SkyDiving for Myeloma

Bit of a sales pitch blog this time, as a one – off!

On Saturday May 21st this year I am doing a charity skydive for my longtime friend Pepita-Louise Brooks.

I met Pepi when we were about 9 years old (back in the eclectic 80's) and we had loads of fun playing together in the woods near my parents’ home in Portslade, East Sussex. And if you like your minutiae, it was often Indiana Jones based!

As is often the case, we lost contact over the years growing up, but since the turn of the century we've never been more than an eMail or a Facebook status away.

Like many of her close friends and family, I was extremely sad to hear that Pepi had been diagnosed with Myeloma – an incurable cancer that so few people seem to know much about. But what admiration we've all had for her spirit and incredibly optimistic approach to this burden she's had to bear and fight. 

Pepi is truly an inspiration to anyone who has had this form of cancer, and I know she has offered support to many others along the way.

The least I can do, as one of her oldest friends, is to help raise some awareness and funds for this worthy charity. I hope you can help me achieve this goal!

Any donations would be gratefully received at:

Just Giving link 

Bob

So a slightly different sort of blog this time…

For the purposes of the Portslade Facebook history page, the following is a bit of a bio about my Great Uncle:

Henry George ‘Bob’ Berry was born in January 1919 in Brixton, South London at Hackford Rd, which was just off the Brixton Rd.

As his family grew larger they moved to Camberwell New Rd opposite a park not far from the Oval cricket ground, and from a young age he became very streetwise and could well look after himself in more ways than one in the pre war backstreets of Camberwell.

He left school in 1932 when he was 13 and got a job at Smithfield meat market near the Holborn Viaduct. This meant working long hours, but over a period of five years he achieved the status of ‘Master Butcher’ by the time he’d reached 18.

Wanting to do something different, in 1937 he joined the Army as a private in the Royal Artillery, ultimately serving in many different theatres of war, starting in India, then on to the African desert through to the Gustav line in Italy, and finally on to Palestine to keep the peace between the warring factions there at the time.

Back home in London during 1941/1942 his sister, Joan Berry had joined the Women's Royal Army Corps (W.R.A.C) and was duly posted to Invergordon, Scotland near the Cromarty Firth, and Bob’s youngest sibling Sid (my Grandad) joined the Royal Navy and was part of the Royal Naval Patrol Service (R.N.P.S) based at Lowestoft before being sent overseas.

During the war their house in Camberwell New Rd was bombed out, effectively making the whole family homeless (where their house once was is now somewhere between Bolton Crescent and Midnight Avenue, SE5), but fortunately Bob, Joan and Sid had family on the Sussex coast in ‘Upper’ Portslade, to assist in providing a residence.

They had an uncle called Charlie Berry, and he lived at 77 Southdown Rd, just north of the Old Village. A very popular chap, my Dad was even bestowed the middle name of ‘Charles’ in tribute of him.

Circa 1943 Charlie started a property merry-go-round by additionally purchasing 3 Downsview Rd and effectively renting it to the Berry family, incorporating Bob, Joan, Sid…and of course their parents Henry & Sarah.

Henry George Berry and Sarah Ann Berry (Budgen)

The house was very near to the south side of Broomfield's Farm, at the end of Southdown Rd (which was not yet the complete structure that’s present now).

In 1946, having ultimately achieved the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major, Bob’s career in the Army ended.

Returning to civvy street, he took employment at Greenfields (NOT the removal company), which was a national allotment area in the dip of the Old Shoreham Road where Hove Fire Station is now located. He also had a part time Saturday morning job at ‘Venners’ the butchers in the Old Village.

During 1947 Bob’s brother Sid married Lily Emma Flicker, and their sister Joan married Reginald ‘Jack’ Greed – both couples soon having children (my dad Sid, and his cousin Bobby respectively).

In 1951/52, Sid & Lily moved to 48 Easthill Drive, and Joan & Jack moved to 21 Wickhurst Rd. Not long after they had moved on, Bob took full ownership of 3 Downsview Rd, and in 1954 his parents also moved on (due to failing health) and went to live with Sid & Lily.

Bob wasn’t on his own for long though as he soon invited his friend Phyllis Kirkby (or Kirby?) to live with him. Phyllis was known to the family for a while, and indeed she had a sister called Bertha who lived at 74 Southdown Rd and was a good friend of Uncle Charlie’s.Upon Uncle Charlie's death, another branch of the family (Syd and Lilly Budgen) bought 77 Southdown Rd and rented a room to yet more family (!) – cousin Arnold and his wife Iris.

