The Grand Tour Part 8: Buckingham Palace, Camden Locke, and The Upstart Crow

   I don't know if this counts as part of our curse or not, but a week or two ago I tripped in Emma's kitchen and fell on my left knee. It never got a very bad bruise, but it hurts terribly, and after a few days  I noticed that my whole knee, and the surrounding area, was green. So I guess it thought it was bruised, because after that it looked like a healing bruise. Several years ago I tripped over something in our kitchen when being greeted by our dog, Piper, and fell, slamming my right knee cap into the floor. It hurt much more than this knee, and for ages afterward. Just as it was almost better, I was carrying a basket of laundry around to the side yard to hang, when I tripped over a twig and fell on the right knee again. I slammed it into the sidewalk that time. It was so bad for so long that I finally consented to go to the doctor, who told me that I had detached the muscle from the knee, and would just have to give it time to heal. I think I might have detached a muscle this time, and dag nab it! This was my good knee! I suppose it's not as bad as Ken's injury: When we went to Ivy's opera, on Ken's birthday about a week before I got my injury, he fell going down the stairs in the theatre, and hit the side of his face on the arm of one of the seats. He didn't get nearly the great black eye I got in the summer of 2021, but he got a small one, and he bled like crazy from the two cuts on his face, and the side of his face is still swollen and hard and has a big red blotch. 

  For those of you who wanted to see some pictures of the costumes Ivy worked on, here are some pictures from the Gilbert and Sullivan extravaganza. Some of the clothes were what was on hand, (including some of the cast's own clothes.), some were from the costume department, and some Ivy designed. Some of those she actually made. There weren't as many real 'costumes' in this one, because the concept, (not Ivy's idea), was that the ghosts of old timey Gilbert and Sullivan performers were waiting for eternity to go on stage so they were hanging around backstage in their underwear. Ivy wasn't crazy about the concept, and neither was I. In their day, those women would not be hanging around, in front of the people they were haunting, in their underwear, even if they were dead. (I know I wouldn't be caught dead in my underwear!)

  Anyway, this post isn't about black eyes. It's about our trip, (A travel trip, not a falling one!) last Fall. Boy! It's been months already! We left in October and got home in November. We've been home for over  three months already! And I wanted to have the trip posts done by January. HAAAA!!!! Anyway...

  Our second full day in London with the girls was all over the place. Emma went out early on her own and perused the Kinks landmarks in the neighbourhood we were staying in.  And yes, this airb&b was better than some of the others on the trip, and not as good as some. There were stairs, which were still a problem for me, because my leg was still bothering me a lot. My back was also still pretty bad. I kept picking Ken up to stretch my back muscles out. Once I even resorted to picking AJ up, since Ken wasn't doing the trick and AJ is a big guy. 

  Since Emma was on her own, everybody else went off on their own too. Ken and I went out as a pair. We headed first for Oxford Street. We bought a souvenir Queen Elizabeth 70th Jubilee plate. I tried the McPlant, a plant based burger, at McDonald's. 

  That was the first 'burger' I'd had from McDonald's in close to 40 years, since I stopped eating meat in 1988, and  I never ate McDonald's very often anyway. My opinion? The burger itself, which was a Beyond Burger patty, was a bit dry, and not very flavourful, and there was way too much ketchup. I wanted to try the McPlant because I wasn't sure it was available in America, (Turns out they tested it here, but cancelled the test here in August of last year. I don't know what area they tested it in, but I hadn't heard of it. Usually we get a lot of stuff tested in Columbus, because Columbus is supposed to be very representative of the country in general. I hadn't heard of the McPlant being here though.)

  Ken and I saw yet another American candy store. We had already seen one in Edinburgh, and we ended up seeing two in London, and more elsewhere on the trip. The chocolate is so good in Europe, why do they worry about importing American chocolate and paying such high prices for it? Because the prices were crazy.

  We continued on until I found the alley that leads to Soho Square. I used to spend a fair amount of time in Soho Square in the 80's when I lived in London. My train came into Charing Cross every day, and I'd cross the street and walk down Charing Cross Road to Shaftsbury Avenue, and go to Soho Square. I'd sit there and eat my lunch, write my letters, talk to friends I'd met in London, and while I was there, try to get Paul McCartney's autograph, since his office is right there. (You can read my post about meeting Paul HERE.) So it was somewhere I was really familiar with. The place has changed a lot. It was still a little surreal to be there with Ken. 

