Sunday Film Fest: Hoplites! Greeks at War

Do you like Ancient Greeks? Do you like vases? Do you like geekery with your animation?

May I interest you in this video. It's pretty great, brings back many memories of high school Classics classes (this is an animation of a black figure vase, in case you were wondering).

The guy who made this animation has made a bunch - this is the longest, the rest are usually less than a minute. You should watch some more now.

SCP Sunday Film Fest - Latcho Drom

So, this Sunday's video is not a Kiwi one at all, but rather a clip from Latcho Drom (1993). I've been sewing all day and listening to Tony Gatlif gypsy movie soundtracks. In my opinion, Latcho Drom is THE BEST hands down. I laugh in the face of Swing!

Watch this clip, and then go out and get the movie and watch the rest because it's fascinating and sad, and has beautiful music. And it's far more effective than Gypsy Weddings at romanticising a gypsy lifestyle. Really so much romanticisation.

GO Month

via We Heart It and FFFFOUND, Owen Gatley

I can be a little fetishistic about decluttering and organisation, a fetish that is not infrequently spurred by a quick dip into my reader. New Years is prime decluttering/reorganisation/manifesto time on the blogosphere, so imagine my JOY (pure joy) when I opened Feedly and found not one BUT FIVE appropriate posts?

Vis:

• Gala Darling
• Unicorns for Socialism
• Creating Clever (via Craftzine)
• Unclutterer
• The Domino Effect

So, see me jump up! See me rip things out of my wardrobe that I have been considering remaking or binning for yonks! See me purge books and begin to write a 2012 manifesto to stick on my wall! See me go through my email and viciously unsubscribe from various coupon sites!

Back to work today. On the way home I dropped into the library and bought six books for $2 in the book sale. Very excited to have a go at them, hope they're not dreadful.

Also I watched Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday tonight, while folding my washing and tidying around about. I thought about: Audrey's tiny waist, the men's high waisted trousers, Gregory being a black-and-white smokin' babe, and whether my hair would look as good as Audrey's in that cute little crop she gets.

SCP Sunday Film Fest – Holiday for Susan

Today, allow me to again show you one of my all time favourite NFU (National Film Unit) promotional films – Holiday For Susan. My main reason for loving this so much is the high kitsch values and retro sexism of the film and script, but also the way that the film encapsulates the high levels of optimism in and around New Zealand during the 1960s. Watch Susan as she discovers the delights of New Zealand with her bestie – and also finds love after some creepy random guy takes photos of her unasked on the plane.
Also: some of the best animated title sequences ever. I love the hearts that appear around Susan. OMG! Love!

SCP Sunday Film Fest - tiny dolls in tiny hatboxes

Today we're watching Hanlon:  In Defence of Minnie Dean (which I can't embed, unfortunately). Hanlon was pretty huge in the early 1980s, a homegrown drama based on the legal cases of one Alf Hanlon (played by That Guy from Farmer Ted) who worked in Dunedin and around Otago. However, the reason that I mostly love this is because I am fascinated by baby farming. There is bound to be one written already, but I think a Masters or PhD thesis on the topic of baby farming and women and attitudes and portrayals of women and (deep breath) narratives around baby farming would be fascinating to research, write and read. Tell me about one if you know of it.

Another reason to love this is the fact that they went to the trouble of including in the episode the little baby dolls in hatboxes that were sold as souvenir's at Minnie Dean's execution. Awesomely macabre.

You can read some newspaper articles on Minnie Dean and the Winton murders here, at the Nat Lib's Papers Past, here at NZHistory.net, and about Minnie Dean and the media here at Te Ara.

First Autumnal Weekend

Lillian Harvey, via Women Reading

I'm sure I've raved about this many a time, but I love love love the word autumnal. It makes me think about Mr Tumnus the Faun in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and he's a good faun really before he gets turned into a stone statue by the White Witch, so that has to be a good thing, doesn't it?

