303: make, read, sleep, repeat

Making stuff

This has been a very therapeutic week, making the most of the end of the year and the beginning of the new one before diving back into the inevitable maelstrom of the last phase of a capital project. I’ve spent many hours in my attic lair surrounded by piles of fabric, reading lots of books, dipping in and out of Grey’s Anatomy with Thing 1, and eating way too much of the Christmas cake.

The sewing hasn’t always been successful. Monday’s project – the Sewing Therapy Hanbok Skirt (a reversible pleated wrap skirt) turned into Tuesday’s project as well, when I unmade it, removed a third of the width and used the removed panel to add seven inches to the length. Floofy skirts that sit just below the knee are really not me, and this one made me feel like a Victorian tea table which I am sure was not the intention. I used a black pinstriped fabric that was perhaps too bulky for the style. I may make a summer version with something much lighter.

The written sewing instructions are sparse but useable, as the designer offers detailed video tutorials instead. As I discovered previously when making the Stitchless TV Bucket Coat, I don’t like video tutorials. Pausing and restarting and faffing about with laptops when I want to sew is a pain. Old style sewing patterns with all their nice clear illustrations and written instructions are much more me and a designer who offered both old-school and video would probably be very popular (definitely with me).

The second make was the Madswick Ginkgo Pinafore, a wrap dress (there may be a theme here) which can be worn several ways and which is a version of a black linen pinafore I use for layering when I am in need of extra pocketses. I used a king sized duvet cover for fabric, with a print of stars and fireflies so this will be for days when I require whimsical pocketses. This had good instructions although I cheated on the last step as burrito-ing the skirt panels felt unnecessarily complicated when a good stitch-in-the-ditch would do the job nicely.

I haven’t been able to do any sewing for ages so I also have a pile of unfinished quilting projects which I now have the space (and will find the time) to get to! The lair is going to be a productive place. I have also stocked up on biscuits.

Reading stuff

I’ve been indulging in a bit of nostalgia over Christmas, working my way through Joan Aiken’s wonderful Wolves of Willoughby Chase sequence, which is set in an alternative history where all those King Georges never made it to the throne. Following the adventures of Dido Twite and her friend Simon, it takes in wolves who’ve made it through the Channel Tunnel, dastardly Hanoverian plots, Arthurian legends, evil fake aunties and much more. When I started to re-collect these novels as an adult I was thrilled to discover that Aiken had filled in some of the gaps in Dido’s story and carried it on past the books I’d loved when younger. Pat Marriott’s dark, scratchy illustrations bring a sense of menace to the early novels, with their looming villains. I can feel a reread of the Dark is Rising sequence coming on afterwards.

I’ve also been learning about the history of footpaths in England and Wales with Jack Cornish’s The Lost Paths – long term readers will know that I love a long walk, and look forward to wandering down new footpaths when I’m out and about. This book looks at why and how many of our footpaths developed across time, what impact events like war and enclosure as well as natural events have on our access to the countryside, and why some paths just stop for no logical reason. It’s taken me ages to get through it (it’s not really a pick up and put down book) but having time off has hooked me right in.

Happy stuff

Seeing in the New Year surrounded by the usual friends and family, ridiculous trivia quizzes and Jill retaining her cereal box game crown despite competition from the teens…
Meeting an excellent kitten (who I didn’t kidnap as Lulu would probably have eaten him)
Snuggling babies in the form of sleepy twins on Saturday morning
Frosty walks with friends and hounds
The final episode of Stranger Things, and yes I cried.
The Holdovers – a film recommended by a work colleague, which manages to look as if it was filmed in the 70s.
Thing 2 making dinner on Saturday night
Resolving not to make any resolutions I can’t keep

Tomorrow is back to work, although at least from home for the first couple of days to ease back in! Happy New Year all.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Stolen Lake/Limbo Lodge/The Cuckoo Tree/Dido and Pa – Joan Aiken

Strange Days – Violet Fenn

The Dead of Winter – Sarah Clegg

The Magus of Hay/Friends of the Dusk/All of a Winter’s Night – Phil Rickman (Audible)

The Lost Paths – Jack Cornish

302: Dracula doesn’t count

What do Just Like Heaven, Last Christmas, The Sixth Sense and Donnie Darko have in common? Only one of them has a giant bunny. All of them have hot male protagonists (yes, Bruce Willis counts. Don’t argue). One of them is set at Christmas. They don’t have actors in common or similar plot lines.

