pics from Friday night...

I'M 24!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will update later, but was greeted with this cool present from a reader first thing this morning... THANKS KELLY, it's great!!!!

later... OK Im having trouble loading it... will let you know when it's working...

STUNNING DAY and also last day of being 23!!!!!

Today was awesome!!! Anto, Daniel and I walked part of the Sacremento (that my mom and I walked the previous time I was here). The weather was great. Everything was great. The log or whatever that Daniel is carrying up is for an Interior Design project of Anto's...

Afterwards we went to the house Daniel's busy house-sitting, and got KFC on the way there, which we ate in the garden. Then we felt like ice-cream so we went out again to get some of that too!!!

And this evening/ late afternoon Anto and I went to see Mamma Mia, which is a STUNNING movie!!! It's so feel-good and I NEED an ABBA CD now... urgently. I've got all the songs stuck in my head now!!!

Last night party was SO MUCH FUN too... saw friends I haven't seen in years, and even one friend who stays in Boston but is also home at the moment. So it was very special. The last time some of them saw me I looked seriously crap. Took loads of pics that I'll post on Monday or so... and I'm not posing with alcohol everytime this time, lol!!! Well at least I TRIED to put my drink down before pics were taken...

Tonight I'm going to try and go to bed early, cos then my birthday will be here sooner!!!! AND I didn't sleep much at all last night... Tomorrow morning I'm going to church with the parentals, and afterwards my grandparents are coming over, as well as my dad's cousin and their family. So it's family-day! Then hopefully at 4pm or so I'll see Anto and them again for coffee etc...

O yes, and a reader asked about biltong... literally it means 'bull-tongue', (well that's my interpretation anyway), but it's just dried-out, spiced-up meat. It's a delicacy here... and I'm pretty much a carnivore so I LOVE it. Will take a pic sometime...

NEXT TIME I BLOG I'M 24!!!!! Can you tell that I'm really excited about my birthday????

last year's party VS last night... see the difference???

BIG PARTY TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight I'm going out to party!!!!!!!!!! Have invited lots of people to come to Café Gondwana's (that I've never been to because I was too sick to go out), so it should be a blast... will be posting lots of pics no doubt :-)

Went to say hi to the ER nurse who always put my drips in for me, Jacky! Also did some nice shopping, although the shops here have NOTHING compared to JHB, so shopping here is rather depressing... and I also looked fat in the changeroom mirror... but that's a nice change to looking blue and having legs like sticks!!!!

This afternoon I spent chilling with my sis (she straightened my hair for tonight!!), and eating ice-cream and biltong and fruit-cake that my grandma made me for my birthday!!!

Home AGAIN!!!!!!!

So I'm back home to celebrate my birthday that is on Sunday!!! Got lots of stuff lined up but will just chill at home tonight... ended up packing till after 12 last night and got up before 6am this morning... So can't wait to get into bed early and listen to the sound of the ocean while falling asleep... which is what I almost miss the most up in JHB.

Saw Antoinette quickely this afternoon, and went to see my 2 PE docs, just to show off the new lungs and give them a printout of my lung function tests to file or frame or whatever, lol!!! Needless to say they were VERY impressed!!!!

Don't have much other news. Just happy to be here and eat my mom's food and relax...

P.S. Thank you Peter for donating towards Annelie's cause!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's great that a CF person in SA donates towards CF in the UK...

101%!!!!!!!!

That's what my lung function was on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!! Well technically, I blew 4 times... the first 2 times I blew 99%, the 3rd time (lucky?) I got 101.5%, but did a stupid cough-thingy that messed up the graph... so they took the 4th one, 100.5% fev1% with a perfect graph... So I'm just liking the average of the last 2 blows... I'm ECSATIC about it, as you can imagine, and it is THE BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT I COULD EVER GET!!!!!!!!!!! So I'll be flying home tomorrow, not stressing about my lung-functions, and it'll be 2 weeks without any tests or anything. YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!! X-ray was perfectly pretty too and bloods were fine.

Did a talk at Parktown Girls High today... only found out this morning that I would be doing it, so it was unprepared!!! So at 13h00 I found myself standing before about 1000 girls with a mike in my hand, trembling quite a bit!!!! It went fine though, I think... can't even remember clearly what I said, apart from obviously telling them to become organ donors and talking to their parents about doing the same!!!!! Got a beautiful bunch of roses from them, and a designer sugar-spoon!!!!! Gave the roses to Aviva, since they're of no use to me if I'm in PE, and she deserves them over and over again anyway!!!

