Drop-Seat Pyjamas: Sifting Through Fantasies and Sieving Thoughts

There have been several comments emailed me recently regarding my infrequent posting of late. The thing is, my view is that a blog should be a work of enthusiasm - something driven by inspiration and carrying at least some modicum of an enthusiastic air about it; hopefully infectious and inspirational in its turn. The trouble with all of that is that is infinitely difficult to be enthusiastic about anything when one is a depressive and going through a phase of plumbing the depths of despair. Not that I am permanently depressive; my mood can go up and down with the coming out of the sun or the clouding over of the sky. It's why I drink so damn much - I am nearly always 'up' with a pint or two of the realist of real ale in me - and that's more often than not when the real work gets done! But conversely, there are days I can barely get out of bed. The gym works too in elevating my mood (which at least keeps me fit – I'll have to show off my abdominals one day on here: remind me), but I have to get there first! So, although the blog is sort of bobbing along, I have not been able to update it as often as I'd like. I have been in various pubs a lot since getting back and although I can write well enough in a pub (actually a few beers are good for the imagination) updating the blog is another question entirely, because of the pictorial element to it and the need to view the blog itself in order to judge the final result (the layout often differs substantially from the preview, which on Blogger seems to be largely useless). There are too many prying eyes peering over the shoulder, and too many judgmental views likely to be expressed here in London – as I have intimated before.

While on the subject of my bulging (I wish) email box I totally love these drop-seat pyjama pics I was recently sent - very juvenile. In terms of story telling; in an institutional setting I'm not so sure it works. But if introduced within the more intimate, personal atmosphere of the domestic environment I love the idea. In fact I have already invoked such a scenario within a piece I have part-completed - but whether I use it in the upcoming volume or in the 'true' volume 3 (which continues on directly from where volume 2 left off) - if it ever gets written) I have yet to decide. I'd love to use the idea in vol 3 but as you will have read (I hope) at the culmination of volume 2; although it is a sort of 'domestic' arrangement the two girls concerned in that scene are about to enter, it is a very strange one indeed. Without giving too much away: basically volume 3 was planned to revolve around a sort of faux-Victorian world constructed within an English country manor house and so complete that the girl's two new 'siblings' – two pretty teenagers already in residence and completely under the thumb of their stern governess and nanny - have become convinced that they really do live in the Victorian era - albeit with a little psychological persuasion – with all the restrictions, petty rules and possibilities for discipline that brings to mind. The thing is: do drop-seat PJs really fit into what amounts to a Victorian boarding school scenario? The other possibility is that our young Lavinia - the girl left behind in the institution at the end of vol 2 and who's previous pre-institutionalisation life forms part of the new volume I am currently working on - was put in drop-seats by her aunt when resident in her aunt's home. Even better, if the institutional discipline scene is favored, is the possibility of their imposition in the church-run charity home for wayward and runaway girls that also features in the upcoming volume.

Such considerations form part and parcel of the type of problem currently holding me up. Generally put; it the issue of putting together the various chunks of writing I have completed into some sort of logical flow and deciding what to put in (and where) and what to leave out. For example; some of the ideas I had while away on holiday are more suitable for inclusion in the true volume 3 - which at one time I was uncertain I would even bother to write at all. But I am loath to brush over those ideas and have been trying to get them down on 'paper'. Actually, while reading through various bits and pieces and scenarios I have finished recently, I have begun to wonder as to whether I might not be too far from being able to split the work in two, with a little extra effort, and produce two books for the price of one, so to speak.

To keep you up-to-date: I have just returned to a section that I was working on and abandoned earlier in the year and that involves a perfectly healthy teenage girl becoming convinced that she requires leg calipers. Later on she is encountered as a residential 'volunteer' subject in an experimental psychology study that involves the deliberate induction of stammering, dressed in a very strict school uniform and with her leg calipers, now each kept fastened by a series of padlocks set along its length. Obviously I have mentioned it before but any ideas along these lines anyone?

And so this is Christmas, or so it would seem,
another year over - so soon it has been.
But it sure must be Christmas,
though the days still be long.
It says so in the 'Wethers' (local pub)
and Tim can't be wrong (Tim Martin, CEO of the Wetherspoons chain).
With apologies to the late John Lennon (not that he cares - he's dead and out of it! Which just goes to show my present state of mind).

