Projects and Wool Stats for October.

 Oh this is ugly! Not as ugly as it might have been but not good. 

No finished projects! 

Wool in 700g, wool out 198g, net increase for the month 502g, and net decrease for the year reduced to 5338g. 

Most of the Wool In was the Little Grey Cells club; there was the usual 150g for the three months plus I had ordered 200g of undyed to go with it.  The colours of the club are lovely but they are very bright and so the blanket I am using them for needed something to calm it down. All the wool out was work I did on that.

Of the rest I had the Debbie Abrahams Bunting Kit and I am well through that. Then I bought 200g of baby 'wool' to make a baby blanket for the daughter of a friend who is expecting her first baby in the spring, and I've just broken into the second ball of four. And none of the wool was an impulse buy, it all had  a purpose, which is a good thing. 

That said today has thrown up a multitude of problems and there's a lot of lovely pre-Christmas indie dyer stuff out there, so I'm hoping I can keep away from the Buy buttons. There will be advents arriving shortly and I'm off to a Knitting Show at the end of the month so hopefully the thought of  both of those things will keep me strong for now. 

And November should see some finished things; more time inside, some planned socks and the other two in progress projects inching towards completion. 

Pootling about

It's autumn and we've slowed down a bit. That said Son No 2 is coming over for the weekend as it's his birthday, and hot on his heels will be my sister visiting for  a few days. And there are a couple of other things on the calendar for November too. But it's not action packed like the summer was. 

Her's a bit of a catch up on some gentle days since we got back from Glasgow. 

We went for another walk in our local woodland, choosing a different path and coming across part of the Devon river which was much fuller and free flowing than we have seen it previously.

We went up to the independent book shop in Dollar one afternoon. We didn't buy any books but treated ourselves to coffee and cake.

mines the plain lemon drizzle at the front. Just so you know.

I did a jigsaw puzzle 

which, along with two others and a few bits and pieces we took to the charity shop for the local cat shelter. We also visited the cat shelter, donated some money and some food, and said we were pleased to help but not in the market for a cat. I think possibly we are in the market for a cat to be honest but possibly not until after Christmas. And it will need to be The Right Cat.

And I had some Happy Mail

I got 20% off because they are preparing to publish Knitted Kalevala III in the not too distant future. I already have Volume I but I think overall this one is better i.e. there are  more patterns in there that I wold like to knit.

I baked a cake. This was good of me as I do not like the ovens in our new kitchen and only the reflection that if I don't bake I will never get used to them gets me anywhere near my baking tins these days. 

So there you go. Quietly domestic days. 

Gallivanting in Glasgow

 As previously mentioned we went over to Glasgow last week. We went to the opera a couple of times and the day in between we went to the Tutankhamun Exhibition. This was at the S.E.C. where we had never been before, so we were unprepared for how massive the place was. The Tutankhamun exhibition was in only one of their halls, and it wasn't small! There was also a Christmas Craft fair on in a neighbouring hall. As it is years since I actually subscribed to any needlework or knitting magazines and quite a long time since I even bought a one off, I had no idea this was on, otherwise I might have been tempted to go back the next day. But we were busy and parking at the SEC is exorbitant and I wasn't really prepared for doing anything extra and spontaneous, so we didn't. Also the Christmas theming didn't grab me that much to be honest. 

The  Tutankhamun Exhibition  was very enjoyable. There were a few genuine artefacts, lots of replicas, a VR experience of how the Egyptians saw the afterlife,  a simulated trip down the river Nile with massive 360 degree film projections, a fairly sanitised video of how they made mummies and plenty of exhibition panels with information, beautifully done, with fabulous illustrations. 

I took lots of photographs and here are one or two

well you know me, it's all about the jewellery!

I loved this little canopic jar,  partly because I don't think the animal on the top can decide whether it's a lion or a polar bear

ha, ha! this made me laugh. According to the label this pair of sandals (obviously a replica) had pictures on the soles of Egypt's enemies so that every time the Pharaoh wore the sandals he was walking on his  enemies. Couldn't help wishing I had known this a decade ago, when I could have printed out a photo of my Ph D supervisor twice and popped the  resulting pics in my shoes. And walked on him, every day. 

