Day 4: Ice Cream & Nature

Hello Guys!

How are you all doing today? Scotland has returned to its normal self; the sky is dull, it's a little chilly and it's raining-nothing new there is there? And unfortunately my knee/leg always plays up in such conditions so I'm not going to lie, I don't feel my absolute best today.

We did however manage a wee visit to Vanilla Joe's, a fairly new ice cream parlour in Irvine that has become ever so popular. I've heard of people catching the train to Irvine just to go there so that says it all really. The ice cream is amazing-so creamy and flavoursome! There is always a nice selection of flavours to try although I'm never very adventurous and always tend to stick to what I know which is usually a tub of strawberry or chocolate ice cream-I'd completely recommend both flavours by the way! There is however more adventurous flavours such as Reese's (you know, the American candy), Tablet, Mint Choc Chip, Ferrero Rocher and today, they there was a Darth Vader ice cream (don't have a clue what that'll taste like but I'm sure Star Wars fan will love it!). But honestly, if you're in the Irvine area it's definitely worth a visit!

We sat in the car at Irvine harbour and I couldn't help but be entertained by the seagulls. Due to it being so stormy the sea was rather choppy pulling the seagulls in backwards motion as they swam. There was also a couple of cute pigeons that approached the side of car and whenever we spoke to them they'd tilt their heads side to side as they intelligently listened to you.

I absolutely love birds and animals; they never fail to make me smile! They are so intelligent and make some of the best friends you could ever ask for. I've had hamsters as pets since I was eight years old roughly and I couldn't ask for better pets. Each little creature has their own individual personality and little quirks. You seriously wouldn't believe me if I told you some of the stories about my hamsters! It honestly makes me so angry when I hear about animals being mistreated and breaks my heart when I see programmes about it on television. People should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for treating innocent little creatures in such manners; animal can't speak and stand up for themselves so we should always stand up against it if we ever witness such vulgar activity. There's just no excuse for it!

Anyway, we took a wee trip to Troon harbour to see if there were any seals. Today, we were lucky and there was one maybe even two; it's hard to tell if it's the same one or not though. On previous occasions there could have perhaps been around four. They usually hang around where the fishing boats dock in hope of catching some unwanted fish. Again, they are such beautiful creatures and it's always a pleasure to watch them in their natural habitat (I suppose trying to scrounge some extra fish from docked boats counts, right?). Sadly, they were too far away to snap a decent photo of on my iPod-I really need to take my actual camera down there one day and try get a couple of pics! I did manage to get a couple of pics of the harbour as well as my sister Laurel and I so I'll post them here.

Britain's Got Talent is calling my name so I'll love ya and leave ya for now. If you've been watching the show this year let me know who your favourite act has been so far; my favourite would have to be the little girl who sang 'Defying Gravity' from Wicked. I love that song anyway but that girl was incredible, she could easily have walked straight onto the Victoria Apollo stage in London and played the role of Elphaba right there and then. A very talented young lady! Have a great night everyone!

Love & Peace,

The Hat Hippie xx

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

Day 2: Sunny Scotland?!

Hello from an unusually sunny Scotland! It's not very often I get to say that these days!

Today, was an in-service day for the schools where I live so basically, we had a day off and like I said above the sun was shining. Usually, whenever we get a day off school it pours with rain which makes today a very rare occasion! It was rather nice to have a bit of a lie-in this morning; no waking up at the crack of dawn and a mad rush round the house getting ready for the day ahead. Instead, I slept to around ten am, leisurely got up, washed my hair and got organised for my radio show this afternoon. Although, by the time I sat down to a bite of lunch I was on the verge of running late so I quickly consumed it before rushing round picking up everything I needed for today's show.

I arrived at the studio and went through the side door today as the community centre was closed for the election today. When I arrived Chris and Allan were live on air, you should tune in to their show before my mine on a Thursday morning and give them a wee listen! So I chatted with them and Kevin, who helps out by taking the listeners texts and phone calls, it makes life so much easier because when you're in the studio by yourself it's pretty crazy running the computer system whilst juggling texts and phone calls. During the period of time before I hit the radio I also usually prepare the first couple of CDs that I'm going to need during my slot and load them up into the CD player.

