Steven Moffat and suicide: The Angels Take Manhattan

Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan as Rory and Amy in Doctor Who: The Angels Take Manhattan - photo from Hitfix

I'm one of life's crabbers. Call me Lucy Van Pelt. But it's honestly not often something moves me to voice a strong complaint, certainly not something on television. But this is the case with last night's episode of Doctor Who, The Angels Take Manhattan. I'm mad as hell.

It's not because this episode - which saw the Doctor say goodbye to his companions - was bad. Although, it was. Perhaps it seemed particularly weak after a few very good episodes, especially A Town Called Mercy and The Power of Three. It's not even because, as a Doctor Who fan, I'm tired of Steven Moffat's seemingly endless need to self-reference and to repeat his own 'brilliant' ideas, although I am. No, what made me very angry and incredibly upset is how Steven Moffat feels it's appropriate to depict suicide on a prime-time television drama that is explicitly marketed at children.

Before I go on, I should say that if you haven't yet watched The Angels Take Manhattan and you don't want to know how it ends, please don't read on.

The Angels Take Manhattan saw the return of Moffat's pet monsters, the weeping angels. I've never been a massive fan of the angels, but it did seem fitting to bring them back for the Ponds' last adventure. It was certainly a sweet idea to set the action in New York because it gave us the opportunity to see The Statue of Liberty as a weeping angel. That was pretty neat. This time the angels were engaged in creating a battery farm (in Battery Park, I see what you did there) to guarantee themselves a permanent food source. So far so good. There was lots of creepy and fun stuff with the pulp detective meeting his own future self and Rory coming face to face with spooky baby angels. Sadly, Moffat's obsession with killing off poor old Rory the Roman meant that Rory got caught up in the battery and faced an unrewritable future in which he died old and alone in a hotel bed, without Amy. The only way out of this, it seemed, would be to create a paradox, which Rory decided to do by jumping from the top of a tall building.

I have had issues previously with Moffat's handling of suicide. The series end of Sherlock showed Watson watching his good friend Sherlock Holmes jump from the top of Barts Hospital and splatter on the pavement in front of him. The fall could clearly be seen, as could Holmes's mangled body on the pavement and the distress and shock on Watson's face. This upset me greatly at the time - as it was calculated to do - not least because it totally ignored The Samaritans Advice for the Media: Dramatic Portrayals of Suicide which advises that:

An easily obtainable means of death is easy to imitate, for example taking pills or jumping from a high place. Means of death where there is no easy form of intervention should also be avoided, as should the precise depiction of method. For example, showing how a hose pipe is attached to an exhaust and sealed up windows. Any detailed description of suicide method is potentially harmful.
 
I understand that in Sherlock, Holmes's fall from the top of Barts was intended to be a reimagining of Holmes's plunge into the Reichenbach Falls. Fair enough - and fair enough to fake the viewer out, because is this not exactly what Conan Doyle did too? My issue was with the extremely graphic depiction of it, which felt totally unnecessary even in a programme aimed at adults and broadcast after the watershed. Additionally I felt that Sherlock eavesdropping on the grief of Watson and Mrs Hudson was problematic. The Samaritans guidance states that it's potentially dangerous to overemphasise the 'positive' results of a suicide:

A dangerous message from the media is that suicide achieves results; it makes people sorry or it makes people eulogise you.

Admittedly, this doesn't appear to have been Sherlock's motive for his 'suicide' but to me it seems to suggest that his 'death' enabled Sherlock to see what he really meant to the people in his life. 

All of this is slightly by-the-by in that it doesn't relate directly to The Angels Take Manhattan. Sherlock has a different audience, after all. Yet still, I found myself last night watching a Stephen Moffat-authored prime-time television drama in which a lead character's main problem is solved by a suicidal leap from a tall building. Only this time, the audience was children. Rory and Amy decide that the only way to escape the angels' battery farm is through a suicide pact. Together they jump from the top of the building. Unlike Sherlock, you don't see their mangled bodies on the sidewalk beneath. But what you do see is a graceful, romanticised slow-motion fall. What you do see is Amy and Rory emerging, however briefly, totally unscathed from their suicide. This suicide acted as some sort of 'reset' button. It allowed them to go on and experience a long life together.

