Yesterday was an exhausting but wonderful day. I’ve said (or written) before on here that sometimes I do things that are far beyond what I know my body can manage, but I do them because it’s worth the pain and exhaustion during and after the event. Yesterday afternoon is a prime example. Back in the summer I purchased a voucher from Living Social for me and my best friend, R (remember her from this post?), to have a makeover and photo shoot at a studio in Cardiff.

R lives all the way in Kent so even though her birthday is in November, yesterday was the first opportunity we had to go to the studio. There was a point back in November when I thought I’d ballsed it up and that we wouldn’t be able to go at all. It was mid-Nanowrimo and I was feeling really sick, and basically I forgot to book before my voucher ran out. Thankfully, when Paul rang, the lady at Revolve was really understanding and let us book anyway. Phew.

Source: Google images

As usual on an important day, my body decided to have a bad day so things didn’t go to plan yesterday. Despite resting the day before and going to bed at a reasonable time, I woke up yesterday morning feeling like I’d run three marathons the day before. I was utterly exhausted. We needed to be at the studio by 1pm and I wasn’t able to get out of bed until 12pm. Not a great start, but thanks to a higher than usual dose of painkillers and a cup of coffee that closely resembled oil, I was at least able to move quite quickly when I did get out of bed. Unfortunately, as I was on a huge high, I couldn’t think straight so I was still darting around the house like a mad thing when R arrived.

I’ve realised lately how important it is for me to eat regularly. I probably should have reached this conclusion much sooner, but it’s become apparent just how much worse I feel when I am late eating any of my three meals or skip one. I lose my appetite quite easily when I feel sick (hard to believe when you see the size of me I know) but now I make sure I eat at least a little something wholesome for breakfast and lunch each day. It wasn’t a good plan then for me to skip lunch yesterday because I didn’t have time to eat. It also meant that when we arrived home later after the photo shoot that I pigged out on high sugar and fat snacks like biscuits. Naughty naughty. This is a bad idea for anyone, but when your body puts on a stone at the sight of ice cream, it’s a really bad idea. I can add yesterday to the long list of examples which have taught me to plan ahead better so that even if I can’t think laterally Paul knows what I need and when.

Despite all of the things that went wrong, R and I arrived at the studio and, as it always does, everything worked out fine. Better than fine actually, a brilliant afternoon was had by all. I love make up but I don’t often have the energy to spend time doing it, so I love it when someone else is doing it for me. A professional make up artist choosing from their array of expensive make up is a great treat for me. Of course I love having my hair done too. I can’t lift my arms without being in a lot of pain so even if I knew how to style a beehive, I wouldn’t be able to, so any opportunity I get for someone to style my hair like that, I jump at the chance. The three times I’ve had a hairdresser style my hair into a beehive, whenever I’ve been asked how high to take it, without a second thought I answer, “as high as you can.”

Not only were all of the staff lovely and paid us compliments (never a bad thing, flattery goes a long way), the studio were really good at helping me manage my disability. Paul had told them beforehand I was disabled, but hadn’t gone into any details. The photographer picked up on what I could and couldn’t manage though by how easily I walked (using my stick and R’s arm) and made sure all the photos that included me didn’t contain any difficult poses. This was a huge improvement since the last time I was at the studio. When I went to the same studio with my sister two years before, the photographer had me sitting on the floor, doing poses that required balance, etc, even though I’d explained to her my illness. At the time I went along with it because I never want to say, “no that hurts too much.” This time, however, the only time I was standing in a photo was when I was leaning against a wall. The rest of the time I was sitting on some kind of prop or chair, but R had photos lying on the floor, and other types of poses I would have struggled with. The fact that I didn’t need to mention my illness the whole afternoon made the time so much more enjoyable. I’d never expect someone to be that aware of what I can and can’t manage, but it certainly is nice when it does happen.

Source: Google images

The best bit of the afternoon though was seeing how gorgeous R looked. She is having a difficult time at the moment and definitely deserves some pampering. She is one of, if not the, most beautiful women I know. When she was having her photos taken, she actually reminded me of a model or a film star.

The hardest part was when it came to choosing our shots. R looked so wonderful in all of hers that I wanted to buy them all for her, of course monetarily, that would have meant not paying rent. I have to admit, I didn’t feel great about myself looking at the photos of me, but I wasn’t too upset since the afternoon was about giving R a great birthday treat and not about boosting my self esteem. In the end, we were able to come away with four lovely shots though, which we were both happy with. I can’t wait to put copies of the photos into frames so that I can re-live the memory of that afternoon many times over.

So, what do you think of the photos?

Love Katie x

Posted by Katie Bennett-Davies in Activities out of the house, Friends, Social activities Tags: 60s style, beehive, best friends, Caffeine, Cardiff, CFS, chronic fatigue, coffee, compliments, disability, disabled, disabled access, eating, exhaustion, fibro, Firbomyalgia, food, hair, hairdresser, Kent, Living Social, M.E., make up, make up artist, makeover, meals, pain, painkillers, Photo shoot, Photograph, photos, R, Revolve Studio, walking stick