In 1953, Bob had changed employment again and became a bus driver with ‘Brighton, Hove & District’, soon becoming a regular driver on the 15b route (Patcham to Mile Oak, terminating at Chrisdory Rd) – and this was a job he would ultimately do for the next 30 years.

Bob's bus!

In 1958, one final addition to the first generation of Berry’s born in Portslade came along in the shape of Sid and Lily’s youngest son Christopher, but this joy was short-lived for the family as later that year (October 22^nd) Bob, Joan and Sid’s father Henry George Berry (senior) passed away with cancer. Indeed my Dad relates this as being one of the saddest days of his life as he was particularly close to his Grandad – a man he describes as very caring and loving, and in many ways similar to Bob.

In the 1960’s, as well as working on the buses, Bob also had a part time job in a butchers shop in Boundary Rd / Station Rd called ‘Carpenters’, and he worked there for about five years.

Over the years Bob pursued hobbies on three main fronts.

He had a great love of gardening, was a dedicated animal lover, and also he ventured into brewing many homemade beers and wines.

Directly related to this latter hobby, was the fact that he also kept Bees! This resulted in some superb honey from which he made his very strong, delicious and, dare I say it, famous Mead!

As far as pets went (excluding the bees!) over the years he had two dogs (Trixie and Sue), and also had a Siamese cat, who Bob called ‘Ming’.

Ming was very ill when Bob took him in, and was not expected to live more than a couple of months, but with a lot of love and attention the cat survived for a further ten years.

He retired from driving buses in the early 1980’s and enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing life as a homemaker. Always a social chap, whilst at Downsview Rd he made some good friends with many of his neighbours; notably the Gilbey family (who lived opposite) and in particular he often spoke of Ron and Betty Sanders.

Very sadly, Phyllis passed away not long after Bob retired. Typical of the man though, he kept his spirits up and soon enough became friends with a lady called Pat, who remained his companion until his own sad passing in 2001.

Bob in the 1970's

When he died, it undoubtedly created a void in the family – unsurprising given that he was such a ‘larger than life’ upstanding character with immense personality and charm. Indeed my Dad often remarks that he had immeasurable love and respect for him – maybe more so in some ways than he had for his own father, such is the tangled web and intricacies of family life.

My Dad (Sid) and Bob (1990's)

My Dad waxes lyrical about how Bob was a very kind and gentle hearted man, ever sensitive to the welfare of his family, standing by them in his younger days through rain and fire – though he was also as hard as nails to anyone who was not his friend or until he got to know you! He never lost his military discipline, but any excuse for him to unleash his contagious laugh was always welcome. Without doubt as a human being, people would always look up to him.

My own memories of my Great Uncle Bob undoubtedly centre on his positive approach to anything and everything. From as far back as I can remember (I was born in 1975) our family would always pop in to see him every Christmas day morning, when he would never fail to mention that I looked more and more like my mum every time he saw me! He would also often give us a taste of his superb home brewed Mead – and one Christmas he got my brother (aged 5) drunk on his homemade red wine and lemonade… and ALWAYS gave the family children a Cadbury's selection box. In fact, he even bought me my first ever wristwatch and I've never been without one since.

Me and my Great Uncle Bob (1985)

The thing I will most remember him by though was that he was always smiling or laughing. His death was very sad for us all and I think it's fair to say that when he passed away, we lost a special part of our Christmas mornings forever.

The last photo of Sid, Joan and Bob together (2000)

RIP Henry George 'Uncle Bob' Berry - and in fact rest in peace and thanks to them all, the first of the Berry Portslade residents:

Bob, Joan and Sid

(1919-2004)

XxX

The Coca-Cola Saga

Ten years ago this month was the closest I’ve got to my Andy Warhol allocated 15 minutes of fame. 

I don't even LIKE soup..

Back in the Spring of 2005, Coca-Cola had been running a competition with the Football League called ‘Win a Player’ whereby if you registered your contact details daily on a special website you had the chance of winning £250,000 for the football league club of your choice, plus £10,000 for yourself – and more or less I had registered every day.

