Well, Christmas is finally here. I have so much that I could probably write about in this post but I will try and keep it as short as possible. Now, if I could do that when I am having conversations with people that would be great but well, I can’t try and do everything right can I?

The last few days have been a bit mental for me. At the start of the week I was getting ready for my final appearance on Glor Tire which I have wrote about already here. It was just so nice to be able to get to the final week and to have the support of so many people. Last week I was lucky to be voted into one of the top two positions which meant I was safely through to the final show. If I had been in one of the bottom three positions as there were only five people left in the series I would have had to wait on a decision from the judges as to whether I could go forward or not but thankfully this did not happen. As you may have read, this did happen the week before so the level of support that I received in the following few days after that was just incredible.

Wednesday was just a real enjoyable day from the time I reached Galway right to the end of it. The voting lines for the competition closed at 12:00 so I knew while rehearsing that everything was done now. I was just going to do what I know I can do which is sing and if it wasn’t going to be for me then that was just life. That was my attitude all through the competition and I know people around me just couldn’t understand why I was so laid back about it all but what is the point? I could feel tension there some of the weeks with others but I am not into all of that and maybe I don’t do the competitive thing very well. If something good happens for me I just see myself as being lucky and I just should be thankful for it. Anyway, the rehearsals went well and I was happy and all good to go. For the final show we had to sing a Christmas song together and while I wasn’t entirely happy with it as a song choice I just went along with it and it went better than I thought it might. I had a great crew of people travel down to support me which was also good. A few people could not be there which was a big pity but what with Christmas coming up so near and work commitments it just couldn’t be helped. I was delighted to have whole family there including my granny. I did think that it was going to be a long day for her but I know she enjoyed herself and she was one of the first, if not the first person to get herself up to congratulate me. The show was more relaxed than other weeks also and we sang two songs each. Now, I will always be my own worst critique but I was happy with how I performed on Wednesday. Thankfully enough viewers liked what I did over the whole series and I was declared the winner. A friend told me on Thursday when the result was declared I looked as if I was on a delay system or something or someone was translating to me what had just happened as it took me about a minute to react. I was surprised. I had not built myself up to any sort of hype about it thinking I was going to win. In fact, I was a little wound up about it all on Tuesday night and someone made the mistake of phoning me up and well, god love them. When they didn’t kill me or something I don’t think they ever will.

Ever since Wednesday I have had nothing but lots of kind messages of support and good luck for the future. People are so nice and I am really grateful for all messages and phone calls and stuff like that. I am a quiet person when it comes to myself. I don’t like much fuss and probably need to just relax a little concerning all of that but that is just the way I am. I just get a little overwhelmed with it all but it is lovely of course when people are so kind.

So, Christmas is finally here. I am going to pop down town in a bit after writing and sending this blog post for one last present and then all I have to do is sit back and enjoy the Christmas. I am looking forward to it now. In some ways it can be a sad time of year as it does have some sad memories for me but when it gets to this time I do have to say that I like it and enjoy it. I am heading away after Christmas to celebrate the New Year with Jen and I am looking forward to that. Have a bit of stuff to carry but might figure out a way of getting Ralph to have a back pack or something haha. I do hope that everyone that reads this has a lovely Christmas. I hope that whatever Christmas means to you it is a good time. I would like to thank anyone that has helped me in any way over the past year and to all people that have taken an interest in my music or have just taken the time to have a chat and a bit of crack with me. I would just like to single out one or two people. I would like to thank my good friend Digital Darragh for his great and fantastic support particularly with Glor Tire and also earlier when he got the ball rolling and organized along with my sisters a small birthday get-together for me. Myself and Digital go back many years and went to school together and he is a great guy to know. Since that time of my birthday which was in May lots of good things started to happen for me and the rest of the year has been absolutely brilliant. I would also like to thank Jen also. She listens to me and talks to me about everything and even though I have to drive her mad at times with my nonsense she is just great. She says I do be funny a lot of the time but I reckon she is just being too nice. She has also introduced me to some great music in the last while which is great also. People like Joan Ann, Emma and Cathal have been hugely supportive to me also and I don’t mean to put them in any particular order. These are just some close friends that have always been there to help out or to just listen to me and at the end of the day that is what friendships are all about. So, until I write again here which will probably be in the New Year. Have a great one and enjoy yourselves.