I have long been an advocate of aesthetically blessed sports people treating us to photos of themselves with super cute small animals and Julian Edelman is latest to indulge us with this treat. 

Clearly this is an opportunity to revist some past favourites, like Gronk with a kitten on his head. 

Or Gronk trying not to have his nose clawed off by a kitten

Or Nathan Baker with puppies 

And of course we can't forget the king of photos with small animals, Zoltan Mesko 

Other ways facial palsy affects my life:

Make up is difficult enough as it is without a wonky face. I was lucky enough to get some make up tips from a couple of experts recently which I thought I would share.

Complexion:

We've all seen the tutorials for contouring which look like a complex jigsaw in varying shades and are quite frankly terrifying. Contouring does not have to be that complicated. A swipe of bronzing powder below the cheekbone can do the trick on it's own. If one cheekbone appears lower than the other, simply swipe the bronzer slightly higher to give the appearance that the cheekbone itself is higher.

You can also add a highlighter on the cheekbone, again adjust the positioning to balance the face.

Eyebrows:

My eyebrows are not only different heights but also arch differently. Start by getting a brow pencil (any will do) and fill in the brows trying to match them up as much as possible, be it lengthening one, adding more of an arch to the other. At this stage it might look odd as you might not be used to filling them in. Once you've pencilled out a shape you're happy with pluck any stray hairs around the edges. Just remember no ones eyebrows will perfectly match :)

Eating and drinking with facial palsy:

Eating without dribbling and drinking out of cups is something most people take for granted after about the age of 2, but with facial palsy it's not that easy. 

Living with facial pain:

Anybody who knows me knows how much I love football. Unfortunately football is played outside in the winter. After my second episode when I was 21, my face became sensitive to the cold and it got worse after my third episode. Spending any amount of time outside when it was cold caused agonising pain. Sitting outside for 2 hours to watch a game of football was not going to happen.

I was prescribed medication to help with the nerve pain because it was stopping me from sleeping but I could only take them at night as they made me really drowsy. When it was windy was the worst, and made my whole face feel like it had seized up.

When I finally got seen by a specialist, 11 years after I first developed facial palsy, and started a programme of physiotherapy and Botox to help manage the synkenesis and hypertonicity things started to improve. After 3 years of treatment, I only sometimes get facial pain and it's not the agonising pain that it was, and although the cold still makes my face feel tight, I can now sit outside for 2 hours every other week to watch the football - which is mostly a good thing! 

Life with unexpected facial expressions:

Life with a unique smile:

Life with an eye that doesn't blink:

It's the first ever Facial Palsy Awareness Week from 1-7 March #FPAW. Over the next 7 days you will read 7 statements on here that describe the effects of facial palsy. You will read them and then you can forget them. Those affected by this condition cannot forget, they live with this daily. This condition can hit any one of us, from small babies to the elderly, at any time with no warning. There are no nationally funded trials investigating causes or treatments for facial paralysis. Many people are denied treatment because it is deemed purely 'cosmetic'. I'd like you to read my statements over the next 7 days and decide for yourself whether this condition should simply be disregarded as cosmetic.

For my oral in English Language GCSE, in 1999, we had to prepare a presentation about something that mattered to us. I decided to teach my class about Robert Hamill. It was a story that broke my heart then and has stuck with me every since. Sorting through some old things today I found what I had written, folded safely in a poly pocket with a news clipping from the time with a picture of Robert with his two young sons.

Today was another day of exploration. With a couple of stops in mind and the big map we set off up Bear Notch Road. Bear Notch Road is a very steep, winding mountain pass that is closed in winter but offers terrific views from the top of the Mount Washington Valley. It's also a handy shortcut across from Bartlett to The Kanc. 

Once on The Kanc we headed north to North Woodstock, where we had a terrific lunch at the wonderful Woodstock Inn. We stocked up on maple syrup supplies at Fadden's, purveyors of the best maple syrup around and perused the array of Glocks, rifles and crossbows at the gun store, which is up for sale in case anyone wants to buy a gun store in North Woodstock and took a walk down to the Pemigewasset River, which is just beautiful. 

