For S and J
Recently I have been prodded by two of my nearest to provide them with gift suggestions for the Birthday that will fall in five and a half weeks. This post is for them. It is not designed to make the rest of you think you need to buy me flash gifts. While I love flash gifts, I can save up and buy them for myself if it comes to that. Although, if you're one of the many people who have received expensive wedding, baby and birthday gifts from me over the years, a small trinket would be nice since I'm never getting married and none of you buggers ever have anything under $100 on your registries.
There will be a do on the weekend of Jan 27-28. Details will be sent out shortly as soon as I can book a caterer. And if I don't invite you to said birthday do, it's not for lack of love. It's for lack of catering budget and the fact that we have the world's tiniest house. And I really need a new mattress before the sleep deprivation sends me over the edge, so the catering budget is staying small.
Anyway, S and J and the few other people who feel the urge, here's a long, comprehensive list. Do not go crazy. Things I particularly love are starred with an asterisk. I would also be very pleased to receive an email from Oxfam telling me that someone in Uganda has a toilet or a goat donated in my name. Relax, S and Baggy, the goats are for milking.
Right, so, onto said list.
*J, I would like a nice piece of jewellery; something that I will wear often. You should sit down with S and LAJ (M) and listen to their advice to you. It can have your name on it. It should not have just my name as I know my name. Although it was very sweet of you to think of your cunning plan. John W Thompson is the engraver whose work I really love. I can wear silver or gold. If you decide on a ring, a good cunning plan to get the right size is to take an impression from one of the two rings I wear all the time. The one with the stone fits my ring finger, the other one fits my thumb. They live on the bathroom shelf overnight.
I will not go mental if you don't give me jewellery, but if you plan to, you should organise this very soon as it will take much more than a week.
*In other news … I collect Royal Doulton Countess china in the green, yellow and black pattern. It's the original pattern of that name, from the early 20th century. Not the new pattern (which I am appalled to discover the existence of!)
It looks like this. I only like the green, which is unfortunate because you see more of the pink and the black, but they're horrid. I would like anything in this pattern, really, but would particularly like a teapot and a sugar bowl. The former should cost no more than $150 and the latter no more than $30, but it's a matter of finding the little buggers. I have bought most of mine off eBay, which is punishing on the postage. The Sydney Antiques Centre has some from time to time in their china-focussed stores, but they tend towards the usurious. This would all be so easy were we in London ...
I would love any of the following books:
Decca: the letters of Jessica Mitford by Peter Y Sussman
Before the Mast; life and death aboard the Mary Rose, ed Julie Gardiner (available from Mainly Medieval, 02 9519 2131)
Once More with Footnotes, by Terry Pratchett, but not from Amazon as they are gouging mercilessly
Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630, by Karen Hearn
Elizabeth's spy master: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War that Saved England, by Robert Hutchinson
Linger Awhile, Russell Hoban
*Debs at War, Anne de Courcy
Agincourt, by Juliet Barker
Isabella: She-wolf of France, Queen of England, by Alison Weir
*Or a subscription to one of my favourite mags, the Literary Review. If you've never picked up a copy, do, it's brilliant. Oh, and J, Gardens Illustrated?
CDs
Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, because I can divorce the music from the history
Mozart's The Magic Flute
*Any Vaughan Williams, my albums are all just that, and I have no turntable these days.
*The Proclaimers Sunshine on Leith, because I need a quick flashback.
'Medieval' things
Light white linen, lengths of over 4m
Silk sewing thread, white, black and deep red
Purse frame from Mainly Medieval, 02 9519 2131
Candlesticks, salt or needlecase from same
Elbow cops
House things
A medium-sized food processor
Space bags, the proprietary brand, not the cheaper knock-off. S was right, they are magnificently useful.
Magazine storage holders (any type, I'm no longer fussy. Carboard from Officeworks is fine. Just not fluoro.)
A cleaner
100 per cent cotton double sheet set in plain colour (white, green or dark red are all safe)
Wooden bath mat
Writing things
Antique writing box, like this one, or this one, but only if you have actually won the lottery.
Thick cream or off-white paper with a slightly rough texture, torn edges are fine, preferably cotton or linen
A nice crystal, silver or brass inkwell would be welcome
* More Moleskine notebooks, I prefer the unlined notebooks, but also don't mind the unlined reporter's pads. The thin paper is better, since I never end up sketching in the sketchbooks anyway.
More Staedler triplus fineliners in the four-pack with the flip-top case. I go through these and Moleskines at an alarming rate.
