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. 

Paris - A Bit of a Rant, - and some lovely pictures

This one is all about the art (and some of the people) I saw at the Musee D-Orsay, so if pictures don't float your boat this may not be the post for you. Stay for the rant if you like though!

I've already said that the Musee d'Orsay was overcrowded, and very large,and so all I could manage on my visit was the Impressionist and Post Impressionist Gallery, which naturally enough was the hardest to find until you understood the shape of the building. It was on the 5th floor, at the end which had a 5th floor; pity me wandering around perplexed when I got to the top of the escalators at the wrong end and wandered about looking for some way to find the invisible '5th Etage' as well as a  way to get there. 

Since it was the Impressionists and Post Impressionists I had mainly come for I can't grumble that that was all I managed although I was really sorry and frustrated coming  downstairs afterwards and passing the entrance to the Gallery for the Nabis and being just too tired to stagger into it. Another time perhaps ... 

Now here's my rant, and it's not as rant-y as it would have been if I'd written it when I first came back, and I know it's going to make me sound elitist and a snob and all those things and if you think that, well I don't really blame you. Years ago John Julius Norwich, some sort of British toff with a title and an all round go-to culture vulture for BBC Radio floated the idea that as Venice was being destroyed by being over run with tourists there should perhaps be a test that you had to pass about the history and culture of Venice before you were allowed to actually visit the place, Ridiculous, I thought, and snobbery  and cultural elitism of the worst sort, and what about the people who will come knowing nothing and go away inspired to find out more. And I still think that (mostly) but never have I come closer to agreeing with him than I did at the Musee D'Orsay. 

Here's the thing. In the days when I wasn't interested in art, I didn't go to galleries and look at it and pretend to be interested in it. What was the point? It's just the same as with instrumental classical music; I don't enjoy most of it, I recognise that by not going to concerts of instrumental music I am possibly losing out on some great music that I would love, but otoh why put myself through hours of the stuff at a great cost in time and money when I know I'm not gong to enjoy at least 90% of it. There is no point. Would that other people could recognise the futility of going to galleries and taking photos of themselves in front of pictures that they are told are Great Art. If you're not interested, don't go. Go and do something else that you will enjoy instead. Goodness knows Paris, and all the other cities with great art galleries have plenty of alternative attractions that you might enjoy more. Long walks. River trips. Shopping. Rock concerts. Gardens. None of these are any more or less meaningful as things to do than visiting a gallery, and if you enjoy them more, then do them instead. 

The Musee d'Orsay was crammed. The Impressionist Gallery was more crammed than most. I first got a bit cross trying to get close to this picture 

Berthe Morisot's Butterfly Hunt. It's a lovely little picture that moved me almost to tears, but the reason I couldn't get close enough to have a really good look was because it was hung next to the much more famous The Poppy Field near Argenteuil by Monet. I'm not saying that isn't a lovely picture too, I'm not even saying I don't like it myself in a mild sort of way, but it's famous, in fact it's so famous it's become a cliche and the reason there was a crowd of people round it, blocking face-on access to the Butterfly Hunt was that people have seen it ad inifinitum on post cards, birthday cards, coasters, table mats etc etc etc. So obviously it's the one to go and look at. And take a photo of. And have your partner take a photo of you with it in the background. And never mind the fact that some people might  actually want to get close enough to look at pictures just as good that have the misfortune to be hung on either side of it. 

Just to get the rest of the rant over, I was sorely tempted to make a very pointed remark to a young woman who was towing a friend of hers around and who I somehow couldn't shake myself loose from. I really wanted to say to her several times 'I think you should say that a bit more loudly, there are a few people at the far end of the gallery who haven't caught how clever and knowledgeable you think you are'. Obviously I didn't, but .... To be clear, it wasn't the imparting of knowledge I objected to (although the friend did look a bit glassy eyed,) it was the volume. It was the implied 'look at me, see how much I know'. And then there was the woman who came into the first room of the collection, started at the right hand side of the door and them worked her way around the room taking a photo of every picture. She didn't pause to look at the pictures, just stood in front of them, snapped her camera shutter and then moved on to the next one. Honestly, just buy yourself a guidebook and be done! 

OK, enough. I took pictures of some of the paintings myself, either because they caught my attention more than somewhat, which would include the Butterfly Hunt and this Degas, which was new to me 

or because the artists were unknown to me and I thought I would like to find out more about them. To this extent I took these 

This one sadly looks totally washed out here but it's very delicate to begin with and I loved the way the water seems to pull you along and then disappears into the distance. It's by someone called Paul Signac

and this one is by another Paul - Paul Serusier and I loved his take on poppies and cornfields. There were others, but I won't inflict them on blog readers. 

This was not a picture, it's a photo of the crowded restaurant in the Musee but I took the photograph because I could totally see this as a painting by Renoir. 

A Grand Day (Out and Otherwise)

Gold Star for those who picked up the Wallace and Grommit reference there. 

It was a morning for chores; two lots of washing and A Good Clean for the dining chairs, after which I had an early lunch and then we jumped in the car and went over to Stenness to the Ness of Brodgar dig, which was 'opened' or at least uncovered  last week, but has yet to receive its full complement of diggers for the season. 

Some photos of some magnificent neolithic stonework

and some archaeologists digging up more of it. We saw several people we know and stopped for chats and then had a quick look in the little shop they have there. Didn't buy anything, largely because we will probably be back again before the end of the season. 

We then went off to Geri's Ice Cream parlour. Mine is the cone as I find the desserts just too much these days. It had one scoop of coffee and one scoop of gin and raspberry ice cream. The other one is the OH's; it's a Bounty Surprise, so chocolate ice cream ( 3 scoops) coconut sauce, cream and a flake. 

