Got my 40th Anniversary Edition of Upstairs Downstairs! Thank you amazon! I may peek a little at it tonight, but going to save most of it for this weekend, which is supposed to be rainy and crappy. I forsee a sofa, tea, cross stitch, and watching these DVDs!
Now, what to do with the other complete set of UpDown that I already have...
While I am awaiting delivery of the 40th anniversary edition of Upstairs Downstairs, I bought another set that I adored when it first came out. Every Sunday I would tune in to Masterpiece Theatre and watch The Duchess of Duke Street. Or rather, listen to it, since I was scrambling to get my homework done at the time. While I was re-watching it, I realized some of the dialogue was familiar, but I could not remember what it looked like, as I was busy writing and studying!
The show is set in the same time period as Up/Down, and written by the same people. It is the fictionalized story of Rosa Lewis, who ran the Cavendish Hotel in London and was renowned as a great cook and bon vivant. She cooked for some of the most famous people of her time, and went on to open a hotel which she ran for years. This two-series show is loosely based on her life.
I loved it. The period clothes were amazing, and I loved watching the bits of business that took place in the kitchens. Every time I turned around some character or other was having tea! Tired? Upset? Death in family? Have a cuppa. Eventually I had to get up and make myself some!
The characters were great. Episodes set in WW1 showed how the hotel was made over into a place where injured servicemen could stay and get better...and were not charged for any of it. Of course, not all the characters made it through the war....I was bawling my eyes out when the little dog Fred, mascot of the hotel, went out to do his doggy business and was done in by a load of bricks and rubble that a nearby bomb had broken off. And I cried even harder when, next episode, a new puppy was brought in...shown the collar of the other dog who had died, and was told quietly, "Of course, you're too little to wear this now, but as soon as you're bigger...." Oh hell, just gimme the whole box of kleenex, willya?
Fabulous. I adored this set, as you can tell. Highly recommended.
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I'm looking forward to watching the new series "The Borgias" coming on soon. I do love me a good poisoning...lol
omg, you so need to get your butt to England!
The Borgias is on my "want" list. I don't get Showtime, so I'll have to wait till it comes out on DVD. And yes Bloodlife, I DO want to get over the pond...every year I want to go. I would be happy to just walk around and soak up the atmosphere. I want to go SO bad.
If you eat corn chips in bed, do you get Frito Lays?
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That's where I always fuck up, I thought it was free to lay.
LMAO!
hahaha....good question though
Only if you are exceedingly lucky. :P
You people are NOT RIGHT.....lol
Today was my birthday. I had a pretty good day even though it was a work day. My boss' wife brought cupcakes and I even got a few presents, which knocked me out.
I got my laugh of they day just after lunch. We used to have a parking area out front, till about 10 years ago when the city re-designed the street and widened it, thus removing our parking area and replacing it with a plain old sidewalk. Old timers still try to park out front, on the sidewalk, even though we (and the police) have told them this is illegal.
This one crabby old fart parked out front today, on the sidewalk, and it just so happened a police officer was in the shop picking up his cleaning. He waited till the guy came in and said to him "Haven't I warned you before about not parking on the sidewalk?"
The old guy got real defensive. "Well, there's no sign that says do not park here! You need a sign!"
Right on cue, the officer held up his citation pad as he started to write the guy a ticket. "Here's your sign," the cop said, and I nearly died laughing.
Hysterical.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
And yay for old people making you laugh!
;)
Happy birthday. I'm glad you got some free entertainment :P
LMAO!! That's just too funny.
Thanks for the chuckles.
happy birthday!
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday :)
Happy Birthday sugar- go out and buy yourself some new cross stitch...lol
Happy birthday :-)
I missed it. o.o I am a horribobble person.
You know Rebecca Black, the girl who infamously put that video of herself "singing" the song "Friday" on youtube...and it went viral.....I know a couple of you commented on it in your journals and I've seen it on Facebook. She was on some morning news show last week, saying how hurt she was about the awful comments she'd been getting, and they made her cry.
Well. She can cry all the way to the bank. It was just on the news that her share of the sale of her song on itunes comes to just about $27,000 per week.
