300: Marley was dead to begin with…

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

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

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

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

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

Other things making me happy this week

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

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

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

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

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

The Secrets of Pain – Phil Rickman (Audible)

299: coming around again already

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kirsty

What I’ve been reading:

Kingdom of the Blind/A Better Man – Louise Penny

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

298: good skills

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

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

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

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

I also loved….

  • Seeing the Medal Ceremony: my favourite 3D Digital Game Art geek won, I got to escort some overwhelmed winners, got a hug from my stressed Romanian, and met several very proud parents (‘We’ve been divorced 9 years and we’ve been holding hands the whole time!)
  • Catching up with some of the competitors, tutors and competition leads from last year – sad not to have Cyber Security again though!
  • Being told ‘Have a lush day, love!’ by someone exiting a lift.
  • Hearing Welsh and the Cardiff accent everywhere I went.
  • Dragons. Someone abandoned a flag at the end of the ceremony – I adopted it and brought it back to Essex with me.
  • Dinner and a good gossip with my friend Jen, who I don’t get to see nearly enough. Fat Hippo burger and a Cherry Negroni, in case you wondered.
  • Pho with Isla when we’d had enough of hotel food
  • Happy nighttime buskers under a clock on St Mary Street
  • The magical projections on Cardiff Central Station, animating Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales. I did let Jen off sitting through the whole thing with me
  • Lunchtime coffee with cousins
  • Wandering around Cardiff looking at lights and clocks
  • Late night putting the world to rights and singing along to classic rock when we decided to bomb back to London on Friday night
  • Cackling gangs of Welsh women out on a girls’ day – ‘we’ve only had one!’ – insisting on a selfie with a passing stag group.
  • A quiet hot chocolate in the sunshine, reading my book on Friday morning waiting for Miriam. Peace….
  • Taking my family out to dinner last night. I missed them, and I’m pretty sure at least some of them noticed I was gone.

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

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

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

The Kingdom of the Blind- Louise Penny

297: is it time for the big coat?

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

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

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

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

Other things making me happy this week

  • The British Library’s family festival on Saturday – creating imaginary worlds with families using Beth Suzanna’s gorgeous backdrop collages
  • Dark evenings walking back through Clerkenwell and the City. The route back to various stations passes through some very old bits of London.
  • Finishing all the Christmas puddings for Epping Xmas Market
  • Making plans to catch up with old friends next week
  • Not the Central

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

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Legacy of Arniston House – T.L.Huchu

A Slowly Dying Cause – Elizabeth George

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

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

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

296: empathy for the Breville

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*It actually is. Or one of them anyway.

Things making me happy this week

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

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

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Echo of Crows – Phil Rickman

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

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

295: team efforts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other things making me happy this week

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

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

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

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

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

294: the best laid plans

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other things making me happy this week

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

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

Same time next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

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

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

293: this is not a quiet riot

This week my Beloved and I – along with a lot of other people – have been watching Riot Women on BBC iPlayer. Superficially, it’s sweary and funny and loud. We’d have loved it for the soundtrack which is punky and riotous and had us shazamming like mad at times. It’s enjoyable on that level but there’s so much more going on. I’ve recommended it to pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to this week, especially my middle aged women friends (and my hairdresser, my work colleagues, people on the bus…)

Created by Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley), the central premise is a group of middle aged Yorkshire women who get together to form a punk band for a local talent contest. So far, so cosy British comedy. You know the band is going to come together, you know there will be trials and tribulations along the way, and you know there will be a happy ending or at least a cliffhanger teaser for season 2. I won’t give away any spoilers here.

These women, including the always excellent Tamsin Grieg (Black Books, Friday Night Dinner), and Joanna Scanlan (No Offence, The Thick of It), are full-on menopausal. This is not a drama of stereotypical hot flashes and ‘ooh, it’s her time of life’ comments. It covers the depression, the rage, the way relationships change, the lack of tolerance for other people’s rubbish, the invisibility. Dr Louise Newsom of The Menopause Charity is credited as medical advisor.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2025/riot-women-trailer-sally-wainwright

Behind the punk band and the anger, there’s the women’s relationships with the people around them: Scanlan’s adopted son is pulling away but searching for his birth mother, and she no longer feels needed. She’s also coping with her mother, who has dementia, and battling with her sibling over the best care for her. Greig’s mother (Anne Reid on top form) is also declining, and as she’s recently retired from the police force she’s called on more and more to cope with her. She’s also still trying to support a young protegee in the force with misogynistic behaviour, and navigating single life. There’s domestic violence, frustration, sex, estranged children, extended families, childcare responsibilities and life juggling in a way that feels all too familiar. There’s sexist men who don’t deal well with rejection (Peter Davison, among others), and bosses turning a blind eye. HRT alone is not going to solve this lot.

