The Year of the Invaded Sideboard

 What a year it's been!

 Animal rescue.

 Poor Tim...

 Floods.

 Poor Ms Nations...

 The return of ABBA.

 Poor ABBA...  

 Someone had a bit of a cough.

 . . .

 . . .

 . . .

 Well?

 Oh, er... Poor BEAST.  

 And aside from everything else, our poor Sideboard took quite a pummelling.  Having seen off an expanse of pink [thank you, Dinah] and a giant old lady [also by Dinah] in previous years, 2021 has seen no less than five invasions!  

 But before we get to those, a quick heads-up about this year's Coven Awards: Unlike previous years, there aren't any awards per se, rather a selection of bits & bobs from your blogs throughout the year that we enjoyed, appreciated, or just remembered to make a note of at the time.

 The remembered bit is key.  Our memory is pretty terrible, so these aren't neccessarily the best bits, just noted or remembered bits.

 Oh, and there's much less self-indulgence from us, too.

 Although there is some, of course:  Star Trek.  Men we like.  Sofas that we think are ghastly (not your new one, Ms Scarlet - we haven't seen it yet...)  It's our blog, after all.

 Quite.  Anyway, let's get on with it before the dratted SubCs realise we've started without them.

 Ooh, yes!  On with the show, and the Sideboard Invasions:

  The first, in January, was by professional sideboard invader, Dinahmow, with an enormous luna astronaut complete with narrowboat (naturally).

 Let's start with a little Music, shall we?  Introduced to us by Jon (of course), this has become one of my most played pieces this year: Let's Danzón - Gustavo Dudamel at the Proms Arturo Márquez Danzón Nº 2 

 

Dance : Jon attempted to prise Colin's Anusol from the grip of-  Oh.  Sorry.  I misheard.  It's Prisencolinensinainciusol as we discovered here: Motivi per essere allegri. 

 

February

Music and Dance and Men and GIFs : Managing to cover four categories in one, Jon's found a place where we can boogie!  

 You must listen to "Boogie 2nite" (the Seamus Haji Big Love Edit) by Booty Luv (below) while staring at the hard-hatted hottie as he hypnotically wriggles and writhes in perfect time to the music.  

Quote : "If I wanted to watch people in fancy costumes fighting over jewelry, I would watch a bunch of old Dynasty episodes.  At least that had Joan Collins." - Benny at Tor.com about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

 I meant to include more of the funny/inciteful/bizarre comments that you, the marvellous Blogorati uttered, but there were so many that I would have been frozen with indecision over which ones to feature (and not because I forgot to keep track of them all...).

 

 March saw newcomer, Melanie Reynolds, launch an Attack of the Overgrown Towerblock at my Sideboard (this was followed up in early June by a giant loo roll holder, but I neglected to take a screenshot.  Besides, Ms Scarlet has nabbed June's spot as you will see later on). 

State of the World : Tasteful photo of non-fat, non-old man found at Infomaniac!  World baffled!

 

GIF : Jon's jogger vs old lady.  

 I wonder if she ever caught him?

Fish : Jon again with Yasmin Le Bon in Thierry Mugler’s Autumn-Winter 1997–98 collection “La Chimère” - or, as I likened it, "a kingfisher trying to make off with a pike".  Maddie kept the theme going with her fishy mood board. 

Event : Ms Scarlet's birthday adventure Over the Cusp, in The Calamities of the Carmine Quill!

 This is a good excuse for another GIF category too, as this GIF of Ms Scarlet calmly popping out for wine milk (nabbed from Jon) featured in the aforementioned calamities (one of which was that Ms Scarlet DID NOT GET US ANY WINE!!!).

April

Men : Tom Durant Pritchard as Prince Harry (The Windsors, S3 - as featured in the previous post, "Aunty Anne just gobbed at us."), and Peenee's Cat Boy, Redhead, and Grease Monkey who feature (in all their glory) at In Which We Go To the Bathroom and the Movies.

Spiders : The wind changed, but instead of depositing an English nanny on her doorstep, Dinahmow found herself dealing with an altogether different animal...  Eriophora transmarina

 

May

State of the World : Well, it's more like the state of interior decorating for wherever it is that the Mercury Twins porn shoot took place.  That sofa is ghastly!  I don't think much of the tattoos, either.  Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Hound.

 June, and Ms Scarlet turned up with all guns blazing and unleashed a pant-burstingly hot and huge Aidan Turner.  Who then replicated himself across my entire blog!  Not that I'm complaining, mind...

Men : Having been completely taken in by his (character's) understated complete bastardness in W1A, I found Jonathan Bailey in re-runs of Crashing earlier in the year (and Bridgerton, but I only watched enough of the first episode to ensure I caught the scene of him with his kit off).

Music : The Umbrella Academy soundtrack.  Well, some of it anyway.  From a previous post, here are my favourites, and one to listen to now: "Sunny", by Boney M:

 

July

Books : The Infomaniac Library has all one could want except for...

