My Diary
(Music
by the New Traffic Islands)



Friday
25th July 2008
What a fortnight!
On Monday 7th, my whole body ached. I
hadn’t realised how much hard work the abseil had been until I felt the
effects the next day. I had a really sore bruise on my knee from where I kept
hitting the wall when I was trying to bend my leg to kneel down. It was ok
though, because I then jetted off to New York for nine days!
We arrived at Heathrow airport at about
11.30am, where I was filmed by the BBC. It was then time for my anti-clotting
injection. I felt it go in, but I was very good about it! Our flights had been
donated by British Airways, and we flew business class which was very posh! We
were allowed to relax in the first class area before our flight which was good.
I lay on a couch and fell asleep! Honestly, you
can’t take me anywhere! Our flight was a bit delayed taking off due to
bad weather, so we didn’t leave until 4.30pm. The flight was about seven
hours long, but it wasn’t too bad because we were in really comfy seats
that reclined so that you could go to sleep. That really helped my back as I
wouldn’t have been able to sit for seven hours without being in a lot of
pain. It was quite confusing when we arrived in New York, because to us it was
then 1am Tuesday, but in America it was 8pm Monday! The security at the airport
was very, very tight. I even had my fingerprints taken! We were met by Taylor,
a Rotarian who organised our days out while we were there. We were then taken
to our hotel which was in Times Square in Manhattan. Here is a link to it so
you can see how nice it was!
Mum and I shared a room, and Lee got his
own which even had a living room! These had also been donated, so a massive thank you to The Time hotel. We went straight to bed when we
got to the hotel as it was now 3.30am to us, and we had been up for almost 24
hours.
On Tuesday we went to Taylor’s
Rotary Club for lunch, where I also gave a small speech. It gave me a chance to
thank everyone there who had helped organise my trip. Then we went to the Bronx
Zoo which was amazing! I was allowed to feed and hold a lot of the animals. I
first of all fed some goats which slobbered all over my hands, but nothing
compared to the sheep! I had lots of food poured into my hand and they just
gobbled it up. My hand was covered in slime, and poor Mum had to touch it to
sign on my hand. It was quite funny though, even if she didn’t think so!
I then fed another animal, which I didn’t know what it was at first
because I couldn’t hear Mum, but I soon found out it was a cow, which I
was very impressed with! It was a little Frisian cow with horns and was very
cute, and after that I fed a llama! I then sat on a haystack and held a chicken
and a guinea pig, then went to another room which was
the best part. I touched a sloth, which was very strange. She was called
Frankie and hangs upside down all the time, and once a week she comes down to go to the toilet, then hangs upside down again! She had
short hair on her stomach, and quite long hair on her back, plus very long
nails! After that I held an armadillo. Yes, an actual armadillo! It was curled
up quite small in a ball and was quite hard. Then I held a gorgeous big eared
fox, a tiny tortoise which fitted in my hand (and nearly my pocket!) and a
snake! I held the snake for about five minutes which I loved. It was a very
friendly snake and gave my hand a kiss! The BBC filmed this trip and it was my
favourite day out while we were in New York.
On Wednesday we went to the Statue of
Liberty. Security was really tight and we were checked going on and off the
ferry and again on the island before we got anywhere near the statue. I got to
feel her giant nose and toes!
We got the ferry again on Thursday to
Staten Island to have lunch at Staten Island Rotary Club. Time again for a
small speech, thank you and question and answer session, which mostly start
with ‘what is your Mother doing on your hand’. It was the deafblind
sign language!
On Friday we went to the New York
Botanical Gardens. We travelled round the gardens on a golf buggy, stopping at
a few Henry Moore sculptures, and I was allowed to feel them, something which is
a very big thing to be allowed to do. Then we went for a walk around the
children’s garden which was lovely because the sun was really hot, and I
was starting to get a proper tan! We picked some of the things from the garden
like lettuce and chives, which at the end of our walk they made into a salad
for us! We came back to the hotel after that and that’s when we finally
found the shops! It turns out we had been going the wrong way for four days and
that’s why we couldn’t find the good shops! I bought a few things,
and once I had the bag in my hands, that was when I was able officially to tick
another goal off my list - to go shopping in New York, and it was great!
On Saturday and Sunday I did some major
shopping. It was great because the shops were near to our hotel, so every
couple of hours we went back for me to lie down for a while and drop off the
bags, then go out to do more shopping! The shops were open until really late at
night which was brilliant because we could go out during the day and visit places,
then do the shopping at night! I mainly got clothes, but I also got some pearly
pink crocs and some lovely beige suede Ugg boots.
