Monday, May 21, 2007

ENGROSSED...

This is not at all what I was going to post about today, but my June edition of Good Housekeeping magazine has arrived from Britain and I am engrossed in it. For some reason I didn't receive the May edition so I have been having withdrawal symptoms. I am not a "good housekeeper" at all, but the magazine is much more varied in content than the title would have you believe. I tend to read it from the back, rather as a man might read a newspaper, as I of course go to the cookery pages first. Then I reach the fashion [which often, but not always, depresses me; I think it does most women, given the youthful, unwomanly females we have to look at, but I'll let that be for now]. Then the articles - always interesting - and at last, the make-up section, which gives me hope!


The arrival of this magazine in my letter-box is a little glimpse of "home", and, although I don't want to live anywhere else now, sometimes it makes me a tiny bit nostalgic. I think it's the comparative calm of the British colours in almost every photograph that does it. The Mediterranean is so gloriously exuberant in colour! I suppose it's a similar feeling to the one I experience sometimes when I watch Sky or the BBC: "Oh, my gentle, understated country, where people are using umbrellas in late May!" - and where you can wear a long-sleeved item and even a jacket in summer. [One of the first things I had to do here was buy a new summer wardrobe : outfits which would do in Britain are simply not cool enough for a Sicilian summer.]

Sometimes I wonder how the colonial British managed as they did not have e-mail, or even very fast snail-mail and news from home came late. I suppose the answer is that they hardly embraced the foreign culture but lived sheltered lives in their own communities. The last thing I want to do is to live in an enclave of Brits - might as well have stayed in the UK! - but a little "touch" of home in the form of a magazine is sometimes welcome. I read the British Sunday papers online and of course , keep up to date via blogs, but , just as you want to read a book rather than reading online sometimes, it is nice, occasionally, to sit down with a British magazine. I'd like to be able to add "and a cup of tea" here but in truth, it is more likely to be a g & t!

Anyway, GH, Mslexia and Private Eye [though, as I keep saying, Dodo is funnier] keep me going! Incidentally, friends here are amazed at the irreverence of "Private Eye" when I show them the covers!
It occurs to me that I could "measure out my life" in the magazines I read at particular periods: let us pass over the time when my Dad was trying to show me the beautiful castles and lakes of North Wales and I just sat in the back of the car with my nose in "Romeo" and "Bliss" comics: after that I progressed to "Honey" magazine, then for a long while was a "Cosmo girl", was a "Spare Rib" woman in my strident feminist era and now find refuge in good old GH. Whatever next? Well, I shall wear the red lippy and matching shoes till I die so I don't think it will be one of those "comfy retirement" periodicals!


One more thing: a woman is writing in GH asking if it is OK to wash and re-use kitchen foil. Am I profligate in the kitchen and have I been missing something all these years because it truly has never occurred to me that you could do this?!

To those of you I normally visit: I'll be over tomorrow. Right now I have to go and read Sandi Toksvig on tennis and find out how to make a pork and pistacchio terrine.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enjoy the read. Nice to find a little something that keeps up the thoughts of home. I do the same here in Germany, though I have lived here since 79. The visits back are nice, but just that. Visits.

Crushed said...

Interesting what you say about communications in colonial times.
Think how long it would have taken before the Suez canal was built in the 1870s and the invention of telegraphs, to send a message to the Governor General of the East India Company.
And get a reply.

Janejill said...

Well My mother (who was Scottish) used to insist that I wash and dry plastic food bags - really- when I first left I continued, in my innocence until i got sick of the sniggers from my spendthrift friends. I used to go mad and buy the Sunday paper when living in Spain - the big treat of the week. I also had a wonderful pair of red shoes but lost them somehow on one of my moves - maybe I should get another pair...

Anonymous said...

So good to read that you can be nostalgic is such a positive way through good old GH - enjoy! I can recommend SHE and WOMAN & HOME which are both excellent these days (no sleeze, just informative 'switch-off' medicine for the weary soul).

Lee said...

There's absolutely nothing more enjoyable than sitting back reading a good magazine once in a while...magazines like the one you refer to, that you can keep and return to again and again.

