Elephants On Parade - Round up for May 6th

I made an absolutely thrilling discovery today....turns out that the Elephants will be scattered about London until June 23rd, not the 2nd like I thought, before they are moved to lie in state at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea. This has made my life SO much better, as it means I don't need to be quite as frenetic in my Elephant hunting. I plan on maintaining as much as I can, but it's a little bit more breathing room.


Today I met a friend for lunch on Bond Street, but we wandered around quite a bit before actually finding a place we were interested in eating at, so I was able to pick up a few Elephants I hadn't expected. It made me feel a lot better, as I'd left my flat about 20 minutes early and walked via Holland Park, then from Marble Arch to Bond St to try and bag a few of the 'phants. Except I couldn't find most of them. Turns out this is because a) the ones I saw on the map as being on Bond Street were actually on South Molton, and the one near Holland Park hadn't even been installed yet! After we had lunch, we had a good wander around the city, and tripped over the movers/installers of the elephants (super cute, by the way) and it turns out that there were about 5-10 that hadn't been installed yet, and were due to go up today.

It's nice to know I'm not insane, because it was getting rather disturbing not being able to find a giant, brightly colored elephant in an uncrowded street.



The total count for today is 23 Elephants, which I am quite pleased about. My travels included Marble Arch, Molton Street, Hamleys, Regent Street, Hanover Square, Notting Hill Gate (okay that's kind of cheating), Carnaby Street and a few other small side streets. However, when I looked back at the map I see that I missed a few that I should have caught. Going to have to go back and get them another day!
119 - Oil - South Molton Street
199 - Impossiphant - South Molton Street
142 - Dead End - South Molton Street
231 - The Illustrated Elephant - Hanover Square
351 - Oscar - Hanover Square
16 - Mrs Stripe - Marble Arch

241 - Happyphant - Marble Arch
132 - Young At Art - South Molton Street
118 - Candy - Carnaby St/Marlborough St
220 - Oak, Chestnut, Plane & Elm - Regent Place
214 - Vanda - Swallow Street
247 - The Tommy Hillfigner Elephant - St. Martin's Court

175 - R - New Burlington Place
113 - Monopoly Community Chest - Hamley's Toy Store
114 - Zambi - Hamley's Toy Store
15 - Mr Stripe - Foubert's Place/Newburgh Street
14 - Daisies - Notting Hill Gate
167 - Elphish - Foubert's Place/Regent Street

41 - Travels On My Elephant - Notting Hill Gate
178 - Naveen - Notting Hill Gate
139 - Bertie - Foubert's Place/Kingly St
7 - Tree of Love - National Geographic Store, Regent St
160 - Kissed by Lulu Guiness - Carnaby St/Broadwick Street
91 - Cupcake - Regent Place

Elephant's On Parade

This week Elephants on Parade, an art event for charity opened up in London. Specifically, there are now 250 elephant statues, painted by various (and numerous) artists placed, pell mell, about the city.

Oh look! An opportunity for a photo project/delusions of grandeur. Goodie!!

So, my goal is (of course) to track down and photograph each of these fantastic elephantine creatures. I'm hoping it will be a good way to explore parts of the city I have missed before I move back to the States in July. It's also something ridiculous to do with my time. Most of them are in clusters, so they shouldn't be too hard, but others are rather far afield. Like in Brixton. And Greenwich. But! Never let it be said I didn't try (and will likely fail. epically). I am also under zero illusions that I'm the only one doing this, or that other, better, more dedicated photographers won't beat me to the punch. I'm doing this for me, and for fun.

Without further ado, these are the Elephantines I've "collected" over the past three days.

