The last couple of months have been bringing home to me how fast the Things are growing up, not just physically (as I crane my neck to look up at them) but in what they are up to. I think I have been deep in denial that Thing 1 is actually planning to leave home in just a couple of short months, to head off to university to do Early Childhood Studies. Thing 2 is revising hard for her GCSEs and had an interview for a professional cookery course at a local college this week. Thing 3 is making his GCSE choices and wanting to join gyms and things.
It does make me feel a bit wistful looking up at them all, especially when the digital photo frames show ‘on this day’ pictures of when they were small: using their dad as a climbing frame, charging off into their first deep snow in the local park, picking me bunches of bright dandelions on the way to the shops, ‘gumping in muddy buddles’ in their ladybird wellies, being hopelessly overexcited at a toy train, being the Littlest Gruff on daddy’s lap at storytime. I still have their first shoes and their first tiny Welsh rugby shirts stashed in my wardrobe, of course, and locks of hair from their first haircuts*. There are certain photos which make my heart melt every time they pop up.
Now I look at Thing 3’s shoes (size 12!) and Thing 1’s varying hair colours. Thing 2 still picks flowers but is now more likely to press them and turn them into art than clutch them all around the town. It used to take ages to get anywhere as she was so engrossed in looking at all the small things. Thing 3 used to make us stop at every lamp post where he’d say ‘that sign means lightning! If there is lightning you must not go in the garden because you will DIE’. It took a while to get to nursery. Thing 1 used to talk to the meerkats that lived in Daddy’s shoes, which was a bit disconcerting but there you are. Who were we to say that there weren’t meerkats in his trainers? Imagination is one of the best things about being a small person, building the world the way you want it – I think if they get to exercise it when they’re small it’s good practice for improving the world when they’re older. I think we’re going to need the imagineers in the next couple of years.
Obviously I know in my head that kids are supposed to grow up (I plan on trying it some time myself) and leave home and be their own people and all that sort of caper, but it seems to have come round terribly quickly and without much consultation. I’m not sure I like it but apparently it’s not up to me….
*Thing 2 is reading over my shoulder as she revises and just said ‘urrgghhh, you kept our hair?’ She’ll learn.
Last week’s post being flagged as not meeting some tech corporation’s community standards – AHAHAHA. Like Captain Vimes says, if you’re annoying the right people you’re doing things properly.
The V&A Academy’s online ‘In Practice’ series – last Monday I did Ekta Kaul’s Stitching Nature session and had an enjoyable evening doing embroidery..
Meeting lots of lovely ex-colleagues from Young V&A as I was in Bethnal Green for a meeting.
Turning a Vicki Brown Designs yarn advent sock yarn set into piles of squishy granny squares. Eleven colours down, 23 to go. She designs gorgeous sock patterns too. Sock yarns are too nice to go inside shoes though.
Making some progress on last year’s temperature tracker which I hadn’t touched since August as I put it down in favour of Christmas crochet. Only four months to go…
The prospect of a lot of baguettes, canalside walks and a week off.
Quite a lot of this week has been spent staring into the Zoomiverse (or the Teamsiverse) on an interesting variety of webinars covering everything from young people’s engagement in museums to drawing inspiration from Zandra Rhodes’ digital collections. I found out about baby art sessions from people in Scotland, working with refugees and asylum seekers from people in Wales and bringing the community in from someone in Margate. And all from the relative comfort of my various desks. I had a chat with someone in Brighton about access and another about more general things with someone in Woking, introduced by a lovely friend that I first met online via Twitter. I am not sure any more that meeting someone on Twitter is a good idea but it’s true that technology can bring people together – and bring the world closer.
‘Online’ is a weird and saddening place to be at the moment. My feeds, usually an echo chamber of cats, capybaras, yarn and textile makers and people I like in real life, are filled with flabbergasted ‘look what they’ve done now’ news from over the pond. I think the general vibe is similar to when you watch those stupid people trampolining on Lego or staple-gunning sensitive bits of their anatomy for the shock value, except that this is a man and his cronies who are doing serious damage to the people around them. The first female head of a branch of the military – fired and evicted from her home with three hours notice for allegedly following EDI policies too zealously. Blaming EDI hires for a plane crash while the river was still being searched for fatalities. Pardoning violent, racist rioters. Rolling back the rights of trans people. Ending birthright citizenship, blocking refugees, going after Alaskan oil, acting to reverse climate change action. Moving to change the constitution so he can run for a third term. My lovely American friends (none of whom voted for him) are in despair, and that’s not too strong a word.
I read one piece this week where white women who’d voted for him were shocked that the anti-EDI orders were applying to them too. What did they expect was going to happen? They’d be immune because they’d supported him? To him they are nobodies. He’s been handed the power now, so he no longer has to even pretend to care – not that he ever bothered with that. His son posted (rapidly-deleted) threats that anyone standing in the way of the administration would be rolled over by the MAGA machine. The world feels like the first twenty minutes of a post-apocalyptic blockbuster, except that it’s real. And if this is the stuff he’s doing above-board, what’s he doing that can’t be seen?
