Sepia Saturday

The village shown in the photo above is Shotely Bridge in Northern England.  Although these buildings are still standing today, Shotley Bridge has grown over even just the past view years. Mostly with residential buildings, the center remains similar today as it was then.  This is the village where I spent most of my childhood.  Growing up the buildings in the right of this photo were a video store, grocery store and news agent.  Now, the building on the right are part of a restaurant.
On the left was a Heritage Center, now I can't even recall what is there.  I spent several saturday afternoon in the Heritage Center learning about my neighbourhood, looking at old photos such as this one.
The photo below is pretty much what is looked like when I lived here (around 1990).

I must admit that I never really saw as much hussle and bussle in modern day Shotley Bridge as there was in the first photo.  There was rarely anyone on the street, other than me and my buddies when I was growing up.

It was a great place to be a child though, we used to spend a lot of time playing down by the river (which is down the road in the back right of the photo).  On hot summer days we used to play in the river.  Good times :)

Shotley Bridge roots began around the 17th century as some German Swordmakers settled here.  Down by the river you can still find some large rocks with holes in them that were used in the sword making process.

    SEPIA SATURDAY is a weekly meme which encourages bloggers to publish and share old images and photographs. All that is required is for contributors to post an old image (it doesn't have to be in sepia) and provide a few words in explanation. If you could provide a link back to the Sepia Saturday Blog and visit as many of the other contributors as you can, it would also be appreciated. There is no weekly theme, as such, but some people like to use the archive image published with the weekly call as a kind of theme. There is no requirement to adopt such an approach : the choice of image is entirely up to you. Once you have published your Sepia Saturday post, add a link to that post to the Linky List published each week and leave a comment to let everyone know you are joining in.

Rum Commericals and a Meme

How I didn't think to write about this yesterday when I was rambling about the meaning of my name I'll never know. It makes me chuckle even more at the meaning manly. You'll be pleased to know that my parents did not spend hours reading baby name books, looking for a name they could call there little baby girl. Instead they decided if it was a boy it would be James (after my father). Its a tradition in England to names boys after there fathers. We have 4 Billy's in our family for that very reason, Granddad Billy, Uncle Billy, Cousin Billy and Baby Billy (what I'll call baby billy when he is no longer a baby I do not know, maybe it will end up sticking).

Anyways, back to me, in the case that I was to be a girl, my mum quite liked Caitlyn, however my dad got the final vote for some reason. He quite liked the look of Caroline Munro. I don't think it was so much the name he like the look of as it was her herself, but that's where it comes from.

If you are unfamilar with who she is, as I was until a year or two ago. Here's some information, and more importantly, a picture. I think my dad saw her on Lambs Rum Commercial as she was there poster child for 10 years or so. Caroline Munro is a British actress and model best known for her many appearances in science fiction and action films of the 1970 and 1980. As you can see from the picture, there's nothing manly about her.



Now to the Meme. I actually will admit that I didn't know what Meme meant, so I had to google it. So incase you, like me are ingnorant to its meaning, heres a quick definition: A meme (pronounced /miːm or mɛm/) consists of any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.

Here are the rules of the game that I cut and pasted from Max's most wonderfull blog, which he then took from Canucklehead's parody of a blog:

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.

2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.

3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.

4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment on their blog and tell them they’ve been tagged, and to come back and read your blog for the whole story.


So here they are, all 8 of them:

- I have a closet FFXI addiction. Its true I really do. Many of my RL friends are not aware of this.
- I've lived in 3 continents. My definition of living in a place, consists of me going to the cinema there. Europe, Austrailisa and North America
- I do not drive, I have never have, I don't have a license. This means that I am always the Designated Drunkard
- My happiest moment was when my little brother was born. He was so cute. Now he's a horrid teenager. Just kidding squadge, I love you!
- I have no middle name.
- One of the things I have done that I am most proud of, was to speak about equal rights in the workplace for Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender peeps, in Washington DC last year. It was an incredible experience.
- I met Alan Shearer at Newcastle airport before they played Southend a few years back, and I was such a goof, I had no clue what to say to him, I was well and truely star struck.
- My favourite job ever was working in a video rental store, I got to watch movies all day, and has they had an off-license attached I got discounted booze! woo hoo!


So heres whom I am tagging: Leroy Brown Tangeryne
i'll add more later got to go for now