Music, tummy aches and media

This is an odd update made up of lots of bits and pieces, so I'm sorry if it doesn't flow very well.

On TV since my last update I stumbled across Pink's Funhouse concert again and watched it, despite already having seen it twice recently and having the DVD :) And I watched an interesting Wonderland documentary about a couple with Downs Syndrome on iPlayer. I've also watched a couple of episodes of Absolutely Fabulous on the DVD of series 2 that I've currently borrowed from the library. Yesterday I went to request series 3 on DVD to discover that the library don't have it, despite having series 1,2,4 and 5, lol :P So I've added it to my Tesco DVD rental list at high priority, so hopefully I'll get series 3 soon as I'll finish series 2 within the next few days. I watched one of the DVDs I'd rented the other day, a very funny Christmas film called Elf. I'd definitely recommend it :) And I caught the end of a Hollyoaks music programme on C4 where Pixie Lott was performing. At the bottom of the screen facts about Pixie Lott were scrolling across and one said that 2 years ago she was a dancer in Mika's Love Today video! So I had to have a watch of that video (which is on one of my Mika DVDs) to see if I could spot her, but I couldn't. I'd give you a Youtube link so you could have a look, but unfortunately all the Youtube Love Today videos are really poor quality, so you'd never be able to spot her.

I used iPlayer to listen to an interview with Diana Vickers (my favourite from last year's X Factor and who I saw in The Rise and Fall Little Voice last month). And I read a good article about Mika in Monday's Independent newspaper, but it's not available on their website. I also found this link to download the audio files of all of my current X Factor favourite's (Joe) performances from the live shows, so have put them onto my iPod :) And I used an offer in this week's Radio Times to download a free Doctor Who episode from iTunes this evening. If you're interested, click here and then when iTunes loads click on the free link in the top right hand corner :) It took me ages to download on my dying laptop though as it insisted that I downloaded and installed the most recent version of iTunes first (which took ages), before downloading the episode and transferring it to my iPod (which also took ages). The whole thing took about 2 hours!

I've been using Spotify lots, I love it :D I've listened to Pixie Lott's album countless times, I think it's great. Has anyone else got/listened to her album? I've also listened to Alexandra Burke's album and Shakira's latest album which were both a bit disappointing, so I'm glad I didn't buy them. I also set Spotify up on the downstairs computer so mum could listen to The Noisettes' latest album, Lily Allen's second album (which is hilarious when they bleep out all the swear words) and then her special request - Elvis Costello! My laptop speakers are rubbish, so I listen to music through my stereo when I can, but I can't do that with music on Spotify. My stereo is nowhere near my desk, so using my stereo speakers for my laptop music wasn't a very practical idea. Luckily though my dad lent me some small-ish, but decent speakers that he doesn't use, so I've fixed them up to my laptop and they're a huge improvement :) And Dad said if I like them then I can have them for Christmas :D

Me and mum have bought some more concert tickets :D The only concert we'd got lined up was Mika in February, but on Tuesday we bought tickets to see The Noisettes (who mum loves and I quite like) in concert in Feb too :D Yay, looking forward to both of those concerts, just hope that I cope ok as they're only 5 days apart!

I mentioned a little while ago that I was attempting to read a book called Coraline, my first book in a while. I've not got any further with it since then, but will definitely have another go with it soon.

My mum has a friend who is a nanny and she used to look after Michael Bond's (the author of the Paddington Bear books) grandchildren I think. And she's still in touch with the family. Mum asked if she could get us some books signed, so me, mum and Alf now each have a signed Paddington Bear book :D And mum also got one signed for Lizzy's daughter, M :)

Mum made me laugh on Tuesday when I asked her if she knew how long it was til Christmas. Mum said "3 weeks and 10 days", lol! :P She has dyscalculia (number dyslexia) so I know I shouldn't laugh, but when mum eventually realised what she'd said we both found it funny :D

My tummy aches have been quite bad on a few occassions recently and I'm getting fed up of them, so I'm going to have another go at trying to work out what food(s) is triggering them. I suspect it might be rice, so I'm going to try not eating that for a while and I'll see if that makes a difference. If avoiding rice doesn't help then I'll try not eating white bread next as mum thought that might be a trigger. I'm a bit nervous about excluding foods from my diet because I don't eat a huge variety of foods, but hopefully I wont lose any weight while doing this.

Earlier this week I received a letter about my first Pathways to Work interview which is on Jan 6th. This is the path I'll go down if the outcome of my ESA medical assessment (which is next Wed, eeek!) goes one way. Hopefully I'll find out the result of my ESA medical assessment sometime in Dec, so I'll know whether I need to go to the interview in Jan or not.

On Tuesday I felt better than I expected after Mon, just a bit tired. I've felt awful today though :( But I did expect that after such a busy and tiring day on Monday. Hopefully I'll soon start to feel a bit better. I don't have any plans til Sun, so can just relax :) As you'll probably notice from the time of this post, I'm very nocturnal tonight, lol :P I really ought to try to get that sorted again ASAP.

I mentioned in this blog update that K isn't doing so well at the moment. A few days ago I heard that another little girl I know in the transplant community is currently very ill. M is 4 and I met her in Hospital B after my transplant when she was in for her assessment (also for a small bowel and liver transplant). She received her transplant relatively quickly, recovered really well and had been doing fantastically. Then suddenly and very unexpectedly last week she developed moderate to severe rejection and is currently very ill in Hospital B. I've spoken to her mum and she knows that M's recovery will take a while, so I'll catch up with them when I'm in for my annual tests in a few weeks.

Sarah, who did the Gifts of Life photography project, is running LLTGL's Christmas Media campaign. She has asked if I'd like my story to be used and I said I'd have a think and get back to her. But I don't know what to do. I've always said no to publicity before because I'm quite a private person and I'd be worried that my story could be twisted or spread without my permission (although I do know that LLGTL have lots of experience). And I think I'd be ok with doing just one thing, but know that one thing often leads to many more. And mum thinks it might cause me stress and worry at the moment, and my health isn't great. BUT it might encourage more organ donors.