Steph's Travel Adventures

 Personally, I didn't celebrate International Coffee Day this year because I didn't realize it was an actual thing until half of the day was over. Believe me, if I had known, I would have had some extra coffee to celebrate!  Recently, because of the medication I have been on by my psychiatrist, I get tired in the middle of the day. When I drink coffee, I become very happy and perky. But the thing is, I need to find these things even when I don't have coffee. I find it really hard to find the motivation to do things without having coffee.  What is coffee to me? Well, firstly, it is one of my favourite beverages. Two, as I have explained before, it makes me very happy. I use it to be social (too often in one week). I would spend about $42 a week on takeaway coffee.  One day I hope to get a coffee machine to practice my barista skills. I usually use the So Good Barista Almond milk for my coffee at the moment. I am an artist, so I can't say that I have done any coffee-in...

 My day started pretty well. I went over in the mid-morning to pick up the game. Or I should rather say games because I did get both of them!  But let's just say there was a hump along the way. I accidentally spent too much of my mum's money. So then couldn't use the game for a good chunk of the day. And I started my adventure only yesterday. My initial thought....it was going to be a very interesting game as it is the first open-world Pokemon game I have played. I am up to the part just before the academy, just after you select your first Pokemon. And I do have videos of my adventure that I will upload to YouTube very soon. You will see how happy I was to start my long-awaited adventure.   One more thing before I leave you, which one did I choose? Well, the answer is the grass-type starter. It was a challenging decision, yet, as most Pokemon fans know, it is sometimes regarded as one of the most important decisions. This is regarded as one of the most important deci...

 A lot of people like to call me a pokemon master, and my biological parents call me a Pokemon-aholic. In previous years I did a considerable amount of research into a variety of different episodes in the Pokemon anime, starting from season 14 episode 8 on the 29/2/12. The last date I wrote in this book was the 17th November. In light of mentioning these dates, throughout this duration I spent ALOT of time in front of a TV screen, and I might pick it up again one day soon, but until then my love for pokemon will never truly wither because it will always be a part of me, no matter where I go or what I do, but you know there's one thing recently that has played on my mind, and that thing is my reputation in Pokemon has slowly withered because I haven't been as active to do with this subject until recent weeks, which is sad for me, as I always took a lot of pride in most things I did with Pokemon, and particularly of my Pokemon collection. I do have another book that my mum actual...

I touched on this in a previous blog, but I have recently dealt with moderate mental health. So I have not been dealing with my books like I usually do. And I have been trying to keep on top of it, but recently, I have been strapped for money. So the usual way I would typically combat this has been taken out of the situation.  Many people ask me how I have been delving into mental health. Well, I have not, and I do not enjoy it. But, in recent times, I have done research on various topics. Some have been good, and others not so good. But, if anyone can do it, it seems to be me at the moment. It is not always bad because I have delved into a few topics I used to use a fair bit of the time and did not know I knew so much about. I did a lot of physical practice of imaginative play in my early years, and I have recently got back into it. At some point in the future (I don't know when!), I will be uploading some videos to YouTube from my old camera.  Other than this, I met with my ...

 The weather is warming up in a lovely part of the land, I've been able to make it into the pool a few more times, so I've been grateful for that. Other than this, I've still got a bit more shopping to do; as to when I will achieve this, I don't know. I got another birthday present today - a mickey mouse shirt - and I went to my dad's tournament in the late afternoon/evening for Karate. As far as I'm aware, he won the most spirited award for the whole competition, or at least his age group; I haven't spoken to him much about it. In the one fight I saw, he lost, but at the end of the day, he will always be my father, and there's one sport I can guarantee that my father will have his second name, Karate. Now for myself personally, it's not that I don't have an interest in Karate; I do, but it's very hard for me to physically participate in it, so when it comes to going to social events, because of how high up in the ranks my father is, I'm ...

 Over the past, while I have been very naughty and spent a lot of money, which I don't usually do, I don't know why but somehow I feel it's different. What I'm gonna do in this blog, instead of writing and boring your ears off, I'm going to take some photos and attach for you what I bought. Most of my time was spent at EB cause if you are close to me, you know I'm not an obsessed gamer, but I'm a keen gamer, although I admit I don't do it as much as I used to. So some of these photos will be very highly sought after because I'll only upload them onto my blog once, and if you are lucky, you might see me uploading to Facebook because sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. On the other side of things, though, there are some photos that I have been meaning to upload to Facebook for some time now. Those photos are of me when I did a recent photo shoot with my cousin Julia, and in these photos, I was actually in Kirra both times, and I did a one-day tim...

