KnittingSister

I Can't Believe I Forgot to Blog for Over a Year!

2007-02-25T11:23:00.000Z

What an oversight - I knew there was something I was forgetting to do. But after I sold off several hundred bags of wool on eBay, I was afraid I was getting carried away and didn't want to accidentally sell everything I own. So I rejoined the world of going out to work and temped for a few weeks until I found a job I was happy with, and I've been working at a world famous hospital since last June. World famous though it may be, if you didn't know what you were wandering into, you'd probably think it was a rather shabby factory, with a lovely duck pond in the middle, home to a couple of very bossy black swans ruling the roost. That male swan is clearly just itching for an ASBO (anti-social behaviour order), he's such a bully, and just won't stop chasing around the gorgeous little black and white tufted ducks.

But now I've decided that after 15 years in southern England, the time has come to move back to Maritime Canada. I've set the end of July as my target departure date and just have to organise a few things like getting rid of everything that I don't feel like paying shipping costs for and then packing up my remaining worldly possessions and sending them off on their voyage to the Colonies. I thought I was giving myself lots of time by setting a time several months in the future, but now that people realise I'm leaving town, suddenly my social calendar, long renowned for its empty pages, is filling up like - well, I was going to say a brothel on payday, but I don't want to give the wrong impression. Suffice it to say that either people are suddenly realising that they're going to miss me, or else they're angling for an invitation to New Brunswick.

Anyway, I'll try to be a good girl and keep this up to date, so thanks for dropping by and if I can figure out how to post pictures, I'll treat you to the sight of me tearing my hair out while trying to get myself ready to move.

Love,
Nance

Oh Canada!

2006-02-12T09:41:00.000Z

I was thrilled last evening to see that Canada had won a gold medal at the Olympics already (and I think it may possibly have been the first one of the Games?). I'm fortunate to have two countries to support in international competition. Great Britain doesn't do so well in the Winter Games and Canada often doesn't excel in the Summer Games, but the other way round I always have someone to be proud of. I found out four years ago where my loyalties really lie, though, as I was devastated when the British women beat the Canadian women for the gold in Curling - well, after all, something like 75% of the curlers in the world are Canadian!! - so I'm really hoping that the Canadian rink can redress the balance this time. And of course the Canadian Women's Hockey team had all us Canucks leaping about screaming last time. I feel so honoured to be Canadian, it really is a dear and wonderful country, so I would imagine I was the only plump middle aged woman in purple hedgehog pyjamas in Cambridgeshire leaping about, shrieking and waving a Maple Leaf flag last evening when I found out about our first medal!

Today's definitely going to be a Pyjama Day after yesterday. We had our annual charity auction, and that's always the most stressful Saturday of the year for me. We've been doing these auctions for years (I think that was our 13th) and it was all very well when my ex and I were married and I organised the thing and he got all the glory as the auctioneer. I never quite got my head around everyone asking me to thank him for the wonderful auction, but I guess it was ever thus - behind every great man there's a thoroughly hacked off woman!!!!!

But now that we're divorced it's even more fun, as his girlfriend can't get it into her head that I do not ever want him back, not if he were the last man on earth, but that he and I are the best of friends - like an extremely fond brother and sister. So now there's all the stress of the day coupled with beady-eyed (and I apologise for sounding so b*tchy but she really does have beady eyes) glares from her all day.

Anyway, the main thing is that we raised £812 for charity and all went away knackered but rejoicing. Plus I got four really nice dining room chairs and a great little hardwood drop-leaf trolley table for the grand total of £22. Now all I have to do is a major reshifting of furniture in these tiny rooms, as the new purchases are still stacked up in the tiny kitchen, making it impossible to do anything out there except make toast.

But if these are the worst problems I ever encounter, I will be leading a charmed and blessed life.

Love to all,
Nance

Middle Aged Delinquent

2006-02-10T10:26:00.000Z

Hi Folks, sorry for my prolonged absence. I've been busy, I guess - rehearsals for the murder mystery, all kinds of WI functions and duties, organising my church's annual charity auction tomorrow, burrowing through my stash and listing it on eBay, and I seem to spend a lot of time wrapping up brown paper parcels and going to the post office. I'm developing a wonderful relationship with the two gals at my local little PO! They apparently miss me on days I don't stop by.

For some silly reason I thought that if I removed 100 bags of wool (none of this 3 bags full malarkey for me!) from my house that it would be tidier in here. Just goes to show how wrong a girl can be.

