Remember...

"They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them..."

Today is "Remembrance Sunday" and it's something quite close to my heart.. Once upon a time my family must have been quite lucky.. as far as I know all the men that went to war in the first and second world wars returned home to their families... almost unheard of, for most families lost sons or brothers, fathers..uncles.. someone.

The 11th November was my Grandfather's birthday, he also died on his birthday in 1976 and although I was just a year old and remember very little of him I feel sometimes as though I knew him for years and years with all the stories that have been told and repeated so many times.. so another reminder right there and a nice person to remember too but today was a chance to think of others and there are none more close to our hearts right now than our very own Jessica and her partner Luke who lost their much wanted and very loved baby daughter Bella last weekend just 24 hours after her birth.

So today we went to Sowerby Bridge and laid flowers at her graveside in remembrance of her and for her parents who we love very much and who were at the forefront of our minds.

We will never forget.. soldiers lost, Grandparents from years gone by... parents who were much loved and very much missed and now.. precious angels taken much too soon... we'll remember them all.... forever.

busy busy busy!!!

Halloween weekend is always busy at Chez Savage what with my own personal "Prince of Darkness" (more commonly known as 'Jake') being born a mere 2 days before the event itself.. When I was very heavily pregnant someone suggested we call him "Damien" if he was born on the 31st as first babies are often overdue..thankfully he came bang on time and without 666 tattooed on his head... although he did have an awful lot of hair so I sometimes wonder..with him being the Spawn of Savage and all that..if i missed it, maybe I should shave his head and check sometime lol.

Soooooo there was much plenty of this..



gotta love Maltesers after all... and then there was a bit of this..bless him!!



and then when all that was over I nipped upstairs to the bathroom, came back down and found this...



all those toys and the buggers play with the bubble wrap!!!! How very rude....LOL


Next came a trip to the cinema to watch "Aliens in the Attic" which even I found funny.. and a good time was had by all.

Then Saturday night we had this..



I swear to God I don't know who had more fun Rich or the kids!!! (check out the red eye... I TOLD YOU THEY'RE EVIL!!!!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!! (again!!!)

My baby boy is 8.

I dunno where the time went .. I have an 8 year old son.

Good God I'm feeling old... lol

Anyway there is much much more to post and loads of pics to upload but I am exhausted... and so you'll all have to wait until tomorrow for a proper run down of the day and for now I'll just say..


Happy 8th Birthday Jake, Love u lots. xxxx

Dirty word stories and letters saying sorry...

Pity the poor school teacher that opened my (almost) 8 year old sons literacy school book this morning with a view to reading a pleasant little story for this is most definitely not what she received...

oh no. Instead, my (almost) 8 year old son had obviously grown tired of using his imagination to write said story and had instead decided (in his infinite wisdom of course..) to write a bunch of dirty words instead!!

In his SCHOOL BOOK for goodness sake.. because as we all know.. the very best place to write a bunch of dirty words that you DON'T want your teacher to see (because a) you're writing them instead of doing your school work and b) you're writing them in the first place actually...) iiiiiiiiiis in your school book.. that your teacher reads everyday.. of course... she'd never find them there would she??

Just for the record.. I have NO IDEA where he gets this idiot streak from although I suspect it might be something to do with "he who can get his arse stuck in a McDonald's highchair for fun and do various other things equally as idiotic on a regular basis" ...more commonly known as his father - you know him as Rich.

What is it with little boys and rude words? Why do they find them intriguing? I can tell you it doesn't change much as they get older.. the words go from being "bum", "poo", "wee", "willy" and "boobs" (as were Jake's particular favourite today) to much ruder versions but the stifled giggles and snickers are still there even though the boy has grown into a man.. Richard LOVES a good swear word.. a new word for the female genitalia is a particular winner and he'll often use his new descriptive word as many times in the day as he possibly can.. even going as far as to call his friends (or me) it repeatedly...lol.

Men... can't live with 'em... can't bury them under 10 ton of bricks...

So.. Jake has had a very stern talking to and has learned a tough lesson today, his teacher WILL make it known when his behaviour is less than acceptable and not only that but she'll make HIM tell me all about it too..

I have learned my son is.. well.. his father incarnate but I already knew that..you only have to look at them together to see he was never gonna get away with that one.. bloody peas in a pod those two.