He’s not our president but the impact of his actions is felt across the world, and the power he’s handing to his megalomaniac cronies who now feel entitled to bring their brand of power-hungry aggression to Europe is concerning. When the French president feels it necessary to tell a tech billionaire based in the US to back off from European politics, something is going wrong. Not that he listened – he’s now backing the right wing ‘Make Europe Great Again’ rallies. I’m assuming that this crony and, indeed, the Cheeto’s weird wife, are immune from being deported as immigrants but – again – there’s no guarantee so they should perhaps be a little wary about putting all their eggs in one orange basketcase.
In typical fashion, this appalling state of affairs seems to give people over here – including some who remain on my friend lists for historical reasons only, but who I often mute for 30 days when the racism gets too much – a licence to be publicly racist, posting content about refugees. Reform are gaining seats in by-elections. The pathetic Tate has allegedly set up his political party. They say that people who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, but no one said anything about selective historical ignorance. The people mentioned above are actual historians of one kind or another, who can talk for hours on the subject of various wars, but who don’t seem to relate the right-wing rants they repost to the history they know about.
Like everyone else I don’t have any sensible solutions and it’s probably not practical to watch the next four years from behind a cushion, as if it was an episode of the Triffids or something. What I can do is carry on being a safe space, and treating the people around me in the way I’d like to be treated. Do the small things and watch the ripples of kindness expand. And hope that the world comes to its senses sooner rather than later.
Things making me happy this week
A muddy walk with Sue, Jill, Heather and the Bella-dog on Sunday afternoon, through the floodplain and ending up at the pub for coffee and a chat
Chilly swimming on Sunday morning with Jill – it wasn’t frozen but even the swans were a bit wary about hopping in
Making use of the yoga mat as a blocking aid for the Spiderweb scarf, which has seen a lot of wear this week
Starting a crochet jumper inspired by one I wore in uni, and turning mini-skeins into little granny squares
Getting caught in the rain on my Saturday long walk….and finding a bus going in my direction just waiting for me. It would have been rude not to get on it…
This morning we’re dog-walking rather than swimming, which will at least be warmer! Next week I’ll be coming to you from la belle France where (if we’re lucky) the waters will have receded far enough for some long walks.
January is over at last, and as I am a contrary little being I have been looking into gym memberships – well, swimming for me and a junior membership for Thing 3 who has been nagging me for ages. Good GRIEF but these places make it hard to find simple information – like how much a particular membership costs, for example, or the types of membership there are.
For Golden Lane, the closest pool to where I work, I can find a page where I can pause, freeze or give notice of cancellation of my membership but no information on how I can become a member. At Better Leisure – Ironmonger Row Baths – I can find the membership page (yay!) but then need to start filling in forms and promising the soul of my firstborn (sorry, Thing 1) before I can find out how much it is although they do offer a swim membership which covers the outdoor facility at West Reservoir as well. At the one Thing 3 wants to join, you can’t join as a junior online which is fair enough but surely they could at least tell you how much it is?
Honestly, it’s like all the leisure centre websites have been built by teenagers or possibly by my Beloved as they are all incapable of answering a simple question with a straightforward answer. It surely can’t come as a surprise to service providers that people might want to get this quite important information without having to enter any personal details, or delve down through multiple webpages? I don’t want to talk to people on the phone, or wait for them to get round to answering enquiries, especially as the former action, from previous gym experiences, is going to be the hard sell on me rather than just answering my questions. Actual example:
Me: So, how much is it per month?
Gym person: how much do you think it should be?
Me: OK, £20 per month (having lost patience with the shiny-tracksuited sales ‘associate’)
Gym person: Oh, you can get that out of your head.
Me: well, perhaps you should have just answered the question rather than wasting my time then? [channelling my inner Dad]
The whole point of the internet and websites – apart from cat videos, of course – is that information is at your fingertips. The only plus I can derive from this is that at least these sites aren’t pervaded by chatbots, who are clearly designed by an evil imp in some infernal circle of hell and whose very name is a laughable lie as they do not, in fact, chat….they answer a limited number of pre-set questions with more questions and can’t actually provide any information, or even let you speak to someone with a human brain who might be able to provide assistance. I can only assume that AI ‘assistants’ are also in their teenage phase….
A ten-mile training walk on Saturday morning, through Magdalen and High Lavers to Moreton and back. I spotted a kestrel, a red kite, a sparrowhawk, a little egret, a heron and – for some reason – a large goose sitting in the middle of the road. The rain held off and I didn’t get shot by the enthusiastic hunting family out past Magdalen Laver. Road-only walk apart from a short stretch past Moreton, as the fields are basically a swamp again. Big thanks to the landlord of the White Hart for letting me use their toilet…
Visiting the Art Club at South Library with illustrator Grace Holliday, where we explored play and architecture and met some lovely people who are very excited about the Centre
Finishing an extremely fluffy blanket for GT2, who stayed over with us on Friday night so his mama could have a night out. Endless Sesame Street turned out to be better than the Wales v France game
Finishing this Spiderweb Infinity Scarf in one of the hand-dyed yarns from the Waltham Abbey Wool Show – not shown as it needs blocking!
