why Brent Cross stresses me out

I went to Brent Cross before Shabbat to get a charger for my new phone. For updates on my attempt to read the 211 page user guide for my phone please see Facebook-I need all the support I can get.

Anyway. On Friday the new Apple Pad thingy came out and the centre was full with a figure 8 shaped queue from one end to the other all waiting to buy one. Why? Did those hundreds of people have a big Apple pad whats-it-called gap in their lives? Could it not wait? How many of them could actually afford it?

It took 40 minutes to get served in the O2 shop and the guy actually attempted to make me pay for the phone charger-it did not happen.

In Waitrose a women in her 30's and her mother were arguing about who and when a chicken was to be cooked. The check out woman waited, they were unable to argue and take their groceries out of the trolley at the same time. It was a tad bizarre. I told them I only wanted to buy one thing and went ahead. For a moment the argument was forgotten as they united in their horror at my audacity. I paid and as I left they were still arguing and not unloading their shopping.

I really do not understand how anyone can enjoy shopping that does not take place in a yarn or charity shop.

Good and really really bad

Above is an update on my fair isle commission. When I began knitting this a small quiet sensible and truthful voice said swatch the fair isle. Did I listen? Fair isle knits to a tight tension compared to stocking stitch. When I measured I was way way out. I can blame no one but myself. Even the husband expressed sympathy. Before I could begin the unpicking (including the carefully sewn in ends) I coped by stomping the approximately 3 miles to my friend Mandy for tea and sympathy. She was fabulous and she is not a knitter.

Still life is not all bad above is also the fabulous vase I got for £8 in Howarth. Charity shops outside of London are indeed treasure troves.

Skip North 2010

what complete and utter fun is this annual jaunt to Yorkshire and how simply wonderful are the women there. It is really weird-some of them now really do feel like really good long term friends yet we see each other once a year-this year something must be done about this.

How do I give the sense of how good this weekend makes me feel.

The put put train into Leeds only went as far as Skipton then we had to go on a replacement bus. The late afternoon sun gave a softening light, the driver had a slightly out of tune radio and Radio Two was playing Neil Young's Heart of Gold and everything, yes everything was good in my world.

trauma

This is my latest commission. Fair Isle is oh so slow. I feel like I have been knitting forever only to realise I have done two rows.

Still let us be positive. We went to Norfolk Broads yesterday. An aside: People a bog is a bog not a Fen, a lake is a lake and a lake surrounded by bogs is still a lake not a Broad. Weird country.

Anyway I did not feel I could do this knitting in the car and after doing this Clive's 4ply grey V neck jumper was easy, fun and satisfying.

I try

The indestructible daisy plant has it's first daisy.
The plum tree has buds
The glass balls from Akko glisten in the sun in the morning.
I just posted this blog on the web site for students of my City and Guilds Knitting Course instead of here. I really stun myself with my stupidity at times. So if Friends can be repeated and repeated and repeated I can re blog here.

People Spring has sprung!

How does the 51 year old Jewish mother celebrate this.

1. This morning on my breakfast tray could be found my lovely pink teapot Jane bought me even though it is usually saved for Shabbat. On the tray could also be found my latest charity shop find a pink milk jug.

2. Windows (note the plural) are open

3. I jogged on the spot for 30 minutes with the Wii-my glasses steamed up and I felt totally athletic-I have low standards

4. I dusted down these pieces of plastic and metal remembered they are called clothes pegs and actually hung washing on the line for the first time since last September

5. I have naked sock free feet

Weight

Dearest readers I am fat. Yep rolls of it. God it feels liberating to write the word fat. But I am on medication for high blood pressure and know it is not good. So I go on my Wii for half an hour 5 days a week and I make sure I also walk or do a second half hour exercise session for half an hour as well.

We do not buy junk food and are careful what we eat.

Sadly the medication lists on the wordy sheet that comes in the packet in remarkably small letters that weight gain is a side effect.

None the less when I got on the scales this morning and I was 2 pounds heavier that yesterday I felt terrible and suddenly wanted hot chocolate and a monster sized danish. Hell I don't even like hot chocolate. Readers I was not in a good place.

Then I thought I am not perfect-I am trying, I ran after a UPS delivery truck and caught up with him AND was not gasping for breath. I am not perfect. No one is but danish pastries and hot chocolate will not help and if I feel like crying I will. I didn't cry.I got loads done. Right now life is good even if I am fat.

I am still a mother

It would be completely fair to say that if my son rang 2 days in a row I would know that something was seriously wrong. If my daughter did not ring 2 days in a row I would know something was seriously wrong.

Well I am still mobile phone less. I do reccomend a mobile holiday, it really has unforeseen advantages. I find myself with more time and the space to simply do what I am doing.

Like visiting the wonderfully weird Wicken Fen National Trust Nature Reserve in Cambridgeshire. A strange and haunting wet flat windy landscape loved by Darwin and the home to plant and animal species found nowhere else in this overcrowded land of ours. The husband had been before when I was away and had loved it. I really wanted to go inspired by a wonderful series of plays on Radio 4. As I wrote that I felt hideously middle aged and middle class but any way ....

We had a wonderful peaceful walk, driving home all was well in the world. Clive's phone rang, it was our daughter in Israel worried that we were not answering the phone and that something terrible might have happened to us.

As I say I may base my recreational choices on Radio 4 and feel choosing the teapot to use at breakfast is an important decision but I am still needed to mother across the seas on a daily basis.