 Now you'll have to excuse me on this one, I am relatively new to the area of mental health when it comes to seeing mental health professionals, but I have dealt with my own mental health for some time now, has this been easy? No, it hasn't. My mental health comes in various forms, the most common - anxiety. Earlier this year, on the 26th of April, when I had my first appointment with a psychiatrist, I was diagnosed with situational anxiety. Still, I also had to cope with another big topic which is suicide. Recently this one has not been easy. I have been back and forth to doctor's appointments over the past month or so because I have had multiple things wrong; for example, I had to syringe out my ears, and I went back to a doctor's appointment to do with a burn. Why do I open up about mental health, you ask? Well, the thing is, like most people, I don't really want to, but it relieves frustration and some other emotions if people do open up about mental health as a...

 Dancing through life without legs, no one can dance without legs, not even me. So much so that I have a ladder in my room that I used to pull up on, but since I got my new chair, I haven't done any yet, so when I do, I'll clue the view. Before I swapped my chairs, I developed my own form of pole dancing, which was different from the traditional sense but still dancing all the same. It has been a sporadic hobby for me, which I started when I was younger and then stopped for a while until picking it back up last year, where I performed it mostly without fear. Throughout my initial startup sessions last year, I would close my door and curtain so I could be free to be me with my knees against my bed; I would do ab work like no one else ever could, as it was unique to my chair and the positioning was in front of a busy stage where kids played at the fair. As a young kid in primary school, I took part in ballet classes with my friend Sophie and a bunch of my other friends. I current...

 In recent times this has been a very hard thing to do. Naturally, because my team is now so large, it is tough to juggle people's uni schedules around my rosters because I usually have to fit in with people's uni schedules instead of fitting in with my roster. I currently have 15 members of staff on a fortnightly rotating roster, and having to accommodate so many different people can be very draining; believe me, I don't do it because I want to; I do it because I have to otherwise, I wouldn't be able to live normally without assistance. Another thing with having a physical disability and managing such a big team is that you always feel like YOUR constantly on call, and what I mean by this is people can call in sick at any given moment. You'd have to be willing to coordinate replacements; believe me, this is not my favourite thing to do. It is actually very draining, especially in the early hours of the morning when you're trying to sleep, I can't tell you h...

 As I said in one of my previous blogs, you are usually only a limit to yourself when It comes to your disability. Now I like to look at that because I always try to strive and get the best out of my time, but recently I have dealt with a considerable amount of mental health, which could lead to things that I don't like. What, you might ask? Well, it could be somethig\as simple as wetting my pants. Now at the moment, this happens way too much because I can't go to the toilet in public, so this usually means I have to come home to facilitate that, and if that is not doable, where does it end up? There is only one place it can. Do I get upset by this? Yes, I do, but I try to look at my experience positively at the end of the day. What do I mean by this? Well, it then allows me to educate people younger than myself on how to cope with different situations, and although I do like, teaching more youthful people, it is always better when I can physically demonstrate and my carers can...

 On this day i went down to the beach with a friend of my father's who goes by the name of Tony, my carer Sofia and some rope - what would the rope be used for, you may ask?  Well, it is to pull my manual chair along the sand so I can play with Roxy on demand. As she jumps through the waves, she plays until the day gaze, leaves clouds in the sky and we head back up the sandy maze of which Kingsliff lays. 

 So here's a short video from a couple of years ago and I will attached the link to the original blog below  Two Styx May 2019 (stephstraveladventures.blogspot.com) Thanks, Stephanie

  Evening everyone! It's a late one tonight but hey you can't always have it your way! When it comes to disability, you more often don't get things your way. And if I am being brutally honest right now, all I want to do is run away and play!!! But, like most things in my life, sometimes the things dearest to you get taken away. As to why life goes this way, when it comes to a disability, no one really knows. But you know my theory on this is that there are some disabilities that ain't as difficult to deal with as mine on some days. All I want to do is have a bad hair day and scream the rest of the way without anyone else knowing that you are really having a bad day. But the thing is with a physical disability, you don't often get to choose what you do with the lower half of your body. Most of the time what you do is often governed by the people around you. We all have good and bad days but it is all about choosing how to focus and redirect the energy so you can turn...

