Author: Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.

Singer, Songwriter, Blogger and Chatterbox. Part Diva, Part Hippie, All Sparkle.
The Music Sparkle.

Home Free.

Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.4 Comments

A few months ago I discovered Home Free.  As usual I am late to the party.  I am now however completely obsessed and I mean OBSESSED.  I cannot get enough of listening to these guys sing, such wonderful harmonies.  I completely forget that every sound is made just by their voices, no musical instruments at all.  I believe they may be about to announce a European tour and I really hope Birmingham is on their list…I keep tweeting them to include Birmingham within their schedule. Did I mention that they are kinda hot too!

I’ll share a few of my favourite songs below. I’ve limited myself to four otherwise this could be my largest blog post ever and  you wouldn’t need to visit their You Tube Channel.  If you’d like to check them out yourself  you’ll find them at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTFuNYrqAcsmSjgqYMvxOqw

http://homefreemusic.com/

 

This is just so perfect, the voices, the hymn, the scenery. It is well with my soul.

The Home Free guys usually inject some humour into their video’s. All About the Bass…oh those voices!!  My junk is in all the right places 🙂

I so want to meet these guys for a beer on a Friday night.

Such a beautiful song and a wonderful video.  The guys asked seven couples to chose a photograph from their past, their memories…love is Timeless.

Well I have happily had a Monday morning fix of Home Free which has set me up for the day.  Just another reason why Music is my salvation and my heart and soul are Country. To be able to escape into these video’s, sing the songs and dance just uplifts me and I can take on whatever the day throws my way…which as you know can be just about anything as a full time carer to my parents.

Proud to call myself a Home Fry!

Happy Monday, wishing you a totally sparkling week ahead.

Life Sparkles

Acting Quickly.

Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.5 Comments

Last week was a lesson for me in how quickly illness can escalate in elderly people.  I have been so cautious all during the Winter to prevent Mom, Dad and myself from getting any kind of cold or flu.  We all had our flu jabs.  Mom and Dad have already had their pneumonia jabs.  Visitors did not call if they had any bugs until they were long gone.  With all the pre Winter scare stories of flu epidemics due to hit us and the stress our hospitals and emergency departments were under, I wanted to ensure they stayed well.  As they are elderly, I knew if they caught anything it wouldn’t be easy to get rid of.

It all started on the Thursday evening, Mom became hoarse as the evening drew on. On Friday morning she wasn’t any worse but I decided to ask the Dr to check on her, just in case it would spread to her chest.  Mom is generally very healthy. However, the weekend was coming and our own Dr’s wouldn’t be available.  A Dr from our surgery called in the afternoon and checked on Mom.  He was happy that her chest was clear and noted that she had a slight tough of Laryngitis, take paracetamol and drink plenty of fluids. (Easier said than done with Mom).  By Saturday morning Mom had regained some of her voice but she appeared to have a lot of phlegm in her throat.  She slept, and slept, and slept.  All day long. As she slept, the sound of the phlegm was cracking away in her throat and I felt this just wasn’t right for Laryngitis. I couldn’t rouse her for her dinner and she continually fell asleep mid sentence.  I called the out of hours service, gave them the details and awaited the call back.  I spoke to a Dr on the telephone who agreed this was not Laryngitis related.  He would send a GP out to assess.

11pm Saturday night the GP arrived and as he examined Mom he said he was not happy with her Oxygen levels, they were dangerously low and he would send for an urgent ambulance as she needed to get to hospital. With that he left me a letter and left saying he would call the ambulance enroute to his next call. I was beside myself with worry, stress, panic and yet had to stay calm to deal with the situation.  I had a bag to pack for hospital.  I had care to arrange to stay with Dad whilst Mom and I were gone.  I was frightened.

The paramedics arrived within minutes. They did their own checks and the oxygen levels were fine but they did agree Mom required hospital treatment.  Mom wouldn’t budge.  She wasn’t feeling unwell at all.  It reminded me of when she broke her hip and felt no pain at all.  She didn’t feel unwell now so why was she going to hospital.  Bless the paramedics, they tried for at least an hour but no way would she go.  They gave me the advice of what to look out for and to call 999 if anything changed.  They also said that however I did it, I needed to get her to hospital on Sunday for treatment as this was now suspected pneumonia.  Mom had gone back to sleep.  Our neighbour was here to stay with Dad as our carer was unable to locate childcare so late into the night time.

