wendy house

I’ll be 50 in November

I’m celebrating by doing something that would have inspired me as a teenager:  Driving the original Route 66 in a convertible. Flights and car booked today. Before the internet existed, I purchased paper versions of original maps. Finally, I’ll get to use them!

Friends will be meeting me before the journey, travelling part of the journey with me, and afterwards celebrating in my old home town of Seattle.  Finding a convertible to rent in Chicago, in late October, is not an easy task. So there’s already been some hard work and I’ve compromised. No Mustang…..

EXCITED levels are vibrating towards amber

Between now and October I’m collecting potential sights and stops on a Pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/thewendyhouse/route-66/

Being wendy, I’ll be visiting train stations, Bus stations, Cemeteries and Court houses along the way.  Please suggest unusual places to visit en-route.

Mumsie: what would you like us to get you for your 18th Birthday present?

Wendy: A motorbike

Mumsie: No

Wendy: I’ll save to buy the protective clothing – Helmet, jacket, trousers, boots

Mumsie: No, nothing electrical for your 18th

Wendy: The Gibson Les Paul you got Bros 62 is an electric guitar

Mumsie: That’s different

Wendy: What if I buy the bike and you can give me a full set of leather gear and a helmet for my 18th?

Mumsie: No

Wendy: Why not?

Mumsie: No clothes for your 18th

Wendy: What can I have?

Mumsie: I thought a nice Diamond and Topaz ring

Wendy: If that’s what I’m allowed, I’ll take it… … can I pawn it for money towards a motorcycle?

Mum and Dad rarely rowed. Later that year they rowed about my getting a motorbike. Dad sided with me, placating mumsie with a promise to make sure that I looked after the bike properly. The morning before Dad took this photograph he carried a comfy chair into the garage while I laid out the large tent groundsheet on the garage floor between my bike and his comfy chair. Dad opened the Haynes manual.

Gradually I deconstructed the engine and lay each piece out in neat chronological order on the groundsheet. When the engine was in pieces we took a break to clean up and eat Sunday lunch.  Then, slowly, peace by piece, I rebuilt the engine. When I got confused, Dad showed me the relevant Haynes manual picture and pushed me to make a decision. He helped listen to the sound quality when adjusting the timer.

I felt so proud of myself once I’d finished.  Dad let me wear my favourite of his jumpers for this celebratory photograph.

The bike lasted just over a year before I sold it on for a profit.

My diamond and topaz ring, worn less than 6 times in 30 years,  reminds me that mum and dad love me and the responsibility and freedom of motorcycling…

And Tiger’s been treating me!

Tiger is a brightly burning star, in his life he has founded and managed successful businesses. He’s successfully sold some businesses and struggled tirelessly while one went bust. He’s been a millionaire, then lived on welfare. Tiger is always busy with something. This weekend Tiger arranged Oysters, Champaigne, London at night and an Alistair Crowley Tarot card reading to look at the spiritiual influences on the 48th year of my life:

• Past: the Nine of Wands shows strength, determination and discipline
• Now: the Hierophant represents the search for knowledge and illumination, the desire to study creed and dogma instead of simply accepting them, to research and achieve further development. It also stands for the deep fulfillment someone can find when really trusting their own beliefs.
• Future:  The Eight of Cups tells us to abandon the past, leave the current situation, make up our minds most honestly and open our eyes to upcoming changes

PARTY!!!!!

6 years since my first post on my own domain (Wendyhome.com), and this Wendy House blog.  There were some forays in 2004 to use other services to host the Wendy House (Blogger, MSN groups). It soon became clear that WordPress and my own domain provided an excellent team. Celebrations include

Spanking big TRIFFLE

Domain ownership renewal purchase until 2020

Lashings of tea

I’m 47yrs today, now.  I’m in my prime! 47 is

• a safe prime number. Safe!   In the vernacular of my nieces: That’s, like, not gay
• one of only 15 super singular prime number. Super!  Singular! this is all so true!  Even better, a supersingular prime is part of moonshine theory
• related to amicable numbers
• the atomic number of silver
• a reason to send me lovely cards

All excellent reasons to party, or pot o’ tea!

the 15th June.

