We're almost half way through the A to Z challenge!
I thought that maybe some of you, like me, are finding it tough. After all, the excitement of the first few days of the challenge has faded, and the end isn't quite in sight just yet.
So I think what we need is a few minutes of laughter today. And with that in mind I've included three video clips that make me laugh.
I can't knit. I've tried to learn many times, and have failed many times.
One of my new year's resolutions last year was actually to learn how to knit. Again, I failed.
The problem may be that I want to knit because others in my family can do it. It's almost that I want to want to be able to knit more than I actually want to be able to knit. Does that make sense?
When I stop and think about it, I don't have any burning desire to make myself a jumper, or a blanket, or even a little knitted Finn and Jake from Adventure Time (they're actually crocheted but I'm rubbish at that too).
Okay, being able to make Finn and Jake would be brilliant.
Maybe I'm just not supposed to knit.
Maybe that whole 'you can do anything if you set your mind to it' doesn't apply to knitting.
Or maybe I just need to get these guys to teach me.
Question: Is there a skill you've tried to learn but just can't master it?
My name is Rebecca. That's what my parents and work colleagues call me.
My sister and friends call me Becky, or Grover, or variations of the two.
But no one calls me Jessica. Because my name's not Jessica.
But it could have been.
Before I was born, my parents thought they were going to have a son. Not because they were told this by someone in the medical profession; just because that's what they thought. So they came up with a few boy names that they liked.
Then I came along - no Y chromosome in sight - and suddenly they had to think of girl names that they liked. This took a while.
Dad liked 'Michelle' but that got vetoed by Mum on account of it being the name of one of his ex girlfriends. Then Mum liked 'Jessica' but that was vetoed by Dad because of a television show. Yep.
Some Mothers Do Ave Em, which stopped airing a good ten years before I was born might I point out, had a character called Jessica. She was the daughter of Frank and Betty Spencer. As far as I'm aware, Jessica was a perfectly normal little girl and it was Frank with whom my dad took issue.
Frank, you see, was a walking disaster zone. He always managed to get himself into ridiculous situations and embarrass himself and his family. Everyone always ended up laughing at Frank, and I think this is why my dad didn't like the name Jessica. Because, according to his strange logic, people might remember this TV show and I may get teased (though this never happened to any of the Jessicas I went to school with.)
I don't really mind; I like the name I ended up with, but it's made me wonder whether anyone else has a similar story, and hence my question to you for today.
Question: Were you named after someone, or did your parents avoid certain names?
Also here's a clip if you've never been treated to the wonder that is Frank Spencer.
One evening, a few years ago, one of the curtain rails in our lounge broke.
My parents had been planning to redecorate the room, so this wasn't a particularly big problem. Dad, however, decided that it would be a terrible inconvenience not to have curtains for a little while, and so he took it upon himself to come up with a temporary solution.
By 'temporary solution' I of course mean 'completely over-the-top and insane idea'.
So, some time later that evening, Dad returned to the lounge. With tools. And what he did next defied the laws of logic. His actions have gone down in family history. We delight in telling the story whenever we can. Dad's ingenious plan, you see, was to nail the curtains to the wooden pelmet which surrounded the (now broken) rail. That's right; he basically nailed the curtains shut.
Once we realised what he was doing, my mum, sister and I started to question just how 'temporary' a solution this was. He assured us it would only be until the weekend.
I stopped counting when we got to four years.
You'll be glad to learn that Dad's 'temporary solution' has now been replaced by a new curtain rail and new curtains (that actually open AND close!)
Question: Do you know anyone with similarly questionable ingenuity?
Because I'm a sucker for celebrating pointless milestones, I couldn't let the happy coincidence that my hundredth bloglet occurs on the 'H' day slip by unnoticed.
It's taken me a while to get to 100 (no one would describe my blogging style as 'regular') and of my 99 previous bloglets, there are probably only a handful that I really like. I'm not fishing for compliments here. If you've read and enjoyed by blog for a while - thank you. I'm grateful for your support. But I don't often read my earlier bloglets because I cringe. I think that I was trying too hard to be funny, or clever, or a combination of the two.
But I'm proud that I've got to 100, and I quite like the fact that I don't like my early bloglets. I think it's a good thing. Hopefully it means that I've improved since I started a few years ago, and that I can continue to do so. Who knows, maybe the next hundred bloglets will even take less than 3 years!
Question: Do you ever go back and read your early posts? What do you think of them?
