Day 3: A Great Day!

I sit here on my usual spot on my bed listening to some great tunes whilst I write. I do have a desk which I had great intentions of becoming my writing workspace however it seems to have accumulated many random bits n' bobs which I have yet to find a home for. Anyway, it's officially the weekend! Happy Friday everyone!

Today has been a great day for me! As you'll have gathered from some of my YouTube videos, I have a bit of a fascination with vinyl records and enjoy visiting records stores and fairs whenever I can. The record fair which visits our town every couple of months just so happened to be in my local area today and had been advertised across town with posters stating that it would be open from the hour of 10am-5pm. So we popped into town this morning before tutoring, visited a couple of shops before making our way to the specified location of the record fair. On arrival one of the guys running the fair whom I didn't recognise from previous fairs rudely turned to us and told us it wouldn't be open for another 20 minutes despite that it was in fact 10 o'clock. And by that point most of the boxes were already laid out on the tables and ready for customers to browse. We went for a browse in New Look to pass some time when the stubbornness in me came creeping out. I turned to my Mum and said 'You know what? They can keep their records, I'll take my business and my money elsewhere and visit instead my local record store at the other end of town'. Our time for parking had almost ran out so we couldn't make our way to the record store and back in time so I decided I'd wait and pop in another day in the near future. Mum however, felt sorry for me as she knows just how much I love record shopping and managed to park the car nearer to the record shop which gave me the chance to pop in and have a look around.

It had been a while since I'd last visited however the owner recognised me from a previous shopping spree with my friend Heather and ended up chatting with me and recommending some music to check out in future. In passing conversation it was mentioned that I run a blog and have an interest in media etc to which he asked me if I'd like to get me involved by writing for the shop's website which of course I'm absolutely delighted about! So there you go, a great opportunity came out of the situation! It's the record fairs loss and The Hat Hippie's gain!

Coincidentally, I was sitting in the car with Mum on route to pick Laurel up from school this afternoon, the radio was on at a low volume due to us chatting. Somehow my ears picked up the familiar sound of Stevie Nicks' voice, I can seriously spot it a mile away. Immediately, I cranked up the volume and sure enough Fleetwood Mac's 'Gypsy' was playing. 'Gypsy' is one of my all-time favourite songs, I find it very meaningful and always feel inspired by the story Stevie shares on stage whenever she performs it. I actually discussed the story with her last year and how it related to some of the things which at the time I had recently achieved. Since then her advice and encouragement has stuck with me and it's become a driving force in my life during this past year. Hearing that song on the radio this afternoon, once again felt relevant to my life today. It's rather funny when things like that happen isn't it?

Well I really must go for now as we're about to head out and pick up some Chinese takeaway for Dinner-mmmm! I hope you all have a great remainder of your Friday evening and I'll speak to you tomorrow!

Love & Peace,

The Hat Hippie xx

Memorable Moments of 2015!

Hello Hatters!

Happy New Year to each and every one of you out there! I really hope that 2016 will bring good things for and that overall, it'll be a great year for you!

2015 for me personally, was one incredible year and I think it'll be difficult to top it but I'll certainly give it a good shot! I started 2015 thinking it was going to be like any other year but little did I know what it held for me! In the space of 12 months so many amazing things have happened to me! The chances of a lot of what happened in 2015 actually happening were very slim; or so I thought anyway and having as many of them happen within such a small proximity of time was even more unexpected! It's been a very long time since I've had such an amazing year and thanks to it I've become so much more confident than I used to be and feel more positive about life in general! I am so excited to see what 2016 holds for me and hope that it also, will be full of amazing things for each and every one of you out there!

I thought that in today's post, I'd take the opportunity to look back on some of last year's best bits and celebrate them one more time before moving on to a new year and a new chapter! So here it goes:

1. Meeting Stevie Nicks & Mick Fleetwood from Fleetwood Mac

So this is by far the highlight of 2015 for me and I don't think I'll ever stop talking about that day back in June! Stevie Nicks as you'll already know, is one of my biggest inspirations/role models and I'd dreamt of meeting for a long time and thanks to the most amazing charity Ray's of Sunshine, my dream finally came true! 

