Monday, June 13, 2011

Not Promising Far More Than I Can Deliver


 OMG! It is at the v. tail end of The Queen's Birthday Long Weekend & I haven't done a Blog Entry.
And if I don't, I know I'll feel Slightly Empty. Perhaps I may slide onto The Wrong Side of Ennui.
But......it's less than 45 minutes before my Official Designated Bedtime.
Quelle horreur, What can I do?
I'm just going to type like the wind & tell you the first thing that's in my head. No holds bar. Or is it, 'Holds Barred'? What a v. odd expression. It must be nautical.
Anyway, look above. Yes, its a cupcake. In fact, it was a cupcake that I eventually ate after I photographed it, of course.
Have you noticed that cupcakes are  one of those foods that Promise Far More Than They Deliver?
They look so Sweet & Adorable as they sit on a plate together. You can almost hear them all tweet 'Pick Me! Pick Me!' in unison, just like Donkey, my favourite character in Shrek.
And then  when you do pick one it's Not That Great. Perhaps a little dry. A bit like eating Sweet Sand.

Warning Warning! Garbled Recipe to Follow.
I would much rather eat my Bread & Butter Pudding that I've been making for my regular Sunday Nite Dinners for Tyler & Hunter & Carlotta.  I'm absolutely gagging to tell you the recipe that I now know off by heart because I've been making it so often lately. I make it with Raisin bread  Cut into Diamonds which is liberally buttered with butter mixed with cinnamon & nutmeg & brown sugar & then weirdly arranged in a deep dish with five eggs & one yolk & a carton of cream & a dash of milk & some vanilla essence & some more brown sugar poured all over it & then baked in the oven at 180c until golden brown.
I can't believe I just gave you the whole recipe then so quickly. It must be in influence of  The Food Channel.

I have just been watching what appears to be a new episode of 'Nigella Bites'.
As usual, I'm entranced with her beauty, specifically her Eyebrows. They deserve a Show of their Own.
It could be called 'Nigella's Eyebrows'.
But I'm also Slightly Disgusted. It's a Complete Festival of Gluttony, which I'm sure is still one of The Seven Deadly Sins, although I did hear that they've recently been considered  a Little Old Hat or lame.  I mean, who's heard of the word, 'Avarice' lately?
And can you actually rattle off all of them? Go on, I dare you.
Anyway,  Nigella loves nothing more than to make enormous vats of hugely cream laden dishes which she then proceeds to shovel  down as soon as she cooks them . And then at the end of the show, it's back to the fridge before Bedtime to grab another huge portion of 'Toad in the Hole'  washed down with 'Tiramisu.
It's like she's daring her Arteries to Harden.
But then again, how can I talk when I've got a whole Hennery's worth of eggs & a huge vat of cream in my 'Bread & Butter Pudding'?


Spinelli On Toast.
Here's some recent entries from My English Teacher's Wardrobe Diary. As usual, everything is from 'Bednobs & Broomsticks', my favourite Charity Shoppe.
Above, I'm wearing a new vintage 'Spinelli' 100% wool cardi/jacket.
'Spinelli' was a high- end brand of Italian knitwear that one of my school friends mother's (OMG, have I got enough apostrophes back there? Should I have put in another one after the 's' in 'friends'?) often paraded around in back in the Early Sixties. The mother, Mrs. L,  had shoulder length bleached blonde hair that kicked up at the ends like Patty Duke in The Patty Duke Show & drove an Enormous Pontiac Parisienne. Her tiny orthopaedic surgeon husband drove a compact 'Carmen Ghia' like he was Mr. Magoo. It was a terrifying experience driving with him. But I clearly survived.
I've Chanelled-Up the Cardi (have I created a New Verb here, I wonder? Hurrah! if I have!) by piling on a whole mess of Pearls from the 'Fruits de Mer' section of my Jewellry Wardrobe.

 Next, is another 'Spinelli' Cardi/Jacket.
But I must say that I had a Slightly Unnerving Experience wearing it this week.
I was standing in the staffroom at recess chatting when Edith, a gamin strawberry blonde  teacher sidled up to me & stared at the bottom button of the cardi. TAfter a short pause she informed me that in fact I was wearing her old cardi which she'd donated to 'BednobsEtc' some time back. She knew definitely that it was hers because she had replaced the left bottom button with a Rogue Button.
What can you say when someone tells you something like that?
My reaction is to always ask, What Would The Queen Mother Say if she was alive, that is?
BTW, I do like the Pussy Bow that I'm wearing. Recently, I was inspecting a photograph of Marcel Proust as a child & in the photo, he was also wearing a Pussy Bow. I was thrilled. But I'm certainly NOT going to take it too far by copying the rest of what Marcel was wearing. I would look silly in half-mast pants.

