%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |   Originally efforts for the 30 Day Blogging Challenge in July... now just a blog |
|
The 30 Day Blogging Challenge ..... lets see how far I get... Pretty far it seems! Winner (1st place) for the July 2013 "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  Second place for the September 2014 "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" |
Soundtrack to My Life - Track eleven Our first dance started well, right? Picture the "Invalid Entry" playing, a nice romantic song, and the newly weds swaying lovingly in each other’s arms. All the guests were looking on, probably with tears welling up, threatening to trickle down their cheeks. How delightfully romant…BOOM!!! Suddenly, the groom has started dancing like a loon and the bride cannot move because she’s in fits of laughter, watching her husband trying to look like an Egyptian. Why? Because we’d mixed this in… The Bangles - Walk Like an Egyptian [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] To be continued… |
Soundtrack to My Life - Track ten Now, since it was Valentine's Day yesterday, I probably should have written the following three posts yesterday. But I didn’t… I don’t like to be too predictable or anything!  When Chris and I were planning our wedding, we were slightly concerned about the tradition of the first dance. Both of us are disabled - me more so than him - so dancing is not our forte. Not sensible dancing anyway. So, we spent a lot of time working out what we could do  We thought of it all: both of us in a chair, on the floor, not doing a first dance, getting everyone else to dance around use… all rubbish ideas. In the end we decided to do something different. We had a mix of three different songs. The first was your more traditional first dance song. To this we just held each other and swayed… Cat Power - Sea of Love [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] To be continued… |
Soundtrack to My Life - Track nine I’m really behind on this challenge. Well, with everything really. Luckily, the soundtrack challenge rules state that you don’t have to write a post everyday, just as long as you’ve written about 28 tracks by 28th February. That’s okay - I can do that! I can. I will… I’ve actually chosen 25 of the 28 tracks. So, all I need to do is write and choose three more tracks. Track nine is actually noted down as track twenty-four. But I’ve decided it suits this post better… I am highly competitive and put myself under pressure in everything I do. This is my greatest attribute AND my greatest downfall. It is a good attribute because it means I try my best at everything I do. But the pressure I put myself under can cause my brain to want to explode. For example, even this challenge has been playing on my mind all week: “I’m behind! I’m behind!”… To be honest, I’ve allowed myself to purposefully fall further behind, just to show myself that it is okay and the world is not going to end if I don’t keep ahead. But seven days is enough! Now, I need to catch up. Sheeeesh, I sound crazy, huh? On with the track… Queen - Under Pressure [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
Soundtrack to My Life - Track eight Chris recently bought us full weekend tickets to the Cambridge Folk Festival this summer. I’m very excited - I just love the “Folky” and haven’t been for quite a few years. Last time I went, there was a big group of us. It was great fun. I borrowed an electric wheelchair because, at the time I had a knackered shoulder and couldn’t wheel myself over grass. I also didn’t want to rely on other people to get me around. On the Saturday night, The Levellers headlined the main stage. We sat in the disabled seating area to the side of the stage when my friend announced that she was going to go to the front of the stage - was I coming? Yeah why not. So, we wandered through part of the crowd, only to get stopped by a steward… Steward: disabled seating is over there My friend: yep… we’re going down the front Steward: We can’t let wheelchairs down the front - health and safety Friend: oh ok sorry Steward walks off. Me: Shall we? Three of us pushed (nicely) our way through the crowds and managed to get right up to the fence in front of the stage, which I could hold onto to stand up. I nearly went flying a few times and we all got very bruise but it was totally worth it The Levellers - Beautiful Day [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
Soundtrack to My Life - Track seven I’m attempting to make it look like I’m not just trying to write these as quickly as I can. But, I won’t lie to you, I am. For track seven, I am taking you, for the third and final time, back to my final year of primary school. This time, we’re going right to the very end - maybe the last one or two weeks. Track seven was released on 7th July 1996 - I left primary school on 17th July 1996. The track took the UK by storm, including our classroom. We weren’t really expected to do any work as we were all outta there and not their problem any more. So, we just played games and did lots of random, extremely unproductive, stuff. As I said, we had a stereo in our classroom. Therefore, just like in the case of Fairground, Wannabe by The Spice Girls was played over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Only, this time there was a great deal of dancing going on. I, personally, don’t think I danced on the tables but I know everyone else did. I cannot listen to this song without picturing that year six classroom… Wannabe - The Spice Girls [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
Soundtrack to My Life - Track six I had big plans for today - I was going to get loads done. Yeeeah - I’ve pretty much failed. I’ve booked a few things into my diary and had a new carpet put down in my hall, stairs and landing. But really, I can’t claim that I “did” that. I didn’t even pay for the carpet - my mum paid as a Christmas present. Really, I’ve just sat here… Sooooo…. I figured I might try and catch up with this soundtrack thing. Track six became known to me around the same time that Chris and I were trying to choose our wedding (first dance) song. As soon as I heard it I chuckled and thought “this is it”. When Chris got home that evening, I excitedly played it for him. Needless to say, he laughed but immediately dismissed it as a possible wedding song. I was disappointed as I think it articulates my feelings perfectly… P!nk - True Love [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
