In the pink

Mark suggested we get ourselves out today and spend a morning pottering about Cribbs Causeway, our local shopping centre. I had a couple of things to return to M & S and I agreed, a browse around now the sales are over might give us the diversion we need.

I caught sight of myself in the mirror as we were about to leave and noticed the grey sweater, the grey trousers and grey check jacket...so quickly grabbed my fuchsia pink scarf and tied it hastily around my neck. (I'm not sure it's quite that shade of fuchsia btw).

In the last couple of weeks, my knitting mojo has disappeared. Hardly surprising really, though also due to the fact that the current project is a pair of black "Dashing" mitts for Edward. These are awful to work on in anything but the brightest of daylight, and that's been in pretty short supply of late. I'd bought (not quite enough) yarn in Paris to knit "My So-called Scarf" and mooched over to the yarn dept in John Lewis to see if there could be anything suitable. Not only was there something which caught my eye, but when I took it over to pay for it, I felt there must have been some mistake. This was Debbie Bliss yarn, when all is said and done. Four balls for £7.80? Sure enough, it had been reduced in the sale. What a bargain!

It's pink.

I completed the morning by making one more pink purchase. The morning might have started out grey but turned out rosy in the end!

Whilst in the garden to take a photo for my 365 blog, I spotted my favourite feature of the large phormiums - nature's own pleating. One plant in particular seems to do this from time to time and I'm fascinated by how regular the pleats are and how they switch from side to side.

An appropriate city to visit today

Well, if we'd jumped in here, we couldn't have been wetter and at least we'd have been warm!

Yes, today we decided to visit the city of Bath, to do a little shopping, have a wander around and go somewhere nice for lunch. As you will gather, it rained.

And rained.

And then rained some more.

And when it had finished raining it snowed.

But more about that later.

It never really got light all day. I looked through this fuchsia pink window around 10.30am - yes, the street lights were still on.

At least there were no pesky tourists to get underfoot. In fact, there were very few people about at all. Sensible folks stayed home today. By lunchtime, we were soaked to the skin even though we were wearing wet weather gear, strong shoes and had darted in and out of shops all morning.

Even the Pump Rooms were practically deserted at lunchtime, though the musicians played on.

and the water continued to flow, inside and out.

Whenever I'm there I like to go and look at the panel of English Kings and Queens, embroidered by Audrey Walker in 1973 because it was one of the pieces which inspired me when I very first began to stitch creatively. Sad to say, one or two rust spots are beginning to appear, but the colours and the overall design never fail to win me over.

We braved the wind and rain and headed back to the car and drove home through sleet. Once back home, the sleet turned to snow and within an hour, the garden was covered in a thin white blanket.

I came to upload photographs and read email around 6pm, but shortly after I did, the lights went out and we were without power for two and a half hours - a major overhead power cable had failed in the area and all the surrounding villages were affected. As usual in a local crisis, we turned on the BBC local radio to hear that once more, Gloucestershire is hit by floods, though thankfully, not so badly as in July. Several roads are closed due to snow or lying water and we are thankful that we are at home and do not have to venture far tomorrow.

41degrees in Australia, so Sue tells me. Hmmm.....right now, that sounds pretty nice.

More fun

We've been up in Hull again and spent last night in the company of the delightful Susoolu . Fortunately, I was the guilty party when it came to choosing and booking somewhere to eat last night, so I can take all the credit for offering an opportunity to enjoy the small idiosyncracies of the place.

"We opened three years ago and used to be a pan-Asian restaurant, but now we serve Global food. Special today is Beef Wellington"

"Do you want wine as well Sir? - give us yer glass then" (at which point wine is poured into a tilted glass held a foot above the table, can-of-lager style)

"The Goan Fish starter is off - would you like to choose something else?" (yes, if you'd bring me a menu)

I don't think the evening convinced my two companions that Hull is anything but the gastronomic desert they believe it to be. Having said that, my Chicken Biryani was pretty awful, Mark tells me his King Prawn Sambal wasn't much better, in spite of the radish content and we can only hope that our guest's "House Curry" was more successful! Next time we'll eat at the Parkway Chippie...

On the way home, conversation included a discussion on the trend for totally tasteless over-decoration of houses for Christmas, at which point we screeched to a halt in front of an inflatable Tigger, drunkenly propped up in front of an illuminated Santa on a motor bike.

Why?

Sadly I couldn't offer any suggestions for Susoolu's latest knitting conundrum, so in awe of the amazing complex cabled yoke was I. All I know is that no way could I bear to take out so much lovely knitting and redo it - I think I'd simply keep it as a pet and take it out to stroke and admire daily!

A night out

We were in Birmingham last night, for we had tickets to see Katherine Jenkins and Darcy Bussell in Viva La Diva. Before the show we spent a lively half hour watching the antics on the ice rink outside Symphony Hall, hearing such words of wisdom as "It's ok, you can't fall over unless someone bumps into you". This was probably true for the large number of people fearfully keeping hold of the handrail around the edge of the rink!

Symphony Hall was looking rather different from usual and the seats began to fill faster and more comprehensively than any symphony concert we've attended which wasn't surprising since we'd booked our tickets months ago and founds few available even then.

Though we did our best not to dwell on the reviews we'd read (more here and here and here) the show failed to match the standards we'd expected, sadly. Both women are undoubtedly talented though it was only Darcy who really hit the spot with us even though Katherine Jenkins seemed to have had the more difficult journey in the making of the show. She put in a creditable performance as a dancer, even if when the two danced side by side it was clear that she was not quite in the same league as her co-star! Thankfully, some small details (the start of the show) appear to have been changed since the start of the tour - no longer does it open with the pair in pyjamas, but with a warbled delivery of Jenkins' Viva Tonight and a typically stunning performance by Darcy Bussell.

What confounded us most was the vibrato in Jenkin's voice which persisted throughout the evening though was less noticeable in the more upbeat numbers. OK, we're not adoring fans of hers, but hearing her recordings gives no clue that her live performance will be so different. That Symphony Hall has been filled on three consecutive evenings by people paying more than twice the average symphony concert ticket price is vaguely depressing. Seldom more than half full for concerts including world class soloists playing music from the generally conventional repertoire (seldom does the programme include anything more adventurous than Bruckner or Sibelius!) it was remarkable that so many people were prepared to offer a standing ovation last night's performance. Such is the power of the media hype, I guess.

Friday again

I went to work in Cardiff today, a beautifully sunny and warm Friday, to judge some entries for the Eisteddfod in September. I had great fun working my way through cards, beadwork, embroidered samplers and pincushions and there were some lovely things.

We went to the pub for lunch and I took the opportunity to call into the gift shop at Cardiff Castle for a couple of things for an online chum who can't get there herself.

I decided this container would be useful for I have plenty of manion bethau. It fits well on my shelf, next to my box of "treasure" postcards.

(I was with my welsh speaking friend, or else I wouldn't have had a clue, either!)

Whilst walking along the walls, I spotted several creatures, all different and looking either menacing or cute...I can't decide!

PS:

We really appreciate all your notes following the water "incident" the other night and can honestly say that we got off very lightly indeed. Helping with the water distribution outside Quedgeley library yesterday afternoon made me realise how lucky we were. There was a good spirit there and the team of WI volunteers worked well together, having a laugh at the same time. We hear on the news an hour ago that our tap water is now safe to drink if boiled first, but we should still take care and the bottled water is still available freely. It is likely to be several more days before we get the whole "all clear".