Grace is doing a photo blog series, called Waist Height and Wearing, of ill and disabled people in their favourite outfits. I thought it was a brilliant idea and was happy to do a post. With all the rain we’ve been having, it was a challenge to find some time to get outside and get Mum to take a few pictures; but amazingly the sun shone the day I’d had my hair done and so we popped out into the garden and I was really pleased with the results!

Here’s a sneak peak…

You can see my full blog post on Grace’s site here… I’m number 12 so you’ll need to scroll down slightly; but check out the rest of the incredible things Grace does. She’s one busy lady with Healing Boxes and her new project Sick Chick to Trail Blazer.

I dispatched Mum to go round to the paper shop, where she got several copies; but I was amazed and slightly horrified to see my face on the front cover! That’s the first time I’ve been on a cover and I was on page 9 – my lucky number!

Front cover of the Evening News

Mum took me round to the shop later in the day because they had a board up outside with a headline about my being in the paper and I had to see it for myself. We even took a picture….

Holidays From Home in the Evening News, the board outside the paper shop.

When you send out a press release, you never know if anything will come from it; but I was so delighted with the coverage and very, very grateful.

I’m making the most of the nice weather while it lasts, since we had a great spring and then a poor summer last year. You feel like you have to be out in the sun as much as possible, I’m doing all I can to up my vitamin D levels. I even took the laptop out and sat writing some of the virtual London trip today. Topically I did the day set in Kensington Gardens and drew on the sounds and senses around me, including some very chatty blackbirds, to help imagine the experience. I did visit the park years ago; but I’m going to be roping in some of my London friends and traveller contacts to help add some more details to the virtual experience. I’m going to create some virtual Olympic games events to do while at the park, that will also be living room /bedroom friendly. That’s tomorrows task – I’m hoping I’ll be able to get outside again, I feel much more creative when I’m in the open air!

Spring is probably my favourite time of year. Everything feels so much more hopeful, anything seems possible and there’s the promise of a beautiful, warm summer ahead. Let’s hope the weather listens and delivers on the promise this year!

I love interacting with other people who are facing the same challenges. I love being able to share experiences and also just have a good chat, which our meetings seem to always become. There’s often food involved, normally cake; but tonight’s meal was delicious!

When we first started, Kate got us all to fill out a card with three things we wanted to achieve in the six months the group met for. Tonight we got our cards back and I took mine with a small amount of trepidation. Had I done any of them? How much had I really achieved?

This was my list:-

1. Create a London holiday that I’ll be proud and excited to market.
2. Increase my marketing online. Reach out to more communities.
3. Film a video about the holidays and how they work, show the fun.

I was delighted to realise that I was part way through each goal.

1. I’ve started the London holiday, with two days written and two almost finished. The rest is planned and ready to write.
2. I’ve been doing regular blogging here on my Holidays From Home Blog. I’ve also upped my Facebook interactions and I’m looking at ways to connect with more online support groups for things like carers, specific illnesses, anxiety, agoraphobia, fear of flying, as well as parents at home with kids looking for things to do to keep them entertained.
3. I start a course a week on Monday learning how to do my own videos, so I’ll have some ready to upload and get out into the world.

It’s reassuring to know you’re on track with your goals and that you are going in the right direction. The coach I’m working with suggested having a book and keeping a list of my goals written in it, so I can check back to see when I achieve them. I have to do lists; but this sounds much easier to maintain and keep track of. Fun even! I’m sad that the group is over; but I’m sure we’ll all keep in touch, social media makes it so easy now. It will be great to watch people grow and to share my own progress with them.

You can check out their sites here. Loved it – www.lovedit.co.uk/ Second hand children’s clothes.

Rebecca Coulby Interior – www.rebeccacoulby.co.uk Kitchen, Bathroom, Interior Design

Wright Learn – www.wrightlearn.co.uk/ Driving Instructor

Gary Smith Property Solutions – I’ll add his site when it’s done.

