Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas to anyone who calls in to check up on me here.  It's been a relatively quiet one Chez Harrow.  My Mum came to stay for a couple of days which was lovely even if I stressed over getting things just so.  I know she loves me whatever.  Made her up a Christmas Stocking just like the ones we used to get when my brother and I were kids - piece of fruit in the tip, chocolate (Lindor balls in this case - adult chocolate!), a book (kept us amused until the adults work up).  She didn't open it all until we were all up though. We had a lovely dinner Christmas Eve - barbecued prawns, salads and nice wine with Christmas chocolate brownies for dessert.

Christmas lunch was a rerun with the leftover prawns and salad, sitting outside on a very pleasant day with a sparkling malbec.  Dinner was hmmm, how shall I put it, a bit fraught with disaster.  The barbecue ran out of gas just as we put the fish in to cook, the potatoes wouldn't brown, nothing seemed to work - it was a late meal as are all Christmas dinners.  The fish was delicious.  The potatoes never really came out the way I had hoped but everyone said that it was all good.  Pavlova with fresh raspberries and nectarines followed.



I'm still destashing and getting rid of dross but things are starting to improve - from my perspective.  The house is still overly cluttered and I am still stressing every time I take a trip to give away clothes.  The Scrooge in me wants to sell everything and make a buck but that wold involve opening a shop!  Seriously won't happen if I do things that way and I have so much crap that I need to make this happen yesterday.  This will be the continuing story into 2017.

I've yet to make the decision on whether I go back into the workforce on whatever level but there's still plenty of time for that yet!

Restarting and restructuring

"We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."

I had always thought this was a quote by some Roman Gaius Petronius Arbiter however it seems that isn't the case.  Whatever and whoever wrote this, the quote rings true in any case.  Being totally over all the restructuring and re-jigging that happens in the West Australian Health Department, I have finally chosen a way out.  Voluntarily leaving and they are paying me to go so a win-win from my perspective.  

My next task will be to discover what I want or need to do with the rest of my life.  Will this just be a paid Gap Year as I have jokingly told some of my friends, or will it lead to something else.  I will be taking a little time either way to think on things and the story of my life so far and I hope to chronicle some of this here as I think it will help to document the process.

I'm hoping to do more than a little of this with my friends away from this place.  Hopefully my health will remain good and allow me to do this well.Bottom line, the hospital where I have spent some truly amazing work time, is not the place I am currently employed in.  While leaving now could be seen as an easy solution by some, going out into the great unknown is more than a little scary.  Will I still be a pharmacist in another year's time?  I have skills learned in this profession that may fit doing something else but would that be a waste of the education my parents paid for?

Another quote I just found about Pharmacy and medicine - “Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” – Lord Byron, 19^th-century English romantic poet. 

I'm hoping to do more than a little of this with my friends away from this place.  Hopefully my health will remain good and allow me to do this well.

Survival post car destash

Well it seems like it's been ages since I saw the back end of Gertie and I seem to have coped so far.  I'm probably walking to the train a little more - not a bad thing - and BikeBoy's Great White Commodore has been driven more than it would have been.  Not sure on the GWC.  The seat is not easy to adjust.  The seat belt tries to strangle me and it has no downward adjustment like Gertie's did.  The steering wheel is fatter and I think my hands would hurt if I drove it for a long trip.  It's also that much bigger and I have to try and come to grips with that - bull bar on the front not so bad but it's wider and soooo much longer.  Parking can be a bit scary!
Anyway all that aside, we are 'motoring on' with projects and I am pleased to report that the house painting is complete.  The painter is coming back tomorrow however because the cream trim around the windows and doors has gone to WHITE!  I thought it was undercoat when I got home on Friday but no, that was the finished colour.  Don't think he was happy that we want it fixed but he is fixing it.  Overall, I can recommend this guy.  The work is good and the workers are prompt to the point of extreme - they were here working on the Monday public holiday last week at 7am, OMG!
Picked up all the Royal Show projects today and spent a lovely afternoon with mum wandering around the Claremont Quarter, lunch at Atomic (love their Pumpkin Salad!) and afternoon tea at Koko Black.  The Royal Show commentary was as expected.  I need to back off the spin on the handspun - too twisty and too hard.  Apart from that, all as expected plus I get to wear the prize-winning hat, woo hoo!
Next week, the Relay for Life and Knitter's For A Cure (KFAC).  Donate here

