Dancing On Ice Live 13th April 2007

As you will all know I am a massive fan of the TV show DANCING ON ICE so when tickets for a live tour went on sale I had to buy some for the Manchester show on the 13th April.

I was very excited about going and it was amazing to be finally on my way down to Manchester on the evening of the 13th April, we were running behind time because my dad was wasting time by taking 30 minutes to change his clothes. He always makes me late so I tell him we need to leave earlier than we actually do so there is more of a chance of us leaving on time and getting there when I want to get there.

Getting there about 45 minutes before the show was due to start wasn't my plan at all but that is what happened. We then spent ages queuing up to get a drink but then again there was over ten thousand people there so we were bound to get stuck in a queue.

We went in to find our seats about 10 minutes before the show started and there was a warm up guy working the crowd by talking to them and telling them to boo when Jason Gardener the judge came on and he even had us practising booing which was funny. He was then playing bits of songs and we had to sing and dance along to them and he was having on half of the arena compete against the other half and our half won which was good.

Then the show started and we went crazy!! It was amazing and was just set up like the show so it was a competition between the celebs and their partners with the judges scoring everyone and then giving comments. Chris and Jayne (Torvill and Dean) opened the show by performing an amazing routine to "It's a kind of Magic" by Queen. Then the competition started and it was amazing, actually Stefan fell twice during his routine, one of the times he fell he fell on his partner and she hurt her wrist but the crowd helped them get back up and carry on with encouragement. It was such a shame to see him fall because I was really enjoying his routine to that point and I felt so bad that he fell because of how well he was doing.

The most amazing performance was by Kyran and Melanie. I was a fan of that couple all the way through the show and loved to see how much Kyran improved week by week so I was excited to see Kyran do my favourite routine from the show, Billy Jean, and true to form it was amazing and the crowd went crazy for how amazing it was and I wanted him to perform it again straight away.

Then to close the first half of the show Torvill and Dean performed and then we were given a text number to text in and vote for our favourite couple who will go head to head near the end of the show to be crowed that shows winner.

There was a 20 minute break for us to nip to the bathroom and also get another drink. The queues were so massive and I was about 10 minutes in the bathroom and I came out to find my dad and then went and queued up foe a drink with him and we were in the queue for ten minutes when the warm up guy came back on inside the arena and I was hoping the get the drinks and back to the seats before the second half started but we didn't. We actually just got inside when my favourite group performance started, These Boots are Made for Walking, but we'd gone in the wrong door and didn't realise until we had gone all the way down the stairs and then I was in a mad panic and wasn't pleased about missing that performance. We then had to rush all the way back up the stairs and go and find the right door and go back down the stairs and sit just as that performance ended.

Then the couples came out again and did another routine each and then the professionals paired up and did some amazing performances, the best were Melanie and Fred who did a fast and dangerous routine to "can can" from Moulin Rouge. He kept throwing her over his shoulder head first and she would almost hit her head on the floor as he caught her between his legs. Every time they did that the audience gasped because it was a very dangerous move. Another routine I loved was Dans routines to "Angels" by Robbie Williams. He did Ice dancing and also this aerial act on these sheet things and it was so wonderful to watch as I'd never seen anything on ice like that before.

There was also a Russian duo who aren't normally part of the show who came on and did a thing in these massive hamster wheel things and it started off slow and I didn't think much of it but then it got really interesting and I enjoyed watching them.

Torvill and Dean did a couple of routines too and I love watching them so it was great to see their routines, I did wish they were on the ice for longer though. It would of been amazing if they did more routines or longer ones but I guess they couldn't in that show.

After all that the judges and the host came back on along with the celebs and then we found out who were the final two. Bonnie and Matt and Kyran and Melanie were in the final and I'd voted for Kyran and Melanie so I was very pleased that they had gotten through. Bonnie went first and her routine was good but Kyran's blew me away. It was then up to the judges who won and it was 2 each and Jason was the last judge to vote and I was conviced he would vote for Bonnie so I was shocked and very happy when he picked Kyran!! It's funny because every time a judge picked Bonnie all of the audience booed because we wanted Kyran to win so badly.

One more group routine before they split in half and went to each side of the arena and shook hands, kissed and hugged the lucky ones on the first row. Then final bowes and they all went off leaving Chris and Jayne to their final bows (look at picture) and then it was show over.

