So I’ve decided not to drop the book reviews altogether. I have decided to make them as short as possible though, and taking inspiration from Harry Hill’s TV Burp I have decided to do each month’s books “in a nutshell” but single out one of them for the accolade of Book of the Month and write a bit more about that one.
Ready?
January's Books in a nutshell
Under the Dome – Stephen King
Good vs Evil. Massive cast list. Huge catastrophe. Standard King stuff (as he writes nowadays – honestly, things haven’t been like the old days of Christine and The Stand for quite some time). He has got to start writing less – this book was ridiculously large and I couldn’t carry it anywhere which meant that I didn’t get into it as much as I could have if it was actually portable.
The Dog Who Loved – Jon Katz
“Hello? Is that the Marley and Me bandwagon? Yes I’d like to jump onboard please.” Disjointed and just generally poor. And bizarrely not really about the dog mentioned on the front cover.
Before I die – Jenny Downham
16 year old girl with leukaemia. Has a list of things she wants to do before she dies. I dare you to read the last 20 pages without crying.
The Tenth Circle – Jodi Picoult
14 year old girl gets raped. Or did she? Boy who commits the rape is killed by her. Or is he? Parents in rubbish marriage. Girl runs away to Alaska. Is found. Everything all solved in the end rather predictably. Not her best.
Book of the Month
The One from The Other - Philip Kerr
Surprise one this one. Out of all the books that I read, crime is a genre I don’t usually dabble in. I have no idea why, it just never appeals. This book came free with the Waterstones Quarterly magazine a while back though and I’m not one to turn my nose up at a free book.
This is one from a series of books about a man called Bernie Gunther, a man living during Second World War Germany. Normally I absolutely hate trying to read a book halfway through a series, I’m the kind of person that can’t watch a film if I’ve missed the first 10 minutes, but I found it didn’t matter in this case. I’m sure you would have a certain depth of feeling about Bernie as a character if you’d read the others but everything ‘made sense’ and I didn’t feel I was missing some key piece of information.
It’s 1949 and Bernie has set up his own Private Investigation firm and gets a request from a lady who wants to find out if her husband is dead – this sets off a trail of events that involves secret gangs and the murky depths of post-war Germany and Austria. It was absolutely riveting, I couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed it.
The level of detail is astounding, but I don’t mean unnecessary oh-my-god-I-don’t-need-to-know-what-he-had-for-breakfast detail, I mean street names and the like. He must know Munich like the back of his hand, and even though I obviously don’t know Munich, knowing that he got off the tram at such-and-such a stop and walked up a certain street just made me feel that bit more absorbed in the world.
And somewhat coincidentally I was listening to the Open Book podcast from Radio 4 (I’m woefully behind, this was from September or something ridiculous like that) and Philip Kerr was on it, talking about the latest Bernie Gunther novel he has written, Field Grey. The One from the Other is book number 4 in a total of 7 (number 8 has a planned publication date in October of this year) and was written a rather stonking 15 years after the third novel was written.
I have no idea why I’m telling you this.
So yes. There you go. Well done Philip Kerr. Your Bernie Gunther novels are now officially on my list of Books I Want (which stretches for some thousand miles).
----------------------------
Ta-da! And that is the new look Monthly Book Review. Any thoughts?
(Such as that it doesn’t really seem different due to my inability to talk concisely?)
Monday, 31 January 2011
Friday, 28 January 2011
Crazy Cat Lady Part 7: Maggie and Maud update
Oh my goodness it’s been so long since I did a Maggie and Maud update. How is this possible? You must have been crying out, desperate to hear word of them and I have ignored your calls. You must forgive me.
Maggie
I know I keep saying this but she does really love me. No she really really does. At Christmas, there were a few days where it was just me in the house and she became my best friend. She followed me about everywhere – by which I mean she would lie down and sleep near to where I was sitting and then get up and yell at me if I dared to move into the kitchen.
However she still persists in pretending she doesn’t like me when anyone else is around. It is getting better and if she’s feeling in the mood will get down from the settee where she’s been sleeping on her behind all day and shamble over to see me when I get in from work, yowling the whole way over so I appreciate the attention that she’s paying to me.