Saw André today as well. He had a bit of a setback on Sunday, and had to be put back on the vent, but is doing fine now and back on track! On my way to gym now... although I can still feel my legs from Saturday's hellish super circuit... who knows, maybe that's what pushed my lungs over the 100% edge!!!!!!

Oh, and the kitty is Lily, my favourite, who I can't wait to see tomorrow!!!!!!!

P.S. Sad news... found out when I was visiting André now that one of the girls waiting for lungs have passed away... I met her once, in my Dr's waiting room... so sad... she got married a month ago :-(

Flying Planes and Feeding Elephants!

Had an AWESOME day yesterday!!! Went to church, and then out for lunch with Paul's family. Went to Out Of Africa restaurant and had the yummiest buffet. You can also feed the elephants at a certain time, so that that was quite cool! There were two baby elephants too, but unfortunately I couldn't get any pics of them...

Afterwards we went... wait for it... FLYING!!!!! Was SO COOL... I just LOVE flying. It was my first time in a small plane, only been in commercial ones up to now. Enjoyed the small one more though, as you get to see a lot more, and because it's small you feel more 'vulnerable', which is fun. Paul also let me take over for a while, which was great. I also want a plane... maybe I'll create a fake blog like Gina and get people to donate money towards buying a plane, lol!!! It'll have to be a REALLY soppy story though...

Going for bloods and LTF (lung function test) in an hour's time, and then off to Pretoria. Back on Wednesday afternoon when I'll be gymming (I can barely walk after Saterurday, by the way), then going to church cell, then packing, then flying to PE on Thursday morning, and then it's 10 days of BIRTHDAY FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last Sunday of being 23...

Weekend's been good so far! Gym on Friday was great. Didn't stay there for long but it was short and intense!!!! Yesterday morning I went to visit André, and he is looking SOOOOOO GOOD. It's been 3 days after the op, and he is sitting in his chair, eating, talking, being pink... Was quite strange being in ICU and realising that EXACTLY 7 months ago I was in the same position! Can't believe I also had so many tubes coming out of me!!!! Thank goodness for Morphine, because LOOKING at it seems painfull now...

Went to gym again, and did the SUPER circuit, for the first time since about 1997, when I used to do it at the gym in PE on good days... It basically entails 18 weight-lifting machines, and steps. You do weights for 40 seconds (or a minute, not sure), then steps, then weights again, then steps, etc etc. It is TIRING!!!! It's not like I haven't been able to do it before now, it's just that I didn't have the guts to try... Needless to say I'm a bit sore today, and don't want to know what it's going to feel like tomorrow!!!!

Also did some shopping, and got myself a DVD and junk-food for supper. The pic is the Can You Twist clothing range, that my story was promoting!!!! It's at Woolworths!!! If you voted for my story (unfortunately I didn't win, CONGRATS RAGEL!!!!), go click on the Can You Twist box in the right panel, you may have won a shopping voucher!!! My sister and one of my friends did!!!

Finally, Thanks to Lou and Kelly, 2 readers who have sponsored Annelie so generously!!!! If there are more of you, THANK YOU SO MUCH to you too!!!!!!! It REALLY is a good cause!!!!!

7 months and lots of good news...

So it's been 7 months for me and the new lungs today...

The MOST exciting news is that a CF guy called Andre who has been on the waiting list for like 4 years finally GOT LUNGS two days ago!!!! He's doing REALLY well thusfar, and I'll be popping in to see him on Monday morning when I go for bloods again.

Also... my lungfunction was 99.6% on Monday... a personal record for me!!!! I think it's safe to say my cold is completely gone. Going to gym again this afternoon, which should be great. The only thing that is crappy at the moment is that I'm having trouble sleeping... don't know why!!!!

The interview went fine. The only thing is that they're only taking in 10 people for the training I'm applying for, and they have to take BEE (black economic empowerment) into consideration... so I may be too white :-( But we'll see what happens.

Got this weird (but cool) e-mail yesterday... 1Time, the cheap airline I flew to PE with, has these great specials for the months of October and November, TO CELEBRATE OUR ONE MEDAL THAT WE WON AT THE OLYMPICS... I see the USA medal count is at 99... we've got 1 silver medal... so their name, 1Time, is pretty ironic, lol!!! In anycase, I'll DEFINITELY be making use of the special!!!!

In a week's time I'll be back in Port Elizabeth!!! I'm flying down again (with 1Time, lol), my dad will be joining up with us, and we'll be spending a week together. Living in the same house again like a normal family! I'll also be spending my birthday with my friends, which is great. I'll be driving back with him again on Sunday the 7th I think. Hopefully my next trip will be to Cape Town... haven't been there since Jan 2006, and 2 of my best friends, Louzanne and Carli (who have both come to visit me in JHB) stay there. It's going to be awesome...

