263: restocking the stationery stash in a very sustainable way

This has been one of those hectic weeks, thanks to one of my moonlighting gigs with We Are FTW – this time at the edie25 show at the Business Design Centre in Islington. Edie is all about corporate sustainability, so there were lots of interesting people to talk to about retrofitting listed buildings, for example. I won’t run out of nice notebooks for a while, either (as if that was ever going to happen!). I love doing these events for my friend Isla – it’s a great way to remember that there’s people doing things that don’t revolve around my current obsession with accessible bathroom fittings. Who knew?

I seem to be spending a lot of time at the BDC, as it’s where the Stitch Festival was last weekend and where I’m attending another event next week. It’s a lovely building which I think used to be the Agricultural Hall, and it had a great illustration of the ‘Oranges and Lemons’ rhyme which features our New River windmill. Their ops team were so helpful and friendly, which is not always the case! It was lovely to see the same agency event staff from previous conferences and to catch up with Anna, over from the Czech Republic for the event.

Detail from linocut *Oranges and Lemons*, by Tobias Till, 2014

I was most impressed by the catering, however, where the Good Eating Company pulled a 100% vegan menu out of the bag for more than 1200 people over two days – including a mushroom bourguignon that was unbelievably tasty, some oat and raisin cookies that were almost as good as mine, and vegan doughnuts. Apparently this was the first time they’d done a 100% vegan catering job: no repetition of main courses over the two days, either. The avocado and chocolate mousse was a bit gritty and the panna cotta didn’t quite work but everything else was amazing. The speed at which everything disappeared was testament to how good it was. They also have their own small farm, work with the Garden Army to support wellbeing and leftover food was distributed to the local homeless people through a charity based at the BDC.

We stayed in a very quirky (!) little hotel in Prebend Street called Angel Townhouse, which possibly caters mainly to the naughty weekend market as there’s mini hot tubs in each room, no dining facilities and good sized showers. I assume it’s a converted pub, with rooms over two floors above a wine bar and very thin walls. The bed was comfortable and my shower on the first morning was excellent, but sometime over the day the boiler packed up and no one on the first floor had any hot water by the evening – RUINING my plans for a hot tub and a good book after a busy day – or the following morning. I might be happy to hop into icy lakes in subzero temperatures but I don’t want to do it in my bathroom!

We ate at Pizza Express on the first night and Thai Square the second – excellent pad thai and lovely lemony satay chicken.

Conversation over dinner on night two – as all conversations have over the last couple of weeks – veered towards Adolescence, the brilliant, thought-provoking but absolutely terrifying series on Netflix. 66.3 million views in less than two weeks, the first streaming show to top the UK’s weekly viewing charts: the hype is deserved. National-treasure-in-progress Stephen Graham is angry and bewildered as the dad, Owen Cooper as his furious, radicalised son is remarkable (especially in the scenes with the psychiatrist) – as is the entire cast, actually. The cinematography ratchets up the tension right from the beginning. Each episode was shot in a single take and I can quite understand why Ashley Walters was going home in tears each evening.

My Beloved and I watched it over two evenings and I’ll be watching it again with Thing 3 whether he likes it or not, quite honestly. I can’t add anything to the reams and reams of print that the series has already generated but if you have teenagers – of any variety – watch it with them. If it doesn’t win every award going next season then something is very wrong. It will make you angry and uncomfortable and sad in equal measure but what it’s saying is vital. You could also listen to this episode of The Trawl (thanks to Tan for introducing me to this gem of a podcast). But watch it.