She had a rough old time of it over Christmas though. The snow and generally cold weather meant that Maud stayed in a lot more than she normally does and unfortunately seemed to get a slight case of cabin fever which she took out on Maggie by generally irritating her any way she could, including jumping on her out of the blue when Maggie was minding her own business. Maggie is a true “bark is worse than bite” type of cat – the noises and hissing she makes are absolutely dreadful but she has never once scratched me. Maud will jump on her and Maggie will make all the noises, but she just seems incapable of actually fighting back.
One of my favourite pictures of Christmas is this one that I took of them both on my bed one morning. Maggie appears to have erected a Maud barrier to get some peace and quiet.
Maud
Apart from spending large amounts of time irritating Maggie – her favourite game is to lie down and stretch out so that her paw is as close as it’s possible to get, without actually touching Maggie. It drives Maggie round the bend and Maud can sit there innocently and say “What?! I’m not even touching you!” – Maud has been her usual happy go lucky self.
She did not really enjoy the snow, she would ask to go out and then get upset with the white stuff and return indoors to bug Maggie some more. She did venture outside however when I went out to build Mr Creepy the snowman and once it began to melt and she wasn’t sinking in up to her stomach she went outdoors a bit more.
The biggest news however is that Maud appears to have a boyfriend.
On 3rd January Dorothy and I discovered a new visitor of the feline kind sat on the wall outside the kitchen peering in. Initially mistaken for Lady Celestine of Shedley it appears that this guy is in fact, well, a guy, and has been christened Baghera. He has been sighted a few times since but last Saturday I spotted some illicit nose-kissing going on between them.
I did point out to him that it’s kind of rude to go about snogging little girl cats when you haven’t even properly introduced yourself to the humans who live in her house but he didn’t say much, he’s kind of a cool customer. He doesn’t run away from you but he won’t really come near you either. I sat on the kitchen step for a ridiculous amount of time and he eventually deigned to sniff my hand, but rejected my attempt to actually stroke him. Rude.
------------------------------------
Here ends the Maggie and Maud update.
Maggie
I know I keep saying this but she does really love me. No she really really does. At Christmas, there were a few days where it was just me in the house and she became my best friend. She followed me about everywhere – by which I mean she would lie down and sleep near to where I was sitting and then get up and yell at me if I dared to move into the kitchen.
However she still persists in pretending she doesn’t like me when anyone else is around. It is getting better and if she’s feeling in the mood will get down from the settee where she’s been sleeping on her behind all day and shamble over to see me when I get in from work, yowling the whole way over so I appreciate the attention that she’s paying to me.
She had a rough old time of it over Christmas though. The snow and generally cold weather meant that Maud stayed in a lot more than she normally does and unfortunately seemed to get a slight case of cabin fever which she took out on Maggie by generally irritating her any way she could, including jumping on her out of the blue when Maggie was minding her own business. Maggie is a true “bark is worse than bite” type of cat – the noises and hissing she makes are absolutely dreadful but she has never once scratched me. Maud will jump on her and Maggie will make all the noises, but she just seems incapable of actually fighting back.
One of my favourite pictures of Christmas is this one that I took of them both on my bed one morning. Maggie appears to have erected a Maud barrier to get some peace and quiet.
Maud
Apart from spending large amounts of time irritating Maggie – her favourite game is to lie down and stretch out so that her paw is as close as it’s possible to get, without actually touching Maggie. It drives Maggie round the bend and Maud can sit there innocently and say “What?! I’m not even touching you!” – Maud has been her usual happy go lucky self.
She did not really enjoy the snow, she would ask to go out and then get upset with the white stuff and return indoors to bug Maggie some more. She did venture outside however when I went out to build Mr Creepy the snowman and once it began to melt and she wasn’t sinking in up to her stomach she went outdoors a bit more.
The biggest news however is that Maud appears to have a boyfriend.
On 3rd January Dorothy and I discovered a new visitor of the feline kind sat on the wall outside the kitchen peering in. Initially mistaken for Lady Celestine of Shedley it appears that this guy is in fact, well, a guy, and has been christened Baghera. He has been sighted a few times since but last Saturday I spotted some illicit nose-kissing going on between them.