So long since I posted

Where to start?  Done the whole Paris and London thing and was so totally caught up in the time away and lack of quality wifi that all my good intentions went straight down the toilet.  C'est la vie!  To sum it all up though, we had so much fun I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.  There was crapiness, yes.  But also much sunshine and cycling and shopping and knitting and making of new friends. 
So much more on the positive side was it, that my beloved has requested that we do it all again for our twentieth anniversary next January.  Just the Paris bit you understand.  He never did get London and we didn't really leave the city so I have yet to acquaint him with England's charms.
Herein lies the rub my friends!  I must lose a substantial amount of baggage that has accumulated around my backside so that I can shimmy along with all those lovely Parisian girls and not look out of place.  Where to start?  I suspect that I have accumulated ALL THE THINGZ as everywhere I look is "overweight" in it's own inimitable way. 
I sold my gorgeous Gertie car.  At 15 years plus, she was going to need some serious work at some stage in the no too distant future however she still started first time (when I ran her enough that her battery charged) and there was no visible rust or smoke coming from her.  It was a wrench but two cars we don't need Chez Harrow so we are stuck with the Great White now.  RIP Gertie, sob!

I'm doing OK - more walking and I have been out on Christmas a few times now - not yet at the stage where the bum doesn't hurt though.  I need to do some riding to and/or from work to get started with the weight losing thing.  Anyhoo, thought I would resurrect this and keep some sort of a record.  Maybe I'll even post some of the gorgeous pictures from France to keep the mood going....stay tuned!

It's getting closer.....Bastille Day is upon us!

Well it's now July, my birthday's next Sunday and we fly out to Paris ONE MONTH AFTER THAT!!!  Not that I'm excited you understand dear readers.  We now have everything except the UK part of our journey locked in.  Two cycle tours in France before we come home - one in Provence and one around the Loire Valley (with an extra day thrown in so I can see Chenonceaux!)
I get some quality (read: shopping) time in Paris with the WAG's while BikeBoy does his thing and we get to ride the Chunnel back from the UK provided I book it in time.  We will be whizzing around France in their wondrous high-speed trains while we aren't cycling and sampling the local fare so it should suit both of us down to the ground.
Now to get the UK tamed....
And of course, while all this is happening, we also have the Tour de France (Go Cadel!!!) for which I am a participant in Ravelry's Tour de Fleece - only three or four spinning teams you understand, didn't want to take on too much - plus knitting a 'green jersey' to go with the KAL as well.
Ah yes!  You may have noticed I've gone to the DARK SIDE!  While no spinning wheels have joined us Chez Harrow, there are an increasing numbers of spindles of all kinds and much fibre and yarny goodness being created.  Here's the Tour de Fleece, Team Ixchelbunny project that is coming to a conclusion as we speak to give you all some idea of how things are going...

Le Grand Tour (or Paris here we come!)

It's getting closer!  Yes, BikeBoy has qualified for the Paris-Brest-Paris Audax ride which starts on August 21.  That means we have to go to Paris.  Qu'elle domage! swoons  So far we have flights (arrive at Charles de Gaulle on the 19th) and ideas that we will spend some time in the UK with a cycling tour in France before we head home on September 25.  Apart from that and the ride, plans?  Who needs 'em!  Stay tuned...

Twenty-eleven

How slack can I really get?  We are already into February and I haven't even said hello yet.  This is due to a lot of life getting in the way of course.  I was on holiday all of January - yes I could have said hello then!  Had a week at the Hopman Cup tennis with friends I see once a year for this event.  The tournament went swimmingly until the final couple of sessions when favourites Serbia were forced out of the final due to Joker Djokovic's partner, Ana Ivanovic, having a stomach tear.  So we watched Justin Henin and Rubin Bemelmans play Bethanie Mattek-Sands and John Isner.  Belgium won the ladies but the US took the tournament and won the lovely diamond and pearl encrusted tennis balls.  Oh!  And the trophy of course!

'Bike' fence near Ovens on the Rail Trail

Had some free time after that then went over to the Victorian Alps for BikeBoy's chance at another Alpine Classic.  He rode the Alpine Raid last year - same thing but over 2 days - because of a niggling injury.  This year, all 240km plus or minus a bit, in 11 hours 17 minutes.  I had a nice lie in, lunch at a cafe with a glass of red and a bit of shopping time before he came in. 

