Hi Everyone :-)
Sorry for the lack of an update last weekend - I was away in London for the Philofaxy meet up, and spent the weekend with my brother and his family in Basildon, which was great.
It's been another busy couple of weeks, but I have actually achieved stuff - hurrah!!!
My first stop in Basildon was to Hobbycraft to pick up knitting and embroidery supplies, so I can start on those two challenges. Unfortunately, although they sell embroidery threads, I couldn't find any kits or even the material to go with them, so have given those a miss for now.
Surprisingly I have since managed to knit not one, but two scarves (one was a short fat one for me, and the other was longer and thinner for Marcus). As Marcus is the same as I was when I was younger it is unlikely that he will ever wear it (despite nagging me to make it) as he finds it tickles his neck. Thankfully that means that Christopher can have it instead and I don't need to make another one. I used a thick wool, which required knitting needles that I'm sure were designed for use by elephants (or maybe even as legs for elephants). They are 2cm thick, which is just crazy!!! The good thing is that it takes less stitches though, so I'm not complaining.
My boys have now decided that they want to learn to knit and want me to teach them - that's fun as I don't really know what I'm doing, and definitely don't hold the needles or the wool in a way that's going to be easy... However, Marcus decided to do a trial using the big needles and a length of wool that was left over from his scarf. He only did about five stitches, and got the long tail tangled in amongst them, but he did manage to do them all by himself, so is very pleased.
The boys playroom is now completed, with a couple of extra toy boxes to put all their stuff in - somehow we seems to still have managed to accumulate a box of toys in the front room where they keep bringing more toys downstairs, so now we just need to educate them to take things back upstairs and put them in the toy boxes...
I'm still doing my Les Mills Combat programme, and although I missed two workouts last weekend I have added them into this week and caught up. I now have 18 days left until I finish - yay!!! Then it will be time to decide what to do next. :o)
I'm still pretty rubbish at taking my camera on days out and actually using it and I had a bit of a breakthrough at the Philofaxy meet up, followed by a total fail in my lack of photo-taking of my brother and his family, despite my nieces and nephew being totally fabulous and gorgeous - I am utterly rubbish. Thankfully it's a family thing - I hadn't seen my brother in nine years, and after moving here in February 2009, I didn't get round to calling him until Christmas 2012. To be fair, he hadn't called me either, so I don't feel bad - we are both rubbish and we know it :o)
Here is the evidence that I did actually take photos while on a day out (admittedly I did only actually remember to get my camera out while we were in the restaurant, and it didn't see the light of day again, but it's a start, no?).
 |
| Kate & Susie |
 |
| Paula, Angela, Imy & Lorena |
 |
Sharon & Tracy with Tracy's fantastically organised pocket
Filofax which she keeps everything in. |
 |
| Ray & Steve, our insert kings :o) |
 |
| The money shot!!! |
If anyone reading this wants somewhere to eat in the centre of London, without it costing a fortune, Vapiano is the place to go. It's easy to find (even I managed to find it really quickly, so had time to do a little shopping before popping back at the right time to meet with everyone) and it was such an exciting moment when I got back to see all the Philofaxy bods stood outside waiting for it to open :-) Vapiano's card system, where you get given a charge card on entry to the restaurant and everything you order gets charged to it as you order so you can pay on the way out, is a perfect system for a group of people eating out. No trying to divide the bill or work out who owes what, which is always a total pain. The food is so good, and it's all cooked to order. I had the pasta carbonara, it was cooked right in front of me, and tasted absolutely amazing.
This was a fab day out, meeting people who I've only chatted with on Skype or online before, visiting the Filofax store, Mulberry (you can read Imy's account of their shocking service
here), and
Artbox before finally heading off for the station. The Mulberry service would have been bad enough if it had just been that the sales guy clearly didn't know the products, but to come back with an iPad to show us that what we were looking for didn't exist, whilst having it on the page for the exact item Imy was looking for makes me wonder whether he had actually had any training at all, or if he'd had a very heavy night out on the Friday... Tracy and I spent most of our time between Mulberry and Artbox spotting all the pubs and saying that we really should stop for a swift one. At one point we had got left behind a bit (we spotted some lovely owl dresses) and said that if we came across a pub before we caught up with everyone else that we would pop in. And then we spotted it just across the roundabout, looking totally inviting it - another pub!!! Yes, it was meant to be :o) And then we spotted the Philofaxy group stood outside waiting for us to catch up... foiled!!!
But as we were both going in a similar direction on the Tube, once we left Covent Garden, we dived onto the Tube back to Oxford Circus, took the first turning as we emerged from the station and found a pub, with tables and chairs outside - just what we both needed. A perfect end to a perfect day :-)
Have a great week,
LJx
