Nora Batty comes from Iffyton. Eeh ba gum!

My girlfriend is from the East Midlands so no doubt finds it hilarious whenever I talk about her 'northern accent' and pretend she says such things as 'eeh ba gum'.

She got her own back on me recently, however. FuelMyBlog gave me the chance to review online t-shirt retailer Iffyton High Street and in an unprecedented fit of generosity I said she could pick a t-shirt of her choice. Here's the design she opted for:


British readers of this blog you will probably recognise this formidable lady as the character Nora Batty from the long-running TV sitcom Last of the Summer Wine. As Wikipedia says, Nora "is proudly devoted to strict housework, and stands as a monument to classic northern women".

Not only that, but my girlfriend modelled the t-shirt in the style of a stereotypical northern housewife, complete with rollers, broom and scowl:


So I should say something about Iffyton now. The website is quite funky - it's a virtual high street (AmE: main street) where each 'shop' offers a different type or theme of t-shirt. The Nora Batty shirt, appropriately, came from the 'It's Grim Up North' shop.

Ordering was simple and delivery was remarkably quick (a couple of days). Being a skinflint I normally buy plain tees in packs of three from Primark but my girlfriend assures me that the Iffyton prices are "in the upper end of reasonable" (£12.99 plus P&P for Nora).

Iffyton is a new venture from Totally Original T-Shirts, an established retailer that I believe makes tees for rock bands. There are certainly a lot of music t-shirts available through Iffyton, for bands from The Smiths to Slipknot.

The Nora t-shirt seems to be of good quality but my only concern is how well it will wash; the design looks as if it might start to flake off after not too long. It's too early to say, though, so I'll give an update after Nora has been through the machine a couple of times.

My girlfriend would like to add that the range of t-shirts for women is "not massive" but that she liked the virtual high street concept. Oh, and there's something I'd like to say to her. All together now:

Eeh ba gum!