Love Films

My over-familiar friend at Love Films wanted to know why I had cancelled the subscription. I told him it was because I was too busy. The internet, You Tube and blogging can take over your life !!

News from abroad

Still receiving cheerful news from Tokyo. Posters have been put up asking people to share any foods that are temporarily in short supply. I am reminded of the parable of the loaves and fishes. A vicar once told me that if it is difficult to see how 5000 people were fed one should think of it as meaning one should share whatever one has and that this multitude did just that (having presumably brought their lunch).

The Danish TV series "The Killing" has attracted a great deal of attention in the U.K. Orders have flooded in to the company Gudrun & Gudrun in the Faroe Islands for the jumper the female detective is wearing on screen.I am always one to bathe in reflected glory. The husband of the Gudrun who owns the company is the charming director of the TV interview I did in 2008 in Denmark (http://www.ee138.net/) The photo above was taken last year.

Chiropody

I have just been visited by my chiropodist, an extremely tall, handsome young man. He said he wished everyone had an armchair like mine with a footrest as bending over is so bad for his back. Many professions seem to have some drawbacks. My dentist suffered from varicous veins from standing all day as , I believe, do hairdressers and shop assistants and nurses have bad backs from lifting patients.
I once had occasion to take my small daughter to a chiropodist for some minor ailment. He was very nice to her and told her if she saw him in the street she must say hello. He said he would only recognise her if she was walking barefoot.
We had a lovely girl dental student as our Paying Guest (lodger) when we lived in London. She was appalled when her friend gave up dentistry to become a chiropodist. She said "Fancy looking at people's feet all day!" I thought "Fancy looking in people's mouths all day!" It takes all sorts.

Borrowed Finery

My family have just come back from a short holiday in Devon. I first went to Devon in 1946 with Don on a Youth Hostelling holiday. WE walked from hostel to hostel round the Devon coast and on to Dartmoor.This photo of me was at Hallsands near Start Point where I think much of the village has been destroyed by coastal erosion.

I am wearing apair of men's corduroy trousers, borrowed ! This was not unusual. We became accustomed to such stratagems during the war when clothes and fabric were rationed. One had so many coupons to last the year. They were never quite enough to keep one decently clad so we were reduced to a number of subterfuges. The first was to borrow. My white wedding dress in 1942 was lent to me by my friend Kitty's colleague. My first long evening dress was a beautiful blue bridesmaid's dress borrowed from a friend. We were exhorted by the Government to "Make Do and Mend" A very serviceable overcoat could be made out of a blanket and curtains made a very pretty summer dress. The back and tail of a worn out shirt would be made into an apron. If you could get hold of some white silk parachute material you would be set up in undies for life.

I was the envy of the office when a soldier friend sent me two pairs of silk stockings from Italy. Grandfathers became expert "snobs" an old name for a shoe repairer.

Clothes rationing started in 1941 and ended about 1950. When I married in 1947 I was only allowed to buy 3 sheets ! Clothes and furniture were made to strict utility standards - no frills. We survived.

Update from Tokyo

I look each day for the blog from my friend in Tokyo. She is my daughter's primary school friend who has lived in Japan for nearly 30 years. She says today, that whatever the media say., there is no panic in Tokyo. There is food in the shops. the people have voluntarily cut down on the use of electricity so that there are fewer power cuts than predicted and the trains are running though not quite to schedule. They have become used to aftershocks and are trying to live normally in the present unpredictable situation. It seems the British are not the only ones to keep a stiff upper lip. She says reporters (presumably foreign) say "Why aren't they panicking? Why don't they evacuate?" But Tokyo is my friend's home.
The pictures and stories from the north of Japan make sad reading. My friend's colleagues have families there and have no news of them. Natural disasters cause enough trouble on this earth. Why do men fight each other?

Midsomer Murders

Political correctness gone mad. Brian True-May, the creator and producer of the Tv series which attracts six million viewers, caused a furore when he said the show had thrived because its all-white cast shows the true English village. Maybe he was stretching things a bit but what does it matter? We all love it for its dottiness. It is surely not meant to be taken seriously?
I love John Nettles. I loved him as Bergerac and as a voice-over and as Barnaby, even if he can't now run as fast as Bergerac. He plays a policeman without a chip on his shoulder or a tragic background. On the contrary, he appears to have a loving family and gets on reasonably well with his colleagues. I know the poliemen tramp all over the clues, illegally enter premises and rifle through private papers. As for the ingenious way people get murdered I can only wonder at the writer's inventiveness. Mind you, I do sometimes have to hide behind the sofa !
Still getting blogs from my earthquake- surviving friend in Tokyo. See her comment on my last blog.

Earthquake

I have been reading a blog from my tea-drinking friend in Tokyo. She will forgive me if I paraphrase it. She is an amazing lady. She reports calmly what it was like to be with a friend in a teashop in Tokyo when the earthquake struck. They decided to move outside away from the glass windows where she said the pavements rolled under her feet and made her feel seasick. They went back inside to finish their tea when a second and then a third quake struck
At that point they decided to go home. On the way home they stopped a few times to do some shopping !!! There were no trains so the friend stayed the night. At the flat there was no gas but a phone call from a good Japanese friend told her how to put that right. Nothing surprising there? Except that the phone call was from Hong Kong !
An update says they were woken at 5.15 by the paper boy after a restless night with several aftershocks..The friend managed to get home the next day when the trains were running again.
The north of Japan took the brunt of the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami. The devastation looks truly dreadful. My friend says she feels very lucky.

Engagement rings.

"Home again, home again, let us all sing.
A boy and a girl and a Bravington ring."

This was an advertisement slogan carried by the tube trains after the war had ended. My beautiful engagement ring was bought at Bravingtons, though prices had doubled in 1946. See below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48958592@N05/4639896886/

Wedding Anniversary

I hear that it is snowing in Greece today ! It was snowing 64 years ago today when Donald and I got married at St. Luke's Church in London. I had planned a spring wedding. We married in a blizzard and I nearly froze to death. The photographer fell down the church steps in the snow. The thirty guests were pleased to have a lunch of hot roast chicken with all the trimmings instead of the planned cold buffet.

The next morning we left for our honeymoon in the south of France. Very exciting as foreign travel was still very restricted because one was only allowed to take out of the country a very small amount of our currency. I think it was £25 per person. We travelled to Dover on the Golden Arrow, a very swish Pullman train.

We were glad to leave the wintry weather behind. It had been a hard winter since January with a lot of snow. Fuel was short and many foods still rationed.

Although Don had travelled all over the world in his six years in the RAF I had never been abroad before. We had a sleeper to St. Raphael and woke in the morning to blue skies. colourfully painted houses and the wonderful scent of mimosa. What more could any girl ask?

Always read the label

Apparently someone has decided that the instructions on bottles of pills are not easily understood so they may be changed.

I was once deputed to look after an elderly aunt at a wedding reception and see that she took her pills. The label on the pill container said they should not be taken with alcohol. Looking at her glass of champagne I said gently "You don't take these with alcohol, do you?" "Oh no, dear" she said "I take them with water and have my drop of whisky afterwards".

JDF

Today Mike took me to the excellent Hove library and I now have three autobiographies in large print so I am delighted to be able to read more easily. Being at a low ebb this week I have been cheering myself up by listening to my new CD of Juan Diego Florez singing sacred songs. I have also found this video. See below.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvxLAHcsvRE&feature=related