This post of Susanna’s really made me think of times long gone and the games we used to play, so I’ve created my first meme and yes, it’s a nostalgia trip but it’s also a nod to invention and imagination.

1. The game I loved?

British Bulldog – loud, brash, dangerous but great fun, knock down ginger was another fave

2. The game I hated?

Ladders – you sat on the floor, alternately opposite, with legs stretched out to create the ‘ladder’ and some heffalump would run over your legs.

3. The games we made up as kids?

Coming from a family of six children, there’s no shortage of ideas when it comes to imaginary play.

The Holiday Let Prank Call
My parents always left holidays to the last minute. I remember my Dad handing the newspaper to us, small ads for holiday let cottages circled in a pen…my sister and I had to call them up. Oh silly him! We’d take small change to the phone box and call up the adverts in very stupid voices and very silly accents. We rarely made it through the whole call as we’d end up curled up on the floor shrieking with laughter. More often than not, they hung up before we did.

The Free Hearing Test
My eldest brother went to boarding school, then university when I was quite young. We’d spend weeks cooking up pranks to play on him when he came home, not just because we missed him, but because he was so easy to wind up. Our favourite prank was sending off the reply paid ad for a Free Hearing Test. We’d arrange an appointment for when he was home and make sure he opened the door to the salesman. The best thing was his reaction to the salesman who would over enunciate, gesticulate and speak very loudly….still makes me snigger…we daren’t remind him!

Clod wars
It’s really hard to imagine how I would react if I saw Miniminx try and pull this one off, but then again she’s an only child and not part the unruly army that I was. Next door but one to us was another family, with four kids, who we were on off friends with. We bickered and postured and if things got really bad, a battle commenced. We’d embark on all out Clod Wars. Every spade, fork, hoe, rake was dragged out of the garden shed, and we’d hit the rose bed and start digging up clods of earth. Balancing them on garden tools, we’d take aim and fire at our enemies. Being one of the youngest (and smallest), I would often get a mouthful of dirt as my own clods rebounded off the garden fence and hit me in the face.

4. The games my child has invented?

First there’s

‘My name’s Mummy and I’m going to work today and you’re going to have to….blad di blah di blah – yeah??!!’ which is usually accompanied with a pair of my high heels, my handbag and my sunglasses – I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry!

Second, a really silly one in the garden that’s actually hysterically funny is bucket football – just grab a football and a bucket and take aim and fire…a game of hit, miss and fall down laughing!

And third, which is possibly the most natural is when she finds a leaf, or a conker, a dandelion and reinvents a bat and ball which keeps her happy for ages.

So now it’s over to you lovely ladies, please take your badge and join this meme. I’m curious too – have the old games died out? Do we let our children run wild with their imaginations? Are children even allowed to play anymore?

Just four simple questions so answer and pass on to four of your favourite blogs…

1. What’s the game you loved?

4. What games has your child invented?

Here you go, all the founding members of British Mummy Bloggers – play it back if you will x

Part Mummy Part Me, Got Your Hands Full, Maternal Tales,
, A Modern Mother, Jo Beaufoix, Potty Mummy, Nappy Valley Girl, Dulwich Divorcee, Little Mummy, Alpha Mummy, Sticky Fingers, Multitude, Violet Posy, I Promise That I Will Do My Best, More Than Just a Mother, A Confused Take That Fan, Wahm-Bahm, Home Office Mum, Single Parent Dad, Bambino Goodies, The Green Familia, Emma Bradshaw, Almost Mrs. Average, Book of Rubbish Ideas, Wallstory, That Girl 39, Welcome to My World Jan Mary, Mummy Do That Reluctant Mumsahib, Most/Least, Family Affairs, Samantha Smythe’s Modern Family Journal, NixdMinx, Wife in the North, Living Abroad, Bee Drunken, New Mum, Same Old Me, Some Mothers Do Ave Em, Just a Plan Ride Away, Life and Times of Manic Mel, Beta Mum, Highland Housewife, Mothership, Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy?, Smoking Mum, Paradise Lost in Translation, Bush Mummy, Mummojo, Sass-e Mum, Surprise Mum, Working Mum, Not Wrong, Just Different, Crystal Jigsaw, Holly’s Never, Never Land, Raving Mary’s Rage Page, Footballer’s Knees, Elsie Button, Deluded Woman, Bringing Up Charlie, DJ Kirkby, Grit’s Day, Mother of Shrek, MadnStiching, Auntie Gwen’s Diary, Deb Carr’s Daydreams, Thames Valley Mums Blog, London Mums Blog, Expat Mums Blog, Adventure Mother, My Life for the World to See, Claire Lancaster, The Buggy Blogger, Noble Savage, Funky Angel, A Boy With Aspergers, Guienea Pig Mum, Mums Money Tips, Huddle and Bliss, Reasons to be Cheerful, Bramley Mums, Perfectly Happy Mum, Beautiful Spectrum, Kate Morris…

