I go to bed giggling, at a late comment from Glenn on this post telling me that 'we have learned' (how can one ever dispute something that begins thus?) that Nigella's programme is really all staged, her friends are actors and her perfect home is in fact a hired location. This leads me to this piece which suggests playing 'Nigella bingo', scoring whenever certain familiar Nigella tropes occur, such as: 'triple alliteration, eg “basking in bronze beauty”, “gorgeous golden globules” or “fruitful foraging in the fridge” ' or 'she licks something erotically from a spoon' or ' strolls around high-end London shop, picking out produce - even though in real life, she totally has someone to do her shopping for her'. There is also the observation that a 'party of glamorous guests descend for candlelit supper. They look faintly important and influential, like you should know who they are, but you don’t', which may well substantiate Glenn's allegation. The comments are also often funny, especially the man who must be on a promise.
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Simone and Jean-Felix were once our insurance agents, now they're retired and just sort-of friends. It's nice seeing people go from being soigné and professional and restrained to soft and scruffy and expansive on their retirement, I've observed it quite often. They ask me for help - translation, phone calls etc. - with finding short term student accommodation in London for their daughter, whom I've known since she was just a little thing and I used to help with her English sometimes. I feel a sense of weight and reluctance, but I do want to help. I worry for these children I've known, who touch my heart when I don't always want it touched, and if I worry how do their parents cope? It's good though, to sit and chat for much longer than I meant to, and Simone forgets to take her pinny off all the time I'm there.
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On the way out to see them, there are two buzzards and a heron in our field. I slow down and have a good view of all three taking off and wheeling away in the chill wind. I've not quite forgiven the herons for persecuting our fish, but they are still magnificent.
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Summer colour, why not?
9 comments:
Had to look up Nigella Lawson and pinny, and I'm still lost.
Oh dear, sorry Z, and you my most faithful too. Nigella has presumably not crossed the water, and a pinny is a kind of full body apron, like ladies wear at home, rather frumpy and homely, you generally take them off when people come!
short for 'pinafore' of course.
nigella has indeed crossed the water, but only for those of us who love watching food porn. i would imagine zhoen might not from previous posts she'd written. nigells might not be the brightest star in the north american culinary firmament, but she is here, lasciviously licking spoons with abandon.
this bit: "I feel a sense of weight and reluctance... I worry for these children I've known, who touch my heart when I don't always want it touched" this is exactly the way i feel about my second hand kids. i love them, but often i'm resentful of this love that was forced on me. nobody asked me if i wanted to love a big bunch of little children, they just sort of showed up. that is a perfect way of putting it, lucy, and i'm not at all surprised it was you who put it thus.
PC - shouldn't that be 'lasciviously licking ladles'? We don't watch as many foodie programmes as we used to, but Nigella's kind of an institution. Or maybe she should be in one.
I feel a bit dubious about this, I do shirk so much in the way of responsibility to my fellow humans, and I can see it could entail giving of my time and effort and then worry and feeling answerable in case it doesn't work out. I suppose when the kids are yours their needs and one's anxieties about them are simply a given, and you just get on with it. She's been living in a studio in a Jewish household in the 11th arrondissement till and including now, a fact they seemed to regard with an almost amused sang froid, so I guess I must be just more of a worrier than most!
I wonder if I'd have noticed: not taking her pinny off, I mean. And now I think I would. The problem is it's half way to being a compliment, and yet... and yet... It also suggests she couldn't wait to break off the socialising and get back to the important work in the kitchen. Phew, there's significant etiquette there. Thanks for that: a mini-revelation.
I have often thought that Nigella's programmes were too good to be true and what you say seems to confirm it, Lucy.
"soft and scruffy and expansive on retirement" - perfect. That'll do for me!
I like Nigella's recipes, which are usually quite simple.
As for "pinny", I had to Google it too but now I know what it is. It's interesting learning new names for things.
From my days in Mexico I still think of the Christmas flower as a "Nochebuena" and have difficulty remembering the English/American name: Poinsettia.
pc is right, I watch Have I Got News For You, and Would I Lie To You, and QI, but not the food shows, although the names are vaguely familiar, due to Sue Perkins who overlaps. Not at all into the foodporn. Although I'm beginning to be curious about GBCookoff. See:Sue Perkins.
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