Tea and Cakes

A couple of months ago, Cheryl asks me: “Hey, fancy going to Edinburgh for the day?”

Well, there’s only one answer to that question, so I got up at 4am on Tuesday to make the 6.30 flight, and by 8am we were on the airport bus watching a beautiful sunrise over the city.

Our first stop, at an hour that really was too early to expect such wonderful hospitality, was with Karen from Cornflower. Karen welcomed us into her lovely home with tea and a delicious passionfruit cake that was light a creamy and sweet and mmmmmmm. (and some lovely Scottish angora yarn that’s deciding what it would like to be). I’ve been reading the Cornflower blog for a little while now, and I suspect that some of my reading material for 2009 will be based on recommendations from there. Thank you so much for having us to visit Karen, it was lovely to meet you.

Delicious treats chez Cornflower

Our next stop was a short bus ride across the city. Ok, It was walkable sort of, but we had bus tickets, and a long day planned, and the bus went right where we needed it to. So. Justification over. Our next stop: Fidra Books. Oh boy, am I glad I don’t live near here, I don’t think they’d ever get rid of me. Ostensibly a children’s bookshop, Fidra also has a small but extremely well selected (to my mind) choice of adult books books for adults too. The shop was welcoming and friendly, and Vanessa, Malcolm and Teaga all lovely. Teaga (the dog) is quite big, so I think they would have noticed if I’d tried to sneak her home with me, but I was very tempted.

Fidra also have a publishing arm, for classic children’s books. The editions are lovely, and if you’re a fan of classic children’s adventure stories or books about ponies do check them out. They also have the later books in the Trebizon series, that I didn’t know existed. I may need to see if my local library has the earlier ones, as I haven’t read them since I was a child.

Lovely Fidra Books editions

Now, when we’d arrived in Edinburgh, the very helpful lady at the information desk told us about a German christmas market and a highland market that were on in the city. These were down by the Scott memorial, and also featured a ferris wheel. Hmmmm, is all I have to say about that.

The market was, well, small. A couple of stands, some hot wine or sausages, and that was the German market. The Highland market was pretty similar – tablet, fudge, or hats knit in Nepal with the Scottish flag on them. Oh, and crepes. Meh. It was raining at this point anyway, so we didn’t linger, and instead visited the National Gallery of Scotland for art and lunch. There are some fabulous pieces there. I especially liked the fact that their famous painting of the ice-skating preacher, The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, by Sir Henry Raeburn, might not have actually been painted by Raeburn, was probably painted ten years after they thought, and doesn’t seem to be of Duddingston Loch.

Anyway, refreshed from our lunch and culture, we ventured up many steps…

…and down more, to K1 Yarns, which is a lovely and friendly shop with a small but nice selection of yarns. I’d imagine it’s a lovely place to hang out and knit.

K1 Yarns

By this time it was about 3.30, and we were flagging a little. Coffee, shortbread and knitting were required, and we spent a very pleasant hour in Always Sunday, a bright and comfortable cafe on the Royal Mile.

Chocolate chip shortbread and a cappucino

A very small shop later, and a stroll along Princes Street, and we were ready for home.

A very quick photo of the castle in the dark

I fell in to bed back in Dublin at about 11.30pm, very tired, but very happy.

Oh boy, there’s just too much catching up to do.

The I Knit day was fab. I had a lovely time, met some lovely bloggers (including Luke!), had a lovely lunch with my mum and ChicwithStix, bought some lovely yarn, went to The Yarn Harlot talk which was, yep, lovely. Stephanie very much lives up to all the lovely things you read about her on other blogs. Then I met up with my lovely friend Ceri, who I don’t see anywhere near often enough, and we went off and had lovely coffee and then lovely dinner and dessert desert cake.
It was pretty much an all round lovely day.

I finished my Hemlock Ring Blanket and it’s keeping me very warm at the moment. All the details are over at Ravelry. I used the pattern as collated by The Rainey Sisters, and worked the standard size throw. It’s ended up 44″/112cm in diameter. Big enough for a lap blanket, but I’d go bigger next time, although I’ll need a longer cable for my needles. The knitted bind off looks great but took forever, so next time I’ll also need to brush up on my crochet skills as that would be much, much easier.

While I was in France I made a Baby Surprise Jacket. I love it. I love the pattern, and I love the yarn I used (Rowan Wool Cotton). I still need to sew up the seams, sew in the many yarn ends and find good buttons, but there are a good few months to go before it’ll get any wear so there’s no great rush (it’s for my neicephew-to-be).

At the moment I’m working away on a Clapotis for me, a February Baby Sweater for the neicephew, and a small off-blog project. (There might be a few other things kicking around too, but I’m talking about projects I’m actually interested in knitting right now). I think it’s time to start swatching for another sweater for me. Winter’s coming, and it ain’t getting any warmer. I think it’s time to try fair isle.