She’s tagged me that Tara Cain…and I’m playing along because she has made me laugh myself silly. I refer to one of her Wordless Wednesday posts, which particulary strikes a chord today as it’s 11pm, the school holiday and I have two 9 year olds making a camp in the living room right now (hence I’m demoted to the kitchen table …)

So for all you fab blogging ladies, here you are – you’re tagged and I’m doing it because you are at least two, three or all of these a) I’ve actually met you! b) I love your blog (that applies to all of you) c) you are interesting and unique and that means something d) you have given me awards e) you’ve given me great support … sorry sorry but it’s not me that gets the blame …

PartMummyPartMe
WhostheMummy
YummyMammy
VioletPosy
Brits in Bosnia
Havealovelytime
LizJarvis
English Mum
LondonBaby
NobleSavage
AlphaMummy
PottyMummy

Here are my questions and you my lovelies are going to have to answer them too:

1. Who is the hottest movie star?

Has to be Johhny Depp or Benicio de Toro or Cary Grant or Keanu Reaves or…brown eyes black hair every time

2. Apart from your house and your car, what’s the most expensive item you’ve ever bought?

Would have to be dental work – gold teeth/porcelain implants(soooo bling) close to 5 figures for my dental work…work done in Harley Street and I am a wimp so I employed SedateMe to administer the lovely giggly drugs and was high as a kite for hours until the pain kicked in

3. What’s your most treasured memory?

Too many to mention which is why I always have a secret smile and sometimes snicker when I’m on my own

4. What was the best gift you ever received as a child?

Ooooh, now that would have to be a doll’s house. My Dad asked me and my sister what we DIDN’T want for Christmas. So I cottoned on to the sly old fox and got the joke, my sister didn’t and asked for a Yamaha Organ….she was a handful anyway, but Christmas day was bedlam that year. I was the happy one ) We’ve often thought of sending the organ to Damian Hirst to include in one of his formaldehyde tanks…or was that my sister?

5. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made?

Today? Yesterday? Life’s full of mistakes, I learn from them.

6. 4 words to describe yourself.

One of a kind

7. What was your highlight or lowlight of 2008?

Going out there and doing it – lots of travel for work and pleasure; Vegas, California, Amsterdam, road trip across France and back, Ibiza, Berlin, moving by the river and changing my career – 2009 is reaping the benefits

8. Favourite film?

The Big Lebowski for laughter, Eternal Sunshine to bring me back to Earth, The End of the Affair to make me keep faith, The Godfather II is the don…

9. Tell me one thing I don’t know about you.
Oh this popped out of my unchained gob today: I tried to break into a safe at Scotland Yard while drinking whisky and smoking a cigar…it was a long time ago…the safe remained safe

10. If you were a comic book/strip or cartoon character, who would you be?

I’ve never stripped for the general public and if I did it would be very comical and cartoon like – I used to get called Olive Oil a lot.

Here you go honey bunnies….don’t blame me, blame Tara Meme…..

Here are your questions so off you go and do the same and I think as an added Minxiness, you should add question 11 to the mix, What was your latest indulgence?

Now you go girls, when you have the time and don’t forget the tagging, we need to see how far this one can go:

1. Who is the hottest movie star?

2. Apart from your house and your car, what’s the most expensive item you’ve ever bought?

3. What’s your most treasured memory?

4. What was the best gift you ever received as a child?

5. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made?

6. 4 words to describe yourself.

7. What was your highlight or lowlight of 2008?

8. Favourite film?

9. Tell me one thing I don’t know about you.

10. If you were a comic book/strip or cartoon character, who would you be?

11. What was your latest indulgence?

TTFN x