I did point out to him that it’s kind of rude to go about snogging little girl cats when you haven’t even properly introduced yourself to the humans who live in her house but he didn’t say much, he’s kind of a cool customer. He doesn’t run away from you but he won’t really come near you either. I sat on the kitchen step for a ridiculous amount of time and he eventually deigned to sniff my hand, but rejected my attempt to actually stroke him. Rude.
------------------------------------
Here ends the Maggie and Maud update.
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
I'm not superstitious but...
Today I should be a very happy bunny because yesterday I should have reached my goal weight at Weightwatchers. Instead of losing the measly 0.5lb I had left to go, I ended up somehow putting 0.5lb on. I am unhappy about this situation. It's annoying for many reasons, mostly because it's just so arbitrary. It's only a freaking pound that's left, that pound is not going to make me change body shape or drop a dress size, it just happens to be the number that I need to lose to hit the magic figure that I made up when I joined Weightwatchers. I don't have to lose this pound. I could just leave Weightwatchers and that would be that and life would carry on, but I just can't do it. I have to succeed and that means losing one more pound. It's ridiculous but true.
Being so sure that I would hit my goal weight yesterday has meant that I've now become incredibly paranoid about why I didn't hit it and I've started to think that I jinxed myself by doing certain things like,
See? Tempting fate.
Or.
I could have put on 0.5lb because I just ate too much last week.
We'll never know.
But just in case there is such a thing as fate and just in case it has just bitchslapped me in the face for getting ideas above my station I'm going to post what I was planning to write when I'd reached goal, therefore cancelling out any bad vibes.
So what follows is some stuff that I've written down over the past 9 months - just some observations that I have made since I started losing weight. They're absolutely not dieting tips, different things work for different people and I wouldn't presume to tell you the "right" way to go about dieting, these are merely unexpected things that have happened to me along the way.
1. You go through stages where you suddenly appear a lot slimmer. You may lose a steady 1/2lbs each week but there is a sudden KABLAMMO moment where you look like you’ve lost a stone overnight. You’ll know when these stages are because these are the times that everyone notices you’re losing weight and gives you compliments. It’s also the time when your jeans go from fitting you to falling down with apparently no in-between stage.
2. You can lose weight from your fingers and your feet. Crazy but true. I can now fit into a size 7 in some shops when I never could before. Some shoes have had to be binned because they fall off, even with inserts put in them and the ring that my Mum bought me now fits, I’d been in denial that the reason it didn’t fit was because my fingers were too fat.
3. And speaking of denial...you don’t realise it but you’re in it. Once you lose weight you can look back at yourself and shake your head in disbelief and go “What were you thinking?” How could you possibly kid yourself that what you were eating is ok and not too fattening?! How could you look at photos of yourself and not see it? Or dismiss it as a bad photo of you? Simple answer is it’s easier to be in denial and I have seen just how easy it is to delude yourself – a trap I’m determined not to fall into again (unless I decide that the reason I've put weight on is not because I ate too much but because I tempted fate. See? Told you it was easy to fall into.)
4. You, as a person, become all about the weight. When you’re fat no-one mentions your body shape or size (making it easier to be in denial by the way), once you start losing weight it all becomes about that. You know that people are looking at your body and in a strange way you actually become a little more self-conscious than you ever were when you were overweight.
5. The expense. Holy moly is it expensive. New everything. New jeans, new trousers, new skirts, new tops, new belts, new bras, new knickers (yes really, some of mine were in danger of falling around my ankles). You might have an income to support shopping in Monsoon or you might be frequenting charity shops but either way, losing weight costs money. It’s been horrible not being able to afford nice things – you’ve lost all this weight and you want to look good, not be walking down the road with one hand holding your trousers up. I should have been like one woman in my WW meeting whose husband gave her £10 for every 1lb she lost. (I know. Where do they grow husbands like that?!)