I’m very excited that this coming Saturday is knitting group. I miss everyone. It seems like ages since I went along. Tonight I was in Borders just as my closest group was starting, but I was tired and hungry and hadn’t been home after work so I didn’t stay (that’s also why I never manage to make it). Anyway, yes, Saturday. I’m looking forward to it.

I’m frustrated with the weather. The sun came out on Saturday afternoon, and it was lovely, but it hasn’t been seen since. That’s why my photos are so bad. It’s always grey here.

I’ve been twittering a little as teaandcakes: is anyone out there? Knitters seem to mainly plurk I know, but I think twitter’s the one for me.

Plovdiv Old Town Nom

In my small circle of friends, on our birthdays we have the pleasure of inflicting an activity of our choice on to the others, usually ending in a few drinks. (Fibre related activities are forbidden, sadly.)

This year I made my friends sit through an overly long and not particularly good Pirates of the Carribean 3. This was an improvement on last years play, Hysteria, which was awful. Shockingly, laughably (now, looking back) awful.

For Linus’s birthday we went to see Die Hard 4. I hadn’t seen Die Hard 1-3, so I admit to being a little ‘meh’ about the whole event beforehand. A couple of weeks later we settled down to watch Die Hard, and an allegation was recounted that a person who saw and enjoyed Die Hard 4 before watching Die Hard would prefer number 4.

I would like to refute that.

Die Hard 4 was great. Absolutely ridiculous and stupid and over the top but heaps of laugh-out-loud fun and I was really glad I went along.

And that’s the thing.  Die Hard is great too, but not absolutely ridiculous, stupid or over the top. Well, ok, that’s not strictly true, but there’s a lot less disbelief suspension necessary. It just kicks ass as an action film. Alan Rickman is the baddie! It’s hard to get better than that, really. Plus, and I know I’m really showing my age here, you can see what happens in the action sequences. They don’t move so fast that you can’t make out what’s going on and have to shut your eyes because you’re all giddy. And Al! All knows the score. He knows McClane is good. Not like that stupid chief.

Anyway, yes, both fun, but Die Hard much, much better.

Don’t say there’s never discussion of high culture on this blog.

From the Project Theatre website:
“The Irish Premiere of the Award winning comedy. The production coincides with the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud.
In 1938, in his study in Hampstead Sigmund Freud meets Salvador Dali. Chaos ensues. Their comical encounter dramatically transforms into an evening of HYSTERIA…
What’s hiding in Freud’s closet? Who is Jessica? Is memory a fantasy?
Terry Johnson’s brilliantly inventive, profoundly questioning and hugely entertaining play HYSTERIA, won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Writers Award for Best Play.”

Hmmmm. From this I was expecting a comedy of sorts, and some bits were funny. What the review failed to mention is that the main part of the story revolves around one of Freud’s case studies of a woman who was sexually abused as a child. Mixed in with Dali running around holding a penis sculpture. It didn’t really sit right, and I don’t understand how it won awards.

In fact all I really need to say, and this is a spoiler, but trust me, it’s for your own good, is that it ended with: …and it was all a dream…

Sigh. Dinner and company was excellent though, and the play provided much amusement afterwards.

I was a bit aprehensive about this gig. Firstly, it was on a Sunday night, and I don’t like leaving the comfort of my sofa on a Sunday night. Secondly, the weekend had been really chilled out and relaxing, and I didn’t feel like changing that. Thirdly, I was taking Donal with me, and he was just coming to keep me company, so his evening was at stake and if it was bad I woud feel responsible for wasting his time. Finally, I used to love The Cardigans, and I was a bit nervous about seeing them in case I was let down.

When I say I used to love them, I really mean it. I even hung out on a fan message board for a while. I bought all of their stuff, singles too, to get the b-sides – I still love their version of The boys are back in town.

They were producing sweet sounding poppy stuff when that’s what I wanted to listen to. Then when I wanted something darker they brought out First Band On The Moon, and then Gran Turismo. Brilliant.

I’ve heard their latest two albums, but haven’t bought them (yet), so I was also a bit concerned that I wouldn’t know anything they played.

Anyway, the gig rocked. They were fab. I wished I’d seen them before (they never played in Sheffield while I was there and there were so many other gigs on that I didn’t need to leave Sheffield to go see bands). They played a mixture of songs, oldish and new, and didn’t play Lovefool (which was a good thing).

I also got my new all time favourite t-shirt ever:

I want to wear it every day.

Oh my, what a day Saturday was. Somehow the Dublin Riots passed me by, despite being in the city centre relaxing over lunch with a friend while cars were being torched 5 minutes walk away on Nassau Street.

We had tickets for the cinema that night, and the plan was to stay in town until then, but there was a bit of an edge to the place, and a banger being set off just in front of us on Grafton Street put the wind up me a bit (yes, I am a coward). So, we headed to a local safe house for tea and knitting and a bit of rugby before heading back into the city centre to the cinema.

