Up Front by Emma Hart

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Up Front: Isn't It Romantic?

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  • Emma Hart,

    Have we done the "snap" on the birthday timing yet?

    I think so, at Russell's. I knew about you, anyway. I may have been super-discreet, but that doesn't sound like me.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Kerry Weston,

    I think formula fiction also functions as a kind of meditation tool - it distracts that side of your brain that is task-oriented and gives it something to do, while the other side chills out and is free to wander. I can speed read a chick lit or mystery pretty much at one sitting and ten minutes later couldn't tell you what happened in it, but I might have come up with the answer to something else - or even just had "time out". You're not paying attention in the same way you do to more serious novels.

    Some people jog (aaarghhh!), i read.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Hosking,

    The only Valentine's Day card I've ever sent was to an English girlfriend who was back visiting the UK and dropped a pretty heavy hint she expected one.

    I sent it, with a note saying that we didn't go much for Valentines Day in NZ, or if we did I'd certainly never noticed it, and also that I hoped she'd have a nice day, and you know, the usual love and squelching noises sentiments. She showed it to her friends, who laughed, but whether at the card or at the fact she was going out with this unromantic Kiwi I'm not sure. We broke up a few months later but that was nothing to do with the card, more on 'where is this relationship going?' issues.

    Claudia (now my wife) and I moved in together on Valentines Day but there was no particular reason for that other than it was the only suitable day we could get the truck booked.

    South Roseneath • Since Nov 2006 • 830 posts Report Reply

  • Kim Wilson,

    My brother and his wife got married on Valentine's Day - I have a funny feeling it was a way of trying to ensure that my brother wouldn't forget the date of their wedding anniversary...

    Best/most romantic thing that ever happened to me on Valentine's Day was being given a slingshot.

    Oh, and, Colin Firth.

    Nth Canty • Since Dec 2006 • 28 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    Ummm - this is not necessarily true... Ok, probably we never said anything offensive to the person in question, but there were certainly giggles afterwards...

    Sayana, jeez. I'm trying to make the romance-novel-readers feel better! You: not helping. :)

    We're seeing David Byrne on Valentine's Day. I don't think this is particularly romantic. All I can think of that's relevant is Tina Weymouth ringing people up in the middle of the night to cast aspersions on the size of Byrne's penis. Not so nice.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Kerry Weston,

    Tina Weymouth ringing people up in the middle of the night to cast aspersions on the size of Byrne's penis.

    So that's why he went around in that huge, inflated suit...

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report Reply

  • Stuart Coats,

    We're seeing David Byrne on Valentine's Day. I don't think this is particularly romantic.

    The thought of singing along with Psycho Killer doesn't fill your heart with love?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 192 posts Report Reply

  • JoJo,

    Sayana, jeez. I'm trying to make the romance-novel- readers feel better! You: not helping. :)

    Don't worry Danielle. My mum's a librarian, and from what I've heard, people take out much funnier/stranger/disturbing books than romance novels.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 95 posts Report Reply

  • Kerry Weston,

    A public library I used to frequent marked all their risque books with a purple spot and kept the very risque ones in the stack room and borrowers had to ask for them. Heh.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report Reply

  • Isabel Hitchings,

    We're seeing David Byrne on Valentine's Day. I don't think this is particularly romantic.

    I spent Valentine's Day 2004 seeing David Bowie. It was very romantic in a letting long suppressed teenage fantasies run free kind of way.

    Christchurch • Since Jul 2007 • 719 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    Our anniversary: the 15th.
    My birthday: the 20th.
    St. Valentine's Day: what is that?

    For us, it's:

    My birthday: 4th
    His birthday: 13th
    Valentine's Day: 14th
    Our anniversary: 17th

    We've never done anything for Valentine's, but there's quite enough celebration exhaustion with the rest of it.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Found this morning at the Guardian (while I was reading an archived article on L'Histoire d'O, coincidentally) a montage of Mills and Boon covers through the ages.

