Discussing Disability Access on BBC Radio Scotland

Well, what an exciting start to the week! Throughout my time blogging I've highlighted numerous issues with disability access particularly at gigs and live events. My recent article was a rant in frustration about the lift at the O2 ABC in Glasgow being broken meaning that disabled customers cannot attend events within the venue. I decided to contact BBC Radio Scotland about these issues as I was extremely fed up as nothing ever seemed to change or improve.

The BBC Radio Scotland team were kind enough to invite me to visit the studios for an interview on The Kaye Adams Programme to discuss these issues. This for me was a great opportunity to highlight  a subject which I've tirelessly discussed here on my blog and feel passionate about.

On arrival at the BBC Studios, I was taken aback about just how big the building was! Woah! Imagine working in a place like that!? A dream job in my opinion! The Christmas tree had just arrived in the building and was due to go up. My goodness did it look big!

We received our passes from the main reception desk and hung around for a few minutes in the lobby area. After a short while we were escorted upstairs with two other ladies who'd also been invited to discuss various topics on Kaye's show. I was taken aback with just how big the BBC building was; the floors just seemed to keep going! I couldn't help but wonder what wonders lay upon each floor of such an magnificent building!

My visitor's pass

We were ushered through numerous doors, through offices space filled with hundreds of desks of people typing aways and answering telephones. For me, it was interesting to get a small a glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes. I mean this is a dream place to work after all! I'd love to be a BBC radio DJ! How cool would that be!?

We were soon taken into what could only be described as a hallway with some seats and what I think was another office space at the opposite end. The hallway was lit by daylight singing through the large glass windows looking out onto the river Clyde. Directly across the river was one of my favourite places in Glasgow; the SSE Hydro. Some of my best memories live inside of that building!

In front of us in the hallway were the radio studios which had two glass windows; on looked into another small hallway leading to the studio and the other; directly inside the studio. Above the grey door was the 'On Air' sign something that in my opinion makes every radio studio all the more exciting!

The first of the ladies was called in for her chat with Kaye about vegan food as we all waited outside. Before long I too was invited into the studio-exciting! I sat down in front of the mic as Kaye was talking with someone via the phone line live on air. It's kind of strange sitting in front of someone you're used to watching on TV. I remember being in Primary school and sometimes being off school ill and often Loose Women being on TV so you can understand why! 

The view from the studio windows

Kaye started with an introduction about what I was there to talk about and just like that; the interview began. Did I feel nervous? Surprisingly not! I got straight into it and hopefully managed to answer questions with confidence and as much information as possible. I finally had the opportunity to talk about a subject that I feel strongly about and want to help change things so really there was nothing to worry about. I know my subject inside out and was there to give my experiences. 

And just like that it was over and I went back outside to wait as I'd been ask to stay on and take part in the call-in at the end of the show. As we waited I was introduced to a lady from Disability Agenda Scotland who'd also be asked to come and discuss the subject. Towards the show we were invited back into the studio and the discussion began. Unfortunately, time was running short so the discussion was brief but worthwhile. 

No sooner than a flash of light, it was over and I'd made my first radio appearance on the other side of the mic and I'm here to tell the tale! I can honestly say I enjoyed the experience so much! It was such a great experience and I would love to do something like that again, strangely there's such a buzz about doing these sort of things! 

A huge thank-you to Kaye and BBC Radio Scotland for having me on the show and allowing me this wonderful opportunity to discuss this subject on such a vast platform. Every piece of media attention makes such a difference!

If you'd like to listen to the interview be sure to click here. My interview with Kaye is around the 1 hour, 50 minutes mark. I'd really appreciate if you could also spare an extra minute to give it a share and help get the word out in the open!

Until next time,

The Hat Hippie xx

Day 26: Artwork & Airing My 1st Ever Radio Interview!

A photocopied segment of the collage I've been working on

So I haven't got round to updating my blog for a few days much to my annoyance but I have literally working non stop on various other things and before I know it, I'm quite literally nodding off with my laptop sitting in front me. That's usually a sign that I need to pack everything away, head to bed and get some sleep or I wouldn't be worth a button the following day. But it's Friday night (well, the early hours of Saturday morning to be honest!) and I don't have to get up early so hopefully, I can get a few things ticked off the list tonight that I've been meaning to do.

Well, yesterday (Thursday) I aired the first part of my first ever radio interview with Graeme Clark from Wet Wet Wet on 3TFM which I was extremely nervous about. I don't know why I was so nervous but I was! I mean the radio side of things feels like second nature now to be honest but I suppose considering it was my first ever interview, it was only natural haha!

