Some thoughts from my life:
– why do publications such as The New Yorker continue to write the Internet with a capital I? Shouldn’t it just be the internet?
– boarding the plane in Athens, our family was behind another family of similar composition, that is, one man, one woman and two children. All the members of our family made our way down to economy while the family in front of us separated. The man and one child stayed in business class while the woman and one child kept moving down to economy. The dynamics of our family would never allow such a thing. Srsly, after such an incident we would never recover.
– one day I would like to live in a place simply because said place is a beautiful place to live. This is all I have ever really wanted. There are many beautiful places, so why is it so hard for me to organise this?
– I have added Tilda Swinton to the list of people I am sure I would like to be although I am rather undecided about I am Love and sometimes think it is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen and other times think it is not.
– I am thinking of giving up alcohol for a month or so. I think it would be good for me. I don’t know, I am undecided about this as well.
– I have only just found out about the royal wedding (I’ve been on holidays). I am a republican (should that be with a capital R?), but every time I see Wills I worry for him I really do. I think it’s because of the whole mother killed in a car crash affinity. I felt desperately sorry for him at the time and I still do. I suppose this is transferance, but I don’t know that for sure. Also, there should be more discussion about the similarities between Kate and Our Mary, the one what married that Prince. They are similar and the papers and magazines should be full of this observation.
– I am at that stage where I am convinced that I will never have anything published ever again. Do not indulge me in this as I know all of the things that I need to do to lift myself out of this mood and wallowing around in it is not one of those things.
– if you wanted to opt out of the December madness that grips Australia, you could move here. It is brilliant. There is absolutely none of that ‘by Christmas or bust’ mentality.
– I really do like the curtains in our bedroom. Everytime I look at them I feel happy.
I’d best be off. We just got back from a week away so for some reason there’s an entire year’s worth of laundry to be done.
adelaide from adelaide 
I am thinking of giving up alcohol for a month or so. I think it would be good for me.
My lovely doctor told me that it was better to have a couple of alcohol free days each week, to give my liver a bit of recovery space. NB: not consecutive days. Just two days in total. I find it easier to do if I have something on in the early evening, so I’m not tempted to pour myself just one glass of wine.
Also, I am a republican, and I have the common decency to feel concerned for two people starting out in marriage in such a glare of publicity and tabloids and history and family trauma. Yes also to the Our Mary comparison. Very apt.
Yes, the early evening, especially when the weather is just right for a chilled white…
I failed in avoidance this evening…. Damn and blast! (As my maternal grandmother was wont to say in moments of stress. Such as when she dropped the wood fired stove heated iron on her toe.)
Hello. Also a republican, but have a sneaky affection for seeing people wearing tiaras, and the whole sash-over-evening-gown thing I find charming. I suspect it comes from watching so many midday movies as a kiddie. The Christmas-free thing sounds like a pretty nice thing indeed.
lubs me a tiara, I does.
And also a republican here but perversely I do love a royal wedding…no-one does pomp and circumstance like the Brits.
I would like to hear of your impressions of Athens. You see I have already
decided that the beautiful place I will live is lipsi…
I was thinking of you and your glorious photos and wondering where they were taken. My photos are a little less glorious, but I will post some. Athens is a bit meh, though of course brilliantly meh, and then we were out on the Peloponnese which was stunning and wonderful. Could absolutely live there (were it not for the whole earn a living thing).
Maybe the wife and the other child got to fly over business class and dad and the second child had a go on the way back?
Trying to ignore Christmas angst. Failing.
Although a Republican I will be bloody upset if when dear old Lizzie dies Charles gets passed over for Will. Personally I think Will is a bit of a Dill and a bit of growing up while his Dad has his time in the sun as King wouldn’t do him any harm at all. Plus I rather like Camilla based on nothing at all apart from her media appearances. She just seems nice.
regarding the business class arrangement, yes, you could be right, but you would be amazed how often this story is played out in expat land
I think the succession stuff is fascinating.
So much to comment on above. I was going to have just an alcohol-free evening tonight (just for once!) But events of the day and the heat have decreed otherwise.
I thought I am love was shit (esp the bit in the cave at the end) and as I said to my script editor, ‘How can you fall in love with someone you’ve never had a conversation with?’ She said, ‘You’re no romantic, are you?’
I find people who still talk about the World Wide Web seriously disturbing.
Reason I really can’t be sure about I am love is that I watched it on the plane so it was a. small and b. censored. I wasn’t even sure whether they’d actually had sex. That’s why I usually go for the bollywood on planes…you know what you’re getting.
Or Jane Austen.
as far as the I/internet thing- there is only one, therefore it is a proper noun. at least that’s what i was told as a reason for capitalising it.
Technically correct perhaps, but unconvincing. Or at least inelegant.
You watched it on the plane? Oh God, it’s definitely a big screen thing. It’s Cinema with a capital C. On the small screen it would look pretentious/unbearably slow/stupid. But on the big screen you just give yourself over to it and accept its pace etc. And censored? What was censored? When she first ate that prawn in her son’s friend’s restaurant? Or when they had sex up in the hills later? She looked so orgasmic eating the prawn that, as the film reviewer in the New Yorker said, the sex could never live up to the prawn.
Probably it isn’t a plane movie, but I like watching movies on the plane…there’s a sort of intimacy that I like. Plus, unbearably slow and plane travel go well together (even though planes do go very fast indeed). Plus plus, I doubt it would be shown in the cinemas here and probably would’ve been even more censored.
The prawn scene was unchopped, but the hills scene was mostly missing. Maybe this piece of, erm, editing improved the film and made up for the small screen. I read that review, and it made sense to me, but since I’ll never see it in a real cinema, I’ll probably never know what I really think about it.
At least if you split up on a plane you wouldn’t be refereeing fights all the journey.
Funnily enough we don’t seem to argue that much on plane flights.
So, say you booked a family of four and they said to you we’ve got 2 upgrades available for business class, would you knock them back? Or was it more a case of sending the lowly women down the back of the plane?
My parents are rebublicans but they still hosted a great big Royal Wedding Party for Charles and Di’s night of nights with tvs through the house and wittily named snacks on the menu. I think they just liked a party really.
Possibly in that scenario we could work it out. Possibly.
Yes, my parents used to have Queen’s Birthday Parties which were more about the party and less about the Queen.
Queen’s Birthday Party, I like it. You could only play Queen and early Nick Cave music and give each other utterly fabulous presents. I see a vision of the future, and I like it. Rescinding my earlier republican comment and signing up with the monarchists. And when you come to my Queen’s Birthday Party you all must wear tiaras and ball gowns, awright?
or you could always swap seats halfway through.
Non-custodial Dad of my acquaintance tells of taking his primary school age child to Paris and accepting a single upgrade for himself. But then I’ve never been a on a flight with a kid for that long.
Maybe they won z competition, but only won two tickets?
I adore the Christmas or bust! I wish that it was on at different times in different hemispheres, so that one of my aspirations could be touring the world, seeking out Christmas hysteria.
She looked so orgasmic eating the prawn that, as the film reviewer in the New Yorker said, the sex could never live up to the prawn.
The phrase “come the raw prawn” does spring to mind. Maybe she heard it somewhere and took it too literally.
Helen, shut the front door!
If my blog gets blocked by the censors I’m going to be blaming youse.