Well I passed

I have indeed passed all the AS and A levels I took this year at college, I also passed my level one British sign language which was good.

Gus came with me to pick up my results and was a bit hit with everyone we had a few photos of us taken which may be used in college publications.

Finally my DSA application is all sorted, I had problems because the equipment I need came about 2 thousand pounds over budget, but luckily some items have been changed a little bit and swapped around and it all now comes in budget and is being delivered in a few weeks.

I can't wait to get my 15.4 inch macbook pro!

some news and other useless information for your reading pleasure

Well first up I absolutely feel it is necessary to declare my extreme hate and disgust at my computer! For no apparent reason it is running slower and slower everyday it seems and I am battling against continuous crashes, freezes and general slowness!

The usual defragment's and disk clean-ups don't seem to be having an impact, I even removed a whole gigabyte of data from it and its still not speeding up, I fear its coming to the end of its life.

I have been trying to do a project using Windows Movie Maker this evening and it has crashed twice already, I have now given up on what I was trying to do after it got to the point where I had to unplug the computer and boot it up again!

So I'm here updating this, for your reading pleasure and about time too! Its probably karma telling me to vent to you all about the crapness of the technological situation!
(if there are any large computer manufactures out there I would like it to be known that all donations are great fully received!)

The huge moan aside the real reason I wanted to write was because I found out on Friday that training with Gus is defiantly going ahead and that we will be training residentially in a very posh hotel!

Its great news, if I had been given the choice I would have always preferred to do residential training, it being my first dog it will give us some really good quality time without Ian or anyone else being a distraction.

So we start training together on the 23rd of June and I am seriously counting down the days, I have a lot of stuff to do before I disappear off for a whole 2 weeks, not to mention another 2 A level exams to sit. I really can't wait to get stuck in to training; I know its going to be hard work but it's going to be worth it!

Apparently there are 3 of us on class with one trainer and the class is taking place in a really nice hotel in Southampton, I will spend 2 weeks residentially there and then another 2 weeks (ish depending how it goes) training at home. It's really good the training is in Southampton because I will be living there in September, it will give me a chance to get to know the place a lot better and hopefully learn some routes.

Bad health

I've been a little poorly of late unfortunately, my last post here was mostly focused on Gus, quite rightly too but I was also at the time battling against one hell of a virus and coming to terms with deterioration.

Well I'm glad to say I am feeling a lot better than I did when that was in full swing but I have had more health related issues.

Due to a change in my glaucoma meds and all the other meds I'm on I had to have an ECG last week, luckily that went OK, and my heart appears normal.

Then I started getting really bad nose bleeds, they were literally happening every day I had 2 on Thursday alone, at which point decided there was nothing else to be done but to go and see a doctor.

Luckily I managed to get an emergency appointment that day and after a few people informing me that I was probably wasting the doctors time as it was likely to be exam stress, I was off.

It turned out I was not wasting the doctors time at all. The virus thing I had really affected the blood vessels in my nose a lot, to the point where I had lots of them cauterised at the doctors on Thursday.

Basically they use a chemical on a swab to burn away at the effected blood vessels, its not nice, my nose felt very crispy and sore for ages afterwords!

Unfortunately I had another nosebleed on Saturday morning so it is yet to be seen whether it has really worked and weather the pain was worth it.

I'm still unfortunately getting over the virus it really hit me hard and I'm still finding it hard to talk sometimes and getting really tiered, probably not helped by having to just keep going through it (I'm mid A levels which does not help). I am feeling a lot better though and will hopefully be back to full fighting fitness soon!

A mixture of happenings

I think I already have a post with this title in the blog archive somewhere but really its sums thing sup so well I had to use it again!

First off I have picked up the latest bug that's going around, went down with it on Friday so have been feeling rather rough and had to have a couple of days off college. Talking of college my first exam was on Monday so that was perfect timing in terms of getting ill.

However it’s not really being ill, college or rubbish exams I wanted to blog about today it’s the happenings of Tuesday.

Tuesday morning I had the hospital for an eye check up which I was kind of worried about because of all the stuff the contact lens people.

Well the cornea mystery has been somewhat solved, I have another eye problem to add to the list cornea oedema. In English they a basically tiny little fluid filled cysts on the surface of my cornea that are microscopic, they make my cornea a little bit more cloudy than it should be. Right now they are not really causing a problem apart from I will never be able to wear contact lenses which isn't the end of the world.

Unfortunately my glaucoma was rather sky high in my left eye, it was 28 (18 is the highest it should be) but my right eye was not quite as high. The plan of action is to change my eye drops and luckily it hasn't affected my vision so here's hoping the drops sort it all out! I have to go back in 3 months for a check up; it’s a bit frustrating because my glaucoma has been well under control for about 4 years but meh these things happen.

