My Exciting News!

Hello Everyone!

My apologies for being so quiet around here these past few weeks. I have been unwell with a throat/chest infection and after a course of antibiotics I have been left with a rather annoying cough. Hopefully, I will be back to old self again soon!
If you have been following my latest updates through my social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter you will already have heard my exciting news. But for those of you who haven't, I thought I'd share it here. After writing my last blog post on disability discrimination I have received such an overwhelming response from you my lovely readers, which I cannot begin to thank you enough for! I received so many sweet and encouraging comments which really meant a lot to me!
Out of what was a negative situation came a whole lot of positives! Thanks to two of our wonderful family friends and The Irvine Herald newspaper who contacted us almost immediately, I now have some amazing opportunities lined up. I'm unsure how much I am able to give away as of yet about one of the opportunities but I promise as soon as I know you'll all be the first to hear. What I can tell you is 3TFM have agreed to take me on and it looks like I might be getting my own radio show! How cool is that!? A dream come true!
I am going for my first visit to the station later this week to meet with the station manager. So keep an eye on both my Facebook account and here on this blog for details on how it went.
The past couple of years have been a bit of a rocky ride for me but at last things seem to be turning in the right direction and I am finally getting where I want to be. Everything seems to be falling into place and I'm beginning to achieve my goals and aspirations.
I have a long, list inside my head full of dreams and aspirations that I want to achieve so I thought I might actually write them down and share them here on my blog. It might be fun to tick them off as I go along and write a post on each one I complete. I thought it would be a great way to look back at everything I've done over the coming months and relive each memory whilst sharing it with each of you.
Anyway, I shall leave you with this short post for now and I will do my upmost not to leave as long a gap between now and the next post I write.

Until then, I send you all my best wishes!

Lots of Love,
Robyn x


Music Blog: www.jukeboxrhapsody.blogspot.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thehathippieblog
Twitter: www.twitter.com/thehathippie

Disability Discrimination

As I said in my previous posts one of my aspirations is to work in the journalism/media field. Just like any normal teenager I'm doing my upmost to get experience and learn the skills I need to get my dream job. Unfortunately, due to my disability I've been unable to attend school for the past few years and haven't been given the same opportunities that my peers have been offered such as work experience. With that in mind, I've had to go out and get the work experience myself. Yesterday, I contacted one of my local radio stations after reading on Facebook that they were looking for a number of people to train in radio presenting. "Perfect!" or at least I thought so.
I sent an email to the provided contact with the relevant information that they required. I also explained that I was a wheelchair user, briefly explained my story and told them about the handful of media/journalism experience I had previously gained. Hoping that I would be one of the lucky applicants I then sent off my email.
Today, I logged onto my email account to find an email from the station stating that "unfortunately at the moment we are in temporary accommodation and our disabled access is very limited for wheelchairs". Yet again, another organisation that doesn't cater for wheelchair users!
As you can imagine I feel extremely upset and angry that yet again the world only see the disability that I have and not me; a person with real thoughts, feelings and emotions. Throughout my entire life I've constantly had doors slammed shut in my face and have been told that I can't do something because I am disabled! Not acceptable!
My school has treated me in a similar manner, well known businesses/organisations have discriminated against my disability and now one of my local radio station has followed suit. What does this say about society?
My aim through this blog is to make a difference for young people like me who live with disabilities and all of the challenges that the world around throw at us! I will not sit back and let this go, if I don't do something about it who will!?
I beg of each and everyone of you out there who read this post to share it in every way possible whether that is through Facebook, Twitter or any other form that you can think of. We need to educate people on disabled rights and more importantly actually getting things put into fruition, I need people standing by me helping me to get the appropriate bodies to stand up and take notice!
None of us know what might happen to us or a member of our family tomorrow, that is why I ask you to stop and think "how would I feel if this happened to me or a loved one?". If we're being completely honest with ourselves we'd all feel rejected, disappointed, hurt and angry.
That is why discrimination needs to stop NOW!!! Changes need to be made and these changes need to be put into action immediately!
 
If you wish to contact me on this subject or about anything else please do not hesitate to do so on the following links and I will do my upmost to respond as soon as I possibly can! 

Email- thequeenofhats14@gmail.com
Facebook- www.facebook.com/thehathippieblog
Twitter- www.twitter.com/thehathippie

Ten Random Facts about Me

Hi everyone out there!