Thing 2’s excellent cinnamon rolls
A really positive parents evening for Thing 1 followed by a drink with Miriam (while Thing 1 eyerolled at us from behind the bar)
The Last of Us – especially episode 3, one of the most beautifully written pieces of television I have seen for ages
The thing annoying me this week is the press insisting on peppering all Marianne Faithfull’s obituaries with ‘Mick Jagger’s ex-girlfriend’ references – never mind the amazing albums she’s made in the 55 years since they split up, the work she’s done with Nick Cave and PJ Harvey and others, and the whole life she’s lived since then….grr! Go and listen to this from the gorgeous Easy Come Easy Go album of covers. Go!
And today I am off for a swim with Jill and I have no idea what else the week is bringing….
In my usual sublime-to-ridiculous way, this week we are hopping from radical inclusion to…. frogs. Yes, frogs. I like frogs.
Also newts, dragonflies, toads and bats (the flying sort, not me).
This handsome chap lives in our garden, and takes no sh*t from anyone.
This aquatic turn of mind was sparked by a last-thing-on-Friday email from our lovely project manager Liz, who is currently thinking about the logistics of getting power onto our new site and – as a pond is featured in the plans – there was a question about how much water would be in it so we’d know how powerful the pump would need to be.
Now, I do not know a great deal about ponds (other than about acclimatising myself to them in the wild) and I know even less about how to calculate the volume of a pond from a flat plan. ‘It looks quite big’, I hazarded. I suspect this was not very helpful.
I don’t know much about frogs either, so I enlisted the assistance of my Beloved who knows about things that happen outside in the garden. He dug a wildlife pond in ours a couple of years ago, which does not as yet have a frog but I live in hope and whenever he finds Tiny* when he’s gardening he puts him in the pond.
Tiny
*Tiny is my newt…sorry
In my head the pond on the new site is not a sterile, shallow water feature which will inevitably be filled with paddling small people without so much as a pondskater to be seen, but a proper wildlife pond where we can have pond-dipping, spot dragonflies and bees and butterflies, and attract all sorts of exciting wildlife including bats who definitely live in Islington and who could be encouraged to come and live on our site if we had a source of quality bugs for them. The pond in my head is raised so people can sit around the edges and people who use wheelchairs can do the pond-dipping activities too. One end of it is a bog garden and the other end is deeper, making a home for things that like deeper water for the laying of frogspawn. (It will have a chickenwire frame over it, so we can lift it for activities and maintenance but cats and would-be paddlers can’t fall in).
Small toad in the strawberry bed
There will be plants like irises and things that oxygenate the water, grasses around it and insect-attracting plants to make this little corner a wildlife haven. My Beloved and I spent the next hour delving into wildlife ponds (starting here) and discovered that you only need a pump if there’s fish – who are apex predators in the pond, and eat all the other things – or if you’re having a fountain. Wildlife ponds don’t need them, but they do like oxygenating plants which also provide cover for tiny wildlife. If we did have a pump it would need a filter to prevent the tadpoles and froglets being sucked up and mangled.
Islington has the lowest amount of green space per person of all the London boroughs, and increasingly where green space is being planted it isn’t publicly accessible. When teachers were consulted waaayyy back in 2023 they wanted to be able to come to the site to explore biodiversity and bringing water back onto the site will be key to attracting wildlife. The site’s history is inextricably linked with the history of water in London, too, so a pond makes sense. Hopefully the pond-in-my-head will become reality, complete with frogs…
Things making me happy this week
Coffee with Brian and Anhar from London Museum on Tuesday morning.
A catch-up with Cath on Wednesday evening in the local pub, where my existence was met with ‘what are YOU doing in here?’ from my daughter
An exciting meeting with Apple at their Battersea offices, which they described as ‘joyful’ and said my creative activity was ‘supercool’ and that they were going to try it with their kids. I’m not sure they’d seen paper and pencils for a while…
…and the trip back to the office was on the Uberboat to Bankside, with a walk back via St Paul’s and St Bartholomew the Great
I made a start on a new spiderweb scarf using the gorgeous yarn I bought last week at the Wool Show, made a pair of dragonscale mittens for my colleague’s birthday as she feels the cold, and started a hexi cardi with yarn from the stash.
Sunday at the Waltham Abbey Wool Show with Heather, where we squished a lot of yarn and I was quite well-behaved. When I got back I got all my skeins out of the stash and turned them into balls so I have no excuse not to use them – thank heavens for the winder and swift gadgets!
Open Day at Waltham Forest College with Thing 2, where she hopes to go in September
Impressing Thing 2 with my excellent French accent when she made me try on a beret. Well, who doesn’t do ‘Allo ‘Allo impressions under those circumstances? I am, apparently, ridiculous.
One of the least fun things about any job these days is the performance management process, or at least the annual review bit of it. Don’t get me wrong – I have a lovely line manager, I work with a great team on a fantastic project and I’ve loved every job I’ve had in the sector, even in the tough times – and I tend to assume that if I’m doing anything disastrously wrong someone would have mentioned it. Still, every year I have several sleepless nights before the meeting and feel a terrible sense of impending doom.
