tadorna: (Default)
sheldrake ([personal profile] tadorna) wrote2008-12-21 12:37 pm

Chatty

In retrospect, I think yesterday went downhill when I put the telly on to wrap my presents in front of... only I didn't wrap any presents, I slouched under a blanket watching Catherine Cookson's A Dinner of Herbs on UKTV History. Thank god my dad phoned to complain at me, or I might have watched Bugsy Malone as well.

This year's Christmas comfort reading is The Children of Green Knowe. It's working a treat. And now when I read it I remember the real house. Here's the website, if you want to go there. You can arrange an appointment, and Lucy Boston's daughter-in-law will give you the guided tour. It's very cool. You can touch the rocking horse omg!

A letter to Neil Gaiman's blog really made me cringe today. ...I told her that I don't have any brothers, just sisters, and that I didn't know the gentleman she had named, and that I was sorry. Ooh. Ouch. Not quite the same thing, obviously, but someone once contacted my cousin, who is a record producer, pretending they were me. It was during his brief period of being mildly well-known, after he worked with Madonna and had a record in the charts. I still have no idea who the person was, or where they got my name, or anything! Weird. Quite fun for me though, heh.

I like stories about really bad Christmasses, they make me feel better. Here's a sad little memoir by Will Self. The last Christmas we had spent in my natal home, two years before, had been distinguished by my brother and I having a stand-up fist fight in the street, smiting one another until we fell into the privet – a small suburban nightmare.

[identity profile] shirecreature.livejournal.com 2008-12-21 03:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I remember Bugsy Malone - I'm sure Jodie Foster wishes she didn't. :)

[identity profile] justwolf.livejournal.com 2008-12-21 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't think I've read Children of Green Knowe. I must, because I trust your taste in children's fiction.

[identity profile] purple-hazed.livejournal.com 2008-12-21 07:14 pm (UTC)(link)
put the telly on to wrap my presents in front of...

I'm just about to do that, but maybe I will still be here at 3am!!

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2008-12-21 07:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Heheh... :)

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2008-12-21 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, you should, you should! I think you'd like it.

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2008-12-21 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Choose carefully, that's all!

[identity profile] lobelia321.livejournal.com 2008-12-21 11:28 pm (UTC)(link)
It should be 'my brother and me', of course, but I guess I should be so overcome with melancholy that I cease to notice grammatical sins.

THAT DAY WILL NEVER DAWN!!!

*smites you with dictionary*

[identity profile] lobelia321.livejournal.com 2008-12-21 11:28 pm (UTC)(link)
No no, not you! Will Self!!
qwentoozla: (Default)

[personal profile] qwentoozla 2008-12-22 12:36 am (UTC)(link)
I used to love the Green Knowe books when I was little! My mom used to read them to me. I've even been to the house! The lady said I could sit on the rocking horse, but it seemed so high and scary to me, so I didn't. I couldn't have been more than five.

I liked the book with the little slave boy and the blind girl. And the one with the witch called Melanie Powers. I should reread them, it's been forever since I last did, but I think I've still got some of them.

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2008-12-28 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! *stops cowering*

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2008-12-28 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, you! ;)

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2008-12-28 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, they're definitely worth revisiting! The second one (slave boy and blind girl - Chimneys of Green Knowe) is probably my favourite, but the first is so very, very Christmassy! I like the one set at the time the house was built, too. Cool that you've been to the house! She didn't ask me if I wanted to sit on the rocking horse but then I was probably over 30 at the time, so fair enough really...