You had plenty money 1922

pubmeet - fun as usual, Pete tried to poison us with Hong Kong sweets (oddly the Durian pancakes were more edible than the lemon-ginger things.) and much was discussed.

Jim pimped geek t-shirts.

Small huddle of writers swapping bits, (which means I now have my plot timeline/sequence sorted, hurrah!) me passing on the Inception gun use guide, writer wibbles.

Smitty was passing out clothing she no longer wears - the green velvet jacket I pounced on as Cathy made 'nooooo!' noises - lucky for her it was slightly tight across the shoulders on me. skirts went to Chrissy as he's one of the few of us who could fit into them.

Succumbing to the Tom Hardy obsession. Damn he's good in Virgin Queen. (in historical, went and checked facts and... huh. He married Lettice 18 years after his wife died? To say that dramas shorten this a tad (and that Elizabeth knew it was being planned) is an understatement. And I did not know Essex was his stepson. Shows how much in-depth knowledge I have of that period...)

I HAS WON TICKETS TO THE RED PREMIERE!

AFP lot may remember me pointing out something when camping (can't remember if it was before or after our plans for the apocalypse), where I'd come across some bugger bemoaning that no-one these days had any idea about the land, and how would we do in our ancestors' place as peasants when confronted by the situation. Which led me to go 'excuse me, but my ancestors wouldn't know one end of the horse from the other when it came to ploughing either. We were the ones who made the plough or fixed the damn thing when it broke.'

My ancestors having been skilled craftsmen for the most part (aside from a few mill owners and smugglers). One of the main surnames is Cooper, which tells you a lot right there. And considering your position in society is normally derived from what your family does, and how social mobility isn't all that great in this country, I do love it when people sigh about how they'd have loved to live in past times with servants or been servants. Somehow this type of person seems to forget that there was a whole big section in between.

Hi, I'm from the skilled working class that provided glass, smiths, barrel makers, foremen of mines and toolmakers. How about you?

Was re-reading Warren Ellis' Crecy, which has the best one line sum-up of the two-finger gesture possible.

"I can kill you from 200 yards away with these."

Which gets me wondering : what in the nine hells does your one-finger gesture actually *mean*? Seriously, what's it supposed to imitate? Most rude and obscene gestures have some sort of real-life thing behind them. Throat-slitting, the motion of wanking, imitation of how small your John Thomas might be, that fist-pumping gesture which I *think* means 'cuckold/you're fucked' etc, etc.

Woot. The cold has kicked in properly. (got it on tuesday - last person in the dept) Throat not just sore, throat hurting when I cough. YAY. Have produced sign* to point to so I don't have to explain anything or go 'fuck off, will you?' when someone comes over to ask if I'm all right when in the middle of a coughing fit. Already used it once.

Fuck. the body cannot decide what temperature it wants to be today. Heat rash kicked in on the train platform this morning, so spent entire ride to Paddington itching like crazy (and of course freezing once the heat rash died down, because body, that's what happens when you decide to get rid of a bunch of heat quickly when it's a cold morning) and my temperature's just gone up *again*...

:sigh: Is it a truism that all the other girls in the office will turn up looking utterly fabulous when you're feeling grotty? I've seen three stunning tops, two great skirts, one really impressive make-up job and three fabulous hair days walk in the door this morning. Though I did get Emma going yesterday 'Look at me - ooo, it's the turquoise glittery one today.' Appear to have got a bit of a rep for multi-coloured eyeliner.

*To whom it may concern : if you hear me coughing, wheezing, attempting to throw up my lungs, having what sounds like an asthma attack, fighting for breath, etc, IGNORE IT. I don't have asthma or TB, this is me having a cold. Unless it's gone on for months, in which case you have the right to kick me to the GP.

Bollocks. Where the hell do I find accurate slang terms for gay in the '40s? It was invert in the 20s/30s, but I can't find any sites that'll actually tell me what the everyday slang for them was (variations on gay + history + slang + terminology + 1940s bring up giant slang lists with no time stamp or what the laws were). 'Homosexual' was the official polite term, but I can't find what *normal* people used. With a definition of 'normal' being the middle class term *and* the common slang term *and* what the community itself used. Searching on people like Wilfrid Brambell and Kenneth Williams turns out to be sodding useless because all I get are refs to Fantabulosa and the Curse of Steptoe and the fact that Wilf got done for cottaging. Not to mention most of said films - which I saw - took place in the '60s. Celluloid Closet, from what I remember, had bugger all on 1940s UK films. (yes, Pevensies in England post PC fic - I'm involving the parents, who I really need to name. The fic is mostly about the parents' reaction to finding out that Peter is going for career military, but I need to throw in some random comments on the others.) Gah. to little_details I go....