Five fab disabled people to follow!

Here is my list of favourite bloggers, YouTubers and writers to follow and why I love them so much.

Gem Hubbard

aka WheelsNoHeels

Gem is my top person I think you should follow especially if you’re a wheelchair user. Her channel has really helped me as a wheelchair user in so many ways from wheelchair skills, accessories for your wheelchair (I absolutely love my LapStacker) and just general wheelchair lifestyle content. Her ‘buying a wheelchair’ series when she was buying her GTM Jaguar was also invaluable for me too. Gem does other disability and some non-disability related content too. I love the fun and lighthearted nature of Gem’s content plus how she does it because she enjoys it. There isn’t any ‘and today’s first/second/third video sponsor is…’ like there is now with so many content creators or ‘and today I’m promoting…’. Gem doesn’t do any of this and I really like that.

• ‘WheelsNoHeels’ YouTube channel 
• Gem’s Instagram account  

Hannah Hodgson 

Hannah hasn’t posted anything in a while but I love her book reviews on her YouTube channel. From there I’ve found some great reads. Hannah is also a great and award winning poet and writer. She’s published several poetry pamphlets and a book as well as written many articles. I also love how open and honest Hannah is about having a life-limiting illness and about death and dying and hospice care. She’s very positive about it and outspoken about the subject. I agree that these things need to be discussed and they should be something that we can talk about in a positive way as Hannah does.

• Hannah’s YouTube channel
  
• Hannah’s blog - ‘Hannah Writes a Blog’
  

Pippa Stacey

I find Pippa’s content on her blog and social media’s really helpful and relatable especially as Pippa also has M.E. too. She’s able to do a lot more so she reviews different places for days out with what accessibility features are available. However Pippa also shows that despite the fun days out M.E. is still exhausting and she needs days to rest recover. Pippa is a big advocate for the disabled community and disabled people’s needs especially when it comes to disability and work. Pippa is a big fan of books and a brilliant writer herself. She’s published a few things and countless articles as well as her blog. I love her book ‘How To Do Life With A Chronic Illness’ it was a great guide and resource that I will use time and time again.

• Pippa’s blog
  
• ‘Life of Pippa’ - Pippa’s YouTube channel
  
• Pippa on Instagram
  

Jessica Taylor-Bearman

Jessica is a truly amazing person. She has come out of the darkest depths of very severe M.E. and written a book trilogy about her time in hospital, then home bed bound in one room, to then becoming a wife and mother amazing the people around her with the progress she has made. She is still unwell with M.E. but Jessica still manages to be a writer and speaker when she is able and has two wonderful children with her husband.

Jessica’s books

• ‘A Girl Behind Dark Glasses’
• ‘A Girl in One Room’
• ‘A Girl Beyond Closed Doors’

• Jessica’s blog and website
  
• Interview with Jessica
  

Hannah Deakin

Hannah is a great disability advocate. She does a lot of media work with Scope to raise awareness on lots of different issues. She also has a blogs and writes about a variety of really good topics that are very relatable, especially to younger disabled people. Like with Pippa Hannah also raises the profile of working when you have a disability and the challenges with that. Hannah also reviews days out and the accessibility of the venues. Hannah also does fundraising work and as well as speaking about disability she also talks about siblings grief after the loss of her brother.

• ‘Hannah’s Hope’ - Hannah’s blog
• Hannah on TikTok
  
• Hannah’s Instagram account

Best books of 2024

This year was a great year for books for me especially as I regained the ability to physically read books again. I used to love settling into a book but as my cognitive function declined I lost the ability to read. I read some advice by Hannah Hodgson on getting into reading and I began with reading some graphic novels as well as poetry; I really enjoyed reading Hannah’s own work. I then progressed onto reading books. I did have a time this year when I did lose the ability to read again but thankfully I’m back reading again.

Now onto my best books of 2024 - these were all the books I rated 5/5 and some memorable 4/5 books in my bullet journal list of books for 2024. I’ve listed them in order of reading.

* Spoilers may be revealed *

‘The Silence Between Us’ by Alison Gervais

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This has to be my top book this year I absolutely loved it. It’s a YA novel and it follows the main character Maya who is Deaf who moves to a new part of the USA and so has to start attending a hearing school. She became Deaf a few years ago after falling ill with meningitis. At her new school she has an ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter as ASL is now her primary language. 

