Friday Fill-In

This week's Friday Fill In:

1. I'd really like a nap/something to keep me awake right now.

2. Owwwwww! is the word you'd most often hear me say if I stubbed my toe.

3. Possession is 9/10ths of the law... apparently.

4. Mmmm.... Captain Jack Sparrow.

5. Marshmallows and fire go together like two very good things.

6. Time goes on and on.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting home at the end of it all, tomorrow my plans include picking up some trousers I've had altered (sounds thrilling doesn't it) and Sunday, I want to get some of the length off my to do list!

Teaser Tuesdays: Change of Heart (Jodi Picoult)

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

My 2 “Teaser” Sentences for today:

"I had already outlines his features in Black - the broad brow, the strong chin, the hawk's nose. I'd used a shank to shave ebony from a picture of a coal mine in National Geographic and added a dab of shampoo to make a chalky paint."

Page 29 of Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

Oncleows

I felt the need for a quick knit last night, and after being picky enough that I wouldn't knit any fish other than the true Festive Fish pattern I'd had to rule those out (but the book is on order). So Oncleows it was. Only problem was I'd got lots of mystery yarn to use up and no dpns bigger than about 4mm (certainly not any shortish ones). So having fiddled around last night, I have upped the pattern to 48 stitches (rather than 30) and am playing with 4mm needles. It's not going terribly quickly the seconds time and I'm finding my left hand is actually getting pretty painful - not sure what that's about but it's enough to make me give up for now.

Tension Square - Moonglow

Yarn: Patons Moonglow (83% Acrylic, 15% Wool, 2% Viscose)
Colourway: 00030, Moonlight
Needles: 7mm
Stitch Used: Four row repeating pattern.
R1: k *yfwd sl1k k2tog psso yfwd k1*rep.
R2: *p*rep.
R3: k2tog yfwd k1 *yfwd sl1k k2tog psso yfwd k1*rep sl1k k1 psso.
R4: *p*rep.
Number of Stitches: 12.5 (+4.5)
Number of Rows: 18.5 (+5.5)
Washed? No (yarn instructions - machine wash, 30^oC)
Intended Pattern: Patons 3369: Cap Sleeve Waistcoat in Moonglow (Patons): find this on Ravelry

Unprotected Sex

Why is it, that if a university student says that they don't currently use barrier or oral contraception, the doctor concludes that they are in fact having lots of unprotected sex?

Ummm... there is another option.

Film in Four Words (Keeping Mum)

Light, funny, short, all-star.

(Image from Wikipedia, more film info at IMDB)

Film in Four Words (American Wedding)

Almost funny. Nice dress.

(Image from Wikipedia, more film info at IMDB)

Spicy Turkey Meatballs

Makes ~14 medium-sized meatballs, ~30 minutes.

350g lean turkey mince
1 onion, roughly chopped
1tsp chilli powder
1tsp mixed herbs

Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Place turkey and onion in food processor and blend until finely minced^*. Add chilli powder and herbs and mix well. Roll mixture into medium-sized balls (just slightly smaller than the size of a regular tomato) and place on greased baking tray. Cook for 20 minutes turning halfway through. Serve with a tomato-based sauce (such as the one described in my last meatball-related post) and pasta.

* Do not slice fingers on food processor blade, this is a bad plan.

Film in Four Words (The Duchess)

Beautiful costumes, moving film.

(Image from Wikipedia, more film info at IMDB)

Friday Fill In

This week's Friday Fill In:

1. Enough with the grey.

2. Feeling obliged to complain about people not working hard enough when I know that they'll know it was me causes me to be conflicted. Why could she not just have turned out to be wonderfully organised? *sigh*

3. I've been craving sleep (as ever).

4. My friends make me laugh.

5. I wish I could go to somewhere with blue skies, green grass and a sprinkling of wild flowers next week.

6. Not a lot has been on my mind lately (I think someone has secretly replaced my mind with cotton wool).

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to nothing really, tomorrow my plans include perhaps some knitting, definitely some sleep, and a little bit of just catching up with the world and Sunday, I want to feel like I'm actually ready for next week to happen.

