As promised...

I've been putting this post off because a) this week has been mighty hectic and b) my last post was number 111 and I love that number!

But I promised a more detailed account of camp so here it is.

My Camper and I

I travelled down to the campsite via train. I actually went part the way on Friday so I only had to go from Cambridge to Farnham on Saturday - that was enough!! With my hefty rucksack and sleeping bag jutting out about twice my width I braved the underground (is it just me or do people see that you cannot get past them and make the effort to actually move more *into* your way?!) I had to get off at King's Cross, get the tube to Victoria, then a train to Woking, then one to Farnham and then a taxi to the campsite... can you tell now why I did the journey to Cambridge the day before??

The Chapel on the campsite

Anyway it was so hot - it always is the week I go on camp! I got there a tad early and they wouldn't let us on the site for another 15 mins (insurance reasons or something) so I walked down the hill from where the taxi dropped me off, chatted to the leader and a couple of people also early arriving, and then trudged my way back up the hill... great start... I then spend ages moving tents before finally getting a quick break before my camper arrived. Talk about non-stop.

Some of the tents

My camper had complex disabilities and my care for her meant I had to learn how to give gastric feeds (through a tube into her tummy). It wasn't that difficult - once I knew about checking for air bubbles, making sure the tube clicked into place properly and knowing how the clamps worked. At the beginning of the week I was really nervous but by the end it was like second nature... get up and wait for the overnight feed to finish; unhook machine from camper, flush with water; get meds from nurse and spends ages getting them into the syringe only to push them out of syringe seconds later - follow with another flush of water; give 3 or 4 (on extra hot days) flushes through day (giving more meds - and messing around trying to open capsules and suck up thick, gloopy meds into syringe too big to fit in the cup the meds came in (D'oh) at lunch time) ; end day by giving more meds and hooking camper back up to machine, hoping it had already been set up right and wouldn't beep incessantly at me when I turned it on! Simple, really ;o)

My camper and I swimming

I felt quite priviledged to have been entrusted with such care and it did so much to boost my confidence. The past couple of years I have had more "challenging" campers which shows they really trust my ability - especially as they just let me get on with it, knowing I'll seek professional help/guidance when I need it. I guess, to be fair, my age and experience working in other care environments helps too!

My camper and an old friend at the campfire

Anyway - my camper was a darling. She couldn't speak, save saying "Oh dear!" a lot when we lifted her out of her chair to change her - usually followed by fits of giggles as one of us bashed ourselves on a bit of the wheelchair which stuck out or knocked something over. Yes, my camper, like many of the wonderful campers, found it hilarious if ever you hurt yourself. I came home with bruises that are still visible now - and I don't bruise easily!! Needless to say, she laughed at me a lot!!

Laughing at our uselessness!!

We also laughed a lot, especially when I managed to do things like knock the bowl of water I was washing her with off the changing bed and all over the floor, onto an electrical battery charger, in the middle of a thunder storm - WHOOOOOOPS!!! Sometimes we laughed because it was so funny - other times we had to laugh or else we might have cried/screamed - usually when our camper squeezed her arms close to her body mid-lift meaning our wrists almost snapped as they were bent in an awkward position, trapped between her incredibly strong grip and her rock-solid back brace!!

Singing by the campfire

Our days out caused more fun - mostly to do with going to the toilet! I never really thought about disabled toilets much before. I mean, whenever I looked after a camper who needed to use a disabled toilet they were able to sit upright with a little help, so it was simply a matter of lifting them out of the chair and on to the toilet seat. This time my camper wore nappies and we always changed her on a changing bed whilst on the campsite. And have you ever seen one of those in a public disabled toilet?? We had to change the poor darling on the floor of the disabled loo in a shopping centre one day and the next day on the floor of a very small toilet on a rather small river boat! With her head hanging out the door and my co-carer protecting said head, I stood over her legs, bent double so I could see what I was doing. This would have been hard enough, but add in the fact that the boat was, at that very moment, doing a U-turn and the person driving couldn't even steer straight in the first place, I spent a lot of it trying hard not to bash my head against the toilet itself! We both felt a little bit seasick after that experience - though I have to say I found it quite funny, even at the time - and our camper thought it hilarious!!

