Sunday Book Review - Simon Fitzmaurice, 'It's not yet dark'

Good morning,

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching Ireland am and was introduced to Simon Fitzmaurice, his wife Ruth and the story of Simon's battle with motor neurone disease. I was immediately drawn in, not by the story of his life but how, as a family, they dealt with such a debilitating disease.

During the interview, Simon spoke about his new book 'It's not yet dark' and I knew I had to get my hands on a a copy. Lucky for me it was around the time of my birthday and my friend bought me a copy of it. I say, lucky because the book is priced at almost nineteen euro which I think is a little pricey.

With a new baby at home it took me a couple of weeks before I got the chance to pick it up. After seeing and hearing Simon being interviewed already, I think I had built up an idea in my mind of what the book was going to be like so I wanted to make sure I gave it the time and concentration it deserved.

The story . . . 

The author Simon Fitzmaurice was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2008. At the time he was given only 4 years to live. With a wife and young children at home, Simon fought the death sentence handed down to him and has defied medical opinion. In 2010, following a lung collapse, Simon chose 'life'. He chose to ventilate in order to stay alive. According to reports, home ventilation had only been successful twice before but that wasn't a statistic that would stop him from proceeding with his decision.

The book, written by Simon using an eye gaze computer looks back at the start of the disease, the early symptoms Simon experienced and in turn, how the disease progressed. In short, this is a book, based on love, human strength and the innate drive to stay alive.


Review . . .  3.5/5

Did I enjoy reading this book? ... No.
I didn't enjoy reading the book, not because it wasn't well written or have interesting content but because it scared me. It frighted me to the core. It's death and dying laid bare. I read this book while nursing my newborn and developed the most uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Of course, I live in the real world and know that we all die someday but on the day I picked up this book, I just didn't want to think about it. Sorry, Simon, no disrespect intended. In fact, I have the upmost respect for this family man that is fighting the fight of his life to stay with his family. How lucky they are that their husband and dad is not willing to give up on himself.

On a different day,
in a different frame of mind, this book but have had the opposite effect on me, An effect, I think it will have on you. It is the motivation we all need to wake up and grab life by the balls each and every day.

This is a quick read and will be done and dusted in under 2 hours.

Have you read this book? Let me know what you thought.

Kel x

Dream Dots Review

Morning,

It has been so long since I've been on the blog. I'm struggling to find the time to open the computer these days, never mind write blog posts. I take my hat off to those that blog full time and run a household or bring up kids. Thats seriously impressive!

So with that said, this morning while the petit monster feeds, I wanted to do a quick review of Dream Dots. I don't think I need to go into great detail explaining this product because if you are alive and breathing, then you have heard of Dream dots. The all singing, all dancing defender of flawless skin.

Put simply, Dream dots are an overnight spot treatment which help to calm, clear and heal spots. 
You can find loads of information on the product by visiting, www.dreamdotsforspots.com
I mainly wanted to blog my experience of using them.

Ok, so normally spots are not something I need to worry about. Lucky me! What happens though is that whenever I do get a spot, it resembles a big massive volcano. From what I've read in other reviews of this product, that type of breakout is exactly what Dream dots are designed to deal with.

I would now like to call exhibit A to the stand. 


Warning: Icky spot picture.

This is the culprit. Before you get any ideas that I have started growing a beard, this is the back of my neck. I know, I know, even ickier!!

Last night I applied one of my Dream dot patches directly to the spot. For me this is the selling point right here. I would much prefer to walk around with this little patch on then have that ugly spot on display. The patch reminds me of  Compeed coldsore patches. It's the same concept. Like spots, coldsores are ugly and in your face. The patches, take that raw, sore and stomach churning view away.




Fast forward to this morning and voila! Okay, so I still have an ugly spot BUT....it does look much better. The redness has certainly been reduced. There is no pain at all, whereas yesterday it was sore to the touch. you can see that whatever is in the patch, it has drawn the bacteria in the spot to a head. Instead of waiting until tonight to apply another, Im going to apply one today and feel confident that with 2 dot applications this little blither will be history. 




Hope you enjoyed the review and manage to get your hands on these little beauties soon. I know my friends are gonna love me when I start handing out these gems. 

Kel x