Easter weekend

[strange_complex]

On Saturday, my Mum and I went shopping in Solihull - an extremely posh suburb of Birmingham which likes to pretend it has nothing to do with Birmingham whatsoever. There, I noticed that both John Lewis and Beatties sold miniature morning coats and pinstripe suits for tiny little children - presumably so that they can be page-boys at weddings and so on. SO CUTE!

My main mission was to buy shoes and bras, since I'm getting dangerously close to having no wearable examples of either. Since I was effectively going to have to start my bra wardrobe again from scratch, I got myself measured up, figuring I might as well do it properly. For years, I've believed I was a 34B, but it turned out I'm actually a 32C - a significant (and rather pleasing!) difference, as female readers will realise. So I'm now feeling a lot more comfy in the bosom region.

Pity I can't say the same for my feet, though. Of course, when I say 'shoes', I actually mean 'ankle-boots', since that's all I ever wear. But there are next to none in the shops at this time of year, and what there are are all hideous. So I gave up in the end, and consoled myself by buying a posh frock for my cousin's wedding in June, instead.

In the evening, still in my old, nearly-dead shoes, I went over to hollyione's parents' house, where she (like me) was spending Easter weekend at the family homestead. We watched Doctor Who with her two-year-old daughter, who was allowed to stay up for it specially, and then ate yummy kebabs and played Trivial Pursuit with her parents. The game never quite got finished, as everyone became very merry and eventually had to toddle off to bed, but it was lots of fun, and hollyione and I as the last two players agreed to declare an honourable and amicable draw.

Sunday was mainly Verulamium-article-writing, but there was a bit of chocolate-egg-exchanging too, while in the evening we ate a delicious juicy duck. I then wound up the day by rewatching Doctor Who, as there were quite a few bits of dialogue I'd missed the previous day while hollyione's daughter was trying to decide whether she was scared of the witches or not!

It definitely rewarded a second watching, though. I got the chance to notice things like the conversation over the TARDIS console at the very beginning of the episode, where Martha is asking how exactly the TARDIS can travel in time, and the Doctor replies with something like, "Oh, you've got to take the magic out of everything haven't you - it just does!", thus establishing the magic / technology issue right from the opening scene. And how cool that Queen Elizabeth is his sworn enemy, even though he's never met her! I can't see an obvious episode in the coming series where that will be resolved, so I take it as a long-term promise for an Elizabethan story involving her as a character - ideally while we still have David Tennant, to explain how she recognises him. And I like that we're dealing with a series which troubles to set up long-term plot elements like that.

Oh! And a thought: since Shakespeare is set up earlier in the episode as being so very perceptive (noticing how old the Doctor's eyes are, and how Martha looks at him as though she can't believe he exists), does this mean we are to take him 100% seriously when he says to Martha that the Doctor will never kiss her? (Excepting, of course, the fact that he already has - I mean kiss her in lurve?) Or is it just a corny line to get himself a snog? Discuss!

Meanwhile, in the realm of the scarily-real, I have made an offer on this house. But not heard anything back yet. Wah, the frustration! I'm on tenterhooks about it all the time, waiting, and wondering, and trying to second-guess what's going on in the seller's mind. It's like waiting to hear about a job interview.

Well, you'll hear about it here when I do!

Comments

[samuel-sock.livejournal.com]

Solihull is only posh if you pronouce it properly:

Soh-Lee-Hull is the posh way.
Soll-E-Ull is the peasant way.

I'm guessing you do the former? :)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure - I think I waver a bit between the two!

[gillywoo.livejournal.com]

I'm so jealous about the art deco house in headingley. I've *always* wanted to live in one of those.Fingers crossed for you xx

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Thanks! You can come round lots and enjoy it if I get it. :)

[gillywoo.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

[big-daz.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed on the Deco house.

You may well think that Page Boys in morning dress look cute, but they're not a patch on how cute I looked when I was a Page Boy aged 4, attired in my white frilly shirt and purple silk trousers..

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Purple silk trousers certainly get my vote! And thanks about the house. :)

[my-mundane-life.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the house!!
(btw how long did you have to wait to hear back from academic job interviews usually? - vaguely related as you mentioned it hehe)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

It depends on the circumstances. Generally speaking, they want to get it sorted pretty quickly, but I've heard of cases where they really take their time - you're likely to have picked up a sense of which it'll be while there. On the whole, though, the rule tends to be that if you've got the job, you'll hear very quickly, and if you haven't, it'll take a bit longer while they wait to see if their first choice(s) accept the post. Sorry if that makes you worry, but it does tend to be the pattern.

[my-mundane-life.livejournal.com]

No I'll not worry - a friend of mine heard she'd got a lecturing job after a week, and I'll be in France after which should help me relax ;)

[captainlucy.livejournal.com]

Soh-lee-hull. Where one of Jasper Carrott's ex girlfriends came from. :)

I though Saturday's Doctor Who was excellent. A few factual errors (dates of Shakespeare plays & quotes etc), but I let them away with that as they're making family entertainment, not a docu-drama. It was great that they were able to use the actual (albeit reconstructed) Globe Theatre, this gave it a level of scale and realism we haven't seen for a long time (if ever) in Doctor Who. I think myself that Shakespeare's line was a combination of "he will probably never kiss you that way" with "gizza snog, luv!" He did seem ready to give Captain Jack a run for his money, didn't he? :D

I don't know if the Queen Elizabeth thing is meant to set up an episode in this series, or whether it was a clever self-reference to the fact that DT is coming back for the next series and setting up an episode in that. Either way, he does seem somewhat to get himself in soapy bubble with members of the Monarchy, doesn't he?

34B to 32C is a difference that most men (and a significant number of ladies) will also fully appreciate! ;) I was watching a programme on BBC3 the other day about just that, mentioning that about 90% of women in the UK are wearing the wrong size of bra. It gave the example of a girl who was wearing 32E. Turns out she was actually 30G! And the difference that getting the right size of cup made to her was immense (if you'll excuse the pun!) - an almost immediate change in posture, from hunched over to standing straight with shoulders back, and within a day a BIG change in levels of back pain etc.

Good luck with the house! :)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

A few factual errors

Yeah - I looked up the date for Love's Labours Lost, and it seems it was probably performed originally in 1594, although published for the first time in 1598. Mind you, there are all sorts of arguments and debates about the exact order and dating of Shakespeare's plays, so I'm happy to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I don't think my change in bra size is going to have quite the same impact on me as for the girl you describe, because I'm just not working at the same scale! But it certainly makes my T-shirts look better.

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed house wise and a well fighting brassiere is worth its weight in gold.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I've just realised I wrote fighting and not fitting - I wonder what Freud would have to say about that kind of slip :-)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes - it did conjure up some amusing images of armour-plated bras!

[kissmeforlonger.livejournal.com]

I find better luck with boot styles I like on Ebay tbh... And yes, there's only one thing better than a bra that fits properly, and that's comfy knickers ;-)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

The only trouble with Ebay boots is that you can't try them on beforehand. But yes, you're right - there's usually much more stuff on there that I like.

[themonkeypolice.livejournal.com]

oooh very best of luck with the incredible house! fingers and toes crossed for you.
i've a good friend who grew up in solihull and she certainly pronounces it the posh way

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Still haven't heard, though - argh!

[angeoverhere.livejournal.com]

Ooh, you made an offer on the lovely house! Fingers crossed for you...