It was also my first ever evening slot on radio as I've now moved from Thursday afternoons to Thursday evenings and it actually was almost a year to date since I aired my first ever radio show (well technically as it's now Saturday it IS a year to date!). It's quite frightening to think it was a whole year ago;  in many respects it feels like a lifetime ago and in other ways it feels like it was just yesterday. My friend Jim who started at 3TFM at the same time as me and aired his first show at the station before me swapped over to evening slots back in January but my new slot is now straight after his again so I'm absolutely delighted about that! It was so lovely to catch up with him at long last!

So how did the interview go? Better than I thought to be honest! So far I've received good reviews so that's the main thing-phew! I made my poor Mum sit outside in the car to listen to it as it made me all the more nervous to have someone in the studio watching me-sorry Mum! Although my Sister decided to come up with us and leave my Dad at home to listen to it by himself, I think it was more the fact that Mum had bought a big bag of Malteasers to munch on in the a car that enticed her to come (there was none left by the time I got off air either so I made Mum stop into the petrol station at Sainsbury's to buy a big bag to stash in my room). I believe that Mum was sitting having a wee tear to herself whilst listening (proud mother moment haha!).

Oh I'm going off track a little! Before I go any further, I just wanted to thank you all for sending me such lovely messages about the interview! It really meant a lot to me reading them all! Also, a huge thanks again to Graeme for everything! From actually agreeing to it in the first place, to being so easy to talk to during the interview, being interested in how I got on with the editing side of things when I spoke to him at his gig last week and helping me promote it; I really do appreciate his support!

Besides the big day at radio, I've been run off my feet writing various articles. It doesn't help that I'm an absolute perfectionist and probably over critical but I'm not happy unless I know it's 100% to my satisfaction hence why it sometimes take a little longer than I'd like to get things done. I must read everything I write at least a hundred times before I'm entirely satisfied with the outcome.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I've been working on achieving my National 4 in Art & Design and well, my art tutor is hoping to have it handed in next week so getting the final touches these past few weeks have bene priority. Although there's never a serious moment in the process of it, my tutor and I always end up in fits of laughter over one thing or another and that's how I like it. It's not really like school it's more relaxed and fun so I count myself really lucky!

My final piece for the course is pretty much complete, I probably mentioned a couple of weeks ago feeling completely out of my depth creating collage and struggling to see where to take it. However, I am delighted to report that you'd never even know that it was ever the same piece of work. I really love the end result! My tutor took it away with her the other day and photocopied various sections of it and enlarged it so we could show various examples in my sketchbook we've been putting together and the photocopies look equally as amazing if I do say so myself! I'll insert a pic of one in particular to let you see a quick glimpse of what I've been working on.

Back in September/October last year we spent a period of a few weeks focusing on designing masked inspired by the stunning venetian masks and the different seasons throughout the year. We'll also be using the masks as part of my coursework so my tutor asked me to model it so we could take a photo to put into the sketch book too so I snapped a quick selfie to let you guys see one of them.

Modelling the mask I designed

And it was also really lovely to catch up with my lovely best friend/adopted big sister Heather this morning for a coffee in Costa and a wee browse in some of the shops. Heather's just back from Soccer Aid and a few stories to tell one of which was particularly exciting; she quite literally bumped into Robbie Williams in the hotel elevator! How cool is that!? So it was really cool to hear all about everything happened! And of course we needed a HMV fix although we're a terrible influence on each! We could easily buy half of the shop between the pair of us! We also have certain mischievous routines that I can't really tell you about but put it this way; there's never a dull moment! We also paid a visit to Primark and three t-shirts with moons and dreamcatchers on them (surprise! surprise!) and a pair of boho inspired brown ankle boots later we left the store. And unfortunately, by that point it was time to head home to get a quick bite to eat before my tutor was due to arrive.

Anyway, I better go get ready for bed and attempt to get some sleep, I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with a proper daily blog for you. Today, I just wanted to briefly update you about my crazy week and why I haven't really been able to catch up on blogging. Anyway, I wish you all a good evening although it'll probably be at least midday before you actually read this!

Love & Peace,

The Hat Hippie xx

Day 13: My First Radio Interview

Borrowed this pic from Graeme

You may have noticed an absence on my blog the past couple as I didn't get round to posting anything because I was up to something. I just so happened to be preparing for my first ever radio interview which took place yesterday (Tuesday). I'm a night owl anyway but I was up until silly o'clock making sure I had everything needed so that in the morning I could just pick it up and go. 