Last night, all the clocks went back an hour, which I didn't even notice until about 1pm, because I am totally reliant on Modern Technology to tell me the time and the Modern Technology doesn't need my help to fall back an hour. Thus, I woke up at 8 o'clock, fully rested, and managed to read the rest of my Ngaio Marsh detective story while drinking coffee and with the Boy wrapped around me. Later, we went to the vegetable markets on the Waterfront and ate steamed pork buns. Is that not Sunday Morning Heaven?

In fact, all round, this weekend has been a super uber grand old time. I tidied and cleaned the hell out of my room, so NO MORE AMBIENT DUST! I read Ngaio Marsh detective novels in the autumn sun and my Virginia Woolf biography in bed. Shannon and I made pate and James bought all the meat in the world to cook on the barbecue on Saturday (seeing out the last of the sunshine with meat). On Friday night I socialised for the first time in quite some while - I challenged the Hermit within! And the Hermit said "ok, but as long as we can watch The Wicker Man on Saturday night" so I did that too.

And finally, I'm waiting for my baked potato to bake so I can have a dinner of potatoes, and mussels, and tomato and avocado salad. I have a lovely warm and clean bed to curl up in, a mitten to knit, and an episode of Time Team to watch. A creature of small pleasures, I am Very Happy Indeed.

December 7: SCP Advent (Scary Finnish Film)

So, who knows more about Santa Claus than Finnish People. No one.

They made a scary movie and IT'S PROBABLY TRUE AND WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE.

How ever do you want me, need me etc?

Yep, so anyways, my week of Leisure is over. I am back at work doing stuff that is worked based. But I am feeling relaxed and almost - almost - patient. I'm conceptually quite fond of patience and I think that I would like to incorporate patience into my life in a greater capacity. So far I'm doing pretty well I think.

I had a dream the other night that involved me breaking in to some students' flat in order to use their iron. SCANDALOUS. Understandably, they were somewhat hacked off, because really, who does that? Also, power is really expensive and students don't like to pay lots of money for power, especially when they live in a shitty house on Aro Street. So realistic.

Another recent dream has included me being Nucky Thompson's (Boardwalk Empire) mistress and being squirrelled away because of the potential for political scandal (shocking!). I stayed at my Dad's house and he had a trashy mistress who I didn't like (I think she had a nasty perm or something). Darlings, it's been All Dreams All The Time over here. Must be related to all the the relaxation or something.

Also, does anybody know a good way to stop me grinding my teeth at night? I swear last night the Boy was about to send me to sleep in my own bed. Really, between grinding my teeth, yelling out and whimpering in my sleep, and dreaming fretfully of students and ironing, it's a wonder I wake up rested at all

For Book Club we're reading a Philip Hoare book called Leviathan, or The Whale (see here: the reference to Moby Dick). When I read the back of the book I couldn't work out what kind of book it was or why it would be interesting, ONLY TO FIND that it's amazingly interesting and engaging. I still don't know exactly how to describe it, but I can say that if you have a passion for reading well written and fascinating non-fiction you should hunt Leviathan out. Or perhaps you could give it as a present to someone? I'm not sure what kind of person would like it the best. I know my Mum wouldn't be that excited about it if that's any kind of guideline.

Recently, I also read a wonderful Natalie Clifford Barney biography called Wild Heart: Natalie Clifford Barney and the Decadence of Literary Paris. It was quite wonderful, and I liked the way it mirrored bits of the Colette biography I read a while ago. Belle epoque Paris seems a-ok to me! Except for the corsets of course, those scare the crap out of me, and I feel kind of sick just looking at them. Gag. I like my lack of waist a lot, thanks very.

I've started watching The Darling Buds of May again, which I remember being absolutely wonderful when I was little. Watching it again I came to the following conclusions:

1. Catherine Zeta Jones is gorgeous. And very, very brown.
2. The dude who plays Charley has no chin at all.
3. I love Ma and Pa Larkin.
4. I would like to eat a nice fat goose sometime.
5. There were a lot of somewhat dirty jokes that I mustn't have understood when I first watched it. I wonder if I chuckled because chuckling seemed the done thing? Did I chuckle? So confused.
6. The tarty girl who tries to seduce Charley on the strawberry fields is not really that tarty or that hot.
7. Despite it's sanitised version of 1950s English life, the Darling Buds of May is surprisingly revolutionary in its attitude towards women's sexuality. Which is awesome (I'm working off the basis that the TV series isn't so far away from the H.E. Bates book published in 1958).