My Mum sent an application to Ray's of Sunshine back in December 2014 in hope that they'd be able to help make my dream come true and they said they'd do their upmost to make it happen. And true to their word; they did just that! Fleetwood Mac announced they were coming to the UK on tour in 2015 and after attending one of their gigs in Glasgow, I was taken to the side of the stage with my parents to watch the final few songs and was then escorted upstairs to the band's dressing rooms where I spent a hour with Stevie Nicks chatting quite literally about everything and anything! During the time I spent with Stevie, a very tall Mick Fleetwood appeared in the doorway of Stevie's dressing and after being introduced to us, pulled a chair up beside us and spent ages chatting with us. Both Stevie and Mick worked their way through my pile of CDs and merch, signing them all for me and admiring my metallic sharpies. Both Stevie and Mick couldn't have been any sweeter!

I owe Stevie a huge Thank-You for all of the encouragement and advice she gave me that night! It has helped and inspired me in so many different ways and has helped me grow as a person and achieve more of my dreams! I love you Stevie!

Like I said, none of what happened would have been possible without my Mum spending the time that she did filling in the application forms which I am so grateful to her for! And of course the fabulous team at Ray's of Sunshine who actually arranged for it to happen! I am currently brainstorming fundraising ideas as I want to say a thank you to them for what they did for me and of course, help in some shape or form give other young people a magical experience just like the one I had!

2. Becoming a Radio Presenter

If you've been following The Hat Hippie since early 2015, you'll have followed my story of becoming a radio presenter at 3TFM. I'll not go into too much details but for those of you who don't know, I applied to volunteer at a particular radio station and was declined due to the lack of disabled access which is absolutely shocking in today's society but you all know my thoughts on disability discrimination and my previous blog posts discuss it in more detail. Anyway, I wrote a post about what happened and a lot of family, friends and readers got behind me, shared my post and helped me find 3TFM. At the same time, the Irvine Herald newspaper got in touch with my Mum and they also got in contact with 3TFM on my behalf and wrote a very supportive article about what had happened. 

Just a short period of time later, I joined the team at 3TFM, started my radio training and just a short period of time later I hosted my first ever show live on air! I now have my very own radio show every Thursday and I love it so much! If any of you would like to tune, I usually post the tune in link on my social media accounts so pop on over to them for more information!

3. I Started A YouTube Channel

I'm always looking for new avenues to venture, new skills to learn and ways in which I can develop my blog. Starting a YouTube channel is something I've considered doing for quite a while and I finally decided to sit down and film my first ever video. I spent ages editing it and eventually posted it and have made a bunch of videos since. Hopefully, there'll be lots more videos to come in future and that you'll all enjoy watching them as much as I enjoy creating them! 

4. Visiting Liverpool and Seeing Paul McCartney in Concert

These were two other big dreams of mine which I hoped to tick off the bucket list at some point in my life but little did I ever imagine that I'd combine the two! Seeing Liverpool was amazing! It's such a great city and everyone is so friendly and would do anything they possibly could to help you! Paul McCartney was incredible and exceeded my expectations despite the fact that everyone thinks his best days are behind him-I beg to differ! I am sitting here in my room absolutely bursting with pure excitement as I relieve the memories of seeing Paul live! Although, I don't think words can describe just how excited I was whilst there in person and I'm sure my Mum could testify to that! I certainly kept the ladies sitting on our right well entertained throughout the show and they just so happened to be the first people I saw when we got back to the hotel after the show (red face moment!).

5. Moving House

I'm writing this post in advance as I might not have internet for a few weeks and don't want to neglect my blog so I thought I better prepare in advance! But basically, by the time you read this my family and I will have moved house! So I'll have a nice new bedroom to my YouTube videos which is very exciting! I might even do a room tour video on my YouTube channel so stayed tuned!

6. Opening My Local Pharmacy

Some of you may have read my post a few weeks ago but I was asked by the staff in my local pharmacy who I've known since I was little if I'd come along and officially open their newly refurbished store. So of course I said yes! I'd never been asked to do something like that before and felt very touched and honoured that they'd asked me! So that was another highlight of 2015 for me!

Anyway, that was just a few of my exciting moments from 2015! It has been great to write about them here on my blog throughout the year and of course share the excitement with you all! Hopefully, there will be many more memorable moments to share with you in 2016, perhaps I'll even vlog some of them on YouTube-you never know! Here's to a great 2016!

Love, Peace & Best Wishes,

The Hat Hippie xx

Life Update: Dreams Do Come True

Hello Lovely People!

