Merry Post-Xmas

I hope you all had a good Christmas and Santa was charming and the family was good to you and so on and so forth. Christmas came in a big whoosh this year and none of us were quite ready for it. Hence, no one was very excited. Plus, lots of people seemed to be ill with colds and flus and headaches this year. Too much partying through December I expect. (Yes Grandma, that includes you!)

Clare and I are now in the new flat and the boxes are slowly depleting. Andy and Fenella came over last night and cooed over the high ceilings and period features, which was nice, because I've sort of forgotten about them already and am just looking at all the things we need to do to the place, and thinking how much it will all cost! Plus the phone Does Not Work (it won't get fixed by doing line tests BT, I know your computer says it looks fine), and we need broadband! Urgently!!

I'm back at work and so far it's very quiet (I don't like to tempt fate) and the place seems to have become overrun with Little People. Our postie has just come out of the lift with a small flock behind him. Aw. Looks like all the mummies have had quite enough and despatched the kids to work so they can have a well-earned rest! That or they've gone to the sales....

So what did you get for Xmas? Amongst other things I got:

A book on how to shoot straight
A nightie from mum (in the same style that I got for her - we match!)
A pink alarm clock that says 'so many men, so little time' on it
A black and white spotty cake tin
Chocolates.

Oh oh oh - did you see the Vicar of Dibley on Xmas day? With the gorgeous Richard Armitage in it? Mum and I were so jealous of all those snogs Dawn French scripted in we were spitting feathers. Brilliantly funny though, so perhaps we will let her off. Just a little. *:)

Spooky coincidences

I've read things referring to the Gashleycrumb Tinies twice in the past couple of weeks. I'd gone through almost 30 years on this earth and never heard of them before. Clare referred to them on her blog, and the Knitting Carmudgeon says on hers today that it's their family general term for anyone under 16. How delightful.

However, this sort of thing happens quite regularly, don't you find? Like you discover a new word or shop or kitchen implement and then see it referred three or four times in quick succession by different sources. Is there a term for this phenomenon? Like in German they have a term for that annoying tune you get stuck on the brain all day - they call it an earworm. Or if there isn't a term, can anyone suggest something we can use?

Quote du jour

Just been checking out the possibilities of clubbing in T Wells (I knew it was bad, but blimey, some wince-worthy reviews), and this one made me chuckle:

'Bar zia is full of sixth formers and squaddie types in pastel coloured ben sherman shirts looking like a packet of opal fruits.'

Opal fruits. Hee hee.

Oh my god there's more

Following from previous post, here is another entertaining pattern, this time for a felted baby's yoda hat.

Thank you internet for cheering me up!

Glad to be grumpy

I love Clare's blog, but I know that some days it is actually a strain to find good things to blog about. So today I am going to take advantage of the fact that in this blog I can be as grumpy as I like, should I so desire.

First thing to moan about - Christmas shopping hoardes in Marks and Spencers. Argh. It's cold, so I dive into the jumper section to see if there is anything cheap and suitable for work. There is. However, because they have rammed as many racks as possible into the available space, it means that each aisle is one man wide, and you cannot stop to look at anything - you have to move to let people past. I was totally unable to stop in one place, instead got chased around and around by a steady stream of impatient shoppers until I thought 'sod this' and walked out.

Second thing - do people really have to vomit in trains over Xmas? I got on the train this morning, and it's the carriage with the first class section, and there was a definite odeur... Why can't drunk people just keep with tradition and sleep it off in the gutter?

However, all is not lost today, because I found this knitting pattern for a 'French tickler cozy'. Too funny! Other similar free patterns at Knitting Pattern Central.

We have lift off!

Aragon Yarns is live! Finally, the website is up and we are open for business.

There are still a few bits and bobs to complete, and we are frantically knitting up and testing patterns that will become the knitting kits, but all the wool is here, and all the lovely needles. Check out the site and let me know what you think!

www.aragonyarns.co.uk

Intriguing...

A commuter on the train the other morning answered his phone with a 'Really? Goodness!'