    I giggled. Like a smutty little girl.

    I was going to talk about romance book covers but I sort of ran out of space.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Sue,

    I've never sent a valentine
    never received a valentine
    but i make loads of valentine gifts for other people

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 527 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    My birthday: 4th
    His birthday: 13th
    Valentine's Day: 14th
    Our anniversary: 17th

    This year, Valentine's Day is my brother's 50th birthday. Which I guess must have been a nice Valentine's present for his parents, a first-born son.

    This may not be such a great audience for my Aquarius joke, but. Do we need to start cross-referencing February birthdays and tech writers yet?

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    a montage of Mills and Boon covers through the ages

    Romance Goes Tenting . With a clown. The mind boggles.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Jolisa,

    Romance Goes Tenting. With a clown. The mind boggles.

    A jealous clown. And that is a tent-pole in his pocket.

    Not to mention, Ronald Cocking? Yowza.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 1472 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    a montage of Mills and Boon covers through the ages

    I love the cover of the 1924 book "Jungle Love: A tropical tangle", with a native in an enticing loin cloth standing over a white lady who is either dead, unconscious, or preparing herself to be ravaged by his dark junglistic manlove.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • Jacqui Craig,

    Spike or Angel? (Of course we were going there, it was only a matter of time.)

    Definitely Spike. Definitely. And Daniel Craig for sure if we didn't share a last name which I think I would find slightly off-putting.

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 28 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Found this morning at the Guardian (while I was reading an archived article on L'Histoire d'O, coincidentally) a montage of Mills and Boon covers through the ages.

    Once up a time, I would have been shocked by that juxtaposition. Where is my mind?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • JackElder,

    A public library I used to frequent marked all their risque books with a purple spot and kept the very risque ones in the stack room and borrowers had to ask for them.

    At 16, I got the Karma Sutra out of the Wellington Public Library. That was held in a back room, and we had to ask for it. Though I think that had less to do with gleeful puritanism than the simple fact that the smutty books, on open shelves, tend to get nicked. Similarly, a friend of mine used to work in a "New Age" bookshop. She told me that they did stock The Satanic Bible, but it was under the counter. Again, mainly because otherwise people just shoplifted it, but also (in that case) because it meant that they could do a quick judgement call on whether to sell it to any particular punter or not.

    My wedding anniversary is on the 20th. Handily, so is my wife's. Gets us nicely out of any particular implicit onus to celebrate valentines.

    Personally, I think we should celebrate Saint Sebastian's day on the 20th January instead. Instead of giving flowers, we'd all go get pierced.

    Wellington • Since Mar 2008 • 709 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Once up a time, I would have been shocked by that juxtaposition. Where is my mind?

    So by the time I do get started on the BDSM columns, you should be well beaten down?

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Spike or Angel? (Of course we were going there, it was only a matter of time.)

    Oh, God, how long would it take for all that brooding and hair-product to get tired? No sex is that good. Never.

    Willow -- non-skanky, non-evil, and definitely not Mirror Universe vampire Willow. She could fix my computer, and be rather good fun. OK, there's the whole "totally gay and the last boy I dated was a morose werewolf" thing, but nobody's perfect.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • JackElder,

    Do we need to start cross-referencing February birthdays and tech writers yet?

    My father, mother, sister, and one set of grandparents were all born in February. I was born in October. They were all conceived in the Southern hemisphere, me in the North. The only thing I can think of is that there really wasn't much to do in NZ in May in those days...

    Wellington • Since Mar 2008 • 709 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    So by the time I do get started on the BDSM columns, you should be well beaten down?

    At my age, and in this condition, BDSM (or any other fetish) sounds too much like an effort. I could be a human Ottoman, if you were willing to spring for the humiliating leather hot pants and whatever restraints are strictly necessary.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Or Xander. The third hottest monocular man in geekdom -- behind Saul Tigh and Davros.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

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