Tag: Nile Wilson

DEVASTATED

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I finally got home from work just after 21:00 last night. I had left the house that morning at 07:00.
I was tired as it had been a busy and frustrating day.
I did not expect the snippet of news I came home to.

There had been an announcement by a young man who’s career I have been following for a few years.
I have to be honest, at the back of my mind I think I knew this announcement was coming.
It still didn’t make it any easier.

Nile Wilson, British Men’s Artistic Gymnast, has announced his retirement at the age of just 24.
In the video he released he stated that injuries over the last couple of years had been the reason.

The last time he competed professionally was back in 2018 at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Australia.
This was an extremely exciting competition and I remember sitting up into the early hours with one of my daughters’, holding my breath through every piece of apparatus, watching him help the GB team to All-round Gold.
Nile went on to win Individual All-round Gold, Horizontal Barr Gold, Rings Silver and Parallel Bars Silver.

I had high hopes for him for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 but unfortunately life had other plans.

I follow Nile on Youtube, as do another 1.44 million subscribers!!
He is funny, he is enthusiastic, he is infectious to watch, he has an amazing relationship with his Dad Neil.
Nile and Neil are a comedy duo and have their own Youtube channel where Neil is lovingly referred to as ‘The Youtube Sensation!’


Together they have started building Nile’s future, opening up his first Gym and getting his Brand on merchandise that sells like hot cakes!

However, ever since his amazing haul of medals at the Commonwealth Games, he has been plagued by injuries and has had several operations.
He initially remained very positive and worked his arse off to get back to top fitness levels, however, a neck injury just over a year ago was the beginning of the end.
A bulging disk that was compressing on a nerve causing weakness down one arm required some pretty major surgery.

NO EXCUSES! | Isabelle Weall's Story {Inspirational} - YouTube

Nile remained positive and was still aiming for the 2020 Olympics but the injury had other ideas,
He just couldn’t seem to beat the weakness in his shoulder and I could tell by the content of his Vlogs that he was becoming a little disheartened. When the 2020 Olympics were cancelled due to the Covid Pandemic, and Nile began to really push his own Brand, I think that deep down I already knew that it wouldn’t be too long before he made this announcement.

My heart breaks for him at the age of just 24!!
However, Nile is far from gone. His enthusiasm for the sport remains. He is inspirational for thousands of kids who are interested in the sport and I can see Olympic class Gymnasts emerging from his gym/s in the future.

I will continue to follow his exploits on Youtube and continue to laugh at his antics with his Dad.
Most of all, I will continue to watch his career with interest, albeit in a slightly different direction!!

GIVE HIM A GO

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Ok, I have time for a quick blog.
In fact I have two weeks for quick blogs as I am now on annual leave.

Not that I’ll have too much time for relaxing as I still have to attend University on Mondays and I have a presentation to finish and present, another presentation to start and two essays to get going!!

So much for annual leave!!

Anyway, today I am relaxing. In fact I’m off to the little Bro’s house in a bit for a party to celebrate his wife’s son’s 18th birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEWIS!!

Anyway, onto why I’m blogging.
I’ve just spent a bit of time on Youtube and I’ve watched a new video by Nile Wilson.
If you read my blogs regularly you will know that I love Men’s Artistic Gymnastics and this guy in particular is so enthusiastic about everything he does, he’s absolutely infectious.

Today he’s announced a bit of a change in his Vlogging.
He’s kicking it all off with 7 individual vlogs over the next 7 days.
He’s just moved out of his parents house, so he’ll be talking about that but what interested me the most was his view of the next two years.
He is stepping up his game with the Tokyo Olympics in his sights for 2020.
He is going to take us through the rigorous training, the highs and lows of the next two years and if his previous vlogs are anything to go by, he’ll be doing it in style.

So check him out. Give him a go. You’ll get hooked too. The first two minutes of this vlog are spine tingling.

If you get hooked on Nile, you’ll LOVE Neil and Nile Vlogs that he does with his dad.
They have an amazing relationship and are hilarious together.

Take a look.

They make me giggle anyway.

DAUGHTER #2 IS EVIL!!

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It was back to Uni today after a few days off where I’ve been lucky enough to watch all of the Men’s artistic gymnastics at the Commonwealth Games…… well, almost all.

This morning was the last of the individual apparatus events with England taking another 5 medals!!

I was up at the crack of dawn….again…. showered, dressed and ready for Uni so that I could sit and watch as much of the last three events as I could.

Uni starts at 09:30 which means I have to leave home at around 08:20 to make sure I arrive on time if the traffic is heavy. The last of the events wasn’t scheduled to finish until 08:40!! So frustrating!!

Anyway….

Courtney Tulloch got a silver to add to his 2 golds for team and rings and Dominic Cunningham got Bronze to add to his team gold.