At one pm it was change over time, the news plays for a minute or two and I get settled down and ready to present the show to you lovely people out there. Today's show was good fun as always, I played a variety of different tunes including Coldplay, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Madness and Oasis just to name a few. My Mum and Laurel came and sat in the studio today during the show as the building was being used for voting so I managed to get my Mum to take a few photos of me to post here on my blog.

After, my show we popped to the local Morrison's and got fuel for the car as we were on the verge of running out-breaking down on such busy roads didn't sound like an appealing idea. Back to Ayr it was where we stopped into Sainsbury's to get the weekly shopping and nipped into the café for a soft drink as I stupidly left my bottle of water in the car during my show so was extremely parched. A nice big glass of Pepsi did the trick though!

We took the weekly shop home and Mum picked up the polling cards from the house whilst I sat in the car bopping to the radio whilst I waited. Before long Dad arrived home from work and the three of us set off to the local community centre to cast our votes in the election. This was my second time voting in an election; my first was just three days after I turned sixteen years old in the Scottish Referendum. It's quite exciting to be able to get involved in the elections now I must admit.

Returning home, Mum popped the Dinner on whilst I roamed the estate (okay it's the garden but it feels like an estate with the size of it sometimes!) and enjoyed the sunshine. I then made a start on writing this post when I was called through as Dinner was ready. I've since returned to my workstation (my laptop) and am listening to tunes whilst I type this. Actually, I've just looked at the clock and it's twenty past six already so I suppose I should go get ready as we're going out to the cinema tonight to see 'The Jungle Book' live action remake in 3D. I can't wait to see it as the trailer looks great! I love a good Disney film so I'm sure this will be no exception. I've heard nothing but good reviews about it, so pop back to read my thoughts on the film in tomorrow's blog post.

Anyway, I wish you all goodnight and hope that wherever you are that the sun's shining and making you smile!

Love & Peace,

The Hat Hippie xx

Day 1: Daily Blogging?

So I've been thinking about it for quite a while now and you know what, I'm going to give it a shot!I've decided to start blogging on a daily basis and write about what I get up to each and every day. I want it to be as enjoyable as possible hence why I don't want to be too strict about it, so if something pops up and I don't get round to it on a particular day I'll not fret. I always enjoy checking out daily blog posts or video blogs by other people and always thought it might be fun to have a go at it so why not start now!? The plan is to try and post a blog post here on my blog each day, I'm not sure on an exact time at the moment but I'm sure it'll fall into place as time goes by so make sure to pop back each evening to read my latest post. Beside daily blogging I intend to continue writing posts on specific subjects on a regular basis so be sure to keep a look out for them too.

I'm about to start my final year of school so I thought it would be nice to keep track of my final year and beyond. It might just be a short post each day but I hope you'll enjoy a small glimpse into my life. So sit back and relax.

A typical morning in my life consists of the same routine; wake up at what feels like the crack of dawn (it's usually between 7 and half past 7 in the morning) in a sleepy trance, drag myself through to the living room, fall onto the sofa and stare at the TV until I waken enough to actually eat some breakfast. Am I building up a picture yet? Yeah, I'm not exactly a morning person.

After I actually manage to consume some food, I get dressed and organised for the day. At around eight twenty we flock out of the house in a rush to get my sister Laurel to school. Today, I didn't have any tuition until the afternoon so Mum and I popped into the town centre to pick up a few bits and pieces.

Our visit consisted of trip to Wilkinson's to replace our bird food as our garden birds had demolished their suet treat. After this we popped into Superdrug to pick up a box of red hair dye for myself (my roots are getting pretty bad!) dodging the dog poo which seemed to cover every inch of the ground today. I could seriously have a bit of a rant about it but I'll refrain from boring you. But seriously, if you have a dog, pick up their poo! Is it really that much to ask?