One of our days out

I think my co-carer was a tad overwhelmed by the whole thing - not surprising it being her first time and all - I had such an easy camper my first year and I still found it hard going!! I don't think she quite saw the funny side as much as I did, either... maybe I just have a wacky sense of humour... in fact I know I have a wacky sense of humour and I guess it really helps at such times as these, when you're working on one or two hours sleep a night and constantly trying to figure out if the mad waving of the arm your camper is giving means "I'm in pain", "I'm hungry", "I'm bored" or something else entirely!

Patrol Craft Time

But I had such an incredible time I can't wait to go back next year. And all I could think about on my long journey home was how much I am meant to do this work and how very unfair it is that such work is so low paid I can't really afford to make a long-term career out of it. But great news awaited me upon my return home as I am currently expecting a call about a possible opportunity which is perfect for me right now - more on that another day!

Oh, my journey back was even longer btw! I had to cancel my trip to Cambridge post-camp for family reasons so it involved: catching a lift with another carer back to her hometown of Surbiton; catching the train to Waterloo; spending ages in a queue and then arguing with someone over the cheapest way to change my route (I only had tickets for a route via Cambridge which added a lot of time to my overall journey!) only to have her say "there is no other way"; catching the tube to King's Cross only to find the line I needed was closed and having to find another route; buying a ticket at King's Cross which allowed me to go a much more direct route home (so I have no idea what the other woman at the other station was on about!); getting a train to Retford; and then a rickety old bus which had no aircon, couldn't get up hills very well (and we went through lots of villages with hills) to get back to Lincoln because no trains were coming in that weekend. I was so glad to get home and then I had to wait for my dad to pick me up, whilst desperate for the toilet (lol) before I could finally relax! Ahhhhh how nice it was to have a bath and go to bed that night!!


Dancing at the Disco!

I miss it already, but another one of the campers (the first one I ever looked after) rang me last weekend and her Nan has invited me to visit anytime! Oooh I can't wait!! She also sent me a letter with a picture she drew of herself, me and my camper :o) and I have just finished hand sewing her a headscarf that I promised as she decorated one for me on camp and they ran out so I said I'd make one specially for her! (You might have noticed it in an earlier picture!!) I'd take a piccie of the one I've just made but my camera is broken so I'll just have to tell you it's blue and spotty and fantastic hehe!!

One of many hugs!


I'm currently busy writing and producing some handmade books, so keep an eye out for future posts related to those. Also please visit my new blog Amanda's Enchanting Pages for a taste of what's to come.

I'm back and tired

This is only going to be a short post because I am knackered!! I had such a great time last week on camp. As I suggested might be the case, I had one of the most complex campers in my care. She was a lovely girl to care for, although a real challenge at times because her needs were so demanding. I shall tell you all about her in a later post but just wated to share a picture with you of the girl I spent a wonderfully warm and sunny week with.

Sunshine at last

We've finally got some real sun at last! Throughout the floods we'd have the odd day of hot sunshine and then 3 days of rain again. I remember thinking one evening that it's a sign I'm a true Brit when I can get up one morning and it be hot as anything and then get up the next and it be bleak as winter and not think this is weird!! My sister also pointed out that this unpredictability is perhaps why we're well known for our obsession with the weather - and obsessed we are - I know one friend who turns on the tv just to see what the weather forecast is and then changes channel to see what the other weatherman says because he will more often than not predict the exact opposite!!