6. I have a strange fear of bones. I don’t particularly like touching them, it makes me squirm somewhat. Tell me a story about you breaking your collarbone and you’ll see me start to squint and shy away. So the reappearance of my collar bones has had a strange impact on me. It’s great to see them and go “Hell yes I’ve lost weight” but at the same time the sight of them makes me feel a little queasy. Same with my pelvis, we do an exercise in Pump that means your hands touch your pelvic bone and it really makes me want to vomit. (Please note, this makes me sound like I’m a walking skeleton, I’m really not, they’re just noticeable to me because of my slight issue with them.) My knees freaked me out the other day when I accidentally rested my hand on them – where’s all the squishiness gone? Bleurgh.
7. I now have absolutely no idea of what suits me. My whole body shape has changed and I've been left feeling a little bit bewildered. It's difficult to know if you didn't get away with certain things because you were fat or because you just don't suit them. I have overcome my fear of leggings, that was definitely a fat thing, and I'm slowly overcoming my huge fear of dresses now that I've discovered that my legs are nowhere near as bad as I thought they were, they were just too big. But it's quite scary I have no idea what my 'style' is or what I should be wearing or how I should be wearing it, if ever there was a girl in need of Gok Wan it's me.
So stuff you fate! I've posted it. Ha! In. your. face.
Being so sure that I would hit my goal weight yesterday has meant that I've now become incredibly paranoid about why I didn't hit it and I've started to think that I jinxed myself by doing certain things like,
1) Writing out a blog post in preparation for me reaching goal
2) Not taking a photo all day for Project 365, so certain was I that the photo for yesterday would feature something about me reaching goal weight.
3) Planning to maybe, possibly take an after picture to go with a before picture that I found.
See? Tempting fate.
Or.
I could have put on 0.5lb because I just ate too much last week.
We'll never know.
But just in case there is such a thing as fate and just in case it has just bitchslapped me in the face for getting ideas above my station I'm going to post what I was planning to write when I'd reached goal, therefore cancelling out any bad vibes.
So what follows is some stuff that I've written down over the past 9 months - just some observations that I have made since I started losing weight. They're absolutely not dieting tips, different things work for different people and I wouldn't presume to tell you the "right" way to go about dieting, these are merely unexpected things that have happened to me along the way.
1. You go through stages where you suddenly appear a lot slimmer. You may lose a steady 1/2lbs each week but there is a sudden KABLAMMO moment where you look like you’ve lost a stone overnight. You’ll know when these stages are because these are the times that everyone notices you’re losing weight and gives you compliments. It’s also the time when your jeans go from fitting you to falling down with apparently no in-between stage.
2. You can lose weight from your fingers and your feet. Crazy but true. I can now fit into a size 7 in some shops when I never could before. Some shoes have had to be binned because they fall off, even with inserts put in them and the ring that my Mum bought me now fits, I’d been in denial that the reason it didn’t fit was because my fingers were too fat.
3. And speaking of denial...you don’t realise it but you’re in it. Once you lose weight you can look back at yourself and shake your head in disbelief and go “What were you thinking?” How could you possibly kid yourself that what you were eating is ok and not too fattening?! How could you look at photos of yourself and not see it? Or dismiss it as a bad photo of you? Simple answer is it’s easier to be in denial and I have seen just how easy it is to delude yourself – a trap I’m determined not to fall into again (unless I decide that the reason I've put weight on is not because I ate too much but because I tempted fate. See? Told you it was easy to fall into.)
4. You, as a person, become all about the weight. When you’re fat no-one mentions your body shape or size (making it easier to be in denial by the way), once you start losing weight it all becomes about that. You know that people are looking at your body and in a strange way you actually become a little more self-conscious than you ever were when you were overweight.
5. The expense. Holy moly is it expensive. New everything. New jeans, new trousers, new skirts, new tops, new belts, new bras, new knickers (yes really, some of mine were in danger of falling around my ankles). You might have an income to support shopping in Monsoon or you might be frequenting charity shops but either way, losing weight costs money. It’s been horrible not being able to afford nice things – you’ve lost all this weight and you want to look good, not be walking down the road with one hand holding your trousers up. I should have been like one woman in my WW meeting whose husband gave her £10 for every 1lb she lost. (I know. Where do they grow husbands like that?!)
