Andrew Hobbs Tumblr.

Music. Photos. Things about me. Enjoy!

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Apologies! I know I said that part 2 of my remix would be available yesterday. Seems the new year spirit kicked in a little early and I missed the deadline. Not to worry, here is the second half of my remix for all to enjoy!

Hope everyone's new year was fantastic! Here's to a massive year - 2013!!

Any feedback you wish you to give on this track, please do!

Enjoy! :)

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My newest track...a remix of the great Armin Van Buuren's Imagine and Faithless' Insomnia.

I'm afraid as Tumblr only allows uploads of 10MB per upload this track has been split into 2 parts...still sounds pretty good as the build up at the end of this first part warms you up for the 2nd, which will be on it's way tomorrow ;)

Enjoy!

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Here is my new track, just uploaded in time for the Christmas holiday!

Please let me know what you think of the track titled 'It Only Takes A Heartbeat' via my Twitter page: @AJ_Hobbs I would really appreciate any feedback; bad or good.

Hope you enjoy! :)

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So I've been playing around mixing today and started on a new track....can't grasp where I'm going with this myself...any ideas where to move it to next? Any ideas would be great, thanks :)

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AJ_Hobbs' photostream on Flickr.

New pics: Butterfly with a broken wing :(

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AJ_Hobbs' photostream on Flickr.

New pics up on Flickr - Set is from July, only just got round to posting. Enjoy!

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Garden, a set on Flickr.

New set of pics up on Flickr, only a few new ones around the garden.

[reachingforfallingstars]

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I think I’ll go eat worms! Big fat juicy ones, Eensie weensy squeensy ones, See how they wiggle and squirm!

Down goes the first one, down goes the second one, Oh how they wiggle and squirm! Up comes the first one, up comes the second one, Oh how they wiggle...

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So a bit different with this new track. Gone for something a little more House. Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Again, had to be upload as a sample at 128kbps copy, so if you would prefer to listen to the better quality 320kbps version just ask. :)

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AJ_Hobbs' photostream on Flickr.

So I spent the day travelling about taking new photos of this foggy weather. Take a look at my Flickr page :)

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Here is my newest track. It is only a sample due to the fact that the file was too big for Tumblr. The track is still 6 minutes long (only shortened it by 45 seconds to fit) so you're not missing out too much.

If you would still like the full track, then just send me an Ask.

Please leave me any feedback. Enjoy!

[dedthred]

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Damn right I could!! ;D

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My Head. My Story.

I have wanted to let people know all about my issue for a while now. For those who don't know me as well, or haven't grasped the fact that I have scars over my head then by all means read on.

..........

I know that I should really tell people about the problems with my head in person as it is quite a big deal in some respects. Thing is, it is such a long story which is why I have resorted to writing this up here.

I'm going to split my story up into sections, as there has been more than one occurrence. Therefore to stop people from killing themselves before finishing the forever reams of reading material; I will split these up and it should hopefully come together a little easier :)

First section will be travelling back to October 2003.....probably means you'll have to backtrack through posts to read this correctly. I will store the posts on a separate page where it should be easier to read.

<-- I have now setup MyStory page

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WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?

A lightbulb

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My first Trance track created. So it's not that long, but things can only get better. Enjoy!

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The Third!

The third part to MyStory...

Amazingly I can't remember most of this time in Hospital what-so-ever, as will be made clearer further on...

So being an 11 year old boy, you can pretty much imagine that by December I was going nuts over Christmas and working out what I wanted, yadda -yadda. Of course it would have been a lot better once Christmas Day had come.

Time to set the scene, the date is December 25th, 2003.  Now the time was getting to about mid-morning which was obviously unusual that I had not made my joyful appearance by the Christmas tree just yet. Although I have always been the type of kid to be quite content with what I already have, therefore the stuff I already have in my stocking would have kept me happy until the parents made an appearance (or noise outside my door) of course to make it obvious that it's present time by the tree :D haha

Mum as always burst into my room that morning and started jumping on my bed (believing that I was laying there with my eyes shut to wind her up and make her think I was asleep), this turned out to not be the case. I was again unconscious.

So once this had been established, it was yet another trip to the Hospital as I never ended up waking up on this Christmas Day...yes that's right no Christmas Day for me :(

Not to jump to the end and spoil this part of the story but I never actually had my Christmas Day until mid-February when I woke up and was conscious again. At least by getting that out of the way I can explain why this part of the story will be rather vague as I have no idea what happened and parent's are iffy on details.