The answer is, of course, that they are all ‘dead guy movies’, which is a debate my bestie and I have been having for a large part of the past week. These are movies where a character has been dead all along, not just died in the early part of the movie (which means Truly Madly Deeply is but Ghost isn’t) or been part of the action despite being dead (Weekend at Bernie’s is not). Muppets’ Christmas Carol is, since it clearly states that ‘the Marleys were dead to begin with’. There are lots of horror genre examples too, I expect, but I’m less likely to watch those.

Where it gets sticky is when the undead (or mostly dead) get brought into the equation. There was a lively debate about Dracula, for example: he’s dead but undead so is still walking around the place, thus very much a grey area. Her family say it counts, mine disagree. Frankenstein is another grey area, as all the various bits of the Monster were dead to begin with but then get reanimated. Zombie movies are mostly not, as often they’re wandering about the place having been brought back to life. It’s more complicated than you’d think….

The difference 34 years makes

That same bestie was also my companion for a Christmas afternoon out on Tuesday, when we went to see Othello at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, starring David Harewood as Othello, Caitlin Fitzgerald as Desdemona and Toby Jones as Iago.

Toby Jones, after his performance in Mr Bates vs The Post Office, his gentle nerdiness in Detectorists and understated excellence in Mr Burton is in grave danger of becoming a national treasure. He was positively malevolent as Iago, manipulating everyone around him and driving Othello to jealous madness, culminating in a great pile of dead bodies at the end. David Harewood made a very angsty Othello, and Caitlin Fitzgerald was sparky and joyful as Desdemona. It’s easy to forget how much humour there is even in the tragedies, and Toby Jones broke the fourth wall quite frequently while confiding his plans to the audience, with his usual comic timing. Costumes were modernish, the set was minimal and elegant, and PJ Harvey’s score was understated. Highly recommended if you get the chance.

Both of us had ‘done’ Othello at A-level and had written essays on the ‘noble savage’ tropes. 34 years later we both felt Mr O needed to do a bit less listening to Iago and a bit more thinking for himself.

We went to the matinee performance after lunch at Rudy’s in Wardour Street. We shared a pizza and a salad – the pizzas are huge and if we’d had a whole one each we’d have slept through the performance. After the show we walked back through a Christmassy London (well, fought our way past the tourists) to Kings Cross St Pancras to catch our trains – we saw the latest probably Banksy, a lot of festive lights and a complete set of Mario Bros in the station for some reason. An excellent day out altogether, and home in time for bed!

Other things making me happy this week

A session at the new David Lloyd in Harlow with Miriam – a mix of yoga, pilates and meditation. Just what I needed but bits of me were most unhappy the following day.
Coffee and stollen with Sue, Jill and Heather on Monday
Christmas cake

Various early morning walks with dogs and people
Christmas Mass at All Saints Epping Upland with Miriam and our Thing 2s. I got to light the advent wreath!

Finally making the Lego bouquet that my Beloved gave me for our anniversary last February. Just under 1000 very small pieces, but a permanent vase (or coffee jar) of flowers in my lair
Finishing these little ‘reel mice’ that I’ve had in my mind for ages. I think they need scarves though.
Saturday at TT1s with many cuddles from the twins, and Christmas Day with TT2 and the mad two year old
Christmas Amazon vouchers to spend. Hurray!

This morning I may go for a walk, and then have every intention of lurking in my lair for a few hours. Same time next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Night Birds on Nantucket/The Stolen Lake – Joan Aiken

A World of Curiosities/The Black Wolf – Louise Penny

The Dead of Winter – Sarah Clegg

Murder at Martingale Manor – Jodi Taylor

Strange Days – Violet Fenn

Nemi, vols I & II – Lise Myhre

301: Inconceivable

This week started with the terrible news that actor, director and all-round good egg Rob Reiner and his wife, the filmmaker, photographer and also all-round good egg Michele Singer Reiner had been found dead in their home in LA. Their son Nick was later charged with their murder. He has struggled with addiction, and there are reports that he’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

You might be wondering why the deaths of a couple I’ve never met are the subject of this week’s blog instead of whatever I’ve been up to this week. Well, Reiner – among his many other achievements – was the man who took a chance on William Goldman’s The Princess Bride and in so doing created the greatest film ever made. He was also the man who introduced me to Stephen King with his adaptation of King’s novella The Body, in the form of Stand By Me. He was also responsible for When Harry Met Sally (“I’ll have what she’s having”), This is Spinal Tap (“These go to eleven”) and The Sure Thing (which triggered my long-standing love for John Cusack). He and Michele also ran Castle Rock Entertainment, responsible for more Stephen King adaptations – The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile. Misery was a Reiner film too but despite James Caan and Kathy Bates I can’t love that one. Stephen King will probably be the subject of another blog, another day (but not for many years, please). A Few Good Men is another, but as it’s got the loathsome Cruise in it I can’t watch it.

