Tea & Scones

Mum & I met up with a friend for tea and scones yesterday, and the weather was gorgeous, and the scones were delicious, and the tea was so good.  It was a lovely day.  :)

Absolutely, Positively

An interesting thing has been happening.  Since I started talking about my illness, and not hiding it like I have done for the past 4+ years, friends are coming out of the woodwork with all manner of lovely messages and support.  I feel incredibly blessed to have so many kind people in my life, and they have far surpassed my expectations in terms of how they react to me being ill.

The reason I never talked about my illness before is because I was scared that I would scare people away.  That they would put me in the "too hard" basket, that being friends with me would be too taxing, because they wouldn't understand what was happening with me.  You see, nobody talks about bowel health when we are young, or teenagers.  So of course, when I was diagnosed as having an inflammatory bowel disease, I was hideously embarrassed, and couldn't think of anything worse than telling my friends what was wrong with me.  Nobody likes to talk about poop.  It was bad enough that my teachers had to be told so that I could run out of the classroom without asking permission to leave.

Anyway, as I've matured, I've realised I couldn't hide it when I was having symptoms, particularly not when I spent the first 20+ days of January in my bed at home.  But I also came to realise that I don't care if people know.  I mean, I care, but I don't care what they think.  It may bother me that they don't understand, or that they can be a bit ignorant about it, but it has been kind of a relief to not have to hide it so much any more.  As time goes on, I'm more and more open about it.  My friend who has a similar illness (and whose support and friendship I couldn't live without now) has always been reasonably open about her illness, so I took a leaf out of her book, and decided if people can't get past the illness, then they're not worth being friends with anyway.

But I've been blown away.  Honestly.  It makes me want to cry with happiness at how supportive, and kind and caring people have been.  I am so touched.  The simple act of taking a few minutes to write me a message on Facebook, or to send me a text message, it all has meant so very much to me.  People I've not talked to much in years, or even people I've never been that close to, have come out and said "I'm here for you, I hope you get well soon".  People have been curious, as I expected, especially when I first came out and said "I'm sick, but I'm not ready to tell you all what with yet", and as time goes on, and I tell more and more people what I have (at this stage, I'm only doing this if they specifically ask), I'm finding it easier and easier to talk about.  It also makes me want to raise awareness, and to stop other people feeling like they have to hide illnesses too, because it wasn't easy pretending to be normal when I wasn't.

There has been a common thread though, with the messages from people I've had.  I don't tend to post links to this blog because it's more a personal blog, so I don't mind if nobody reads it, but I posted it a couple of times when I wrote my "Fresh Start February" post because I was feeling so good about a new start and wanted to share my enthusiasm, and reassure my friends that I'm still me, and I'm on the upswing.  Obviously a few of them have kept reading, and maybe they will read this too.  But I've had at least 3 people say to me now that I have amazed them with how positive and happy I seem to be, despite my illness, and that it's inspiring, and so great to see me living life to the full in spite of what may hold me back.  I don't feel like I'm being overly positive, or happy, it's not something I'm doing consciously... I do feel like I'm getting back to being myself.  So apparently, I'm a naturally positive happy person?  Or at least that's how I'm seeming to people haha!  This is not a bad thing, at all.  I just find it curious, and somewhat amusing that 3 people (who don't know each other!) all said the same thing, and they think my positivity is amazing.

Of course, there are days when I have pity-parties (this is where my friend comes in... we drag each other back up when we're feeling like hating the world and not wanting to come out from under the bedcovers ever again) and days where I think "Why me?"... but I try to keep those days at a minimum.  I indulge this a little bit, because we're all allowed to have days like that, but I don't want it to ruin my life.  I am in control, this is my life, I am in charge of my illness, it is not in charge of me, and I won't let it be.  I am stubborn and determined.  

There was a girl I met and chatted to a bit on Twitter, and she wrote a blog about things people can change in their lives, and things people can't change.  The blog changed the way I thought about my illness.  And it goes something like this...

I can't change the fact that I have an inflammatory bowel disease.  I will have it for the rest of my life.  But I can change how I let it affect my life, I can change how I deal with it, I can change how I approach life, and I can make sure I do everything in my power to have a normal life.  I may not be normal, but I'm certainly not gonna take it lying down.  :) 

Martinborough Fair Weekend 2012

One could say I've been slack, having not posted on *this* blog in 4 days (I've done foodie posts though :D http://hannasedibleescapades.blogspot.co.nz/ ) but actually, I've been out having a life!!  It makes a nice change from sitting at home on the couch all day every day (or in bed all day, when I was really sick) being lonely and bored, looking at "food porn" (hah! my new word for my obsession of browsing for new recipes on pinterest.com) all day.  

So what did I do this weekend?  Well, here's a summary! :)

Friday Night

I made a chicken curry in the crockpot for dinner (I did not write about this on my foodie blog - it was a) out of a packet and b) a bit of an epic fail cos even though it cooked for even longer than the 4 hours it specified, the chicken drumsticks were still pink in the middle so we had to microwave it extra -_- Not cool.) and then mum's friend Cathy (aka my 2nd mum) came over to stay the night... so we could all get up early and go out together on Saturday morning to a fair!