 For this our main point here is; to include us, even in the most minimal way, because it could lift our moods dramatically. Another thing here is; to listen, take the time to listen. Now with a disabled person, this could be a prolonged amount of time but you might just get a very intelligent conversation out of us if you give us the time to express ourselves. So for example, with me a full conversation, depending on what you talk about, could take 2 and a half to 3 hours because I do like to be very descriptive and elaborative in my answers to people. Another big thing here is, if we are in the middle of a conversation or trying to tell you something, don't walk away because it leads to miscommunication between parties and then both sides of the party end up in a bad mood because your not getting along. Give us respect to elaborate on things, give us the chance to educate you, it doesn't have to be on one of our particular subjects but we could take the time to take a look at...

 This can be another varying subject when it comes to dealing with children with disabilities, using myself as an example, I was always very good at eating most things when I was a kid, but to be entirely truthful, the one thing that I have struggled with has been fluid consumption. Am I happy with this? No, I'm not, believe me. Because it can cause more issues over a longer period of time than you think. For example now what I struggle with on a day to day basis is actually not being able to go to the toilet in public toilets, so that means I have to restrict things in public so I'm able to get home, so I can carry out these things. Once again it's about getting down to their level and making it a somewhat interactive process, so this would be allowing them to choose how much they eat of what they've got in their lunchboxes, is this easy? No. Because at the end of the day your parents check how much of what you've consumed, at least this was the way it was for me, ...

 Now this one might flow a little easier for me so it should have a good chunk of information for you to digest. Abled to disabled, well depending on what way you look at the saying, it could be the fact that there are more disadvantages to being disabled than there are advantages, but most of the time its how you choose to look at these disadvantages which could empower you or destroy you. For example, for me right now I'm struggling in a multitude of ways but you will very rarely hear me complain about it, and if I do, it's not because I want to, it's usually because I'm hitting my breaking point. The last 2 and a half 3 years have not been an easy time for me as I've gone through a different number of carers many times and had several different people come in and out of the house, it's been very unsettling for me and my family. Another disadvantage to being disabled is that you have to manage your team of support people which I will pay respect to this in ano...

 Once again this is just a disclaimer because I'm not as intelligent in this area of disability. So please, if the information that I share with you is not exactly accurate, I ask you to keep this statement in mind and look forward to any feedback you might have. In my experience when I've had interactions with intellectually disabled people when they don't win they become very frustrated because they can't see the purpose behind not being able to win or not being perfect in something, they find it more difficult to come to terms with the fact that they haven't done something exactly right, or the fact that it's taken them longer to achieve something which puts a downer on their day. One way I found of combatting this potentially, is you try to get down to their level and teach them the right techniques, particularly when it comes to sport, and the key here is; to take time and be patient. And with those two things, you should eventually get to where you are try...

 Well this one is another unusual one and, it is not my best subject, so you will have to bare with me.  Fear of not being like intellectually. Well, I do not know what this is but I would assume it is because of the fact that people stare at you. They think you are different. And you cannot communicate properly, and that makes them think that you are weird. And, then it makes people not want to interact with them. But recently, I have noticed that intellectually disabled people do very well in interacting with animals. This has been through my new job at APRADA. 

 I wonder what the future might hold as I know my past few months have not been easy. I look down at my cat's face whose head is resting on his paw, He'll be dreaming about tuna for sure. Although in the case he was chasing the bird, he wished he would be the one to lay down the law with his claw. But alas his feathered friend climbed up the wall. As he lays upon the brown speckled dots you would think they were rocks, 

 Once again here, you will have to bear with me because this is not my specialty area. I would assume that fear of the unknown from a person with an intellectual disability is how not knowing when saying something can affect someone else. It would be fear of what could come back at them if people did not take it the right way. Another thing that I am assuming would affect an intellectually disabled person would be not being able to pronounce correctly. So the chances of it being misinterpreted are higher, causing frustration for them and those around them. Lastly, I would assume that for them, when experiencing new situations or being pushed out of their comfort zone, it would be very challenging. As they do not possess the ability or the capacity to fully understand and comprehend why things are being done a certain way, fear can easily take its place.  Until next time. Stephanie :) 

 First of all, I apologise if this blog isn't up to my usual elaborative standard, as I am not mentally having the best night. OT appointments through the eyes of a physically disabled person.  As an example, I always hated OT appointments growing up because they were always associated with taking away a particular part of my independence. Now, I will admit. Lately, I have been very slack with my exercise, and naturally, for a physically disabled person, this is not the optimal state you want to find yourself in. Why? Well, there are a few reasons. One, because as you get a=older, it gets harder to motivate yourself. Two, because if you are not the one who puts in the hard yards, no one else will do it for you at the end of the day. And then, OT appointments are required to assess different ways of doing things. Whether through mechanical equipment or manual handling is up to the OT and the individual situation. Unfortunately for me, over the years, I have gone from primarily ...

