Smells and Bells
26/02/2004 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIzzie has slinked into the Ministry after a most happy and delightful day.
Last week had ordered some manure, compost and stuff for the 'Garden of Eden' and today was delivery day. Iz was expecting a yukkie horrid humid day like last week and for these folks to turn up late in the afternoon which meant that Iz would have to indulge in a forced session of housework and general cleaning and gardening since I could not leave the house till the stuff arrived. That included doing the laundry, sweeping and sitting outside with a coffee and munching the purple blobs hanging on the grapevine outside the Izzie kitchen window.
So was rather surprised to see what a gorgeous crisp crunchy sunny morning it was and even more so when the bags arrived just before 11 which meant the Iz could hop on the broomstick whenever she wanted.
The original plan was to phone Petunia to make arrangements concerning that movie. Once classes start next week there will be no movieses or nothing nice for ickle Iz. Just slaving over a hot abacus.
But no way was Iz going to waste a sunny day stuck inside with a doggy bag and box of tissues. So we are going to meet at 10am tomorrow and if the schedules don't change from one day to the next go to a showing at 10.45.
Is most most unusual for the ma to go to movies - and certainly nothing with blood and guts. 'Mr Bean' and 'The Full Monty' are more her cup of tea. Though come to think of it, she did insist on coming with Iz when I won two free tickets to Lolita.
But the ma is getting herself a bit of a reputation as a recalcitrant renegade heretic and now has a name to live up to!
Many moons ago Iz was having some nasty encounters with some black hooded scabby clammy clawed creatures and slunk into a gorgeous and very tiny old chapel to escape from them. Normally the place is locked around 8ish on a Friday morning as it was the previous week and the one after. (Iz passes by the place on the way from her Friday morning public speaking group)There were another two people in there apart from ickle Iz.
After sitting there in the peace and quiet, enjoying the smells and bells, Iz left when the priest came to lock up and took one of the leaflets hoping to find out if there was regular opening times. I really do like old small churches with lots of wood rather than grand greyish cathedrals that you can get lost in - Cologne Cathedral being the ultimate example of how soulless and bleak such places can be.
Among other interesting tidbits, turns out that this very little church has Latin masses on Sunday mornings at 9.15 Iz hates Latin as a language to look at but does admit that it sounds pretty impressive in Gregorian chants and stuff.
The ma was ever so interested and started going several months ago. Iz came along too and was very impressed by the smells and bells, the gorgeous choral singing, chanting or whatever and the general mysteriousness and exoticness of the whole thing.
Iz was infinitely less impressed to notice that all the women with one exception - Meeeee were either wearing hats or mantillas and the mens' heads were not covered at all. Was not too hard to guess which bit of scripture that came from.
The ma says that Iz is disrespectful not to wear a hat but Izzie's attitude is that while it is a sign of respect as a visitor to wear one in another culture's place of worship such as a mosque, synagogue or whatever (not that I did wear one at the very hairy scary Ian Paisley 'mass' in Belfast which I visited once) but I am damned if I am going to observe this practice in the tradition that I belong to. Izzie gets sick of being told by church leaders that she is less worthy in the eyes of God merely for the fact of being born with two legs instead of three. And it is a bit rich of the ma who is the first to whinge about the getup that all those fundamentalist Muslim women wear.
Actually evil Iz, the one week she was wearing a hat, took it off inside the church and put it on the bench.
In fact in secondary school we were supposed to wear hats in church and Iz had the distinction of being the only girl in the class who conformed to this rule. Those of course, were the days before I realized the 'logic' behind it.
But what Iz finds particularly amusing - word has gotten around among the ma's sisters and brothers and they are all shocked and horrified that the Ma is now going to Latin mass! It's apparently a source of much animated conversation.
Iz got invited to Dinner at the Dursleys on Tuesday and the neighbours came too. Petunia wanted to party and have lots of bottlies before giving up booze for Lent. They too were calling her a heretic. Iz says that we'll have to start our own branch of Heretics Anonymous in Privet Drive!
Izzie is also curious about the movie but a bit dubious about the extent of the violence. In spite of the odd Latin mass, Iz does not subscribe to the Catholic obsession with suffering for the sake of suffering and finds it all rather a bit dodgy. On the other extreme are the wishy washy lovie dovie 'Jesus meek and mild' Christians who turn the poor guy into a sad pathetic wimp. That is what peeved Iz about 'The last Temptation of Christ' The man who played Jesus -he ..well...he had the charisma of a very slimy filleted fish.