A scene from the film projection. Whatever you took a picture of had human heads in the way, it was just the way things were. This has the fewest/smallest. 

All in all, money well spent.

We drove to the exhibition, see my comments earlier about parking but went to the opera on the bus. First nigh this was relatively straightforward, although we got to the theatre aeons early. The next evening we went out slightly earlier for the bus and waited in the cold for 40 minutes while the 5 buses that would get us to our destination that should have arrived at our stop failed to materialise. Several of them had times given  on the little screen telling us when they were due, and then they were about 3 minutes out they disappeared from the screen -  and apparently the streets. We were very panicked about whether we would actually make it to the theatre in time but in fact at the last possible moment, well about two minutes before the time we had decided we would need to give up, a bus arrived. It was  a nerve wracking ride in, as we tried to decide whether we would make it in time. We did, but more or less by the skin of our teeth. 

Going back was more entertaining. I was playing a game on my phone and vaguely heard the OH murmur something about 'he's gone the wrong way' but I didn't take much notice because there were road works and Hope Street was closed and there were diversions so I thought the driver had just taken one of those. Sadly not. The next thing was hearing  a voice from midway down the bus call out 'Hey, driver, you've gone the wrong way'. The driver ignored this through several repeats. I should say that the driver was not a native Glaswegian. The man telling him where he had gone wrong was. They carried on an inconclusive conversation for a wee while, all the time the driver continuing on his merry way, although happily only as fast as Glasgow traffic lights will allow, which is  is Not Very, and in the end  he was finally forced to take notice when half the rest of the lower deck passengers joined in the chorus of 'you've gone wrong. The person who had first drawn attention to the error took himself up to the front of the  bus, stood behind the driver's shoulder and proceeded to give him directions to get him back on the right road. Once that was achieved he got a round of applause from the rest of the passengers and stayed put until he got off some while later; luckily at that point the bus was on a road that basically carried straight on to the end of the route. I have never seen anything quite so Glaswegian in my life. 

And breathe ... 2 3

 Gordon Bennet life is throwing up some irritations  just now. 

I have lost my watch charger: since it is only ever in one of two places in the house this is absolutely incomprehensible, but we've looked in those two places and numerous others where we knew it wouldn't be, and wasn't,  and it has yet to show it's smug shiny charging prongs anywhere.  Hope now is that it got left in the Glasgow flat when we were over there last week. Surprised my watch hasn't needed charging since then, and I can't help feeling that surely I miust have charged it in the last seven days but who knows.....

My phone charger gave up the ghost overnight. My phone was 14% charged when I plugged it in last night, I listened to some audible stuff for half an hour then went to sleep about midnight. By 6 o'clock this morning the charge showed as 11% and it wasn't actually charging. New phone charger purchased by the OH at Tesco this morning. Hats off to him! 

Most unsettling was not being able to find some tickets that we need for this evening and tomorrow evening. Since I cannot believe I would not have transferred them to my e-nail ticket folder immediately upon receipt and forwarded the e-mail to the OH at the same time for our usual belt and braces  approach to such things, I suspect we never had an e-mail with the tickets attached in the first place. However I did not say this to ATG when I asked for duplicates as a) I can't be sure and b) I don't need the argument and c) why bother if they will re-send anyway. My major worry was that they would not arrive in time but full marks to ATG they arrived in less than an hour from me submitting the request for a duplicate set. 

So we are back off to Glasgow later today, staying two nights so that we can fit in two theatre performances ( although the buses are all higgledy  piggledy apparently because of roadworks near the theatre, just another irritation I could do without) and seeing the Tutankhamun exhibition tomorrow. I'm told it's very good - report here in due course no doubt. 

Meanwhile let's cheer ourselves up with a couple of penguins! 

Bad Day, Good Day

 So, Saturday was supposed to be such a good day. We were going up to Edinburgh, meeting an old friend in the early afternoon for a cup of tea and a bun, followed by an early evening meal with a recently retired friend and then we were going to the Festival Theatre to see Scottish Ballet's new ballet Mary Queen of Scots. 

