Good things.

There are very few times I'm glad I have CF. But now and again, nice things do happen. It's almost as if someone is saying 'Hey, sorry you got stuck with these sucky cf genes.'

At the top of my 'nice things' list, is obviously getting to go to London courtesy of Make-a-wish. (Although does it make me bratty if, when I look at the 'make a wish' site, and I see that they haven't included my wish in the 'latest wishes' section or the 'we had a wish' bit, I feel a little peeved. Hell, my wish was awesome, and I'd really like to share that story on the site). But, there is another totally awesome thing that has happened, that I haven't blogged about as I didn't want to jinx it. After all, it has only been confirmed in the last week.

I applied to a CF further education grant fund, called the 'Joseph Levy memorial fund'. Its where people with CF who want to pursue further education (i.e. college or Uni) can apply and ask for a grant to help pay for the course or things that they may need. I applied, and completely forgot about it, as it was much earlier in the year when I did apply, and they said that it wouldn't be decided if I would get a grant until June, when the trustees of the charity would decide who deserves what, and how much.

When I got back from London, sitting on the door mat, was a letter addressed to me (A fairly rare occurrence, as pretty much the only things I get in the post is my - ever stationary - bank statement, and letters from the hospital.) So, I opened it up, probably expecting junk mail, and found another letter from the Joseph Levy memorial fund, stating that the trustee's had awarded me £650 towards the cost of buying a camera for my photography course. Of course, this grant would depend on my exam results. However, between the time of writing the grant application form and meeting with the college, I'd changed the course I was going to be on. Now, my results wouldn't depend on whether I go in on the course (which meant that I was probably the calmest A2 student this side of the British Isles on results day) but I did worry I wouldn't qualify for my grant, as I'd applied under a different course.

The letter had stated to reply once I had received my results, to prove that I was going to be going ahead with the further education, and not trying to scam out a charity of £650, I guess. I wrote a letter thanking them for offering me a (conditional) £650 grant, and explained that whilst I was changing courses, I would still be doing photography, and in September 2010, I will be continuing with the photography course I had originally planned on, as this first year will ensure me the qualifications I need to be able to continue on what I had originally wanted.

Two days or so later, my Dad came into the room and said that the people from the grant had phoned. He had a kinda disappointed face on, and I said 'What, have they said no?'. Then he broke out in a massive grin, laughing, and saying that I got the grant. If you've ever watched 'Friends', it was like when Joey pretends he hasn't gotten an acting part from an audition. Then goes 'Yeah, I got it!'

I'm so, so pleased that I got this grant, as DSLR cameras cost a bunch. Since I found out I definitely got the grant, I've been doing research on the ideal camera to get within my price range, and the best place to get it (whilst the camera I've decided on won't change, the price does change from shop to shop.) I've decided on a Nikon D60, and I still have enough money from the grant to get a flash, spare lens, camera bag, memory card, filter covers and a spare battery pack. Then I've probably spent the entire grant, but that's what it was for! And I can start my college course free from worrying about a student loan debt from having to buy so much camera stuff.

Oh yes. I was talking to Bree on MSN before, and said that whilst I want to blog about something, I can't think of anything worth blogging about. Basically, the only ideas I had wouldn't even keep the most easily amused person paying attention. So Bree said 'Blog about me.' So Bree, who is doing abso-fucking-lutely amazing since having her double lung TX a mere three weeks ago, certainly deserves her own little section of amazing-ness. I'm so glad that your PFTs are so far doing really well, and you have, however long it takes, to see even higher numbers (for some people, I've heard that they hit over 100% in less than 6 months after TX, whilst for some, it takes a little longer. It probably has something to do with your rate of recovery or something.) I'm also glad that you can now run/skip/jump about and sing to your hearts content (or at least to your healing sternum's content) without getting out of breath or needing oxygen.