6. I have a strange fear of bones. I don’t particularly like touching them, it makes me squirm somewhat. Tell me a story about you breaking your collarbone and you’ll see me start to squint and shy away. So the reappearance of my collar bones has had a strange impact on me. It’s great to see them and go “Hell yes I’ve lost weight” but at the same time the sight of them makes me feel a little queasy. Same with my pelvis, we do an exercise in Pump that means your hands touch your pelvic bone and it really makes me want to vomit. (Please note, this makes me sound like I’m a walking skeleton, I’m really not, they’re just noticeable to me because of my slight issue with them.) My knees freaked me out the other day when I accidentally rested my hand on them – where’s all the squishiness gone? Bleurgh.
7. I now have absolutely no idea of what suits me. My whole body shape has changed and I've been left feeling a little bit bewildered. It's difficult to know if you didn't get away with certain things because you were fat or because you just don't suit them. I have overcome my fear of leggings, that was definitely a fat thing, and I'm slowly overcoming my huge fear of dresses now that I've discovered that my legs are nowhere near as bad as I thought they were, they were just too big. But it's quite scary I have no idea what my 'style' is or what I should be wearing or how I should be wearing it, if ever there was a girl in need of Gok Wan it's me.
So stuff you fate! I've posted it. Ha! In. your. face.
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Toady toad
I've been having trouble lately with my blogging, I just don't seem inspired to write about anything. I hate to blame January and the post-Christmas blues but I don't know what else could have sucked all the joy out of stuff at the moment. Is this something that anyone else is finding? My Google Reader suggests otherwise, as blog after blog after blog churns out posts whilst I stay relatively quiet.
I know that I really need to come up with a more inspiring name for him than Toady Toad, but I just can't think of one for the life of me. I like that he has an affectionate kind of nickname. To be honest I feel kind of affectionate towards him. When I was hunting toads down during the Larkin' with Toads project in Hull I felt overwhelming urges to throw myself on them and hug them. I have no idea why, I put a lot of energy into not answering that question.
I don't quite want to throw my arms around Toady Toad, he's too small and I'd most likely break him in some way. But I do quite like to pat him on the head and sigh and say "Oh Toady Toad I love you."
(I'm revealing too much aren't I?)
I try and make it worth my while when it comes to blogging. I feel that I, and you as a reader, deserve a little more than a hastily put together post that's not really about anything. Apart from anything those kinds of posts make it difficult for people to comment on and comments are the bloggy-air that I breathe to keep me going.
However just lately I don't seem able to muster up the energy (and more importantly find the time) to sit down and properly think and compose a post. So instead, I'm afraid you're going to have to put up with another "Are you really blogging about this?!" post. You're just going to have to bear with me I'm afraid.
So this weekend saw me complete one of my Not Really Resolutions for this year as I wielded my paintbrush and acrylic paints and got Toady Toad finished. This was satisfying for many reasons;
1) Who doesn't like ticking things off lists?!
2) This has been hanging around for too long
3) It kept me busy on an otherwise quiet Sunday. I do not like being unproductive and days with nothing planned drive me a little mental.
Oh beautiful toad, don't be mad that the mosaic maker cut your nose off
I know that I really need to come up with a more inspiring name for him than Toady Toad, but I just can't think of one for the life of me. I like that he has an affectionate kind of nickname. To be honest I feel kind of affectionate towards him. When I was hunting toads down during the Larkin' with Toads project in Hull I felt overwhelming urges to throw myself on them and hug them. I have no idea why, I put a lot of energy into not answering that question.
I don't quite want to throw my arms around Toady Toad, he's too small and I'd most likely break him in some way. But I do quite like to pat him on the head and sigh and say "Oh Toady Toad I love you."
(I'm revealing too much aren't I?)
In the beginning...
I am pleased he's finished though, not only has he made me feel a little invigorated at the prospect of actually crossing something off my list, it's encouraged me to get on with the other things that are on there. I really am trying to complete these resolutions, not just fanny about and say I'm going to do it (although please please please don't hold me to that reading 12 classics in a year thing ok?!). Plus it seriously has kept the boredom at bay, I've found myself this January with a couple of weekends with nothing planned at all, whilst I know that I should rejoice in that and most people would relish the idea, for me it fills me with a little dread. One of my greatest fears in life is that I'm wasting time.