An hour later Mom’s breathing was very laboured, I called 999, an ambulance arrived, this time three more fantastic paramedics. Again they tried and tried to get her to go with them but no way at all would she entertain it.  I was beside myself with stress, fear, worry and also felt totally helpless.  We discussed mental capacity; as Dad and I were both here they would not take her by force.  The chief paramedic was happy enough with her stats to leave her here with me to make the call on Sunday.  Hospital on Sunday was a must.

8 am Sunday morning I could see a slight blue tinge to Mom’s lips as she slept.  Our carer was here by then and she agreed with me.  Again I called 999 and again absolutely wonderful paramedics arrived.  It took some time, a little trickery, a lot of persuasion and eventually Mom was captured in the chair, wrapped in a blanket and on her way to the ambulance.  Myself and the carer travelled with her.

As we had the letter from the Dr we didn’t have to wait at accident and emergency, we could go straight through to the Assessment Ward.  It was such a long day, a very long day.  Stats taken, bloods taken, lots of sleeping.  The Dr came to see Mom.  Fluids and Antibiotics were administered via IV and within half an hour, there was a very much brighter little fairy sitting up on the bed.  The consultant came to visit Mom with the Dr. They wanted to take an x-ray to check for signs of pneumonia.  They were hopeful we had caught this at chest infection stage.

X-ray taken and we waited, and waited and waited.  We heard a nurse say all the IT systems were down, nothing could be reviewed, patients couldn’t be admitted or discharged.  We were moved to a ward for the night.  Mom was agitated now.  The nurses have to move quickly and get things done, they don’t have time to sit and talk Mom into moving from one bed to another.  Mom’s confusion set in and it took over two hours for her mood to settle.  The Dr visited us around 10pm Sunday night, he was happy that there wasn’t any pneumonia on the x-ray, we had caught it in time.  He felt Mom would heal better at home in her own environment. More antibiotics were administered through the IV and we were given antibiotic syrup to take for five days.

The next hurdle was to get home.  At first Mom wouldn’t move.  Thankfully our lovely carer had returned from sorting out her sons’ school uniforms for Monday and she was able to talk Mom into going home.  Mom would not sit on the chair to be wheeled to the entrance, she insisted on walking.  It was a long walk for her.  Again I was stressed out; how would the walk go, would she be able for it, at least we were in hospital.  My fairy of a Mom made the walk slowly, sat into the carer’s car and chatted all the way home.

When we got back, Mom sat into her favourite chair, drank tea and fell asleep.  She was already feeling so much better than earlier that morning.  Dad was now coming down with something so it was a call to our own GP on Monday morning and Dad was examined Monday afternoon, a chest infection building and antibiotics prescribed.

It has been a hard week in more ways than one.  I’ve had a rush of different feelings and emotions, from frantic worry and stress of possibly losing Mom to relief that it was caught in time to worry about Dad getting a chest infection on top of his other ailments. By the end of the week I was coming down with something. Tiredness, stresses, strains, worries all added to sleeplessness to make me feel unwell…but who cares for the carer?

Mom has recovered very well thank god.  Sleeping all day on the Saturday with no intake of fluids or food had increased her confusion hence her refusal to comply with the paramedics and go to hospital.  I have to say that usually Mom is fabulous with anyone from the health profession, being an ex nurse herself.  Dad has also recovered well although he seems tonight to be heading for another cold of some sort.  That’ll be Doctors again tomorrow.

Once again I find myself thanking and being very thankful for our absolutely amazing National Health Service and the Dr’s, the nurses, trainee’s and our wonderful paramedics. They do the most amazing job, 24/7 and they are worth their weight in gold. Whatever they get paid it just isn’t enough for what they do.

