198: we’re going to need a bigger wardrobe

Traditionally this should be a round-up of all the things I have achieved since making my new year’s resolutions last year, but since I didn’t make any (see here) you get a round up of the last week instead.

In between things like Christmas and visiting the Timeshare Teenagers and being made to go to Westfield by Thing 2, I have managed to steal some time with the sewing machine making use of the great piles of fabric lurking in my house. One of the contracts that my Beloved’s firm manages is a clothing manufacturer who have a range of brands, and once they discovered that I make ‘stuff’, they send their samples and end of rolls home with him rather than to landfill. Some of it (anything with animal print, for example) gets passed on to a lady down the road who also makes stuff, and what she can’t use gets passed on to the secondary school that her grandson and the Things attend. I’ve been using some of the larger pieces to experiment with some new patterns this week.

The first piece was the Stitchless TV Sculptural Bucket Coat – I think I saw it in an Instagram post and loved the shape of it so thought I’d give it a go. This was the first time I have used a video tutorial to make something from a pattern, and it doesn’t really work for my learning style. I prefer a written pattern with diagrams that I can skim through before I start, and while I could watch the video through in the same way, I don’t want to sit through a half hour video before I start sewing. My first choice of fabric was a medium weight quilted stretch but whichever way I laid out the pieces there wasn’t quite enough and I didn’t have anything of a similar weight to colour-block with. However, while finding this out I discovered a digital print stretchy crepey something-or-other from the same source. There wasn’t quite enough of that one either but in another box I found a scrap of purple scuba which was just enough for the sleeves and the collar. I didn’t find my interfacing, however, which would have been useful.

The collar had to be pieced and is a total dog’s dinner as I didn’t follow the instructions properly (the video tutorial was not helpful here, it needs to be better ordered – or I need to watch it through first), and I sort of made up the finishing as it was all going on too long. I love the shape and the giant pockets that are formed by the seams, and if anyone ever asks me to a wedding I could see me making another. I really would rather have written instructions though and probably won’t make anything else from this company.

Next up was a couple of tops using my favourite Centerfield Raglan Tee by Greenstyle Patterns – the last set of these I made are looking a bit battered now as they’re my go-to for working at home and weekends. I used a plain black jersey for the sleeves and neckband, and for the front and back panels I chose a space invaders print that I picked up at the Knitting and Stitching show last spring, and a galaxy print that was going to be knickers but it was just too nice to hide (and once you’re over a certain age people get worried when you show them your new pants). These come together so quickly, especially with an overlocker and when you can’t be bothered to hem them. I hate hemming stretch fabric so I just overlocked the edges in black and called it a design feature.

I did find an alternative project for the quilted stretch fabric – Little Ragamuffin Patterns’ Doubledown Day Dress, which I’ve made before using a Moomin print, the assassin hood and thumbhole cuffs option. This time I went for sleeveless, as I only had enough fabric for one sleeve, and in the longest length. Again, this comes together really quickly with an overlocker. The fabric is a pain to cut but sews up quite well. I plan to wear it layered over a long sleeve tee. The neck still needs finishing and I may bind the armholes and hem as well, but it’s swishy and squishy and will be good for cold days.

After finishing the Hydrangea blanket last week I decided to make a scarf using the leftover yarns – following the same colour pattern but using the C2C method. Usually this makes a square but it can be turned into a rectangle with a little tweaking, and who doesn’t need another scarf at this time of year? It’s wide enough to double as a wrap in chilly meetings, too.

I have one more pattern cut out and ready to sew – in a lightweight merino blend fabric, also from the clothing manufacturer. The pattern is The Maker’s Atelier Unlined Raw Edged Coat which was an advent giveaway from The Fold Line. I like things that don’t require hemming! This will be more of a ‘shacket’ than a coat as the fabric isn’t windproof. So that’ll be my job for today….

Other things making me happy this week

A chilly swim with Sue and Jill yesterday, followed by a bacon roll and hot chocolate
Carols on the Green in Epping on Christmas Eve
Walk and coffee with Jill and Miriam
A lovely Christmas Day with my little family and some excellent presents
An equally lovely Boxing Day with the Timeshare Teenagers, and Grandthings 1 and 2
Turkey soup, once the ostrich had been dismembered

And now I have some sewing to do and breakfast to eat, so I will see you next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Man in the Moss/Curfew(Crybbe)/Candlenight – Phil Rickman

Lost Christmas – David Logan (Audible)

Map Addict – Mike Parker

The Man Who Died Twice – Richard Osman (Audible)

197: a child’s Christmas in Wales

The build up to Christmas this year has been thoroughly miserable, weatherwise, and lemon juice is being rubbed into the papercut by my Facebook memories showing me snow photos from recent years. The torrential rain is bringing back memories of childhood Christmasses in Wales when the festive season was marked by the man from the council turning up with the gift of sandbags in case of flooding from the brooks that bounded our road. There were a few pub evenings when someone would come in and tell us we’d better get home before the road went under!

