Oh What a Night...

The Ball was a huge success!!! The total (so far) is just over £12,100!!

It was rather manic getting all the prizes, programmes, table decorations etc down to Oran Mor in time but we did it - we franticly set up, put things on tables, tied butterflies round candelabras and in the middle of it all Kirsty managed to find time to do my hair. Priories and all that ;-)

Now it is no longer secret I can tell you about the evening's format! The tables were lit by beautiful candelabras, creating a lovely atmosphere for a Masquerade Ball. Each guest received a flower seed packet - with the message to be planted in memory of our donors. Of course organ donation and LLTGL leaflets were on all tables! The evening started with guests arriving around 7ish with amazing masks and beautiful dresses. Victoria had made a fab seating plan for all the tables. The meal was fantastic although funnily enough I did not feel very hungry! When coffee was served Team Glasgow got up to welcome everyone and I was nominated to speak - you know how I like to be on a stage :-) We also tried to give a little background to our stories and why we were here tonight. Our hosts, comedians, Jay Lafferty and Scott Agnew then came on to introduce the acts. We had two fantastic classical singers, who sung throughout the slide show we produce - with pictures of people waiting on transplant, post transplant, those who have lost their life waiting and organ donors. We had a slight technical hitch due to my laptop decided to ignore the fact a projector was attached, but Andrew got it working in time for the 2nd song. We then had another singer Mhari, who was amazing and did quite a few songs from musicals. Some tables were then moved to make way for our masked ballet dancers! These were girls from the Theatre School Victoria works at, called Confidance. They were fantastic! It was then time for the band, who were also fantastic and there was plenty dancing to lead us up to a break just after 11pm to draw the raffle, announce silent auction winners and do some loud auction prizes. Also going on all night was an amazing tombola -I think there were nearly 300 prizes and we made the odds of winning pretty good so most things were won :-) This was a big hit and we were so lucky to have some volunteers from Santander helping us out - we couldn't have done it without them. Also on offer were professional photographs to buy (printed on the night) and a special cocktail at the bar, £1 of each purchase being donated to our final total.

Another hi light of the night was Kirsty singing 'My Hero' by the Foo Fighters, in memory of her donor.  It was an emotional performance and everyone thought it was amazing.  The night flew in but everyone seemed to be having a great time and there was a wonderful atmosphere in the room. It was such a celebration of us still being here, still standing and looking to the future - and hoping we can help others also get this opportunity.  I will leave you with a few photos to give a taste of the evening..

The Ball Room

Ballet Dancers

Me talking away..

 My mask..

Kirsty singing

Where to start?

I last blogged when I was heading off to the advocate weekend and I don't think I have stopped to draw a breath since.  I will give you the high lights of the last 10 days :-)

The advocate weekend was fab and very useful all round.  Myself, Kirsty and Victoria (as the three Scottish advocates) headed down to London on the Friday evening.  The train journey wasn't too bad but it was a late night with us just arriving at the hotel around 11pm.  The next day was a full day of meetings with the LLTGL team, looking at the advocates role, where the charity is going and where funding is being allocated etc.  It was useful to chat over all this and also good to get to know the other trustees a little better.   It was a busy day and we managed to find time for a mini photo shoot, to capture us wearing the new t-shirt with the slogan "think about it, talk about it, do something about it".  We had a lot of fun doing this and got some great pictures.  In the evening we all grabbed a pizza and headed back to the hotel for a while.  I was pretty much ready to go to bed when Kirsty announced we were going out.  I somehow agreed to this and we ended up having a really good night with lots of dancing and posing :-)  The Sunday involved information about the Speakers Project which LLTGL will be running.  We covered the basics about how to deliver a speech in three minutes while still including all the necessary information - I may attempt this at the ball.  I find it really hard to stop after 3 minutes!  We then headed back up to Glasgow on the Sunday afternoon and were all absolutely shattered.

