Showing posts with label F1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label F1. Show all posts

Matt Idol 2015

Over the past year my blog has left comedy and focused on mental health.
@MattStreuli
 This week I'm bringing back some of that comedy. As December starts its time to review the last year and offer up some candidates for people who deserve more recognition; people I admire. 

This is Matt Idol. #cuemusic



 It's not a way to idolise me - I wouldn't idolise me but that's because I've met me. We've got a few candidates from different aspects of life so please bear with and tweet me your feedback. Below each little write up I've included a relevant video or picture - please keep reading - I've put a reward at the very bottom.

Laura Nuttall  @Lozzamogz

Laura is clever, articulate and relatable young lady from North England. I stumbled across her YouTube videos earlier this year as I was looking for information on what it is like to be 'sectioned'. Laura has, and does, struggle with mental health describing herself as 'Schizoaffected'. Earlier this year she posted some honest videos about her experience in mental health hospitals in the UK; some of which was devastating to hear. When you watch her videos, you gain an insight into her life and also how normal she is; despite the stigma of mental health and being section represents. I have only briefly spoken to Laura on twitter but I find her story (through her social media and YouTube) to be particularly inspiring. Here is a bright, beautiful and compassionate young woman, similar age to me, who has had such a difficult struggle and yet still has acheived so much including graduating in psychology. Laura was admitted to hospital earlier this month but was well enough to attend the MIND Awards 2015 where she won the Blogger category. She was discharged earlier this week and is making great progress. Before moving onto the next entry, have a look at her channel especially the video below. Seeing Laura smile, after know she has been so ill, made me beam!
Thank you for sharing your story, I would love to come close to your honesty, your passion and your success.



Jenson Button MBE

Jenson has had every reason to feel angry or at least frustrated. He's been loyal to his team McLaren for almost five years and has acted as a proud ambassador not only for the sport but also his fellow drivers. Since his world championship win in 2009, Jenson has has a strong performance - even winning my favourite race in 2011 where in Canada he won the race after ending up last place due to 6 pit stops and a penalty in a soaking 4 hour wet race. Despite having an OK car, McLaren have kept falling behind the competition since the engines in Formula One moved from the noisy muscle to smaller more-fuel-efficient hybrid cars. This year, McLaren finished 9th out of 10 teams. As a McLaren fan I am disappointed and frustrated to the extent I can completely understand and forgive Alonso's outbursts throughout the year. Alonso, Jenson's team mate' joined McLaren because he had nothing to lose and felt that the risk of a new Honda engine might be the edge he needs to compete with the mighty Mercedes - but its the exact opposite. Despite all of this, plus the break-in to his house this August where thieves gassed him and his wife to sleep, he has remained cool, clever and kept on. His cheeky grin never far away. He could of so easily walked away and joined a TV commentary team or even went and raced in rally or endurance - yet he fights on. His car was a go kart compared to some of his competitors, yet he has still provided some of the most exciting wheel to wheel action of the season. Louis Hamilton and others will have their names recorded in other awards but I wanted to celebrate other achievements and my 'fandom' for Jenson keeps growing. The below video highlights Jenson's personality especially in a poor year of F1.


Mental Health Aware

instagram.com/mentalhealthaware/

This is an Instagram and twitter account run by Deano Hollett. There is not much of a backstory but I would ask you have a look and follow them. 

They post several times a day with a range of pictures and quotes some are to inspire you and others to help us all reevaluate our viewpoints. Either way, it raises the profile of mental health and I always enjoy reading their posts.  pic.twitter.com/Y4jOkCKI0N
  

Tom Scott

 If you have never heard of him, then you are missing out. I wanted to feature a YouTuber as I probably watch more YouTube than broadcast TV and feel that some of the content they are directing, producing, editing and presenting is freaking amazing. I looked through the channels I regularly watch and decided that Tom does an incredible job of every aspect and quite a bit of it, solo. His regular series "Things You Might Not Know" is genius and takes the viewer from weird British bridges to the radioactive remains of Chernobyl. Whether it is the bizarre code that killed Chrome, the moonpig bug or the 'Heartbeat' threat, Tom is there quickly to explain in simple yet entertaining ways how it works and why this is an issue. His videos are fun, clever yet most of all entertaining. Some of his videos are pure comedy and some carry a serious message but that's part of his charm keeping you glued to every video. PLEASE, I implore you, to go subscribe to his channel and binge on his videoes. Thou shalt not regret it.