Cynical? Yeah, I guess you could say so. But it's a cynicism based on bitter experience - that's what life does to one. There are times that, sitting here, I can envisage little more attractive than stepping out into the midst of the Woodgreen / Turnpike Lane traffic. Not that it would achieve much other than an excruciatingly slow death, given that the average speed along the local highways and byways here hovers around that which might be expected of a particularly respectful horse-drawn funeral procession. But then, swigging back the second or third tankard of the day (today's tipple being the insanely strong Abbot Special Reserve - weighing in at an impressive 6.5% alcohol by volume and possibly lethal in large doses to the unwary), one opens ones email and lo and behold, more often than not a smile comes to one's face. No less true than today, people, when upon opening my mail mere moments ago I found myself faced with this gem, yet another of the set I posted so many moons ago originating I believe from the Spic and Span magazine stable published in the sixties and to which I owe so much in terms of my descriptions of the school-type uniforms featuring in the INSTITUTIONALISED series. I have boosted the contrast ( strictly speaking the 'Gama' if we are to be technical) and I think the detail revealed is remarkable. Notable are the integral belt loops and the breast pocket detail, the perfect space to fill with a colourful and suitably humiliating badge and slogan. If one needs a guide to the sort of thing I am - or will be - eluding to in the domestic discipline / 'schoolroom' scenes in my stuff this is it!

Domestic Uniform Thoughts Back in the UK

Hi folks! I’m back in the UK and raring to go! To be absolutely honest with you I have been back for a couple of days now but today is the first I have decided to designate as what I would call a ‘working day’ - one has to start somewhere. I seem to have returned to something of a mini heat wave here in Angle-land and so decided to spend a couple of days touring around several pubs I've been meaning to visit for some time as a sort of holiday extension. Not that I've been entirely idle you understand; certainly the first day I have to admit that I didn't get much written as I visited my local Wetherspons pub wherein various friendly and well-meaning folks kept pitching up and joining me at my table. As much as ordinarily I'd welcome the company and diversion it was a bit of a shame that by the time I was left to my own devices again I was too pissed to continue! Yesterday was far more productive, although I'm not at all sure where the piece I was working on fits in the greater scheme of things. One aspect that has come to interest me, while I have had time away to think, is the concept of the subject, assuming a domestic environment, being placed under another's control who has been charged to act as a proxy in the absence of the dominant character. This seems especially potent if the person placed in temporary authority is someone who ordinarily would herself serve in some sort of subservient role. For instance one can easily imagine the gall felt by the pretty teenage stepdaughter placed by her haughty overbearing and domineering stepmother or guardian under the supervisory control of the housekeeper. Just imagine the thought processes running through the girl's mind as out in the kitchen she is loudly berated by the elderly housekeeper for having the collar button of her crisp nylon overall unfastened or perhaps having a stocking seam crooked and out of place - and all within easy earshot of her stepmother's or guardian’s guests. Perhaps one or two of the latter might be accompanied by their daughters, contemporaries of, or perhaps even ex-acquaintances of, the deeply shamed girl! Yes, I know it's been done before, most famously I think in the novel, Emma's Secret World, by Hilary James - or was in its sequel; I can't quite recall. But I think there is a lot more mileage that can be got from the idea if one revolves it around the central concept of the gradual introduction of some form of ‘domestic’ or ‘home uniform’ of her guardian of stepmother's own devising as a means to at first curbing then finally subjugating the girl to her will. One can imagine harsh angry tones emanating from the scullery and cutting through the gentle cream-tea-and-scones chatter of the well-to-do ladies gathered in the sitting room and the clink of their setting down their bone china teacups, all the better to overhear the carrying on. One can imagine the occasional amused smile and half stifled giggle as they hear their host’s housekeeper sternly issuing the reminder that it might well be the hottest day of the year so far and the new rubber corsellete her guardian had recently purchased for her might well be feeling uncomfortable but every button of her dress was to be kept fastened and that included the collar and the cuffs… and yes, she was to wear that new nylon tabard properly fastened over the top.

Of course I haven't given up on the institutional discipline side of things either in the above picture I found particularly intriguing is one thing I've always found interesting is the concept of an inmate in a privately run prison or asylum perhaps, being visited by the person responsible for their incarceration and being punished by that person. That is what this particular picture says to me. The woman in the background wears a tie suggesting some form of prison guard uniform, which helps set the scene, and the well-dressed woman I imagine as the visitor. What the plate laid in front of the inmate is all about I've yet to decide - any ideas anyone?

Holiday Slipperings and Other Cocktails?