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Then my favourite, Nile Wilson took Silver on the Parallel bars, taking his medal hall to 2 golds and two silvers! He was in gold position for a while until Marios Giorgiou from Cyprus, gave an amazing performance and snatched it away. Marios has had an unbelievable games, taking a bronze in the all around event and gold in the floor and parallel bars.

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Finally, it was time for the final piece of aparatus and Nile’s strongest piece. He was also the defending Commonwealth champion. I had enough time to see Nile give his performance and see him take 1st position and then I had to leave for Uni.
I left instructions with daughter number 2 to text me the final result.

I arrived at Uni just after 09:00 and looked at my phone.

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I knew that there were another 4 gymnasts after Nile, with Frank Baines of Scotland right at the end, so what she’d messaged was quite possible.

I had a heart stopping few minutes in the car as I tried to confirm what she’d told me.
Let’s just say, the continuation of that converstion was not for delicate ears!!

Of course Nile got the gold!!! and James Hall took joint Silver with Cory Paterson from Canada.

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So!! Nile’s total medal haul is 3 golds and 2 silvers!! and he continues to amaze me with his talent, his dedication and his absolute love and enthusiasm for his sport.
His Youtube Vlogs are hilarious. His Youtube Vlogs with his dad are even funnier.

All in all, the home nations haul of medals in the gymnastics wasn’t too shabby!!
9 Golds.
6 Silvers.
8 Bronze.
If my calculations are correct.

I think my favourite win has to go to Rhys McClenaghan who snatched the Gold away from his idol, Max Whitlock on the Pommel.
Every time I watch him finishing his routine, when the emotion of realising what he’s just done hits him, the quivering bottom lip!! I just want to give him the biggest hug!

Right, time for the diving!!

COME ON TOM!!!

 

NORTHERN IRELAND STUNNER!

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So it was up at the crack of dawn today to watch some gymnastic aparatus finals at the Commonwealth Games.

After stunning performances in the Team and the Individual All-around events, Max and Nile had a bit of a dodgy start today on the individual floor.
Neither of them could get clean landings and Nile even sat down on one, so it was not to be for the floor medal.

The Pommel was the surprise of the day with the youngster , Rhys McClenaghan, from Northern Ireland taking the gold ahead of Olympic champion Max Whitlock.
They both scored 15.100 but Rhys’ execution score was higher so he took the medal.
He had obviously decided that to beat Max he just needed to go for it, and it worked!!
The emotion on his face when he landed and realised what he’d done was amazing.
I just wanted to give him a big hug.

Rhys

The final piece of men’s apparatus for the day was the rings.
Courtney Tulloch for England took his second gold medal of the games and Nile Wilson got his 3rd medal of the games taking the silver.
They were both amazingly cool.

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So, it’s up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to watch the last three pieces.
Two of them are Nile’s best pieces!!

YES!!!

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Yes!!
What a competition that was. Talk about heart pounding stuff!
Again, the boys did good in the all-around competition.
Nile took the gold and James took the silver.

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It’s now 3am and I’m off to bed, although I’m so pumped full of adrenaline I don’t think I’ll be sleeping much!

HAPPY, SO FAR

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I have been lucky enough to be able to watch quite a lot of the Commonwealth Games so far.
As I stated in an earlier blog, Gym and Diving are my favourite events and I managed to stay up through the night on the first day to watch the English Men’s Artistic Gymnasts WIN gold!!

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My boys did amazingly well.
I can’t wait to watch Nile and James compete in the all around title just after midnight tonight!
I am hoping that Nile will be walking away with another gold.

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He absolutely nailed his high bar routine in the team event, getting one of the highest scores of the tournament with 15.100.

Then today, the women’s team, against all odds, won the silver team medal.

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They missed out on the Gold by just 0.425 of a point!!
Considering that this team went into the event after suffering a few unexpected blows prior to the games after recent injuries or forced withdrawals meant that most of the team were dubuting and none of them were olympians, I think they did amazingly well.

However, I have to say, that I much prefer to watch the Men’s Gym.
It’s powerhouse performances, stripped back to the difficulty and execution with none of the sparkly, fancy, twirly, dancy, faffing that the girls are forced to contend with.
I can’t even watch Rythmic Gymnastics.

So, Men’s Individual all-around just after midnight tonight.
Men’s Floor, Pommel and Rings on Sunday between 05:30am and 08:30am and Vault, Parallel Bars and Horizontal Bar on Monday, again between 05:30am and 08:30am.

Mmmm, University day starts at 09:30……. I can make that!!

BIT OF A SLIP UP!

