Sunday 3rd April - To err is human...

The full quotation is 

'to err is human, to forgive is divine' - Alexander Pope

but it's the making of mistakes that I'm writing about. I was half, nay, three-quarters thinking of renaming this blog as 'A-couple-of-typos-from-home' as they are such a frequent characteristic of these posts. When the mistakes are underlined in red, then there's a chance of catching them. 

I was given a box of these brilliant pencils,, made by a company called Milan, although other brands exists,by my husband lat year or the year before;

red at one end, and blue at the other. Apparently they are quite a thing on the continent for marking up text, adding emphasis to notes. I hadn't realised, until I went hunting to see if I could buy a double-ended yellow-green pencil, because then I could colour in anything with just two pencils. No such luck; the other type of double-ended pencil is neon yellow and ordinary graphite - for writing and highlighting. I might get one anyway, sometime... I could do with red-pencilling a lot of what I write before releasing it into the world.

I have heard from several sources that quiltmakers in the Amish community incorporate a deliberate error in their famous hand-made quilts, because true perfection can only be attained by God. I agree with them in that true perfection can only be achieved by God, but I personally have no to add mistakes to my work just to ensure it was not perfect. 

I don't think I have made a perfect thing in my life, not sewing, knitting, crochet, nor playing, singing, teaching, cooking - nope, not a thing.

Here's my 'second sock' of the new pair. The pale stripe is where I shall add a heel later on, and the little yellow bulb-shaped safety pin is where I spotted ANOTHER dropped stitch, which I do something or other with needle and yarn later, to stop it running any further. (Top tip - whatever you are knitting, keep a crotchet hook, a size or so smaller than the needles, close at hand for hooking up dropped stitches). I have included a shot of the bendy double-pointed needles I am using; it means my stitches are across two needles instead of the more usual three or four, so I knit 30 stitches (I should count to see if I still have 30 stitches on each needle) before changing to the next spare needle to complete the round.   

The point of the picture being he dropped stitch; the other sock also has a strategic pin hanging onto a stitch that needs attention.

Of course, nearly everyone agrees that we have erred mightily as a nation, as a world, in a whole raft of major, serious issues. One of which is waste and climate and resources.

In a tiny effort to reduce paper towel usage in this household, I am using dish-cloth cotton squares to mop microwave spills, wipe worktops and so forth. These cotton squares were originally meant for a patchwork blanket, but I am NEVER going to finish it. 

Even after having taken a number for my own use, I will still have about three dozen left over. They are made from recycled cotton, and are around six inches square, and all probably have at least one mistake in them. They are perfectly hygienic to use as long as they don't hang around too long. (remember the stinky floor cloths from the broom cupboard at school? Ugh) I chuck them in the laundry at the end of the day, or sooner if that seems a good idea. Just beware - they are NOT perfect!

So, if YOU would like some - 3? or 5? maybe - comment with your address (I won't publish your address) and I will keeping sending them out until they are gone.   

Friday 22nd July - First Day of Summer Holidays

I did my last bit of teaching on Thursday evening, so my holiday unofficially began on the Friday.

Friday was quite a packed day - routine bits and pieces first thing, take my father to the station, and then,  

why not?

why not indeed?

So we went to Brighton. Lunch in Waterstones cafe - very acceptable tuna melt panini - I'll have that again -  and then to the serious work of shopping. I did have a very specific shopping list of things that I can't buy on-line - things I wanted to see and touch.

Ackermann's music first (BB went for a stroll around the block to see what was going on nearby - and then another stroll - he knows I can spend HOURS in a music shop) and seventy pounds later I had chosen a couple of kilo's weight of music books for next term's teaching. I mention the weight - it was about ten books, but it's the weight that matters when you are walking round and about.

We called in at Adaptatrap where I encountered a Kora

(The kora is a 21-string lute-bridge-harp used extensively in West Africa - wikipedia)

the owner of the shop  was tuning one for a customer - what a lovely, radiant  sound. I've got this playing on youtube as I finish this post.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnTDuahaXwg

I managed not to buy one, not to even touch, as I knew that I would just get out my barclaycard and buy one, and we were already carrying too much stuff. I don't even know the price. Let's just walk away....

Then to the Best Shop of all -



where we both spent a good time browsing, circling round and round the displays until we made our final selections.

After that we were pretty much done with shopping, and made our way down to the sea front, and then back to the car, and home.

I wasn't finished with Friday yet though - I went to a staff "do" at a nearby pub noted for pizza and skittles. Oh yay! Skittles is Good Game.

The clock was just about striking midnight as I arrived home... what a way to start the holidays.

Thursday 17th December - Advent 17

A long day - early train to London for a routine check up*. This went well - there's no change to my status which is always good news.