We’ve recently moved offices in our building from a ground floor that felt like a basement, tucked away at the back of the building, to the attic space with skylights. The rain, thunder and howling gales we’ve experienced this week have been hammering on these little windows and reminding me once more of my Welsh childhood…this time, though, summer holidays in caravans when you’re only separated from the weather (or tapdancing gulls) by a thin metal skin. Those days meant a trip to a town rather than the beach, and I was 40 by the time I discovered Fishguard didn’t exist in a permanent monsoon microclimate. Other rainy day destinations included Devil’s Bridge, Aberystwyth, or the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth where the coffee was made of dandelions or something – my dad was horrified.

Rain = learning, by this logic, so the new office makes me quite happy even though it’s a very long way up. The stairs are quite open, too (all 73 of them) and it took me a week to get past the cognitive dissonance caused by the very steep drop to the left of the door which told my mind was going to fall. It’s perfectly safe, but my heart skipped a beat every time I opened the door as I’m not very good with heights. The new office is cosier, and we share it with a small theatre company who have their own Welsh person.

I am now off until the New Year and have plans – such plans! – involving various craft kits, some fabulous fabric and a whole lot of naps.

Things making me happy this week

A good wander through the fields with Sue and the Bella-dog
Coffees with Heather and Miriam
A girly night in with Amanda, watching a Doctor Who Christmas special and then Weekend at Bernie’s
Finishing the crochet blanket I started two years ago (at least!) – see above!
Making more toadstools (all of which have gone to new homes) and giving in to the urge to add a door and window to one

The thing making me sad this week

Thirty-something years ago, in a pub called the Nag’s Head in Monmouth, an ex-boyfriend of mine introduced me to a bloke called Nigel. A few years older than me, he’d been in sixth form when I started at the local comp, so I’d seen him around but never spoken to him. We bonded over music (especially Mr Springsteen and a range of classic rock), books (shout out to Terry Pratchett) and shared a dry (at times I’d go so far as to say arid… desiccated, even) sense of humour alongside a horror of misplaced apostrophes. If I’d had a big brother, I would have liked him to be like Nigel, up to and including the ability to take me down several pegs when I’m taking myself too seriously. I know not everyone appreciated that about him, particularly his habit of saying the things that needed to be said on Monmouth’s local Facebook pages and his total inability to suffer fools gladly. He loved diving, and was delighted with the crocheted nudibranches I sent him instead of a Christmas card. He appreciated good cheese, good rum and bad puns.

Last year he did a round with cancer and we thought he’d kicked its arse. We’d planned an evening out in ‘that there London’ in October for his birthday this year but he’d been in hospital and was on antibiotics for an infection. It turned out that the bastard cancer had made an aggressive comeback. Two weeks ago he told me his prognosis wasn’t great, and – typically – that he wasn’t going to be starting any long box sets on TV. I offered any assistance that he and Caroline needed, although I drew the line at crocheting a giant life-sized Nigel as that was just weird. He laughed.

Caroline phoned me this week to say he was receiving end of life care, as he’d gone downhill very quickly. I woke up to a message from her on Saturday morning to say he had gone. It hit me in the evening when I saw a cartoon about fancy Christmas cheese that on any other day I would have sent straight to him. I will miss him terribly.

All I can say is that wherever he’s ended up, they’d better make damn sure the apostrophes are in the right place and to put him in charge of the music, otherwise they’ll never hear the end of it.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Drowning Pool – Syd Moore

Hogfather – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

Lost Christmas – David Logan (Audible)

Sharon, Tracy and the Rest – Keith Waterhouse

The Dark is Rising – Susan Cooper (BBC World Service adaptation)

Past Lying – Val McDermid

196: you were wearing your red jumper

My writing today is accompanied by the sounds of gunfire and torpedo explosions, as despite it being only nine days till Christmas my beloved still insists on watching normal films and Vikings for the umpteenth time – this evening’s choice being U-571, featuring Matthew McConaughey (yay!) and a submarine (meh). I know he has seen this before, as I have seen it before and this is not a film I would ever have watched by choice, despite the presence of the delicious Mr McC. He claimed when I pointed this out that he has definitely never seen it before and that I must be thinking of another film. He has form in this area: I call it his Father Dougal brain, after an episode of Father Ted where Ted is attempting to remind Dougal of a day in the local town where they witnessed a car chase, a bank robbery and other such exciting things. Dougal has no memory of the day until Ted says, ‘You were wearing your red jumper!’

