My Vaccine Experience. . .Do I Have Rabies Now?

And the vaccinations begin!! =O

I was first recommended to the Tropical Medical Bureau but they were very expensive. So I tried to get it sorted so that my doctor could prescribe me the vaccinations, I pay for them myself and then hopefully the nurse in the doctors (the one I go to is Beaumont Park Clinic) will administer them as this seemed to be cheaper according to a lot of Q&A forums online.

However because I'll be working with animals and risk getting rabies if I'm not vaccinated against it, that would make that way much more expensive. This is because you need 3 injections for rabies over 3 weeks which all come out of one bottle. The bottle of medicine has to be used up within a few hours after opening so I'd have to buy three bottles over the 3 weeks as I wouldn't of been able to use everything in the bottle after it expires. This cost alone would be about €360 not including other injections so that was definitely not worth it! So going to a proper travel clinic was much better as they would have people regularly getting rabies vaccines so the bottle would be used within the expiring time and I'd only have to pay for my own. :] 

The nurse in Beaumont, Gemma, who explained all this to me was excellent and knew exactly what she was talking about. She recommended the Travel Health clinic on Dawson street to me as the Doctor in there (Dr. Collins) was very good and a lovely man too. After I priced the vaccines I'd need on their website, it turns out they were quite cheaper than the Tropical Medical Bureau so I booked an appointment with them. The closest one they had was the following Tuesday (my 20th Birthday) at 10am, so no birthday lie-in for me! But I knew this stuff had to be sorted so I didn't mind at all. :) 

Sooooo, Tuesday arrived and I found the clinic easy enough. The hardest part was climbing 3 stories up to their office on the top floor. That made me think maybe I'm not fit enough to go to Africa as I panted my way through telling them I've an appointment booked while trying to look cool. . .

The appointment wasn't with Dr. Collins himself (who set up and runs the clinic) but Dr. Astrid Weidenhammer. She was really informative and went through each vaccine I should get and how I could combine them to get cheaper deals. She went further than explaining what each one is for and told me how to avoid contracting any illnesses in the first place, how to treat water and fresh food, how to avoid and treat insect bites and went through the leaflet they gave me with all this information in it and more! She gave me advice on what travel insurance to get and what should be covered in it and went through the various options of malaria prevention medicine and which should suit me best. When it comes to malaria tablets, the most effective, cheap and easily taken one is prone to cause depression and/or nightmares in 20% of its recipients so anyone who decides to go for this should really take a trial run beforehand to check if they have those side-effects. I decided to do the trial so that should be an interesting blog post! 

She prescribed the malaria tablets to me and other tablets I can take to reduce swelling and itching in insect bites if I get them. The cool thing about this is she said if I take the prescription to my own doctor they should be able to put it onto a medical card form for me so I don't have to pay as much for them [that only applies to people with a medical card! I haven't gone yet but hopefully the Dr will be OK with it!]. 

Then! She gave me injections there and then to get started. When she asked if I have any questions I just asked her not to show me the needles as I'm not entirely fond of them going into my own body unless they're piercing something! =/ So I faced away as she did them and she talked to me to distract me and gave me a LOLLIPOP so I was happy ^_^

The rabies vaccine didn't really hurt but that's because that one just goes under the skin. The hepatitis A and typhoid combined injection was the painful one as that goes right into the muscle and leaves you with a sore, heavy/dead arm which I felt straight away and it's still sore. :( But must be done! 

That whole visit cost €140 for the consultation and 2 injections. What's cool about this place is they accept any student ID not just the student travel card for you to avail of their discount consultation so YAY! for that. :)

Now that was basically my whole experience of that visit, my sister came afterwards to look after me too in-case I started getting crazy side-effects. Thank you Nikki! The only thought that is with me now involves the way vaccines work. In each one, there's a small amount of the virus itself and then the antidote to fight it so you're body builds immunity towards it. So. . .my body is currently fighting off hepatitis A, typhoid. . . . and Rabies! O__o 

So if I start looking like that rabid dog there then let me know because obviously the vaccine isn't working!! D=

My next appointment is this Tuesday the 18th of June at 12.30 when I'll get my second dose of rabies and a diphtheria and tetanus combined injection. Delightful! In the meantime, I'm observing myself in the mirror quite frequently to see if I'm foaming at the mouth. . .  O.o

<3

This Busy Bee Needs a Nap. . . zZzzzz

Welcome, welcome, come on in and witness the events of the days that have recently passed and the many thanks I have to offer for the help I have received over them!