Teaser Tuesdays: Staring at the Sun (Julian Barnes)

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

My 2 “Teaser” Sentences for today:

"At eighty-seven, Jean had taken up smoking. Cigarettes had finally been pronounced risk-free, and after dinner she would light one, close her eyes, and suck on some tangy memory from the previous century."

Page 140 of Staring at the Sun by Julian Barnes

Truprint Offers - Cheap Photo Prints

Having realised that getting some prints done for my Queen's Guide exploration photos would be a good idea I thought I'd check out prices online. Having used Truprint before and not found anything new and cheap in a quick Google search I thought I'd check out the offer sites for some promo codes. Found two codes, both of which give you 50 prints at 1p each - bargain! I think I'll have a lot of photo uploading to do when I get home :o)

Edinburgh: Saturday

Lizzie left early this morning but Tom, Lyndsay and I figured since we were so close that we should probably make an attempt to get the rest of the board:

• University of Edinburgh (Red)

Following last night's card games, we made a fairly relaxed start to the morning. When we did get out, we headed out into the university quarters to try and find the Labyrinth in George Square. Immediately after stepping out of the hostel we stopped to shop across the road - I'm too easily attracted by shops with pretty colours in the window and was lucky to come out with only a skirt! Sadly, when we did find the labyrinth (despite the wind that came suddenly from nowhere to blow us every direction except the one we wanted to walk in), it was closed: only open weekdays. As expected, the labyrinth wasn't full height - it was difficult to tell from the gates whether it was simply line markings on the floor or had a couple of inches of height but I suspect the former. I've never done a labyrinth before so it was a little disappointing to find it closed, that said I can't quite see how you could simply walk and think if you had to look at the floor to see where the path goes! Anyway, here we are in front of the rather grubby sign:


Whilst we were at the university, we also ducked into the foyer (shelter - hurrah!) of their new Informatics building - originally we thought it was in use but looking closer it was quite clear the building hadn't opened yet. So, all done at the university we picked off the last two:

• George Street (Orange)
  
• Princes Street (Purple)

George Street has statues at every junction (or at least I think it's at all of them) but the statues are in the middle of busy junctions (obviously) so didn't really make for great photo opportunities - instead we took our picture looking down the road with the hope of getting many of the statues in... I'm not sure we succeeded.


We'd walked up Princes Street many times throughout the exploration but never stopped for a photo. There's plenty to see along the road and many of the bits of it are in other photos but we hadn't had a picture for the road itself so we stopped to get one with the castle in the background.

All done, we stopped back off at Lady Stairs Close and did the Writer's museum there, visiting the folk music shop we'd seen doing the Bank whilst on the way. After the Writer's museum we headed back to the hostel via the Cathedral (some lovely stained glass but no photos allowed inside without the purchase of a permit) and the Museum of Childhood which was just across the road (that place is a maze - I nearly missed most of it!).

Edinburgh: Friday

On Friday, Lizzi took the reins. Friday's plan was to start with the castle but we also managed to use the opportunity to pick up one which we were passing on the way:

• Lady Stairs Close (Blue)
  
• Edinburgh Castle (Purple)

We almost walked past the entrance to Lady Stairs Close without spotting it. Edinburgh (Old Town) seems to be filled with these little tiny dark lanes, all with curious sounding names. Lots of them are mentioned in the haunted Edinburgh book Lyndsey bought.


After lots of short stops on the previous two days it was nice to get a really good look at the castle. I think we covered almost all of it, the exceptions mostly being the Military Museums. I took quite a lot of photos - I'd like to have a go at making a panorama with them.


Following the castle, our plan was to get some lunch and then do the dungeons. We had a little bit of time to kill as it wasn't quite lunchtime yet. Lizzi fancied visiting the Guide shop so we went in search of that - unfortunately it was as far from where we were as it conceivably could be! On our way we also got some photos for a couple of the other board spaces:

• Edinburgh Waverley (Station)
• Bank of Scotland (Community Chest)
  

A happy accident - we found the Bank of Scotland (just over the road from a folk music shop that we nearly visited). Looks like they've got a museum there which I hadn't realised from all my scouting around - I had enough problems trying to work out where it was!