With 22 minutes to go, 90 minutes into the film, my Beloved has just said, “is this the one where they drop a torpedo on someone’s legs?” as recollection dawns. Yes dear, you were wearing your red jumper.

While he claims not to recall the many films he has watched, and therefore can watch them again a seemingly infinite number of times, he has decided he has seen The Muppets’ Christmas Carol too many times. Ditto Elf, Scrooged and other such classic Yuletide films, although not Home Alone, which gets right on my nerves and I suspect they actually left Kevin behind on purpose as he’s so bloody annoying.

The number of times you have watched them is not the point of Christmas movies, I feel: they are part of the festive tradition, the background to the season, and make you feel all Christmassy and warm and fuzzy: a classic being It’s a Wonderful Life. Bankruptcy? Throwing yourself into a freezing torrent? Being terminally frustrated by the unfairness of your life? No one understanding you? Evil big business type person? Truly, it has it all.

And Miracle on 34th Street? Sectioning Kris Kringle? Rampant commercialism? Sceptical small child? Bitter divorcee mother? Court case threatening the very existence of Christmas? Again, it has it all. The 1947 version is obviously the best, but the Dickie Attenborough version will do in a pinch.

Better people than I have probably written reams on the morals behind these stories, using words like redemption, faith and suchlike, but for me they’re an integral part of the time of year. In a similar vein is Lost Christmas, which was a BBC production in 2011 based on David Logan’s book. Starring Suzy Eddie Izzard, this was a gorgeous magical fairy tale that’s hardly ever repeated and isn’t available through the usual streaming services or on DVD. The audiobook is next up on my list, once Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather is wrapped up.

Similarly, Christmas music is part of December*: I love Noddy shouting ‘It’s CHRISTMAAAASSSS’ and Jona Lewie stopping the cavalry, Steeleye Span burbling along in Latin and Mike Oldfield’s In Dulce Jubilo can make me feel Christmassy in July. The Darkness and their glam bells, Annie Lennox and Al Green putting a little love into our hearts, The Dropkick Murphys ode to family get-togethers, Bruce checking that the E-Street Band are on the nice list, Darlene Love begging her baby to come home for Christmas, Greg Lake’s miserable classic, Chris de Burgh getting all spacey, Elton stepping into Christmas, Joni wishing for a river to skate away on, Earth Kitt imploring Santa for diamonds, and Bing and David getting all twee. I love them all**. A friend sent me some digital equivalents of Christmas mixtapes a few years ago and they’re now required listening after December 1st, and I can even tolerate East 17 and Coldplay once or twice.

*not John Lennon or Paul McCartney’s offerings though. Or Cliff Richard. Drivel.

**Justin Bieber and Mariah Carey are deleted on sight. Dreadful.

Other things making me happy this week

A morning at an Islington primary school with Grace Holliday, one of our illustrator-educators, with a ‘Meet the Illustrator’ session rearranged from National Illustration week.
Crochet toadstools from a pattern by Haekelkeks
Catching up to October on the temperature supernova
An early morning walk
Pretty sparkly nails and a morning out with hot chocolate and catching up
Being proud of No 1 Timeshare Teenager speaking out about the stigma of food banks

What this all translates to is that I’ve passed from resignation to acceptance and into anticipation… I should probably do some shopping, and remember to get the turkey out to defrost on Thursday. The cake and I have finished the rum, so the marzipan can go on mid week ready for icing. It’s nearly CHRISSSSTMMMAAAASSSSS!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

Jeeves and the Yuletide Spirit – P.G.Wodehouse

Misplaced Magic – Jessica Dodge

Mrs Pooter’s Diary/Sharon, Tracy and the Rest – Keith Waterhouse

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (Audible)

Hogfather – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The London Seance Society – Sarah Penner

Witch Hunt – Syd Moore

195: giving up the ghost (of Christmas present)

Well, that’s it. I am now resigned to the fact that it’s December and Christmas is inevitable. The work Christmas lunch is done (at The Wilmington, and very good it was too) along with the office Secret Santa, my Christmas cake is finally made and drinking all the rum, and I have even managed to do some shopping. The turkey is in the freezer, which is a relief on several levels – not least the one where it fits in the drawer – along with literally dozens of chipolatas for pigs in blankets, no less than seven boxes of stuffing for some reason, and the tin of Quality Street is stashed with strict injunctions against even looking at it before the big day.