Was worth every penny of the £94 tickets, I loved it but wasn't happy about missing my favourite group routine but these things happen. I would of loved to have been in the front row too but I was 7th row up which was amazing because I'm normally in the 50th row and can't see a thing.

I wanted to go again too and almost bought front row tickets to see the show on Sunday but I didn't have the time to go and my dad didn't want to go again. I hope they tour again next year because if they do I will go and see it at least three times but it was one of the most amazing things that i have ever seen!!

Don't you forget about me

I thought that it was about time that I did a blog for the past month because so much has happened, I'm sure I will forget some of it but I will try to remember as much as I can.

About 2-3 weeks ago on a Thursday night I ended going to hospital because my wrist was just in pure throbbing pain and had been like that for three days and I just got to the point where i couldn't take anymore. So my dad took me up to the brand new multi million pound hospital (which is massive) and when I saw how many people were sat in the waiting room I almost walked out. I think I was first seen about 40 minutes after arriving and I was only asked basic questions like what was wrong with me and how long I'd been in pain as well as what time I'd last taken pain killers and what they were and am I allergic to anything. I was then told that there was a 90 minute wait and was told to go back and sit in the waiting area. I wasn't pleased about waiting again and wanted to go home but I thought that it was best I waited and the good news was I only had to wait 30-40 minutes before another nurse called me. I was then taken around the corner to sit in a smaller waiting area with about 4 other people, I was sat there about 10-15 minutes before a doctor came and got me. I told the doctor what was wrong with me and it was hard to communicate with him because his English wasn't very good, he then looked at my wrist and asked questions and squeezed my arm in the most painful places. - why do doctors always squeeze where it hurts and ask if it hurts when your there making noises to indicate your in pain? it's so annoying!! - Anyway he decides I've got tondonitis and gets a nurse to put the ugliest split on my hand/wrist area and tells me what pain killers to take before dismissing me. I thought he would of xrayed me at least but he didn't and sent me home. The pain didn't actually go so I went to see my mum the next day and got some strong pain killers off her, the pain killers made me feel really sick.
It's a couple of weeks later and my wrist is still in pain. Some times I can't feel the pain but times i can like I can now and it's not a nice pain. I will admit I've barely been wearing my split because it's ugly and uncomfortable too and in the heat it gets wet and then becomes uncomfortable. In it's place I've been wearing an elasticated bandage which helps at times. I feel the pain should of gone but I've not given it time to heal because I am using it all the time and I forget until I pick something heavy up and feel extreme pain in my wrist. I feel I should go and see my doctor and see what he says to me because I need it to heal but I can't wear the splint all the time because I can't type with it on and I will doing two assignments in the next week so I need to be able to type. I also can't sleep with the splint on because It's very uncomfortable. I know I should start wearing the splint again because my wrist needs six weeks to get over the worst of the injury and then longer to fully heal and I'm preventing that from happening by not taking care of my wrist at this painful time.

Over the last 6 weeks I've probably spent 4 weeks of it ill and I am sick to death of being ill all the time. Last year I was ill a lot and there was a time when I was ill almost non stop for three months and I don't want that to happen again.
First off I got tonsillitis and then a heavy cold and a nasty cough, all that took three weeks to fully go. I was then OK for about 5 days until I got ill and I felt terrible for almost a week, I was then well for three days until I got sick again for 3 days. That took me up till Wednesday 18th April and I woke up that morning feeling much better but felt very tired, by lunch time that day I had a cold and felt dreadful. I then went to bed for 4 hours and got up and I was so tired too but I didn't want to lie in bed so I got up and watched hour upon hour of TV. On Thursday I woke up feeling a lot better so thank fully it wasn't a heavy cold. By the end of Thursday I was feeling almost back to full health except I was very tired but because I'd done nothing all day i found it hard to get to sleep and was even in the shower until 2:30am and didn't get in bed till after 3am so when I had to get up Friday morning I was shattered.
I just don't want to be ill as much as I was last year, for almost two years I've been ill for probably 9-12 months of that time and that is way too much. When I was younger I'd probably get one cold per year and maybe one other illness but now I'm just getting ill way too many times and feeling ill all the time isn't a nice feeling so I just hope that I am able to improve my health and not be sick all the time.