Having completely failed to find a good picture of Waverley on either of the occasions we'd visited to catch a train, we a really nice view from a bridge on our way from the Castle. I stopped to take quite a few pictures here knowing that, if nothing else, Hobnob would appreciate them!


When we did find the Guide Shop I picked up some Holiday badges for my Brownies and an Edinburgh cloth badge for my camp blanket. Walking back it was now definitely lunch time! Once done with lunch, it was on to the dungeons:

• Edinburgh Dungeons (Prince's St/Go To Jail)

We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the dungeons and it didn't occur to us to take anything outside (though I don't remember there being much to look at outside) so there's nothing to show here. According to a rather hysterical drama student (who totally broke out of character once Tom said he was Coventry) I spent last night dancing naked singing chants - and I thought we'd just been playing cards. All done at the dungeons, we headed out to Holyrood:

• Holyrood (Red)
• Scottish Parliament (Green)
  
• The Royal Mile (Yellow)

Holyrood itself is a fairly busy area in terms of attractions, hosting the Palace of Holyrood, the Queen's Gallery, the Scottish Parliament, Arthur's Seat and Our Dynamic Earth. As the Scottish Parliament already features on the board we'd decided to use the Palace in the photos but it was a little dark and I struggled to get good pictures.


Having wandered a little in confusion, we eventually discovered that we'd come in past the Scottish Parliament - clearly none of enough know enough about politics to know what the building looks like. Sadly it was far too big for any really effective photos and the poor light didn't really help, but here's a bit of it!


Holyrood is also the start of the Royal Mile.


Having made a plan to pick up those four we'd thought about getting yesterday, we headed out towards FountainBridge for dinner:

• Grindlay Street (Yellow)
• FountainBridge (Red)
• Rutland Court (Green)
• Charlotte Lane (Yellow)

Grindley Street was a nice easy find and we got a quick picture outside the theatre there.

From Grindley Street we carried on to FountainBridge for tea at an Italian restaurant. A proper city restaurant, the kind I miss from London.

On our way back, we picked up the last two far out ones (or at least something that approximated to them). We couldn't find a Rutland Court - but got a Rutland Court Lane which must have been pretty close.
For this final night, our dormitory for six now had another two guests in it so we headed down to reception to play cards - Mau again. Having been thrown out of the reception around 11:30pm (because they were closing up, not because we were behaving terribly!), we found a spot in the corridor instead and attempted to keep the noise down whilst playing Coffee Pot. I think it was around 2am when Tom, Lyndsey and I went to bed!

Edinburgh: Thursday

Starting out with a few quick ones to pass the time until cheap day trains:

• St. James Centre (Orange)
  
• Prince's St. Gardens (Blue)
  
• The Meadows (Brown)

We got up somewhere around 8am, collected ourselves together and nibbled on whatever bits of breakfast we'd bought yesterday. Starting out with the little ones, we headed back to the St. James Centre (which we had passed on our way back from the quays the previous day) and got a quick photo outside. We did stick our heads into the centre but there wasn't anything hugely inspiring shopping-wise and there would be plenty more opportunities as all three of the oranges were shopping related.