How are you all doing? I hope that wherever you live has been blessed with some much needed sunshine. Certainly, where I live we've had a decent amount of sunshine however, it is Scotland after all and unfortunately the rain is never too far away but any sunshine is better than none I suppose! If you've been keeping up to date with my blog posts over the past four or five weeks you'll know it's been a pretty crazy but exciting few weeks for me! So much has happened and to be honest it's went by like a whirlwind! How is it that all the good things in life go by within a blink of an eye?
In just the space of a few weeks some of my biggest dreams have come true. Some of which I've waited years for to actually happen. If I were to go back in time to this time last year and tell myself what the up and coming year would hold; I don't think I'd actually believe it. The strange thing was that I was out and about today when I came across a framed picture of a dream catcher with the words "If you really want to catch you dreams you have to chase them" underneath. It was really appropriate considering everything that's happened during the past little while so of course it came home with me. So from now on, every time I look at that picture up on my bedroom wall, I'll fondly remember all of those precious memories and more importantly that dreams really do come true!
Like I said above, all my dreams that came true during the past couple of months have taken a long time to happen! I've had to overcome a lot of diversity and challenges throughout my entire life but the past four years since my knee surgery has been the toughest of them all. I'm sure at some point I'll write in more depth about all that has happened perhaps in a book (if I can actually make that dream a reality!) or even in this blog and explain in more detail just how difficult it's been. I feel really proud of everything I've overcome and the dreams I've achieved by doing just that. More now than ever, I feel extremely inspired to go out there and make every single one of my dreams come true.
As you'll know my radio dream has become a reality and I owe a lot of thanks every single person that helped me get there! I honestly mean this when I say that I love every single second I spend at the station, live on air hosting my very own show! I get such a buzz from it; I love learning new things, improving my skills and techniques and meeting such lovely people in the process. Having this amazing opportunity means the world to me and I'm cannot begin to express just how grateful I am for being given a chance.
Another of my biggest dreams was to meet Stevie Nicks from the legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac and thanks to an amazing charity named Rays of Sunshine my dream finally came true! I don't think I've ever met anyone quite like Stevie, she is truly a wonderful woman and a huge inspiration to me. Everything she said to me that night; the advice and the encouragement really meant a lot and will inspire me for the rest of my life. A short time after my wish was granted, Rays of Sunshine sent out a press release about my wish to some of the newspapers and the story was published in my town's local newspaper which was pretty exciting! We received the news that it had been printed whilst I was on air at the radio station so Mum and I popped into the supermarket on route home to pick up a copy. I quickly flicked through the pages in the shop to find the article but didn't properly read it until we got back into the car. I remember scanning through the article and having to double take when I noticed that Stevie herself had made a comment! Never in a million years did I expect to read the words "It was truly a pleasure to spend time with Robyn. She is definitely a girl with a plan, and she is not letting this get her down. She may actually save the world. I wrote her story in my journal where it will live on. Rock on Robyn! Love, Stevie Nicks." I was completely and utterly shocked but incredibly touched that Stevie had taken the time out of her day to contribute to the article and say such sweet things about me. Those words mean the absolute world to me and I can't thank Stevie enough for her words of wisdom and encouragement!
I sincerely hope that one day in the not so distant future I will find a way to help Rays of Sunshine for making my dream come true. That evening made such a big impact in my life and without Rays of Sunshine it would never have happened. I am going to have a good brainstorm about what I can do to say Thank-you them for granting my wish and hopefully find a way to help them make other young people's greatest wishes come true!
No doubt, you'll have come across my previous blog posts about my trip to Liverpool and seeing Sir Paul McCartney in concert. I've wanted to visit Liverpool for such a long time anyway, but combining it with another of my greatest wishes to see Paul McCartney in concert was something I'd never have even expected to happen! Liverpool is such a beautiful city and the people who live there couldn't have been friendlier! I instantly felt at home there and cannot wait to go back! Seeing Paul McCartney was for me one of those "pinch me" moments. I'd missed out on seeing him live on a couple occasions so this was as you can imagine an extremely special experience! I know some people would argue otherwise but in my opinion alongside so many others Paul's still go it! To see a gentlemen of his age play for as long as he did and not once show an sign of exhaustion was incredible! The music of course, speaks for itself and to actually hear those legendary songs performed right there in front of me was mind-blowing! I still can't believe I saw Paul live and have promised myself it certainly won't be the last time!
I could quite literally go on forever about the amazing few weeks I've but getting to the long and the short of it is that dreams do come true so never give up trying! If they don't work out for you the first time there's a good reason why it wasn't meant to be. Please just don't give up hope because when it finally does happen it'll be extremely special and completely worth it-I can assure you of that!
I shall love you and leave you for now, so if you haven't already make sure to catch up on all my latest blog posts here at www.thehathippie.blogspot.co.uk and also on my music blog www.jukeboxrhapsody.blogspot.co.uk! I'm planning on compiling a list of ideas for future blog posts to keep me busy over the coming weeks and months so if any of you would like to see me write about something in particular make sure to leave a comment below, on one of my social media accounts or by email through the contact form. Any ideas will of course be greatly appreciated and I'll do my absolute upmost to write about them here on my blog.