A wee trip to Costa was in order so we made our way through Waterstones stopping to say 'hello' to the shop staff who we often chat to. Settling down at the table, playing around on my iPod and taking full advantage of the free Wi-Fi, whilst my Mum picked up our order. I can't remember what exactly Mum had but I opted for a Pepsi and one of Costa's delicious chocolate brownies-mmmm!

We popped into Tesco on route back home to get a few ingredients for dinner and took a little detour via the magazine isle. I just so happened to spot the music magazine section and stopped in my tracks when my eyes fell upon the Prince tribute magazines. I may have left the store with one or two, okay maybe three!

On arrival back home I made a start on my radio preparation for tomorrow's show. If you're about tune into 3TFM between one and two o'clock tomorrow afternoon-there's lot's of great music coming up! Promise! A spot of lunch was in order which just left us with enough time to nip to the bathroom and get out my art stuff before my tutor arrived. During my art session this afternoon I continued working on my art coursework for my Nat 4 qualification. A few months ago, I created a couple of different masks which acts as a final piece for part of the course. In many respects I'm working backwards to show the process of how the piece developed. I was working on a sketch of the mask in pencil and a little charcoal for shading. The hour and a half of art tuition usually by pretty quickly and as soon as my tutor leaves it's a mad rush to throw on tour coats, shoes and hat in my case before leaving the house once again to pick Laurel up from school.

Once back home, I ended up watching Location, Location, Location with my Mum-I always managed to somehow get distracted despite having great intentions to get things done. Oh well! I suppose a wee break is allowed from time to time!

Before long Dad arrived home from work and we sat down to dinner; Mum's homemade carbonara! Delicious as always! And that brings us up to the present moment as I sit her typing away on my laptop like I do every night. Like I said above I decided to start daily blogging so I thought there's nothing better than the present moment, in other words why not sit down and do it now? I know it's probably not the most interesting of posts but I suppose as time goes on I'll become better at describing my day and that you my friends, will enjoy reading about it. Here's hoping I actually keep to writing it-we'll see how it goes!

Anyway, I wish you all a good night! Until tomorrow......

Love & Peace,

The Hat Hippie xxx

Song of the Month April 2016

It's the end of April already-how did that happen?! I'm telling you, this year is going in so quickly! Well we all know what happens at the end of each month here on 'The Hat Hippie'. Yep, that's right I pick a song of the month to share with you all. Sometimes it's a more recent song and sometimes it's a wee blast from the past but what they all have in common is that it's a song that I love and hope that you guys love just as much.

As you all already know one of my favourite musicians Prince sadly passed away just over a week ago and needless to say I am absolutely gutted. So I've decided to pick one of his incredible songs as April's Song of the Month. Although, picking just one song was pretty difficult-maybe I'll do a Top 10 Prince songs at some point in future.
Anyway, I can now reveal that the Song of the Month is......

'Let's Go Crazy' by Prince

I've specifically chosen a live version of this song performed by Prince and his band 3rd Eye Girl in Manchester back in early 2014 because this was just a short period of time before I saw Prince live. The original is amazing but I recently found this video again and thought it would be the perfect song choice this month. 

Watching it brought back great memories of the Glasgow gig I attended back in 2014 where Prince and his band opened the show with this particular arrangement. It has a more rockier vibe compared to the original studio recording and sounded amazing live. This was actually the first Prince song I learned to play along to on bass just weeks before the show. I remember sitting there in the audience that night playing the bassline in my head as I watched. I came across the footage on YouTube the other day as I hadn't seen it for quite a while; I had shivers watching it and couldn't help but smile!

I totally recommend checking out this version as well as the original. Both are amazing! Enjoy everyone!

