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Saturday 3 August 2013

Artificial colours

I've been absent. I've been sewing. I've been cutting out a Hawthorn dress and quilting the star quilt and finishing a Tova.

"I've not been blogging recently," I said to Mr Coffee. "Why am I not blogging?"

Mr Coffee regarded me, hunched over the sewing machine, and resisted the temptation to snort with laughter at my lack of self-awareness. (It's a new sewing machine! A Janone XL601, which is very exciting indeed. I bought it after my lovely old Singer, bought second-hand for me when I was 15, started snapping needles constantly and firing them at my eyes. "It's turning into a ****ing weapon." said Mr C, before sternly packing me off to the sewing machine shop.)

Anyhow, it's been a while. So the least I can do is to take you out for ice-cream.


This is an iced drink. Or a Coke Float, depending on your upbringing. It is a scoop of ice-cream, sunk into a glass of cola. It is a completely unreconstructed seaside treat, as subtle as a plastic bucket and spade or a saucy postcard. It is also incredibly synergetic; the cola doing something frothy, delicious and, frankly, quite visually alarming to the ice-cream.


And this is Brucciani's ice-cream shop in Morecambe, with its beautiful original art-deco fittings with etched mirrors and windows. Like the drink, the place is utterly unreconstructed. You won't find it online, except as part of a holidaymaker's Flickr stream.


Later that day, I dyed Eldest's hair purple for the summer, assured by the blurb on the packet that it would wash out before September. (Judging by the shade, this may result in regret and frantic shampooings during the last week of August.)

And so it was summer. Look forward to more (retouched) memories soon.






14 comments:

  1. Ooooh! Coke float... that takes me back. Utterly revolting and delicious both at the same time. Perhaps I wouldn't find it so delicious anymore?

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  2. It is indeed always a treat to have one of your posts. Thanks for the ice-cream, what a wonderful place. I'm still a bit unnerved by the idea of sewing machine needles flying shooting towards your eyes. Happy that you have a nice safe new machine now!

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  3. nothing is as happy as a new sewing machine x

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  4. Brucciani's ... my mother-in-law has lived in Morecambe for the last 25 years ... how did I not know about this place?!

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  5. I need to visit Morecombe- it's one of the standing jokes in the family.. Morecombe mentioned in the play When we are married.. "gadding with at girls at Morecombe" I need to come there, and now that cafe is just marvelous- I shall renew the suggestions to Mr E.
    Meantime I so understand the new sewing machine- I got mine last October and still refer to it as Scary new sewing machine- threading it took me ages and I still need the instruction manual each time! Does it have really scary button hole attachment? I needed you tube for that!

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  6. Oh we have an icecream parlour like that in the town I drew up in. It makes my heart sing. I am green with envy on the sewing machine front

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  7. We used to call them Brown Cows. A Sprite version was a Green Mamba.

    I want to know ALL about the sewing machine. I'm pondering a similar purchase.

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  8. I'm with Alice - that's a Brown Cow. And have we really reached the age of hair dye? Mark announced he'd like a red stripe in his. Luckily he remains ignorant of the joys of DIY hair colouring. Happy summer :)

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  9. Thanks for sharing the coke float, I've not had one of those for ages, have put coke on my shopping list now. I'm very glad to hear that you're not firing needles off in any direction anymore, what a lovely Mr you have for insisting on a trip to the sewing machine shop (mine would probably spend a month trying to fix it!)

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  10. We called them Spiders. God knows why. Really glad you still have eyes.

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  11. The frantic shampooing cracks me up ... sew away if it makes you happy, we won't go anywhere.

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  12. Coke floats! That takes me right back. I'm sure my sister used to have an cream soda float. That was in the days of the corona pop man delivering.

    How is all the Summer sewing going? And how is the purple hair?

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  13. My own little princess is very horrified with the concept of acquiring the girl hair coloured by simply the girl mum. My business is somewhat horrified by simply the concept of ice ointment inside a beverage. Never let in which mess up the fun however Coffee Woman because My business is often happy once you distribute a ne wpost.

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