Chocolate – Well Eye Never

Copy That, Over & Out – Leaving My First Job

Well, that’s it. After nearly 18 years in a role I never expected to have, and never had any experience of beforehand, I have now officially finished my first job at Torbay Council, alongside my other colleagues from our now-closed printing department who have also lost their positions, as our work has been outsourced to save money.

It is a very sad moment but, as I’ve previously discussed in my redundancy post, it’s also an exciting one given the opportunities that now lie ahead. As one door closes, many more are potentially opening. And as my mother and I are in a financially sound position for the time being, I can have a bit of a break to relax and reset, and take my time to figure out what to do next. I don’t yet have any firm plans, but I am already involved with a couple of paid research projects, I’m doing a bit of volunteering, I’m keeping my copy of the Disability Confident list of employers up to date, and I have connections in my network who are kindly alerting me to vacancies that may be of interest. So it’s all ticking along nicely. My door is also still wide open to further advice, connections and opportunities that anyone may wish to offer.

The one thing that we have now decided is that my mother and I are not going to move house, for the time being anyway. Given the huge increases in energy bills and soaring inflation, the potential impact of increasing strike action, and the lack of political leadership to deal with it thus far, the last thing we want to do is add even more uncertainty and expense to that. We’re better off staying where we are, while we can be certain of our outgoings and can budget accordingly. We will still move eventually, it’s just not essential.

So there’s plenty to look forward to. But here in this post I just thought I’d share how things have gone during my final month, including some of the lovely messages I’ve received and my parting words to my colleagues. It will give you a good sense of how much mutual respect there has been, and how much we will miss one another.

Rare Disease Day Photo Challenge

Update (March 1st) – I won the challenge, much to my surprise! Thank you so much to Rare Disease UK! It was great fun being involved, because I loved the theme of the campaign, and I really enjoyed seeing other people’s photos. So very well done to all involved. We can all be proud of our efforts to raise awareness during the month! 🙂

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Happy Rare Disease Day! 🙂

Today is a wonderful international opportunity to raise awareness of rare diseases, conditions, disabilities, etc, to educate people and highlight the need for greater funding and research. Here in the UK, it’s led by Rare Disease UK. But there are events taking place worldwide, so there will be related organisations in many countries.

1 in 17 people have a rare disease, meaning it’s a lot more common than you might think. So even if you don’t have one yourself, chances are you know somebody who does. And if you do have a rare condition, you’re certainly not alone.

There are over 6,000 rare diseases, affecting over 300 million people worldwide (including 30 million in Europe). That’s a huge number! So this is a day for all of us unusual rarities to get together, along with anyone and everyone who supports us and the cause in any way.

This year, the theme is “Show your rare, show you care”, and everyone can get involved, regardless of whether or they you have a rare disease. So that includes patients, families, carers, medical professionals, policy makers and members of the public.

October 2017 Favourites

Hey there, welcome back for another big update on what I’ve been getting up to. As usual it’s been a very busy month, as I’ve enjoyed an audio described exhibition and theatre show, a couple of fun tours, events involving lots of chocolate, my first ever afternoon tea, a guest appearance in a special Youtube project on a football field, a craft show in a beautiful setting, a classic scary movie at the cinema, and more. So I hope you find this compilation interesting as usual!