Return to Planet of The Eighties

 Really, what were we thinking? 

In the need of something mindless and soothing to do yesterday I remembered  a part knit sweater that I have been thinking for a long time I should pull out, and so I pootled off to see if I could find it. 

Here's the pattern. 

See what I mean? Upon investigation I discovered I was further through than I thought, which I suppose is why I have never actually frogged it before; full of good intentions about finishing it one day. A cool clear look at it yesterday meant realising that even if I did ever finish it, I certainly couldn't/wouldn't wear it, so despite having a completed front and two sleeves I set to work pulling it out. 

It didn't occur to me to take pictures until after the front was gone but here are the two sleeves 

Sadly, for these purposes, every time I cha,nged colour I had twisted the wool twice 'just to be safe' so it was a longer job  than I had  anticipated,and not quite as soothing as I had thought it would be. However, when I had finished this is what I had

and the intention is to turn it into blankets for premature babies. I should get three and maybe four out of that lot. And I discover that a stocking stitch preemie blanket with garter stitch borders is quite a soothing knit! 

Retirement Celebrations.

These were muted and were a game of two halves. We had chosen somewhere to go for lunch but in the event the offering, as they say these days,  wasn't very exciting and once the OH had had a wrap and I had had a not very satisfying cheese salad roll we decamped elsewhere for afters. 

These were the afters. 

Mine was the chocolate one, the OH's was salted caramel. And no I couldn't quite finish it. 

Today has thus far proved a very frustrating introduction to the rest of his life as he has been trying to set up his old smartphone for me. The new sim-card arrived and that was fine, but the process of trying to add apps is driving us both demented. I have a comprehensive list of site passwords, but no-one ever told me I would need to remember the e-mail address associated with each one. So these are not on the list, except in one case, where it turned out to be wrong. Such are the joys of the electronic age. 

Really all I want to do now is go and knit miles of garter stitch to calm myself down but my afternoon is already booked for boxing up piles of stuff to take to a charity shop in Stromness tomorrow which is actually accepting donations in the shop two days a week. All the stuff is in boxes already, but it's going to take some redistribution to get them to a stage where they can be taped up for easy transportation. 

Bunny Happiness scale is somewhere between 1 and 2. 

I daren't think what my blood pressure reading is. 

Books to Read Poster No 28

 

Yup, it probably looks like a coffin, but it's a wardrobe, and if I mumble in a slightly irritated fashion that this was a case of One for the price of Seven, you will realise that what we're dealing with is The Chronicles of Narnia. I read these a a child, and mostly loved them and we have them in the house because I bought them for the boys when they were little. Can't remember if either of them ever read them though.

I rather dreaded revisiting them to be honest, and they do display all the faults that I anticipated. Heavy handed Christian allegory, all the implicit sexist and militaristic attitudes you'd expect from a man of Lewis' generation, and at times a cloying sentimentality. That said, these are largely attributable to the times they were written and you have to make allowances. 

On the plus side, they are still exciting and very tense in places and I don't think a child would pick up on the faults that I do. Interestingly though, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was my favourite as a child, I discover is still my favourite, and The Last Battle, which I was dreading re-reading because I hated it as a child, I still hate. Well, hate is (too) strong a word. But I don't see me reading it ever again. 

There were other interesting things too. The mutual influence of Tolkien and Lewis is very detectable to anyone who has read both. And a sad thing I picked up on was the way the alcoholism of Lewis' brother seeped in to the storytelling in the last two books. I doubt he was even aware of it, personal experience slips under a writer's radar more often than I used to think could be the case, but there are incidents and descriptions that leave no doubt that Lewis lived only too close to an alcoholic. 

Overall, an interesting trip down Memory Lane. 

The OH has been baking again ...

 Possibly he is preparing for his enforced retirement which  is tomorrow. Or maybe he's just trying to perfect his macaroon making. 

Whatever the reason he made some macaroons recently and I have to say they are very lovely. I'm sure I must have recorded his previous attempts on here. They do get better each time, although I'm not sure he can improve on the latest lot. 

Here's a pic

Then he bought some cherries and made ice cream with them. And that was delicious too. 

I Like Coffee, I Like Tea ....

 but it's the coffee we're concerned with just now. 

Orkney boasts its own coffee roastery and we occasionally buy their beans, but as they're (obviously) not carried in the local Tesco it can be a bit tricky remembering to go where we can get hold of them. So much easier just to pick a bag of beans from the supermarket shelf and chuck it in the trolley.  Which is partly why I recently took out one of their subscriptions. 

For six months you get two packets of coffee a month sent through the post, different ones depending on what they are roasting at the time, and our first package arrived this morning. 

As you can see there are also some not-quite-tasting notes. We're looking forward to trying the coffee out. 

Here's a random photo of The Cat Lorenzo. We came home from somewhere the other day and he decided  to explore the inside of the car. He says he much prefers this freestyle wandering round the front to being confined to a cat carrier in the back.  

And on our walk last evening I took this photo and I'm posting it simply because I.m really quite proud of it. 

 

Bedside Books

This was Becoming Superman by J Michael (Joe) Straczinski and it was a Christmas gift from Son No 1. My suspicion that he bought it because he wanted to read it himself was confirmed recently when I told him I was reading it and he said 'I must borrow it from you sometime'. That's OK, it's not the first time one of us has bought the other a book with the idea of borrowing it later - shared interests and all that. 

Joe Straczinski has had a long and successful career as a writer of film, tv, and comic books/graphic novels, but we know him mainly as the creator, writer, showrunner and general overlord of Babylon 5, a science fiction tv series that aired in the mid-1990s. Everyone in our house was a big fan. Son No 1 and I even went to a huge B5 convention in Blackpool in 1996 which featured most of the cast and many of the production staff. Organisationally it was a total and utter shambles, but we still had a good time. 

I won't lie, this book is not an easy read. JMS was brought up, if you can apply the term, in a dysfunctional family headed by a violent, controlling and abusive alcoholic who regularly beat his wife (a former teenage prostitute) almost to death, and reduced her to a state where she  was too scared to either leave him, or protest when he used his fists/feet/belt on their children. I found the early stages so distressing to read that I had to ration myself to one, or sometimes, two chapters a day to get through it. 

I am amazed that JMS survived his childhood*, and even more that from such horrible beginnings he forged such a successful  career. 

*physically at least. Emotionally it has to be said that he comes across as a fairly damaged individual unable to make, indeed terrified of making, close personal relationships. 

One for the fans or the psychologists amongst us, rather than the general reader, I feel. 

RIP A Good Intention

 

A few years ago when I was doing Project 60 one of the things I tried was toe up socks. And this is the toe up sock that I did. I found it so awful to do, that I put it this completed  one to one side meaning to do the other one 'one day'. The 'one day' arrived a couple of months back, but when I dug it out I discovered that actually the one sock I had done had taken up something more than half my yarn and that ergo, making  a matching sock was not going to be possible. 

I could say I was heartbroken by this. I was not. I very happily pulled the sock out, and the yarn is now back in stash waiting for me to discover what it wants to be instead of a large bright unfinished pair of toe up socks. 

See, not everything I try is a success!