I'm going to go out on a limb here...and I'm taking you with me. I'm assigning some of you a topic to write about in your next post. I stole this from SemiTrueTorystellar...so, while I ain't an original, my ideas for this are.
TexaGermaNadian: I give to you... Watching TV, with your family...since they visited recently. Conversations about who gets to watch what and when and WHY ISN"T IT IN ENGLISH? Fights over the remote control. If there were no fights, I don't care. Make it up.
Bouncin' Barb: I give to you... Genesis of the Bloggy Godmother. You know you are. Embrace it.
Most anybody who knows me, knows that I like driving. We have had some nice vehicles since we got together, but Dimples is not one of them.
Meet Dimples.
Dimples ain't road legal so he just sits there. If I want a road trip, I'm taking the bus. On Monday, Natalie fussed over not getting to ride the pink double decker. I totally get her. I want to ride it too! But we were on the way to school and I couldn't be bothered to take an hour-long detour just then. So, I promised her a ride on the pink bus on Tuesday. And I kept my promise! Sort of...
We rode the yellow double decker. Not my fault though. I tried. We got on a pink double decker. The bus driver convinced us me that that was not the bus we wanted because we wouldn't be able to return via that same bus. Whatever. I quit listening because I knew I was going to have to extract a thrashing, trilling three year old from her perch at the top. However, she was quite the little lady about the whole mom screwup fiasco. Only did her little "Oh." sound. Really. It's the sound you make when you've asked for a donut at Krispy Kreme only to be told they've just sold out.
So, as we're backing out of the station dock...in pulls a pink bus...and it's going to the right place and coming back to the right place. *facepalm* Here, let me show you in case you've never seen it.
But...apparently, we had the more scenic of the two trips...Durham to Newcastle = not as scenic as Durham to Consett. Consett's basically Durham but without the Cathedral, Castle, or River. It's like the difference between Lexington and Purcell.
We rode for a while, got off and walked around for a bit, then got back on the bus to head home. Here, I'll just share with you...
Trip Buddy and Toby
Windmills on the horizon.
Lanchester High Street
Lanchester Library
A Canadian and American bar? It had both flags!
Running to the church.
Hurry up Mom!
Fig Newtons mean road trip. Every time I go on a long drive, I gotta have my fig newtons. But these'll do too. Tesco, you never fail me.
Lanchester Library again.
Tired and fussy. Natalie was too.
Lanchester is the site of the Longovicium Roman fort. I sure did like the look of Lanchester's library. I have a thing for bibliotheques.
In honor of FabFriendsFriday... I have a friend who's restarting her blogjourney. Would you care to show her some love? She's a real life friend...she's cute, perky, nightowlish, and hella fun to be around. Go say hi to Lauren.
And it's a-happy to see you! Went out to the MetroCentre in Gateshead (finally!) and got to spend time walking around in an honest-to-goodness mall. Was told by the employee at Lush that it's the biggest of its like in the EU. Whoosh.
Ate a Bramley Apple Pie with custard. It was warm and tasty. My first time with hot custard.
It didn't look like this in the advertisement. Le sigh.
It's like a Whole Foods store or International Deli. XD
My hands still smell good!
This week I received two awards...those posts are coming... I'm thinking about what to say. I've got DMB's What Would You Say in my head.
Oh. I apparently haven't lost my American accent. The bus driver for our road trip to Consett asked me where I was from. Also, I volunteered at the Shop on Monday. A customer told me I sounded like Dolly Parton.
I wish it had been that I looked like Dolly Parton. She's so sweet, she gives people a toothache.
I love you so hard, by the way. Thanks for all that you said about that love letter from Monday. I wrote it, laughing pretty much with each line and for you to also laugh...well, that's the stuff of angels' eyeboogies. Thanks.
I love you. You helped me recognize my inner Englishwoman. It is because of your buttery, shortbready, tasty sugar-dusted goodness that I realized how much I enjoy a cuppa.
I look for you when you're gone. I've made a safe place for you in my heart and my kitchen cabinets. One of you is sufficient, but two of you are the stuff of angel farts. Three is right out.
I'm a bigger woman because of you. You complete me. My hunger is abated. You do that for me. All you ever ask of me is to keep you away from the trash. I can do that for you.
If you were chocolate, I'd still love you. If you were profiteroles, I'd still love you. If you were black licorice, we would never have met. I hate black licorice.
You were on sale when we first met, but you didn't hold my not paying your full asking price against me.
You keep your container fresh and sweet smelling. I confess, it's heady. And even though I may get jealous when others are eating you and I'm not, I still appreciate your contribution to the general welfare of my household and to my inner thighs and hip fat.
I'd've loved to take you on a trip around the world. I wanted you to meet my parents. They'd have loved you just as much as I do. But since I didn't want to pay for the additional cost in weight for shipping, I kept you, selfishly, close to home, close to heart, close to my mouth. Maybe next year.
With all my love and over-activated saliva glands,
The lovely lovely TexasGermaNadian very kindly offered to create an awesome header for me because she felt bad that she couldn't rig her giveaway contest in my favor. Now, the actual winner is quite deserving and I admit I felt let down that I didn't win outright, but I was very happy for the Food Floozie. How superhardrad of a name is that? I love bloggyfriends.