Having missed stir-up Sunday and the chance to use my usual Mary Berry recipe, this year I’ve tried a no-soak recipe from Good Housekeeping and will just have to drink any rum that hasn’t got time to go in the cake. Oh dear, how sad. Ah well, etc etc. Pass the Coca-cola.

The theme for Secret Santa this year was decorations, and it was so lovely to be given something handmade in the shape of the adorable Moomintroll and Moominmamma you see below. One of the downsides of being a ‘maker’ yourself (“you mean, apart from all the paraphernalia required, the need for two sheds and the fact that the dining table is constantly under a pile of fabric?” – My Beloved) is that people often don’t feel they can give you something they have made so opening the package with these Moomins was such a treat. I can’t wait to put them on the tree later today, hung well out of the reach of the furry predators.

The downside of the week has been watching various members of the team topple like germ-laden dominoes as Covid and other seasonal plagues make their presence felt once again, like the Ghosts of Christmasses Past*. Please Santa, if I’m due for round 4 of the Covid-gift-that-keeps-on-giving, could it wait till the end of the week and be over by Christmas please – or at least until I’ve got the last of the school sessions out of the way! Also, this time round I could do without the associated ear problems that have topped and tailed the last rounds.

*Yes, I’m listening to A Christmas Carol again. Read by Hugh Grant, this was a freebie from Audible a couple of years ago, My Beloved is off at Copped Hall walled garden for his weekly stint as a volunteer today, so I shall also be watching the Muppet version while the tree goes up – he doesn’t love it like I do. Scrooged is also on the watchlist.

Other things making me happy this week

Crocheting things that have nothing to do with Christmas
Having a weekend with time to do things
Working with lovely people
A peaceful mooch round the charity shops of Epping
Pretty Christmas lights

I must now go and do useful things with my day – especially some baking as Thing 2 has been demanding banana bread for several days, going so far as to check the cupboards for missing ingredients and writing them on the shopping list. Let no one say I can’t take a hint! There’s also Christmas Welshcakes on the cards, as I haven’t made any for ages.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Bimbo/Mrs Pooter’s Diary/The Collected Letters of a Nobody – Keith Waterhouse

Bernard Who? – Bernard Cribbins

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (Audible)

194: it’s five o clock somewhere

This week I have been having great difficulty convincing my brain to stop being in full-on mode after two madly busy weeks with work. While this has been good in some ways, as Monday and Tuesday were very productive – mopping up a lot of things lurking on my to-do list, for example – its also had its downsides.

Tuesday was a case in point. When – as I expected – my alarm went off, I hopped out of bed, into the shower and was dressed before looking at a clock and discovering that it was only 5am rather than 6, and it was too early to go to work as we can’t get into our building till much later. At 6am my alarm actually went off, waking Thing 3 – as I found out when I was puzzling over it in the evening to my beloved. It turns out I’d dreamed my alarm, whispered at Alexa to shut up despite not actually being on, and got up.

It wasn’t until I got into pyjamas in the evening that I discovered I’d been wearing my bra inside out all day. The week did not improve.

Luckily, I had booked Thursday and Friday off as an ersatz weekend, as Saturday and Sunday (today!) are full of Christmas markets. Epping was yesterday: cold and sunny but not windy, which meant lots of people about and that the lack of sides on my gazebo wasn’t too noticeable. Thing 2 spent a couple of hours with me before heading off to meet the boyfriend – she was very useful when setting up! The tiny Christmas mice and mince pies were the best sellers, and it was nice to see familiar faces from previous years. I’ve done this event most years since 2009, when two friends and I shared our first stall. Today I am off to a school in north west London lugging an enormous suitcase of stuff – another repeat visit, which I am looking forward to.

And so I must go and get ready for the day! Short but sweet once again – at some point normal service will resume. I hope.

Other things making me happy this week

Coffee and a debrief with Amanda on Monday
Showing Paul Talling of Derelict London round our future site on Tuesday
A new haircut – I don’t think I like the grey coming through. I’m still not ready.
Seeing all the amazing illustrations coming in from schools after National Illustration Day
Christmas lights in the city

Let’s see if this week is any better…

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

Walk the Lines – Mark Mason

Crazy Salad/Scribble Scribble – Nora Ephron (Audible)

The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction – Robert Goddard

Diary of a Nobody – George & Weedon Grossmith

Mrs Pooter’s Diary – Keith Waterhouse

London Overground – Iain Sinclair

193: the week in five pictures

A week spent whirling from place to place, so this week you get some nice pictures and not many words.

Monday was spent mostly at Angel Central, where we’d been lent an empty shop for the week and had lots to do. Here’s our Artistic Director Olivia putting up vinyl wallpaper designed especially for National Illustration Day by Lena Yokoyama. This was a proper team activity, with various members of the team footing ladders, plastering ourselves against walls while trying to hold up rolls of vinyl, and trying to match up the overlap. Next year we’ll get the printers to install it.