May 3rd:
# 52 - Oran (You Stole My Heart)
Location: Notting Hill Gate

May 4th:
#222 - The Princess Elephant
Location: Leicester Square Gardens
#221 - Cholai
Location: Leicester Square Gardens
#126 - Untitled (Garajaraja)
Location: Leicester Square Gardens#187 - Heavenly Jewel
Location: Leicester Square Gardens

#110 - Figgy
Location: St. Martin's LaneMay 5th:
#106 - Cosmos
Location: Bank Station
#74 - Elephant Race (In Time)
Location: Bank Station
#215 - Rainforest
Holland Park Avenue
I figure I need to try and average at least 10 a day if I am going to catch them all before they are moved to the Royal Hospital in Chelsea for auction on July 3rd. Honestly...probably more than that, because I'm guessing on the days that I truck out to Greenwich or Brixton, I'll only get the one. So that puts me oh....twelve behind already?

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.

KBC- Week 1 Day 4

So after finally settling on knitting Kureyon Handwarmers, Evangelines, Bella's Mitts a pair of Lofty Cable Mitts by Cathy Campbell (Crystal Palace Yarn) in Sulka by Mirasol, I finally got started today. Yes, it's a bit late in the week to get started, but that's because I must have ripped about 6 different versions of gloves/mittens before I found one I was happy with. The Sulka I am using came out of my stash, and I was originally planning on using it for myself, but it's going to a higher cause for the time being....plus it looks like i may run short, so I'll be able to get some more for myself when I go back to John Lewis' to get more! Yes...I do realize this defeats the purpose of 'stash busting'.


The only mod I've added is ribbing the first 10 rows rather than the stocking stitch, which means i have a fitted cuff instead of a rolled one. I absolutely adore the Sulka yarn and have used it before, but this particular color makes me drool (Shade 215 to be specific). I love the deep ruby....sigh.

Here's what I have so far ---> Row wise, i'm just past 1/2 way through (row 38 of 76 to be precise). But in terms of actual time knitting i'm pretty sure I'm further along than that, yarr...there be decrease rows ahead! I'm going to aim for finishing this one and starting the second tomorrow. Which should give me plenty of time to finish it by Sunday night.

Knitting Bootcamp: Week 1

Okay, so I have a tentative project in mind. Christmas is coming, and as every knitter (and non-knitter) knows, Christmas is Crunch Time, and almost everyone gets caught unaware ( to that one person who got all of their shopping done in August? Yes, YOU. I hate you). For one who aims to gift knit items, it's even worse because of the time involved in making all these things. All you have to do to get a good idea of this is read the Yarn Harlot's annual Christmas panic blogs, complete with her very own Schedule-Nazi to get it all done. Unfortunately, I do not have a Schedule-Nazi, I have only myself, and myself absolutely sucks at deadlines and that thing called 'discipline'. I'm also terrible at knitting speedily in a crunch. In light of that, my tentative plan is this: between now and Christmas (allowing for a few slip-ups, and life getting in the way). Knit 1 object - glove, hat, scarf, sock etc (extra time allotted for larger items) per week. Fingerless gloves and hats count as half an object (or basic gloves) given the speed and simplicity involved.

If I stick to this, that means I have 14 weeks, (Or 7 pairs of socks) to get everything done. This means if i play my card right i could actually gift everyone in my immediate family (Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother 1, Brother 1's girlfriend, Brother 2, Brother 2's girlfriend and my Grandmother) ((okay that's 8)). If I'm super efficient about this, I could possibly muster up a couple of extra items for some friends (who happen to read this blog from time to time).

I only plan on making 1 pair of socks out of all this, since my mother specifically requested a pair. Additionally, I found a project i'd completely forgotten about, complete with a 3/4 knit sock, in a color i know she would like....some may call it cheating, I just call it recycling.

So, here we go - I'm setting the deadline for each project to be Sunday night, with a new project started on Monday Morning. I will use up as much of my stash yarn as possible and must always check The Stash Monster to see if I have something I can use *before* I look into buying new yarn for it.

Today I declare to be Knitting Boot Camp: Week 1, Day 3 (Monday being Day 1).

Here we go.