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So much for blogging more often, eh? It’s been another busy few weeks (ok, we’re in to months again aren’t we?) around here lately, with even more fun filled adventures.
My birthday was at the beginning of April and I had the most wonderful week off work.
There was a relaxing couple of days at C’s house..
Followed by an amazing couple of days in London. My birthday present to myself at the end of 2011 was tickets to see Low at the Royal Festival Hall. My birthday present from my Mum and Dad was a hotel in London for the night we were there. We stayed at the Apex Temple Court Hotel just off Fleet Street, which was utterly wonderful. Gorgeous king size bed, iPod speaker dock, Eames office chair (tried to work out if I could take it apart and fit it in my bag…), walk in shower, huge deep bath (which I successfully filled with massive amounts of bubbles) and great views over London (we could see the Oxo tower and the London Eye from our room).
After reluctantly leaving the mountain of bubbles we spent the second day in London doing the things we do best – eating, drinking, shopping and laughing. That’s yarn shopping, record shopping, apple tea at the Hookah Lounge on Brick Lane, and dinner at Mishkins.
After London we spent Thursday (my actual Birthday) in Brighton. Amazing presents from C (two Low records and peanut butter M&Ms!), and more eating (breakfast at Bill’s) and fun at the seaside.
And unfortunately that was the end of my fabulous birthday week off work. I intend to make a trip to London a birthday tradition now. I’ve managed to go 27 years without going to school or work on my birthday and I intend to keep it that way (the joys of being born on a Good Friday, my birthday is usually on or around a bank holiday weekend!), and London seems like a bloody good place to spend it to me!
A house full of daffodils and tulips, spring sunshine, a walk around Olney. I’ve been playing with a lens on loan from C’s brother this weekend, and it’s rather good! As I’m too broke to get film developed at the moment I’ve been dusting off the 450D and remembering how much I love it.
Over the last four weeks I have been wandering all over the country. I had two days in Manchester visiting my brother and sister in law for the last time in their current home, before they move in to their lovely new house. After that I hopped on a plane up to Inverness for four days to see my oldest friend get married. This was followed by a trip to Somerset for ATP, then to London to see Jeff Mangum, then to Brighton for a day of fun with the ever amazing Vickybox. The time in between most of this was spent in Horsham relaxing at C’s house. I’ve had a whole week, and more amazingly a whole weekend at home now and I’ve got another week here before I head down south again.
Here’s a few photos of Gairloch, the village where my friend Flo and her husband Stuart live and run the lovely restaurant Na Mara, and where they got married a couple of weeks ago. It was a fantastic wedding, the weather was perfect, and I was more drunk than I have ever been in my life thanks to the various men in kilts handing me drinks. I can’t say no to a man in a kilt!
I have vowed not to wait another 5 years until my next trip to Scotland. I’ll share more photos once I have a few rolls from the Tank back from developing.
So, part two…
Saturday at ATP was a rather foggy day. We didn’t have any plans until 1pm so decided to go for a wander along the beach in to Minehead – there isn’t really much to say about it as a town really, but the beach in the fog was very pretty, and full of hipsters taking photos, a lovely sight.
One of the best things about ATP being in Butlins was the amazing culture clash, and watching it progress in different ways; the spar sold out of the Guardian while there were huge piles of the Daily Fail and The Sun untouched, Burger Kind sold out of veggie burgers, the fake Nando’s sold out of hummus. You could tell that ATP attendees aren’t Butlins’ usual clientele. Beyond the culture clash there was more fun – we had the joy of the adventure golf (I won! Just…), trying to win a bible on the 2p machines in the arcade, and the continuous plinking of the air hockey tables (I’m sure I can still hear the plinking now, two weeks later).
After the Butlins supplied fun there was more ATP style entertainment. The Jeff Mangum and ATP curated TV channels were amazing – there is something about sitting in bed in a Butlins chalet on a foggy Saturday morning watching Monty Python on a little 15″ TV that is inexplicably enjoyable, and if I say “machine wrapped with butter?” then I know everyone that was there will know what I’m talking about. We eyed up the cinema listings (also curated by Jeff Mangum) and would have liked to go and see a few things, but unfortunately didn’t get the time. It’s a shame you couldn’t take the TV and Cinema home with you to enjoy after the festival was over! And as well as all this amazing entertainment, there was the never ending source of amusement in the #atpfestival hashtag on twitter, which should win a prize for the funniest hashtag ever, as well as the most helpful. I’m still sad that all has gone quiet on that front now!