For years in a previous role these reviews were a meaningless process, as I was on a spot salary so didn’t get any annual pay rises anyway. The year I did brilliantly, writing a unit for the London Curriculum and being learning advocate on a blockbuster exhibition, they actually took away the unconsolidated rise from the previous two years and gave me a 3.5% pay cut as no one was getting a rise that year. The letter telling me this was waiting for me when I got home from the glowing review meeting. It was also understood that only the people at the main site could get the coveted ‘purple’ grade – which I wasn’t. (For some reason it took this organisation a couple of years to get the Investors in People badge – can’t think why). Another year, they increased my targets by 28% and cut my budget by 32%, so we were set up to fail by a director who refused to listen to what was actually possible (think Boris Johnson in a badly fitting skirt). That director – not the team, the line manager or the job – was why I left that role.
So why, every year, do I spend several nights pre-meeting wide awake and tossing and turning with stress-related insomnia? It’s a complete mystery but I suspect its quite similar to that feeling of guilt you get when you see a policeman even though you know for a fact that you haven’t committed any crimes. Perhaps there’s something they know that you don’t, and they’re waiting to spring it on you. Perhaps there was a target no one mentioned to you and you haven’t met it as you didn’t know it was there. Paranoid? Moi?
My current job is in a small arts organisation (with big ideas) which is headed by actual humans so the review was very straightforward and positive and helpful and I still have a job. Which is nice.
I’m not sure what can really be done to improve this, really: we’re all held accountable to various standards and there has to be some way of measuring this. I think I should just be grateful that the kids haven’t cottoned onto SMART targets yet – they might start asking me to stop burning dinner or putting mushrooms in it, leave fewer random scraps of fabric and thread about the place and rationalise my books and shoes.
The Families in Museums Network meeting at Young V&A this week. Slightly linked to the above – where the amazing Ops team made the Front of House recruitment process radically inclusive and considerably less stressful for the applicants. However, it did make me feel that I’ve been knocking about this sector for a very long time…
Finishing my portable crochet project in time for the cold snap. It’s made of alpaca and it’s snuggly and soft. I’ve also made some progress on the blanket.
Choosing fabrics from the stash and a pattern for a quilt project (though not the one I’d been planning. Go figure, eh?) with puffins on. Here’s the ones I started with,, though not all have made the final cut. Some of them are sparkly.
Today we’re off for an icy swim (water temp was 1.5 degrees on Saturday – considerably warmer than the air though!) and wondering why we do this to ourselves. Wonder if I can take a cat with me to keep my clothes warm?
See you next week, when I’ve defrosted…
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading
Ten Big Ones/Eleven on Top/Twelve Sharp/Lean Mean Thirteen/Fearless Fourteen – Janet Evanovich
Aaaand…breathe. The out of office is on, most of the presents are wrapped*, the turkey crown is in the freezer** and the cake is marzipanned and practically hiccupping with the amount of rum it has ingested. The presents for France are in Ealing ready to go over with London sister today, and we had a very delicious lunch at Remoli complete with aperitifs and pudding (affogato, of course). Christmas can now happen.
*Despite definitely having finished the shopping last weekend, I still ended up in Flying Tiger in Ealing Broadway as the stocking presents didn’t look enough.
**We are going to TT1’s for Christmas lunch but the utter horror on Thing 2’s face when she realised this meant I wasn’t doing Christmas dinner was a sight to behold. Yes, I am a sucker but at least I drew the line at buying a full turkey just so I could make soup, despite the face. Boxing Day will be dinner for us then!
On today’s mooch round Ealing we visited the Christmas markets that seem to be popping up in every available shopping centre – the best was at Pitzhanger Manor, but even that was only about ten stalls. London seems to have taken the idea of these markets but hasn’t really managed to get the hang of them. The one in Ealing Broadway Centre was six stalls, half of which were overpriced food and the others were overpriced tat. There is a limit to the number of scrunchies and Swiftie-style bracelets that any one person really needs, and this is coming from someone who remained faithful to the scrunchie throughout the noughties and still has a bagful in case I decide to grow my hair our again. I went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park once – when it was free to enter – and swore never, ever, ever again. Having said that, the one on the South Bank is nice but there are way too many people at it, and if there’s one thing I cannot be having with in London it’s people who dither about the place. Chancery Lane tube station has been plagued this week by people in rush hour who go through the gates and then just…stop. Even my sunny disposition has been somewhat taxed by these muppets. Add to this people who can’t read the ‘stand on the right’ signs, people who choose to stop in the middle of pavements for conversations, people who walk slowly in busy places (I would have voted for a slow lane on Oxford Street) and anyone who hangs around by the entrances to tube platforms.