Without wishing to sound like a total twat, time on earth is limited and I would hate to get to the end of my days and be faced with an endless parade of time spent not doing anything, wasting my life away just sat in front of the tv or in bed. If I'm doing either of those things I'll be doing something productive as well, whether it's reading or cross-stitching or crocheting - they're not big things but I absolutely cannot be idle, it drives me round the bend.
You see this is what happens when I blog without purpose. They end up strange and rambly and appear to be about plastic toads but are actually about the meaning of life.
Anyway.
Thanks Mr Toad.
...And now all finished.
Friday, 21 January 2011
Alternative Therapy
So there I’ve been for the past couple of weeks, feeling sorry for myself and counting down the hours and minutes until payday, when I realised that really I needed to stop. I had food. I had a roof over my head. Enough with the misery.
And then I remembered that the last time I was feeling a little consumed with myself and my own problems I diverted my attention to a slightly more worthy cause than my own pity party.
And so I turned back to SIBOL and decided to do something useful with my time seeing as I wasn’t going to be spending any money having fun. There’s loads of yarn hanging about the place from all the blankets that have been made, even The Beast didn’t use all that up so this was going to be no cost and would make me feel happier with myself.
If you weren’t in the know, SIBOL is run by the rather incredible Mrs Twins who decided that she would like to make some blankets to give to elderly people in care homes. People from all over the world have joined her and she has a steady stream of crocheted and knitted squares flowing through her letterbox which she then joins together to make the blankets.
Sometimes I wish I could be selfless like that instead of the whingey mess I’ve been lately. Bad girl.
Although she accepts any kind of square in any colours there are also challenges people can take part in which ask for specific squares to make into themed blankets.
A quick scan provided me with the perfect option. 2-tone granny squares in green. Whilst I would love to take part in some of the other challenges I am aware that my crochet skills are still firmly in the remedial section of the class, crocheting actual pictures or flowers or anything like that are not within my grasp just yet.
And so I spent a bangin’ Saturday night sat on the sofa, crocheting my little brain out. And then I thought that really I should stop saying I’m rubbish at crocheting and try something a little different so I whipped out the Jan Eaton book and had a go at one of her patterns. But then it turns out that actually that wouldn't work as part of the challenge, which was just your bog standard type of granny squares. Hey. At least I tried. Pat on the head for me.
Once pay day is upon us, I will scurry down to the Post Office (yes seriously, I can’t afford postage. Tragic.) and send my little offerings.
And so once again SIBOL and Mrs Twins have come to my rescue and allowed me to put my feelings of pathetic losership on hold for a while and actually contribute to something worthwhile. I’m hoping she’s not going to start charging for the therapy she’s providing me with.
And then I remembered that the last time I was feeling a little consumed with myself and my own problems I diverted my attention to a slightly more worthy cause than my own pity party.
And so I turned back to SIBOL and decided to do something useful with my time seeing as I wasn’t going to be spending any money having fun. There’s loads of yarn hanging about the place from all the blankets that have been made, even The Beast didn’t use all that up so this was going to be no cost and would make me feel happier with myself.
If you weren’t in the know, SIBOL is run by the rather incredible Mrs Twins who decided that she would like to make some blankets to give to elderly people in care homes. People from all over the world have joined her and she has a steady stream of crocheted and knitted squares flowing through her letterbox which she then joins together to make the blankets.
Sometimes I wish I could be selfless like that instead of the whingey mess I’ve been lately. Bad girl.
Although she accepts any kind of square in any colours there are also challenges people can take part in which ask for specific squares to make into themed blankets.
A quick scan provided me with the perfect option. 2-tone granny squares in green. Whilst I would love to take part in some of the other challenges I am aware that my crochet skills are still firmly in the remedial section of the class, crocheting actual pictures or flowers or anything like that are not within my grasp just yet.
And so I spent a bangin’ Saturday night sat on the sofa, crocheting my little brain out. And then I thought that really I should stop saying I’m rubbish at crocheting and try something a little different so I whipped out the Jan Eaton book and had a go at one of her patterns. But then it turns out that actually that wouldn't work as part of the challenge, which was just your bog standard type of granny squares. Hey. At least I tried. Pat on the head for me.