My annual stint as an external adviser at Eton College Collections– a meeting followed by a nice dinner. Celeriac soup, something chickeny, poached pears with hazelnut meringue and a sour cherry sauce. I sat between the charming Vice-Provost and the curator of antiquities and was highly entertained. I stayed at London sister’s overnight and was shouted at by owls, who nest in the tree outside her flat.

Wonderful Olivia Armstrong wearing the coat of many pockets

Finally the new schools session inspired by Quentin Blake’s book Angelica Sprocket’s Pockets was launched, starring Olivia Armstrong as the storyteller who forgot her coat and had to borrow Angelica’s. Featuring stories of the New River and local history, it went down a storm with the schools.

In the evening my Beloved was watching a Liam Neeson film when I fell asleep on the sofa and he was still watching it when I woke up three hours later. According to him it was a completely different film, but it looked remarkably similar to me.

Angel Central with Lena Yokoyama’s amazing window displays

More of Lena’s work, this time boards for window displays for the BIG DAY on Friday. You can just see the Mayor of Islington through the door. We invited lots of people through the door to help us celebrate. We asked schools to share what they made, and on social media we asked people to share the illustrations that were important to them. At one point we were trending 6th on X/Twitter and had almost 800 uses of the #nationalillustrationday hashtag on Instagram. We made the Radio 4 Today show, who had a live illustrator and interviewed Lauren Child. Illustrations made in the shop were scanned and added to our online gallery.

My contribution to our Angel Central gallery

Here’s my contribution to the online gallery – a self-portrait! Saturday saw more than 300 people come through the doors, including a visit from Amanda and an old college housemate. Hopefully Sunday will be just as busy.

And now it’s time to crash…

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Walk the Lines – Mark Mason

Crazy Salad/Scribble Scribble – Nora Ephron (Audible)

The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction – Robert Goddard

The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov

192: because you interacted with content

Algorithms. eh? What’s that all about? I’m hoping someone out there knows the answer to this as I have to say they are leaving me somewhat perturbed.

Take Facebook ads, for example. You know, the things which – some days – are every other post on your feed and leave you wondering why you’re being targeted for all sorts of strange things that have no relevance to any of your interests or are so wildly off course that you’re tempted to actually click on them. Every so often I’ll be bombarded with promotions for self-published rubbish by ‘A N Other – Author’, or for sites posting celebrity rubbish or obvious clickbait. I go through the motions: hide ad, tell us why you hid this ad (usually I choose the ‘not relevant to me’ option as there isn’t an ‘it’s utter balls’ selection), hide all ads from this advertiser. Inevitably this makes no difference, and the same ad will reappear. So I click on the ‘why am I seeing this ad?’ option and it says ‘because you’re over 40’ or ‘because you interacted with content about history’. Well yes, I did interact with content about history – I like history – but the content you are attempting to show me is about Kardashians, or about people I don’t know who went to the doctor and found out something, or about this one trick that will help me keep my house permanently tidy/lose half my bodyweight/some other frankly unlikely outcome. Then it will give me the option to undo the ‘hide all content from this advertiser’ that I chose last time, in case I’ve suddenly seen the light: my god YES I AM over 40 and and I DO like history, why would I not want to see all this other stuff??? DROWN ME IN THOSE KARDASHIAN SHENANIGANS! I AM READY! *

Recently, however, I have am wondering whether the algorithm is trying to tell me something. As you may recall, I turned 50** earlier this year and I may have mentioned – once or twice – the joys of menopause and getting older. So, naturally, I have seen a fair number of ads for ‘the one menopause treatment you can’t live without’ and so on. This is fine and shows that sometimes the ads are at least vaguely relevant (I still hide them though, it’s the principle of the thing) but now I am starting to get a bit concerned. I have gone straight from ads for menopause solutions and to ads for funeral plans and the local burial ground, without passing through Saga holidays and the other fun things us quinquagenarians are supposed to be looking forward to now the kids are old enough to cook their own fish fingers and stuff. Should I be worried?

*I will never be ready. I cancelled my Grazia subscription when it became obsessed with Kardashians and Middletons.

**This whole 50 thing is a bit of a swizz, it seems – this year the government have moved the flu jab goalpost so I still have to pay. This seems unfair. Chiz chiz, as Molesworth would say.