I had a rather funny brush with the law on Wednesday. I had to go to Stamford (in Lincolnshire, I think) to pick up some stuff that I'd bought at an auction up there last Saturday - Rule Number 1 of selling things at an auction house - DO NOT GO TO THE AUCTION OR YOU WILL SPEND EVERYTHING YOU'VE MADE. Anyway, Stamford is a dickens of a place to park (as are most cities, towns and villages in the UK, I must add for the benefit of those in other parts of the world). When you couple that with my innate inability to find my way around while driving, I was having a white knuckle moment when I found myself driving through a pedestrian precinct. I was doing my best to ignore all the glares I was getting when I was accosted by a policewoman on foot. Now, in all honesty, if I had to wear the uniform that she has to wear, I would be out of sorts on a permanent basis as well. She started blathering away about just how many offences I was committing, and I was shrinking (great way to lose weight, I think) behind the wheel by the moment, and repeating a mantra of "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'll never do this again" while expecting a public flogging at best, and beheading at worst. Anyway, she fell for my feigned contrition and said that she'd let me off just that once, and directed me to where I wanted to go, and in 30 seconds I was at the auction house - with nowhere to park except the taxi rank in front. I dashed inside and said that I was going to try to find a parking space, which I did after 15 minutes, and then went back, paid for my stuff, and then got my car and pulled up once again into the taxi rank. The porter carted out my stuff and I was good to go. I was just about to set off in my quest to figure out how to get out of Stamford when who should stroll up but - you guessed it - the same not so friendly WPC. I rolled down my window and she said "It's not you again!!!!! Do you realise that it's illegal to park in a taxi rank?". So I figured the game was now up and I was going to be hanged as soon as they could cobble together a gallows. I reverted to a slightly altered version of my mantra of apologies, saying that I had just been there for 2 minutes while picking up things from the auction house and was on my way out of town, and if she thought it best I'd never ever return to Stamford. She said, "Well, I could never tell you that", and I thought, "Yeah, but I bet you wish you could, you officious little madam". So I managed to get away with it. I'm delighted! I have a long history of talking my way out of fines and points on my licence with MALE police, but this is a first to get away with it a woman, let alone twice in the space of half an hour - Wahoo!!!!

Thanks for dropping by, and if you want to have a look at my stuff on eBay, there's a link in the sidebar on the right. There's a bunch more stuff that's scheduled to start during the next week, 'cause I'm off to Prague week after next and I've tried to time things so that nobody will have to wait for long for their purchases.

Have a great weekend, and happy Olympic knitting!

Love,
Nance

Madness

2006-01-18T17:38:00.000Z

I've just crawled out of the understairs cupboard (which is, incidentally, the warmest place in the house) after rummaging through to see just what exactly is in there. Guess what I found? Yarn! Wool, cotton, silk, cashmere, you name it, it's in there. Also a coffee table and two end tables, several hundred books, about 20 carry-alls, a lot of coat hangers - you get the picture. Aside from the fact that I now feel like a roast suckling pig (except that there's no apple in my mouth), I'd have to call the half hour I spent in there a success, as I've organised it into much better shape. Almost all of the yarn is going on eBay, so knitters ahoy!

I've been knitting quite a lot. I went to a WI sewing bee yesterday afternoon - it took me three tries to find the right house, so you can tell I don't bleach my hair this colour for nothing - and knitted for two straight hours on the DB Alpaca Silk wrist-to-wrist jacket in that delicious indigo blue, and I have two other things that I'm working on on a rotational basis, one day apiece in sequence. So today it's meant to be the alarmingly red DB Astrakhan cardigan with the shawl collar, but it will be at least 10 tonight before I get any knitting in, as I have two meetings this evening. I hate double bookings, especially since I have to go to both of them, as I'm chairing the first and acting in the second which is a rehearsal for a murder mystery dinner that we're putting on in a month and a half. Anyway, the sewing bee was great fun. All but two of the 12 of us knitted - some of these gals have been knitting for 70 or 80 years, so my 40-odd make me a rank beginner by comparison.

Other than that, I've been spending these endless January days working on eBaying, and it's been great. There's a lot of work involved, but it's kept me from having to go out and get a job so I'm not complaining at all.

No men in sight at the moment, but there's always Mr Drubie waiting for me when I go to bed. He may only be a stuffed dog, but he's very intelligent and loves a cuddle.

Well, I guess I'd better spend an hour looking for my script for the rehearsal. I do wish that people wouldn't give me these pieces of paper months in advance and then expect me to come up with them at the drop of a hat.

Chins up, folks, the days are getting longer, the daffodils are coming up, the birdies are singing their feathery little heads off and spring is on its way. Not immediately mind you, but it'll get here.

Love,
Nance

Christmas Revisited!

