Different, Unusual ... Nice?

Overheard at a sporting event recently:

Mum: "Chantay (pron.SHON-tay) ... come here darling!"
Cheeky bystander: "oooh, that's a nice name, where's that from?"
Mum: "I made it up!! I just liked it"
Me: (to myself) 'why, of course you did, Renay" (just guessing)
Kath & Kim from the balconies .. "different .... unusual  .... nice...."

Kim: Mum to EPPONNEE-RAE with her mum Kath

The bogan sophisticate is inching their way into the modern lexicon with ever so lovely made up, trendy and special names and pronunciations.  Chantelle is very French glamour for SHON-TEW.  Whilst a little bit 70's and 80's, we can still find a few lovely lasses called MISH-EW.

We're being assisted with some more anglicised spellings, thank you REN-AY and let's not confuse you with a Christmas song KARYL.

Inspiration comes from everywhere and I know you'd like your little fireball to be assertive and all, but BUFFY does not say vampire slayer, it says pole dancer/porn star.

That's just the girls.

Everyone knows that all the naughty boys are called 'B' names.  Bradley, Brendan (way back when), Braden, Ben (on occasion) and Brandon have all been on the bench outside the principal's office at one time or another.

Brayden/Kayden/Jayden can all skip the principal's office and go straight to jail.

The Toni/Tony confusion is mildly bearable if you're a girl but I'm sorry WILLOW, we now know you're a boy having been corrected by your mother. It must have been the pageboy haircut that caused the further confusion.

Peter Peterson, Michael Michaelson, John Johnson? You'd better work very hard or be very creative to avoid being likened to those that named you, who are either very lazy or have no imagination.

Are we really responsible enough to choose a name for our children that is not going to scar them for life?  Will the name you've lovingly selected (or invented) have them marginalised for its pomposity, weird spelling or gender confusion?  Is the name that you've chosen saying bogan, edgy, elitist (thank you Elizabeth), lazy or just plain dull?  Are you going for different, unusual or just nice?

Parents have got so many other things to be blamed for; is it fair to have a new exhausted parent, delirious from labour and nursery paint fumes, make a lifelong commitment on behalf of their child?

Perhaps names should be randomly allocated by a computer and children could choose their "real name" at eighteen.

Then you could simply blame the machine.  Just a thought.

Disclaimer:  I have an Italian name, with an anglicised pronunciation that no-one can spell and everyone pronounces the Italian way.  I am immune to the pain after these many years.  I share my names FRANCESCA MELANIE with the children of Deborah Kerr of "From Here to Eternity" and "The King & I" fame.  I can go a kiss in the surf as passionate as theirs when pressed.

Co-incidentally, Clint Eastwood, (shares a birthday with my brother) named his daughter Francesca after the protagonist in "Bridges of Madison County", played in the movie by the gorgeous, incomparable Meryl Streep.  Or maybe it was a tribute to Meryl.  Hmmm.

Hair salons are ideal places for sharing your thought on tattoos

I had my hair colour done this week by a young girl (aren't they all young) who tells me in the course of our conversation that she's twenty two.  This came about when I told her my husband's niece was only 22.  "That's how old I am" ... DONG! Foot in mouth and then slowly out again.

Our conversation was about tattoos and I was asking her about the rose tattoo she had on each shoulder.  She told me they were a tribute to her grandmothers, each who had passed away in the last few years.  For some reason I was compelled to share with her that I thought with tattoos, that there is a lot of pressure to choose the right design being that they're for life.  I went on.  My brother-in-law told my 'only 22' niece, who co-incidentally is a hairdresser, that she should consider what life would be like if she had to choose just one hairstyle for the rest of her life.  Big decision - what style would go well from 22 through to 85?  She was adequately swayed from rushing out to get that 'tramp stamp' she was so eager to get (and be included in the rather permanent fashion of the time).

