9th – 15th September 2013

9th September 2013
Celebration: Julia Sawalha + Hugh Grant’s Birthdays
Mission: Watch “Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death”
Status: Complete
Notes: Julia Sawalha was born in London on this day in 1968, while Hugh Grant was born eight years earlier in Hammersmith. Hugh’s most famous for his role in Four Weddings & a Funeral, while Julia is probably best known as the daughter in Absolutely Fabulous. The appeared together in the Red Nose Day Doctor Who special “The Curse of Fatal Death” in which Julia plays the Doctor’s assistant, to Rowan Atkinson’s Doctor, until killed by Jonathan Pryce’s The Master & regenerates into Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and then finally Joanna Lumley – who we spotted recently in a south London supermarket buying eggs.

10th September 2013
Celebration: Your Birthday
Mission: Party hard
Status: Complete-ish
Notes: I was born in Winchester on this day in 1979. There were doughnuts in the office at work, and we had some folks round in the evening for pizza & some drinks. And a great venn diagram cake baked by my lovely wife.

11th September 2013
Celebration: Richard Ashcroft’s Birthday
Mission: Listen to “Cast No Shadow”
Status: Complete
Notes: Richard Ashcroft was born in Manchester on this day in 1971. He was lead singer with the Verve and then went also solo. The Oasis song ‘Cast No Shadow’ was dedicated to him. I also listened to Ashcroft’s ‘Song for the Lovers’ and Verve’s ‘History’.

12th September 2013
Commiseration: Death of Johnny Cash (2003)
Mission: Wear black
Status: Complete
Notes: Country/rock signer Johnny Cash died in Nashville, Tennessee on this day in 2003 from complications with his diabetes.

13th September 2013
Celebration: International Chocolate Day
Mission: Get Kate some chocolate
Status: Complete
Notes: Easy mission this one – my boss had supplied me with a Hotel Chocolat selection box for my birthday.

14th September 2013
Celebration: Amy Winehouse’s Birthday
Mission: Visit Camden
Status: Complete
Notes: Pop songstress Amy Winehouse was born in Southgate, London on this day in 1983, but her ‘spiritual home’ was undoubtedly Camden Town (indeed, she died there in July 2011). Turns out we weren’t the only folks making a Winehouse based Camden pilgrimage today.

So we visited the Proud Camden Gallery’s exhibition for Amy’s (would’ve been) 30th Birthday… “For You I Was A Flame.”

15th September 2013
Celebration: National Hispanic Day
Mission: Have something Spanish for lunch
Status: Complete
Notes: Toastie, made with Spanish chorizo.

1st – 8th September 2013

1st September 2013
Celebration: Disaster Prevention Day
Mission: Prevent a disaster
Status: Failed to actively prevent a disaster, however none were presented to me
Notes: A 7.9 Mw earthquake struck the Kantō Plain in Japan on this day in 1923.

2nd September 2013
Celebration: Keanu Reeves’ Birthday
Mission: Call everyone “Duuuude” all day
Status: No
Notes: Film star Keanu Reeves was born in Beirut on this day in 1964 to an English mother and a Hawaii father. Most famous for being Neo from The Matrix and Ted “Theodore” Logan from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventue. He was also Jonathan Harker in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, the hero-cop in Speed, and not even pretending to be from Liverpool in Constantine.

3rd September 2013
Celebration: William Wordsworth composed the sonnet “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802”
Mission: Compose your own sonnet about a London bridge
Status: No
Notes: Despite the title of this poem, it was actually composed on 31st July 1802.

4th September 2013
Celebration: Beyoncé’s Birthday
Mission: Shake your tush
Status: No. I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly
Notes: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter was born in Houston, Texas on this day in 1981. She started out as one of Destiny’s Child, but then went solo.

5th September 2013
Celebration: Freddie Mercury’s Birthday
Mission: Rock out to some Queen
Status: Complete
Notes: Farrokh Bulsara was born in Zanzibar on this day in 1946 to Indian parents working in the British Colonial Office. He went to boarding school in India where he learned to play piano and changed his name to Freddie Bulsara. Following the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964 his family relocated to Feltham in England, and Freddie went to study Art & Graphic Design in West London. In 1970 he joined Brian May & Roger Taylor’s band Smile. He renamed the band as Queen and renamed himself as Freddie Mercury.

6th September 2013
Commiseration: Death of Pavarotti
Mission: Sing “Nessun Dorma”
Status: No
Notes: Opera singer Luciano Pavarotti died at his home in Modena on this day in 2007. He was most famous as the singer of Nessun Dorma, the BBC’s theme-song for the football world cup Italia ’90, and as one of The Three Tenors.

7th September 2013
Commiseration: National Threatened Species Day (Australia)
Mission: Visit the emus at Battersea Park Children’s Zoo
Status: No
Notes: The last known thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus, or “Dog -headed pouched-one”, also known as a Tasmanian Tiger) died in Hobart Zoo in Tasmania on this day in 1936. Someone said it was called Benjamin, but it turned out he was lying. They were tigery looking marsupials. We didn’t go to Battersea, but we did go to Littleton in Hampshire and saw what can only be described as a “Horse-Cow”.

Unless you want to describe it as a “Cow-Horse”.

8th September 2013
Commiseration: International Literary Day
Mission: Read your children a book
Status: Complete
Notes: Writing this update almost a month later, I can’t actually remember what we read now… but we always have books at bedtime, so I’m calling this one a ‘Complete’.

