I’m Baaaack! I Really Should Be Here More Often!

OK, so I’m here, and I want to talk about a new thing I’ve been doing, and also sharing a link to something I wrote previously that I should have posted here! So here’s that link, and I’ll tell you a little bit about it, so you can decide whether you’d like to take a look at it!

So basically the little article is about smething I’ve just begun doing recently, hoping it may take off and make me a popular performer … Such dreams have enabled me to do things I would never have believed I could do, but I’ve done it!

And that something? That something is being a Stand Up Comedian – Being funny in front of an audience! When accomplished comedians do this, they’re doing it to make money, they have agents, or somebody (booking person?), who gets them gigs.

Their people/person will organise a venue for their perfomance if needed, depending on what they’re doing, who booked them, etc. These details quite likely will also be about how much they will receive for doing their act.

I don’t have such a person, and at the moment, I have no thought that I will be paid for any Stand Up gigs I do. I call them gigs, but the reality is far less than the name may indicate. So far, I’ve do about three minutes at a poetry reading, and two twenty minute sessions to small community groups.

I’ve also done my act twice in the town closest to where I live. The first time I had an audience of two people over various days, but only one of htem at a time., both people I already knew, and who knew all about me doing this act, and both of whom have helped me getting organised to do it.

The most recent time, I did the act to a slighly bigger audience, five people, I think or it may have been four … There was one of the people show knew all about me doing this, the others were people who didn’t know me at all, and who I was encouraged to approach and ask if they’d like to see me do my Stand Up Act, or a small part of it anyway.

Those people were police officers, working at that town because there was a community event happening, with a road closure, and far more people around than usual. Things were well under control, and they seemed to appreciate the chance for something a little bit different.

So, persuaded by my convincer, I got out my phone, where there is a poem for my Stand Up character “Nanna Carreau”, to perform, and perform it I did. It was lovely to see the smiles, and even laughter in my audience, and I enjoyed doing the performance, as much as they enjoyed watching me perform it!

Anyway, In the link (here it is again) is another poem I’m written for that Stand Up Comedian I perform as. The possible audience for that poem would be a particular group of people, rather than members of the public in general, so yesterday’s event would not have been the right time of place for that one.

But this blogsite mentioned, being about Multiple Sclerosis, is entirely the corrct place for that article and the poem there. You have to pick your audience, and play to who they are, and what will be relatable for them! Being relatable is, or seems to be, the next new good thing to be and do! Relatability means you know and understand the truth of a thing, and you can convey that in the way you do whatever it is you’re doing, for a particular group/audience/crowd/reader.

And speaking of people who are relatable, the event I was at, as Nanna Carreau yesterday, was a classic car event, with quite a few classic cars there on show, and there was a man present who knows much about cars, Grand Prix Flag Waver Glen Dix!

This man is an Australian icon of motorsport, and yes he was there in his usual yellow jacket, waving that checkered flag for the lovely cars, and the exciting thing for me was I was able to snap some photos of Glen, including this one, which I love!

So was that Glen Dix’s brush with fame, being that close to Nanna Carreau, or was it Nanna Carreau’s brush with fame being so close to Glen Dix? Or was it a bit of both? As a clutcher at straws, I’ll say it was a bit of both! I’m going to write it up for the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle as that, probably!

All in good fun, of course, and Nanna Carreau may well write a short story for her collection of poems and prose pieces I’m currently working on. Nanna Carreau is going to make me famous! (As soon as I manage to make Nanna Carreau famous)!

This Group Helped Me, I’m Glad I’m Helping Them!

When I was diagnosed with MS back in 2010, the MS Society SA & NT did much to assist me in a variety of different ways. Now, 12 years later, I’m happy to be helping them, by raising funds.

I was inspired by one of the MS physios to set a SMART Goal, and my goal was to walk from home to a particular place, and back home again. Then I extended that goal and added in the idea of doing it to raise some more money for the MS Society SA & NT, this time by inspiring people myself! 

When diagnosed, I couldn’t walk far at all, but now with a medication that helps a lot, I’ve challenged myself to walk to a particular bridge, and home again. 

