Sabrina's London Diaries Update

Dear Beloved Subscribers !

I wanted to inform you that I have been extremely busy and
travelling around a bit. However, I will be continuing this blog, until infinitum.
I have so many blogs in my drafts and my head that can last until eternity.


Some articles you can expect in Sabrina's London Diaries in the future are:
1) Dating in London- Where's My Mark Darcy
2) More Fashion Blogs
3) What I love about The English
4) The Painter Canaletto
5) Arabic London
6) The Bloody French in London

Stay Tuned and Keep Enjoying London !

love, Sabrina Grace-


More Tales and Adventures in Sabrina's London Diaries

Part 5: Dating in London: Finding Mr. Darcy: Do yourself a favor and learn How to Use a Phone

In this day and age, where we rely so much on technology, we are actually forgetting how to talk to one another, wheter in person or on the phone. We rely so much on texting,messenger chat,emailing each other, that we isolate one another,avoid intimacy and connection with another human being.

I had dated a guy one time and of course, had a nice connection.Subsequently,he continued to text me for 5 months. So, by this time I just kind of lose interest and get very frustrated. We had planned on seeing each other and had it all organized and he cancelled on me, of course, via text. That's annoying. Finally, I texted him and said he really wanted to see me, but that his business made him travel alot and that he was a really busy CEO, blah blah blah.He mentioned that we could get together once he was back in town. Fine, that's no problem it's not like I am waiting and holding my breath for him. Like they said,"lots of fish in the sea." Anyway, He didn't text me back until 3 weeks later, by then I was on to the new flavor of the week. He texted me finally after 3 weeks to invite me to his home gym to work out.(Working out and getting all sweaty in front of a man who will possibly be your boyfriend in the future, I am sorry to say doesn't not strike me as sexy or not romantic.)First of all, I am not going to visit a man, ever. Especially those first three or four dates.Of course, once we are an established couple.But, in the beggining, I won't budge an inch from my home to visit a man I am potentially seing. I don't care if he looks like George Clooney(I actually met him once in the Warner Brothers Parking lot, anyway, that's neither here nor there, and I'll save my name dropping for another time). Maybe, I'll compromise and meet someone half way. But, that's a big MAYBE!) You see, where I come from, and (I am sure it's here in the UK too, but maybe not with my generation of men), but the men go out of their way to come look for you. My Great Grand-father Cady drove three days in a horse and carriage to visit my Great Grandmother across rocky mountains,weathered all kinds of capricious weather and possibly rattle snakes.So, why should courting rituals change 100 years later? I haven't changed and I suppose they we are raised is sometimes very engrained in the fabric of our being.

Anyway, after 5 months of him texting me, I finally I was so fed up after 5 months of his texting me I just texted him and said why doesn't he be a man and just call me and ask me out on a proper date.He texted me back to tell me that I was an arrogant princess. Whatevaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!He doesn't know the clues about dating or common courtesy.He obviously was interested in me, or he would not have texted me so persistently. I just boil it down to him being super shy, which he actually admitted.

If a man is shy, it's not my problem.One thing women like about men is there confidence. Confidence is the single most attractive thing about the opposite sex. You could be bald but if you have confidence, you could be very sexy. Or, you could have a bit of a tummy, but if you have confidence you could be sexy. You could be in between jobs, but if you got confidence. Women like the fact that men are confident and sometimes ballsy(supposed to have more testosterone then us ladies whereby making them more ballsy). That's why opposites attract: women want to be with their opposite. If women are supposed to be passive and demure, well they want to be with their opposite of that, which is someone with some masculine drive and a take charge attitude.They want to be with man, not a scared shy little boy.If you aren't man enough to call a woman then you are going to loose out.Because by the time you've mustered the courage to do so she'll probably have lost interest in you. And, no woman is going to want to be with you if you don't have any courage.

I have always liked the quote by the Mexican actress Salma Hayek and I feel the same when she says,"I am looking for a man with more balls than me!"

So,Just pick up the phone and call the poor girl. Swear up and down, drink a half a pint, take some speech classes, hold on to your balls(sorry, I don't mean to be so unlady like, but I haven't said a curse word since I was in high school and so I deserve this one),whatever, just call the girl.It's really not that hard. Most importantly, it will save a lot of time, both yours and hers.

For an interesting book about the courting rituals of the Regency period, read,"Jane Austen's Guide to Dating". I am waiting for the day,when an admirer writes me a clandestine hand written note or invites me to a mask ball on the finest linen paper with old fashion sealing wax, which will be deliverd by the butler. Sometimes, I ask myself, do I fit in this time period? Are my standards too high? Well, whatever it is, I think there is someone out there that thinks just like me and I have faith that one day our paths will meet and when it does it will be magical!

More Tales and Adventures in Sabrina's London Diaries

The Meaning of the Word Eavesdropping with Letter from Sir John

Did you ever want to know the meaning of the word eavesdropping?I know,I know you've been picking your brain and staying up all night scratching your head.Well, just in case your wondering. My darling Sir John, did his research and I'd like to share the findings.

Here's a letter from my dear friend, Sir John.It is also an example of the English penchant and love for writing letters,a dying tradition.Thus,Sir John is an example of the quintessential English gentleman that you read about it in Jane Austen novels,however, he's very hip,and likes to rock out to Jethro Tull,(lead singer Ian Anderson)and enjoys reading Dan Brown's The Davinci Code and Lost Symbol.

Cheers and Happy Reading!

____________________________________________________________________________________

Hello darling Lady Sabrina

Your trusty research assistant here, braved the cold of the lunchtime period and ventured out into Winchester city centre to take a few photographs for you and your blog. Please find attached.

