A friend of mine has just had a baby (as yet un-named) girl - I offer my congratulations. Obviously the health of mother and baby is of paramount importance (they are both fine by the way, except the poor baby may be suffering from excessive cuddling - if there can be such a thing) but the naming will be a serious matter.
According to a recent survey the most popular girl's name in New Zealand is Olivia. The fact that the most popular male name is Oliver reveals either a lack of originality or a determination to call your child Oli; I'm not sure which.
I have a double confession - I haven't got a middle name (a fact which has always miffed me somewhat), and I used to dislike the name I have. Now, I really appreciate it - Katherine has a regal dignity to it; Kate is pure and elegant; Kitty is a Celtic twist; and Katy is an adorable way for my family and certain friends to show affection. Some call me Katie Pie, which I like because Kei Te Pai (pronounced the same way) means 'good' in Maori.
Now, I'm not for one moment suggesting that I have any influence at all on what moniker my friend may bestow on her baby (I don't like the name Monica, by the way - even before the Lewinsky/Friends associations), but I do have certain girls' names that I prefer to others.
5 Girls' Names I Like:
- Rachael/ Rebecca - I've never met one I didn't like
- Juanita - I read a book when I was a child where the heroine had this name - it might have been something by Rumer Godden - I forget the novel but I remember the name
- Sophie - although it does sound best with a Northern English accent
- Emma - even Jane Austen's self-obssessed heroine can't ruin this name for me
Zoë - I have no idea why
I used to love buying records. There was the trip to the record shop in Marlow, Maidenhead, High Wycombe or even London, flipping through racks of vinyl while feigning nonchalance and knowledge. And then bringing the thing home in a big bag and playing it over and over again on the turntable; scrutinising the sleeve notes and memorising the lyrics - you'd invite your best mate round or take the record to their place and you'd sit in semi-silence in a darkened room drinking cheap Soave from a porcelain mug and absorbing the ambience. No? Just me then.
Anyway, I don't buy much music now. I pick up the odd thing through the music press, personal recommendation, or random radio station, but the mainstream junk does very little for me. I don't own an i-pod or download music to save to my computer; I'm old-fashioned enough to like to hold the real deal in my hands, taking in the artwork and design, and listening to it all in the order the artist intended. So yes, it's been a while, but the latest albums (I still yearn to call them records) I've bought are as follows:
The 5 Most Recent Musical Purchases:
- Let England Shake - PJ Harvey
- Suck It and See - Arctic Monkeys
- The Horrifying Truth - I Am Giant
- Hollow - Cut Off Your Hands
- Build a Rocket Boys! - Elbow
The Weevil told me that she recently watched The Wizard of Oz for the first time ever, having previously been too scared of the witch. Her children kept asking her what was going to happen, and she couldn't tell them - I wouldn't tell them but would wait for them to find out; suspense is a wonderful thing.
My favourite thing in that film is the cowardly lion - of course he has courage all along, but he just doesn't know it. There is no point being brave if you haven't got a principle to support. I think I worked that out on first viewing. I must have been terribly precocious. Anyway, it got me thinking about my favourite lions, as you do.
5 Fictional Lions:
- The Lion that ate Albert in Marriott Edgar's poem
- Aslan from the Narnia series of books - I realised the god-complex involved and was a little bit of afraid of the fierce but fair beast
- The three lions on the England coat of arms
- Parsley the Lion from The Herbs
- The Lion King - I wasn't a fan of the film but when we saw it on stage at the Lyceum in London, I was blown away
I used to love the summer holidays during my student years. I have heard that some people didn't - apparently they got bored. Where was their imagination? True, the holidays seemed to stretch on forever, but that was the joy of them. You could always postpone that essay on Marxist interpretations of linguistic theory while you went to pubs in the afternoon and drank real ale in the sunshine.
When I was little there were games to play, when I got older there were boys to see, and there were always books to read and, if you were lucky, countries to visit. Inter-railing around Europe was a teenage rite of passage. And then there were the summer jobs. We went hop-picking or worked in factories and shops to save up for the holiday, or the records, or the clothes or the fags. And we thought how lucky we were that we would never have to do this full-time. Clearly we were wrong, but we were young and life was fun.
Now life is still fun, but holidays are shorter and every day off is precious. When we can mark it with a celebration it is even better. Here are my favourite:
The Best 5 Holidays*:
- Christmas: Family; friends; food; bubbles; lights; tinsel; glittery stuff; good cheer and, if you're lucky, snow - who could ask for anything more?
- Easter: Now that I no longer have to run around the forest in my pyjamas, I love Easter. It's a time of rebirth and new beginnings; a chance to catch up with friends and family; lambs and daffodils; green grass and the promise of Spring.
- St George's Day: A chance to celebrate all things English, recite Shakespeare, listen to Britpop, drink real ale, eat cheese and pickle sandwiches and even indulge in a spot of Morris Dancing.
- Harvest Festival: The cornucopia of colours; the abundance of wine; the church floral arrangements and window displays with sheaves of wheat; the bigs hats and village fetes; the collections of canned food for the aged; the chance to use words like bounty, abundance, and cornucopia.
- Guy Fawkes night: The smell of cordite and mischief in the air; bonfires, baked potatoes and toffee apples; fireworks exploding in showers of colour in the night sky; a brisk chill and the thought of witches; and, if I remember rightly, a damn fine rave or two.
* You will notice, these are all Northern Hemisphere-based holidays - as I've pointed out before; they just don't make sense down here.
With all the Rugby World Cup shennanigans going on, one of the interesting things that has come to light has been the talk of the 'minnow' teams, by which it is meant a team that isn't from the Five Nations and Italy, or the Tri-Nations. (Incidentally, most of the players in these teams hate this patronising tag, and rightly so.) Many folk in the 'provincial' towns have 'adopted' a team, so although they are obviously All Black fans, they will perhaps buy a Namibian flag to wave, or paint their faces in the red and white of Canada.
I'm afraid I simply don't understand this. You either support a team or you don't. You can't feign loyalty for a finite period. The team you support is the one you support and if you're unlucky enough to be born in Burnley, then you just have to tough it out. Although you may have a soft spot for another team and be interested in their results, there is no such thing as a second side. I will watch Wycombe Wanderers and am happy for them when they win but if they ever play Liverpool (and due to the magic of the FA Cup it has happened) there is absolutely no question where my loyalties lie.
5 Teams I Support:
- England at anything (except the Olympics where it has to be Team GB)
- Liverpool FC
- Team HTC Highroad, the lads who led Mark Cavendish to a record number of Tour de France victories were all astounding
- The New York Yankees - watching them play at Yankee stadium is an experience I will never forget
- The Lions at rugby - see, we can play nicely with Ireland
They say you should never judge a book by the cover, but I think they are wrong. We make snap judgements all the time based on appearances and assumptions.
I am (nearly) always happy to be proved wrong, but I form instant opinions about people when I first meet them. These opinions may well change as more information comes to light, but if we're honest we all form our first impressions on a number of pre-determined factors.
The First 5 Things I Notice About People:
- Their accent
- Their height
- Their smile
- Their hands
- Their manners
5 Subjects I Like to Photograph:
- My cat
- Reflections in water
- Vineyards
- Plants
- Cyclists
