Listography: Time-Travelling!

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This week KateTakes5 has come up with a marvellous idea which got me thinking "oooh!" straight away.

So with a selection of Quantum Leap inspired thoughts, here are my moments where I 'strive to put right what once went wrong!' Sorry I lost myself with Sam and Al then, here are my top five places and times to visit to experience.

  • South Wales, 1970s: My Bampi died when I was two years old and while I have just the one very powerful memory of him, I do regret that I never had more time with him like I did with my other grandparents. From all accounts, not just my mum's, he was a gentle, kind and loving man, father and grandfather. I would love to see him when he was fit and healthy, learn from his gardening expertise and bask in his kindly smile.
  • 2075-ish: Let's face facts here, I'm 33 and have had a 1yr old son. There is a very slim chance (especially taking into account my grandparents' ages when they died) that I am going to be alive to see my grandchildren get married, so I'd really love to see The Boy's own children walk down the aisle or wherever is fashionable at that time. I'd also like to check out if Apple have sorted out iTunes yet into a decent piece of software.

I'm actually struggling! I thought I'd have loads of ideas to write down, but one of my favourite philosophies is "You can't regret something you have done, only something you haven't". So I can't very well go back and tap myself on the shoulder and say, 'oi, no! Don't do that!'

  • Late 2004: I'd like to warn Jen about that Angelina woman so she can keep an eye on Brad.
  • The Year 3000: Just to find out if they really do 'live under water'.
  • Last Wednesday: Then I could tell myself the winning National Lottery numbers and win the jackpot!

ShowOff ShowCase: The One That Should Have Done Better

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I know, it sounds like an episode of Friends doesn't it?

After last week's spectacular response to my humble linky, I thought I'd go for a theme almost the opposite in nature. The one that you enjoyed writing, read it back to yourself and thought "yep, that's going to go down well", and one person read it and no-one commented. It's the blog-post that makes you question your ability as a blogger.

The One That Should Have Done Better.

So this is your chance to make it shine, shove it in people's faces again, flaunt it and allow it to shout at the top of its lungs:

"Please read me, I WAS A GOOD POST! I do not deserve to fester at the bottom of the site stats chart!"

I know it's a hard one to link up to, especially for more established bloggers who've been going for years. There's a lot of posts to sift through. I've had my own issues finding one because I moved my blog after a month, so I've had to take into account two different site statistics. I've also had difficulty choosing because there were a couple that I could have gone for, the brilliant blogger that I am.

I considered the story of The Chair or the semi-informative teething one (Sleepless Nights and Pearly Whites), but then I discovered the one I really was surprised about.

If you want to find out which one it is, you'll have to read it won't you?

ShowOff ShowCase

 

Flashback Friday: Climbing

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As I'm sure is the case with many of you, we use the 'My Pictures' slideshow as the screensaver on our laptop; seeing photographs and little videos of The Boy at various stages of development and in numerous poses really makes my day. It reminds me how tiny he once was, all the escapades that he's got into, and how funny he is.

The photograph that I've chosen as this week's Flashback Friday popped up on the screen a few days ago and reminded me of the first time I was filled with that first sense of 'I need to babyproof the house!'

The day I discovered that we needed a stairgate!

This was taken about a year ago, The Boy was crawling over the place and thinking about cruising. This was the very first time that he had pulled himself up against anything though, so I whipped my phone out when he was on his way upwards, took a photo and rescued him before he decided to investigate the stairs even further. I popped him into the playpen, sent the MMS to my hubby and phoned my dad. Half an hour later, there was a knock at the door and my father was stood on the door-step with his toolbox. The stairgate was up before The Boy had a chance to try again!

Not quite sure what I'm going to do now, as he's recently worked out how to open it!

I loved those dungarees (another reason for choosing the photo).

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This was put together for the Flashback Friday linky over at CafeBebe. Please pop over and view the other entries.

When I grow up…

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Kate's moved.

Well, she hasn't but Listography has this week. The lovely Mañana Mama is hosting this week and a lovely theme she has come up with too: things I want to be when I grow up.

So rewind to the age of 10, and for some reason I wanted to be a bank manager. I think I was doing well at long division sums in school and had therefore concluded that it was the only possible career.

Luckily I outgrew that when I discovered quadratic equations. Bleugh.

So here's my grown-up wish-list.

1) Own a baby-friendly tea-room. When Woolworths closed down in our local town (God, I miss Woolies. How many times have you thought "I need x, y and z. I know Woolies will have it! Ah, damn.") I was desperate to win the lottery and buy the double-width store. My plan was to sell baby/toddler toys and essentials at the front, and then at the back have a coffee-shop/baby play area with quality toys. The food would be home-made and nutritious, for both children and adults, and a full range of hot and cold coffees etc would be available. But I didn't win the lottery and it's now a Sainsbury's.

2) Teacher. Yep, check. Moving on…

That sounds harsh. I like my job but I wish I could throw the rulebook out of the window!

3) Merchandiser. Shop windows, displays, mannequins, you name it, I would love to make it look.more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Tying in nicely here…

4) Professional gift-wrapper. Yes, I am serious. I adore wrapping presents, for me it is a very serious event. Ribbons (I don't like those silly bows), co-ordinating paper, neat edges, barely there sellotape! Love it!

5) Traffic Warden. It irritates the  chuff out of me that some people think that they can just park where they like, especially the members of the Yacht Club in my town. Arrogant! Book them all!

I've forgotten how to do long division, does anyone ever really know?

My School Photo

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Earlier today, Tara over at Sticky Fingers opened her linky for The Gallery: Education. I entered my link (I'm no. 15 if anyone wants a nosey!) and was secretly rather pleased with myself for thinking outside of the box with this week's task.

However, it seems that I may have misunderstood as an awful lot of the entries were of people's school photos circa 1970s/80s. On closer inspection, it transpires that Tara had expressed an interest in this, especially when she mentioned that she was going to be putting together a Bloggers' Yearbook using the photos from the linky.

Ah right, whoops!

Not one to want to miss out, I thought I would offer you my school photograph, taken in 1988 at the tender age of 11 when I was embarking on the journey to secondary school. Here you go:

Come on now, you didn't think I'd actually put a photo of me up, did you?

'Education'

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Being a teacher you'd think that I'd find The Gallery theme set by Tara this week easy, correct?

No, wrong.

I suppose because I blog about the way the The Boy learns and how I find this fascinating, I didn't want to go for the obvious solution. So I decided to think a little outside the box. I did ask him for suggestions but he just looked at me, handed me the remote control and said "Tubbies?"

I hung my head in despair, which is when I noticed one of his play-sets.

And so I bring you our take on education, because we like to be a little bit different.