Author: emily

New Year New Car

I’ve been desperate to get a new car for some time now. I’ve had so many issues with my old car that it was definitely way past the time to get a new one.

I’m a shallow yes, I go for looks. But after doing that with my DS3 I decided to listen to those around me an go for something more reliable. I was torn between the VW Sirocco and a Mini. After finding out that the Sirocco has been discontinued, I decided to have a look at Minis.

Long story short, I settled with a Mini John Cooper Works. It’s guy rapido. 0 to 60 in 6 seconds. I love it. I feel so much safer in this car than I did with my DS3. I just need to get to grips with all the buttons now.

Love Emily

xoxoxoxo

 

Obsession by Ok Go – My New Favourite Music Video

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet.

My friend at work showed me a video today. Frankly I’m in awe.

I’ve always loved music videos. I used to spend hours flicking through the music channels on sky annoying the hell out of my mum. I know this isn’t abnormal or certainly wasn’t in the late 90s early 00s but it started my fascination with music videos. Music has always been a major part of my life but having something visual to represent music can be spectacular.

How does someone come up with the concept?

I had a project to make a music video when I was at College studying media. We chose an unreleased Busted song and created a very basic, but realistic video that showed the relationship between a boy and a girl.

At University I had to create a video of around 5 minutes and me and my housemates decided to do a music video to the longest song we could think of at the time, which turned out to be One More Time by Daft Punk. We were incredibly lazy. Filmed and edited the whole thing over a number of days in our student house and that was it. Done!

Looking through the repertoire of videos that have been done by OK Go, you can appreciate their creativity. Single shots, use of colour, innovativeness, they do set the bar quite high. You can appreciate the amount of time and planning that goes in to creating these videos and for what purpose? Pure entertainment (and to advertise paper).

I just thought I’d share this with you all.

xoxoxox

Migraines – A Few Months On

Those of you who I speak to on a regular basis know that I’ve been suffering with migraines a lot recently. I’m still not able to pin down the triggers and to be quite honest it’s proper getting me down.

I’ve spent months trying to work out the cause. I’ve gone weeks with nothing and thought that I’d magically cured myself. Then suddenly the flicker of the aura appears and then I know the period of silence is over.

It’s so hard to describe to those who don’t suffer from migraines, what they are really like. And mine are completely different to others I know.

I mainly suffer from “stroke-like” symptoms and auras. What is an aura? I hear your thinking. Imagine those kaleidoscopes you had as a child. In my vision i see what is no bigger that a 5p shape in a mutil-coloured changing pattern. This then grows within my vision. Sometimes it stays a solid circle. Sometimes it changes to just the outline of a circle. Both ways it grows and grows until it covers all of my vision. It then moves around the outside of my peripheral and I end up with tunnel vision. This never lasts more than half and hour but it’s a disturbing reminder that I’m more than likely in for some numbness and/or a serious headache.

Like other non-migraine suffers, I didn’t really understand what they were and to be brutally honest, I didn’t really believe they were that bad. How bad can headaches be? I would have never mocked anyone for having them or claiming to have them but I didn’t really believe that they could possibly be that bad.

Well I can honestly say to all of those migraine sufferers out there… I AM SORRY FOR DOUBTING YOU.

Now I am plagued with the constant fear of having a migraine.

The tiredness that follows a migraine is a pain. I feel knackered for around two days following on from a migraine.

I’v been to the doctors a couple of times now and all I get told is that I need to work out what my triggers are and that if I start needing more than six tablets a month, I need to go on full time medication to keep them at bay. I seem to be managing them with solpadeine and the sumatriptan that I’ve been prescribed but the uneasy feeling that I know I can only have six migraines a month where I can manage the pain effectively does scare me. I don’t know what kind of day I’m going to have to the next.

Now in no way am I trying to make out that my life is hell and that I have it worse than anyone else. Far from it. I’ve seen some of my friends not able to move. Throwing up. Loosing speech. The whole lot and I’m just sat here with my sparkly eyes!!! It just worries me where this has come from. It all started when I went away to Barcelona and came back to work sleep deprived and staring at a computer intently for too long. How is that a trigger? I feel that it should have been some life changing event that would start them. Apparently not. Apparently coming back to work after having a holiday is more stressful than staying at work. Might as well cancel all the future escape plans and just reside myself to plodding through life without a break. I know I sound like I’m being dramatic. I’m quite aware of this but it’s just frustrating.

