I’ve been waiting for a sunny day on a weekend (still not light enough during the week to get a shot like this after work).

This song that changed my life is……

‘Blinded by the Sun’ by the Seahorses

When the album ‘Do It Yourself’ came out in 1997, I was at my lowest ebb. Completely miserable and feeling as though I had no hope at all. I was strangely drawn to this song, which did become a single and I didn’t recognise why. Sure it has a fabulously catchy tune and a guitar riff that (in my opinion) can sit alongside any of the great riffs of the world without shame. The album is exceptionally good, for anyone who hasn’t heard of the Seahorses, they were John Squire’s band after the Stone Roses split.

I always hated the Stone Roses – they were my idea of hell – depressing semi-dance music – I always thought they rode the crest of the Madchester indie wave on a sea of ill-earned luck. Their bad behaviour and constant in-band battling just confirmed it in my view – the epitome of all I hated about the so-called indie scene.

When I heard ‘Do It Yourself’ it reminded me of two earlier albums with the same title – the Ian Dury classic and a great but never successful band called Fast Freddie’s Fingertips also called their only album the same name – I didn’t believe that this album could be a patch on either of those but I was ‘forced’ to listen to it by my ex-husband who loved the Stone Roses and had bought it on the back of their success. He played it over and over again and I grew to love the whole record but most of all this song.

Then one day I realised why the song resonated with me so much – its lyrics were so ‘right’ for my life at the time. They were full of anger and bitterness that crawled all over me and permeated my skin. The song was me – my life – my miserable unhappy existence that I’d been too cowardly to free myself from and all I could see was it stretching forward into the distance just as unhappy, just as angry and just as bitter.

I kept repeating the line……

‘just don’t ask me what went wrong, the list goes on and on’

inside my mind.

It took me several more years of building anger and resentment before I finally flipped. Suddenly my ‘mid-life’ was upon me. My 40th birthday looming and the prospect of being sucked down through this vortex into a bleak and dismal place for the rest of my adult life just seemed too much to bear. I finally broke free.

This song helped me to see that it wasn’t going to get any better – it would only get worse unless I acted. So I did. Within four months of finally extricating myself from my marriage, I happened along to a party at Claz’s house, DM was there, we got chatting and the rest, as they say is history.

Now, despite its desperation, I still have a real soft-spot for this incredible, musically lush and lyrically perfect song, that didn't just change my life - it revolutionised it.

I still can't quite take in the extraordinary events of this time last year in my life - it was the most exciting yet fearful episode and the great adventure started that week is still only in its first phase.....so my story today goes from the most unhappy time of my life to the happiest time in one fell swoop!

BTW for anyone who hasn't 'got' my diary yet and is here for the photos. This is a100% not cheating sp - it's not cropped and neither was it framed by dm or shot by him....the only 'help' I got was him standing on my spot so i could focus.