Anyway, we went to see The Proposition as part of the Jameson International Film Festival, and it was excellent. I highly, highly recommend the film. It’s sort of an australian revenge western. The director, John Hillcote, and John Hurt were there for questions afterwards, which was pretty fucking cool, I have to say.

Anyway, I’d been too full at lunch to have any cake, so I decided to make up for it with an ice cream at the cinema (Cineworld, up on Parnell St). This was an interesting ice cream. The Caramel Crisp is caramel ice cream wrapped in a caramel coating (sort of hard, like choc-ice coating texture, but caramel). So far, so good. Deliciously cool, creamy and sweet.

Unfortunately, in their wisdom, the good people at Haagen-Dazs decided to add wafer to the top and bottom of the caramel coating.
Now, this may sound ok, but the wafer breaks differently to the caramel coating. This means that sometimes you get some wafter in your mouth, sometimes it just falls off and lands in your lap. That’s just the way it goes, I guess.

Last FM is a sort of online radio station I was directed towards by a wise person. You have to register and stuff, but it’s free. Then you enter in music that you feel like listening to, and it plays you music like that – some from the bands and some from others that it feels you might like. You can skip songs you don’t like, ban songs totally, or say that you love a song, all of which helps it work out what you want to listen to.

Here’s what I entered:
Belle and Sebastian
Isobel Campbell
The Cardigans
A Camp
The Kings of Convenience
Beth Orton
Jim Noir
The Boy Least Likely To

So far it’s played me a selection from the above (good choices too – the Cardigans track was from Emmerdale, their first album and my favourite), plus:
Everything but the girl, which I banned as I don’t like them.
Air
The Shins
Architecture in Helsinki
Erlend Oye (the O should have a vertical line through it)
The Cranberries (skipped that one)
Databoy78

I hadn’t heard any A Camp before – it’s Nina from the Cardigans solo project, but the one track I heard was excellent and I shall be buying the album from amazon as soon as my credit card says I can.
The boy least likely to and Jim Noir I haven’t heard either, but they’ve been recommended by a friend with excellent taste in music who always steers me right.

Another fantastic gig. She has an amazing voice, and is just, well, really sweet and down to earth. Add to that excellent company and a great venue (I do like Vicar St, it’s intimate but not squished up), and it was a wonderful night.

I do however have a few messages for the good people in the audience.

1. To the people who insisted on clapping along to everything:
Some songs just aren’t suited to clapping – the quiet, melodic ones for example. Please shut up. Also, if you do insist on bashing your hands together to make noise over the performance, do you think that possibly, maybe, next time you could try to do it in time with the music? Maybe if you practise really, really hard before she comes to play again.

2. To the lady who sat next to me:
You smelled. I suspect this was down to your bulk. I recommend purfume, or a better deodorant. Also, if I happen to be sat next to you again, please keep your fat ass on your seat, not mine. I appreciate I’m not the largest person in the world so may not have been using the whole space, but really, it’s just not polite.

3. To the audience members who felt that they were having an open conversation with Beth Orton, and could tell the punchline to her jokes, heckle her, and generally behave like arses whenever she stopped to re-tune her guitar:
Seriously, show some respect. There’s a bit of banter between the performer and the audience, and then there’s just acting like pricks. You were the latter. You’re not funny. I don’t want to hear you.

4. To the woman sat behind me, singing:
I did not pay to hear you sing. You aren’t that good. Yes, I recognise that you know all the words – so do I, it’s not that hard. I don’t want to hear you sing. If I want to hear badly sung Beth Orton I can create my own performance in the comfort of my own home. If you have such a burning desire to perform, get a fucking record deal. Oh, sorry, what’s that you say? You can’t? Because you’re shit? Yes, that’s what I suspected.

Anyway, those are my messages. Just little things really, I had a fantastic night overall.

Now, I was always going to enjoy this gig. There was no way they would disappoint me, I just knew it. And, white jeans aside, they did not.

I used to go to loads of gigs, mainly when I was a student living in Sheffield, where there were lots and lots of bands playing. I enjoyed most of them a great deal. One or two were a little disappointing, but that’s what comes of seeing bands play live, and I really shouldn’t have been suprised that Evan Dando was totally wasted and couldn’t remember the words to his songs.

Anyway, most gigs I’ve loved. Some bands/performers are good: it’s nice to see them live – there’s a great buzz about it. Some people (Bowie for example) have this awesome stage presence and energy. I’ve been to three gigs where the performers have sounded simply amazing: Lamb, Beth Orton, and now Belle and Sebastian. I generally figure that bands have the noise they make tidied up in the studio so it sounds all pretty for the cd – these guys sounded better live.

Everyone last night was just, well, nice. The band are so talented – everyone seemed to play a selection of instruments and 12 musicians all paying at once could have gone horribly wrong but didn’t, it sounded beautiful. I could have listened to them all night. They have a really broad repertoire, but even the slower songs sound cheerful on the surface, and even the faster, more disco like songs sound fucked up when you listen to the lyrics.

Anyway, go see them if you get the chance.