Musical Motivation

It is almost a year ago when I signed up for this challenge, I told myself after having had a pretty hectic year that I wouldn’t take on too much so I could dedicate all my spare time to it.  My family will tell you that I have this knack for taking on a lot, and it’s almost becoming some kind of running joke what I will put on my plate next.  It got to September and my little sis and I were moving into our flat, I travelled abroad 5 times in the space of 6 weeks for work, and a golden opportunity for a project for my MSc dissertation came up (an opportunity that wouldn’t be around next year).  So yep a whole load added to my plate, currently work is crazy busy, my MSc literature review is due in six weeks, and I am fundraising and preparing for Arctic 4 Abby, it’s busier than I hoped but I need to just crack on with it and get organised.

From L to R – Mandy, Natalia, Abby on Abby’s 24th Birthday

There is huge personal motivation to do this challenge in honour of my big sis Abby and her friends Natalia and Mandy.  I have long held an ambition to go to this incredible environment, and test my abilities so I really really want to do this.  The charity, Orwell Mencap Genesis, do absolutely great work and are a super worthy cause and those of you donating also inspire me to keep going, it’s incredible that people I do not even know have donated. With so much to do, it can be a bit tricky after a long day to keep the momentum going.  Music is a great motivator, Abby loved it and often woke me up to play it.  She had a wooden microphone that she used to sing into until her heart was content.  I also love music: I go to sleep to it, wake up to it, it can make me cry, make me happy, make me want to boogie my heart out and a song can take me back to a memory in a split second.  A good song can definitely motivate me, so this is a little selection of music to make sure I get my arse into gear and do all the things I need to do.  If you have any suggestions let me know, the more motivation the better!  I hope at least one of them gets your toes tapping, shoulder bobbing, jumping around doing air guitar or full on singing into your hair brush! Here’s my 10 music clips to help me take on the world:

1.  Obviously ….. 

2.  This was playing on the radio when I came in from a frosty jog and made me up the sit-up anti, be patient the good bit starts at 0.35 

 

3.  This is for my sisters, in dark times can come good memories… 

 

4.  This is for you Clarabella, thanks for reminding me about taking this challenge on, and Kate I know you will have a good shoulder bob to this 

 

5.  For anyone who has ever seen Muse live, you know how awesome they truely are, I rocked out harder than I’ve ever rocked out before to this with the little sis, think I even got a stitch, memories of Benicassim 2007, wait for the awesomeness to hit around 3.37 

 

6.  Ok a slight change of tack, I defy anyone not to want to bob to this one 

 

7.  Whenever this comes on my mp3 player on my commute I find it very hard to stop myself both dancing and singing along, although I’ve now lost my charger for my mp3 player so that’ll become a little easier! 

 

8.  Now it’s time to turn it up loud, demonstrate your best dramatic 80s powerballad moves, I like to reach my right hand up in the air open my hand and then clench into a fist dramatically and pull down (if you’ve seen Napoleon Dynamite, you know that move)… fyi I know all the words to this… great drums… great guitar… great hair!! 

 

9.  Then there’s Nina, love this song, and one day I will walk down the stairs in the Natural History Museum, swooshing in a beautiful dress to this tune… ok it is unlikely to be a ball as I have envisaged, so instead I might just turn up on a Saturday and just go for it 

 

10.  And finally, many of you will no doubt find this annoying, and some of you will love it, but it’s a story about sister’s love, it takes place in the snow, and my niece Lydia (named after Abby, Lydia was her middle name), absolutely loves this song and I think Abby, Natalia and Mandy would’ve loved it too.  So this is a special one for Lydia and Eden, I promise, when I am in the Arctic Circle, to twirl around the snow one night and sing my heart out to this song, ready…  I’ve even chosen the one with the words… go on… you know you want to… 

You can also listen/download this playlist via Spotify

Any suggestions for other tracks gratefully received.

All photos and content © Danielle Ramsey and Arctic 4 Abby, 2015, except where stated.