It's a spankless task being me. Up late, our morning fun date turned out to be unilaterally cancelled; SO is working away and was more interested today in getting onto the motorway than playing with me.
It meant that I didn't get the attitude adjustment that I was utterly sure was coming my way. Not good given that my SQ is at max at the moment.
So, I'm stuck in pouty, brattiness mode now knowing that's what I'm like, knowing what would smooth it out - and unlikely to get the antidote any time soon.
Anyway, enough of my moaning. I'm thinking about marks. Why is it that I don't get marks? SO is a reluctant disciplinarian, but over time has overcome soft-heartedness to some degree and can occasionally lay the brush on with gusto.
But a few hours later there's not often much sign that I've been punished. It's disappointing, by the time me and a mirror get together it's 'move along folks, nothing to see'.
l look at pictures like these here at Reflections on Red and can't understand how they can be so thoroughly marked, while I escape with a bot that's completely blemish free. They must be utterly fearless - or very naughty.
Then I remembered a great post I read from the insightful Secret Spanko some time back that said that for spankees a marks selfie is like one of those pix that mountaineers take when they get to a summit. It's a record of experience - and personal achievement.
I reckon he's right, but personally I don't want the selfie - I just want the marks! And if I get them I'll be the spankee exception to his rule that we all post our spanky selfies (it has to be said that my bot hasn't been in shape for public exposure any time during this century, sadly...)
Are you feeling the Christmas spirit yet? It seems in short supply around here, but I did just catch myself humming 'Jingle Bells' while I was clearing away breakfast things in the kitchen.
The problem about working on your own from home is that you miss out completely on the whole Xmas run-up thing. No party, no secret Santa, no Christmas cards from people who dislike you - but can't afford to make it too obvious.
I think maybe I should print this 12 Days out and put it on my office wall. Perhaps I should see if I could persuade SO to get involved in a re-enactment.
Not sure where it's from originally (I just saw it here while doing a little random tumblr-ing), but I do like it. The style of penpersonship seems familiar, but I can't place it.
Isn't "rulers rul'ring" clever? But I'm not sure of the pay-off: "And a switch from a hickory tree..." Does it need an extra beat to scan, or do you just stretch hickory to fit?
Expect to hear a lot about the wordy Welsh wizard Dylan Thomas next year because it's the centenary of his birth and it's going to be all over the media. That's my prediction, anyway.
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| Dylan and Caitlin |
In the last few weeks I've been working on commission from a magazine that has involved going to see the home of Dylan and Caitlin Thomas at Laugharne in Carmarthenshire. And it has resulted in a couple of discoveries that I won't share with the magazine's readers - but thought you might like..
In case you don't know it the 1940s radio play has become a classic of Welsh writing in English. It's at its best on the version voiced beautifully by Richard Burton and was also a film with Elizabeth Taylor and Burton.
Have a look at the trailer here. The topless girl in the pink pants is at Fishguard Old Town, Pembrokeshire, and I think she's the lovely Angharad Rees (who went on to star in the BBC's Poldark series).
Anyway, startles.The first is a line or two from 'Under Milk Wood' that I can really relate to. It comes in a section that describes the sleeping townspeople's dreams; this is it:
SECOND VOICE: Willy Nilly, postman, asleep up street, walks fourteen miles
to deliver the post as he does every day of the night, and
rat-a-tats hard and sharp on Mrs Willy Nilly.
MRS WILLY NILLY: Don't spank me, please, teacher,
SECOND VOICE: whimpers his wife at his side, but every night of her married
life she has been late for school.
Every night... such commitment. Then when I was reading up about Laugharne I spotted this article. It's in section two about the corporation.
I'd heard about the tradition of beating the bounds before - it happens in lots of other British villages. But I particularly like the detail that the owner of the bottom that gets beaten at Laugharne is 'usually a young lady'.
There was a whole spanko world out there back then, but you're usually only aware of it through the odd nudge or wink.
l look at pictures like these here at Reflections on Red and can't understand how they can be so thoroughly marked, while I escape with a bot that's completely blemish free. They must be utterly fearless - or very naughty. 
