Twitter Celeb

Monday was a pretty quiet day, but at midday I had an appointment with an ophthalmologist in Rosebank. It coincided with an appointment that Mommy had, so Daddy came home over lunch and took me. It was fun at first – we sang in the car together to my favourite song currently – The Time by Black Eyed Peas. It was bitter cold and we were dressed for the artic. Some fun on the numerous stairs ensued and I greeted everyone. However, the fun stopped when I entered the doctor’s office, and I started screaming and howling. I’ve had such traumatic and scary experiences with the medical fraternity that I’m terrified of them. The doctor was pretty annoyed at my screaming and Daddy tried to calm me. We did manage to do the eye tests, which were needed after my recent stroke, to ensure that I didn’t have light sensitivity or try and find the cause of my nystagmus.

In the evening, when Dad got home from work, he had a wonderful surprise for me. Once again, his colleague at work, Cas, had given me a whole bunch of model motorbikes that he had built, and a bunch of Matchbox cars. I was thrilled! This was the second time he spoiled me like this – the last time was with model airplanes. Thank you Cas!

Music was on the cards on Tuesday morning, and upon getting home I shared an ice lolly with Roxy, much to Mom’s disapproval. I also spent time focusing on glitter art and later in the day Mickey (our cat) opted to get into the shower with me and have a small swim!

We had to take Granny to the doctor on Wednesday for a check-up, so I spent much of the day running around passages and causing havoc, as only I can. We had some tea and cake before heading home, and I got to grips with a giant chocolate muffin.

I helped Mom grocery shopping on Thursday, and afterwards we popped into the Haahoo (Delta) Park where I had a good long play. There was still some frost on the ground and I enjoyed running through it and feeling it crunch under my feet.

A scrap book is needed for my speech therapy, so I spent some time helping Mom assemble some of my favourite things for me. Dad had already printed off a whole bunch of photos for me to include in the scrapbook. During the afternoon I rode around the pool on my push car, while Mom cleaned the pool. I suddenly realised something was missing – music! Mom and Dad had music in their cars, but there wasn’t any in mine. I announced that I needed music in my car too, and I needed it now!

On Friday morning Mom had a dentist’s appointment, which was pretty quick. Afterward we went to Granny’s place to collect her as she was staying over for the weekend. Dad arrived home at about the same time when we all got home, and we spent some time in the garden playing on the jungle gym – not Granny of course, as she still had plaster on her feet.

Mom went to a friend’s place to learn to bake bread on Saturday morning. Although one of my favourite programmes on Cbeebies is ‘I Can Cook’, six hours of baking just wasn’t up my alley. Instead I stayed home with Daddy and Granny. We decided to go to Hyde Park to watch a movie called ‘Animals United’. We arrived with enough time to get the tickets and more importantly pop-corn. At the ticket counter Daddy popped me onto the counter where I spent the next few minutes charming all the other movie patrons. I spotted the ‘Animals United’ poster and roared like a lion. When Dad told me that that was the movie we were going to see I promptly lent forward, kissed Daddy and said ‘Thank you Daddy’. The queue of patrons all went ‘aaaaahhh’. I was thrilled at their response!

We sat through more than an hour of the movie, at which point I started getting a little bored. I announced I wanted to go home, so Dad and Granny bundled me quietly out of the movie house. En route home, to burn off some energy, we popped into McDonalds. I wasn’t hungry, as I’d eaten most of Daddy’s popcorn in the movies. Dad and Granny had coffee while I played in the kids’ zone. In the kids’ zone they had a mock-up of the drive-thru, where I stationed myself taking orders from the other kids and parents, including Daddy and Granny, and handed out orders of chips, cold-drinks, and Ham-Birgitts (my name for hamburgers). Everyone loved my service and kept coming back for more. While we were there we also bumped into Graeme and Mandy, and had a quick chat.

Back home I snuggled into bed next to Dad while he read an eBook. I promptly fell asleep, and just after I woke up Mommy arrived home, with freshly baked bread. We all tucked in and were very impressed with Mom’s sourdough bread. She announced that she will be going back to the cooking school for lots more lessons. Dad and I believe Mom really doesn’t need to, as she’s already a goddess in the kitchen, but at the same time, we also didn’t mind her adding to her fantastic repertoire of dishes.

In the evening I attended my second Tweetup, which was for the #TwitterBlanketDrive 2011 or #TBD for short. It was in its second year, and this year it was being held at the Crowne Plaza in Rosebank. We arrived to find that just off the reception, where that was a small amphitheatre, it was being filled with blankets. By the time we arrived there must’ve been just over 500 blankets already. Perfect timing for orphans in this cold snap. I immediately took to diving into the blanket pit, and pretty soon, other Tweeps’ kids were joining in. I made some new friends and really enjoyed playing with Connor. Mom and Dad mingled with some friends, and some Tweeps they’d never meet before, but often chatted to.

I felt like an absolute celebrity, as so many of the Tweeps that were at the Twitter Blanket Drive were avid readers of my blog, and also sent Mom and Dad lots of prayers and wishes as I went through my medical challenges. It was so wonderful to meet all these people that had rooted for me for so long. Lots of hugs and kisses were administered all-round. While I was ‘working the room’ I spotted that even adults had now started diving into the blanket pit. As it was getting late, we had to leave for my bedtime, and missed the speeches, where I even got a mention as an honorary Tweep. Thank you everyone. And a big whooooha to Melanie (@MelanieMinnaar) for organising a national event of such generosity. Sadly Dad forgot his camera at home, but Jeanette (@Jenty) got a great shot of me in the blanket pit – see here http://norw.in/jenty

Mom took Granny to church on Sunday morning and home afterward. Dad and I went to explore our new local pharmacy; our local friendly family pharmacy had been bought out by a national chain which made us very sad, but we did like the look and feel of the new pharmacy, and all the staff were the same still. Dad took me for a long play at the Haahoo (Delta) Park afterward, and then back home, Mom, Dad and I had a nice long Team Snooze together. I spent the rest of the afternoon playing trains with Dad.

Til next week,

Jarrod

Photo 1 Mickey having a snooze with me

Photo 2 Love my new bikes and cars

Photo 3 Cowboy Long-John Jay-Bee

Photo 4 Tipping my hat to the ladies as I ride past (still in long-johns)

Photo 5 Steam Shower

Photo 6 Hard at work with glitter art

Photo 7 Glitterati

Photo 8 Ice-lolly with Roxy

Photo 9 Swinging at the Haahoo (Delta) Park

Photo 10 My Happy Place – the Haahoo Park

Photo 11 Mmmmm, a giant chocolate muffin

Photo 12 In the blanket pit with my new friends at #TBD

Photo 13 Loving the blankets

Photo 14 My collection of models from Cas