In some ways the subject matter is close to that of the equally funny and angry We Are Lady Parts (Channel 4), and a battle of the bands between the two might cause some sort of TV explosion: expectations of how women ought to be behaving at certain points in their lives. Who puts these expectations on us: the young Muslim women should be getting married and finding a good job. The menopausal women should be content with being unpaid carers and shouldering the responsibilities the world is giving them. Being given a mouthpiece – or at least a microphone – is the release. Both bands have to deal with their families being embarrassed or outraged by their behaviour, as they’re sticking several fingers up at societal norms.

Both series are worth a watch – they are sweary though, so maybe not with the kids!

Things making me happy this week

Crocheting a tiny sprout. He’s called Barry, after Barry the Time Sprout who features in a lot of Robert Rankin’s extremely silly books. We first meet him in Armageddon: The Musical, where he’s lodged in Elvis Presley’s head. Of course.

The safe arrival of my colleague’s new baby and an excuse to make baby crochet things!

Christmas jumper crochet on the train. Next up, more of these and back to the piggies. I’ll be at Epping Christmas Market on 6th December, unless the weather misbehaves again.

Bill Nighy’s new podcast, Ill-Advised by Bill Nighy

The return of my fringe, which is like instant Botox without the needles.

What I’ve been reading:

The Cruellest Month/The Brutal Telling/Bury Your Dead – Louise Penny

The Cure of Souls/The Lamp of the Wicked  – Phil Rickman (Audible)

The Life and Loves of a He-Devil – Graham Norton

292: stalling for time

This week has been all about the crochet, bookended by two different markets. Last Sunday was Copped Hall’s Family Apple Day and yesterday was the London Welsh Centre’s Autumn Market.

Copped Hall events happen outside in a tree-lined avenue leading down towards the walled garden. Luckily we had sides for the gazebo this year and the weather was sunny if a bit chilly at times. It’s so lovely to see regular faces, though I need more Doctor Who things according to one customer!

They were two very different events – Copped Hall doesn’t charge a fee but asks for a suggested donation of 10% of your takings, whereas I felt a bit of impostor at the Welsh market surrounded by potters, award winning food producers and so on. Driftwood Designs had the stall on one side of me, and they have actual shops in Aberystwyth and Aberaeron (and a strong presence on my family’s Christmas trees).

On our other side was Badcubed, who makes the most amazing stained glass-style art using aluminium drinks cans (including commissions) and who was not above accosting passing people carrying interesting cans and asking them to bring them back when they’d finished. Thing 2 spotted someone with a beautiful cider can which turned out to be Hansh Cider from Llaethlliw near Aberaeron. The can is redesigned every time there’s a new addition to the family, adding dogs, small children and so on as the family grows.

Ben, Badcubed himself, is an ADHD-fuelled creative (his words), and never makes the same thing twice – all his pieces have names and stories. He gave Thing 2 a wave piece at the end of the day, a gorgeous heart shape created from Monster cans. She hugged it to her all the way home, and wouldn’t put it down until it had a safe place in the living room. Despite leaving Brecon at 4.30am to drive up to London in time for the event he was on full energy all day, chatting to all the people who were drawn to his stall – and there were a LOT.

My stall is more of a stealth attractor – people glance at it and then do a double take. Yesterday it was split into two sections: autumn and Christmas. I love watching people walk by as you can almost see the moment their brain tells them what they’ve seen …’huh, crochet…hang on, did I just see a crocheted jammy dodger/pea pod/sprout/chilli pepper??’ Yes, yes you did.

And now you’re coming back to have another look…and you’re going to need a bigger Christmas tree.

The nine pigs in blankets sold quite quickly, as did the little harvest mice and pickled pumpkins/ghosts and as fast as I could make a Chris Mouse it sold. I tested a mouse in a Christmas blanket too, and may make a few more of them as they’re very cute. Some people take ages to decide which pig or mouse they want to adopt as the faces are never quite the same! I wonder if I can do pickled sprouts for Christmas?