With most of an hour still to go before we could buy cheap-day tickets, we moved on to do Prince's Street Gardens. The plan here being that we could spend some time looking at the various things in the park and optionally go up the monument (but probably not given the excellent views we had got from the museum roof the previous day). Unfortunately when we got to the Gardens it turned out that they were closed for some sort of work (it looked like they were dismantling a Fairground in one bit but I don't know if that was all). We stopped at the gates (guarded by a builder) and took a picture.
From Prince's Street Gardens, we walked along a little further to The Meadows (which we could get into) and walked around there. We got a good view of the Castle and of an overly tame squirrel that sat in the middle of the footpath.
All done with the gardens, and once train prices had dropped it was time to get the awkward one out of the way:

• The Forth Road Bridge (Station)
• Edinburgh Haymarket (Station)

Getting to the Forth Road Bridge was always going to be one of the most challenging of the spaces. Without a car, we could 1) try and find a bus/taxi to cross the bridge 2) take a train over the rail bridge 3) see if any boat trips passed under the bridge. Train seemed the simplest option here as there's a station just the other side of the bridge. At only about £3 for ticket to North Queensferry with a student railcard, this was also a reasonably cheap option. Getting to North Queensferry we had about 15 minutes spare before the return journey so we wandered down the road to see if we could get a better view of the road bridge.
Coming back from North Queensferry, we got off at Haymarket which gave us that station and placed us at a different part of Edinburgh to better get those spaces off to the side.

We had therefore planned planned to do:

• FountainBridge (Red)
• Grindlay Street (Yellow)
• Rutland Court (Green)
  
• Charlotte Lane (Yellow)

However, whilst these spaces formed a nice cluster around Haymarket station they still left us with four rather awkward ones to get. So instead we did:

• Murrayfield (Pink)
• Tynecastle Statium (Pink)

These two stadiums aren't terribly far from Haymarket but are in the direction away from Edinburgh. Very close to each other too.
Having got these two it was time to get the last two really awkward ones:

• The Gyle Centre (Orange)
  

• Lauriston Castle (Blue)

Starting out with the Gyle Centre to give us a place for lunch. Both these two were to be done by bus so we bought an all day ticket. Arriving at the front of the Gyle we easily found the food court and each picked out something to eat. Having decided that this was the shopping centre we would use to shop in (if that makes any sense) we had a bit of browsing time in New Look, La Senza (without Tom), a walking shop, the Disney store and a supermarket (to replenish the Mini Egg supply).

Back out at the front of the Gyle we struggled a little to find the bus we wanted, but having done so it didn't take too long to arrive. We did miss the stop we wanted as it was part way round the route but were very lucky to be overheard wondering where to get off by a couple who told us we'd only just missed it and where to look as we walked back. This Castle is really more of a big house (in the middle of a lot of other houses) but has a huge drive. The place was closed up for the day but as we hadn't planned on going inside this wasn't a disaster.
Seeking a lazy evening, we walked all of about three doors down the road for our tea shortly after returning to the Hostel. We'd seen the place yesterday which was a hybrid Indian/Thai restaurant. Marginally more pricey than some of the things we'd looked at but really nice.

Back at the hostel, Tom taught us Mau - a card game I wish I would be able to find people to play with at home. Just my kind of game :)

Tension Square - Moonglow

Yarn: Patons Moonglow (83% Acrylic, 15% Wool, 2% Viscose)
Colourway: 00033, Fern
Needles: 8mm
Stitch Used: Stocking
Number of Stitches: 12 (+4)
Number of Rows: 17 (+4)
Washed? No (yarn instructions - machine wash, 30^oC)
Intended Pattern: Not-So-Bulky Golden Compass Hood, available for free at Earthy Fae (Dianne Serviss): find this on Ravelry

Sock-in-Progess: Day 10

Finally all done :)

Edinburgh: Wednesday

We arrived in to Edinburgh Waverley around 11am, as we couldn't easily spot a sign for the station in a convenient point for a photograph we left that for another time and found the tourist information instead to pick up maps and leaflets for things we'd got planned (plus Lyndsey picked up some early postcards). After that we wandered to the hostel (finding it surprisingly easily) and dropped our bags off. Despite the booking form which had asked when we were checking in it turned out we had to wait until 2pm so we headed out for lunch at Pizza Hut instead. Lyndsey, Tom and I each had the buffet lunch whilst Lizzie had a pizza; when the bill arrived at the end it seemed our waitress had forgotten to add the three buffets to the bill (making the total only around £12 for the four of us) - when we asked if their had been a mistake she very kindly only charged us for two of the three buffets making it only about £7 each once we'd split the bill.