  I wanted to see if Paul's office, MPL, still handed out promo items to visiting tourists who asked. That's why I dragged Ken there. Guess what: they don't. The current secretary was a bit surprised at my question. I assured her that they used to, back in the 80's. 

Tammy World was disappointed Paul wasn't there, but she wanted her picture taken in front of the office. That's it to the right of her head.

  While we were there we took pictures and got rained on. (Of course. It always rains wherever I go. Remember?) Then we walked to a place in Soho, proclaiming itself as having the best pies in London...oh. Sweeney Todd just occurred to me. But we had the vegetarian pies anyway! And also, I doubt they were the best pies anywhere. They were only okay.

  While we were eating our pies we got a message that Emma had been at Battersea power station, which is now a mall (!), and was heading for Buckingham Palace, So we headed over to the Palace to try to run into her. As I said in a previous post, nobody's phones service was working properly, so we couldn't just call each other, and messages were delayed until we were somewhere with Wi-Fi..

Me, at Buckingham Palace. Get the Palace in this time Ken.

Tammy World wanted her picture taken in front of the Palace too. Still raining.

  We waited for ages, but no Emma. We finally decided to move on. My leg was hurting, and Ken needed a bathroom.  We took a walk through St. James's Park, only to find the toilet was closed. It was very pretty though, and we saw some interesting birds. That doesn't help when you have to use the toilet though. 

  We ended up coming out by Sotheby's, while they were loading some very expensive cars into a truck. Ken talked to somebody who said they had just sold a James Bond car. Then we discovered we were also outside St. James's Palace.

   Here I have a blank in my memory. I can't remember what Ken and I did in between St. James' Palace and the next bit, other than sitting, (in the rain), in front of a café to use their WiFi. And unless they suddenly turn up some day, (and I hope they do.), Ken misplaced most of the memory cards from our trip when he rescued them from the house. So I have no way to jog my memory. So let's skip ahead...

  I do have a few pictures on my phone that have reminded me that Ken insisted we try to get to the Victoria and Albert Museum, even though I told him it would be closed before we got there, because I wanted to see Queen Mary's doll house. He wouldn't stand an argument. So we hustled. 

Me crossing the street. Where is the 'wide load' car that should have accompanied me?

Yes, that's a Christmas tree. It was the first week of November.

My leg was killing me. We got there just as they were closing, of course. 

The face of pain. Note the bust of Ken next to me. That's a joke. We always say Ken looks like Einstein now.

  But it didn't matter anyway, because the dollhouse isn't even there! There are apparently several branches of the V & A, and the one we were in never had the dollhouse. (I had thought it was sort of outside London proper. This one seemed way too central, so I was confused anyway.) I guess it's at Winsor Castle. 

  After that it was getting late. We had to be at the theatre in Shaftsbury Avenue to see The Upstart Crow, based on the comedy series by Ben Elton, that evening. Emma had the tickets on her phone though, and we hadn't been able to get in touch with her. Eventually we headed to the theatre because I wanted to make sure there was no way we could be late. I wanted to wait in front of the theatre so we didn't miss the kids when they got there. We were super early, and as usual, Ken was starving. He wanted to go get something to eat and come back. I didn't want to miss them. So I sent Ken off to quell his 'hanger', while I waited at the theatre. He didn't like that, but I insisted. It was raining, of course. My leg was very painful by then. One of the nice men at the theatre arranged for me to be able to sit in the lobby because of my leg, where I watched for the kids through the open doors. Ken got back and it was getting close to showtime. I asked the man at the ticket booth if there was any way we could access our tickets without Emma, in case they didn't make it in time. (I was fully prepared for that, after everything else!) He got some information from me to ty to verify that I knew Emma and was part of her party. It helped that we have the same last name, but not that I could barely remember her email address. (I never use it these days!) He printed out two tickets for me, (and Ken), warning me that if I was lying and the real owner of the tickets showed up and showed their tickets, that we would be kicked out. I assured him that was fine with me.  Fortunately, the kids turned up just in time. We saw the play, which was very good, and even met it's star. David Mitchell, who plays William Shakespeare, afterward and he signed our programs.