 Can you believe that I'm wearing yet another 'Spinelli' creation?
This time, it's another 100% pure wool dress that sadly has got a couple of small moth holes in it. But I'm determined to keep wearing it even though it does make me look a little like a canary.
The Car Coat (don't you love that expression? It's straight out of my Mother's Mouth in 1959) has wonderful red lining & it's 'Scanlan & Theodore' which is Australian Fashion Royalty.
 Speaking of Royalty, I topped it off with my favourite 'Toy Burberry' Scarf.
Speaking more of Royalty, I must confess that I'm spending a little too much time oggling at pictures of the Freshly Minted Duchess of Cambridge AKA, Kate Middleton.
This week, I've seen her in the carriage & in The Enclosure at Royal Ascot, at The Trooping of the Colour & at Prince Phillip's 90th Birthday. It's exhausting. I'm also looking at the sister wearing perhaps white pants at perhaps Wimbledon which I think is taking the whole Royal Watching Thing a bit too far.
It's Princess Diana & Fergie all over again for me, I'm afraid.
I do hope that no one would tell me to 'Get a Life'. What a Silly Saying anyway. We all have a Life whether we like it or not.


 Here's me above, on the lookout for More Photos of The Junior Members of the British Royal Family.


 It's now 10.45. I am so late for bed & now possibly soo wound up that I may not be able to get to sleep. So, I'll have to leave you guessing as to what the photo is above. If you look hard you may find: 1. Jane, my first doll, 2. My first shoes 3. A Royal Coach, 4. Pinochio 5. Coral from Magnetic Island 6. A Mexican Orchestra 7. My father's trophies from the 1930s. 8. birds from 'Top Dollar'. 9. Wooden heads from New Guinea 10. Toy Soldiers.
Thank you to Rebecca &amp ReaderRita &; Darla & Zizzi for your lovely comments from last time. They warmed the Cockles of My Heart. Perhaps another Nautical Term.

3 comments:

elegancemaison said...

Oo-er lots to comment on here!

Thank goodness the cupcake disappointment isn't limited to me. I never touch them (or the equally over-hyped 'muffins',)anymore here in the UK. But I really loved the ones I tasted in Sydney when visiting to my Australian daughter.Mmmn.

Apostrophies give me the willies nowadays. Hows that? I'm well educated and a brilliant speller, but plurals have me running scared these days. I usually just re-jig the sentence when faced with the friend's mother's (??) and the like.

Now two points re Royalty. 1. Why on earth do you near-republican colonials get a holiday for the Queen's birthday? Madly envious as we don't!
2. The recent royal carriage parade where you spotted Kate, was the famous Derby Day meeting at Epsom, not Ascot. Epsom is a different race-course in a different town though also just outside London. Derby Day used to be a great British event in the past when it took place mid-week. Charabancs full of all classes of people and parties from factories and offices would crowd out of London to make a day of it and there would be fun-fairs and all matter of Victorian revelry. Nowadays it's held on a
Saturday, but the vintage open-topped buses and ( hired) chauffeur driven classic Rolls Royces carrying parties of friends and families still park right by the rails. And the funfair and music is all part of the excitement. Very different from Royal Ascot which starts tomorrow for five days. This is a traditionally a much more 'upmarket' event though sadly moving rapidly down due to the pressures of the 'hospitality' business which has managed to encourage some of the worst 'chav' (bogan?)types and their unfortunate dress sense and behaviour. Though I've never had an invitation to the Royal Enclosure myself even though I'm not divorced or, as a laydee, would not dream of wearing trousers to the event! I think those rules have long gone otherwise half the Royals themselves would not be admitted.

Now, you need gird your loins for some serious Kate and Pippa watching at Royal Ascot this week and Wimbledon fortnight which follows from 20th June.

As for charity shop buys. I live in a wealthy rural town and am always aware that various local gentry may recognise their handouts when I'm out and about dressed in their cast off finery. I wonder what you said to your colleague?

And is that cabinet of curiosities - at your mother's house?

Ok, I've gone on long enough.

Darla said...

Cupcakes really do disappoint don't they?

I love the look of a mess of pearls. I need to get mine out and wear them more often. Thanks for the inspiration.

Darla

ladyjanewriter said...

I want to hug those boots. Seriously!

Oh, and I'm posting at ladyjanewriter.wordpress.com, and I got my RSS feed working...I think. I donno how it works in Google Reader.