Once pay day is upon us, I will scurry down to the Post Office (yes seriously, I can’t afford postage. Tragic.) and send my little offerings.
And so once again SIBOL and Mrs Twins have come to my rescue and allowed me to put my feelings of pathetic losership on hold for a while and actually contribute to something worthwhile. I’m hoping she’s not going to start charging for the therapy she’s providing me with.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
A public apology to The Beast
The Beast got a little bit upset with me the other day.
I asked him what was wrong and through his snuffles and snotting he said that he felt neglected.
He said that when I’d made crocheted blankets in the past I took lots of photos and wrote a post all about them, liberally sprinkled with pictures. But when he was finished all I did was take a rubbish photo of him bundled up on my desk at work.
A bit like this...
I pointed out to him that I did say that I loved him a lot and that he had helped me get over my fear of colour but there was no appeasing him.
“Would it help if we did a photoshoot?” I asked
The gleam in The Beast’s eye told me that would suffice.
So I would like to present, for The Beast’s pleasure, a collage of his best bits...
[cue montage music]
The Beast would also like me to tell you about the old lady who stopped me on the street before Christmas to ask me if I had knitted The Beast myself and then proceeded to tell me all about how she was learning to crochet and that her daughter knits and that it’s very relaxing isn’t it and what sort of things did I crochet and where did I get my wool and what else did I think I was going to make etc etc
The Beast. Loved by me and Random Old Ladies alike.
Anyone else talk about their crocheted/knitted articles as if they're real people? No? Just me?
I asked him what was wrong and through his snuffles and snotting he said that he felt neglected.
He said that when I’d made crocheted blankets in the past I took lots of photos and wrote a post all about them, liberally sprinkled with pictures. But when he was finished all I did was take a rubbish photo of him bundled up on my desk at work.
A bit like this...
I pointed out to him that I did say that I loved him a lot and that he had helped me get over my fear of colour but there was no appeasing him.
“Would it help if we did a photoshoot?” I asked
The gleam in The Beast’s eye told me that would suffice.
So I would like to present, for The Beast’s pleasure, a collage of his best bits...
[cue montage music]
The Beast would also like me to tell you about the old lady who stopped me on the street before Christmas to ask me if I had knitted The Beast myself and then proceeded to tell me all about how she was learning to crochet and that her daughter knits and that it’s very relaxing isn’t it and what sort of things did I crochet and where did I get my wool and what else did I think I was going to make etc etc
The Beast. Loved by me and Random Old Ladies alike.
Anyone else talk about their crocheted/knitted articles as if they're real people? No? Just me?
Monday, 17 January 2011
Not Really Resolutions Update
So I thought that I would do an update every so often on the ol’ resolutions front, keep me on the straight and narrow and make sure that I’m sticking to them.
As you can imagine, not a great deal has been done so far as we’re only in January but I’m starting to make progress on a few, I am tracking my progress as I go - up there in the right hand corner there's a page, click on it. GO!
1. Run 5km race – I am now back at the gym and slowly getting back the fitness that I lost over the Christmas break, it’s ridiculous how quickly it disappears from you, I only missed 3 weeks for God’s sake. Two other friends have signed up to run this with me and I am signed up to the Race for Life website so I will know when the race in Hull is. One of these friends rather helpfully is seeing a guy who is a fitness instructor and he’s going to give us a little plan and take us out running once the weather (and our general fitness) improves.
2. Crochet a ripple blanket – Until funds improve I’m thinking this isn’t going to happen but I think I might ask for yarn for my birthday and get some stash in that way.
3. Back up photos on to CD – thank you to all of you who suggested an external hard drive but I’m sure you’ll realise that having explained my financial situation this isn’t really an option for me, I don’t have the spare £40 needed unfortunately. But I do have a stack of CDs and although it’s taking a while I’m slowly but surely making headway on this one.
