Wednesday 12 September 2012

Holiday names

Yesterday I mentioned that when we go on holiday we don't use our real names to each other we have "Holiday Names". This began on The Scottish Trip which I mentioned yesterday .
Today I will try and explain by using that trip as my example.
Mr and Mrs Bluefunnel with Mr and Mrs M
There were six of us in the car, three adults and three children. It was 1979. Mrs Bluefunnel had been asked by Mr Bluefunnel (who is not a small person) to get him some comfortable cotton underwear because he would be driving for a long time. She bought Airtex Y front underpants in what grew to be size extra huge.
These he donned for the outward journey, however, the loading of the car and trailer and the walking back and forth to get all of us and our pillows and "shutups" (I'll explain those in another post) caused the said underpants to.... how shall I put this?...... ride up, shall we say?
We set off from the house and had driven only four miles when we pulled into a layby (for those of you reading from abroad this is a parking space on the side of the road) so that Mr Bluefunnel could step out of the car and adjust his clothing. To do this he had to stick his leg out to the side and shake it vigorously, then shake the other leg and finally do a little wiggle of the hips before getting back into the car and driving off.
The stunned silence in the vehicle eventually caused him to say "What? What? My underpants wanted to be a vest (singlet) so I had to shake them down again!"
My daughter suggested that he looked like a character called Wilmott, from a TV programme called Rosie that was popular at the time. He had his holiday name.
My daughter also suggested that Mrs Bluefunnel's hair was just like "Aunty Val's dog Kelly" and she had her name.
As we passed Manchester airport I pointed to a plane coming in to land saying "The plane! the plane!" and I became Tattoo (courtesy of Fantasy Island)
My daughter has the innate ability to destroy things by touching them and between south Wales and the scottish border she poured a cup of orange squash over herself and then wiped it up with the pillowcase she was going to be sleeping on for the next three weeks and then simply by trying to clean the viewfinder on her camera she pushed the little tiny piece of perspex into the camera body. She became Selwyn after the TV character Selwyn Froggett.
Youngest son was always too busy trying to emulate his big brother to notice stuff going on around him and he became Radar - because he was the absolute opposite of the M.A.S.H character. His brother became Hotlips at his own suggestion just to keep youngest son company in the same TV programme.

So there you have it. Holiday names They can be continued to all holidays or they can be for just one. They can be added to during the holiday, for example there was a heated game of bicycle tennis in one campsite where Hotlips Navratilova and Radar Goolagong were up against Wilmott Nastase in what proved to be a nailbiting match - well it was until the German scouts arrived. You get the idea though, don't you? It's because you are in a place where no one knows you and you are acting totally out of character with sightseeing and stuff so you need a good name for the holiday journal............ You do keep a holiday journal don't you? yes, I thought so.
Mr M and I have holiday names that we have used for thirty years now. He is Horace, after the Hungry Horace arcade game and I am Hector. Tired old Hector from Hector's House. This because he is always hungry and I can sleep anywhere.

2 comments:

Barbara Eads said...

What a fun idea!!

Sian said...

I'm very glad I asked. I knew I would be :) Thank you!