I am not used to listening to commuters' conversations on the train, and try hard to tune them out, but this one caught my curiousity. What did the other person say to this man to prompt him to reply like that?

'Darling, little Johnny had been climbing the apple tree, fell out but was caught by his ankles. He was swinging there for ten minutes but I've got him down now.'

'Mike, this is your mother. I've just run over a squirrel with my mobility scooter.'

'Sweetheart, I'm lying here in a black lacy basque and suspenders and thinking of you while doing unspeakable things to myself...'


You see how one's mind runs riot when bored on the train in the morning.

Is it in code???

OK, for the wool we are working with some lovely Italian people, but one of them is using an online translation engine to communicate with us. The latest (and potentially most exciting) mail runs thus:

Subject: Yarn Shipment
Message: HI!!!!
Expeditious like from fax to half your messenger already Thursday 23/ 11
she you doesn't have importance if then the payment was not still fact: we have sent equally and with big like.
Thank you.
To soon.

Y'wha???

I *think* (only think, mind) that this means that they are shipping the yarn even though they have not received confirmation of payment. Which, if so, is great news! If it doesn't mean that, then I am stumped. Any offers / alternative translations from you guys?

British Boot Fairs

I am working today (honest, not just putting entries on blogspot) so I had to get the train in this morning. On Sundays at the station they have a market / boot fair. I got there in enough time to have a quick scoot around. They always make me giggle. How many Catherine Cookson books do you think there are, on average, at a British boot fair? I think this one had more than the usual. Over a hundred, at least, and they were still only just setting up!

There was also the brilliant character with a sort of singing Tourette's problem. 'Oh what a beautiful morning!' he sings, sounding drunk, in the rain. Someone at another stall says, 'I thought I saw..mumble mumble..' 'I thought I saw a puddy cat a-creeping up on me!' he replies. Then, surveying his lack of customers, 'Things... can only get better....!'

I concur. As usual, weekend work has started off with problems. As it means to go on, I expect. Hey ho. At least we get paid overtime...

Happy Sunday, readers.

Back from Travels 2

This is only in two parts because Blogger has decided to limit the amount of pics in one entry. Grr. Anyway, back to - where were we? - ah yes, Nepal...

Flying Buddha Air over Mt Everest. Yes, another 5am start! Magical though.

Stupa at Bodnath, Kathmandu. I loved this. Hundreds of people and monks walking around it clockwise, humming the mantra Om mane padme hum, clicking their prayer beads. Buddha's eyes are on all four sides of the stupa so he can look out over the whole world. And I love the prayer flags. I walked one circuit at dusk, and the mantra certainly gets into your head.

After Nepal, on to visit Ted and Emily in Hong Kong. I got some time to chill out (finally some mornings I didn't have to get up at ungodly hours to see mountains!) and explore.

Big Buddha on Lantau Island. The new Ngong Ping 360 cable car is now open, with a great view of the buddha on the way in. If you could see people in this pic, they would not even come up to half way up his knee. This is a seriously big buddha.

Man Mo temple, Hong Kong. These incense spirals can burn for a week.

Won Tai Sin temple, Kowloon. People shake cans of sticks with symbols on them until one falls out. The chosen stick can tell their fortune.

And finally, the view from Ted's balcony. Yes, that is Hong Kong City. Not bad eh? It's a little unnerving though. You are chilling out in the evening, walk into the living room and catch a glimpse out of the window. 'Fcuk!', you think, 'who put those skyscrapers in the garden?'

So there we go. Sorry there are not many words, but the pics speak for themselves. There are many, many more, but these will do for now.

Wool update - it has been done and is being shipped back the Blighty this week! The website is nearly done, we have a house full of needles and accessories, so we are nearly ready to go! I'll tell you the URL in my next entry. Hope you liked the travel pics!

Back from Travels 1

It's nice to be back. England smells of Christmas and holiday expectation. But I did have a fabulous time away!

This is the group I travelled with in India and Nepal, posing at Fatepur Sikri near Jaipur.