Even less fun this week was trying to despatch a parcel to World of Books – Royal Mail was not an option, only InPost or Collect Plus, so I chose InPost as they had two lockers in Epping and Collect Plus are in weird little shops. One locker was full, the other was broken – so I had to go to Ongar. It cost me more in bus fare to post the stupid parcel than I was earning from the books. This is the downside of living in a village in between two small towns, of course. Well, that and the buses which are a nightmare at the moment thanks to roadworks in at least four separate places on the route.
Things making me happy this week
Coffee and a catch-up with Rhiannon and cuddles with baby Otis on Friday, and the best (only) mince pie I have had this year made by Raf.
A Christmas drink with my lovely colleagues on Thursday at St John
Cat socks
Starting a non-Christmas themed crochet project
The library getting all the books I’d requested in at once – binging Vaseem Khan’s ‘Inspector Chopra’ series. Highly recommended.
I had my hair cut on Saturday afternoon and during the usual chat the stylist said she wished she was as chilled out as me about Christmas. Anyone who knows me knows that at this stage in the festive month it’s less about being chilled out and more about fatalism: whatever I do or don’t do, it’s going to happen anyway so I might as well give in. The outside lights are finally up so we are longer the sole dark corner of our little Essex street, and the shopping is all done bar the food and the presents actually being delivered to my house to wrap and then cart over to Ealing to hand to my sister next weekend. Thing 2 and I braved Harlow today, which was exactly as horrible as I expected it to be, so stocking presents are also sorted. (T2: Do you want me to come in Superdrug with you Mum? Me: It’s up to you – do you want the magic of Christmas ruined or not?) There were people singing carols, a tree walking about the place, a talking postbox that must have been driving the Trespass team to unprecedented levels of fury, a crammed Santa’s grotto filled with frazzled parents and WAY too many people.
The trip to Harlow was also to go to the cinema to see Paddington in Peru and to get her very belated birthday ear piercing. This was her first needle piercing and the lady said she was the best fainter ever – I was less impressed, as I had to catch her before she hit the floor. I manoeuvred her onto the bench, but it was a close call!
Paddington was enchanting, with Olivia Colman as a not-suspicious-at-all nun, Antonio Banderas as a lot of people, and the usual stellar support from an A-list of British actors. Julie Walters as Mrs Bird gets a bit more airtime in this instalment, Sally Hawkins was missed as Mrs Brown (Emily Mortimer is just a bit too mumsy) and the return of Phoenix Buchanan was worth waiting around for. Considering the time of year there were no trailers that really jumped out at us for our next outing, but I suppose Moana 2 is already out there. (As an aside, my Beloved is watching the new version of Ben-Hur – honestly, doesn’t he know that biblical epics are for Easter??)
We’ve been hitting the Christmas watching quite hard this week too, with Violent Night and Elf making the cut, as well as a nostalgic treat with the BBC showing the Box of Delights for the 40th anniversary (ouch). The special effects and language are a bit dated but the story remains magical. I looked up the book on Amazon as I don’t think I have ever read it and, lo and behold, the most recent version is illustrated by none other than Quentin Blake…
…whose Box of Treasures is also available on iPlayer – a series of animated versions of his picture books. The two latest instalments, Angel Pavement and Loveykins are now out, and to tie in with this our team at work have been working with BBC Teach to develop a Live Lesson for Key Stage 2 based on Zagazoo, another of the treasures. These live lessons are great, supporting the curriculum and complete with downloadable resources. They’re completely free and remain online afterwards for teachers (and home educators and so on) to use, and you can watch it online from 9am on the 17th or ‘live’ and interactive at 11am. How was that for a brilliant segue?
Other things making me happy this week:
An impromptu team lunch on Monday which left me craving a jacket potato with cheese.
Coffee with Amanda
Taking my little family out to dinner on Friday
A lovely community event making festive gifts in Holborn
My Christmas Spotify playlist
Today I’m off for a chilly swim with the woolly hat gang, a trip to Tesco to do the Christmas food shop and some baking later on. Even though we’re off to TT1’s for the big day the kids were horrified that they wouldn’t get a Christmas dinner at home so guess what I’ll be up to on Boxing Day?
Same time next week, unless the interminable drizzle has washed us all away…
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
One For The Money – Janet Evanovich
Hogfather – Terry Pratchett (Audible – both versions!)
A Child’s Christmas in Wales/Under Milk Wood – Dylan Thomas (Audible)
I think my brain is already in switched-off December mode while, unfortunately, it still needs to be in switched-on-work-mode for another fortnight or so. Luckily I have an interesting piece of research to be getting on with and this year’s Spotify Wrapped playlist to help me focus. Once again this round-up of the year proves that 80% of the time I have excellent taste. The other 20% of the time caused near hysteria in my friend’s teenage daughter.
The research is into illustration as a teaching and learning tool across the curriculum, with our national schools plans in mind: obviously we know illustration is all about communicating information, but I think teachers may require a little more convincing if I’m going to get the whole nation on side. ‘Because I said so’ almost never works after all.