 1- Do not walk away.  2- Let us finish speaking.  3- Miscommunication is a big no-no. 4- Miscommunication is most commonly seen when tip number 2 is not followed promptly. Give us time to communicate swiftly, so it does not lead to number 3. If miscommunication is achieved, it is tough to get back to the original conversation for some people because your right of say gets overhauled. Then, after you have communicated your point, it is always lovely to hear out from the other person.  And then, they can give you the best advice on moving forward.  Before I leave you with an ellipsis in your wake, if you don't let us finish speaking, it can cause us a great deal of frustration. For example, about myself, I would go another quarter of my day trying to communicate to another person what I was trying to say.  Until next time! Thanks, Stephanie :)

 Although I touched on this briefly in a blog that I published earlier this evening, I will now try to go into this in more detail.  So what I meant earlier by me having contradicting interactions with intellectually disabled people, more often than not, what will happen is them playing with my control and making my wheelchair go forward and put them and me in harm's way. But so far, this hasn't happened. And prevention is better than cure.  So the easiest way to avoid this, you ask? Well....turn off all power from the wheelchair. This includes taking out all power cords. But in cases where this isn't possible, I have unfortunately had people that had tried to run me forward inside a taxi. I've had people unintentionally try to flip me or make me fall sideways in a cab. I've had people come up to me in social outings and unintentionally try to run me into walls.  As you can imagine, being the one in the wheelchair when something like this happens can be frightening ...

 Now for this blog, I do not have as much information. So you will have to bare with me because this is not my specialty area.  If you know the type of intellectual disability displayed by a person, you can adjust your approach accordingly. So, in saying this, you would not be running up to someone with autism and making loud noises and changing their routine because this would cause them to essentially have a bad day. But the one thing that you need to remember to do is to get down to their level.  And with that, for now, I will leave you but I may update this blog in the future. So please keep checking in case I do any updates. Thank you, Stephanie :)

 The number one tip here is, don't stare at us.  Number two, if you are curious, ask questions. We preferred to be asked questions and not answer than stared at. Number 3, do not assume that we are dumb. If you give us the time, we might be quite intelligent on certain subjects. For example, my subjects would be anything to do with human or veterinary medicine. Aside from story writing and various other individual topics. Although in saying this, lately for myself, I have been very slack when it comes to veterinary medicine. I have a lot more study to do! Number 4. Do not point out what is different. As some people may find this embarrassing and/or nerve-wracking. Personally, when I was growing up, I made the choice of what information to disclose. So in saying this, I didn't always find it unnerving to do so. But as I grew older, it got easier to know what to explain and what to avoid saying to people.  And point number 5, is that there are some people you can elaborate ...

 One of my best lots of advice is to make sure that the person always has a carer. Because in my personal experience, I haven't had much luck interacting with disabled people. I have found myself in some very complicated situations where intellectually disabled people will approach me and want to spend time with me. Still, unfortunately, they want to play with my chain, putting them in harm's way. So this is why now I more commonly avoid interacting with intellectually disabled people. But this does mean I should avoid it if I want to gain exposure. But it is just that this exposure moving forward will have to be consistently monitored so that I do not end up in difficult positions again.  Being a person with a physical disability myself, I always try to be very respectful of other people with a disability, even though I don't always have interactions with them because I don't know how their day has been. Probably the most common place I have interactions with people wh...

 hmm, I find myself here again plotting over another blog. My best piece of advice here is don't walk away from them and let them finish their conversation (if they're verbal). If they're not verbal it is still nice for them to be acknowledged. For example, when I was going through school, I had two disabled friends who were non-verbal. One had epilepsy, and one didn't. They both could communicate by making noise to varying degrees. However, they couldn't communicate through spoken word. But a lot could be said from their facial expressions. If you are interacting with someone who is verbal like me, it is much easier to facilitate a proper conversation. But the problem that I have most of the time is that people cut me off or I don't get to finish my side of the conversation. This is highly irritating because it commonly leads to miscommunication between parties. As physically disabled person we may not be able to do much physically; however, our power of observ...