Thank-you so much for stopping by! I really appreciate all your love and support! It means the absolute world to me!

Lots of Love & Best Wishes,

Rob (The Hat Hippie) xx

My Dream of Meeting Stevie Nicks Came True!

 

 As some of you already know one of my biggest dreams was to meet Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac, one of my all-time favourite bands. Around six months ago my Mum applied to a charity named Rays of Sunshine to see if I fitted into one of their categories to have a wish granted. We soon discovered that I was in fact entitled to a wish so my Mum began the process of filling in the paperwork in hope that my wish might actually come true. Once all of the paperwork was submitted we quickly received a response from Rays of Sunshine to say that they would do their upmost to make my dream of meeting Stevie Nicks come true.

Last week, Mum received a phone call from Rays of Sunshine to tell us that they had successfully managed to arrange for me to meet Stevie at the first Fleetwood Mac concert in Glasgow. As you can probably imagine I was beyond excited and time always seems to go slower when you're excited.

Thankfully, Tuesday finally arrived and I was absolutely hyper as well as a little nervous I must admit-this was such a big deal for me! I'd dreamt of meeting Stevie for years and couldn't believe that finally it was going to happen!

We were contacted by a member of Stevie's team that morning to finalise the smaller details and we were told that we could park our car in the backstage car park where the band's private cars would pick them up and drop them off. The tour buses filled with equipment were all parked there too which was pretty cool! A member of the band's security met us there with our backstage passes and escorted in through the backstage door. Directly in front of us was the door leading directly behind the stage and on our left was the staircase to the dressing rooms. There was a door to the kitchens where I could see the caterers busy cooking what I'm sure would be some delicious food!

A member of the Hydro's staff was asked to escort us through to where all the food and merchandise stalls were situated to wait on the doors to the actual arena being opened. As we were making our way through the seated area in the arena we caught a glimpse of Mick Fleetwood hosting his meet n' greet. It was quite unbelievable to see Mick just a few steps away from us as we walked on by, it all felt rather surreal. 

Eventually, everyone was allowed inside to find their seats for the evening. At around quarter past eight the lights dimmed and the band walked on stage to receive a warm reception from the Glasgow crowd. Throughout the duration of the show we (the audience) were treated to a setlist of back to back hits all of which sounded absolutely amazing. I'd have to say my favourite song of the night was "Gold Dust Woman" which was both magical and simply mesmerising. I will hopefully write a review of the show itself for my music blog so keep an eye out for that!

The view from the side of the stage

During the second last song the gentleman who met us on arrival at the venue came and found us with a member of the Hydro's staff. They escorted us right round the arena, zipping in and out of the crowds of people dancing in the isles. It sort of felt like I was a celebrity! Before we knew it we were being ushered behind the barrier to watch the final couple of songs from the side of the stage which was completely unexpected. If you've read any of my concert reviews on my other blog you may have noticed that on a few occasions that I often find myself wondering what it's like from the bands point of view looking out towards the audience. Although I wasn't directly on the stage, my question was finally answered. It was quite a breath-taking sight; a sight that I never thought I'd see for myself. I don't think I realised just how big the Hydro is until I saw it from that exact angle.

At this stage I was beginning to become extremely excited and very nervous, I think being in as close proximity to the band as we were hit home and made realise what was about to happen. The show soon came to an end and the band gathered together at the centre of the stage to take a bow and bid their fans farewell. Before long the stage was empty, the house lights were turned on and quickly, the arena began to empty. We watched as the roadies carefully covered Mick's beautiful drum kit for its performance the following evening here in Glasgow.

It wasn't long before we were met by another member of the band's team who we followed behind the stage, through a door and round a small corner to the elevator. We clambered into the elevator as we chatted with the gentleman who had been appointed to take us upstairs. Seconds later the elevator doors opened to reveal a narrow corridor. On my left I could see a bunch of doors with familiar names printed on signs outside each one. Yes, those were the names of each member of Fleetwood Mac which was pretty cool! On the adjacent wall were framed posters of bands such as Eric Clapton and Prince who have performed in the Hydro since it's opening back in 2013.