Something else I’ve had to do this week is put all the things in my head that have to happen before we open in 2026 down on paper so other people also know them: this meant a couple of hours with a bit of A3 paper, felt-tip pens, a ruler and a nice handwriting pen creating a fabulous colour coded chart on which to download my brain. There’s a lot, but at some point I am hopeful that there will be more than 1.4 people to do some of the things as right now (like everyone else I work with) we are all trying to be several people at once. I wrote these imaginary people on my chart, anyway. Thing 2 used to do something similar: She’d scrawl something on the calendar and say it was a ‘bardi’ (party). If it was on the calendar it had to happen, in her mind – let’s see if it works for me!
On Thursday the team went out for Christmas lunch – this year we went non-traditional and headed to Islington Square for an Indian vegetarian banquet at Omnom, where you can also do yoga and stuff. We did not do yoga but we did eat until we were ready to explode, so not doing yoga was probably wise. The food was amazing, from the aloo bonda to start to the kulfi ice cream in basmati rice pudding to finish.. I had a Laal Laal Mojito with rum, lime, strawberry pomegranate syrup and soda, accessorised with an enormous sprig of mint. Their mocktails were apparently good too – one of my colleagues doesn’t drink and is often frustrated by the boring menu options. The director brought crackers and chocolate coins, bad jokes were told, and hats were worn – not by me though, as it was a damp day and the paper crown was not designed to go over my enthusiastic curls!
The office Christmas lunch was also the Secret Santa moment – we have a theme which this year was ‘baubles’, a maximum spend of £5 or handmade, and it’s lovely as everyone takes part although it’s not compulsory. My outward gift was a crocheted robin in a bobble hat, and I received a gorgeous glass Moomin bauble – they know me way too well! One of the team only joined after the Secret Santa was organised, so she had a crochet gnome as no one should be without a present on these occasions! Other gifts included knitted tortelloni for our Italian colleague, as this is a traditional Italian festive food; an intricate folded paper bauble; and much sparkle. I’ve been very lucky over my years in the sector to work with lovely people, and this bunch are among the best!
Earlier in the week I visited Kingston School of Art, where I got to meet the MA Heritage students last seen at the start of their course when they visited New River Head on their first day. They’d spent the intervening weeks using material from Recycle Archaeology to create museum-quality storage and interpretation. They’d also worked with illustration students to design activities for adults. They’d presented these pieces – ranging from potsherds to toothbrushes – at the Illustration and Heritage Conference which I hadn’t been able to attend as I was in Manchester. One student had created a cabinet of curiosities; another an adaptable display case inspired by V&A Storehouse which showcased clay pipes very cleverly. The activities were well-thought-out, and we all contributed to a comic strip showing the journey of porcelain from China to London through the dragon gate, and drawing the people who used the 17th century china objects. The objects were mudlarking finds, mainly, from the foreshore at Fulham and the bridge in Kingston. I didn’t know that objects from construction sites excavated with no context were recommended to be reburied or sent to landfill. I am hoping that we may be able to give a home to some objects that date from the same period as the New River was being constructed, for handling as well as inspiration, and am looking forward to working with this course again.
The advent (see what I did there?) of Storm Darragh on Saturday mean that Epping Christmas Market was cancelled at the last minute. This was probably a good idea as the market moved to gazebos a couple of years ago rather than the solid old-style market stalls and they’d have been making a break for freedom in the gusts outside. I have another fair today in north-west London which I am looking forward to, so hopefully public transport will behave….
The thing not making me happy this week is Duolingo’s sudden hard push to make its free experience significantly worse. I’ve been using the app for five years now and it’s been fairly constant apart from removing the support and updates for the Welsh course and making weird learning path decisions but in the last two weeks they have removed the ability to practice to earn ‘hearts’ (lives), made it so you’re demoted a level if you don’t finish in the top five of your ‘league’, stopped the double-XP ‘chests’ you could access if you did lessons in the morning or evening and generally made it a bit rubbish if you don’t want to pay for premium. I’d consider premium if they were still developing the Welsh content – which has always been significantly underinvested, without the stories etc that other courses have – but now I’m looking for an alternative.
Right – I must get ready and start the trek to the wilds of Willesden. Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast dinner.
Same time next week!
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
Now or Never – Janet Evanovich (Audible)
The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star – Vaseem Khan
On Monday I was given charge of the remote controls and decided that it was a good time to watch the Paddington films again: the weather outside was miserable, as Storm Bert and then Storm Conall were making their presences felt with rain, wind and general mankiness, and I was in the mood for something gentle and funny.
At home with the Browns (Paddington, Studio Canal/Sony 2014)
We loved the Paddington films as soon as we saw them – the casts are great, they are funny and heartwarming and Ben Whishaw voices the little lost bear beautifully. Hugh Grant is making a proper career out of being a bit of a villain, too, and camps it up well in the sequel while the role of the explorer’s bitter daughter suits the rather icy Nicole Kidman very well. Julie Walters and Sally Hawkins are always great, of course. Thing 2 and I are plotting a cinema trip to see the third one soon.
In this house we have a list of family films that we love and are happy to watch whenever we find them on the TV. They’re Sunday afternoon films, stuck-in-the-house-and-feeling-poorly films, bad weather films and – as it’s that time of year – I’m going to share some of them with you.
