changeling: (Default)
THIS MESSAGE BROUGHT TO YOU BY STEPH.

IT IS SLEEPY TIME. DANI WILL BE PERMITTED TO UPDATE TOMORROW.

BED TIME PREVAILS.





****END TRANSMISSION****



OMG SEEKRIT PIRATE TRANSMISSION!

I have to be quick, for I have hacked into the lines with my portable "Morser". SLEEP TIME NOW! SLEEP TIME!

Srsly. Have to be fast. Makeshift corset-bone replacement not holding out.

I can't get my fricking treadle machine to work. So far, all I've discovered is that I have a "vibrating shuttle" (which just sounds obscene, frankly), and I've managed to thread the machine (probably incorrectly). I can also actually operate the treadle. I can't get the thread to come up from the damn shuttle/bobbin. No matter how many times I turn the hand crank, I can't get the needle to catch the bottom thread. This is driving me nuts. I might call friend Sean and see if he can help (if Mel can't, anyway).

So, if anyone has any information on a Wertheim Planet M (Anyone else reminded of "House of M"?) and how to get the fricking shuttle loaded into the machine properly, I will love you forever.


SLEEP TIME SLEEP TIME SLEEP TIME YOU WILL COMPLY

ono have to run
changeling: (Default)
I may not have a permanent account, but I do have this:


We managed to break the belt (oops) while trying it out in the shop, but that's OK. The belt was old and worn, and I can get a new one for $9 in the city. I used my l33t sk1llz to search yellowpages.com.au, and then pick up the telephone. Magic.

And guess what? It's lasted at least fifty years. I'm sure it'll still be around after livejournal.com goes under.

I still wish I had a permanent account. Maybe I'll renew my paid account soon.
changeling: (Default)
We just got a package. It's our Truly Victorian patterns! Including my corselets pattern (sooo much cooler than those wide belts young ladies have been affecting lately), and my polonaise pattern, which I have been coveting since seeing Trystan L. Bass's sushi polonaise. And, of course, most importantly, the Victorian underwear pattern, including two corset patterns and DRAWERS, which we will make for wearing under our morris skirts, for fainting in 37°C heat due to thick, woolly black stockings is NOT COOL, YO.

Also, I have just updated some icons, some new, some old. Check out my "jazz-era" icon for a suggestion of what my current hairstyle looks like, and my "morris dancing" icon for a picture of my skirt, and my special morris-dancing Doc Martens.

Also also, you'd better believe that the Victorian train ride will take place again (with the addition of some morris-dancing friends, no doubt). And for those of you invited to my our jazz-era picnic next year, I shall be wearing this dress. Invitations should be sent out by the weekend.

Also also also, I have put up a new post (well, and recipe) at Reynard's Feast. This is the first at the new address, and it is also the first to include a picture. I am EXCITED. I have also picked out some coding and pictures for a sidebar ... I want to make it look spiffy soon. And create a small icon to put in my LJ when I have updated it.
changeling: (Default)
I'll admit I've been looking forward for an excuse to go to the Hopetoun Tea Rooms for some time. Located in the genteel Block Arcade, I'd passed it with many a longing glance.

My main problem with the Tea Rooms is that they're not really very interested in serving tea. They have three types listed on the menu: English Breakfast, Earl Gray, and "herbal". Presumably I could inquire as to what herbal entailed, but I was here for old-fashioned English tea, and tea I was going to have. My companion, Ben, was quite disappointed that they didn't have Lady Gray, a tea that is reportedly difficult to find in the cafés of Melbourne. The Tea Rooms, I feel, have an opportunity to stock a range of actual teas, like Russian Caravan and the ilk, to distinguish them from many cafés, which will stock a wide range (well, a range anyway) of herbal teas.

The arrival of my tea came with two small metal "teapots" – the sort that look like the result of a sordid affair with a café milk-frothing jug, and the sort of heavy, thick, white china that one expects to see in a truck stop, or an airport waiting lounge. The fingerloop was too small to fit more than a finger and a half in comfortably, and the cup was too heavy to drink from delicately. It was definitely at odds with the décor. I felt that I was not being trusted not to break something and were Lady Hopetoun around, she would be outraged. I've been to several Asian-run tea rooms in Melbourne now, and they all trust me with a proper teapot and cup. In their favour, they at least used leaf tea instead of bags, and I don't think they were using Tea2, which use flavourings in their tea (chemicals; as opposed to infusing tea leaves with jasmine or bergamot, or adding whole cinnamon).

I also, in the interest of having something to eat (I could see no vegan options besides salad on the menu, and I'd already had lunch), I tried one of their cakes. It was supposed to be a flourless almond and orange chocolate cake, but it bore no resemblance to the either of the fabulous mudcakes I've made in the last while (I made one flourless with hazelnut meal, the other orange and spice flavoured). It resembled the packet mix cakes my sister makes – certainly not what I expected. They had drizzled chocolate syrup, and one taste sent me right back to my childhood – they'd used Cottee's chocolate topping. Another strike. The ganache was passable, though there was rather a lot of it (about a centimetre and a half – trying to make up for the cake?), and I wasn't really interested in eating chocolate-flavoured lard. I would have liked to be asked whether I wanted cream (undoubtably from a can) with my cake, so I could decline. I suppose that's too much to expect – many places only ask if they have the option of giving you ice cream instead. And – THEY WERE OUT OF SCONES. What is a tea room without scones‽ This must be a one-off, you say. But no, last time Ben was there they were out of scones too. Disappointed, Hopetoun. You're letting the side down.

On another point, I really hated the uniform the waiters wore. They wore collarless dark-green blazers as you might expect a bellboy to wear at the Highett, and they were shabby and looked as though they'd been kept at the back of the cupboard for years. Were I to take over the Hopetoun Tea Rooms (a fantasy that became more insistent the longer it dwelled) I'm not sure what uniform I would institute, but Highett Bellboy really isn't what I expected.

Overall, I am disappointed. I don't know why all the reviews I see online are so effusive. They all talk about "indulging in the whims of a more mannered era" (not actual quote) and similar nonsense, but as an anachronist*, they really don't do this. The staff don't show any of what Wooster would call "the feudal spirit", and they don't make you feel at home. Clearly the reviewers have never visited any similar tea rooms elsewhere – particularly in England, where they do quaint so much better than Hopetoun ever could.

* Word made up on the spot to mean "someone who indulges in anachronicity in dress or behaviour"

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