On Friday May 27^th 2005, I was in a very deep sleep (having returned from holiday the day before and suffering from jet lag) when my mobile phone first rang at 915am, displaying a private number – so I ignored it, and rolled back to sleep. Annoyingly the phone rang again ten minutes later so I caved in and answered it.

A really nervous guy spoke and asked me to confirm my name and which football team I supported…

“Why!?” I asked.

“Because we’re checking if you are the same person who entered a Coca-Cola competition recently”

This sounded promising!

“Oh ok – I’m Aaron Berry, and Brighton and Hove Albion” I confirmed.

“Well congratulations, you are the major prize winner!”

I just couldn’t believe it and I literally started to shake as I’d never won anything like this before!

I knew just how much of an impact £250,000 would have for the Albion, as they’d barely bought any players over recent years for substantial fees, and I’d now be helping to change that.

Shortly after, I received a further call saying a rep from Coca-Cola would be coming down to arrange details for my signing confidentiality contracts and attending the Millennium Stadium for the Play Off final the following Monday – I’d actually forgotten that another part of the prize was a trip to the Play Off Final where I’d be presented with the winning cheque for the club on the pitch. Exciting stuff!

On the day of the game we (I’d gone with my son’s older brother) arrived at Cardiff for 9am and were greeted by a guy called Chris, who was to be our chaperone for the day. Hilariously he was a Crystal Palace fan, but to be fair he was a top lad and looked after us well, starting with buying us a substantial breakfast at the Hilton Hotel. Shortly after, the then Albion Chairman Dick Knight walked in with the then Albion Manager Mark McGhee, and by this point I was itching to celebrate with them, but it was explained to me that to add to the excitement, the ‘meeting’ between us would be delayed until a more spontaneous moment later at the stadium. Plus apparently Mark McGhee hadn't been told the news himself yet.

At about 1130am we headed into town, soaking up the atmosphere en route to the Millennium Stadium – it was a bit like déjà vu, having done the same thing exactly a year earlier when Albion had beaten Bristol City in the previous season’s Play Off final. My view at the stadium this time was slightly superior though, as we went straight to a hospitality box for a champagne reception. Nothing like the usual £2.50 chips I’d been used to at Withdean Stadium then...

At around 2pm, I was introduced to Clare, who would apparently be fielding all my phone calls and media liaisons. I thought it sounded a bit excessive, but as it turned out I absolutely needed her as I was bombarded with calls and interview requests for several weeks after the event.

Clare soon took me down to the tunnel area where I was stood amongst several West Ham United and Preston North End players/staff that were milling around getting ready for the game.

Also arriving at that time were Brighton and Hove Albion communications / press officers (Paul Camillin and Tim Dudding) who both came over and introduced themselves to us – clearly as delighted about the news as I was!

Clare asked me to change into my Brighton home shirt, and we started to walk down the tunnel – at which point Mark McGhee came jogging up the tunnel towards me... he shook my hand and kept on saying "well done!" continuously – he was absolutely made up with the news! We then headed onto the pitch, and the legend that is Chris Kamara approached me and said “You must be Aaron Berry!? Well done, we’ll be on in a moment!”

Having just met these two football legends that I knew so much about, and suddenly to have them know MY name and be shaking my hand was totally surreal. I might have been 29 years old, but I felt like a star struck child! Albion Chairman Dick Knight then joined us and gave me a huge hug, continuously thanking me and saying “well done!” over and over again - everyone was just so pleased!

At 240pm Chris Kamara led me, Mark and Dick (and the super sized novelty cheque) out to the centre circle and we did the live Sky Sports interview and loads of photos, before me and Dick walked back up the tunnel and did an interview with Paul & Tim in order to get the news onto the Albion website.

We then made our way back up to the hospitality box in time for the start of the match and to have some dinner too, though I didn’t get to eat much and I barely got to see large chunks of the match as I started getting text messages and mobile phone calls galore. Several friends and family had seen me on the TV and others had seen the news across dozens of websites on the internet, and just after half time I started getting calls from local and national press and TV / Radio stations wanting to speak to me about the win. I believe the first person I spoke to was Andy Naylor of the Brighton Argus newspaper, and I recall bursting into laughter during our conversation that all this was really happening!

It was tremendously overwhelming (but in a very good way) and the adrenalin and shock of being so involved in it all just kept me going – I was determined to thoroughly enjoy every moment.

