Oh!!! Wow!! My human's in the newspaper ...

Oh!!!

Wow!!

My human's famous!

I was looking through a newspaper she'd left lying around this morning and I found this!

As a build up to the North East Skinny Dip 2013, she was apparently interviewed by a reporter from local North East paper, the 'Sunday Sun.'  I heard her talking on the phone on Friday night about this, but I didn't realise she was talking to the press! Wow!!

The article appeared in yesterday's paper (see photos below) ... this is the article as written by the reporter, Brian Daniel and published in the Sunday Sun, 22.09.13

I know you can't read the words in the photo of the article, so I've typed them all out for you below; being careful to give credit to the reporter who wrote it.  I've learned about copyright, plagiarism, and quoting authors correctly from my human and her PhD thingy.  I hope I've done it right because I don't want to get anyone into trouble. 

 Especially not me.




"A NORTH woman will today notch up an important milestone in her recovery from eating disorders when she gets her kit off at a mass skinny dip.

Sharon Cox, 40, from North Shields, is taking part in the North East Skinny Dip 2013 at Druridge Bay Country Park in Northumberland.

The event, successfully held for the first time in 2012 and arranged to coincide with the autumn equinox, will see hundreds of men and women bare all and take a sunrise dip in the cold North Sea.

Participants will be raising money for the Mind mental health charity as well as event supporters, the National Trust, and could play their part in breaking the world record for the world's biggest skinny dip.

But for Sharon, [of North Shields], the event will be a key moment in her life - world record or not.

At the age of 15 she developed anorexia, a disorder she suffered from until she was 17.

"I probably got down to around 7 stone which, probably for my height at that age, was about two stone underweight."

Sharon then began to suffer from bulimia, a disorder which would plague her until she reached 30.

"Some periods I would be bingeing and vomitting quite often."

Sharon's weight would vary from to to 11-and-a-half stone.

In 1999, at the age of 27, Sharon began training to be become a counsellor, having attended counselling for her bulimia.

She eventually opened her own private practice, helping people principally with eating disorders and working at GP surgeries with those suffering from other mental health problems.

For the last six years, she has been studying a PhD at York St John University part time on the therapist's experiences of working with people with eating disorders.

The counsellor training and practice and the work she has done for the PhD, have helped Sharon - a steady 10 stone for the last few years - put her disorders behind her.

And today, enjoying life and her body unlike so many years when she did not, she will get her kit off at the skinny dip, the first time she - like most of us - will have done such a thing in public.

She said, "In the last 10 years I have not felt especially confident in my body.

It is only through my PhD that I have found a way to accept my own body and to feel that sense of body acceptance which allow me to do the skinny dip.

I would never have dreamed of doing it even a couple of years ago!

This is the pinnacle both of recovery and of my PhD - it feels a real high point in both of those."

Sharon is dreading feelings the icy water against her skin though, saying, "I am more worried about the cold than the nakedness!"

She is hoping to raise hundreds of pounds for Mind."

Can I be famous next please ... ?

I'm not in the way ...

My human's been accusing me of getting in the way whilst she tries to work on her PhD thingy.

I have no idea what she means.  The work is up on the screen, and I'm down here.




See?  Not in the way at all!

I'm not sitting in front of the screen.  And I'm not sitting on the keyboard thing ... I usually get told off for doing both of those things.

I'd made a big effort to be not in the way ... & she didn't appreciate it.

I thought she'd like to have  my company.  And I wanted a cuddle.  She wasn't going to leave the PhD thingy, but I knew she'd like a cuddle from me, so I went to her.  The table wasn't even very comfortable to sit on, but I did manage to push my way into her arm.  

But look ... 

I had to keep looking up at her to try & get her to look at me & give me some attention.

  I get really annoyed with the PhD thingy sometimes.  I feel jealous if I'm honest.  Jealous that she spends so much time with it.  Time, that I know, could be better spent with with me.  And I'm sure she'd enjoy it more too.

When I realised I wasn't going to get any attention from her.  What has that PhD thingy got that I don't have?

It makes me think I must be lacking in some way ...

I don't think I can be though.  Because I'm a cat.  And us cats are just purrfectly perfect ....

I gave up trying to get her attention eventually & just went to sleep ...

But look at me here ... do you see how not happy I am with her?  And especially after she made me sit outside in the rain this morning ... you'd think she'd want to be nice to me to make up for it wouldn't you?!

It's about time she realised that I come first in this house ... & NOT the PhD thingy ...

I'm a bit tired of this PhD thingy ...

My human was already working on this PhD thingy when I moved in with her almost 3 1/2 years ago, but back then, I didn't imagine she'd still be doing it.

Take last night for example.  It was getting late, she'd finished with her clients, she'd had her tea, &, as far as I was concerned, that meant that it was snuggles with me time.

But no.  She seemed to have other plans.  She wanted to sit and do some PhD work on the sofa.  Well; I wasn't happy about that.  I wanted a cuddle.  It was my time.  She didn't seem to realise this though & got her books and iPad out.  I wasn't having it though.  It was my time.  My time to sit on her knee & have a cuddle.  My snuggle time ...

She gave up eventually.  Like any human, she accepted that the cat came first.  I knew what was right.  I wasn't going to give up.  She put the books down & I got my cuddle.

And then this morning.  She was up early & although she did give me a little bit of snuggle time.  It didn't last.

This is me just lying on her knee, contemplating the day ahead.  And wondering when she was going to throw me off so she could go and do some work.  It didn't take long.  I did enjoy the cuddle & contemplation whilst it lasted though ...

And then, sure enough; she got on the computer.  I obviously wasn't happy about that.  A day off work.  A day off clients.  That should mean my human spends the day playing & snuggling with me.

But no.  The PhD thingy took her attention.

I sat on her knee to keep her company whilst she worked on her computer.  And, to remind her that I was there.  To try to make her feel guilty for ignoring me.  But it didn't seem to work.  Even when I maneuvered myself to make sure I took up one of her arms ... I understand it's easier for you humans to type with two hands, rather than one?  I think my human should have been able to manage quite adequately with one hand.  It's got 4 fingers and a thumb, after all ... she wants to try typing with paws, like I have to do ...

She wasn't going to stop though.  Even when I did fall asleep & started snoring.  I was so cosy on her knee.  I went into such a lovely deep sleep, with lovely dreams of Dreamies cat-treats ...

And then ... the stupid postman pushed something through the letterbox.  Woke me up with such a fright.  Interrupted my lovely Dreamies filled dreams.  I jumped up off my humans knee.  I didn't know where I was.  I was still half asleep, as you can see ...

And even tonight, as I'm typing this with my furry little paws, my human is sitting reading yet more papers for the PhD thingy ...

I hope that when it's finished, she remembers she has a lot of making up to me to do ...