Me moving slowly up Mt Buffalo

I did do some cycling while over in Victoria.  They really have a most excellent system of cycle paths - the Rail Trail.  This was well covered in a recent article in Treadlie magazine - Valleys, Vines and Velos.  The fact that we were able to get me a hybrid instead of a Mountain bike or roadie this year, meant I had 3 days of riding and BikeBoy got less grumpiness.  We went from Bright through to Myrtleford on the Thursday, spending an hour and a half at the Boynton's Feathertop Winery for lunch and tasting.  On the Tuesday, we rode towards Tawonga Pass, BikeBoy went up and I waited!  On the Wednesday, we went towards Mt Buffalo, I knitted and watched water falling over rocks - a novelty for someone from Perth - for a couple of hours while BikeBoy crested the mountain and returned for lunch.  Altogether I rode about 126km and he did about 600km with around 10km climbing I think!  This did contribute to some loss in weight while I was away though.  All good!

I did plenty of knitting but did not accumulate too much more in spite of a yarn shop and Wangaratta Woollen Mill visit.  Caught up with the North Eastern Yarn Lovers Group for a knit in on the Friday as well as seeing a good friend (pharmacist) at the regional hospital.  Knitted on the weekend with the mob in Bright for a visit - Maree thought she would be seeing BikeBoy finishing but the ride was Sunday not Saturday much to her dismay.  She did get to meet him though as did Beth and the other girls.

BikeBoy finishes the 2011 Alpine Classic Extreme, January 23

Went over to see real water at the Hume Dam after our ride on the Tuesday and also picked up some yarn from a fellow Raveller to complete a project.  Who would have thought that not only would there be the right yarn in the right colour but also the same dyelot close to where we were staying?  Anyway, it was lovely to see a water storage facility that was pretty much overfull compared to our sad mudpits back home.

The Hume Dam 89% capacity

Mind you the weather is so all over the place - Victoria having had fires and the like a couple of years back, now was suffering the aftermath of the flooding further north in Queensland and New South Wales over in their north-west.  Shortly after we returned from Victoria, we all had the after effects from Tropical Cyclone Yasi - Queensland got blown and washed into the Northern Territory and everywhere else received the winds and rain (the latter not quite an event in the West!) following the main event.  This after the major flooding that had already occurred in Queensland.  Almost like someone wants a clean slate up there!

The Run Down to Christmas

OMG! Less than 3 weeks to the dreaded Yuletide getmorepresentseatlotsafoodlayaroundanddonothing holiday period. Maybe you can tell that the only reason I like it at all is that it signals some time off?? I believe that the consumerfest that is Christmas is only truly fun when small (read: less than 5 years old) kids are involved. I really wouldn't mind not getting 'presents' but just seeing people and catching up. Taking some time to socialise and reclaim that side of life. You know? The side of life that gets trampled on while work and the whole 5 days a week rat race happens.

Anyhow, I have been progressing with things other than work - work which is currently marking time waiting for bean counters to release money to progress the project...- such as knitting and riding bicycles and such.
Presenting two shawls that were blocked this weekend, one a gift and the other for me.
The gift...

...and this for me which has been in my 'list of things to do' for some time.

Apart from these, I have two pairs of socks to finish - one pair a prize for a raffle run during the Relay for Life - and the other a trade for the spinning of a braid of nice BFL (blue faced leicester) fibre.  All good but now I want to do some more lace so I have caked some skeins of yarns ready and I hear their siren call every time I get close to them.  Oh woe!

On the cycling front, I finally managed to get together with BikeBoy following a 24 hour ride overnight last night and we cycled over to South Perth for tea.  I am now within a whisker of my 4000km for the year, a target I only reached on New Year's Eve last year by pedaling over to a friend's place for the evening.  And I have another three weeks to better it before commencing next year's total.  My buddy on bikejournal.com will beat me this year unfortunately unless I can pull 1000km out of the bike between now and December 31.  I don't think so!

Back to work with me!