Only problem is that it’s too hot to wear the boots at the moment!
We went to Fraunces
Tavern museum on Monday. It was built in 1719 and has a lot of history attached
to it. George Washington had lunch there and so did we! We then had a tour of
the museum where I was allowed to touch some of the things, including a sword
that belonged to General George Clinton (ancestor of President Clinton).
On Tuesday we went to the Metropolitan
Museum where I was again allowed to go behind the scenes and feel some of the
artefacts, which had been arranged by the local congressman. We visited the section on the Egyptians,
and I felt a 3,000 year old coffin. Some of the things were so big that I
actually had to stand up to be able to feel them
properly. Do you know what? They even stopped building work on a temple for
half an hour so that I was able to hear! The BBC filmed this too, and
afterwards we walked to Central Park, which was nearby, for me to do a final
interview. It was lovely in the park as the grass had just been cut so it smelt
nice, and the sun was really hot, so it was a perfect end to our holiday. I got
a hard slush puppy, which was basically a big ice lolly
but it was frozen slush puppy. It was lovely apart from the fact that it made
my mouth blue for the interview! That night was our last night out. That was
one of my favourite parts of the holiday, going out for breakfast to a
café that did lovely pancakes and maple syrup, and to a restaurant that
did the best pizza ever. I don’t know what it was about New York, but it
made me obsessed about food! I normally eat hardly anything, and get full up
really easily, but I just wanted to keep eating while we were in NY!
Wednesday 16th was our last day in New
York. Sob! Our flight wasn’t until 7.30pm, so we had most of the day to
do the last minute bit of shopping. I had to have another anti-clotting
injection before the flight, but I didn’t actually feel that one go in
which was good. We flew business class again, and we got hot chocolate and
cookies on the flight, then early breakfast, and landed at Heathrow at 7am on
Thursday.
It was great to get home and see Molly
and Daizy. I had over 600 emails to read through! Mum unfortunately had a
migraine, so spent the next three days in bed, and it also took me a while to
get over the jet lag! I had an absolutely brilliant time in New York, and would
love to go back one day. It was so great to get away for a while and the
atmosphere in America was lovely. It felt really relaxing and the weather was
lovely and hot, although in the nineties, sometimes it was too hot. I’d
definitely recommend going though!
A massive thank you to Tony Betts for
organising it, Taylor and everyone in New York who helped us while we were
there, British Airways, The Time hotel, and the lady in the shop who gave me a
free bandana because I was beautiful!
It was back to reality this week. On
Tuesday we went to Linda's, as Lesley, Stephen and the kids are down from
Scotland at the moment. We had lunch and caught up with our holiday stories, oh
and I also held a baby turkey. You know, as you do! He was very cute and fell
asleep on me. My cousin, Toby, has him as a pet at the moment. Well, it's
original isn't it!
Thank you to Rounds, Heather Gilmour and
Denise for donating on my Justgiving page this
fortnight. My fundraising for Teenage Cancer Trust is going really well, and
I’ve already raised £722. Not bad seeing as I only set my target a
month ago!
I forgot to mention in my last update
that I am fundraiser of the month on Justgiving.com. I was nominated by Claire
(thank you very much), and the ‘folk at Justgiving’
donated £25 on my Justgiving page for The Silver
Lining Appeal. You can read what they wrote about me by visiting:
http://justgiving.typepad.com/
Well that’s about it for this
fortnight!
Love Nicole xxx
*************************
Sunday
20th July 2008
The story about me winning Britain's
Most Inspiring Fundraiser last month will appear in the Sun newspaper tomorrow,
so please buy a copy if you'd like to read it!
*************************
Saturday
19th July 2008
My abseil
and trip to New York will be shown today on BBC News 24 throughout the day, so
please keep an eye out for it.
*************************
Sunday
7th July 2008 - Abseil Day!!
I just had to do my diary to let you
know about my abseil… and that I’m still in one piece!
On Saturday 29th June I went to
Evelyn’s house to meet her friend, Tracey, Tracey’s daughter,
Charlotte, and Tracey’s Mum, Dawn. Tracey did a bootfair
a few weeks ago for The Silver Lining Appeal which raised £125, so I met
her at Evelyn’s house where she presented me with the cheque. I was also
given another cheque for £150 from Dawn from the donations at her
husband’s funeral. He had been helped by King’s, so she wanted to
donate it to my target which I was really touched by.