Other things making me happy this week

Falling in love with London all over again. In an attempt to thwart the Central Line and achieve coffee with with Amanda I got an early train. Walking from Chancery Lane to Farringdon through the little Hatton Garden lanes, complete with sparkly Christmas lights and interesting old buildings before the sun was properly up (and before all the people arrived), reminded me how magical the city is. And we managed coffee.
Glow in the Angel yesterday – popping up at Islington Green with a star lantern activity designed by Jhinuk Sarkar and meeting lots of our future audience, followed by a drink with Amanda and Karen. There was a polar bear, a celebrity cat and lots of happy people.
Esme Young’s autobiography on Audible
The sweet elderly lady in Pret with her daughter and granddaughter yesterday – shed been watching me crochet little granny squares and when I turned one into a bauble she got very excited.

Celebrating neighbour Sue’s birthday with tea, cake, chatter and the Barbie movie
More crochet Christmas decorations – note to self, don’t leave the baubles out overnight as the cat steals them
Finishing the ‘Coat of Many Pockets’ for the new storytelling session inspired by Quentin Blake’s Angelica Sprocket’s Pockets – I can’t wait to see the sessions this week!

And now it’s time to get ready for a swim – later there will be a nap, as my Beloved’s (clearly haunted) toothbrush decided to turn itself on at 4.30am and would not turn off. I have been awake since.

Same time next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Walk the Lines – Mark Mason

The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov

Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman (Audible)

Behind the Seams – Esme Young (Audible)

191: probably where you left it

So far today Thing 2 has asked me what the UK female equivalent size for a Chinese website’s men’s XXL, what it means when the website informs her that her order has been closed, and what;’s going to be for dinner in five hours time*. People keep asking me questions, in fact. Who didn’t put that dirty plate in the dishwasher? Where did this cup come from? Who left that here? Who does this toy/nail polish/empty wrapper belong to? What’s for pudding? How long till dinner? Is my grey hoodie washed yet? Where are my trousers? Have you got the stuff for my food tech lesson? Where is my bus?

I do not know the answers to many of these questions. Many are, in fact, rhetorical: my Beloved knows who left the plates there as that child has just left the room. We all know that dishwashers have been rendered invisible to teenagers, even when they have to walk past them to put the plate on the side (never the sink). It’s easy to see who the nail polish belongs to: it’s the child who has just sat next to you for two hours doing her nails.

Some of the questions are answerable only with other questions: did you put it in the laundry basket? Did you tell me about the food tech lesson? Have you checked the bus app? Where did you leave them?

Even now, mere seconds after my Beloved has walked through the front door, there comes a cry of ‘who’s left pasta on?’

Mostly I ignore them, as they do not require an answer, and shrieking ‘I DON’T CARE’, however tempting it might be, is not conducive to a peaceful existence. But it is true. I do not care. If the plate is bugging you that much, put it in the dishwasher or take it up with the offspring (there are three to choose from) who left it there. If you require something washed, it’s your responsibility to make sure it’s in the laundry basket, as I have enough washing to do without searching the house for more. Your trousers are almost certainly where you took them off, ditto your shoes, tie and blazer.

Here endeth the lesson. Now stop asking me stupid questions.

*cottage pie with cheesy mash, as it happens.

You may surmise from the above that my normally sunny outlook on life has been sorely tested this week by having to deal with:

Printers which suddenly take against a document and will not print it. Perhaps it was the document, as I tried two computers and three printers before finally succeeding)
Caffe Nero’s so-called ‘luxury’ hot chocolate (bring back the Milano, please)
editing Zoom recordings (I can’t. I hope someone else can.)
the Central Line, which has contrived to thwart my social life (OK, a coffee date with my bestie, but it counts, right?)
Having to prove my human status repeatedly to various websites.
The ironing, though I admit that that’s probably my own fault for leaving it to pile up for several weeks.
Waking up at 4am every day thinking about all the things on my to-do list (lack of sleep may be adversely affecting my sunny disposition).

Not all my week was bad-tempered, obviously. Things making me happy this week include:

The return of Christmas sandwiches to the supermarket meal deal
Binging The Goldbergs on E4
A very chilly swim at 6 degrees this morning
A very productive jewellery making day

And now I am going for a nap.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Attack and Decay – Andrew Cartmel (Audible)

Mort/Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The Saki Megapack

Underground Overground – Andrew Martin

Walk the Lines – Mark Mason

The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov

190: remind me whose side we’re on again?

I must first start with an apology – it turns out I lied to you last week and I was not, in fact, refreshed and raring to go but rather coming down with a horrible cold which quite ruined the early half of the week. It was one of those colds where you can’t think straight, everything feels sort of achy and even your hair hurts. Not the best frame of mind for writing budget submissions, I think you’ll agree. My mind was so fuzzy that when I did a covid test in the office on Tuesday morning and the ‘C’ line came up, I freaked out, grabbed a mask and would have shot out of the door in the direction of home if my less-germy colleague hadn’t reminded me that the ‘C’ was for control and not Covid, and that I needed two lines for a positive test.

