The World Has Gone Mad

 Yesterday, for a reason to be explained at a later date, the OH went mid-week shopping on his own. This means that the house is now full of rather more sweet,  calorie laden   things than is strictly reasonable, but hey! they will last a while. And we'll enjoy them.

Amongst the goodies he brought back were these. 

Jelly Babies Chicks? Specially wrapped multi-pack of Turkish Delights for the coronation? 

I assume you don't need to be coloured a republican to find the latter really really odd? And if you do, well then, get out your crayons and advance upon me with them at the ready .....

Craft Plans - An Early Finish to a Large Project.

You've seen a couple of teaser photos for this, but here is the finished item in all its completed glory. I know, it's huge. Let's not dwell. 

Pattern was Helen Stewart's Anthology Throw and the yarn was Beehive Yarns 2022 advent calendar. This was called A Year at the Cabin and based on the Little Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. So it's basically a four season fade,  starting with spring and working outwards towards winter. It's  the first, and probably last, ever pi based circular knit I have done. The cast off took me over five hours. I'm not in a hurry to knit it again. That said, I'm very pleased with the finished article (although there are a few things that I would change if I were starting it again) and actually quite proud I stuck with it. The plan was to finish this by the end of April so it's come in well under time. 

Look What Postie Brought Yesterday!

 And no, it's not wool. 

It's an up to date guide to Paris.

I wrote in a letter to someone recently '...and then I'm spending a few days in Paris with a friend. This makes my life sound a lot more exciting and glamorous than it really is ...'

Which it does. Because I feel we haven't really done much over the last few years and I know that's down to Covid and I know we've been making up for lost time over the past few months, but you know, of course a few days in Paris is exciting but it isn't my norm. I suppose if it were the norm it would be less exciting for me but seem more exciting to others.

Anyway since I am gong it made sense to invest in an up to date guide book because it is literally decades since I was last there. A pre A-level intensive french course in 1974, and that was at Versailles, although we did have a few days when we went into the city, and before that a couple of visits with my parents when I was a much younger teenager. For our first visit my mother borrowed a book from a friend entitled Paris in Four Days and I have to admit that, by following it religiously,  we did get around most of the must-do places, even including a half day trip to Versailles. But we were exhausted by the end. Other enduring memories of that holiday include my aunt suggesting that we take home and frame the bill for the meal on the first evening because it was eye-wateringly expensive, and my father being conned/bullied/shamed into buying a little St Christopher medal on the steps of Sacre Coeur. To add insult to injury it wasn't long after Christopher had been 'unsainted' by the Pope. Obviously the seller saw a gullible Englishman approaching who she could off load an, even more worthless than before, piece of junk on to, and proceeded to do so. 

Anyway much of Paris has changed since then and I've changed even more. so  I'm really excited at  the prospect of going and experiencing Paris as a grown up. But first I must read the guide book and prioritise what I want to see. It will be four days again, and it won't be nearly enough! 

Last Day in Madeira

For this we spent the morning on a whale watching trip, which was a bit chilly but well worth it. Again lots of firms offer these excursions in  a variety of boats; we went for the one that claimed to have an  eco-friendly boat and was bookable through our hotel. 

They do not guarantee that you will see whales, or dolphins, or indeed anything at all but we were lucky and saw two groups of common dolphins, two pods of pilot whales complete with several mothers and calves and a bonus loggerhead turtle. 

We wouldn't have minded not seeing anything really as we just like to be on the water but that doesn't mean we weren't pleased to see as much as we did. 

It's very difficult to take photos of leaping dolphins and cruising whales while trying to stand still and keep your camera stable on a catamaran type thing that's going up and down. hence my photos were all rubbish. 

This one was the OH's. In the event I realised I was being stupid; I was trying so hard to take a perfect photo (which wasn't going to happen) that I wasn't properly experiencing seeing these wonderful creatures for myself. And when I realised that,  I put away the camera and concentrated on the moment instead. 

It was explained to us that there are very strict rules about whale watching in Madeira, which is to try and prevent the animals becoming stressed. So only one boat at a time at any particular pod, and only ten minutes per boat. It occurred to me that a) this is all well and good but if you had 20 boats that's 200 minutes of something watching the whales so if they get stressed then that's going to stress them even if an individual boat is just there for 10 minutes,  and b) if you have to be so careful  why not just ban it altogether. There again you won't stop people wanting to go and watch the whales so I suppose licencing boats and regulating what they do is probably the best that can be done. 