The book brakes down barriers such as how d/Deaf people like Maya can still speak but choose to sign instead, and the difficulties of lip reading and wearing hearing aids. The author also brings into the story whether d/Deafness is a disability of not and also the division in the d/Deaf community over cochlear implants. The book also covers relationships between d/Deaf and hearing people. Another topic the book covers is the lack of support and how few interpreters there are in education for d/Deaf students especially when Maya was looking at going away to college.

In the book one of Maya’s classmates who initially didn’t understand d/Deafness learnt ASL so he could communicate with Maya in her language. I liked the acknowledgment that he was particularly stepping into her world. This proved useful at one point in the book when Maya had to take her brother to the hospital and her mum was away on business and the hospital’s electronic service for ASL interpreters was down so her friend stepped in to help interpret.

The storyline follows Maya settling into her new school, getting ready for college, making friends and also developing a relationship. A classic Young Adult coming of age novel.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable book and I loved the storyline, it was really well put together and it made a really good listen (or a read). I’d highly recommend this book!

‘A Litter of Bones’ by JD Kirk

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

This was a Crime Mystery novel which I read.

It was set in Scotland in the Highlands and followed a child going missing, for DCI Logan the case reminds him of a case he’d work on in the past.

I really enjoyed this book and it was quite memorable, I’d be interested to read more in the series either reading or audio as I liked the style of writing and the characters in the book too. (I did find myself reading it in a Scottish accent in my head!) It was very realistic as some police crime novels are a little unrealistic on how the characters operate as police officers, this was very true to life I found, or as I imagined policing to be like. The storyline in the book was very good and well thought out too. 

If you’re looking for a new crime novel series then I’d recommend reading this one.

‘One’ by Sarah Crossan

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This was a book that I got for Christmas that I read. I head about this book from one of Hannah’s book reviews on her YouTube channel* (I often find good books there).

I thought this book would be a good book to get be back into reading as it’s written in prose so a bit different and a style I’d never read before.

The book follows the lives of conjoined twins; what it’s like to live as conjoined twins the two different personalities of Grace and Tippi. In the prose you can see the two different personalities.

The book follows as Grace and Tippi start a new school after always being homeschooled and how each of them adapts to going to school and making friends and also relationships and also life changing decisions.

They are two different people but one body at the same time.

This is another Young Adult coming of age book. This is another book that I’d highly recommend and don’t be put off by it being written in prose you will love this book and feel a rollercoaster of emotions especially at the end.

 

‘A Danger to Herself and Others’ by Alyssa Sheinmel

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I sort of stumbled across this book but I’m so glad I did as I really enjoyed it and it was a fantastic book (I listened to this book).

This book genre of this book is Young Adult Fiction.
It follows the story of Hannah who is wrongly put in a mental health unit and the story unravels from there. There were lots of twists and turns and things I wasn’t expecting to happen.

It was really really well written and the ending was just not what I was expecting at all. I’d definitely love to see if this author has any other books.

The only thing I would say about this book is that it does have a few trigger warnings around mental illness subjects.

Other than the trigger warnings if this book is okay for you to read then this is another great book that I’d highly recommend and is well worth reading or listening to.

‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ by Holly Jackson 

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This is the first book in a trilogy; I much preferred this first book to the following two books in the series and I gave them a lower rating.

It’s a Young Adult crime/mystery novel.

The book is about Pip who is doing an Extended Project at her sixth form college. For her project she decides to invest a local murder for who she believes the wrong killer was wrongly accused and she sets out to find the true killer.

The book is full of twists and turns and things you do and don’t expect to happen.

All-in-all it was an enjoyable read and it was well written. I listened to the audio version of the book which was partially dramatised, such as sound effects for when Pip was using her voice recorder for and when she was interviewing characters in the book on her voice recorder different people’s voices were used. So if you do listen to audiobooks I would recommend listening to the audio version of this book just for the effects.

The book has now been dramatised into a television series on BBC but I’m yet to watch it to compare it to the book.

‘Time After Time’ by Chris Atkins

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This book was a sequel to the author’s book ‘A Bit of a Stretch’ which documented Chris’ time in prison for tax crimes.

