A big weekend

It's been a great weekend but I am shattered!

Friday was a blur of activity as I repacked my suitcase after three days in Brisbane, fitted in a gym session, got my hair cut and headed off to the airport to fly to Melbourne. R flew down from Canberra and we met up for the trip to St Kilda. Friday evening we had dinner with his eldest son and his partner. Although we've been together for a while now, I hadn't met any of his children before now so this was fairly momentous and a little daunting for me. We had a lovely evening at Cicciolina. which was their choice but, serendipitously, one of my favourite restaurants.

On Saturday we had breakfast in St Kilda then caught the tram into the City for some shopping. In the evening it was the reason for our visit - the 60th birthday party of an ex-Navy colleague of R's. Several of his class mates and their partners were there and it was the first time I'd met any of them so again, a little daunting!

On Sunday we drove out to Croydon North to visit more long term friends of R. They have just moved there from Canberra and have taken on an enormous project to restore a beautiful but somewhat dilapidated early 1900's house and the Edna_Walling designed garden. I half expected to see Kevin_McCloud shaking his head over the folly of trying to restore such a property!

I've started so I'll finish.......one day

I haven't really felt very inspired by my knitting recently. I know that I am a resistant completer but I really do have too many projects sitting around waiting to be finished and perhaps this is impacting my ability to get excited and inspired by new projects. I seem to have the attention span of a gnat and am suffering from an inability to commit to a new project.



Skulking in the pending basket are:

• The Falling Leaves socks which are finished apart from one toe that needs to be Kitchener stitched.



• The two halves of All a Flutter need to be grafted together - but where are they?



• A Saroyan needing to be blocked and;



• Alix's Prayer Shawl - also needing blocking.

On the positive side, I did complete Lucy's Jacket - another Phazelia's Mitred Jacket.

I know that I just need to be disciplined and get on with it but instead I dither and delay and spent far too much time and money acquiring yet more yarn. Yarn that I hope will inspire me.....

Surely not!

I'm not sure when or how it happened but at some point in the last few months I seem to have crossed an invisible line. At first I thought it was a random happening but it now occurs on a regular basis. Somehow, I have become a person for whom people relinguish their seats on buses.

Now I don't wish to sound ungrateful and I am very pleased that there are so many well brought up people around but it is a little unnerving. How can the energetic, youthful person that I am inside look as though I need to sit down?

Postcard from New Zealand

We had a wonderful time in New Zealand, although it seems a long time ago now. But with limited access to the internet and limited time, I didn't manage to blog about the trip. So here is the potted version.

We flew into Wellington at the start of the trip. After picking up the car and grabbing a late lunch we headed for Karori. Just as we got there, a massive storm blew up and the temperature plummeted. Welcome to Windy Wellington indeed! My cousin's three children were pleased to see me and we had a lovely evening catching up on all the news. Actually - not sure whether the children were more interested in me or my iPhone but I was happy to see them again. The next day we visited Te_Papa , found a yarn shop for me and a tackle shop for R. And the weather improved although it was a still a little chilly. The youngest asked me to teach him to knit. I don't think he quite grasped it but he smiled his devastating smile at me and said that he was "finding it very relaxing"!

We then headed off to Martinborough. What a great little town - we loved it.

Fabulous wineries, good food and very friendly people. We visited a couple of wineries and Olivo where we bought some amazing olive oil. A wander through the Wairarapa and on to my aunt in Taupo.

My aunt is my mother's youngest sister and we were always very close when I was growing up. This visit there were no shocking family revelations and we had a good time catching up. I really like Taupo althought I'm not sure I would want to live there. We went to the Orakei Korako geothermal park and then for a spin (literally) on the Huka_Falls Jetboat.

After a detour via Tauranga we headed up to Whangapareo, just north of Auckland. Here we were looked after in fine style by an ex-Navy colleague of R's. They went fishing early Saturday morning and caught a few snapper which we had for supper. Our hosts prepared them in lemon juice with chopped onion, tomato and coconut milk - delicious!

On Sunday it was back to Auckland to have coffee with my other kiwi cousin, then on to the airport and home. And yes - there was some yarn acquisition!

Knitters in knots

Last Saturday saw us (as the erstwhile self-styled magic president would say) at the AGM of the NSW Knitters Guild. Now you wouldn't think that something as genteel as knitting would generate such heated debate and engender such deeply felt emotions. I guess that when you get a group of people together for whatever purpose, then divudes can open and the original common purpose get forgotten.

We were told not to talk about the AGM so I can't tell you about the grossly improper behaviours that occurred. Nor can I comment on the travesty of the "election" of the office bearers. I have since heard that there were even more improprieties during the nomination process than we understood. It seems that the President herself opened the nomination papers and, upon seeing who had nomonated for what position, then persuaded other people to also nominate for those positions. The Returning Officer was not allowed to fulfil her role of impartially overseeing the process and the Executive Committee later voted on the validity of the nominations despite the fact that there was a clear conflict of interest.

At the end of this debacle, we have a new committee and a new president who is committed to ensuring fair, equitable and accountable governance. It is a shame that they weren't permitted to go through the proper election process as I know that they would have got massive support from the ordinary members. The people who, after all, supposed to be what the Guild is all about.

The young ones

When I was chronologically a young one, I wanted to be like my aunt, Carol. Carol was (and still is) ten years older than me and was more like an older sister to me. So when she became a fan of Cliff Richard, so did I. I suspect that due to the fickleness of teenagers, Carol moved on but I didn't. Whilst I am not a dyed in the wool, avid Cliff groupie, I have remained a constant fan (much to the amusement and indulgence of my family). So when it was announced that Sir Cliff AND the Shadows were going to perform at the Hunter Valley, I knew I had to get tickets.

So last Friday afternoon we headed north to the Hunter Valley. The place where we stayed was nothing special but this was the view from the verandah.

On Friday night we had excellent tapas at Tatler. After a lazy start to Saturday we hit the wineries! I like to go to the smaller wineries - the ones that only sell from the cellar door rather than the big conglomerates. It seemed from our guidebook that Audrey_Wilkinson had won a lot of prizes so we decided to start there. As we drove up to the cellar door a magnificent view unfolded before us:

The wine was pretty good, too. Next up was an old favouite Tamburlaine where we got some bargain red, some Framboise and some white. After lunch we headed to Capercaille which I felt was a little disappointing.

After getting changed, it was time to head off to the concert at Hope Estate. It was a great night. Cliff always puts on a good show and this was no different. I had forgotten what a great musician Hank Marvin was and it was wonderful to hear some of the Shadows old hits. And for somewhat aged young ones - they looked and sounded pretty good!

Ups and downs

It's been an eventful and somewhat stressful few weeks. I was going to blog about the debacle of the Knitters_Guild elections but I think that all that should be said has been. I know that the incoming Executive will be much more open, visible and accountable and that the harassment and bullying that has characterised the organisation will become a thing of the past.

Workwise we had a tumultuous week last week with fourteen partners resigning from the firm on the same day. Again, much has been written about this and whilst it does not affect me directly, it has unsettled everyone.

Healthwise I have had an unpleasant gum infection which my dentist attributes to stress. The medication was strong and knocked me around a bit last week.

Thank goodness for my knitting! The Green Leaves socks are progressing nicely,

Cherry_Basket is finished

and I have started a Featherweight Cardigan.

There has been some yarn acquisition - the last instalments of the Lush yarn Sock Club and the wonderful Knitabulous yarn club. Oh - and a skein of Lush 50/50 silk and merino happened to fall into my virtual shopping basket.