There is a voice in the back of my mind saying “what if it’s something more sinister?”. What if it is? What if it’s a tumour? All three doctors did not seem overly concerned. I suppose that’s supposed to be reassuring. I’ll leave that for debate another day. I’m not particularly a hypochondriac but I can’t help feeling that there may be some other cause of this new ailment I’m not suffering from.

“You need to find your triggers.” The doctor said.

“You need to shut up!!” I felt like saying.

I’ve done the following:

  • Stop caffeine = didn’t work
  • Tried to increase my sleep intake = flipping impossible. When the hell am I supposed to live if I’ve got to sleep more. I don’t want to walk straight in from work at 6pm and go to bed. I actually want to be able to relax and wind down
  • Have breaks from the computer at work = I can have a day full of meetings and not be at my computer once and I still get them
  • Don’t get stressed = you what? Seriously? I get stressed picking what to wear for work. I’m a stressy person. I overthink everything. If stress was the cause, I would have them all the time

My next test is food. I’m going to start a food diary. Not only am I going to record what I eat, I’m going to record the times. I’ve had it said to me that not eating could be causing them. For a fat bird, I don’t eat a lot. It’s not like I sit at my desk nomming on jaffa cakes. Most mornings I forget to eat breakfast. If I can manage I’ll hammer a breakfast bar, but to be honest I’d rather not. On a weekend I’ll treat myself to something special like a McDonald’s breakfast or a bacon or sausage sarnie. It does seem that it could be a possible “trigger”.

The term “trigger” also annoys me. Not sure why. Maybe because you find a trigger on a gun and I have a sinister association with the word. Who knows? Maybe I’m just slightly weird, or a lot weird.

Anyway, rant over. I’m still here. All migrained up! Still wingeing.

Until next time guys.

 

xoxox

Disneyland Paris – Where dreams are made?

I decided for us not to stay in Disneyland Paris itself because I presumed that would be too much for Stephen to cope with seen as though I was pushing it with just suggesting the idea of Disneyland at all. I wanted to combine the trip with seeing Paris itself and decided to stay in the centre but travel to Parc Disney on one of the days. With us arriving late-ish on the Thursday, I thought Friday would be a suitable option. Well it might have been if we hadn’t been flying with Easyjet.

When looking at the redemption instructions on the booking confirmation, I was very aware that we had to go to a shop called Magic Ways to pick them up. There opening hours were generally 9am-6pm. Guess what time our flight was due to land at Charles De Gaulle? 4.50pm! That was cutting it fine but I had no idea that you wouldn’t be given e-tickets and had to collect them from some random place in the middle of the city. If I’d have known I’d have chosen another day to go and would picked the tickets up when I wanted to one of the other days.

This was inevitably taken out of my hands anyway. Our Easyjet flight, in true form, was delayed. ?

Time was ticking away.

Sat in Manchester airport I knew the likelihood of me being able to get the tickets on the Thursday evening was quickly slipping away. Stephen suggested doing the only thing that Twitter is good for, tweeting big companies to complain about their services in the hope of receiving some kind of compensation. So I did.
EasyJet Tweet

Easyjet ignored me.

I got followed by two hotels and one person. Hmmmmmm……..

Ok, Easyjet weren’t going to help. Stephen suggested tweeting Expedia to see if they could do anything. They responded! Within minutes may I add.
Expedia Tweet

Yes!!! Maybe they could sort something out. Maybe they could get the tickets taken to our hotel, maybe they could sort out some kind of electronic ticket, maybe they could freeze time??? I don’t know. I was just praying for some kind of help. Then I received this message:
Expedia message

Gah! Ok….. I resided myself to the fact that we weren’t getting to the park for when it opened. I’d convinced myself that we were going to miss half of the day and when we turned up it would have been wasted.

The next day we tried to navigate our way to the centre of Paris. Staying in La Defense, we were weren’t within a short walking distance so we had to get either the Metro or train. Two stops on the train, we were wandering around like tourists trying to find the shop. Ten or so minutes went by and we’d found it. Picked up the tickets and made our way to the train station to start our journey to the park. By this time is was about 9.30am. Checking the tickets I noticed that they didn’t have a date on them. Basically meaning that we could have probably picked the tickets up and used them on what ever date we wanted. ?

Oh well. We decided that due to the other activities I’d planned that there was no point holding off going to the park. We boarded the train and off we went.

