Tea and Cakes

A while ago, the hostess of my group, Shelby, asked us to post about our current works in progress, and as a result I won a prize, which I collected from the post office this morning. So many lovely treats!

I have some berocco yarn in such a beautiful purple colour – it’s absolutely perfect for me and I think it might become a thin evening scarf type thing. There was also a fab card, some bright coloured pony pearl needles (I’ve been using Pony pearl dpns and they’ve been lovely to knit with, and I love bright coloured needles), and some beautiful glass bead stitch markers.

I’m very lucky. Thank you so much for being such a fab hostess Shelby.

This is my contribution to the picnic blanket we’ve been making to go with the knitted picnic for the electric picnic. Lots of us from the knitting group have made a square, and the wonderful Sharon, who has been organising all of this has put them all together. It’s a great looking blanket. The plan is to donate it to a charity when we’re done at the picnic.

The pattern is sort of the ballband dishcloth pattern from the Mason-Dixon knitting book, and it’s knit in the celtic aran I had left over from the garter stitch scarf.

Yes, that’s what I meant to say – Hot chocolate on a stick. A gift from France. (Thanks Fin!)

Take your stick of hot chocolate.

Heat some milk. This is soya milk, because I prefer it to cow juice, but, you know, use whatever you like best.

Pop stick of chocolate into milk and stir.

The milk turns chocolatey as the chocolate melts.

This was sooo delicious. It really should’ve been made and drunk from a bowl instead, but the mug worked. Once it reached a certain point the chocolate fell off, so once I’d finished drinking there was melty deliciousness waiting at the bottom of the cup.

Oh, and yes, just after I took the third picture I did nibble some of the chocolate off. Anyone would have, it was impossible to resist.

Sushi, anyone? While it’s not as delicious as the veggie sushi I was eating last week, it is made with my own fair hands. Do you think I need some nori maki too? It’ll mean a trip to buy more white.

Also in knitted picnic for the Electric Picnic news, I made a square for the picnic blanket:

Spot the problem? Yep, it’s not actually square. I think I forgot some decreases. That’s what comes from knitting anything with a pattern with a migraine. (It was mild, I carried on with my day anyway, I’m fed up of wasting time not doing anything when resting doesn’t actually get rid of the damn things. If I can get up and leave a dark room I will.)

Aside from the fact that it’s not actually square I was really pleased wih this – I loved the way the uneven stripes looked. So, it was with regret that I turned it into this:

For a little while it was the beginnings of another square, but it was looking wrong and curling really badly so it ended up back in the two balls again. I’ve put it away for the evening now and I’m hoping it’ll tell me what it wants to be very very soon as it needs to be in the post Tuesday at the very latest, and that’s using swiftpost. It might want to look like a mason-dixon ballband dishcloth, but it’s not being cast on until it’s made it’s mind up.

Earlier today, in a fit of wanting knitting that I had to think about, I cast on for Branching Out again. This ended in tears the last time, but I’m not letting a pattern beat me, so out it came again.

After I went wrong on the third pattern row and had to rip back I decided it would be wise to start using lifelines, which is why there’s blue cotton and sandy cotton in the mix. I’m assuming that this will look better once it’s washed and blocked (and finished of course). I’m taking my time and only working on this when I’m feeling awake. I have the pattern for the fibertrends Lace Leaf shawl, but I want to see how I get on with this before I start on that.

All in all, a productive weekend’s knitting. Aside from all the ripping out.

John and Mary used to love travelling. For their honeymoon, when John was 21 and Mary 19, they took a trip to Europe, visiting France and Italy. When their children were young they took them on camping trips to Brittany, Cornwall and the Lake District. When John first retired they took coach trips, travelling to the Norwegian Fjords, Northern Germany and even St. Petersburg.

It seemed natural then, to their children, now adults looking forward to retirement themselves, to treat John and Mary to a weekend away for their golden wedding anniversary. The whole trip was organised for them – the first class seats on the plane, a taxi from the airport, the suite in the four star hotel, and a champagne dinner in the hotel on the Saturday evening. It all sounded wonderful.