Ides of June.

Recurring.

Recurring in Outlook.  Outlook synchronised with my cell phone. 2 messages meet me today

Your birthday (my phone). your birthday (my laptop).

I want to forget all that made loving you hurt me.  A party made loving you fun.

I miss the parties I arranged for your birthday. Reading the reminder I want to send you a card.  But maybe not.

I want to arrange a parrty. But maybe not.

I wish I could let it all go and delete the recurring reminder. But maybe not.

Party. Love. Sunshine. Summer. Love.

Every cake should tell a story

This cake tells of  the busy 90 years of my uncle Albert (pronounced  Awe-burr).   Busy ballroom dancing, cruising, fiddling on the computer  and his favourite motorcycle.  A great grandchild reads the pictures.  The cake is edged by the tools he used to build things and was delivered in a Mason’s hall.  

What does your cake say?

by  Magnus  Mills

Highly recommended for people who  love watching the social dynamics of the British workforce.   This book was  a Birthday pressie!  

4 smiles: Ratings explained

What is the book about?  

A story of gradual social change within a nationalised industry featuring,  tea, cakes, chat, meetings  and canteens.   We watch the gradual decline of a national treasure – the scheme for full employment – through the eyes of an unnamed  employee.   Reminiscent of the decline of the national mining  industry,   national car industry,   and the NHS.  

The reader gradually learns how the scheme works through the daily experiences of  one employees.   We meet his colleagues, supervisers, and learn about what employees should do and what they acutally do.    The manner of storytelling reminded me of Kafka’s ‘The Trial’, as the protagonist appears to accept and observe all that goes on around him.    The short sentences, descriptive focus, economy with works,  make the book  very easy to read.   I wish I could write that beautifully.

Unlike the majority of modern novels this one focuses solely on work contexts.     The action, and sometimes  inaction, all  happens on work time, in work venues.   There is only one female character named and present in this workplace.   The scheme is currently, predominantly,  a boys world of work.

Is the book boring?

Unlike Kafka, the story is full of  situational humour that Mills gradually reveals like clues in a detective novel.   Other reviewers describe the humour as ‘Deadpan humour’.    For me the funniest part is what the scheme for full employment does,   how it delivers value above and beyond full employment.   Many of the reviews I read actually gave this away rather than allowing the reader to discover it within the book.   I am glad that I didn’t read any reviews before reading the book.

The day after my outstandingly fabulous Birthday party:

Spotty dog:   last night you said you were going to give up drinking, become a vergetarian, start cooking and join a gym

Wendy:   gosh,   I was in a good mood,   you realise this is a progressive plan,   one thing at a time,   each is conditional upon achieving the step before,   do you want a glass of champers with the mister man cup cake?

After my first 6 months in the English school system, in 1969,   the school headmaster observed me to be:

confident

left-handed

quiet

producing interesting conversation

enjoying drawing

a slow reader

occassionally shedding tears

and it tells my time

In 1984   I rented the ‘Tea Warehouse’ for the night.   For my time.    I found some friendly DJ’s with large and obliging record (Vinyl albums) collections.   They were prepared to indulge my taste and keen to get better aquainted with some of my gorgeous girl friends, as indeed they did.

I have memories of dancing along the street to the Warehouse at midnight for the start of the party. Dancing between the traffic. I remember kissing the policeman who lured me back to the pavement with the promise of a chance to  wear his helmet.      

The Psychedelic furs sang ‘Heaven’

Early 1963 was the coldest winter on British record.    Records had been kept since 1659.  

