wendy house

Sheepishly Claire shuffled toward me.   Years of trying not to impose her pressumed  unwanted presence had refined this shuffle to an art form.  Her 4ft 10inch  plump-Gothness  covered her  painfully polite nature and razor sharp awareness.

I watch my friends re-arrange their stance to make it more difficult for Claire to catch their eye, start a conversation. We’ve all tried, we all know how conversations  with Claire unfold. Last weekend I spent 8 dark hours exploring ways through her sadness.   I’m just the latest in a string of well meaning people trying  to pull her away from believing death is her right choice.   One by one the good souls pull away from her,  to save themselves from drowning in her engulfing sadness.

When she died it made complete sense to me, she was finally free, all the people who cared about her were finally free.   She taught me to respect that choice. Sometimes I see Claire in the street, in a conversation with a friend or stranger.   I remember her fondly.

After Claire’s suicide I moved into her room.

young boy: but I love you, please.. …if you wont even give me a chance to prove how good a boyfriend I’d be for you, I might as well kill myself now

young girl: OH  P’Lease, grow up, I dont negotiate with emotional terrorists

Within 3 hours he had  written-off £4K of boy-racer Suzuki motorcycle to keep his threat promise.  He gave her name and address as hss next of kin.    She hadn’t had the chance to enjoy freedom from his persistent lobbying for access rights  when the police notified her of the accident.  They certainly added dramatic effect. Raised the terror levels.   How long before his capacity for violence, obsession with her, will put her in hospital?

This  girl called Carol was hanging around at the club.   When she found out that I lived with you she started getting really really nosey about what you were doing, who you hung out with, what it was like living with you.   She was creepy, I didn’t tell her anything.     After the club  she came back to Glen’s house with us and  sat on the electric cooker like she was holding court or something while we made tea.    She just kept on being such  a bitch about you.

So Glen turned the hob on

ruined her skirt

crouching in the back of a black cab,  I’d volunteered to hide from the cab dirver  so that all  6 of us could  travel together and share the cost.  

Kaff:   I don’t like wendy’s hair, its thick with hairspray, stiff and sticky

Kaff leant forward and grabbed a handful of my hair, yanking my head toward her sharp knees and pushing tears from my eyes.   I watched my tears splash on her expensive Italian buckskin suede shoes then  silently added a good dose of flemmy gob to the mix.

Glen: wendy’s hair is  soft and fluffy, nice to touch, I like it

Glen leant forward and stroked my hair,   pulling my head away from kaff’s threatening knees to rest on his tear-drying warm thigh.

The men they couldn’t hand sang rain, steam, speed

I felt the bruises forming on my knuckles from the moment I thrust them into Jay’s kidneys. He hadn’t heard me shouting from my foam-lined helmet. The shouts swept away by the still air we  slid through at 120 mph. Not scared,    I was angered by the betrayal.  

Two days later the whole camp-site was jolted awake by the unmuffled sound of his screams, an ambulance rushed him to the local hospital accident and emergency department. The ambulance was fast, but not 120mph. Kidney stones. They sound very painful.  Five days in the hospital painful.

Pushing pins into wax effigies  is unnecessary,   using and bruising your fists is more personal and gets a suitable result.

my manager says I’m not a good team worker                

but its not me            I’m a really good team worker  
its everyone-else  they’re all going off doing things on their own
I’m the only team worker

and now my manager has taken away my office. Demoted me. I’ve got to sit in the warehouse on my own

its probably for the best though. I have to make a lot of phonecalls

tree surgeon (TS): you’ve been causing earthquakes all over the world

ginger freckled goddess (GFG): should I cover my hair, would that help?

TS:I can still see your fore-arms, are you promiscuous?

GFG: I’m not sure

TS: Now look at wendy, she’s modest

wendy: I keep my hat on, even when I’m being promiscuous

TS:   are you married?

GFG: No

TS: do you have a boyfriend?

