Hey Mr Postman! and the ParcelForce Saga.

I have been waiting for the post for about 8 weeks now. There have been things on their way to me for longer than that and I am not known for a supreme amount of patience. I am patient to a point - and that point is not far from the end of my arms.

Have you got a parcel for meeeee pls?

The mail man knows it has been bad.  I have been mugging him each day and he knows that I am waiting for some parcels.  I got a tada this morning and he waited to see what it was. Sorry mate it is some yarn I was waiting for this but it is not the super super dooper package that I am really really waiting for.  You know the one that you are burning up with desire for.....

Tada here is your parcel

The other thing besides the mail is I have been waiting for my Webs order.  Order was done back in late June. I had hoped that it would be here before we left in August but that was blown out of the water. I got the letter when we came back saying I had to pay some import duty, did that and organised a delivery day with Parcel Force.  The delivery day was last Friday 27th August.

As it was a no show, I got onto the blower on Monday to the depo to say oi where is my package and they advise it is not in the depo.  What do you mean not in the bleep bleep depo...  So I have been on the phone each day this week and the gang in the depo all know me.. The address, surname and the australian accent... I don't even have to say the details I just have to open my gob.

So today the package had been found and was scheduled to come out to me between 11 and 2pm.  No sodding sign of it. I gave it to 3:30pm to find out where is my parcel.....  Phoned the depo it was delivered at 2:05pm - no it sodding was not cause I have been here on the door stop waiting waiting waiting for it....

I love my Postie but hate Parcelforce.

One quivering depot clerk who has learnt the lesson of never upsetting a fibre addict waiting for their fix - Ok Mrs C I will call the driver and find out what he did with your parcel. It turns out he delivered it 10 doors down the road to the light shop.. A quick leg up the street to the light shop. Thankfully the parcel was there and they had not opened it I could see the light shop man going WTF these are not globes or fittings.

Now I have to find the camera to flash the recent stash addition.

The grand saga of the half-term school trip

Like many children in the UK our youngest,  the boyo aka Rh, has been off on a school trip.  He was expected back on the 15th April, 2010 after 10 days in Canada on a school ski trip to Whistler. Aint he a lucky duck

Then that volcano blew its top and shebang went all the plans. Eyjafjallajokull,  well if you have a name like that no wonder you lose your cool cause I spit and splutter just trying to say this volcano's name.

After 5 days in the same clothes the boyo has arrived home. I picked him up from the school and helped to drag is bag the 10 doors home after he travelled for 35 hours on various forms of transport to get home from Amsterdam. This included buses, trains, private taxis, ferry bus transport, trains and minibuses.

It turns out he was hosteled in Rotterdam so they had to be bused back to the airport to finally get their luggage back from KLM.   The reason why KLM kept their luggage the group was a first priority group for when planes went back into action. Thanks guys for all your help but we have to get this party of children home and back into school can we have our luggage now.   They caught a train through Holland, Belgium and were then stuck thanks to the French Train strike.  They organised a local taxi service to drive the kids from the closest Belgium border town to Dunkquerke.

After waiting around for a good 8 hours or more with the kids at the Dunkquerke ferry terminal the school party was then picked up by a Dover Bus service who were doing a roaring trade by making sure there was a bus on the ferry as this ferry crossing was not allowing foot passengers.  The Dover Bus services were selling seats on their bus.  So the kids are loaded put on the ferry, cross over at 2:30am in the morning and were then unloaded in Dover ferry port.  At this point shanks pony ala their foot falcons (walking) was implemented out to a taxi rank so they could get to the train station.  If you have been to Dover ferry port it is a bit of a long walk for tired people.

After much mucking about  and bit of a cross country zig zag on the trains, as they could not get direct train, the kids arrived at Liverpool Lime Street.  Fortunately the Leading Teacher called from Warwick station and suggested that they were all picked up by mini bus from Lime St station cause she believed that they would not make another transfer onto the local metro train and then shank's ponying back to the school for pick up.  The kids were picked up and brought back to the school where I was on hand to help the boyo walk home.

One of the first activities we did was a stripping once he got inside, so his clothes went straight in to the washing machine.  They were almost standing upright on their own. He was then pushed into the shower were he fell asleep under the water.  After being fished out by his mother to which he was most indignant about. He was then tucked up into his bed.  Not sure what he most indignant about his mother fishing him out of the shower or his mother waking him up.

He has risen since he has got home yesterday but he obviously turned into a locust again on me.  Food has been disappearing at a great rate of knots as he inhaled a 20" pizza by himself.  The food to stock the fridge that I brought yesterday has disappeared and I have had to buy another complete week's worth of shopping to restock the fridge today.  I wonder how long this lot will last.

Dissertation Madness

Yes it is that time of year again Dissertation madness has struck. I have been a little insane slightly bouncing for acceptance into local secure unit mental hospital with a couple of head desk moments like explaining to a student that 10% allowance on a word limit does not mean you can write and waffle on to your hearts content. Ie if it says 6,000 words this does not mean 21,000 of drivel. I have been so tired that I have struggled to get any knitting done. It has been an uphill battle with some students a bit like Clifton Tower hill in York (see photo). I can normally knit a BSJ in a couple nights in front of the TV but I have struggled for over a week to complete a BSJ.

This week as been a little glum with a friend's funeral but I have managed to soldier on. But I had I sort of have a week that matched the gloomy mood of the week. As things run in threes on Tuesday morning I came downstairs to a broken laptop - OMG I need my Ravelry and a mucked up BSJ. I only had 6 rows left to do on the BSJ. It was a rip rip wood chip job. I now back on row 6 from cast on. How am I going to survive with out my daily doses of Ravelry??? What no computer for a week who has chopped off my lifeline to the world?

The Saga of the Great lergy

Knitting has been hiatus this week or so thanks to the Saga of the lergy in this house. Most of the family has now come down with a virus which Ry first brought home to share with us. Thank you so much no we don’t really want things like that my child...... So our school attendance records have gone down the tube this year as we have started school then had swine flu after less than a week in school, swine flu for a couple of weeks, then a short return to school (3 whole days) and then off again with this virus for over a week.

Knitting wise I seem to get a row done only to promptly fall asleep again. The Grand Aunty knitting is falling falling behind. I had cast on a Bucket hat a couple of weeks ago got so far and then ended up frogging it. So let recap in the last action plan. Got the birthday present knitted for K but did not get it blocked in time for the do so I have to give it to her next week. The BSJ was finished but then could not find the rest of the ball to make the matching pair of booties. The Kimono jacket back has been finished but I have not got any further on the left front panel. And I am now behind on my Christmas knitting tasks. I must get started soon on the Christmas swap stuff. I still have some things to finish for another SWAP which I need to get on with.

I think that half the problem may be my addiction to a Ravelry group called simply-nonsense-for-the-sake-of-fun. During the last couple of weeks my posting count has doubled and according to the last twelve months of statistics I have turned into a total chatter box in this group. So to counter the fad I think I will have to develop a new plan of action because I am not getting any knitting done at all. Another factor in the great knitting drought saga could be that I not really enthused with anything at the moment thanks to the start of winter. What autumn it has jumped straight into cold soggy days.


So the plan for this weekend is to do Chores. Yeap plan to do those horrible things like washing, cleaning, and vacuuming and maybe I will knit to procrastinate doing chores.

Action Plan for this week

• To do all the inane boring chores round the house and therefore I may procrastinate by actually doing some knitting.