Until next month,

Love & Peace,

The Hat Hippie xx

The Hat Hippie Presents 'Faux-Chella'

It's that time of year when thousands flock to Coachella to enjoy music and make memories with friends. In spirit of festival season TickPick got in contact with me and asked if I'd like to create my own dream Faux-Chella line-up to get you all in the mood. TickPick is a no-fee marketplace where you can bag tickets to some of the hottest concerts and live events in town at great prices! To visit their website and see what tickets you can find click here. Now, I'm not going to lie but trying to decide on just ten bands/artists to complete my Faux-Chella line-up was surprisingly difficult. There are so many great artists out there to choose from so the festival could easily go on for days if you let me away with it. Eventually, I did in fact come to a conclusion and this is what I decided:

I've chosen Fleetwood Mac, Paul McCartney and Queen and Adam Lambert as my headliners. In recent years I've been lucky enough to see all three acts live and have raved about them for weeks following each gig, in fact I'm still going on about them to be honest! All three bands are incredible live, each have a catalogue filled with an endless amount of hits and certainly know how to get the crowd going! They're all unique in their own special way and their music brings people together hence why they're a must for my headlining acts at Faux-Chella!

As you all know I love older music (although I don't see it as old; music is music and should never be judged by age, all that really matters is that it sounds good!) but I thought I'd throw in a more recent band who's music I've been loving lately and that is Coldplay! They're new album 'Adventure of a Lifetime is brilliant-there's so many great songs in there! I've never seen them live but I think they're the type of band that would be a great addition to a festival line-up and I'm sure many of you would agree!
This is followed by Wet Wet Wet who I recently saw in concert and thought they were brilliant! They're gig was so much fun; the atmosphere was great, the band were amazing and the music had everyone up on their feet singing and dancing along! What more could you possibly ask for?! So I think they would make a great addition to the line-up!
The Jacksons come next; they're without a doubt another great band with a music catalogue filled to the brim with hit songs. A completely different style from the other bands I've chosen but I thought it would be great to change things up a little and bring a little bit of the RnB/Disco vibe to Faux-Chella. 
Up next we have The Waterboys who'd bring something completely different to the line-up yet again. In recent years I've started listening to the music and would really love to catch them in concert next time they visit Glasgow. Beside their many great songs including 'The Whole of the Moon' I'm also a big fan of their cover of Prince's 'Purple Rain' so would have to throw in a little request to add that to their Faux-Chella set. But seriously, if you haven't heard it, go look it up on YouTube. The first time I heard their version of 'Purple Rain'  on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show I was absolutely blown away! 
Next, there's Paolo Nutini who I heard perform a little bit of his set at the Isle of Wight Festival last year via radio coverage and was extremely impressed. He sounded amazing! So I thought I'd give those of you (including me!) who missed out on his festival performance last year the chance to catch him at Faux-Chella!
And last but certainly not least is Orianthi, the woman who inspired me to start learning to play guitar when I was just ten years old. Ori has performed with some of the biggest names in the music industry including Michael Jackson, Prince and Alice Cooper to name a few as well as taking centre stage and recording her own solo albums which I'm also a huge fan of! It would be an absolute honour to have her come and perform a set at 'Faux-Chella'! If you love rock, blues and guitar solos; you're bound to love Ori!
So that's it folks; that's my Faux-Chella line-up! If only I really could have my own music festival-it would be so much fun! Although, as organiser I'd probably get distracted from all of my duties and end up in the crowd watching the bands perform-who could blame me? Honestly, could you imagine having all of these amazing acts performing at the one festival?! I'd be there in a flash! There could be so much going on besides the music to get involved in as well. I'm seriously getting ahead of myself here; I've got it all arranged in my head! I just need the funding to make it happen! 
Anyway, I had so much fun creating this post! Before I go I want to say a huge thanks to TickPick for getting in contact with me and asking if I'd like to write this post! I really love getting involved in such exciting projects!

A 17 Year Old Fan's Tribute to Prince

 

I'd been sitting in the garden working away on my laptop and stopped for two minutes to grab a quick snack when my younger sister came rushing the down the stairs with her phone in hand. 'I'm really sorry about Prince, Robyn' she said to me. There was a blank look upon my face as I tried to comprehend exactly what she'd told me. 'Prince passed away' she said. For a moment I thought she was joking but realised by her serious look that she wasn't joking. I immediately popped on my iPod and was met by articles plastered all over social media; I'd only been offline for a few minutes and they'd all suddenly appeared. Needless to say I was and still absolutely devastated! I am a huge Prince and this was the last thing I expected to hear today!