GFG: yes

TS: You’re promiscuous

wendy: When I’m promiscuous the earth does move,  though not on the scale of  quakes all over the world

Kevin,  a thoughtful minister from the campfire cowboy ministries kindly asked to use a Wendy House photograph of a Beartrap in a post about Beartraps for cowboys to avoid on the trail.

How excellent is that?!   Real cowboys!  

I said ‘yes of course’,   while thinking YEE-HAW!

Modern Cowboys use pick-up trucks and big trailers

 There are times when wandering out to the Wendy House woodshed for an evening’s supply of  logs causes me to pause,  even hesitate

The Divine Comedy sang ‘something for the weekend’

In the Bath  habitat store I followed a child that could barely immitate being able to walk and her mother on their way  up the stairs to the kitchen furniture section

mother: maybe the man with the beard is up here…

mother: shall we ask this lady where we can find the man with the beard…

tramatic = the dramatic expression of a traumatic event.    

Examples of the word in use

• It was the tantrum in Sainsubury’s female hygiene isle that made the whole event tramatic
• Texas chainsaw massacre was a tramatic film

After the party, lights turned off,  John played a favourite Moody Blues album, closed his eyes and audibly sank into the large armchair.   On the floor, resting my head on the seat of his chair, I  listened to the lyrics as the spinning in my head gently wound down.    

I  never understood you and the prop, he didnt seem like your sort of guy

 I didn’t like him

I wondered whether this loud understatement would silence John’s curiosity.

The Moody Blues sang nights in white satin

Lots of singing and dancing in the isles at the Bristol Hippodrome production of The Niel Sedaka story “Laughter in the rain“.   Mumzie was jigging and clapping during the substantial encore pastiche of Sedaka songs.  Other than being familiar with the songs I knew nothing about Niel Sedakas life and I fully enjoyed the production.  

3  smiles: Ratings explained

Audience.   Given that the  production could be enjoyed with little knowledge of Niel Sedaka  it was sad to find the Hippodrome less than a quarter full on a Friday night.   Mumsie and I happily moved from our cheap seats to closer seats with a more expensive view.  Judging by the silver hair, short people with warped backs the audience were mainly over 60 years. At 46 I was probably the youngest audience member.

Venue. 1912 building with tiers,  boxes and a huge dome all  decorated in Rococo style gold plasterwork providing a lavish music hall feel. During the production I decided to pick-up a copy of Carol King’s ‘Tapestry’ and some Niel Sedaka music.   Sadly, the Hippodrome didn’t provide the opportunity for the audience to purchase this kind of related merchandise.

Production. Niel’s story moved from song to song, highlighting the personal significance of each song ‘Oh Carol’, ‘breaking up is hard to do’, and  ‘last song together’.   Some songs were cast  with a slightly new significance to move the story forward.   For example, according to album notes ‘the immigrant’ was originally written as a comment of John Lennon’s application for US citizenship being rejected.   In  this production it is sung when Niel leaves the US to come to the UK where he feels  he will be given more creative freedom to develop as an aritst than the US allowed him.   Some of the significant life events were fascinating, for example,  10cc  encouraging Niel to record any song he wanted in anyway, resulting in Solitaire then ay its inception Elton John  asking Niel to be one of Rocket Record’s artists.

The photographs of story-contenporary, buildings, people, places, and record covers projected on the backdrop as Niel’s story unfolded were fascinating social-cultural history.

Brochure

Hailstones on the hearth.   Straight down my parents chimney the hailstones  bounce across the floor where the cats catch them before they melt.   But nothing interrupts the family Dr. Who Festival.   Dr. Who is on the Edge of Destruction.   Breaths are bated.

The Huntley and Palmer building has been converted into flats.   A new garden has been installed out front of the building,   the garden is full of pebbles and palm trees.   Pressumably preparing for global warming

Huntley and Palmers' building tropical garden