Guest of the Day - not Good News

We had an early-ish flight to Helsinki, and by the time you'd factored in time for breakfast, getting from T5 to T3 and being there the requisite two hours before take off it meant an early start. So we decided on an early night. 

We'd been in bed about half an hour when there was the sound of someone using a keycard on our room door and then pushing and banging on the door  when it wouldn't work. I thought it was the room opposite and muttered something about inconsiderate noise levels and turned over. They went away. Half an hour later, they, or someone else was doing the exact same thing. OH opened door, explained this was our room. They said they'd been allocated it. OH suggested they contact reception. OH himself contacted reception by phone to tell them what had happened. An hour later it happened again with another set of guests. This time the OH got up, got dressed and went down to reception. No-one seemed to know what was happening but we were told it wouldn't happen again and to be fair it didn't. But that's not really the point, is it? It shouldn't have happened at all! I was a bit dubious about going downstairs next day for our  included breakfast, but happy to report that that at least went without a hitch. 

A couple of days later the OH got one of those 'tell us how your stay was' survey things. I saw this excited  glint in his eye and he told them exactly how the stay was. 

We got 50% of the cost of the room back. And we have the promise of 50% off our next stay in an upgraded room too. We'll see how that pans out. I'd have asked just for a 100% refund for the interrupted night we had just had, but IF all goes well with the promised upgrade next time I won't be unappreciative. 

The Kindness of (Almost) Strangers

 A few months ago I did a small favour for someone. I offered, thought they might refuse, but they accepted and I did it. In fact I did it twice and I remain open to doing it again if asked. It took me a very small amount of time and the small amounts of money it took were refunded and that was fine. I was pleased to do it, 

A wee while ago the person for whom I did the favour let me know there was a small package on its way as a thank you. It arrived this week, and look at the lovely stuff that was in it!

The caramello koalas might be a clue that the person that I did the favour for lives in Australia; they're like the caramel freddo frogs we get in Britain but koala shaped. All the chocolate was lovely although I think our favourite was the peach and apricot Fruitchocs. Tough call though. 

Side note. I eat Kellogs Special K with peach and apricot  for breakfast most days. This can no longer be sourced in either the Kirkwall or the Glasgow branch of Tesco near where our son lives. It can be had in Tesco in Wick (although not Thurso),  and the big one on the outskirts of Inverness. This means that every time we go south we stock up with four boxes of the stuff. I feel I am doing the job which the distribution arm of Tescos should be doing. In fact I should probably be writing to the manager of the Tesco in Kirkwall and asking why they don't have it any more. Maybe another month....) 

Meanwhile eagle eyed readers will also have spotted the yarn. Sadly the photo has leached out some of the colour, especially the blue green and grey one. I am desperate to find patterns for these two skeins before they become members of the 'too precious to use' club. I have several skeins in that already, and it irks! 

The London Mithraeum

 We had an early flight to London from Glasgow and were too early too check into our hotel. We knew we would be; we just dropped our bags, hopped onto the (now amazingly expensive) tube and went into the City. I'd been looking for things to do and The London Mithraeum had come up on lots of Top 10 lists. We'd never been so it seemed like a good idea. 

And it was. It's in the Bloomberg building and it's free and I have to say they have done an amazing job. Mind you, I expect they can afford it; that said they didn't have to open up the site, or not charge. Paternalistic philanthropy, culture-washing of possibly obscene profits - yes. But then I get to see a fabulous excavated Roman temple so should I complain? A tricky one. 

You go in at street level where there's a changing exhibition of contemporary art, and a permanent display of some of the artefacts that were found when excavating the Temple of Mithras. The excellent brochure tells me this was founded in the 3rd century AD. Go down one level for an explanation of the cult of Mithras, displays, video projections, sound tracks. It was great. And then finally down another level to the remains of the temple itself where they put on an 'immersive experience'. Lights, incense, chattering and chanting. Probably not very authentic, but enjoyable all the same. 

A few photos.

This is the current exhibition, called Albion Waves. I don't know why, because it's pots. Some are very lovely and they are all British, hence Albion I suppose. It's all very arty arty stuff, according to the brochure, but enjoyable nonetheless. Here are a couple of the pots, one just because I liked the decoration, and one (the black one) because it's by Edmund de Waal, of The Hare with Amber Eyes fame. 

Then inside the temple 

some of the original walls

a replica of the Taureion, which would have been - possibly - the focal point of  the Temple. (Mithras' main claim to fame seems to have been killing a bull. As a side note, what is it with the Mediterranean and killing bulls ....?)

We really enjoyed our visit. After we came out we had a bit of a wander around the City, including walking down Gracechurch Street, home of Elizabeth Bennet's Gardiner relations in Pride and Prejudice, and Lombard Street where the Italian bankers first settled in C13. Then a quick meal in a pub before returning to our hotel.

We were greeted with the news that we had been selected as Guests of the Day, which meant a room upgrade and breakfast included for free. This sounds like good news, but tune in tomorrow for a short tale of woe ....

More Special Socks and a Teeny Tiny Thing

 So here are the socks 

and I appreciate that they don't look particularly special, and I personally loathe the colour, but as regular readers will anticipate, right up the OH's street. The reason they are special is that I tried a different way of knitting the heel. I've heard people muttering about the shadow wrap heel and how wonderful it is for so long that I decided I'd give it a go. Lots of people find that it feels like a better fit than a flap and gusset heel which is what I've been doing since the year dot of my sock knitting. It seems the OH is no exception, so I suppose I'll be doing shadow wrap heels for him for the foreseeable. 