My colourist said nothing.  I went on, getting that opinion firmly entrenched and of course believing when I had my foot in mouth that all about agreed with my no holds barred thoughts!  I relayed tales all the stupid tattoos friends and family had got and the regret they'd had.  Mind you, I do think that large angel wings and skeleton/muscle designs on the back are kind of cool.  "Yeah, I have angel wings with a heart in the middle on my back" offered my colourist.  Jesus wept!  This chick had at least 5 tattoos tucked under her regulation black salon cardi, she's just 22 and she's being rather kind with my rather unrestrained outburst of dislike for tattoos.

Time for an adjustment in direction.  What about body modification?  The earrings that stretch the ears into big holes?  No amount of laser is going to fix that are they?  "No, but mine shrink back when I take the rings out, so I don't think I'll need to get them sewn".  Shit!  She pulls back her hair and there's some small button-like earrings that I gather cover a reasonable sized hole.   Both left and right foot firmly in mouth, but it's just an opinion right?  Surely there is a code that says you can say what you damned well please at the hairdressers?  Or is that just me?

I ponder aloud (well I'm on a roll now... aren't I!) that tattoos are decorative, have often got sentimental links and the current mainstreaming of tattooing will open a burgeoning laser removal industry when Gen-Y finally get wrinkles, a mortgage and an interview with the private school principal on why little Ella and Madison should join their ranks.  However, the body modification, ear-stretching, nipple piercing, branding type carry-on (OK, I didn't say 'carry-on) is quite a different head-space with regard to aesthetics.  There seems to be a curiosity and almost a challenge as to how far you'll go with body modification, make it more intrinsically motivated act rather than aesthetically driven.

 Thankfully, my big feet and satellite foil hair were ushered to the wash basin.  End of story but I did feel a little sad for my new 22-year-old friend.  At 22 I was full of bravado, empowerment and "I'm beyond the age of consent, I've travelled the world, I pay taxes and I'm a bloody adult I tell you."  And now, not quite 20 years on, I look back and thank my lucky stars that I'm not nearly as cool, desperate to please and burdened with my 22-year-old tastes in clothes, men, body modification, tendency to smoke and drink Burbon & Coke (uurrgghhh... dear bogan of 22!).

What would I have got tattooed at 22?  Probably something lame like a rose on my shoulder or my hip.  Luckily, tramp stamps weren't around then.  I might have even got a Chinese symbol for "PERSEVERE" or something equally as dramatic and self-pitying.

What would I have tattooed at 40, should I be held at gunpoint, or sadly have a midlife crisis?!  Maybe my date of birth on my hip, just in case I was killed in a tsunami, or some darker eyebrows perhaps!!

For some poor lads in Queensland this week, drunken debauchery seems to be the impetus for branding each other's butts and unfortunately for them, they have a permanent reminder of their youth and a poorly judged mistake.

Tattoos .... reminder of who you are at a point of time or a shortsighted mistake?


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This could be Heaven or this could be Hell

I thought that I'd start my first blog post with a really defensive comment like "I don't know what I'm doing", "I have no time for this, it's just an experiment because numerous people have asked me if I have a blog" but I'm not.  I'm going to say "Ta Da!!!! ....here it is!!!!"

I fiddled for ages with the name of the blog because all the good ones were taken.   "No Princess Here" was not an option and I didn't really want the "noprincesshere-fm" suggestion.  Eagles song lyrics seemed to have gripped me.  My favourite one, yet unavailable was "Pink Champagne on Ice".   I thought about the Eagles song that I sing every day, Take It Easy but 'seven women on my mind' just didn't seem relevant.  I do have seven women on my mind but didn't figure it was a blog specifically for lady lovers (not that there's anything wrong with that).

I used to joke at my old job (software development) that it was like Hotel California, "you can check out any time you like but you can never leave".  Eagles again.  OK, look up the lyrics on line, not that I can't sing the damn song verbatim.  Got Google, will bloody-well use it. And there it was...."voices down the corridor".....

So welcome to my blog, such a lovely place, such a lovely place .........