Lifestyle things
A horseriding lesson, because I need to brush up
Singing lesson, same reason
Packed sandwiches (no pig, cheese or sour cream!), some waterbottles and company for the Spit to Manly walk
A Trangia camping stove and insulated bottle for meths
Gardener for an afternoon (just a labourer would be fine)
This will probably be amended after Christmas, as I have no idea what J is getting me, and will add on the things from the Christmas list here. Good company and laughter would do just as well. While I may not have finished the Great Novel TM yet, I have my health (which is apparently excellent according to my last checkup), a wonderful J and utterly fabulous friends. And I won't read the comments on this thread in case anyone feels the need to point out what an acquisitive horror I turned out ot be after all.
There will be a do on the weekend of Jan 27-28. Details will be sent out shortly as soon as I can book a caterer. And if I don't invite you to said birthday do, it's not for lack of love. It's for lack of catering budget and the fact that we have the world's tiniest house. And I really need a new mattress before the sleep deprivation sends me over the edge, so the catering budget is staying small.
Anyway, S and J and the few other people who feel the urge, here's a long, comprehensive list. Do not go crazy. Things I particularly love are starred with an asterisk. I would also be very pleased to receive an email from Oxfam telling me that someone in Uganda has a toilet or a goat donated in my name. Relax, S and Baggy, the goats are for milking.
Right, so, onto said list.
*J, I would like a nice piece of jewellery; something that I will wear often. You should sit down with S and LAJ (M) and listen to their advice to you. It can have your name on it. It should not have just my name as I know my name. Although it was very sweet of you to think of your cunning plan. John W Thompson is the engraver whose work I really love. I can wear silver or gold. If you decide on a ring, a good cunning plan to get the right size is to take an impression from one of the two rings I wear all the time. The one with the stone fits my ring finger, the other one fits my thumb. They live on the bathroom shelf overnight.
I will not go mental if you don't give me jewellery, but if you plan to, you should organise this very soon as it will take much more than a week.
*In other news … I collect Royal Doulton Countess china in the green, yellow and black pattern. It's the original pattern of that name, from the early 20th century. Not the new pattern (which I am appalled to discover the existence of!)
It looks like this. I only like the green, which is unfortunate because you see more of the pink and the black, but they're horrid. I would like anything in this pattern, really, but would particularly like a teapot and a sugar bowl. The former should cost no more than $150 and the latter no more than $30, but it's a matter of finding the little buggers. I have bought most of mine off eBay, which is punishing on the postage. The Sydney Antiques Centre has some from time to time in their china-focussed stores, but they tend towards the usurious. This would all be so easy were we in London ...I would love any of the following books:
Decca: the letters of Jessica Mitford by Peter Y Sussman
Before the Mast; life and death aboard the Mary Rose, ed Julie Gardiner (available from Mainly Medieval, 02 9519 2131)
Once More with Footnotes, by Terry Pratchett, but not from Amazon as they are gouging mercilessly
Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630, by Karen Hearn
Elizabeth's spy master: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War that Saved England, by Robert Hutchinson
Linger Awhile, Russell Hoban
*Debs at War, Anne de Courcy
Agincourt, by Juliet Barker
Isabella: She-wolf of France, Queen of England, by Alison Weir
*Or a subscription to one of my favourite mags, the Literary Review. If you've never picked up a copy, do, it's brilliant. Oh, and J, Gardens Illustrated?
CDs
Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, because I can divorce the music from the history
Mozart's The Magic Flute
*Any Vaughan Williams, my albums are all just that, and I have no turntable these days.
*The Proclaimers Sunshine on Leith, because I need a quick flashback.
'Medieval' things
Light white linen, lengths of over 4m
Silk sewing thread, white, black and deep red
Purse frame from Mainly Medieval, 02 9519 2131
Candlesticks, salt or needlecase from same
Elbow cops
House things
A medium-sized food processor
Space bags, the proprietary brand, not the cheaper knock-off. S was right, they are magnificently useful.
Magazine storage holders (any type, I'm no longer fussy. Carboard from Officeworks is fine. Just not fluoro.)
A cleaner
100 per cent cotton double sheet set in plain colour (white, green or dark red are all safe)
Wooden bath mat
Writing things
Antique writing box, like this one, or this one, but only if you have actually won the lottery.
Thick cream or off-white paper with a slightly rough texture, torn edges are fine, preferably cotton or linen
A nice crystal, silver or brass inkwell would be welcome
* More Moleskine notebooks, I prefer the unlined notebooks, but also don't mind the unlined reporter's pads. The thin paper is better, since I never end up sketching in the sketchbooks anyway.
