Friday, June 1, 2012

Things I Remembered Yesterday... (And A Giveaway!)

Yesterday I walked into the lounge room only to witness an all in brawl about to break out. I quickly sought out the root of the problem and learned from my three year old son that 'Olivia and Darcy were singing the boys part of the song, and they were girls.' For all it was worth, he was speaking another language. I approached Olivia, who is far wiser at the grand old age of seven, to find out what was going on.

"We were listening to this song, and Darcy and I were singing and dancing and Sam started yelling at us because he thinks only boys are allowed to sing this bit and that we have to wait for the girl bit to sing."

Still following?

Before I could actually resolve the issue, I found myself cast back a good 25 + years to my own childhood. Within seconds I was sitting in my loungeroom as an 8 year old, alongside my younger brother and sister. The theme song to Inspector Gadget was blaring and we were mid way through a massive loungeroom brawl. I was insisting on being Penny, my brother had to be Inspector Gadget (because he was a boy), which meant that my little sister had to be Brain, the dog (and only remaining character). The rules were simple. You WERE your assigned character, and you could claim all bragging rights for any cool things they did in a given episode. Furthermore, we were assigned specific lines to sing in the introduction and any break from routine surely resulted in a sibling beating. (Or at the very least, verbal hammering).

Flash back to the present. Nothing much has changed; only the faces. How could I deal with this properly when I understood the passion? So instead, I yelled "BE NICE TO EACH OTHER!" and then turned and left the room.

So with the theme song to Inspector Gadget still ringing in my ears, I started to fondly recall the early days of television in my life. Who could forget classic such as Danger Mouse and Count Duckula? (And on a side note - did you know that David Jason was the man behind voices in both those classics?! No? Neither did I...until today).

The flashbacks didn't stop there. Olivia (after she had bound and gagged her siblings for inappropriate miming) started asking me about Roald Dahl (famed children's author - do I even need to write that??). I immediately downloaded 'The Witches' (my favourite Roald Dahl story) for the kids to watch, and we spent a good part of the afternoon chilling out on the lounge watching this. It was brilliant!

One of our favourite Roald Dahl stories in this house is 'The B.F.G.' As you may already know, 'The B.F.G.' is a tale for all ages about a little girl called Sophie and a 'Big Friendly Giant' who set out to rid the world of the gruesome 'bone crunching' giants that eat little children for breakfast. Oh yes, no topic is off limits in this house!

So here is something else I learned yesterday...

It's been 30 years since Roald Dahl first created the B.F.G., and to celebrate the creation of this timeless character, the fully animated feature film version of The B.F.G. is being brought to DVD. This classic children’s tale is available on DVD on June 7th, by Roadshow Entertainment   (http://www.village.com.au/), and features the voice of... none other than... David Jason!!!! (See you learn something new every day!)



To celebrate the release of 'The B.F.G.' on DVD, I am running a giveaway! (Yay - my first ever!) I have 5 copies of 'The B.F.G.' to giveaway!

All you need to do is:  1. Tell me in the comments below what your favourite Roald Dahl
                                        story is (and why) in 25-100 words, and then head over to my  
                                        facebook page (link above) and leave your name under the BFG
                                        link.

                                        or...

                                    2. Go to my facebook page and leave a comment on what your
                                        favourite Roald Dahl story is (and why) in 25-100 words.
                                   
IT'S THAT EASY!

Thanks to Roadshow Entertainment for the fantastic giveaway!

Also remember to pop over regularly to the 'Promotions and Giveaway' page, as I will keep a list of what's going on there! x

PS. If you are really feeling the love, feel free to click on the Village Roadshow link above! x

PPS. Competition closes on Monday 11th June, and is only open to residents of Australia and New Zealand! The winners will be randomly selected from all the entries. Judges decision (that's me) is final. No correspondence will be entered into.





9 comments:

  1. Hi there, just started following your blog. Isn't it an odd feeling when you see your kids doing stuff and you're immediately transported back to your own childhood?! I nearly took my kids to the Roald Dahl museum at the weekend actually, but think they're still a bit young... Vic:)

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    1. Thanks for following! Where abouts is the Roald Dahl museum? Would have to be England right? And yes - I find the whole 'history repeating' thing happening more and more!

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  2. We love Roald Dahl here - our favourite is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, such a wonderful tale to imagine yourselves in, chocolate, magical qualities and the little one as "hero"!

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  3. Hi Jess,

    Hope my class and I aren't too late! Our favourite book from Roald Dahl is the BFG and we just finished reading it in class! Here are some of the reasons that the kids in my class (ranging from Prep to Year Four) liked the BFG.
    "I like the BFG because he is a nice giant." (prep student)
    "I liked the story because the BFG used funny words and it made the story fun to listen to." (Year Three)
    "The BFG was a good story because there were lots of exciting parts" (Year Two)
    "I like the BFG because he is a funny and good character who looked after Sophie really well." (Year Four)
    And me - I like the BFG because it was amusing to read to the kids, there were parts that I had to stop reading in because I was laughing too much!

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    1. Thanks for your entry! Wonderful replies! Goodluck! x

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  4. My favourite is James and the Giant peach. I have such a great memory of my Grade 5 teacher reading it to the class, chapter by chapter. It was my favourite part of the week. Gosh I loved that teacher. Oh no, The Witches, this would be my number one, same teacher. So many great books. Rachel x

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    1. Oooohhh I love the Witches! And teachers who read to their classes!

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  5. OOOHHHHHHH I love the Witches... and teachers who read to their classes! x

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