In this book Chris speaks with offenders themselves to explore why people reoffend. As the book came from the point of view from reoffenders themselves it gave a really unique and interesting perspective into why people reoffend and also what they as offenders feels needs to change to reduce reoffending rates, especially as reoffending rates are so high in the UK.

Some of the topics covered in the books was the probation service and how that needs to change to reduce reoffending, also other support for prisoners once they leave prison. Other issues around reoffending that the book covered included housing and homeless, finances and turning back to crime for money therefore they end up back in prison, education and employability was another issue, even individuals enjoying life in prison so they reoffend just to return to prison.

Chris writes in a really personable and relatable way. Though he hasn’t reoffended since leaving prison he has the experience of being in prison himself so you can tell that he really connected with the people he spoke with for this book.

I think this book also makes a great resource as we’re hearing from reoffenders themselves what the problems are that make them reoffend so it could be used to changes services like the probation service and other services that help those newly released from prison to try and reduce reoffending rates.

It was such an interesting book/audiobook to read/listen to. It really educated me and made me more aware. It’s a book I’d highly recommend.

‘Things The Eye Can’t See’ by Penny Joelson

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

This is a Young Adult mystery novel.

In all of Penny Joelson’s books she has a main character with a disability or chronic illness. In this book Libby is visually impaired and has a guide dog called Samson.

What I like is the barriers Penny breaks down around disability, such as in this book the focus is around Libby’s disability. We learn that blind or visually impaired is a spectrum and most people still have some vision, even if you have a guide dog. Also Libby’s hobby is photography and her favourite subject is art, things visually impaired people can still enjoy, they just adapt to meet their needs. We also learn about ableist attitudes towards disability in the book and online hate. The book showed that Libby was just as capable she just needed help with guidance and a few other areas of support as well as using adaptations to be independent and capable and able.

The book follows Libby and a couple of her friends as she tries to find someone she knows who is in trouble and in danger.

Other issues the author brings up in the book is county lines and the dangers of it, including getting set up buy higher up the chain drug dealers to put people in debt. It also brings in another related issue which is cuckooing where a vulnerable person’s home is taken over by drug dealers and how they are exploited. The book also explains how people are drawn into county lines such as by being given money and being bought new mobile phones or trainers.

I think for a Young Adult book discussing disability awareness and also awareness about county lines is really important.

I really enjoyed reading this book and following Libby as she investigated her friends disappearance and as she searched for him concerned for his welfare.

‘Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas’ by Adam Kay

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This is my annual Christmas go-to that I never tire of and it’s wildly hilarious with a festive twist. The audiobook is read by the author and he’s a great narrator bringing the book to life. As well as being a doctor (who’s now hung up his stethoscope for writing) he’s a great comedian.

The book is in diary format following the various years he worked as a doctor over the festive period each year. In each year he recalls excerpts from his diary of different cases, often festive related cases. Amongst the hilarious cases he does also recall the more difficult cases in his career and also the downsides to working over the holidays such as the strain it put on his relationships.

If you’re looking for a festive laugh then this is the book for you.

My top 10 favriorite books of 2022

1. 'A Girl Behind Dark Glasses' by Jessica Taylor-Bearman

Rating: ★★★★★ out of 5!

This is the first of two books by Jessica. In this book Jessica starts with a documentation of her life before she become unwell with M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis); then when she become ill and her rapid decline into very severe M.E. and the subsequent 4 years she spent in hospital due to the severity of her M.E.

The book took me on an emotional rollercoaster ranging from upset to anger. I'll admit that at the start of the book when Jessica is talking to her diary 'Bug' about the start of her M.E. I did cry because of the similarities in our story. Both Jessica and I became ill with M.E after having the flu from which neither of us recovered from and as Jessica talked to Bug about her overwhelming fatigue and leg pain (which I was struggling with at the time of listening) I cried and couldn't listen anymore.

I listened to parts of this book but I also read parts, some from the book other times on my kindle app. I have the sequel 'A Girl in One Room' which doesn't come in audio format but this year I'm determined to read the sequel.

2. 'The Language of Kindness' by Christie Watson

Rating: ★★★★★ out of 5!