It was a great concept but executed badly. Funny though. Seen it several years later dubbed in German and it was like a totally different movie. The character seemed totally transformed by having a decent actor do the voice over. Iz suspects it was the same actor who did the voice overs for "Jesus of Montreal"
What Iz would like to see is some squillionaire out there make a Jesus movie using the Dorothy Sayers play script from back in the forties. The hankies scenes are all in there and Iz got all sad and sooky simply READING the script! But there is much more sense of the big picture and politics of the time and the usual passing the buck that the powerful are so so good at. "Life of Brian" also did a wonderful job there too. Iz just loved the Roman soldier catching the guy doing the graffiti. And who can forget all those confusing liberation Fronts?
Iz looks forward to reporting back on the Serpent in the Garden of Gethsemane and all those so called 'Lord of the Rings' special effects.
But what else has Iz been up to? Not much doing in Cyberia lately. Normally would lurk around here on a Tuesday evening but was at Privet Drive instead and after 3 glasses of red, Iz is not really capable of constructing comprehensible LJ entries. After all, we might reveal all those ickle Izzie secrets.
Today I went to St Brutus and had a lovely time sitting in the sun sipping coffees and squiggling in the little green book. Also sorted out the silver sickles - receipts, ATM withdrawal slips and other boring beany things and filled in the form that I had been procrastinating on for the last few days. Iz is applying for a Goblin Grant for textbooks and not only do they require proof of low income and stuff but also want to know what sort of expenditure you have. Iz must have the lowest transport costs around. No car and I can walk to the Goblins and hop on the broomstick to get to work.
The mean bossy bitch at the Gate comes to lock up just after 5pm and says to Iz - look what you are doing - corrupting all these people with your bad habits. Now they all want unofficial offices in our garden. We'll have to start charging rent.
See normally Iz is the last one left at that time but today there was four women plus a young guy sitting at a table in the sun with his laptop and Iz squiggling in her little green book at another table.
Next stop was the nearby park where I sat with my copy of the Precioussss and read all about Gollum and nice tasty rabbitses. Iz somehow suspects that even when she does eventually read ROTK (and possibly FOTR) that Two Towers will remain the Izzie favorite. The slinker/stinker even has ickle green lightses in his eyes!
Treebeard, Saruman, Wormtongue and Gollum - what more could an insidious serpent ask for?
Then Iz went raiding some fig trees near the same park before finally pottering off to the beach to watch the sun set and listen to more amazing stuff on the radio about conspiracy theories and other wierd things.
But nicest of all was the warm fuzzy feeling I had all day - seemed suspiciously like being under the Imperius curse - but infinitely nicer than feeling ratty, cranky and irritable like I did most of last week.
Last week had ordered some manure, compost and stuff for the 'Garden of Eden' and today was delivery day. Iz was expecting a yukkie horrid humid day like last week and for these folks to turn up late in the afternoon which meant that Iz would have to indulge in a forced session of housework and general cleaning and gardening since I could not leave the house till the stuff arrived. That included doing the laundry, sweeping and sitting outside with a coffee and munching the purple blobs hanging on the grapevine outside the Izzie kitchen window.
So was rather surprised to see what a gorgeous crisp crunchy sunny morning it was and even more so when the bags arrived just before 11 which meant the Iz could hop on the broomstick whenever she wanted.
The original plan was to phone Petunia to make arrangements concerning that movie. Once classes start next week there will be no movieses or nothing nice for ickle Iz. Just slaving over a hot abacus.
But no way was Iz going to waste a sunny day stuck inside with a doggy bag and box of tissues. So we are going to meet at 10am tomorrow and if the schedules don't change from one day to the next go to a showing at 10.45.
Is most most unusual for the ma to go to movies - and certainly nothing with blood and guts. 'Mr Bean' and 'The Full Monty' are more her cup of tea. Though come to think of it, she did insist on coming with Iz when I won two free tickets to Lolita.
But the ma is getting herself a bit of a reputation as a recalcitrant renegade heretic and now has a name to live up to!
Many moons ago Iz was having some nasty encounters with some black hooded scabby clammy clawed creatures and slunk into a gorgeous and very tiny old chapel to escape from them. Normally the place is locked around 8ish on a Friday morning as it was the previous week and the one after. (Iz passes by the place on the way from her Friday morning public speaking group)There were another two people in there apart from ickle Iz.
After sitting there in the peace and quiet, enjoying the smells and bells, Iz left when the priest came to lock up and took one of the leaflets hoping to find out if there was regular opening times. I really do like old small churches with lots of wood rather than grand greyish cathedrals that you can get lost in - Cologne Cathedral being the ultimate example of how soulless and bleak such places can be.
Among other interesting tidbits, turns out that this very little church has Latin masses on Sunday mornings at 9.15 Iz hates Latin as a language to look at but does admit that it sounds pretty impressive in Gregorian chants and stuff.
The ma was ever so interested and started going several months ago. Iz came along too and was very impressed by the smells and bells, the gorgeous choral singing, chanting or whatever and the general mysteriousness and exoticness of the whole thing.