And that's all I have to say about that. Pure escapism. Shannon refuses to watch it with me. But I say: ALL THE BETTER.

I've made a second list of my Christmas presents and have come to the conclusion that I'm running behind on organising anything. Every year this happens! I'm now going to have to craft in a frenetic wild frenzy of wild frenetic crafting.

Also: I sewed myself a dress and made a skirt garter. How selfish of me to craft for myself when I should have been crafting for everyone else! Also also: should I be making stuff for my boyfriend's family? I'm going to end up making a bunch of sweets again I can just see it. And then eat most of them and feel sick.

I have to go and have a Christmas-based panic attack now, please excuse.

Sunday Awesome: A Story about a Sandwich

Continuing with the theme of little brothers, is this little story about sandwiches. It's pretty cute and it'll only take you four minutes to watch it, so you probably should.

The Sandwich Movie from Sean Christensen on Vimeo.

Sunday Awesome: My first favourite New Zealand film

I loved this film when it first came out. It was the first New Zealand film I had seen that really resonated with me. Unfortunately this version has an American narrator, but hey ho.

If you get the opportunity to watch it you really should.

Summer Style Direction: in which Ginger takes stock of her "Look"

Hello hello my darlings!

This kind of thing has not particularly enthused me in the past as a blogging topic, but I've adored Alexandra Franzen's take on the whole thing so much (as in: also with concepts) that I was INSPIRED.

My direction then is

A Summer of Genteel Poverty

Inspiration:  The books I Capture the Castle and Greengage Summer, the film version of Sense and Sensibility (the colours, the sunshine and Kate Winslet) and the 1997 film version of Lolita (the colours and this spaced-out dream-feeling you get when watching).

I imagine: vaguely 1930s/40s/50s style skirts and dresses, Liberty print cottons, rose pink, navy blue, fawn-coloured cable cardigans and peach-coloured hair, and general thriftiness.

I'll be making: everything. I'm going to knit myself a fawn That Girl cardigan, and will make a bunch of cotton skirts and tunic-style tops. I also like the idea of making myself a dress from some pretty pillow cases, something like this (mmm, rick rack):

Also: bicycles, picnics in the countryside, pink champagne, Pimms, Shandies, not overspending, making my own pickles and preserves and bread, gardening, clean-smelling and well worn linens. Oh, and SUNSHINE. Did I mention sunshine?

Meandering Ponderings on a Tuesday

know that I write this nearly everyday I see the sunshine, but it really does feel as though the good weather is on it's way, and I can't hardly wait. In the weekend I had a spring clean of my bedroom and washed all my bedding, took my mattress outside for a really good air and washed the skirting boards and the floors. Heavenly is hardly the word for it; there is nothing like a fresh-smelling bedroom. However my nose is now hyper sensitive to the slightest hint of damp or mustiness (a constant issue in Wellington houses) and I'm going to have to seriously clean out the cupboard part of my manrobe from which I am getting suspicious whiffs. That cupboard has been psychically resisting my decluttering for some time but NO MORE. It shall be purged this weekend without fail. I love me a good declutter.

he last few weeks I've been struggling a bit with the whole money/budgeting thing. It's hard to keep enthusiastic during the in-between times (i.e. trying not to spend money when I can't actively see my savings increase), but I'm doing my absolute best to keep on keeping on. All in all, I've been infected with an end-of-winter lethargy, and despite my best intentions I have dropped off from making things or exercising at all. Every weekend I wake up enthused with the prospect of planting herbs and weeding gardens and making skirts and t-shirts, but then it becomes too much of a mission to get everything out and I bake and cook instead, eat lots of comfort food and find something to clean or declutter (instead gratification). Confession: blogging has fallen under this lack of enthusiasm as well.

