perquisites

Perquisite: n. 1. an incidental benefit gained from a certain type of employment, such as the use of a company car.

"Perquisites" how I love that word (and so much more than its more frequently-used abbreviation: "perks")! When I did my BA (as a mature student) I was taught history by an extremely gorgeous young man (swoon!) who had a real lust for the seamier sides of (historical) life. His x-rated, enthusiastic description of hanging, drawing and quartering will haunt my nightmares forever. One day I told my mother about him. From my description she said, "hang on, I remember him, he was at my graduation "(Ma did history with the OU). Evidently the degree congregation got particularly interesting when an extraordinarily attractive young man approached the stage. When the title of his PhD dissertation was announced the audience came alive in a chorus of laughter and cheers. As Ma says, who will ever forget such a striking young man who had worked on "Perquisites of the London Dockyards". (To my shame , I forget what century he specialised in...)

This post however, is not about the perquisites of the London dockyards, but about an unexpected perquisite of my job in the Wonderful World of Retail (incidentally, can anyone tell me how to add superscript in Blogger, so that I can add TM after the Wonderful World of etc?). I've taken on an extra sideline which means I have to work at HQ from time-to-time and just look where I got to stay! (Er, not in the ruins of Minster Lovell Hall, or by the shaggy inkcap/lawyer's wig fungus, nor on the road through Minster Lovell, come to that, but in the hotel pictured at the top. One day I'll suss out how to place the shots just where I want them, meantime I'm glad that Blogger has finally allowed me to upload images, have been trying to since Thursday pm.) I also got home to presents. Thank you emails have been despatched but have not had time to take pix...