Still, by Wednesday I was almost human again which was just as well, as we launched our schools events for National Illustration Day with a CPD led by two of our illustrator-educators (Lily and Toya). They demonstrated the activities available in the free schools resources and some of the participants shared their work around celebrations: all the different things we celebrate that bring us together, human moments of contact and joy, as well as celebrating illustration itself. Now we’re planning the day itself – 24 November, for anyone who’d like to get involved. We have had some discussions this week about whether it’s appropriate to be celebrating anything, given what’s going on in the world, but our focus for schools was always on celebrating the fact that we are all different but celebrations bring us together…

…which, if I do say so myself, is a brilliant segue into Guy Fawkes Night and all its attendant celebrations: bonfires and fireworks and sparklers and lights in the darkness and things. Apparently we’re supposed to be celebrating the fact that Parliament and the King weren’t blown up. Personally, given the political omnishambles (I love this word) of the past fifteen years or so, I have developed more and more sympathy for Mr F and his co-conspirators. These days they may of course have contented themselves with a Change.org petition or a nice middle-class march from Hyde Park to Westminster with accompanying banners and memorable chants, but these probably won’t be being marked four centuries later with mass gatherings in muddy fields.

I love the whole family ritual of Bonfire Night, right down to that muddy field. Last night I volunteered to help at the local school and Scout group’s display, and ended up checking tickets on the gates. Seeing all the families arrive with the kids in snowsuits and earmuffs and wellies and bobble hats, all excited about the evening ahead, was lovely. People were coming through and telling us that this was where they’d been to school and it was the first time they’d been back in years, some of the teachers were there with their families, teenage couples were there on dates, multigenerational groups were out in force lugging grannies and grandads along for the fun. We were in competition with another, bigger display at the airfield, run by the local Round Table, so it was gratifying to see so many people.

The display was excellent and went on for ages with a satisfying mix of things that went bang and wheeeeee and fffzzzzz and pew and pop, making gorgeous showers of lights and sparks and causing ooohs and aahs from the crowd. Thing 2 (responsible for the videos above) was with her best friend, and they had a great time getting their shoes muddy. I walked home with them afterwards, with the pops and bangs of the airfield display and smaller garden versions echoing round the village. I shall look forward to next year!

Other things making me happy this week:

Asda only giving me 4 substitutions and 7 things they couldn’t provide – still double figures but at least they found some potatoes this time
A mooch round the charity shops of Bishops Stortford with my Beloved and Thing 2
A really interesting meeting at New River Head on Friday afternoon with two brick experts who work in historic building restoration and conservation
Not having to claim back all my tube journeys because of delays on the Central Line
Organising the office Secret Santa

And that is it for me for another week – I have a day planned of crafting for Christmas markets (I’ll be at Epping Christmas Market on 2 December and Maple Walk School on 3 December), and still have a to-do list as I keep finding things I need to make!

Same time next week,

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Flip Back/Low Action/Attack and Decay – Andrew Cartmel (Audible)

Underground Overground – Andrew Martin

The Saki Megapack

189: refreshed and raring to go

Sunday finds me sitting here in my DIY dryrobe, thermal socks and warm layers after the first winter swim of the season – 12 degrees in the water and about 10 out and after two loops round the first buoy I was definitely feeling my edges. Feeling amazing, also, but that 3 degree drop since my last lake swim is noticeable.

Anyway, I am back from my half term holiday and ready to face what looks like a mad month building up to National Illustration Day, after which I will need another holiday. Logo design with Lena Yokoyama has been carrying on without me and the outcome is celebratory and joyful and gorgeous and we can’t wait to put it out into the world, hopefully before the teacher’s CPD on Wednesday evening.

We headed off to Wales on Monday, having packed extremely lightly – apart from traffic on the M25 (hurray for SatNav detours) we had a clear run through with only a brief stop for lunch in Luigi’s in Abergavenny. The mountain views through Bannau Brycheiniog (also known as the Brecon Beacons) were spectacular as ever, although Things 2 (Phenergan) and 3 (Stugeron) slept through it all, leaving Aunty Tan and me to spot red kites, hares, the odd deer and a lot of sheep on our own. We arrived in Llangrannog around five, met a friendly cat and the kids went down to see the sea while we unloaded the car.

