Eureka, I see the light

You know that feeling when finally you open your eyes and realise that your brain has been trying to tell you something and is on the verge of packing a small suitcase, shoving the pot plants in a plastic bag and walking out the door in exasperation because you wont listen!!

Hmm….well I do.

I’ve been trying to organise some travel plans of late…ok...truth? I’ve been thinking about trying to organise some travel plans of late…and that is the problem.

I am normally a very organised person. Some would say too organised, some would say bordering on obsessive; some would stand in the middle of the street pointing a quavering finger and screaming “freak, there’s the freak”. I say their just they’re jealous of my list making and box ticking capabilities.
But lately all that has disappeared and I’ve been unable to plan or organise or settle and make a decision. I’ve been suffering from organizers block and at least travel wise I’ve been unable to do a thing. Very frustrating and somewhat stressful as time flies by me at the speed of sound.

However it has happened before in various areas of my life and usually there’s a good reason behind it. And after much inner thought and deep pondering I think I know what that is.

I don’t want to travel.

I’m a simple sort of girl and if this moving to a new country and doing exciting stuff phase of my life has taught me anything it’s that I’m not a natural traveller.
Don’t get me wrong I love the discovery of new places, the excessive photo taking, the sights, sounds and smells (sometimes) of new cultures. But I never relax when I travel. I always initially feel sick and there’s a high level of stress that seems to follow me around.
It’s enjoyable and exciting but not comfortable and when it comes down to it….I loves me comfort! Perhaps I’ve grown past the stage where I can be ok with living out of a bag, constantly moving around and not being able to speak the language or perhaps I was never that person to begin with. I’d like to think I was, perhaps it’s just my priorities that have changed, who knows. In any case faced with the thought of several months of travel I subconsciously sabotaged myself by doing nothing.

Part of the problem is that there is this idea in my head that if we travel we need to go for a long time and see everything cause lord knows when we might get to see it again. We seem to get stuck into the work rut very easily these days.
It’s taken me a while but I think I’ve figured it out. I have to let it go. What I see, I see and what I don’t see won’t mean the end of the world. And it won’t mean that we're not taking advantage of what we have around us because although it feels like it sometimes, travel is not why we came over here.

So….there are a few places that we’ve wanted to see for ages and instead of careering madly around a huge number of countries and seeing very little we will focus on getting to those places we have a hankering to see.
Ireland is one of them and just thinking about it I can feel the excitement and eagerness to go flowing back into me. We’re thinking three weeks or so and we can drive around at our leisure and see whatever we want. The little towns as well as the larger cities.
Phew….glad I sorted that one out! I think I’ll go do some organising now.

The wit has left the building

Is it just me or is it getting harder to write Birthday Cards. The journey doesn’t end when you finally find a good one. No, then you have to think of something witty and meaningful to write in it. And of course, not one to do things the easy way, I have always had the need compulsion to fill every scrap of available space, every inch of clean, bright whiteness with words of wisdom and comfort and complete drivel?? Those of you that know me can bear testament to this. Manys the birthday you’ve sat in a corner forlornly trying to decipher my scribble while people celebrate your birthday without you!
I vaguely remember once being able to dashing off witty and meaningful cards at the drop of a hat. Now days I struggle to phrase Happy Birthday correctly and buy my cards weeks in advance (when I remember) in order to have them done in time.
Have the words deserted me or am I just making things to hard for myself? Is it too much to expect a lowly birthday card to change the world?

Of course I'm in the middle of a Birthday Crisis....or rather I was last night. A friend’s blank and stark white card (that sounds strange) had been taunting me for days and it was finally crunch time. With no inspiration and no wittyness to be found what was I to do?

I resorted to niceness!!!!

Yup...when in doubt, forget the funny and tell them how great you think they are. Works every time!!
I also managed to wheedle the knitting in there by gifting the birthday girl with a homemade shawl in a lovely fluffy shade of blue. I forgot to take a picture before giving it away so you’ll have to wait till I’ve made another one but it was received with the ooo-ing and ah-ing it rightfully deserved!

In fact there are no pictures on the blog yet at all as yet.I do plan to get around to stuff like that but its early days yet and don’t know how to do it. I promise to try to learn this weekend!!

Friday Feelings

Yay...it’s the weekend. Strange how desperate we are for a small slice of life to ourselves. That the simple thought of two days off can lift us and carry us through the last day of the week. Does that say something about our work lives and how satisfied/happy we are in them? Does that suggest that we should look at something else? Probably…but it’s Friday and nothing matters but the weekend.
For which I have very little planned except, knitting, study and possibly scouting out a location for my up coming picnic event! That is of course if I can get all the normal chores done first.
Have a good one!

What's in the box?

I love getting things in the mail. In this day and age so much anticipation and fantasy has been lost to the email and the sms. Not that I’m complaining of course. I live in a different country to many of my friends and family and for us the email is the most efficient way to communicate. Also there’s a certain kind of joy or disappointment with finding something in your inbox of a morning.
However there’s nothing like the excitement of making your way home at night with the possibility that a large box of yarn might be waiting for you!!! Or the disappointment that yet again those 15mm needles have failed to arrive thus cutting another 24 hours off your knitting time!

Last night I received 200gm of the most gorgeous yarn from an ebay purchase. Very exciting although I’m not exactly sure what I want to do with it. I just know I needed it! Perhaps a scarf for me…..

Tonight I have, the post office informs me, a parcel that is very excitingly “too big for the letterbox”!!!! EEK! It could be yarn. It could be needles. It could be birthday books (which I have been waiting on forever!) Either way it’s making the day go slowly and work seem less desirable than ever!

In other news I got absolutely nothing done last night. Watched some cooking telly whilst carefully knitting me cardy. I’m so paranoid now about dropping stitches after ripping the darn thing about seven times already. (yes seven! I'm very clumsy sometimes) And I’m only at 25 rows!! (I’ll have you know that at 116 stitches wide that’s almost 3000 stitches in total...not counting what I’ve ripped!!!)
I just know I’m going to love this pattern but I also know it’s going to take me and my uncoordinated fingers at least a couple of months to get it finished!

But I want it now!!!

Can I graduate now?

I’ve done it! I did it, I’m done.
I’ve finally finished my first ever piece of knitting that required ‘making up’. YAY ME!
The months of toil and ripping, the struggling to learn new techniques and coming to terms with unfamiliar language. It’s all paid off and I’ve even woven the ends in and sewn it up!
I was particularly proud when I did the sleeves myself without crying or asking for help from my knitting mentor. But it was when I realised that I was going to run out of wool a little too soon and I didn’t panic that I knew I was had graduated to the ranks of true knitters!
Instead I calmly made the second sleeve as long as possible, (thankfully I have short arms!) undid the casting off on the first sleeve and ripped it back to match….which then gave me enough wool to sew the darn thing up!!

Because I bought the thing as a learning exercise rather than with a view to wearing it, it came as no surprise to me that I didn’t like it and won’t wear it. The wool is lovely, the colour…well I’m a little sick of it but its nice too, the style is modern but it’s just not me. Not sure what I’ll do with it now. I don’t fancy undoing the whole thing with the over enthusiastic weaving in that I do. (can we say overkill?) I suppose it will sit in my wardrobe for a few years while I decide.