Time travelling

One of my NYE party decorations

I haven’t sofa surfed for ages. There’s always been some kind of chore to do, don’t get me wrong, there are still lots of chores to do; I’m just choosing not to do them. I think that means I’ve failed on one New Year Resolution, but kind of succeeded on another.

Anyway, I didn’t feel too guilty about my sofa surfing today, because I felt like I was doing something productive at the same time… time travelling.

It all started with Sunday Brunch on Channel 4 to set me up, because you can’t time travel on an empty stomach, and from there on in I was hurtling through the decades!

One Day took me through the late eighties, nineties, noughties and the early teenies with music, fashion (ish!), city-scapes, city nightlife and TV references.

Hook had me re-visiting my childhood in the early nineties and reminiscing about Christmases of days gone by. We used to watch a pantomime, en masse with friends and family, every year. One year we chose not to see the pantomime and went to the cinema to see Hook instead. It’s been one of my favourite childhood films ever since. And in fact, my Baby Bro and I still quote it at each other regularly… “In your face camel cake”.

Clueless took me through my teenage years in the late nineties. Every single Friday of them. Kim and I used to watch Clueless followed by Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet every week whilst getting ready to go out. Again, we still quote it regularly, and my thirty year old, grown up (ish) vocabulary is still heavily influenced by the content of that film.

The Tomorrow People had me squealing with excitement. CITV's Old Skool Weekend was just full of amazing childhood references. Funhouse - After-school prize-winner jealousy. Wizadora - “Sick day” guilty pleasure (before it was replaced by Loose Women). Press Gang? Fuelling future career aspirations. Knightmare - Still gives me actual nightmares sometimes! Art Attack - Where my obsession with everything oversized began. I was so happy to find The Tomorrow People on the schedule and Sky +’d it… and was then so upset when I realised that it wasn’t what I thought it was: The Girl from Tomorrow which was one of my absolute faves (I still desperately want to wear my hair band like a Transducer and paint three dots on my cheekbone)! Such a shame that The Queen’s Nose was a BBC programme… I consoled myself with Fraggle Rock.

Mr Selfridge will hopefully become my Sunday night replacement for Downton Abbey and fulfil my need for some kind of period drama on cosy winter nights. The costumes, the bouffants, the accents, the vistas of turn-of-the-century (ish) London. I have high hopes.

And the day of time travelling ended with The Iron Lady. I didn’t spend a lot of my childhood paying attention to politics, and to be frank, I don’t really now, so I'm not really drawn by that side of things in this film. I have, however, always spent a lot of my time paying attention to the changing fashions in interiors, hair, cosmetics, clothes and cars and this film showcases them in all their twentieth century glory fabulously. I love it. Oh, and Meryl. Oh how it showcases Meryl.

I should do this more often... and I should get a maid!

A girlie weekend

Where last weekend was full of colour, this weekend, although also full of colour, was full of girls!

My Friday night humbug outfit

We kicked off on Friday night with a girlie dinner date to celebrate Caroline turning 30. We all got dolled up, and headed off to Zenxi in town for cocktails, fizz, Chinese food, cupcakes and presents!

Pre dinner cocktails

Saturday was mainly spent sewing my costume for Caroline’s big Story Book themed birthday party that night. I love a bit of fancy dress, and if I’m doing fancy dress, I do it properly – face paint, sewing, accessories, the works!

The Birthday Girl

On this occasion I was dressing up as Jadis, The White Witch from The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. I mentioned my costume inspiration here, but, due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. me forgetting that I’m not a Hollywood costumier) the costume took a slight detour and I ended up re-using the corset that formed the basis of my Katy Perry costume from Katie’s 30^th in October.

Cutest ever cupcakes

Mr G got all over-excited (he’s probably the one person in the world that loves fancy dress more than me, so I’ve recently discovered) and dressed up as an Oompa Loompa, and I’ve been finding orange facepaint all over the bathroom ever since…. I know I’m from Essex, but still, I don’t want anyone thinking that’s my make up everywhere!

After a night of dancing, singing, stuffing ourselves with fairy tale themed cupcakes and admiring each other’s outfits, we rolled home, scrubbed off all our facepaint and I tried to comb out the backcombing and various “pouffing” products out of my hair (unsuccessfully) before collapsing in to bed. Fancy dress is so tiring!

Tinker Bell, Dorothee, The Frog Princess, Wilma, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood,
a Disney Princess and White Witch!

An Oompa Loompa and The White Witch - a good match!

Sunday morning we got up early, and did our best to make ourselves presentable (removing the last traces of face paint, we missed in the small hours and trying to get my evil witch/crazy candy floss hair in to some kind of human style) to pop back to see the house we’re in the process of buying. I was super scared that I wouldn’t like it as much, now that we’ve done the deed and committed to buy, but on seeing it again I loved it and I can’t wait to get the ball rolling and move in! Perhaps we should have facepaint and crazy hair themed housewarming party!

After that, we did a spot of shopping and I managed to pull together an outfit for the second of the three weddings I have coming up with a lucky spot in Warehouse, and then I took myself off home to get ready (my "Malibu Barbie" outfit of pink jeans, green shoes and a spangly jumper) for a lunch date at TheBlue Strawberry with my Luvvies… which, as per usual, resulted in us being ushered from the restaurant half an hour after closing time, at 7pm. Only the Luvvies can make lunch last until 7pm!