Amy and Rory's leap from the top of Winter Quay is problematic for all sorts of reasons. I think it's irredeemably irresponsible to show suicide as having a happy ending. I think it's absolutely disgraceful for suicide to have been shown as graceful and romantic. I think it's utterly reprehensible that a suicide pact was depicted as an expression of Amy and Rory's love for one another. Yes, it's fantasy - and they jumped in the expectation that they would somehow survive - but their decision to jump together as a way of ending their current problem was a suicide pact. I think it's a massive problem that this is presented in a drama that is being marketed to children. It isn't morally wrong to depict suicide in drama - but I do think it's dangerous to depict suicide as an answer to a problem, particularly in a drama that has children and teenagers as its audience. The Samaritans think so too, and they argue that media reporting and depiction of suicide can lead to imitative behaviour:

A German television series, ‘Death of a student’, depicted the railway suicide of a young man at the start of each episode. A 175% rise in railway suicides occurred in young people aged 15-19 years old both during and after the series. This effect was repeated when the series was shown again some years later.

I'm not suggesting that The Angels Take Manhattan will lead to an increase in suicides in its viewers. But, as I said above, I think the BBC has a reponsibility to handle the topic of suicide with sensitivity and an awareness of their audience and I think they failed in this by allowing this episode to be broadcast. I think that Steven Moffat should be ashamed of himself for glamourising suicide in a show aimed at young people. I don't believe that he will be, but I think that he should.

I called Dr. Sinnot, I gave him the symptoms over the phone and he said he's probably dead alright. The pulse not being there is bad enough, but the heart stopping is the real danger sign.

Hey all! This blog post finds me curled up on the sofa at my parents' house as Nic and I are on a short visit to Northern Ireland. It's lovely to be home - the sun even came out for a few hours today!

Dungannon Castle in the sunshine

The reason we're home is that it was my birthday yesterday! I turned 30 and wanted to spend my birthday with my family, so Nic and I flew home on Monday. The birthday celebrations started early, however, as we had a wee night out at the pub on Friday night to celebrate. It was The Scientist's birthday and, as Char's birthday is upcoming also we joined forces to celebrate the awesomeness of being a September baby! It was a great night out - so good in fact that I totally neglected to take any photos, despite wearing a spiffy new Bettie Page dress! I was really touched by how many of my friends came along to celebrate with me and I felt thoroughly spoiled by all of my lovely gifts as well.

We spent the rest of the weekend fairly quietly as Nic caught my flu and was feeling a bit miserable. I did a wee bit of sewing, a lot of reading and caught up with my lovely friends Lauren, Hayley and Hannah over tea and cake in Vinteas. Thankfully this time it was minus the awful loud racist girl from the last time! Lauren and Rick had spoiled me with some beautiful fabric, which is perfect for two of the patterns from Gertie's Book For Better Sewing:

Isn't this beautiful floral fabric perfect for the shirtwaister? I'm thinking of omitting the matching belt and I need to find some fabulous buttons.

This hot pink polka dot cotton sateen is perfect for this strapless circle dress. I think I'll do the neckline in some black cotton sateen and I have a darling black patent dress that will be perfect with it!

So, that's my autumn sewing plans all set! Of course neither of these are exactly cold-weather suitable but that's never stopped me - I'm looking forward to getting really stuck in to them!

Poor old Nic spent all of Sunday in bed trying to rest up for the journey to Northern Ireland on Monday and thankfully he woke up on Monday feeling a lot better. It was no great hardship to leave Leamington as the weather was utterly miserable! Our flight was in the afternoon so we decided to go out for breakfast:

 Lady Vintage London swing dress, pink tights from Pretty Polly and pink shoes from Topshop

I've been curious about these dresses from Lady V London ever since Gemma from Big Girls Browse blogged about them earlier this year. I've peeped at their site now and again ever since but I've never been sure if the dress would suit my body shape and the prints I liked were always sold out in my size! So I've never been completely convinced enough to buy one. But last week I saw Elizabeth from Rosalilium sporting one and, while she's a bit more petite than I am, she looked so fabulous in hers I became convinced I had to have one! Also I was feeling ill and miserable and I knew a pretty frock would cheer me up so I ordered this one, which was reduced ridiculously in the sale. It arrived really quickly, which was nice. I'm pretty happy with it, too. It's never going to be my favourite dress - the viscose creases really quickly and I have to be honest, I was slightly disappointed by the length. It hits me just above my knee - which is not exactly 'vintage' and the hem is so narrow I can't let it down. But, for the price it's a lovely little dress! It's fully lined, they have a great selection of prints and I'm happy overall with the quality and fit. I'd shop their sale again, but I probably wouldn't bother paying full price for anything.