The Princess Bride will always, always be my favourite. It didn’t do well at the box office but became a cult success, and people who recognise a quote when it’s dropped into conversation are kindred spirits. I remember the first time we watched it – it was Bonfire Night in 1988, and we’d rented the video from Apollo in Monmouth and watched it as a family. We all still have copies of the film on DVD and watch it whenever it’s on TV. Reiner’s films changed the way we talk, inspired endless memes and even a socially-distanced version of the movie in lockdown where Reiner appeared as The Grandson, with his father Carl as The Grandfather. The words may have been written by Goldman, Nora Ephron, Stephen King and others but Reiner brought them to life with love and humour. I have loved listening to his reading of The Princess Bride on Audible this week.

The Reiners were also activists, campaigning for gay marriage, for tobacco taxes to be used to pay for early childhood causes, for child development, and he was outspoken against Trump whose tasteless, egotistical, offensive response to the news of their deaths may become a nail in his coffin. I can say this as I have no intention of going to the US in the near future. The outpouring of respect and grief across social media and the news, from people who knew them and people who didn’t but whose lives have been touched by their words and actions, has been enormous.

Rest in peace, Rob and Michele Reiner. “Death cannot stop true love. It can only delay it for a while.”

Things cheering me up this week

The Borough of Sanctuary Christmas Party, which was surreal and joyful in turn.
My clever daughter making marshmallows which melt beautifully and artistically in my hot chocolate (Poulain 1848, on this occasion)
Making the front room look all festive

Finishing this army of pigs
Finding some festive reading
Lunch with London sister and brother in law at Turtle Bay. Two for one cocktails at lunchtime, bad idea.
Finishing work until the New Year

Today I’ll be making stollen, marzipanning the cake and pottering about in my lair. It’s Christmas this week, and we have TT2, her partner and GT2 coming for lunch.

As you wish, faithful readers.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase/Black Hearts in Battersea/Night Birds on Nantucket – Joan Aiken

The Madness of Crowds/A World of Curiosities – Louise Penny

The Princess Bride – William Goldman (Audible, read by Rob Reiner)

The Secrets of Pain/The Magus of Hay – Phil Rickman (Audible)

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (Audible)

300: Marley was dead to begin with…

…possibly one of the most excellent opening lines in literature (kind of spooky and oooh, as Rizzo the Rat says) and one I was very pleased to find on an enamel pin by Laura Crow which I wore to work this week in festive fashion. It is, after all, the season for this sort of thing – currently I am watching The Muppets’ Christmas Carol with GT2, one of my favourite festive films. Coincidentally my second favourite Christmas movie is also an adaptation of the Dickens classic: Scrooged, with Bill Murray. Murray’s ruthless TV exec brought to see the error of his ways by the always bonkers Carol Kane and her toaster (among other spirits) is classic viewing.

This week I’ll be doing my annual listen of Hugh Grant reading the original Dickens version, which was a freebie on Audible a couple of years ago and which is an excellent way to spend a couple of hours. The Muppet version is apparently the version with the most of Dickens’ original text in the script, which is fortunate since the Horde have all had to do the book for GCSE and they’ve been subjected to the film MANY times.

My festive mood has been helped considerably by walking back to Farringdon station via Sekforde Street and Clerkenwell Green. Dickens lived quite close to Clerkenwell – there’s a plaque to him in the gloriously Gothic Waterhouse Square/Prudential Building (Holborn Bars) on High Holborn, and his home on Doughty Street is about ten minutes’ walk away. Clerkenwell, on the edges of the City, still has a lot of Victorian streets and alleyways and at this time of year it’s adorned with wreaths. Even when it’s not Christmas it’s pretty – I love all the doorknockers on Sekforde Street, especially the bear with its cub and the cat with kitten on the old Finsbury Savings Bank (which Dickens actually used, I’ve just this minute discovered).

