The Wednesday Hodgepodge #57

I hope you are all having a good week. It's Wednesday, which means it's time to join in with the Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce who blogs at From This Side of the Pond! Each week there are 6 questions, we answer and then link up. Simple!

1. Do you like your name? Are you named after someone (grandparent, etc)? If you have children how did you choose their names?

I do mostly like my name. It’s short, simple, easy to spell and easy to say. The only time it causes issues is when something official comes along and they assume my full name must be Kimberly. It’s not. It’s just Kim. My parents were both very much on the practical side when it came to names. My dad struggled to spell his surname when he was younger and my mum with her first name, so they decided not to pass that struggle on. My brother and I ended up with short names that were easy to spell and hard to mess up. Three letters each.

So much thought is put into our children's names, I remember reading through books of baby names when I was pregnant. With Becky she was going to be a Chloe or Olivia for a girl or Jack and Kane for a boy. I was a huge wrestling fan and there was a wrestler called Kane who I loved. It turns out when she was born, the midwife asked what we were calling her and I came out with Rebecca. Don't ask me where it came from? I can't really remember why I said it apart from that she looked like a Rebecca. We knew early on that Ellie was a girl, so Stu and I didn't even consider any boys names. We had a deal when I fell pregnant that he would name a boy and me a girl. We had a few other names picked out for Ellie. She could have been Louise or a Jessica but Ellie suited her!

2. A piece of red velvet cake, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a slice of blueberry pie? You can only have one...which will you choose? If you could pick any red, white, or blue dessert other than those listed here, what would you choose?

That's easy. I'd choose red velvet cake. I love it and don't eat it often enough! A scoop of vanilla ice cream seems a little boring when the cake it on offer and I am not a fan of blueberries, I will eat the odd one in a dessert if there are only a few but usually I avoid them. If I could choose my own, I would go for a bowl of strawberries, a white chocolate cheesecake and I can't think of anything blue that doesn't involve blueberries.

3. What's a job you'd like to try for just one day?

A surgeon. I'm currently rewatching Grey's Anatomy and at this point I feel like I’ve picked up enough medical vocabulary to confidently walk into an operating theatre and at least nod in the right places while someone hands me things. In reality, I would not be trusted anywhere near an actual scalpel but for the sake of a just one day experience I reckon I could take an appendix out if someone made the first cut for me. I’d love to see what it’s really like behind the scenes.

4. Any patriotic decor in your home currently or coming up this summer?

Nope, there's nothing patriotic in my home. It’s not really something I’ve ever done in my house. Living in England, we do see it more during big sporting events. Flags will start appearing in windows, cars, pubs and basically anywhere they can be attached without falling off next month when the World Cup starts. People really get into it, especially when the England team are doing well. The St George’s Cross is a tricky one these days. For me, it’s always just been the England flag, it is as simple as that but in recent years it’s also been tied up in other political meanings and debates linked to extreme political views or anti-immigration messages, which makes it feel more complicated than it used to be.

5. It's the end of May, so let's exercise our brains. Sum up your month with an acrostic using the word MAY. We can do it!!

M – Memories of random little moments that made me smile.

A – A mix of calm days and messy ones where I’ve been juggling too many things at once and pretending I’ve got it all under control.

Y – Year is moving quicker than I’d like it to. One minute it’s January, next thing I know I’m wondering how we’re nearly halfway through already.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

It’s too hot. There I said it. I know 30C (86F) doesn’t sound hot but here in England we are not built for it. We don’t have air conditioning so it feels like we are being slow roasted in our homes. Right now I’m sat here waiting for a little handheld fan to finish charging like it’s some sort of lifeline and when it’s ready, it will basically be glued to my face until it runs out again. Then I’ll repeat the entire process. Yes, we do have a normal plug-in fan but I’m still traumatised from a few years ago during a heatwave when we all had fans running constantly and ended up with a huge electricity bill. We spent more on electricity in one day running the fans than we did for the rest of the month! Oops. Over the last few days we've had the hottest days ever recorded in May, I dread to think what the summer temperatures will be like. Eek!