Not sure what I'll be doing this weekend, but sure I'll find something... hope you have a good one!

Quick post

Back in JHB!!!! On my way to the hosp now for bloods and LFT, and then my interview. Not really nervous though... But wish me luck nevertheless!!! Won't be blogging again before Friday, but I think I've put up enough pics to keep everyone busy, lol!! Have a great week!!!

P.S. Took a pic of the plane I flew home in yesterday (home being JHB in this instance...) from the 'viewing deck'... yes, I am trigger-happy.

Sacremento Trail...

Last day in PE and BIG INTERVIEW...

I'm going back to the Big Smog aka JHB today... have to be at the airport by 5pm this afternoon. I really hope we're not delayed again, because I have a lot of stuff to do for tomorrow. With all this going-home excitement I haven't actually mentioned that I have a huge interview tomorrow for a job for next year!!! It's with KPMG, which is on of the biggest Audit, Tax and consulting firms in the country... And I would really like working for them, as they're close to our house, and NEXT TO the hosp (which is perfect for when I have to go for bloods etc. I can just quickely pop over there during lunch (if I'm at the office), lol! And then I don't need to go to Pretoria every week and live out of a suitcase half of the week! So PLEASE pray that it goes wel!!!!!

I'm also going for bloods and the usual FeNO and flow loop tomorrow morning, before the interview (blood pressure should be through the roof then, lol), and an x-ray. Then after the interview it's off to Pretoria again.

Yesterday was great. My mom and I went for a long walk on the beach, which is almost like a mini-hike or something. It's called the Sacremento trail, because a few hundred years ago a Portugese ship called the Sacremento sank there. It REALLY is breathtaking, and I'll be posting pics tonight when I'm back in JHB. I haven't walked it in 5 years... so it was great. And easy, except for my calves that are sore from running on the beach the 2 previous days, lol!!! We had a nice lunch after that, and pancakes late afternoon, when it got rather cold! Went to church last night, and it was great being back in my old church, I quite miss it.

But even though I'm sad about leaving again, I'M BACK HERE IN 10 DAYS TIME!!!!! And this time for a week... to celebrate the birthday I didn't think I would have!!!!!

P.S. Please remember to sponsor Annelie (my aunt) for her CF run on the 5th of October... I was hesitant to ask in the light of the Gina/Pepe scam, but I'm not going to let some mentally deranged person/people affect real fundraising for CF. They've done enough damage as it is. So please go to http://www.justgiving.com/anneliewhitfield

P.P.S. Check out my new badge!!!!

Saturday night etc

Had an awesome day yesterday... Went to the beach again with my mom, then the two of us went to coffee and a scone. After that Anto, Daniel and I went for lunch at this cool place, where we also bumped into so friends from school! Then we got a cupcake, which we went to eat in St George's park, next to the cricket stadium.

Last night was the twins' birthday party, which was also very cool, and got to see quite a few people that I haven't seen since university. So all in all it was a great day.

On my way to go walk a hiking trail-thingy on the beach with my mom now... SPF 60 and all :-)

Saturday

Beach Pics and scam developments...

Here are our beach pics from yesterday! It's about a 150m walk from our house, but for the whole of last year I couldn't do it!!! Unless I stopped to rest about 3 times, which just took too long and frustrated me.

We saw a dead shark, and the dogs in the pics aren't ours, but followed me when I ran on the beach!!! And the poor owner ran after the dog, and oblivious 'I'm-so-happy-I-can-run' me didn't notice any of it, lol!!! Oh and the kitty is Lily, the gorgeous one.

I also saw my ex-physio Karen, ex-boyfriend Wikus, and best friend's mom yesterday, which were all very nice. Also had a friend over for supper last night, and then went to bed early.

Tonight I'm going a to big birthday party!!! Friends of mine from university that are twins, are celebrating their 24th tonight. CAN'T WAIT!!!! Going to be lots of fun!!! Will try to get some pics without me holding a glass of wine this time, lol!!!!

Re Blog Scam... Paul has posted his version of the truth on a CF noticeboard, so check it out: http://www.cf2chat.com/e107/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?5544.last

So according to him Gina took him for a ride as well... Let's just hope the whole truth comes out sooner rather than later. Keep a lookout on http://exposetrolls.blogspot.com/

UPDATE: Check out yesterday's updated post... Paul has indeed been taken for a ride just like all of us...