David Mitchell and a gushing AJ.

  The next day we had to check out of the air b&b. Ken and I went off and took our luggage to Kings Cross, where we found somewhere to check it for the day. 

Tammy World found a bike at the place where we checked our bags. It was the start of many cool bikes she saw. Luckily she already has one, because they would have been hard to get home without mashing them, 

We had arranged to meet the kids at a place called The Yorkshire Burrito, in Camden Locke. So Ken and I had a look around Camden Locke, and finally found the Yorkshire Burrito, We waited in the rain, (Yes. It was still raining.), and finally the kids showed up and we ordered lunch. The Yorkshire Burrito is so called because they serve a 'burrito' style Yorkshire dinner rolled up in a Yorkshire Pudding pancake. It was actually really good. We got the vegetarian one, which is described as: "Giant Yorkshire Pudding filled with Sage and Onion stuffing, Roast Potatoes, Spinach, our signature Gravy and wrapped up like a burrito."  After we ate, and AJ had ordered some additional food, which, unbeknownst to me, I was supposed to be watching, and then which was eaten on by pigeons, and then knocked to the ground when I discovered it was being eaten by pigeons and shooed them off, the kids went to head off to the studio where they were to see the Russell Howard Show. We went through Camden a bit more. We met this guy, named Milo, who was quite a snappy dresser.

    I don't think I bought anything in Camden Locke. Ken bought some magnets.

Tammy World wanted her picture taken in front of a pub called The World's End, because that's going to be the name of her family's house, (without the 'the'),  if I ever get it renovated. I had trouble getting them both in focus at the same time though.

  Eventually we had to head back to get our luggage, and catch our train for Hull. Since the kids had tickets to the Russell Howard show that evening, they were staying an extra night. 

  The next post will see us return to the north.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #58: Pierrot Perhaps?

   At the doll show Emma spotted this little guy. He was only $1.

Pardon my pruney fingers. I had been washing things before I took these pictures.

He's naked, so it's not positive but I would say he is probably a Pierrot. Spotting his widow's peak, Emma suggested that he could also possibly be a vampire. (That's a joke.)

He's ceramic, and jointed at the shoulders and hips, so he can sit down and raise his arms. He has silver sequins at his joint points.

He's only glazed at the parts that would show if he were clothed, i.e. his head, hands, and feet. I'll make him some clothes. I think even I could make a loose fitting Pierrot outfit. I might even be able to do it without having to sew on separate sleeves.

I thought he might have a maker on his back, but he doesn't. There is a strange shape though.

  He's about 3 and a half inches tall. Speaking of sizes, since I have no where else to show you this, I'll do it here. I also got this tiny backgammon set, which Emma also found. She was on fire that day. (Except for that tub of bum clothing she bought. Sorry Em.) It's eensy. The box is empty, because all the pieces are stuck on the board. But the pieces!

Look how small it is next to a nickle!

And most amazingly of all, every side of those miniscule dice is fully dotted!

 

But you know that stuff's going to have to come unstuck from that board!

  That's the doll for today. Tomorrow we'll see another doll. Don't forget to check out today's other post, the latest installment of The Grand Tour!

  

Doll-A-Day 2023 #57: Little Honeymoon

   I saw today's doll at the doll show last Sunday, and to me, she seemed like the weirdest idea. She's Little Honeymoon.

  This is Dick Tracy's granddaughter! Some of you may not be familiar with Dick Tracy. I grew up with Dick Tracy being a trench coat wearing, 1930's looking police detective in comic strips in the newspaper.  The comic strip premiered in 1931. In the late 1930's and early 1940's there were movie serials based on the strip. Then in 1990 there was a Dick Tracy movie with Warren Beatty as Dick Tracy, Al Pacino, as the villain, Big Boy Caprice, and Breathless Mahoney, played by Madonna.

  So how did Dick Tracy, a 1930's police detective on Earth, get a space granddaughter? This confused me. But I guess while I wasn't paying attention, in the 1960's, while I was busy being a kid who was aware of, but did not actually read the Dick Tracy comic strip, the strip was busy getting involved in all things space and 'moon'. That was the height of the space race, after all. In 1946 Tracy introduced the two way wrist radio, which was futuristic. In the 60's it was advanced to a two way wrist TV. So I guess the comic strip always had a tendency toward science fiction and futuristic gadgetry. 