Here is the teeny tiny thing. Long story, but here's a shortish version. OH wanted a sweater I did for him years ago reknitted, because it was too big. Went into shop in Savonlinna and discovered it carried Finnish Wool. Also discovered that Aran weight, which is what is needed for sweater reknit, is a thing unknown to Finnish knitters. OH fell in love with some Finnish wool, I foolishly asked if they had a pattern for it, they had one he really liked and I had bought it before realising that it was in Finnish only. (I had thought it might be in Swedish as well as much of Finland is bi-lingual like that and I was fairly confident I could cope with a Swedish knitting pattern, especially one relying heavily on charts like this one did. The woman in the shop, obviously not a knitter herself, told me the sweater in the pattern was knitted top down which didn't thrill me, but I've done a few now so reckoned I could cope. Totally bemused by pattern for ages, until I realised that in fact it is knitted bottom up but in the round, so not something I have done before. I was asking about how it was done in a Ravelry group, as I reckoned translating the pattern would be easier if I had some rough idea of what it would be getting at, and not only did someone come up with a good concise description, someone else pointed me in the direction of this pattern which is a very mini Lopapeysa sweater and  which would give me a quick practical lesson in the technique. So I did that this afternoon. 

It was OK, but I will need to relearn underarm grafting before I try it on the real thing. However that's a long way ahead just now. Tomorrow I shall get out some of the wool and try a tension check. Which I hate doing in the round, but there you go. Needs must. 

Also tomorrow, I intend to start writing up our trip away on the blog , but who knows how that will go ....

And we're back

 

Savonlinna  was amazing. We had the most spectacular time - more details to come over the next few days (well, good intentions there, obviously).

A couple of fairly typical views above, both taken from where our hotel was, right on a lake. Mind you, large swathes of Finland actually are lake, so that's not hard. 

We are already planning to go back to the Opera festival next year, although under our own steam, because this trip taught us two things.

1) It is far too long since we were last in Finland (35 years approx?) and we need to go again.

2) 99% of the people who can afford to go on organised trips with the firm we have been using are obnoxious and we don't want to run the risk of encountering any of the ones who were on this one ever  again. 

We're here for the next eight weeks so I am hopeful I can get caught up on the blog before we go away again! 

Books to Read Poster No 51

 

Hooray, over the top and on the downward slope, if only just.

Book No 51, if you haven;t guessed from the wee picture, was The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. 

I read this as a teenager and that's probably the best time to read it. Now, although the basic premise is interesting, and Wilde has some pertinent things to say about society, hypocrisy, aestheticism and even decadence and its interplay with religiosity, I find it pretentious  and self conscious piffle. If he had reined in his love for the witty epigram every once in a while it would have made for  a better book. 

The version I listened to was a free one from Audible and the text might have been more bearable with a different narrator, The book was 'read' or perhaps 'overperformed' would be a better way of putting it, by Russell Tovey. I have no idea where he got his concept of upper class accents but nowhere anchored in reality, that's for sure.  As another Audible reviewer put it, all his female characters sounded like pantomime dames. As far as the narration went, he sounded by turns bored and baffled and as for his pronunciation. - does no-one at Audible ever check that their performers know how to say things? I had this with Frankenstein and it was bad, but it wasn't as bad as this. I lost count of them but some real standouts were 

comeliness pronounced to rhyme with lonelyness

BROCK-aid with the stress on the first syllable, presumably some sort of charitable push to help dying badgers, rather than a fine textile

hick-coffing for hiccoughing

and Ri-MIN-i for Rimini. 

Here's a sad thought; he was paid to massacre the English language like this. 

This is the last blog post for a while. Tomorrow we set off for points south and then east as we make our way to Savonlinna for the opera festival. Back here I hope just before the end of the month. 

Paris Swag

I didn't buy much when I was in Paris, Given the general loveliness of the museum shops I encountered that says rather more about my will power than I would have thought possible(!) but I did pick up a few bits and pieces. 

Generally my souvenir of choice these days is the fridge magnet. They're cheap, ubiquitous, take up no space when you get them home and they look pretty. Perfect souvenir material really. 

I bought a couple in Paris. 

The top one is from the Musee Cluny, showing  a detail from one of the Unicorn tapestries,  and the bottom one is  from the Musee de Montmartre. 

And then there were a few small bits and pieces. There is nothing from the shops in the Musee D'Orsay because I was almost  too tired to look round them, and certainly not up to making decisions about what to buy, or indeed queuing at a till to pay for what I chose. A missed opportunity, or money saved? One of the two! 

Meanwhile here is what I did buy

The cross stitch kit and the greyhound (destined for the Christmas tree) came from the Musee Cluny. Heaven knows I do not need another cross stitch kit but this one looked small-ish and I loved the colours and that it would remind me of my wonderful time in Paris. Then there's a pen and a bar of soap from the shop at the Musee de Montmartre. The French make such beautiful soap. Between the soap and the dog , and you will probably have to click on the  photo to enlarge it so that you can see them properly, is a pair of earrings, also from the M de |M. They are in the shape of small artist's palettes. I've never bought or worn a pair of ear-rings that drew forth so many spontaneous expressions of liking. I love them; just something a bit different. 

And that was it. Sum total of my souvenir shopping. I am hopeful that I can be as abstemious in Savonlinna next week.