A Mild Obsession

[porphyry]

Typically, I am a pretty cheap person who can talk herself out of buying almost anything I don't have to (unlike Malkhos who has no problem spending money).

Still, I have my weak points.  I develop mild obsessions.  The latest is Royal Doulton fine china in the Old English Country Rose pattern.  I can't help it.  It would look beautiful in the hutch of my buffet.  It's just--well, me.

I found a set online which could be much more expensive than it is.  I have bookmarked it.  I'm trying to talk myself out of it.

So who, of all people, is also trying to talk me out of it?

"Why do we need that?" says Malkhos.

"I don't know," I say. "To eat from like civilized people.  To take our tea in the afternoon in good style."

"I can just see it," he says. "'Here, Madeline, here's your hot dog on fine china.'"

"Be quiet," I say. 

"Or, "'Andrew, let's put your Pop Tart on this fine plate,'" Malkhos continues.

"You're probably right," I say. "But I still want it."

Oh, the difficulty of the idee fixe!  It just doesn't respond to reason.

Comments

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

I always liked that show with Hyacinth, but Malkhos didn't too much. And remember her sisters, Rose (the tart) and Daisy (part of the noble proletariat class)? Terribly cute if a bit silly.

Anyway, I think I will buy it, kitsch or no. It's either that or perpetual Corelle (doesn't break; good with kids) or possibly Pfalzgraff. Yes, why not just get the china?

[benicek.livejournal.com]

I think Hyacinth epitomises Royal Doulton. The product of a now-defunct filthy industrial town, but with pretensions to rural gentility. She's a cleverly written character who works on several levels. Viewers in the Midlands will recognise that she and her husband have Warwickshire accents. Warwickshire always struggles to pretend it is 'Shakespeare country', and not post-industrial Coventry's toilet, or a suburb of Birmingham, which is what it really is. Her proletarian relatives embarrass her with their strong Birmingham accents. The exterior shots of her house are filmed in Binley Woods, on the edge of Coventry (round the corner from my Auntie Mary's house). Binley Woods started life as a refugee camp for bombed-out Coventry families during the war.