I've gotten through a lot of medical career books but this particular book was quite special compared to others. Christie doesn't write about the hilarity of the nursing profession but what is at the heart of nursing: kindness. I found this book really touching to listen to; to hear Christie talk about her career as a children's nurse, most of which was spent working in paediatric intensive care. In her book she talks about how she came to become a nurse and what it is to be a nurse. She shares her stories of all her and her colleagues acts of care kindness and what is at the heart of nursing and how this is being lost. It truly is a heartwarming book that I would highly recommend.

3. '163 Days' by Hannah Hodgson

Rating: ★★★★★ out of 5!

This book documents Hannah's longest hospital admission of 163 days. The book is split into three parts.

The first part is the book and I loved the unusual format. For each day of Hannah's admission there was a written piece alongside medical note documentation.

The next part of the book was a collection of Pallative 'After Care' poems and the third part of the book contained previously published poems and a written thanks. These poems I want to come back to when I feel I understand and can grasp the concept of poetry better, though I have read some of Hannah's other poetry pamphlets and have enjoyed what she writes and the topics Hannah writes about.

4. 'Everyday Sexism' by Laura Bates

Rating: ★★★★★ out of 5!

Laura Bates is one of my favourite authors and I love every one of her books and I've listened to a few of her books this year but I chose this book because it's slightly different to the usual feminism books.

The book comes from an online project that Laura set up to give people a voice to share their experiences of sexism, misogyny, discrimination, harassment as well as sexual and domestic violence and assault. People, men and and women of all ages from all over to world can share their experiences on the Everyday Sexism Project.

From that online project Laura wrote this book taking inspiration and submissions from the Everyday Sexism Project. What I like about this book and Laura's other books is that she includes men in her books and in this book she includes submissions to the project from men.

5. 'Holiday SOS' by Ben MacFarlane

Rating: ★★★★☆

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it was like no medical career book I have ever come across nor did I realise that this field of work existed. Ben MacFarlane is a doctor and his job is to repatriate injured Brits from their holidays. I found it fascinating to and out the different injuries people have sustained on holiday and how Ben and sometimes a nurse from his team gets them home, hopefully without a hiccup on the journey, but that doesn't always happen, and sometimes he's called to help he own patient and and another flight passenger at once! As well as flying patients home on normal planes he also has flown patients home of medi-copters and luxury private jets.

It's defiantly a different book from your average GP working in an average GP practice writing about their day-to-day life as a doctor! Plus at the end of 2022 I discovered a sequal where Ben goes to sea to work on a cruise ship as a ship's doctor (which is also a good read).

6. 'In Your Defence': Stories of Life and Law by Sarah Langford

Rating: ★★★★☆

I actually listened to this audiobook twice last year. It's written by a defence barrister and she writes about her career climb from law school through to becoming a barrister which was quite interesting to understand that. Each chapter follows a different case in which she has defended. I liked how varied each case was in terms of the crime or crimes that the accused was on trial for. The author explained the different laws really well so that they where included in the book but where understood well by the reader. 

It was an interesting and well written book letting you into the life of a defence barrister; how their job works. The author Sarah Langford writes about UK law and a look into different UK law courts and how they are run. She also writes about what it is like to defend those accused sometimes repeatedly of different crimes and the circumstances surrounding them.

I enjoy books that follow different people with different careers (as you can probably tell from this list) so this is a good book if you're interested in reading about law or the life of someone who works in this field.

7. 'Weird Things People Say in Bookstores' by Jen Campbell

Rating: ★★★★☆

I got this book for Christmas last year. It's split into three parts the first two parts are stories from two bookstores and the third part is stories from different bookstores from all over the world.

The book contains little real life stories of strange things people have said in bookstores along with some illustrations to accompany some stories.

Some of the things customers have said to staff are so out there it's hard to believe what has been said is true. For example "is this book edible?" or "do you have a book on how to breath underwater?" or when a bookstore owner asks a customer if they can help them at at to which their response was "no I don't think you're qualified, I need a psychiatrist, that's the only help I need"

8. 'The Girl With All The Gifts' bu M.R. Carey

Rating: ★★★☆☆

This book was another totally different book for me be Hannah Hodgson had recommended it on her YouTube channel (I've come across a lot of good books from Hannah's book reviews on her YouTube channel and Good Reads account).