A sneaky backstage photo

We waited with a member of staff in the hallway until we got the go-ahead to enter Stevie's dressing room. As we waited a bunch of people came and went from all angles, one of which just so happened to be Mr John McVie, Fleetwood Mac's bass player!

Just a little while later we were called down the corridor to Stevie's dressing room. As they fiddled around with the doors to open them up so I could enter the room in my wheelchair, I caught my first glimpse of Stevie Nicks sitting at her dressing table. I couldn't believe just how close I actually was to her-my heart was absolutely pounding!

Once the doors were opened, we were introduced to Stevie who pulled her chair right up to me so she could talk face to face with me. I have to admit I was a little tongue-tied for the first few minutes or so but thankfully, Stevie was very good at calming me down and quickly made me feel at ease. I'd brought her a little gift and card to say thank-you for taking time out of what I'm sure is a crazy schedule to meet with me. She opened the card right there and then before realising I'd written a rather long letter to which she asked me if I minded she took it back to her hotel as she loved reading letters before going to bed. She then opened the gift we'd given her which was a flower brooch/clip that Mum had handmade for her. She took it over to her dressing table and clipped the flower onto one of the stunning shawls she had hung over mirror. Apparently, she keeps things that are special to her on her dressing table as they bring back memories. So I feel pretty honoured she put it there!

We spent a while quite literally chatting about everything and anything, it seriously didn't feel like I was talking to a world famous singer instead it felt more like I was talking to a friend which was pretty special. Stevie was so genuine and extremely caring towards me which really meant a lot. I really felt like she "got me" in a way that very few people ever has and I'm not just saying that because of who she is; I genuinely mean it! To be honest I sort of forgot who I was talking to, it seriously felt like I'd known her all my life.

After a while, the door opened and I was so engrossed in conversation with Stevie I never even noticed until she said "Mick come in, this is Robyn, I'm making her wish come true" (words to that affect). As I turned round, standing in the door was Mick Fleetwood himself and oh my goodness was he was extremely tall! He shook hands with both my parents and I before pulling a chair over to sit next to Stevie. He spent quite a while chatting to my Dad as Mum and I continued to speak with Stevie.

Stevie's eyes fell upon the tour programme that I'd been clutching in my hands the entire time. "Would you like us to sign that for you?" she asked me motioning towards it. And of course I said yes! I began rummaging through the bag I'd brought to find the CDs and tambourine I'd brought in hope that Stevie would sign it for me. Kindly, they both signed every single item I'd brought with me. To be honest, I'd have been happy to have Stevie sign just one item but she happily worked her through my pile handing each item to Mick who also signed them for me.

Next, one of Stevie's team (I think it might have been her assistant but I'm not 100% sure) asked us if we'd like her to take a photo of us all with Mick and Stevie which of course was an offer we really couldn't refuse! After having a group photo Mick bid us all farewell shaking our hands as he did. Stevie and I had a couple of photo taken together where Stevie wrapped her arms right round me giving me what felt like the world's biggest hug. It was such a sweet moment! One of her best friends, Mary who I'd seen in photographs with Stevie when they were younger had been hanging about in the background so we asked her to come over and pose for a photo of her, Stevie and I together. It was such a cute photograph by the way! 

It was getting close to midnight and Stevie's car was waiting on her-although it seemed like she'd happily have chatted with me for a while longer, so we decided it would probably be a good time to make our way back home. We gathered up our stuff and said goodbye to Stevie who gave me a hug and blew me a kiss as we left with security leading the way to the elevator. We walked past Stevie's fancy car which was waiting to take her to her hotel and made our way to ours after thanking everyone for taking such good care of us. I was absolutely hyper the entire journey home and didn't get much sleep as I was far too excited!

It was an incredible night and I still can't quite believe it actually happened! A huge thank-you to the amazing charity Rays of Sunshine who worked tirelessly to make my dream come true! I can't begin describe just how much this meant to me! If you want to find out more about the amazing wishes Rays of Sunshine have granted in past or you'd like to make a donation to help make another young persons dream come true please click here.

I also want to say a huge thank-you to my Mum for taking the time and nominating me to have my wish granted. Thank-you so much to my best friend, Heather who is like a big sister to me for kindly signing some of the paperwork in order to make this happen. Finally, a big thank-you to Stevie and her team for being so sweet and making my night so special! I will cherish the memories you gave me for the rest of my life!