Back to the beginning, well the Hospital part of this story. It turned out my second valve was fine, but this time the tube had blocked instead and caused me to blackout and fall unconscious. So a new operation was performed to see if I could survive without this valve and tube in my head. Of course this would make my life a lot easier as I wouldn't have to worry about not being able to go through magnetic scanners at airports, for example, and wouldn't need to worry about getting hit on the head, etc. This operation came with its downsides too as it involved cutting through the ventricles in the top of my brain to allow the CSF (Cerebrospinal Fluid) to flow around my brain and body naturally.

So the picture above shows the ventricles in the brain. From what I can only guess is that the doctors were aiming to cut through the lateral ventricle as this is where the scar is on my head. Those who know me well enough will know that I have 2 scars on the top of my head....the 2nd one will be explained in the next part of MyStory (I've kinda ruined the surprise there huh).

So anyway the doctors cut through these ventricles to see if the fluid would pass through naturally, during the time of 'testing' after the operation was when I had no valve or tube and had to rely on this operation working correctly. Unfortunately it meant that I was in a world of pain. If you could imagine someone like a giant perhaps, having their hand over your whole head and just squeezing to the point where you think your head is going to explode. This is how my head felt. Now as I think I mentioned in the first part of MyStory I had been used to this sort of pressure for at least a few years, but once I had been used to the valve, having the pressure back (which I must admit felt a lot more than before) it wasn't the best of pleasures.

Again, as I already mentioned I was not conscious as such in my own mind at this stage...I mean yes I was 'awake' and moving, etc. but it is not anything that I remember what-so-ever even to this day, but I have found out since what this pressure was (again wait for Part 4 haha).

My uncle was over during this time of me being in hospital and he stayed with me for one night as I was in a right state; thrashing around in bed, screaming and crying. Apparently I was also cursing and everything at the nurses too (lucky they were spanish I guess). It was definitely not a good time for me I'm having to presume.  He had simply come to relieve my parents and give them one night of freedom from me again. My uncle had only lasted one night and couldn't cope, instead it was up to my parents taking it in turns each night to stay with me again. I'm so glad I have such great parents otherwise I probably wouldn't have coped through it all.

By the way, this whole time I was in the Intensive Care Unit as I was flipping out and also quite a serious/critical case. Luckily I had my own room to myself too, would hate to think any others would have had to put up with the way I was. Doubt it was a pretty sight at all.

So anyway I eventually had my 3rd valve fitted and from then on I started to come round. During all this time of me not being fully aware of my surroundings and things, I never spoke and never got out of bed to walk. I simply used to moan if I wanted anything or use movements and sign language to get things I wanted. I think it had also turned into a laziness type of thing. Especially as one day my dad had got to the point of being completely sick of me not being 'right'. And from here I will quote:

Me: *moan* (to signal for water)

Dad: Look, if you want more water just bloody say it! (end of his tether)

Me: *in a very weak, broken and quiet voice* Please sir, can I have some more.

No jokes I did actually come out with that line. Amazing what your brain will pick up from the archives sometimes. Dad obviously over-the-moon now started to fill up a proper cup of water (as he had been feeding me through a syringe by squirting the water in my mouth) and was more than pleased that I had begun talking again. We had a little heart-to-heart for a bit, and he tried to find out why I had spent all this time not speaking which I could only shrug at as I had no idea :/

I also asked when it was becuase I was rather confused as this stage. He told me it was now February and that I had been out of it for 2 months, which came as quite a shock.

So anyway he sat me up and as the usual nurses came in they all thought it was brilliant that I was sitting up with a smile on my face in the bed, and as soon as i opened my mouth and said 'Hola' they almost jumped with joy.

'Oy que bien bonito.' Translated: Oh well done beautiful.

'Es fantastico, bueno para tu guapo.' Translated: That's fantastic, good for you gorgeous.

Ye the nurses definitely had a thing for me after a while...guess it doesn't take much for me to charm the Spanish señoritas...even if I am unconscious haha ;)

So then was the next step, my mum turning up later that day to take over from my dad. My dad and I planned our next steps, he kept me sat upright in the bed and by the afternoon when my mum turned up (I can pretty much still picture this point vividly like it was yesterday) she walked in and took note of me sitting up right and went 'Don't you look like a good boy sitting up like that.' She was walking in obviously not expecting much from me and went to put her overnight bag down and start talking to my dad. He gave her a quick hug and kiss and then held her over towards my bed and turned her to look at me as he said 'Now what do you have to say to your mum'

Of course I wanted to make my mum burst into bloody reams of tears, i don't think there is any better satisfaction than being able to make someone you love burst into floods of tears due to them being so extremely happy. My lips parted and I quite simply said 'Hello mum.'

