The Balance Shall Tip in the Favour of Culture

Being of a fairly decadent, yet thrifty, disposition, we are going on a short holiday in March. Thrifty? We are going to Krakow in southern Poland - a city which is supposedly gorgeous, very Old Europe and still affordable. Decadent? We are going to stay in an art deco hotel for the duration of our stay. Don't say we don't know how to indulge ourselves whilst remaining within budget. As we are only going to be in Krakow for a very short time, I don't expect we'll get around to seeing all that many sights. We are both slightly intrigued by the famous Wieliczka salt mines but they will probably have to wait for another holiday. I'm mainly looking forward to seeing a lot of beautiful Central European architecture (I'm thinking Krakow will be as picturesque as Prague but significantly less spoiled by fast-food chains) and eating pierogi.

Speaking of Old Europe and beautiful buildings, we watched In Bruges last night. At first I struggled a bit with the strong Irish accents, but when my ear finally tuned in, I relished a dark, funny and very smart film. I didn't even mind Colin Farrell all that much which is saying something.

On needles? I ripped back my delicate lace shawl, have begun a lovely colourful shawl and have almost finished a little cardigan for my nephew-due-in-March. I am also working on my jumper and am getting close to a point where I have to make design decisions. O-er!

Sighs and Cheers

It has been one of those nights. I was ready for a quiet night with my two knitting projects, sat down and I've had one minor mishap after another. My Norwegian Woods, which you can see to your left, started to go seriously wonky. If you follow the pattern link, look at the top part. See how the lace "branches off" to alternating sides? My lace didn't alternate sides and I didn't realise it until I had done a full 20-something repeat because I was very silly. No lifelines, of course, so I'll be tinkering/unknitting tomorrow (and possibly during the weekend too). Then I tried on my top-down sweater and stitches came undone and I'll have to play "catch them live stitches!" tomorrow as well.

One of those days..

..

.. except I just checked my email and was bowled over when I realised that T. (a good internet friend of mine) has bought a plane ticket from dark and gloomy Scandinavia, so she can help me celebrate my birthday next month! We've never met, so it's extra super-exciting and brilliant.

Addendum

We got our Xbox 360 back from repairs today.  Other Half cradled it in his manly arms and smiled. I kid you not.

2009, So Far

+ "No, I'm not going to twirl you around like they did in Moulin Rouge.. oh, okay. But if you fall, I'm not picking you up." + cough-cough-cough.

+ ".. ella, ella, ella, eh, eh, ella.." (or, why it's a bad idea to leave the TV tuned to E4 whilst you go in search of tissue paper)

+ Cold, misty walk along the river yields surprisingly low dog-walkers count.

+ "Do you know what time it is? No, it's not five minutes to five. It's trying on sweater-time so I can check if I need to do more increases. Do try to look excited."

+ "Any more shortbread left?"

+ Wonder how a tongue-in-cheek post can produce very disagreeable comments (but then again not be terribly surprised, sadly).

+ "Nooooo, they're not going to show the kissing bit from Doctor Who again, are they? That's disgusting."

+ Realise that The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will probably not get made which is a shame since it was my favourite Narnia book. Then realise that the non-filming of a good book could be a Rather Good Thing.

+ Now in search of food (and tissue paper).

Hogmanay Etc

This is my favourite photo of 2008. I shot it in early August when we went to Sweden for a day. The weather was incredibly hot (although not particularly sunny) and all these tanned, long-limbed Swedish teenagers were hurling themselves into the Øresund from various cliffs and balconies. I don't know who this boy was, but I am very happy that I decided to take an impromptu photo of him.

I have frequently said that 2008 was an annus horribilis. Looking back, there were some good bits.

The Obama win.

Our trip to Denmark and Sweden was a great success.

I rediscovered my creative side and did so many strange, wonderful things that my head is slightly reeling.

I met some fantastic people: Ellie, Kathleen, Kippen, Anna (who has the best blog title evah), Paula, Angela, SoCherry, Lilith and Kirsty (and the rest do not have easily accessible online profiles) to name but a few.

My Alasdair Gray fangirl-ness reached a new height.

And I managed to remain alive with all my bits and pieces intact which is a bit of a triumph all things considered.

I don't really do New Year's resolutions because I know I will fail horribly if I set myself goals like "I need to lose ten kilos" or "I will watch Kieslowski's Dekalog without falling asleep." However, knitterly resolutions feel different.

I have signed up for a "Twelve Projects in Twelve Months" challenge and I would like to get back to doing stranded knitting (which I did when I was a teenager). I want to use more local wool instead of tricking myself into thinking that US brands are way superior. I want to knit down some of my laceweight stash. And I want to knit a Faroese-ish shawl with my Faroese laceweight to celebrate that I’m partly Faroese on an obscure side of my family.

And I'd quite like to read a bit more too and watch some of the DVDs that we have amassed recently (in particular Brief Encounter, In Bruges and Juno).

Happy new year to you all. As we say in Scotland - Happy Hogmanay! - and in Denmark - Godt nytår!

On the Bus

Sometimes I just feel overwhelmingly foreign or Other. I was heading home from a knitting meet-up, when my bus was invaded by half-cut neds. They started hurling bits of food at people and a tall black guy stood up to tell them to show other people respect. Ah. That led to other people proclaiming "Eh mate, they're jus weans an' the wan nae showing any respect is you."* And the bus driver didn't want to get involved and the swearing got worse and the racist insults kept coming (not just from the neds). I kept my head down, said nothing and texted Other Half so he'd pick me up from the bus stop. I felt rotten because I did not have the guts to stand up beside the sensible guy asking for some order - but I clearly do not speak with a Glaswegian accent and I did not know how I'd handle getting slurs directed at me.

So.

I finished knitting a beautiful hat during my Christmas holidays and I had things I wanted to say about New Year's resolutions, but I won't write about these things tonight. Instead I'll go have some tea and snuggle up beside my Other Half while I try to remember I actually do love living in Glasgow.

*) My transcription skills are sorely lacking sometimes.