It's took me a while to get into this book and work out the plot but once I got into the book I really enjoyed it. I'm still trying to work out though what the title of the book has to do with the plot of the book however?

9. 'A Perfect Stranger' by Shalini Boland

Rating: ★★★★☆

This was another book that was different for me but it was a real plot twister - a crime thriller/suspense novel (that makes me want to read/listen to more of this genre). I really enjoyed listening to something different and also not knowing where the story was going and the plot twist at the end was excellent!

If you want a book that's a thriller and something that you're totally not going to expect then I'd highly recommend this book.

10. 'In Order To Live': A North Korea Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park

Rating: ★★★☆☆

This book was quite different to what I normally go for but it was very insightful. I learnt a lot about life for North Korean people and the political set up there. Yeonmi Park writes about her life in North Korea and her family's escape, and how difficult it actually is to escape and gravelly from country to country before they can get somewhere in which they can claim political asylum. Then once they have finally claimed asylum in South Korea their adjustment to finally being in a place where they are free. It's an insightful book and if you're looking for something different or want to understand more about North Korea I would recommend this book.

6 recent books I'd recommend

'Men Who Hate Women' by Laura Bates

Laura Bates has to be one of my favourite writers. I love how she writes on women issues yet still includes men in a positive way into the conversation.

This book really opened my eyes up to the vast community of men out there who take hating women to the next level. I learnt more about men who troll women online, 'incels' - communities of men who meet in online forums, the pick-up artist community, the 'manospere', extremism and terrorism and more.

It's another great book by Laura and I would highly recommend it if you want something different to the usual feminism books.

Holiday SOS by Ben Macfarlane

This was a really good book with moments where you had to double take remembering that what you're listening/reading actually did happen.

I'd never given much thought to the medical career field of repatriating unwell Brits to the UK. I quite like my medical doctor's stories books and I'd happy re-listen to this book. It was full of really interesting medical cases with the twist of getting the unwell and/or injured person on a flight back to the UK and it wouldn't be a good book if there no hiccups along the way.

This book really made me think of what a fab side of medicine career wise this job would be.

'Weird things people say in bookstores' by Jen Campbell

This was a book I actually read, I actually found out about this book from a review from Hannah below. 

It was a good easy to read book with some great illustrations to support the hilarity of what I was reading at times wondering how a person can actually ask such a thing in a bookstore or indeed anywhere. 

It was sectioned into a few different UK bookstores and then the last section opened out to things said in various bookstores worldwide.

If you want something easy, different and extremely funny to read this is your book!

'163 Days' by Hannah Hodgson 

Hannah is one of my favourite writers and YouTubers. I love her channel and have found many good books from her book reviews as well as her openness and honesty about living with life limiting illnesses.

I've read a few of Hannah's poetry pamphlets (Hannah introduced me to poetry) but this is her first book.

In 163 Days it's spilt into three sections.

The first section is the main book itself and I love the really different format in which Hannah wrote. 163 days is centred around Hannah's longest hospital stay which lasted 163 days and there is an entry for each day. The format for each day's entry took a medical entry for that day and Hannah's entry for the day. This made reading the book quite nice and easy.

Hannah also included a collection of poems which I want to return to an re-read to better grasp what she is writing and communicating as I've enjoyed much of Hannah's other poems and it was Hannah that got me back into poetry.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi *

*Spoiler alert

I really enjoyed this book. It's about a neurosurgeon who's at the top of his game who he's diagnosed with lung cancer. He writes about his career, his treatment and family life.

It's beautifully written and it would have been nice for there to have been an equally beautiful written ending to his book. Instead it just stops but then that's the nature of terminal illness, you never know when the full stop will come. However his wife did write a beautiful ending to the book for him.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

This was quite a different book for me as I don't usually listen/read novels.

The storyline wasn't what I fully expected from the book description despite this however I still got into the story and I really enjoyed the book.

The book follow two twins who are both into fan-fiction of a particular fiction book series. When they start at college they drift apart and the book particularly follows the life of Cath and her first year of college with the typical family and friend dramas as well as her classmates and classes and of course her fanfic.

