Yesterday was wonderful. This year I was perfectly well and functioning and cooking and the food went over a treat. As did the German dessert cookies and cake things brought by Handsome Son, also the eggnog, and his other offerings.
And we find that we can happily watch old murder mysteries together. Only took us 48 years to find a common interest...he loves the ones set in the 30s and 40s -- Poirot and Marple, not just for the plot, but the settings and cars and historical clothes and all that. So we indulged in a couple of them, only putting them on pause when neighbors stopped by to help eat our dessert.
To me a lot of the 40s and 50s is not so much historical. I mean, I wore stuff like that, in the 50s, and the forties stuff is hairstyles I remember my older sisters doing (such as the Utility Roll, where you rolled up your hair around a ribbon like a sausage around your head), and those blouses with square shoulders and set in sleeves. Twinsets and pearls and good tweeds for posh ladies, my teachers wore those.
I wore the wide collars and big ties and short skirts and colored stockings, all the rage at the Uni in the late 50s. Earlier the white crocheted gloves. Hats, even, now and then. And earlier still I wore that Girl Guide uniform, gah. And those awful school blazers and ties and panama hats and clunky shoes. And the ghastly knitwear with puff sleeves and ever so dainty lacework insets. To him it's the prehistoric olden days. To me it's oh well, memory...
I can't wear hats well, just something not right, but I wish people still did. I mean real hats, the felt or straw kind with brims. They're fun, and a useful accessory if you're committing a murder..disguise, you know. Not planning on a murder in rl, except I am really annoyed with that person who keeps pinching my parking place...no, no, tis the season of goodwill and good parking for all.
Anyway, as we both suddenly thought, what did they do on Christmas before the murder mystery appeared on DVD...the doubtful joy of board games. Card games. Jigsaw puzzles. Charades. Word puzzles. All very low on my list of Things I Would Like To Do If I Had a Week to Live.
The rain has finally abated, and I'm off to get a bit of air, after I eat the lovely itlis and sauce that Girija stopped by to give me this morning. Rice and white lentil shapes, to put into the sauce stuff like a soup. She has family visiting, all cooking up a storm, and this is a South India recipe she doesn't often make. This afternoon they're off to a local Hindi movie. Now that's something you can do instead of a murder mystery. And they go on all afternoon.
I LOVE the attention to detail and continuity in the Poirot episodes, and Miss Marple as well. I have hit "Pause" and peered and perused and pondered. I've taken screenshots and thought about how to build a particular gate or roofline. I've tried to work out the floorplan of Troy's studio and home in the Inspector Alleyn series. And of course, in terms of wardrobe, there's the knitting...lest we forget Miss Harriet Vane's brown hat!
ReplyDeleteYour Christmas sounds absolutely perfect, Liz. So glad all went according to plan :)
Did you notice in the Joan whatshername Marple, A Murder is Announced, that Dora Bunner is knitting continental? or maybe it's Bunch Harmon. Someone, not very skilfully, unlike Miss M. who whips along with her work while she detects and chats. She does pencil style needle holding, very Victorian and proper!
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