Well I have returned to work after a two week hiatus during which time I spent just over a week in Melbourne. I did NOT take Georgie with me but chose to rely on Griselda to see how she performed. I have to report that she did exceptionally well. I can actually hear people on the phone now - always a positive - and her alarms and other features have worked without a hiccough so far. The bookmark thing I'm still not on top of but they are at least synchronising with Ernest the netbook so are easily replaced if they fall off.
Knitting-wise - I suffered a bout of castonitis prior to travelling and cast on my Revontuli shawl - now finished - as well as a jumper in 2ply laceweight - Wollmeise at that! It is coming along famously and I have to be careful that my other projects continue to progress and that I don't start being an exclusive knitter on this. The yarn is truly gorgeous and keeps surprising me with the range and intensity of colour.
I was able to catch up with two friends and my cousin on separate days when I was first in Melbourne and before all the Pharmacy related things revved up. Preconference seminar, two-day conference, post conference meeting and a board meeting to round out my time before flying home for four days off.
I have to add that the four days off were when the temperature in Perth maxed out totally, peaking at 39 degrees with humidity on the Thursday. Very unhappy was I. Plans I made just couldn't be handled in this weather.
Still it cooled sufficiently for me to cycle in the Great Santos Bike Ride on Sunday 21st. In fact we had all weather that day - sun, cloud, wind, more wind and even some rain. I finished my fourth 53km ride in 2 hours 11 minutes and (apparently) 16 seconds.
More soon readers (or is that reader?)

PANIC! Problems already?

Griselda has issues! Apparently folks who call me on the phone or who I call are unable to hear what I say and think it sounds like my voice is being fed through a scrambler as it comes out deep and unintelligible. It is also said to drop out although the bars tell me I have plenty of signal. Things are not good in device-land. Stay tuned as we work through this.
On a positive note, Cookie A's new book is available for purchase as a downloadable pdf file. As well, you get a discount on it if you pre-order the SIGNED hard-copy. Well! How could I refuse? The book contains many of her well-loved patterns like the Monkey (any sock knitters out there NOT done these? You can't be a sock knitter then. These are the viral knit of the sock world - seriously!) as well as newbies. These can all be purchased from her website as separate patterns but I reckon it's cheaper to buy the whole book and get all the words behind... Just sayin'!

Bye, Bye Georgie!

Moving on from Georgie - who you'll remember held my life on a small but usefully sized hard drive and several finger nail chips they call microSD cards, I have now to welcome to the stable Griselda. Griselda is an HTC Desire and looks a bit like the i@@@@@ but definitely isn't. Means I am firmly in Google hands now as the operating system is a Google company, Android. On the whole, this works similarly to the ubiquitous Apple gadget but better! I am still studying its many facets so stay tuned. It also seems I am now much better able to 'Google' on the run - as you would expect, to the point that having a Gmail account is a prerequisite for setting up the device. Wha' evah!

Oh how could I have deserted you my blog!

It may appear to some tat I have been totally slack and not up to much but I assure you good readers (if indeed there are any of you out there), that I have been turning over the stitches and moving on with the knitting projects as well as cycling up a storm.  I have also been working - yup that ole 4-letter word again but hey, it pays the bills and there's been a lot of those lately as well.

I hereby promise to post a little more often - maybe once a month even - and update you all on the movements Chez Harrow.  You will hear for instance of my acquiring clippy type cycling shoes for my birthday and of the spectacular fall - no speed involved - just a sideways OMG-I'm-going-over-splat type fall that has both my knees looking like one of those hand-dyed fibre plaits - purple, green tinged with yellow and there's a hint of blue-black as well.  Ouch!

I have also finished stuff - THE BLACK LACE for one and the Featherweight Cardigan for another.  Also several assorted shawls, scarves and hats some of which have gone to recipients of swap parcels and some that will be appearing at the Perth Royal Show (more on that later when I know how that's worked!) 

Went to the Australia Sheep and Wool Show for my birthday with a couple of knitting friends to meet many other of my knitting, spinning, dyeing and various other fibrey craft type friends (courtesy of the Rav).  It was an absolute blast and I'd go again in a heartbeat.  You can tell from these pictures how much fun it was and that was just dinner!

Anyhow - must be going to get some sleep so's I can get up in the morning and do it all again in preparation for next time....yaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnn!  Nighty, night!