And that's the end of this list...

Come see me in panto! Details at www.ihdc.co.uk
for now at least!

Your feedback is always welcome and I'd like thank you for staying with my weekly blog and reading every post - the stats show you do :)
It means the world to me that I am able to help promote better understanding of mental health, whilst therapeutically helping myself and hopefully we've all had a laugh at times too (suicide attempt and discrimination aside!). 

Keep scrolling, I've posted a few favourite things from the past week. Keep sharing, and please do tweet your feedback - THANK YOU xxx




http://mattstreuli.tumblr.com/post/134081332501




A video posted by Matthew E Streuli (@matthewstreuli) on
A video posted by Matthew E Streuli (@matthewstreuli) on

#Variety: Wobble


Lots of thoughts bumping around at the moment so prepare to engage with this mess. Last week we had a look at how Google is tracking your location and remembering it. I also glanced over the fact I had received a letter from the NHS letting me know that I am on a new waiting list.

It frustrates me.

If I had an ingrowing toenail or even something as severe as cancer, I would not be waiting 18 weeks. From taking that first step to speak to my GP, to getting a diagnosis, through to just starting treatment is forecasted to take over 10 months. 304 days from asking to help to actually getting it. As I've covered before suicide is the BIGGEST cause of death of men in the UK aged 20 to 45. Surely by investing more into treatments and preventative care then we could not only ward off some of the deaths but also release the pressure that has been dropped on our Police and frontline NHS.  According to Theresa May in May (hehe) 2015:
Last year, over 4,000 people detained under section 135 and 136 of the Mental Health Act were held in a police cell rather than in a health-based place of safety...
At a speech given to Police Chiefs the Home Secretary went on to say:
 The right place for a person suffering a mental health crisis is a bed, not a police cell. And the right people to look after them are medically trained professionals, not police officers.
 20% of the 22,000 people who were 'detained' or sectioned were kept in a police cell. The Guardian newspaper estimated earlier this year that 20% to 40% of the Police's time is dealing with people with mental health issues.
So where does this leave me? At the moment I am only a Moderate risk so just leave me alone to either kill myself and save the Government some cash or until I have a major crisis and become a burden at the local police station; taking up a cell and the time of officer's that should be focused on catching the thugs we see on Crimewatch each week. Theresa May pledged £15million in extra funding for this problem - but where is it? It doesn't appear to be shortening my 18 week wait just my shortening my life expectancy. Physical health is like the Mercedes-Benz F1 team versus mental health budget of the slowest F1 team, Manor F1.

If you have 30 seconds, then I ask you have a look at this campaign by the mental health charity RETHINK. They are trying email MPs to close the gap between physical health and mental health and demand fair funding - please click and join in - It's easy! : http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=32&ea.campaign.id=38960&ea.tracking.id=email


My wobble was not due to this wait - at least I don't think so. It was more something at work where I had put time and effort in only to be undermined and then have the situation overcomplicated.
I isolated myself and gave myself time to heal. I did selfharm but I'm please to say that after 24 hours I was almost back to my normal self - although lacking my normal tolerance.

Carrying on my F1 story from a couple of weeks ago, I am pleased to report that Max had a clean race in Canada that was mildly successful despite the harsh grid place penalty that was passed to him. Yet Grosjean, whilst lapping a much slower competitor from aforementioned Manor F1, decided to cut his car across the front bow and tear the nose-cone off the lapped car. It was careless and unnecessary.
He had already made his pass so why do it?

His punishment? 5 seconds added to his race time at the end so he still finished in 10th.Unfair?

Given his race record, you would of though that Romain Grosjean was 'experienced' enough now not to do things like this.


In other news, the Summer show at IHDC is going really well and Falcon has done an amazing job. I can't wait to see all the work by the youngsters and the crew pay off and I think we will really wow our community infomarket guests. You can read more about it on the NEWS page of www.ihdc.co.uk


Finally, I'd like to promote a new programme on BBC News Channel. Outside Source is a fantastic concept. Fronted by Ros Atkins which combines social media and the latest news from external sources with the reports from BBC reporters on the ground. It gives a bitesize yet rounded view on an array of stories - some of which we normally would miss in the UK as the programme is simulcast on BBC World News.  I am now an avid viewer (except for when it clashes with Drama - sorry Ros!) so much so, I had a mention earlier this week.
Have a look below - LIKE AND SHARE!
Thanks again for your support. I'm gonna try and cheer the fuck up and stop being so GRRR and cynical.