Hard at work...

Matt (Vice-chair), Kirsty,Victoria, Louise (advocates),Emily (Chair), Me, Holly (trustee)

Team Glasgow  - would you trust them?!

Straight back to work on Monday and quite a busy week.  I still have a PBL group so had that on Tuesday and managed to squeeze a bone scan in before I got to work at 9.20am on the Wednesday - pretty good going.  On Thursday we headed up to Aberdeen straight from work as it was my dear friend Fi's funeral on Friday.  We stayed with my friend Andrew (thank you!) so that we weren't driving there and back in one day.  The service was beautiful and very fitting for Fi.  She had her burial at a woodland site called Clovery Woods,  which was stunning.   So many lovely tributes were made and there was a warm gathering afterwards and I am really glad I was able to join everyone.

The weekend was also rather hectic with some rushing about doing house DIY type things on Saturday and then a family party in the evening.  Sunday was my nightmare trying to print booklets but not succeeding day.  I am printing a wee programme for each table at the ball, with some information on the evenings proceedings, prizes, sponsors etc.  I had planned to print everything on dads printer so set aside Sunday for this task.  Then the worst happened - the printer wouldn't work!  After several hours I gave up and decided to head home, only to discover the power steering on my car had gone and it was impossible to drive! So dad had to drive me home and I then started trying to print on my own printer - but because it doesn't do borderless printing it was impossible to centre the pages correctly.  My friend had a go on her printer and had the same issue.  After weighing up a number of options I ended up going to Asda at 9pm last night and buying a printer.  Probably a bit excessive but we were planning to get a new wireless printer because we both use laptops - although I didn't really plan on buying it this week.  Ah well - it looks very pretty and seems to be up to the job.  I have one booklet completed to show the girls this afternoon then full on production will commence!

Me and my Dad

Me and Mum lead the way with The Slosh

The ball planning is getting to that rather manic phase when all the last minute things have to be done and pulled together.  We have a final meeting with the venue today and then its full steam ahead until Friday.  I cannot believe it's only 3 sleeps away!  It will be a fantastic night although I think all three of us will collapse in a heap afterwards.   For anyone who cannot come, please consider giving a small donation via the Just Giving link on the right - every penny counts towards our final total.

Finally, in the middle of all the above, the extension continues.  It is more or less complete with just a snagging list to work through.  The main issue at the moment is getting the radiators in (hopefully tomorrow) as it is freezing in there at the moment.  The shower room is also complete and just needs painted.  In fact a lot of things need painted!!  We are also plastering the hall but this will have to wait a few weeks now as the guy is really busy.  All in all, things are coming together though and hopefully we will be feeling more back to normal soon.   I will post some more up to date photos soon but this was taken last week..

Total Chaos

It was just chaos before but now it's total chaos!  The plasterers were doing the ceilings in living room and dining room yesterday, which meant we had to clear both these rooms - I had to get mum and dad to come and help!  Then we have spent the last two nights moving everything back downstairs so they can do two rooms upstairs.  I feel like I moved house ten times in the last week...

I also got my dates mixed up and am actually going to London tomorrow for the advocate weekend - I thought it was next weekend.  I had train tickets for next weekend and everything!  I have sorted it now but don't feel very organised at the moment and have PBL in the morning - I am off to bed now though so I can think more clearly tomorrow.

I have also had some very sad news this week about a dear friend of mine, Fi.  She lived near Aberdeen - her husband came and took my tree down for me at one point and I went up to visit last year and was planning to visit before the end of this year.  She also had CF but suffered severe liver problems due to this, however her loss was very sudden following a diagnosis of liver cancer only a few weeks ago and was unexpected.  She was 36.  I still can't quite believe this has happened and it hasn't quite sunk in.  Please keep her family - her husband and her mum, dad and sister - in your thoughts and prayers at this time.  I sent her a message to look out for Frances Ann - they will get on so well.  Exact same sense of humour!

