Sally's World

I went over Trojans yesterday, and we decided to do a video blog…we’ve been following some stuff going on in the media, and of course the Rihanna and Chris Brown debacle…and it got us talking about people in the public eye, shouldn’t they be entitled to have a relationship without it being ripped apart by the media…

Trojan and I had somewhat different views… and to make matters worse, we decided it had to be short, so for some inexplicable reason set ourselves a sixty second time limit…I have absolutely no clue why we thought we could answer the question in 60 seconds, it just seemed like a good idea at the time.

Have a listen…its okay, we don’t come to blows…. well, not during filming!!!

Okay, so we see it differently, but as I said, with any job comes responsibility, if someone were to become a police officer or a teacher, it is accepted that they are going to be influencing children, therefore need to be responsible and set the right example…so in becoming rich an famous in an industry where you know young people will look upon you as a role model…you have a certain responsibility…

What you can’t see in the end shot there is me pulling on my boxing gloves…well, we had to have the debate…which roughly translates to ‘I need to go on and on until Trojan sees it my way!!!’ because, naturally, I couldn't possibly be wrong!!!

This completely blew me away, and proves that there are many different ways to excell.



The Incredible Brain (Daniel Tammet)

Daniel Paul Tammet is a British high-functioning autistic savant gifted with a facility for mathematical calculations, sequence memory, and natural language learning. He was born with congenital childhood epilepsy. Experiencing numbers as colors or sensations is a well-documented form of synesthesia, but the detail and specificity of Tammet's mental imagery of numbers is unique. In his mind, he says, each number up to 10,000 has its own unique shape and feel, that he can "see" results of calculations as landscapes, and that he can "sense" whether a number is prime or composite. He has described his visual image of 289 as particularly ugly, 333 as particularly attractive, and pi as beautiful. Tammet not only verbally describes these visions, but also creates artwork, particularly watercolor paintings, such as his painting of Pi. Tammet holds the European record for memorising and recounting pi to 22,514 digits in just over five hours. He also speaks a variety of languages including English, French, Finnish, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Estonian, Icelandic, Welsh and Esperanto. He particularly likes Estonian, because it is rich in vowels. Tammet is creating a new language called Mänti. Tammet is capable of learning new languages very quickly. To prove this for the Channel Five documentary, Tammet was challenged to learn Icelandic in one week. Seven days later he appeared on Icelandic television conversing in Icelandic, with his Icelandic language instructor saying it was "not human."

This explains soooo many things!

A good friend of mine sent this video to me, and I found it so funny that I really had to share it. My Husband and I watched it and laughed out loud, nodding the whole time and agreeing with just about all of it....

It's a humorous explanation of how male and female brains are different by Mark Gungor.

Make sure you watch it, listen to it, and maybe even learn something on the way! May men and women everywhere have better understanding for each other!

Okay, so I feel that because I love posting other peoples embarrassing moments and stories, that it is only fair that I do the same for myself!

For the last four months my good friend Trojan…of Trojans corner fame…and I have been going to salsa classes, we were complete novices, it was something we’d been saying we’d try for years, and just never got round to.

Our Wednesday night salsa class is now set in stone, the kids know I’m leaving the house for a couple of hours, and no longer make me feel like I’m neglecting them to do something for myself (sin of all sins).

we've gradually moved up through the classes as our ability has improved, we're pretty proud of ourselves. We keep up anyway (almost).

After the class, the lights go down and it’s a salsa club, and it’s great to watch all the experts spinning around the dance floor.

I got asked to dance last time, and rather than shy away, I bit the bullet and went for it, the fact that the guy who asked me was in his sixties may have had something to do with it, I was pretty sure I could keep up…well, how sadly mistaken I was. He was a great leader, so all I had to do was follow, but he threw me around the dance floor like a mad man, making me dizzy and out of breath, and I think I did okay, but I practically needed oxygen afterwards as I staggered off the dance floor for a rest…he however went on and danced with someone else…that will teach me to judge on age!!!

Trojan's mum came with us that night and took some photos and did some videoing...luckily she didn't get a shot of Trojan spinning a woman across the dance floor so fast that she actually ended up half way across the room on her butt...oops! sorry, was I not supposed to mention that Trojan!

Anyway, you can take a look here and see for yourself...Trojan's worked his technical wizardry as usual....its certainly better than our first video blog about it!

I still have nightmares about that one!

http://trojansgallery.blogspot.com/2009/03/salsa-feel-heat.html

Take care

Sal & Trojan xxx

Oh my! how we love to see other people embarassing themselves, what a cruel race we are!