Anyway, I wanted to thank anyone who popped by and added the flooding in their thoughts and prayers. The power is back on in Gloucester (although Kelly mentioned to me that reading Harry Potter by candlelight was very "Hogwarts-like"). The water, last I heard, had been turned back on but it was not yet suitable for drinking. There have been a few more casualties, but thankfully the fears of more flooding are now dropping. So thank you again! It's going to take a long time to repair the damage done but the clean up has begun. I'm also sending out my thoughts to those elsewhere, where the excessive heat is causing fires and other problems... whatever is going on I just hope it settles down soon!

On to sunnier news - I've been able to sit in our garden drawing illustrations for my handmade books - yep I'm finally getting round to making them and it is so exciting. I was originally going to start a mini-business making them but all the legal bits and bobs and finding the time to make sure I created enough products was too demanding at this stage in my life - so I gave up. But I had already bought the material (yes I am making the whole book by hand!!) and so I'm making up a few to begin with for close family and friends and we'll see how they turn out and just how much time is needed - perhaps a mini-business will evolve in future years.

I'm especially pleased to see the sun as I am going on camp next week. I go each year to look after disabled teenagers and I was not looking forward to trying to rescue electric wheelchairs stuck in muddy potholes!! I have to say that pushing manual wheelchairs up the hills is not all that fun when it's this hot either - but at least it's clean!! Don' t get me wrong - I have nothing against getting dirty myself but it's much harder to clean a wheelchair and trying to shower 20 odd campers who need hoists etc in a tiny showerblock with only 8 showers is not the easiest of tasks!!(note how the tents are much higher up than us - and that isn't even the steepest part of the camp - one thing's for sure ... I always come back much fitter than when I go!!) I don't know who I'm looking after this year but I can be sure it'll either be someone who requires a lot of manual lifting (as most of the other helpers are in their teens and that bit weaker than me) or someone who needs an older helper who is strict with them (like I had last year). It's always so much fun but SO tiring, especially when you're in a tent where you don't get much sleep. Last year I had a two day migraine and my vision started to blur and I spent most of that time with another camper who insisted I say "whoops-a-daisy" every 2 seconds whilst her helper took my camper swimming and on activities I couldn't cope with at the time... needless to say if anyone says "whoops-a-daisy" to me now I think of her!

Getting to and from the campsite is a pain too as I don't drive and it requires me going through London on a busy day with a huge rucksack and sleeping bag so to break the journey up I'm staying at my friend's in Cambridge for a few days afterwards. This is actually a real necessity because usually as soon as I stop running around after my camper has gone home I find it incredibly difficult to stay awake and I don't want to end up in Edinburgh because I fell asleep on the train hehe!! I can just about manage to stay awake the two hours it takes to get to Cambridge.

I'll also be going to visit the nursery again. I was talking to one of my old colleagues and she told me all about the babies I used to look after and how they're all walking now and how some of them have become biters *gasp*! Last time I went they all looked at me like they didn't know me - which was so sad... by now I think they'll have definately forgotten me *sniff sniff*

So, as you can tell it's gonna be a busy two weeks for me so I won't be posting for a while. But hopefully when I do I'll have lots of cool pics and funny tales to share!

Please add your prayers

I'm not sure how much coverage the current crisis in Britain has received in other countries but things are really critical here at the moment. We've been experiencing flooding for weeks now - first it happened in my area of the country and a man even lost his life trying to clear a blocked drain (and he's not the only casualty)! Thankfully we escaped the worst, living on top of a hill, but even we had flooded gardens and leaks in our roof due to the heavy downpours when a month's rainfall fell in a day or two...


It has now escalated and the South and West of England have been hit hard with the people in places like Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury without power and down to their last jug of clean water due to the power and water plants being hit by the floods. Rescue workers and volunteers are working round the clock to bring the most basic supplies to these people and to try and limit any further damage which could come at any moment as the rain continues and the flood warnings are flashed at us on every news bulletin.



According to the latest report from the BBC News Team:

the Environment Agency has warned water levels are expected to exceed those of the devastating floods of 1947.