The distance all up is 5.2 km, which may not seem much to an able bodied person, but for many people with MS, it would be impossible. Since being inspired to do this, I’ve been training by walking almost every day, and I’m getting closer to that target distance. 

If you’d like to read more about this challenge, check out my page: https://www.teammssant.org.au/fundraisers/carolyncordon

Doing things for others is a wonderful thing, and I love wonderful things! If you love wonderful things too, helping me out, well that would sure be a wonderful thing for sure!

The MS Society helps those of us with MS in a wide range of ways. Each person with Multiple Sclerosis is different, with different needs. Helping us takes a lot of money, if you can help, this check out my fundraising page: https://www.teammssant.org.au/fundraisers/carolyncordon/walk-for-wellness

I hope you can help, and if you’d like to know more about my life with MS, leave a comment, I’ll answer your questions!

Disabilities Can Be Life Limiting

Yes, having disabilities can definitely be life limiting, but if you can find supports, the correct ones, they can help you live a great life. I wrote about this subject a bit on another writing platform, you may like to read about how I feel about my life and going well with it.

This a link to that article

I write there about how I am affected by both my deafness, and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), the two health related things that affect me the most. I realise the things that ‘disable’ me are nowhere as bad as other may have, and I make no claims of being any better than anyone, as I said, I have supports that help me.

These supports are family, friends, government, non-government organisations, and medical. I’ve been collecting up these supports, and appreciating each and every one. My life without these supports would be a sad and sorry life for sure, although I do have the benefit of being a writer, so I can happily amuse myself, for hours if needed, by writing, in a variety of genres.

But being able to get out and about with my writing friends makes being a writer even better, and more connected. And it’s the connections in our lives that add nuance to life, making it better and better, when it all works.

I certainly recommend anyone and everyone should reach out and get involved in what is offered to you! You never know what might work, or what you may like, if you never try them. Things like Peer Support groups can be fantastic groups to help you. At a Peer Support group, you meet up with others who have what you have, and these are the people who totally understand what you’re going through, because they have what you have!

I excited about taking on an MS Peer Support group soon, where I’ll meet up with others with MS, and I’ll be doing some interesting new (I hope) things with them, combining creative writing, which is the thing that most helps me to keep centred, and positive.

I recommend people with a disability do there best to have interests beyond disability, so they can more easily connect with a broader range of people, as well as their peers due to their disability. And you never know, you may find you enjoy teaching ‘non-peers’ about your disability, and they may enjoy learning more about it, with good results for all!

If you have any thoughts about what I’ve written here, I’d love to read about it, why not leave a message!

Writing About My Weight Loss Challenge

So I’m working at trying to be a bit slimmer, and healthier with it. I remember back when I was diagnosed with MS (Multiple Sclerosis) the thought of regularly walking a kilometre, with no walking stick would never have occurred to me as something I’d be able to do.

But that is exactly what I am doing these days, and I’m quite proud of myself for that. And the scales tell me almost every morning that my walking is having good results in terms of weight loss. I’m even prouder of that. As I’m getting older, I’m getting fitter, Hooray to me.

I’m so proud of this, I’ve written a bit about it, here where I talk about my methods to lose a bit of the excess weight I have, and some things about what I’m trying to get slimmer for, in terms of my health. The aging process can make things more difficult, but I’m getting results, and I’m definitely happy about that.

Writing about the various things in my life is a thing I love doing, and if I can perhaps inspire other people to look into getting fitter, moving around more, and eating a health and nutritional diet, that’s a fine thing! So click on the link above, or this one, and read all about it!

Some Good News About My Life …

We’ll ignore the fact that this blog should have already had information about the challenge I’m going to be writing here about, but c’est la vie! I have too many blogs, and I ignore most of them, most of the time, oh well …

Anyway, here is the good news – I’ve set myself a challenge to walk to a particular place, and back again – a bridge on Redbanks Road, that goes over the Light River close to my home. It’s an easy drive, just up the road we live on, to the T junction, turn left, and within a few minutes, and there’s the bridge. Then find a spot to turn, and come back home again. Easy!