2006-01-05T11:51:00.000Z

It's just like Christmas morning all over again! The postman just knocked at my door. He wasn't my usual postman, who, I think, would find it surprising if he ever saw me wearing anything other than a handknit cardigan over flannelette pyjamas, so this one seemed a bit surprised at my outfit. Anyway, he brought the main part of my Christmas present from my sister - my ebony circular needles from Scottish Fibres! They are so beautiful! I got ALL the sizes: 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 7 and 8 mm and I absolutely love them! I love ebony, the way it seems to soften and glow the more you touch it - think of the black keys on a piano, how they adopt a buttery sort of sheen. And I love the brass joins on the circulars. And, they came in a free wooden box, made of bird's eye maple. I'm so, so happy. I just want to sit down and knit for the rest of my natural life. But I need to parcel up another half dozen things I've sold on eBay and get them to the post office, get some more stuff onto eBay, and then do some housework, as I've discovered that the area between my PC desk and the wall has become something of a sanctuary for unwed spiders. Well, maybe they're married, but I couldn't see that any of them are wearing wedding rings. Good thing that I don't mind spiders.

But before I spring into action, I have a bit more burbling to do.

I went to the ballet in London on Monday night. It was a WI excursion, and I didn't realise until we were halfway there that it was the Royal Ballet, performing in the Royal Opera house. What a gorgeous building! I'd never been there before, but it was all quite magical. It was the Nutcracker, and was very good, although I think I would have preferred something a bit more serious, but so much of the music was familiar and a lot of the dancing was absolutely brilliant.

Then Tuesday afternoon was my first official WI Committee meeting as the new secretary. Unfortunately, when I hopped in my car to drive to the meeting, it wouldn't start. It just went click, click, click. Dead battery, I thought, hoped, prayed, and nothing more serious. So I rang the hostess of the meeting and she came and picked me up, and the President drove me home. How funny and sweet and lovely it seems to me to have an 85 year old woman do me a favour by giving me a lift home.

The man from the AA (Automobile Association, not the other AA) arrived in good time, and sure enough, it was the battery. He asked how old the battery was, and I told him I'd had the car for over 3 years and hadn't changed it, so we agreed it was time for a new one. He had one with him, and because the labour was free under my AA plan, it turned out to be quite a bargain, and 20 minutes later, he was gone and my car was tickety-boo again - Phew!

Now I've got something the matter with my PC. I can receive e-mails, but I can't reply to them - the messages just sit there in my outbox. So if any of you are wondering if I'm ignoring you, I'm not at all, it's my PC. I guess I'm going to have to get a little man from the village in to sort that out, as I've tried everything I can think of, other than applying a sledgehammer to it. Sigh. I guess that 2006 is going to be the year of the faulty machinery. Until I do get it fixed, if anyone needs to write to me, you can use my old address - nance@hampton2209.freeserve.co.uk, and hopefully I'll be able to reply from there.

Love to all,
Nance

Happy New Year!

2006-01-01T10:34:00.000Z

Love and happiness, peace, calm and joy - I hope we all have loads of those things in 2006.

I've had a really good week. Matthew left for Wales on Tuesday morning, and since then the only real activity I've engaged in has been listing stuff on eBay, parcelling up sold items and going to the post office. I've developed a great rapport with the local postmistress!

Other than eBay activities, I've spent a lot of time by the fire, watching Miss Marple reruns and knitting - heavenly, heavenly days!

Oh yes, on Wednesday morning I had a call from my friend Irena, inviting me over for lunch with her. We had a lovely couple of hours at her big pine kitchen table, eating homemade tomato and bacon soup, and chunks of bread with lashings of butter, and of course, gallons of coffee. I'd taken her a very loose floppy curly wurly scarf I'd knitted with several strands of Kidsilk Haze, a mixture of blue and green, with gorgeous soft pompoms on the ends - she absolutely loved it, and it's just the right colours for her.

Other than that, my big day out was yesterday, when I went to Cambridge to have lunch with a chap I met on the internet. He's a very nice guy, and we had a good lunch in an old cinema building which has been converted into a very nice huge pub/restaurant, and a very philosophical conversation for three hours. I think he and I will probably be buddies and meet up from time to time, but there were no sparks, from my side of the table, at least.

Then I did some errands and ended up the afternoon by buying some of the loveliest yarn I've ever seen. It's Debbie Bliss's alpaca silk dk in a gorgeous shade called indigo. The silk keeps the alpaca from having that slightly too sticky quality. I can't keep my hands off it. I guess the poor man I had lunch with might be a bit hurt that it's the yarn I can't keep my hands off!

Gosh, I actually feel like doing some housework today - most unlike me. But I've always liked the calendar markers which signal new beginnings - the first day of school, New Year's Day - so I'd better let myself get on with this burst of domestic energy, seeing as I know it won't last long.

Once again, I wish you all every good thing in 2006.

Love,
Nance

Christmas Recap

2005-12-26T01:31:00.000Z

Well, there it goes for another year. Matthew and I had a great day, which included some of the time-honoured Christmas traditions such as lying around watching telly and eating till we thought we'd burst, but did not include getting drunk and having a punch-up.