The denizens of Hatton Garden are a bit less festive, though the cigar-smoking skeleton Santa in the window of one of the offices made me laugh, as did the sign on ScooterTech round the corner.

Continuing this week’s obsession with Mr Dickens’ classic, I took Thing 2 and Thing 2a to see ZooNation’s hiphop version at Sadlers Wells East, Ebony Scrooge. A blend of hiphop, comedy and theatre it was very different to the last show we saw – Quadrophenia – but all of us loved it. It was noisy and joyful and funny, and the audience was encouraged to make noise and enjoy it. There was a short ‘Curtain Raiser’ performance by Boy Blue’s East London Dance School beforehand, called Sinnerman and which made excellent use of Nina Simone. The rapping narrators were great, and the animations were beautifully done and added to the evening. Highly recommended, if you’re after a festive night out with a difference.

Other things making me happy this week

Dinner at Kung Fu Mama with lovely friend Rhiannon on Wednesday, putting the world to some sort of rights while eating excellent noodles. The place is tiny and has a small street food menu, and it was packed – I had the traditional beef noodle soup which was delicious but messy. Pak choi is really hard to eat with chopsticks.
A swim on Saturday morning with Jill – it was c-c-c-c-c-cold in the water as we haven’t been often this autumn. We followed up with hot chocolates at Costa and a mooch round Hobbycraft.

My favourite and best thing this week though has been the completion of my very own lair in the attic – thanks to my Beloved who has been building tables and shelves for me, although I did have to assemble my own chairs. The contents of my frivolous shelves from the Shed have migrated upstairs and I had a happy Saturday afternoon pottering about and singing along to Christmas songs, especially Kate Rusby. I have a whole collection of things to go on the ‘walls’ – postcards and prints – and I’ll be able to work without having to put up my folding table, and leave projects out over a weekend. There’s a wide surface for cutting and sticking, space for my ironing board, and other flat surfaces. They may never see me downstairs again. All three of the Things popped up to see me while I was pottering, which was nice!

And that’s it for me for this week – if anyone needs me I’ll be in the attic finishing off some projects….

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

A Better Man/All The Devils Are Here/The Madness of Crowds- Louise Penny

The Secrets of Pain – Phil Rickman (Audible)

299: coming around again already

Well, apologies for those of you who usually like to read my ramblings over their morning coffee – WKDN is late today for no good reason. Festive torpor, perhaps, setting in earlier than expected due to Christmassy things landing all at once.

Tuesday kicked the week off with a lovely moment organised by our fab Development team. Sparkling fairy lights on the safety barriers and the pile of pallets, a candelit Windmill Base filled with friends and the Centre team, and joyful winter songs from the Angel Shed Singers. The Windmill Base is the oldest structure on the new site, and will become a space for artist residencies and community handovers when we open, so it was lovely to see it in use for something other than putting on our hard hats and hi vis. Not many festive events feature a deconstructed maquette, a toilet and bicycle lamps for lighting! The plan was to hold it outdoors but the weather had other ideas….

On Thursday we had our work Christmas lunch, at Taqueria Exmouth Market – so many little tacos brought out that we were admitting defeat and it was quite a relief to leave and walk down to Holborn Community Association for the MillerKnoll We Care event. I wish I’d been able to try the Tiramisu Martini as well as the Strawberry Margarita but then I’d have been tipsy in charge of a stapler and small children. Probably for the best. This was also the scene of the Secret Santa gift exchange – the felted Christmas Pudding Snail I was given was perfect.

The We Care event was fun too – we were making pyramid lanterns for the children to take home as presents, alongside The Museum of the Order of St John making lavender scented playdough, and MillerKnoll staff making string art, friendship bracelets and bird feeders. Two hours of utter chaos, then back to the office to catch the last half hour of Christmas drinks with our freelancers, architects, and other friends. Busy day…

Yesterday was Epping Christmas Market, where I was ably assisted by Thing 2 and where the rain did not stop play. The little Chris Mouses and the pigs in blankets flew off the stall, as usual, and it was so nice to see various friends and regulars popping up. Less nice was the visit from our badly-spelled local Reform creep, handing out Christmas cards with their logo and the names of local councillors on. I gave it back as I want nothing from them, except for them to go away. In the 16 years I have been doing the market no one has tried to use it for political gain, and in a year when their actions have done more to divide the community than anyone else it was bad taste to leverage a community event.