Once we were done at lunch we headed out to wander for a while until we could book in to the hostel. We were accosted by a monk on our wanderings but it was a poor time to catch us as we'd all just spent our change on food! We hadn't especially planned to do any particular activities on the wanderings but to see what we found and to do anything we thought appropriate. Stumbling around we found ourselves in Chambers St and so we did the following:

• Museum of Scotland (Community Chest)
  
• Chambers Street (Brown)

On entering the museum (photos on the way in), we started with the Kingdom of the Scots on the ground floor: most memorable things for me on this floor were the quotations written on the entrance, the huge ceremonial sword (and I mean huge) and a very clever looking metal chest whose lid was entirely taken up by it's complex locking mechanisms. Following this, we moved on to the Connect and Move It interactive galleries: I designed a robot that could perform surgery (followed by one that was completely unsuited to this purpose - think of hoover on wheels and then add a huge radar dish!) and together the four of us powered some wind-up electrical stuff. Finally we popped up to the roof and looked out over the city and wandered back out of the museum via the shop.


Leaving, we came back out onto Chambers Street and looked round for a photo spot and took them in front of a statue in the middle of the road before heading back to the hostel.


So, part two... after sorting ourselves out in the hostel we went out to find a number 35 bus (from right outside the hostel) out to Ocean Terminal to pick up:

• Prince Albert Quay (Community Chest)
  
• Royal Yacht Britannia (Station)
  
• Leith Walk (Green)
  
• Easter Road (Pink)

Despite my wad of Google Map print outs, the first two of these were suprisingly hard to find - particularly when it turned out that we couldn't physically get to the first one (there was a rather large set of gates in the way) and that the second wasn't quite where Google Maps thought it was. Still, we got reasonably close to the first and took some photos next to one of those lifesaving ring things - complete with reflective strips for flash photography :) The Royal Yacht turned out to be inside a shopping centre (somehow - I never did quite work that one out) and was well and truely closed by the time we found it but none of us had much of an interest in actually seeing the inside of a boat anyway. Walking back from the quays, we followed as much of Leith Walk as we could (it's apparently one of the longest roads in Edinburgh), stopping somewhere near the start at a Tesco to pick up whatever we fancied for breakfast the following day (pancakes with lemon and raisins for me) and taking a quick break away to visit Easter Road. Coming back into Edinburgh proper, we passed the St. James Centre (which appeared to be mostly taken up by John Lewis - mmm... haberdashery goodness!) so at least we now know where that one is.


Once we'd got back to the hostel and rested our feet for a bit be stumbled out to a nearby pub for dinner. Lyndsey, Tom and I had haggis/veggie haggis with tatties and neeps (which I learnt were turnips not parsnips as I thought someone had told me once). Getting back we played contract whist before crashing out :)

Sock-in-Progress: Day 9

Late night tonight but this is the sock at the end of Tuesday. Have *just* started on the toe decreases. See also my funky needle holder. Stops me losing that 5th needle (something I do over and over again), bought them online today and they were hand delivered! Very good service indeed from p2tog sock yarn store.

Film in Four Words (Twilight)

Fab colour, naff make-up.

(Image from Wikipedia, more film info at IMDB)

Saw this on my own at the Vue Lancaster this afternoon and overall thought it was pretty good. I saw a trailer for this a few months back and really liked the colour in the starting scenes - a very rich blend of colours (especially greens) is used through this film which I really liked. The film felt like it started very slowly to me, I wasn't really that captured by the film until well over half way through. That said, once it did get going I did really start to enjoy the film. As an adaptation from the book this wasn't half bad - I didn't hate any of the character choices, in fact I thought they were all pretty good (the only exception perhaps being Alice whom I like but she doesn't quite convey the fragility given in the book). The only thing in this film that really grated with me was the make-up, all the Cullens (especially Dr. Cullen) looked like they'd had an accident with some talc, too much on the naff vampire side for my liking.

