I didn’t get much knitting done last night unfortunately as I had my hands full but I am so very nearly at 46cm of the Sweetheart Sweater!
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| Almost to 46cm! |
Hopefully at lunch today I shall reach the armholes! Watch this space…
Dec 012011
Dec 012011
I hurried out of work last night and dashed over to the Nutty Professor’s surgery to collect my little Bou. She was being cooed over by three lovely nurses who had kept her company all afternoon. They’d settled her in her hospital cage by the side of the radiator at the back of their station. So sweet of them!
Apparently she had been a good little rattie and had provided them with lots of giggles so she seemed like she was already back on top form. I was a little worried that she would have taken the hump with me for allowing her to have an op but when I reached in to get her she greeted me with a good old lick like normal. In my head she was saying “don’t worry… I forgive you”.
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| Bou in her hospital cage under a fleecy blanket to keep her warm. |
The hardest part of the day was keeping my eye on her whilst trying to eat my dinner, feed her some yummy oats and keeping the cat away. When the Nutty Professor finally got home I was frazzled and a little bit on the grumpy side.
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| Bou’s wound site looking very neat and tidy. |
By bedtime, and after another shot of pain meds, she was starting to nibble at her wound so the Nutty Professor set to, creating a cardboard collar for her to wear. Needless to say this didn’t go down well at all and it was rather quickly discarded in favour of a burrito style bandage which fortunately stayed put all night with the help of a healthy amount of micropore.
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| The Nutty Professor trying to read his Kindle while the animals look on. |
This morning she is as bright as a button and sat happily drinking water from my hand as is her way. The Nutty Professor is taking her into the main hospital today to check her wound and re-dress it. He’s also going to check her tail wound which seems to be healing nicely.
Dec 012011
I have now scanned over 230 books into my new app which is just over half of the books currently residing on my bookshelves. I didn’t actually realise how many books I had… perhaps I better stop buying and requesting them.
But there are still places I can fit books… so maybe not!
Nov 302011
Well, I can officially breathe a sigh of relief now. The Nutty Professor has just called to say that my little fur baby’s major op has gone well and she’s awake and bright.
A fortnight ago the Nutty Professor spotted a growth on one of Bou’s mammary glands and it grew at a startling rate. Fortunately having a Vet on hand does have its positives and she was very quickly booked in for a lumpectomy.
The Nutty Professor knocked her out and whipped away the nasty lump and she has come round from the anaesthetic very well. She has unfortunately lost the tip of her tail as this got caught in some equipment and the Nutty Professor had to trim the tip to tidy it back up.
I purposely didn’t take any photos of the lump before it was removed as it’s a memory I don’t want but I will post a picture of my little Bou once I have brought her home.
She’s having mashed potatoes, pureed veg and squishy banana for dinner. She deserves it!
Nov 302011
I was never a fan of Location, Location, Location and to be frank it in no way made the search and purchase of my own home easier having watched it.
Yet Kirstie Allsopp seems to have carved herself a career out of this program. I don’t put stock in celebrity and I rarely watch the telly so as a result I have not seen her latest offering – Kirstie’s Homemade Home.
The Galavanting Go-Getter has watched a couple of episodes and has nothing good so far to say about it. There was even a rant over something being stitched together in a taxi on the way to some show or another. See – I wasn’t really interested then either.
Yet today I was compelled to google it and came up with the show’s website. Now the program may be a load of old cobblers but if it brings more people back to crafting then I say it’s a winner.
You never know… I might even watch an episode between knitting projects.
Nov 292011
Last month’s book club book was One Day by David Nicholls and luckily for me my age old friend had bought me this book when it was first released some years ago but I had never read it.
After hearing all the hype recently when the film was released I was quite intrigued and did fancy reading it.
It was a very enjoyable read and the journey was a good one but I was left feeling quite let down. It was evident right at the beginning that Dexter and Emma belonged together and that all would be right with their worlds when it finally did happen. And yes, I was very satisfied when they finally got together and began their ‘happily ever after’. But then the rug was pulled from under me and my happiness and joy was well and truly shot.
I know it’s not a perfect world but forgive me if I’d just like to pretend that it is when I read a book. I read for escapism – not realism. I don’t want to be reminded that life’s a bitch – it happens far too often!
Rant over…
I have cast on another project (yes, I am aware I am still suffering from startitis) this time for the Nutty Professor. I haven’t set myself the challenge of getting it finished for Christmas as there’s a lot of knitting to do before then but you never know – another bout of flu might mean it gets sent off to Santa in time.
I did extend the courtesy of asking the Nutty Professor which of two patterns he preffered and he unfortunately gave the wrong answer. He also mentioned he liked the particular pattern in brown but he’s getting blue instead. I have apologised and he was gracious enough to say that as I was the one who’d be looking at him in it then I should really knit what I liked. I get the feeling he wonders why I even bothered asking him.
So… here is the pattern I will be knitting for my sweetheart:
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| copyright Patons |
The back was cast on last Tuesday and I’ve been knitting away to reach 46cm in double moss stitch ever since. I was even knitting in the car on the way to the monthly Woodcroft Dog Walk at Lyme Park yesterday.
I keep showing the Nutty Professor how far I’ve got and how neat it is but he has admitted that he really can’t tell the difference since the last time I showed him. Apparently he’s just happy that it’s keeping me quiet for a change.
My life was completely turned upside down yesterday when I stumbled across a review for an app called BooksApp 2 Pro. Having read the article I went straight to the App Store and paid my £2.49 and downloaded the app.
Once the app was downloaded I was in 7th heaven. Wow! This app really presses all my buttons as an obsessive collector of reading material. For years I have diligently updated an Excel spreadsheet with all my books, owned, read and borrowed. The only snag I found was that this spreadsheet wasn’t portable and as is my habit I have ended up duplicating many books along the way. Although this has been good for the charity receiving my money and then the book back it has been a constant disappointment. Well – no more!
BooksApp 2 Pro is the answer to my problems. I can scan the barcode from each of the books I own and it automatically searches the worldwide web for the ISBN number and returns all the details. I can tag the book as a favourite, read, borrowed, on loan, part of a series, to read etc. I can also add and amend the keywords associated with each book later to be used a search tool. Covers of books can be updated and books can be searched for by author, title, publisher etc. You do have to have an iPhone 3GS or newer for the barcode scan option though.
I cannot believe I have had my iPhone since March and only just discovered this app!
I know what my weekend will entail…
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Wilfred Owen
(It is sweet and right to die for your country)
Nov 112011
An article featured in the Guardian about a pregnancy pact caught my attention this morning and I had to share it.
I simply cannot get over the fact that 17 girls have all become pregnant as some kind of pact. The article quite rightly points out the failings of a clearly overstretched education but I wonder why the parents aren’t mentioned. What has happened to a parent’s responsibility to ensure that their child understands that every action has a consequence?
Personally I do not want to live in a world where we can so easily transfer our responsibilities to others because it’s easier than dealing with things ourselves.
Anyway… after my little rant I think I need a cuppa…
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