4. Paint my frog – I've made a start! I spent Sunday late morning and afternoon with newspaper spread over the table, my acrylic paints beside me, and, paintbrush in hand, made a start on Project Toad. And here's how he's looking so far;
5. Go to the cinema on my own – Not yet!
6. Project 365 – I have stuck to this one so far but it’s every bit as hard as I was warned it would be, which is slightly worrying, considering that we haven’t reached the month’s end yet. But it is still fun for the most part. The problem is finding something new to photograph when you do the same thing for 5 days of the week! I’m begging for the seasons to change because then there’ll be a whole lot more action. My photostream, can be found here if you wanted to have a look (and just why wouldn't you?!)
7. Make album/scrapbook of France 2010 holiday – This is a funds issue as well – need to get the photos printed out, hopefully will have some spare cash in February/March to do this.
8. Travel to Belfast to see family – Have looked at prices for flights (that’s a whole blog post in itself, believe me). They’re not crazily expensive but it’s obviously something for much later in the year.
9. Read 12 Classics – Number 1 has been started, Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. Talk about throwing yourself in at the deep end. I thought when I decided to do this that one a month was pretty doable but I think I’m going to need the names of some thin classics! 647 pages was a stupid thing to start with
10. Cross stitch one Christmas card each month - Done and done! Woo hoo! January’s card has been completed and I feel very proud of myself. It’s given me the chance to delve into my file of ripped out pages from Cross Stitch magazines and do some designs I haven’t done because they’re too time consuming. Very pleased. And the bonus? Finishing it meant that I could take a picture of it for Project 365 - I love it when you can kill two birds with one stone. Although not literally. That's just horrible. Anyway, you can see it here.
As you can imagine, not a great deal has been done so far as we’re only in January but I’m starting to make progress on a few, I am tracking my progress as I go - up there in the right hand corner there's a page, click on it. GO!
1. Run 5km race – I am now back at the gym and slowly getting back the fitness that I lost over the Christmas break, it’s ridiculous how quickly it disappears from you, I only missed 3 weeks for God’s sake. Two other friends have signed up to run this with me and I am signed up to the Race for Life website so I will know when the race in Hull is. One of these friends rather helpfully is seeing a guy who is a fitness instructor and he’s going to give us a little plan and take us out running once the weather (and our general fitness) improves.
2. Crochet a ripple blanket – Until funds improve I’m thinking this isn’t going to happen but I think I might ask for yarn for my birthday and get some stash in that way.
3. Back up photos on to CD – thank you to all of you who suggested an external hard drive but I’m sure you’ll realise that having explained my financial situation this isn’t really an option for me, I don’t have the spare £40 needed unfortunately. But I do have a stack of CDs and although it’s taking a while I’m slowly but surely making headway on this one.
4. Paint my frog – I've made a start! I spent Sunday late morning and afternoon with newspaper spread over the table, my acrylic paints beside me, and, paintbrush in hand, made a start on Project Toad. And here's how he's looking so far;
5. Go to the cinema on my own – Not yet!
6. Project 365 – I have stuck to this one so far but it’s every bit as hard as I was warned it would be, which is slightly worrying, considering that we haven’t reached the month’s end yet. But it is still fun for the most part. The problem is finding something new to photograph when you do the same thing for 5 days of the week! I’m begging for the seasons to change because then there’ll be a whole lot more action. My photostream, can be found here if you wanted to have a look (and just why wouldn't you?!)
7. Make album/scrapbook of France 2010 holiday – This is a funds issue as well – need to get the photos printed out, hopefully will have some spare cash in February/March to do this.
8. Travel to Belfast to see family – Have looked at prices for flights (that’s a whole blog post in itself, believe me). They’re not crazily expensive but it’s obviously something for much later in the year.
9. Read 12 Classics – Number 1 has been started, Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. Talk about throwing yourself in at the deep end. I thought when I decided to do this that one a month was pretty doable but I think I’m going to need the names of some thin classics! 647 pages was a stupid thing to start with
10. Cross stitch one Christmas card each month - Done and done! Woo hoo! January’s card has been completed and I feel very proud of myself. It’s given me the chance to delve into my file of ripped out pages from Cross Stitch magazines and do some designs I haven’t done because they’re too time consuming. Very pleased. And the bonus? Finishing it meant that I could take a picture of it for Project 365 - I love it when you can kill two birds with one stone. Although not literally. That's just horrible. Anyway, you can see it here.
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