Our stall was way too close to the PA system hosted by Forest Radio with their selection on Alan Partridge-worthy jingles and a lot of school choirs, but close to Costa and Starbucks with their hot chocolates. The jingles were truly, truly awful. It was a good day, and I like the slightly later run into the evening.

We’ve watched the Muppet Christmas Carol and The Christmas Chronicles so far – what will this week bring?

Now Thing 2 has just appeared with her amazing apple and cinnamon rolls and a coffee, so I am signing off….

Kirsty

What I’ve been reading:

Kingdom of the Blind/A Better Man – Louise Penny

The Secrets of Pain/To Dream of the Dead – Phil Rickman

298: good skills

Here I am, back from a week in Cardiff in which I spoke to about a zillion people, added ‘soothing stressed Romanians’ to my skillset along with troubleshooting live web feeds, managing operations for five competitions and generally being the little ray of sunshine that you all know and love.

Yes, it was the WorldSkills UK National Finals again – last year we were in the frozen North (well, Manchester in the snow), and this year it was my hometown. I was placed at University of South Wales (turns out the neighbours are prisoners, not student halls…) looking after 3D Game Art, Graphic Design, Digital Media Production, Accountancy Technicians and Web Development. It’s such a great way to get some perspective, and I also managed to meet a lot of Illustration, Graphic Design and Animation tutors, someone from OfQual (we need to talk, I said) and the head of Inspiring Excellence in Wales. I convinced the library to do a National Illustration Day display, and saw live Welsh music at the launch of the Ymgolli/Immersed 2026 Festival. Students are still wearing Stone Roses and Nirvana T-shirts – nothing changes!

WorldSkills is a brilliant scheme embedding technical and professional education into the skills economy. There’s UK finals, Euros and Internationals and taking part opens a lot of industry doors for young people, building confidence and benchmarking against the rest of the world. My Graphic Design team, for example, were working to a real-life brief set by a marketing agency. Competitors come from FE colleges, apprenticeships, the army and industry, and the two competition days are intense.

I love Cardiff – even after 28 years in London/Essex, Wales is my hearthome – and I especially loved the reactions of my colleagues to normal Welsh interactions. They were initially a bit perturbed that every time anyone came to register, it became a full-on chat. It’s what we do in Wales – we talk to people, we like to know what’s occurring. It’s a habit that’s served me well over the years.

I also loved….

Seeing the Medal Ceremony: my favourite 3D Digital Game Art geek won, I got to escort some overwhelmed winners, got a hug from my stressed Romanian, and met several very proud parents (‘We’ve been divorced 9 years and we’ve been holding hands the whole time!)
Catching up with some of the competitors, tutors and competition leads from last year – sad not to have Cyber Security again though!
Being told ‘Have a lush day, love!’ by someone exiting a lift.
Hearing Welsh and the Cardiff accent everywhere I went.
Dragons. Someone abandoned a flag at the end of the ceremony – I adopted it and brought it back to Essex with me.

Dinner and a good gossip with my friend Jen, who I don’t get to see nearly enough. Fat Hippo burger and a Cherry Negroni, in case you wondered.
Pho with Isla when we’d had enough of hotel food
Happy nighttime buskers under a clock on St Mary Street
The magical projections on Cardiff Central Station, animating Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales. I did let Jen off sitting through the whole thing with me

Lunchtime coffee with cousins
Wandering around Cardiff looking at lights and clocks
Late night putting the world to rights and singing along to classic rock when we decided to bomb back to London on Friday night

Cackling gangs of Welsh women out on a girls’ day – ‘we’ve only had one!’ – insisting on a selfie with a passing stag group.
A quiet hot chocolate in the sunshine, reading my book on Friday morning waiting for Miriam. Peace….
Taking my family out to dinner last night. I missed them, and I’m pretty sure at least some of them noticed I was gone.

That’s been my week! Looking forward to next year back in Cardiff again.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

The Fabric of Sin/To Dream of the Dead – Phil Rickman (Audible)

The Kingdom of the Blind- Louise Penny

297: is it time for the big coat?

Way back in the late 90s when I was a primary school teacher, we were talking one morning about how we celebrated Christmas/Eid (other celebrations are available, of course). There was a child in my class who I was pretty sure was a 70 year old man in a 5 year old’s body, and we sat bemused as he described Christmas where he and his cousin woke up and after they’d opened their stockings they went outside every year to play in the snow. He was adamant that this was what they did every year, because it snowed every year where they live (round the corner from the school, as it happened). Mind you, he was also firmly convinced that I lived in the school, and when I had my hair cut he asked which scissors I’d used.