 

When we got back there was a bumper selection of post; a flyer from the post office about doing sub postmasters out of a job by buying your postage at a discount on-line, a bill for the electrical work done in the OH's office which came in at rather more than I expected and rather less than the OH did, a post card from the Lake District where my sister has been on holiday, two skeins of wool and a parcel with three books. I started one of the books almost straight away, and had to drag myself away from it to eat my tea, then I phoned my sister for a long chat and I was then going to take myself off to bed to read some more of the book before I realised I hadn't done a blog post today. 

But now I have. And tomorrow I must get back to more about Paris. I can see already that the adventures away from home post-Paris are going to have to wait until after we get back from Finland. Life suddenly got full and exciting almost without me noticing. 

RNLI Funday

It was a glorious day weather wise yesterday so it was no hardship to walk along the road to the local pier where the RNLI funday was being held. 

There were lots of people there (obviously there were loads more than in this photo!)

there was music from the Orkney Traditional Music Project

and a visiting lifeboat

We looked at various stalls, bought some raffle tickets, some home bakes and some writing paper and a pack of Christmas cards from the RNLI stall. I would have splashed out on a new RNLI polo shirt, but the stall was cash only and the OH had forgotten his wallet. ( Which is one stage better than losing it (again) like he did a couple of days ago. Naturally it turned up.) 

And lastly we bought a new fuchsia; lastly because we had to carry it home. We have lots of fuchsias, it's one of the few things we like that actually does grow on Orkney no bother, and this was a lovely delicate pink one that is totally unlike any of the others we have. The OH potted it up as soon as we got back, after which he settled down to finish painting the outside of the house. Next up is the byre, but possibly not until we are back from our next set of travels. It would be nice to think that the current plague of flies will have moved on by then. 

Briefly MIA

Sorry. I had an unexpectedly quick call up for an endoscopy which the surgeon told me only weeks ago wouldn't happen for six months as it was just routine, but when I went for my pre-op assessment on Monday I was handed a letter by the nurse which told me it was happening three days later, ie on Thursday. Annoyingly this clashed with my pre-holiday hair cut and colour, and even more annoyingly I was a good girl and cancelled the hair appointment rather than trying to rearrange the endoscopy. 

I don't think I recorded the horror that was my last endoscopy several years ago, and certainly pre-Covid which was done without the benefit of any anaesthetic relief other than a revolting banana flavoured throat spray which was supposed to stop me getting a sore throat and didn't. It was a total nightmare, so when I was told I needed another one I said I wanted to be be sedated, which they were happy to do for me. As it was deep sedation I was more or less out of it for all of Thursday and not 100% yesterday but feeling much more normal now. And however out of it I was, it was totally worth it because I couldn't have faced a 'cold' endoscopy again. 

I must buckle down over the next few days and get this up to date because we are off on our travels again on Thursday. Today it is our island's  RNLI Fun Day; we're normally away when this happens but as we are here and the sun is shining we plan to attend and see what it's all about.  

Paris Day 3

And this one was all about the culture. It was the day I had reserved for going to the Musee D'Orsay. I walked from Montmartre, which took me past quite a few Paris landmarks including the Place Vendome

and perhaps these days just as culturally significant, Louis Vuitton!

It was hot, and there was a long queue for tickets at the Musee d'Orsay which was absolutely rammed with people and has THE most confusing layout I have ever come across in a National Gallery. I'm not saying there aren't more confusing places, I'm just saying I haven't encountered one yet. The noise was appalling too. 

I started off with a gallery plan and a coffee, and I had to queue for about 10 minutes just to get into the cafe! which was also seething. The mini beignets were great though. 

Right at the top of the tallest part of the building is the clock face and you can get a wonderful view of Paris from behind it. If you want one that doesn't have a 1001 other tourists taking pictures of one another in front of it though, you have to be a) very patient and b) very quick off the mark. Which is why this isn't a brilliant picture, but has the benefit over the other one I managed to snatch of not having a tourist wander carelessly into shot. 

More moaning and some pictures of pictures from the Musee D'Orsay another time. 

In the evening we went to the Paris Opera and saw the weirdest Boheme I have ever encountered. It was set on a dying space ship and it was unclear quite how many of the characters in it were actually real, or simply hallucinatory projections of Rodolfo. It was clever, didn't quite hang together, and I found it singularly disturbing. Our seats were a long way up and I found it a bit vertiginous, but at least I have now been to the Paris Opera and it is quite posh and modern inside. 

Special Socks (2)

 

Eagle eyed readers will spot that this time the special socks come as a pair, unlike the one in the earlier special sock post. 

Given that they are just a pair of vanilla socks you may be wondering why they are so special. There are two reasons.

1. They are made from the Opal Van Gogh collection yarn that I was so thrilled to find an odd ball of in The Yarn Cake, long after everyone else had told me it had sold out within days of being released. Post about that  here should you wish to refresh your memory. 

And the second reason is that while I was in Paris I saw the picture the yarn colours are based on, Bedroom at Arles. It was in the Muses D'Orsay and I took a photo of it. It's a bit skew because being a famous picture it was of course very difficult to get close to, while pictures just as good or better hung unregarded  on the wall near to it. There is a rant upcoming on the way people visit galleries to look at art - or not look at it. However, leaving that aside, here is the picture 

and I love the way the yarn has the two shades of blue, the browns of the bed and floor, and the small amounts of red and green in proportion to how they are used in the painting. 

A nice snug pair of socks and a lovely memory of my magical time in Paris.