With being ill I feel behind on all my courses and found it hard to get back into my study routine and I'm not happy about that. I had my end of course assessment for my Business Studies course to do and I hasn't done it even on the day before it was due so I had to stay up all night and complete it in a super fast time. I started on it at 10:30pm on Monday 16th April and kept going till 2am. I then went to bed till 4am and then got back up until 7am and I then slept till 10:20am as I had trouble waking up. I then had a quick breakfast to help me concentrate and then worked on finishing it. I finished it at 11:35am and then quickly went through it and managed to submit it at 11:44am exactly 1 minutes before cut off. The cut off time is 12 noon but it needs to be in the system at least 15 minutes before for it to go through on time and I just got it in 1 minute before so I was happy. I really should of spent longer on it because it involved going over course work I did 6 months+ ago and I had to rush through and there were times when I struggled to concentrate because I was so tired but I got there in the end. I don't know if I will pass it, I think if I had longer on it I would of passed but I think it could go either way and I could pass or fail. If course I want to pass but the more I think about it the more I think I will fail and the bad thing is I don't find out for two months if I have passed or failed so I won't know for all that time.
With me getting ill I've barely done any study and with three courses on the go that hasn't been a good thing. When I've felt well I've found it hard to get into a study routine and it's not good because I need to be doing at least 4 hours a day. So I am behind on both my religion and technology courses too and I have two assignments due next week - one for religion and one for technology and there is no chance I will do them both because there is still a lot of course work to get through for both courses first. I know I can't get an extension for my technology assignment because it's my last assignment before my ECA (end of course assessment) for that course and they aren't allowed to give extensions for the last assignment so I asked my religion tutor for an extension hoping that I would get two weeks but she has only give me five days and that's all so I'm still in a mad rush. So from today (Saturday) I will be rushing through the rest of my course work for my technology course and starting my assignment and tomorrow (Sunday) I will finish it. Sunday I will also start working through the rest of my religion course work and am planning to have done it all by Monday evening which will be a push because there is about 300 pages of reading to do. I will then spend three days going back through all the material (I normally need 6 days, 5 hours a day) and writing notes that I can possibly use for my assignment. Then on Friday I will be starting my assignment (hope to have over half done by the end of the day) before working on it a little on Saturday and finishing it on the Sunday because that's the day it's due. Once it's finished and submitted I will take 4 days away from that course and will start my ECA for my technology course even though it isn't due for another 4-5 weeks and with some luck I will have it finished by the end of that week so it will free up more time.
With some luck I will get back into my study routine and do a minimum of two hours per day on my religion course, I also hope to get a couple of weeks ahead on that course too.
May I start two short science courses!! They won't take too much time up, they are only level one and 10 week courses for a bit of a topic change for me and I plan to have them done by the end of June.

That's all for now!!

I love to boogie

Well here is a update on my running...that's right I have taken up running and will be running a 5K on the 5th June.

I have been out running 6 times now and I really love it, there was a point in my life when I said that I would "never" run because I just couldn't see why I would want to run. But now I like it even though it is tough trying to build up my running.

The first time I went running was the toughest time for me, I ached like mad all over my body in places I didn't think I could ache. It was crazy because I had trouble bending down and picking things up and I ached for 4 days.
I then went out running and I hurt myself on a walking part and I had to walk all the way back to the car in pain and it was getting dark and I was on a road along side a country park that is very dark and I was scared especially with a car keeping coming past me and then parking opposite my dads car as I sat in the car and waited for my dad and his friend to return from their run.

I went running again three days later and was over my injury and enjoyed the run and found I ran more this time than my first time which is an amazing feeling and I even went further which was great and to top that off I beat my dad back to the car by about 20 minutes although he was running twice the amount that I was doing.