Different Views of Toodyay - Queen's Birthday Long Weekend (June 5-7, 2010) - Part 2

To contrast with the previous post, on the first weekend of June the lovely HelenG and AnnL of Knitting Inspirations held their annual knitting retreat at Avalon Homestead in Toodyay.  Husband Perry rode the distance to Toodyay while I took everything else in the big car with my bike in the back - a great splitting of workload I thought.  I got to spend a little longer in town doing a few things I had deferred for far too long and then a weekend knitting - no downsides there at all.

We had a number of things planned into our weekend - a workshop on top down knitting, planning a sweater - how to change yarns and deal with differing gauge, knitting with beads and finishing techniques.  We had a yarn market on Friday afternoon and a parade of FOs (Finished Objects) before dinner that evening.  Saturday night was to be a pyjama party and on Sunday, lunch was planned at Pecan Hill, a short walk from the homestead.  I had asked attendees who would be interested in a bike ride to Rivermist Alpacas, about 18km away on the Northam-Toodyay Road.  A group of six including Perry and myself were to ride.

Evenings following dinner were taken up with the knit-a-long (KAL) for Ann's new top down pattern or finishing the never-ending stream of WIPs (works in progress) that seem to accumulate around the house.  I had at least six to eight going from scarves to socks and cardigans.  Much wine was consumed and chocolate was seen at various points around the 'comfy chair' room.  The coffee machine was also well patronised.  All fibre-y things were in evidence - spinning, knitting, crochet and also tapestry plus a bit of weaving on the gotta-have-it-now miniloom.

I managed to cast on and finish a cabled beanie on the Saturday.  Also made progress on several other projects that I seem to just carry around lately.  I have become convinced that some are being unravelled as I sleep as no amount of knitting time is making any of them closer to being finished.

Different Views of Toodyay - Anzac Day long weekend - Part 1

This year I have been privileged to visit Toodyay for two weekends with two very different groups of people and with two very different results on my sanity.  Firstly there was the cycling expedition on our Anzac Day long weekend.  The original plan of our illustrious leader Colin - he of the RED cycling nicks (no man should EVER wear these!) - was to ride to Gingin where we would stay on the Saturday evening.  From there, we would ride across to Toodyay to stay at the Freemasons Hotel on Sunday evening and then back to Perth on the Monday.  All good!  What we didn't find out until too late is that our accommodation for Saturday was organised over the bar with someone who didn't usually sort that kind of thing.  Result - no accommodation.  Changed plan involved staying in Toodyay both nights.  Problem - not enough accommodation for the entire group.  Our leader, of course, ensured his spot at the original hotel while some of us with shorter straws were to stay at the "top pub" - the Toodyay Tavern.  This wasn't a reference to it's quality as it turned out.
The first room I was shown seemed OK until I looked closely.  It was then I saw the large dead moth on the floor.  That was fine because the tiny ants surrounding it - and there were a lot - were working hard to remove the body.  I didn't look any further.  The next room, while not 5 star was at least almost acceptable by country pub standards.  I didn't pay up front as requested because I wanted Perry to see it and make sure he and his back were happy before we committed.

Having ridden up from home to Toodyay, we ended up keeping our bike in the room (there was space) as there was no where else to store them that looked safe.  First evening - dinner at the Freemason's - went OK.  Sunday, the stronger riders went to Northam via Gigeganup and I sat at a local cafe having coffee and knitting.  I rode to Northam with Perry in the afternoon and we returned to our room to change for dinner.  We had noted boards advertising a Karaoke evening at the Toodyay Tavern and crowds were certainly gathering.

We at a a very good pizza place (Uncle Vinnie's) opposite the Freemasons and returned to sleep for the night in preparation for 100km ride home the next day.  The noise levels were loud but not excessive for the time of the evening.  I can't remember exactly what time things started going sour but I do remember calling the police at about 11.30pm after trying to get hold of the owner without success to report what seemed to be a riot.
I came up from the bathroom to inhale  a lung full of what I thought was smoke but which was actually the contents of most of the fire extinguishers on the floor. There were at least three rooms in which not a skerrick of bed linen or, in fact, any bedding at all (mattress, what mattress?) existed.  Glassware suffered as well with the sounds of breaking glass one of the counterpoints to the thudding of various people on the other side of our room door.  I was unsure whether the door would hold which I suspect was one of the reasons I started making calls for help.