At the end of the match, I sat in the hospitality box and tried so hard to remember all that had happened as it all went by in such a flash. From the moment I won, the people I had spoken to at Coca-Cola and those who had looked after us had been tremendous in making it an experience I’ll never forget. By the time I got home at 915pm I was exhausted but still totally thrilled about what had happened.

The next morning on the way to work I was still buzzing! It was part of the local news report on Southern FM Radio (now Heart), and when I got the morning edition of The Argus newspaper, I couldn’t believe how much it was emblazoned on the back page! I collected so many newspapers to keep as mementoes and appeared on both TV and radio over the subsequent couple of weeks, including TalkSport, BBC Radio Five Live and Soccer AM on Sky Sports. I went to Withdean on a couple of occasions to have interviews and photo shoots with Mark, Dick and the all-important cheque, and kindly the club also presented me with a personalised home shirt depicting my win for them – an item which still holds pride of place in my home.

A month or so after the event we signed the player my winnings would buy.

Colin Kazim-Richards from Bury was someone I’d admittedly not heard of before, but You Tube evidenced that he was a talented player capable of scoring spectacular goals. Colin was very friendly and was over the moon to be joining us – he thanked me for making the effort as he felt he may not have been a Brighton player without the club having won the competition. He was generally known by his initials ‘CKR’, but was also very soon was dubbed 'the Coca-Cola Kid’.

I couldn’t recall looking forward to the start of a season as much in years and it seemed nothing could go wrong. And to be fair, for the first couple of months of the season, nothing did go wrong.

It’s fair to say though that this particular story comes in two parts. Part one above, was about as good as it gets – I loved all of it. But part two of the story didn’t go quite so well for a variety of reasons.

Unfortunately the boost of signing CKR didn’t really materialise in terms of team performance, and it seemed that maybe this wasn’t the dream move that all parties had hoped it would be. Something didn’t seem to be right and there was apparently great frustration about the way things were panning out. The team had a diabolical season, save for a couple of stand out moments (a 0-1 win at Crystal Palace and a 2-1 win at home to Leeds United.)

CKR finished as top scorer with six goals (which shows how poor the season was for the team as a whole), but never really got to fulfil his potential.

I was a bit caught in the middle as I could understand the frustrations of fans who felt Colin hadn’t done well or shown enough effort, but maybe there were reasons why.

I posted a few vague references (fed to me from CKR’s advisors) about why he was unhappy on the Albion fans’ most popular internet forum North Stand Chat and got a few understanding responses… but my words also attracted some personal criticism (and abuse) against me because I wasn’t entirely telling everyone every little thing I knew - due to the personal nature of some of the issues though, I strongly felt it wasn’t my place to do so. Maybe staying silent might have been a better option, but I was hoping for a happier ending!

A lot of fans were very sympathetic to me, but one or two were starting to give me as much abuse as they were giving Colin. I offered (on occasion) to discuss matters privately, but most were not inclined to take me up on it. In fairness, many more people after the event were very kind and generous, noting that it clearly wasn’t my fault that things hadn't worked out. At times I felt rather under pressure, and almost longed to go back to being an anonymous fan again.

At the start of the following season (August 2006) CKR was sold to Sheffield United with a sell on clause (which subsequently netted the Albion a further £200,000) so by all accounts the prize win was now effectively half a million quid. The money was still in the club so it hadn't been lost, and I was told the profit was ultimately used in part to purchase Glenn Murray… 

Could do a job...

But the end result of what had been a superb experience was rather sad I guess.

Graciously, the Albion chairman Dick Knight phoned me on the night we sold Colin to explain why he had been let go. The reasons were confidential and remain so - I've still never told anyone about what we spoke about.

I know Dick shared the same disappointment as I did, in that it never really worked out. Dick also invited me to be a guest in the boardroom for an upcoming home game, which I gratefully accepted.

Many people had suggested I should get a season ticket for life as thanks from the club, but hand on heart it hadn't crossed my mind. At the time, the club was hard up enough without giving away further gifts! Had we already moved to our much delayed stadium at Falmer by then I might have considered it, but never whilst we were still at Withdean though.

To help the club I love by winning a substantial sum of money at a time when they needed all the financial help they could get, was reward enough.

