The Purple Dragon Blog

The kindergarten class sits in a circle with a teacher at the head of it. She holds up photographs of various Australian animals for the children to identify; a wombat, a koala, a possum.

Next she holds up a kangaroo.

“Does anyone know what this is?”

Small Vietnamese boy informs her that the animal is made into hats. For emphasis he mimes putting on a small hat.

“No, W.,” the teacher says gravely, “we do not make hats out of kangaroos.”

Purple Dragon collapses into helpless laughter despite all efforts.

According to The Sun, Fifth Doctor Peter Davison is too big to fit into his old costume for a Doctor Who special. Their solution?

 FORMER Doctor Who Peter Davison had to wear Sylvester McCoy’s TV outfit to film a spoof show – as he’s too tubby to fit into his original costume.

Somehow I can’t help but think that the Sun is up to their old ‘make-stuff-up’ routine again.

Meanwhile life is busy, as usual. Always busy. I’ve created a deviantart account. It doesn’t have much yet, but I’m adding more. Eventually I’ll add proper art, as well as just sketches and things. Among other things, this will have a whole series of tongue-in-cheek Doctor Who comics I’ve been doing.

Family friend has broken her hip. All worried.

Found something that set me laughing hysterically; ‘50 Things I am Not Allowed to do at Hogwarts.‘ It has *counts* 12 appendices full of additions to the original list, and includes references to lots of facets of poular culture. I like this one:

-I am not able to see the Grim Reaper, nor am I to claim that he is standing by the Headmaster, tapping an hourglass and looking at him impatiently. Or, for that matter, Harry Potter.

Also:

-Please do not refer to Dumbledore as Methuselah.

And:

-Not allowed to play poker with Tarot cards anymore, last time I did, I got a royal flush and the Dark lord returned. 

And another:

-Nor will I send magical equipment to Caltech or MIT in exchange for full tuition.
-By “I,” we actually mean you, Hermione.

And lastly:

-I will not enchant Hermione Granger’s Time turner to rotate every half hour.

I was on the train this morning when a bunch of high school girls get on, and didn’t ppay attention until someone said, “hey, why have you got a kitten?” I look over, and on this girl’s lap is a maroon school jumper made into a sort of nest, and wrapped inside is a tiny, sleeping black kitten curled into a ball. It was really cute. At one point it woke up and started squeaking, which I didn’t know kittens did;  so there was this high-pitched tiny ‘meep, meeeep,’ noise until the girl settled it back down again and it went back to sleep in the jumper. Kittens should be on trains more often, I think, even if it is against some council by-law or something.

Week before last ended horribly; one of the disabled children tried to bite my thumb off and was prised off my poor thumb with difficulty; I got slapped; someone threw a large plastic toy at the back of my head; and when I was dealing with H. (henceforth referred to as ‘that f***er’ when I am really mad) sucker-punched me in the gut and when I doubled over tried to climb the fence. So I was glad to have a fairly restful one last week. Hopefully this week will be nice too. I work the rest of the week. *droops* I hope you all feel for me. I get beat up by preschoolers.

In the fit of Romana!love I experienced while watching City of Death (see previous post) I sketched her in biro. I took this photo with my cameraphone so it’s blurry and detail is lost, but still…

Had a lovely quiet day yesterday; was assigned to do all the cleaning that hadn’t been done at the childcare centre yet. Wandered about quietly on my own, industriously cleaning, sometimes singing in my chorister voice… I need more days like that.

(Avatar by me)
Have been watching the Fourth Doctor story City of Death today. Bought it last week on DVd even though it is hideously expenisve, but I’m glad I did. The Doctor. Romana. In a school uniform. On location. In France.
The dialogue in this is positively sparkling. Romana makes an excellent companion; she’s intelligent, individual, and strong-minded, and she and the Doctor spend their time engaged in witty, educated banter when they’re not in the middle of a crisis.

Romana: Where are we going?

Doctor: Are you talking philosphically or geographically?

Romana: Philosophically.

Doctor: Then we’re going to lunch. *snickers*

Another example:

Romana: Well at least on Gallifrey we can capture a good likeness. Computers can draw.

Doctor: What? Computer pictures? *appalled* You sit in Paris and talk of computer pictures??

Speaking of pictures, I love the drawing of Romana the Time Lady with the face of a clock. Isn’t that a great idea? So interesting. This is a great story; intelligent, well-written, and not let-down by poor acting or effects. I love it. Duggan is amusing too, the way he’s always knocking someone unconscious when the Doctor’s talking to them and the way the Doctor and Romana are always having to restrain him.

Duggan: You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.

Romana: *tartly* If you wanted an omelette, I’d expect to find a pile of broken crockery, a cooker in flames and an unconscious chef.

This is also the first Fourth Doctor episode I’ve seen, and I can see why he’s so popular, he’s full of charm, isn’t he?

Doctor: *delighted* I say, what a wonderful butler. He’s so violent. Hello. I’m called the Doctor. That’s Romana. That’s Duggan. You must be the Countess Scarlioni, and this is clearly a delightful Louis Quinze chair. May I sit in it, I say haven’t they worn well? *to menacing ‘butler’* Thank you Herman that will be all.

Am very glad I got this DVD, and to LizBee; well, my avatar say it all, doesn’t it?

For those people wondering about last post’s list, I will perhaps re-type it at a later date; it included me getting bitten (ow), the aggressive boy with the gang, *ahem* relieving himself under the computer desk (were his instincts and pent-up testosterone too much for him? Was he marking his territory? God, I hope not. Once was enough), the adventures of the Terrible Three (R. the Bad, I. the Handful, L. the Naughty), and learnign lots of things I didn’t necessarily want to know. But to just continue the first point I began last time:

• When Twin 1 comes inside he is asked, “do you want to take off your hat?” He stares up, eyes wide and lip trembling, completely aghast at the prospect of being parted from his hat, before bursting into tears.
• Later on a worker is trying to change Twin 1’s pants after he spilled water all over them. Twin 1 bursts into tears. Turning to Twin 2, who is never far from his brother, she askes he he can help Twin 1 take off his pants. Twin two stares in complete horror; he bursts into tears as well, leaving both of them sobbing almost hysterically.

I saw Stardust today, based on the book by Neil Gaiman. It’s a really great movie. I’ve read bits of the book, and while the book is great, I actually think I like it better than the book.  Meanwhile on his blog I have discovered a new word: neep-neep, one who is fascinated by computers (but may or may not have more skill than is necessary to play games) and its related word, neepery. I like that. I can’t really count myself as a computer geek to the same extent that I used to, seeing as I failed IT at uni (I know, I know) so now I can be a neep-neep. It even has a silly, amusing name. How can I not like that? I like lots of strange words, actually. Maybe I should make a list. My Mum used to be an English teacher so she always encouraged me to read and bought me lots of classics as a kid, as well as corrected my grammar constantly (although to be fair, my Dad always has too) and so I’ve always used words like ‘morose’ and  in everyday conversation, and know things like the difference between ‘imply’ and ‘infer.’ (For the record, to try and give you a rough idea, if someone implies something, then you might infer it. They’re more or less opposites.)

I also discovered a specialist bookstore that sells in-print Rex Stout novels, do you know how hard to find those are? My Dad and I are major fans of the Nero Wolfe series. We love the eccentric detective and smart-arse assistant, Archie Goodwin! This has made my day.

Anyway, going now, post again soon. Bye.