Here is a great collection of embarrassing falls, really made me laugh! and also made me feel like I may not be the clumsiest person on the planet...after watching these I think I would probably only come in third or maybe fourth!!!

Enjoy!

More like, Sally's World harasses/heckles/terrorises Trojans Corner!

As most of you know, Trojan (http://trojansgallery.blogspot.com/) is the one that got me into blogging. You probably also know that we do video blogging as well.

A while ago, Trojan put me on the spot and fired 20 questions at me, giving me no time to prepare and give suitable/sophisticated answers...it was very funny, but I really wanted to change my answers afterwards!!!

Well I got my own back, Trojan has now been put under the same pressure and truly appreciates the difficulties of coming up with decent answers so quickly.

I was as mean as he was, and wouldn't let him change his answers either, although we are still waiting for one answer Trojan. He was obviously worried about getting himself in trouble like I did !!!!


Actually, I think he did well,his Mum and I managed to put him off a few times, but overall, he managed to ignore us, and thats not easy.

Here is the video blog from when Trojan asked me all the same questions...oh dear!

Sal & Trojan

Today, we have our first guest writer on sally’s world, my daughter Robyn.

As you know Trojan (http://trojansgallery.blogspot.com/) and I have been doing video blogs for a while, yesterday we talked about dyslexia with Robyn, who was diagnosed with dyslexia when she was seven years old. She was a natural, and I was very proud of how well she explained the ways in which her dyslexia affects her, and how she overcomes it.

“Hi, I’m Robyn, I’m sally’s daughter, my teachers told me I had dyslexia six years ago, I work really hard and read a lot to help me cope and keep up with my school work. Last night Mummy and Uncle Trojan asked me lots of questions about how I feel and how I cope, and if anyone has been horrible about my dyslexia. We videoed it so you can see us talking about it. I hope it will help other people who are finding it hard to cope. Mum says if you have any questions you can e-mail me to ask me on sally@heavensspecialchild.co.uk there are some really good websites too the British Dyslexia Society has lots of information it is on http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/ and Dyslexia Learning Success is on http://causesofdyslexia.com/ this is an excellent site and gives you lots of ideas. Please watch our video and tell us what you think. I liked doing it, I was a bit shy at first, but was okay when I got talking, and I want to help other people. Bye, love Robyn xxxxxx.”


So take a look and see for yourself, I think we have a star in the making.

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend.

We got together again yesterday for our twelfth video blog. We spoke about people that influence and inspire us, we had five separate categories i.e. family, friend, historical figure e.t.c. and had to name one person in each category.

This is not as easy as you might think…first of all, when put on the spot, ones mind tends to go blank (well mine does any way) and secondly, it is hard to pick just one as so many people influence us over the years, sometimes in the most unexpected places and ways!

Well, rather than try and explain it all, you can have a watch/laugh/cringe/whatever!

This week, my daughter Robyn came with me to see how it all works, and she got roped in to a short blog on her visit to the studio (a.k.a Trojans bedroom), she acted all shy and sweet in front of the camera…but we know her better, so we'll drag her more aggressive side out another time. Now she wants to come again and has lots of ideas for blogs. So watch this space, we’ve created a monster!

Have a great week, hope you enjoy our videos.

Trojan, Sally and Robyn xxx

Well Trojan and I had our first salsa class since Christmas last night, and as usual it was brilliant.

At first I was a little worried that I might have forgotten some of the steps, but was thrilled when it all came back and we flew through the class with grace and finesse…well, sort of!!! I stepped on no-ones toes, I head butted no-one. Bloody hell, I must be getting good.

We did so well, that after our own class and our cool down session, Trojan and I though we’d take a leap into the advanced class…we were feeling good, we thought we could handle it. So we lined up for the warm up, our heads held high, proud that were were daring enough to try. It started with a few of the steps we already knew…cool! Then suddenly the teacher spun around, walked backwards across the floor with some complicated footwork, did a couple of complicates steps, a spinny thing (that’s a technical term) and somehow ended up back in the starting position.

Trojan and I stared at her dumbfounded for a minute, looked at each other in horror and then Trojan said “I don’t think we’re ready for this class,”…
“Maybe next week” I said.
To which Trojan nodded…
Of course we were both thinking ‘yeah right, maybe next millennium!’

We headed straight for the bar (this we’ve mastered the art of…no problem) and I don’t think anyone noticed us sneaking away from the group…although there were a group of people near by, and one of them had obviously just told a really funny joke judging by the way they were falling about laughing…

No, I’m joking, its not the sort of place where people judge you, or laugh if you go wrong, they are very kind, and very patient.