Boo to lethargy! I've been really short of energy lately, despite getting ample sleep and eating really well. The answer lies in doing more exercise, but I find myself feeling too tired to go to yoga or skate, and I'd have to get changed and get enthusiastic and waa boo waa etc. Anyway, enough of the pity party. I know the answer to this is just to get on with it - act the way you want to feel. In an effort to get back on the enthusiasm wagon and go for a hoon, I rode my bike to work this morning, and it was fabulous - free wheeling down the hill. I like the idea of going for a cruise after work as well; think I'll ride along the water front. Tiredness won't be an excuse today because I'm always freaking tired at the moment, and if I keep using it as an excuse I'll never get anything done. Yoga tomorrow evening! I'm going to get my stretch on. Look at all the enthusiasm! Out of control.

nd Finally ...

♥ Looking like: I think I look a little bit French, but mostly totally fash. I'm wearing a stonewash pinny, opaque stockings, red cowboy boots, a stripey top and a red cardigan. That kind of sounds terrible, but trust me: It looks cute! Also, I'm wearing makeup which I almost never do, and that always makes a difference I think - as in, actively glamourises.

♥ Listening to: I finished Harry Potter. Harry Potter audio books (Stephen Fry's dulcet tones) have been my constant companion over the last few weeks, nay, months. It's quiet in my head without Ron, Hermione, Harry and the Dementors. Sad. I am sad without Dementors.

In other Listening news, I started re-organising my iTunes last night and have made playlists for different eras. My favourite one at the moment is the 50s and 60s playlist, which is mostly cheesy rock 'n' roll and girl groups. So many songs about wanting to be someone's wife.

♥ Fad a la Mode: Sleeping. All I want to do is sleep all the time. This has been going on for over a week now. See above.

♥ Watched this Week: Grey Gardens. Absolutely amaze. The documentary is fascinatingly constructed in itself, but the women that it documents (Big and Little Edie Beale) are incredible. I can not recommend highly enough. Besides which, it's infinitely quotable: "You're nothing if you're not married!".

♥ Reading: The Mitford Girls is on the go at home, and The Surgeon of Crowthorne is living in my work desk for lunch time cruising. In Christchurch I went berserk in a book shop and bought far too many literary biographies so it looks as though I'll be enjoying those until the end of the year.

♥ Webreading: I've found a couple of food blogs that I'm quite keen on at the moment: am obsessed with the bread making recipe in Budget Bytes (terrible name, but) and I am crazy for The Stone Soup (which I'm sure I've made totally apparent in the past). Both websites focus on super simple food, and as much as I love elaborate meals I'm a bit tired of cooking for hours and hours.

♥Anticipation: Thursday and Friday birthday celebrations for Jo and Nat respectively, lunch with Mum on Saturday. Also, seeing if there is anything really wrong with me (the tiredness) tomorrow will be good!

Thursday. Arohanui time

 haven't been feeling the blogging mojo so much this week. But it's all good! All about enjoying the habit, isn't it?

So, anyhow (and if it isn't patently obvious), Arohanui is Things I Love Thursday by any other name - originating from Gala Darling, an opportunity to make a list of things I love and, thusly, be super enthused for the rest of the week.

In no particular order (and apparently involving a great deal of CAPS LOCK):

♥ Sleeping with the Boy. Gushy and kinda gross to share I know, but I adore sharing my bed. And I haven't been late to work one day this week, so I must have found a way to mediate this love of spooning with productivity?

♥ Yoga times. My favourite things at the moment are: shoulder stands and being stretched into position by my instructor, and THE SPACE. Choosing to go somewhere and do something solely for myself, by myself. It's the polar opposite of roller derby in terms of exercise, and there is no pressure to make attendance. I love not having to make attendance anywhere.

♥ The ongoing underwear making habit. I'm learning the fine art of Patience in Sewing, which is an excellent lesson indeed. My most recent prototype is Prototype 4 - I've drafted a pattern but I haven't yet sewn a pair of those bad boys. BUT I'M EXCITED TO TRY! Tonight is the night, verily.

♥ My new flatmate. She is fun and likes drinking wine and makes pie and other delicious foodstuffs, and isn't afraid to eat all the porky dumplings at yum cha. Also, it's fun to have another girl in the flat and talk about shoes in the kitchen. Apparently, the sound of cackling fills the house. Ah, cackling. Also also, I haven't tried yet but I suspect that she would DANCE IN THE LOUNGE to "Single Ladies" should I apply pressure at the right time.