   In 1964 the strip visited the moon, and Dick Tracy's son, Junior, married a moon woman named 'Moon Maid'. (Good grief. Was Dick Tracy like the Smurfs? Did everything on the moon have to be called 'moon' something? If everybody on the moon had to have 'moon' in their name, wouldn't they run out of names pretty quickly?) 

  Anyway! Also in 1964, Junior and Moon Maid had a baby, with antenna and magnetic hands, and named her Honeymoon. (Sometimes they just called her Honey.) That same year, Ideal manufactured the Honeymoon doll.

She looks similar to Ideal's Thumbelina in the ad. She doesn't in person though, as you can see in the picture at the beginning, which I took at the doll show She did not come with magnetic hands, which I think was a missed opportunity by Ideal! She does, however, come with 'her own moon costume complete with a wing collar in glimmering silver, plus her own removable space helmet', and 'moon hair', whatever that is. It can be washed and combed, whatever it is. (It looked like thin yarn to me, so I'm wondering just how comb-able it really is.) According to the J.C. Penney catalog, it's acrylic yarn.

 I wonder what happened when kids did try to comb it, because you know what happens if you comb yarn! Also according to the catalog ad, her face is 'painted with iridescent features'. Her eyes do look pretty creepy. She also has a cotton cloth body that is 'plastic foam filled', and she 'coos when you squeeze it'. The box says she cries when you 'press her tummy'. Well who doesn't? 

  Apparently, after the moon landing showed there was no life on the moon, the Dick Tracy comic strip dropped most of their moon inventions and all the moon storylines, and tried to pretend they never went to the moon. They even eased out Moon Maid. (They killed her off!) They kept Honeymoon though, and Junior remarried. Okay, how did they explain Honeymoon's spaciness, if they were trying to pretend they never had any moon references? (They had very quickly forgotten about her magnetic hands right after her birth.)

  That's today's doll. It's a weird one. I never knew Dick Tracy had gone all spacey...but then, that's what they wanted, isn't it?! 

Doll-A-Day 2023 #56: My Scene Barbie and Friends

 Today's doll is a group of dolls. They're My Scene dolls.

My Scene dolls were Mattel's attempt to compete with Bratz dolls. You can read my whole rehash of the Barbie/Bratz clash HERE. 

  My Scene had a version of Barbie. That Barbie was always blonde. There was a blonde My Scene doll that wasn't Barbie too. I can't tell the difference. My kids were never into the My Scene dolls, except Ivy, like me, loves the Fab Faces dolls. (You can see one of ours HERE.) I believe there are three Barbie's in this crowd. The second doll is Madison, I think, and the redhead is Chelsea? Anybody?

   

 

You'll notice that some of them have big feet and some don't. That's because the big feet were merely big shoes. The feet were the standard little Barbie feet. At least, unlike Bratz dolls, if you lost the shoes, the dolls still had feet.

The third and fourth dolls have rooted eyelashes. Some of the My Scene dolls were very pretty, and some weren't as appealing.

  Not all these clothes are My Scene clothes. At least they fit.

A pair and a half of shoes. Typical.

  These ladies came from my house. They were apparently on the attic stairs when the fire occurred. That means they were in the vicinity of the heat and smoke. They were undamaged, but smelled a little smokey when they were brought here. They were in a plastic bag, so that helped, I guess. They and their clothes have been washed, and they have been airing out for a few weeks. They actually aren't bad now. I think a little more airing out and they will be back to normal. They need to go away though, because I don't want them, and Emma doesn't need them in her house. They are in the way. If anybody wants them, you can have them and the clothes and shoes for $40 and shipping costs. Make them go away.

  Those are the dolls for today. I would have posted something else, but everything else needed some kind of prepping, and I'm trying to work on a million things at once. Forgive me.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #55: Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter

   Today's doll is Brenda Starr.

 This is the original 12 inch Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter doll , by Madame Alexander. 

  The doll was produced in 1964. Brenda's creator Dale Messick actually made some public appearances to promote the doll.  

  Although the doll has a long piece of hair to add to the styling possibilities, sleep eyes with eyelashes, and jointed knees, she was no match for Barbie, (which was the intention).