I’m still finding it incredible that slight Laryngitis Friday afternoon had become suspected pneumonia by Saturday night.  You really do need to be aware and hawk eye as a carer.  If I had left it one more day it would have been a very different story.

In these cases, the feeling of helplessness is overwhelming.  It was all happening around me and very little I could actually do but be there.

This is a fairly long blog post from me which is kind of unusual.  I love my blogging, I find it therapeutic and almost like a diary of my life events.  I needed to write this episode down, to process my thoughts and try to deal with them.

Thank you for listening x

 

 

 

 

Life Sparkles

All At Once.

Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.Leave a comment

Nothing for ages and then a flurry of activity in a short space of time. I was very lucky in that once again some of my favourite Irish Country Music stars were appearing in Birmingham and I was able to attend. My fabulous boyfriend stayed in with Mom and Dad so that I could get out to see my absolute favourite John McNicholl.

It was the Eve of St Patrick’s Day that the dance was on hence the heart shaped, shamrock tattoo ☘️

My friend and I had a little Snapchat fun before we left for the dance, I just love how it removes wrinkles.

We also celebrated Mom’s birthday that weekend, so many flowers, just beautiful and they are still around the house looking good.

Derek Ryan, absolute class singer, songwriter, entertainer had a sell out concert on the Sunday night and it was just fantastic. A great mix of his old material and the newer material and we were up dancing in the aisles. I hear he will be back in November for a dance so that’s a definite date for my diary.

The beautiful Tipperary Songbird, Louise Morrissey, who celebrates thirty years in Country Music this year is touring with Derek Ryan. A real treat to see and hear her amazing voice.

No further gigs now until April. I have three planned; Nashville, Daniel O’Donnell and Michael English. I make the plans in the hope I get to carry them out. As you know, if it wasn’t for Country Music I might possibly go crazy!

Snapchat Hippie Mode…

The Music Sparkle.

Do It Anyway.

Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.10 Comments

Regular readers of my blog know that I love to sing and that I have been visiting a wonderful vocal coach, Christine, for a number of reasons. The main reason is that singing brings me stress relief; life as a full time carer to two elderly parents is not easy, it’s harder work than I ever thought it was going to be so stress relief of the singing kind works for me.

I have so enjoyed learning about the voice, to hear my own voice develop, to hear the clarity of the notes I can produce and to know that I am blessed with a good vocal range an a natural vibrato (apparently some singers would kill for a vibrato)!!

I am coming on well now with my Guitar lessons.  Since Christmas I can actually get the sound of a few chords from the Guitar and I bought myself a new Guitar book “American Country Hits” so that I can practice the chords and learn the songs at the same time.  It has taken time and I have more or less cracked “Jambalaya”, very little plink and thunk on that one now. I am learning, practising four more songs and I want to download the guitar chords for some of the Irish traditional songs and country songs that I love to sing.

At the start of the year I mentioned to my Guitar tutor that it would be a dream come true for me to record some songs.  I don’t care if anyone bought them or not, but to have recorded and released some songs would be just awesome.  He informed me that he can help me with that as he can bring a mobile recording studio to me here at home and we can record away. I’ve to choose four or five tracks so that we can utilise the recording time and keep cost to a minimum. He can then do the mixing at his professional studio.

My vocal coach is almost as excited as I am about this.  Every time I think about it I get a headache with excitement.  Of course this has now thrown me into a world I know nothing about, the music business…something new to learn.

Choosing four or five songs may sound easy but it is proving to be a little difficult. There is only one I am absolutely sure of and I keep changing my mind about the other four. I have backing tracks but I need to shop around for the best sounding tracks and then I need to check on the licensing.  Most that I purchase online are licensed for private use or public performance but not recording.  I require permission to use the track and there may be an additional cost.

I also need to research public broadcast licensing and how royalties work. I’ve been told to start getting things ready; website (although there won’t be much content at first), photo shoot (who me?), video’s for the songs (really, me in a music video?) and to get to grips with self promotion.

