Tuesday 30 August 2011

if this is sanity...

...we may be in trouble.

never mind that i've been working for the last 6 weeks straight. ok, there was that one weekend and the odd day, but still.

and not easy working, if there is such a thing. no - this is working-when-you-know-you're-bloody-working, with people who i would probably get fired for decking if i wasn't mainlining rioja every evening. no, it helps, really. i haven't been swimming, but i have lost 3 kilos just in headless-chicken running round. btw, i am not the headless chicken in this scenario, mostly i am just trying to run them down to try to convince them that it is all going to be all right even though i just want to scream FOR GODS SAKE IT'S ONLY HOTDESKING!!!!!!!!! it's FILING - not your CHILDREN - can you please just RELAX??????

i obviously need a vacation.

so i am about to stuff an entire (in my life anyways) summer's worth of vacation activity into one week, which sounded fun when i hatched this plan in july, and now sounds, well, exhausting.

the highlight of all this is that n and i are finally doing our level 1 sailing certification course in whitstable on thursday and friday - and actually, i am enormously excited about this.there's also dinner in london with friends, the hop festival (where we are both volunteering) and various other goodies.

i think i need a lie down just thinking about it.


Thursday 25 August 2011

can anyone explain to me...

why this is so damn cute?!

Thursday 18 August 2011

my yarn hates me

noro stripy socks are much harder to knit than they would appear. correction. nice-looking noro stripy socks are much harder. dog vomit stripes are remarkably easy, as it turns out. the idea is that you take this fabulous yarn that changes colour (dramatically but slowly) and you split the skein, then knit socks in 4-row stripes and the colours will magically stripe into stripy brilliance. there were no dog vomit stripes on the ravelry project pages, but dog vomit stripes were indeed what i achieved. so i frogged them. i don't think you could make socks that ugly if you tried.

which pretty much sums up my day.

it poured. my shoes leak. i have been looking at new shoes for (EVER) a few weeks but due to indecision and a pathological urge that only allows me to justify spending money on wine and yarn i did not buy any and now, in my hour of need, i am of wet and soggy feet. work is incredibly work-ish at the moment, and we are out of homemade wine. i read today that this is the 5th consecutive wet summer in the uk. london, london - why do you make it so hard to love you sometimes?

on the upside, it's thursday. and we still have port (*grin*)

Monday 15 August 2011

plausability

i was walking home from the pool tonight, passing a house on the corner that i always notice for two reasons: one is it's strange mitred facade which is odd in a victorian terrace row. the other reason is that i have never seen the curtains opened. not once. not in years. sure enough, tonight was no exception, all curtains firmly shut. obviously vampires, right? i then half remembered a conversation with n about the same house, where n gave a plausible alternative motive. i couldn't remember what it was, and, trying to remember, thought, "harumph. what could possibly be more plausible than vampires?" i then remembered n's theory that the house was probably vacant. i guess he's probably right. that is more plausible than vampires.

Sunday 14 August 2011

peoples, i have accomplished much on this glorious (unexpected) free weekend. the merit of said accomplishments will be left to the reader, of course, but i am content.

so, in no particular order:

- i finished n's socks which have been languishing, all for want of a kitchener stitch graft to the toe and heel. kitchener grafting, for me, takes fortitude and concentration, two things not forthcoming over the past two weeks (can something be forthcoming in the past?)

- i have started a cowl for myself which will require a full 58 stitch kitchener graft to finish. i am either hopelessly optimistic about my ability to pick up knitting skills or a complete idiot who doesn't mind wearing wonky cowls.

- we went to a play. and i remembered, yet again, that i far prefer reading or listening rather than watching. but still, am OBVIOUSLY more cultured now.

- i slept in till 8 o'clock yesterday morning and then had coffee in bed with a good book (bliss).

- i finished and blocked baby hat and blanket for a friend - and it looks lovely. (no kitchener stitch)

- we biked up to the shipwright and sat on the sea bank with our pints watching boats - and we saw a seal! first time :)

- this morning, i made two great omelets - gruyère and ham - usually i mess up the first one, but this morning - omelet utopia.

- i didn't get into a fight with anyone about the riots (considerably more difficult than it sounds).

- i sat outside in the garden, in the sunshine, feet up, glass of white port to hand, and read the papers (more bliss).

now, after a quick bath, we will wander down to the anchor to check out green diesel, the band of a friend of a friend's.

all hail the unexpected weekend!

Friday 12 August 2011

awol

i know - busy and all that. but this weekend, i will make up for it.

at least that is my plan. it's a fluid plan though - i'll warn you now. it could very possibly get filled up with red wine and dancing. these things happen.

i was supposed to be working tomorrow, but we got so much done during the week it is no longer necessary. the number of times this has happened is probably comparable to - i don't know - catching a bus right away without three going by in the opposite direction every day for a month. or when you have exactly the amount of yarn in a skein for the hat you meant to make, every time. or the number of times humph does NOT bark when the people who walk their spaniels at 6 am in the park next to our house blow their dog whistles. (for reference, sleepiness descends and wakefulness ascends like dripping water torture with each bark, and screaming into a pillow, 'oh for gods sake humph put a sock in it' is futile. on the plus side, i've been at work at 8am every day for weeks).

or when you decide to have a thanksgiving dinner in england and you and your partner both invite loads of people, confident in the knowledge that at least a third of them will be busy and can't make it, and it's not until the night before that you are tallying up your guest list and you realise that suddenly you are cooking for 20 and you only have 6 plates. (this was years and years ago and it all worked out perfectly but the moment of heart-dropping realisation will stay with me for a lifetime).

unusual times.