Some of my favourite phone apps

So first you can see that I really love my calendar and notes app..

I have all of my apps just on this on screen and then each apps is categorised into each folder - I just don't like having multiple screen of apps.

My Top 10 Apps

(In no particular order)

1. Lists

I would be totally lost without my calendar as in there I digitalised my daily plan which helps me manage my M.E. It also helps me to remember appointments and other things especially things that are out of routine.

2. Home Kit

I like my HomeKit where I can control the lighting in my room via my phone. For me this is more for accessibility as it's easier to tap some buttons or voice control to alter the lighting my room as opposed to getting out of bed which is not realistically an option for me to do. 

3. Expense

This is helps me with my incoming and outgoing expenses to help stay on track with my budgeting. I can create different 'accounts' so unlike on my bank where all my money is just one lump sum on Expense I have different accounts for different types of expenditures. Expense helps me stay on try of what I'm spending to help me try and save.

4. Dyson

This app means that I can control all the many differs feature of my my Dyson Hot+Cool™ fan on my phone as well create Siri short cut commands so for some things I can voice control certain features. 

5. Calendar

I would be totally lost without my calendar. Back when I was in Leeds in hospital and I was given my 'daily plan' (which I use to help manage my M.E) I digitalised this daily plan onto my calendar with alerts for every new event, plus my all time favourite thing... colour coding. What's more now with my life, my calendar and my daily plan is that it is easily adaptable. If I have an appointment I can move aspects of my daily plan around, especially activity and rest periods so that I'm still able to get enough mainly the latter in my day.

I'm a very visual person so I think that where my love of colour coding come in and being able to look at my calendar and see what is going on where and being able to visualise what is going on really helps me know what is going on especially if there is something going on in my week that isn't a typical occurrence.

6. 1SE - One Second Everyday

This is a one year long project.Each day I capture a one second video clip (sometimes a photo) and it collects together over the year to create a film of one second video clips giving a little glimpse into what was done that day. Like right now I am filming a time-lapse video of me typing blog post for today's video clip. Obviously I'm not perfect and I do forget and I do have to back track and fill in missing days. My life also isn't the most exciting one so I try come up with really creative videos.

7. Hip

This is a great app for keeping track of friends birthdays. I have it set to notify me 2 and 1 week before the birthday date to give me plenty of time to make and get a card posted. It also notifies me on the day so I can drop them a message.

8. iMovie

This is the app I use to make all of my video for my YouTube channel so definitely a favourite and essential app to have.

9. Good Reads

I really like the Good Reads app and being able to track the books I've read/listened to. I also have my yearly challenge where I set a target of getting through a set number of books in a year. I can also connect with friends and see what they've been reading and this gives me ideas for books I want to add to add to my 'Want to Read' shelf. When I've finished a book I can also leave a rating and also review. It's defiantly one of my favourite apps.

10. My Water

Monitoring my water intake is really important for my health so the My Water app makes it really easy to ensure that I'm staying nicely hydrated. You input what drink you've had say a 300ml cup of coffee and it will calculate the water balance of that drink which will go towards your daily target. So for me I aim to drink 2.5 litres a day so the My Water app helps me reach that target much more easily.

Shuffle Playlist

Just as a different post from the usual to shake things up a bit I thought I'd share with you a shuffle playlist of some songs I like that are in my music library. My music library has such a random collection of songs of different artists and genre's so I hope you enjoy listening to some of these songs if you're feeling like listening to something new or different. As it's a shuffle playlist the songs are in no particular order but I am loving Fight Song and I love the lyrics to it so I have put the music video to that song below.