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The Commonwealth Games has it’s opening ceremony tomorrow on the Gold Coast of Australia. (BBC one, red button and online, from 10am)

Being in australia means that I’m going to have to be up at stupid o-clock to see any of the events I want to see, so I’ve got my timetable ready!!
All the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics and Men’s Diving carefully planned out in the hopes of at least seeing some of them!

I’ve been keeping up with my two favourites, Tom Daley and Nile Wilson, via their Vlogs on Youtube and it’s been fun seeing them build up to the event and show us around the athletes village and all their shinanigans.

However, Nile’s shinanigans may have just got him into some hot water!!

Tom and Nile have done some colaborative vlogs together in the past and have become quite good friends so when Nile decided to ‘prank’ Tom and release the Vlog earlier today, I got my Youtube notification and took ten minutes out to have a laugh.

In the Vlog, Nile manages to steal Tom’s training trunks out of his bag before Tom goes to the pool and then films himself wearing them on the beach.
Also in the Vlog, Nile gets a facetime message from Tom, what he neglected to edit out was Tom’s mobile phone number!!

There it was, in all it’s glory and it was soon picked up on in the comments under the vlog.

The Vlog only got released a couple of hours ago and it already has over 35000 views.
35000 people (yep, including me, not that I would ever use it) have paused that video and made a note of that number.

One person in the comments has already tried it and got Tom’s coach who said that Tom was sleeping.
It’s currently around 5am in Australia, so Tom is going to wake up with a bit of a surprise and a nightmare to sort out.
Poor Nile is going to be distraught when he realises his slip up!

POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE!

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After a relatively depressing first day at University, as the scale of the next year really hits home, I’m sat here already onto my second glass of wine!!

To try and gloss over the day, I’ve been catching up with some Youtube favourites.

Not a lot of people will know that an interest of mine is Swimming, diving and gymnastics.
Believe it or not, I used to do gymnastics!! I really enjoyed vaulting.

When it comes to competitions and the Olympics, I have always favoured swimming, diving and gymnastics.
Forget track and field events and winter olympics. As exiting as they are, I just love swimming, diving and gymnastics.

Two of my favourite Vloggers are Tom Daley and Nile Wilson.
Such enthusiastic and incredibly talented young men with a personality that just bubbles over into their Vlogs.

Both had new Vlogs to catch up on today.
Tom has been competing in China. His first official competition of the year and his first Vlog tackled jet lag!!

However, it was a Vlog from Nile Wilson that struck home.

In this Vlog he talks about the importance at looking where you came from and where you are now to truly understand how far you’ve come!!

As I sat here and thought about the last ten years, I have stunned myself into submission.

Ten years ago, after being a stay home mum for over 12 years, I was in the right place at the right time to find a job that I had no idea I would end up loving.
Paediatric Health Care Assistant.
Yes it’s tough and there are days where I wonder what I’m actually achieving, but when all is said and done, I do love my job and the people I work with and I wonder where I would be now If I’d found it 25 years ago!!

When I look at how the job has changed for me personally in the last 10 years, I began to understand exactly how much I’ve learnt.

I got the job with no official qualifications.
My job was very basic.
Help to keep people happy. Clean and make beds. Do basic observations and make sure the stock levels are OK.

In ten years, the amount I’ve learnt is unfathomable.
I can now look after a surgical patient from admission to discharge. The only thing I can’t do, because I’m not ‘qualified’ is pick them up from theatre and give them pain relief.
If anything out of the ordinary is required for ordering, I’m the ‘go to’ person and I know what all the stock is for!
If Doctors need help, I’m the ‘go to’ person If I’m around.
I now officially have a level 3 qualification to back up my on the job learning that I did a couple of years ago and I have been gently pushed by several work collegues to take things a little further, which is how I ended up doing the new ‘Trainee Nursing Associate’ foundation degree.

It’s a two year course which will see me able to do ‘some’ medications and I will have a pin number and be totally accountble for my actions.
A scary prospect, but one I feel ready for.
It will at least mean that I can completely take surgical patients from admission to discharge and be recognised in my pay band for the work I do.

I found the first year at level 4 a real challenge but I managed it. I passed with ‘A’s and ‘B’s and only one ‘C’.
I must admit, I impressed myself.

However…….

Today I started year two. We had a run down of what is expected this year and got our timetable of events that re-iterated the little melt down I had a couple of days ago.

As I drove home, I wondered if it was all worth it and then I watched Nile’s Vlog about looking back and taking stock of what you’ve achieved and I realised just how much I’ve grown personally in my unexpected career and I realised, ‘I CAN DO THIS!!’

It’s going to be an incredibly tough year but at the end of the day….. It’s only a year!!

I may have a few wobbles along the way but I know that I have the support I need from work collegues.
This time next year I will be qualified.
I ‘WILL’ be picking those patients up from theatre.
And I know I’ll be a hell of a lot more relaxed!!!