Engage With Business – www.engagewithbusiness.co.uk/ – Business Coaching

They say you should do one thing every day that scares you and today I signed up to do an online course for making your own videos. It’s something I’ve been wanting to learn more about for Holidays From Home. I think it will really help to be able to do some videos explaining what it is that I do and how people can enjoy the holidays. The thought completely terrifies me though. Not the recording part, I think I can do that; but knowing what to say, finding my voice so to speak.

My finger hovered over the mouse button; but I saw the organiser’s picture today in a group I’m part of and just knew I’d work with her, having no idea who she was, or what she did. My task this week has been to get the courage up to make a video and I’ve been putting it off. Then I got the email which came at the moment I was looking into other people’s videos online. A coach has been telling me I have to connect with my audience more and that she thought video would really work for me, so it all felt like the Universe giving me a major push. I decided I would listen. This is it, if you want to check it out http://videorockstaruniversity.com/

Watch this space for some videos featuring moi in the coming months!

However there are times when you just want to go home, shut the door and keep the world out. I’ve felt like that today, mainly because my brother was rushed into hospital at the weekend. He’s fine now and was sent home the next morning; but the shock and emotional roller-coaster has taken its toll and I feel I need time to recover, despite not being the one who was in hospital.

My Mum and I went out to get some shopping this morning and the world just seemed too loud, too bright, too frantic. I felt like I was displaced from time, wandering around a bit like a zombie, kind of amazed that the world was still going on as normal when we’d been dealing with such trauma.

I was so relieved to get home, to the peace and tranquillity. I think there are times when you don’t want to venture out, when you’d rather be living in a space where you feel safe and calm, where you can control your own environment. It made me begin to appreciate how hard it must be for people who suffer with anxiety and agoraphobia, the impact it must have on their lives. I’ve always thought that the virtual holidays would be great for them too, as they face the same barriers to going out and travelling as I do. I imagine that they wish they could be leading normal lives, going on holiday, doing what everyone else does, just like I do.

I’d really like to be able to reach out to these communities and share the virtual holidays, because after my very minor taste of that life today, I want to be able to bring some fun and escapism for them too.

I’ve been like this with my e-mail newsletter for Holidays From Home. I’ve been thinking about it, planning it, dabbling with a few design layouts; but I have just not got down to finish it. There was always a reason aka an excuse why I couldn’t do the final stage, the scary stage of actually sending it out into the big wide world.

This week I decided I was sick of moving it from one to do list to the next, so I decided it was time to get the email sorted. I have been wanting to do a weekly email of ideas of things to do for people who are stuck at home and bored. It’s something that would have been so good when I was bed bound and even now there are times when I struggle for new and fun things to do, you just get sick of the same old things, the routine can become claustrophobic.

I’m pleased to announce that I actually finished the email today, sorted the design, layout and content. I was so pleased when I could finally hit the send button. It was still scary. Don’t get me wrong, that moment of committing and opening up to the world made my heart jump into my mouth, still does to think about it; but I’m so pleased that I faced my anxiety and found the courage and motivation to complete my goal.

If you’re interested in the newsletter, or know someone who is looking for ideas of things to do at home – maybe they’re housebound, have kids, or just can’t afford to go out much, then you can sign up here…

www.holidaysfromhome.co.uk/newsletter

Where will you be? Will you be in London, in the thick of things or will you be at home? Maybe you can’t travel because you’re ill or disabled? Maybe you can’t afford to travel? Do you live in a far off country? Are you terrified to get on a plane? Or maybe you just don’t fancy battling the mass of visitors?

In years gone by, all you could do was watch the coverage on television and imagine what it would be like in the host country; but not this year. This year you can experience London without physically going there. You can explore the sites, visit the attractions, eat the food and meet fellow travellers, without ever leaving home. You can do this with a virtual holiday in London. All the fun, without the hassle, delays and expense of travel.  A virtual holiday is just so much easier than real travel, all you have to do is download the virtual holiday and away you go. Plus it’s all five star travel, because if you’re going to do it virtually, you may as well travel in luxury! It’s the ultimate staycation.