Sadly the weather was absolutely miserable on Monday (hence the umbrella) so I had to get my tights out. I hate wearing tights.I'm glad I did, though, it was bloody cold! The trip to the airport and home was made easier with my free banana and peanut butter milkshake from Ed's (if you join their club you get a free shake on your birthday!) and before I knew it, I was at home!

I had a quiet day on my actual birthday, which was great. I had a lie-in and a lazy morning, just drinking tea and gossiping with my mum and Nic. Low-key, but just what I wanted. The whole family (apart from my brother-in-law, who couldn't make it) got together for dinner at Bengal Spice (well you know, we wanted to avoid any family quarrels over what to eat) I decided to stick with the Bettie Page birthday theme, but I did manage to have some photos this time:

Bettie Page Alika dress and Bertie Sardinia shoes (if you look closely you can see my photographer in the mirror in the background!)

This dress is so lovely! The only slight problem is it's a wee bit too big in the bodice and the bajillion hooks and eyes that keep the netting bit at the top closed keep coming open. Today I replaced a few of them with snap fasteners so I hope that will solve the problem as the dress itself is gorgeous. The meal was fantastic - the food was lovely and it was loads of fun being with my family:

Daddy enjoying poppadoms

Me and my lovely mum

My family gave me some really gorgeous gifts - although I know my dad enjoyed keeping me in suspense about what, exactly, I was going to be unwrapping! I needn't have worried though, as they gave me this adorable Thomas Sabo necklace:

They also gave me the matching earrings - telling me they thought they'd be a good match for my Lady Dragon shoes! My parents know me pretty well! It wasn't the only pretty necklace I'd been given, as Nic chose this lovely scissors pendant for me:

It really was the best way I could have spent my birthday and I felt so lucky to be surrounded by my family. Being by nature a reflective type, I've been thinking about what it means to have left my twenties behind and entered a new decade. I don't feel at all sad about getting older (at least, not yet) and, you know, my twenties were pretty darn good to me. I got a university education, met the love of my life, made some amazing friends, learned to sew, started a blog, figured out how to make pancakes. Not too shabby, right? I'm sure my 30s have all sorts of excitement in store for me, too.

I had a massive sleep-in this morning, partly because I was having an amazing dream about being Benedict Cumberbatch's girlfriend and going to some super fancy black-tie event. I know he's odd-looking but I find him very attractive. I had a great time lolling around in my pyjamas drinking coffee and reading one of my birthday gifts from The Rev - 11.22.63 by Stephen King. I was amused and pleased and irritated all at the same time to find that King has recycled plots and characters from previous novels, but so far 11.22.63 is really good fun and it's certainly ticking all of the boxes for a fun holiday read! As the sun unexpectedly came out, we went for a wee walk in town and Nic got to have a spin in a van:

We're off to Belfast tomorrow to see friends, so I'll catch up with you later in the week. But before I go, I'll leave you with two things that made me very happy this week:

I'm so glad that one of the achievements of my twenties was managing to get glasses on the dog. Doesn't she look clever?!

My parents have been decorating, and they put this lovely photo from their wedding into a frame at last. You can't quite see in the photo but my dad's suit was brown velvet with a yellow ruffled shirt. AMAZING. I love how happy they are in this photo.

Right folks. I'll catch you all later!

You're getting a coffwee. Coffee with wee in it.

"This autumn breeze shall strip the trees

and freeze me to the bone

Why must these three sisters tease

Their lonely brother so?"

The Divine Comedy - Three Sisters

This song always gets stuck in my head at this time of year. Apparently it's a reference to Chekhov, but I have always liked it as one of three sisters who teased a lone brother mercilessly!

This is a rather shamefaced reveal of a finished object because it has taken me over a year to complete this one! My lovely mother-in-law gave me a length of this beautiful wool challis ages ago and I put it aside to make a Peony dress. After I made my floral one last November I tinkered a bit with the pattern and made another one. And the fit wasn't noticeably different and it pissed me off massively so I put it to one side unfinished and sulked for a while, and then I eventually moved on to something else. Which, on balance, was the right thing to do because I did go on to sew other lovely things that I probably would have been too discouraged to do otherwise.

