About time too…

It’s been a long time. So long I can’t even remember the last time. The last time I wrote just general lifey things. No reason. Plenty of excuses – such as I have nothing to say!

So what have I been up to? Well, the holiday is now a very distant memory and I’m well and truly back in the work thing – that’s another excuse, it’s been busy at work! I’ve been crocheting – another excuse, needed to get things finished! And I’m longing, yes longing to start the quilting that I mentioned in the holiday post – all will be revealed, hopefully, very soon!

A few weeks ago I left you with the promise of more about the Rod Stewart concert and I will be true to my word! We have seen Rod three times in the last five years and he never fails to please! This time we went to the O2 arena to see him, staying overnight at the nearest Travel Lodge – please do not take this as a recommendation for a night away, if you can afford it I strongly recommend paying the extra for a place that’s slightly more luxurious! We had seen this particular hotel from the road several times as we’d passed, it’s not a particularly attractive building – very block-like in construction and the inside didn’t surprise us, however the staff were very friendly and the breakfast was very good. Probably best to skim over the accommodation for the night.

Anyway, on to the O2 via the Docklands Light Railway which was very efficient. We arrived, we thought, in plenty of time for a meal before the show. Unfortunately the rest of the world also had the same thought and every restaurant had a queue a mile long. A friend at work had recommended the Thai restaurant and amazingly it had the shortest queue – but only because they were taking bookings for an hours time! We gave our name and went inside for a drink, sat ourselves at a table and were joined by another couple who asked if we minded if they ate – of course we didn’t and, as luck would have it, we managed to order food as well without having to wait for the hour!  After a delicious meal we took our seats for the concert. We had good seats, via the front of the arena and just one level up about three blocks away from the stage. Whilst we’d been waiting I was being uber-cool and Facebooking, Tweeting etc only to have some very disparaging remarks made about Rod from some of my closest friends. Let me tell you right now they were wrong – he may be 65 but boy he can still rock an entire arena. He sang all of his old classics plus some Motown and he only swore once! I think the best bit though was at the end when he thanked us all for turning out in such difficult financial times and said that we’d made the effort to get Grannies to babysit! I think he needs a reality check – most of the audience were Grannies!

So that was Rod – hopefully he’ll do more tours and we’ll get to go again. What else has been happening? Mmmm not a lot really, oh – I bought a sewing machine. As I write it sits in it’s box unopened because I haven't had the chance to start to use it yet. I had planned to spend all day yesterday ‘playing’ and making a start but I’ve not been well all week so that didn’t happen. I have though bought several books and viewed some fabulous You Tube video tutorials on quilting. I’m waiting for some very important equipment to be delivered now – cutting mat, cutter and ruler – and believe me I will be using them very soon. I am inspired. I can quilt. I think…

I mentioned crochet above and I have been very active in that department (‘cos it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort- just need to stay awake!) and I can now reveal my latest projects – ta dah!

   

My friend at work (who doesn’t read this so if you know her please don’t tell her!) is going to be a grandma in December (she does know that part) so I thought I’d make something for the baby but because I don’t know what the baby will be I thought I’d make one in each colour. The pattern was based on this here but I used a 4-ply cotton and a 3.5 mm hook which made tiny motifs so I had to modify it to make a reasonable size – I have to say I’m quite pleased with the results.

I’ve now started to use this lovely cotton yarn that I bought on holiday. The idea was a Cath Kidston-esque afghan but I’m not so sure it’s looking that way! I decided to be a little different with this one and am making big squares using every colour in every square but in a different order and only using the sage green around the edges – I bought three balls of sage but that won’t be enough to edge the whole thing :( I tried to order more online at Hobby Lobby but they don’t do international online orders so I’ll need to phone them instead!

Well, that’s about it I think. I’ve had an enforced week off work due to illness this week – started off with a gastric thing and then on Wednesday my back pinged as I was about to sit down – hence I can’t sort the sewing machine out yet! My lovely FDIL kindly drove me to the Chiropractor on Thursday afternoon and I have another appointment for Monday – hopefully by then the pain will have subsided.

Phew, this is long – if you’ve made it to the end thanks for staying with me, if you haven’t well you don’t know what you’ve missed!!