I'm so there - give me five years or so. England or bust!

This song used to creep me out a bit (I was very sensitive to the minor key as a child, I guess :-P)- but I loved it.

Sam Is The Hero Next Door!

So-ho-ho-ho...

I had intended to start of this blog series about male role models by focusing on someone real and awesome and admirable, like William Wilberforce or George Müller (who shall not escape, however - I hope! - from being written about in the series) to show off as a shining example of manliness, but I find my brain is not in the correct mood for writing about admirable historical persons, manly and all as they may be. Also, today is the last day of Bush Fire Awareness Week in NSW. So I shall revert to my dearly beloved childhood and give you my manliness critique of:


Fireman Sam
(Isn't his cowlick the cutest?)

Fireman Sam is a Welsh stop-motion children's program. (In researching this blog I note that there is a new, CG series, but I will ignore it as a travesty of my childhood memories and continue).
I am, of course, zoning in on the personal character of the eponymous Sam and his fitness as a role model for my generation.

Starting off, Samuel Jones, fireman, esq., is always impeccably dressed (in his fireman uniform, but let's not push a point.). The Art of Manliness says that 'Appearance matters.'

He is proficient at his chosen occupation, calm in emergencies... and possesses an inventive mind, always a bonus ... and his - hair! And - WELSH ACCENT! Sorry, moment of weakness there.

A Piece Of My Brain That Should Have Stayed Asleep

Oh. My. Gosh. (Haha, the first time I wrote that it came out as 'goth'. Mildly funny.)
Just discovered that a children's show I thought was only a figment of my imagination really existed. Normally I love these moments, but... I only remembered it about a year ago - and it was during a really, really horrible dream. I only had the vaguest idea that it might be a real show, which idea I abandoned when nobody else had heard of it and the internet yielded no results. Of course, I don't think the dream scenario actually happened in the show, but all the characters and the opening titles and even some of the plot did, which freaks me out. I won't tell you what happened in the dream (I can't even remember fully what was so horrible), but it disturbs me that my brain has the capacity to hold onto such weird useless junk - and twist it into disturbing stuff nearly two decades later whilst I sleep! And how old was I when I watched it? It aired in Canada in 1991! My brain's translation of the memory into a nightmare might have something to do with the line 'behind the wall where no one can see'... and the fact the mice sit around in the library all night in the dark... and look completely freaky...

Lots of my childhood TV memories have this effect on me - it would be so much fun to do a study and see if this is a widespread phenomenon (or if it's just me and my stupid brain). I don't think I'll own a TV when I have kids - we'll just have a DVD player (if DVDs are still the in thing by then) and some good movies. But when you watch these bits of kids telly of the 90s you've got to admit that some of it is pretty disturbed.

I mean, I loved William's Wish Wellingtons, Where's Wally (can't believe I can't find the intro for this show!), Fireman Sam, Postman Pat, Bob the Builder (and how can I resist jogging everybody's memory with THIS. Seriously, I want to marry Bob), Bananas in Pajamas, and Sesame Street and Playschool, Mr. Squiggle, Brum (what's with the fat guys in overalls?), Okie Doke, Ferry Boat Fred... Thomas and Friends rather bored me, I'll have to admit, but it doesn't haunt my nightmares.

There's a selection of shows that I loved that still freaked me out and haunted me for years - chief among which is:

This show frightened me - and I loved it anyway. Because it was weird and unpredictable and quirky. And has the best, catchiest theme tune ever.

Also this:

Me and J were sooooo addicted to this show - almost as much as Saddle Club (but let's not go there). It was dark, it took itself seriously, but we loved that. It didn't seem to talk down to children like lots of shows do. It freaked me out, but I enjoyed it.

And there were some kids' shows which were interesting and fun to watch - but the characters were so annoying! Usually these shows involved people in big heavy-looking suits. (Once you realised that they were people in suits it was all over. Big chunk of childhood innocence gone, right there.)

Have to go to bed. Right now.