Middle English. I will NEVER get on the London Eye. Gak.

Hey, hey guys!  Wanna join my CLUUUUB?  We'll do stuuuuuff.

No?

A quiet weekend.  Ahhhh...I needed that.  Had a lot of cutting of fabric and house tidying to get done.  Friends over for gin and tonics in the evening, now my house smells like a Victorian workhouse.  Minus the eau de typhoid.  Friday night, I had 2 gin and tonics and some asparagus for dinner.  Why?  Because I CAN.  I also was up at 5:30 am on Saturday.  That was AWFUL.  It's still dark at 5:30 in the morning!  It shouldn't be called "in the morning" because it's still night time.  It should be "5:30 in the pre-dawn hours."

I had a middle-class moment this weekend, and I had to laugh at myself for being such a twat.  Mind you, it was at home, with no one around to witness my uppity shame.  I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies for people, but I was adamant that I use my GOOD chips, the Ghirardellis, not the boring old store brand chips.  I couldn't FIND them though.  I must have had my panties in a bunch for an hour looking for them, when I could have just MOVED ON...but I finally found them.  Hidden behind my Umbrian lentils (as if I would ever eat lentils from anywhere else), and a box for French mousse.

Good grief.

So, I'm a bit prickly and independent, and all about empowered women, so the "slutty nurse, cop, etc" Halloween costumes have always bothered me.  I mean, if you're looking to get laid, that's awesome, more power to you, but it isn't necessary to debase female police officers, nurses, teachers, etc, in the process (also, as a costumer, I am always dismayed by a lack of originality).  HOWEVER...I have found a slutty cop costume that even *I* can get behind!!

Boo-yah!

Everywhere I look, I keep seeing reminders of London and England.  It's a sign.  My wanderlust is going nuts.  I even dreamed the other night that I was touristing in a little English village and I was ridiculously excited about some goats and chickens up on a hill.  Those who know me well know I grew up with both, and I *do* get ridiculously excited about them, but apparently these were SUPER special, because they're ENGLISH.  So yes, I am really going to have to be aware of vacation time next year and blow the dust off my passport.  This year, I am already committed to a week-long archaeology program here, and visiting my brother in California, but next year....medieval archives, here I come!

Oh, that reminds me...it's International Hug a Medievalist Day.  Though I'm currently more involved in early modern, medieval is still my passion.  So HUG ME DAMMIT!

Back to England...and traveling.  I have a younger friend who is also prickly and independent like me, and generally for the same reasons (mostly coming by it naturally, but some of it thanks to crappy relationships), and she is always traveling.  She just came back from ANTARCTICA and posted wonderful pictures.  She is not helping my cause! :)  I turned on the TV yesterday and Fantastic Four was on...and they were in London.  Of course.  It's everywhere!  That movie did reinforce my aversion to ever getting on that monstrosity they call the Eye, though.  ::shudder::  It also made me wonder how Chris Evans can be both the Human Torch AND Captain America.  What the what?

And BBC, you're not helping my cause any:
"BBC One @BBCOne
A reminder from the Time Lord: the clocks go forward one hour tonight.  It's wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff."
Sure wish they'd explain it like that on this side of the pond.

And I cannot forget...I am SO happy for couples in England and Wales.  Love and marriage between people of any sex are NOT something for the government to dictate or regulate.

I found this beautiful confection of a 1937 Elsa Schiaparelli summer dress on the Met Museum site the other day.  Oh my, I am in love.  So, so elegant, I love the lines and drape of 1930s gowns.  This is a crepe-back silk satin, which would feel wonderfully cool and smooth on the skin in the summer.  I was trying to determine if I would be wearing this on a date with Twhiddles or with Benedictus.  With both of them being so tall, it would look wonderfully glam, as I am about 5'8" in heels.  Hmmm...I am thinking this is a Ben dress, though.  And if I can't find similar fabric, I suppose I can always make it on Spoonflower.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2009.300.1347a,b

I have decided I also want to see both of them in early season Mad Men suits.  Yep.

Oh, history stuff!  Yeah!  This is a history blog!  How about this?  I was pretty excited to see this in the KC Star this weekend, this is part of my current field of study.  Again, I don't think people understand the ties of France and Spain to MO and KS.  Before the days of Little House on the Prairie.

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/03/30/4925613/up-the-river-to-destiny-missouris.html

Also, don't forget that tomorrow is April 1st.  Besides being April Fool's Day, it is also Whan That Aprille Day, time to read "old" or "archaic" or "middle" languages!  Yay!  Might I suggest the Breton lays in Middle English? Some of my favorites.  Here, have a sample!

Lay le Freine
We redeth oft and findeth ywrite
And this clerkes wele it wite
Layes that ben in harping (BEN!  THEY SAID BEN!)
Ben yfounde of ferli thing

Here is a wonderful site that has translations of this and the rest of the lays (heh.  heh heh).
http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/laskaya-and-salisbury-middle-english-breton-lays-general-introduction

The Canterbury Tales are always a good choice as well, and the Wife of Bath's prologue/tale is my personal favorite:

Experience, though noon auctoritee
Were in this world, is right ynogh for me.
To speke of wo that is in mariage;
For lordynges, sith I twelve yeer was of age,
Thonked be God that is eterne on lyve,
Housbondes at chirche dore I have had fyve--
If I so ofte myghte have ywedded bee--
And alle were worthy men in hir degree.
But me was toold, certeyn, not longe agoon is,
That sith that Crist ne wente nevere but onis
To weddyng, in the Cane of Galilee,
That by the same ensample taughte he me
That I ne sholde wedded be but ones.
Herkne eek, lo, which a sharp word for the nones,
Biside a welle, Jhesus, God and man,
Spak in repreeve of the Samaritan:
'Thou has yhad fyve housbondes,' quod he,
'And that ilke man that now hath thee
Is noght thyn housbonde,' thus seyde he certeyn.

This is a wonderful series of documentaries from England on the history of the English language, and they read many texts in the original dialect, it really does sound magical.  Here is the first, and you can find the remaining in the links on the side.