I have also looked into the origins of the "eaves" of a house. The purpose was not to protect innocent bystanders from what flowed from the contents of householders chamber pots but I was told years ago, people used to shelter under them in case of deliveries from the above windows, should they open and foul bodily waste should spill forth. The purpose in house design was to protect it from the weather.

//http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19980316

Outdoor privies called closets­-­of­-­ease were common, but chamber pots were poured into the street, and strangers in Lon­don were warned to walk under eaves lest a housewife dump night soil on their heads. In some more affluent areas the night­-­soil man came by each morning to collect. A century later, post­-­1660, Samuel Pepys in his diary describes the contents of his close-stools and privies being funneled to a receptacle in his cellar, which was emptied periodically by people who did that work . . . which must be high up on the list of the worst jobs in history.

The term "eavesdropping" is used to describe the act of being under the eaves and listening into conversation going on inside the house. But the term was orginally used to describe the water from dew or rainfall, dropping from the eaves.

The word "loo":

An extract from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet

"That it derives from the term "gardyloo" (a corruption of the French phrase gardez l'eau (or maybe: Gare de l'eau!) loosely translated as "watch out for the water!") which was used in medieval times when chamber pots were emptied from a window onto the street. However the first recorded usage of "loo" comes long after this term became obsolete."

A chamber pot from the time of Shakespeare

http://www.cromwell-intl.com/toilet/shakespeare.html,

And lastly from theplumber.com

http://www.theplumber.com/eng.html

"Proper manners would prescribe warning unwary pedestrians that a shower was on its way. Thus the cry of "Garden l'eau" (pronounced Gardy-loo, and meaning "Watch out for the water!") would echo up and down the streets. Over time it evolved into English slang for the toilet, or loo."

Have a magical evening and stay under the eaves to avoid a "shower" from above!

Yours sincerely

Sir John

____________________________________________________________________________________

Is that cool or what. I am so lucky, I get my own research assistant.

More Tales and Adventures in Sabrina's London Diaries

Part 1: The Bloody French in London

So What do the bloody French have to do with London? Well, a lot monsieur et madame. During the eighteenth Century many French aristocrats were exiled in England. They choose in Twickenham and Richmond for their hiding place. The Duke of Orleans lived in Orleans House in Twickenham which now a public museum. I will write more on the Bloody French in London Part 2. In the meanwhile, most recently, I went to the Wallace Collection, I saw some of my favorite eighteenth Century French painters, Fragonard along side his teacher,Boucher .

Fragonard's, The Swing

Take a Good look at this painting. The story behind it is that the man is looking up at the ladies dress and she doesn't even have any knickers on. How Cheeky !The Swing is Fragonard's best-known painting, encapsulating for many the finesse, humour and joie de vivre of the Rococo. No other work better demonstrates his ability to combine erotic licence with a visionary feeling for nature. According to the poet Collé, the history painter Doyen was commissioned by an unnamed ‘gentleman of the Court’ to paint his young mistress on a swing, pushed by a bishop with himself admiring her legs from below.

Boucher - Venus and Cupid

The setting of Venus and Cupid is suitably ethereal, with Cupid handing his cloud-borne mother a golden apple, the prize she had won from the shepherd Paris.


Venus was the Roman goddess of love and fertility, and often symbolised visual beauty. Beauty and desire were central concerns of eighteenth-century French art. Venus often appears in decorative painting of the period, sometimes accompanied by her son, Cupid, and with her attributes, which include a pair of doves or swans, roses, dolphins, a scallop shell, and flaming torches.

Boucher- Daphne and Chloe

Boucher- Spring

The Wallace Collection is a national museum which displays the wonderful works of art collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the 4th Marquess. It was bequeathed to the British nation by Sir Richard's widow, Lady Wallace, in 1897.Most famous for our old master paintings and 18th century French porcelain and furniture, the collection also includes one of the finest collection of princely arms and armor in Britain as well as gold boxes, miniatures, sculpture and Medieval and Renaissance.

In addition,I saw Marie Antoinette furniture that she used in her apartment at Versailles.

Claude-Jean Pitoin (active between: c. 1778)
Gilt bronze and blue enamel

Chest-of-drawers- René Dubois (1737 - 1798). France c. 1765
Brecciated Sarrancolin marble; oak veneered with Japanese lacquer, purplewood stained black and mahogany stained black (on the legs); gilt bronze; silk, paper and gimp (lining drawers)

A Portrait of Marie Antoinette

Perfume Burner-Attributed to Pierre Gouthière (1732 - 1813),Jasper and gilt bronze

Commentary:

I know Marie Antoinette or Queen Deficit, as the French called her
wasn't the most exemplary or virtuous Queen, but on the other hand
she was just a horny teenager when she came to rule France.
I don't think her nor Louis Qatorze knew what the hell they were doing
and it's not fair to judge otherwise. It is, what it is.
But, the face of France has never been the same since her.
Queen Deficit contributed much to French History with her
love of macaroons and her tall outrageous hair.(They used to hide their
fortunes and jewels in there).
She will always be known as a fashion icon,if nothing else.

Modern Video of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette .
The scene where she is driving to Versailles at dawn in her horse drawn carriage is majestic.Immediately, I am transported to the aristocratic court of 18th Century France,with it's glamorous balls and masquerade parties.

Public Tours

Wallace Collection Public Tours
The Wallace Collection
Hertford House
Manchester Square London
W1U 3BN United Kingdom
Telephone +44 (0)207 563 9500
Fax +44 (0) 207 224 2155
visiting@wallacecollection.org

Take Bond Street Tube.

More Tales and Adventures in Sabrina's London Diaries