And according to a report on the 1947 floodings:

The flooding, which inundated nearly all the main rivers in the South, Midlands, and the Northeast of England, was notable for its origins, regional extent, and duration. Impacting thirty out of forty English counties over a two week period, around 700,000 acres of land were underwater. Tens of thousands of people were temporarily displaced from their homes, and thousands of acres of crops were lost.

Britain is known for its unpredicatable weather but we are very lucky in that we very rarely have such extreme weather. We haven't had flooding like this since 1947 - and yet if it is predicted to be worse than that this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.


So I am asking you now to add your thoughts and prayers for those affected by the floods over here - to protect those who are vulnerable, to bring solutions to the problems and to prevent any worsening of the situation. I'd also like to ask you to join me in gratitude that so far no more lives have been claimed and for the overwhelming response of the public and emergency services and government alike for working together to do what they can to deal with the situation at hand.

Too often I see things on the news that make me wish I could do more to help and this crisis in particular touches me as I have so many friends in the affected areas and it really brings it home, you know? All I can do right now is pray for those in need, so that is why I am asking for your prayers as well. Thank you.


More pictures of the flooding.

so busy

I have been so busy at the school and at home but I am so happy - I can't remember the last time I felt this happy, seriously!!

I've worked so hard at the school - listening to kids learning to read and helping them to sound out the phonics, supervising group play, reading stories, taking down and putting up displays (which involved double mounting all their work and their names and laminating loads of stuff!), marking homework and getting to the bottom of who was lying to me (the kids are at that age where if they have done something wrong they try lying their way out of it even if they know you saw them doing it!! They haven't quite figured out yet that lying doesn't work if it's obvious you're lying!), preparing paperwork ready for parents evening etc etc... apparently I have done more of the to-do list in two weeks than the teaching assistant has in 6! I did so much that the teacher ran out of jobs for me to do and had to come up with new ones so things like the displays would normally be done in the summer holidays and since she is getting married this summer it's nice to know that my help has cut down on the amount of time she'll need to be in school preparing for the new term whe she returns from her honeymoon!!

The experience has shown me that I was right when I always thought I wanted to be a teacher because even the long days and noisy kids and all the rest of the exhausting and very repetitive events has done nothing to convince me otherwise! I know that the work is hard, I have seen all the paperwork and demands that the teacher had to deal with and I am under no pretences that I won't get utterly frustrated some days - but that would happen in any job and I actually want to be in this kind of job and that's always good - wanting to go to work!!

So now I just have to wait until the next intake for teaching and decide one of two things: do I work as an unqualified teacher and earn 13k for the year but have to work the same hours as a teacher whilst doing coursework and assessments or do I take the slightly gentler route by going back to uni and doing placements and my coursework at different times and also earn a specialism in teaching german to young children but only earn 6k for the year, meaning I shall be pretty much dependent on my parents still. The other question is do I train to teach the younger age group (3-7) because that is the age group I have always preferred or do I teach the older ones (7-11) because there is far more scope for my skills as a linguist and in the creative side of things like sewing, art etc to be used in my lessons?

In the evenings I've been looking after my sister - or rather answering to her beck and call - my dad even said to her last night that you'd think I was her maid not her sister lol... I know my sister has been really depressed and that she is in a lot of pain with her joints - I know and understand because I have been there too and I know how easy it is to hide behind excuses and let others do things for you... but it really irritates me when I come home from a long day and have to cook just because she is too tired because she did something *yesterday* or on my day off I have to go to the library on my own for the *third* time to do research for her because she is too tired because she's been away for a *holiday*... I'm supposed to be her support worker and I desperately need the money but there's a difference between supporting someone by taking notes and proof-reading for grammar errors and doing the research and legwork for them... it's starting to really take the p*ss right now and I keep getting short tempered with her and she'll get that hurt look in her eyes and I understand so much how it feels to be that side of things, I really do and it makes me feel so guilty for being so snappy... but I have a life of my own and I am working damn hard for little or no money to get to where I want to be and I just don't have the patience for it anymore...