It's after midnight as I write this and why am I still awake at such an unattractive hour you may ask? Firstly, it's pretty stormy outside and I cannot sleep with the ferocious howls of the wind as it hits against my bedroom window. I am most definitely not a fan of storms and unfortunately they hit Scotland fairly regularly.

Rather than tossing and turning in my duvet as I spend hours on end trying to drift off I thought “why not do something productive?”. I honestly believe that for whatever reason I am most creative at night, the words seem to flow effortlessly. So here I am writing this post for you my lovely readers to enjoy.
Before I go any further I want to let you all know that I have created a Facebook page and a Twitter account where you can find all of my latest news and keep up to date with my most recent blog posts. I want to say a huge thank-you to each of the lovely people who have liked/followed my pages so far-you have no idea just how much I appreciate it! So if you haven't already, please pop on over and click the all-important "like" and "follow" buttons on the following links https://www.facebook.com/thehathippieblog and www.twitter.com/thehathippie .
Now getting to the main point of this post; as you'll already know, I've written a bunch of posts here on this blog, but if I'm being completely honest I don't think that I have really told you a lot about myself. From what I can recall, I've only given away little dribs and drabs. Personally speaking, I feel that it's nice to know a bit about the person hidden behind each post. On that note, I've decided to share with you ten random facts about me.

Here it goes...............

1. I play bass guitar and have been learning to do so for the past year and half. During my primary school days I had weekly guitar lessons in school and privately every Friday evening. However, after undergoing knee surgery a few years ago I began to suffer from chronic pain which affected my right leg and eventually spread to my right hand. This caused difficulty when playing guitar so I decided to call it quits and hope that one day my condition would improve and I'd be able to play again.

Let's just say it's difficult to keep me separated from music and instruments for any length of time. I had the opportunity, as part of my home schooling, to work with a professional musician who for the past year and a half has taught me to play bass guitar. Although it can be sore and tiring, it doesn't take as much a toll on me as acoustic guitar did due to the different finger and plucking techniques I use when playing. I am so grateful to be able to play as for a while I thought it would never again be possible. Having been through that period of doubt, I've really learned to appreciate and make the most of every minute that my hand allows me to play.

2. My favourite refreshment is Starbucks’ strawberries and cream Frappuccinos! - Mmmm!

3. I am a major animal lover. My sister and I have two hamsters one named Floyd and the other Hope. They are such wonderful little creatures and have the most amazing personalities! I would also like to get a dog one day as they make such loyal friends and I enjoy spending time with them. More recently I've also decided that I'd quite like my own cat. I've always liked cats but, after reading the book "A Street Cat Named Bob" by James Bowen I realised just how incredible they are. If I am being completely honest I'd happily own a farm filled with animals!

4. My all-time favourite musical is Wicked which I've seen twice. The first occasion was in London's West End with the amazing Rachel Tucker playing the lead role of Elphaba. I saw the show for a second time last year in Glasgow during its tour of the UK. Hopefully, it won't be too long until I'll see it again! 

5. When I'm older I'd like to be a journalist as well as an author. Both careers will require a lot of hard work and effort but I'm doing my upmost to get the relevant experience such as writing these blogs which allow me to learn the necessary skills and techniques.

6. My favourite Disney film/fictional character is Peter Pan. Around a month or so ago I wrote a post about my fascination with Peter Pan, if you'd like to read it click here.

7. You may have already guessed thanks to my blog's name that I have a bit of an obsession with hats! Last time I counted, my collection believe it or not consisted of around twenty-four different hats. Perhaps I might even write about my hat collection in the not so distant future. 

8. One of my hobbies is photography. I love to take a varied range of photographs but, my favourite subject is flowers. After shooting my latest selection of photographs, I upload and edit them on my laptop's photo editing software. Although thanks to me being such a perfectionist, the editing process is often a lengthy one!

9. I am a terrible singer-but it doesn't stop me from "singing" along to songs on the radio at the top of my voice!

10. My favourite actress is the lovely Audrey Hepburn, who starred in some of the most iconic films to ever exist. My personal favourite would have to be "Funny Face" in which she stars alongside the actor Fred Astaire.

So there you have it; Ten Random Facts about Me.

Hopefully, you will have learned something new about me and the madness that it is my life. I should probably bid you all farewell for now and try and get some rest.

Lots of Love,
Robyn xx