Lived Experience Forum

[Judi9877]

Good evening @Shaz51 @PizzaMondo @Glisten @Trickster @TAB @tyme and all forumites here.

Today, my achievements have been:

- Worked on a cross stitch project

- Completed a baby beanie for Ambulance Victoria 

- Watched the 6pm news

- Watched the AFL match on TV

- Spoke to my sister on the phone 

- Helped my housemate deal with a Tafe issue that she was experiencing

- Ate dinner

Overall, an okay day for me.

Take care.

Judi9877

[TAB]

..sounds good to me @Judi9877 

Thanks for sharing

[Glisten]

That is a productive day @Judi9877 

G

[tyme]

Good on you @Glisten @Judi9877 @TAB @Shaz51 🙂

Me today? I'm not sure what I've achieved... I put the washing in the washing machine? lol. That's about it...

Oh, I did go to get anti-theft screws for my car this morning.

[Glisten]

@tyme @Judi9877 @TAB @Shaz51 

@tyme as long as you remember to get the washing out of the washing machine and don’t leave it in the washing basket lol

Anti-theft screws don’t work if you leave them on the seat of your car Hahaha 

G

[tyme]

Lol @Glisten . Yes, you're right. They don't work on the seat of your car. 

Actually, there was a pop up at the local plaza, and they were doing everyone's cars if owners wanted. I actually asked for 4 extra screws for my other car at home... whoever would've thought that installing anti theft screws requires you to know the make and model of the car?

Supposedly, all makes and models need different screws. So you have the tell the people the make, model and year for the car so they can give you  the right screws...

And of course, I asked "So if i needed to remove the screws, how do I do that?" (last time I asked, they didn't know lol). This time, they said I had to go to the police station and they have a special tool to remove them. The reason I asked was because I want to send my car to NSW to my parents maybe later this year or early this year - this means they need to change the number plates. 

Sorry for the blah... 

[Glisten]

@tyme  thank you for explaining because I have NO IDEA what anti-theft screws are.

They are for Number Plates? I thought number plate screws would be generic?

l’m from Newcastle. It is so green in NSW compared to WA.

Oddly I get tired of the green and the shorter daylight hours make me anxious, for some weird-ass reason that escapes me.

G

[tyme]

Lol, tired of the 'green'. I used to live in NSW. We had a major drought back then. I remember the 'water police' driving around the streets, patrolling them to make sure no one had sprinklers on or was washing their car @Glisten 

Yes. I've had my number plates stolen in the past. So I'm always careful to have anti-theft screws. And yes, from today, I learnt that every make/model of car can have different sized number plate screws. Oh, just to complicate things, the two screws at the front of my car have a different sized screw to the back... what sense is that???

Life's little conundrums. 

We're having our Sunday Hangout tonight if you are interested JOIN US! Live Sunday Hangout 7-8:30pm AEST 

[Glisten]

@tyme  Thank you for reminding me!

Look forward to Hanging out 

G

[Judi9877]

Good evening @tyme @Glisten @TAB @Shaz51 @PizzaMondo @RiverSeal @Meowmy and all forumites here. Well done on all of your achievements!

Today, I achieved something I wasn’t sure I could do or accomplish which was to call an aged care facility and ask if I could complete my lifestyle placement at their facility. I’d been in placement at a previous facility as part of my Certificate IV in Leisure and Health but it didn’t work out - I sustained a knee injury at the facility but the supervisors chose to cease my placement for silly reasons which weren’t true but which my Tafe believed- so I had to either attempt to find my own placement close to my town or else, let the Tafe find me one using one of their providers which was at least an hour away from my town, which wasn’t cost effective for me (I’d have to use NDIS funds to get me there with a worker driving and picking me up which was very expensive and a waste of my funding). Anyhow, I called 2 facilities and the second facility agreed to take me on as long as I could get an NDIS clearance and had 3 covid vaccines. I spoke to my Tafe and they’ve agreed to pay for the clearance check ($130) because if not, the Tafe well-being officer said the Tafe would have to look at funding possible accommodation and transport to a regional town where the tafe had aged care facilities available for placement. Part of my issue with placement was the fact that my car was broken down (can’t afford to get it fixed right now) and I had to use my NDIS funds for a worker to drive me to the placement and pick me up each day- I’ve got this allocated in my funding for my disability as I have trouble driving at times when my mental health is an issue- so to have a possible placement in my home town is great as it’s cost effective for the Tafe and I’ll be able to get to the facility easily. Calling the facility was nerve wracking as I had to put myself on the line for a possible rejection and for the possibility that I may have to do a placement over an hour away each way at a facility that my Tafe teacher had said would be too challenging for me to deal with and be successful at, so I’m really glad that this facility could take me for my 120 hours of allocated practical placement as part of my course. What makes this whole thing even better is my Tafe teacher made a big deal out of not allowing any student to do their placement in certain locations because she didn’t want to drive the distance to the facilities so to have this come off (I had to get approval from the department in charge of Tafes in Victoria as well as the course coordinator for my course in a meeting with her due to my failed previous placement) and now she’ll have to possibly drive to my new placement to check up in me at least once which I don’t think she’ll be impressed with doing. I’m also proud of the fact that I was able to find this placement on my own as the Tafe well-being officer said I’d have to do this eventually when I went looking for employment at the end of the course so that’s another thing to be proud of.

I now realise that it’s small things like this that are important to me and deserve to be celebrated because I was really down on myself for failing my first placement even though I knew I did my best and that it wasn’t all my fault it didn’t work out, especially since I’d never had aged care experience before. The reality is I’m now more aware of what the job entails (I did 6 days at the previous placement) and what I can do to improve myself (including don’t mention knitting as it was a negative at the previous placement). I know that moving residents in wheelchairs is part of the job and I’m to embrace every opportunity that is offered, even if I don’t feel comfortable or confident, and treat them as a learning opportunity. In addition to this, I’m not to take things too personally or seriously and to ask for help when I need it, whether that be from my workplace supervisor or my Tafe teacher and well-being officer. Hopefully things work out better this time around. 

Judi9877☺️