I know I didn't have the heart to do a total hackjob on this Peony, which is what it would have needed to really fit properly. However, while the thought of this was enough to put me off going back to it, the truly gorgeous fabric couldn't be left as a wadder. The recent turn in the weather got me thinking about it so when I was off work with flu during the week I dug it out. Even in my slightly delirious state I could see that it was totally saveable. All that I needed to do was to hem the skirt and sort out the neckline facing! I did both of these by hand on Thursday. It was a good sick day activity and I am pretty pleased with the finished dress:

Three Sisters Peony dress - I'm wearing it here with Irregular Choice Serpintime shoes and vintage handbag, and a tired wee face courtesy of a very late night

It is a better fit - slightly - than my floral Peony dress. I wear that one a fair bit so I'm sure I will with this one, too. There's a lot to like about it. I love the sleeves. I left out the pockets again and the cummerbund, but I don't think it suffers for that. The back neckline still gapes but as this is made from a wintery fabric I'll mostly be wearing it with a cardigan so I'm not that bothered really. The really wonderful thing about this dress is the fabric, which is just gorgeous. I just love the colours and the vibrancy of the print. It's the perfect combination of colours to go with these Irregular Choice shoes, and also with some burgundy tights I have stashed away. I like to stay as colourful as I can in the colder weather.

You can see the print a bit more clearly in this photo, and my lovely burgundy shoes!

This is my second, and final, Peony. I actually gave my copy of the pattern to my friend AM in May. There are so many things I like about the pattern and both of the ones I made are pretty and comfortable dresses. It's a sweet design and you can't fault the instructions, but I kind of hated sewing both of my Peony dresses. It just seems that, for me, I'd have to make so many adjustments to get this pattern to fit just right. And then the end result wouldn't really be anything that amazing. I mean, I think this fabric is pretty amazing, but you know what I mean. I feel a bit like a cranky old grouch to even say it but for me at least, this pattern was never going to be worth the considerable amount of work to get it just right. So, no more Peony dresses for me.

I do want to get better at fitting and tailoring, but this is not the pattern for me to cut my teeth on. I'm thinking some of the projects in Gertie's book will be a good place to start - I'm considering making the wiggle dress (the one on the cover of the book) out of the pretty cotton sateen Annabelle Bumps sent to me as part of the summer sewing swap. I think it'll be just right. I haven't had much time for sewing recently so I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into a project I feel really excited about.

Now, I'm off for a wee lie-down. That tired face has only become tireder. But I'll be back soon!

And then all the kids say "Thanks, Meat Cat!" and Meat Cat flies away on his skate board.

Evening my lovelies! I'm currently feeling even sorrier for myself than I was in my last post because what I thought was a head cold last week seems actually to be flu. I had to come home from work today and I'm shivering like a fool underneath about a million blankets. It sucks ass. But the good news is that my eye is looking a bit better (although I am constantly tempted to tell people it's like that because I've been heavily on the piss) and those palpitations have mostly stopped. So yeah. This virus thing will shove off soon I am sure. So that is the craic there anyway. I'll be okay and it certainly helps knowing that I have only a few days left of work before a lovely week off filled with friends and family. YES.

Not much going on with me, due to being ill this week has been very quiet. On Sunday, Nic and I elected to have a bumming around day. September has been really busy so far and it was good to just spend the day in each other's company. We went out for a walk in the watery September sunshine and went to Vinteas on Park Street for some tea and scones.

Monsoon Carnaby dress, Irregular Choice Cortesan shoes and vintage handbag

I actually bought this dress ages ago - maybe at the end of June? It was extremely cheap in the Monsoon sale - basically the only way I can countenance buying something from Monsoon as it's ridiculously overpriced (see also: Laura Ashley, but actually even in the sale they can bite me. Ebay or nothing for me and Laura Ashley) I was pleased to find this within my el cheapo budget too because I'd had my eye on it for some time. I got it in the branch in Coventry which, when I went in, was in such deep sale-related disarray it honestly looked like it had been ram-raided. I think there was a top hanging from the light fitting. That branch has since closed! This dress is the same cut as the Meadow dress, which is one of my favourites because of the lovely button detail on the back bodice, but I went a size down with this one because the Meadow dress is too loose in the top for me. I think this one is a much better fit and I loved wearing it - I'm sure you all will see it round here more often in the colder months.

