Wednesday 6th November - Pay Attention in future...

This was really, really annoying.

I'm making another strip for the Tunisian crochet blanket, in a boucle yarn which was chosen for the blue colours that remind me of the water above and below the Niagara Falls.

I laid it out on the table to admire my progress...

and instantly spotted that it has lost a substantial amount of WIDTH.

To rip it out, or not to rip it out? The difference in width is actually nearly an inch.

So, I ripped. Ow! It hurt, really badly. All that work, gone, gone, gone.

About half of the strip returned to a single strand. It would have been a good idea if I had checked what I was doing more often.

At least, with Tunisian Crochet, you only need to pick up ONE stitch.

BUT, tempted as I was to pretend that "it will be all right when I sew the strips together", I knew that it wouldn't work out. So I'm glad I managed to take the path of righteousness, earlier rather than later.

Moral - PAY ATTENTION to what you are doing!

Tuesday 5th November - Whirly tubes and Singing Bowls

Shame you can't HEAR these.

The whirly tubes have a particularly clear tone - they are not yer ordinary toobes, m'dear, but used for their healing and therapeutic properties. These tubes are in F which can help with heart and lung function and the fourth chakra; a friend who is staying with us takes them on her travels.

The metal bowl is a Tibetan singing bowl, and produces a resonant ringing tone when you run the stick round the outside edge at the correct speed.

We  bought it in the Christmas market in Birmingham, a few years ago. It's an unusual sound.

Monday 4th November - Afternoon Off

Bet you thought I'd forgotten another day in this blog-posting challenge lark already - well, I've brought the laptop upstairs, and I'm rattling away at the keyboard in bed.

....

Having worked fairly hard all morning at this, that and the other, I was nearly late for my first school of the day - djembes at 2pm. (Sounds like "daggers at dawn" - maybe not quite as aggressive and dangerous as that.)

I tore myself away from watching a moody western film on day-time TV - Hombres - and zipped across to the next village, along the lanes, swished through the remains of the flooding across the road, past the pub, the shop and the church, and swung a right into NO NO NO NO NO - the gate into the staff car park was shut!

So I stopped where I was, and went over to open the gate. That's funny - the car park was empty! The blinds were all closed in the classroom windows! Not a soul to be seen, not a sound to be heard...

AHA - Simple, Dr Watson. It must be an INSET DAY - first Monday after half term. Would have been nice to know in advance.

A few minutes later my colleague, another music teacher, turned up - we share the teaching of this class. So, after a quick conversation, we decided to go back to my house for a cup of tea and a piece of cake, and for him to eat his lunch, before he zoomed off to the next town for wind band and big band and whatever, and I started piano teaching. We spent a pleasant hour, setting the world of music teaching to rights and sharing the gossip.

Very good cake, too; fruit cake, made with a whole teacup of cup of whisky.

That's made an unexpectedly relaxing start to the week.  

Monday 2nd November - Epic Fail

Yes, it IS Monday, no, it's NOT the 2nd November.

So maybe I typed the post for 2nd November in invisible pixels - ok?

If I had been concentrating, perhaps I wouldn't have failed the NaBloPoMo challenge on day 2; so here's a post to make up for the invisible one.

Oh bother. I can't think of anything to say.

I've been up too long already - long enough to write this week's to-do list, go for a routine blood test, post the blood test, (did you know that the post office vans are full of Very Dodgy Parcels containing blood and WORSE?), write and post two cards while spilling and drinking what was left of a flat white, (VERY WOBBLY TABLE - not impressed) do the shopping, put away the shopping, hang out laundry, reload the washing machine, arrange a doctor's appointment, update my calendar, read a recipe (Helston Pudding on www.recipesfromacornishkitchen.blogspot.com), read a blogpost (something techy and incomprehensible on www.boggyb.livejournal.com)  and now catch up with NaBloblahblah whatsit.

So, nothing I n t e r e s t i n g to post but you've gotta post something.

have a picture instead

  
hey ho. It's come out sideways. Good job most of you have bendy necks.

cheers!

Sunday 3rd November - And that was Half Term

That was the week that was - it arrived after a

week of chaos, and was spent in chaos.

 

I got through 29 of the 32 items on the to-to list, not counting the half-dozen or more items that got done but never made it onto the list.

Number One Son came to stay for a few days.





We went out to Arundel for a day as a whole family - and I was much better walking up and down the hills than I had been walking around on the flat the previous weekend. We bought Roly's fudge - EXCELLENT. Unfortunately I have now finished all my fudge.

I went for a lovely day out at Pulborough Brooks with Number One Son - that was a really good day out.

I cleaned, hovered, sorted, tidied. (Number One Son helped - bless you)

I went to London twice for hospital appointments. (Lung Function tests showed that the cyclophosphamide has been effective, and my lung function has improved. So I shall hopefully be able to continue with a similar immune suppressant medication - that's a "hooray"!)

While I was there I visited the Saatchi Gallery twice, the huge Peter Jones in Sloane Square to gawp at rare and expensive knitting yarns, and lighting displays (we plan to replace our sitting room light sometime), and Harrods gawp like a tourist at the décor, and Patisserie Valerie indulge myself with Nata tarts and mignon pastries. (I've just finished re-reading "Moon over Soho" and the jazz-vampire was always eating cream cakes in Patisserie Valerie, which was what made me want to go there again)

My piano teacher, who I "re-discovered" on the internet a few years ago having not been in contact since about 1974, has come to stay for a week (hence the housework!). I've had a couple of piano lessons, and in return she has been having lessons on how to operate her new tablet.




Today My Best Husband and I went for a stroll around some little fishing lakes and woodlands nearby at Sumners Lakes. I noticed that I had noticeably more stamina, at one point managing to get up a steep and slippery slope in one go without having to pause and catch my breath.





It has been a hard-working half-term "holiday", and there is a significant amount of work to do before I will be ready for the rest of term, but, even so, I reckon I am embarking upon the next seven weeks in better shape than when I started at the beginning of this term! 

Friday 1st November - A close shave

If I hadn't just clicked on feedly for a quick look before bedtime,
and if boggyb's post about NatBloPoMo hadn't popped into view as the first thing I saw
then I would have missed day 1!!!

Now all I have to do is post about something....

Here we go...

I was in London today with my favourite
companion; we were in the King's Road and so had a wander around the Saatchi Gallery exhibition entitled "Paper".

Some of the items on display are wonderful. Others are intriguing. many are - hm. Indescribable?

I'll probably have more to say about them another time. This time we followed our noses down to the basement level to look at the sump oil. http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/richard_wilson.htm

It's a curiously enigmatic and fascinating installation; the base of the room has been flooded with used sump oil (stinky) which makes a perfectly reflective surface. It's a bit hard to work out from the photographs - I suggest you go and see it for your self. Admission is free.