Saturday 4th August – olympigs and anxieties

T’s section first:

Today’s event was speed pepper eating
and today, George extended his lead at the top of the table with another gold medal. The pepper went in, and, George sped to it and started speed eating. Bungle came out seconds after George came out and started eating, but, was no match for George. Zippy, again, did not start, and again he had to settle for bronze, that only gave him a point to add to his 13.
Here’s the table:
George 17pts
Bungle 15pts
Zippy 14pts.

Zippy will have to hope that George comes last tomorrow and Monday to go one ahead of George, but, will be also one point ahead of Bungle to go first by a point. With still many events left, anything could happen…..

London 2012:
I’m really enjoying it when Great Britain are getting medals, it’s also fascinating when other nations are competing. Yesterday, Team GB won loads of medals getting lots of golds. We won the Cycling track x2 and Rowing x2. We also won a couple of Rowing golds and Cycling gold today, and we also should get a gold in the heptathlon, with Jessica Ennis winning.

The piggies waiting to start their event:

George in the lead:

Bungle couldn’t catch up:

🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

Our day:

It hasn’t been brilliant, to be honest. D has been very up and down again. One minute she’s a happy girl, the next full of anxieties.

We did have some “girlie” time when I painted her nails:

And then it all went wrong after one got smudged, she decided she’d repaint it, that ended up with way too much polish on which smudged even more …etc etc.

It was only during the evening routine that she told me what had been upsetting her – she wouldn’t or couldn’t during the day.

She had a bad dream last night, which was still upsetting her when she was telling me. All about an “evil Mumma” who was making her work hard doing writing. D managed to escape from the house and the TV (another one of her anxieties) and go to a hotel where she ate cake!

I know she was cross with all the “hats” I wore yesterday and presume that was the reason for the dream. So grateful that she can tell me this, even if it has taken until the evening.

After two up and down days, tomorrow has GOT to be better, yes?

Hope everyone has had a good day, thanks for reading, comments/RTs as ever welcomed Jx 😘

Cerebra July Newsletter

I was sent this by email and thought I’d share, Cerebra are also on twitter @CerebraUK….Jx

Hello. Welcome to the July e-newsletter for Cerebra members with the latest news, events and information from the charity.

Cerebra Innovation Centre – Survey

Please can you spare a few minutes of your time to share your opinions on our Cerebra Innovation Centre.

As part of an ongoing process of evaluating their approach to designing and delivering products for children with neurological conditions, Cerebra Innovation Centre and Swansea Metropolitan University are undertaking a 3 year research programme. Your views will help Cerebra Innovation Centre to deliver better solutions for its customers – It should only take between 2 and 10 minutes to complete. Please follow this link to take part: surveymonkey.com/s/cerebra_survey

Thank you, we’re looking forward to hearing what you’ve got to say!

Disabled Children Parents’ Guide: Money Matters

Our latest Disabled Children Parents’ Guide: Money Matters is available now. It contains guidance for parents on what financial help may be available for them and what arrangements they may need to put in place to manage their children’s finances from birth and as they get older.

cerebra.org.uk/English/getinformation/finance/Pages/DisabledChildrenParentsGuideMoneyMatters.aspx

Cerebra Ambassadors

We have a team of Cerebra ambassadors who are committed to actively promoting awareness of Cerebra and our work through their work and personal lives so that the charity can benefit from their enthusiasm and skills. Ambassadors can be individuals who are recognised talents in public life. They may also be people who the charity has supported and who already have close links with our work.

We are currently looking for new ambassadors to join our small team. If you can suggest anyone who you think would be a strong advocate for Cerebra, please do get in touch with Elaine Collins (elainec@cerebra.org.uk / 01267 242583). Please note that this is a voluntary role.

Stress in families of children with neurological conditions – questionnaire.

Elmira Strange of Swansea Metropolitan University is continuing with her PhD on ‘Stress in families of children with neurological conditions’ for Cerebra. The study is expanding and she is inviting you again to fill a new and revised questionnaire about your experience of caring for your child. The views of the parents / carers, and particularly the grandparents and siblings over 16 years of age are wanted. If you would like to help her with the study contact Elmira directly at Elmira.strange@smu.ac.uk

BMJ article

The British Medical Journal has recently published an article ‘Effort, exaggeration and malingering after concussion’ jnnp.bmj.com/content/83/8/836.full from the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. As well as allowing free access to the full article they have supplied a lay summary to help patients and their families. The lay summary can be accessed via the following link: jnnp.bmj.com/content/83/8/836/suppl/DC1

‘Nothing about us without us’: Enabling non-discriminative autism and Asperger’s syndrome research participation

This is a study by Ann Browning, a researcher at Loughborough University. It’s an opportunity for people with an autistic spectrum condition to take part in a consultation which will contribute towards the development of a research project investigating the criminal justice system experiences of young suspects, defendants, and offenders with Asperger’s syndrome and other autistic spectrum conditions.

If you would like the opportunity to take part in this consultation, or know of someone else who might like to participate, please contact me- Ann Browning by email at A.L.Browning@lboro.ac.uk and she will send you a consultation pack. To find out more about Ann and the research project visit lboro.ac.uk/departments/ss/staff/researchstudents/browning.html or -staff.lboro.ac.uk/~ssalb2/index.html

For members in the west Midlands

Cerebra Summer Fun day out to Hatton Country World on Thursday 16th August. Places are limited so booking is essential. For more information or to book your place please contact inekew@cerebra.org.uk.

For members in Wales

The Welsh Government is introducing a series of Early Support parents’ workshops for parents/carers and the wider family of a disabled child. The sessions will be held in Newport during the Autumn. If you would like to join in, or to find out more please e-mail Marcia.jones@childreninwales.org.uk.

We aim to send the members’ newsletters on a monthly basis but If we don’t have any news for you in a particular month then we won’t send out an e-mail.