Always On My Mind

A difficult subject. The actor playing the woman in a persistent vegetative state played a blinder.
Bobby's concentrating hard on what to buy me for Christmas.All I want for Christmas is YOU, sweetheart.


"Whew, that's a relief! What an easy gift."


You remember those bumper stickers that said things like, "Windsurfers do it standing up"?I once saw one that said, "Carpenters are tongue and groove men."I hope our Bobby is, too...


In case you didn't know - Bobby's hot.No, really, he's actually hot.

It gives him the chance to do a bit of sleight-of-hand.It's "find-the lady" time. I'm over here!


Just - Woof!


Just because he's perfect.


Not to mention the compassion.


Why did I include this one again? Guess!


It makes a change to see a man with a deep brow and it's not because his hair's receding.


Mind his wig, Bobby!


Just think, day after day Eames gets to look up at him like this.And we DON'T hate her!

JoJo - FYI

This is the linenfold pattern that appears in a lot of old houses from the Tudor period on. This is a modern headboard for a bed, but it was the clearest picture on the first Google page!

Holier Than Thou

I find the LOCI episodes where they deal with religion uncomfortable. It's a sad reminder of how catastrophic an influence religion has had on people, from throwing the Christians to the lions, to the Spanish Inquisition, to the troubles in Northern Ireland, to every present day conflict where one religion tries to assert itself as the one true religion and denounce all others as heretic.

Anyway, it seems to figure often in all the L&O programmes, and they are always the last LOCI episodes I cap. This is why I didn't post this one yesterday - I had no pictures!

"I could have told them it was a forgery right away...


...Look at those apostrophes -you don't have them in the possessive.Its, not it's. And she a published poet? I don't think so."


The raised eyebrow seems to indicate some cleverness about to be uttered.Don't know what the blue hair means - weird lighting, maybe?


Is it the chair or the desk or both that mean he has to slouch like this?GIVE HIM BIGGER ONES! We don't want him to get a bad back or indigestion.


Is it the wrist? Is it the hand? Is it the profile?


"Listen - do you want to know a secret?"


Eye, eye.


Praying for inspiration, Bobby?


Could I just move that little curl and kiss the bit of neck behind your ear?


Is it the hand? Is it the wrist...


He's even great with the elderly, not just kids.Lucky woman.


I know what I would do if he was this close to me.

Kissing Lesson

There are so many of these in Vincent's films, Mr D'Onofrio being such an obvious expert.

Of course, if he needs to get back into practice after seven years as Bobby, I'm available. Free.

Number 1 London

Today I managed to use my lifetime membership of English Heritage for the first time. My friend was supposed to go with me, as I can take someone else in free, but she called in sick at the last moment.

I went to Apsley House, which used to be the first house as you entered London from the west, and was really known by the name of Number 1 London. It was given to the Duke of Wellington as part of his reward for resoundingly and repeatedly beating Napoleon.

The house stands on the edge of Hyde Park, at Hyde Park Corner. Next to it is a triumphal arch style screen that marks the entrance to the park. Across the road is the Wellington Arch, which used to line up with the Hyde Park screen, but it had to be moved for a road-widening scheme to ease traffic congestion. In 1852! It is now on a giant traffic island.

The arch is less ornate than was planned, because of economies due to shortage of funds - they had been doing up Buckingham Palace (replacing a very attractive facade with the present lumpen one). Originally the statue on top was a rather over-large equestrian statue of Wellington. It was much ridiculed. After the move, it was sent to Aldershot (where there has been a major army barracks for a very long time) and then, much later, a new statue was commissioned with a quadriga (a four-horsed chariot). It represents the angel of peace on the chariot of war.

You can go inside the arch, and there are viewing platforms. This is the view back across to the park and Apsley House.

These roofs are very Parisien-looking. Up yours, Bonaparte!



This is Constitution Hill. Very funny - we don't actually HAVE a constitution! The gardens on the left are Green Park. On the right are the gardens of Buckingham Palace.


Another view of the Palace gardens - complete with tennis courts, apparently. I think the tower block is the London Hilton. There was great controversy when it was built because it overlooked the Palace grounds.