We arrived at about 10.20am. I expected massive queues into the park. The train station is just opposite the entrance. You can’t miss it. We went through security; bag checks, metal detector, the usual….. We then started walking towards Disneyland Park. The large pink buildings drew me in straight away. I navigated straight past the Walt Disney Studios Park. We proceeded to fallow the crowds through the barriers. I noticed a sign that said that the park had only opened at 10am. What a relief?!! We’d only missed 20 minutes. I could totally deal with that. So overall the choice to go on that day wasn’t such a bad one.

We spent from then up until about 2pm in the Disneyland Park. We moved over to the Walt Disney Studios Park for about 3 hours and then moved back to the Disneyland Park. Walt Disney Studios Park is much smaller and less spread out.

Now I could review all the rides that we went on but I think that would ruin the surprise. All I’ll say is that my favorite rides were the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and the Terror Towers in the Walt Disney Studios Park.

My top tips for Disneyland Paris

1. Download the Disneyland Paris App! I can’t recommend this enough! I used it on my iPhone and Stephen used it on his Samsung so I’m pretty confident that it’s available in both Apple Store and Play Store. The app lets you look at ride waiting times as they are updated. This meant the max time we queued for a ride was about 15 minutes. Some were as little as 5. We managed to get on most of the big rides within a short wait.
2. Buy your tickets online. We got a Two Park One Day pass which is as it says, a pass that allows you to visit both Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios. As of this weekend the price was about 100 Euros for this. We got the entry tickets but also train tickets to and from Paris for a similar price. We got them through Expedia. So it’s definitely worth checking online first.
3. Be aware that some of the activities, rides and food places start closing at 5.30pm. Use the app to keep an eye on this. Also, some of the restaurants are used for the hotel residents for their meals so might not be welcoming to just park guests at certain times.
4. Some of the rides have French only parts. Welcome to Starport: A Star Wars Encounter is an example. It doesn’t hinder the ride but don’t be shocked that you’re in France, they speak French….
5. The fireworks happen at 9pm around the main castle. We unfortunately didn’t stay for them due to the weather being awful, the amount of walking we’d done during the day meant that we were absolutely shattered and most of the rides and restaurants had shut or were due to close so we had no where to go. Make sure that you factor this in.
6. I couldn’t find the times of the parade before we arrived. We managed to see one at 5.30pm purely by accident. It starts on the stage at the side of the castle and moves all the way round the main roundabout and down the Main Street. If you have little children, I’d advised throwing them on your shoulders to get a good view or make sure that you get a spot right on the curb edge or you may miss parts. The large floats are easy to see above the crowds but those characters who dance on the road are easily missed.
7. Wear a comfy shoes. I can’t stress this enough.

All in all I’d definitely recommend going. I’ll admit that when I fist saw the castle I did tear up. I am a big girl after all!

Disneyland

Xoxoxoxo

Parquet Update – It’s Nearly There

I know it’s been a while but I’m finally getting around to putting an update on here about the flooring.

I know none of you out there have been loosing any sleep over the progress of our floor but I thought you might like to have a nosey.

So as you know, we started doing this sometime ago. How long it actually is is debatable. We’ve been using our bedroom as a social space for some time now. Literally every waking moment we spend in there when we’re not at work or doing bits and bobs around the house. As relaxing as that sounds, it’s not the best environment to be sleeping and eating in constantly, unless you’re a student. I’m way past that now. I like to have my separate zones. I think it’s important for you to have zones in your house for different purposes; bedroom  for sleeping, kitchen/living room for eating etc. These lines have completely been blurred and I kind of feel this might be having a detrimental effect to my general well-being. I can’t comment for Stephen but I’m sure he’d agreed that he also can’t wait to have the living room back to being habitable.

Parquet down!

So it finally is down. It’s laid! It took forever.

The Sanding Stage

I think this has been agreeably the worst part of the whole process. After multiple separate hiring occasions of the industrial sander, the house being covered from top to bottom in dust, lots of sanding pads and many frayed tempers. It was done. Smooth as a babies bottom! Yes!

During SandingAfter Sanding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One occasion the sander was broke and was going through sanding paper at a stupidly quick rate. One occasion the dust collection bag split and basically the machine was just pumping saw dust all over the house. It was madness. I’ll be honest, I gave up trying to keep on top of it or getting upset at the mountain of dust appearing on every surface. I think I actually came to terms with my fate and accepted that the house was going to be like this until sanding had stopped.

The process was long. It seemed to take months for the sanding but it was only about a month.

At least he got to play with the big toys!