Anyway. The point of that story was that it’s not even nearly Christmas but while we were waiting for a bus on Wednesday there was snow falling from the sky, but not enough to play in. Winter does seem to have landed though, with several hard frosts and serious contemplation of the Big Coat. Our new office turns out to be quite chilly, too – the downside of the lovely big windows – so the work blanket and wrist warmers are at the ready.

I do like winter, but not when it’s raining – wind and cold yes, wet and cold no. Cold and sunny is best, with clear skies in the morning when I go to work and the stars are still out. Good views of Mars at this time of year, which tells me it’s too damn early…

Apparently it’s going to be double figures and damp again this week, at least in Cardiff where I’m working on the World Skills UK Championships. Maybe not quite time for the Big Coat yet!

Other things making me happy this week

The British Library’s family festival on Saturday – creating imaginary worlds with families using Beth Suzanna’s gorgeous backdrop collages
Dark evenings walking back through Clerkenwell and the City. The route back to various stations passes through some very old bits of London.

Finishing all the Christmas puddings for Epping Xmas Market
Making plans to catch up with old friends next week
Not the Central

Now I’d better go and pack before Miriam comes to get me!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Legacy of Arniston House – T.L.Huchu

A Slowly Dying Cause – Elizabeth George

The Remains of an Altar/The Fabric of Sin – Phil Rickman (Audible)

The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Country Gardening – Naomi Kuttner

A Fellowship of Librarians and Dragons/A Fellowship of Bakers and Magic – J. Penner, These are described as ‘cozy fantasy’. I should know better.

296: empathy for the Breville

or, now I know how a panini feels (this was the original title, but you may have noticed that I can’t resist a bad pun)

Well, this week I had a new experience, albeit one I’ve been expecting since June 2023 when I turned 50. On Monday I had my first mammogram: usually you get the call when you turn 50 but it takes more than two years to get to the letter ‘S’ in the alphabet, apparently.

The weather was truly appalling on this most auspicious of days, and I was soaked through by the time I waded through the ~~lake~~ car park at St Margaret’s Hospital to the mobile screening unit. Inside it was quite cosy with the rain hammering down on the roof, bringing back memories of summer caravan holidays in Wales. All it required was a seagull tapdancing on the skylight and my dad insisting that the mist would burn off and the illusion would have been complete.

Dear readers, I am not normally given to stripping down to the waist in public carparks but needs must when the radiographer says so. It was at least warm in the unit, but far from being given ‘privacy to undress’ as described in the leaflet she was in the room the whole time. Still, as she was about to get familiar with my assets…

It was marginally less undignified than a smear test but I did feel as if there should have been an opportunity for some stretches first since contortionism isn’t to be attempted with no prior warm-up at my age. Grace is, of course, my middle name* so I handled the whole thing with my usual aplomb and didn’t creak once. Well, not much. And not audibly.

The very space age machine I was confronted with looked like nothing more than a high tech sandwich toaster, with a metal plate on the bottom and a perspex tray above. In NI, apparently, you must put your boob in the tray (and it did have a handy cut out on the top) but here in Essex they grasp your assets firmly, drape you artistically (er…) around the machine, mutter ‘pressure coming, hold your breath’ and use the bottom of the tray to squish you to the plate. Twice, from different angles. And then they do the other boob.

A top tip had been to make sure I ate beforehand, as unlike when you give blood no one gives you Tovali lemon squash and a Mint Club afterwards. This would have made the whole experience a lot more fun, and might have given the rain a chance to slack off before I left, too.

Still, in two weeks or so I should have the results and anything weird can be followed up on quickly. Like smear tests, these aren’t fun but they do have the potential to save your life so for the sake of five minutes out of your day go and get checked out when the call comes. You can buy yourself a whole pack of Mint Clubs afterwards as a reward.

*It actually is. Or one of them anyway.