I also learned what an almighty biatch I can be too and how much like my own mother I am in that respect (LMFAO soz Mum, that came out soooooooo wrong and weirdly.. quite right too...heheh) when I made Jake put pen to paper for the second time today, only this time writing an apology letter to his teacher which I thought was only fair and proper.

Then I learned my daughter Heather really is a genius when at just 5 years old she got her own pen and paper and wrote an actual legible letter to Jake's teacher to apologise for his dirty words and damn... her spelling was better than his!!! She obviously takes after her mother that one ;)

LOL
xx

I don't like change ok? lol

Last night there was absolutely bugger all on the tv, so after a few minutes playing couch commando with the remote control (and a spot of serious channel hopping) I stumble across a programme on the FX channel that feels more than familiar...

Yes it's "Life on Mars USA"!! EXCELLENT think I, for I Love love LOVE the original and I've heard that the US have done their usual trick of taking a classic British programme, giving it an American cast and doing bog all else with it.. ok so the cast will be different but the jokes will be the same... cant be THAT bad then can it?? I mean after all.. the British version was absolutely brilliant and it's essentially the same so I snuggle down to watch.

Having seen it already I know the story, I am touched when Sam Tyler wakes up in the 70's (albeit in Noo Nork) and looks up to see the gleaming twin towers - nice touch, think I.. this could be quite good.. and I get excited as I know what's to come next....The Gene Genie.

This is what I got.



Wtf is this shit?

We give you the GOD that is Gene Hunt and you do this to him??? Harvey Keitel? what?

WHY?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Why would you do this?

Harvey Keitel is a fabulous actor... but he is NOT Gene Hunt... allow me to explain... bugger it.. lets have a look.. (The clip gets a bit dodgy when the music kicks in cos you cant hear the dialogue too well over the song - which is a bit of a travesty really cos theres some cracking quotes in there..)



So you see?? Gene Hunt is a b*stard...of that there is no doubt, but a gorgeous one. He's not an aging police officer like Keitel..even I could knock out Harvey Keitel.. lol

In the end I had to turn the show off... it's just not right and I'm afraid I wont be watching again... it has however given me the Life on Mars bug and I'm gonna have to buy the UK version on DVD whislt they're still cheap. haha

So then I got to thinking and I looked it up online, the US have not commissioned anymore episodes which is a total shame for even if we Britons dont like their version the show itself continued for another great series here and then we have had 2 series of its spin off "Ashes to Ashes" with Gene still played by Philip Glenister and DCI Alex "Bollinger Knickers" Drake played by Keeley Hawes, set in the 1980's and equally as brilliant.

I wondered how many programmes our US counterparts miss out on by taking the scripts and recasting them.. I dont know why they do it..maybe they don't get our accents (I can understand that, I live here and there are some dialects that confuse me too!!) which is fine I guess but it is notoriously difficult to translate the saracastic undertones in British humour.. I think sometimes it works - the US version of "The Office" is incredibly funny even though I prefer the English version, it still works both ways.. but most times something is lost in the translation.

I looked up some of the shows that we've sold to the US.. things like "Wife Swap" and "How Clean is your House" work wherever you are.. especially if you sell the other version back to us cos we love to see how the other half live of course.. As does "Pop Idol/American Idol" or "Britain/America's Got Talent" etc.

But we gave them Life on Mars and imo they ruined it.. as they did with "Absolutely Fabulous" and on the list was a bunch of British comedies and their US counterparts that only a pilot got made.. now we know they're funny.. "Fawlty Towers" was one of them and that has has THREE attempts at a remake.. (I dont know how successful they were) why? Why not just show the original?

"The IT Crowd" - hilariously funny and well received here and only the pilot made in the US, same with "Are You Being Served" - unaired pilot episode, "Coupling" - US version cancelled after a few episodes, it went on for years here, "Eleventh Hour" which was cancelled by the US network after 1 season despite pulling in 12million viewers and "Red Dwarf" which had 8 series (I think, could be 9) here but 2 pilot episodes in the USA that werent even aired.

I could go on but I think you get my point.

I don't get it.. as a nation we're sarcastic but funny and our comedy and not only that but our drama's too are brilliant.. LEAVE THEM ALONE... buy the episodes and air them if you want to share.. like we do with yours, we love "Friends", "Sex in the City", "LOST" etc, we watch hundreds of your shows and we appreciate them in their original form..and if you ever want to appreciate the full effect of ours that's how you should watch them too.. in their original form.

Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!!!!!!!!

Apparently I'm getting quite good at this driving lark and my instructor says its time.