I’m in the middle or writing and producing the holiday. Planning the destinations, sourcing the photos, experimenting with the crafts and testing the recipes – life can be so hard! The thing is, I write the holidays for people like you. People that won’t be able to go to London for the Olympics. So the question is – what do you want in your virtual holiday? Where would you like to go? If you had two weeks in London what would you just have to do? Tell me now and you could see your suggestions in the holiday – I’ll even include a nod to the contributor, by naming the virtual tour guide after you. You could be immortalised in a virtual holiday!

In the words of the Spice Girls “Tell me what you want, what you really, really want” and I will do my best to make it happen in the London virtual holiday.

Holidays From Home at the Care For Carers Event, The Base, Norwich

The Lord Mayor and Sheriff of Norwich were there to open the event and I even got to meet them briefly. They both have very strong hand shakes! They also wore the coolest robes, red for the mayor and purple for the sheriff, with gold chains and tri-corn hats. I want to be a sheriff when I grow up, because I liked the purple robe best! Plus it sounds great, I wonder if you get one of those cool star badges too?! I had my picture taken with the lady mayor and I will post it when I get a copy through.

There were lots of organisations there who all support carers and the disabled in various ways. I was in a room with Dawn’s New Horizons for Domestic Violence, The Matthew Project on Drugs & Alcohol, Skills for Carers, Dawn Chrystal  and BUILD for people with Learning Difficulties. It was a really lovely room of people and we spent a lot of the day talking to each other, it was incredible how many links we had and were all keen to help and support the other groups, looking for ways to work together. I was actually surprised just how many people I already knew or who knew of Holidays From Home. It was a really positive experience to be able to talk to people who knew about the virtual holidays as well as being able to explain them to people who hadn’t heard of us before. I really do find it takes someone with experience of the holidays to be able to spread the word about them. It’s why I’m so grateful to all my diamonds, my virtual travellers who are the best advocates and the greatest supporters! They often seem to be able to explain what I do better than I can!

All in all it was a great, if exhausting day, I met lots of lovely people and hopefully made some good contacts too. It feels really good to get out into the community and actually have a face to face conversation with people. I really hope that lots of people will benefit from the event and that those in need found support and hopefully some answers to help them cope. There really is a need for these type of events and I hope there will be many more.

It was interesting hearing how vague everyone was, how hard they (like me) found it to pin themselves down to a specific goal within a time frame. It’s scary making a statement that this is what you are going to achieve by this date, the fear of failure is enormous, which I guess is why it’s so much easier to stay vague, so you don’t get disappointed; but you also don’t have the ability to measure your success and appreciate your achievements.

Somebody pointed out that it’s okay to change your goals, just because you write it down doesn’t mean you have to do it, if things change or you’ve been over ambitious you can alter it as you learn. It seems obvious; but I had never thought of it that way, it just seemed like a failure if you didn’t do it and who wants to set themselves up for failure?

I think setting a goal pushes you to reach a bit higher, aim for slightly more and maybe go bigger than you would otherwise, because whatever the outcome you will achieve something, learn and grow just by following your dream.

Apparently just by writing a goal down, you are more likely to achieve it. Your subconscious automatically starts working on the problem and looking for solutions – sounds good to me. So here goes – my goal is to produce and sell 500 of the virtual London holidays by 27th July (the first day of the Olympics). It’s scary to write it down; but I just think of each of those 500 sales as people who can’t travel; but who could really benefit from the virtual holidays. People like me, who are stuck at home and frustrated about that. Fed up of watching the rest of the world living the life that they are meant to have. They, like me, want to do something, anything, to have fun, despite being at home.

The goal is set, now to make it happen!