These are things I really want to do, this is very much dream come true time and if I can get these things done before I set foot on a stage to sing it will boost my confidence enormously. It really is a case of “Feel the fear and do it anyway” for me. However, I’m a full time carer to both of my parents along with running the home and everything that goes with that.  I have very limited free time.  I’m not sure how I’m going to do it but you can bet your bottom dollar that any free time I have will be spent on the music dream.

I have put together another video.  One of my favourite songs is “Making Memories of Us” which is sang by Keith Urban and also a couple of my favourite Irish singers; Mike Denver and Derek Ryan.  I managed to locate a good backing track but the key may be not quite right.  I can just about hit the bass notes but if I take the key higher, the higher notes may be off.

I used photographs of places I have been on holiday with my lovely boyfriend over the years for the video.  Places where we now have memories of being there together from taking him home to Ireland to visit Galway where my Mom is from to our summer holidays in Spain, Portugal and England.

Please give it a listen and let me know what you think.  Thank you for supporting me on this journey to my dream.

Life Sparkles

Back in the day.

Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.5 Comments

Do you ever find that seeing the sunlight, shining through the window, perhaps just onto the wall or the furniture, can suddenly evoke a memory.

I was standing in the bathroom on a sunny, bright yet cold afternoon this week.  I had the window open to let the fresh air in and I could see the blue sky, the trees swaying in the wind and in a split second I was transported back to Summer days in my teenage years.  We were living in a different area of the city then, just two miles from the city centre and yet so quiet with tree lined streets, huge gardens and a view of the city skyline from the very top of the road which was on a hill.  Those were the days that you could lie out in your back garden in the sunshine and have your radio on, without fear of upsetting your neighbours.  In those days, BBC Radio One was at it’s best I think. From breakfast time to tea time the shows were fantastic, or so I remember them that way.

The mid morning show was hosted by Simon Bates and he had a feature called “Our Tune” where listeners would write in their story and a song that meant a lot to their story.  The stories were happy, sad, heartbreaking or incredibly heartwarming and a more than once I found myself in tears.

Lunch time would be Gary Davies and “Gary’s little bit in the middle”, he had great jingles advertising his show and these have remained with me as sounds of Summer.

These days I listen to BBC Radio Two in the afternoon because the DJ who was on Radio One in the afternoon back in the day, Steve Wright, is now on Radio Two in the afternoon and he plays the music of the 80’s which I absolutely love.  I sometimes put the radio on, just to have it playing in the background as I am passing through whilst carrying out the daily tasks and now and again a song will come on that just stops me in my tracks and I stand and listen for a few minutes and again I am transported.

A song I heard recently which took me back to those beautifully happy and carefree Summer days is “The Closest Thing to Heaven” by The Kane Gang.  It’s not a song I hear often on the radio and I have downloaded it to my iPod.  Every time I hear it, it immediately takes me back to what appeared to be the longest, hottest, Summer days ever.

 

I have mixed emotions, like most people I expect, when I go back to those days.  My heart hurts.  My parents were full of health and strength, my beautiful Sister was still here with us, I was happy, carefree and I wonder did I really value those days or take them for granted.  I suspect the latter, I was a teenager after all and all was well in my world then.   Although it brings happiness and sadness to think back to those days when a song plays, or the sun shines through the window in a particular way, or you hear the wind rustle on the trees and the memories flood back, I feel blessed now that I was so lucky to live those days in the way I did.

I also dressed like Madonna…thank God there was no mobile phones or social media back then!!

 

 

The Music Sparkle.

New Music.

Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.4 Comments

It’s been ages since I posted any new music video’s from our fabulous Irish music stars and we have had some great new music releases over the past month or so.  There are one or two included which date back to the end of last year and which I didn’t get an opportunity to include on my blog.

First up is a couple from Nathan Carter.  Last year Nathan held his first Arena concerts, one in Dublin and one in Belfast.  Both were sold out and the Belfast concert has been voted as the Arena Concert of the Year by voters for the SSE Live Awards.  I recently purchased the Live DVD of the Dublin show and it is absolutely fantastic.  Mam, Dad and myself sat and watched the concert and we all sang along. As I had only seen Nathan live in concert in Birmingham the week before I was really buzzing.  Below is an extract from the show with the Glen Campbell Medley.  Also below is the video to Nathan’s latest song written by Nathan and Don Mescall.  Released for Valentine’s Day it has a lovely message of eternal love with a connection to Alzheimer’s. Just beautiful.