After the whales we had a very nice lunch out in Funchal and yes, we did have cake again for dessert.

Mine is the chocolate cake and the OH had the strawberry tart. Both delicious. Then it was back to the hotel for packing and getting ready to start the homeward journey the next day. 

We loved Madeira. Not enough to want to go back, because there are still lots of places we want to see for the first time,  but we had a lovely time there and I'm hopeful the OH has now seen the benefit of getting away somewhere warmer in the winter month so that we can go somewhere else  next year. Watch this space! 

Madeira Day Trip

The economy of Madeira relying very heavily on tourism there were lots of trip on offer, or I should say there were lots of companies offering basically the same two excursions; they all went from Funchal and went either west or east. It was a bit of a toss up for us as to which one we took, but inthe event we took the Western one, mainly because it was on a slightly more convenient day. They both looked as interesting as one another. We could of course have booked to walk a levada, which is a huge thing, but we hadn't brought boots and it wasn't 3eally warm enough for me to contemplate walking for six hours. Or anything enough really. Six hours is a long time to be walking. 

We were picked up at the hotel by a minibus and the driver proceeded to collect the rest of the passengers. These turned out to be; a morose Finnish couple with whom I tried in vain to strike up a conversation, a young couple of indeterminate origin, possibly Italian, who exchanged not a word with anyone but one another, and  a late middle aged couple of English women who never stopped talking and were always last (and late) back to the minibus when we stopped. 

We didn't get told by our driver/guide much about the history of Madeira in general or the places that we went to in particular so a lot of the time we were looking at places we knew nothing about. 'Lovely small village with interesting church' was about as lyrical as he waxed, unless he was talking about what he had said a few weeks ago to the Minister for Tourism and what the Minister for Tourism had said back to him. He also took time out to report a small travelling funfair which we encountered in one of the 'nice small towns' and which he seemed to think was compromising the electricity supply. I suspect if the Minister for Tourism sees him approaching he ducks under his desk ....

But the scenery was beautiful, although I found the mountain roads  a bit too high and narrow for my comfort some of the time. And here, naturally, are some photos. 

I took loads, but these give a flavour of the day.

Daughters of Sparta

 

I am on a quest to find a writer of updated greek myth that I like as much as I like Natalie Haynes and this popped up on Audible as a recommendation for me when I was wondering what to spend my February credit on. A reviewer on there (yes, I know!) said it was right up there with the best of them and so I took a punt.  

What can I say? It's the story of Clytemnestra and Helen, who I honestly didn't realise were sisters, just two unrelated women married to two brothers.  I think in many ways it was a good effort,  but from my audible review 

Well, the positive first. The author obviously wanted to create a psychologically convincing narrative for Clytemnestra and Helen: the things they do and the possible motivations behind them. in this she is successful.

That said the construction of the book is clunky and the writing very flat.

I am not sure why the narrator has used the pronunciations of the names that she has: they are not the standardised ones we know, nor are they authentically Greek.They're just weird. She also makes all the men sound the same by giving them a strange unplaceable accent and presenting them as indistinguishable thugs.

you will gather that it is maybe better read than listened to. Or maybe just left alone. I think if you quite often have chapter headings that go 'six months later'. 'two years later' and even  'nine years later' then you really need to be looking at how you're telling this story. Perhaps consider a flashback technique? 

I don't regret the time I spent listening to it - I rarely do, since i am usually doing something else useful while I listen, but I won't be rushing off to find any more by Heywood. 

On a related note it was Saturday Slaughters at the weekend. The book was The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly. I was going to give up at the end of Chapter 9 but bashed on through Chapter 10 as it took me to page 109 and meant I could say I had read the first 100 pages. There was an excellent turnout for the meeting and, in my dislike of the book I was in a minority of two. This possibly means any negative book reviews I do here should be ignored!

Madeira Day 3 A Tropical Garden

 We spent most of Day 2 just relaxing, although we did meet up with someone I had previously known only from Ravelry and her husband. The day after though, despite the rain, we set off on an adventure. 

We walked into the town and caught a cable car. I snapped various pictures, but honestly trying to get a good view from a swaying and quite rapidly moving cable car, especially when you wonder if the bets views are behind you is quite difficult. 

This was our destination 

and this was our first stop once we arrived. In our defence, the heavens opened just after we got off the cable car....

....also, given how huge the slices of cake were, we really did have only one slice between us. This one was passion fruit sponge, and it was gorgeous

There was a lovely display of differing patterns of azulejos along one  of the walls. I am a sucker for these decorative tiles. 