Nanny McPhee/Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. Excellent use of Emma Thompson, and all the children end up well behaved in the end.
The Railway Children. Ideally the original but the remake is OK too. You cannot go wrong with Bernard Cribbins.
Five Children and It – Suzy Eddie Izzard as the Psammead.
Hugo – early Asa Butterfield and beautifully filmed.
Fantastic Mr Fox – Wes Anderson does family friendly, with a great voice cast.
Slumberland – a more recent entry, magical mayhem with Jason Momoa.
Stardust – I’m still cross with Neil Gaiman but this is a great film, full of magic and ghosts and skypirates and Robert De Niro in a dress.
Batteries Not Included – tiny aliens! Big business getting its comeuppance!
Hook – Robin Williams as an aging Peter and Dustin Hoffman in an excellent wig.
The Spiderwick Chronicles – more magic, and a grumpy house gnome addicted to honey
Bridge to Terabithia – even though I cry every time.
The Princess Bride (duh).
Jessica Tandy in Batteries Not Included (1987, Universal Pictures)
There are of course many more films that I will watch every time they are on, but these are the family favourites that even the grumpy teens will join us on the sofa for. I was excited to discover that the BBC are finally reshowing The Box of Delights, starting next weekend: more E. Nesbit transformed into TV magic. And Christmas film season starts tomorrow!
The weather, especially when it causes traffic chaos like floods and road closures.
Decisions made by the local council which add to the traffic chaos.
People who have no idea where they are going in tube stations and decide that the best place to stop is immediately beyond the ticket gates.
Evri drivers who claim to have delivered the parcel to the delivery address, when in fact they have delivered it to a house in a completely different road. At least they got the number right, which minimised the ‘excuse me, is this your doormat’ conversations.
Today I’m going for my first swim in ages and am expecting it to be cooooooold….
Same time next week, gang!
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
Going Rogue/Dirty Thirty/Now or Never– Janet Evanovich (Audible)
Saturday night – post-writing of the blog – degenerated into a noisy card game called Sussed where we proved that we all know each other way too well (yes, family, the best invention for me would indeed be a remote control to stop people talking!), a hot tub complete with cheese buckets as we didn’t think the cheeseboard would float, and much listening to tawny owls squawking in the trees around us, possibly in hopes of us sharing the cheese.
On Sunday I walked the Christchurch to Symonds Yat Rock trail in blissful solitude as I knew there was going to be an extremely peopley week ahead. There were deer and evidence of the wild boar, though none came into sight, and some excellent dogs to make friends with. Tan and Jane caught me up at the viewpoint, and a very confident robin hung around for a while.
In the afternoon I headed up to Manchester to be an operations lead for the World Skills UK National Finals. I remembered not to change at Crewe for Preston – Crewe station was as gloomladen as ever – and Miriam picked me up from Piccadilly and dropped me at my hotel. I was quite concerned that there was a chain on the inside of the door but not as concerned as I was when I noticed it had been smashed through at some point. The bathroom door handle came off in my hand but that seemed less worrying…
I had dinner in the ‘Pub and Grill’ which was possibly the noisiest hotel restaurant I have ever been in. ‘A good time guaranteed’ is the strapline, and if you like football being blasted at you from three massive screens this may indeed be the case. This is not my idea of a good time, which would be a lot quieter and probably involve being allowed to read a book. Still, the cheeseburger stack was excellent.
There was NOTHING on the television so I ended up watching What We Do In The Shadows on iPlayer, crocheting tiny Christmas jumpers and having an early night.
Monday came, and despite the state of the door I had survived the night. Breakfast was anaemic bacon with grilled tomatoes, large flat mushrooms and toast, and then I had to negotiate the Manchester public transport system to get to the day’s venue. The tram was very exciting, the buses less so – one went out of service and the other was on a long diversion so the journey took an hour. The possibility of snow was in the air, with up to 10cm predicted, so we were all slightly worried that no one would be able to get to Manchester the following day. Over the day I clocked up 17,000 steps, mostly between floors as I put all the competition things in the right classrooms. My packed lunch had been delivered to the other site, so I made a dash to the local Greggs – no corned beef and potato pasties! What is the north coming to? I had Asian-style salmon fishcake for dinner, followed by a M*A*S*H four-episode marathon on the TV and yep, more crochet. I was told ‘you seem very capable’, which is nice if somewhat patronising – I’m not employed for decorative purposes, after all!
Tuesday began with a sprinkling of snow, far from the predicted 10cm, but it was apparently enough to stop the bread deliveries. The hotel had no bread or waffles, and breakfast carbs were represented by only a few stale croissants and no jam. I was seriously considering rioting , probably joined by the hordes of dismayed Cadent, Fire and Rescue Service and other van-based service people also looking for carbs. Coco Pops and a stale croissant with honey had to do instead of Marmite on toast.