The first thing to go wrong was that, when I rang to confirm arrangements for the tea and bun scenario on Thursday I discovered the friend and all his family were confined to bed with a terrible cold for the foreseeable future so he couldn't make it. Oh well we thought, that's OK, just means we can take  a later train into Edinburgh. 

Next up was a message on Saturday morning from the recently retired friend who was also bedridden with a lurgy and wouldn't be able to make it either. She said we could cancel the table she had booked for the meal or go regardless, she left it up to us. We considered cancelling, but then decided we'd quite benefit from a nice Italian meal, given the continuing stress around the flat so we decided to go. 

On the train into Edinburgh the OH checked the train times home. He had been convinced that on Saturdays, unlike Sundays, trains in the eveing were once an hour to Stirling, but his conviction had been misplaced. We then checked the running time of the ballet, whihc I was convinced was about 1 hour 20 and my conviction was also misplaced, as it was actually 2 hours 10 ( or 2 hours 20 depending on which Google answer you believed) This meant that we would miss the train just after ten, giving us a wait of 40/50 minutes for the Last Train Home just after 11, getting to Stirling at about midnight and home about half an hour after that. By the time we'd worked that out, I was not a happy bunny. 

Still we turned up at the restaurant ready to relax and enjoy an unhurried meal. We explained about our friend not being able to make it and the man checking us in said 'You should have phoned to tell us. Now there is a big problem rearranging tables'. He accompanied this with an exasperated sigh. 

Now my tolerance level for men speaking to me as though I am an idiot and a trouble maker had been well breached earlier in the week by a surveyor who treated me as though I were a cretin, and when I tied to insist he stop telling me something I had understood even before he told me it the first time, let alone after his third repetition and actually answered the question I was asking, had told me to 'stop shouting'. I wasn't shouting but I have noticed occasionally with other people that hurling an accusation of shouting  seems to be a new tactic for getting someone to shut up. Presumably they then back off lest they be thought rude. I suspect this is a tactic that only works in Britain. Anyway, I'd had enough of stroppy men for a week,  so I asked the maitre d', which is presumably how he saw himself, if he would prefer that we go somewhere else instead?  Quite why it should be such a major problem since it involved nothing more than possibly taking away a chair from  a table or even just having us sit at a table with an  empty chair I don't know. Note also the 'now there is a problem ...' which didn't straight out accuse us of being the problem but certainly wasn't accepting that it was his problem and nothing to do with us. I bet people are forever booking tables and then not turning up and we certainly hadn't done that! Although by then I was wishing we'd cancelled it. 

This did nothing at all to lighten my mood and since we were annoyed we skipped the bruschetta we'd been planning to have, and confined ourselves to one soft drink apiece with what we did eat.  I will say that the food was very nice and the waiting staff friendly and efficient, and had it not been for the attitude of the man with the table plan I'd be planning to go again. However he did have an attitude and we won't be going again even if it  is Italian and less than a minute's walk from the Festival Theatre. 

We didn't have coffee there but had that in the theatre bar instead. 

I have to give you that photo because it's the only one I have of the day.  Taking photos of the ballet was forbidden as usual. I think I could probably have taken one at the curtain call had we been there but we weren't. We didn't enjoy Act 1 so we left  in the interval. That at least meant we got the just after 9 train and were home just before half ten. Had we loved the ballet we would have bitten the bullet and stayed but it certainly wasn't worth, to us, the extra time and hanging about that staying until the end would have meant. 

I loved Mary's first act costume and I loved the music. The dancers were all excellent.  However there were too many gimmicks and for those of my readers who remember it, there was a lot of 'Pingu' movement. It was also very longwinded and repetitive in places. So repetitive indeed that the OH dropped off several times. Also given that this was a national Scottish company, who commissioned a ballet about a Scottish icon ( I know, it's weird that MQ0S IS an icon and I wouldn't accord her iconic status myself but there you go) I found it offensive that the ballet opened with the English Queen Elizabeth and that she was given equal prominence with Mary - certainly in Act 1 and as far as I could see from the synopsis in Act 2 as well. This wouldn't have mattered if the ballet had been called Mary and Elizabeth, or even, Elizabeth and Mary but it wasn't. It was called  Mary Queen of Scots and to build it around the concept that Mary was defined only in opposition to the ultimately ' winning' Elizabeth ( itself an historic construction of arguable validity) is the biggest act of cultural cringe I've seen in a   Scottish institution for - well not as long as I'd like, but certainly several years. 

