Did you ever have a shocking moment of 'Ta-Dah!' that you just weren't expecting?

This blog is dedicated to all the innocent or naive people in the world.

I sit here writing this in a shocked state.

Did you ever have a moment of 'Ta-Dah!' that you just weren't expecting? I have just had one whilst listening to Radio 2 whilst they played Gene Pitney's 24 hours from Tulsa.

Now, I am 43 years old, so I know the song and have sung along with the chorus many of times, but I have never really 'listened' to the song. I have always thought it was a sweet song about a bloke on his way home to his wife, just calling to let her know he was close.

How wrong was I !!!

If you are like me and haven't ever connected the dots, I'll tell you what it is really about:

It's about a bloke on his way home who stops off somewhere a day away from home, meets another woman, does the dirty and is basically telling his current girlfriend/wife that he's not coming back!!!

SHOCKED!

I feel like Emma Pillsbury, Jayma Mays' character in Glee Season 3, when she found out what Afternoon Delight was really about (and no I didn't know what this song was about either! I am soooooo naive).

Jayma said in an interview with E! 
"I didn't know it was so dirty, I don't know if I thought it was about pie, but I can remember singing that song with my parents when I was growing up. That's so creepy now."

"My mom and dad wrote me an email the next morning [after the episode] and were like, 'We had no idea what that meant!" Mays laughed. "We're like the most innocent family ever."


And I'm going to give you another example... 

Michael Bublé has just had a really happy sounding song out called It's a Beautiful Day, but take a moment to really listen to the words, and you'll find it's about a guy whose girlfriend wants to take a break, and instead of being upset he's really, REALLY happy about it. I'm going to guess that many of his Bublettes may not have listened too closely.

It's a Beautiful Day's chorus:

Hey hey hey
It's a beautiful day and I can't stop myself from smiling
If we're drinking, then I'm buying
And I know there's no denying
It's a beautiful day, the sun is up, the music's playing
And even if it started raining
You won't hear this boy complaining
'Cause I'm glad that you're the one who got away
It's a beautiful day


So, if like me you are a bit naive (only in some things *wink*) I hope I didn't shock you too much, and if you are worldly wise please be kind to us innocents, we need looking after.

Thanks for reading
Karen Lee

Cheeky Umbrellas - Serendipity in Canada

serendipity |ˌserənˈdipitē|nounthe occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. 

Just over 2 years ago I went to Canada to visit relatives. I took my computer to keep in touch with  home, and one morning when I was up earlier than everyone else, I was surfing the net, and had a rootie-toot on twitter. Just by chance I came across a tweet from a umbrella company based in Vancouver, Cheeky Umbrellas. At this time I was on Vancouver Island, but a few days later I would be staying in Vancouver, so I thought that it would be worth a chance to see if I could set up a meeting with the owner/designer Jen.

I know, I know..... I was on holiday, and in the normal world I wouldn't recommend doing business on your hols, but I'm not normal (never a truer word was written!), and couldn't pass up this opportunity after I found out how cool the brollies were, there just wasn't an equivalent brand available in Britain.





I tweeted back and a couple of emails later I was all set up to meet Jen at Lonsdale Quay (this is the first  and only time I've gone to a business meeting by ferry).

Jen turned up toting a rather large bag, designed for skis I think, filled with loads of gorgeous, stylish, quality umbrellas with quirky secret messages on the underside. I loved all the brollies, the quality of the fabric, the mechanism, even the soft feel handle was a delight. 

I loved 'em, wanted 'em, needed to get them in my web shop. So 2 years and 1 whole month from the date of our meeting, these Cheeky umbrellas are finally available on our Hello Brolly website.

There are 4 designs which are available in both long stick and folding styles.

These are the secret messages that can only be seen by the person under the umbrella.

Cheeky not only do these secret message brollies, they also do some very stylish ladies golf umbrellas that have vented windproof canopies. My mum and dad are lifelong golfers (I've dabbled but never seriously), and I have seen many boring golf brollies, or worse still, golf company branded brollies (eeeeek!), but in all this time, I have never seen such gorgeous golf brollies as these Cheeky ones.

Cheeky's gorgeous Golf Umbrellas.

So be one of the first people in the UK to have a Cheeky umbrella experience, just click here to go to the Cheeky page on the Hello Brolly website.

Thanks for reading
Karen Lee