Soundtrack To My Life - Ruth

Today I am pleased to host Ruth's Soundtrack To My Life.  Ruth and I are both members of the 'parent blogger' network that has boomed over the past couple of years and if the internet had existed in it's present availability when my children were younger, I think I might have had her tagline... "Googling my way through motherhood".

Ruth is a "Geek Mummy" in the true sense of the word with a love for all things tech, also running a YouTube channel and an audio blog with her husband alongside her regular blog.  But, for now, it's over to Ruth for her music choices which I've really enjoyed pulling together as these are all fantastic tunes and I've discovered a song that I never heard before (Ruth's #4 choice).

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Bonnie Tyler: Total Eclipse of the Heart

This was the first proper single I bought. I've just worked out that I was 12 when it was number 1 in the charts. I remember saving up my pocket money, heading in to our local WHSmiths and walking out with the 7" single which I then played to death on my parents' old radiogram. I guess I was a rock chick from then on!


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Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell

When I was 17 my Dad announced that he was leaving home. I had known deep down that my parents marriage was not brilliant, but didn't expect him to leave. I didn't speak to him for a year after he left, and our relationship is still tenuous. My friends at the time were really supportive, although none of them had experienced the same thing. My very best friend's parents invited me to go to France on holiday with them that summer, and I have very strong memories of lying on the beach with my friend and I listening to this album non-stop on her WalkMan. It did me the world of good to get away from home for a while.


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Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

If there's a band that is the "band of my life" it would have to be Queen. The first full album I ever bought was "A Night At The Opera", mostly for Bohemian Rhapsody which is just an epic track. I was at University when Freddie Mercury died, and I think it was the first celebrity death that I really remember in that "where were you when you heard?" kind of way. I was in the committee of our University Film Society at the time, and we decided that we wanted to show "Queen's Greatest Flix" at our annual Film Ball. I got the job of calling Queen's management agency to get their permission, as it wasn't something we could get through our film distributor. They were great, and allowed us to show the video publicly for a nominal fee. I got the feeling no-one had ever asked if they could do that before.

I sadly never got to see Queen play live, but I did see the next best thing - I was in Hyde Park for the amazing Queen + Paul Rogers concert the week after the London bombings (it was supposed to be the day after but they postponed it a week). Great show.


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Martina McBride - In My Daughter's Eyes

I never wanted kids. All through my twenties and in to my early thirties I believed I would be child free. And then our world changed when my husband's father died suddenly and very unexpectedly at the age of 60. That kind of thing makes you re-evaluate things a lot, and I ended up, after much consideration, deciding that I did want a family after all. Sadly things then did not come easily, and we ended up having to have IVF to be able to conceive. My two children are little miracles, and I am so pleased to have them. This song sums up how I feel about being a mother. Watch out - it's a real tearjerker.


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Lee Ann Womack - I Hope You'll Dance

It's been hard restricting myself to just 5 songs, as there are so many more that have special meanings for me. I think of this song as a ""forward looking"" one, rather than one I look back on. This song represents my approach to life, and if I could leave one message for my kids, bring them up with just one philosophy, it would be the sentiment of this song. "If you have a choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance". Seize the moment, take the opportunities. That's how I'm trying to live my life, and I hope it's how they'll live theirs too."


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Catch Ruth over at Geekmummy or Parental Geekery, on AudioBoo or YouTube and tweet her as @geekmummy.

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