A photo posted by Matthew E Streuli (@matthewstreuli) on







#Variety : F1 crash to mental health reboot

Hello my friends. I'm starting to think I should blog more than once a week - what do you think?

Being the trend setter that I am, this week's post will be a variety of topics and to start I will update you all on my current mental health adventure.

 In last week's post I explained how I went from being bipolar to having a personality disorder. If you have seen my tumblr then you will have seen some the research I have been doing to try and distinguish which personality disorder I may have. I would recommend having a browse as, along the lines of my Are we all mentally ill post, I think we may all have personality disorders but on a sliding scale. At the moment I am waiting for a letter from the psychologist I met last week and then I guess I'll find out the next step.

In other news, I just wanted to say a Hello and Thank you for all the support I have received recently whether online or with my friends and family or through work. As we've discussed before the stigma of mental health is daft and it feels so good to be accepted by you all. That said I've just had a meeting with my HR department which I'll mention more at the end.

Photo with thanks to t-online.de
Carrying on with the variety, it is on F1. Max Verstappen is the youngest ever F1 driver and has had a quietly successful season so far. That was until a crash at last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix. Monaco's circuit takes place rather literally on the main roads of the tiny country and at the end of the curving start/finish straight is a sharp and tight right hand bend. Over the past few laps Max had been making fantastic headway in catching and trying to pass Romain Grosjean. It was at this sharp right bend that Max tried to undertake Romain and the picture shows the impact that threw Max into the barriers at 100+mph. Max walked away unscathed but commentators immediately started posting online and in print that this was proof that a 17 year old is too young to be in F1. A comment supported by Grosjean himself. I post this today to highlight how exciting even a dull race can be in F1 but also to defend Max. 

The late great Senna said:
By being a racing driver you are under risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing, competing to win.

ROMAIN!! FoxSports.au
Max saw a chance and took it just like Senna would and just like Grosjean would. I do not think for a second that Max is reckless. This is his first accident in what I would call a quietly successful first season. Compare that to Grosjean. Romain appeared in 2009 for a brief period where his driving style could be described as enthusiastic but careless. He then returned with Lotus in 2012  where his experience had certainly calmed down the careless behaviour but look at this 3 year old report on a F1 Fan site - http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/10/13/romain-grosjean-first-lap-crashes/   It is true that he has matured and settled down since but look at this spectacular crash (pictured) which was caused at least in part by Romain and nearly took a fellow driver's head off.
My summary? F1 is dangerous but chances are there to be taken and whilst not every chance will be successful it is the experience and maturity that shows whether it the gap is too small or big enough. Yes, Max is still learning, but hasn't his season thus far redeemed one misjudgement?

Keep pushing Max, you've earned a fan here.

Earlier today I had a meeting with my boss's boss and our HR department. In the meeting I was asked how I offload my stresses and triggers. The answer is this blog. It feels great to think through and explain how I feel and maybe that helps me understand why, if there is a reason. Also, my friends and family can read it and see how I am without having any awkward conversations.

That said:  it must be very difficult to hear a member of staff say they tried to kill themselves but I would like to say a huge thank you to my friends at my place of work. I understand that last week they were under pressure and understaffed but they did a great job and I'm lucky to say I have almost caught up on my personal backlog. It will be good to see what support they can offer going ahead especially to the team I work with.

Today, I am functioning quite well and I'll be honest - the Matt that had to call the crisis team scares me.

And we wind up this week by promoting the Summer Show at the Iver Heath Drama Club. We are a small family of 30 members from all ages and abilities and this summer the youngsters have the main parts in Law and Order: Fairy Tale Unit with the old ones like me taking a step back. It is a funny and clever show for the whole family. Tickets on sale now at www.ihdc.co.uk

Thank you once again for reading my blog. I'm sorry it has been lacking the normal humour but why not have browse back through my blog and let me know your favourite post.

TTFN xxx




A photo posted by Matthew E Streuli (@matthewstreuli) on

Love you xxx