Occasionally I get a sort of dim realisation that I may be posher than I think I am.
The other day I genuinely caught myself saying, without the slightest hint of self-mockery: 'no, by the time we moved to the house with the music room I didn't have the ponies any more'.
Still, I'm sure that when little Jemima is old enough she'll enjoy rifling through my childhood collection of Patricia Leitch books. While sitting in the music room, probably.
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23 comments:
Arg. You. Links to pony books is a BAD thing. I've just spent an hour going through all the links sighing going "I remember that!" and then trying to find editions online.
Oh dear...
I shared a room with my sister AND brother until I was 16 and had free school dinners. Perhaps this cancels you out?
Oh, how many times I used to dream about a horse called Shantih...
I have to admit I've been bit disappointed, because my dear boys seem to be far more interested in Lego Star Wars than my childhood collection of Ruby Ferguson books. [sigh]
Nuttycow: I know, I'd forgotten all about Jinny and Shantih until just the other day. Although the truth is I was terrified of my ponies, and I liked Patricia Leitch's books for the mystical stuff about Celtic goddesses, rather than because I wanted to be a champion show-jumper in the mould of Princess Anne.
Jayne: I think it may do. Although I did have to share a room with 12 other girls at boarding school, most of whom seem to be BBC news presenters now. Or champion show-jumpers in the mould of Princess Anne. Or actual princesses.
Taiga: Yes, I think that if the Blue Kitten turns out to be a little Tarquin, rather than a little Jemima, he'll be far more interested in Mr BC's extensive Lego collection than in my pony books.
Lego is the best thing EVER. Regardless of sex. My nephews have recently inherited The Collection started by my older sister.
I still went through a protracted Famous Five stage though.
Off topic: why is meatspace shrinking?
Are you too posh to push?
Boz: You are of course correct about Lego, although I do find the relative lack of girl mini-figures in the modern sets quite upsetting.
Annie R: It seemed at one point that all the bloggers I knew in the real world were giving up blogging, but fortunately meatspace seems to be expanding again now. Candlelit vigils are still being held for Spinny, LC and Pashmina, though.
Spence: No, but I can't promise I won't succumb to the epidural.
In other news, my dad informed me earlier that neither of the houses I grew up in was posh, and in fact the second one (the one with the music room) was periodically over-run with rats.
Oooh, boarding school! Was it like Malory Towers and St Clare's? Did you play lacrosse and have midnight feasts? I'm so jealous...
i have the opposite problem - occasional dim realisations that i'm not nearly as civilised as i think i am (bewildered by cutlery, grammar and matters of etiquette)
Jayne: It wasn't like that at all. No one had escaped from the circus, for a start. And everyone apart from me and a select band of my friends (hello E, hello Smat) was frighteningly rich and obsessed with Benetton scarves, Burlington argyle socks and Chris de Burgh. (It was the 80s, I suppose, but that's still no excuse.)
There weren't any midnight feasts, but we did get bread and margarine at 4.00 every afternoon. The margarine usually got spread on to the bread with a ruler, or with fingers, or with other pieces of bread, as knives were few and far between.
I'd like to say I rebelled violently, in the manner of Winona Ryder in Heathers, but instead I generally tried - and usually failed, on account of not being rich or beautiful - to fit in.
Rosie: Oh, I get those too. Most recently with those little hook things you get for eating lobster with. No idea what to do with them.
[realises she has never even tasted lobster]
Lobster's way more trouble than it's worth - you have to smash its claws with a wrench and pull the meat out with a little silver hook. It's a cutlery nightmare.
I'm sure it's a law that every boarding school has got at least one girl from the circus (btw, aren't you supposed to run away to the circus rather than escape from it to a boarding school?)?
One sporty tomboy, one mathematical genius, one art/music genius and a brilliant practical joker. I'm assuming that, given that most of your contemporaries sound like 80's versions of Gwendolyn Lacey you had to fill all these other roles...
Jayne: That's a very good point - who in their right mind would escape *to* a boarding school? I definitely wasn't any of those things either - I kept trying to be moody and 'deep' and 'literary' but actually spent most of the time giggling and writing letters to Smash Hits.
Also, I apologise wholeheartedly to any vegetarians reading for any distress caused by the lobster description above.
at least you have the appropriate amount of self-mockery now. :)
"i have the opposite problem - occasional dim realisations that i'm not nearly as civilised as i think i am (bewildered by cutlery, grammar and matters of etiquette)"
yep, me too!
and Patroclus you are beautiful :-)
'Yes, I think that if the Blue Kitten turns out to be a little Tarquin, rather than a little Jemima, he'll be far more interested in Mr BC's extensive Lego collection than in my pony books.'
In my experience Jemima is just as likely to prefer Lego, although she may use it to build stables or boarding schools
Ideally, little Jemima Aloha DKNY Blue Kitten will like Warhammer.
Patroclus is beautiful, particularly in stripey pajamas, like this morning.
Awww.
damn, you mean I'm not a newsreading, showjumping princess then? Huh.
Aha! These are girls who what to escape from the circus to a boarding school...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/26/italy
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