The trouble was, that John and Mary weren’t as young as they used to be, and hadn’t travelled for several years. It had been so difficult at the airport. Everyone seemed to be in such a rush, and nobody seemed able to show them where they were supposed to go. At the security check they had had to take their shoes off. Everyone behind them was in such a hurry, and Mary went as fast as she could, but her hands didn’t work as well as they used to, and there was no seat for her to sit on while she took them off. John tried to help but his back was bad and it was just as difficult for him.

The stewardess on the aeroplane had been lovely, and had made sure they were both settled into their seats with everything they needed. She’d even put their bags up into the space above the seats for them, to save John having to stretch. The flight was so noisy though, and Mary could feel her feet swelling so. She hoped she wouldn’t have to take her shoes off again when they landed.

The baggage hall was terrifying. John waited for their small black suitcase to arrive while Mary sat patiently on the chairs to one side. The suitcase went around the carousel twice before John was able to get through the crowd of people and retrieve it.

The hotel was much fancier than anywhere they’d stayed before, but they were both too exhausted from the journey there to enjoy it. Mary unpacked the few clothes they had brought with them and made them each a cup of tea, and then they both sat in front of the television for the evening, too tired to venture out.

~~

Armed with the guide book they had been given, and a map from the hotel, John and Mary set out early the next day, determined to see a few sights so that they could report back to their children that they had had a wonderful time. The city was bustling in the early morning, full of people pushing their way past trying to get to work, or to the shops, or wherever else it was that they needed to be in such a rush. The streets seemed to blend in to one another, and the signs seemed to lead them on a wild goose chase, round and round in circles.