10th August 2013 – Death of Isaac Hayes (2008)

Commiseration: Death of Isaac Hayes (2008)

Mission: Watch the final appearance of Chef in South Park

Status: Complete

Notes: 70s funkster & soul-singer Isaac Hayes died of a stroke on this day in 2008. He was also known as the voice of South Park’s Chef.

Isaac resigned from South Park following their episode that mocked his preferred religion of Scientology. The South Park creators responded immediately (9 days between resignation & broadcast) with an episode that not only killed Chef off, but turned him into a child molester.

 

5th August 2013 – International Beer Day

Celebration: International Beer Day

Mission: Have a beer

Status: Complete

Notes: I didn’t just have a beer; I had an international beer – specifically la première bière Française – Kronenbourg Seize Cent Soixante Quatre.

International beer day was founded in Santa Cruz, California in 2007.

14th June 2013 – Reuben’s 4th Birthday

Celebration: Reuben’s 4th Birthday

Mission: Do something fun with your little boy

Status: Complete

Notes: Reuben Alexander was born in St Thomas’ on this day in 2009. Roo had a huge stash of pressies to work through this morning…

…which included the last couple of Octonauts to complete his crew…

…and a pirate costume (hat shown below) that might come in handy tomorrow…

Morning was taken up with playing with new toys and reading new books (such as Penguin In Peril, which you can see in the foreground in the picture above), until it was time for Roo to go to nursery school in the afternoon which included the very long and convoluted birthday ritual (which in turn included the very long and convoluted Nursery School Birthday Day Song) and cake for all. Then we went for pizza with Roo’s friends J&A, and his godmother dropped by to give him another present (a Lego fire-engine).

10th April 2013 – Death of Little Eva (2003)

Celebration: Death of Little Eva (2003)

Mission: Cuddle our own little Eva

Status: Complete

Notes: Eva Narcissus Boyd, AKA Little Eva, was an American pop singer in the 60s who first brought us The Loco-Motion, later covered by Kylie. She died from cancer in North Carolina on this day in 2003.

As regular readers may have gathered, we have a baby girl called Eva – and as she is just a baby she can be easily classed as “little”.

In other news: this is Blog Post 100!
Woo!

6th April 2013 – Tartan Day (USA + Canada)

Celebration: Tartan Day (USA + Canada)

Mission: Wear something tartan

Status: Complete

Notes: In 1747, the Act of Proscription banned, amongst other things, the wearing of “highland clothing” in the hope of encouraging Scotland to accept it’s position as a part of Great Britain and stop being so rebellious. The act lasted 35 years before it’s abolition, and then on 1st July 1982 the mayor of New York declared Tartan Day as the 200th anniversary of being allowed to wear tartan again. Five years later in 1987, Canada decided it sounded like fun & that they should have a Tartan Day every year, but they chose 6th April. Australia started a Tartan Day celebration in 1989, but they stuck with the original 1st July date. Scotland itself joined in the 6th April celebrations from 2004, and even Argentina started celebrating Tartan Day from April 2006. In 2008 George Bush decided to get in on the Scottish action as well, and so the USA now also celebrates Tartan Day on 6th April by presidential proclamation.

Meanwhile… the family have also chosen this day to celebrate Passover. We do Passover every year, but never on the actual proper day – organising that many people to congregate in the same place at the same time is always tricky. Having gone though most of the day without wearing any tartan, my sister-in-law (the one who gave us Souffle-Owl) found me a tartan scarf and Mission Complete!

18th March 2013 – Death of Natasha Richardson (2009)

Celebration: Death of Natasha Richardson (2009)

Mission: Play “Silly Lullaby” to Roo

Status: Complete

Notes: Actress Natasha Richardson, daughter of Vanessa Redgrave & wife of Liam Neeson, sadly passed away in New York on this day in 2009 following a head injury why skiing in Quebec two days before. Please wear a helmet if you’re going to go skiing. I played Silly Lullaby, written by Sandra Boynton & sung by Natasha Richardson for Boynton’s Philadelphia Chickens album to Reuben this morning and he liked it. He then requested a Peppa Pig song.

Tonight we read through the Silly Lullaby from the Sandra Boynton book Snoozers, and Roo gave me his version (as done from memory – he can’t read yet) – and you can enjoy it too by clicking here.

5th March 2013 – Birthday of Matt Lucas and the Proclaimers

Celebration: Birthday of Matt Lucas and the Proclaimers

Mission: Watch the Comic Relief 2007 video

Status: Complete

Notes: Matt “What are the scores, George Dawes?” Lucas was born in Paddington on this day in 1974, which was the 12th birthday of Charlie “Proclaimer” Reid and Craig “Proclaimer” Reid. The twins were born in Leith, Scotland on this day in 1962. As well as sharing a birthday, Lucas & the Reid twins appeared together for 2007’s Comic Relief song “500 Miles”.

Meanwhile, it was also National Book Day – so Roo went to nursery dressed as a wizard.

Here he is performing his “disappearing hand” spell.

27th February 2013 – Death of Spike Milligan (2002)

Celebration: Death of Spike Milligan (2002)

Mission: Watch some Goons on YouTube

Status: Failed

Notes: Spike Milligan, one of the Goons, passed away in Rye on this day 11 years ago aged 83. I didn’t quite get round to checking any YouTube on the day, but my wife did text me one of his limericks, although at the time I didn’t twig what was going on.

There was a young man named Wyatt
Whose voice was exceedingly quiet
And then one day
It faded away