Derek Ryan is one of Ireland’s most successful singer/songwriters of the current time. His latest release is a fun offering “Down on your Uppers”.  I think he could write a song about anything!

Lisa McHugh had a huge hit last year with “Girl with a Fishing Rod”.  This is her latest release “Country Girl”.  It took me a few plays and I really quite like it now.  Of course the video’s help, I love to see the story unfolding.

Michael English is another fabulous singer/songwriter and last year Michael filmed his first Live DVD at the INEC Killarney.  The night was a fantastic success and seeing the clips on his weekly TV show and on other shows, it looks like an amazing night with big bands, Irish Dancing and a great mix of music.  Below is the video for “Ten Guitars”.

I hope you have enjoyed this small selection of music, more to follow…

Life Sparkles

Catching up yet again!

Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.4 Comments

Once again I find that time is flying by and I’m not getting an opportunity to keep my blog updated. I have amazing ideas that pop into my head, subjects to blog about, songs to include on my blog, blogs I want to catch up reading and yet nothing gets done. I seem to be constantly on the go from the moment I get up until I get into bed…if we get into bed. Daily I am surprised that I get to 9 pm and not had a chance to do anything on my own “to do” list as I had more important tasks to do for my parents. Life as a carer is like this and I have noticed that I have become calmer within this role. If the past few months have taught me anything it is to just go with the flow. Don’t try to force anything, Mom will do what she wants to do when she wants to do it and everyone only gets stressed if I try to make things happen. It hasn’t been easy, I still silently scream inside when it can take fifteen minutes to cajole Mom into the kitchen to eat. Poor old Dad has had to get used to going with the flow also, we are all on a continual learning curve.

I have managed a couple of outings since early January and there has been some progress on my music dreams which I’ll share in another blog post…which hopefully won’t be in another six weeks time!

Lucky me, my favourite Irish singer John McNicholl was in town and my fabulous boyfriend came over to spend the evening with my parents so that I could go to the dance.

A friend I have made through going to see John McNicholl over the years had bought me some beautiful flowers. A wonderful surprise, I was spoiled.

Back on track with my healthy eating again. It took a while after the Christmas excesses, once I get the taste of the chocolate I’m done for.

I purchased a wholly unsuitable pair of sparkly shoes. I’ve not worn high heels for years, I need to get some practice in. Not bad for £25.00

Beautiful Roses which I bought for my Beautiful Mom.

A little Snapchat fun after a quick catch up lunch with my friend.

Absolutely amazing, incredible, fantastic concert from the brilliant Nathan Carter. This lad just keeps getting better and better and lucky me I got a kiss, swoon. Oh yes I was the cat that got the cream.

This is my little Bitmoji from Snapchat complete with hearts for Valentine’s Day. I like the whole Bitmoji thing, it’s fun, expressive, confusing and I could even add my lack of sleep lines to my eyes, result!

And finally, my Snapchat Valentine’s Day post. How I love these wrinkle removing filters. I was just about getting used to using the Snapchat app and they have now changed it…oh well, time to start learning all over again.

Huge sparkles to all, hopefully I’ll be back to the blog very soon.

Life Sparkles

Happy New Year 2018

Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.Leave a comment

I hope that you all enjoyed Christmas time immensely. Yes it is busier than busy, we are stressed out shopping, wrapping gifts, visiting friends and family or having them visit us, school plays, pantomime’s, cooking…the list goes on.

Ours was a quiet Christmas. Family came for the usual “Fizz and Nibbles” on Christmas Day which is a busy, funny, crazy few hours when our usually quiet house comes to life and it is wonderful. Mom and Dad loved having the family around, catching up, singing songs and everyone talking at once. Mom coped very well with it all, took it in her stride. From 4 pm onwards it was back to us three, I cooked dinner and we settled down to watch the Christmas Irish Music shows.