As I said, I took Nic along to Vinteas for some tea and scones. He enjoyed the tea and the scones but I think he was less convinced by the decor than I was:

It's a bit twee, isn't it?

GIMMEH CLOTTED CREAM

My previous crabbing about the use of the word vintage holds true, but that was a tasty scone. It's a shame the experience was 'enhanced' by the very loud conversation of some nearby patrons - one of whom was so enamoured of a supposedly wonderful essay she'd written about Iago she wouldn't shut up about it. This same young lady claimed, loudly, to hate ALL twentieth century literature, dissed The Sign of Four in favour of Wuthering Heights and then went on to declare her hatred for immigrants before plotting out how to spend her inheritance. I was almost tempted to think of it as performance art, but then I remembered some of the English literature students I met as a Warwick undergraduate and thought again. Why do other people have to ruin otherwise pleasant experiences, eh? But anyway, the scone was very good and so was the tea - I had a blend of Earl Grey and Darjeeling.

After all that excitement, it was home to bed with me. I lead such an exhilarating life, do I not?! Since then my major activities have been sleeping, drinking lemsip, watching season 2 of Treme and hanging out with this guy:

 

I'm hoping this will help me to recover in time for a weekend of fun. Fingers crossed!

A pair of feckin' women's knickers! Knickers! Women's knickers!

Hey hey folks! Happy Sunday all! I hope this finds you all well. I've been having a trying week - I've been having weird heart palpitations and I have a cold and I've coughed so much I've burst a little blood vessel in my eye. TASTY, right? Also I did one of the stupidest, most annoying things I have ever done. Sigh. What a sorry tale of woe, right? Actually I'm okay - although I am going to see my GP about the palpitations because they're stressing me out. A fantastic day out yesterday with some sewing chums certainly raised my spirits!

Winnie of Scruffy Badger Time emailed me a few months ago to see if I'd like to join her and some other sewing bloggers at The Makery in Bath to learn how to make pants. I considered this carefully for about 0.13 seconds before emailing back "YES!" and that's how I ended up catching the 8:38 out of Leamington on Saturday morning, bound for Bath. I'd never been there before and I was just as excited about visiting a new place as I was about learning new things. It's surprisingly easy to get out to the west country from Leamington and I'm sure I'll be returning with Nic at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Winnie met me off the train - it was only then I discovered that Shivani and Jane had both been on the same train as me - and we headed to the nearby Cosy Club for a coffee and to figure out how we were going to spend the morning. Winnie had thoughtfully organised a massive Jane Austen festival for us, so the first part of the day was spent seeing some of the beautiful sights of Bath and looking at the people in costume:

A lot of Jane Austen fans in the Parade Gardens

But, you know, there's more to Bath than Jane Austen... (I'm not a big Jane Austen fan, well, except for Sense and Sensibility) And this was never more true than yesterday, when Bath was host to these fabulous ladies:

 

Photo courtesy of Winnie 

Here we have (from top left) Rachel, me, Kerry, Jane, Mela, Shivani, Mimi, Tamsin, Laura and Dibs

We had a great time exploring Bath and, of course, talking nineteen to the dozen. I'd met Jane and Shivani before, but what really struck me once again was how easy it was to fall into comfortable conversation with these lovely women. It felt like old friends meeting up after a time apart, it was so comfortable and fun. And of course, Bath is just such a beautiful backdrop.

 The Avon from the Pulteney Bridge

 Lovely Mela enjoying the scenery - poor Mela, I made her pose like this...

Stunning Bath Abbey

The Circus

Our wonderful host, the Scruffy Badger herself

Winnie was tireless in showing us around Bath's beautiful tourist spots, giving us lots of time to talk sewing and admire each other's handmade creations - including the first outing of Jane's beautiful new Abbey Coat. I wore one of my gingham Cambie dresses:

Me and the utterly fabulous Handmade Jane

All this gossiping and walking worked up an appetite so we retired to the Tramshed for lunch and a swapping session, where we were joined by Sheena. The food was good, the waiter was helpful, and the craic was ninety. We discussed all sorts as well as sewing but the conclusions we came to were that Sewaholic Patterns rock, and we're all totally smitten with Gertie's new book. I brought home some lovely patterns from the swap:

This pattern came from Miss Dibs. I was charmed by the pattern illustration and by the blatant LIE on the pack of the envelope - it claims to be a one piece pattern, but follows this claim up with an inventory of six pattern pieces! I do love that the technical drawings at the back also include a drawing of the woman on the cover dancing with a gentleman who is undoubtedly admiring her fine seamstressing skills. It's a bit on the small side for me but I can't imagine it would be difficult to grade.