The hardest run I have had was when we went up to Darwen Tower. My dad said he would take my up the easiest path and if that's the easiest path I don't want to go up a tougher one because that almost killed me and i was only walking up it. It was so steep and was a loose gravel path so hard to walk up because of the gravel moving under my feet. I had to stop about 4 or 5 times on my way up - the longest was for about a minute after the hardest part of the climb because I was simply out of breath.
I did feel like quiting but I knew it was all down hill and I would love that part of it when I got to the top so I went all the way to the top which was amazing!!
I then waited for my dad who went further but I started to get cold so I stood up and walked a little and as soon as I saw him coming down a hill behind me I started off running, I stopped twice to catch my breath but kept on running along to tough path till I got to the top part of the steepest bit of the loose gravel part. As I stood there waiting for my dad I caught my breath and we ran down together. I had the wrong running shoes on for it was had trouble keeping from falling over and stopping was a pain, I was so scared of falling onto my face and hurting myself that I stopped a couple of times and let my dad run ahead. I was only 20 seconds behind my dad and that was because I had stopped for 20 seconds in total. It was such a great feeling being able to run down that hill, I loved it.
We then went onto the other path back down to the car and this had some bigger blocks of loose stone that made it harder to run down but I ran about 80% of it and was very pleased with the amount that I had run. Then I finished off with the final part back to the car which I ran!!
I enjoyed it so much and would love to do it again at some point during the summer because it was a great run.

I was then ill for almost a week which I wasn't pleased about because I had planned to run twice that week and was unable to do so.

Then Saturday (14th) I ran again. I loved it!! I did my normal route and found i was running more of it than before and also that my recovery time when I was walking was slightly shorter in places which enabled me to run more. I then walked up to the duck pond and caught my breath and then I decided to really go for it and run fast down the hill. I set off really fast and I was loving the feeling of running so fast and some how I managed to go even faster which was an even better feeling. Lucky was with me and he couldn't keep up when normally he runs in front of me or at least at the side of me.
I ached that night but not as much as i did on my first run. I did expect after a week away from running that I would struggle and not manage as much but I did more than normally which was amazing. Normally when I miss my workout DVD for longer than 10 days I struggle when I do it again so I thought it would be the same with running but my dad said my body had time to recover and because I'd only been away from running for a week I didn't lose any of the fitness I had started to build up.

Sunday I got my bike out and went for a ride with my dad through the cycle path in Witton Park onto the the route I run and then along the duck pond along part of another cycle path and then I turned round and came back. I flew down the hill too, I didn't break once and loved the speed that I was going at - it was amazing and such a shame to break at the bottom but I had to wait for my dad who was keeping his eye on Lucky because he came out with us.
We then made our way along the way we came and did a different route back and dropped Lucky back at the car because he was having trouble keeping up. We then did another route along part of the cycle path and ended up doing 5 miles in total.
I loved it and wanted to do more but my dad needed to get home and finish his work so we came home. I realised how much i miss riding my bike because it was one of my favourite things to do when I was younger and I hadn't rode a bike since I was about 16 when I sold my two bikes. My dad bought me a bike off my brother a few years back and I'd never been on it till Sunday and I will never wait that long again because I love riding bikes and during the summer I hope to get out on my bike at least once every 1-2 weeks.

I can't wait to get better at running and to be able to run further and further without having to stop because I am out of breath. From the end of next week when my studying calm down a lot I plan to go out everyday, if I'm not running I will walk for an hour (weather permitting) and if I can't go out because of the bad weather or because I don't have spare time till it's dark I will do one of my workout DVDs for an hour. So with some luck I will run around 4 times a week and build up as fast as possible because I need to be able to run 3 miles by the 5th June and I hope I can do it.

I have already booked myself a place in the Amsterdam Half Marathon on the 21st October and I am looking forward to it. I am actually doing my first half marathon on the 2nd September in preparation for the it and I can't wait to do that so i need to up my training and distance over the summer.

5K race for Charity!!

Kentucky Woman

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted a blog on here, it's over three weeks which is shocking as I do like to try and update once a week. I haven't been around much the last couple of weeks because I got ill, I came down with tonsilitis and then I got a heavy cold and was so ill. I felt so dreadful when I was ill, it really wasn't a nice feeling and as I sit here now I still don't feel 100% better but I do feel much better than I did a week ago which is something.