I went to Demelza from Wednesday until
Friday so that Mum could fly to Scotland for Grandad’s
funeral on Thursday. I had a relaxing day on Wednesday, and on Thursday I went
to Bluewater and got some things for my holiday to New York.
I came home from Demelza at lunchtime on
Friday and had a few hours to prepare for the Try Angle Awards that night. I
gave the opening and closing speeches, which seemed to go ok. The award
ceremony lasted a few hours, and one of the best parts was the chocolate
fountain! That was the first suggestion I’d had at the meeting to
organise this year’s award ceremony, and luckily everyone else thought it
was a good idea too. Nikki, my guide-communicator, came with me and Mum. The
prizes were given out to all the winners, then we had an interval when we had
dinner (great curly chips!) and of course the chocolate fountain, while there
were different acts on stage singing and dancing. Then the prizes were given
out to the category winners and overall winners.
On Saturday afternoon I was filmed by
BBC News 24 about how excited I am to be going to New York, which isn’t
that far away now. They’re also going to film me while I’m in New
York, and I can’t wait! We’ve got lots of things planned, including
a visit to the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and the Bronx zoo,
not forgetting the shopping - I’m so excited!
And today was the day of my 100ft
abseil, and it was amazingly scary!
We arrived at King’s College
Hospital just before 12pm, which was an hour and a half before my abseiling
time, but it gave me time to prepare. I hadn’t actually been nervous
about it before we arrived, but I started to get a bit scared once we were at
the hospital and I knew it was finally going to happen! But after talking
through what I had to do with Matt, who was the man helping me abseil, I
relaxed again and was really excited about it. I had a safety harness fitted
that went round my waist and thighs, and I also had a hard hat put on, which
wasn’t the most attractive of outfits I have to say. And once that was
all sorted, we then headed up to the roof!
When on the roof, I had to sit on the
ledge with my legs dangling over the edge. Then I stood up with help from Mum
and Spike, the other man from the abseiling company, to get onto a ledge on the
outside of the building. I then had to turn around and kneel down, which was
really difficult. I couldn’t bend my leg back, and I kept hitting my knee
on the brick wall in front of me. I panicked a bit, and it was really hurting
my legs because I had put my splits on as I thought they’d help, but they
just dug in. Then I managed to kneel down, so that I was on my stomach with my
legs dangling down. (Remember, this is at the top of a building in the middle
of London!) I was still holding
onto the edge and refused to let go at first, then I just went for it and
that’s when the fun began!
Going over the edge was petrifying, and
I had to put a lot of trust into Mum, Matt and Spike, but once I’d let go,
I loved it. I had a safety rope on my right side which I had to hold onto at
all times, and thread my hands through it. I had my left hand on the rope in
front of me, and my legs dangled down the whole time. Matt was behind me and
lowered the rope. He tapped me on the back each time I had to thread my hand
through the safety rope. The best bits were the parts when we went down really
fast, but most of the time it was done slowly. I had it filmed by BBC News 24,
and Pilgrim Productions, who are filming me do the
things on my list. Matt had a camera on his hat, and I had a mic attached to me. The only words I kept saying on the way
down were “Oh my god” and “Aw”. It hurt my back quite a
bit because I was only supported by the tight harness round my waist, and
holding onto the ropes was hard work too, but apart from that it was great! It
took about two minutes to abseil down the building once I had got over the
edge, and I was so relieved when I landed safely on the ground! I had an
audience of about 100 people, who hadn’t been there just before, but
turned up for my abseil and left again once I’d done it. Lee came with
us, and he did the abseil too. He wasn’t meant to, but once he saw what
it was like, he really wanted to do it too, and they let him. My friend, Dan,
also did it, along with Spencer, who I’ve met through the hospital
because they’ve also saved his life.
My nanny and a couple of friends came to
see me do it which was nice. Max, who I’ve met through Thomas Cook, came
along with her daughter Emily, and brought me a bottle of pink champagne and
some haribos, which was a brilliant way to celebrate,
so thank you Max!
The abseil officially ends my
fundraising for King’s College Hospital, and launches my new
£50,000 target for the Teenage Cancer Trust. If you don’t already
know about my new target, then please read the diary entry below.
Thank you to Alison, Margaret Bowes, the
folks at Justgiving, Claire, Penny (you know how brill the Marsden is), Manny and Rachel, for donating on my
Justgiving page this week.
Love Nicole - the abseiling pro…
xxx