£12,500 necklace I tried on in Jaipur. I also tried on another at at least £50,000 - a Maharani style collar of pebble sized uncut diamonds and rubies. Why didn't I get a picture of that? Why???

Me at the Taj Mahal.

Arty farty shot at Agra Fort.

Tiger in Chitwan National Park, Nepal.

Spotting Indian rhino from the back of elephants. All we needed were rifles, pith helmets and a gin and tonic and we'd have been right back in the Raj.

Bathing elephants - or so we were told. Don't fall for that one people!

Getting up at 4.30am to see the sun rise over the Annapurnas...




More in part 2...

I will be away...

I think we ate that comedy carrot with supper last night. I'm sure I had a leg-shaped piece on my plate. Either way, it was very tasty!

Anyway, I am going away for three weeks tomorrow, travelling to India, Nepal and Hong Kong. A bit of a whistle-stop tour, but it should be good! I shall be seeing the Taj Mahal and the Annapurnas, and doing far too much shopping I imagine.

I will leave you with a pic of some of the wool samples colours we received back the other day. Aren't they lovely and glossy? That's the natural lustre of Romney wool. Avail for purchase in December, all you knitters out there!

Have a good few weeks all, I'll type and post some pics in around three weeks.

K

Comedy Root Vegetables

Just pulled this fantastic carrot from the garden:



Can't get better than that! Apart from a slug has started to have a go at him already. Interesting that it went for the leg first and not his diddly dander. Must have been a postman-biting canine in a former life.

I must credit mum though - also from the garden I got: courgettes, butternut squash, beefsteak tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, chilis, beetroot, ruby chard and red onion. And some eggs from the hens. Anyone want to have a Ready Steady Cook go at a recipe suggestion from that lot?!

Successful knitting project

I have a problem with sizings in knitting projects - usually jumpers come out vast. So vast I can fit two people in them at once. I don't get it, I knit the test swatch, all the measurements match the pattern, and by the time I've finished the thing has grown like one of mum's courgettes (aka marrows). But it's only jumpers - cushion covers, toys, anything else comes out fine.

So, it was lovely to do a project where you are actually *supposed* to knit the thing huge to start with. And then, in this case, bung it in the washing machine on a hot cycle (another woolly disaster area we know all too well) and shrink the thing down to something manageable.

Here is a pic of the complete bag:

Here is a pic post-wash. Count the bricks!



And here is a gratuitous picture of Mir, requested following previous mention. I told you she poses shamelessly for the camera.

Teen Romance

I must be getting old. There is a teen romance blossoming in our office and it is quite gruesome to watch. For a start they get lunch together and it's a bag of Haribo and two cans of Red Bull. Huh? Nutritional value? Oh, and a box of chocolate zoo animal biscuits. This is the guy that passed out following a week in Ibiza a while ago and I had to tend in a first aid capacity until the ambulance arrived. (They biffed him about until he came around and said he was dehydrated. They should have biffed him more in my current opinion.)

Second, the bird is the reception airhead who gets my hackles up - yes me, and it takes a lot to get a rise out of me. She sneaks up here to get a cup of tea and pick a fight with him. 'I'm upset', she pouts. 'Oh, d'ya wan' me ta buy you s'more cloves then?' he asks without taking his eyes from his screen. Good grief.

Spamalot

Saw this last night - very funny. Tim Curry was great as Arthur - not ingenuous like Graham Chapman was in the role, rather slightly sexually subversive in his Rocky Horror Show way. Lots of laughs, lots of silly jokes, lots of risque jokes, and lots of dialogue from the original film too, which of course the audience loved. ('I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!')

I particularly admired 'Ye Olde Rippe Offe Shoppe' in the foyers, selling Spam sandwiches, special tins of Spamalot spam, 'Fetchez la vache' Tshirts, coconut shells for horse hooves and fiersome Rabbit of Caerbannog hand puppets complete with Big Pointy Teeth.