Yes. TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS A WEEK. Who in hell is buying that song? It's AWFUL. This reminds me of something I heard long ago about movies...."put it on the screen, get it in focus, and someone will come see it."
$27,000. EEK.
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Some morning radio show was talking about this the other morning, the question they had is the video looks to professional (in some parts)for only 2000 bucks, apprently thats how much the mother spent so she could make this.
Never heard of it; now I will be crawling back under my rock.
Apparently she's donating it to Japan and her school?
This girl doesn't need money. She spoke about the company that produced her song and video. Most kids have to stand in line to audition for this but she said they "missed" the first audition and met with the producers directly.
That means: Moolah
I'll see your passive-aggressive saracasm, and I'll raise you, one finger.
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Hah! I like that
That's too funny. I like it.
Definitely gonna have to file that away for when I go back to work this Saturday...lol
Tis tax season, and that means people are out there scrambling for some extra bucks to pay what they owe. Every year, like clockwork, we get people coming in trying to rip us off in one way or another. The usual thing is to say they are missing clothes, or occasionally an entire order, which is ridiculous.
When you pick up your order with us, we tell you what you have. "Three shirts, two blouses, four pants and two sweaters." And we count the pieces before the customer leaves. "That makes eleven pieces total Mr. Smith. All good!" That allows the customer to make sure he has everything he came in with, and if he thinks we made a mistake...he might think he brought in four shirts instead.....now is the time to correct any problems.
We have this one guy, a doctor believe it or not, who always thinks we shorted him on something, and only mentions it months later. He came in today and said "I just found an order I picked up in July. (!) It said I had two pants. I KNOW I had a raincoat in there too. A Ralph Lauren, very nice. with a lining. You owe me a raincoat."
Oh yeah? Quick as a flash, we can bring up on our computer every order you droppped off in July. And guess what? There was no raincoat brought in in July. Or in August. Or September. We did have one in October, but it was picked up a week after drop off. And we have the video to prove it.
Of course, this burst his little balloon. I think he was counting on getting a payday from us. Oh, and we were able to tell him that the raincoat he dropped off was not a Ralph Lauren, it was plain old Sears brand. On large items like that, we always note the brand and size, just in case.
Doctor went off in a huff. He's a proctologist. No doubt he's used to little bits of crap, heh.
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*laughs* When will people learn?
Or has his head up SOMEONE'S ass. :P
Know the difference between a bartender and a proctologist?
A proctologist only has to talk to one asshole at a time.....
And so I guess they have to BE assholes to be in that "line" of work...lol
Now that is shear stupidity. Kinda makes you wonder about the mans bedside manner. ~smirks~
Now...this was priceless...!
I think the good doctor has been looking in, and smelling too much ass.
Grouse of the day. Parents with small children, feel free to weigh in on this one. What is becoming more of a trend these days, parents coming in and asking for candy for their children, or the kids themselves screaming for it in the shop. Today we had a mom with two little ones, and while she paid for her cleaning, they were tugging/poking her saying "I want candy. I wanna have some candy!"
She said to them, "I don't have any in my purse. And it's almost dinnertime. You don't need any right now."
That set them off to a new level of shrieking. "THEY HAVE CANDY!! MAKE THEM GIVE YOU SOME!! WE WANT CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDY!"
Well.
The mom looked at me with desperation all over her face and said "Do you have any candy?"
Uh what? Go into a business and ask for candy? Sometimes we have little suckers and things around, but on this particular day we did not. I thought the kids would have a meltdown right there. They kept screaming "WE WANT CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDY!"
I would have blistered their ass right then and there. Life isn't about getting everything you want when you want it. Kids should learn this as they go, especially in regards to treats.
We had a little springtime window display in our front window....I say "HAD". I spent a couple hours the other day getting it set up, and I thought it was cute. I got some of that fake green grass, some little stuffed animals like rabbits and squirrels, bunches of flowers and little baskets that I dressed up with ribbons and bows. Bought everything at the dollar store and it didn't cost that much. Then I got some plastic eggs and put them in the baskets. No sooner did I get this all set up then a mom came in to get her cleaning, and her little boy went right over to the display and started picking up the toys and taking the plastic eggs out of the basket. I started to say "FUCK OFF" when the mom noticed what the kid was doing. She said to him "You can only have two. You have other toys at home."