Things making me happy this week

Loop earplugs, as even on a quiet street London is noisy!
A good day at the Stitch Festival with Heather – I didn’t buy anything!
Mother’s Day Moomin biscuits – thank you TT2! And Moomin sweets – thank you Miriam!
The local library ordering service
Setting up my fundraising page for the half marathon I wrote about last week – it’s here if you’d like to start me off towards my target. On a slightly related note, the hotel in our village, also mentioned last week as I worked with some of the asylum-seeking families at the local school, caught fire on Friday night. Everyone was evacuated and no one was hurt, fortunately, but the event caused the usual spewing of racism and hate on social media including accusations of arson and one person whose only concern was whether the road was open yet (while the blaze was still, well…blazing. Oh, the humanity.) If I’d lost everything and fled to safety with my children once I don’t think I’d be in a rush to do it again. This event did not make me happy, but did highlight the need to choose love over hate every. Single. Time.
An unexpected journey – only to Harlow with Miriam and E to see Edith and do a bit of shopping but I did get to go to Lidl which is always exciting. I did not buy a chainsaw. The box was damaged.
A potential crochet commission – more on this later!
Asda delivering 94% of the things I ordered, and sending sensible substitutes for the others. Wonders may never cease.
An email from Thing 3’s head of year informing me that he was pupil of the week, which is nice.
Proving once again that you can’t take me anywhere without running into someone I have a connection with – this time the Uber driver bringing us back to Essex.
Making friends with a tiny Jack Russell/poodle cross called Figgy – four months old and a wiggly, wriggly puppy with a tail that wagged her rather than the other way round.

Same time next week then…

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

White Nights/Telling Tales/Blue Lightning/Hidden Depths – Ann Cleeves

Raising Steam – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

262: personality goes a long way*

*13.1 miles, in fact.

This week – before I have the chance to change my mind after Saturday’s 25k Queen of the Suburbs Ultra – I have signed up for the Cardiff Half Marathon in October and am considering Ealing but that’s got a three hour cutoff time so I’d need to speed up a bit. Cardiff is four which is very doable. I’d rather run both but my knees have other ideas.

I am basically a lazy person. I like sitting down and reading and crocheting and naps and drinking coffee. So why, you might ask, am I signing up for very long ~~walks~~ lurches? Well, it’s because I am basically lazy, in fact. I know that if I’m going to do any exercise I need a reason, and ‘keeping fit’ just isn’t enough of a reason to get me out further than 5k. So I’m basically lazy but also quite stubborn and competitive, it turns out. It’s a difficult blend of personality traits at times like this, you know, but I have made my peace with it and signing up to stuff is like surrendering to my inner nag. I was all “FINE, but I WON’T ENJOY IT*”.

General entry to Cardiff was sold out in a matter of seconds, so I went down the charity place option and have decided to raise money for Choose Love, who work with displaced communities to provide on-the-ground emergency aid and support where it’s needed.

Regular readers will know that over the past few years I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and spend time with refugees and asylum seekers in East London and Essex, engaging with them through play in schools and family centres; trying to bring a bit of normality and joy into lives that they never planned and which they are living with dignity and more grace than I suspect I could muster in the same situation.

The Migration Museum’s 2016 exhibition Call Me By My Name, about the Jungle in Calais, has also stayed with me: it’s not often an exhibition moves me to tears. Stories about the people TT1 works with at Epping Forest Foodbank, the casual neglect, racism and dehumanisation families seeking safety in the UK encounter make me wonder about the lack of humanity some people display. Every time we’ve turned on the news for the past many years we’ve heard about Gaza, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan and so on.

When I first started teaching in London we had groups of children from Angola in our classes – untangling the relationships between the adults and the children was sobering. Many weren’t related at all. Village adults – often women – had been entrusted with the lives of groups of children and sent to London in the hope that the parents would escape and join them at some point. I don’t know if they ever did. Choose Love seemed like a natural choice for me to exercise on behalf of: we all need love, after all.

I haven’t set my fundraising page up yet as the website defeated me, but rest assured I’ll be asking for support – look, think of it as paying someone else to exercise so you don’t have to, and you can stay warm and safe in the knowledge that someone, somewhere, will be getting the help they so desperately need.

*Oh OK then, FINE, yes I will.