We are going out to a family dinner on Friday, and have sort of dared each other to do a few salsa moves!!! Oh well, lets just hoped we’re not disowned by the end of the night!!!

What I did do today was watch our salsa video blog and realise we have already come a long way from this, but if you fancy a giggle, then feel free to watch!

Maybe we should take a camera on Friday and do a before and after shoot!!!

Take care

Sal & Trojanxxx

Hi everyone, Happy New Year. We hope you all had a great Christmas and the hangovers are all totally gone!

I apologise for my absence in all the blogs, we were away visiting family and everywhere we went there was some sort of computer problem, so after losing about twenty blogs…I sort of left it alone. It was lovely to get away, but I did miss the blogging, its become such a great way of getting my thoughts down and off my chest, and also getting some feedback and support for me too.

I went over Trojan's last night and we did our first three (yep, we got carried away after not doing one for so long) video blogs of 2009. Firstly there was a Happy New Year Message that we intended to talk about our hopes and aspirations for 2009, but sort of veered off into talking about new years resolutions and Trojan hinting at something very rude…my lips are sealed on the matter (unless the price is right!!)



We also spoke about my Anthony Robbins experience, as I was lucky enough to go to one of his seminars while we were away, you can find out more, and how helpful it is by watching the blog and reading the written blog too. Of course that was going to be an interview style thing, but it turns out I was still pretty fired up about it and all Trojan could do was step aside and let me rant (makes a change then!)



Thirdly we spoke about different messages we have received and how people who have passed let us know they are still about and watching over us. We chose this subject because a friend recently visited a medium and got a message from a very stubborn Aaron!!! Nice to know he hasn't changed!!!



So we hope you enjoy them, and again thank you for your support, your e-mails and comments. please, keep sending them.

Have a great week,

Sal and Trojan xxxx

This is something I wrote for Aaron In the darkest days after his passing….it really makes me realise how far I have come in three years, so at times when I think I am at stand still, in those times when I think the pain will never ease, this can remind me that I am doing okay, we all are, we are living and laughing and loving. This gives me hope, and I’ve never shared it with anyone before, but because I think it may give someone else in a similar situation hope too, I’m sharing it now…

"I fight my way out of a groggy sleep. I open my eyes and blink in the darkness of the room. It’s still dark outside, but something must have woken me. I can’t hear a sound, but I have a feeling that something isn’t right. I just can’t quite put my finger on it.

Then, suddenly, in a split second, any remnants of peace are shattered as I realise what it is. My heart plummets in my chest, my breathing quickens, and a physical pain shoots through my body.

Then time goes into slow motion.

I pull back the covers and climb out of bed, I run downstairs and into your bedroom. I know I’m running, but it takes forever, I feel like I’m in a dream, a nightmare, running and getting nowhere.

If only it was a dream Aaron.

After an eternity I reach your bed so I can hold you and cuddle you. If I just see one of your special smiles everything will be okay, once I get one of your extra tight hugs everything will be okay, I look in your bed, and I know then that its not going to be okay, because you’re not there, you’re not there snuggled in your cosy bed where you should be.

You really have gone.

I climb into your bed and curl up in your dolphin quilt; I bury my face in your pillow and breathe in your special smell.

And then I sob, because I don’t know how I can learn to live without you Aaron, you defined me in so many ways and you made me who I am. I don’t know what to do, I want to scream with the unfairness of it all. But I know that won’t help, nothing will help, because nothing can bring you back to me.

I cry until my throat is raw and I feel my heart will break, and that’s where I stay until your daddy and your brothers and sister gently shake me awake in the morning.

I can see that they’ve been crying too, because they all miss you as much as I do.

We will love you always our darling Aaron,

Mummy xxxx"

Life is very different to this now, I no longer dread sleep because this is what I have to face in the morning, and Aaron’s room isn’t a shrine. I don’t think that’s what he would have wanted. We will never move on, we will never have closure, or any of those other dreadful cliché’s you hear a million times a day after you lose someone. But we have accepted that Aaron is with us in a different way.

The love doesn’t change, it’s stronger than ever.

xxxx

After Aaron passed away, I found myself sitting for hours at a time going over and over everything in my head; I was trying to remember every moment of his life in the tiniest detail. People thought I was sitting grieving, staring into space, maybe just thinking about the loss, or maybe just crying, letting the tears fall, and sometimes that was the case. But really, I was trying to recall it all, I wanted it all committed to memory so solidly, because I was terrified I was going to forget something, I couldn’t bear to forget the tiniest thing about Aaron and our precious time together.