But to walk that distance isn’t so easy, especially considering I have MS (Multiple Sclerosis), and I’m not a regular distance walker. But I’ve been going to exercise classes put on by the MS Society of SA & NT, and one of the physios there was talking about setting ‘SMART’ goals, goals of something in our lives, not necessarily of a physical nature, but just something that we may want to achieve.

I thought about that on my way home, and the next day, and finally came up with the challenge to walk to that bridge, and back home again. Now, while I have been walking fairly regularly, it’s only been for around 2500 steps, but by my calculations, this walk to the bridge and back would be 10000 steps. Wowee, that far?

Yes that far. I can’t remember walking that far, not recently any way, or not since MS came into my life … But I’m going quite well with my MS – may medication, is going well for me, my positive attitude to life, the healthy food my husband, who is also my carer, has been cooking for us.

So I looked into this SMART Goals thing, and found out what the letters S.M.A.R.and T. stand for and then wrote about it, to work out whether my idea would meet what a SMART Goal actually is. The letters relate to the goal being:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound

So walking to that particular spot is certainly specific and measurable, and as a person with MS, and wishing to limit my trips and falls, by being fitter, and stronger particularly with my legs, it’s definitely relevant. And after some research online, I gave myself eight weeks to get fitter, by slowly increasing my walking I already do, and slowly work up to the required distance.

I hoped this would increase my fitness, and felt this would mean the goal was actually attainable. So tick, tick, tick, tick, tick for all of them! The distance I would have to walk is 5.2km, which for me is 10,000 steps. This is by my calculation, and it may not be quite correct, but I think it’s pretty close to it.

So that is my SMART Goal, I feel I can do it, and am in fact already working to make it happen. I may have a Chronic illness, but I also have a belief in myself, a positive attitude to life, and a great support team helping me! I can do whatever I sensibly believe I can do, plus a bit more!

Fundraising for Multiple Sclerosis

I am currently committed to collecting funds for the MS Society SA & NT, every Thursday sitting out the front of the Hotel my writing group will be attending a little later.

So far, my results with this have been a little patchy, but there has been at least a little bit of money added to my collection tin every time. I’m also collecting online, as well, so for all I know, there may be a little more money there as well.

I think the most important money making task could have been what I did yesterday, two things actually. I was at that same venue, the Prince Albert Hotel, for the launch of my new poetry collection, “Leonard Cohen Is Dead”. The book launch went well, with a goodly number of books sold, which was great.

But the relevant thing is even greater, because I am going to donate 10 percent of my takings from sales of this book, to my fundraising, for the rest of June. After that, any book sales, if there are any, will be all mine …

I’m hoping I can raise more funds this time, that I did last time. Because the tins are closed in, I don’t know how much money they have in them, and I haven’t counted up my money made for book sales yesterday, but I expect it to be at least $100, so that will mean popping $10 into the tin …

I have also left a collection tin on the front bar of the hotel along with some information from the MS Society SA & NT, for anyone interested in knowing more about Multiple Sclerosis. It feels like a good thing to be doing, for the Society, that has done good things for me!

Having Multiple Sclerosis, But Going Well Enough!

When you’re hit with a Chronic Illness, you can rant and rave, asking ‘Why Me?’, or you can look at what you’ve lost, but what you still have, and what may improve things.

When I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), back in 2010, I went through a bit of a bad time, but then things improved, and these days, if you didn’t already know I had MS, would never guess I had it.

I wrote a little about some of these things here, and including the idea of stress as a bad thing when you have MS. I do truly believe the fact of being able to live an almost completely stress-free life is part of why I am going so well.

I also have a great team of supporters, from family and friends, to medical assistance, to support workers. The government has provided me with much, and I am grateful for that. I have a disability support pension, and my husband who is also my carer, receives payments for that carer role.

A positive attitude to life, if that is a possible thing for a person, is always going to make it easier to see the good things that are there, even in amidst some bad things.

This book is the book I would have liked to find when I was diagnosed with MS back in 2010, but couldn’t find anything like it, so I decided to write it myself. Standing there with Mick the Stick, and Jane the Cane held high, as I smile for the cameraman (thanks Martin Christmas!), I wasn’t going to let MS stop me!