So the fundraising gig happened in The Twisted Pepper last Friday and what a night it was! I have so many thank yous to make and I’d like to start with the bands who there would have been no music without! I had so many people coming up to me saying how good they thought the bands were so my thanks goes out to UpBeat, The Mariannes and Broken-Vice who also brought equipment for a backline so I wouldn’t have to hire a whole one so double thanks to them. You’ll find links to all their music at the bottom of this blog. J 

The Twisted Pepper were also so easy to organise the gig with. This was my first time organizing a gig from scratch by myself and the Body Tonic staff, Eoin and Emily, were so helpful with all my questions and always responded promptly. They also calmed me down when I was panicking! There was no cost to hire the venue, just €150 that was to be paid for their sound engineer, Josh, and he was brilliant too!

I would have been running around frantically on the night if it wasn’t for my sister Nicola who worked on the door for me, greeting everyone with her charm and my mam Carmel for being MC on the night and opening up the night with a few songs so thank you ladies! And thanks to my uncle Rob for getting the drum kit to me and Session Hire & Sales for hiring out the rest of what I needed for the back line at a really cheap rate. The raffle went down a storm as people ran for the bottle of Whiskey on offer (won by one very lucky Joe!). I’d like to thank Lannigan’s and The Boar’s Head pubs in Dublin for their sponsorship as well as Edele Barnwell, Nicola Carney and Michelle McCormack for donating gifts as prizes too. And of course I’d like to thank EVERYONE who came along as without you guys, I wouldn’t have raised anything so thank you Saoirse, Kirsty, James, Michelle, Andy, J

Leah, Roisín, Johnny, Sarah, Chris, Aidan, my uncles Fran and Tony and Aunty Maria, Niamh, Gavin, my dad and my movement facilitator from college Michelle Cahill. It was also lovely to have a mini KnockanStockan reunion with Kev, Eamonn, Joe and Gearóid. And of course there were so many people there I didn’t know who came to support the bands and the cause so just as much thanks goes out to all of you. Thank you Amy, Lorcan, Colin and Iwonna for sponsoring me the next day as ye couldn’t make it the night before too. I think that’s all I need to thank for the event (I’m really sorry if I left you out!) and I’d like to let you know we raised €438.20 ! ! Which is a good ol’ chunk off what I need to raise so I’m delighted and really really appreciate all the help I’ve gotten.

Now I never had time to update you after the two days bag packing in SuperValu as I was whisked off to Dublin straight away for the gig! But I’m ecstatic to let you know we raised €545.18 from only two days there with maximum of four tills open at a time and mostly just 2 of us packing at a time! (And may I just add the first day was very very quiet too! :O )I couldn’t of done this without my kind helpers so thank you Mam, Kate and Chloe and special thanks goes to my little brother Seán who stuck around with me all day Friday and helped me pack, even though he only did it because he had nothing else to do or anywhere to go, I do really appreciate it. (",)

People were so generous with their change and donations and I got many well wishes for the excursion that really touched my heart. There were a good few people who donated €5 each which I thought was wonderful and two people I know, Symone and Esther, donated €10 each (you mad things :P ) but there was this one mammy and her son that was about 6 or 7 years old that almost made me cry with their sincere generosity. The boy was very shy but wanted to help out packing the bags so I gave him little jobs to do and he was delighted. The mother was asking about the fundraising and said how much of a good cause it was and donated €7 to “get me started on my way” and then turned to her son saying “You have money you could donate to the girl don’t you? Change in your pocket?” and he looked so shy but had the cutest smile on his face and took out about €4 worth of change from his pocket. Now remembering being that age myself and how great having any money was- as your income is pretty low- I didn’t want him donating like his mother was encouraging him, I’d feel so guilty! Seeing his mother wasn’t going to leave with him making a donation I encouraged him to throw in one of the smaller coins as his mam was cheerfully saying “You’ve got to start doing these things when you’re young!” The boy then walked over to the collection bucket and dropped all his change in. I couldn’t believe it! I felt awful that he had given me all the money in his pocket but he had a shy smile on his face the entire time and his mam made sure to congratulate him in doing a good thing. I know this may sound like no big deal but I seriously felt like crying at the time. So, the least I could do was tell them I have a blog they can follow and when I’m in Africa they’ll see the things I’m doing and animals I’m working with and hopefully remember they helped me get there. She then asked me to write the blog address on her receipt which I did and so I really hope they do find this and see how much such kind hearted people are appreciated. Especially when you see a mother teaching her son to be so kind, it really was so lovely! It’s amazing how little acts of kindness like that can really brighten your day and stay with you to turn to memories that can cheer you up in an instant when you remember them. 