In the middle of sanding

And for the past 2 months I’ve been going home to this:

Bane

I know, i know!! at least is he adhering to his own version of PPE. Yes he’s been being a good boy!

Where we’re at

I say “we” but really I mean Stephen. He’s slogged away every spare moment he has. Every weekend, every evening, trying to hit the milestones and to get through it. I’ll give him all the credit that he’s not given up. I’ve seen him throw planks of wood, be to the point of tears (I think) and loose it too many times to count, but we’re nearly there. I can’t actually believe I’m saying that. *Shocked face*

Ok ok, I’ve built it up enough. Here’s what we’re looking at now

Post-washing

It looks lovely. I’m really proud of him for achieving something he’ll not mind me saying that he didn’t have the skills to do before he started. This photo was taken before he did two coats of varnish but this is pretty much what it looks like.

So we’re just approaching the final stage. It’s my turn to put the work in.

All the paint is bought. Prepping needs to be done but I’m that excited I’ve booked time off work to do it!! Yay!

I can’t wait to show you the finished room. And more importantly I can’t wait to have my living room back.

XOXOXO

Parquet Flooring Project

Our parquet flooring project started about 3 months ago.

Stephen often has bright ideas. It came to him one night that we should look at getting parquet flooring done in our living room. I have always been a fan of wood flooring so this sounded like a great idea. I didn’t exactly think about the execution as I didn’t know it was going to happen. “While we’re at it we can replace the fire and the harth and the skirting boards…” The list started to go on.

I didn’t really pay much attention. We’ve done large-ish scale projects before by accident, like stripping back the stairs to be the original wooden treads but that was “by accident”. We hadn’t actively planned to it so I wasn’t under the impression that this would actually come into fruition.

I can’t remember exactly when or how he broke the news to me but before I knew it, he’d bought 55 square metres of reclaimed parquet flooring off Ebay….

Typical behaviour. Yes it was a bargain. I couldn’t complain at that, but at that stage the garage was a complete mess and we didn’t really have the storage space but off he went with my friend’s husband in a van to collect the lot.

This was months ago. We’ve had it stacked in our garage smelling like bitchumen ever since.

The beginning

One day we just decided we’d go for it. Hyped up on the idea of having a lovely living room we hurried back home, donned some flexible clothing and started emptying the room. Luckily we have a large kitchen diner so we had plenty of space to put one of the sofas in on top of the dining table. I filled box after box with books, games and DVDS and proceed to disperse them throughout the house. Preferably in places that wouldn’t cause massive disruption.

This was about three months ago. Slowly the room has become more of a shell of it’s former self.

  • First the carpet went
  • Then the skirting board (and a lot of plaster off the walls with it after finding that the previous occupants wanted to set the next people the challenge to take it it off by finding the screw-heads of screws that were completely covered)
  • The fire followed and now lives in the garage until it can be sold
  • All the plaster from the chimney breast fell off as it had blown through not being suitable for having heat near it

We lived amongst the dust for weeks that turned into months. Things kept getting in the way of getting things sorted.

Finally, we’d had enough.

It started

Stephen got a family friend to come a plaster the chimney breast and hole where the fire will be going. He had two guys come and price up for a new fire and the work that comes with it.

We’d finally made some process…

Then last week we decided, that was it, the floor would be started.

Our living room consists of two areas; one the existing living room and two an extension which was put on by the last people who lived there. Sadly they didn’t lay the floor in the extension the same height as the existing floor. We kind of suspected this was the case as there was always a faint line showing through the carpet. Saturday we both got up early, did the obligatory run to B and Q and bought some self leveling floor.

I spent most of Saturday armed with a drill and a mixing attachment measuring out this grey powder, mixing it with water while Stephen poured it on to the floor.

Dry in four hours, fully dry in 24 hours. Challenge accepted. It was actually happening. The floor laying was coming closer!! I wasn’t letting myself get too excited.

Sunday morning we go up early again. Went to B and Q and bought the adhesive. Got home and prepped the room for the operation to start.

I carried a large amount of parquet flooring in from the garage and stacked it in one of the corners. Apparently you’re supposed to let the wooden flooring acclimatize to the room temperature. Luckily it’s not too different in the garage to the living room.

We spent a long time on Sunday getting the measurements done to get the precise starting point ready. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube that can advise how to do it but for the herringbone effect that I really wanted, you need to find the centre of the room and mark 45 degree angles. Basically the floor look like some mathematical theory by the time we’d finished.