Soundtrack to My Life - Track five As I said in my previous entry (here), my final year of primary school was full of interesting projects. One such project was producing an assembly for the whole school in which our class sang and acted out Gangster’s Paradise by Coolio. This might not be as random as it sounds… You see, despite my middle-class upbringing, I went to primary school in one of the roughest part of Cambridge (yes, even Cambridge has rough parts). I went there because it offered the support I needed. Anyway, if there is ever going to be gang problems in Cambridge it is where I went to primary school. Therefore, I think the project was chosen as a message to the kids likely to get in trouble as they went through life. There were a fair few under this umbrella and I often wonder where they are now. As it happens, I’ve just googled someone and found that they are involved in a pretty major crime. Nice.  Although it is a pretty bleak song for a bunch of 10-11 year olds to sing, we had loads of fun learning it and putting everything together. Or, at least, I did! Gangster’s Paradise by Coolio [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
Soundtrack to My Life - Track four I think my favourite teacher was my very last teacher in primary school before moving onto secondary school (high school). Looking back, I think Mr Fitzgerald was one of only two male teachers in the whole school. So I guess it was slightly odd. But, still, I thought he was awesome. I often think of him… 18 years on. I’m not sure there is necessarily anything I do now that I can attribute to Mr F. Nevertheless, he was highly creative, funny, kind and managed to make learning fun. We were forever doing crazy projects just to “see what happens” and I really appreciated that. He was also the only teacher I knew who had a full, all singing, all dancing stereo in his classroom. This means I actually have three tracks that remind me of Mr F’s class in 1995-1996. Sometimes when we were doing work, Mr F liked to play music. I’m pretty sure that, for about four months, the guy got obsessed with today’s track. It felt like it was on repeat the entire time. He did offer a reason as to why he wanted to play it to us. But I cannot remember what it was. It can’t have been a very convincing reason. Simply Red - Fairground [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
Soundtrack to My Life - Track three Wooo I slept last night!  I’ve just got in from work. Chris is out til late tonight so soon I’ll be settling down to write some letters… or read a book. Either or. It depends how awake my brain feels in about 20 minutes. But, for now, I thought I’d write this while it’s on my mind. I’ve just read a lovely email from PatrickB  , which I most definitely need to reply to. Again, this is dependant on brain function. I feel a little sorry for Patrick. You see, on Saturday morning, I woke up to a few emails basically saying, “you promised me a Merit Badge, where is it?”Right, if you know me, you’ll know that I can be very busy. Also, if I’ve ever owed you two MBs at once, you’ll know that I’ll send you one then put a reminder on my calendar to send you another in 14 days. I’m good like that! Others don’t. Just saying!  Needless to say, these emails annoyed me to the point where I had to step away before I replied using the word “fuck” OR “Do you have any idea…” Anyway, going back to my emails I found a reminder from Patrick to get my Symposium topic answer in. So, I replied with my chosen track (today’s track) and said, “sorry I’m always late”. He responded saying it was fiiine to be later than some … he put it much better than that I then took it upon myself to reply saying that I thought his organisation was awesome (it is) and that sometimes running things on WDC was overwhelming and pissed me off (I explained about the MB thing). His response made me smile because he’s spot on and takes no shit. Annnnnyway, to get to my point … the track I chose for the Symposium on Saturday absolutely is not what I was going to choose on Friday. However, being put into a bad mood completely changed what I wanted to listen to. Granted it isn’t a new phenomenon: But it fascinates me nonetheless I often think of this track in my car. A lot of places I work are in the middle of nowhere. Turning off a duel carriageway onto a dirt track can feel like you’re on a Highway to Hell… [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
Soundtrack to My Life - track two Today has been a “snow day” for me. There wasn’t an horrendous amount of snow but I have enough trouble not falling over as it is. I got my wheelchair stuck in the snow a few times trying to get to the car. I had a two hour drive to do and I could just see myself slipping over and breaking something (again) as I tried to get my chair in the car. So, I decided to give it a miss. I am exceptionally tired. I had planned on getting through my emails then writing lots of letters. However, I’ve pretty much sat around and watched the day fly past. After getting up at 5am yesterday, I was sure I would sleep well last night. Alas, this was not the case: I woke up every 45 minutes or so, checking the weather. Sigh. I definitely need an early night tonight - I’m not just going to say it either. I will be in bed by 8pm at the latest! Today’s track comes from when I was about 10. My mum listened to Sophie B. Hawkins a lot around this time. Looking back, I figure it must have been her “my husband has run off and I’m depressed” music. Unfortunately, I liked it so I encouraged her to play it. Had I have been older, wiser and known better, perhaps I wouldn’t have done so. Ahh hindsight! I’m still partial to this song. Despite its negative connotations…Maybe it's just because it was something I shared with my wonderful mum! [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
I forgot I'd even written this 
. 