Then in the afternoon I met Gus he is a black Labrador retriever who is going to be 2 years old this Saturday we went for a walk and it was decided jointly between all three of us, me Gus and the guide dog trainer T that we were a successful mach!

So I will be disappearing off to train on the 23rd of June and I'm counting down the days!

Gus is absolutely beautiful we walk at the same pace and he is lovely and tall I feel like we instantly bonded!

Here is a picture of us at the centre yesterday

I got a call

Well on Thursday I got a call from Guide Dogs to say they might have found me a dog!

It's very exciting news but I'm trying not to get to madly crazy excited about it encase it doesn't work out. All I no right now it that it's a male called Gus and that he is a Labrador retriever cross and that he is black. Apparently he is a very big strong boy who needs firm handling. Oddly enough my mum has met him (complete fluke there) and thought he was cute he seemed to get on with Ian OK and they were talking to each other underneath the table while Gus rolled!

It's wait and see time to see if we are a good match. I'm heading down to the centre on Tuesday afternoon to meet him and find out if we will make a good partnership.

I also have eye unit check up on Tuesday morning so its going to be a very busy day.

Also I have my first exam on Monday so things are madly busy right now!

The results are in!

Yesterday the results came through for the January exams, in a way I was lucky I only had two exams in January, biology and applied science.

The main point I really want to make her is that I was continually told I was going to fail biology it would be very difficult for me to pass, I was made to feel inferior to the rest of my class, like I didn't deserve to be there. My teacher demoralises me on a regular basis and nothing I can do is right. At parents evening my parents were told it would be very difficult for me to pass, I have a predicted grade of an E and was told I would have to work really really hard to get it.

Naturally all this has made me feel really negative about the subject, it makes me sad to think that I am terrible at my favourite subject. I feel useless, thick and demoralised.

Well I got the result of the January exam and I got a C!

I was so shocked I was walking around college shaking from head to toe in a state of shock!

I got a C in applied science to so it was a good day!

It's over!

I had my last January exam today, so it is indeed time to celebrate, i shall be properly celebrating with Dave on Friday. We are going to watch Sweeney Todd at the cinema so that will be immense!

Even more shockingly i may no have failed the exam today, its A level Biology so i was expecting to so it might have gone well.

and tomorrow i meet Jenny!

A mixed bag

It has indeed been a mixed bag of a day, this morning I was absolutely exhausted and really could not function without serious amounts of coffee.

Then when moving my CCTV in its trolley I have some how magically managed to damage one of the muscles in my ribs, owwie. Sometimes I swear my muscles are made of paper.

Then I got a phone call form guide dogs, they have found a possible match between me and a dog, she is called Jenny. I will be going for assessment next Thursday to see if we will be a good partnership, I'm trying not to get to excited in case we are not but I am very!

Then I had my fist January exam it was very scary and lots of the questions were evil but hopefully everyone will complain and the exam board will mark accordingly.

Update

Well this is really just a general update of what’s been going on, some good, some very good and some bad. The reason behind it is that generally I have not really said much about what’s going on in my life at the moment so here is your Jemma update starting from just before Christmas.

Well my GP increased my dose of AD's it really didn't work out at all and just made things horrifically worse, so I am on new ones. So far they seem to be working out OK , I have only been on them about 10 days ish, the only downside being that they are a complete no-no with alcohol so I'm back to being a compleate non drinker. The worsted thing about that is that I still have half a bottle of lime tequila left that I got for Christmas, still it’s really nice in fajitas so I will live.

I found out a few weeks ago that I have an interview for a uni, not my first choice uni but its still an interview, I’m currently just trying to work out how I’m going to get there but it should all be ok.

I have my first January exam tomorrow, I’m rather nervous, I don’t like exams but I no that deep down inside I know what its on. so I should do ok, my teacher says she’s expecting an A, but understands how nervous I get!

Then I have another exam next Wednesday, that one will be awful I’m really not looking forward to it, its biology and I no that I am doing ridiculously badly and am bottom of my class, I failed the mock (got a U) so I have no hope in hell of passing first time round pretty much!

Now to finish on a really positive note I’m now in a relationship with my gorgeous hunk Dave, and it’s great. We have known each other for years, the first time we met we hit off really well, (and he hit a guy in the balls with a bean bag, it was an accident!) but for some unknown reason did not swap numbers, then we didn't see each other for years practically then we met up again through Goalball, and things went from there, we have been going out since new year and its great!