1. ♫ 7 Years - Lukas Graham
2. ♫ My Silver Lining - Fist Aid Kit
3. ♫ Fight Song - Rachel Platten
4. ♫ Simple Song - The Shins
5. ♫ Map of the World - Monsters of Folk
6. ♫ Call Your Girlfriend - Ashleigh Brown
7. ♫ Shake it Out - Florence + The Machine
8. ♫ Beauty Queen - Ben's Brother
9. ♫ Love Story - Taylor Swift
10. ♫ Speechless - Naomi Scott
11. ♫ Take Me To Church - Hozier
12. ♫ This is War - Thirty Seconds To Mars
13. ♫ Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
14. ♫ In Your Dreams - Dark Dark Dark
15. ♫ Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac
16. ♫ Brand New - Ben Rector
17. ♫ Goodbye Mr A - The Hoosiers
18. ♫ The Fear - Ben Howard
19. ♫ No Body, No Crime - Taylor Swift ft. HAIM
20. ♫ Give Me Strength - Snow Patrol
21. ♫ Fiction - The xx
22. ♫ Young Folks - James Blunt
23. ♫ Running with the Wolves - AURORA
24. ♫ Believer - Christina Grimmie
25. ♫ The House is Burning Down - Patrick Park
26. ♫ Rebel - The Unkown
27. ♫ Home - Ellie Goulding
28. ♫ The Miracle (Off Joey Ramone) - U2
29. ♫ Monster - The Automatic
30. ♫ Running Up That Hill - Placebo

What I've been loving lately

Let's say that things aren't so great at the moment and we're also in our third lockdown but aside from the negativity that's going on in my life and further afield there have been things that I have been loving lately...

Letters from Pen Pals & Friends

Receiving mail never fails to cheer me up and equally I love sending mail too. It's equally as lovely to her from the people I'm in regular touch with as well as people that I here from every so often. Once again my notice board as big as it is if filling up fast again with the things I received in the mail. Aside from the letters are the messages I get from friends over text, WhatsApp or Instagram and I now feel that the people who are in my life now are a really good

Jigsaw Puzzles

With a little help from my Dad and stepmum I've completed a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. I love doing jigsaw puzzles but they can be a challenge to do but when I in the midst of doing a jigsaw puzzle  always remember how much I love them so I've set myself the challenge to do another.

My Apple Watch has Arrived!

For Christmas I asked for some money towards an Apple Watch. I was needing a new watch as my medi watch died and I thought that a smart watch would be a good up upgrade as it would help me through it's reminders and alarms and timers and having access to my calendar etc. I've only had it a short while but so far I'm in love and I'm glad that changed my mind on what watch I was going for; instead I've gone for a silver case which I now see as being more universal in terms of matching outfits and I've going for a fabric stretchy 'solo loop' strap and it's really comfortable and I don't have a buckle in the way.

Organising my Blog and YouTube Channel for the Year Ahead

I've already started planning posts and what videos I might be doing and researching some new ideas and taking inspiration from Pinterest as well as other bloggers and YouTubers. I got a bullet journal kit for Christmas so I'm using that as my planning book.

Positive Appointments

For the professionals that I am in touch with at the moment I feel so grateful for their support. The appointments/contact I've been having recently whether they're consultant/nurse appointments I have every 6/12 months, more regular appointments or just contact from a clinician these appointments and contacts have been going well and I feel supported and like we're heading in a good direction despite the fact that the majority of my care is on hold because of the coronavirus situation.

Cuddles with Flop

Cuddles with my guinea pig Flop is always something that I love especially when he gets really talkative and nestles into my arm.

Wire Headbands and Braids

I came across wire headbands as a disability hack so I bought one to try them out and I am loving them. They are so easy to put on and they look super stylish and there are so many online to choose from that I may have to order myself some more.

I'm also loving braiding my hair at the moment and I've learnt a few new hair styles some from my friend Bex's YouTube channel. Braiding my hair help keep it out of the way and from getting knotty especially as I desperately need to go to the hairdressers and haven't had it cut for nearly 18 months! But also because it only gets washed once a week as I rely upon my Dad to wash my hair at the moment.

National Love your Pet Day 2019

Today is 'National Love Your Pet Day' (according to the internet). So I thought I'd send you some love from my guinea pig Flop.

Flop loves his food and having a mad run around his cage, especially after you've cleaned him out, he's all very chatty and will run up to the cage door when you go into the room and he loves cuddles and when you go in his cage to feed him will nudge your hand for a stroke. The only thing he doesn't like is his claws being clipped.

We used to look after Flop and his brother Flip (though Flip is no longer with us) when his owners went away. His owners then got a dog who wasn't too keen on Flop so we got asked if we wanted to have him on a permeant basis.

When we first got him if you put him on the floor he'd just stand there; no he'll happily run around and he's getting more adventurous each day.