum. I can't wait! :D I found lots of good Little Boots videos on Youtube too, which I've enjoyed watching. This week I was also really pleased that I was able to fix a problem with my iPod that had been annoying me for ages (lots of artists wouldn't show up in the artist listing). Quite frustratingly a key has fallen off my laptop keyboard this week and I'm struggling to work out how to fix it as I think the bit underneath might need gluing back into place. I'm going to ask my dad about it tonight and hopefully he'll know what to do. And my laptop screen seems to have acquired a scratch, but I've no idea why. Apart from that my laptop is doing quite well considering it's 4 years old :)

I've been relaxing quite a bit since my last update as I've been very tired. I like watching films and have watched a couple of good ones this week. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was much better than I expected, but it was quite long. Another film I watched was called Panic Room and all the reviews I'd read before I saw it said it was very scary and tense. It was a good film, but I didn't think it was scary, and I think I found it funnier than it was intended to be! And then very excitingly I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Wednesday with my family, Claire and Claire's friend. I've never seen the cinema (a big multiplex) as busy - every showing of Harry Potter on Wednesday was completely booked up, there were no parking spaces to be found, the foyer was packed... We'd prebooked our tickets in advance, but got to the cinema about an hour early to queue for good seats. The film was brilliant and I'd highly recommend it :D And I bumped into an old friend at the cinema too, which was nice.

I used to be a very avid reader, but have struggled to read recently while my concentration hasn't been very good. However, I've got back into reading this week which has been lovely :) So far I've just read a few Young Adult books from the library, but think I might read the Harry Potter books next. I've read books 1 to 4 before, but haven't read the last 3. So I want to reread the first 4 and then see if I can get through the final 3 :)

Japan part 6 (final part!)

On our first full day in Kyoto, we visited a temple with some beautiful gardens. I got a bit carried away taking photos there as it was our first Japanese experience, so I'll just share my favourite photos of the temple and gardens:



Later in the week we visited a shrine with some gardens:

Another Japanese experience we tried was meditation at a Buddhist Monastery. I didn't take any photos there because there was such a calm atmosphere, I didn't want to spoil it by getting my camera out. It was really interesting to learn about the monks' way of life and meditation was definitely an experience. However, the doors of the building we were meditating in weren't shut properly, so most of us were too cold to concentrate. And then we came out and saw it was snowing, which explained why we'd been cold! We only did two 15 minute sessions of meditation, but that was plenty long enough - it's more difficult than you'd think to sit still for 15mins without getting fidgity!

We also did quite a bit of shopping in Kyoto, but I didn't think to take any photos of the shops. If we'd have gone to Japan the year before everything would have been half the price it would have been in England, but unfortunately we went when the pound was very weak, so things cost about the same - but I did see a CD somewhere for the equivalent of £50! Most prices were quite reasonable though and I'd saved up lots of money to take with me. I spent very little money on myself, but spent most of it on presents for friends and family. We discovered a fantastic Japanese sweet called Pocky - which is basically edible sticks coated in chocolate. You could buy loads of different flavours of Pocky. My favourite was strawberry Pocky, but Catherine decided to collect as many different flavours as she could find.

Surprisingly the majority of the shop assistants didn't speak any English, so asking for things in shops was a bit of a challenge. If I did manage to ask a question in Japanese, the shop assistants would then assume I was fluent so often gave a long and complex response that I couldn't understand a word of! All the shop assistants were really polite and helpful and often bowed at us, such a contrast to shop keepers in England! And if we bought presents they'd wrap them for us, without us even having to ask :)

That's the end of the sharing of my photos and tales from Japan. I had such a fantastic time and experienced a completely different way of life for 10 magical days :D I'd love to return to Japan in the future, but maybe to see somewhere different such as Tokyo. Going on a school trip to the other side of the world without my parents was something I could only dream of before my transplant. But thanks to my donor and her family it became a reality.