Halfway there!

Absolute madness. There are no words. I still don't think it has properly sunk in that I have finished half of my fundraising, and that I now have only £2,340 to go. Sounds like a lot, but when you have to raise a total of £5,400, it's pretty amazing.

However, I would not have raised so much if I had not had my brilliant ceilidh, which raised an astonishing £1,200!! I have lived and breathed this ceilidh for weeks now, and I think this quote sums it up quite nicely.

"Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success." - Swami Vivekananda

That is what I have been like. And it paid off. It was totally worth the sleepless nights full of not being sure whether there will be enough people for the ceilidh to go ahead and stressing about sandwich fillings. So, to be honest, I am glad it's over. It was a huge stress and I'm not going to lie, it took a whole lot more effort than I thought it would. To anyone else who is currently fundraising, who maybe hasn't yet raised as much as they need to - just keep going. Keep trying. If you're running a big event like my ceilidh was, DEFINITELY keep going! Because it is SO worth the effort. Halfway through my ceilidh I sat down and was like "Oh my goodness, I have been talking about this for months and...it's finally here." It was madness. It just hit me that all my hard work was finally coming together and it was all totally worth it.

Anyway, about my next event (my life consists of schoolwork, fundraising, very little free time, schoolwork, fundraising and more fundraising), I am hoping to have a concert with my parents' singing group. Which will be a smaller event (thank goodness) but will still take more organising! Gaah. I also have a quiz I'm hoping to give out pretty soon, just need to sort out the prize for that though!

And finally, for some light relief I'll leave you all with some pictures of the ceilidh! Enjoy.

The car full of all the drinks!

Filled to the brim with boxes of food, table cloths and raffle prizes!

The hall when we were setting up

The ceilidh in full swing

Us dancing  - this is one of the dances I actually managed to do (I'm in the pale blue skirt) - the first half was spent running around!

Others dancing

The band

Lorna (my sister) and Andrew showcasing the lovely painting for the raffle, which was very kindly donated by Donald Chadwick

More dancing!

And I also found some pictures from my bagpack in January which weren't uploaded onto the computer by the time I posted about it!

Our collecting buckets and leaflets!

The cringey photo my Mum took of me when I was packing bags - everyone else stopped and smiled while I just kept on going

Heather <3

Travel jags!

"To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”  - Aldous Huxley

I have travelled to many countries, from England down south to the very far away New Zealand. However, I never really felt I had experienced the real culture of these countries. We went, we stayed with relatives or in hotels or in hostels, we went and saw touristy things, the sights, you know, the Eiffel Tower and such. But I never stayed longer than a few weeks, at most. I never really felt I was experiencing the true culture of the country - I was just a visitor, was going to leave in a few days or weeks, and so there was no opportunity to become immersed in the culture. Now, a full year is a long time. 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, whatever. I have that long to get completely immersed in the country, its culture, customs, traditions, weird and wonderful bits of knowledge that I can get from nowhere other than the country itself. It's strange thinking that a large percentage of all the people in the world will never have the chance to travel far from their own country, compared to me, anyway. And I'm only 17! 

Urgh, jags. This has become a definite reality the past few days. I hadn't really thought about it much until my Mum asked me about them and I was just like oh yeah... I have to get, like, the rabies jag and stuff. Eww. Now I don't actually mind getting injections - don't get me wrong, it is not my favourite way to spend an afternoon - but I'm not scared of needles, even though I do prefer to look away. I need to get:

Polio
Tetanus/diptheria
Typhoid
Hep A
Hep B
Rabies

(Although I already have Polio and Tetanus/diptheria so it's not quite as long a list as it looks)

And I will also need to get country - specific ones when I find out where I am definitely going in May. Whoopee. So, much fun to be awaited there. I might also have to take Malaria tablets whilst I'm out there - they're daily, which would be a huge effort I can't be bothered with. Why can't they just make huge tablets that you only have to take once a week? Would be SO much easier.

Oh and also it's muy estresante at the moment because of my ceilidh...which is a week tomorrow. Eeeek. Lots of planning which we should have finalised much earlier than this, but couldn't because getting the date wasn't definite until just before Christmas-ish, has all just accumulated, along with a big huge wodge of schoolwork to do - my favourite. So there is a general feeling of there not being enough hours in the day to get stuff done and blogging is probably not helping. Although at least it does get stuff out of my head.

AHH JUST 174 DAYS TO GO! According to the calendar on my Virgin MoneyGiving page, anyway. Take a look, if you want. You could even donate!

Heather <3