I read in the Daily Mail this week that Joanna Lumley will have a role in the third season of BBC’s chickclick drama, Mistresses, which will start filming in April 2010. Woo-hoo! I was sure season two was the last with the way they ended the season. Fingers crossed the Brits will export this little gem to BBC America.
Ok, I came of age in the 80s and loved, loved, loved The Police, but Sting today? Pfft. Every time I think of the $20 I wasted buying Mrs. Sting’s cookbook — the most arrogant cookbook I’ve ever laid hands on if there is such a thing! — I’m driven to tears. Mr. Sting also strikes me as exceedingly arrogant man, so I sort of loved watching him simmer and squirm during the interview above with the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman. Heh.
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Liberty of London has announced a partnership with Target stores to sell a line of branded clothing and housewares under the aptly named “Flower Power Collection.” The collection, which will include everything from underwear to bicycles, will be available starting March 2010. Read more here.
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This Sunday is Stir-up Sunday in the UK, the traditional day that families make their Christmas pudding. Stir-up Sunday is always the Sunday before Advent begins.
We won’t be doing a Christmas pudding this year, the main reason being that I’m the only one around here who’ll eat it. I’m now a vegetarian, and a Christmas pudding without eggs and butter or suet just doesn’t sound right, so I’ll stick to clementines.
Here are some links to articles (with recipes) about Stir-up Sunday. Let me know if you decide to make a Christmas pudding this weekend.
How to make a Christmas pudding (with video)– Times Online
Xanthe Clay’s countdown to Stir-up Sunday — the Telegraph
Traditional Christmas pudding — Delia Smith online
Rich Christmas pudding (uses vegetarian suet) — BBC Online
How to make suet — from HailBritannia.com
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For the anglophile who has everything: later this month, two miniature portraits of Elizabeth I and her lover Robert Dudley are expected to fetch £80,000 at auction according to the Telegraph.
The portraits, which date back to 1575, were painted to commemorate the end of their longstanding love affair. Don’t we all get portraits done of our ex-boyfriends?
What fascinates me about these miniatures is not the price, but the detail. They’re less than an inch high!
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Who knew Bob Kraft was such an anglophile, enough of one so that the New England Patriots’ owner might be purchasing a share in an English football team, Liverpool? The Pats are playing Tampa Bay this weekend at Wembley, so the Telegraph quoted Kraft yesterday:
” ‘I’ve been to Ladies’ Day at Ascot, dressed in a top hat and tails and feeling like a turkey. But I’ve never been to Wembley. That’s the ‘Mecca’; what a thrill it is to be going to an institution that is very special to the English people.
” ‘We don’t have anything in America that’s a ‘Mecca’. I don’t think the players fully understand it, but they will when they’re there.’ ”
Sounds like Kraft will fit in nicely. Even if he does feel like a turkey.
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The Prince of Wales, who owns a fleet of rather nice cars (two Jags, two Audis, an Aston Martin and more, not to mention a few mud-spattered Range Rovers I’m sure he has garaged on his estates), is urging housing developers to design communities that rely less on automobiles and more on walking and public transport.
That’s right. So we can expect to see more of Charles and Camilla hoofing it for England on the high street, canvas shopping totes in hand. Or spot them in a ticket queue at Euston Station before they head off to Manchester for a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Or maybe not.
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A recent study of 3,000 Britons shows that English weather is their favorite topic of conversation, beating out discussion of football. Reports the Telegraph:
“Researchers found our day to day lives are still characterised by traditional British activities like discussing the weather, enjoying fish and chips and drinking cups of tea.”
When asked to put these cultural traditions in perspective, psychologist David Lewis said, “By differentiating us from other nations they help create a unique identity, reinforcing our confidence in the attitudes and beliefs that make us typically British.”
Hmmm. This seems like a silly little study to me. Of course the Brits love their greasy fish wrapped in newspapers and builder’s tea at 4. It’s like concluding that Americans love baseball, crappy beer, and thinking they’re #1. And I have to quibble with the weather talk. I’ve been all over the world and talked about the weather ad nauseum with Italian waiters, drivers in India, and Norwegian grandmothers. Not to mention here in New England with fellow Yanks, where weather chatter’s taught at the knee.
Wherever you are in the world: do you find yourself chatting about the weather? Or is weather talk an alien concept to you? Add your comments below.
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If you’re besotted with all things Kate Middleton, check out a relatively new blog called The Daily Kate. It details her latest sightings and what she’s wearing, as well as covers all the rumors about when she and Prince William are to wed.
My prediction: The Daily Kate will have plenty of material over the next few years. Check out the link to the video of Kate and her sister being hounded by paparazzi. Ugh. I feel sorry for her.
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The winner of this prestigious fiction prize will be announced on October 6 in London. Six books are up for the award:
- A S Byatt, The Children’s Book
- J M Coetzee, Summertime
- Adam Foulds, The Quickening Maze
- Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
- Simon Mawer, The Glass Room
- Sarah Waters The Little Stranger
Fast readers have plenty of time to get them read before the prize is announced next month (she says as she’s just only finished last year’s winner The White Tiger a few months ago).
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