Thank you all for your help so far, it means so much to me.

And the time comes to announce how much we've risen so far! Drum roll please dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum!. . . One thousand four hundred and twenty euro! Over half way there! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!! Thank you thank you thank you. :D

I have no set plans yet for more fundraising activities. In the meantime please share around the blog and I’m open to anyone who would like to donate, they can do so through online banking (contact me for the details!) or through the PayPal link at the top of the page. My 20^th birthday is next Tuesday so if anyone was to give a gift, that would be it! :P Also, I’m back in the market doing my FacePainting so if you know of an event or anything I can work at let me know, I’ve a lot of saving to do. . .

The next you’ll be hearing of me will most likely be my experience with all the vaccinations I have to get L Eeeek! And I don’t really enjoy big needles in my arms to be honest, but I can’t be infecting you all with rabies when I get back o.O Wish me luck!

Ceara (:

<3

PS. If you were at the gig and like what you heard, check out the links to the bands below and have a listen to their music! :) 

UpBeat ~ https://www.facebook.com/UpBeatOfficial/app_2405167945

The Mariannes ~ http://www.breakingtunes.com/themariannes

Broken-Vice ~ http://www.youtube.com/user/BrokenVice?feature=mhee

More Good Times Ahead! [And many thanks for the past!]

Hello there. How are you? Hope you're well, thanks for coming to read this, I like you :) 

1) I've a lot of thank-yous to make after the gig in Spiders two Friday's ago, firstly just to let you all know, we raised over €230 which means I'm about a fifth of the way to the target of €2,300 with all donations to date added up! :D

Now, I'd like to thank Spider's in New Ross and all the staff for letting me have the gig there, Eugene Rowe for his PA and for playing and Adam Lundy, Andy Gallagher, Leah Rossiter, Pauric Carney, Paul Gannon, Rob Carney, and Carmel Daly for playing aswell! 

Special thanks to Pauric, Mark Hughes, Andy, Leah and Michelle McCormack for coming all the way from Dundalk! Love you guys so much!!   

As for all the people I know that attended, thank you too! As far as I can remember, those people were Aoibhe McGahan, Daryl Brazil, Dave Whelan, Rory Jackman, Sean McComish, Niamh O'Leary, Caragh Walsh, Helen Ryan, Kara McBride, Symone Fenlon, Martin Murphy, Dani Wall, Jackie O'Connor, Paul Mooney, Eddy Molloy and Deimante Stankeviciut and there was a good few strangers there that I didn't know (or get to know as I was running around frantically) so big thanks to you too, and if I forgot anyone I'm so sorry :/ 

Raffle prizes were courtesy of Ghandi's Pub, Nolan's, Il Primo's Italian Restaurant, Belinda's Beauty Salon with some extra prizes added in by my mother, my sister Nicola and Gráinne Rafferty. 

There's also been a few people who have since donated seeing as they couldn't make it to the gig (Thank you Thomas and Joe Van-Son, Niamh Hanrahan and Harry mcCarthy ;] ) and those people are also awesome ^_^

Aaaaaaaalrighty then. I THINK, that's all the thank-yous I need to get out there for now, sorry for the long list but there's a lot of deadly people out there that deserve thanks!

2) The fun is only just beginning >=]

The Twisted Pepper - Dublin.
Saturday 1st June.
7pm.
€8
Be there.


...please :)

So far I've two awesome bands lined up to play, FourDayWeekend and The Mariannes. More have yet to be confirmed but I guarantee there'll be a great mix in taste and style for everyone to enjoy and a big raffle too as usual. Who doesn't love an aul' raffle?

