Friday Babble

It's Friday, the weather is fine and I actually have some energy. All good.

I haven't unpacked yet because I must attack my closets first and take a full inventory of what I have and where I can put it. One thing is certain — I do not want to go out and buy another closet/wardrobe/shelf system. I like the room to be relatively sparsly furnished and I want to keep it that way.

I am certain that I can fit most of fabrics, fibre and yarn in the storage space that I have, I just need to rearrange the current system and probably get rid of stuff. I have lots of good yarn that I won't be using because my style has changed.

Yarn like that is prime candidate for destashing, so I'll be listing the yarn on Ravely for sale/destash. If you are interested but not on Ravelry, let me know and I'll send you pics with descriptions.

Fortunately there was nothing wrong with the iPod, the battery was drained. Once I'd loaded it, it was fine. I've been thinking of getting a smaller model (like Nano or Shuffle), I have a full size iPod Video and it's too big for me. Both physically and storage wise; I've never managed to fill it, even when I load it for travel. It's not big enough for my whole music and audiobook library and the playlists or books I usually listen to, dont' take much room.

The problem is that I can't justify buying a new one while the old one is still working. It's just more clutter and I'm doing my darndest to avoid adding to that. I have enough stuff already, no need for more.

Speaking of more, I need to buy clothes. I've shrunk out of my jeans and skirts so I want to replace some of my wardrobe this spring. I'm not at my goal weight yet and I could continue wearing what I have, but I'm a girl and would like to look good in my clothes. Wearing clothes that are baggy, but not meant to be so is not the most flattering 'look' one could have. A couple new skirts and shirts would tide me over the shrinking period and I'll give my old ones to a charity or second hand shop.

What a pleasant problem to have — need to buy new clothes because the old ones are too big! When I realised that it gave me quite a boost in self confidence. So far I've always had to buy new clothes because the old ones were too small. It's nice to be on my way to a healthy weight, not vice versa.

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Wonderful Weekend

I had a fantastic weekend! It turned out that some friends I wanted to visit were hosting a SCA event this weekend. I hadn't prepared for that at all, but I got to borrow some loaner gear and to hang out with most of the friends I'd made in Ireland. Woo!

As is usual with events, things didn't go exaclty as planned. They never do. The car we were supposed to use over the weekend had some repairs done on Friday. When we were actually scheduled to leave, the car made some funny noises. I'm not a driver and don't have much experience with cars, but even I know that a healthy car doesn't clank and whir like that.

We ended up renting a car at the airport and arriving at the site 2.5 hour later than planned. And, as is usual with SCA events, that was perfectly allright too. There was a party going on which didn't miss a beat when we joined in.

I was a bit sleepy on Saturday (having gone to bed 5am the previous night), but got to hang out with people I hadn't seen for a long while. The fighters fought, fencers fenced and archers arched*. The rest of us had a good time watching the activities. I went to bed early, I'm getting too old to stay up late every day.

Most people went home before noon on Sunday but we stayed to wait for another couple of friends to arrive for the fighter's practice. I'd packed my bags on Friday, so we could leave late on Sunday. I'm impressed that I actually could fit all the fabrics, yarn, rovings, thread and woodworking tools in the bags I'd brought with me. My check-in weight was 55 kilos (only 20 is allowed) which was less than I'd thought it would be. Still, 55 kilos of fibre, not to mention the carry on, in various forms is a considerable pile. Now I need to find a place for it all...

Check-in went smoothly, I checked out the bookstores (no Soul Music :( ), had a coffee and discovered at the gate that my iPod does not want to communicate with me. Bummer. I'd not locked it, so I hope that the battery is just drained. Otherwise this trip turns out be considerably more expensive than it was supposed to be.

For some reason, that I couldn't hear clearly, the flight was delayed, so we arrived late at Arlanda. The landing was the shakiest I can remember because of the high winds near Arlanda. Fun! It was like a wimpy roller coaster, going up, down and occasionally sideways. I like roller coaster rides, but no ride I've been on could compare to the landing yesterday. I had a view of the almost full moon and the fluffy moonlit clouds from above. Breathtakingly beautiful and fun at the same time.