The more people that came round, the more we spoke about Aaron, and it was then that we realised that not everyone knew everything about Aaron, everyone knew Aaron at different stages of his life, so some people never knew he could walk up until he was seven, some never knew that he was born with a cleft palate, and had to have a tracheotomy to breathe after they repaired it.

So I decided, to write it all down. At first it was just for me, it was therapeutic, it gave me something tangible to hold on to and to do, it’s not like I was sleeping anyway, no matter what the doctor gave me, I couldn’t bear to close my eyes. Maybe because I knew that in that second I woke up, I was going to be oblivious, and then it would hit me like a ton of bricks all over again. So when everyone else was getting their fitful nights sleep, I sat at the computer and wrote, and wrote and wrote…and once it was down on paper, I could stop obsessing about that particular event because it was tangibly on paper.

But the more I wrote, the more I realised how inspirational Aaron is. We all know that, of course, we lived with him; I doubt I will ever meet a stronger or more determined person as long as I live. But I realised that he had so many lessons to teach others too. So it naturally progressed into a book.

I surprised even myself when I remembered everything in so much detail. And one thing I am so grateful for is that we had such a close and intense relationship. Aaron and I were inseparable, and how many mums can say they have that much quality time with their 12/13/14 year old, I know Jordan and Robyn are more independent, they hardly need me at all…but Aaron needed me, and even if at times that was hard, and exhausting, I am so glad now I can’t tell you. It means that we got to cram in far more love and quality time than most mothers and sons do.

The book is not all doom and gloom, honestly, nothing written about Aaron could be. There are some bits that are hard to get through, there are some bits that will undoubtedly make you cry, but you will laugh as much as you cry, I promise. Aaron was a character; he lived life to the max every day, and embodied the meaning of the word love. When you looked at Aaron, you saw the love shine out of him, in his eyes there was just total acceptance, and he was happy just to be with you. A true angel on earth and it’s not just me as his mum that has said that, it has been said by hundreds of people. And anyone who ever got a hug from him with never forget it, mainly because his hugs were like across between the Heimlich manoeuvre and a half nelson…but he meant them, you certainly knew he meant it as the oxygen flow was cut off and your eyeballs started to bulge.

God I miss those hugs the most. I would probably give everything I own for just one more of Aarons hugs. And I would cling on to him and cherish it, because this time I would know it would be the last one. I wonder sometimes if I didn’t cling on enough in that last hug I gave Aaron before he passed away, how was I to know it would be the last one? If I’d of known that I would have clung on and never let go.

I know Aaron book has helped lots of people, many families are gaining hope and strength form Aaron and his amazing character. The book is real and honest and it answers the questions that no-one dared ask me at the time, and since to some extent.

Trojan created a short book trailer yesterday, so if you think this is something for you, then you can find it on www.sallyannestephenson.com, Barnes & Noble or on Amazon.

I hope you enjoy it, I hope Aaron’s strength shines through to you.

Take care

Sal xxx

Trojan had another one of his bright ideas yesterday, and decided to fire 20 quick questions at me with no warning and no time for me to think of good and acceptable (maybe less honest I’ll admit, answers). So here are the results, you may find out a few things about me that you didn’t know, maybe a few that you didn’t want to know.

It was actually very funny; it was a lot of pressure, saying the first thing that comes into your head isn’t always the best idea…as you will see. And Trojan sitting to the side reacting to my answers didn’t help. And no, there was no violence involved at the end; I was just defending my answer!!!

And he was a total meanie; he wouldn’t let me redo any of the really cringy answers. Mark my words; I’m going to think of a way to get my own back…

Hope you enjoy,

Trojan & Sally xxxxx

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's been watching our latest video. It's had the best number of views yet. I have had an extraordinary number of e-mails and comments with LOL in them. Also if one more person calls me Ginger Rogers or quotes ‘Nobody puts baby in a corner,’ I may have to scream. IT’S NOT ORIGINAL, everyone’s doing it. And I’m really trying not to take offense that so many people are saying ‘Trojan’s really good is't he, has he done it before?’...erm...helloo.what about me???

You wait, next time we video ourselves I’m going to be in full evening wear and heels...I’m better in heels...I promise.

But the one thing people are consistently saying is that it looks like we are having loads of fun, and we are; which is what matters most, after all, that’s what it’s all about. So if you haven’t seen it already, take a look, it will make you smile if nothing else. We may not be competition level exactly! YET! But watch this space!

