Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Hobbies

Lately, I've gotten really into sending postcards via a website called PostCrossing. I'm a big fan of the concept; send a postcard to someone random, somewhere in the world and then someone random, somewhere in the world will send you one. So far I've received cards from China, Germany, Finland, the US, Poland, Brazil, The Netherlands, Hungary and Italy. I've sent cards to lots of really cool places as well. I'm hooked.

With all this postcard sending and receiving, I'm suddenly paying a lot more attention to what's around me, and particularly places that might have postcards. Silly, I know. I've also started collecting postcards...a hobby which I can see as becoming hugely problematic. But no matter, at least it takes up less space then yarn! So far, this is my favorite. Please pardon the crap picture of it, trust me, it's gorgeous.


Last week, while waiting for a friend in Bond Street, I swung by Selfridges and took a look at their current basement exhibition, The Museum of Small Things. I was excited about it, but am forced to admit that the museum was a bit lackluster and unimpressive. All the same, there were some neat things, but mostly it was a bunch of walls with some form of tissue paper on it and flashing lights (the buddha was very cool though). At the end, however, there was a massive collection of free postcards, which I am very much enjoying, and will be sending out on postcrossing over the next several months.

Places I Won't Be Going.....

So, I was going to write this blog post about how excited I was to be going to Shanghai and to see my Dad. Except, I won't be going. So instead I'm going to have a bit of a whinge about it.

About four weeks ago, my Dad calls me up and says he's finalizing plans to go to China at the end of February, and would I perhaps be interested in coming? Well...obviously the answer to that one was a big Yes, but there was a slight catch. See, to go to China, you need a specific visa, which takes roughly 3-4 working days to get. Additionally, I still had to send off for my Tier One UK Visa (aka the Post Study Visa) which I'd had the forms filled out and ready for several weeks, but hadn't sent it off yet, as I was waiting until the last possible moment to do so.

Cue the drama. Obviously I sprinted to the post office and sent my visa application (passport included) off, but would there be enough time? In order to make it to China, I had to not only get my passport back in time to board the plane, but in time to go and get a visa from the Chinese. It was all very close.

Or not. Technically, I should have been packing for China today, but I am not. Sadly, my passport didn't show up, and the UK Home Office are still twiddling their thumbs and working on applications submitted a week before I sent mine in. In a last ditch attempt to make it happen, I spent last Friday at the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square getting an emergency/temporary passport, in the hopes that I could then go to the Chinese Embassy on Monday and get the visa. It all went off rather swimmingly, despite it being Half-term, and "Bring your Baby to the Embassy" day... babies and small children EVERYWHERE

The folks at the Embassy were great however, minus the part where the (also very nice) security guys took all my electronics...aka, 90% of my planned entertainment while I waited. But, two hours, a panicky trip out to a local pharmacy when their photo machine broke, several chapters of "Underground London" by Stephen Smith, and a couple of Sudoku's later, I had a temporary passport. Awesome. Step One of "Go To China" completed.

Sadly, Step Two was not remotely successful. On Monday morning, after a very soggy slog down High Holborn to the Chinese Visa building, I was informed (again by very fast, polite and efficient staff) that I had to have my original passport, with my UK visa in it, because the embassy would need proof that I was allowed back in to the UK. Even if I were to re-reroute my flight through the States they still couldn't do it.

Side note - Did I mention that when I first tried to book the flight, all the US airlines had me routed through the US? I.e. Fly to Shanghai via ATLANTA?? Turning a 10-11 hour trip into a 46 hour trip. Oy vey.... but I digress.

So, at the end of the day, there will be no trip to China. I briefly held hopes that my passport might show up in time for me to sprint to Manchester and do the one- day visa processing there, but no dice. Sigh.

But, I'll be switching my China ticket to a US ticket for some time in May/June for a visit home, and Dad is making plans to come and visit in March. So, it's not all that bad, because that was the important part, seeing family, going to China was just a bonus.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Hanging out with the Posh Folk

Among other happenings, this past Friday Alli and I went to the Ivy Plus Society's (semi?) annual cocktail party. Sounds pretentious doesn't it? Well, it was. Initially I was very hesitant about going, and the 25 pound price tag didn't help. But the event was also being held at The East India Club, a proper 'Gentleman's Club' if there ever was one, and originally populated by the various Higher Ups of the East India Company. Translation: You're never going to have the chance to get through the door ever again in your life, so GO. Thus, off we went to a schmancy cocktail party, makeup, hair, dress and all. Here are a few (very poor quality) pictures i snapped on the sly.

The entry to the building, and the wall of school plaques (featuring all the really poncy schools)










Our event was held in the smoking room, featuring many portraits of very important (and likely deceased) old men.


In all honestly, I would have loved to have the opportunity to poke around, but sadly it wasn't in the cards. So we went off and mingled instead. Sigh....can you imagine what a stereotypical Ivy League gathering might have been?? Yeah, a lot of the people were like that. There were some pretty neat ones there as well, however. So it was a very good time to be had, not to mention the wine (East India Club's House Label) was fantastic.

Plus? We looked awesome - first photo is from after we left (they kicked us out promptly at 10 pm) and went and had a great dinner at Spaghetti House, made even tastier by being starving. Please also note - I totally had awesome heels on, but took them off when I actually had to walk somewhere. The second photo is Alli's absoutley INSANE hair do. Because it's awesome.


















Lastly, the current state of my Ravelympics Chantal, which is going VERY fast (as I've done nothing but knit for the past two days). Yoke, sleeves divided, and the waist decreases are all done, Now I'm just plugging along with the body until I get back to the hip increases. After that, a nice classy moss stitch border for the buttons and collar.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Olympics Baby!