So Saturday was a day to forget. Sunday we were promised rain all day which is what we go and I did some ironing, finished a jigsaw puzzle, read a book and did some sewing. It was much more enjoyable than Saturday was. 

Here's the puzzle 

It is on loan from my sister and she's coming to stay early in November so I wanted it done ( this was my second attempt) before then, so that she could take it home with her. It is very much a sign of my disturbed equilibrium last week that I was doing a jigsaw puzzle at all. I'm hoping I won't need to resort to another one any time soon. 

Happy Mail

 

Yes it's the 2025 Bonne Maman Advent Calendar. It arrived on Thursday which seems w-a-y- early to me, but at least we know it's arrived. Complete with the large bonus jar of the BM answer to Nutella. Yum! 

This is the third year we've had this and it makes me smile to think about it. Because four years ago when I saw someone with it on a You Tube video I laughed like a drain at the thought that anyone could take a jam advent calendar seriously. And yet, here we are. 

In other news I went to the U3A Crime Fiction group again last week and enjoyed it. I went to the Knitting Group again yesterday and enjoyed that too.. So I think they're now established as fixtures on the calendar. Things have not panned out quite so well with the Pilates class. I went one week, the next one was cancelled for lack of numbers and this week it's cancelled for half term. So I'm going to have to rethink that one. It was good in that it was close to home but I need something that I know is going to be there regularly, not a  hit and miss  event. It may be time to bite the bullet and join the local gym/swimming pool/ice rink conglomerate and I'll look into that next month. The rest of October is looking quite busy so we'll fit in some walks when the weather is nice, which apparently it's not going to be tomorrow! as out exercise and I'll focus on sorting out something else come November. 

Serendipity in Florence

The day we had earmarked for spending in the area around Il Duomo and a visit to its interior  turned out to be wet. I have to say that it rained at some stage every day we were in Florence, generally quite lightly. But this day was wet most of the time. We had not, as previously mentioned, reserved tickets to go and climb the Bell Tower, nor for climbing into the Dome itself. In theory you can visit the inside of the Cathedral for free, but when we arrived at about 10,00 a.m. there was a very long queue. Supposedly it was about two hours long. We walked to the frint where the entrance was roped off and no-one in the queue was going anywhere, so that was 2 hours plus however long it was before they let anyone in, and as I say it was wet. We sat and contemplated the outside of the cathedral for about half an hour, watching people come and go and the queue not move an inch, and trying to take  reasonable photographs of the outside,  and then  we decided to have a wander about, preferably along some small overhung streets as the rain was getting harder. 

This was how we fell across the Baptistry of San Lorenzo. It's huge and, having looked it up since, extremely important in Florentine history and architecture but what drew us in were the cloisters. You could just catch a glimpse of them from the street and we're suckers for cloisters at the best of times so we coughed up 9 euros apiece and walked in. They were lovely. Also dry.  As a bonus the tickets weren't; for the cloisters per se but the Medici Library which was on the second storey and fabulous. 

yup, very wet. This is half the long side of the Church, it's huge. 

the cloisters at ground level

and from the second storey

and a view of the first and second storeys

the Medici library 

 above and below the reading room 

yet again a magnificently painted ceiling and the question has to be why? did medieval Florentines spend most of their time on the floor? 

We didn't know much about San Lorenzo before we went to Florence and even now we know very little. Twenty or thirty years ago we'd have been more prepared, have read up more and known more about what to look at, not just here but Florence in general. And that's very laudatory but actually I wonder if perhaps just wandering about and following our noses and going to places that catch our eye and interest isn't in the end more enjoyable. I couldn't have appreciated the cloisters more if I had known the date they were built or who had designed them, we went to see them because we just like cloisters. And the Medici library was just a wonderful extra.