Showing posts with label Joy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joy. Show all posts

Monday, 22 March 2010

Joyful List #6

The mrs joyful prize for raffia work *, dinner parties, drunken doctors, dessert wine, quince blossom, ice cubes, vests, gin, Bakelite telephones (adds gravitas to every conversation), shouting lessons, oysters, grilled squid, cafe bars, loofahs, plump cheeks, second-hand bookshops, Illy Dark Roast, steamed milk, big mugs, boots, narcissi, debate, silence, bottlebanks, toast, The Sullenness of Youth, bad influences, passing fancies, glace cherries.

EDIT: Some OIK is masquerading as my hero, Nigel Molesworth, on Twitter. It is reported here in The Telegraph. I suddenly feel much less joyful. Chiz, chiz.

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Joyful List #5


New friends; old friends; even older friends; letters in stiff, sharp envelopes; handwriting, strings of pearls cool against skin; cake stands; freckles; frocks; inscribed books; old postcards and their mysterious half-stories; jewel-bright jam bubbling in a pan; the warm weight of dough; slow roasted tomatoes; mezzalunas; fizzbangs; The Slosh.

Tuesday, 28 July 2009

Joyful List #4


Vast expanses of sky, bagpipes, Scottish tablet, cabbage, codeine, pine trees, pinenuts, puddles, vibrations, meringue, mimosas, pickle, sandcastles, rocks and rockpools, poached fish (in both senses of the word), floaty frocks, race horses, greyhounds, speed, digital cameras, vinyl records, violins and cellos...

Monday, 20 July 2009

Joyful List #3


Unpredictable predictive text (I type coal and get anal which creates not a little confusion with the Coal Merchant), log fires, coal fires, most especially peat fires, things that melt (wax, cheese, chocolate), backscratches, French & Spanish potato crisps which leave your fingers irredeemably greasy, enormous bath towels, humbugs, the scent of jasmine on a summer's evening, Molesworth, William Brown, Jennings - ALL naughty school boys (fictional or otherwise) - fresh figs, row boats, kimonos, robins, the thrum of bumble bees in a lavender bush, cutting hair (so very joyful, though I've been banned from it due to over-eager snipping), Plymouth Gin, limes, bare feet.

The Joy of Smut


Sadly, this sweetcorn has been infected with Common Smut. O, how the gardeners giggle when discussing the afflictions of sweetcorn!

Actually they don't which is why I was blackballed from the Local Allotment Society.

Blackballed. There I go again.

Give me an entendre and I will double it. I'll see your Double Entendre and raise it. And so on. Smut which comes naturally should be considered an innate talent rather than an embarrassing affliction. I thought I'd just slip that one in.

Here is but one example. Once, a compere at an open mic event explained that the microphone stand had been stolen and that the microphone would have to be held by each performer. She said kindly, "If any of you poets are having problems performing and need to use two hands, I can kneel down and hold it for you."

Humphrey Littleton eat your heart out.

Smut is wonderful, enlivening, life-affirming (not like that bloody play The Sea - see posts passim), flirtatious, silly. It creates alliances and exposes puritans. Good smut is the mille-feuille (cream puff doesn't sound half so light and airy) of the English language; poor smut, the claggy bread and butter pudding. It relies on understanding subtle differences in word definitions, Music Hall timing, and not being American.

I could discourse at length on this subject, but I have a Man of the Cloth coming to tea. "More butter up your end, Vicar? Or may I press you to another tart?"

Sunday, 19 July 2009

Joyful List #2


Fat blowsy flowers (peonies, cabbage roses), sausage sandwiches, costume jewellery, very bad singer-songwriters who insist on attempting to sing The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, clouds, rhubarb crumble, dark country lanes, the sea, (not The Sea* which is dreadful), perfectly smooth pebbles, custard, scruffy dogs, Italian waiters, garlic mayonnaise, David Shrigley cartoons, ink pens, vests (much under-rated), icecream, The Muppets, rainbows, gargoyles, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...

* To clarify, due to complaints along the lines of "What the duck are you talking about? The Sea is an excellent novel" I refer here to Edward Bond's The Sea which is a play duller than a cold, damp day in Filey. I am prepared to concede that perhaps I saw a particularly dull production of an Exciting! Vibrant! and Challenging! play.

But I very much doubt it.

Friday, 17 July 2009

Joyful List #1


Mashed potato, penguins, deep baths of the hot persuasion, new socks, painted toenails, jam, thick creamy paper, fresh bed linen sundried on the line (more of this anon), sunlight through trees and dappled shadows, small yet secret revenges, puddles, elderly ladies who excel at rudeness, lingerie, butter, crumpets, butter on crumpets.