Teaser Tuesdays: The English Year (Steve Roud)

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

My 2 “Teaser” Sentences for today:

"The Old Horse is both the name of a song and a dramatic Christmas house-visiting custom, similar to the Old Tup or Derby Ram. In 1903, George Addy recorded the following version of the song that was sung during the visit:
It is a poor old horse
And he's knocking at your door
And if you choose to let him in
He'll please you all I'm sure
Poor old horse, let him in"

Page 505 of The English Year: A Month-by-Month Guide to The Nation's Customs and Festivals, From May Day to Mischief Night by Steve Roud

So I'm still on the same book as last week - actually I've been reading this for at least a month, it's a good job I haven't posted it every week. Like last week though this is really the only thing I'm reading (or at least the only thing I'm reading for fun) so there wasn't an alternative to post.

Sock-in-Progress: Day 8

I didn't think I'd done much today but the tape measure says I'm nearly there :o) Should be getting onto those decreases tomorrow I think.

In other knitty news... I have ebayed 10 balls of Patons Moonglow, sadly I then found a lovely pattern that calls for 11 balls. Plus I want 2 for a hat.

Randomised Photographs

As spotted in this post on The Yarn Princess...

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

My photo mosaic:

1. Sarah, 2. Chinese New Year, 3. Chapel-en-le-Frith - 60096 - 28/07/08 (EWS Class 60), 4. blue and white...2008, 5. greetings from captain jack sparrow!! ^o^/, 6. I had to do it, too...:), 7. Doorways into a India of Past - Pune India, 8. Coconut Rice Pudding, 9. don't worry be happy new year, 10. beauty sleeps*, 11. shiny & distracting, 12. SAFF 2008

Some additional notes:

• Photo 3 is for Hobnob who likes trains (love you!).
• Photo 4 - Sadly, the owner of this photo didn't make it available to the mosaic maker.
• Photo 5 - Because this photo didn't crop too well.
• Photo 6 - Sadly, the owner of this photo didn't make it available to the mosaic maker.
• Photo 7 - I'm not sure where my ideal holiday location would be. I like the idea of going to culturily interesting places (e.g. India, Japan, China) but I'm also a wuss and quite like the idea of a geographically dull but nice walking/scenery holiday (e.g. Ireland, Scotland, Belgium).
• Photo 8 - Can you believe there are no photos matching the term 'bread and butter pudding' on Flickr?
• Photo 12 - I don't have a Flickr ID, used Saff because it's an ID I use a lot. Shame about the cropping.
  

Sock-in-Progress: Day 7

Today's efforts:


Today was, rather frustratingly, mostly a day of knitted disaster. I knitted several rows with the needles in the wrong place resulting in a whole load of unknitting (which Morganna thankfully took from me when I got frustrated). Just after the unknitting I spotted a dropped stitch which had fallen a good ten rows. Repaired it just now and resolved to buy a smaller crochet hook to ease my troubles.

Still, I think it has progressed marginally.

PS - See the new funky tape measure. I seem to have an ever growing supply of tape measures (they come free with every sewing-related item I think) but this one is buy far the best. T'was a Christmas present from Mummy and Daddy Hobnob).

A/A Form Woes

Just phoned Louise and she's still not had my A/A form - this one is determined not to leave Lancaster I think. Anyway, I've emailed her a copy so hopefully we'll get this all sorted out :)

Sock-in-Progress: Day 6

Starting to look like a sock now - at last. Am a few rounds into the foot after my decreases, length of foot (before toes) is to be 18.5cm apparently - is that measured from the back of the heel?

In other knitting activity, I got my Ravelry invite today. Sadly my preferred username and standard varients thereof were gone so I am Saffie with an 'ie' instead of a 'y', not too far from normal at least. Curiously they don't allow hyphens or underscores in usernames either. So yes, Ravelry... it's kinda neat and could potentially be addictive. I've spent a lot of today taking pictures of my yarn and wandering from project to project - lots of pretty things I could knit one day... maybe :)

my Ravelry projects page as it stands today - sadly you can only view Ravelry pages if logged in.