We were then finally ready… two pieces of parquet went down. And the more followed.

It’s not easy. That first line if blocks is a killer. They slide around, go of straight, basically are a pain in the arse. I thought Stephen was going to rage and throw it all out of the window.  Luckily he composed himself and admitted that we could only do so much on the first bit. It was better to let it dry and have it for a sturdy structure for next time. This was very true. The next night was much easier. We did notice that we’d gone off course slightly but we have accepted that we’re not experts, there will be gaps, it won’t be 100% perfect. We’re ok with it. It looks good and will look good when it’s done.

Current progress

Here’s a selection of photos showing the current status of the living room.

We started laying the parquet floor on Sunday afternoon. It’s now Thursday, so we’ll be doing more tonight. The first two photos are from Sunday and then one each night after.

I’m intending to update on progress throughout the project so you can see how we’re getting on and how it goes.

Hopefully it won’t be too long until we have a finished product.

Xoxox

Hair Curling – The Modern Day Torture

Ok so I don’t know why I or any of us do this but we do. In the strive for beauty perfection we put ourselves through hell. (Well it’s not as bad walking on hot coals but it’s definitely a first world problem many of us endure) I’m talking about hair curling. I’m going to call it the Modern Day Torture. I describe it like having a tattoo; you endure stupid amounts of pain for an end result and then you completely forget about the pain until the next time.

My search for the perfect curling tool

I have naturally pretty straight thick hair. As I’ve got older I’ve played around with loads of different tools for hair curling. From tongs, to wands, from the Aurora Band to Velcro rollers, I’ve tried pretty much all there is to. I have drawers and cupboards full but I’m yet to be 100% satisfied with anything I’ve found.

I’m like most people though, I want what I don’t have. I’ve been striving for curly hair for years but never seem to be able to get them just as I want them.

What did I use?

This time I decided to dig out my old Velcro rollers. My mum bought them for me as a Christmas present a couple of years ago. They came in a lovely cute silk drawstring bag. A set of 12 in total I believe in three different sizes.

I have used this set before but I couldn’t really remember how they turned out. “What have I got to loose by trying them out again?”

What happened?

I sectioned my hair. Biggest rollers on the top of my head and the smaller ones round the side. Simple enough. I secured them into place with grips. Gave them a spritz of hair spray and we were off.

Hair Curling

I did worry how they were going to stay in my hair though. So a stroke of genius came over my and I decided to put a bandanna on. I was pretty please with the way I looked with that on, never mind the end result. I was worrying whether I was going to be able to sleep in them but I thought it was worth giving them a shot.

I laid in bed on my back and things seemed ok. I made sure that there were no grips jabbing me in the head and especially the ears. I couldn’t cope with much more aggravation of my industrial piercing. Seemed ok. Laid and watched tv for a bit. Not too bad and then slowly the ache started. The pressure of the way the rollers were positioned was pulling on the back of my head. Grips were poking a bit too. That’s ok I’ll just roll over… Oh no you won’t. That was even worse. I tried my pillow in all sorts of positions. Nope. Nothing. Ok so we were in for the long haul. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to get much sleep. In the end I must have but I woke up about every hour tossing and turning not able to find a comfortable position. “Should I take them out? Should I give up?” I thought. Nope, I’m not a quitter. I will endure unnecessary pain for an unknown gain.

I’ve started to realize that the process of curling your hair is like baking a cake, you put a hell of a lot of effort in to creating what you hope will be a delightful product but there is no certainty or guarantee what you will get. Will it be a complete disaster? Will it be amazing? You don’t know until right at the end.

What were the results?

Hair Curling Afterwards

After what seemed like the worst night sleep, I got up, did my usual morning routine and it was the moment I’d been waiting for.

Ta da!

Well I was expecting more curls but I always do.

Overall I was pretty happy though. I’d decided to put the rollers in because I wanted more volume, not because I wanted a curly mop.

The review

The results: 6/10 – The curls didn’t last very long. It did look like a good blow-dry.
The process: 2/10 – The only reason I’m not giving it 1/10 because I know I’ve used some other method before that was more painful but for the life of me I can’t remember until I subject myself to it next time.

Anyway. I will continue to test out these processes. Hopefully finding the easiest and most pain free solution.

Xoxoxo

My New Lipstick – Barry M Unicorn

So I’m very excited. My newest lipstick arrived yesterday and today I get to try it out.

Before I start I will add that it no way am I being paid to promote this product.