I know the gig starts early enough but I only have the venue until 10:30pm, after that anyone who arrives will be charged €15 into the venue's POGO club night they have every Saturday. However if you come before that you get to stick around after the gig at no extra cause and we can all party late into the night. Few shots, be grand. ;)

Check out the event page below, come along, and invite your friends :)
https://www.facebook.com/events/166050946886938/166085570216809/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity


**I'm looking for people who'll help out on the door on the night, even if only for a while, you shall be rewarded!**

Also, this is only 10 days before my 20th birthday which I won't be doing anything for so I'll guilt you friends and family of mine that don't come :P 

3) I'm bag packing in Super Valu in New Ross on the 30th & 31st of May, I'm looking for people to help out with that too for however long they can, you'll also be rewarded and I'll love you long time, so let me know if you can! :)

I think that's all for now! I'll be back with another update I'm sure, before the gig, I'm excited! :D

Ceara (:
<3

May I also just take a moment to say YAY! to the fact New Zealand have joined the 21st Century and legalized same sex marriage! Whoopa =D

Cake Served, Now Play The Music!

Greetings all! We had the Bake Sale and raised around €195 and 40pence sterling and 1 US cent. Progress - yaaay! I want to thank all who bought baked goods, DkIT Student's Union for donating RAG Week tickets for a raffle, Kelly's Pharmacy Dundalk for donating fancy soap and of course all the wonderful people who helped me out with the sale: Michelle McCormack, Leah Rossiter and especially Grainne Rafferty and Roisin Ryan. Oreo cupcakes were a huge success so if anyone would like a batch of them for any reason let me know, the proceeds will of course go towards the monkeys!
    There'll be an Acoustic Gig on in Spiders in New Ross on Friday the 1st of April. Admission is only €5 and everyone gets a free raffle ticket on admission. There'll be loooooads of prizes so you will definitely not want to miss out! Plus, I'll be playing guitar and singing live for the first time EVER so you'll also definitely want to come for that reason so you can video me making a fool of myself (and then if you send it in to You've Been Framed you'll get money if they show it!). Anyone from afar who would like to go, I can put you up for the night a.k.a party in mine afterwards! There's also slots open for people to hop up and play a few songs so I'd really appreciate that if anyone can. :)
The link to the Facebook event page is http://www.facebook.com/oddb3?ref=ts&fref=ts#!/events/443855729028411/?notif_t=plan_user_joined Invite your friends!

     **Reminder that I'm having another even bigger gig in The Twisted Pepper in Dublin on the 1st of June so keep that date free!

That's all I can think of for now...
Peace out mo'fos!

Ceara :)
<3

CakeCakeCakeCAKE!

Cake and music!! Who doesn't love cake and music??
   Here's the thing, I plan on giving people cake and music and in return I hope they'll help me help monkeys, who doesn't love monkeys?? Well, apart from people with zoophobia, they don't like animals at all...
   Anywho, I have updates for you family, friends and friend's of friends of mine. I have a date and venue for a live gig in Dublin. It shall be in The Twisted Pepper on the 1st of June. I've yet to set up an event page but keep that date free and if you know of any bands that will do a gig for free let me know. :)
   An acoustic gig is going to be held in Spiders in New Ross on Friday the 5th of April, there's slots for some more acts and I know you people have talent so get back to me if you would like to play a few songs!
   As for a Bake Sale....WE FINALLY HAVE A DATE!! It's this Thursday the 28th of February at 11am outside the canteen in college. I shall be making oreo cupcakes, chocolate chip cupcakes and biscuit cake and some very generous friends of mine (Roisin, Grainne, Michelle and Leah!) will be baking more goods such as caramel slices and jammy dodgers. I would really appreciate it though if any more of my Dundalk/DkIT friends could bake more stuff for me if you can. I'll love you forever!!
   Also, if anyone in Dundalk has an icing piping bag thing and/or cupcake tins they wouldn't mind lending me until Thursday, I will also appreciate that :)

   I think that's all for now! I'll have more updates about the bake sale later this week, don't forget, if you know a decent band that will do a gig for me, send them my way.

Ceara (:
<3

PROGRESS! Boo-Yah.