♥ I'm in charge of my money! And I'm in love with the feeling. It is one of the best feelings ever to know where my money is at, how much I have to spend and how my debt repayments are going. I don't feel fear when I log in to online banking, I feel pride. It's a pretty fucking cool feeling. Tears baby, tears.

And now, for your time wasting pleasure:

Thinking this would be good to see at the cinema... Can't see a release date for NZ yet though. DRAMATIC.

Awesomesauce

I normally try and save this kind of thing for a Sunday, but I'm totes in love with this video - fantastic animation. It looks as though it was rather loved in 2009 at Sundance, and rather well deservedly I must say.

In other news: I am attempting to go back to derby without losing my life balance (which I need in order to stay sane) and I have many plans to settle here and write some more. Yep. Many plans.

Today is Friday

thanks Metservice. thanks a real bunch.

♥Looking like: I'm hiding from the cold. Curse you Southerly Blast! I stamp my foot impetuously in your general direction!

♥Listening to: This 90's Chick Rock compilation made by the ever fabulous Agent Lover. OMG I love it so. Also, if you are ever roasting vegetables, this is the perfect soundtrack *nods sagely*.

♥Fad a la Mode: The open fire at the office. J'adore warm feet and sitting next to flames on a fabulously comfortable sofa.

♥Watched this Week: Nine, based on the book of the 1982 musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the film 81/2, which is a semi-autobiographical film by Fellini. It was ok. I didn't understand the necessity of the character played by Fergie, and it bugged me that she was in it. But Daniel Day Lewis and Marion Cotillard were both super fab, and the camera work and editing were admirable also. If I was going to recommend a relatively recent Hollywood musical with a super uber famous cast of thousands, I would recommend Chicago over this.

♥Reading: Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. This was Nicola's choice at Book Club, I don't think I would have ever even picked this up let alone read it otherwise, and I am super enjoying it. The man is a wit! Funny and clever.

♥Webreading: Hyperbole and a Half, and if you haven't been reading this: Darling. Where Have You Been? Sneaky Hate Spiral is a lifestyle for me, especially during the pre-bleed time.

♥Anticipation: The Boy is back next Friday, and we are leaving the same day for Tauranga and Sid's 80th Birthday. Love me a holiday.

Heute ist Donnerstag

My favourite German day of the week is Mittwoch. Not only is it uniquely satisfying to say, it is also a perfect example of how literal German is. Mittwoch = the middle of the week = Wednesday.

via

♥Looking like: I need more sleep. I fell asleep over the book I was reading last night because I stayed up far too late on Wednesday.

♥Listening to: Harry Potter audio books (still), and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. The Historian won an Audie Award and it is quite a wonderful recording. I’m enjoying the book too. That is, I don’t think it’s the most amazing literary experience that I’ve ever had but it’s certainly entertaining to listen to. I’ve made the decision not to buy any audio books for a wee while; I spend a fortune on them and I’m trying to be better about money.

♥Fad a la Mode: Worrying about money and eating too much bread and cheese.

♥Watched this Week: I borrowed a whole bunch of period drama DVDs from my mum and have been working my way through them. I’ve watched Sense and Sensibility, Elizabeth, A Room With A View, Persuasion and Mansfield Park. Also I’ve been feeling a bit flat the last few days, so I’ve turned to comfort watching the Gilmore Girls for succour.

♥Reading: I’ve picked up a bunch of books that I have had lying about for ages but haven’t finished. I’m reading The Prime of Life by Simone De Beauvoir and Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett. My copy of The Prime of Life has gone a bit mouldy. Should I be worried about this? Please answer.

The mould is on the earlier pages and I’m reading clean ones, but whenever Oprah visited those houses after the New Orleans floods she wore a full body suit and ventilator, so the mould exposure is making me a tiny bit concerned.

♥Webreading: If you must know – I’ve been wasting all my time on Lamebook and Oddly Specific. What a dick.

♥Anticipation: New job on Wednesday, and Simon Schama on Friday. I can’t hardly wait to see Simon.

