didn't we have a lovely day...

the day we went to London?



Yup, the Ravelry LSG UK Hoars Meet Up.

Look! Tweasels in their natural environment (the pub):







Now, I am the first to admit that I dislike London. I love some of the things IN London - the yarn shops, the V&A, the British Museum, the Doc Martens shop (is that still there?) but London generally you can keep. It's too busy, too dirty, too noisy and there isn't enough greenery. No, Hyde Park doesn't count. Really, no, it doesn't. It's a field.

However, it has some compensations.



Need I say any more on this matter? I thought not.

Also:



The coned yarns are from the Handweaver's Studio, where I met up with a few other weaving-minded souls in the morning. It's a great shop, see:



Well worth the short trip up to Finsbury Park.

I actually had a really good time, it's the first time I've been into the Smoke since I moved, and it was weird coming into Paddington on the Great Western, I'm so used to landing at Euston. I kind of felt like I hadn't arrived properly, if that makes sense. What absolutely gobsmacked me, and this is one for the railway buffs, is that the Paddington trains from Reading had slam doors. SERIOUSLY? I thought Southerners were all advanced and posh?! SLAM DOORS??!? Haven't seen them in years. Even the Clyde Coast line trains have sliding push-button doors.

ANYWAY. I digress, as usual.

There are other good things to tell you about. My date has rekindled (hurray) so I'm all happy about that. I'm not telling you any more :-)

I have a new chair! A spinning chair! You may envy me now:



Isn't it awesome? I love it. This means I can sit properly and spin, rather than sinking into the sofa and wrecking my back.

I was given an incredibly generous present. I'm still rather overcome to be honest.



That's a Don Porritt tapestry loom. Oh my. I don't actually know how to make it work yet, but I'm going to find out! As far as I can tell, everything is there ready to go, just the reed needs a clean as it's gone a bit rusty. A soak in some Coca-Cola and a going over with some wire wool should sort that out. I just need to put aside some time to devote to sorting and learning.

I think that's it, I've just been to the dentist for a super-deep clean and I feel like I've been smacked in the mouth with a cricket bat. Hopefully though this will make my gums better - I'm not convinced personally, they've always been a bit dubious, but hey, I'll give it a try and see what happens. I get a week off then go back for the other side to be done. Can't wait...at least the anaesthetic has worn off enough so I can drink without dribbling, and the bleeding seems to have abated somewhat. Ouch. Soup for dinner again :-(

~♥~

I Wonder...

Why do women insist on wearing really high heels that they can't walk in? No problem if you CAN walk in them, but most can't. Please stop it before you break something.

While we're on the subject of shoes -

Why can't people take the labels off their new shoes?

Why do girls INSIST on wearing Uggs or knock-offs of same when they're all squooshed down and knackered and it looks like they're walking around on two broken ankles? It SQUICKS ME OUT.

Why do people who are obviously not well insist on not only coming into the office, but travelling by train? Extra points to the guy sitting next to me earlier this week who blew his nose and I SWEAR some landed on my face. Ewwwwww. Also extra points to the girl with the really wet sniff last week. It's a miracle her sinuses didn't implode.

Why do some women think they look great when they're either a) sporting a Jaffa-coloured tan or b) wearing so much badly-matched make-up that if they turn round too quick their face ends up on the back of their head?

Why do people stop in the middle of pavements with no warning, or change direction at the drop of a hat, then look at you like you're evil when you fall over them and curse at them?

How do people on trains develop the skill of expanding once they sit down? One of these days someone is going to get a knitting needle in the backside.

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Wearing My Geek Hat

I love eBay. I scored something that I think is awesomely cool but most everyone else thinks I'm a geek. Bothered much? See:



Yes folks, that is an original British Rail coat. I'm guessing it was for platform staff, but I know nothing about it other than it appears to have never been worn. If anyone can tell me the era or which department it was issued to, I would be delighted.
Look at the buttons! Squee!