At another stage in the evening, when we had to go outside the room for a comfort stop, there was blood on the floor in one of the rooms and someone talking of calling an ambulance.  Vacuum cleaners and electrical cables were all over the passageway down towards the bathroom.  Good job the light fittings in the hallway were not part of the "smashing" good time as tripping over that lot wouldn't have been fun!
After managing to get a little sleep, interrupted by the sounds of someone looking for a candle outside (No fire extinguishers - wooden building...), we packed and scurried.  No money was spent in this exercise but as we felt for the poor girl who had to clean the place before starting her 7 hour shift, we left our phone details and names for the owner to contact us if he felt hard done by so she wouldn't be penalised.  She had been the only sober person in the hotel apart from us the night before.

We had breakfast at the Freemasons upstairs kitchen - shaken but not stirred!  Our panniers were taken back to Midland train station by a friendly supporting person which was extremely nice given our tired state.  One hundred and five kilometres later - home and comfy bed with no evil party goers!!

The Start of a New Year - Out of the Naughties and into the Twenties

OK!  Well in spite of setting myself rules about knitting lace and when I should and should not do it - broken them already!!  Not so much the black lace which is difficult to knit at the best of times but any lace knitted after 10pm seems to defeat me at the moment so the rule is:

• NO lace after 10pm - which ever time zone you're in!

I have just returned from Bright, Victoria where DH rode in the Alpine Raid - a two day version of the Alpine Classic run by Audax Australia.  This is a particularly interesting form of torture involving 250km (this link shows you the profiles and distances travelled)  on a bicycle from Bright, up Mt Hotham, to Omeo (the Raid overnights here) then to Falls Creek, Mt Beauty and around the Tawonga Gap back to Bright.  After riding this, DH then cycled off up Mt Buffalo to finish the afternoon off - about 70km round trip.  All in all, he rode 675km and climbed over 10,000m up various mountains and hills - some more than once - over the week and a half we were there.
Needless to say, I didn't participate in this.  I was at the finish and took some pictures (to follow) but I only had one ride during the week, on a hired mountain bike - like driving a Mack truck after riding my hybrid.  I walked most places and was driven around the course in air-conditioned comfort, gasping at the gradients Sir had had to ride up.  He assured me that "...it was easy!  You just have to change to the right gear and keep pedalling."  Yeah, right!  It only took him one hour and forty minutes up Mt Hotham which made him quite proud as times vary from an hour and a half to well over two hours.  At no time did he walk the bike I have to say.
I did plenty of knitting and was totally chuffed that I could knit happily on the plane ride over to Melbourne without being viewed as a terrorist.  Still looked at as being not normal but I'm used to that!  Who needs to be normal?  It's over-rated!

Things I have learned in 2009 - Number 2 - Using the internet after midnight

In the second of this series, I shall tell you a sad story of coming home, high on the fumes of tennismania (aka Hopman Cup Tennis) to log onto the interwebs, then to Ravelry and the terrible results thereof.  It transpired early in 2009 that my credit card wilted under the pressure of this onslaught and I committed to so many things that the remainder of the year was a complete shambles. So, next lesson:

1. Thou shalt not log into the interwebs after midnight and purchase yarn just because it's there.
2. Thou shalt not log into the interwebs after midnight and purchase yarn just because it's on sale.
   
3. Swaps maybe fun but you should check when they all become due before signing on, especially if it's after midnight.
4. After midnight all swaps, sound good.  Look, read, take notes, come back during daylight hours if you still think it's a good idea.
5. After midnight, surfing the net for three hours - stupid idea!  Just do what's needed and get thee to bed!  There's another day tomorrow....

Here endeth the lesson!

Things I have learned in 2009 - Number 1 - Knitting after 10pm

1. Don't start fine lace after 10pm when you are tired
2. Don't start knitting lace after 10pm when you are tired and the yarn is cobweb weight AND BLACK!
   