The girl next to me was afraid of flying and didn't enjoy herself at all. The flight attendants checked in on her occasionally, but as far as I could see she was not having panic attacks. I thought of offering my iPod to her (she was holding her ears), but it wasn't operational. Or asking her if she liked rollercoasters, or engage her in coversation to help her take her mind off the scary things, but decided not to. I didn't know why she was afraid, if she'd been in an accident or if I'd distract her from her coping mechanism by talking.

Taking my bags off the carousel, I saw that my largest suitcase had split a seam in transit. At first I just thought that I'd have to buy a new one and almost didnt report it. Then I reported it anyway and I got a new suitcase to replace it. I consider it lucky that it broke when it did. If it broke this way it would have broken one day anyway and I'd rather it broke now than when I'm at an event and can't replace it at all.

On the other hand, I'm not in habit of transporting 30+ kilos in one go either, but it handled 40 without problems once. The new one is slightly smaller (the old one was a bit too big anyway), has four wheels instead of two and is better quality, so it was a fortunate accident.

Of course, the plane being late and then the bag issue, meant that I got home after midnight. I'm so not looking forward doing laundry and unpacking tonight. I just want to sleep.

* Shot, actually, but that's not as fun to write. :)

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Visiting Dublin

Just a quick note to say thet I'm off to Dublin for the weekend to visit friends and collect my stuff.

Woo!

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Where Did I Go?

I'm sorry for going quiet so suddenly. I'm still adjusting to the new schedule and the last week was very intense at work. We have lots to do (which is a good thing) but I have much less time to reload my batteries due to longer commute. I must find a solution to that because I can't go on much longer feeling like a zombie.

I want to do fun stuff at home, not just sit in front of the computer and read blogs or Ravelry forums while listening to audiobooks because I have no energy to do anything else. Some nights I don't even knit!

I did knit some in January: a Happy Hat, a Karelia, a simple scarf for LB for catsitting over Christmas, two squares for Pratchghan and several washcloths. Small, quick things that don't take much brain power.

Pratchghan is a project of Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild* to knit a blanket for Terry Pratchett with text "I aten't dead" on it. The project was a reaction to his announcement that he has Alzheimer's and specifically to the way he worded the announcement. I got to knit two squares because I volunteered to knit/crochet a letter for the text and the project coordinator decided that those who make a letter should be able to make another square of their own choosing.

I happened to be the first one who mailed the coordinator for a character so I got the "I". I didn't trust my intarsia skills, but used tunisian crochet instead to make the white base and embroidered the black letter on it with long-armed cross stitch.

I had problems deciding what to knit for the Discworld theme square and finally settled for the black off-centre cable to represent Death's realm.

I know that the squares don't look white or black, this was the best I could do with an ailing camera, winter sun, north facing windows and Gimp.

* A group of Terry Pratchett fans on Ravelry.

I hope that I get some energy somewhere because there's so much I want to do and make.

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Eco / Organic / Green / etc.

Remember how I was complaining that one couldn't find organic produce in grocery stores here? It turns out I've been looking in wrong stores. I have three chain grocery stores and two small ones near me. The small ones and two of the chain stores don't really stock organic products and they were the ones my ex frequented. So did I out of habit, until I checked out the third chain store (which he hated) and discovered to my delight that they stock quite a few organic dry goods, produce and some meat.

The selection seems to be better than when I first went there and is improving. For example yesterday I found organic peas, maize and pea/carrot mix in the frozen section. (Yay, staples!) They also have organic seeds, nuts, dried fruit and grains. Even some grain products that didn't exist four years ago like barley flour. I've sorely missed the organic flours I used to bake with in Dublin.

Their organic meat selection is pitiful, but it's there. I eat meat seldom, but when I do, I want something that tastes good. Nothing beats the flavour of beef that hasn't been doped full of chemicals. If I want a cut that's not available at my local store, I can go to a butchers run by organic farmers from around Stockholm.

So the options are there, one just needs to know where to look. I wish the organic / green / eco stuff was in every store, but the little that is there is a start and I hope that eventually one won't have to look so hard for it.

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