Iz was infinitely less impressed to notice that all the women with one exception - Meeeee were either wearing hats or mantillas and the mens' heads were not covered at all. Was not too hard to guess which bit of scripture that came from.
The ma says that Iz is disrespectful not to wear a hat but Izzie's attitude is that while it is a sign of respect as a visitor to wear one in another culture's place of worship such as a mosque, synagogue or whatever (not that I did wear one at the very hairy scary Ian Paisley 'mass' in Belfast which I visited once) but I am damned if I am going to observe this practice in the tradition that I belong to. Izzie gets sick of being told by church leaders that she is less worthy in the eyes of God merely for the fact of being born with two legs instead of three. And it is a bit rich of the ma who is the first to whinge about the getup that all those fundamentalist Muslim women wear.
Actually evil Iz, the one week she was wearing a hat, took it off inside the church and put it on the bench.
In fact in secondary school we were supposed to wear hats in church and Iz had the distinction of being the only girl in the class who conformed to this rule. Those of course, were the days before I realized the 'logic' behind it.
But what Iz finds particularly amusing - word has gotten around among the ma's sisters and brothers and they are all shocked and horrified that the Ma is now going to Latin mass! It's apparently a source of much animated conversation.
Iz got invited to Dinner at the Dursleys on Tuesday and the neighbours came too. Petunia wanted to party and have lots of bottlies before giving up booze for Lent. They too were calling her a heretic. Iz says that we'll have to start our own branch of Heretics Anonymous in Privet Drive!
Izzie is also curious about the movie but a bit dubious about the extent of the violence. In spite of the odd Latin mass, Iz does not subscribe to the Catholic obsession with suffering for the sake of suffering and finds it all rather a bit dodgy. On the other extreme are the wishy washy lovie dovie 'Jesus meek and mild' Christians who turn the poor guy into a sad pathetic wimp. That is what peeved Iz about 'The last Temptation of Christ' The man who played Jesus -he ..well...he had the charisma of a very slimy filleted fish.
It was a great concept but executed badly. Funny though. Seen it several years later dubbed in German and it was like a totally different movie. The character seemed totally transformed by having a decent actor do the voice over. Iz suspects it was the same actor who did the voice overs for "Jesus of Montreal"
What Iz would like to see is some squillionaire out there make a Jesus movie using the Dorothy Sayers play script from back in the forties. The hankies scenes are all in there and Iz got all sad and sooky simply READING the script! But there is much more sense of the big picture and politics of the time and the usual passing the buck that the powerful are so so good at. "Life of Brian" also did a wonderful job there too. Iz just loved the Roman soldier catching the guy doing the graffiti. And who can forget all those confusing liberation Fronts?
Iz looks forward to reporting back on the Serpent in the Garden of Gethsemane and all those so called 'Lord of the Rings' special effects.
But what else has Iz been up to? Not much doing in Cyberia lately. Normally would lurk around here on a Tuesday evening but was at Privet Drive instead and after 3 glasses of red, Iz is not really capable of constructing comprehensible LJ entries. After all, we might reveal all those ickle Izzie secrets.
Today I went to St Brutus and had a lovely time sitting in the sun sipping coffees and squiggling in the little green book. Also sorted out the silver sickles - receipts, ATM withdrawal slips and other boring beany things and filled in the form that I had been procrastinating on for the last few days. Iz is applying for a Goblin Grant for textbooks and not only do they require proof of low income and stuff but also want to know what sort of expenditure you have. Iz must have the lowest transport costs around. No car and I can walk to the Goblins and hop on the broomstick to get to work.
The mean bossy bitch at the Gate comes to lock up just after 5pm and says to Iz - look what you are doing - corrupting all these people with your bad habits. Now they all want unofficial offices in our garden. We'll have to start charging rent.
See normally Iz is the last one left at that time but today there was four women plus a young guy sitting at a table in the sun with his laptop and Iz squiggling in her little green book at another table.
Next stop was the nearby park where I sat with my copy of the Precioussss and read all about Gollum and nice tasty rabbitses. Iz somehow suspects that even when she does eventually read ROTK (and possibly FOTR) that Two Towers will remain the Izzie favorite. The slinker/stinker even has ickle green lightses in his eyes!
Treebeard, Saruman, Wormtongue and Gollum - what more could an insidious serpent ask for?
Then Iz went raiding some fig trees near the same park before finally pottering off to the beach to watch the sun set and listen to more amazing stuff on the radio about conspiracy theories and other wierd things.
But nicest of all was the warm fuzzy feeling I had all day - seemed suspiciously like being under the Imperius curse - but infinitely nicer than feeling ratty, cranky and irritable like I did most of last week.
The Conspiracy Files
Never ever to be found in the 10 commandments of Conspiracy Theory
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
--Hanlon's Razor