This pattern came from Sheena. I was initially drawn to the fabulous Margot Leadbetter style maxi dress of view 2, and I will definitely make this next spring. In the meantime I may well make view 1as it could be a really good colder weather dress if I made it with some sort of stretchy fabric. I also took home a few metres of this aqua cotton, which I think came from Mimi:

I think this might make a good Hazeldale a la Marie. Or maybe a sundress from Gertie's book. Or another Simplicity 2444. I'm going to have to ponder on this one a wee bit, I think!

From there it was just a short walk up the street to the Makery, where Sarah and Cerys had everything ready for us to embark on knicker making! We started off by choosing our trimmings from the basket of ribbons, lace and buttons on the table in front of us:

I went for some pink velvet ribbon and lace to trim my pink floral fabric:

Then it was time for us to attach our gussets (and laugh a LOT about showing our gussets to the world) and sew up the side seams of the pants using a french seam. I SUCK at French seams and haven't done any since I first learned years ago, but luckily Sarah and Shivani were on hand to give me moral support and show me how to do them:

(re)learning how to do a French seam

The scary and exciting bit was attaching the elastic to the waistband and legs, but Sarah explained this so clearly that it was really easy. There was something really restful and fun about hearing the chuntering of the machines and the laughter of friends making underpants!

Bath's answer to Underworld (photo courtesy of Winnie, joke courtesy of Kerry)

I was surprised and delighted at how easy the process was and how quickly the pants came together - I'd say that you could whip up a pair of these in well under an hour, and using scraps. I'm definitely going to be sourcing some knicker elastic and making these as presents for all and sundry. My finished pair are far from perfect but man, I'm happy with them:

I hand-sewed this label on the front of the pants but by this stage, I was having trouble breathing and my hands were really shaking so sewing was proving difficult (I KNOW, and I will make sure to see the doctor) I love how you could really add all sorts of embellishments to this very simple pattern. And, the best thing is that Sarah is going to email us the pattern, but you could easily just trace around a pair of your favourite pair of pants. Everyone came home with cute undies at the end of the workshop!

Rachel's pants. Oh yeah baby. I'd only just met her and she was showing me her knickers. I'm a fast mover lads.

 And I think these pretty panties belong to Kerry...

The Scruffy one, deep in concentration... look at the cheeky wee label on the side of her pants

I had to leave just before the end of the workshop to catch my train, but I was joined by Kerry and Rachel so I had company for a good part of my journey home. I was very tired but really happy - I had new pants, and made some wonderful new friends. Fun is not the word, I had an absolute BLAST. Thanks so much for arranging this all, Winnie!

I'm recovering today as I'm feeling pretty ropey so it's all about lemsip and Flight of the Conchords round here just now. I'm off to put my pyjamas on and scour ebay for cheap knicker elastic!

I'm bored of this. I'm going for a Twix.

So if I did post titles that were related to the content of the post itself, I'd call this something like "Two Days in London" but I don't, so instead I've chosen the most obvious one ever. Because come on, how could I not? ANYWAY, I hope that wherever you are you had a good weekend.

Mine was pretty damn good, I have to say! It started on Friday when I worked out of our London office. This was good because it gave me the opportunity to see a woman on a train wearing a slanket. A SLANKET. It does get very cold on the train and I was impressed by her forward planning. I was intrigued about how she'd pack the slanket away at the end of the journey but by the time we pulled into Marylebone I was too consumed by the thought of coffee and a pastry to notice. I wondered to Nic later that night if these things happen when I'm not on the train and decided that, on the whole, NO.

In addition to work, the reason I was in London on Friday was to go to the V&A for a Ballgown Extravagana organised by the redoubtable Karen. I decided to get into the spirit and wear my Magnificent Obsession dress complete with full fluffy 50s style petticoat. My London colleagues thought I was some kind of overdressed dick as they were all in casual Friday mode but I didn't really care. I felt happy and I was even paid a compliment - a stranger on the Jubilee line told me she thought I looked fabulous. Yay!

