The Life of Lara – Page 138

Tuesday

Not even hump day, and I am aching for the weekend. Boss won’t be back till thursday, and I am running out of things I can do to occupy myself. Tomorrow I’ll be turning into a printing press for a mass mailout, at least that will keep me amused for a few hours.

I left work a little early to get to Mosman to pick up a monitor adapter, keyboard and mouse – so that I can use the larger monitor that is on the desk I am using. Ask me why I don’t say “my” desk.

I spent over four fucking hours in traffic. It’s a good thing Mark hooked up the FM transmitter in the transporter, I got to catch up on two episodes of Cast On, one episode of Lime & Violet, and two episodes of Sticks and String.

I made the choice to start work with a broken foot, knowing that driving would not be good for it, but also knowing that I wouldn’t be able to get to work unless I drove. I wasn’t counting on spending over 4 hours driving (including driving to work this morning), and tonight my poor wee (size 11) tootsie is aching.

All because there was a boat in the harbour.

(if you know Sydney, check out the size of Fort Dennison compared to the monster ship. Check out the Opera House)

Solidarity

Unravelled has decided to have a knit in simultaneously with the Yarn Harlot’s New York act of resistance to being ignored. Much as I adore Canberra, and race to get there frequently (yes, that was sarcasm, which is a little rude – I have had some good times in our nation’s capitol), I won’t be there for that particular event.

But I can be here, and hopefully inspire others to join me, and maybe even inspire others to get together in other states so that Australians don’t have to go to New York to show solidarity.

A lot has been written about why it’s good to knit this week, why it’s ok for men to knit, and why we are so totally not our grandmothers and that we are really just racy and sex mad, and that knitting is the new singles bar without the Hep C. But frankly, I’m just here for the yarn and the beer.

Kris, M-H, David, anyone else that has a way to spread the word – are you in? Anyone in Tassie ? SA, WA, NT? Even Queensland ?

One small hitch. When it’s 7pm in NY on the 22nd of March, it will be 10am in Sydney on the 23rd. Perhaps we can compromise and hold an event in Sydney on the THursday night ? The venue Kris picked for the WWKIP day was very nice….

Ooooo! Excitement!

Doesn’t this look fascinating!

I was told today that I might be required to attend. My only concern is that I get some time out to go yarn hunting.

I knew before I started this job that it would be a steep learning curve, and I was hoping for some travel opppurtunities – maybe things are looking up. 🙂

TBA @ 2 weeks old

More pictures here.

Another roadtrip

Today was a great day. It started off with some political bullshit. Hornsby Council had another by-election (after one in September last year), and since I knew the candidate to be a good bloke, with an outside chance of getting the job, I thought that it would be the decent thing to scramble out of bed at the crack of sparrows and spread the green word to the uneducated voting masses. Or hand out “How to Votes” at least.

At 10 am (after some malarky with the liberal candidate pretending to be an independent pretending to have environmental principles), Candi, Sally, Meg and Mandy arrived to ferry me off for yarny good time.

First stop, the Wool Inn at Penrith – I am sure Meg will have a great description (and pictures) of our adventures, because I forgot to take my camera out of the bag all day. I blame the drugs. I’ve been good with the painkillers, but today required some intervention. Sally, Mandy and Candi are, sadly, blogless.

I bought some Filatura di Crosa lace-weight in white (yes, I believe I will dye it in preparation for the arrival of my new book), a ball of Zara in a very intense teal/turquoise colour, and a variegated cotton that I found in a sale bin.

Then it was off to the Blue Mountains Knitters Guild meeting. I had never been to a guild meeting before, and it was educational, and inspirational to be in a room full of crafty women of all ages, skill levels, interests, styles, and degrees of yarn snobbery. I deliberately only mentioned women because David was the only man there. It was freaky. My knitting life is full of men – most weeks at the Courthouse we have more knitters with balls than knitters with boobs, so it was rather strange to be in such a large room, that was so overpoweringly female dominated.

Though it is definitely the case that a persons gender is the least interesting aspect of their knitting, it appears that I have taken for granted the rather special group that makes up the Courthouse. It never occurred to me that men were all that special – I thought they were just like people.

Australia’s “brain drain” hoax

For many years we’ve been hearing that Australia isn’t putting enough funding into research, that our top minds are going overseas for jobs (or into defense contracts, but that’s another story).

Today, cruising Photojojo, my favourite photographic tip site, I found out that we are spending money on research, and the Australian scientists are coming up with life changing, world class, award winning research.

Into exactly how many photos you ned to take of a group of people, in order to assure a photograph in which no one is blinking.

Brain drain, my arse.

Sorry Emma

I know I referred to your lovely Noro jumper as the Vajumper, and developed Tourettes whenever I saw it (SPADGE! SPAM PURSE! AXE WOUND! MINGE!). But then I saw this, which is really a much better example.

I’ll call it the Vulva Vest.

In the mail

Another cute habit the husband has, is to empty the mailbox, and then hide the mail. He rarely does this with boring mail, just the good stuff. Hence my reluctance to email Interweave Knits to complain that my latest issue hasn’t turned up, because it might have just been hidden by the mister.

Like he did on Valentines day. Probably because he was suspicious that I was getting a lumpy valentines day card that wasn’t from him. It was from the lovely Ailsa, and it contained the best stitch markers ever. They have built in irony™ too. While you visit her blog, please note the lovely finished and almost finished objects. This woman has it.

And this is a magazine I ordered on the intertron about three years ago. It may not have been quite that long, but it was a looong time. I remember still being housebound at the time, and I’ve been up and about for more than a year now.

Apologies for the crappy pictures, taken using the built in camera on the lappy, because I have to race off to a Mardi Gras exhibition opening dahlink.

Mango Chutney

I have asthma. My attacks are brought on by exercise, animals, preservatives, and just life in general. Exercise – no problem, easily avoided (yes, I know this is a cop out, I’m working on it). Animals – not negotiable. I’d rather die than live without creatures. Preservatives are something I can avoid. Common triggers are dried fruit, many fruit juices, salt and vinegar chips, and most Indian pickles.

Recently, my asthma has been awful. Mark has been terrified, and I’ve been pretty scared too. Vietnam was not too bad, but coming back to Sydney reminded me how vulnerable I am, and I am off to see a respiratory specialist soon. In the meantime, having a cold makes things worse, I feel bloody awful and more dependent on medication than I am comfortable with.

It’s been years since I’ve had a decent pickle, and the other week at Sally & David’s house, I had the first pickle without breathing difficulties in years. Sally makes her own, and she gave me a jar. Tonight I made a chickpea, pumpkin and pea curry, and enjoyed it with a superb homemade mango pickle, courtesy of Sally. And I can still breathe 🙂

Thanks Sally.

Mango Chutney

Thanks Sally.