Say hello to Unicorn!

Barry M Unicorn

For those that know me know that tend to favour Barry M make over others due to them being against animal testing and the fact that there products aren’t too expensive. For this make-up novice over here I find them perfect.

My most favourite lipstick up until has been the Genie one. For those who don’t know it’s in a pink and green, the stick is green but when it goes on your skin it turns a voluptuous dark pink on me. And I state reinforce the “ME” part of that statement. I believe the whole idea of the Genie and now the Unicorn is that it doesn’t go the same colour on everyone. Apparently it reacts with the oils in your skin and goes a bespoke colour to you.

How did I find it?

Well I do nearly all of my shopping online and I love Amazon. I was just looking through the new beauty and make-up products and there it was.

TA DAH!!

I HAD to have it.

So…

I’ve got to work this morning, exciting knowing that I’d got it in my bag. I’ve sat at my desk, got it out and put it on. Not before taking the obligatory before and after photos.

Wearing Barry M Unicorn

As you can see from the photo it’s not a “boom in your face” colour but it’s quite subtle. It’s quite a “juicy” colour if you can describe a lipstick shade that way. I’m quite happy with it. Usually I wear Lush Lip Tint at work as I find I don’t need to reapply it loads and when it fades it doesn’t fade from the centre out and requires hourly top-ups.

It feels nice and moisturised and doesn’t feel like it needs extra.

Overall I’d give it a 7 out of 10. Mainly because the Genie would get a 9 or 10 because I love the colour so much but this one is nice for work.

xoxox

 

 

Migraines – The new enemy

It’s been a while since I’ve been active on here and I’m trying my best to fit the time in but I’ve recently been struck with a new problem – Migraines.

Now I’ve never been a person who has suffered with headaches. Maybe the odd one as part of a hang over or sleep depravation but nothing like what I’m suffering with at the moment.

The beginning

It all started a couple of days after coming back from my trip to Barcelona last month. We came back late on the Monday and I was back at work first thing on the Tuesday. I should have planned it better.

Two days later on the Thursday I’d been working very intently on the computer all day at work. This isn’t anything unusual as my job is desk based but this particular day I was adamant I was going to complete some work so that I didn’t hold some members of my team up. Copying and pasting from one document to another. At around 4.15pm I noticed that I had this like weird holographic thing in my vision. I just thought it was because I’d been staring at the computer all day or that I looked at one of the light in the office too long and I was getting one of those light things you see when you’ve had a camera flash or bright light. I stood up from the computer, walked around and felt ok. It was just this thing in my vision that was disturbing me. Home time soon came round and I set off to drive home. It was sunny so I put my sun glasses on, prescription I may add. The weird light things were still there. I managed the hour long drive home and got in, let the dogs outs and sat down. This is when it got worse.

My fingertip on my right ring finger felt numb. I put it down to having too much pressure on it at some point but then I could feel the numbness moving across my hand on to the other fingers. I stared at my hand in confusion not sure what was happening. Clinching a fist, spreading my fingers out. I still couldn’t feel them. It was like when you lay on your hand and it goes numb. You can move them but you can’t fully feel it.

Then it got worse again… I could feel numbness creeping into my cheek. Now I started to panic. I was looking in the mirror for the droop of the face you are told to look out for with the signs of a stroke. I started smiling, gritting my teeth, poking my face in the mirror. Anything to check that I wasn’t having a stroke.

By this point I was panicking. Like my stomach was churning, I was shaking, my heart was racing… I didn’t know what to do.

Luckily Stephen was pulling up on the drive and he shortly walked in. “Something isn’t right!” I said to him.
He looked at me blankly, “What do you mean?” He said.
“I can’t feel the side of my face” I said.
“Get in the car now”
“Wait, it might just be me. Let’s give it a few seconds and if it’s still numb we’ll go.”

He picked up the house phone and rang the NHS direct number. He passed the phone over to me and proceeded to speak to a guy who was clearly reading from a script and before he even got to asking me questions about what was happening I had to give him all my details nearly down to what colour knickers I was wearing.

“Are you bleeding heavily?”
“No”
“Do you have pains in your chest?”
“No”
“Do you have a rash anywhere on your body?”
“I don’t think so but I’m fully clothed so I wouldn’t know”
“You say the side of your face went numb, did you loose control of your limbs?”
“No”
“I need all the information of your doctors surgery before we can do anything…..”