Erm...you can't have ANY, ok? I made him put everything back. It wasn't a toy display for people to take apart, it was in the window on the ledge as something for everyone to enjoy. Two more parents with kids later and my boss took the whole thing down. The kids would take the stuff, the parents said NOTHING. When we pointed out that their kids were taking the toys, the response was just "Oh yeah? well, that's kids for ya."
Made me real happy I never reproduced. I would have smacked my kids' ass for something like that. And get reported to social services, no doubt.
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My kids were the ones who sat quietly in the chairs while I asked for my dry cleaning(that was an example, I have never met you or been to a dry cleaner)(also I was whispering the parenthesis'isist part in a conspiratorial way)(not the last one, the first one)
I think kids also make us a little crazy, Mommie Dearest was one of my children's behavioral training films.
Personally I can't stand that people will not properly train their offspring. It's disgusting that a parent should have to explain to a child beyond the use of the word no. I also hate that people let their children get fat, it is abuse and neglect.
This is not the fault of the children, it's clearly bad parenting. If my kids raise their voices or act out in public they lose the privilege of going to public places with me. They understand the concept of "look, don't touch". I never hit or spank but I have taken away things like tv or game time.
But it's equally as annoying when store clerks offer my five year old candy. It happens a lot and it's hard for a child to say no.
I know what you mean.
I work at a daycare, and the kids there act exactly like this with their parents. They try it with me too. The other day I asked the kids to help clean up the mess that THEY made. What did they tell me? "We'll clean it up...for some candy." I'm sorry, I don't negotiate with three and four-year olds. Sometimes their parents will pick them up and they will cry and scream for candy. They won't leave the room. Their parents will ask me if I have any. Of course I tell them no. I'm not going to give in to a screaming brat, and their parents shouldn't either.
Honestly, I feel that a majority of kids lack discipline. Their parents fail to teach them how to act right. I feel sorry that the kids aren't being taught to be respectful. I feel like a lot of parents just don't want to deal with disciplining their children. They don't want to deal with a tantrum, so they let their kids do whatever they want, and give in to their every request. It's pathetic. I'm not trying to group every parent into one category, because there are some great parents out there. I'm just talking about these sort of parents.
My only comment on the matter is summed up by this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment
Ah...yet another reason why I don't have kids...on the other hand, if I did, my kids would BEHAVE!
You know, mister...when I can scrape the muck off the inside of your collar with a spoon, and it's the consistency of chocolate pudding.....you really need to change your shirt. And take a bath. WITH SOAP.
Dammit, some of these guys are dirty. They just don't change a shirt more than twice a week, and they are doctors and lawyers! One of em was a little embarrassed and said "My wife said to bring these in (shirts). She said they stink." "She's right," I told him. Boy did he turn red. Well, hell. I'd want someone to tell me if I had BO or something. Urgh.
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I was eating.
Sowwy.
Consistency of ... *hurp* Dammit woman ...
...like the money they make will make up for the funk. Don't think so!
I was just on amazon.com, noodling around looking for something....pre-ordered The Kings Speech, then saw the recommendations link so I went to it..."gasp" there is a 40th Anniversary boxed set of Upstairs Downstairs due to be released right around my birthday. Well, you know, I just had to order it.
That was my most favorite program years ago. It probably cemented my love of all things British. I never could decide which side of the stairs I would belong to....certainly the downstairs people worked their asses off, but upstairs was no year round honeymoon. They had just as many problems, but they slept in nicer accomodations.
I actually have the complete set already on dvd, in fact was just watching a couple episodes over the weekend. This new collection, however, boasts 25 hours of additional material, from behind the scenes making-of details, to program commentaries. Love it, love it, love it!
Scrolled down to see what other buyers had to say about the set I own. One review convulsed me, I don't know if amazon realizes how amusing it was to have a show described as " a complete mantelpiece!"
Can't WAIT to get this new set.
Just got a book from amazon that I'd been wanting for awhile. So here's a movie trivia question for you film buffs. The sub title of the book is:
"The behind the scenes story of the BITCHIEST film of all time!"
