A Quibble

I'm quite liking Robert Bartlett's series on the Normans, but it does annoy me how he- or his director- is muddying the water with anachronism. William I was religious- cue pictures of a late medieval madonna. The harrying of the north was horrific- I know what, we'll shoot a sequence in a Victorian churchyard. William was crowned in Westminster Abbey- just look how pretty that Renaissance choir loft is. And ooh- look- stained glass- and bugger the fact that it hasn't been invented yet.  If the object of the exercise is to give us some idea not only of Norman politics but also of Norman culture then this continual pointing of the camera at unNorman things is downright misleading.

Catalogues

We had four huge catalogues delivered yesterday- each as big as a Victorian family Bible. They're sitting on the floor beside my desk because I can't bring myself to throw them in the recycling bin- even though that's all they're good for. It's not that we won't buy from the companies that sent them- because we have done and will again- but that we're settled into the habit of doing all our browsing and ordering online.  I asked Ailz if there's no way to get the marketing departments to cease and desist, and she said, "No". Apparently once you're on their mailing lists you're on them for life. I know I'm being soppy about this, but I don't like it for trees to have died in vain.