Things making me happy this week

My line manager shared her pictures from an exhibition at The Whitworth in Manchester – The Beginnings of Knowledge by Santiago Yahuarcani, a Peruvian artist. I don’t often fall completely for art but his pink river dolphins and mermaids enchanted me so much I ordered a print. It makes me happy every time I look at it.
Lovely neighbour Sue helping me take lots of bags to the charity shop
Fox’s Party Ring biscuits, and Thing 2’s latest cookie experiments (brown butter, Gingerbread Oreos and Smarties)
Not the Central Line, whose definition of ‘good service’ included a 49 minute delay this week. Also not people who think Christmas trees and full outdoor light shows are acceptable on 11 November. They’re not. Stop it.
My new Schools and Families Producer starting. Now I just need to let go of some stuff.
An interesting masterclass on bringing creativity back into education, and the Curriculum Review recommending the abolition of the EBacc.
All my friends in Monmouth being safe and dry, despite Storm Claudia doing her worst on Friday night/Saturday morning

Now back to the Christmas crochet! This week I’m looking forward to a session with lovely Play Build Play exploring the potential of our playful furniture with local families,

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Echo of Crows – Phil Rickman

The Smile of a Ghost/The Remains of an Altar – Phil Rickman (Audible)

A Slowly Dying Cause – Elizabeth George, whose grasp of British idiom has not improved.

295: team efforts

On Monday we finally announced that the new Centre will be opening in May 2026 – thank you to all the people who shared the various articles with me via Facebook, Instagram and so on. Maybe in case I hadn’t noticed what we’d been working on for the past several years? It’s good to know that people are as excited as we are about the project.

What *I* am most excited about, however, is the fact that I finally have a learning team again – well, I will on Tuesday when the Schools and Families Producer joins us. For the last 18 months or so it’s just been me and half a Community Partnerships Producer (albeit a most excellent one).

We started recruiting for these roles in July, shortlisted in August and interviewed in September. We had an amazing response, with 90 or so applications for the Schools and Families role and 40 for the Community Partnerships jobshare.

Out of interest and because AI is a big topic of conversation at the moment, I ran our job descriptions through ChatGPT just to see what it would come up with. As it turned out, during shortlisting I saw what it came up with – word for word – multiple times in the sifting process. Some of the applicants had made the effort to personalise their applications but most hadn’t. Fortunately we had some outstanding applicants for both roles and the problem was narrowing them down to a manageable number of interviewees. Honestly – please don’t rely solely on AI. We can tell. We want to know about you and your experiences, not what ChatGPT has filtered out of your CV and my JD. I also asked ChatGPT to create a set of interview questions and avoided asking them…

I decided to do the first round of interviews via Teams, as they were only 45 minutes long. As it turned out the dates coincided with a week of tube strikes across the London Underground, so being online made it easier. I didn’t ask the applicants to do a presentation in the first round, but rather used the interview as an opportunity to find out more about them. We shared most of the questions in advance for both interviews, which has become good practice for recruitment in the last few years. Job interviews are quite stressful enough, and after all it’s extremely unlikely that in the actual role you’ll ever be asked to think on your feet in the same way again. We also start interviews online by saying that we know life happens around you – cats, kids, doorbells, tech issues and so on – and that we’re very relaxed. We’re a pragmatic organisation in general – possibly due to having a female leadership team who understands the emotional load rather than, say, a male-oriented leadership team whose wives (or nannies) understand the emotional load and how it impacts the day-to-day. It does make a huge difference.

Second interviews were in person and we asked the candidates to do a short presentation. One asked how long they were expected to spend prepping for it as it felt like free labour. I’ve spent days on these things before, as they are for a job I really want though we set a suggested time of a couple of hours. However, I do know of people who have created these presentations, not been given the job, and then found their ideas reproduced by the organisation’s shop, for example. Unethical or what? I like to use the presentations as an opportunity to gauge attention to detail, creative thinking and presentation skills as there’s an element of delivery and public interaction in these roles.

With the communities role the second interview was also so that the other half of the jobshare could meet them – they’d be working closely together after all. All the candidates were great but the successful one – in both interviews – gave me exactly the same warmth and generosity vibes as the other half does. They had their first day together this week and it made me very happy. The synchronised goodbye at the end of the day was highly entertaining, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with for communities as the programme develops.

The Schools and Families person starts this week – she was outstanding in both interviews, despite having Covid in the second one – and I think the programme will be in safe hands. Then I can concentrate on the creative programme and the strategic side of the job instead of being 3.5 people at once. Hurray! It’s so good to be part of building a team that’s going to bring the Centre to life at last.