Besides, there were greater heroes than me as fans – the likes of Paul Samrah, Liz Costa, John Baines, Tim Carder, Ed Bassford, Roz South and not forgetting the sadly departed Sarah Watts and Roy Chuter (and I could go on with many others) who put in so much time for campaigns to help the club – but it was enough for me to have gained the opportunity in the future to say to my Grandchildren: ‘I was lucky enough to win this and it helped the club keep going on the pitch for a little while’

And look how far the Albion has come since. Marvellous scenes!*

*Notwithstanding this season just gone!

I never really had much contact directly with CKR after the day he signed for us. When he left, he spent a season with Sheffield United before moving to Fenerbahçe where he played (and scored) against Chelsea in the Champions League. Kindly he sent me a signed Fenerbahçe shirt and his Dad also offered to fly me out to see a game in Turkey – I didn’t go, but nonetheless it was a very generous gesture. CKR went on to play for the Turkish national team as well as Toulouse, Galatasaray, Feyenoord and Blackburn Rovers – though his appearance for the latter against Brighton at The Amex in 2013 brought about some contentious issues to say the least.

Overall it was a strange saga, but I would not have sacrificed winning the competition as it was such a great experience, and ultimately helpful for the club. On top of that, in later years the win got mentioned in a couple of superb books (MadMan and We Want Falmer) which I was absolutely made up by.Overall it was definitely one of the best happenings of my life. 

As for the £10,000 I won… well it may sound boring but I mainly cleared my debts! The rest of the money was spent on taking a family holiday in 2006, paying for my brother to have the same laser eye surgery I’d had and buying a huge freezer and a food processor. All of which left me with just about enough spare cash for a KFC bucket and a bottle of Southern Comfort!

Simple pleasures!

It Was A Woman’s World

When I first started writing blogs (September 2014) I couldn’t really have guessed just how they would be received. Would anyone read them? Would they get some lip service? Would they be genuinely liked? Who knew?

One particular earlyish effort was merely blogged because I was looking forwards to the return of the Sky 1 programme ‘Trollied’ – mainly because I used to work at a supermarket and found it was very close to the mark in its observations! I didn’t for a second think  that it would ultimately become the most popular blog I've written to date!

So on the back of that ‘Getting Trollied Again’ blog, I thought I’d give a further insight into those glorious retail years:

As previous readers will know, I spent the formative years of my employment working in a supermarket.
My first couple of years were enjoyed as a student on the Produce section and checkouts, before moving to working on the Delicatessen counter, initially as a student, but then as a full time member of staff once I’d left Sixth Form and was undecided about what I wanted to do with my life. So many people fall into this route, and I actually really enjoyed it for a long time before finding something outside of retail when I was in my early mid twenties.

A picture of a Deli Counter. Not mine though - I had some staff behind mine

After learning the Deli role inside out for a couple of years, I was fortunate enough to get a promotion to become the new Delicatessen Manager at a store in Brighton, starting just three days after my 21^st birthday.

It’s fair to say that up till that point of my retail career, I’d seen a few things that had opened my naïve innocent young eyes a little, but nothing prepared me for the response I received on my first day in that new role, and indeed the first couple of months.

What could be so wrong?

Well specifically it was three things about me that made some of my new staff not that keen on me at all:

1.       I was introduced to them on the first day as God.

2.       I was young.

3.       I was male.

Being introduced as The Almighty was horrendously embarrassing. I have no idea why my introducer opted to say that, but I think maybe because he had been looking after the counter in the absence of a manager and wanted them to think I was there to ‘save’ them. I REALLY had to underplay that title in the first few weeks to stave off fears of being called arrogant. Talk about a stitch up.

As for ‘being young and male’ – well they both sound ridiculously ancient don’t they!?
But it was a genuine issue as Delicatessen counters traditionally (although not exclusively) had been a rather female dominated environment, and here I was, this boy, taking over the running of their baby and many of them were not at all comfortable with it. To them, I was the Anti Milky-Bar Kid in more ways than one.
Had I not been their manager, and just been joining as an assistant, I doubt it would have irked them so much, but it took a ton of effort to win certain staff over and prove I was worthy.

For example, during that first week I remember cleaning out the bins. I wanted to muck in and do everything and not be some aloof ‘suit’, so I thought this might help somewhat. Nope. The opposite in fact, as this action extremely upset one of the senior ladies as she’d done the bins for the last twelve years, and boy had I now stepped on her toes!

Whilst she was being comforted and consoled by another elder stateswoman (because she WAS in tears), my confidence wasn’t helped by the deliberately loud comment ‘I told them we should have been given a woman manager’

This would take some skill to turn them!

