Sun, Sea and Crutches.

Hi, bit of a gap since my last entry, don't worry I havent suddenly become self assured and graceful and therefore incapable of writing entries as before, I have simply been on holiday for two weeks.
I won’t bore you with the details of my trip to Portugal but I will say that swimming, reading, listening to music, and generally relaxing set me up for some serious fundraising.
Unfortunately whilst I returned with greats plans, and revived energy, a knee-high boot related accident has hampered these plans. I'd love to lie and say it was from a sexy encounter but it was down to my usual clumsiness. Thankfully, the doctor did say that going from heels to new flip flops all holiday may have contributed to my injury He didn’t say it exactly but I took it to mean that heels are good for your health, next time I just hope he tells me that constantly ordering dresses online is an acceptable form of self help therapy. Now I'll give you the details of the 'accident' and let you decide if it was my clumsiness.
Having taken part in a 10km run on the Sunday ( through mud and over hay bales, my favourite kind of Sunday morning) I woke on the Thurs morning with a painful swollen foot. You would have thought this would have influenced my footwear, alas vanity took over and the boots were selected. Following a traffic filled journey to work, I realised I was later for work and would need to run to scrape through at 9am. So I made a run for it and then something in my foot ripped. Expletives followed by a tearful call to a friend and being wheeled into work on a battered office chair. The only highlights of my trip to hospital is that it was short and I was amused by a male nurse checking my hand for a wedding ring and telling me I had a lovely dress that he'd like to get into. I kid you not, those were his exact words. Another nurse told him off but as he said "she's not easily offended" and what can I say in ten minutes he had my card marked.
As I have damaged the tendon in my foot, plans of several cross country races to raise funds have been scuppered for now.
Therefore I’m having to use my special talents. Not those talents. I'm saving those for next July when I’ve only got one month to go to hit my total, besides people just want me for my baking.
Fortunately there’s been plenty of baking in the office since my last entry. I was very impressed with the speed at which my colleagues purchased cookies, under 5 minutes, that’s the record to beat. Yesterday’s Banoffee Pie sale was slower but several people did purchase more than one slice. I’ve learnt that you should always bake after pay day.
I’ve also started to receive offers of help, from jewellery making to quiz's and I shall be utilising all these offers. Next week is my first day of multi fundraising, so hoping to hit the £250. Were having a dress down day, baking, heading shaving leaving the company logo and the auction of a beautiful vintage waistcoast ( you have to see it to believe it).Thanks again for all the help from everyone.
I recently read about awareness and mindfulness whilst laid up and decided I will endeavour to approach this trip by being more mindfully aware. I think I'm an aware person who knows what I’m taking on, what others are doing for me and I know my own personality traits but being aware isn’t enough. Being mindfully aware is being able to respond to your awareness of something and react to make positive changes. For example I’m aware I react badly when I’m hurt by someone so I’m now trying to be  mindful to not react intially and to take time to consider my response.

As I continue fundraising I hope stay mindful of how people help me and show all the love and gratitude I feel towards them. I also hope that by gaining further knowledge of what I’m to encounter I shall not just be aware in Africa but more mindful of how I can influence and contribute to the project.

Bye for now, be back soon, crutches free I hope, Love Katie X

This Weeks Song is Jamie T - Sticks and Stone, Always makes want to dance. Enjoy.

Bridget has fire

The first one wasn't too shabby so thought I'd come back for a second instalment. Thanks for all the feedback, I have been told that the first entry was a true reflection of my personality. Not sure whether that's a good thing or not.

This week has highlighted that my associations with Bridget Jones are entirely justified. This has included verbal diarrhoea, getting lost for a manicure which almost involved a sheep being run over and being reminded of a school trip where by I fell down the stairs. 

The verbal diarrhoea consisted of me spilling out whatever was in my head , without my brain having the courtesy of stepping in and saying 'hang on a sec'. I can only hope the recipient was bemused by this or was so lost by ramblings they struggled to keep up. Thankfully, I'm use to this and have learnt to retrieve the situation by either humour or flashing an apologetic smile ( no teeth though, unless you're a crazed photographer you are not getting teeth out of me. Failing that I try to seek something positive from the situation like, 'At least I liked my dress'. 

The getting lost for manicure was a direct result of some dodgy sat nav instructions and me not clearly researching where I was going, this was compounded by the battery on my phone dying just as I was lost. So basically, the sat nav takes me the longest way and eventually  I end up in the grounds of a magnificent hall in the the countryside, including a  Lake, and even swans. As I pull up I'm suddenly aware my dress and knee high boots makes me stand out like a sore thumb from the very fancy wedding guests milling around my car. I get out, realise my phone is dead, take one look at the hall, panic and think I'm in the wrong place. I frantically, get back in the car, search the Sat Nat for the beauticians name but to no avail. I decide to give up and go home as I'm already late. As I'm driving down the lane, I see a sign for the Farrier's Centre and for some reason it rings a bell, so I follow it. I then discover this brings me back into the other side of the halls estate, down some bendy tracks. As I'm coming round one of these bends, a sheep that can smell the panic in my blood, appears from now where, and I swerve to miss it. I swear it knew what was happening and if it could of organised an entire flock to slow me down,it would have. I pull into a car park, with no sheep dents, and get directions to the beauticians. Running through the county grounds disturbing ramblers walking in peace with my boots on gravel, I finally find my destination. I apologise profusely and happily I get my manicure. That is the last time I accept a half price manicure offer on facebook though. 