Today is Dienstag

Emma Block, from her blog

♥Looking like: I’m all swoony and grossed out from the solvent that the IT dude is using to clean the printer and am displaying my patented “flared nostrils of doom”. Also, I dyed my hair in the weekend and it turned out kind of purple. UGH GROSS BAD NO. I’m hoping that it will fade out to a dark red. Now I just need to have a haircut and I shall be happy. I’m thinking that I would like a bob, which means that either I’ll have to go to the hairdressers, which I can’t really afford, or I have to cut it myself and reconcile myself to having a badly cut home bob. Such are the dramas.

♥Listening to: Natalie’s partner’s Aunty Jean has very kindly leant me the Harry Potter series on audio book, and DUDES: it’s read by Stephen Fry! Who I love! So I’m having a Harry Potter audio geek out at present.

♥Fad a la Mode: changing the names of all my projects on Ravelry so they sound crazy sexy cool kooky. Oh yeah. I’ve simultaneously increased my Rav-cred and my geekdom, I’m that good.

♥Watched this Week: Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Green Gables the Sequel and I’m about to embark on Anne of Green Gables the Continuing Story. I loved Anne as a little girl and I desperately, desperately wanted to be her. I wanted red hair and freckles and puff sleeves and green eyes and a love/hate relationship with a boy named Gilbert. However: re-watching the movie makes me think that Anne is a sap. I’m afraid I’m going to have to re-read the books to see how I really feel about her.

My annoyance with the movies makes me feel as though part of my deep seated knowledge of myself has been destroyed, i.e. the knowledge that I loved Anne Shirley because she was awesome and I was awesome in wanting to be her. WOE! I thought it was fabulous that she was such a drama queen, and (difficult to believe I know), I kind of styled myself on it. In the real world, Anne is mostly just irritating.

Oh.
I hate writing that.

(NB: I'm pretty sure that Anne is completely and utterly the inspiration for dying my hair red/auburn/ginger at every opportunity).

♥Reading: I’ve finished my Colette biography. At present I am “between books” unless you count all of the books that I’m partially through reading and have abandoned. I might pick up the second volume of Simone de Beauvoir’s biography again, provided she doesn’t whine endlessly about Sartre (hah! I kill me).

♥Webreading: No time no time no time! Whenever I’m on the web I’m changing the names of my projects on Ravelry. Have I mentioned that?

♥Anticipation: Drink with my departing brother Josh tonight, a blog and booze evening with Bex tomorrow, cheap eats and general fabulosity with Nat on Thursday, and the Boy back briefly this weekend.

Wednesday List: Ways I know I’m getting older

this cartoon is by the always lovely Beatrice at Master of Arts

• I’ve started checking the weather forecast obsessively. It’s now one of my favourite pages in the newspaper and I was very pleased at the new Metservice site redesign that has allowed me to see the weather ten days into the future.

• Finding Dilbert cartoons funny. Two years ago I would read them and be distinctly unamused. Nowadays, after I’ve read the weather page I flick straight to the Dilbert cartoon. One of my favourite morning routines.

• Last weekend I was in bed before 11pm on Friday and Saturday night and I was extraordinarily pleased with this turn of events.

• Learning tolerance and acceptance towards some things (family members’ quirks, long waits for buses and trains) and then feeling deep deep intolerance for others (other people’s loud music on school nights, puddles on the bathroom floor, a sink full of dirty water). I’m sure the categories of tolerance/intolerance have swapped over.

• Acknowledging when something makes me feel crap, and making a decision to accept it and move on rather than bitching about it until I make myself feel like a terrible person.

• Witnessing my first full scale fashion style revival. The 80s revival thing was quirky and nostalgic in a childhood kind of a way but this more recent 90s revival is very spooky and way too close to home. I refuse to see a repeat of “The Year of the Slip Dress”. It was unflattering on me in 1995 and I doubt that it’s going to look much better 15 years later. ALSO I saw a band called Dear Times Waste at Camp and I was suddenly back in 1996, lying on my teenage bed in my teenage bedroom, complaining that no one understood me, writing angsty poetry and thinking about the Drew Barrymore movie with all the butterflies.

