The title is the hardest thing..

Every blog entry you write you're supposed to give it a title. I'm hopeless at thinking up good ones!

But that aside...

LIVER, LISTEN & KINGS

...I have spent the last two days on various visits at King's, but today was the day for me.

Yesterday was ward visit day and it was great to have company. It was a long afternoon - very rewarding - but just as exhausting. We met people just being put onto the transplant waiting list, people who had recently been transplanted and people who had been on the transplant waiting list for some time. We finally got our photo id cards and progressed with the CRB checks (got one for UKA, need another for NHS).

Today was bloods day. I wanted to find out what I'm to expect with my "funny" bloods, and the long and the short of it is that I need to have a biopsy to get a precise diagnosis. I saw one of the top guys and I really pushed to know more, but unfortunately my current story isn't text book (boom boom)...

DOGGGGG

Had two excellent walks but today I went up Flower Lane near Godstone and walked through the woods with two dog walking friends and their pooches close to Woldingham School. Yes, Mad Dog and I met with her woof love, Harris - and their little bichon frise pal, Charlie.




Short and sweet for today. A good few days. Need a little rest...!!!

I haven't forgotten...

I was reminded today that I haven't updated my blog for a few months, so what has been happening?

HOME

Our house is exam city right now, with GCSEs and A levels at their most stressful. Not helped by a carpenter taking over the whole of our ground floor (it's only a little house) to build our long awaited for cupboards. Yay - storage space at last!!

I think the kids are coping better than I am with the exam stuff. Well you know, "get off facebook", "are you on facebook?", "leave your phone downstairs", "have you eaten", "have you had a drink", "stop playing with the dog and concentrate!!" Actually, I'm not that bad. All I ask from the GCSEs (which are almost finished) is a small period of focused concentration, with breaks, then chill. But if the phone, tv, dog, get in the way.... A level boy is old enough to sort himself out. I won't be at university to check up on him (well that's what he thinks!!)...lol

LISTEN

It's been an amazing year for LISTEN. Our big push to raise the profile of our mentoring services within King's is really paying off, and it's now quite easy to spend around 6 hours each Wednesday at the hospital meeting referals, talking to groups, catching up with the staff and checking out our Lodge accommodation. Fantastic!

The committee meets once a month, but I'm in contact with the members at least every few days or so depending on what is going on.

I have rewritten the LISTEN leaflet which is just going through its final stages of proofing, and there may be some help with the future Newsletters which I hope we can do soon.

FUNDRAISING

I can't take any credit for fundraising this year, but wow, there are some fantastic people out there doing some amazing stuff for LISTEN. Chris, I've spoken about before, is still set to fly his cesna plane from Cape Cod to Cape Horn, some tens of thousands of miles, in Dec 2011-Mar 2012. And Andy Strachan, transplanted only in December, will be running 10k on July 10th. The Ladies of Caterham Rotary raised loads from a dance evening, and a quizz night, also in Caterham, recently raised around £600.

OFFICIATING

My approach to timekeeping has been a lot more relaxed this year. I've done plenty of it, in fact sometimes a little too much, but maybe because I've got a little more experience under my belt I just take each meeting with a calm approach and hope that I'm doing the best I can. For those new to this "sport", the precission of your timekeeping is measured by hundredths of a second with the widest "error" accepted throughout a whole day of races (sometime over 100 races) just 500th of a second. My "errors" this year over a day range from 3.54 (super excellent) to just over 5 (good, but should do better!).

I want to go up to the next grade of officiating but consisently need to keep my errors below 5. All great if the starter signal is good - but that's not always the case...

This weekend is the Surrey Schools Championships. This is a really long day in Kingston. Having competed in local district sports, the top 1-3 in each event, go forward to represent their district. Little N is doing the triple jump for South Surrey.

HEALTH

Interesting at the moment. I feel fine. Tired but absolutely fine. I am waiting for a date for a biopsy to see what my lovely liver is doing as its not totally happy at the moment. No worries. I'm so well looked after and have great support. No worries.

MAD DOG

Well Mad Dog failed her Kennel Club Gold award. Aaaaah. I knew she wasn't ready and she passed everything - except the very last. This was being shut in a stable with the door closed. Oh dear. Howl, cry, bark. She was not happy. Instand FAIL.

Not to give up, we now join the next group training for gold every 2-3 weeks, and hope that she will do it soon. Go Summer!!!

Oh and Summer is very much in love. Meet Harris...