The Bag Bungle

So, as we all know I've been partaking of the Virtual Yorkshire Yarn Fest for a few months, but generally avoiding buying yarn,  and just drooling over it instead. Because I don't need any more of it, but I like to look at it. And see what other things people are selling. Like patterns. And bags. 

Well,  last time I saw a medium sized  project bag that I really liked and I dithered for a bit, well for over a week and then thought, what the heck,  I  would order it, so I pootled over to the website and put it in a virtual shopping cart and pressed Buy Now. And then it told me to pay with a method I didn't wang to use and there was no alternative way to do it so, because I really liked the bag and really wanted it, I asked the OH to order it for me instead. Which he did because he likes to do little things for me. 

He then got very impatient waiting for it to arrive, and looked out for postie, and got crestfallen each day it didn't come. (Don't be surprised I told him. This is Orkney. Stuff takes longer to get here. Which it does.) 

Anyway the  day finally arrived, the bag came, beautifully wrapped, I undid it and - was terribly disappointed, because they had sent the wrong design. Now unkind people might think that this was the OH's fault and he had  ordered the wrong one, but that was  not at all the case, because I knew from the copy of  the order that  they e-mailec that he had in fact ordered the correct one.

Now it must be said that  the firm concerned were great and sent out the right bag straight away, without waiting for the wrong one to be returned which I promised them would happen the  moment I saw over Skype that the right one had arrived. They were cool with that , and said they would refund the return postage in due course. 

The  new bag arrived on Thursday and it was the right one and the wrong one is now winging its way  back whence it came. I haven't mentioned the name of the company company because anyone can make a mistake and they put it right as quickly as they could and anyway I love the bag. And I have to say their Customer Service is waaaaaaayyyyyy ahead of that of a large Swedish furniture company. So this isn't a name and shame post. I suspect it  was an easy mistake to make but we  have  been at the wrong end of too many on-line mess ups recently and I'm just wanting to shriek, why can't people just do their jobs properly?  Then there wouldn't need to be customer service, good or bad. 

In other news I have added Avengers Assemble and Iron Man to my tally of Marvel Films. From which you may deduce that the weather in Glasgow is still far too hot to do anything outside. 

Coat Crisis Concluded

 The Sofa Saga was not the only hassle some incident to afflict the household recently. We have also been in the throes of The Shirt Shambles and The Coat Crisis not to mention The Bag Bungle. Of these one is now sorted, one is almost sorted and the third one is unlikely ever to be sorted, so today I'll tell the tale of the one that got resolved this morning. 

One of the reasons we chose last weekend to come to Glasgow was to see a Real Live Opera with real live music and singers and ev'ryfink. It was designed and directed by David McVicar and he'd done it especially for an outdoor setting so that SO could do it in their production studios car park in a marquee. We got tickets, including one for son no two, which was no mean feat as hot cakes weren't in it, and we were really excited about it. 

It was fabulous but I'll save that for a  later post. Meanwhile, since we weren't sure about the weather proofness of the marquee and since it was humid I took my shower proof jacket with me in case it rained. In the event the marquee had an extensive roof and anyway it didn't rain. 

So the jacket wasn't needed and to keep me warm in the evening air I had with me a very beautiful shawl/stole that I knitted some time ago and which I've never previously had a suitable  occasion to wear it to. So entranced was I by the performance and by how beautiful the shawl was that at the end we waltzed away, saying hello and waving to one or two people, and it  wass 4 in the  morning when I woke up and realised I had left the coat behind. 

It was eventually traced by the joint efforts of several people and this morning I took a train into Glasgow Centre, met up with the lovely Grace from SO, we had coffee and a chat and she  returned my coat to me. So that was one happy ending at least.

Glasgow is HOT, so now I'm back from retrieving my coat it will be a  quiet afternoon and evening at home reading and, when it has cooled down a little, knitting. I may also watch another Marvel Superhero Movie. So far I've done Thor and Dr Strange ....

I've also been  to Edinburgh and Kirkcudbright and IKEA and M&S and seen a lot of art and done some cleaning and Moving Stuff About in the flat, so I've done things rather than just loafed about. It could be a bit of a loafing about weekend though. 

And yes there will be photos. Eventually. 

Well, we're here.

Arrived safely in Glasgow despite some truly shocking weather. It seemed a longer and more tedious journey than usual. Not sure if that was because we haven't done it for a while,  or because it seems longer if we catch the lunchtime ferry. Or it could have had something to do with a disturbed night; the cat Lorenzo, deprived of his usual access to the great outdoors overnight took to prowling and whining for most of the hours between one and seven, thereby making sustained sleep impossible. Of course by the time we came to pack him up in the cat carrier he was fast asleep, which made it easy to get him in there, but seemed a tad unfair since the humans didn't have the luxury of daytime napping. 