Over the week we’ve had some visitors, my b/f made it over for the New Year and things were slow and steady. Two all nighters which isn’t bad going at all. We didn’t get to open our gifts until New Years Eve, Mom just wasn’t interested at all which both surprised me and made me feel so sad. Mom always so enjoyed opening the gifts in the past. One gift I bought them was two calendars; one from Knock Shrine and one Nathan Carter. Well, Mom took a lot of interest in the Nathan Carter calendar which was very funny, she just wouldn’t put it down. He is one of our favourite singers, it was so sweet to watch her with her calendar.

I’m quite happy to stay in on New Years Eve, I’m not too bothered about staying up until midnight although we did this year as my b/f was with us. I do love January. Winter in all its glory. The evenings start to get a little lighter as each week passes. The promise of the year ahead, opportunities, challenges, plans, dreams…it’s as if we feel we can make anything happen if we just put our mind to it now we are in the New Year…and we can.

I wish you a fabulously happy 2018, full of health, love, peace and sparkles galore.

Picture via Pinterest

I bet you can’t guess what one of my gifts was? Oh yes he was in the bad books!

He did redeem himself somewhat when I opened this…I love Nashville.

My cousin and I being silly on Snapchat. Laughing is such a good feeling.

I was after some flat ballerina pumps and ended up with these. Not practical at all, not sure I can walk in them but I couldn’t resist the sparkle. Oh well, they were extremely reasonably priced and sometimes you just have to let your inner sparkle take charge.

Happy New Year Everyone 🌟

Life Sparkles

Christmas Eve.

Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.4 Comments

I love Christmas Eve, for me it has always been the most magical day of the year. That sense of expectation, the birth of Jesus and the arrival of Father Christmas with lots of surprises. That childhood sense of wonder and awe changes as we grow older and we feel different emotions for different reasons. I’m doing my best this year to keep a sense of the magical, to give my parents a happy time. Things have changed so much in the past year. At the moment I’m sitting here hating that Mom feels I’m trying to hurt her or harm her simply by changing her clothes. I’m missing my sister so much today too; I cannot help but think that things would be easier if she were here but as she isn’t I have to just get on with things and hope that she is helping me from her heavenly abode.

However, there has been some happy times in the past week and I thought I’d share them with you before I wish you a Merry Christmas.

Lunch with one of my forever friends.

Girlie catch up Christmas lunch with my friend.

I dropped some items off for charity and had the Church to myself, so beautiful.

I loved the colour of these Roses and so bought them for Mam.

I definitely made the Hall and Porch sparkle this year.

A Christmas Cyclamen hanging basket and a very old Christmas wreath I hang outside every year.

I gave in a joined the phenomenon that is Snapchat. I haven’t got the hang of it yet but I have to say it has made me giggle at times I really haven’t felt like giggling. That has to be a good thing!

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you all for being so supportive of me and my blog. I hope you all have a truly magical, peaceful, blessed not forgetting sparkling Christmas.

O Holy Night. Sparkling Star bless our world tonight.

Life Sparkles

Walking in a Winter Wonderland.

Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.12 Comments

For the first time in eight years the UK has had a significant snow fall. Major disruption to transport, schools, health services and rural areas. The forecasters were spot on; it started snowing at 4:30 am Sunday morning and snowed continuously for twenty four hours. It settled quickly, that beautiful thick, clean, fresh deep snow. I love it. I had to get out for a walk in it even for half an hour. Here are some pictures I took whilst I was out and about in this unexpected and wonderful Winter day.

It was so good to hear children out making snowmen, families walking and laughing and hardly any cars at all. I’m very lucky that I live on the edge of the city yet bordering the countryside. It was a glorious half hour walk, I enjoyed every second.

Of course now we have ice, treacherous conditions and tonight it is raining, it was great whilst it lasted, fresh and lovely that first day of falling.

I’m very behind in catching up on your blogs, I’m so sorry. Between a continuous run of all nighters and Christmas preparations I’ve been very neglectful. I hope to have more time to blog and to catch up with your blogs very soon.

Sparkle always!

©️ @aurorasparkles 2017