Things making me happy this week

Tan reminding me on Friday that the 25k was on Saturday not Sunday – in the nick of time, clearly!
Last Sunday’s lovely sunshiney training walk – I got befuddled and didn’t end up where I thought I would. No sense of direction, that’s my problem. Luckily the 25k was way marked with bright pink ribbon.
Popping in to the library on Thursday afternoon and seeing the Knit and Natter group still going after 15 years – my late MIL was one of the founder members, so it’s good to see it going strong.
My finished crochet cardigan it’s basically two giant granny hexagons stitched together and I LOVE it. Try this pattern for a similar one – mine is in a DK yarn so has more rounds. I was using the Attic 24 Hydrangea blanket colours, and I made the sleeves more dramatic.
Thing 3’s parents’ evening. His handwriting continues to be atrocious but other than that he is, apparently, a joy to have around.
Finishing Saturday’s event 16 minutes faster than I’d planned for – my chip time was 4 hrs 9, my Strava time was just under 3 hrs 59. I’ll take that as a win. And I made it indoors before the huge thunderstorm landed. I did not appreciate the really big hill at 19k or the smaller one at 23k.

Today I am off to the Stitch Festival at the Business Design Centre in Islington with Heather, my crafty partner in crime, where I will NOT spend any money. No.

That’s it for the week! Same time next Sunday then…

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

The Heron’s Cry/The Rising Tide/Telling Tales – Ann Cleeves

Going Postal/Making Money/Raising Steam – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The Trouble With The Cursed – Kim Harrison

261: in an unusual move…

A few months back my friend Jill, who knows I love a good crime novel, handed over a book called The Raging Storm and told me I’d really enjoy it. I was aware of the author, Ann Cleeves, as I spend a lot of time perusing the crime section in libraries and charity shops, but for some reason I hadn’t read any. This one, one of the ‘Two Rivers’ series which focus on Detective Matthew Venn, sat on the TBR pile for a while until I was in the mood for something new.

The story is set in a small Cornish fishing village, close to where the detective was brought up in a very strict religious sect. A local celebrity is found horribly murdered in a storm, and then another body follows on the same beach. Venn, with the assistance of his colleagues, are tasked with finding the culprit. For the first few days this was my upstairs book (as opposed to my downstairs book or my portable book), and then I was hooked and it got carried around with me – I didn’t work out the murderer until the reveal. By about half way through I’d ordered several more from the library, was rummaging in the charity shops and checking out the Kindle deals.

The first book in this series was filmed as The Long Call, a four parter available on ITVx, and I watched it in one sitting yesterday afternoon. We’ve also been binging one of her other series, Shetland (BBC iPlayer) in the evenings. I am heavily invested in this now, not least because the main character – Detective Jimmy Perez – is played by Douglas Henshall.

I have had a bit of a soft spot for Mr Henshall since Primeval, where he negotiated anomalies and prehistoric creatures in very practical fashion. If I was in danger of finding myself threatened by dinosaurs I could think of no one I’d rather wrestle them with, quite honestly.

However, as we’ve progressed through the series I have become increasingly interested in how cuddly he looks in his trademark crewneck jumpers and I am having worrying Mrs. Doyle-esque thoughts – as in the Father Ted episode Night of the Nearly Dead. I’ve always thought of myself as more of a Father Dougal so this is a concerning progression. In this episode Mrs Doyle (the brilliant Pauline McLynn) wins a poetry competition where the prize is a visit from daytime TV host Eoin McLove (Patrick McDonnell). McLove, a Daniel O’Donnell caricature, is beloved of old ladies across Ireland and known for his love of jumpers and cake.

Rest assured I will not be writing odes to Mr Henshall’s knitwear or, indeed, baking a cake. However, this is not the normal progress of my occasional celebrity crushes – I have never been tempted to send John Cusack lists of my top five break-up songs, for example, or to crochet guitar cosies for Mr Springsteen. Also, I have never had a favourite jumper in a TV series before (it’s the dark green one, if you’re interested). Not even referring to it as CSI: Balamory is helping.

I think I may need to go and watch videos of Robert Plant circa 1976 until I feel better. Or plan a trip to Lerwick.

Other things making me happy this week

A midweek visit to The Goldsmiths Centre to see their Interwoven: Jewellery Meets Textiles exhibition. They always have lovely shows on and there’s an excellent cafe attached.
Excellent progress on the Hexie Cardigan while watching Shetland. (I can’t see Detective Perez in this one.). This is such a relaxing project.
Starting on the cream granny squares for my portable project
A five-mile walk with Thing 2 this morning, at least until she started complaining about the wind, the stitch, the uphills, the drawstrings on her jumper…
The one cat (Teddy) that just walks into the cat carrier and sits down, without requiring a pincer movement and a pre-planned strategy (Lulu) or a short wrestling match (Bailey)
Remembering the genius of Terry Pratchett

Today I have a 15km walk planned, in preparation for the big day next Sunday. Hopefully the weather will behave!