... the highly recommended The Guncle,

which doesn't seem to be out in the UK until April 2022!

 

 Finally, returning for a third go in August, Melanie decided to grow a forest in my Sideboard.

Quote : "catapult scantily-clad men into my moistened vicinity" - Me! from Jon's Dangerous When Wet.  (Because, sometimes, I am able to amuse myself...)

The catapulting begins at about 2 mins 30 into this clip from Million Dollar Mermaid.

 

While we're on the moist side, here's Esther Williams in "I have a dream" from Jupiter's Darling:

 

September

State of the World : The global fairy light shortage has been traced back to this instigating remark - "I have been away panic buying fairy lights" - by Ms Scarlet.

Star Trek : What?  You thought you'd get through this without a Star Trek mention?  Ha!

This was my (winning) entry for August's Star Trek art challenge, "These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things".  Despite making August rather fraught and stressful, overall I really enjoyed working on this piece.

October

Men : Melanie asked where we'd like to go on holiday.  Or something.  I may have been distracted by the attractions of Guam, Sri Lanka, and Panama...

Mister Guam, Mister Sri Lanka, and Mister Panama

show what their countries have to offer.

GIF & Quote : "Witch, please!"  Mistress Maddie treated us to some Endora amongst the pumpkins (and other squashes) in her Autumnal Mood Board.

Star Trek : Yes, again, and so soon after the last one, too.  Still, you'll be pleased to know that this - only the second Star Trek feature in this post - is the final one.

 

 I'm including this, "The Takers of Gist" as it's the first proper Trek cosplay that I've done and, although it didn't turn out quite how I'd imagined and had one or two setbacks, I rather enjoyed working on it.

 

 Oh, and I must give a shout out to Cetacean Ops!  After one very brief mention over 30 years ago, Cetacean Ops - the almost mythical Starfleet operations centre for whales and dolphins - finally made it on screen in season two of Star Trek: Lower Decks, complete with beluga whale crew, Kimolu and Matt!

Event : On Hallowe'en, the 11th annual Infomaniac Garden Photos Event kicked off with your Terrifying Triffidery. 

 

 Some of you even made it out alive to take part in the main event.

November

Men : A Surprising Bathtime at Mr Tonking's (I love this photo!  It features the band members of Menomena - no, I'd never heard of them either) as he encourages us to clean up and conserve water at the same time with some Good, Clean Fun! (Danger: Rude!)

Fish : Maddie returned to March's King/fish/er theme at the end of November with this little number.

As far as I'm aware, the kingfisher and/or fish did not partake in Mr Tonking's bathtime (although I didn't look too closely...).

Event : And perhaps the most important socially distanced gathering of the year was the coming together of all your Triumphant Triffidery for

the 11th

I N F O M A N I A C

Garden Photos Event

A selection of hoes for your perusal

 

Dance (but really, Men) : The year wouldn't be complete without a showing from Strictly: It Takes Two's Alluring and Adorable Aljaž who, along with his celebrity dance partner, Sara Davies, made it all the way to week eight.

December

Men : Mistress Maddie very thoughtfully provided gingerbread snacks and entertainment - Connect the Dots, anyone? -  in the usually rather fraught and/or dull pre-Christmas lull. 

  Oh, gods, isn't he just yummy!

Spiders : The Very Mistress as Fetchsleep the Hideous Alien Queen giant spider in part two of our winter panto, Jack and the Cobaeanstalk.

State of the World : Or, The Bitterest of Disappointments: A complete absence of Tacca integrifolia (and, to a lesser extent, Tacca chantrieri - although, I'm still holding out hope for these).

Event : The Greatest Competition Never Held II... is actually looking likely to be held imminently!  Yes, Ms Scarlet has all but promised that

 

The Freakin' Green Elf Shorts Caption Competition

 

will commence on New Year's day!

 Rather cunningly, Ms Scarlet seems to have lent all of January to this most anticipated competition, as she said that the winner will be announced on the 31st - Has she done this in order to give herself almost a month off from her gruelling weekly blogging schedule ::coughSunday26thDecembercough:: ?

 

 I am very excited about this FGES news - and may even put together a new map - although I'm rather concerned for Rimpy.  I fear that he has been holding himself together for his moment for so long that, come the grand launch of the compo, he may explode!  (Safety goggles and Sou'westers can be picked up in the foyer)

 But, just before the FGES compo, one last...

Event : Many, many happy returns to dear Savvy, who turns 21 again on New Year's Eve!

☙❧

 And that brings an end to another year of blogging.  

 For us, anyway.  There's still another day of the year left.

 Oh, stop being pedantic.

 I'm not!  The daily bloggers - Jon, Maddie, Mr Tonking - may still have another post or two to go.

 Anyway, we hope you all enjoyed it as much as we have here - See you at Ms Scarlet's place in a couple of days!

So.  We don't get a look in this year?

Rude.

 Oops!  Almost forgot:  Corgis by Norma (of course).