So I don't really have too much to say about the last two or so weeks because I was ill so couldn't really do anything. I did finish reading Morrigan's Cross which is an amazing book, it's part of a trilogy and I plan to read the other two books when I have read some more books off my list. I also read an amazing book called "The Bad Mothers Handbook", that was such an amazing book. I loved it from start to finish and could barely put it down, I think I read it in less than two days because it was such a wonderful book I was wanting to find out what was going to happen next. Once I finished that book I picked up "Memoirs of a Geisha" that I started to read a while ago and I finished the last 350 pages in three days. I loved that book too, I am so glad that I finished reading that book because it was just the most amazing book. I finished the book and then I watched the film. The film was good but it was a let down after reading the book, the book had so much more to offer and was so much more enjoyable. There is so much more they could of put in the film and made it better. Don't get me wrong, it was a great film and if I wouldn't of read the book it would of stood out more to me but because I read the book the film wasn't as good.

Well with being ill I haven't had much time to do any study so I am too far behind that it is stressing me out a little because I know how much I have to do and how little time I have to do it in. I have so much to do, it's behind me on the table and it is so scary to see the massive pile of books I have to get through. I know the deadlines for everything and they will be here before I know it so this week I need to do 5-7 hours study everyday to try and help me get through it. I normally do 3-5 hours a day (5-6 days a week) but after being away from course work for so long I find it hard to get back into it. I managed five hours yesterday and that was so hard, it was hard to push myself into the routine but I really have no choice. The good news about it is the fact that one of my courses finish in three weeks so I have a load of course work to do and then the end of course assesment and then it's done. That will probably take me to the deadline to do but I will be so happy when I finally finish that course, my business studies course, because I haven't enjoyed it as much as I thougth I would do which is a shame as I did think I would love it. I do start another course in May but that is a short course and it shouldn't take much of my time up which is great, a few weeks after I start that I finish one of my other courses. That course, technology, i have enjoyed so I will miss it when it has finished, it has been such a great course to do, I have enjoyed it so much so I will be sad when it is over but once again it gives me some more free time which I am pleased about because from October I will have a few busy months before having a quiet month at the beginning of next years before a tough ten months but it will all be worth it in the end.

So with me getting sick it came at a bad time because I was doing my first assignment for my new religion course. I started the assignment the day before and had managed 500 words and those words I thought were the best 500 words I had ever written for an assignment. I had worked so hard on working on the assignment up to that point, I spent about 25 hours going through my course books and materials taking notes for the assignment the week before and had worked a 100 times harder than before. Then I start to get ill and I came down with the illness so fast and wasn't feeling totally with it and I made myself sit down at this computer and type another 1000 words because I couldn't ask for an extension because it was due the next day and also because I have so much other course work to get through that I didn't have time to spend on it after the day it was due. I am affriad to say the rest of my assignment, from my point of view, is rubbish and made no sense and it didn't say what I wanted it to say. I know if I hadn't got ill it would of been so much more better than it was so I am not one bit pleased about getting ill at that point. I still haven't got my assignment score back and i am worried about it because I want to get above a certain mark on all my assignments for this course and I think I may have blown it and getting a bad mark might make me want to quit the course so I don't even know if I want to find out my mark.

I don't know if I have mentioned before but I am doing a 5K race on the 5th June at Witton Park. It's the Race for Life race and I am really looking forward to it although of course I haven't done any training because of being ill. I am so unfit too and haven't run since school which is a long time ago now so I have my work cut out for me. I plan on doing walking at first and building it up from that, I plan to maybe walk for 60 seconds and then jog for 10 seconds and keep doing that for maybe half an hour and then build it up to an hour and then when I can do that I think I will walk for 30 seconds and then run for 10 seconds and do that for 30 minutes till I can do an hour and then walk for 30 seconds and run for 15 seconds and walk for 30 seconds and run for 15 seconds and build that up as I go along and then run for 10 seconds and walk for 10 seconds and so on until I can run non stop for at least 30 minutes. I don't know if I will manage this by 5th June but I will see how things go. I will be running the race with my dads female friend Madeline who offered to help me with my training too which I thought was nice of her.

So I thought I might as well get into running a bit more because I am unfit and I need to lose weight and exercise is good for you. So in October I am going to Amsterdam to do a 5K race although I think I might now do the half marathon and push myself hard. I think if I stick to my training and get out running 3-4 times a week I can manage it. I have booked my flights and paid for my accomodation and I am very much looking forward to it, it isn't till the third week of October but there is a lot of training I need to do so I better get a move on with it.

Well that's it really for now, if I remember anything I will try and find time to write about it.