Runnin On Empty

While scrolling the Facebook feed as usual I was pleased to see that Tanya Tonks Mawer had been given a blog award for her Fabulous blog   "Crazy Purple Mama"   http://crazypurplemama.blogspot.co.uk/ reading how her and her wonderful family cope in the face of such adversity, the blog award was well placed. The lady that recently started this idea off  is  http://sallyjustme.blogspot.co.uk/  & what a lovely idea it is too. So I was chuffed and rather suprised that in passing the blog award badge on, Tanya had chosen me to be a recipeient. So big thanx Tanya, the nice news came  just at the right time and really lifted my spirits ;). Mama Chill and ME http://mamachillandme.blogspot.co.uk/ T he fabulous Mama Chill is a sufferer of ME and Fibro who not only writes heart warming, humorous and honest blogs about her life with these illnesses in order to raise awareness but is also crazily multi-talented, not only has she written two songs to raise...

            Rather than be loooooong and drawn out, ZZZZZZzzzzzz, I was wondering how I could give my healthy friends and family an understanding of M.E that would hopefully have an instant impact in a quick but fun way…..er…yeah ok, I use tha term “fun” loosely.  It’s often hard for us to put into words, and we don’t have the energy or brain clarity to do so.  We don’t choose to have ourselves and our lives consumed by this extremely complex and frustrating illness but unfortunately every waking minute, every decision we make is dependent on M.E, and not us just being bloody awkward. So let the game begin. Congratulations you have just been given 5 points woo hoo!  Unfortunately for you points don’t mean prizes, boooooo! They are energy points. Some people with M.E start with nil point, nada nada, zero, others might have more than 5 but for this games sake I’m giving you 5…..all heart me ;) So  it is Morning, you...

Trying to do normal things when we have M.E takes Ninja  skills for sure.   M.E is a bit like tha retro game of  Donkey kong, you can bet your bottom dollar that just when we’re feeling smug at having outsmarted M.E , made it to the second platform and escaped its evil clutches……BAM!  That pesky gorilla gets a direct hit with tha barrel of badass M.E badness sending us rolling back down to tha bottom again. Hey Come on, I’m not askin for enough energy to save some hysterical damsel in distress at tha top …… gimme a break? So last Sunday  15/12/2013  I’d been invited into VIBE 107.6 by tha lovely Nia Visser  for her live on air Raw Vibes Christmas special, woo hoo!...oh hang on, I don’t perform live, due to the likely chance of running out of every last drop of breath mid song….& with tha usual headful of Marshmallows it means remembering where I am can be a task in itself  let alone a whole song. But Nia was fine with that an...

Firstly I'd like to start by playing Katy Perrys New Song "Unconditional" just for you. I heard it recently while M.E flattened physically and mentally  & it made me realise tha only place I can truly be myself is amongst other  M.E Sufferers. I dont have to pretend "I'm Fine"..I dont have to...well listen to tha track then i'll continue.......... So as I was saying I don’t have to listen to tha digs or sarcastic remarks, don’t have to see tha patronising facial expressions when I have tried to explain, or at tha opposite end of tha scale be grateful for someones martyrdom in understanding, yaaaaaaay! yes thanx its really appreciated, no, really your wonderful  and…oh just give yaself a knighthood and be done with it. It’s made even worse when its family and friends, it feels like tha ultimate betrayal doesn’t it?  people who always bang on about how they get it when they clearly don’t ….people that knew you when you were well, that ...

Hi,  its been awhile since my last blog, partly because my M.E marshallow brain is having trouble operating and we have to prioritise everything don’t we?   And before we can even contemplate doing anything remotely interesting…like writing a blog, we have mundane things to do like draggin our butts out of bed, easy for some, not so easy for others, especially when said butt feels as though its been weighted down with a couple of dumbbells…or is that the choc chip muffins?                                             When you have M.E every single day & every single thing is a challenge isn’t it?   for most healthy people its an automatic daily ritual given no thought at all, & I remember those days well. My normality was running a newsagents, I   got up, washed and dressed, walked the three minutes to work to arrive at 5am,   dra...

There are times for all of us i'm sure, where we wonder what tha hell we're doing, feel as if we cant keep battling on?............ I have a Mama Chill music blog and also a separate  Mama Chill health blog but often i cant seperate one from tha other, as in this case, so I thought I’d give a little update as to how things are going: Well tha album is coming along nicely, it won’t be released until early 2014, but tha vocals are very nearly finished  bar two trax and a choir to hire, & then tha 13 trax will be done…….but then each one has to be mixed & mastered as well as a non swear version done for tha odd track where I have a rantypants….Phew! As many of you know, I dont have  management or anything behind me so what has to be organised has to be organised by me.  Tha album will take tha same name as the M.E Charity single “Don’t Say Nuthin If It Aint Worthwhile” hopefully by calling tha album by tha same name as tha M.E track it will help bri...

Tha other day I walked into the lounge drinking my coffee when some dude on the television declared “Today I’ve got sticky nuts” .  As the coffee sprayed out of my nostrils, my first thought was “ yeah it has been rather hot today and I’m a bit sweaty too, but hey, not something I’d want to share with the nation”. He then proceeded to pick up a packet of pecan nuts, shake some into a pan, & add some  butter & runny honey,   ”Oh, THOSE kinda sticky nuts?” Its easy to  jump to assumptions, see what you want to see, hear what you want to hear, and none more so than when it comes to M.E.  As humans we have  automatic expectations so It’s very hard for us to understand differently to that, but having a chronic illness doesn’t mean you have to LOOK chronically ill, just as being disabled doesn’t mean someone has to be in a wheelchair, but its what we expect isn’t it? Before I became ill myself I probably thought exactly the same way,...