By the time I finished work the sun was high in the sky, and my colleague L invited me to join her and her husband for a drink in a pub on a boat - the Tameris Dock - at Vauxhall. How could I say no? I didn't, and ended up getting drunk and silly and thoroughly enjoying the company and the fabulous sunshine and beautiful view:

This made me late in getting to the V&A so I missed gathering with the seamstresses at the entrance. But once in the exhibition itself it wasn't hard to spot them - they were the well-dressed women getting as close to the frocks as they possibly could! I have to say, I was in my element, surrounded by beautiful dresses and interesting people, and I was pretty excitable. So I do apologise to all of the lovely women I rattled on to. I promise I'm not quite as nonsensical when sober. The exhibition itself is excellent - particularly when you get upstairs to the modern gowns as they are not behind glass. The temptation to reach out and feel the fabric was very strong, but not as strong as my fear of being escorted off the premises! I can certainly recommend the exhibition and it has made me very keen to go to the upcoming Hollywood Costumes one.

Post-exhibition we were joined by Jane and we explored the shop and nattered even more. I was too busy gossiping to take any photos apart from this one of an amazing sculpture hanging in the entrance hall:

I'm stealing this one from Karen of the whole gang... the ones on my phone were a bit blurred!

I had to chip off early to get back up to Leamington, but what a delightful evening. What was really brilliant was meeting so many funny, intelligent, thoughtful women. Thank you, Karen!

I was so happy and excitable from my evening that I took my tube compliment from earlier in the evening and paid it forward, sort of. When the alarmingly handsome American man sitting opposite me caught me smiling in his direction I confessed it was because he looked like Matt Damon. YUM. He really did, though, and the offer of an autograph that he made as I skipped off the train at Paddington kept me laughing the whole way back to Marylebone. People on the tube - not so scary after all!

It was straight to bed for me when I got home as I knew Nic and I had to be up reasonably early the next day. Nic was speaking at the National Jazz Archive as part of Heritage Open Weekend, so I decided to accompany him. We didn't have to get up too early in the end, but it was early enough to see Leamington covered in pre-sunshine fog:

The town hall is in there somewhere...

By the time we were dressed and ready to go, the sun had come out and the trainspotter in me was delighted by the fancy train that made a brief stop at Leamington:

From London it was a wee jaunt out to Loughton, which seemed very pretty and pleasant. But then, everywhere seems lovely in the sunshine. The Jazz Archive is in the town library and Nic was delighted to find that they were having a 10p book sale. He cleaned them out of Jazz Book Club books and I think he's planning a return for more... well, after we have bought another bookcase to accomodate them, that is. His lecture, on Jazz in British Film, was very well received and it was a pleasure and a privilege to be in the audience. Afterwards we headed into central London to enjoy the sunshine in Soho and have a peep in the shops, followed by dinner in Ed's:

 In the pub - we caught the sun!

We had a voucher for free burgers and the veggie ones offered were very good - although the waitress couldn't offer an opinion on them, telling us that she "doesn't eat vegetarian food" - WUT? But the best thing was the milkshakes, and my only regret is not having the same one that Nic had - peanut butter and banana. It was immense. It certainly helped ease the pain of the massive delay we had in getting home.

After a lovely lie-in on Sunday morning Nic and I joined our friend Char, and took ourselves down to the Pump Room Gardens to enjoy the Leamington Food Festival. It was definitely hot enough for a sunhat:

 Phase Eight dress, Swedish Hasbeen sandals, vintage handbag and sunhat from a shop in Florida

The food festival has been running for a few years now, but this year saw its biggest event. Of course it was helped along by the wonderful weather. A gripe I have had with it in previous years is that there have been numerous hog roasts but nothing for vegetarians. There were still lots of hog roasts this year, but also a lot more vegetarian food. The festival was really relaxed and fun and we had a lot of fun exploring the stalls and enjoying the live music. I ate a ridiculous mixture of things - a rather crap burrito from 'Habanero', a delicious banana and toffee toastie from Jabberwocky and a frankly ridiculous candy floss. I saw a man walking past with one that was like, twice the size of his head, and I went in search of my own:

"Regular"

It came in two sizes, regular and "jumbo". This was regular. Nic was disturbed:

Of course we also ate lots of cheese and olives, and sampled lots of drinks...

Look at this hipster nonsense

So all in all it was a happy, sociable, sunshiny, tasty weekend. That did make the return to grey skies and work this morning that bit easier, but I'm absolutely knackered now and I know this week is going to be fairly trying for lots of (work) reasons. So I'm off to bed now with my book. Night!