During a cold winter people try all sorts to keep warm.   One result of ‘all sorts’ was that myself and most my secondary (US = High) school classmates have birthdays during the Autumn.    In 1981 the autumn babies turned 18.   A fabulous autumn of parties.   Myself and my best friend, born 7 days before me, shared  a party with buckets of big hair,  lip-gloss, bouncing and upbeat music.

Altered Images frequently bounced around to Happy Birthday that autumn. Unfortunately, or not, my dance style hasn’t evolved since my early days of copying Clare.

Wendy House service will be temporarily sub-sub-standard while flagrant‘ Happy Birthday to us’*   activities are conducted in Italy accompanied by  this years soundtrack courtesy of  Eyan  …

* us = people I know (Eyan, Jenn, Angela, Dr. Phil, Prof. Dave)  and pobably quite a few people that I don’t know…

What is the best 45th birthday present for a Wendy?   A four day weekend in  Siena with spottydog as

• tour organiser.
• tour guide.  
• conversational sparring partner.  
• first-aid specialist,   she’ll have the plasters for when I fall-over, which she reliably informs me that I will, because I’ll be looking up at the architecture rather than at street-level obstacles.
• personal shopper,   because she has this uncanny  skill for inducing me to part with cash like no other person I have ever met.
• extended memory.

Excitedness levels have already reached amber.   Spotty dog has cunningly avoided booking through the recently defunct XL, travelling at ridiculous hours of the day,     waiting at transport interchanges for silly, silly, times and other such icky nonsense.

Its my birthday.

It’s Eyan & Phil’s birthday.

It’s international Jennifer day

I’m 44 (and British)

The wikipedia entry for 44 points out that despite not being a prime number it is one of an elite 12% of numbers that can be described as  a ‘Happy Number’.

44 trivia:

• Its the international dialing number for the UK and that’s where I am today,   in Reading, in the UK, and that’s where I come from and I’m a citizen not an alien.    
• A bus, big caravan,  production company in Germany.   I like buses.
• 44 was a leap year starting on Wednesday.   During this year Emporer Claudius returned from a campaign in,   yes you’ve guessed it, Britain!
• Psalm 44 is powerfully emotive,   excerts of the language within the psalm:  ‘crushing people’,   ‘trampling our foes’, ‘scorn and derision’, ‘reproach and revile me’, ‘crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals’.   It is a bid to the christian God for support in torrid times.   Probably a bit more torrid than my current repatriation expereince*  but in that sort of direction on the scale that ranges from comatosed to extreme torridity.

* I did phone someone up yesterday to tell them I was frustrated,   so that is pretty torrid on the Wendy torridity scales.   I used the word frustrated 4 times,   then had a cup of tea to calm down.   I feel a bit bad now about that impulsive outburst of saying I’m frustrated.    

Wendy at # 42,   has moved to number 43.     Dr. Wendy is  still,  virtually,  in the house.  

It’s like moving from BBC 2 to BBC 1.   Having survived the answer to the ultimate question I move onto a new channel… ..there’ll be some happy slapping in a local English pub tonight.   It’s Election night and people are coming out to support the breakaway party, the wendy house party… oh yes… happy…….and…….slappy…     hats, boots, beer, election results with a bit of Adulty Hooding thrown in for good measure.     The results will probably be completely UNPUBLISHABLE.   At least not publishable before a couple of recounts and close examination of the chads  (a popular US post-election passtime).  

I am Wendy House and I approve this message.   Party!

Books and t-shirt both received a thorough face-hugging sniff…  

W

In less than 2 weeks I’ll be 42

According to Douglas Adams the second most impressive computer in the Universe, ‘Deep thought’  spent 7.5 million years to discover that 42 is the ultimate  answer to life the universe and everything.  

I get to experience  42 directly, no  lawyers, no phone-menu, no queuing, no bureaucratic machinery, no gloves, no Windows, no 7.5 million years waiting.   How sexy is that?  42 uncovered, unprotected, outside and in the ‘raw’ and nearly-now!   I’m getting way too excited just thinking about it.   Time for a cup of tea.

W