What film would this be?
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Do I get two guesses? Same actress involved so it's KINDA a guess and a half. "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" OR "All About Eve."
I'm going with "All about Eve"- and you KNOW how I feel about that movie...lol
*ding ding ding* You are BOTH right. It is the story of All About Eve by Sam Staggs....Highly recommended by the way.
My favorite anecdote from that film...when they began filming, Davis walked onto the set and was greeted by Celeste Holm with a cheery "good morning!" Davis shot back "Shit! Good manners", and never spoke to Holm again for the remainder of the film except in their scenes together! Amazing that they managed to look as though they liked each other in that movie!
Let me know how the book reads- I'd love to take a look at it.
..and I was thinking VR had published a book out :-P
I pranked my boss today. Got him good, too. You see, he can never remember what abbreviations stand for in text speak...it took him ages to remember LMAO....he would ask me "is that dirty? my daughters are texting me with it. Does it have something to do with an asshole?" Well, yes it does, sort of. :P
Anyway, he asked me to keep him up to date on the latest things, so when he gets texts from people he knows what is being said. I decided to have a little fun. I told him, "Next time you text your family or close friends, you have to put FAP at the end of your message. It means Friends/Family Are Precious."
He said, "Oh, right, thanks, I'll remember to do that."
Later this afternoon he came to me and said "you know that FAP thing? ONe of my buddies texted me back and said I was a dirty old man? What's he talking about?"
I said "Oh, don't worry, some people don't like that expression, they think it's too cutesy."
Awhile later he got a phone call, and I saw his eyes bug out and he looked at me. I started to laugh, and when he hung up, he said "Hey! That word means masturbation! I texted it to about 14 people including my wife!"
I laughed so hard I peed. Gotta watch my back now, he has vowed retaliation.
A guy walked into the shop today, older guy, and when he opened his mouth the most wonderful southern drawl rolled out. After I checked his order in, he kind of laughed and said "well ain't you a cute little whisker biscuit."
Um, what? I had to ask him what that meant. After he told me I laughed so hard I had tears coming out of my eyes. "Y'all don't have that expression up here?" he said with a grin.
Whisker biscuit. Well, I suppose it's a lot better than things I've been called before! :P
Me: Good afternoon, XYZ Cleaners.
Female Customer: Is that XZY Cleaners?
Me: Yes, ma'am. (clean the wax out of your ears, dumbass.)
Her: What time do you close?
Me: 6 p.m.
Her: Is that 6 at night?
What kind of cheap drugs are these people ON? Do they wake up late in the day and not know what time it is or something?
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I get that all the time!
In addition to being renames Alice or Sarah or Marie.
I love the ones who call wanting to know what time their tee time is....
"There are no tee times at thus time, sir, the course is closed for the winter"
Why the hell did you do that? How LONG have you been doing that?
"For 15 years, sir."
But I want to play golf!
"There's too much snow on the course to play, sir."
It's not snowing here.
"Where's here sir?"
California, of course.....
REALLY?
Here's your sign...
Had to stop at the grocery store and get a few things I forgot the other day when I was there. The checker and the bagger, both young guys, were having an earnest convo and totally forgot I could hear them.
Bagger: Dude, I haven't had a date since 2009.
Checker: Not even with Angie? I heard she goes with anyone who asks.
Bagger: She turned me down at the Christmas party. I'm never going out.
Checker: You are. I bet this lady (motions to me) would go out with you.
As the Bagger eyes me up, I lean over and say: "I would, but you have to do EXACTLY WHAT I WANT WHEN I WANT IT. Can you handle that?"
The Bagger turned beet red and gulped.
Heh.
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YEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAW
Hahahaha I adore you =)
... So. Ddid he say ok?
I think he wet himself.
HAHAHAHA.....awesome come back :P
nicely played!
LMFAO! Thadda girl ;)
Oh no... no pants wetters. O.o
For. The. Win!!!
ATTA GIRL!!!
Besides, it's a test- either man up or cop out- looks like he washed out with bleach...lol
lol Now that is a Woman!
haha
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RedQueen
07:13 Mar 31 2011
God I knew I loved you for a reason...lol