Saturday

The fair officially began at 9am, and it's advised to get there early to get a good car park, and also so you don't miss out on some of the specialties that have a tendency to sell out during the day, like the Swiss rosti and the Indian chickpea curry food stalls.  So we got there bright and early, and there were already lots of people there, which was surprising, but also not really, because it is a SUPER popular fair.  People come from all over the lower North Island to go to this fair.  Thousands of people.  It's massive.

We parked on the front lawn of our friends house (who live really close to the centre of the fair) and walked into town.  As soon as we started hitting the stalls, we were bombarded with amazing food smells, and such a range of amazing things to buy.  We'd barely gone 10 metres and Dad and I had bought some breakfast - Dad had a steak and egg sandwich (they put in like THREE meat patties and an egg!  Talk about value for money!) and I had a bacon and egg sandwich (they piled on the bacon too!  Massive!).  Then we stopped at a honey stall and Mum bought me some manuka honey - its normally super expensive, so to get a kg for about $15 was very reasonable.  And so the carrying of heavy items began!

The stalls are set up around the main square of a town, and so it's very easy to go around in a logical fashion, and you don't miss much.  We headed off to the left, because I knew from a past experience that there was a stall that sold Swiss rosti (like cooked, grated potato - like a plate full of hash brown!) and it was amazing.  So we lined up and got some, and then I turned around and bumped into a very good friend of mine and her boyfriend.  Stopped and chatted with them for a while and then realised my parents and Cathy had continued shopping without me, so raced off to try and find them.

It was like finding a needle in a haystack!  Once separated, it was very hard to work out where we all were.  Text messages were delayed, so ended up having lots of phone calls with each other during the day haha!  Anyway, I ended up finding my Dad, and we hung out for the rest of the day, and Mum and Cathy stuck together for the rest of the day.  It worked out well, because Dad and I were interested in looking at similar stuff, and Mum and Cathy were well matched for their browsing interests too.

So with Dad, I attacked the rest of the fair.  We bought and tried lots of food throughout the day, which we shared.  I'm going to write a list of what we had, because truly it was an international culinary feast!  And we didn't even manage to try the famous Indian chickpea curry that sells out, or baked potatoes, or Mexican burritoes - but what we did eat, we were so full we couldn't have fit it anyway!

• Swiss rosti - potatoey hash browny things!
• Spanish paella - rice dish with seafood (which Dad ate) and chorizo sausage
• American hot cinnamon donuts - amazingly warm, soft, yet crispy and crunchy
• Thai roti with peanut sauce, and chicken skewers
• Polish pierogi - like a little pastry case filled with mashed potato
• Polish sausage - just one bite, and the garlic repeated on me all day!
• NZ bacon & egg sandwich

There was also amazing fresh produce, and I ended up buying a box of cherries, and Dad bought a punnet of blueberries and strawberries - delicious summer fruits!

The other main aspect of this fair, aside from the food, is the crafts and things you can buy.  I loved browsing all the craft stalls with my Dad.  There was everything from jewellery, clothes, hats, ornaments, outdoor stuff, gemstones, wood work, candy, soaps, antiques, paintings, artwork, CDs, leather products, handmade crafts, knitting, crocheting, shoes, and more!  There's so much variety I can't even remember it all!  I've posted a picture below of some of the things I bought.

My loot!

My new dress! #impulsebuy

Because I've been sick, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to walk around too much, but it was good, I managed to walk heaps, and not get too tired!  Overall I had an amazing day out with my favourite people, and I loved getting out of the house.  This is the first shopping I've done since BEFORE Christmas!  We also ran into SO many people we knew, which was nice to see them and catch up.  I was SO exhausted at the end of the night, my insomnia had absolutely no chance, and I slept like a baby!!

Sunday

Sunday was a day at home, doing bits and pieces around the house.  Dad went out for a motorbike ride (all day!) and Mum and I went over to the other side of the hill for some (more!) shopping.  We really needed to do the groceries, which I was very excited about because it's the first time I've been to the supermarket since I developed a new found passion for cooking.  I was very excited by the prospect of visiting the spice aisle, and spent ages looking at everything.  

We also went to the mall and I got some bits and pieces to send to my friend in America who is doing a project on New Zealand for his high school class, and I also got the latest book from one of my favourite authors, as well as a copy of "The Kings Speech" which we watched that night.  I was terribly impressed.  It's a great movie, if you haven't seen it, you really should!!

Monday

Monday here in New Zealand was Waitangi Day - a public holiday.  It's kind of like our national day.  We spent the day at home, and Dad's friend Keith, and our friends Tracy and Ashleigh came over which was nice.  We had a delicious BBQ lunch (with the most amazing steak I've had in a VERY long time... *drool*) and then Ashleigh and I chillaxed inside, while Dad, Keith and Tracy played music outside.  It was a very chilled out and relaxing day.

So overall, I had a WONDERFUL weekend! :)