With hippie left wing parents, it can be hard finding a way to rebel. And so, when I was around twelve, I developed a bit of a thing for the Royals. Because I knew it would give my mum the shits. Cut out pictures of Lady, then Princess, Diana and stuck them on my bedroom door. Stole money from my mother’s purse to buy the Women’s Weekly (these were the days before Maxine McKew came on the news to tell us it would come out monthly, but still be called weekly – you don’t remember that, do you, but I do). That kind of thing. I tell you, it was all change the world with me.
Anyhoo, old habits do die hard, and so, despite the metres of ‘Vote Yes for a Republic’ bunting which is stored in our attic and studio (these are, as I think I have explained, fancy names for rather ordinary things) I’ve never been able to quite stop watching the Royals. And so, I was as fascinated as anyone* else when Willsy and Kate called it off. I must admit, I approached it with a bit of a ‘oh, two young people have decided they don’t want to pash anymore, not so surprising that’, but I do sympathise with Kate because when I used to stay with cousins or friends, my father, as he drove away from the curb would call out (and he has a loud voice) ‘and don’t forget to go to the toilet to pick your nose’. And I can still hear the mothers of my friends as they turned their heads, sniffed and said lavatory, it’s not a toilet, it’s a lavatory.
How I got to be the well-balanced success you see today I’ll never know.
Like I say, tiara recommended.
*You might need to scroll down a bit, I can’t work out how to do the links to individual posts in blogger anymore.
I must say I am of a similar disposition.
However, does anyone actually say lavatory??
Or do they just ask for a place to “powder one’s nose?”
3C, you click on the little timestamp at the end of the post (or little hash sign, they move it around to trick you) – anyhoo, here.
Also, and this is particularly sad coming after the mental image of two fifteen year olds mournfully listening to Lloyd Cole, I had a Charles and Di scrapbook. Honest injun.
Cellobella, I usually say ‘I just need to go and do a wee’. Or one of my boys yells it out. ‘Mum, I have to do a wee’.
Zoe! Really? Maybe I am cooler than I thought I was.
I spent fortunes on Majesty magazine…
and I usually shout: I’M GOING TO THE LOO!
I remember laughing about the Womens Weekly, & how they couldnt possibly call it the Womens Monthly!
I suspect a lot of people who are ‘above all that’ secretly follow the Royals, whether with delight or horrified fascination.
My personal hate was ‘Lavvy’!! But I rather like ‘dunny’. it can be so shocking. I am probably more your parents age!
The Royals are an international soap. There’s no harm in watching them (except to them).
Hmmm. At home, it’s ‘I’m going to do a wee’ – in public ‘I’m going to the loo’. I thought it was hilarious in the US that they say ‘where is the restroom?’ Talk about a euphemism. Who goes there to rest?! Unless you’re pissed or crying or both. Or it’s ‘the bathroom’. (Where’s the bath? Or shower?)
Yeah, I can’t help being vaguely interested in stuff like the Wills and Kate thing. Though I draw the line at Zara Phillips and co. (How do I even know the name?!)
majesty magazine is really expensive in Australia, blackbird. We have given a subscription to a loved one as a present, and are still paying it off.
Lavvy is a bit ordinary – I’ve not heard it before, and I thought I was pretty familiar with most of the ordinary phrases you can hear.
ariel, perhaps the line is less definite than you thought
Ariel, a third US alternative is ‘the washroom’, which is what a friend of mine who lived in New York for five or six years still asks Adelaide waiters for directions to, and is still puzzled when they are puzzled. (I am however happy to report that she has never said ‘tinkle’ in my hearing.) But as far as crying or/and pissed is concerned — depends where you are at the time, of course, but I and many of my acquaintances have been known to seek out the privacy of the loo in both cases. It does sort of make sense in a way.
ThirdCat, I think ‘lavvy’ may have been on the way out in my day, so was probably completely obsolete by yours. But it was certainly a popular choice among senior ladies when I was a gell.
Ariel, a third US alternative is ‘the washroom’, which is what a friend of mine who lived in New York for five or six years still asks Adelaide waiters for directions to, and is still puzzled when they are puzzled. (I am however happy to report that she has never said ‘tinkle’ in my hearing.) But as far as crying or/and pissed is concerned — depends where you are at the time, of course, but I and many of my acquaintances have been known to seek out the privacy of the loo in both cases. It does sort of make sense in a way.
ThirdCat, I think ‘lavvy’ may have been on the way out in my day, so was probably completely obsolete by yours. But it was certainly a popular choice among senior ladies when I was a gell.
In Australia we are doubly damned because we can’t even pronounce “toilet” – it’s usually “torlet”.
Our Mary was probably OK because she would have had to say the Danish version.
‘we can’t even pronounce “toilet†– it’s usually “torletâ€.’
In the eastern states, perhaps.
*sniffs*
We in Adders tend to overdo the ‘toilet’ diphthong in a lush, almost music-hall Jewish manner — Oy vey! — that overlaps startlingly with The Alexander Downer School of Pronouncing Every Phoneme Very Very Clearly Indeed.
‘we can’t even pronounce “toilet†– it’s usually “torletâ€.’
In the eastern states, perhaps.
*sniffs*
We in Adders tend to overdo the ‘toilet’ diphthong in a lush, almost music-hall Jewish manner — Oy vey! — that overlaps startlingly with The Alexander Downer School of Pronouncing Every Phoneme Very Very Clearly Indeed.