It's only rock and roll..but I like it

Yet another DC79 gig, this time at the Glynne Arms in Flint. A small place, very narrow and no cider on draft. Boo hiss to that.DC79 were as good as ever, although the drummer was a stand in, as the usual one was away.
The journey home was great - it was very foggy and there was a strange diversion down some country road, which put me in mind of Village of the Damned (!!). We had a 1.30am (actually 2.30am in reality, but the clocks went back, giving us an extra hour)trip to Pop's Cafe (the services at Lymm), where we dined on ham and mustard sandwiches, Mexican Chilli flavoured crisps and coffee.
This morning we took the hire van back, and had lunch in Pizza Hut before a jaunt round the shops. I got "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by Andrew Collins (the book about his student days at university), "The Village Green Preservation Society" by the Kinks and "Rude Kids" which is about the blokes that started Viz magazine.
Heartbeat is back on (after being outrageously cancelled last week, due to the Brazillian grand prix), so that's ok.

More kerknitting

Here is a picture of a green ribbed scarf I am making. Its a chunky wool, on size 2 needles so it shouldn't take long but I am running out of green, so it's going to end up blue...



And here is a picture of the stripey jumper I am making.



The pictures are a bit wonky (my camera is playing up).

Kerknitting

I knit. I like knitting. I am quite good at it, until fairisle comes into the equation, in which case I pretend I don't know what it is. My mum is a fantastic knitter. Queen of knitting in fact. We were chatting about it tonight. I thought it was a bit of a dying art, until I went looking it up on the www, and it's not all old ladies with cats you know. It's young ladies with cats as well! Just not very many of them. It seems to be more prevalent in America, or maybe that's because its BIGGER, but most of the knitting sites and rings are based there. Girls aren't taught to knit as a matter of course anymore. It's a terrible shame because you can listen to music or watch telly (or read, if you can find a passing cat to sit on the book and hold it open for you) at the same time, its very relaxing and you end up with something that you may end up handwashing for the rest of your life but at least YOU made it!
I am not left handed but I knit left handed, because my mum is left handed and I learned from her. Sometimes this has an interesting effect on armholes when you forget to reverse things!
I can also crochet a bit as well, but I have big problems doing circles (I think I have mentioned this before), so everything I crochet has to be square. Last winter I crocheted a lovely multi coloured Afghan for the cats. It's only taken them 12 months to work themselves up to sitting on it, so I feel very honoured.
Maybe it's a sign of our times, but I think it's very sad that hand knitting has gone out of fashion. Look at the current mad craze for ponchos - one of the easiest things to make and yet people prefer to buy "nylon fall apart after one wash cost £2 from the market" jobs, when they could have fun (yes, FUN) and satisfaction making their own and being a little individualistic into the bargain.
Go on, knit something.

Hex

I've been watching Hex on Sky One and its great. Its been billed as the "British Buffy" but I can't stand Buffy so I took no notice of that, and it was really good. However, it has put me in mind of the way that people describe things for sale on Ebay. I am a bit of a rock chick/hippy chick type dresser (I like my old jeans, long skirts, velvet, band tshirts and my leather jacket), but when I look for stuff on Ebay, I find that 9 times out of 10, the things I like are described as "Boho/Sienna/Kate", which is as bad as saying that Hex is the British Buffy. Kate is Kate Moss. Sienna is Sienna Miller. Why would I want to buy clothes just because some morbidly underweight woman, famous just for wearing stuff , has been seen wearing something similar?I am not a big lass, so it's not envy, but what is it with this cultural edict we seem to be stuck with that says "whatever is new" has to be the same as "something we have already had"? What's wrong with "These jeans are ace and look really nice and you stand half a chance of being unique if you wear them with some other stuff that you like wearing"?
I am selling some jeans on Ebay at the moment. I have sold some before, to great success, but this time I have added "Boho/Kate/Sienna" to the description. Let's see if it makes a difference. Watch this space....

Another night out

Last night I went to see DC79 (Bon Scott era ACDC tribute band) on account of me being married to one of them (the pretend Angus). I got in at 4.30am. It was in Macclesfield. I am a bit tired! They can be seen here: www.dc79.co.uk
This kind of made up for the fire travesty on Friday. The man came to fit the new fire and he can't because the flue or the chimney or something is broken and needs fixing before the fire goes in, which which will cost about a million pounds to do and I can't afford it. Its not fair because I was really looking forwards to staring at the pretend flames on cold winter nights. At least the central heating works now!
I got a gorgeous throw for the settee from the RSPCA charity shop : its all purple and lilac and cherry and black indian patterns and its massive. And it was only £3.99!So two pluses and a minus this weekend.
Another possible minus is the fact that I have a horrible cold but after the tooth trauma, a cold seems like nothing!
I also bought the Sims2. Bad mistake. I was obsessed enough with The Sims and all the expansion packs up to Makin' Magic, but I can see that the Sims2 is going to be WAY more addictive than The Sims. I had a "quick go" for half an hour the other night that turned into 3 hours... One thing that is annoying about it is my female Sims keep dying from food poisoning and I have no idea why!

I am Warm

The man came to mend the central heating tonight and it is MENDED. He is a hero. It cost buttons (he is a friend of a friend kind of person) and now I am warm and have proper hot water. Tomorrow the new fire arrives, to complete the picture. The rest of the house (built 1832 so its falling to bits somewhat!) might be a relic from the past but at least its warm!!!
When I was little, we lived in a house with no central heating, and icicles used to form on the INSIDE of the windows and I used to sit on a convector heater all evening to keep warm, and while this was no big deal at the time, I wouldn't like to go back to that, given the choice.
When we lived in Whalley Range about 12 years ago, we spent a whole 2 months in Winter with no heating at all, and had to sit inside sleeping bags to keep warm. Getting out of the bath was not a nice experience, as you were liable to freeze yourself to the floor! (Not like Arizona ;-))
Happy times though.

Gig # 2

Friday night, The Phoenix Club, Farnworth (yes, THE Phoenix club out of the Peter Kay thing!). It was us on last, preceeded by a band called BillyClub and before them a band called Kiss Off. I stuck to drinking shandy and we were very, very good. Although I wore exactly the same as the LAST gig, which shows a lack of imagination. There were quite a few people there, and lots of our friends turned up (one even came all the way from Wales!) and I managed to get to bed by 2am so not as late as last time.
We are going to be playing at the wedding of our singer's son next year, but we will be reborn as "Wedding from the Crypt" and be playing lots of StrayCats/Cramps/50's songs, and we will be in suits. Can't wait!
Earlier in the week a lovely friend of a friend type man came round to look at our central heating and he can FIX IT! It needs a new pump, which he can get and fit for £40 and will be doing it soon, which is a real result.
Harvey had an abscess on his face, which has gone now but it's left a hole and he looks a bit scary. It doesn't stop him eating mind you, although nothing seems to stop Harvey eating.

Hearth and Home

Last weekend I was out being rock and roll. This weekend I bought a gas fire and went to a car boot sale and Matalan. It is a big car boot sale but I think they should be done under the trades description act because its all market traders and hardly any "boots". We bought olives and garlic, and some jasmine incense. We also joined Matalan and got 2 pairs of pretend Converse boots for £1 each!
The new gas fire arrives on Friday and the downstairs will be warm again. Lovely.
Here is the offending fire, the last time it kind of worked, Christmas Eve last year.
http://www.faerywings.co.uk/fp1.jpg