This is a different statue of the Iron Duke. The pigeons love him.

The area is full of war memorials, including one to Animals in War.

By the time I'd finished here, I was late for lunch, so I caught a bus to an area where I knew I'd find an eatery of some kind. All the coffee shops were packed. So I went to Liberty's Department Store.



Don't be fooled by the appearance. It's a complete fake. They've had to replace the creaky, uneven stairs for health and safety reasons (the carved balustrades remain) but to me the whole place still looks like a fire trap. Even the lift has wooden linenfold style panels. I'm sure that can't be legal!

The shoe department was to die for. If I had a few hundred pounds to spare, and I could still wear the kinds of shoes they sell, I'd be in shoe heaven. As it was, a simple printed cloth shopping bag was on sale for £115. I resisted.

Toy Story

Drowsey Monkey (http://drowseymonkey.blogspot.com) has posted a sort of a meme for people to publish their teddy bear/soft toy/doll stories in their blogs. Well, here is my tale of two dolls.

I was quite small when I got a doll like the girl doll on the left for Christmas.

I called her Topsy, after the little black girl in the story who "growed and growed". She said "Mama" when you tipped her up. I adored her.

I have no idea what she was dressed in. Obviously the first thing I did was undress her, and I never saw her clothes again. The theory was that they were thrown out with the wrapping paper. Over time, with lots of play, she lost one set of eyelashes, too.

Several years later, fashions had moved on. I wanted a bride doll. Beyond my wildest dreams, a "teenage" doll with rooted, stylable hair, arrived for my birthday. I must have been 7. She had nail varnish on her fingers and toes, and she wore high heels.

Her shoes were kept on with elastic, and as it began to perish, I found a pair of pink plastic high-heeled mules for her.

I don't really know what happened to the dolls, but my mother did give quite a few things to the grandchildren of a workmate, who did not have much. Our wind-up gramophone with all our very old 78s was a victim to her generosity, and I think the dolls probably went the same way.

Fast forward to the 1990s. I was visiting Rochester in Kent, a town with a strong Dickens connection. The High Street is full of antique shops. There in the window of one was a bride doll just like mine. But look - she's wearing pink plastic mules. She was MY doll - and she was on sale for £35. I asked where she had come from, but they appeared to have no record (oh really?) so I was stumped. Later, I wished I'd bought her back.

The next year, I went for another visit to the town. ( I was trying to find the courage to climb the medieval castle, but as I hate heights, especially those reached by open stone stairs and spiral staircases, I have never actually made it up there.)

In the same shop, in a cabinet inside, was a black doll dressed in a sailor suit. It was obviously the wrong costume for the doll, and to my eyes, she was clearly a girl. There was the missing row of eyelashes. She was my Topsy. This one, however, was on sale for £90.

I sometimes wonder if I should go back and see if they still have my dolls, all these years on, and buy them back, but as I have had to rehome my bisque reproduction antique dolls because of lack of space, it would be a foolish thing to do.

Still...

I'd kill the parents

It's not as if killing the musician solved any of Camilla's problems.

From this distance, if I thrust my boobs at Bobby like this,they'd knock him over.Then I could jump on top of him :)


A double thumbs up. (Up where?)


Decisions, decisions.
OK, I'll keep them both in.


Do you think they give him shirts that are short in the sleeve on purpose?


Hey, Bobby, give us a tongue-lashing.


The sexiest neck in all creation.


Air guitar.Pluck my strings, Bobby.


There's that neck again.


And after the tongue-lashing - the lash-lashing.

Expert Opinion

On the radio today, I heard an item in which some pretty interesting statements were made.

According to one contributor, women find it sexier if men dance with economical use of the dance floor. They can make elaborate moves, but don't travel round the floor too much.





Apparently the same reason that makes men dance like this also makes their ears, legs and arms more symetrical.

IT'S BEING EXPOSED TO EXTRA TESTOSTERONE WHILE STILL IN THE WOMB!
And they think this will be news to fans of Vincent D'Onofrio?