This morning we took ourselves off to Braehead where we subjected ourselves to the twin horrors of IKEA and looking for trousers for me in M & S. I do not understand why it is quite so difficult to find navy/grey/black trousers in a suitable fabric with straight legs these days. Well I say these days, I can't remember the last time I managed to find trousers there without having to trail around acres of  skinny/slimfit/bootcut/cropped/ flared or whatever trousers in lycra, or Jersey, or shiny stuff, or that material that feels horrible on your hand or something that claims to be wool mix and which you can spit through. Honestly I'm half convinced that one day I will pitch up and the  only navy trousers available will be made in crimplene. I did at least remember to check that neither of the pairs I bought had side zips. I also bought a couple of cardigans, they both  fitted and were 2 completely different sizes, so go figure that out ... by this time I was past caring. They had buttons which is a rare thing in a cardigan these days, and they were the right colour and I liked them so size really didn't matter!

As for IKEA I am totally out of love with it. Leaving aside the Sofa Saga, with which I have yet to regale the blog, they seriously need to sort out their  ventilation, because mask wearing in there is seriously uncomfortable. Also I so resent the fact that you have to walk around the whole store even when you know what you want. On the upside they had what I wanted so that was a plus. 

Glasgow is warm and sunny, which is lovely when you're not trailing around a Scandinavian furniture store, so I'm having a quiet afternoon, before going to the opera this evening. Yes  a live performance no less, by Scottish Opera who are doing Falstaff in a marquee in their production studios car park. We're taking son no 2 and we have even ordered refreshments for the interval. It's had rave reviews so it should be a good night.

Holiday Nails

 

I'm not sure how well the details can be seen on that pic, but lots of flowers for the summer. I've reverted to the blue background I liked so much when I had it with the butterflies in the spring. 

And yes, holiday nails suggests that we are going away. I shall be off Orkney for a whole month. Normally when I'm away this means a hiatus for the blog, but as I now have a smart phone ( an OH cast off since he has upgraded) and I will also be taking my tablet, posts may well continue regardless, while some entries may be a  bit shorter than usual. It will be like a holiday diary. 

Packing for almost five weeks away is no picnic especially when you don't know what the weather will be like and you'll be enjoying a mixture of informal and semi-formal occasions. It's been a stressful undertaking, especially as I will be doing part of the trip solo by train and therefore need a suitcase with wheels and of manageable size but which will still hold clothes for a week plus related 'stuff', but I think I'm almost there. Just need to chuck in the jewellery and the knitting (both of which will take longer than that implies as neither have yet been chosen) and Bob's Your Uncle. 

Anyway Glasgow, Yorkshire, Devon, Lincolnshire - here I come! 

Joint Effort

 

A wee while ago I bought some 'ripen at home' apricots because I like apricots and you don't often see fresh ones although I use shedloads of dried ones in my baking. At the weekend I had a trawl through my baking books to see what I could do with them and sadly there was a dearth of recipes that used the fresh, rather than the dried or tinned, variety. 

In the end I decided on an apricot and almond tart, which used tinned apricots but I decided that fresh ones would work and I set out to make it yesterday. 

I discovered that the food processor is what the OH referred to as 'a bit dodgy' these days. Apparently he's been saying that 'for ages'. Also that it should be thrown away - in the small electrical recycling skip at the local tip, not just chucked into the bin. . Maybe he has. I only ever use it for making pastry and if that's once a year that's all it is, so I possibly heard him say it without necessarily taking it in. It started, it stopped, it wouldn't re-start: the OH was summoned and he fiddled with it, it started again, the lid got jammed, and really it was all a lot of bother, and possibly more bother than it was worth. I ventured to suggest that perhaps it was time to be rid of the machine as per his previous position,  recalling that we had inherited it from my mother, who  had had it for some time and who died in 2004. At this point he did an about turn and declared that 'it was just the handle switch on the jug and he might be able to repair it with a bit of silicon glue'. (Sigh)

Anyway, having made the pastry I got him to roll it out because I hate doing that, I mashed up the apricots and discovered that I didn't have nearly enough so we had to add some canned peaches. and all in all by the time it was in the oven I had gone completely off the whole idea. 

It tasted good though. 

Bedside Books - yes another one

This is the one I read Red Shift as a holiday from and its Genesis by Karin Slaughter. It was one of two  passed on to me by a friend. I read the first one and this one is supposed to be a follow on so I thought I would read that too, despite some  strong reservations about KS books in general. 

Here's the conundrum. These books have strong plots, interesting characters. good writing, plausible twists and turns. But they are about nasty people doing unspeakable things to other people, and the other people are generally women and/or children. 

That's problematic for me in two ways. One is that it makes it a hard, sometimes barely possible, read. The other is that I don't think extreme violence against women is suitable subject matter for  books written to entertain - and that's before you consider how some twisted minds might take inspiration from them. 

I won't be reading any more and as a small and probably useless contribution to holding back the tide of prurient misogynist violence masquerading as 'good books'  this copy is destined for my recycling bin rather than the charity shop.