How do you do. I found your blog amusing and well written, and enjoy the Toy-Fu series. I'm a Nice Middle-Aged Lady From The States who is researching Cornwall so I can script my virtual character, Celia Gray. She lives in the vicinity of Lostwithiel/Liskeard/Luxulyan/Looe.
I especially want to know what she'd watch on TV (she too is a Nice Middle-Aged Lady). Access to a detailed TV schedule specific to that location would be great.
Celia Gray would almost certainly be too busy gardening to watch telly, but on the rare occasion she's indoors, she'd probably watch: Alan Titchmarsh's Royal Gardens, Jamie's Dinners (worth googling - v. good), Midsomer Murders, Grumpy Old Women... and something odd, like Die Hard 2.
sample Westcountry tv schedules at: http://www.itv.com/listings/ShowListings.aspx?itvregion=carltonwestcountry&itvpackage=at&itvgenre=0
But that's just ITV. Also, my nan is 88, and quite posh, and has a far higher tolerance for Reality TV with swearing in than I do.
I've been wandering in and out of your blog for a few weeks now, and I can't get enough of Toy-Fu. But I haven't found the beginning of it yet. Guess I'll have to look through the archives! Ta for the laughs mate.
cello: A disguised princess sounds pretty neat-o. If I am that, it's been disguised from me as well. Always hoping, though, that I'll discover a lost legacy/identity.
belladona: Thanks very much for your suggestions. Miss Gray loves both ballroom dancing and flower gardens. She is planning a white garden like the one at Sissinghurst.
james: Thanks very much for your suggestions and the helpful link. I will study them at leisure. I can already see that UK TV programming is substantially different from US TV, with many shows/actors I've never heard of. Another question: Here in the States, we have "network TV" (free, many commercials), "public TV" (free, with no actual commercials, but increasingly lengthy underwriter announcements) and "cable TV" (various levels of payment and commercials, and can be local, as in broadcasting local city council meetings). What are the free channels in England? Is ITV1 free?
Your posh 88-year-old Nan sounds like a free spirit. Personally I loathe both reality TV and swearing. Miss Gray, being a trailing Pre-Raphaelite sort who designs handmade lace, concurs.
But the odd note of "Die Hard 2" is a clever thought -- I take your meaning as: Seemingly counterintuitive tastes make for "real" characters.
belladona: Thanks ever so for the Nichols reference! I had never heard of him, but Miss Gray must have done. Anyway, he's just the ticket, because she's renovating her built-in-1730 ancestral home and gardens as well. I'm sure I'll enjoy reading his work.
I don't see Paisley Hall as quite a mansion, but it's not a cottage either. It's a very nice house of moderate size, originally built as a country retreat by her 9-times-great grandfather, Sacheverell "Tenacity" Gray.
belladona: I'm now reading Sunlight on the Lawn, simply because that's all our library had. I like it very much, though I agree about the sentimental/coy elements.
Thanks so much for the link. Merry Hall looks very pretty (and so does the Old Rectory, Ashtead Lodge and Ilex House). One can't tell from the photo how big Merry Hall is. Maybe I'll research it some more.
I'm still working out how much money my character has -- she is neither wealthy nor titled, but comes from an upper-middle background, and has been left a small legacy which includes the house. Would property taxes be a big expense, as I hear they are here in the US? And if she had tenants, what would they pay in rent? (Remember that her house is in Cornwall, near Lostwithiel.)
11 comments:
Oh ye of little faith...
How do you do. I found your blog amusing and well written, and enjoy the Toy-Fu series. I'm a Nice Middle-Aged Lady From The States who is researching Cornwall so I can script my virtual character, Celia Gray. She lives in the vicinity of Lostwithiel/Liskeard/Luxulyan/Looe.
I especially want to know what she'd watch on TV (she too is a Nice Middle-Aged Lady). Access to a detailed TV schedule specific to that location would be great.
Hello, Nice Middle-Aged Lady from the States. Are you really the princess in disguise?
Nice Middle-Aged Lady From The States:
Celia Gray would almost certainly be too busy gardening to watch telly, but on the rare occasion she's indoors, she'd probably watch: Alan Titchmarsh's Royal Gardens, Jamie's Dinners (worth googling - v. good), Midsomer Murders, Grumpy Old Women... and something odd, like Die Hard 2.
sample Westcountry tv schedules at: http://www.itv.com/listings/ShowListings.aspx?itvregion=carltonwestcountry&itvpackage=at&itvgenre=0
But that's just ITV. Also, my nan is 88, and quite posh, and has a far higher tolerance for Reality TV with swearing in than I do.
Hope that's useful...
I've been wandering in and out of your blog for a few weeks now, and I can't get enough of Toy-Fu. But I haven't found the beginning of it yet. Guess I'll have to look through the archives! Ta for the laughs mate.
Should all be in the April archives over to the right. First one's April 3rd, I think.
This first batch (16 pages altogether) is coming to a close - Toy-Fu will have its own little website very soon.
Ta mate, I got it now. Just being vague and a little bit ten past twelve...still loving it! Good to hear you're giving it a home of its own.
cello:
A disguised princess sounds pretty neat-o. If I am that, it's been disguised from me as well. Always hoping, though, that I'll discover a lost legacy/identity.
belladona:
Thanks very much for your suggestions. Miss Gray loves both ballroom dancing and flower gardens. She is planning a white garden like the one at Sissinghurst.
james:
Thanks very much for your suggestions and the helpful link. I will study them at leisure. I can already see that UK TV programming is substantially different from US TV, with many shows/actors I've never heard of. Another question: Here in the States, we have "network TV" (free, many commercials), "public TV" (free, with no actual commercials, but increasingly lengthy underwriter announcements) and "cable TV" (various levels of payment and commercials, and can be local, as in broadcasting local city council meetings). What are the free channels in England? Is ITV1 free?
Your posh 88-year-old Nan sounds like a free spirit. Personally I loathe both reality TV and swearing. Miss Gray, being a trailing Pre-Raphaelite sort who designs handmade lace, concurs.
But the odd note of "Die Hard 2" is a clever thought -- I take your meaning as: Seemingly counterintuitive tastes make for "real" characters.
websaf - replied to telly question to best of my abilities in above post (confused myself).
belladona:
Thanks ever so for the Nichols reference! I had never heard of him, but Miss Gray must have done. Anyway, he's just the ticket, because she's renovating her built-in-1730 ancestral home and gardens as well. I'm sure I'll enjoy reading his work.
I don't see Paisley Hall as quite a mansion, but it's not a cottage either. It's a very nice house of moderate size, originally built as a country retreat by her 9-times-great grandfather, Sacheverell "Tenacity" Gray.
belladona:
I'm now reading Sunlight on the Lawn, simply because that's all our library had. I like it very much, though I agree about the sentimental/coy elements.
Thanks so much for the link. Merry Hall looks very pretty (and so does the Old Rectory, Ashtead Lodge and Ilex House). One can't tell from the photo how big Merry Hall is. Maybe I'll research it some more.
I'm still working out how much money my character has -- she is neither wealthy nor titled, but comes from an upper-middle background, and has been left a small legacy which includes the house. Would property taxes be a big expense, as I hear they are here in the US? And if she had tenants, what would they pay in rent? (Remember that her house is in Cornwall, near Lostwithiel.)
Post a Comment