Just for a change ......

..... I've been reading the odd book or two recently.

It's not that I've gone off sewing, it's simply that since

my move to the Lock-Up I still haven't got the lighting

sorted out as I would like and with the dark evenings

it's not always easy to see what I'm doing

Back-lit e-books, on the other hand, can be read any time,

any place, anywhere - and I do.

 

 

My current book of choice is Just Me written by Sheila Hancock,

actress, comedienne and widow of much loved actor John Thaw

probably best known for his role as Morse in the long-running

Oxford based detective series.

 

Having got more than half way through I find myself warming

to Sheila more and more for her no nonsense approach to

widowhood and all that it brings with it.

A true "trooper" and an example to us all.

I'm certainly taking the odd note or two along the way.

 

 

But what I really wanted to share is a couple of sentences she wrote

after finding herself late one night (after a theatre performance) in the heart of London's

notorious Soho district with its myriad of strip joints,

sex shops and nightclubs catering to every taste and appetite imaginable:

 

"I have a touching school sewing book belonging to my

Aunty Ruby from 1921 that amuses me.

 

It is full of meticulous examples of stitches with names like

"faggoting" and "whipping".  If I ran one of these Soho clubs

I'd call it The Sampler.  Except that only old gits would

know what that was."

 

 

And for anyone not an old git like me and who may be wondering,

this is an example of "faggoting" at it's finest.

 

Now stand back and give me air, I've put my book down

and find myself up for a spot of "couching" which

might even culminate in "laid" if the light holds.