Monthly Archives: December 2009
So Many Baby Names to Choose From…
When a couple have the first confirmation that they are going to be parents one of the first questions arising is; what will we call our future child? This question propagates to all the family and suddenly everyone is got a name for your baby. This fact confuses even more the future parents. What at the beginning was an election between three or four options now it became a big list of the most peculiar and different baby names you have ever imagined. I going to make a classification of the sources that most of the people take into account at the time to came up with baby names:
Family Members; One of the first option is to name your future child as the same as you or your partner or sometimes yours or your partners parents. This option that used to be one of the baby names preference, now it is decreasing in the recent decades.
Famous People; another common option is to pick up baby names from one of the famous characters of your favourite movie, TV series or program, or any celebrity that take the attention of the parents.
Historic Names; Sometimes people just prefer to go through history in search of epic and biblical names that could reflect the personality and character of their future son.
Weird Baby Names; In special cases, parents decide to go for the most weird and unusual baby names ever heard. I am talking about baby names taken from brands, expressions and all sort of strange terms that sometimes appear on magazines or TV.
If you are thinking about different baby names just have in mind how your future son will feel when he grows. Don’t let you go by fashion or trendy names of the moment, just have in mind that when your son will be a grownup, many things that were cool and interesting at that moment they will not be anymore.
Toys – Get Educated
What constitutes educational toys? When you’re young it seems parents and relatives and governments are all very eager to ensure that kids get plenty of stimulating toys. But when you’re a nipper, it is surely true to say that everything is an educational toy. Every little thing that happens is a learning experience; from being able to touch your toes to learning that if you cry you’ll be fed.
But it has to be admitted that some toys develop these skills more rapidly – special awareness can be improved by giving your child a square-peg round-hole style toy, for example. Books can of course help develop reading skills – one of the most important skills of all. Equally, mathematics skills essential for being fully equipped for the future adult life – and there are plenty of electronic devices that can help with this.
But the truth is, any kind of stimulation will help a child learn the educational and social skills they need to progress.
Lego Loan
I really wanted to build a house out of Lego like my hero James May. I really wanted to, but I didn’t have the 20 thousand pounds required to pay for the bricks. You see my difficulty? Yes. My credit rating was pretty bad, so I couldn’t get a loan from the bank. If my credit rating was good, I’m sure they’d have loved to have lent me the money for a Lego house. But it wasn’t, so I decided to consider a guarantor loan.
What are these? These are little loans that are guaranteed by someone else. That other person, as you may have guessed, needs to have an exemplary credit rating. If they do, then they can risk everything for you and your stupid Lego house; in this case, me and my stupid Lego house.
And they did. It was my great uncle Stavros from Istanbul; he’s made his money trading coloured silks, shipping them in from Mesopotamia. Anyway, he said he would be my guarantor, as he really liked Lego.
Turns out I never managed to make any repayments and old Uncle Stavros had to foot the bill. Unfortunately, I had signed an agreement with Stavros saying that if i defaulted I would still have to pay him back over time.
So my Lego house (yeah I did build it, yes it was shit) was repossessed by bailiffs – turned out dismantling a Lego door isn’t breaking and entering.
Booze is Good for You
For anyone who’d been there, there is nothing more dull than the north of France. It’s all flat and only serves to remind us how suitable flat land is for mass trench warfare. But with this in mind, it is surprising perhaps to remind ourselves that the north of France gave us Champagne.
Champagne got a name for itself because of its association with French royalty. Ever since then people have associated the drink with wealth – and so Champagne remains one of the most expensive drinks you can buy. Another reason why it so expensive is that it is generally only made in the Champagne region of France.
But how does it get all fizzy? Surely they couldn’t have carbonated wine way back in the reign of Louis XIV? Right? Wrong! They could! How? They used a process of secondary fermentation that I’m not too familiar with. Anyway, the important point is that they did it, a few hundred years before Mr. Coca J. Cola did it.
So there we are – northern France ain’t so bad after all. Du Pan, Du Vin and of course some unnamed brand of cheese.
Champagne is great, but if you want to combine getting smashed with healthiness – then you would be better advised to go for the red version. Good red wine can help scour your cheese-lined arteries. But if you don’t have any handy, just use Champagne instead.