Sock-in-Progress: Day 5

So, no knitting yesterday but I finally picked it up again this evening:


Again the Regia instructions were a little confusing but I've managed to join it all back up again and am merrily decreasing to get myself back to the number I started with. See also my pretty stitch marker being used to mark the new start of rounds.

EDIT - I realise now that this photo doesn't look vastly progressed on the last one, but I have done something - promise. It'll all look bigger and better at the end of tomorrow.

Friday Fill In

This week's Friday Fill In:

1. The world is round.

2. Uh-huh was the last thing I said.

3. I wonder where the holiday all went - back to work on Monday!

4. Peace at the end of all things.

5. There's something to be said for just getting the jobs done, instead of putting them off.

6. There is where I want to be.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to maybe nipping out to the letterbox (sounds exciting doesn't it), tomorrow my plans include getting up earlier than I did today ready for the builder to visit (and in anticipation of my more regular sensible starts from Monday) and Sunday, I want to enjoy a pub tea in good company!

Walkies!

New Years Walk, Whernside - Looking back up from just a little way off the top.

This isn't the most exciting of photographs (that isn't my talent) but it's a vague indication of the kind of day we had. Cold (especially when stopping for lunch) but otherwise a nice day, light winds but no rain.

Also good was the pubs afterwards. We stopped in the Station Inn immediately after reaching the bottom (allowing those with cars to rearrange them such that we could get back home again) and then moved on to the Greaves Park for dinner. I've not really been in the Greaves Park before (well, I have once, but before it was taken over by Table Table) so it was an interesting change but probably wouldn't feature in my list of eating places of choice. A reasonably large menu but not one I could instantly find lots of things I wanted to eat on. When the food turned up I like the look of it rather better than looking at the choices on the menu though - not all bad. With assistance I eventually chose a Bison Burger which tasted rather like any other burger to me - I'm sure I was overlooking its finer qualities. The profiteroles were pretty good though.

Books I Read in December

Total: 7 books

Flanimals: A Pocket Guide (Ricky Gervais)
Eclipse (Stephenie Meyer)
New Moon (Stephenie Meyer)
Twilight (Stephenie Meyer)
Secret Vampire (L.J. Smith)
Brown Owl's Guide to Life (Kate Harrison)
Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey (Alison Weir)

Does Flanimals really count as a read? Thom got this for Christmas in his stocking and I read through it that evening.

So it didn't take me long to submit... read the three currently available paperback Twilight novels: Eclipse (26/12), New Moon (20/12) Twilight (18/12). Each book took longer than the last and are reasonably comparable to the older, Night World novels. I enjoyed these three books and am now resigned to the fact that I shall have to make the effort to catch the film at the cinema sometime soon.

Hobnob bought me a copy of Twilight yesterday and as I looked (and only looked for now) at some of the sequels on Amazon last night I remembered L.J. Smith and her Night World series. It turns out they're being reprinted (persumably in anticipation of the release of the final book... who'd have thought it'd be a 10 year wait?) and her publishers have allowed her to make the first book available as a free eBook until December 21st. Read SecretVampire in an hour one morning on my macbook (12/12) - the writing is still suprisingly good even when reading as an adult - perhaps when Strange Fate is released I'll check them all out :)

When I spotted Brown Owl's Guide to Life in the charity shop on campus I figured as a new Brown Owl I really should read it. An enjoyable, light read about a group of women (once in the Pixie six at Brownies) taking on their lives, their weaknesses and their dreams. A pleasant relief from the manic paper writing being done at the time (03/12). Hope to pass it on to some other reader via BookMooch - think you might be interested? Check out my teaser.

Finished Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey on the 1st of December so it just scrapes into this one rather than last month. I really enjoyed this book. A great historical novel for anyone who enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl and Philippa Gregory's other Tudor England novels. Like many novels based on true history we know the end at the start but this is a well-written novel which I got myself nicely caught up in. A keeper to sit on my shelf.