My sister called from Canada and we nattered away for a lovely hour. She had already experienced another time honoured Christmas tradition - her 10 foot fir tree falling over. Sis reminded me that I hadn't told her where to find what I wanted for Christmas on the internet, so I quickly rectified that, and I now have an MP3 player from eBay, and a set of ebony circular knitting needles from Scottish Fibres on their way to me. My Christmas treats for myself involved raiding the Colinette website the other day, so I have a couple of packages coming from there, so the race is on to see what gets here first.

And now, seeing as it's coming up to 2 am, I guess it's time for bed.

Love to all,
Nance xx

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-25T11:10:00.000Z

Well, here we are. The things that didn't get done remain undone, but that just leaves us with fodder for our New Year's resolutions cogitations. The main thing is that we're here, it's Christmas and I hope it will be a day of peace and love for all of you, the modern equivalent of imaginary friends.

Matthew (who is unbelievably understanding about the state of my house and who has not once crept off to his room to adopt the foetal position) was far too fond of the seafood lasagna for my liking, but otherwise is a model houseguest.

We went to the midnight service at my church last night. It was a lovely service, and the church looked beautiful, with dozens of chunky candles set amidst pine boughs, and we didn't have to use the fire extinguishers once. We sat with my ex-husband, which was really nice - Barry and I still have the capacity to giggle like children about nothing when we're together - and my other ex, David, was there as well, and his 17-year-old son Alex wants the three of us to get together soon, so it will be lovely to see him. He's a fantastic boy and we get along like a house afire.

Matthew's still asleep, and I'm trying not to make any noise, so I haven't yet wrestled with the turkey but that's always good for a laugh, and I do love cooking Christmas dinner.

Merry Christmas, one and all, I wish you all the day you desire, which, for most of us, will involve some quality knitting time. We are blessed.

Love,
Nance xxxx

Yippeeee!

2005-12-23T14:07:00.000Z

Hey everybody, I've found the spare room bed - there it was, in the spare room! It's just that I couldn't get to the spare room because of all the - erm, wool in the wool room that you have to go through to get there. But now there's a clear pathway through, and I am determined that next week, after Matthew goes, I'm going to sort that sucker out! The wool room, not Matthew, I hasten to add.

Hi Gill, thanks for your encouragement. £200?!?!?!?!?! I don't think so! I cheated and bought a lovely plump Bernard Matthews turkey a month ago when they were half price - £9!!!!!! Now all I have to do is remember to get it out of the freezer tomorrow. I'd always gone to the local butcher, from whom I always got perfectly wonderful juicy turkeys, but he'd butcher my bank account as well.

I almost bought a roast of beef half price last evening, but then I remembered that there are, after all, only two of us, and Matthew's only here till Tuesday, so I'm sure we can fill in any holes in the menu with pasta and bacon sarnies. My favourite thing for Christmas Eve dinner is seafood lasagna, so if I'm really lucky, there'll be lots left over for me after Matthew leaves. That's one thing I love about living alone - when I make one of my favourite dishes, it lasts several days.

So, I've made some headway, and Matthew has a lovely uncluttered room to hide in when the rest of the house gets to be too much for him. I still have loads to do downstairs, but I just had to stop for a cold drink and catch my breath.

Okay, back into the fray!!!!

Love,
Nance xx

Running Up To Christmas

2005-12-23T07:50:00.000Z

How are you all doing, Santa's Elves? Are you totally dazed and confused? I am! I was too knackered to do anything more last night, so I went to bed early, knowing I'd wake up early and hopefully have the energy to get through what I have to do today. So that's why I'm sitting here with a mug of coffee and a fag.

But, I have crossed off some items on my Things That Absolutely Have to be Done by 5 pm on the 23rd list. Five o'clock's when my buddy Matthew is arriving for the festivities. I hope he's bringing some festivities with him.

I have managed to tick the following items off in the last couple of days:

The Christmas cards are on their way. So what if the folk in Canada don't get theirs till next year? At least they'll know I was thinking of them. Except the ones whose addresses I couldn't find. Oh well.

And all the eBay parcels are on their way. Yippee!

The Festive Farce is done for this year, but we've had about a squillion requests to do it again next year - there's something to look forward to!