3. Don't start knitting lace after 10pm when you are tired and you've had any amount of alcohol
   
4. Don't start knitting lace when in a group and you are tired
   
5. Try taking note of your own comments on this matter instead of thinking you know better - IT WILL END IN TEARS!

My Fountainpen Shawl is coming along nicely.  If I had made this list earlier and actually stuck to it, I may actually have been about halfway through.  As it is, I think I have tinked more than knit just lately.  I know for a fact that I didn't make any forward progress on Christmas Day - that was ALL tinking.  Boxing Day, a little better.  I reknit all the tinking from Christmas Day, knit about four more rows, tinked one or maybe one and a half, fixed the mistake I found and purled the wrong side row before putting it away to write this as a penance. 
This shawl will be completed.  As I keep saying, the pattern isn't that hard, I just seem to be making it that way.  I shall do better tomorrow.  For now, I am tired, I have had several glasses of wine and some cointreau and the group has just broken up to go home.  Not in tears yet but entirely possible if I heed the siren call of that dratted black lace shawl.  It being 11pm, I shall heed my own list and retire while I'm still ahead.

Doing some charity stuff

Back to our usual level of overcommitment, I am participating in the Cancer Council's Relay for Life with our group 'Knitters for a Cure', commonly known as K-FAC!  We have a goal to raise $3000 and are currently over 80% towards our total.  Raffle prizes are available to like-minded knitters who want to donate AND expand their non-stash.*
This coming weekend - October 24 and 25 from 3pm to 3pm - our group will walk around Joondalup Arena in various directions while knitting squares for a blanket that will be auctioned off at the end of the relay.  We're hoping that we won't spend too much time falling over while doing this but you never know.  If you're in the area, please come down and support us / take pictures of how silly we look / laugh a lot.  If you're not in the area, how about donating to cancer research?


*non-stash - a term used by knitters to describe the insulation they accumulate for projects.  Others may use the term stash however:

• If a project was intended = non-stash
• Bought as a gift or to make a gift = non-stash
• Sock yarn always = non-stash
• Bought from someone else's stash (non-stash) = non-stash

So there's no such thing as stash!!

Evicted from our Monday Meetup

Cartoon on page 4, The Voice Community Newspaper,
Saturday October 3, 2009

Thanks to the kindness of DH, I have been home scaring the cats these last four days trying to avoid coughing so hard that my eyes pop out - not fun! He claims to have got this wondrous bug from a cycling buddy during the recent On Ya Bike tour around New Norcia, Toodyay, Northam & etc. Not sure how you would actually ride with this but whatever. It's been a very eventful week even if I have had to watch it from home.

Monday - Public Holiday - was fine if a little scratchy in the throat. Went to knitting at Exomod Coffee in Mt Lawley as usual. Smokers outside - as usual. Complained - as usual. I got up to shut one of the shutters that was open - besides the smoke, it was a little cold and none of the staff seemed to be bothered. One of the other knitters also complains about the smoke as we now have a cigar smoker in the mix. There's an actual by law about this sort of thing and by January, there will be state laws so they must know that when they serve food - smoking's a no-no.

Inside Cover, The West Australian,
Thursday October 2, 2009

Next minute, short, swarthy, hairy man comes up, grabs the chair of my knitting friend and goes off, very loudly. "This is no community centre!" "You people never buy anything!" (We all had drinks, I just finished my sandwich and there was plenty of cake happening...it's a knitting group!) "You just take up space!" (That'll happen I guess.) "You're too noisy!" (What the...?) "We don't need your kind here!" (What kind was that? Human?) And then we were asked to vacate the premises.

As we left, we explained to anyone who asked what the issues were and why we were going - not to the girl on her laptop who had no cake, drinks or anything else and hadn't since I'd been there but she was quiet so obviously not 'one of our kind!'

Much tweeting and FaceBooking on the part of others (I'm allergic to either!) happened via various mobile electronic devices with many expressions of amazement on the part of respondents - we'd been going to this cafe as a group for around four years without a problem. Put up with a heap of bad service and substandard food on occasion because staff were new, yada yada yada. We used to be the only customers there most Monday evenings as I recall.

Now we've moved down the road to Caffissimo who looked like they needed a group of loud, uncouth people with pointy sticks and spinny things to see how we go there.

We've had some quite remarkable news coverage - Inside Cover in the West Australian picked up our story as well as the local rag, The Voice. And we got a cartoon in the later which is quite good. A FaceBook site dedicated to bagging this arm of the franchise has been set up. Heaven knows what will happen next Monday should I be well enough to go. Exomod may get a few queries asking where the knitters have gone. That'll make 'em happy I reckon. Stay tuned!