 My main piece of advice here is to not treat them differently. Treat them the same as you would an able body person. Approach them, ask them questions in a kind manner, do not make assumptions, do not stare and do not do things that would make them feel like they are different. Now is the time when you should encourage kids in a respectful manner to involve kids with disability in things. Using myself as an example, I am now 28, but when I was going through primary school, inclusion was a big thing. You would go out to playgrounds and be included in games like skipping, handball and you name it. I have tried everything within reason. And although it might seem that we are not doing much, the power of observation can be a great teacher. Due to obviously having a physical disability, there were some things that were out of bounds. My advice to you here is to don't do things that you think you should in relation to having a physical disability because you could end up breaking your c...

 Option 1- which once again I do not recommend, does not have anything to do with occupational therapy.  Option 2 is to gradually get children used to OTs. Believe me, this is not an easy task. This advice is coming from me, someone who hates OTs.  But recently, as in meaning over the previous three out of five years of her uni course, a beautiful carer of mine, by the name of Kasia Rae, has persuaded me differently. Before I met Kasia, I only knew OTs in a professional manner. So to me, growing up, I understood what they were doing but didn't agree with it.  The main reason I did not agree with it is that the more I grew up, the more I felt like they were taking away my physical independence to use my body and instead relying on equipment to do the work. But, once again, as I said in one of my previous blogs, these people do serve a purpose in the community. And they are an important part of a disabled person's life whether they like it or not. Does it mean that you...

 This will be my last blog for the night so I will try my best to make it as proficient as possible! Anxiety around fear of the unknown, for any disabled person, is a huge thing because a lot of the time we have someone else making decisions for us or in reference to us. So, we usually don't have a choice or control in the situation either, which adds to the anxiety. An example of this is when I recently saw a psychiatrist. Personally, I found it extremely difficult to do and very confronting, which is why if I have to go back to them, I would not be happy. But once again, as I just said in my previous blog, which I hope to link below at some point (but it won't be tonight), these doctors do serve a purpose in the community and they are there for the people who do really need them.  For example, my fear of the unknown s felt at least  4 times a fortnight, which equates to twice a week. This could be for multiple reasons as for the past months, my mental health has not bee...

 Well well well...when it comes to doctors and doctor's appointments when you have a disability, there is usually an overwhelming amount of them. So much so that they normally start their rounds not long after you were born, as you are almost immediately taken care of by the doctors who are in NICU (Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit) or up on the ward. And then for the rest of your life, you deal with an onslaught of varying degrees. So much so that there are a few breakdowns along the way. But, there are some ways you can deal with them. Number 1, which I do not recommend, is to not deal with your feelings surrounding these appointments.  Number 2, try as best as possible to deal with the anxiety when you are in the waiting room. Otherwise, it will want to come out of you in various forms afterwards. And if you are anything like me, you'll be running out the door as fast as you can. But the thing to remember here at the end of the day is that, as much as they can be very annoying...

 Thus I will find it extremely hard to explain but she will try her hardest not to cry along the way. What do Angela and Murray mean to me? Well, to most people, this might only take you 5 minutes, but to this point, it has taken me at least 5 years to be able to realise what they truly do mean to me, and I think the story that I am currently writing to do with these beautiful people, is allowing me to find out what that truly is. Over the years, Angela, Murray and I have spent a considerable amount of time with one another; nevertheless, I will say this; hopefully, at my best, I struggle to find words that truly describe the immensity of these two beautiful people mean to me. Have you ever heard the saying; "the world is your oyster"? Well, I have, but little did I know at the time that oyster was in the form of two very special people. Angela and Murray never gave me the world, but what they did do during this time was they allowed me to experience it on my own feet, or whe...

 The months that have passed have been long and hard for me in a multitude of different ways. Unfortunately mostly to a mental degree, although little did I know on the 26th of September last year, that I would happen to create the second longest story in my life to date. Although as I mentioned in Angela's birthday post which I will link below, it is only to have six chapters but that six chapters have, and won't come easily. Why is this you ask? Because although this story follows the realistic/fictional lives of my 2 best friends writing the proceeding story has not been easy on a multitude of levels. Mainly because as it stands, it now has outworked my other long-standing story, and my other long-standing story has 4 stories with 2-3 parts each story which I'm currently now writing story 5 of, but what makes this story stand out from that one is that it carries a lot more realistic emotional weight as most of the time I spend about 2-3 hours writing the bulk of this sto...