pedalo punting in a pretty dress

19th Jul, 2009 at 9:01 PM

Thank you to jinty, motodraconis, badasstronaut, tinyjo, squigglyruth, geroge and J, E and C in absebtia, supplier of more fizz than we could drink, even when egged on by an overexcited T-rex skeleton after hours at the Natural History Museum.

For the river, jinty worked her usual magic on the weather, and we were able to punt in sunshine! Pedalo punts are slightly lethal, also very indiscreet for skirts and dresses. We attracted photographers, though that may have been the fault of motodraconis's brilliant picnic set. Then we went to the pub, and then off for high tea and thence to the brilliant surprise, which consisted of knocking on a door marked "closed" and being admitted into the museum after closing time for a treasure hunt through the skeletons and dioramas.

T-Rex Chairs the debate.
Originally uploaded by motodraconis.

So, now I have a new dilemma for the wedding; which of the exquisite glittery dinosaur corsages should I wear?

Comments

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motodraconis

20th Jul, 2009 08:50 (UTC)

I think Coelurosauravus would look best on a wedding dress... but then Dimorphodon is quite tasteful... um, but then again I think Struthiomimus is cute.

GAH! I don't know - you'll have to see which one matches best! Glad to hear you liked 'em.

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jinty

20th Jul, 2009 13:02 (UTC)

I have now got my lexicography contact to look up Hen Party

or rather, "hen night". He says they've got it as: 'a social gathering of women, especially a hen night', and then they define hen night as 'a celebration held for a woman who is about to get married, attended only by women'. But that's not the OED he works for, it's the New Oxford Dictionary of English, and I gather it's got a different database, so I don't know about earliest usages cos I suppose they don't do that there.

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cleanskies

20th Jul, 2009 15:10 (UTC)

Re: I have now got my lexicography contact to look up Hen Party

I've got hen party traced back as far as an obscure short story by Dorothy Speare published in 1932 -- alas it's behind a pay-for database so I can't see more than a mangled preview of it in google timeline!

Hen night is largely obscured by OCR errors (w-hen night, //hen night, etc.) although there were some tiny hints that the 1920s usage (as a wild, women-only party) I theorised might actually exist. I've found a possible masonic use -- as a wife's meeting -- from 1957! By 1971, it was clearly routinely used in the modern sense -- my guess is that common usage crept in in lowbrow, unrecorded things like womens' magazines...

hmm, I wonder if it's in the party planning section of my 60s Mrs Beeton? Ah, bum. I got rid of that in the last move :(

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