As you know I am on the Greek island Zante. Well I have know been able to borrow a 2-pin power adapter. This has to be one of the most isolated hotels in the world – no decent shops within walking distance; they weren't kidding when they said it was a quiet resort!. At least I have been able to get a little work done on the new book, though thus far not as much as I'd like (but I have seen a sea turtle – which was different!). The wildfire I could see raging on a neighboring island that I mentioned last time went on well into the night and I did my best to capture something of it (first pic – the small lights along the bottom are from resorts and coastal properties) on my clapped-out old digital camera (nice zoom, shame about the rest). Note to self: buy a new one, SOON!

I also came across this sign on the door to the hotel's poolside bar (2^nd pic, right) that seems to threaten a slippering to anyone daring to enter with wet feet – over the knee or over a table I wonder? A discipline-minded bunch this lot – it seems the other guests get slippered too if one transgresses! Cheers – one ever-so-slightly camp cocktail the 'other half' thought it 'fun' to order for me: bring back the great British pint, that's what I say! (Photo left).

See y'all! CHEEEERS!!!!

A Holiday Post

Hi

Here I am on Zante, one of the Greek islands. Can't say much now as batts low on computer (nothing new there, then) but amazingly hot, as one would expect. Not much here, but one thing is what would appear to be a wildfire on what I take to be a neighboring island – looks a bit like a volcano, doesn't it! More soon I hope and also I hope to get a little writing done if I can find a power adapter – they use 2-pin plugs here it seems!. See y'all later!

Going Beyond all Logic

Well, that's how I see it! I have been forced to remove the links to the site / sites featuring the vintage content I referred to last time. The reason was the sudden and unexpected appearance of a 'pop-up' window associated with the links I had posted. The mind fairly boggles: surely the whole point of a blog / site is to be noticed. Well, as I said in the comment I appended to my last posting: bollocks to them - and I mean that quite sincerely folks, as an old TV celeb here in the UK used to say. 'Ladywriter', or whatever her real moniker. has a great site and yet apparently wants to dissuade people from visiting it, or at least from advertising its existence - does that make sense? Not to me it don't! Yes, that is bad grammar but what the fuck - I'm truly pissed off! As it is we live in a world of nation-nanny paranoia over here in the UK. For example; one of my two 'other halves' works as an exponent of pediatric dietetics but can't mention that former part of he job description for fear that the 'pedo' bit be misunderstood. Yes it is that bad over here - our government as was (Labour) liked to call it 'multi-culturalism'; I call it repressive, outmoded and redundant medieval views imposed by bully-boy tactics by bearded men that wear dresses and that then force their women folk to squint through letter-box slits out the world outside. All I have to say is that the English pronunciation of the name of the capital of Pakistan says it all – think about it! As for the pics: This is where I am – my home away from home, if you will. Yet it is neither free, nor is it a house. The street views should say the rest: I don't know what you have seen / heard / read of London, but this is the truth of it! No wonder I'm off to the Greek islands! The other thing is my beloved synth-thing – for all those that love Moog: it isn't! This is a modular system from a German company called Doepher (or something like that) – quite modern!

Walking Abroad

Time seems to go so fast as one ages. Indeed, yet another week has flown past without an update; for which I apologize. Not that I can even claim to have utilized every second in writing, but the creative process doesn't quite work like that: if there is nothing to write, then there is no point in putting pen to paper or the equivalent. On the other hand, following several loose threads has lead to the discovery of a trio of productive inspirational veins to follow. The first offering I have is Spankoz Spanking Blog, as aways click on the site name to visit or checkout the blog list in the right hand sidebar. If you like the vintage approach to spanking illustration and art you could do little better than check out the Spanking Art Blog on Ladysensualwriter.com - as above to visit. On the other hand there is also Vintage Visions Spanking and erotic art. This is a site that is "dedicated

to the way artists, illustrators and photographers in the past showed their views on erotica and erotica related to spanking, masochistic erotica and fetishes" and that can be found hidden away in the 'Useful Resources' section of the right hand sidebar... 'Nuff said! The pics are a good representation of all three... but I can't remember which came from where! Meanwhile: Five am UK time Sunday should see me jetting off to a Greek island from London Airport, Gatwick - no, I can't remember the name! I'll be there ten days or so but hope to post on the move as I'm taking the faithful netbook with me, so I'll let you'll know where and when. Rest assured, though, that the work on the new book continues and my aim is that by the time I return to the UK the majority of the writing phase will have been completed; the other half likes little better than to lie by the pool all day meaning that I shall have little to distract me for ten days or so - not even booze!