When I finally got a wander round later in the day I bought some Welsh Rum & Black Jam from Black Mountains Preserves, and some hot sauces from Chilli of the Valley as Thing 2 (my helper at both events) kept nagging me. This included Merthyrstershire Sauce as my Beloved is a big fan of Worcestershire Sauce, and making something Welsh can only improve it…

Mental notes from the event – more red Christmas jumpers, more pigs, more Chris Mouses, more peapods, more mini puddings, stop being lazy and embroider the house details on your toadstools, more barrel cacti….so much! And next year, go for the bigger table…

Another thing I really enjoy about these events is the conversations – I’m always crocheting behind the stall as I’m not very good at sitting still, and this opens up chats with other crafters, or people who want to learn, and people who whip their WIP (work in progress) out of their bag to show me. As with live interpretation, you become approachable when you’re doing something seen as ‘domestic’. Even if they don’t buy anything you’ve had a good natter about things you like.

The next stalls are December, but please do contact me if you want to order. Always happy to crochet.

Other things making me happy this week

  • Not the Central Line, which caused me no end of problems on Wednesday
  • A wander back to the new office from Exmouth Market – Clerkenwell is full of funny little streets and quirks. There are a lot of clocks about too, as the area used to have a lot of clock and watchmakers.
  • Crispy autumn things
  • Coffee with TT2 and GT2 after the Welsh market
  • Booking tickets for a night at Sadlers Wells East to see Ebony Scrooge with Things 1 and 2 in December – something to look forward to

Well, that’s it from me – I’m going to do NOTHING today*

Same time next week,

Kirsty x

*well, maybe some crochet….

What I’ve been reading

A Trick of the Light/Still Life/A Fatal Grace/The Cruellest Month – Louise Penny

MIdwinter of the Spirit/A Crown of Lights/The Cure of Souls – Phil Rickman (Audible)

291: embroidery envy

Saturday was the annual pilgrimage to Ally Pally to worship at the altar of fabrics and yarn and crafty gadgets, also known (this year at least) as Knit and Stitch. Heather and I were joined by Tor, one of her colleagues, and we had a most excellent mooch around the exhibitions and graduate shows before heading into the danger zone of trader stands.

I love the graduate shows – this year I was very taken with two who were using stitch to encode messages into their work. One had been inspired by a visit with their (very proud) mum to Bletchley Park when they were nine, and another had created Braille embroidery. I’d definitely visit an exhibition about secret messages in embroidery! I wish I had the vision and talent to do this sort of thing.

There were also many beautiful embroidered birds at The Embroiderers Guild, and some interesting materials in use – upcycled building textiles, plastics which mimicked natural forms and some Korean goblins (‘dokkaebi’) inspired by found objects like lost hats and socks.

We spotted large gatherings of Bees (the sewing kind) including some of this year’s crop, and stroked a lot of fabric as we wandered up and down the aisles. I was very restrained, coming home with some fabric for a new version of the Folkwear Basics Jacket, an embroidery kit which is all French knots and a beautiful embroidered bird brooch. I rarely wear necklaces at work as often have a lanyard, so I usually wear brooches or badges instead. I probably didn’t need another one but I really liked it…

We took our own packed lunches as the food is always disappointing and overpriced at these things – there’s never anywhere to sit and what you end up with is the world’s most expensive meal deal. A well-deserved tea in the afternoon while being charmed by an adorably smily baby was quite reasonable, and then we made it home. The magic laundry fairy hadn’t managed to finish sorting the four clean loads stuffed into the trug on my bed but what can you do?

Things making me happy this week

  • This beautiful tree on the way to the office in Islington
  • My cousin sending me pictures of toadstools from her early morning walks
  • Our third access panel meeting – we’re so lucky to have a generous group of people who are willing to share their experience and thoughts about our new Centre.
  • A personal best in the Cardiff Half last Sunday – 3 hours and 2 minutes on my Strava, and 3 hours 9 on the chip time. I really wanted to come in under 3 hours but I was very close! I was less impressed with the serious aches on Monday and Tuesday. The weather was great, and the crowd support all round the course was excellent. I was touched to see my lovely friend Jen at 13k, as no one ever comes out to see me! She even gave me a hug, despite the fact that I was a sweaty mess. My cousin Hev leapt out of the Rock Choir at mile 11 with another hug.
  • Ben and Jerry’s Minter Wonderland is back in the Co-op. It’s my favourite.

Today it’s Apple Day at Copped Hall, so Thing 2 and I will be manning my gazebo. She’s been making earrings with the content of my button tin and she’ll be selling them, while I’ll have my usual collection of crochet decorations and jewellery, including these googly-eyed sprouts.

Next Saturday you can find me in central London at the London Welsh Centre’s Autumn Market, probably also with Thing 2 in tow…

Same time next week, gang!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Lost Paths – Jack Cornish

A Rule Against Murder/A Trick of the Light – Louise Penny

Wine of Angels/Midwinter of the Spirit – Phil Rickman (Audible)