The gardens were very lush, and despite being called Tropical, a lot of the place had Chinese and Japanese elements

here's a very cute Chinese element!

It wasn't all oriental, witness the Chilean flamingo

There were lots, but this one was showing off his colours best

There were carp, which used to give me the creeps, but I appear to have got over that now. I took lots of pictures as they were really pretty but the combination of almost constant movement and them being underwater made it all a bit difficult

Madeira is famous for the Bird of Paradise flower and there were lots here, but it has to be said they weren't at their best

And finally two to show that Dorling Kinderlsey still exerts an influence over my photography! 

It was a very lovely, if damp, day. 

Opera Highlights Tour

 Scottish Opera's Opera  Highlights tour (basically four young singers and a pianist in  a white van driving round the Highlands and Islands and doing the modern version of 'hey! let's do the show right here in the barn' ) was in Kirkwall last night and of course we went.  We go mainly to show support for the company really, because I loathe the patronising attitude of 'here's some bleeding chunks of opera for all you poor saps who a) can't sit through a whole opera or b) can't afford to get to a main venue for a proper performance'. I know that's not what it's about, but that's how it comes over to me sometimes. Also, despite the fact that the excerpts are all carefully chosen and often  include pieces from operas I've never seen, or even heard of, bleeding chunks are not what opera is about and I just find it a bit distasteful. I know it's not really any different to popular singers making a living out of giving concerts to huge audiences belting out Nessun Dorma and its ilk, but I don't find that palatable either. Less so in fact, because there's a cynicism behind that that Opera Highlights doesn't have. Opera Highlights is a genuine  attempt to give people something, I just don't feel  they have quite worked out who or what. 

It doesn't help that the excerpts are strung together in a loose sort of (fairly dire) story which is usually pretty basic and inconsequetial except as a hook to hang the music on, but last night it wasn't really. The idea was 'amazing things can happen if you let them' and they had a board on one side of the stage headed up 'The one where ....' and then they changed it for each new piece. Of all the ones we have seen this was the most entertaining, but as usual the second half was largely filled with lighter pieces (Offenbach, Strauss - Johann, not Richard obviously - Gilbert and Sullivan) which I can only assume is designed to send the audience away humming a good tune. 

Of the singers, the mezzo was the stand out, with singing and acting of a very high standard which was consistent throughout all her pieces. I don't know where SO find their mezzos, but they seem to pull out a never ending stream of good ones from somewhere. The soprano had a lot of repetitive acting tics which distracted somewhat from her singing but she did hit all her notes. This was more than can be said for the tenor who started well and produced some lovely moments, but moments are not enough. He didn't have a great deal of power, was visibly tiring by mid-way through the second half and as a consequence missed some notes and cracked on others. As for the baritone he has a long way to go before he's anywhere near ready for anything, even this. 

I don't want to sound harsh. I'm not unaware that the Highlights Tour is tough on singers. Thirty different venues over two months, spread over a large area,  and in between times crammed into a van driving over sometimes very rough roads, plus sleeping somewhere different every third night, rehearsing, then performing then moving on.  It's a big ask,  but there again it's a good introduction to the life of a young singer, which is hard and unglamorous. I suppose if it doesn't break you, it makes you, and you get to entertain pernickety people like me along the way! 

Madeira Day 1 - Exploring Funchal

Direct BA flights to Funchal from Heathrow leave at stupid o' clock in the morning, which isn't ideal from the point of view of a good nights rest beforehand but does mean that you get there well before lunchtime and have more or less a whole day of holiday the same day as you arrive, which isn't always the case when  you go on holiday. Once we had arrived, unpacked and caught our breath, we decided to walk into Funchal, partly for a bit of an explore, and partly in search of lunch. 

Here are some pictures of some of the nicer bits. That's not to say that it isn't  mostly a charming town but it is busy and built up and you have to look harder here than in some other places for history and interest. But there's lots of green and some lovely buildings 

This last one needs some explanation. We were booked in on  a half board basis which included a buffet dinner, but we had the option to opt for an a la carte dinner in the hotel's sister establishment next door any night we liked.  We did that on the first night as the buffet was a Paella Special and given that I don't eat seafood and I'm not that keen on saffron rice it sounded a bit of a non-starter. We had a lovely dinner, and as always struggled with which dessert to choose. I opted for what was described as 'a small caramel cake with ice cream' and this is what I got. When you put a spoon in that thing in the middle that looks like a dumpling it oozed golden caramel. The whole thing was delicious. 