   Brenda came as a dressed doll, or a doll in underwear only. There were also additional fashions sold for her. 

 

  Madame Alexander chose not to pay the licensing fee for the Brenda Starr name after the first year, so in 1965, the same doll was sold as 'Yolanda'. Apparently the main difference between the Brenda Starr and Yolanda dolls is that Brenda was usually a red head, and most of the Yolanda dolls are blondes, and the Yolanda doll has slightly larger, more round eyes. Yolanda was discontinued after her only year on the market.

 'Dale' Messick was the working name of Dalia Messick. Dalia started trying to sell her comic strips straight out of high school, in the 1920's. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago, and went on to a job  designing greeting cards. After submitting more comic strips, which were rejected, Dalia decided to use a pseudonym, 'Dale', so that prospective employers wouldn't know she was female. Still, her strips were rejected.

  In 1940 Dalia created a 'girl bandit' named Brenda Starr, which she submitted to the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate. It was rejected by the syndicate chief Joseph Patterson, who was anti-female cartoonists. His assistant, a woman, suggested Dalia change Brenda to a reporter, and Patterson agreed to run the strip as a comic book supplement in the Sunday Chicago Tribune. He refused to run it in the New York Daily News at all. It didn't run in that paper until 1948, two years after Patterson passed away. 

  Brenda Starr was always a bit racey. The editors of the comic strip kept an eye out for things they disapproved of, and were know to erase cleavage and belly buttons from Brenda's image. At one point the strip was banned in Boston because Brenda was shown smoking a polka dot cigar!

  The strip was at the peak of it's popularity in the 1950's, and was appearing in 250 papers. By 2010 the strip was down to 65 papers. Dalia drew the strip until 1980, when she retired, and was replaced by various teams of female writer and illustrators over the years. The final strip ran in 2011, when it was decided the strip was no longer profitable for the Chicago Tribune, and the last writer/illustrator team decided to 'move on'.

  Brenda was a reporter for the fictional 'Flash' newspaper. She traveled the world, getting stories for the paper, dealing with  tempestuous love life, (For years Brenda had a romance with a Mystery Man with an eye patch, before being married to him at the end of Dalia's run as illustrator and writer.),and looking fabulous. The original comic strip image of Brenda was based on movie star Rita Hayworth, and Dalia always made sure Brenda's hair styles and clothes were fashionable. But Brenda was more than just a  pretty face. She was an early fighter for women's equality on the job.

  In the 1940's, Brenda Starr was represented in comic books and a movie serial. There were a couple more movies over the years, including the notorious flop starring Brooke Shields, filmed in 1986, but not released until 1992.

  Effanbee and Tonner both came out with their version of Brenda Starr. Tonner's was 16 inches tall. They also produced Brenda's eye patch wearing Mystery Man, Basil St John.

  That's today's doll. Tomorrow we'll see another one.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #54: Candi

   Today's doll is a little scary looking. She's Candi.

Candi times 3.

Candi was made by Mego in 1979. She always looks a little pale and weird. That's because she was one of those dolls you are supposed to do the make-up on, like Mary Make-up. Her vinyl had to contain less plasticizer than normal, since the plasticizer not only holds the pigment in the 'skin' of the doll, it also holds stains. Since you were supposed to be able to remove the make-up you put on Candi, the plasticizer had to be weak. That meant that, over time, her colouring faded. Some Candi dolls maintain their original skin tone, but most of them look like this.

This one looks like she has maintained her colouring. Unfortunately, she has one leg that keeps falling off. It snaps back on, but then will fall off again.

You could also colour her hair...her big hair.

Oh, here's that leg situation. 

Candi came in two sizes, these 11 and a half inch dolls, and 19" dolls. There were extra fashions and a fully furnished house.

 There was even a Candi styling head called the Color 'n Curl Make-up center.You can see a commercial for Candi's own house HERE.

  There was also a fashion doll sized Candi doll designed by Mikelman. This isn't it.

  These Candi dolls came from our house. They were downstairs, and were not smokey or wet. But Ken brought them back with a bunch of other stuff so I could see if they were wet. They are not part of my collection and just need to go. If anybody wants them, you can have them all for $10 and shipping. Leave a comment if you're interested, but don't forget your contact information.

  That's the doll for today. Of course, tomorrow there will be another one.