Showing posts with label youngcarers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label youngcarers. Show all posts

Tuesday, 23 December 2014

Bumper Christmas Post

As you can probably tell from my lack of blogging, I've been super super busy with Christmassy stuff recently. I wanted to post about different events separately, but I think it'll just take too long- so call this a bumper post of Christmas bits!!
My first 'exciting event' was going to see the pantomime with Young Carers. It was really good, and I enjoyed being a kid again in clapping along and joining in with all the audience participation bits!
Last weekend, I helped out with the local church's Christmas fair. I was in charge of one of the kids activities, where they made a silver sequinned bell. It was a lot of fun, but there was lots and lots to clear up afterwards!!
On Sunday, there was another party to help out with, this time one at my aunt's workplace. My mum and I did glitter tattoos for a couple of hours- as with the previous, it was fun, but got very messy very quickly!
On the last Wednesday of term, I had a day similar to last year, with Christmas events left, right and centre! The Sofa Gang had our Secret Santa present swap, which was great fun, and very cute.
It was also the school's music concert, which meant we had choir rehearsals during the day. It also meant that several members (though not all, unfortunately) of the Cat Family came back in, which was so good!! Also no flash mob, sadly- but, after the concert, GS and I had great fun, involving an upside down life-size Santa cut-out and the Music office. I think this warrants it's own post soonish!
Thursday evening heralded the swimming club's Christmas meal, for teachers, parents and Masters swimmers. It was an all-you-can-eat- hence I ate far too much, and I was so tired that I was practically asleep by the end! But it was good to see everyone in an informal setting.
 
As it probably sounds, it was a pretty exhausting week, and by Friday I was more than ready to crash- which I did by having a candlelit bath and decorating my room. A pretty perfect way to unwind and recharge!
Saturday and Sunday were both quieter days, spent doing Christmas present preparation. On Sunday evening I helped to run a fun session for the swimming kids, then went to the youth group Christmas party. Due to a key kerfuffle we ended up locked out of the building we're usually based in, so we had to find an alternative- which ended up being the local shopping centre! I'm sure we got a lot of odd looks, and we did get a bit of a reprimand for doing a human pyramid in the middle... Hehe! Also, I discovered the power of wearing glitter...
 
Yesterday (Monday), it was time for Mentality's Christmas event. We had a treasure hunt around the German Christmas Market, then finished with a very welcome trip to ZaZa Bazaar, a very popular all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant in Bristol. There was much hilarity and it was a lovely afternoon/evening.In the picture, you can see the 'hairstyle' that one of my friends attempted on my hair. Yes, that is a cracker...
 
When I got back home on Monday evening, my sister, my mum and I decorated the tree/living room. It now looks all lovely and Christmassy!!
Finally, today I had Christmas with the Womb-Buds- we went ice skating, meandered around town, went to St Nick's Market, had bubble tea, got Kinder Eggs and explored the various Oriental supermarkets in the central area. All in all, a very lovely day!!
Phew!! It's been exhausting just going through all that I've done, never mind living it in the first place! However, it's all been fabbity, and I am very very excited for the next few days!!

Thursday, 3 July 2014

#YCF2014

Last weekend I went to the 2014 Young Carers Festival. It was a bit like a cross between a school camp, a funfair and a normal festival... In the daytime, there were activities, such as canoeing and climbing and cake decorating. There was also a tent called the 'Voice Zone', where we were all able to have a say on a range of things. In the early evening, it became more of a funfair festival thing, with two funfair rides and live music. In the later evening of the first night, there was a silent disco (which was pretty amazingly fab- you all get headphones and it's great), then on the second night we had fireworks followed by a normal disco. There was also plenty of time to chill- the Bristol/South Glos Young Carers had great fun making loom bands and playing card games!
One thing that really struck me was the vast number of people- there were over 2000 people, most of whom were Young Carers. So you'd look around at all these people and think 'these are all young carers, just like me'. That was a hugely important experience, and it was really important to me to be in the majority for once, as opposed to the normal minority.
Overall, an amazing weekend! Huge huge thanks to everyone who made it possible, and all the fab people who support Young Carers all over the world. You rock! x