Yesterday was a DAY

 It was one of those days when a whole series of small things went wrong; things that you would shrug off if only one happened but which can seem overwhelming when they stack up in the space of a few hours.

It started with me dropping one of my advent shower gel bottles on the floor of the bathroom. It shouldn't be a problem since they're plastic, they should bounce, right? It didn't. It broke and since I was trying to decide at the time which one of several to use it was a wee while before I noticed that shower gel was oozing over the floor.  I suppose it had the advantage of making the decision about which one to use fairly easy.

After my shower  I went off to have breakfast and take my Omega 3 capsule. It was a new make, as my Tesco torpedoes had run out. This one was smaller and in theory easier to manage. It got stuck in my throat. I mean really stuck. Stuck to the extent that I could hardly follow the OH's advice to drink lots of water to wash it down as the water itself wasn't going down, it was coming back out through my nose or just running back out of my mouth. (Apols to anyone who finds that TMI!) I was scared. Eventually it went down but it took ages. Perhaps foolishly I  tried again this morning with a similar, although   not quite so painful or protracted, result. I won't be trying again. 

Then we had to endure the latest episode in the on-gong fridge saga. Our fridge (part of an integrated fridge freezer died last Friday and the one place in Orkney that could source a replacement of the proper configuration had promised on Friday afternoon to send us details by e-mail of possible replacements. Nothing having arrived by Tuesday lunchtime the OH went to the showroom (he was going shopping in town anyway, but even so, it's a long way, and time consuming) and the girl said she hadn't got around to it, she had been very busy since we had been in (which is odd considering that when we left on Friday there were still several hours of the work day to go, there was no-one else in the showroom and her phone wasn't ringing.) Be that as it may she promised to have something with us by the end of the day. Guess what? So the OH rang at 10 yesterday morning and she said she was 'doing it right that minute' and when nothing had arrived 90 minutes later I contacted the head office via Facebook Messenger. And about 20 minutes after that she rang and sent us some details. What a coincidence. It's going to take three weeks to arrive (yet another island dwelling 'bonus') , but they will at least deliver it to the door although they won't take away the old one. It has been very difficult managing without a fridge for a week and  I don't anticipate it will get easer while we wait for the replacement. And that's assuming it has actually been ordered. She said it had, but then she said she was sending us an e-mail several times before she actually did it. The moral of that is Beware Buildbase I think, although I accept that they are all locally managed and some branches may well be way more efficient than the one in Kirkwall seems to be. 

I was stressed and annoyed by this time so I decided to carry on with my  deep clean/declutter of my bathroom cupboards. Nothing like being a bit cross to aid ruthlessness when it comes to deciding what to keep and what to be rid of.  I planned to listen to an Audible book while I did this, a plan thwarted by my discovery that, contrary to my usual practice, I had forgotten to throw the switch on the socket when I put it to charge overnight. Then on  the top shelf of the cupboard  I had opted to deal with, I  discovered an open tube of Halls Menthalyptus sweets. The top one had obviously undergone some sort of metamorphosis, presumably on contact with air, and had stuck the packet and several other surrounding items to the shelf and to one another.  

I also found a lot of out of date medication, both prescription and over the counter stuff and had to endure a conversation with a quite stroppy doctor's receptionist who grudgingly said  I should drop off the prescription ones but she 'supposed it was all right just to throw the over the counter ones in the bin, she didn't know since they were certainly nothing at all to do with them.' Good grief, I only asked the question. It's annoying when something like that happens because you know if you used that tone of voice to her, or any of the surgery staff, you'd be in trouble for being aggressive, but aggression is OK when it's flowing in the other (patientwards) direction. 

Finally I received a piece of post which annoyed me quite a lot. 

As  I haven't been sleeping well recently I felt no guilt about going for a nap when the power saving period arrived (4 until 7 in the evening from our power company) and I felt a bit better when I woke up. I proceeded to finish these 

which I am massively pleased with. In fact I enjoyed making them so much I have ordered another set of the mini skeins I used in order to make the matching hat. So much for it being a stash busting project. 

The day before I  had also finished this jigsaw puzzle

which was fun and frustrating in almost equal measure. A keeper for sure. 

 I also had a message last evening via Ravelry from a friend whose husband has been very seriously ill for the last two weeks and is looking at a long recovery period and to be honest that put my own hiccup- y day into a bit more perspective. 

Feeling much more positive about today.