We headed north again up to Franconia Notch, past the Old Man in the Mountain, or at least his mountain, up to Mount Lafayette and the grinning Govenor Gannon memorial, then across to Franconia. Last year we had stumbled across a delightful bar in Franconia called The Dutch Treat, where the welcome is warm, the drinks are cold and the locals are fascinating. Today's visit we learnt that the only Spanish one old man in dungarees knows is "How much for a kilo?"  

We also found a new store promising gifts, antiques and collectibles which most certainly delivered. I found some amazing salt and pepper pots and an old tobacco tin. The lady who owned it and her friend were AMC guides and volunteered on Mt. Washington. They were wicked impressed with our knowledge of the area and pointed us in the direction of some more places that were a little off the beaten track and definitely off the tourist maps. 

Following their directions, we headed back east through Bethlehem, which is full of Christmas tree farms and wild turkeys, go figure. At Bretton Woods we took the Base Station Road and came to Upper Falls, which wasn't quite as clearly signed as  we'd been told, but you can normally tell by the wear on the side of the road where places worth stopping are. Crazy locals jump off that rock in the foreground on the left into the pool below. 

We headed back through Crawford Notch, another very steep, winding mountain road, passing by Silver Cascades, the Mountain Division of the railroad now only used by the Conway Scenic Railroad Company and Sawyer's Rock. The scenery around here is just awesome. There is no other word for it. 

Today was forecast as a hot one, and it was, with it reading 36 degrees after lunch, so we decided to explore the local area a bit more. In the air conditioned car. There were a few things we wanted to try and find and a few places we'd meant to go and hadn't. 

The road turned into an unpaved one car track as it hit the Jackson town line and as soon as we saw the White Mountains National Forest sign the road ended abruptly. There is a beautiful lake further up there, Mountain Pond, but it's hard to tell how far it is or if it is accessible as the road was so badly damaged by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 that it's been closed since and not estimated to reopen until at least next year. 

I love old stuff. Specifically old American stuff. If I lived here my house would be full of old stuff. Old chairs, old dressers, old tables, but unfortunately I don't think I'd get them home to England, so I have to make do with stuff that will fit in my suitcase. Today was distinctly cloudy, so a great day for antiquing. 

Last year we made a decision that this year we would explore a bit more. Some of our best experiences and stories came from stumbling across places only the locals know about and stopping off in small towns off the beaten track, so today we headed out with the map and a rough idea of a direction. 

After climbing back up from the base of the falls, we continued north on Route 16 and stopped at Wildcat to get a drink and take some shots of the magnificent views of Mt. Washington to the east and Wildcat to the west. It was so lovely we decided to take the short hike loop at the base of the mountain and head up to Thompson Falls. The Way of the Wildcat loop is a delightful hike through the woods with markers telling the history and stories of the area including stories of the Abenaki people and the establishment of the reservation area of the White Mountains National Forest. 

The hike off the trail to the falls certainly seemed much further than the half mile it was stated to be, but it was worth it when we arrived. Thompson Falls were a hidden gem up until 2011 - when the Thompson Falls Trail became an official trail of the White Mountain National Forest - the falls had largely remained a mystery. Apart from an appearance on the 1942 USGS North Conway quadrangle and a brief mention in an AMC White Mountain Guide dating to the 1950's. It is still a very secluded, very pretty, picturesque cascade of water over a clam shaped ledge without the heavy foot traffic associated with other falls in the area, in fact we were entirely alone. 

After a somewhat strenuous morning of hiking, we headed north again in search of sustenance. We stopped in Gorham as there appeared to be a plethora of eateries, however as we walked down Main St it looked more and more deserted. Everywhere was closed. I'm not sure if Gorham comes alive in the evening, but it definitely sleeps during the day. After grabbing a Burger King (teenage boys turn into monsters if left hungry for too long), we headed west and back down the other side of Mt. Washington through Crawford Notch, where the scenery is just as impressive.