And I've got the groceries - that wasn't as bad as I expected. It was bad, mind you. I went to Sainsburys at 4 o'clock yesterday, which seems like a daft thing to do, but it really wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. But I wasn't wearing my watch, so after an hour and a half, I had this strange feeling that I might have been there for weeks. I was totally confused. I'd had to start relying on the kindness of strangers to help me figure out what I was supposed to get. Oh yes, I had a list. I'd had several exchanges of e-mails with Matthew to see what his Christmas preferences are. I'd ascertained that he likes to have Christmas cake. And Christmas pudding. And mince pies. Mince pies make me gag, and I've never bought a Christmas cake or pudding in my life. Mind you, the darling Christmas cake with the marzipan Wise Men on it was awfully cute. But they wanted £18.99 for it! So I got a lesser version. Still ridiculously expensive, but very attractive in a minimalist sort of way. I did toy with the idea of getting an un-iced version and doing it myself, but then I gave myself a good slap and I was alright after that. Except ........ . He'd said he likes custard on his pud. Excuse me, Nice Stranger Lady. Do you I think I should buy ingredients and make custard from scratch? Oh dear, let me help you up off the floor and dust you off, while you take deep breaths and try to stop those hysterics. Okay, so I don't have to make it from scratch, but should I get containers of it or that yucky looking powder that takes gallons of milk - where the hell am I supposed to keep that much milk in my teeny fridge? So, cartons of custard it is. And despite all the e-mailing back and forth, I forgot to ask simple questions like, do you prefer white or brown bread? Or bread with chunks of what look like manure in it? Oh hell, we'll get the bread on Saturday. And you like juice, but I didn't think to ask from what. So we've got orange, tomato and one that appears to have every fruit known to man in there. You get the picture. So I got to the checkout, and there was a very friendly young chap waiting to ring up my purchases. He said that people were spending an average of £160 on their shopping, so now it was me on the floor in hysterics. But we managed to get by with £135 - eeeeeeek! In the middle of packing it all into carriers, I hit on a splendid plan. I'd keep the stuff for the freezer separate, put that in the front seat of the car with me, and everything else in the boot, where it would stay until this morning. Wasn't that clever of me? Except that now, of course, the groceries are still in the boot of the car. Well, unless my car was broken into during the night. That sounds quite appealing, really.

So, what's left for today, other than the potential insurance claim for the groceries? Well, I'm meeting some friends for a festive cup of coffee in half an hour, which will be nice, but it does mean I'll have to get dressed. And then really, all I have to do before 5 o'clock is figure out places to stash all the stuff that's in the guest room, and sitting around in crates all over the rest of the house, and then clean said house from top to toe, as I've neglected the housework pretty much steadily for ..... well, since I moved in 3 and a half years ago. And I also need to photograph the next batch of stuff for eBay. But on the other hand, I finally succumbed to the Colinette website for the first time yesterday. And I really would like to go back and look around some more ................. I think I'd better just have another coffee and think about that one.

Keep going, girls, we're almost there!

Love,
Nance

eBaying

2005-12-20T09:06:00.000Z

We shall now pause for a word from our sponsor.

How much fun is selling stuff on eBay? I had a very exciting hour last evening as a bunch of my stuff approached its deadlines and then it got even more exciting as I started receiving PayPal payments before I could even issue invoices. Virtually everything went for less than 50% of its original value, but hey, that's money long since spent, and now it's great to be getting a little more space, a little more money and eBayers around the world are snapping up bargains. Sounds like a win/win situation to me.

I think I've got the eBay link in the sidebar sorted out now, but in any event you can find my new stuff by searching for knittingsister.

Thank you, and we shall now return to our programme.

Love,
Nance

Countdown to Christmas

2005-12-18T23:08:00.000Z

Whoopeee! I've done my last craft fair for the year, my items are bubbling away nicely on eBay and now I can, at last, start knitting whatever I darn well please. I've spent the evening by the log fire watching telly and playing with some lovely blue Jaeger Chamonix. I have a Chamonix pullover that I got at the Rowan Mill in Holmfirth for a fraction of what the wool would have cost, never mind the time of the darling woman who knitted it, and it's the warmest, softest, comfiest sweater I've ever had. So when I saw some Chamonix in one of my favourite shades at a Liberty sale, I leapt on it and now that the frost is lying heavy these mornings, it seems the perfect time to make a nice cozy jacket.

Oh, yes, I'm back from Vienna. I had a really lovely time there, and I understand why my Mom loved the place so much. The architecture is great, the people have lovely manners, the music is fantastic, and the coffee houses and chocolate - well, I could easily live in the coffee houses, nibbling on chocolate while sipping the best coffee I've ever had, and I'm a coffee fanatic.

I'd best get off to bed, as tomorrow morning is the final production of the Festive Farce at the unseemly hour of 8:30 am. I usually don't get out of bed till 9, and often wear my pyjamas till noon, so this is going to be quite a stretch for me. But, I can hardly disappoint this particular crowd of the extremely elderly, as several of them are my dear friends, so I'd best take a hammer to bed with me, so as to hit myself over the head repeatedly until I pass out, otherwise I'll be awake till my usual 2 am.

Good evening, friends.