Have a good week, everyone! All crime novel recommendations accepted, as long as they’re not written in the first person.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

Raven Black/The Crow Trap – Ann Cleeves

The Trouble With The Cursed – Kim Harrison

The Truth/Going Postal – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

260: where are we now?

Well, maths-wise (if not date-wise) this post marks five years since I started rambling at you all about whatever I was up to – the header image is from March 2020.

My first post was written as we were heading into the original lockdown and I introduced the people and felines who live in the house. It was never intended to be a lockdown diary – I originally registered the domain name as a way to document the reinvention process at Young V&A that I was working on. And then I just carried on as I was enjoying myself. I’m now on a different reinvention project, which is physically on a much smaller scale, but feels like we’d doing something important as there isn’t anywhere in the UK at the moment dedicated to illustration in all its variety.

The family has pretty much reinvented itself too: the cats are the same ones (just older and grumpier) but we’ve added another three grandsons and one blended granddaughter to the mix. The things were 13, 11 and 9 when I started – two in primary school and one in secondary, and now they’re 18, 16 and 14 and one is prepping to leave college for university, one is leaving school for college and one is picking his GCSE options and calling everyone ‘Bruv’.

I’ve probably crocheted my way through several marathons’ worth of yarn, and I still haven’t finished the Seurat cross stitch I was working on (really must pick that up again). I’ve tried out many new crafts, for which I don’t have nearly enough time, and made a whole lot of clothes and quilts. I’ve written 258,827 words (just under 1000 a week on average), which is quite a lot really. 2023 was the year I wrote the fewest words, but I did spend the first six months of that year training for a couple of ultras and so I walked a lot of miles instead. I think that’s an excellent excuse – it was certainly a memorable 50th year, I spent much time with family in the process and we raised money for an excellent cause. I’d quite like to do it again… I’ve read an enormous number of books, some of them several times – I’m looking at you, Pratchett, Aaronovitch and co – occasionally I think I should do what my sister does and just make one big list and if I could work out how to do pages on this thing as well as posts I might.

Most of the last 260 posts have been cheerful moments, but at times I’ve been frustrated and angry at things like sexual harassment, inane political decisions, school dinners, and the marginalisation of arts and craft. I’ve been honest and open about mental health and parenting and navigating these things with the added joy of peri- and menopause. It’s nice to have a little corner of the internet of my own, mostly, and I enjoy recording my week and being able to frame what I’m thinking. Other people reading it is a bonus….so thank you to everyone who comes along for the ride. And to my Dad, who binges once a month. (Hello Dad). Not so much to my Beloved who says if there’s anything he needs to know I can just tell him about it.

I’ve also liked reflecting on all the things that make me happy each week so without further ado it’s…

Things making me happy this week

Taking part in a ‘Today at Apple’ session where we got to use the Apple Pencil Pro to do drawing and things. I went along with my very talented colleague Silvie, who knows which end of an iPad is which. I’d like to live in the Apple Store, they’re always so calm. I’m also quite tempted by an iPad but that’s because I have a butterfly brain.
The weather! Thing 2 and I had a sundown walk on Monday and she was disturbed by the fact that everyone was smiling and saying hello – that’s the effect of the sunshine!
Not going to work in the dark in the morning.
Finishing the jumper I’ve been making, modelled beautifully by Thing 2, and starting a hexie cardi with the frogged Hydrangea blanket
Getting a book in the post – hurray for magazine competitions!
Not BlueSky, who suspended me for activity breaking their community guidelines – which confused me as I’d only had the account for three days, had followed one person and posted once.

Today I am off for a long solo walk, probably through the Forest as despite the sunshine off-road is still a swamp. This is annoying as there are many footpaths I have yet to explore.