We were staying in Bryn-y-Mor Isaf, a lovely little cottage in the village – Thing 2 decided she’d rather bunk in with me than her brother, but at least the bed was kingsize and she sleeps like the proverbial log. Once she is out, she is out. Thing 3 stayed in the twin room while Aunty Tan had the first floor double. There was a comfortable sitting room which the kids were banned from taking drinks into after a hot chocolate disaster, bult luckily there was a comprehensive cleaning kit which the leaving instructions were very clear about using. I’m not sure I’ve ever stayed in a cottage where we were instructed to strip beds and clean every surface – not that we made much of a mess, being the nicely brought up children that we are, but we were a bit surprised.

Day one, Tuesday, was a mix of sunshine and showers – there were a few jigsaws in the house so the children and I worked on a couple of those together. Thing 3 has always loved a puzzle, and Thing 2 was inexorably sucked in as the puzzles progressed. Tan and I went for a walk up onto the cliff path, where we were excited to spot a couple of dolphins playing just off shore. We all went in the sea in the afternoon: Tan was very taken with her new wetsuit, which she discovered made her very buoyant (not her usual state of being in the water).

Things went downhill in the evening when Thing 3 came down with a stomach bug and spent the night throwing up every hour or so – at 22 minutes past the hour every time, which meant I was running up and down the stairs a lot. He’d been sharing a drink with Thing 2 on the previous day, so the rest of the week was a bit of a waiting game to see when she’d succumb and a fervent hope that Tan and I wouldn’t.

Wednesday started for me with a well-deserved solo swim – four widths of the beach which we worked out to be about 400m. I followed that with a late morning nap with the sun on my back through the skylight, and then Thing 2, Tan and I went to Y Caban for fish and chips for lunch, followed by ice cream and a walk on the beach where about a dozen dolphins were playing quite close in to the shore. Tan and I had a late afternoon swim, with a seal bobbing about near the rocks which was amazing.

In the evening I stupidly clicked the Tube Map Memory Game that a couple of my friends had shared on Facebook and that was it for a few hours – I got to about 64% on my own and then enlisted Tan, and between us we got to 88.8%. There’s one station on the Hainault loop of the Central Line that I can’t recall, and we’ve nailed inner London, but the Overground, the western reaches of the Lizzie line, and a chunk of South London is beyond us. We started watching the latest series of Bake Off, while I crocheted and Thing 3 snuggled under a duvet and felt sorry for himself.

Thursday found us in Aberaeron, where the kids tried crabbing (unsuccessfully – not a single nibble!), we ate pasties from Y Popty and had honey ice cream while walking along the harbour. Tan and I snuck off and had hot chocolate while watching the surfers from the beach shelter, and the kids didn’t even notice we hadn’t followed them into the house.

Late in the afternoon we ventured back into the sea – the surf was up and there were a fair few people on boards. We borrowed a pair of bodyboards from the garage of the house and remembered how much fun they are. Where the tide was coming in, there were cross currents so wave jumping became a challenge and the last one dumped me comprehensively, followed by another while I was trying to get up – luckily I have a sister who at least will help me up while we’re laughing like fools. We went stargazing in the evening, spotting Jupiter and various constellations.

At 2.22 on Friday Thing 2 started throwing up, but at least she was quieter than her brother. Hers was a shorter but more intense experience, and she was wiped out for the rest of the day. Aunty Tan took Thing 3 off to Tresaith to see the waterfall and then off for chips and ice cream on the beach while I crashed on the sofa.

I joined Tan on the beach in the afternoon, where we watched Bob the Seal swimming around the surfers – the tide is building up to the big one next week so the surf was well and truly up, with some spectacular rides coming off. After sausages and mash for dinner we went back to the beach for what turned out to be a very high tide: the waves were coming up into the car park and throwing sand and stones onto the road. The pub had its steel shutters in place, and the fool who had parked in the area clearly marked ‘Keep Clear’ had to come and move his car as it was at risk of being damaged. Cars driving along the front had to wait for waves to break before moving forwards, and the booms as the waves smashed into the cliffs were enormous. More Bake Off followed, and then Tan insisted on watching the rugby – a quiet night was then had by all, thank heavens!

And here we are, back at home and ready for November! And I’ve already finished the laundry.

Other things making me happy this week:

Tiny crocheted Christmas stockings
Lots of reading (see below)…
…including the latest Elly Griffiths novel
A new flavour of Haagen-Daz to try

And that’s it for me! This week is a rollercoaster…so I am off to make the most of what’s left of the weekend.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Rivers of London 11.4: Here Be Dragons – Ben Aaronovitch et al

Flip Back – Andrew Cartmel (Audible)

Underground Overground – Andrew Martin

Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words – Boel Westin

The Last Hero – Terry Pratchett

The Great Deceiver – Elly Griffiths

The Saki Megapack – Saki