Acceptance of a truth?

Recently I gave my gorgeous Father-in-Law, as a gift for his 60th Birthday, a voucher for Tea For Two at a tres posh hotel in Edinburgh (I could be gracious and say 'we' but c'mon, who organizes all the gift giving in your house?) .  Lovely, I'm sure you agree and the very thought of a posh afternoon tea does sound delightful but I had a thought.......a thought that came to me as I was dabbing the coconut and cake crumbs from my plate with my tongue.....am I refined enough to go posh?  I want to dab and lick plates clean.  I like a cake fork, nice plates, stands and all the presentation paraphenalia that goes to showing and eating any kind of cake or pastry at it's best BUT do I need the privacy of my own home so I can scoff it in an Aunt Sally, unlady like fashion? Shoving in teeny sandwiches instead of delicate nibbling? I have eaten quite a lot of cakes and pasties at various establishments (I love that word but really you know I mean cafe's, coffee shops etc) and cannot remember if any dabbing and licking of plates has taken place out there in public ( I find it hard to imagine not!).  Is it the thought of being somewhere so posh that I would be so self aware that I was uncomfortable I was doing the 'wrong' thing or more likely become a bit rebellious and go for a dramatically defiant lick of a plate? Exaggerated and unnecessary (debatable?).

There are many more important dilemmas in life I am sure.

But still I ask am I refined enough to go posh and more importantly do I even want to be?  Is it still expected of us?  Isn't refinement a list of behaviours learned and dependent on whether your were taught that list or not?  Issues of Class, Etiquette and the 'done' thing?  It's not just eating cake and sandwiches though, is it? It's a venture laden with questions of worthiness or acts of pretense.  Acting like it doesn't matter and you don't care whether you 'belong'.........or is there even such a thing as 'belonging'......too much pondering either way.

Let's just call it a treat and have done with it.  Yet I know there is always a chance of feeling discomfited which says more about me than what I am partaking in.

Can you see how 'clean' that plate is?

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Release the inner geek!!!

This weekend is a cool weekend.  I am taking my mum for a night away to a Hotel in the not so exotic Dundee. We were both born there, my mum spent quite a wild youth there, my mum and dad met there when he worked on the dodgems at the Shows (do I need to translate that to Fairground for the non Scots out there?) and this weekend we will be eating, definitely drinking and being merry there.  It's a nostalgia trip for her mainly as part of her 60th b/day (she still doesn't know the destination yet), although I did see a Morrissey gig in the Caird Hall in my youth, proud to say when I should have been studying for my highers.  I wasn't always boring, I really wasn't!  Under normal circumstances a night away without the men folk would have been amazing, tickled me pink to be fed by someone other than me, I like to cook but I like to eat more!  No chores, no shouts of 'Mummy!!!' well not unless my mum's annoying me, and well just getting away.........but this weekend something way cooler is happening.

Come Sunday night at 7pm, with a large glass of red, I will be plonked comfortably on my sofa with the men folk around me for the much anticipated ( I cannot emphasise this enough!!  I won't even knit while watching it!) latest episode of DOCTOR WHO.  I love Doctor who, I come clean now.  My name is Ali and I am a sci-fiaholic!!! I also love Harry Potter but I'll bore you with that on another occasion.

My inner is geek, my favourite books are those that take me to far away places filled with magic and machines that make perfect cups of tea in little china cups out of thin air.  If it has a vampire, monsters or spooky happenings I'm there.  As a youth I did read the classics too (still do!) but my heart was and still is with the fantastical, hence why the re-done Pride and Prejudice with zombies book was a hoot.  Above of the story must be good, I have cried lots at Doctor Who and will again come Christmas time when the tenth doctor must regenerate.  For those who do not know, this means he must DIE....boo hoo!!!  It will be a harrowing time but I will console myself with hands dipping into Roses and Quality Street tins.

Even though I shall be having a fab Friday night and an excellent Saturday morn c/o a full breakfast, Sunday night is where it's at!! (NB. This does include the Antiques Roadshow!)

I leave you with the tenth Doctor!!!   Enjoy!!

I have a confession about the larger of these action figures .... ..this blog is a long one but I do blether, all my report cards said 'Alison talks too much' but I figure it's my party and I'll vomit verbally if I want to.......when my eldest bought himself this figure ( I called it a doll, can you imagine the look I got?) I came over all funny and it hit me, full in the face, I MUST PLAY WITH IT.  So I did the only thing a girl could, I took all his clothes off and put them back on again, quite a few times I might add until I had got it out of my system.  I hadn't realized what had been laying dorment.  I remembered my days of playing with my dolls (I was a Sindy girl mainly but did get a Barbie eventually) playing house until I got older and made them sell their posessions and become punks.  I decapitated my Barbie later trying to brush out the backcombing.  Aah those were the days.........

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