For once, decent prgress has been made!! =]
The New Ross Fundraising Gig shall be in Spider's, most likely Friday the 5th of April, just need to confirm with the pub. Anyone else wanting to stick your name down to play leave a comment or message me on Facebook :)
Bag Packing has been booked in Supervalu for the 30th and 31st of May, from 10:30am to 6/7pm. Anyone interested in helping out for an hour or two I would love to hear from you, I'll also be asking around closer to the day. You get to wear one of these deadly t-shirts I painted if you do! =D (I might just take Roisin Ryan's advice and make and sell some for extra donations =P )

As for the Bake Sale in college, the woman who's permission I needed FINALLY got back to me...after 3 months...better late than never I guess! Although, she didn't have good news, seeing as it's not a graded event (as most bakesales in College are =.= ) and it's partially for personal reasons I have to ask the head of my department for permission...so the search begins again! All I want to do is sell cake to people so they can be happy then the monkeys will be happy :( I disapprove of authority being needed to sell cake!!
...anyway, I'm getting off point here..
Well I think that's all the updates I can remember for now.. Thanks again to everyone who has offered their help and advice! Loads of lovely people did so after the last blog entry :)
Also, still looking for some unwanted christmas presents as raffle prizes if anyone has some!
Ceara :)
<3

So Many Things To Do!

Ok, my neglect of this blog has been AWFUL, for that I'm sorry but I shall not make excuses but get on with what needs to be done! First of all THANK YOOOOU to anyone and everyone who has sponsored me over the past 3 months, I know who ye are and will all get a personalised thank you :)
This blog has 2 lists, one of upcoming events I shall have, with what I am in the process of doing to get those events organised, and most importantly a list that all you lovely lovely people can help me with! :) so scroll to those that interest you!

List (1) Upcoming Events;

• An acoustic gig in New Ross - The Ship seems to be closed again so I'm getting in touch with Spider's instead.
• A live music gig with a few friends' (UHMAZING) bands in Dublin.
• And of course the gigs above of course will have raffles with some quirky prizes I have lined up ;)
• Bag Packing in Supervalu on the quay in New Ross - just waiting on a response to my e-mail!
• Bag Packing in Tesco in either Drogheda or New Ross or both - also waiting on a response to my e-mail!
• Bake Sale in DkIT - I WILL find that woman who's approval I need who has been ignoring my e-mails and has not been in her office the past 15 times I went looking for her!!! And I WILL make and give you all cake. -haha that rhymes =P

List (2) I Need You Guys To Help Me By...

• Firstly, sharing the blog, you can do that on Facebook just by clicking 'share' under the link that brought you here :) (I hereby swear I won't neglect it anymore!)
• If any of my musically gifted friends are interested in playing a slot in an acoustic gig in New Ross let me know (thanks to Rob, Paul, Eugene, Martyn and Mam for volunteering already!).
• If any of you are in a band that may be available for a gig in Dublin sometime get in touch.
• If any of you have unwanted christmas presents, I will take them as raffle prizes!
• If any of you own, work for or know someone who works for a business, a voucher for the product or service (whatever it is!) would also help so much towards raffles. I'll put your logo on this page (if I can find out how) and all my sponsorship cards and mention you in every thank-you speech. :)
• Anyone willing to spend an hour or two or three with me bag packing in either Drogheda or New Ross I would very much appreciate it and love you long time.
• Peeps in the Dundalk area or anyone who goes to DkIT, if you cook me cake (or rice crispie buns if you're less talented with a rolling pin) and let me sell it I will be eternally grateful and shall one day cook you cake in return. :)
• I'm planning on sending out sponsorship cards to family and friends who are willing to go around their estate or work place and collect a few pennies for me. If you would do such a deadly thing for me let me know! =D
• I guess the only other thing I can think of now is to sponsor me really! You can do so through PayPal by clicking the link on the top right hand of the page BUT 9% of what you give goes to PayPal :S You can also lodge money into the bank account I set up for the fundraising, just give me a shout and I'll send the sort code and account number onto you. :)

Thank you for reading! And thanks to absolutely everybody who's been helping me out, giving me donations, advice and volunteering for things,
I love you all :) (And these monkeys from Bambelela love you too!)
<3