Don’t be surprised if you see a magic carpet being piloted in a somewhat haphazard manner today. Your author may be reading the Beano Comic as she takes off over the Thames in a northerly direction. She will be heading for her little home town on the east coast of Scotland. If you’ve been reading my blog for exactly one year this week, you will be familiar with my travels by this mode of transport. I left Brechin when I was ten. Where were you at that age? Did you read comics? I like to take my reader back to their own memory bank.
So which scarf kick started this memory? It’s a red and black striped number by American designer Liz Claiborne who didn’t finish high school but went off to study art in Belgium and Nice. She eventually set up her own company designing clothes for the business woman taking her company into the top USA 500. I like the idea that she kept control of her boardroom by ringing a glass bell! Woman Power! I had intended to write a blog about her good works when she retired at an early age, saving brown bears in Romania, fish eagles in Madagascar, the rain forest in Brazil and.... close to my heart, elephants in Myanmar. If you look closely at my scarf photo which I took some weeks ago you will see where I intended to take you today.
But no, here we are reading a very important issue of the Beano, not an elephant in sight. It’s not only the first year anniversary this week of my writing the blog about exactly 138 scarves.....I refuse to feel guilty about this excess....it is the 70th anniversary of DENNIS THE MENACE in the Beano. Dennis is still ten years old being naughty with his equally naughty dog Gnasher. Now I reckon that makes him eighty this week, and I just wonder what amazing face cream he uses, what is his healthy diet and exercise routine to keep him so young? At least I share his zest for naughtiness....I have a Crunchie in my backpack.
I had intended to fly all the way to Scotland to remember Fridays when the Dandy and Beano came out costing just tuppence, old money. (Sorry, dear little sister, I nearly got us killed by a car crossing the road from the newsagent with my nose in the comic..... was reported to parents by a neighbour and severely reprimanded! No comics for two weeks.) Incidentally if you find one of these copies in the attic it could be worth £20,000 today. I searched my high street this week, could not buy the 70th anniversary issue, and had to order it on line. How times have changed! The guest editor this week is Joe Sugg, formerly a thatcher, now the super blogger of all time and also a fine dancing contestant on TV’s Strictly Come Dancing. Well, I have not travelled very far from Richmond....having passed over my beautiful Royal Mid Surrey golf course, I am now hovering over Kew Gardens. What do I see below? I can hardly believe my eyes.....a DENNIS THE MENACE BIG BONANZA just in time for Easter. If I flap my red and black scarf, matching exactly the striped shirt of Dennis, do you think I can make an emergency landing without the prerequisite booking of a slot? I now proudly have a card showing I have had two Pfizer jabs.....if I flash that quickly, will that get entry? How I would love to take my great grandsons there, but maybe it will not be until later this year. I will book a genuine slot after Easter for myself and maybe that will be my first bus trip since lockdown. Perhaps there will be some Dennis the Menace souvenirs I can buy for the little ones, jokes, mischief and pranks .... green slime, a whoopsie cushion? A great granny can get away with naughtiness!
It’s been quite a week of anniversaries, a year from lockdown, the faded Union Jack still fluttering on my porch, my own sixty-sixth wedding anniversary, a year‘s remembrance of over 126000 Covid deaths with a candle on my doorstep .....but I don’t want to dwell on that. I’d rather leave you with the memory of a batty old bird with long gold, or is it white, hair many inches below her shoulders having fun. She used to have a smart short bob, play golf and visit art galleries. Now she writes a blog, flies a magic carpet and reads the Beano!
Busy Bee, Scarf Face!
Series 2, Blog 38.