Inside I was screaming WELL I’M OBVIOUSLY NOT AN EMERGANCY!!

He then said “From the questions you’ve answered I don’t deem you to be in immediate danger. I am going to pass your details on to the doctor and get him to call you back.”

By this point the numbness had gone. I felt like a complete fraud. I even walked up to the polling station to cast my vote in the election. After being home for a couple of minutes the doctor was on the phone. He was lovely. He asked me to describe the whole situation. When I got to the end he said calmly “I’m 99% sure that what you’ve experienced is a migraine with auras…”

Phew!!!!!

“…But we would like to see you. We’re based at Barnsley Hospital A and E so get yourself up here and we’ll check you over.”

After managing to compose myself we got in the car and went to the hospital. I was seen by a lovely female doctor. She put me at ease and did all the tests. She again confirmed it was a migraine with auras. She put it down to work stresses, lack of sleep and the timing of my holiday.

“You might never get one again. You might have them for the rest of your life. I can’t tell you that. You just need to remember that if the symptoms are similar you know what it is. If things ever get worse or you do in fact loose control of your limbs or have any of the other symptoms of a stroke you need to get yourself to A and E.” she said.

She said I was very lucky to not have had the headache that usually comes with a migraine but that I could possibly have them in future if I suffer with them again.

And now

Well how naive was I? I continued on as normal. Things were fine. I had a week off work where I spent the week doing stuff around the house and being socialble. The first day back at work was fine. I got home that evening and was watching TV then I noticed I couldn’t see Stephen when he was sat at the side of me and that the picture on the TV was wrong. “Oh shit! It’s happening again!”

I proceeeded to go up to bed with ice packs and lay in the dark watching TV. The numbness came and started in my hand as last time and worked to my face. It was exactly how I expected. I went to sleep.

During the next day at work I had the auras. They start as a small round circle of holographic patterns and slowly get bigger until they cover my whole vision. The episode passed in about 30 mins. I thought I was ok. Spent the rest of the afternoon in meetings and then got in my car to drive home. I had a quick chat with my mum and then continued the journey. This is when the pain hit. Oh my god!! I’ve never felt anything like it. I cried all the way home screaming “Just get home! You can do this!” I managed it. Got straight in the house and went to bed. Buried my head in the pillow and went to sleep for 2 hours. I woke up with a headache but nothing as bad as earlier. I stayed awake for a fewer hours and then off to sleep I went.

The next day at work I was just shattered. I got home after work and went pretty much straight to bed to watch TV and had an early night.

On the Thursday things were ok at work. Got home and we were just in the car going out for tea and I saw them again. The auras! Damn them! We went to the pub for tea and I sat for most of his having my vision obstructed but I was determined I wasn’t going to wallow at home. If this was something I was going to have for the rest of my life, I was going to continue living. Afterwards I got home and went to bed.

Friday at work was ok until the auras started again. This was it. I got straight on to the doctors and they got me in that afternoon.

The result

So I went through the same check up with my doctor as I had the first time it occurred and he basically came to the same conclusion, it was migraines caused by stress and sleep depravation but now instead of having them as one-offs I was having them in clusters. He told me about different medication and how my life would now change. Now I have a tablet I have to take as a soon as I can see the auras and if I need to I can take another one 2 hours later.

I came out of the chemist thing “probably won’t get them anymore now.”

How wrong was I. Saturday lunch time the aura started. I took a tablet and dealt with it. The headache was agony buy it subsided after a couple of hours. And today the same but this time the aura started about 30 minutes after I’d got up. This put all ending to my theory that caffeine was my trigger. I had to take another tablet. The doctor did warn that the dosage might need to be doubled if I didn’t feel that they were doing enough. Today I found that one table worked and that taking a pain relief a couple of hours later helped.

So that’s it

Sadly at 30 I’ve now landed myself with something I didn’t see coming. Whether it’s started due to stresses in life or work, I don’t know. All I know is that I’m not letting it ruin my life. This week  has been hard. This is exactly what I’ve looked like all week.

Migraine

I know this won’t be the only post I do about my migraines but I hope my experiences might be able to help or give comfort to others knowing that there are others struggling with it.

 

Xoxox

Apprenticeships – The best route for many

A couple of weeks ago I was privileged to spend a couple of hours in the presence of some very inspiring young individuals at the Rotherham Advertiser Apprentice of the Year Awards. The event celebrated those who have excelled in the Apprenticeship route and those who are at the start of very successful careers.

