Floating on a sunset cloud... of pain.

Ah, the reason for my panic attack of yesterday has become more plain to me... unexpected pre-lady-time! Whilst researching this post (because, of course, all my blogs are meticulously pre-researched) I found some interesting euphemisims for 'that special time of the month' but none I'd feel comfortable adopting, even for a one-off blog post, so I decided to invent my own. From now on I shall refer to 'floating on a sunset cloud', which hopefully is icky and unsettling enough for everybody - though not quite as pretty and delicate as 'the tears of my disappointed uterus', which is an honest-to-goodness thing someone said somewhere. Don't worry, I'm not about to spend a great deal of time discussing MENSTRUATION because it is, in fact, quite gross. In case you didn't know.

Instead I'll tell you that in an attempt to ignore the pain that nurofen is doing a lousy job at defeating, I'm listening to Peter Gabriel and music from The Rescuers.

I shall also here express my simultaneous emotions of befuddlement that people in general do not find the face of Benedict Cumberbatch completely gorgeous and marvelloustastic

and intense frustration that stupid Channel 9 will not hurry up and give us Australians a damn release date for Sherlock  season 2!

Oh.
No.

Just looked it up... and they have. It's next Wednesday evening. My brother's birthday. I AM SO ANNOYED RIGHT NOW. And the episode has a dominatrix and nudity and stuff in it, so watching it with my family is not going to be an option.




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Deep breaths. There is such a thing as catch up TV. At least there had better be. Though the fact that I will probably have to resort to such a thing is annoying beyond all belief, particularly seeing as the one reason (besides the law) that I didn't just download it off the internet back in January (which was pretty tempting, let me tell you), is because I didn't want to use up downloads on something that I would be able to watch on television legally anyway. AUGH.

I shall hereby assauge my feelings with some more Cumberbatchery thus:

 

And At Midnight I’ll Turn Into A Pumpkin And Drive Away In My Glass Slipper

Watching Roman Holiday. I just love Audrey Hepburn in this film. She plays exactly what you would imagine Julie Andrews’ character from The Princess Diaries would have been at age 15. In fact, if you can imagine that this is the case watching The Princess Diaries becomes even a little more enjoyable. Gregory Peck is, of course, delightful as well - I love how his character is just enough of a gentleman to let Ann stay the night, but not enough of a gentleman to let her have the bed!

One doesn’t think of this film as being particularly funny in retrospect - that's probably because of the downer ending - but watching it right now I’m actually giggling to myself at some of the particularly cute parts. And it is a very cute film. I don’t care how hammy Audrey can be - it’s a stylish, dignified hammy and she deserved that Oscar, just for the sheer sweetness of the thing. I also forgot how sneaky some of these jokes are - like the cleaning lady coming in and finding Ann in the bathroom and the scene shortly after when the landlord sees Joe giving Ann some money for a taxi! I’m not sure I understood those the first time I saw this...


I wonder what the normal ratio of Hepburn’s age to that of her male costar was. If it weren’t for the fact that Gregory Peck is, well, Gregory Peck, the romantic aspect of this film would really be quite creepy, since he gives the impression of being about twenty years older than her. But, oh, darnit, I want to ride around Rome on a Vespa with Gregory Peck! There are so many landmarks I didn’t know about previously that are now top of my list of places to go ‘when in Rome’!

As for the ending... I don’t like the end of this film, but I respect it.

Do watch Roman Holiday. It's a darling film.

"But I'm not two hundred years old. Why can't I sleep in pajamas?"

Audrey Hepburn winning an Oscar® for "Roman Holiday"

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

Guten tag. Just found the cord for my MP3 & camera - I can upload photos and listen to music again! Hurrah! So here's some pictures for you of my recent life... Joshua no longer has to wear the helmetty part of his pressure suit! Yaaaaay! Gorgeous child...













Reading another G. K. Chesterton book - Heretics - I'm a wee bit addicted now, I think. His style suits me down to the ground. It's only once every blue moon that you find a writer who expresses so perfectly what you already think - in ways that open windows in your mind. I feel happy when I read Chesterton. Brilliancy. Aaaaaand I got this book as a parcel in the mail, which always makes me happy. On Book Depository, peeps! Free delivery worldwide! Don't bother ordering through bookshops anymore - books are cheaper in the UK, even given the exchange rate.

I feel frothy.
I don't even know what that means. Probably it means silly. My mind is flitting from thing to thing like a dying butterfly. So far, my progression of thought (and concurrent internet surfing) whilst writing this has gone thus - G. K. Chesterton - Oscar Wilde - Catholicism - Hilaire Belloc - Stephen Hilaire - Blackstump - Matt Corby.

Blackstump! Please book a ticket, it is awesome and amazing and awesome. I'm going to find out what electives I want to do in advance this year. Must not forget to book ticket - I'm not allowed to go for the family deal coz I don't live with my parents any more. Waaaah.


My mum is soooo pregnant. It's quite scary. Not the idea of a new baby; babies don't frighten me in the least. It's the thought of a new sibling that scares the pants off me. A sibling nearly twenty years my junior. Isn't that just terrifying?


Interesting fact for the day - Oscar Wilde died of an ear infection.


There are so, so many things I want to do. And I have no idea where to begin.

This clip reminds me of my maternal grandma somehow. She taught me a lot about being a lady.

Jeeves lugged my purple socks out of the drawer as if he were a vegetarian fishing a caterpillar out of his salad.

What do you call beautiful? A tree. You'll look like a tree.

What ho, guvnor?

Had a peculiar headache off and on since Wednesday week - hope it goes away. The doctor said it should just wear off.
Going camping on the weekend - taking a country train down on Friday night. I love country trains; so spacious & old fashioned. The last time I took one I ended up sitting across from a cute guy with a cello...

I had an absolutely horrible thought the other day - when I am grown and my children are existent they will never experience our old people! I love older people; men who wear trousers, ironed shirts and hats when they don't have to, women with blue hair and spotty-dotty twenty year old dresses. People who remember at least one of the World Wars, people who can recite poetry and sing musical theatre from memory... I get along better with elderly strangers than I do with any other kind of stranger. Perhaps it's because I'm a young fogey; perhaps it's because elderly folks have time to smile back...


I need not tell of soup and fish
In solemn silence swallowed,
The sobs that ushered in each dish,
And its departure followed,
Nor yet my suicidal wish
To BE the cheese I hollowed.
- Lewis Carroll, Melancholetta