I was looking around the house today, and I realised I have some pretty oddly varied stuff, and I thought I'd ramble a bit about them, because I have no exciting knitting to show you. I have these:





which are brass plates off electric motors, manufactured by long-defunct companies. I just love them. Nowadays there would be a plastic printed label, or laser-etched or something equally dull. These are (I guess) cast, in brass, then have the relevant data stamped into them, probably by hand. I seem to have a thing for industrial heritage, particularly the little details. I have no desire for a Deltic cab in the garden, but a big electrical insulator? Would love one. I get all excited about things like those plates, old adverts (I have a great one from the CEGB in the 1960's) or anything with gauges on it. Maybe it was growing up in an industrial town (Stoke-on-Trent) that did it, with it's distinctive skyline of bottle kilns and pitheads, or maybe being the daughter of an engineer has had an effect. Don't get me wrong, I'm a country girl, but the sight of a piece of really fine Victorian engineering can turn me into a gibbering, squeeing mass. Don't get me started on the Forth Rail Bridge. I adore that thing.

I also seem to have a thing for old gardening books. I just can't resist when I see them in charity shops. I blame my Mum, who gave me some of my Granny's old books. I really can't explain this one, except they're often charming, with illustrations rather than lots of photos, and often written in a highly entertaining, rather dictatorial style. And of course, a lot of the information is still valid, though you do have to watch the taxonomy as that does change.



Of course, they also look nice on a shelf :-)

That's all for now, it's been a very quiet weekend other than some plumbing issues (I spent half of Saturday either on the floor or up a ladder, balancing a torch for the plumber so he could see what he was doing...) and watching the German Grand Prix, which I was pleased to see Mark Webber win. He seems a nice chap (though I wish he'd shut up about the cricket!) and also wins major cuteness points :-)

Oh and Granny has managed to land herself a hospital stay, after getting up early in the morning, when she's under strict instructions to stay in bed until my Uncle is up to help her, and falling over in the bedroom. Apparently no harm done, just some bumps and bruises and damaged pride. She is 94 so she really should know better, but you try telling her :-)

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A Small Political Rant

So, this week, we saw the re-nationalisation of the East Coast Main Line, after National Express came to their senses and ran away from the convoluted, tortuous and illogical mess that is our rail network.

About bloody time. Ever since the disastrous, money-grabbing fiasco of privatisation, the rail network, and it's passengers, have suffered a never-ending stream of accidents, delays, cancellations, crumbling infrastructure and soaring fares. Here's a nice little article from the Times on this very matter.

I live on the West Coast of Scotland, in a popular area, about 50 miles drive south of Glasgow. It costs me £10.65 for a return ticket, and takes about an hour to get to Glasgow Central. That is if the bloody train shows up, and when it does, it is an elderly, decrepit, badly-maintained piece of crap that should have been pensioned off years ago. The signalling fails between Paisley and Glasgow with such alarming regularity I don't know why they don't have a bunch of handsignallers on permanent standby. Oh, of course. Network Rail "can't afford" to employ people like that any more. On the approaches to Central, the trackside is in such a state you can begin to understand why there are so many failures. There are literally miles of cables left out of troughs and rubbish is strewn all down the cess and six-foot.

This would never have happened under British Rail. BR employed scores of people to work on the track, walking it every day to look for problems and carry out maintenance. Faulty points or cracked rails were picked up straight away by a guy walking down and looking. Easy. If he couldn't fix it, he phoned up and BR sent out a man that could. If you left cables out of the trough, someone would probably have fired you, and rightly so.

We now have a Byzantine situation where multiple Train Operating Companies are screwing the travelling public for every possible penny, whist simultaneously screwing Network Rail as soon as any tiny hiccup occurs which delays a service. The TOCs are also busily annoying each other, Network Rail are annoying the rail regulator and the TOCs, and the relationship with the Government is a total mystery. If it wasn't so brutally ironic, it would be comical. One ring to rule them all, anyone?

The network is so overcrowded that it's a miracle the trains don't run into each other more often (big credit to the poor signalmen, the unsung heroes) and if one train should break down, large chunks of the network grind to a halt. We desperately need new lines, new and longer trains, more freight-only lines, high-speed long-distance services and more frequent commuter services in many areas.

We'd also like the bloody things to turn up when they say they're going to, and not have to take out second mortgages or sell a kid for a season ticket. Rail should be a public service, not a profit-making activity. Safety, reliability and cost-effectiveness need to be put at the top of the agenda. That's why we need to renationalise it and bring back British Rail. Just get the sandwiches sorted out first, ok?

Here's a little treat for you BR buffs. Remember this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddtPI07hhA8

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