Having things to do, not tied in with a chronic illness, but something else entirely has helped me a lot. My writing was already important to me, before MS ever came along, but since the diagnosis, I have made a conscious choice to look for bigger and better things, and ways of being.

At the moment, I’ve thought about further study, or quite different possible jobs I could do. Psychology as something to study feels interesting, the idea of being a life coach certainly is of interest as well.

But I suspect what I would be best with, would be to put far more effort into getting Public Speaking gigs, and go around talking to various groups about life – my life, life in general, anything, I like writing, but I life talking even more! Give me a topic, I can talk about it!

But even if nothing much more comes along in my life, than what I already have, what a sweet life I will live, MS and all. My life truly is a good.one!

Growing in my front yard, not that far from the front door. Lovely!

My Chronic Illness Isn’t My Only Thing

Yes, I have a Chronic Illness, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), but MS isn’t the only thing in my life, and isn’t the one I’m most focussed on really. I’m a writer, and a community member, working to increase my ‘standing’ in both of these things.

My MS has some impact on my mobility issues, but instead of letting that prevent me from being physically active, I’ve learnt doing more does indeed help me to do more! Walking short distances, often, builds the strength in my body, and helps me to walk further and further.

And being fitter sure makes me feel better, and look better too! At the moment, we are suffering with this awful Covid virus that has killed many and sickened even more, and I certainly don’t want to be one of those affected. So I walk up and down my road, and around and around my own place, keeping away from other people.

I don’t know who may be carrying this virus, and so I’m doing what I can to keep safe, and obeying what our government says we have to do. Some people have objections to these ‘rules’, but not me, I’m more than happy to follow these rules, for sure. I know my body is immunocompromised – my immune system is not as effective as it could be, and so I’ll wear that mask, and socially distance, no problems.

And when my main thing in life, or one of them, my writing and community things are reduced, because I have to stay at home, well, I’m happy that there are still online issues, and ways to stay connected. My writing group will meet online tomorrow, because the idea of having a meeting when wearing a mask, didn’t have any appeal for group members, including me.

And of course with all of the ‘staying home’ times we’ve been having, I’ve been able to do a lot more writing for a couple of online platforms, and while I’m not making a lot of money doing it, I’m making a little bit, and I’m enjoying myself.

And isn’t having a life you can enjoy, one of the best things there is? I think so!

About disability, looking at having the right attitude …

I’ve written another article about how we can all get on, and have a go at doing things, whether abled, or disabled. Having the best attitude, having a go at all we want to do, this is the way to go, for the most satisfying life!

In my article on Medium (Medium.com), I have a photograph of a womain in a wheelchair, in the middle of a race, with many able bodied people racing too. She isn’t sitting back, whinging about not being able to walk, she giving her all, doing her darndest to get on in the race!

I don’t know who she is, but if I were to ever meet her, I bet she has some great stories to tell about the things she accomplished in her life, because she sure looks like she’s not afraid to get in there and get going!

Take a look, and see for yourself!

Thinking about, writing about disabilities

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about deafness. I’ve been ‘a bit deaf’ for most of my life, but have now been fitted with hearing aids, and I’m loving being able to hear so many sounds I’ve not really heard fully before.

Hearing aid in, you’d barely now, but I know, because I can hear much better!

I wrote about that today on another platform, Medium, and this is a link to what I wrote. Writing about things helps me to better understand them, and writing on Medium.com brings me little bits of money, which is always nice. But more importantly, it is a fascinating site with a great many writers, and readers available, and is a fine way to make connections with people from all around the world.

I’ve been writing there for just over a month, and while I’m only new there, I feel a part of the Medium community, reading, writing, making comments, and so on. And of course that feeling of belonging can be difficult sometimes, for people with disabilities, and we can be ignored, and misunderstood by able-bodied people who fail to completely understand us and our needs.

Writing about such things, putting the word out, may help people to realise more of the truths about being disabled, and so may lead to better things happening for disabled people. I hope so, and so will continue doing my bit to help out, because writing is something I’m good at doing!