Pussy cat pussy cat

Where have you been? I've been to London to visit the Queen. Well, actually, I zipped across the continent to visit my Mum, who lives on the other side of said continent. It was cold, 16C with wind and rain aplenty, but I managed to endure. So brave.

I lucked out on the way back, getting two seats to myself on the plane, an A330, which had EOD (which means, apparently, "Entertainment On Demand")... and it meant I could watch any move I liked from the somewhat sparse collection - and of course as a devoted lover of petticoats and bonnets, I chose "Young Victoria". Nicely done, they got most of the historical details right except at the very end, where they had her in mourning for dear departed Albert, wearing a blue dress.

Now, I'm the first to admit I don't know about a lot of things, but I do know a bit about the Victorians, a small obsession of mine for a number of years, and also about Mourning Dress - the Victorians had it down to a fine art, obsessed as they were by death (nearly as obsessed as we are with sex, just quietly)... and I know that a Victorian lady of quality, in the first year of her mourning, would never appear in any colour except unrelieved, plain old, black. Plenty of jet, sparkly black glass or sequins to catch the eye, but no colour. This particularly applies to the dear old Queen, who really drove the whole Victorian Mourning Clothing Industry by her somewhat obsessive "conspicuous" mourning for Albert.

It's also common knowledge that the present Queen always travels with a full set of mourning garments, so she can appear 'appropriately' garbed should the need require whilst she's off on a jaunt... so they certainly take it seriously... So, gentle reader, I was somewhat annoyed to see that they'd slipped up here.

Oh well, I'm just going to go off now & polish my collection of Jet brooches, and work on my letter to the producers - just kidding.