Altogether I had 17 staff initially, which included two male students, three female students, and the rest were females old enough to be my mother or grandmother. It would be wrong though to say that ALL the elder females didn’t want me there. One Scottish lady in particular took to me quite early on and stated that she felt I’d been a bit stitched up, and that even before I’d arrived I was on a hiding to nothing as a colleague of mine at my previous branch had popped in the week before to ‘advise’ them about me. Her assessment being:

‘He’s a nice guy, but he’s not up to being a manager’

...which was ironic given that less than 12 months earlier, I’d had to cover her sorry ass over a Christmas period when she couldn’t cope when acting up as a deputy manager herself. It was a shame to be knifed in the back before I’d even started, but she’d always been a touch bitter, having felt mistreated by the firm over her own career path over the years. I felt sorry for her but why try and hurt me?

All this made me think that perhaps the dislike of me from these people who I felt didn’t know me from Adam, might actually be a bit misplaced through gossip, so I tried not to fret too much about it.

Rather soon, I lost my senior assistant to another department. She had also applied for the Deli Manager’s job and failed to get it, and she wanted some more responsibility. She was fair to me in that she knew it wasn’t my fault, but she wanted to be appreciated and after she helped settle me in, I was happy to help her get a promotion to another role in the store.

Perhaps I didn’t help improve my standing with the others though as when appointing her replacement, I (fairly) opted for the best person, following interviews. As it happened, another male!

The furore that kicked off simply because I’d given the job to a male was unbelievable. It took intervention from the Personnel Manager to sort out the ridiculous complaints (sexism, ageism, experience-ism!) that arose because of it.

After a few weeks had passed, they started speaking to me again...

Time heals, and ultimately as a team, we all contributed to making our Deli the best performing counter in the district, and second best in the region. Given we were bottom of that list before I’d arrived, I was very proud of the work we’d all done.

My reward was to be appointed as the Delicatessen District Trainer for our area, which in turn made our counter the jewel in the area that other Deli Managers came from afar to admire and seek advice from, which thankfully, my lovely staff took immense satisfaction out of and ultimately meant I had earned their respect.

Fair play to some of the stronger critics, as when I reluctantly moved on from the store, they apologised for their preconception of me and offered that I’d actually been a pretty good manager when all was said and done! Praise from them was more important than praise from above, and the best compliment I could pay them back in return was that the two years I spent at that branch were two of the best years of my working life.

Looks like a prison hospital doesn't it!?

Leaving was a huge wrench. A destructive one too, as within a week of working at my new store, I knew I wouldn't be staying long. That was October 1998, and I left the company in May 1999.

Those 8 months were as bad as the previously 24 had been good.

I’d gained promotion on the basis that I completed a pilot assessment centre training course for Managers seeking advancement. I had furthermore been promised to be fast tracked through the full management course as specifically I had management experience under my belt already.. Ideally it wouldn't take anymore than 6 months to get fully qualified and trained up before I’d be given a proper large department of my own to manage.

But literally the week I moved to my new placement, they changed it. Who they were, I’m still not sure, but I got thrown in with a dozen or so university graduates on a post-graduate scheme and no such real opportunity arose for an actual promotion.
Essentially, despite 8 years with the company, starting from joining in 1991 and working 10 hours a week as a school boy to what I’d recently achieved,  I now had to complete a mandatory full year of training – literally I was told I had to relearn how to stock shelves!

Just to rub salt into the wounds, the university grads went straight on to a starting salary that was nearly £6000 higher than me! If it wasn’t for real it would've been hilarious.

I should say that at no time did I blame the grads – It wasn’t their fault at all. Indeed they had a huge amount of sympathy for me being entrapped in this time wasting slavery scheme, and two of them were placed at the same store I was. They were two of the nicest girls I could have hoped to be paired with and they at least made my time at the store much more bearable.

When I resigned, the District Manager offered apologies and said I’d been earmarked to have been a ‘40 yearer’ with the company – the store manager added that in his opinion, the company had failed me ‘criminally’.

It was a sad end to my time in retail really, and prior to October 1998, I couldn’t have envisaged my departing so soon. But all in all the 8 years were mostly pretty good, and watching Trollied on Sky 1 brings back some fab and funny memories.

Would I want to go back to retail though? Well never say never.

But no! NO! NO! NO!

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