the vile habit
(shot in Ravenwood Tavern, New Victoria Township: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kasieopeia/190/46/32)
Dear Diary:
It would seem that a month of taking my meals in a pub has had its influence on me. No, nothing licentious, Elder Gods forbid! But I am absolutely delighting in smoking cigarettes! The supposedly suspicious Mrs Ravenwood has the most clever machine in her establishment – it rolls cigarettes and drops them neatly in a tray!
The smell of cigars, wet wool, and stale beer does take me back to my youth, when I would accompany Papa to The Nettle & Compass to spread the good word of the Deep Ones – not that the fisher-folk needed much evangelism! Ravenwood lacks – well, any- of the charms of a proper Cornish dockside pub, but it has been a congenial place to write and think in the afternoons. Particularly as I have no office, a situation which the Academy Registrar insists will be cured Any Day Now.
But, the point of all this rambling is, I have taken to smoking! Scandalous, I know. But my goodness, how it soothes my nerves! I have been – certainly not hysterical, but perhaps wound up, this past month, particularly since my dinner with Miss Frost. I refuse to gnaw on my fingernails, which had me resorting to tapping my pen on the table – to the vocal dismay of the other patrons.
Hence, a nice relaxing smoke. Or six. Rarely twelve.
And, a few pence into the machine atones somewhat for my nursing a half-pint of bitter all afternoon.
Enough shilly-shallying: back to preparing my lessons. Introducing young ladies to the essentials of fashion is far more challenging than I ever expected! I know rather too much, and tend to digress into rants upon the excessive use of aniline dyes or the pleasures of a luxuriously draped Fall 1877 bustle. Far from the essentials. So, yes, back to, wearing a tea gown out of doors really is quite ill-advised unless one is over fifty, a famous actress, or chasing after a delivery boy who has miscounted the change.
Ahh, the life of the mind!
the vile habit
(shot in Ravenwood Tavern, New Victoria Township: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kasieopeia/190/46/32)
Dear Diary:
It would seem that a month of taking my meals in a pub has had its influence on me. No, nothing licentious, Elder Gods forbid! But I am absolutely delighting in smoking cigarettes! The supposedly suspicious Mrs Ravenwood has the most clever machine in her establishment – it rolls cigarettes and drops them neatly in a tray!
The smell of cigars, wet wool, and stale beer does take me back to my youth, when I would accompany Papa to The Nettle & Compass to spread the good word of the Deep Ones – not that the fisher-folk needed much evangelism! Ravenwood lacks – well, any- of the charms of a proper Cornish dockside pub, but it has been a congenial place to write and think in the afternoons. Particularly as I have no office, a situation which the Academy Registrar insists will be cured Any Day Now.
But, the point of all this rambling is, I have taken to smoking! Scandalous, I know. But my goodness, how it soothes my nerves! I have been – certainly not hysterical, but perhaps wound up, this past month, particularly since my dinner with Miss Frost. I refuse to gnaw on my fingernails, which had me resorting to tapping my pen on the table – to the vocal dismay of the other patrons.
Hence, a nice relaxing smoke. Or six. Rarely twelve.
And, a few pence into the machine atones somewhat for my nursing a half-pint of bitter all afternoon.
Enough shilly-shallying: back to preparing my lessons. Introducing young ladies to the essentials of fashion is far more challenging than I ever expected! I know rather too much, and tend to digress into rants upon the excessive use of aniline dyes or the pleasures of a luxuriously draped Fall 1877 bustle. Far from the essentials. So, yes, back to, wearing a tea gown out of doors really is quite ill-advised unless one is over fifty, a famous actress, or chasing after a delivery boy who has miscounted the change.
Ahh, the life of the mind!