Other things making me happy this week

Helping out at the local fireworks event run by the primary school and Scouts – working behind the bar again, with help from Thing 2. We ran out of hot chocolate…
Welshcakes – always a hit. Fairly sure there won’t be any left for the team.
My first winter swim (having failed to get in last week) at 9.1 degrees. Once I was in it was amazing. Just Jill and I, but lovely to see Nikki and Jenny for the first time in AGES.
Coffee with Amanda on Thursday, putting the world to rights
The return of the Christmas sandwich and festive hot chocolates
Lidl’s Toulouse sausages in a toad-in-the-hole.

That’s it from me – today holds Christmas crochet and laundry. Of course.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Long Way Home/The Nature of the Beast/A Great Reckoning/Glass Houses – Louise Penny

Prayer of the Night Shepherd/The Smile of a Ghost – Phil Rickman (Audible)

294: the best laid plans

There are moments where life is just too…. peopley. Last Sunday was one of those moments. It was the first weekend in what felt like months (it was months, to be fair) where I didn’t have to be anywhere, there were no plans afoot and no one required my presence. I’d booked the Monday off as Thing 1 had an appointment, I had some fabric from the Stitch show which needed to be turned into something, and my living room was not full of teenagers. I was going to cut out the fabric on the Saturday, do my ironing first thing on the Sunday and then spend the day making a new version of the Folkwear Basics jacket.

Readers, I do not need to tell you that man plans and god laughs. Oh yes, she does. Loud and long. By early evening on the Saturday I had managed to cut out the outer fabric and then one of the big girls turned up with GT2 and his daddy in tow, all of whom then slept on my living room floor so sewing was out of the question. So was the ironing. I was disgruntled and after kicking about for a bit I threw all my toys out of the pram and stomped off to Harlow to meet Miriam for a coffee. Harlow was equally peopley but none of them a) were asleep on my floor or b) required anything from me.

Work has been particularly paper-based recently, without opportunities to be creative (some months are like that). It’s been productive in terms of gettng projects started and thinking about chairs and signage and practical things, but sometimes I really need to get hands-on and create something substantial with an outcome I can see and feel. This was one of those times, but instead I drank hot chocolate at Geek Retreat and went food shopping in Lidl, where I resisted all middle-of-Lidl things (yay me!) but did get some rum and raisin ice cream. Rum and raisin is my favourite, and it’s surprisingly hard to get hold of.

The creativity had to wait until Monday – the one benefit to the clocks going back was the inability to sleep past 6am. The ironing was done by 9am, with the help of a couple of episodes of Northern Exposure, and I managed to cut out the lining pieces from a piece of deadstock fabric in sunny orange before taking Thing 1 to her appointment.

This jacket pattern comes together really quickly – the two lining pieces and the two outer pieces are stitched together down the centre back, the sides and sleeves are sewn before putting them together and bagging out through a sleeve. The sleeves are bound with a bias bind which I chose to turn fully to the inside with a deep hem. The whole thing is top-stitched and voila! One new jacket. It’s an oversized style which is great for layering over hoodies and jumpers, and I do love a layer.

I also made a bag with the leftover fabric – another quick make using the Robin & Birch Nori Kimono Bag pattern. I made the large size and omitted the central ties, mainly because I never use them on the smaller version I’ve made. The finished jacket and bag (I won’t use them together!) are really tactile thanks to the fluffy fringes, and they have a good weight to them. It also has big patch pockets. Of course.

I felt a lot better after an afternoon of making and a lot of rum and raisin ice cream.

Other things making me happy this week

Crocheting yet more tiny things that fit in small jars – a tiddly pud this time. It needs some work, and also some googly eyes.

Testing ideas for a charity event we’re taking part in in December – glowing lanterns. Now to tell my colleagues they’ll be helping me cut things out for the next few weeks…
Panic buying sweeties for trick or treating, and now we have to eat them as we only had two. Mmm, Drumstick lollies.
Making banana bread with Maltesers – I forgot to put the eggs in though but hopefully there were enough bananas to make up for it!
Hobbycraft with Miriam, her Thing 1 and my Thing 2. There were these notebooks…
Bara Brith in the oven – I have a new starter this week on my team and I haven’t baked this for a while. Even I can’t get this wrong.
Making a lot of crochet ‘pigs’ to go in blankets….

Today I am to the lake for the first time in aaaages, and I’m SO looking forward to it. Really.

Same time next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Lamp of the Wicked/Prayer of the Night Shepherd – Phil Rickman (Audible)

How the Light Gets In/The Beautiful Mystery – Louise Penny