Life and Music

Music.

It makes us happy,

Makes us sad,

Makes things so much better,

And oh so much worse,

Sum things up,

And inspire us,

Plus it is the only thing that can make us smile when it matches the situation that were in.

I love music. I've grown up surrounded with music in every area of my life. My dad is a musician so, as such, i've been involved in every part of music.

At the age of 5 I could assemble a drum kit from scratch and would regularly sleep on amps as my dad played at gigs in pubs. At age 7 i could re string a guitar better and faster than most of the men in the multiple bands my dad was involved in.

I would put up mikes, tape down all the different wires and angle the different drum heads just right :D

Over the years bands have come and gone by the spirit of his music has lived on. The newest musical project is Quietly Spoken Gentleman.

Ralph (daddy dearest) and Ian are both Nurses (oh yes i said it nurses) in the NHS and both find relief and therapy in music. Its a mix of folk electronic music AKA folktronic ;)

Please have a listen on http://www.quietlyspoken.co.uk/

Hope you like them.

Mucho cyber loves

Me and my big fitness (or lack there of)

Hello Bloggers


I haven't been around much recently due to some extreme work schedule's and complete lack of personal time but here i am and hopefully with more puzaz/spunk and less aggression (sorry for anyone offended by my 'down with London' AKA Smile post).

As some of you may know I'm training to do Race For Life where you do a charity race (ironic i know) to raise money for Cancer Research UK. 
Sponsor me here


This is a really personal goal for me for many reasons including my boyfriend's mother (we shall call her the mum in law to make it simpler or MIL) being diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer nearly 2 years ago. She's had a mastectomy where they removed the breast in an attempt to stop the cancerous tissues spreading further, radio therapy and chemo therapy. Not long after she had completed her bout of treatment we were struck by more bad news. The cancer had spread to her brain. It had caused cluster tumors in and around the surface of the brain giving her a predicted life span of 2 years maximum. A few months after this devastating blow she was placed in a trial for a new type of procedure which was called Cyberknife. In lay mans terms it fires a very accurate laser into areas that normally are inoperable. This laser is so accurate it re-calibrates to movement due to breathing. Its amazing but even though the NHS had bought 3 of these machines they are not going to be used unless you are a private patient!!!!!! stupid or what?!
MIL is now (so we have been told) cancer free so far so fingers crossed guys.


Any way I'm not on here to rant about the stupidness of paper pushing politicians or management. I'm here to tell a bit of my story. So yes this would be enough to give me motivation to do something but there is more to this meer person than at first it seems.


8 years ago i was 13. I had my whole life out ahead of me and long summers of youth filled enjoyment ahead of me. I was visiting my Aunt in sunny Barry, Wales and i was staying with her to 2 weeks. One was to be spent in Barry and the other was to partially spent at Disney Land Paris. This was amazing, i was out of the country, away from my parents and doing something that no one else in my family had done. 

When we came back i thought i had a bit of a cold (as it had rained quite a bit, not that it had spoiled it) so i started going to bed early, and when i came back home it got worse. It was the end of the easter holidays and i went to school for 1 day and i wasn't able to get out of bed for 5 weeks. Everything hurt and when i tried to walk it was like wearing lead trousers whilst walking through treacle. Everything was difficult to do and i found it harder and harder to do anything. Desperate to find out what was wrong with me my parents took me to the doctors. I was, as i found out much later, one of the lucky ones. After what felt like a billion blood tests i was given the news. I had M.E. Some of you may not have heard of it or if you have you may think its a joke. People just being lazy. Well i can tell you it's not. Its Agony. 

Going from a tree climbing, happy, bouncy, fun loving pre teen to someone who needed carrying up the stairs and having to be washed, dressed and fed by someone else. Not a pretty picture. For 3 years I was wheelchair and bed bound. I lost all but 2 of my friends who even pushed me around in my wheelchair in some of my dark times. But i got help (not that the medical profession helped at all apart from making me worse and giving me anti-depressants that the side effects were of suicide) and i started getting better. At this point i was 16. I'd missed all my exams and all my friends were thinking about their A levels and i didn't have a GCSE to my name. I went to college for 3 years where i met the love of my life Richard.

We are happy and have been together for 5 years. And its that reason that i want to run this. I've been put down, had people give up on me, call me a waste of space, given up on my ability to cope and looked back and gone....Wow.

I want to do that again. I want, after I've crossed that finish line to go....Wow. look at what I've just done. I did that. I'm amazing. 

Because we are. We are amazing. And so are You.

Yes You. Reading right now. 

You Are Amazing.

Smile

Well I'm feeling pretty happy today which is a change considering my last post.

The sun is shining in the good old UK, the swallows are swooping around like crazy outside my window, got wicked music playing (always gotta hear good music otherwise i get sad :( ) and im off to meet one of my best friend with her gorgeous baby.

Also I've just found out that im in my local newspaper which is scary but i'm pleased. I'm doing race for life (Charity run for Cancer Research UK if none of you know what that is) and i'm excited about it. I should probably be training more than blogging but i can do both :D I'd really appreciate if any of you could sponsor me. Just click on the badge on my page.

Anyway the point of my blog (yes there is one). I'm actually (contradictory to my last blog) a happy person and I always try and smile even if im feeling crappy or upset because you never know what the other person may be going through. Anyway because i smile all the time, strangers are my favorite, I have noticed that less and less people smile back or i get the 'Oh my god someone is smiling at me. Why? quick do something *insert fearful smile back*' and off i skip after freaking someone out. But why is this. Why are less and less people comfortable performing this sign of peace and happiness?

Now I live about an hours train journey away from london and i avoid it like the plague (unfortunately i have university there so i have to go a lot). Why avoid this buzzing metropolitan city? The people. Something changes once your in london and live in london. I have lived in London and its true because it happened to me and i was so scared of the person i became that promised i would never become that again.

 

We are familiar with this sight. This is from Japan where people are literally squeezed and pushed into the trains by porters. now im not saying that london is this bad because it's not but the combination of overcrowding, rude passengers and general people makes me hate london. 

I have had many experiences including once when i man was so desperate to get a seat on the tube before me and my flat mate that he barged past me and my flat mate sending her flying. After almost sitting on his lap and him shouting at me for standing too close that he couldnt read his damn paper i 'calmly' told him to apologizes to my friend and then i would move.

Another is after i had held a door for someone to walk through someone else barged past me and swung the door back in my face causing a rather sore and red nose on my part :(

(you get my point)

What happened to common manners?

Smile to everyone. You never know when you'll save a life.