As one of the many nutters who take a part in the knitting site, Ravelry.com I am also signing on for their traditional Ravelympics! The idea is that you pick a project, cast on during the opening ceremony and (plan to) have it finished by midnight on the last day of the Olympics. Obviously, as it's only 16 days, if you're doing something big, it's a bit of a push. But that's the whole point, the idea is to work hard while watching the games, as a way of sharing in the spirit of it. Challenge yourself and try something new etc etc.

So, for my Ravelympics Project, I'm making a cardigan for work. Because now that I am "employed" I need to look respectable and professional, and my current closet of clothing doesn't precisely fit that description. I've picked up a few bit and bobs (including a pair of slacks that turned out to be 6 inches too long, and required going into work with them pinned up with bobby pins *headdesk) but what I really need is a nice comfy office sweater. Hence, the Cardigan. With that in mind, I've chosen to knit myself a Chantal, in Big Wool (Rowan). It's a lovely cloud color, pale grey with a hint of blue. I am slightly leery of how this may come out, as i tend to look like death in pale colors, but it was that, hot pink or lime green. So....cloud it is. This particular pattern was chosen because it's a fairly classic K2P2 design, bulkier yarn and most especially because it's top down. According to most patterns I've found, I have a freakishly long torso, so I'm hoping that the top down approach will be easily modified to add length.

I cast on this morning while watching a rerun of the opening ceremony...because there was just no way I would have been able to stay up that late (Wine from Friday night, a post on that one to follow). I only got to see bits and pieces of the ceremony though, as the BBC only chose to do a 30 minute 'highlight' version, which was terrible, and then when I figured out that Eurosport had it, I'd already missed about 2/3 of the ceremony. But I DID get to see the awesome fiddler/tap dancing duo, bits of the whales and the slam poets. All in all, I really enjoyed what I saw and those graphics were amazing. Ten points to the Canadians for that one!!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Notes on Some Good Tea

About a week ago, Yas and I followed up our YumCha tea bliss experience with a visit to Postcard Teas, near Bond Street. It's easily accessible, but still quiet and off the main road. Not to mention, the show front is incredibly classically inviting. The inside wasn't quite so comfortable, as this is clearly intended to be more of a tasting, buying and then going away sort of place, as opposed to a shop where you sit and nurse that cup of tea for a good hour or so. But, it was very quiet, and nice place to sit for a bit. Not to mention their tea choices rather blew my mind. Seriously, go look at their blends on the website, it's like tea porn.












Yas went with the Mountain Grey, aka Earl Grey, but it was way too bitter for my taste.



Whereas I opted to try the Jasmine Che, based on the description; "Jasmine Che is the finest quality Vietnamese Jasmine tea. Made from ancient tea trees grown as wild by Ms Nguyen Thi Thuy and then scented in the summer with the freshest jasmine flowers."

My favorite part about it was the smell, which was so heady it was like snorting a bunch of wild jasmine flowers...except, apparently they have no scent. Either way, it was great. The tea itself had an interesting smoky flavor to it which I couldn't quite place, but also enjoyed. It was a nice, light lunch tea, as opposed to the heavier (and stronger) Mountain Grey. The Mountain Grey is one of those teas you want when you have to get up at 3 am to catch a plane, but don't have the brain power to figure out how the coffee maker works, never mind that you've owned it for years.

Afterward we took a look downstairs at the small exhibition the shop had, featuring lots of different tea sets from around the world. Quick, but very cute. Which is a pretty accurate description of the place overall, I don't think I'd want to sit there for a long time and mull over my world philosophy with a cuppa, but I'd definitely enjoy popping in for something quick, fantastic, and new.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Slow and steady wins the race

The first Noro Striped Scarf I did took about a month. Much of it was knit in one weekend, when a friend and I took a quite trip down to Bournemouth in early April. There was lots of train and car time, as well as watching of Rugby. So it went fairly quickly, and I was so enamored of the clever color changes that I started the next one immediately. I'd even brought the yarn with me so I wouldn't be bored on the trip back. My comment on the start of my new scarf for Ravelry was as follows...

"I get the feeling i will be making a lot of these suckers…"

Oh what a fool I was. Nearly a year later I have FINALLY cast off this second monstrosity, which I made wider and longer than the first...and promptly lost interest in the minute I got back from Bournemouth. See, here's the thing: I hate ribbing. Totally, utterly and completely. I love how ribbing looks, particularly K1 P1, but for me, the actual DOING and knitting of the thing drives me utterly mad. It bores me to tears. So more than about 10 rows of it and I'm ready to go do something else, something entertaining...like my dishes, or vacuuming.
I picked half heartedly at it here and there over the months, and in the past few weeks finally decided it was time to get it DONE. I will not countenance a UFO hanging out in my knitting basket untouched for a full year (Oh, wait? My Green Gable Hoodie has been untouched since September 2008 you say? That totally doesn't count, totally doesn't.). So, at last, and knit over many hours of Firefly, coffee and my newly discovered addiction, Sea Patrol. I give you my second Noro Striped Scarf.

Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf by Jared Flood
Yarn: Noro Kureyon #170 and 52 (2 or 3 skeins each, i'm not quite sure, but I think it's 3)
Needles: US 8
Length: Roughly 5'10, or just a bit taller than I am

Notes: It needs blocking, as there's a bit of a curve to it because I don't always remember to slip my first stitch. On the whole, however, I am VERY pleased....and sort of want to make another one, but I'm thinking I will wait a bit for the trauma that is K1P1 to recede.