Most of the morning was a stark reminder of how much I hate spreadsheets, especially those which are not sorted! The whole day, in fact, was a chaos of spreadsheets – I have some strong opinions on how these can be better organised, to say the least. The reception in the evening, catered by the hospitality and catering students at the college, was great – excellent cheeseburger sliders, battered fish on giant chips, caramelised onion and goats cheese tarts, and tiny caesar salads on little gem leaves.
Wednesday was bitterly cold but sunny – but they had bread for toast and Marmite in the morning so I was quite well-disposed towards the world. The morning was quieter as almost everyone had registered the day before. I was in charge of group photos, so spent some time herding the teams into their t-shirts and posing nicely. They don’t seem to understand that not everyone can be at the back…. I had a good natter in the morning with fellow Welshman (from Penarth) Mark, who was in charge of the results process. I ended up doing several tours with various groups of people, escorting them around the competitions – I suspect that while our comps aren’t very exciting to watch, they will have some lovely outcomes from Graphic Design and Digital Media Production! I like the fact that the briefs for these mark on soft skills and problem-solving as well, as these are quite useful attributes in the real world.
Dinner was a very salty pizza with Miriam at my hotel, followed by more M*A*S*H and crocheting of tiny mitten ornaments.
Thursday began with toasted waffles, although the item missing from the menu that day was maple syrup so I had to make do with honey again which is not the same at all. In the cab ride from the hotel to the venue I listened to the competitors (from two different digital media production teams) discussing their strategy for the day and a competitor from another team who was apparently trying to get them to form alliances to take other people down. He was, according to them, too tall (but in a weird way) and in his neon blue jacket and red hat bore a striking resemblance to Papa Smurf.
The catering students produced another excellent buffet lunch, this time aimed at teenagers on a tour of the competitions: pizza, fried chicken, sausage rolls and cheese and potato pastry, pasta salad and sandwiches. The visiting students were certainly appreciative of their efforts.
The relief on the competitors’ faces as they arrived back in the restaurant as they finished their tasks was huge – even the Cyber Security team were positively chatty for a change. I learned about Sigilkore and how much it is to get into a club in Ibiza, for a start! One of them had had their 18th birthday on Day One of their competition so they were telling me about their adventures in Manchester that night. By the end of the competition days I’d spent a lot of time with the teams and had got quite invested in what they were doing.
Snow started coming down hard about 6pm, as I was waiting for the last of the teams to finish and for all the judges to complete their marking – it was freezing as it hit the ground so the trek back from the tram stop to the hotel was interesting. Dinner was a burger and salad, and I treated myself to a ‘Frozen Hot Chocolate’ dessert as I think I had earned it. No crochet, as I’d started a new book the night before and I was hooked. It’s called Witherward, and it’s excellent – an alternative London peopled with warring magical factions, highly recommended. (Turns out there is a sequel, which is excellent news)
On Friday I was sent to the other college campus to look after the final day of activity, so after breakfast (cereal and fruit, and Marmite on toast) I skated back to the tram stop and found my way over to Beaufort Road where the engineering competitions were being held. I had a hug from a robot, and scored a rather nice Middlesex Uni fleece which was much needed on a very cold day!
The site was clear of kit by early afternoon so I hopped on the tram* to central Manchester to check into another hotel before the medal ceremony that evening – this time, the Leonardo where they put me on the sixth floor. The room was compact but I was so tired all I needed was a bed.
The ceremony was at Bridgewater Hall and I was tasked with the helpdesk, checking in guests and people who despite many reminders still managed to forget their lanyards. One very breathless family turned up saying their son was due to play the euphonium in the band at 7pm, and were insistent it was at the Bridgewater Hall – it transpired that they actually needed to be at the Manchester Hall on Bridge Street, and there was no way they were going to make it.
I managed to watch the medal ceremony until ‘my’ competition winners had been announced – I got quite emotional when G, a Cyber Security competitor, was awarded the gold medal. He was so painfully shy, and it turned out he had been working full time and studying at the same time – he got very emotional backstage – his family were all watching online. And then his flight back to London the following day was cancelled due to Storm Bert and I think it was the final straw. I was unable to resist telling them ALL how proud I was of them…
Miriam and I made it back to the hotel with ten minutes to spare before the restaurant closed -I had steak frites, and it was very good. And then I slept…..after breakfast (no mushrooms or Marmite!) we leapt in the car and braved Storm Bert to head down the motorways in time for Miriam to meet some friends at the Tiptree Team Room while I wandered round the rather disappointing ‘craft village’.
Either the cats have missed me or my reappearance triggered their dinnertime clock, but they were the first to greet me at the door. I think everyone missed me….
*I find trams good in theory and they were a novelty but I have decided I do not like sharing the road with them. It’s weird.
Things making me happy this week:
Snow. I love snow.
M*A*S*H. I love M*A*S*H.
Uninterrupted evening reading. I love reading.
Not getting on the tube for a week.
So this week it’s back to the day job, where I’ll have to look at emails and make my own packed lunches. Still, it’s been great to stick my head over the parapet again, to make some excellent new contacts across the UK and talk to some FE lecturers about National Illustration Day. Next weekend is the first of this year’s Christmas markets so I’d better get on with things!
What Kirsty did next 