The school trip memory was from a conversation with a friend about going to Germany. Anyone who knows me, knows that whilst I have some renowned dance moves, in terms of day to day life I am not graceful, in fact I am incredibly clumsy. If there is a desk to be walked into, paving stone to tripped over or high heels to be fallen off, then that is me. On this particular occasion I vaguely remember running down the stairs in our youth hostel, away from a boy. (Yes I'm aware that's out of character). Unfortunately, whilst doing this I turned to answer to someone shouting from down the stairs which resulted in me falling down the final flight  and landing on my back. Safe to say I spent the last night of the trip with an icepack on, sat with the teachers and contemplating that rather than carrying on and ignoring, deciding to speak at the wrong time would be likely to cause me further trouble in life.. 

Despite these moments, I did discover this little Bridget has fire, and not just the fake kind when the red for danger lipstick comes out. 

I'd always considered myself an expressive person, apparently with my hands mainly. But I found that when I feel strongly about a subject my voice raises along with the level of hand gestures. This doesn't necessarily confirm the strength of my convictions, but the passion in my voice and the look in my eyes shows undoubtedly that my fire has been fuelled.

The subject of this fire was a discussion regarding acting in hate/anger . As I believe in second chances I can honestly say there is no-one that I hate. Hate is too strong for me. There are people whom I dislike and negative people whom I avoid so that they do not darken my day, but I do not hate them. Even  the people whom have hurt me and some would consider I should hate them, I'm grateful that even if for a brief period they contributed to my life. As far as I'm concerned, Hate is not an option. My favourite quote on this is "I shall allow no person to belittle my soul by making me hate them".  

If I've discussed hate then it makes sense to move onto love. No philosophy or quotes on this for now  but just to say I'm full of love and gratitude for the people who have helped to start off the fund raising . It's touching when people contribute to someone else's cause and this has been demonstrated in colleagues baking cakes, selling their homegrown vegetables and offering to have the company logo shaved into their head and dyed red. So far £100 has been raised. With £3,000 in total to raise, its daunting, but with the support I have had so far its reinforced my belief that I can do it. 

In the fund raising pipeline, theres more baking, eyebrow threading and I may give up make up for a period of time. I think I need to seek advice from those around me as to whether they can handle my pale tired unplastered face looking at them before I commit to this. 

But for now, Goodnight.

Much love ( no hate)

Katie x

Today's song is: The Cure: Lovesong.

My Beautiful Bridget Adventure: The Start of My Beautiful Bridget Adventure

My Beautiful Bridget Adventure: The Start of My Beautiful Bridget Adventure: So I guess this is first entry in my first blog. I hope that in 18 months time I shall look back over this and see insightful, intelligent a...

The Start of My Beautiful Bridget Adventure

So I guess this is first entry in my first blog. I hope that in 18 months time I shall look back over this and see insightful, intelligent and witty entries. More likely it will be full of girlie ramblings, detailing fund raising activities, my clumsy incidents, hormonal and neurotic moments, with some of my favourite music thrown in for good measure.

Lets begin with the title.

My. It is my adventure but 18 others from the company I work for, will be with me in Africa. ( I shall get to the Trip later)

Beautiful. I have found this to be a particular emotive word as it has so many facets to it. Generally you think of beautiful describing appearances. Whilst this is true, I have found it to be so much much more, its about the way something/someone makes you feel, that buzz of anticipation, feeling your heart swell and going to sleep with a smile on your face. It was summed up best best in the film American Beauty:
"Sometimes there is so beauty in the world I feel like I cant take it, and my heart is just going to cave in".

I truly believe this whole experience will be Beautiful.

Bridget. As in Bridget Jones. Over the years I've been told and agree that I have many of her qualities. These include: Trying and failing every crazy diet, saying stupid things at the worst possible moments, being attracted to Bastards, and behaving badly when drunk (yes I have drunk red wine and sung 'all by myself'.Alone.Tragic) Thankfully though like Bridget, I have been told that 'I am perfect, just the way I am'.

Adventure. This is going to be a terrifying, fantastic and life changing adventure. Flying to South Africa with people whom I have only met a few time, camping for 9 days and changing the lives of a family bu=y helping to build them a home.

That last bit tied in nicely to describing the trip. I work for Aon, one of the largest insurance brokers in the world and i applied and was accepted to be part of the Aon Habitat for Humanity Project. I shall be flying out to South Africa with colleagues from across the country, 1st November 2014, for 9 days, to help the Habitat for Humanity project build a home for a family. By the 1st August 2014, I will need to have raised £3,000 in fund raising, which will all go to the charity.  Over the next year I shall update you with my fund raising activities and in my next entry I'll include my other social media details.

Finally a little about me. My Name is Katie Chedgey ( Formerly 'Ballendat', a great name) and I'm 27.

Appearance. This is always a tricky one. Well I'm a Brunette with a fringe (out of the bottle) and I have blue eyes. You will generally find me celebrating my curves with a dress and despite some insecurities, I am strangely proud of my J-Lo mantelpiece backside.

That's appearance done. When trying to describe my personality, I tried to think what my friend's would say.
I talk. I talk alot. About everything and anything. Silence from me basically means that I am unhappy or ill.

I wear my heart on my sleeve ( Literally). This kind of ties in with the silence/talking things. Sometimes if I'm hurt/angry I say too much and if I'm struggling i can go quiet. I wish i could hide how I feel but i couldn't if I tried.

I'd do anything for my Friends/family. If you are in my life, then there's nothing i wouldn't do for you.

I believe there is good in everyone and that you should always give someone a second chance.

Over the coming months my negatives may show through but I'm all about the positive so no purpose in highlighting them. Besides wheres the fun in that?

I shall be back again soon to let you know how fund raising  is going and to update you on any 'Bridget' moments.

Love

Katie xx

P.S After each entry I shall leave you with a song. I'm passionate about music, in particularly lyrics. The songs will vary so hopefully there will be something for most.

Today's choice is: Jakwob: Fade.

Enjoy xx