Today is Tuesday

VIA

♥Looking like: Today I’m wearing my Vague Person yellow t-shirt with the sleeves lopped off, Karen Walker two-tone jeans and a pair of cracked plastic court shoes that I bought at an op shop. These shoes are MUCH cooler than they sound, brown mock crocodile skin and wiggly things and cracked across the toe. They look tres shabby chic (or at least, I think so). I haven’t worn these shoes for a very long time and looking at them today, I thought that I’d like to paint them a bit to cover the cracks and brighten them? Also, stickers could be fun. They would look like a small child had been let loose. (I tried to take a photo of this but my phone camera is so bad it’s beyond laughable).

♥Listening to: I’ve been listening to audiobooks, as per usual; the last few days to AS Byatt’s The Children’s Book. I’m enjoying it rather as Byatt is a splendid writer and I don’t know very much about the particular social group/time period situation that the book is set in so it’s quite interesting from that perspective. It has a few sexy bits, and listening to these on an audiobook is always a bit awkward, much more awkward than reading them – literary sexy bits And also she overuses the word “haunches” - I read this in a review before I bought the audiobook, and I would never have picked up on it if I hadn’t already read about it, and now it bugs me. It bugs me a lot.

♥Fad a la Mode: Cider. So much cider. My fridge is still full of cider after the Spinsters’ Knitting Club Craftinoon and Cider Tasting. I have tasting notes that I need to type up – the notes devolve during the course of the tasting. The most memorable comment? “This cider is the Combover of Ciders”.

♥Watched this Week: “Coraline” courtesy of Jo which was fun in a grown-up-watching-a-children's-movie-way. “When We Were Kings”, although I fell asleep during that – not because of the story (it seemed as though it was going to be great!) but because I was very relaxed after half a bottle of wine, full of roast chicken and nice and warm in the Boy’s bed. Series 3 of “QI” (again) because I am hugenormously in love with Stephen Fry and “A History of Britain” again because I am hugenormously in love with Simon Schama.

♥Reading: How the Irish Saved Civilisation by Thomas Cahill. Honestly kids, just don’t do it. I read it when I was 16 and thought it was great, now I can’t imagine how I enjoyed such shameless tripe. The difference may be ten years and a History degree.

♥Webreading: The Unclutterer. I’m like a Woman Obsessed with decluttering at present, and this blog is feeding me. FEEDING ME I tell you.

♥Anticipation: First Derby training session of the year tonight and Camp this weekend!

A lovely Sunday in Summer

Today, Wellington is demonstrating it's amazing summer weather with the power of GALE FORCE WINDS, HUMIDITY and RAIN. So, when the Lovely Born Lippy invited me out to a movie I was like, fuck yeah! We saw Julie and Julia at the Penthouse and it was pretty much perfect for today, very light with historical French bits and food and other bits that make you feel a bit weepy with "being moved". Meryl Streep was great as the character of Julia Child and I think I've developed a crush on her - I've noticed in the past that she was awesome: especially in Angels in America (but it's such a fabulous play/screenplay that I mostly attributed the

awesomeness to that). Now I am whole heartedly pro-Streep and am thinking of having some kind of major Streep-watch.

I don't know anything really about Julia Child but I'm kind of a bit fascinated now. I looked on Youtube and she is kind of quite awesome really. I'd like to read a biography of hers now methinks.

In other news, I have discovered Ravelry and I am in love; I've stashed all my yarn and have been obsessively reading patterns and taking photos of my knitting projects and posting them on the site. Quelle geek. I am in the process of knitting many things including a green lace scarf and green roll top cotton socks and a chunky beret for Nat's cold winter head. The beret is just about done and I'm very excited about it because I've essentially created my own pattern by adapting a pattern I found through Ravelry so that it suited what I wanted, and then combining that adaptation with what I remembered of a completely different pattern that I knitted late last year. I haven't quite finished yet but if the whole thing works then I will publish what I've done and that will be the first pattern that I've written! I'm at the Boy's at the moment and I'm wishing that I'd remembered my double pointed needles so I could finish the damn thing... my fingers are ITCHING. I think that I shall go away and write some of it down now. For fun.