Which is where I am at the moment. I am in Kew in my room up in the loft on the top floor. I have joked with my daughter that if I keep coming to stay I may need a stair lift soon. Actually, perhaps I am not joking....
My apologies for lack of posts recently but there seems to be lots to do at this time of year and time flies by. I have done all my Christmas shopping. Yes, I have and most of it online. Yes I do feel a pang of guilt, several in fact, on purchasing nearly all my stuff from a company that does not pay the taxes it should and also a pang because I am not supporting my High Street but I am sorry there is no contest. Most of the presents I have bought for my grandchildren are so over packaged and huge and no way could I stagger round the shops with them all. Throw in that the pavements are unevern and half the street is cobbled and that after an hour I can barely walk with aching knee and back and any residual guilt quicklly vanishes.
I have noticed when in my High Street recently that lots of new shops have opened and new retailers are coming into town. We also have a super Fenwicks which is flourishing so it is not all doom and gloom. And as well as the usual big names there are smalll shops as well which is very encouraging. I was very pleased to see a Hotel Chocolat...
I have given up posting on Strictly Come Dancing this year as I have found it all a bit tawdry with the shenanigans and goings on. It happens on a regular basis but I found the back street drunken snogging between one of the professional dancers and her partner a bit yuk to say the least. Then we have had one Sleb accused of bullying and when he was voted out called the judges imbeciles and then refused to appear with his partner on the weekly chat show. All left a nasty taste in the mouth. All enthusiasm for writing about it has vanished.
I have been rather busy knitting this week as well. My elder daughter in Australia is a film buff and, particularly, Star Wars. There is nothing she does not know about it and even she says that in a woman of 40 this can appear sad but she feels no shame. Because she is so far away I usuallly send her a gift voucher or similar as a present but I always ike to send her a silly parcel fulll of silly things to open with her friends on the Day. I gather that Opening Kat’s Mums Parcel has become a fixture now and this year I am hoping it will make everyone laugh. The Parcel is going to have a Star Wars theme and to this end I have ready to go:
- A Star Wars Notebook
- A Star Wars Pen
- A Death Star full of peppermints
- Two chocloate lollipops with Darth Vader on one and Yoda on the other
- A Star Wars sleep mask
- A Hans Solo Lego set
- and the Piece de Resistance a knitted Darth Vadar
Now this knitted attempt has caused me endless problems as I found the pattern slightly weird and had to adjust it as I went along. I also had the wrong size needles so, again, had to adjust the tension. The result as you will see is not exactly terrifiying. Well, it is but not in the right way.
You know those photos you see sometimes on the internet about how speciality cakes should llook and then next to it photos of people’s awful attempts? Well, I feel the same about this Darth. It looks nothing like the picture on the pattern and I have to say that when it was finished and I looked at it I just sat there and laughed.
I cannot wait to hear the reaction.
Time to clean my teeth now and sleep.
May the Force be with you.