John could see that Mary was tiring, and felt the need to protect her, to take her away from all the people and the noise and bustle, to take her back to the hotel where they could sit and have a nice cup of tea in peace. The hotel had postcards, and they could venture out again later to find some souvenirs to take back to their grandchildren. First they had to find out where they were, and how to get back to the hotel.

~~~~

Inspired by Directions taken by Pablo Gavilan from Flickr.

Written for Flickr Fiction Friday. You can usually find Flickr Fiction by:Elimare, Donal, Tadamack, Aquafortis, HeavySigh, and Chris.

Late this week, sorry. Also a bit rushed again, but this time because I found the whole story too sad to face getting into in too much detail.

Flickr Fiction will be a bit delayed this week. It is coming though.

I finished my assignment and uploaded it to the OU website with 10 minutes to spare. When you’re a person who works best under extreme pressure, it’s not a good idea to take herbal relaxing pills for the few days before a deadline. (from a health food shop, and I know that even then it’s not a great idea, but I’m not on any other medication or anything, so no lectures please, plus I’m not endorsing them or saying which ones they were). They worked though, so I was really laid back about the whole thing, but that’s not a good idea when it’s the stress that makes me sit down and write instead of watching the West Wing and knitting sushi.

In very important news, brought to you by the BBC, it would appear that tea is healthier than water. Not only does it rehydrate you, but it contains lots of wonderful things that help protect teeth and lessen your chances of a heart attack. If the BBC says so, it must be true.

The BBC also has news that a 21 year old man was trapped in a vat of chocolate for 2 hours. He was eventually freed when rescue workers added cocoa butter to the mix to loosen it up. Seriously. I didn’t make that bit up. What I really love about this as a news item is that it ends with the single sentence: “The accident involved dark chocolate.”

A new Sushi place has opened up on baggot street, so I had to give it a try. I love Sushi, but don’t eat fish, so I was delighted to find a huge and creative selection of delicious nori maki that I could eat. I went for avocado rolls and sweet potato with mango ones. They were really, really good, and I’ll be back for more tomorrow.

It’s a college assignment week, so I’ve been spending most of my free time watching the first series of The West Wing studying hard. Full, regular, uninterrupted posting will resume after Thursday.

There has been some knitting, but you’ll have to wait to see it, as it’s for the knitted picnic at the Electric Picninc, and I want to be done before I post. Oh, the suspense!

Ok, I know it’s been abut a month since the holiday was over, but I’ve been busy, and I’m almost done explaining. Yep, I know we’re only a few weeks into a 2 week holiday, but the second week was mainly spent sitting, reading, eating and knitting. I shall be quick.

We left off at Myrdal, a train station up in the mountains.

From Myrdal we got the Flam railway down to, well, Flam. Getting on the train was a bit of a challenge. We wanted to get the 9.40am train. We were at the ticket office at 9.20am. A sign on the window said they opened at 9.30am. I stood in the queue while Donal went off to see I there were any ticket machines or if we could buy tickets on board.

At 9.32 someone came out of the ticket office to tell us that they wouldn’t be opening and we should buy tickets on board. At the same time Donal was told that it wasn’t ok to buy tickets on the train. The boarding call came for the train. We went back to the conductor and explained that we’d been told a) to buy tickets on board, and b) that we couldn’t buy tickets on board. He smirked (yes, smirked, there’s no other word for the expression on his face) and replied “Well you’d better take your chances then.” We walked away very fast so that I didn’t punch him in the stupid smarmy face, and got on the train, where it was perfectly fine to buy tickets from a friendly conductor.

Customer service was a bit of a problem all around the fjords. There’s a well established route called “Norway in a nutshell”, that we pretty much did, but, watching our cash, worked out that we could do cheaper without getting the package ticket. In hindsight, it really wasn’t worth it, as we would have avoided the above fiasco, plus several others including being told we couldn’t buy a ticket from a person selling tickets to get on a boat, that we had to get them from the tourist office, where we queued to be told to go back to the same person and buy them and get on the boat, where she agreed to sell them to us suddenly. Confused? Try doing it in the sun with a rucksack. Moral of the story? Next time get the package ticket.

Anyway, the beautiful scenery more than made up for everything, and the journey down on the Flam railway was spectacular. The railway drops 800m over 20km and has 5 sets of fully working breaks and lots of other impressive statistics.

About half way down we stopped to get out and look at an amazing waterfall:

Pretty spectacular, yes? The whole journey was in fact. I spent most of it with my jaw dropped to the floor anyway, and the waterfall left me almost speechless.

Almost.

We’re looking at the waterfall, thinking that it’s perhaps time to get back on the train, when some music starts. Celtic mystical type music. Clannad type music. A few people start pointing up to the ruined house, where a woman with long blond hair has appeared, dressed in a flowing blue dress, twirling and skipping in some sort of interpretive dance. Then another one appears, actually in the waterfall this time. There are lots of ohhhs and ahhhs, and the train staff look very pleased with themselves. I’m now totally speechless. Clearly the majesty of nature wasn’t enough. What this feat-of-engineering railway passing though 18 hand cut tunnels, and this incredible waterfall needed was a loudspeaker system and a couple of dancing girls. Speaking of whom, I hope they had a flask of hot chocolate hidden up there – all that water’s freshly melted snow: they must have been freezing.

Anyway, our journey continued down the valley to cute little Flam:

After fun with misinformation from the tourist office, we settled down to a relaxing afternoon knitting in the sun along with the best meal in the world – crisp and cheese sandwiches made with a penknife with last minute bought ingredients from the supermarket. Nobody will convince me that there’s a finer meal to be eaten outside on a nice day.

Ok, this has got very long and wordy, so I’ll speed things up a bit.

We spent the next few days relaxing in the fjords, taking boat trips:

Visiting a glacier:

And ending with a trip down the Naeroyfjord, which is on the UNESCO world heritage list.

One more post to come, and then I’m done talking about the holiday, I promise.

I clearly find the idea of running out of paprika worrying. I don’t think it’s something I should be concerned about.

Must check cupboards before I go to the shops.