I physically don't know how I managed to leave the house yesterday morning without forgetting something. Yet, somehow I did. We dropped Laurel off at school and made our way to my Grandparent's where I popped in to see the live video stream from inside my Grandad's birdhouse as all the baby birds had hatched. Oh my goodness! They're so cute!

From there we headed up to Glasgow for the second time this week (hmm! I think I was there already this week!) and parked at Kelvingrove Art gallery. We popped inside for a little while in order to pass some time before I had to be somewhere. I felt a little bit nostalgic visiting there as I'm pretty sure the last time I stepped foot in the building was back during my last week of P7 which feels like a lifetime ago now. I miss my primary school days a lot so it's strange going back there and reliving my old memories.

My Grandparents and Mum wanted a cake and coffee so we nipped into the café whilst I nervously sipped on a bottle of juice admiring the building. I don't think I fully appreciated just how beautiful a building it was up until then. Above the lobby area (pictured in the photograph) is the most beautiful organ which as far as I know is played at least once a day but unfortunately, I was there too early in the day to hear it. 

A little while we left the art gallery and headed in direction of Kelvingrove Park which is just over the road really. It's a really quaint and peacful park which is reminiscent of the parks I enjoyed visiting during my many hospital stays in London when I was younger. We took a leisurely stroll through the park to a familiar place that I visited last year for a certain gig. It was a little café called 'An Clachan' hidden in the park where I saw Graeme Clark from the Scottish band Wet Wet Wet perform live last June. And funnily enough, that just so happened to be who I was meeting up with.

Graeme kindly agreed to sit down with me for my first ever radio interview which was pretty exciting and a little nerve-wracking all at the same time. I'm not going to give too much away because it was an interview after all and obviously, it's still to be aired on live radio (more details to come). However, it was great to sit down and chat with Graeme about music and his career. It was also great to chat a bit about bass as we both play the instrument. For me, it was pretty inspiring to talk someone who's had an amazing career thanks to playing the same instrument as me and ask him about it. He even signed some of my Wet Wet Wet vinyl for me addressing it to 'The Hat Hippie'!

I'd been wanting to do my first radio interview for a while now and in true Robyn style had to start big so I'm ever so grateful to Graeme for firstly agreeing to it in the first place and being so supportive and sweet during the interview itself. I'm not going to lie, I was rather nervous and probably sound it during the recording but you know what? I'm proud of it and can't wait to go out there and do more interviews in future! And I'll always have a great story to tell about my very first one!

On route back home following the interview we stopped in Dalry to pay a visit to The Factory Shop which I've not been to in ages and can't believe how much it had changed! They have ALOT of cute knickknacks which was right up my Mum's street in particular. The décor is really quite quirky and colourful now; I seriously can't get over how different it is now!

We dropped Gran and Grandad off at their house and popped in for a little while so I could use their internet to show them the selfie Graeme had posted online of us both. My Mum and Gran ended up watching something on TV (couldn't tell you what as I wasn't paying much attention) whilst I nodded off on the sofa due to being absolutely exhausted from the exciting events of the day. Mum woke me up a short while later so we could head home and I could get some much needed rest.

Back home I managed to keep myself awake long enough to eat dinner and tell my Dad about how everything went before settling down in my room to update my blog. As you can see, I never quite got that far! I think I must have typed a couple of words before nodding off in mid sentence-oops! I stirred a couple of times thanks to my hamster creating havoc in her cage before waking up later on to find that it was dark outside and that everyone besides Mum had headed off to bed-I must have been asleep for a while!

So that's the story of my first ever interview in as short and as brief a description as possible and what a cool interview it was! Again, I owe a huge thanks to Graeme for putting up with me and being so enthusiastic about everything! It really was a pleasure to chat to him! Really, looking forward to his gig at Siempre Café in a couple of weeks time, I think it'll be a great evening!

Anyway, I'll go for now. Thanks for stopping by, I really hope you enjoyed reading about my day! I'll be back soon with the next post!
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

Plans for Future Blog Posts

Hello Lovely People!

 

Firstly, I hope that you're all well and that life is good! Secondly, my apologies for being so quiet around here of late. Time flies by so quickly and all of a sudden it 'hits' you that you haven't written a blog post for a little while. Hopefully, I'll be able to get myself back on track soon enough and have plenty of new posts up for you to read in the not so distant future (I hope!).

