So life returns to the routine of summer…

I have the Giro d’Italia keeping me occupied for the moment (as of publishing the blog I am behind in watching the stages). The Giro begins the season of all the grand tours and with Contador aiming for a Giro-Tour double I am sure that I will be watching like a hawk.

There’s been an interesting few weeks recently with me being ill and trying to return to my usual. (I can’t seem to get away from the doctors’ currently but I am working on it). In the middle of all this I travelled to Lourdes for a week with HCPT and had a blast as always-reflections to come. Lourdes came at the right time and it was a very emotionally charged week but I came back with a new energy and straight to another little break in Germany with uni friends.

Germany was great. I enjoyed spending more time in the sun and getting more freedom of choice at the itinerary for the day. We visited Munich and I took an abundance of photos to share when we returned.

In the recent week or so the focus has been on exams, not as exciting as jetting off to other countries but they needed to be done in order to finish second year of uni. This realisation scares me as it means I am halfway through my degree and will be qualified to work in my chosen field fairly soon.

Now is the time to catch up with friends and spend more time with family before my summer work begins and I am painted as a “dragon” again.

Busy-ness!

So I've had such a fantastic summer working with children who have additional support needs. Many funny moments but also a few occasions where I wanted to tear my hair out-all part of the job I suppose!

Having spent so much time with children who people often write off almost immediately, I saw just how much they have to offer to the world with their range of abilities and talents. I became frustrated countless times when members of the public called children "naughty" or looked at them as if they had 3 heads. This made me realise just how little awareness and acceptance is out there for them and that is sad to see.

I learnt so much from the children about what type of communication works best for each individual child and how they express their needs and frustrations with the outside world. It was an incredible opportunity and I look forward to working with them in the future!

One of the funniest moments of the summer was when I was on a 1:1 with a child and we were bumping down the stairs (which was a favourite activity) when a whole crowd of (mainly) handsome men were watching us looking fairly bemused as they needed up the stairs. The child carried on as normal and did the usual chirpy "hello!" to everyone as they passed us by!


Hopefully these posts will be more regular from now on!