Take care

Sal & Trojan xxxx

Happy Birthday to Trojan, today is his twenty first birthday...again!!! I'm kidding, but I'm not sure how he feels about revealing his true age...but I think you'll agree, he looks great for seventy two!! (now he really will kill me). You are a true friend and a brillinat dance/blog/video/radio show partner....Hope you have a lovely birthday Trojan, and many many more to come. x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Good morning!

Now, it is very important in life not to take yourself too seriously, it is essential to be able to laugh at yourself. Although whether that is supposed to be taken as literally as we did yesterday, I’m not sure.

After we finished our radio blog we felt we needed to lighten the mood, and despite the lack of space and not having any high heels (me not Trojan) we decided to practice some of our salsa moves…it was a lot of fun, so we videoed it and thought we’d show you how we’re doing. The pressure got to us a bit, we now fully understand the nerves the celebs suffer with on Strictly come dancing, the pressures huge…and not having an instructor shout out the moves and thirty other people doing them simultaneously made it harder than the class. But we laughed, the camera man cried…I think with laughter! and we thought we’d let you see.

As I say, normally we ask for feedback and your opinion, we take that back for this particular video blog…no, I’m kidding, please feel free to let us know what you think. It’s had quite a few views already, so we’ll be expecting that phone call from a big LA based dance agency any day now!!!

Enjoy

Trojan and Sally xxxxxxxx

Just a quick reminder to say don’t forget to tune in to our live radio show 5.30pm tonight. We are going to be talking about the issues surrounding being a full time mum and carer. There are so many issues on this subject that effect how we feel about ourselves and what we do, and what we feel we contribute to society and the family unit. You can phone in and have your say, agree, disagree, whatever you want, as always, we love getting your views too.

We will ask why it is predominantly women who end up filling this role? Is this another outdated tradition, or is it the way it should be? We will explore how we end up where we do in general, is it by spoken agreement, it is just presumed, has it just ended up that way? Who is it that decided these things? Has maternal instinct got a lot to answer for? And even if we chose it, are we happy where we are, can caring alone be fulfilling? What message are we sending our children? How do we feel about the stereotypes society has about our role in general?

Big breath!

So we will explore as many of these issues and feelings as we can.

Please also log on later tonight or tomorrow and see what we managed to produce in the way of video blogs, we’ll try to stick with the same subjects to a certain degree, and if we have time (if Trojan has time I should say) we’ll record another video advertisement, the last one was very popular, maybe I’ll try to tip Trojan off his chair or something, because everyone seemed to love the blooper…I’ll see what I can do.

See you later

Sal & Trojan xxx

Well, they let us home from the hospital today, I’m a little concerned that is was more to do with the fact that Deion was constantly demanding food and chatting the ears off the nurses than that he was actually alert enough from the anaesthetic to come home.

I was up late last night packing his bag…and don’t think I’m talking about pyjamas, reading books and slippers, I’m talking about chicken drumsticks, Doritos, chocolate chip cookies, Haribo and a Satsuma…the Satsuma was for me.

Sadly, I underestimated, and in the last four hours, he still needed two hospital meals, one of the nurses lunches and a constant supply of drinks…with chipped ice if you don’t mind, not the cubed kind!

I’m not sure he was totally ‘with it’ as we left the ward and he drove his chair down to the car park. After taking out a potted plant, a chair and a doctor, I realised, he might not be fit to drive after all.

Is driving a wheelchair under the influence the same thing as drink driving, I’m not sure. It may seem less dangerous, but if you’ve ever been run over by an electric wheelchair, you know it’s no joke!

But in all seriousness, Deion was a star, he hated the starving part, but he was great when they do the blood tests and put the drip in and stuff. He had a muscle biopsy, a lumbar puncture, and an arterial blood test. All went well, and apart from feeling a bit sore, he is fine. He’s gone to bed now and I expect he’ll be using his sore back as shamelessly as he can, and we’ll all be charging around catering to his every need all weekend.

I also had to explain to Jordan, Robyn and Dave that Deion was not halucinating, as they presumed on hearing about it. And we did actually see a storm trooper in the lift at the hospital. It was a little surreal, I got a fit of the giggles, and the stormtrooper looked at me as if to say 'grow up' which made it worse. But he didn't shoot me!!! so that was okay!

We’ll be getting the test results in a week or two, so fingers crossed for good news.

And I just want to thank everyone for your messages of support. Family and friends obviously texted, phone, e-mailed and sent their love. But we also had many good luck messages from people who only know us through the blogs. So thank you, we are touched and everyone’s messages of support were much appreciated.

I need to go and get some rest now, Deion’s going to have me on my toes tomorrow.

Take care

Sally and Deion (Demon Driver) xxx