We also tried out Gaby's on Charing Cross Road (just south of Leicester Sq tube station), which I have walked passed a hundred times but it looks like a dubious salmonella emporium from the road. In fact it's a very popular Turkish/Greek diner and the food was pretty good. Starters great (vine leaves and falafels), lamb kebabs perhaps a little dry though. But very busy, which always bodes well. And they gave us free dessert and another half bottle of wine on the house. *:)

Technology

Well, I finally did it and bought an mp3 player. Not an iPod, praise be. It's an iRiver, so we shall see how that goes. However I think I have been too long in a tech department staffed (apart from me) wholly by blokes, as I no longer bother with reading the instructions, but just start pressing buttons until the damn thing does what I want it to. Bloke mentality seems to be contagious. I will have to be careful. *:)

The trouble is, I am dancing along with the music! I'm working a bit late as I'm going to see Spamalot later, sitting here with one headphone in, and can't sit still! Will I be boogying all the way home on the train? Steve says that sometimes he finds himself singing along on the train. I think dancing may be slightly less embarrassing!

Hey ho. Only two weeks to go until holiday.....

Congrats to Clare!

Clare's Three Beautiful Things blog has been a Blog of Note for the past few days, and her hit counter has now exceeded 50,000! Well done Clare, and well deserved. I agree with lots of the comments, that there aren't enough positive blogs about - things that make you realise that actually, life is pretty good. Clare's is a great example of being positive without being schmaltzy.

So, this morning I managed to brave the Indian High Commission and get a visa. The form says: state date of arrival, date of departure, number of days you want the visa for, and number of entries to India. The visa comes back: start date today, for six months, multiple entry. Huh??

However, it was a good morning. Despite not getting there until after 8am (Steve warned me that dire things would happen if I got there late) I only had to queue down the street in the rain for about 40mins. And I made it through the scrum successfully with visa in hand by 10.40am, which is not bad at all. I have to say I have never seen a more tin pot system in a government building. I have a premonition that is the flavour of things to come on our travels....

Shopping

I did it! I've bought myself a new gun. Here it is:

It's a Lincoln Premier 20 bore over and under. And because it's brandy new it's an absolute pig to open and close. I literally have to break it over my knee at the moment.




It's a bit flash harry - the trigger is gold! A little bling for me I feel. Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to bag some pheasants this winter with it.

Nothing like spending money just before I go on holiday / buy a house / buy a car... Let's just hope the wool starts pulling in come ca$h soon.

Speaking of which, they have done a test spin but they are going to wind a ball for us before sending it over to inspect. So we should have something next week sometime. The website is growing - the web man has put a few more pages on.

Right, I have to walk the dog and fill up the pheasant feeders. Here is the dog:

She's a little camera shy, but still smiling. And has been following me around like a shadow all day, demanding entertainment. She's sleeping with her head on my feet as I type. Such a soppy dog.

To grump or not to grump

Trawling across the blogsphere, checking out how Other People do their blogs, it seems that either blogs are (a) vents for vitriolic spleen, or (b) places to be positive and happy, to work towards being in a Better Place in a shrink's office sort of way, or share luck and contentment and joy joy thoughts.

While type A can be quite amusing, they can also verge on the offensive (viz, The Finger and The Thumb). Type B on the other hand can become saccharine to the point of requiring a bucket, and/or desperate and/or dull. It's hard to strike a type B balance. Type B bloggers also seem to own an inordinate amount of cats.

I suppose there are also type C blogs which are sort of observatory diaries. While a teenager in Tokyo, potentially a window on a different culture, completely fails to deliver ('I went to the cinema with my friends heehee'), sometimes these sorts of blogs are the most interesting. A mom living in the country in the southern states of the USA, telling you about her neighbourhood, can be fascinating in the detail.

So in this fledgling blog, what direction should I take? I think I have dabbled in a few type A entries, but that started edging into the rest of my thinking, and I am not a ranting type person. At the moment, in fact, I am more of a happy positive 3BT person. So I consciously and subconsciously edge away from rants. I don't believe I am teetering on the brink of a nervous breakdown and require therapy and moral support from other bloggers, so type B is out. So should this be a type C diary and observation blog? To make that work I need, I think, to add some more *details*. Argh. Do people really care to read about my life?

What do you think makes or breaks a blog?