Love,
Nance x

Gadzooks!

2005-12-12T23:24:00.000Z

Funny, I thought British people were supposed to say "egad" and "gadzooks" all the time. Guess not!

Anyway, I've spent several fun-filled hours sticking a few surplus items from my overflowing stash onto eBay and I hope that you'll be able to go directly to them from the link in the sidebar. I'm still a novice seller, so please forgive me for any glaring foxpaws I've committed.

I think I've also just about managed to pack for Vienna, so it's time to go have a chat with my pillow.

Love to all and to all a goodnight,

Nance x

What's a Girl To Do?

2005-12-12T09:09:00.000Z

Men! Can't live with 'em, not allowed to kill 'em! It's no wonder there's such a resurgence in knitting.

First things first. On Thursday evening, the second production of our Festive Farce went swimmingly, and no-one became ill, although I was afraid I was going to, as I had a migraine. I really felt more like crawling off into a hole to die than I did like acting like I wanted to be there, but hey! I guess those years of studying theatre were worth the money after all. (Ha ha, the mail just arrived. It consisted of one item - a Christmas card addressed to Pizza Town Customer. There's a Bridget Jones moment if I ever lived one.)

Anyway, because of the migraine, there was no way that I could travel to Scotland on Friday, nor even think about drinking over the weekend, so I had to beg off. Sorry, girls! I do wish I'd been there. But India, I'm so glad you like the cashmere. Isn't it just too gorgeous for words?

So, feeling a bit better on Saturday, I invited that man over in the evening. He asked if he should bring a bottle of wine, and I said no thanks so he said he'd bring chocolate. I said great, my preference is plain chocolate with nuts. So what did he bring? A Bendicks assortment of white, milk and plain with soft centres. Yeee-uck. What's more dispiriting than a man who can't follow simple instructions? But, as it turned out, that was the high point of the evening. He drank about two gallons of ginger beer and went home. Yawn. I don't know what happened to that funny interesting guy I met on Monday evening, or why he sent his doddery look-alike great uncle over on Saturday, but I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Yesterday, I took advantage of the free day I wasn't expecting to have and went out and got some Christmas cards - even wrote out a few. The problem with internet friends is that one doesn't generally have their postal addresses for Christmas cards. I keep trying to stuff them in the CD slot, but they don't go anywhere. And if you e-mail people asking for their addresses a couple of weeks before Christmas, it kind of takes the edge off the surprise, doesn't it? But if any of you would like a no-surprise Christmas card, just e-mail me your address, and I'll send you one, with a return address so you can send me one next year.

Today, I'm getting ready to go to Vienna tomorrow. I'm nervous/excited about that - I always am before I go somewhere I've never been before, especially when travelling alone. Before I go I have to (a) write some more cards, (b) put some stuff on eBay and (c) go to a WI Committee meeting this afternoon. I was just elected to the Committee for the first time last Tuesday (I only joined the WI in September), but have a feeling that I'm going to come home the new Secretary. I can hardly refuse, the President's such an angel. She's going to be 85 on New Year's Day, although you'd never guess she was a day over 72, and my new role model. She has such spirit, but is really quite a shy, quiet woman. And has a real talent for getting people to do things. I went over after Tuesday's meeting to congratulate her on being returned as President, and to say I'd do whatever I could to help out. She ducked her head and gave me a sweet smile and said, Well, we do desperately need a new Secretary, dear. And here's me thinking I was volunteering to learn the words to Jerusalem.

But listen to this, Knitters. Betty's husband died a few years ago, and one of the activities that she took up to fill some of her time was the monthly WI sewing bees, where almost everyone knits rather than sewing. Betty hadn't knitted in about 40 years, but decided she'd take it up again, and looked around for a project. She decided to knit herself a suit. Which she did. Perfectly. Beautifully. What a gal!

Anyway, this isn't getting the potatoes peeled, as they say back home in Potato Country.

Happy trails,
Nance

Eeeeeeeek!!!!

2005-12-08T08:10:00.000Z

Where on earth does the time go?!?!? I knew I was going to be busy over the last week, but this is ridiculous.

Anyway, I have to tell you this story. I mentioned that I was going out to be the Wise Man in a Christmas play for elderly people? Well, actually there are only 6 of us in the entire cast, so I'm also a dancing angel, a messenger and I think tonight they're going to ask me to muck out the stable. Those of us in the cast range from 53 to around 70, and we all wear black tops and trousers, so that the costume bits identifying our roles (tinfoil wings for angels, a spectacular jewelled crown and navy and gold velvet robe for me as the Wise Man, etc) stand out, so dressed in top-to-toe black we all look slightly satanic which is, I suppose, something of a comment on the world into which Christ was born. Anyway on the day of our first "production" we had an audience of about 30 extreeeeeeeeemely elderly ladies, most of whom arrived on Zimmerframes or a couple of walking sticks. So once they were installed in their seats and all their walking frames and sticks were stashed in a corner, they were pretty much a captive audience.