Lately, I've been doing a little brainstorming about what content I hope and intend to write on both of my blogs over the next little while. I want to keep my blogs updated as regularly as I possibly can and don't want to sit down and deliberate over what to write next. There's seriously nothing worse than writers block! I am pleased to inform you that I have in fact had a few blog post ideas which I've taken note of and as I write this other ideas are still popping into my head. 

Another idea that has been at the back on my mind for quite a number of months now was creating a YouTube channel to coincide with both of my blogs. Perhaps a channel for this blog "The Hat Hippie" and another for my music blog "Jukebox Rhapsody"? Like I said it's something I've thought about attempting for quite a while now however, the thought of sitting in front of a camera talking to myself initially seemed rather daunting I must confess. But as you'll be aware, I've been hosting a radio show every week on 3TFM which meant that I've had to talk away to myself for as long as two hours! So let's face it if I can talk live on radio for two hours straight with people listening; I can talk in front of a camera and create a ten minute video to post on YouTube. 'It can't be that hard!' says the bold Robyn. I'll certainly give it a good shot and see what happens! With that in mind, be sure to keep an eye out for my first video! As I'm currently making a list of future blog post ideas, be sure to let me know if you'd like to see me write about something in particular or if you have any video ideas for either my general channel or my music channel!

For the past number of weeks now, I've been hosting a weekly radio show on a Thursday afternoon alongside the odd fill-in slot at other times throughout the week. I have a radio slot scheduled again for this coming Thursday afternoon (Thursday 13th August 2015) between 1-3pm (UK time), so if anyone would like to tune it would be greatly appreciated. To listen online click here or download the TuneIn Radio app.

Anyway, I will go for now and leave you with this short (but sweet!) update. I will be back soon with a new blog post so stayed tuned!

 

Love, Peace and Best Wishes,

Rob (The Hat Hippie) 

xxx

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

Radio Update

Hello Lovely People!

How are you all doing? Just as I promised you in my previous post here is an update to tell you all about everything that's been happening regarding my exciting radio opportunity. I can't quite believe that I'm actually able to say that I'm going to have my very own radio show! For me, its an absolute dream come true!
Since my last post I've visited the station for a look around and got to meet with the station manager, Louis. Following that I have visited the station a further three times for training.
On my first training session I was asked to come in a hour before the other trainees who had already taken part in training the week before. In that first hour I was shown the equipment and how to use it. There is so much to remember; I mean there are four different microphones, one for me the presenter and the other three for any guests you may have in the studio. There is also a CD player which has the capacity to take two different CDs at a time, a vinyl record player and a computer which has a library filled with thousands of songs, jingles and advertisements. All of the equipment is connected to the mixing desk which the presenter has full control over. Initially, there was so much to take in but after a few goes I feel like I'm definitely getting the hang of things! After being shown how to use everything, the other two trainees arrived and we were each given a chance to use the system and experiment a little. Afterwards, I had my photograph taken for my ID badge that I will have to wear when I'm in the station.
Last Friday, I had another visit to the station where I was allowed to use their portable system (I couldn't use the main one as the station was on air). I spent around an hour and a half working with the technology and practicing the skills I had picked up during my previous visit. I played some of my favourite songs and experimented using the jingles/advertisements whilst trying not to leave a silent gap in between. It's tricky and will require a lot of precision when it comes to timing but one thing I know for sure is that the more I do it, the better I'll become!
Yesterday (Sunday) I was given the chance to create my own mock radio show for an hour which I must admit I was extremely nervous about doing. It's extremely weird sitting their chatting to yourself and it's even weirder to think that in the not so distant future people will actually be listening to me whilst driving their cars or streaming from the comfort of their own home using the internet. I know for a fact though that as time goes on, it'll soon become second nature to me!
I decided to start off my first mock radio show presenting and talking about the music I'd chosen to play. Talking about something that I'm passionate about most definitely helped me with my confidence during my first attempt at a show. Had I chosen to talk about something else I think my mind would have went blank which would be rather embarrassing! Next time I do however plan to use newspaper clippings as well as magazine articles and read them out to help me get used to presenting. Overall, I was extremely delighted with my first attempt and cannot wait until I can do it for real live on air!
My task is to now come up with a concept, talking points and a name for my show which is really wracking my brains. My aim is to think of something unique and exciting that people will really enjoy listening to. So if any of my lovely readers happen to have some ideas that you think I might be interested in using, please let me know! Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!

Until next time,

Robyn x

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

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