This little teddy bear that’s doing the rounds on Facebook captured my heart the moment I saw him because it reminded me so much of my teddy. I was given my little one on the day I was born and he’s spent every day and night on my bed since. I’ve always had a very over-active imagination and bad dreams, so I know my teddy kept the worst monsters away while I was growing up. And I think he still does

My faithful teddy

After a bit of digging, I found that this artwork is called Sweet Halloween Dreams and it’s by Alex Pangop. You can follow him on deviant art, he’s got some cool stuff.

I also found this website: The Teddy Bear Tales of Wonder and Adventure. It seems to use the slogan – Protecting innocent children… – as a basis for the books. I’m not sure what came first, the image or the tagline, but both are awesome

Some additional reading on this pic and teddies in general:

Grey Gecko Press

The Teddy Bear Wiki (I love the history of the Teddy Bear – I had no idea about it)

I always get mocked for my love of color and my sometimes – um – vibrant – fashion choices. But, as you can see, it started early for me… Two hats, hot pink, tartan – some of my favourite outfits

This one to the right is one of my favourite baby pics. It’s from my very first dance show. I think I was about 3 or 4. You’ll notice that my white tennis shoes aren’t exactly plain white I apparently flat refused to wear white tennis shoes so I attacked them with glitter glue!

This is quite a common theme and I’m sure a lot of these ideas have been covered by people far more knowledgeable than I, but I thought I would add my 2 cents worth

Growing up I loved Disney, as did every other kid, and part of me still does. I may be jaded about love and not believe in fairy tales but I do still want to believe in magic. So I do But in the process of growing up I did a course at university which opened my eyes quite a bit. The course was Contemporary Popular Culture and the best part of it was the “Disney is evil and has brainwashed you” section. The funniest part was watching how angry the students got when the lecturer trashed a huge part of their childhood (I sometimes wonder how these people survive in the real world if they refuse to look beyond the obvious and can’t workout that the lecturer was merely pushing the envelope to get us to think and question… the entire point of doing a BA!!! But I digress…)

So here are my brain farts on Disney (some original Faeron, some not…) :

Beauty and the Beast: Succumbing to Stockholm Syndrome… It’s ok, so long as it gets you a husband! (this, so-long-as-it-gets-you-a-husband theme is quite common in Disney)

Aladdin: Don’t work hard kiddies, steal stuff and a Princess will fall for you… Of course she believed you were a Prince at the time of said falling and by the time she realised what you really were it was too late and she had invested. In other words, pretend to be what you aren’t and then by the time the lies fall down you’ll be trapped. Oh wait, I think I may sound bitter here

The Little Mermaid: My favourite Disney movie! But… Getting a wave to splash dramatically behind you while you sing about growing legs and stalking a man is really difficult. Have you ever tried it? It really isn’t that easy. And the whole dramatic hair flip as you gracefully burst out of the ocean… No… Long hair is very rarely graceful when you are emerging from the ocean, best not to attempt that.

(And I know both of these Mermaid points as a result of years of attempting to accomplish them, both in the swimming pool and the ocean… The only part I got right ever was the stalking – oh, wait, I wasn’t supposed to admit that out loud )

The Lion King: Well aside from the fact that there are no people in Africa… and the bad guy has a British accent (yes America, we do notice these things). I don’t think this movie tried to teach us anything too bad. I even met a guy in Zanzibar who said “Asante sana, squash banana”

(But I assume that was because some obnoxious tourist once asked him to and he got a good reaction from the other idjit tourists around so he continues say it…)

There are so many other instances of stupid women in Disney movies. I mean, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White both get woken up by true love’s kiss… They never met the guy! And in Sleeping Beauty’s case, he’s how much younger than her?!?

But I think Disney has redeemed itself and isn’t all evil. Have you seen Enchanted? Do yourself a favour and watch it! Amy Adams is the luckiest girl in the world because she gets to play a real-life Disney Princess (I secretly hate her for that, but can’t think of a more perfect actress to play the part).

But why I love this movie and why I think it redeems Disney, is because they made fun of themselves and made fun of the entire genre of animated fairy tales that they created and became famous for.  It’s a funny and whimsical Disney movie while still being intelligent.

So I got a real job… I started working full time last week…

Yes, that sudden movement was the Earth shifting on its axis from the shock of the whole thing!

People keep asking me how I’m finding this huge adjustment to my lifestyle… Well, I’ve not even done a full week yet! (Thank you public holidays )

The people are nice, the work hasn’t killed me (yet) and yes… they may read this so I have to be nice…

I think the best lesson my parents have taught me is that age is merely a number. You are not old until you feel old or think you are old. My parents are not old. They are in their 60s and they are more active than me most of the time! And I think they have a better social life.

Insanity is hereditary... You get it from your kids

Growing up I never thought of my parents as old. I remember in my teens I realised that my parents were easily 10 years older then most of my friends’ parents. Mine were in their 30s when they had me and my brother. But my parents so often seemed younger than the other parents. Being very close to my mom, I was always happy that my friends thought my parents was really cool.

So all I can hope is to keep living as they do. Stay young by refusing to grow old and to just keep exercising. And remember to be a little bit immature at least once a day

And it also helps to know that my parents aren’t the only people who are not growing old. Someone sent me this video with Ginger Rogers salsa dancing at age 92. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!!!