Irrelevant picture taken ages ago on Hayling Island
but thought it would illustrate idea of Good News 

I started a course of antibiotics on Monday as I was concerned that I could be beginning a chest infection; but when they "had a listen" they reported "no wheezing" so it looks as though I may have nipped it in the bud. (It reminded me of an occasion last year when I went to the GP to check if my chest was clear - he reported that I had an "inspirational wheeze" which I found very amusing... - took him a while to understand why I was so delighted by the phrase)

We pootled about Covent Garden for a while, and then made it home in spite of the rail chaos caused by a broken train at Clapham Junction.



*I've an auto-immune condition which means, amongst other things, that my lungs aren't all they should be. This makes me prone to chest infections, which are to be avoided as they could cause a "flare-up". I'm fortunate though, because it all seems to have been reasonably stable for the last couple of years, so my 6-monthly check-ups are now back to annual visits - "happy-face"! 

Thursday November 26th - My Bestest Thing

I wanted this from the minute, no, the very second, that I saw it. Do you remember those multi-colour selector biros that used to appear in Father Christmas stockings? This is a Very Superior multicolour coloured pencil selector, with a properly engineered clutch mechanism like Good Mechanical Pencils (not the cheapy plastic ones that come free with Killer Suduko booklets).

And the packaging. Oh my word, the packaging. No-one can do packaging like the Japanese 





I've already used it to "improve" one of my birthday cards.

 



So that's two secrets that are out now. It's my birthday.

And I am a stationery nerd.

Thursday 26th March - F-o-u-n-t-a-i-n- P-e-n-s

Most teachers of my acquaintance have a stationery obsession to some degree. Skip this post if all things pen and paper leave you cold.

I've been indulging mine these past few weeks;

Recent purchases have been a Moleskine "Chapters" journal (two, actually, I couldn't decide on the colour and they were only £3.50 each). I should have measured them first; then I would have bought the larger size as these are a bit too small for ease of use. I haven't yet sent off for the larger size; it's been a near thing once or twice, but so far I have managed to resist. I would use them as a handbag notebook - passing address, ISBN of a likely-looking book, jot down a poem from the tube, filch a recipe from a cookery book that just "happened" to fall open at the right page, sketch something that catches my eye...




Then there are fountain pens. I've still got the little Parker, engraved with my name, from when I was a school. It sort of writes, but I "modified" the nib so may times to make it work "better" (I'm left-handed and used to find all pen nibs un-cooperative) that it should really either have a new nib or have a decent burial.

I use the Schaeffer cartridge pen given to me by my brother about forty years ago. It writes so smoothly, and is totally reliable. It has black ink in it for important and grownup things like writing cheques or filling in official forms.

I've a couple of cheap Osmiroyd fountain pens with italic nibs, which I bought at university years and years ago for writing out runes and poems from "The Lord of the Rings" and inscrutable symbols for the plants or from alchemy texts. As you do, when you are in the phase of your life. I don't use them much now - they really are not very satisfactory as writing instruments.

Then I discovered the website www.bureaudirect.co.uk. Financial disaster. If your order comes to £10 or more there is no charge for delivery. Well, a flat white costs close to £3 from my favourite expensive coffee shop, and that's before you add a croissant. And last year I used to call in at greater and lesser coffee and tea shops several times a week as I roared around the countryside from one school to the next, whereas this year that is simply not happening. So, the occasional order from Bureaudirect is still a saving, and very low-calorie compared to last year.

Just look at the desirability of this:


a dinky Herbin fountain pen and set of six Herbin ink cartridges in one of around 20 colours of ink. I chose this green. Ahhh. All for £10.95

And my other favourite pen:

The Lamy Safari. I bought the cartridge version, because it is easy to keep a spare handy, but then I discovered you can buy conversion thingies, so now I can refill it with any colour ink I want. Purple at the moment. Periwinkle. Orange. Even blue (the midnight blue with gold flecks in it).

Oh, and my other other favourite pen: the Lamy ABC, with matching 6mm pencil. Mine's red, not blue. It contains burgundy ink.

                        

 So what brought all this on as a blog post? I really just wanted to record a link to this super desirable planner that I really, really want next year. I'm using a Moleskine planner for my daily appointments and notes, and a larger Moleskine for a page-a-day diary/journal that I write up every (nearly every) evening, but the Hobonichi looks to be eminently wantable. I am wanting it very much at the moment, but the Moleskine planner is only half full!

http://www.thejournalshop.com/hobonichi-techo-planner

I'm managing the "waste-not" part of the wise old saying, but "want not" is not happening right now.

Oh, just a final note; I kept a page-a-day journal all through last year, and am doing the same this year. It is quite amusing to read what was happening in our lives a year ago - so much I had already forgotten. Several times I wondered what the point of the diary was - now I know.