At the beginning of the play, a couple of us distributed odd little props to all these ladies (little flags to wave, an assortment of hats, knitting (!) and other assorted paraphernalia (don't you just love that word? My life is filled with paraphernalia). So off we launched into this mad little play, which is a moderately humorous modern retelling of the Nativity story. It runs at rather a breakneck pace, as we deliver a few lines, squeeze behind the audience at that end, dash offstage to the right into the kitchen, ditch one costume and leap into another. I thought I was going to wear my wings out entirely, I put them on and took them off so many times. Then we have to scurry through a couple of adjoining rooms, grabbing our props as we go, and dash back into the other end of the tiny hall, squeeze past that end of the audience and get back onstage.

Things were going very smoothly, considering, and then one of the audience became sick to her stomach. Very sick. Repeatedly and profusely sick. Another lady found a supply of plastic carrier bags and would hand her a fresh one, and take the last one out into the adjoining room. She apparently didn't know what else to do with them, so she was putting them on the props table. Next to the carrier bag which contained my Wise Man's gifts for the Baby Jesus. Fortunately, I did manage to pick up the correct bag and was able to offer my gifts of chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil, and a couple of types of ghastly bath products in lieu of actual gold, frankincense and myrrh, but much better that than presenting Him with a bag of sick!!!!

It did make for a rather odd finale to the Blessed Story to have to be squeezing past this poor old lady who was doing her level best to be very quiet about her problem, and really looked as dignified as one can while vomiting into a plastic bag, still wearing the chef's hat that she had been given to wear at the beginning!

Funny, when I was studying Theatre at McGill, they never mentioned the above scenario as a possible option under the heading of Audience Participation.

So tonight we're presenting the play again to another group, but it will be hard to top our premiere.

Other than the above, it's all been madness. I exhibited at a craft fair in Towcester (Northants, not Beds, I've been reliably advised by the lovely Gill of Woolly Workshop who came by to meet me and very kindly went out and got me a sandwich, as I really couldn't leave my stand) and taught two lovely little girls to knit. Philippa is 10 and Sophie is 9, and they were looking longingly at my things and saying how much they wanted to learn to knit so I said if they had half an hour I'd teach them. Within 10 minutes, Sophie was happily knitting away and after another 10 minutes she was saying "I feel like I've always been able to knit". Sweet.

I've had to spend this week getting ready for another fair in Woburn (on the 18th) as tomorrow I'm off to Edinburgh and Glasgow for a festive knit-together with the lovely lassies there. I get back on Monday, and on Tuesday I'm off to Vienna for 3 days to pay my respects to my Mom's favourite city. So I get back next Friday, have Saturday to do the final prep for Woburn on Sunday, and at 8 am on Monday, we're doing our final production of the play for our gang of friends at the gym. And that, dear readers (if any of you have stayed awake to this point) takes us into Christmas week - Hurrah! And then I may get a chance to write Christmas cards.

One last topic - the inevitable. I've met a man. He's lovely. A few years older than I am. Sweet, kind, gentle, intelligent, uproariously funny and very, very attractive. He seems to like me too. And naturally, just when I was thinking that my life is so good and, for me, relatively calm, and maybe it would be best to just enjoy what I have - isn't that always the way? But he's so very, very lovely that I can hardly say, No, I'd really rather spend my time knitting by the fire. So, we'll see.

I hope you're all well and happy.

Love,
Nance

Chasing My Tail

2005-11-30T10:03:00.000Z

Greetings, Fellow Campers.

Chasing my tail, yes, that's a bit what I feel like at the moment. Chasing my tail as far as men are concerned, certainly. Remember my high hopes for the Young Man last weekend? Yes, me too. Well, YM arrived on Friday evening and started talking. Then he talked for awhile. After that he talked some more. He wanted to watch TV, but he kept talking throughout, about something totally unrelated. He wasn't really talking, actually, he was blathering. Every so often I'd try to interject a contribution to what was not actually a conversation so much as a monologue, and he'd talk right over me. Finally I suggested (extreeeeeeemely gently) that maybe he could draw breath occasionally and he was inordinately offended. Absurdly offended. In full dudgeon, he said if I didn't want to hear him talking he'd just go home. So I said, Well, okay. And he did. Yawn. Anyway, left me to watch telly and knit in peace for the weekend.

I'm also chasing my tail trying to get kajillions of things made to take to a craft fair in Towcester (pronounced Toaster), Beds (honest, that's the nickname for Bedfordshire) this Saturday. And I have to go spend this afternoon being the one and only Wise Man in a modern Christmas fable for a bunch of really elderly ladies. Should be fun.