I actually spent the morning before heading to a medical appointment in HMV going through albums and stopping to have a conversation with my Mum about Prince as I looked through his albums and wondered when he'd released the Hit n' Run Part 2 album here in the UK. Later on, after my radio show this afternoon we stopped at Sainsbury's to do the weekly shopping and popped into the café for a refreshment as I was extremely thirsty from talking so much. As we were sitting chatting, Sinead O'Conner's cover of 'Nothing Compares 2 U' which was originally written by Prince began to play.And then this sad news broke out-strange or what?

I decided to write a tribute here on my blog as I'm sure many of you have probably gather by now, I am a very big fan of his. To some degree I've always been familiar with Prince's music but didn't truly appreciate it until I met my music tutor a few years ago who introduced me to the world of Prince. Thanks to him I was jamming along to Prince's music just weeks after I first picked up a bass guitar. 

Back in 2014 Prince announced a UK tour and one of the dates just so happened to be in Glasgow. I was beyond hyper as I often told my parents that Prince was on my concert bucket list. You know what it's like nowadays; ticket prices are ridiculous and I just couldn't afford the prices. I was just fifteen years old after all and well, pocket money doesn't exactly stretch that far particularly when the concert was just three weeks away! Somehow, I came across Prince's manager's email address and decided to contact her, a couple of days later I was sitting in my room, crimping my hair and decided to check my emails out of boredom when my eyes fell upon a reply to my email from Prince's manager.  She said she would like to invite me to Prince's show as a guest. Can yo  imagine my excitement? I was shaking as I read it; didn't expect to actually receive a response! I immediately burst into my Mum's room to share the exciting news-I was actually going to see Prince in concert!

On the lead up to the gig, I listened non-stop to his music and watched some of the very few videos on YouTube. Then the day of the gig came and funnily enough, Chris Evans was even playing Raspberry Beret on the radio that morning! I dressed in purple and wore a long, cream coloured jacket covered in fringes. I have to admit it was quite fun arriving at the box office to pick up my tickets and actually having MY name on Prince's guest list! As we were waiting on the show to begin I was pretty sure I spotted the pop singer Lorde in the crowd as she happened to be in Glasgow that weekend.

I remember the lights dimmed and the music began and they had a big curtain up on stage which dropped down to reveal the band as they began playing 'Let's Go Crazy', a song I'd been learning on bass. Throughout the show he performed back to back hits. What really caught my attention and blew me away was hearing 'Purple Rain' live, right there in front of me. It was a magical moment which blew me away. Hearing him perform that inspired me tremendously and from there on in I think it'll always have that have that breath-taking affect on me. I wanted to play instruments like Prince; I wanted to be good enough to one day work with Prince. Sadly, that'll never happen but I'll continue to play, learn and be the best I can be! I remember at the end of the show, Prince left the stage and returned moments later with a big bundled of balloons in his hand and let them go into the audience and that was the last moment I ever saw Prince.

When I left the Hydro that night, I never imagined that, that would be the first and last time I'd ever see Prince. I've always said that one day I'd see him again but sadly I won't. I am however, glad I got the opportunity to see him during his final show in Glasgow. It's times like this that makes me realise that I should ALWAYS take every opportunity that comes my way in life. You never know what tomorrow might bring and you might one day regret the things you missed out on.

Tomorrow, I plan on wearing purple in tribute to Prince and would love to see as many people get involved so whether it's painting your nails purple, sporting a purple scarf or wearing purple from head to toe; why not get involved! Send me your photos of your purple outfits and perhaps a few lines about why Prince inspired you or your favourite Prince song and if I get enough I'll feature some here on my blog! To send them in email using the following email address: thequeenofhats14@gmail.com.          

Before I go I want to say Thank-You to Prince for all of the amazing music he gave the world, for giving me some great tunes to listen through some difficult times over the past few years and for inspiring me to fight for what I believe in and being a massive influence to me as a young musician. I'm sure his music and legacy will continue to live on for generations to come! 

 

 Rest in Peace Prince,

I love you! xxx