I nominated my Apprentice, Rachel, for the award due to her commitment to the role of Digital Marketing Apprentice, her professionalism, her self-motivation and many other assets. Out of 160+ nominations, she was in the finalists that included those studying intermediate and advanced levels of apprenticeships in a variety of subjects such as engineering, care and media.

The evening was a lovely event. Being in a room full of people who were all there to be advocates for the apprenticeship route and to see the younger generations taking the initiative to get into work whilst learning, was very touching.

Obviously the fact that i work in education exposes me to the vocational route as opposed to the academic route for those completing their GCSEs and older. I’ve always been an advocate for Further and Higher Education.

My route

School

I followed the traditional academic route: went to sixth form college after school and then on to university. I had not clue what I wanted to do with my life. I’d flitted with different possibilities such as veterinary, medical, music, media and many more… I’m not an unusual case. I think at 14/15 it’s very hard to decide what career you are going to be doing for the next 50+ years. Seems pretty unfair and such a big decision to make at such a young age. Deciding what bag and hair accessory to team up was the extent of my decision making at that age. Picking your options and choosing between geography and history was a no brainer. Explains why until I was 18 I thought Penzance was in France! (yes I know. Ridiculous right?)

I picked Expressive Arts and Music out of the mix of Business, Sport and other various ones of no interest to me. I’d always been  musical due to my extensive instrument playing from a very young age. I’ve always loved music and performing arts, so this was the obvious route.

I did reasonably well in my GCSEs: five Bs, five Cs and two Ds. Not bad. I’ve never been and A* student. I’m happy with that. Average Joe over here!

Sixth Form or College

My school didn’t have a sixth form so I had limited options. I had to choose between the rival secondary school and move into their sixth form with a lot of others from mine, go to the sixth form college in the centre of town or possibly one of the two local vocational colleges. I didn’t really have a push to go to a vocational college despite desperately to study Popular Music I was prompted to do A-Levels. The school sixth form didn’t seem to me as an option. All the high achievers were going there. I wouldn’t fit in. Non of my close friends were going there and most of all I didn’t want to wear a uniform for another two years. (Priorities, I know!)

So the choice was made for me. Local sixth form college it was. I chose English Language, Spanish, Music and Media Studies. I had to general studies as a given but the others I chose not because I thought I was going to be working in the media in Spain but because I still had no clue what I wanted to do and fancied another two years kind of working things out studying subjects I enjoyed rather than ones I felt I had to do. College was a good experience. It was more grown up and I made some good friends. Whilst at college I did have a part time job. this actually turned in to an eight year on and off relationship with my local Tesco.

University

After College I went on to university. I again picked a course I would enjoy rather than picking something I was certain would give me a career; BA(Hons) in Media and Popular Culture.

I spent three years partly living in a city that I loved and learning about popular culture and the effects that the media play on the way we behave. Yeah it was really interesting but all I can say that I remember is little things. I enjoyed watching films, learning about the effects of music on behaviour and many other theories. My final year dissertation was titled “The Representations of Lesbians on Contemporary British TV”.

In the end though, I was left in debt with an over draft and student loan and with no better prospects of a job or starting my career. Please don’t for one second think I’m preaching that the university route is bad. Nope! I would recommend it to anyone. Going to university is far more than just learning a course. You get life experience. You become self-motivated. If you don’t you can’t do well. If you move away from home you learn to live on your own. You learn many life hacks like how to never need to iron your clothes by hanging them straight as soon as they come out of the washer, that 5p (as they were back then) noodles are a meal and that there is never enough time to sleep. It’s a lot of people’s first experience of being out in the world on their own.

I came back home at the weekend to work. I had a boyfriend in my home town at the time so it made sense. I juggled that with staying up at uni 4/5 days a week.

Anyway…..

What I’m trying to say is that I spent five years of my life contemplating what I wanted to do. Going to college and university was right for me as I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Doing A-Levels let me keep my options open for a further two years while I decided what I wanted to do. I, naively (as probably so many others do) went to university kind of expecting that once I’d got my degree that I’d have jobs waiting for me. The media industry is so competitive and unless you are willing to spend a further two years working for free as some runner or have a huge drive to get into the industry.

In summary

Choose whichever route suits you. Do you research. If you know exactly what you want to do, consider an apprenticeship. This way you get the theory and the practical experience all in one go rather than waiting until after your qualification. If you’re not sure, stick with A-Levels and that way you’ve got another two years to consider your options.

xxxx