OKLAHOMA TICKETS

I have 3 tickets for Oklahoma on Friday 29th October at Edinburgh Playhouse (seats in Circle, near front).  I can't go because it's the same night as the ball!  I'm going a different day though :-)  If anyone is interested in them can you send me email or leave message (weejaqAThotmailDOTcom)

Chaos

That's my life just now - total chaos!  It has been ages since I managed to update so here are the highlights:

Cambridge

Myself and Andrew headed down to Cambridge last week because I was attending a Transplant Psychiatry  Interest Group - it was a group of psychiatrists (mostly Liaison) who are involved with transplant patients and also transplant surgeons and physicians.  The format was several presentations throughout the day and then a lot of discussion about what the transplant teams need from psychiatrists and how ideas for putting this in motion can be developed.  Particularly interesting was a talk on altruistic kidney donation - where people donate a kidney to an unknown person.   The transplant doctor from Papworth gave a talk about lung transplant and I piped up to get my tuppence worth in at this point.  They were discussing support for patients with regards what to expect after transplant and I was bringing up the topic of peer support and how within the CF community there are strong links allowing patients to contact other people who have had transplants.  I personally found talking to people who had been through transplant a really helpful experience.

On the Saturday we did manage to go into Cambridge and wander around - seeing the Colleges, going punting and wandering down the little cobbled streets.  It was a lovely sunny day and it was nice to just be away from everything :-)  We headed back on Sunday and straight back into chaos to find the plumber was there working all day!

Extension

Update on the extension is that they are battering away and working very hard.  The electrician was here at the weekend and the plumber didn't leave until 9pm the other night.   It is however at a really horrible stage, where the extension is not usable yet but our current kitchen was ripped out last week.  The new utility room and shower room are just shells at the moment so the entire contents of my utility room and kitchen are in the dining room - along with a new toilet, sink etc.  Everyday I come home there is a thick layer of dust everywhere so I have just given up dusting now as it just settles again!    We have been eating microwaves since our return but the novelty is fast wearing off!  Yesterday I spent the day at Lucie's in order to escape the mess and very cheekily took my washing with me :-)  Hopefully things will be looking a lot better within next week or so, but I do know it will all be worth it in the end.

Dining room at moment..

New Kitchen - you can see why can't use it yet

Old Kitchen - gone and partition wall up to make hallway and utility area

Hallway on a good day :-)

Work

Very busy just now and not great fun at the moment.  Myself and the other staff grade are having to do extra cover at the moment which is really stretching me time wise but hopefully it wont be too long.  I also start another half day tomorrow at another resource centre because they have not filled a post yet and patients need to be seen!  Not sure how this will go but hopefully I will enjoy it and not find the extra half day too tiring.  The PBL is going well and I have a really nice group, which helps!  I am facilitating the next block until the end of November as well, but to be honest, it is better to be out the house as much as possible at the moment.

Ball

Most tickets have been sold although I have about 4 still available due to a few people pulling out so if anyone interested let me know as we are stopping ticket sales this weekend as final numbers are needed by the venue.   I have been making lists of all the last minute tasks we need to organise and there is always loads more that you think!  I am sure it is going to be a great night though and hopefully it will go very smoothly :-)

Seb

He was apparently very good for his Uncle Bob and Aunty Nan when we were in Cambridge.  I think that is because he has a wee blanket on the sofa especially for him!  He has been really good with the builders though and I think he might actually like having people around the house all day.  He is sneaking into the extension at every opportunity to look out the patio doors - he just can't believe his luck that we have full glass doors like giant windows at his level.  He thinks they are just for him :-)

Seb tolerates me wrapping him up in my scarf

This was just the cutest photo!  Dad was picking all the apples from their apple tree a few weeks ago and Seb insisted on lying at bottom of the ladder.   I just love his face here...a kind of "what am I mean to do with these?!" expression.