Anyway, must dash off now, but just wanted to let you know I haven't fallen off the edge of the planet.

I hope you're all well and happy.

Love,
Nance xx

Older v Younger Men

2005-11-24T23:03:00.000Z

It's interesting how the younger man/older woman relationship is viewed these days. It used to be almost taboo, but now that we Baby Boom girls have become women of a certain age - well, we're calling the shots, aren't we?

Since I first joined an online dating agency over 3 years ago, I've always received lots of messages from younger guys (some as young as 17, which I viewed as a bit obscene and I told them that I thought they would be better advised to spend their time on revision!) and their comments followed a theme: older women tend to be more relaxed and comfortable with themselves, less demanding, more even-tempered and more open-minded. I have had a couple of young chaps say that they wanted an older woman to teach them what to do (!) to which my response was that I want someone who already knows what to do.

I've never approached a younger man online, as that would make me feel a bit lecherous, but when they contact me, it's only polite to at least have a chat and see who they are.

And yes, when I think of men older than I am (I'm 53), they do look rather ....... old! It's one thing to get involved when you're young and grow old together, but when I look at a bunch of 60-year-old men, I can't say that it sets my heart all aflutter.

Oh, another thing that I like about younger men is that they tend to treat me with more respect. They really value my life experience, and the different perspective I can offer on things that are going on in their lives.

It's early days yet, but this guy, Simon, is nothing if not attentive - he's phoned and sent texts every day this week - some people wouldn't like that much attention, but it's absolutely fine with me, especially since I work at home, and half the days of the week don't see another living soul.

So, we shall see what the weekend brings ..........

Love,
Nance

Well, the excitement's almost too much to bear!

2005-11-23T23:34:00.000Z

Look, look, look at the bottom of the page! I've managed to get a hit-counter installed. And not only that, but I've also posted a picture on eBay of something I want to sell. And, after India kindly pointed out that my blog was on California time, I managed to correct that too. I'm a real technobunny, me.

I got so excited that I ate a hardboiled egg. It's just one thrill after another in this life of mine.

I didn't get much creative work done today, mostly technical (see above) and admin. Still, into each life some such stuff shall fall. But my friend Irena pointed out that I can type really fast without looking at the keys, which I never think of as much of an accomplishment, seeing as I've been doing it for, erm, 35 years, but at least it proves I can do something with a computer other than stare blankly at the screen wondering if I dare touch anything.

Tomorrow is going to be my first attempt at felting. I want to make some bags to take to fairs, so we'll just see how that goes. Could end up with a very fuzzy washing machine.

Oh yes, I did have a few text exchanges and phone chats with the new young man in my life. When I say young, I do mean young, as in 14 years younger than I am, but at least he's of legal age (and then some), employed, solvent, and extremely interested so I'm hardly going to tell him to get lost without exploring the situation.

So, maybe my life doesn't consist totally of mundanities.

Love to all and to all a good night,

Nance

Too sleepy to knit any more

2005-11-23T01:13:00.000Z

I just want to say thanks to everyone who has visited, and especially everyone who left comments.

I've been working on a curly scarf this evening. It's a blend of sky blue and lime green Kid Silk Haze, and with pom-poms on the ends, and it's looking really good, but I'm just too sleepy to go on, as I'm in the middle of a row increasing from 200 stitches to 400 stitches, and I don't want to muddle it up as I may want to sell it. On the other hand, it's so pretty, I'd kind of like to keep it myself, or give it to my friend Irena. I had coffee round at hers this afternoon, and made the pom-poms while I was there, and she was ooooohing and aaaaahing over the colours and yarn - she'd never seen KSH before. Tomorrow I'm going to go back to help her with the fitting of the outfit she's making for her daughter's wedding in early January, so I'll keep knitting whilst I'm there.

And now I think I'd better get myself off to bed.

Thanks again for joining in on my first day in blogland.

Love,
Nance

Silly me!

2005-11-22T19:30:00.000Z

Well! I was just poking around on the internet and suddenly, in the space of about 3 minutes, here I am with a blog. I thought it was going to take several weeks of hard labour (as in breaking rocks, chopping wood, etc) to get one going. I have no idea how to put pictures on and stuff like that, but I guess I'll figure it out.

I'm a Canadian, transplanted from New Brunswick to Cambridgeshire in England. I've been here 14 years and in the last six months have put behind me 30 years of working with lawyers to seek my fortune on my own. So I wrapped all my worldly possessions in a bandana and have set up a tiny import/knitting business, and am also writing away, hoping that someday someone will pay me to do it. Otherwise, I'll probably have to resort to selling pencils on a street corner.

Thanks for coming to visit.

Love,
Nance