On a nicer note I spent my day off this week (yeah I got a day off because there wasn't much for me to do and due to the distance we have to travel to the school each day and the timing of an afterschool activity it just made more sense for me not to go) I went to my Grandma's to teach her how to crochet... that's right *I* was teaching *her*... the lady who taught me to knit, sew, bake etc etc... I got to teach her how to crochet and it was so weird... esp as I only taught myself how to do it a couple of months ago! I now have two scarfs and a baby blanket on the go 'cos I like to have a variety to choose from lol. I think people may be getting homemade gifts for Christmas this year!

School Days

I spent the day working in a village school today! One of my sister's friends is a teacher in a village about an hour's drive away and was in real need of some help as the year draws to an end so I asked if I could go and get some experience.

The school is unqiue in that although it spans the age ranges 4-11 there are only 3 classes... so this particular teacher has a class with children ranging from ages 4-7!! Not the easiest of things to plan for as whole class teaching needs to cater for all the age groups and group and individual work has to be set at each child's key stage plus their own personal levels!!

I really enjoyed the day, it was great being around the kids but I am exhausted as I had a busy weekend with friend's staying over and then getting up at half 5 this morning and only getting home at 6pm... I'll post an update later in the week along with (hopefully) some photos I took in the castle grounds and from the observatory tower the other day - they are cool!!

Talking of the observatory tower, we were climbing the stairs to it (and they were really steep), following this little girl and her dad. She said "I'm going up first" and then when we caught up with her I told her that she was doing so well because even I was tired and she showed me exactly how she was climbing up the steps (you know what kids are like when you praise them and they want to show you just how good they are!!). She then asked what my friend was doing (he was taking a photo at the time) and when her dad told her that was what he was doing she asked "is he taking a picture of me?" Oh, she was so adorable... and so cheeky!!!!

Famous Lincolnshire

Did you know I come from a really exciting place in England?? No, I didn't either!! My hometown, Lincoln, is a beautiful place in parts with Roman ruins, a Cathedral with a huge history and a Castle and a Bishop's Palace where some of the richest Bishops in history resided.


The history is amazing but the present is rather dull. There's not much to do and since the University was founded in the 1990s modern buildings which stand out like a sore thumb have popped up everywhere.



So let's get back to the history - because it really is quite exciting (and this is coming from the girl who hates history!!)

Those of you in America may or may not already know this, but Captain John Smith, "The
man who was to become President of Virginia started life as the son of a tenant farmer in a small village on the edge of the Wolds." (The Wolds are in Lincolnshire - the area of England where Lincoln is situated. When Time Team (an archaeological programme in the UK) did a special edition on the founding of Jamestown they found that the houses built by the earliest settlers had a distinct style which is only found in one other place in the world and that is in rural parts of Lincolnshire! Researching deeper into the archives they then traced John Smith and some others from my part of the world... how exciting and how strange that I previously had no idea about this!!


Moving on from that part of history I found out last night that "haute couture" was actually founded by another Lincolnshire man... can you believe it? The Oxford English Dictionary have been asking the British public to help them research the history of certain words so that they can update their entries - where the dictionary had only previously found proof of word usage in the 70s (for example) the public managed to find anti-datings right back to, say, the 30s! There was a tv show about it all and last night was the last in the series, talking about the terms we use in the world of fashion. Apparently, this guy called Charles Worth went to France ans created women's fashion and, as Wikipedia states, "His reputation was such that the French government awarded him the Legion of Honour and when he died, 2,000 people, including the President of the Republic, attended his funeral."

You might be wondering why I'm thinking of this today? Well I met a guy in Cambridge and he's coming to visit this weekend and I get to play the tour guide and tell him how the Cathedral once burnt down in an Earthquake and explain to him the legend of the Lincoln Imp, and walk around the castle walls looking out over Lincoln and seeing the old prison where those to be hanged were locked away... I guess with all this history it's no wonder that there's a well-known British song which begins, "When I was bound apprentice in famous Lincolnshire"