Showing posts with label Neighbours. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neighbours. Show all posts

Monday 26 January 2015

Do you remember the time?

So how is 2015 for you so far?

Enjoying your flying cars, Hoverboard,
Nike power lace ups and inside out jeans?
How about the Pepsi Perfect you had in the CafĂ© 80’s?
Not everything forecast in Back To The Future Part II  has come to pass (although the Nike Power Laces are on the way soon!), so whilst I’m taking February off, and replenishing my blogging juices for a proper bit of writing, I’m going to play my ‘get out’ card for this one!
I haven’t done a retro list for a while, so here are a few memory joggers for all you lovely 80’s and 90’s children!

So do you remember the time, when…

… you could watch MTV and you knew EVERY song they played?

...If Clarissa couldn't explain it all, then Sabrina might try instead 

… Comic Relief was genuinely the funniest night on TV all year?

when Starbuck was male, and not female, and not a coffee house?


… you wouldn’t eat porridge oats, as you thought the Quaker dude was looking at you a bit funny?

… we were apparently 18 months behind the Neighbours storyline?

... virtually everyone liked Band Aid?

... Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks were the best thing on the telly on a Saturday afternoon?

... barely four football matches were televised a month?

... we only had three channels on TV?

... it took half a day to set the VCR?

… you knew what a VCR was?

... Big Brother was a relation?

... kids played in the park?

... all we had were three Star Wars films?

… female celebrities had their original lips?

... The Beano and The Dandy gave away free gifts that glowed in the dark?

... the internet cost £2.50 per hour to surf at home?

…when surfing was something only west coast Americans did?

... Saturday morning TV was for children?

... flat screen TVs were only on Star Trek?

... when 3D was red and blue? Or you’d make your own out of those plastic sun visor hats?

... F1 was competitive between more than two drivers?

... a pound coin was a note?

… school glue was a fashion accessory?

… you knew what a Squarial was?

… a Polo packet cost 7p?

… you only had sausages wrapped in bacon at Christmas?

… ‘Wannabe’ was the only song on the radio all summer?

… Lime Green ruled 1996?

… Twitter was something the birds did?

… Celebrities were genuinely talented in their profession?

… hardly anybody’s parents were divorced?

… there was a pub in every village?
 
I’ll be Back To The Blogging in March!
 Belief.Love.Spirit
XxX

Friday 14 November 2014

The Name Game

Okay so this one comes with a hint of self promotion, but evidently millions of bloggers solely blog to drum up some trade, so why should I be any different!?
Joking aside I am still solely blogging for fun (as if anyone actually clicks the adverts!), but I’m tweaking this one a bit, to help the one who lets me spend hours writing them!

Baby Names


So what will be the most popular baby names for 2014? Top of their respective trees for 2013 were Olivia and Oliver (no, really!), but trends dictate that they may not stay there for too long.
Does one go for a traditional name? Family names still come into play in the decision making process quite often…or maybe an outlandishly unique effort? The omnipresent Peter Andre recently told Magic FM’s Jo Parkerson in an interview that his eldest daughter is fed up with her given name of ‘Princess’ and already wants to change it. Hopefully she won’t though – the more unique an individual you are, the better. Why be normal?

Being a child of the 80’s, it’s been quite funny over the last few years engaging with people that are approximately 15 years younger than me called Kylie, Jason, Scott and Charlene – proof (if ever it was needed) that television influences our choices in life on so many levels. For my younger readers, please click here to see what those above names relate to!

How many children born this year will be named after Game of Thrones characters I wonder? Khaleesi Daenerys anyone? Surely not Joffrey though…

So once you’ve chosen a name for your precious little one, and you’ve registered their birth with the authorities, how do you go about celebrating it?
Traditionally, Christenings or similar have been the rite of passage for babies, but in these modern times, other options are available – such as Naming Days. An increasing amount of families are choosing to formally celebrate in such a non/part religious, modern or alternative way. The beauty being that you can tailor the event to exactly how you want it to be, and make it much more personalised than perhaps traditional methods have historically allowed for. For example, Naming ceremonies are being hosted to welcome adopted children and step children into families. It can even be done for pets!

Earlier this year, though not due in any part to being ‘anti-religion’, but more about being ‘non-religious’ in our own beliefs, my wife and I opted for our daughter to have one of these Naming ceremonies. We’d both been Christened ourselves, but we did some research into alternatives and decided to choose something that would allow our child in the future to take a route in life or spirituality that she herself wanted to pursue.
A Naming Celebrant conducted the ceremony in our back garden in glorious sunshine amongst many friends and family, and it just felt so much more comfortable and relaxed that way. Similar to how Christenings work, we selected Godparents and let them choose readings and poems that they felt summed up the role they were about to accept. Candle lighting, sand ceremonies and music were also all included at our request.

Godparents you say? I guess it sounds a bit contrary, given that the ceremony was deliberately religion free, but the point is that it was entirely up to us what we called them. We could have chosen Guide-parents for example, but we went with a bit of tradition after all – because that is what WE wanted to do. Flexibility rules!

So pleased were we with the positive response the ceremony received from those attending, my enterprising wife decided to launch her own mini-business as a Naming Celebrant within days of our daughter’s big day! She’d done a few similar ventures herself when she was a trainee teacher, and felt it was something she would really enjoy doing for other families.
And what a response she got!

Enquiries came flooding in and already she has performed a number of ceremonies, all individually styled to how the recipient family wanted it to be. Even local BBC Radio got involved with popular presenter Sarah Gorrell hosting a live on air interview.
Clearly it’s a booming option, but more than anything else, it simply offers a different route for something that had seemed set in stone until very recently.
Don’t join the revolution, join the evolution: Brighton Baby Naming