The boy of summer

It’s only just turned May but thanks to Isabelle in our house it has just turned, er August, according to the official Isabelle calendar 2015 at least…and who would argue with that?

Iz’s favourite Funstar at Haven is Alex, who appears in her calendar pic with her for the month of August as he sang happy birthday to her last year live on stage, hence that picture having a very special place in Iz’s heart.

We will have to switch it back to May soon though as his eyes (and eyebrows) do tend to follow you round the room 🙂

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Iz so egg-cited (and she just can’t hide it)

Easter, the first time Iz has been back to Haven since October last year and boy was she rather looking forward to it.

All of this with the added excitement of gaining an unexpected Frozen bedspread, with Anna and Elsa on her duvet and Olaf on the pillow, it was unexpected as I only went and left all of our bed linen at home!

Bed bits (finally) sorted, Iz typically wanted to do pretty much everything in the first 10 minutes of getting here.

Cue a montage, that practically happened in real time, of Iz hitting the playground (essential and well earned after being so good in the car), heading to the arcades to tick off her first ride, zipping down the zip wire like a Blue Peter presenter auditionee (which saw Iz make her Vine debut), getting some sweets and of course…seeing Anxious the Elephant and the rest of the Seaside Squad.

Or should that have been Anna-cious the Elephant as she gave her own rendition of a Frozen medley, the perfect melding of two of Isabelle’s most favourite things.

Iz then got to pose for the umpteenth time with Anxious, not that it mattered to her as each time feels like the very first.

Dancing was followed by further, you guessed it, dancing to the antics of those Fun Stars and Iz was the proud recipient of a sticker as a reward for her excellent moves, I um taught her all she knows.

Time for a breather and a burger, practically inhaled, and we headed back to the van with a pooped out little girl, who still found room for a slice of pizza, and then her head hit her Olaf pillow, typically clutching her beloved Anxious as she recharged her batteries for another day of adventure.

Anxious the Elephant in the sweet smell of success

You got a friend in me, so goes the Randy Newman (no relation) tune that is essentially the Toy Story anthem. Iz might not have a Woody or Buzz but she does have Anxious the Elephant, one of The Seaside Squad from Haven holidays.

Anxious has been a firm favourite, nay, the only favourite since she first  clapped eyes on her when she was two. The sassy pink elephant travels everywhere with her, wherever she sleeps (sleep is not even possible without her, we bought a second one in the event of losing the original, think of her as the Vice Anxious but Iz – Invasion of the Body Snatchers style – knows that it is merely a ‘clone’), rides around in her buggy, sits in her bike basket E.T. style and also travels in the car with us each morning to school, getting a giant kiss and cuddle from Iz before she skips off to breakfast club.

It’s fair to say that she’s a well established part of the family, it’s also fair to say that she stinks. How much? Put it this way you can always find her in the dark or she acts like extreme smelling salts when you find her stuffed into your face part way through the night. I guess you could say she is ripe or even smells like she has escaped from the pink elephant’s graveyard.

And it was Isabelle’s decision that Anxious had become a tad whiffy and she – like a bolt from the blue – asked if she could be washed so that, for a short while at least, she could be the sweetest smelling Anxious the pink elephant in all the land leaving her refreshed and ready for them both to conquer 2015 together.

Clean or (mostly) dirty and stinky, it matters not as paraphrasing the beginning titles to that other pink pet, Bagpuss, Isabelle still loved her…

King of Cameos

Stephen King has long been the number one name in horror but over the years his face has turned up, mostly in cameo appearances, in many of his adaptations long before the likes of Stan Lee was mugging in the background of the latest Marvel release.

King may not have been spotted stacking shelves in Haven just yet but Dean Newman takes a look back at the King of cameos.

Pet Sematary (1988)

This was the first of his books that King adapted for the screen, as well as scribing duties King also wound up popping up in the graveyard, how apt, as the minister giving the service at a funeral. It was a clip that was also heavily used in the trailer and King really looks to be relishing the role and is certainly my favourite appearance and so very apt to be surrounded by all that death with King as much the master of ceremonies as he is the master of horror.

Stand By Me (1986)

Okay so King himself doesn’t actually appear physically but the film, based on the short novella The Body, is semi-autobiographical and clearly King as the young writer to be. So essentially King is Wil Wheaton and Richard Dreyfuss, the latter who mostly appears as a voiceover apart from at the very end in perhaps one of the greatest most poignant endings in film history. King still has the marks left by the leeches scene…

Creepshow (1982)

 Less of a cameo as King appears in one of the segments In Creepshow, Stephen King plays Jordy Verrill in the segment entitled “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill.” Jordy Verrill, a country bumpkin, discovers a meteor on his property and soon finds himself, and his entire home, consumed by some sort of meteor fungal that first takes over his house and then him – can’t wait to see what Dr Pixie makes of that on Embarrassing Bodies!

King also played a Truck Driver in Creepshow 2 during the segment, The Hitchhiker

The Stand (1994)

For many The Stand is regarding as King’s magnus opus and as such he delivered a script for epic in scope television adaptation. It was perhaps only fitting then that King kept on popping up, just to keep an eye on proceedings you understand, as Teddy Weizak throughout this land mark mini-series.

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

If it wasn’t committed to celluloid then King probably wouldn’t even remember his turn as an irate man at a cashpoint who swiftly gets his comeuppance due to the fact, by his own self admission, that he was pretty much off his face on drugs during this period. A curio more than a classic.

The Shining (1997)

No, not that one. Although the Kubrick version is hailed as a classic of horror cinema, King hated it, so, as you do, he had it remade closer to the original novel as a two part TV movie. In this adaptation King has a turn as the band leader.

Quantum Leap (1990)

Oh boy! In this horror tinged edition of the time travelling do-gooder Sam Beckett, which takes place on October 31st 1964 and sees him end up meeting a young boy who just so happens to have a dog called Cujo, that’s right a young ‘Stephen King’.

Allusions to other King books include Christine, Carrie and The Dark Half, and the episodes title? The Boogieman.

The Simpsons (2000)

Appeared as himself signing books in the episode Insane Clown Poppy, obviously a riff on IT. As an interesting side note, one of his more recent books, Under the Dome, was reminiscent of certain elements of The Simpsons Movie, not the Spider Pig bit I should imagine though.

The X-Files (1998)

King cameoed off screen as a writer of one of the shows fifth season episodes, Chinga, that dealt with witches, possessed dolls, random acts of violence (seeing as you ask people gouging their own eyes out), all of course set in Maine (where else!)

Sleepwalkers (1992)

 He was the cemetery caretaker in ‘Sleepwalkers’ –perhaps he should have buried it before it was released. It’s rather shonky to say the least with only the rather lovely Madchen Amick as its redeeming feature. He shared screentime in the good company of fellow horror scribe Clive Barker.