Well that was it. She practically exploded with tears and almost jumped on me to hug me. I had it easy all I could do was sit there and smile xD haha. 

So anyway that the main gist of what went on throughout this time. You may be wondering why I made a point of saying that I hadn't walked for quite a while and that's where I just wanted to add the extra part now.

I didn't leave hospital right away once regaining my normal self and talking, etc. I was unable to walk as laying in a bed for 2 months without using the tendons in yours legs your muscles quite simply dissipate. I had to learn how to walk all over again, and when I came out of hospital I ended up being in a wheelchair for quite a while before being back to walking correctly again.

This never bothered me...especially cos i had a proper 'big wheeled' wheelchair therefore i could roll myself, and that meant that living in an apartment block in Spain with a massive planta to roll myself about I was soon trying to do wheel spins everywhere xD

I thought it was brilliant, I also found that I couldn't turn round corners very well when wheeling around our apartment. So one day in my 'artistic youth' haha, I fashioned myself a big, red L to stick with sellotape on the back of my wheelchair, as soon as i came out of my room and spun the chair round to show my parents they thought it was brilliant xP

I guess I've always had the knack to make people laugh :)

Anyway I think that's about all I can say regarding this time in hospital. There is however one more incidence which will come in the next part of MyStory. The upside to it is that this time I had a camera and lots of pictures were taken. Hopefully Tumblr will be nice and let me add a lot of them into the extract.

So until next, I hope you have enjoyed! :)

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Second Time Round...

The second part to MyStory...

Ok, so I must admit before I continue that I can only vaguely remember this incident. I guess it will become clear why I don't remember it in more detail as you read on. I also apologise but there are no pictures from this incident unfortunately.

So now a month after my initial accident and addition of the valve in my head, problems struck.

My aunt and cousin came over for a holiday (seriously just because we moved to Spain everybody now treats us like a holiday resort from the sounds of these posts ha). Anyway, this was the day they actually got here, from what I have been told I was really excited all morning about seeing my aunt and cousin. In the car on the way to the airport to pick them up I was all chat, chat, chat. I can honestly put my hands up and say I haven't the slightest memory of this what-so-ever.

We picked my aunt and cousin up and returned home. Me again, chatting non-stop all the way home too. We decided to head down to Guadalmina for a proper English lunch at Tricky Ricky's (our local English-type cafe). As I was eating, I'm told, I started to look as if I was falling asleep into my food. My mum just took this as if I was messing around and kept telling me to stop being stupid. Little did she know that this should have been a warning.

Everyone wanted to go and grab some bits from the supermarket before we went back home although because of my dozy appearance parents decided I may as well sit in the car. Obviously being at the age of 11; I was not the biggest fan of having to walk around a shop for what would seem like hours anyway.

Later, everyone came back to the car to find me fast-asleep. This was very unusual as I was not the type of kid that would just fall-asleep like this so it was quite unusual already. We arrived back home and I was still 'out of it', I think I had been woken to be able to climb the stairs back to the apartment, where I then got in and went straight to my room to sleep. Parents checked up on me occasionally, which by dinner time they soon realised this was ridiculous and called the doctor out.

Now I'm pretty sure I have clips of memories from this moment, as I'm sure I remember the guy constantly attempting to say my name (Spaniards have great difficulty saying Andrew) and flashing a torch in my eyes. It was decided that I should be taken straight to the Carlos Haya hospital again.

We got there that night and I had more tests and scans, etc. Eventually it was clear that the valve had malfunctioned.

Unfortunately I was not seen to by Dr. Ros again this time. Instead I had what my dad calls 'The Butcher of Operations' - I'll update this part with his actual name when it comes back to me.

The meaning of the nickname was because this is now the reason why I have a massive scar on the side of my head. What had started off as a small Nike tick, is now a massive divot in my head.

To put this all in perspective: what had happened is that my valve had malfunctioned therefore the Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) was not draining at all. It was just building pressure against my brain and the natural reaction that the body has to this, is it puts you to sleep, clever huh?

So this operation was pretty simple and I only had to have a change of valve. I was only in hospital for about 10 days to 2 weeks.

In the next part of MyStory things get worse. There were a lot more difficulties after this 'episode'. A lot happened and some pretty life-threatening issues occurred too...stay tuned.

Just as a little spoiler: Santa had to delay coming to my house by 2 months :(