Same time next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal – Jodi Taylor

The Raging Storm – Anne Cleeves

Snuff/The Truth – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The Trouble with the Cursed – Kim Harrison

259: a right pain

This week has mostly been characterised by a severe migraine, probably hormonally-triggered*, which started on Monday and was still reminding me of its existence on Friday afternoon. On Tuesday I attempted to function semi-normally with the aid of various drugs and Tiger Balm but – in retrospect – this was a mistake. The commute home was rather wobbly, to say the least. After forty odd years I should have learned that migraines do not care that I have things to do, and that they cannot be defeated by pretending they aren’t there like annoying people and housework.

By Wednesday morning I couldn’t move and spent the morning in bed under a pile of cats and in the hopes of being able to open my eyes without the light poking me in them every time I tried to see anything. By Thursday a tentative ceasefire was in place as long as I didn’t try and do anything silly, like move too fast.

Migraines, for those of you that don’t have them (you lucky things, you) are most definitely not headaches. You can do your very best to avoid them – my known triggers are lengthy exposure to fluorescent lights (including the ones in the meeting rooms at work), red wine, cheap dark chocolate, Gordon’s Pink Gin and strong cheese. Other triggers may be stress, hormones, tiredness or – you know – just existing so you can never guarantee that one won’t sneak up on you while your guard is down. They are characterised by fun things like severe throbbing pain, possibly on one side of your head only, nausea, visual disturbances, light sensitivity and laughing in the face of basic over-the-counter painkillers.

Sometimes, with ocular or retinal migraines, you get all the fun stuff but not the pain. If I’m awake I usually get about half an hour’s warning before the pain sets in, which – if I’m at home – allows me to take evasive action or try to head it off at the pass. However, if the migraine lands while I’m asleep and wakes me with pain it’s too late for that – this is apparently unusual, but no one bothered to tell my migraines that.

I spent a while seeing the Migraine Clinic, who suggested things like eating yoghurt or a banana before bed in case it was low blood sugar; prescribed fun drugs (one of which – a nasal spray based on ergotamine – had a lengthy list of side effects which included ‘death’), but who in the end weren’t very helpful. A nurse suggested coming off the pill, which may have incurred side effects like children which were not on the agenda at the time.

Over time they have reduced in frequency if not in severity (also they have increased in duration) so I have learned to live with them, to be careful with triggers and to keep in hefty stocks of anything that works. Yellow Syndol used to be the best, as it relaxed you so much that you slept through the worst of it. Now my mum and dad keep me stocked up with a French over-the-counter drug which is the relevant ingredient from yellow Syndol, as we discovered last year – but I can’t take it and work…..

I keep seeing an internet tip that either suggests a bag of frozen peas on the neck at the same time as putting your feet in hot water, or it may be hot water on your neck and your feet in a bag of peas, I can’t remember, but when the migraine toad hops into your head that’s just one too many things to try and manage.

*Now, I’m the first to admit that I have no proper idea how HRT works (magic, I think) but if this migraine is a result of all my hormones being replaced I think we may need to be worried….. no one needs a repeat of my teen years, I can tell you that without any fear of contradiction.

Things making me happy this week

These daffodils opening for St David’s Day
A gorgeous 20k walk in the frosty, misty forest on Saturday morning

Coffee with Jill and Miriam on Sunday afternoon
New curly haircut after the…
….baby cuddles with the twins (pre-haircut – typically it wasn’t looking quite as mad this afternoon despite being washed and left to its own devices)
Deciding to frog the Hydrangea blanket I was making and turn it into a hexie cardigan instead, and turn the hexie cardigan I was making into something else. I know I’ll wear the Hydrangea colours!
Many tiny granny squares completed
Friday was the ninth anniversary of Ted and Bailey coming to live with us, or rather deigning to allow us to serve them as our feline overlords.
The new series of Bergerac

This week, I hope, will be less painful and more productive….today I am off for a much shorter walk with Sue and the Bella-dog and I can foresee a nap…

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Holly King – Mark Stay (I keep reading this series in the hope it will improve, but suspect after reading his ‘worked in publishing for EVER’ bio that he may not have got a contract on the strength of his writing, and certainly not on his dialogue. This is actually the better of his series, too. This is not saying a lot.)

Thud! – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The Grand Illusion – Syd Moore

The Man in Black – Elly Griffiths

The Raging Storm – Ann Cleeves