The article published on Page 3 of The Voice Community Newspaper,
Saturday 3 October, 2009

An Act of God - Fun & Games at Tullamarine

Finally home after another fun board meeting in Melbourne. Every quarter - basically February, May, August and November - I attend the professional association board or Council meeting as the Western Australian representative. Fly out of Perth very early Saturday so I have some free time cruising Melbourne in the afternoon then the meeting runs all day Sunday, most of Monday and I come home Monday night.
This time on Monday - evil weather! Decide I should go to airport a bit early - flight at quarter to 7 but it takes some time to get from the middle of Melbourne to Tullamarine and town was being tiresome so I went back to get the bags and headed out around 4.30. Hit the airport just after 5pm when the weather was being really disgusting - hail had been forecast but the taxi had had to slow due to the heavy downpours as we went along the freeway.
Check bag, get drink and some water and sit down with book and paper to await the boarding call. Didn't happen. Instead my fellow travellers and I hear that the plane due to take us back to Perth has been hit by lightening and needs an inspection in the hangar. Earliest departure will be 8.30pm but worst case scenario - 11.30pm - stay tuned!
Ring husband (DH) to inform. Qantas allow us all to have $20 of food from anywhere in the terminal on them by just showing our boarding pass. Have some noodles "extra spicy" which apparently means how I would usually have them - mild but they were nice.
Next announcement - 9.30pm departure. Don't call home this time as DH had gone for a swim. Wait a bit longer - now no plane. Qantas will put us up overnight and we will all go home in the morning. Go to collect bags and find that our transport vouchers are back inside the terminal leave bags with Qantas staff member. Go back through security check who always look sideways at my handbag (aka the hand haversack) - "Yes! Yes! You've actually seen it before and it hasn't changed. Maybe you should have looked better last time..."
Join queue for Cab Charge and details on hotel plus gain copy of form letter with apology for lack of plane and explanation. Request computer access to explain to boss why I won't be at work and am shown into a staff room to access e-mail (on a reread this afternoon - I was tired when I wrote this!!)
Get to hotel after queuing for cab and queue for room. DH calls exactly when I'm trying to check in as predicted. Tell him I'll call back. By the time I hit the room and its king-size bed, it's 10.30pm Melbourne time. Put kettle on for cup of tea. Call room service for skim milk. Phone not working properly. Try to call husband - no answer
Everything else in room is king-sized including the vanity unit where the only mirror lives which is so high I can't get close to the mirror to remove (or replace) make-up.
Have shower in lukewarm water. Doesn't seem to have a hot but certainly has cold. Also no where to put shampoo, conditioner, face washer, soap and comb requirements. This room was designed for a 6 foot tall bloke with no hair. That much is obvious.
Try to call husband - no answer. Try mobile a couple of times with the same result and realise that there is little to no signal in this room. Try to call husband - no answer.
Blow dry hair. Drink tea. Try to call husband - no answer.
Make second cup of tea. Organise clothes and early wake-up call after setting up alarm clock. Try to call husband - no answer.
Go to bed and am rudely awakened by early wake up call but pleased by this as the alarm clock never goes off. Repack suitcase and go down for brekkie and 7.45am bus ride back to airport.
Recheck suitcase which has gained 2 kilos in weight (how can this be?) and enter the departure lounge after suitable bag scrutiny occurs (again!) Realise I can't call husband now as it is WAAAAAY too early for Perth-time. Hover around shops. Our plane is apparently due at 10am. Buy a book I haven't yet read and some more chocolate to replace the stuff I consoled myself with the night before. Plane will now be 10.30am.
Time ticks past 9am and I call DH who got many messages last night apparently - some unrepeatable and possibly not making much sense either I suspect. Tell him I should be home by 10 past midday. Buy shoes (well I've read the paper and started the book already and my knitting is in my checked baggage - roll on Airline Review!!)
Plane now departing from the other end of the terminal (WTF?) and at 11am. I rang DH from my seat on the plane at around 11 once the doors were shut and we had a definite departure time. Managed to be back in Perth at 1.30pm only 16 hours after we were supposed to be there.
Guess I was lucky we weren't on the plane that WAS hit by the lightening and I am home safely but now have lost a day basically to an Act of God.