More Staedler triplus fineliners in the four-pack with the flip-top case. I go through these and Moleskines at an alarming rate.
Lifestyle things
A horseriding lesson, because I need to brush up
Singing lesson, same reason
Packed sandwiches (no pig, cheese or sour cream!), some waterbottles and company for the Spit to Manly walk
A Trangia camping stove and insulated bottle for meths
Gardener for an afternoon (just a labourer would be fine)
This will probably be amended after Christmas, as I have no idea what J is getting me, and will add on the things from the Christmas list here. Good company and laughter would do just as well. While I may not have finished the Great Novel TM yet, I have my health (which is apparently excellent according to my last checkup), a wonderful J and utterly fabulous friends. And I won't read the comments on this thread in case anyone feels the need to point out what an acquisitive horror I turned out ot be after all.
posted by Miss D at 12:26 am
10 Comments:
And so the question arises...
Have you engaged someone to ensure you end up with 10 every so lovely writing slopes?
NAE.
And so the next question arises...
What happened to my ability to put negatives in my questions?... And spell?
NAE.
Sure!
Hi everyone welcome to miss D's meeting point. Guys! Girls! You're all welcome, bring a friend! Bring two friends! Bring your pets! Anything goes, we're waiting for your call.
Grrrrrr... Like a Tiger
NAE.
Even furry undies!
And half full frozen floaties!
NAE.
Good list! YAY!
I meant to call the warrenview today to see how much the booking half of the back area is. I'll do that tomorrow.
there's a spit to manly walk??? When???? That sounds brilliant!
(yes, i missed bits the first time. I am slack)
OK, J told me I had to read the messages and it was all safe. Good point, NAE, J has volunteered, he is on knightboy@iprimus.com.au and will be our present coordinator for this event. We're so doomed ...
Drake, you are so right. In years to come as I limp my soggy gambeson-clad form off the tournament field and carefully wrap my plate armour in oilskin, you will point and giggle and say to your young folk, "She used to wear big frocks, but now she can kill you."
Back to NAE. As to Aunty D's Introduction Service, let's just say that I have never once successfully match-made heterosexuals, so if you and Drakey go completely wild, there is a chance for the two of you, but Blod will kill you both (unless you organise one of those kooky share arrangemenst, in which case I'm sure there will be a quick weighing up of the options before violence is resorted to.) Also, EW! Lochac is not one of THOSE Kingdoms. Nasty smelly Baronses!
Deense, you're an angel. It's sounding like a better idea all the time. There is indeed a great Spit to Manly walk and we should completely do it on a cool, dry weekend day. Let's find one!
Tops and I did the Manley to Spit walk some years ago...hmmm probably about seven years ago.
If you wait for winter, I'll come do it again. It took us four hours on a warm weekend in February.
We have a couple of early 19th c writing desks hanging around at home. Unfortunately, the only way they're going anywhere is prizing dad's cold dead fingers off them, and the only way to do that is out gun him, which is difficult.
It's an adequate list. But this is obviously a special occasion, so have you ever thought about branching out a little?
For example:
* lycra Wonder Woman's outfit, short
* Economy-sized flask of fresh air, all set for Sydney's next fire season
* EGYPTIAN cotton sheets. 100% alone will not cut it, accept no substitutes.
* 5 imperial (Roman) oz of myrrh -- you've covered gold already, nobody actually likes the smell of frankincense and, besides, myrrh is such an excellent preservative
* T-Shirt emblazoned with "I expect to be Somebody one day..." on the front and "...in My own right" on the back
* Beatle's LOVE album, on vinyl
* "Do it later", the procrastinator's calendar (it took my lady three visits to buy a copy for her best friend)
* A wall-mounted sound-activated fish which sings "I Did It My Way" while rolling its eyes in an amusing self-parody
* $250 gift voucher from Lush, or equivalent in thoughtfully-chosen products from the same store
* A personal buyer
* Kevlar body stocking. You can't go wrong with kevlar.
* Fur muff, fur hat, fur collar, fur-lined boots and whatever other fur accessories you'd willingly wear. Midwinter Coronation beckons...
* A large sledgehammer with handle pyrographed with the legend "Politics (the good kind)"
* A set of warning labels to attach to your most treasured personal possessions including one bearing the legend "Owner is not responsible for the consequences if anyone with less than 18/75 Charisma wears, uses or wields this item". Put it on the Wonder Woman's outfit.
You can tell I've still got to kill at least 7 more hours before pressie-time.
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