TGN emailed me and said she'd like to do a nice header for me and would I like that? Oh yes! After a few vague emails (on my part of course) we had a 'voila' and there was much happies throughout the land house.
So, TGN, someday I hope to return the favor. You're a class act. This link's for you.
To all my Canadian blog visitors... I'm so sorry for your loss. The loss of enjoying this post in its fullness. Because you're being limited. BUT FIGHT THE POWER MY GOOD MAN!
A French band, Air, had a song that I played when I was a college radio DJ at OU. Sexy Boy was the song. Simple, sensual, evocative. Here you go.
You remember that I went to a movie Wednesday, yeah? I heard this damn song but it wasn't my song! It was cover of it for an Axe commercial.
You remember the first time you saw an Axe commercial? You remember laughing at it the once? Because, you know, women and men crap...that's some funny shit! BWAHSHSHAAAHAHAH! Ahem.
So I got to be in an auditorium full of geriatrics who've never seen an Axe commercial in their life! I was there for their collective first laugh. It was a beautiful feeling. Like feeling someone else's orgasm. It was special for me too.
I share now with you what they enjoyed.
In all honesty, I giggled at the boy who popped his gum. I was premature. <Insert sexual prowess joke here, wait for laughs>
And because I want to do your YouTube legwork for you, I've also provided you the cover song without commercial.
Oh jebus. I'm a sucker for anything with a cello, a violin, and the Vienna Boys choir.
Finally got to see 'The King's Speech' today...was sold out last week. Pffft.
I wish I had a Lionel Logue in my pocket a few years back for my kid brother. I won't review the movie because I did way too much of that in college and it is most likely that most of you have already seen it. I will say that I loved that they used a German composer's music in the climax...you know, where Bertie addresses the BRITISH EMPIRE (all of it) about how might is not right, specifically in regards to DAS DEUTCHELANDERS or Germans as I'm sure they prefer to be called.
Yes, Symphony #7 is totally evocative of George VI's closing his eyes and thinking of England moment. At least for me. Because, you know, England declared war on Germany just prior. Or does Beethoven transcend Nationalism?
Also, I dunno if I was the only American in the audience. But given that there were times when I was the only one laughing, specifically, at the part where Bertie calls his family a "firm", well, maybe I was. But I've got a penchant for laughing in movies even when no one else does. Call it hereditary. I was, with Ruth, one of the handful of "young people" in the audience. Everyone else was at least sixty or older. And the place was jam-packed. Wednesdays at 3pm...Goldie Oldies.
Last night was My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding night again. This time, Ruth and I were Sensible Ladies. I took chocolate chip cookies with assorted nuts, she had a plate of cut veggies and carmelized onion tartlets ready to go. I drank tea with milk (blechegads) because I'm nice and that's how I roll. Roll over.
A Sensible Solution to last week's Overthetopness
Really, tea with milk isn't bad... I didn't add the sugar. Idiota! I <3 carmelized onion tarts now. And my baking is ohsoawesome! Thanks to Nestle Toulouse. Please tell me that you remember that episode of Friends. I think last week, some of you got to experience some lovely pictures of me after I got home from last Tuesday's MBFGW watcheroo. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. But (over)indulgence was the word last week, not so this week. This week, we're Sensible Ladies again as evidenced by Exhibit A above.
Making da cookies. Gratuitous picture of progeny.
So, Gypsies and Travellers? Yeah. They still come across as crazy. Each week's a gift! I despise their anachronistic posturing but adore their persistence against adverse conditions. Last night's episode was a bit all over the place, so I'll just talk about the boys that were followed by the documentary crew. They were asked if they respected women.
Boys: "Oh yeah, sure. Yeah."
Interviewer: "As much as you might respect a man?"
Boys: "No. No way. That's a different respect, you know, like?"
The boys admitted to roughing up girls to get a kiss. When asked if they thought the girls might like that, they said they reckoned not. As we watched them preen and get ready for Appleby where they went to "hunt for women", Ruth and I both thought they looked like 1950s thugs. {snapping} Boy, boy, crazy boy. Keep cool, boy.
Ruth's mom came along with us to see the movie and on the way, I shared this letter that was dropped off through the mail slot in the door. I wanted to see if Ruth's mom thought what I thought. She had a photography business once upon a time and photographed a few of these Traveller weddings...so, really, she's my reachable expert.
Click to enlarge. Note the rampant grammatical errors. I mean, I'm not the greatest self editor when I'm streaming conscious but, it made me nostalgic for Nigerian scammers.
And she did think what I think. It's from a Traveller! I'm hunkering down at the window tomorrow to watch for them!
China's national news program is using Top Gun as military footage. Are they lazy? Is it indicative that they don't have a military? Of course it isn't the first time this has happened.
25 years. I loved this movie then, I love it now, cheese and all. I was scared of intimidated by this guy while still attracted as hard as a six-year old can be:
I think I made the right choice. And this love affair has lasted for 25 years. I'd like to thank my mom for renting that damn movie over and over, along with Top Gun, The Neverending Story and the cartoon about the spacebear named Teddy. Oh, and the Care Bears movies also.
I went to a karaoke night here when we first arrived...oh, I'd say within the first few weeks. I sang David Bowie songs. I rock 'China Girl' and 'Suffragette City' every chance I get. I wouldn't say it went over well; the regulars liked my version of 'Mack the Knife' best and even then it was only a lukewarm clapping.
