RosieH

I know Dulwichmum, I know. We'll have to get him some chocolate or a cuddly toy or something.

Cherie Lunghie was pretty fabulous...

Women as receptacles is the ED aesthetic?

I believe you can download a pdf of the price list - I have one somewhere.

The sky this evening - it changed from pale undulating gold to glorious purple in the time it took me to get home on the bus. The dome of St Paul's against a golden sky makes me glad to be alive.

I second the Rug Company - I'm saving up at the moment

Ah, one of my favourites - but I found that deeply uncomfortable viewing

DirtyBox, i stand shoulder to shoulder with you (well, shoulders not touching - I'm wearing white and I don't want to get grubby). Greg Greengrocer is repellent and should be exterminated post-haste.

SteveT, thank you, that was lovely. And I might try a last minute crammer, though I fear I am too late - still, it's a wonderful thing to read. Moos, you're right: Arundel Tomb always hits me like a punch to the solar plexus: those last two lines - sublime. And in truth, I put that in too, not just the more optimistic Whitsun Weddings. It's not all chocolate boxes and roses, eh..?

Someone called me a gobby northerner the other day, so I told him he was a f@ggot n*gger. For some reason he got really upset... I have no sense of humour about this. There is no parity between the two descriptors. I've seen someone kicked to a bloody pulp for being a "Paki" - of Scots I've only heard it said that they're a bit tight with money and have a delicious accent. Spurious fucking nonsense.

Also try Divertimenti - they certainly used to sell 'em

I've heard tell of single men in ED, but I've never actually seen one.* On re-reading above thread, discovered that I have actually seen one and am surprised.

That's wilfully perverse at best.

Thanks y'all. In the end I wrote what could only be described as a prose poem, and threw in a little Whitsun Weddings for good measure (I know that's about weddings and not friendship, but I crumbled in awe and wonder and thought the cynical optimism of Larkin could shore me up a little).

Mick, I don't think you can say there's parity between the two descriptors. Surely the equivalent of dour presbyterian scots would be miserable muslim pakistanis? To my knowledge and in my experience, Paki has always been a perjorative term, whether said with malice or not. And in answer to your intent v. perception question, surely the answer is both. It isn't good enough to say that you used a perjorative term but meant no harm by it, so the person on the receiving end would be wrong if they felt it was racist.

Yeah, you say that, and I would write something, but I've got reading to do ahead of an 8am meeting and then 6 more hours of meetings tomorrow. My muse has all but evaporated in the face of an onslaught of customer insights.

I did fail to mention, it's supposed to be a thing of loveliness rather than hilarity

Been tasked with coming up with something for a friend who's getting married, from her hens. However, was given the task tonight and my deadline is tomorrow, so any help appreciated.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph. If we don't all stop our collective *sigh*ing on this bloody forum, we'll blow out all the Diwali candles (and while I'm not one myself, some of my very best friends are Diwalians so that would be simply horrid). I'm putting a stake in the ground right now to say that I will be glamorous in December. And maybe not just at the drinks. Maybe for the whole advent period. Ooh, and new year too. Maybe just because I can. Because I have some clothes in my wardrobe that I consider nice, and because I own a hairbrush. I might even go so far as to put on lipstick. And I'm not going to buy one single new item of anything for you lot, because frankly, I've been to the forum drinks and I think I've got clothes that are plenty slutty, sorry, I mean glamorous enough - as Buggie rightly pointed out, it isn't the Dorchester. And Ladymuck, if you want to wear the ugliest shoes known to mankind, then good on you - no one's making you brush your hair - and it'll only make me in my lipstick look even more shallow and preening and overdressed than I already will. God bless us every one.

Jah Lush Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Brendan, are you saying that Jesus was an > egomaniac who preyed on the unsophisticated and > vulnerable? If not. Why not? I was only saying the other night that I suspect that back in the day I would have fancied Jesus - and I consider myself quite the sophisticate. I prefer to think of him as hairy and charismatic. Still though, that's no reason to go to church (in fact, almost a reason NOT to)

FatherJack Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > As soon as Simon get's the deciding vote on Louis' > Boys........ he'll have two one way tickets back > to Ireland.....Ryan Air of course! > > BRING IT ON.......I'm hooked One way tickets ack to the Village of the Damned my friends

annaj Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Oh, yes and yes to November and December dates. > Hurrah! > > Ladies, what do we think about glamming up the > dress code a bit for December drinks....? Upping the glamour quotient never a bad thing in my book

Ravi was shit, I'm glad he's gone. I'm rooting for Joe to get better, but Rickies 1 and 2 were both an unparalleled delight.

I'm kind of meh about the article. Mostly I'm posting to say that I like Michael Hodges - I've had the pleasure of sharing a few beers with him and he was good company and indeed, as Sean said, witty. I usually enjoy his columns and find them right-thinking, and often funny. But then, I think rage is funny: the kind of impotent, middle class rage that causes right minded folks to splutter and devote entire threads to it on forums like this one, rather than the kind of Michael Douglas Falling Down killing people kind of rage. This particular column not funny, but there is a lot of truth in it - mostly I think it's just that it's more noticeable when Bugaboo mums are selfish because the prams are so fricking enormous. When other people are selfish, the selfishness doesn't take up quite so much space. Coffee in Nero during the day is a nightmare, but it affects me so little that I don't care. But Patagonian papoose = funny.

Also PR, do think about ordering something online - doesn't have to be Amazon - there are lots of internet shopping sites based in the US. If you want something a bit more personal, consider sites like Etsy that sell handmade stuff and might have something quite girly and make a lovely thoughtful gift...