Liz Hinds said...

Wash foil?! Probably the sort of woman who stuffs sprouts.

I love Sandi Toksvig's humour. She is chair of The News Show (is that the title?) now: did you know? I'm going to have to go and look that up. I mean the radio fore-runner of Have I Got News for You?

Eurodog said...

When I am in England I get hooked on supermarket magazines. Safeway's had the best one with very good recipes but that is no more sadly. Sainsbury's magazine is wonderful too ( not free ).
I cook Belgian recipes for my friends in England and I think I should write them down at some point.

Mark McLellan said...

Don't wash the tin foil, that way madness lies! It is single use. I like to hoard, whoops I mean *re-cycle* but that is a step too far.

Not red lippy for me (obviously) but I did once choose a red car to match my red shoes (Gospel!) see "Any Colour You Like"

elleeseymour said...

It had never occured to me to wash and re-use silver foil. I can image that Good Housekeeping is a nice taste of English life to savour as you soak up the Sicilian sun.

We have spaghetti bolognese for dinner tonight, I don't imagine it is a patch on yours though.

Chris at 'Chrissie's Kitchen' said...

Oh, Welshcakes, what a touch of nostalgia you have imported! I too went through most of your early literary genres; earlier, though, (much), were Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories, Girl, School Friend and something about 'boyfriends', with photos & bubble-speech, that I was caught reading during a Domestic Science lesson!

PS Have just posted a 'look back in time' account about food in my younger years - part one!

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

My mother-in-law gets GH every month...we first bought her the subscription a few years ago, and now every christmas she says that is what she would like again. She loves it. As a pressie last christmas my husband got me two subscriptions...She and Easy Living...great when you get home from work and there is your pressie...:-)

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Steve, I think I have reached the same stage now. Crushed, yes, we can't imagine how slow [to us] communications would have been. Janejill, drying plastic bags - never would have thought of that either. I suppose our mothers came from a more frugal age. Oh, definitely get another pair of red shoes! Hi, Shirl. I've never got on with "She" but from what you say maybe it has changed. I used to like W&H. I don't mind a bit of sleeze but one does get weary of reading about how to get orgasms. If you have to take instruction, you are with the wrong person, I'd say. Lee, we think alike again. Oh, Liz, you have reassured me! Love it! - "the sort of woman who stuffs sprouts". No, I didn't know Sandi was now chair of that prog - is it The News Quiz? eurodog, I miss Sainsbury's magazine. It was always so informative, varied in content - and big! Also it had a recipe index so you could find things. Does it still? You should definitely write down your Belgian recipes. MM, nice to hear from you. A car to match your shoes - that is style! Will be over to read your post in a mo.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Ellee, glad it didn't occur to you, either. I'm sure your spag bol is lovely! Lizzie, I loved "School Friend" and "Girl" in particular. Which one had Thelma the wicked prefect in the stories? Coming over to read your latest posts in a minute! Anne, i think a magazine that just arrives in your post is a great thing. I'm sure your mother-in-law appreciates it.

jmb said...

Lovely post WCLC, I'm not a magazine reader on the whole, except People at the hairdresser or dentist. But I can see how you like to see what's relevant "at home".

I'm the reverse with colours as I grew up in a sun filled country and find the colours so different where I live now. Oh I still buy red clothes and bright coloured tops but never florals any more.

I'm a horder due to my upbringing but I don't wash the foil. I do remember saving silver paper during the war and bits of string! No one ever threw out bits of string.
regards
jmb

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, jmb. Funny about colours, isn't it? So that's why you go for reds! I remember my grandad hoarding string, too.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the wonderful tip WL - I bought the June issue of GH today and it is fabulous. Forget what I said about She, I will be getting the GH special offer subscription.

I like mag subs even if I am in the UK and easily within reach of the shops - you never know when I'll be too poorly to go out. The only thing is you don't get the cover freebies but the content of GH looks totally absorbing - so much about books and authors this issue. Wow!

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, Shirl. Glad you're enjoying the June edition - I think it's an especially good one. Do you take any writers' magazines?

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