My Malibu Barbie Sunday lunch outfit

A busy weekend often equals lots of mess, and a fancy dress weekend means even more mess so this evening I spent a good hour packing up my dressing up box and sewing kit and returning everything to its rightful home, Mary Poppins style (how appropriate) before settling down to some blogging, a cuppa and some Sunday night telly (Harry Potter, Titanic, Homeland) while I wait for my orange-tinged boy to come home from work.

What a weekend! And to cheer me up about it coming to an end – a short week at work, a Hunger Games date with Laura and Game of Thrones starts Monday... YAY!

I’m so excited

SOOO excited.

There’s so much great Christmas telly coming and when I get home from all the family time, I’ll have so much on my Sky+ to snuggle up in front of, hopefully in my new pyjamas (and various other things off my, completely reasonable, not at all outlandish, Christmas list)…

• The Only Way is Essex-mas (I've missed Joey so much!)
• Made in Chelsea Christmas special (Will Caggie and Spencer finally get it together?)
• Downton Abbey Christmas special (Imagine the Christmas supper outfits... gorge!)
• The Strictly final and the Christmas day special (c'moooooon Harry!)
• Great Expectations (I do love a period piece in the winter)
• Jonathan Ross Christmas special (he cracks me up)
• Outnumbered Christmas special (Those kids? Comedy gold!)
• There’s always a beautiful animation or two (great for pyjama time on Boxing day)
• Doctor Who always pulls something good out of the bag (despite the fact I never watch it normally, I quite enjoy the Christmas one)
• David Jason always features somewhere (hopefully it'll be something heartwarming and not harrowing, though)
• And don’t forget that in addition to all the TV specials, there are some great festive (and a few less festive) films on as well.

But what am I MOST excited about?

Absolutely Fabulous, daaaaaaaaaaaaarling. Sweetie.



(image pilfered from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ - sorry!)



Absolutely Fabulous is one of my favourite things, ever, on telly for so, so, so many reasons.

1.   The quotes! Even now, nearly twenty years on from episode one, I still use so many quotes. Sccchweetie! Daaaaarling! Sweetie darling! Pop Spex! I have arms! Come to mamma! Tickets, money, passport! Cut the cord! Bring me a knitting needle! There would have been a time when I could recite whole episodes, but that was in the days of VHS and I think I wore the tapes out. But beware. Its recent appearance on Sky’s Gold has me using those quotes more and more as the days go by.

2.   The consumerism! I know it's wrong, and so do the writers and actors, and that's what makes it so delicious and addictive to me. The shopping, the brands, the cars, the materialism, the opulence and the complete disregard for value in that nothing, no matter how expensive or rare, is safe from being completely destroyed on a drinking binge of some kind.

3.   The “fashion”! I love Eddie’s satirical take on the latest fashions, and Patsy’s classic wardrobe. And Patsy's hair. I have always love Patsy's hair.

4.   The agelessness! I know they have some good make up artists around and some great post-production editing effects, but seriously, how those five women still not look a day older than when it all started?

5.   The guest appearances! I just love the cheesy cameos and the fact that they’re all so willing to send themselves up and let Jennifer Saunders rip their “personas” to shreds.  Emma Bunton, Lulu, Twiggy, Whoopi Goldberg, Helena Bonham-Carter... two words: A. Maze.

6.   The memories! It was the backdrop to my childhood transition in to young- adulthood (it came out just as I was starting senior school) and at the time I felt a bit like my mum and her best friend were a real life Patsy and Eddie (they’d fight over who got to be Patsy!!). I did quite often have to tell them off like Saffy. Those were some great days…

7.   The characters! Seriously – Jennifer Saunders is a genius – Eddie, Patsy, Bubble, Gran, Saffy, Bubble, Marshall, Justin, the ever elusive Serge, Bo. So clever. So funny.

8.   The life! It’s just bonkers, but I love it. I’d love to live that life, not just the money, the stupidly fabulous jobs, the gorgeous house, but the fact that the fabulous house was always bustling with people. One day, when I win the lottery, I want a big mansion where all my friends and family can live together like a grown up halls of residence!

9.   The Britishness! Somehow it manages to take on big issues like drink, drugs, eating disorders and bullying and somehow make them funny and light-hearted (and also maybe a little bit of glamorisation in there?) without actually encouraging them. The legendary music references, the flashbacks to some celebrated eras in British culture and the comedy guest-appearances by some of Britian’s most renowned characters, just accentuate the “Britishness”. I just can’t see how it would ever translate in to other cultures and languages. The writers and actors are basically, good-naturedly, poking fun at everyone (including themselves) and everything that can be stereotyped, which to me is quintessentially what British comedy (or even British culture?) is about.

10. The evolution! Somehow, to me it’s applicable now in 2011 as I’m about to hit 30, with a mortgage, husband and career, as it was when I was 11, starting out at senior school, new friends, a paper round, just discovering fashion and make up and with parents who loved a party and were “sooooooooooooooo embarrassing”… or maybe it’s just me that hasn’t changed? I'm excited to hear that P.Middy is even referenced in the episode. Love.

BBC 1, 10pm, Christmas Day, Sweetie! 

I. Can’t. Wait.