So I booked the test.

There's a bit of a waiting list so its not immediate and no, I'm not sharing the date.. lol

You'll just have to wait and see.

Finger's crossed!!

whats in a name?

This morning I was watching "This Morning" with the lovely Holly Willoughbooby and the old silver fox..Phillip Schofield..for my US friends, "This Morning" is a daytime tv programme for bored housewives, students and the like.. it has some fun stuff, bit of fashion, a resident chef and doctor slot .. bit of music..u know.. time filling before lunch, simple viewing, little or no concentration required lol.

Anyway this morning.. on "This Morning" (ok thats annoying ME now..lol) they were discussing silly baby names. Apparently some blithering idiot has given birth to twins this week (not me thankfully!) and has given them ridiculous names.. a little boy called "Jack Daniel" which doesn't sound too silly... until you hear the name of his twin sister.. yes "Tia Maria" can you believe that? WHY? Why would someone do that to a child... as if naming your son after a bottle of spirits wasn't bad enough to then go and saddle his sister with the same? They should be ashamed of themselves. Whats next... "Malibu" and her little brother "Thunderbirds Red"? It's ludicrous.

So after they asked people to email in the silly names they'd given their children they then got on to stupid celebrity baby names..and boy have there been a few..we probably all know the most famous ones but I made a little list for fun.

Zowie Bowie - Don't think I need to tell you who that babyDaddy is.

Pilot Inspektor Lee - Jason Lee of "My Name is Earl" fame actually called his son this... I have NO idea why.

Brooklyn Beckham -named after place of his conception I understand and his brothers "Romeo" and "Cruz".. wtf goes through their heads?

Apple Martin, yes Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin (Coldplay) named their daughter Apple. I think Richard and I may have to have another child just so we can name it "cumquat" for shits n giggles.

Lourdes and Rocco - Madonna's kids.. weird.

Jermaine Jackson has a child called "Jermajesty" - he's a Jackson.. 'nuff said.

Katie and Peter and their daughter "Princess Tiaamii" - I dont need to say anything about this.. what makes me laugh about Katie and Peter is that they called their son "Junior"... yes "Junior" - not "Peter Andre Jnr", just "Junior" - I have three words for you and they are.. "thick", "as" and "shit".

and classic as they come... Bob Geldof and Paula Yates and their daughters "Fifi Trixibelle", "Little Pixie" and of course... "Peaches" poor little Peaches, her silly name does not end there... oh no!! Bob n Paula pulled a classic out for Peaches who's full name is...
"Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof"!!!!! How did she ever learn how to spell her name at school the poor bitch? Of course a few years later Paula Yates had another child with Michael Hutchence who was also given a silly name "Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence", hmm... ok then.

There are many more but we'd be here all day.. the viewers were emailing in their silly names - of which there were many, in fact some poor child in London is called "Lanesra" which is "Arsenal" backwards.. her parents were big fans...and no, I'm not making this up.

Anyway there I sat laughing away merrily at the stupid people and then I remember that my husband named my only son after an Ozzy Osbourne guitarist...yes my child is called "Jake Lee".. YES that shut me up quick I can tell you...lol

My daughters are Angelina and Heather - one of Richard's friends once joked about him naming his daughters after the most beautiful women in the world... Angelina Jolie and Heather Locklear of course ("There is a God... and Heather by thy name!!" - Wayne's World LOL) but in actual fact they werent really named after either.

Angelina was named after a friend's daughter who shares the name (obviously) and was a very beautiful little girl and it also means "Little Angel/Messenger" and as she looks quite angelic (only looks that way though) and never shuts up its quite apt..lol

As for Heather, she was Maria for the longest time and then we went to Scotland on holiday about 3 weeks before she was born and as we drove through Glencoe we looked out of the window to see the most gorgeous fields of purple as someone said "Look at the beautiful Scottish Heather..." and I looked at Rich and he at me and then she was Heather. Simple as can be.. they say a name just strikes you sometimes, well that one did.

I never thought at the time that people might think anything of their names... it's funny really.. and as I look back in my family tree I see so many names repeated and think maybe I should have called him "Jack" or "Sam" and maybe she should have been "Mary" or "Julia" or Napoleon!!!! (yes I have a great great great Uncle Napoleon.. yeah go on laugh, you know you want to!!) Maybe I should have researched this years ago and carried on some family names, kept some tradition to it..do people even still do that?

and so.. I wonder... what names did you give your children and what did it mean to you?