Getting up to date with April - part 6 (more day to day stuff)

On Tue 27th April I didn't do much. I did pop out to the local shop though to buy the latest Radio Times and in the evening I helped Alf cash the IOU I'd given him for his birthday at the start of month. He didn't have an iPod charger of his own so kept borrowing mine. If I let him take it out my room he'd forget to give it back so I then told him that he had to use mine in my bedroom. That wasn't ideal though so for his birthday I gave him an IOU for an iPod charger of his own up to the value of £10. The official charger in the local Apple shop cost an astonishing £37, but Alf found one on Amazon that looked fine but wasn't branded for just under £5 (including P&P) so I bought that for him on Tue. When the charger arrived on Fri I was a bit nervous that it might not be compatible with Alf's own iPod Mini or might not work, but it worked fine :)

On the morn of Wed 28th April I popped round to the surgery to collect my new suncream. It's only factor 30 (my previous one that I reacted to was factor 50), but I guess that'll do. It's a huge heavy tube, so I wont want to carry it around with me when I'm out, but it'll be fine to put on at home or in the car before I go out. After that I phoned Barnardo's and talked to the deputy manager again. She said that they would have some work for me to do that day so I agreed to go in after lunch.

As we were heading out I got bad stomach pains but decided to go anyway and see how they were when I got to Barnardo's. They were still quite bad when I got there but I decided to start volunteering and I could always finish early if I was in too much pain. I volunteered for an hour and my tummy was very painful for the first half hour :( But fine for the second half hour :) It was much quieter than the previous time I'd been in and I liked that. However some furniture had been moved around in the back room so I had even less room to move! The only other volunteer in was the deputy manager and she was quite grumpy so I didn't manage to get into conversation with her. It was nice that the clothes I had to hang up were folded and piled on the floor rather than just thrown in a heap.

I then met up with mum and we went for drinks in a cafe in town. After that we looked in a few charity shops where I picked up an Agatha Christie short story book, a 4 DVD set of 80s films (containing Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful and Planes Trains and Automobiles) and a CD of rainforest sounds which I thought I might be able to listen to when trying to get to sleep at night. When I was in hospital for my transplant I found a CD called Temple in the Forest on the ward, which contained relaxing music that sounded like a forest. That helped me to relax and get to sleep but when I listen to it now it brings back memories of hosp which doesn't help to relax me. So I was pleased to find a CD that looked similar that I thought I might be able to listen to instead. However when I tried it out I discovered that it wasn't music, it was just rainforest sounds. I didn't find it very relaxing to listen to as there was an annoying background chirping sound constantly and then every so often there'd be another animal noise over the top of that which would make me jump! Then me and mum did a supermarket shop before heading home.

On Wed eve Claire came round. We had a lovely evening chatting, having tea, playing on the Wii and watching a film together. A few months ago Claire had asked me about giving a talk on organ donation to some of the students she teaches. She works at a unit which teaches children who can't attend school for behavioural or medical reasons - I met her when she taught me when I was too ill to go to school before my transplant. I'd said I'd get back to her about it but it was just one of those things I'd not managed to get round to. So on Wed I asked Claire if there was still time for me to do this before the end of term. Claire said that'd be great so we decided on a date - Wed 19th May. I'll be speaking to up to twelve GCSE year students, so they'll be about 16. Before then I need to look through the organ donation resources I've got and check I've got enough leaflets, fluffy bugs etc and I also need to plan my talk. I'm confident giving talks to adults, but teenagers seem quite a bit more daunting. And then of course I have no idea how well I'll be on the day. But it'll be great if I can do it to raise awareness of organ donation :)

On Thur 29th April I slept through my alarm (which always goes off at 10.30am so I can get up in time to take my morn Tac 12 hours after my eve Tac) and didn't wake up til 11.40am! Whoops. That put me out of sync for the whole day :P In the post I received some raffle tickets to sell to raise money for AYME and a very cute sock monster that I'd ordered from Lou's Folksy Shop (you can also see Lou's blog here). That morn I wrapped and parcelled up Rosie's birthday presents before taking the parcel round to the post office to send off to make sure it reached Rosie in time for her 18th birthday tomorrow. I was very surprised that she actually received it just 2 days later (I sent it 2nd class)! I also wrote and posted a long overdue letter to Kate - my AYME buddy.

I had a lovely evening watching a film with my mum. Then I got a bit frustrated because Facebook was playing up, but luckily it got sorted out within a couple of hours. Me and mum discussed the possibility of going on a family holiday to Center Parcs later in the year, but she's not mentioned this to dad yet, so it's only a dream at the moment. I'll let you know if it progresses any further.

Thur was one of those days where I realised how fantastic some of my friends are. I got a lovely PM from Rosie as I do every day, when I asked Lou if I could buy another sock monster from her for Mia's 4th birthday she said that she was happy to send her one for free, I received 2 very understanding responses from Michelle and J (who I met at the PINNT meet-up) when I sent them both a brief email to them to let them know that it might take me a few days to reply to their emails and I also received a lovely eCard from Michelle :)

On the morn of Fri 30th April me and mum headed out to a local garden centre that also sells books, clothes, pets, crafts and food for a browse round. We had some drinks in the cafe there and I saw a cute ferret in the pets section. Mum bought some plants for the garden and we bought a new house card for nan in preparation for her move the following day.

After that we headed into town to wander round the shops and do a supermarket shop. When I say town I mean one of our two local towns, we don't go into the same town each time :P I bought a Some Like it Hot DVD in Cash Converters and a deodorant. I also picked up a free local magazine in a charity shop because it included an interview with Marina and the Diamonds. Mum rarely buys DVDs and if she does she buys cheap ones (either reduced or second hand), but that day she bought Avatar on DVD! Mum saw it at the cinema with Alf so she was keen to see it again and for me to watch it too. We've not seen it yet though. We ate our lunch as we were walking round. While we were in Sainsburys I spotted a funny sign on the box of a Wii game which said "Warning! This product contains a security tag which is NOT MICROWAVABLE" I'm not sure why anyone would try to microwave a Wii game! :P Mum said that apparently some security tags can be removed by microwaving the product which might explain that label, but I still thought it was funny.

That eve Chris and Sophie popped round again.

On Sat 1st May my nan moved to another flat in her building. The flat she moved to is more spacious and lighter (due to more windows) than her old flat. Dad and Alf went to help out with her move in the morn and were joined by my uncle Danny and his wife Diane. Mum was at work in the morn and I stayed at home because I wasn't feeling too well but we went to join them after lunch. I didn't feel v well while we were there so wasn't of much help but it was nice to see my nan and my uncle and aunt. The move went smoothly :) I was made official photographer, but because everyone was busy it was difficult to get good photos. I had a go though so thought I'd share a few with you :)

My mum looking like a pixie

My uncle Danny

Dad busy at work

Dad showing off the dancing he's practising for Glastonbury, eek!

Alf not very impressed that I'd taken a photo of him!

My aunt Diane with my mum

My nan

To be continued...