But back to the music. Saturday was filled with some lovely lovely sounds, starting with A Hawk and a Hacksaw. The venue wasn’t great for this – they were playing a unique soundtrack to the Ukranian film ‘Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors’ with the film projected on to the back of the stage. Unless you were there from the beginning and managed to get sat down directly in front of the stage, you wouldn’t have much luck seeing what they were playing along to. As with the day before, I was stood somewhere near the back in what felt like a sea of 6ft + men (are all men that attend ATP that tall?). Despite this, the music was beautiful, and sounded like a wonderful accompaniment to the film. Should have got there sooner!
The rest of the day was spent over at centre stage. After standing in the sea of giants the day before, and as we were planning on being in there for a good 5 hours or so (if we kept walking in and out, we would have had to keep walk through that smell by the door. That smell that can’t be described accurately, that is a mixture of ale, rancid hotdogs, and toilets) we decided to head towards the back of the room and get a couple of seats. And a bloody good choice it was too. We watched a brilliantly fun Apples in Stereo, followed by an amazingly beautiful Joanna Newsom, then followed by the stunning Low. I’ll admit I almost fell asleep during Joanna Newsom, her voice and that harp playing are both hypnotic, and so so lovely. Low were one of the highlights for me, as they were the only band I’d actually heard of when C asked if I wanted to go. They were as fantastic as I was hoping they would be and definitely sent shivers down my spine. Alan Sparhawk invited everyone in the room for a jog at 12pm the next day – from what I’ve heard about 30 people turned up, I think it’s the only time in my life I’ve regretted not being a running kind of person! It was a lovely taster of what I’m hoping we’ll hear more of when we see Low at the Royal Festival Hall on April 3rd.
Sunday was another foggy day and started off with the astounding and achingly beautiful American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME). We got in slightly before it was due to start and managed to get sat down at one of the tables. The room filled up quite nicely and there were quite a lot of people sitting on the floor in front of the stage, it felt a bit like story time at infant school. ACME performed Gavin Bryars’ “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet”. I’d never heard, or even heard of, this piece of music before I heard it at ATP, and since then I must have listened to it at least 30 times. It is quite possibly one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard and I was completely and utterly blown away. I didn’t move a muscle for the entire half hour of the performance, I was captivated from beginning to end. It was made even more beautiful the addition of Julian Koster on his musical saw, which fitted in so well it’s like it was made to be that way rather than a decision made the night before. Some lovely person has uploaded a video of their performance to YouTube and can be found in three parts here: part one, part two, part three. In total it’s a half hour piece of music, but I urge you to take the time to listen to it all. You won’t regret it.
Following a short interlude for some tea and some more ATP TV wonderfulness, we went in to Reds for Olivia Tremor Control. C was possibly more excited than I’ve ever seen him in public and we got in early to go right to the front. OTC were wonderful, despite the obvious technical hitches that occurred, and the fact Will Cullen Hart seemed to have lost his voice. This was another poor venue choice for the weekend, considering Olivia Tremor Control are made up of most of the Elephant 6 crew it would have made sense to put them on centre stage, but they were in the smallest venue of the three. The room was packed and we were very glad to have got in there early, by the time they came on we couldn’t see the back of the room. My only regret is that we didn’t get tickets to see them play in London the following week!
Back at centre stage we ventured through the smell to see Sun Ra Arkestra, who were a vision in sequins. I never thought I’d see a room full of hipsters dancing around to some fantastic sequin glad jazz, and it’s something I’ll never forget! After that we went in Crazy Horse to see Tall Firs. I felt a bit bad that it was such a small and constantly rotating crowd, people would come in and stand around for 5 minutes or so, then walk out. There was also group of people standing over by the bar squawking quite loudly that were more than annoying when there are just two guys on the stage with their guitars playing some very mellow music. They were a good humoured duo and had some good banter going. The music was lovely and may well end up on my to be purchased pile quite soon.
After this there was a long way for Mangum Part 2. Everyone was emptied out of centre stage and there was then an hour and a half wait until JM was due on. Those who didn’t get in to centre stage on Friday night had been given priority wristbands for the Sunday night performance, and then everyone else was let in afterwards until the stage was full. The queue was immense, snaking right through the pavilion and outside to the adventure golf course. As C and I had seen him on Friday night, and we had tickets to see him the coming Wednesday at the Union Chapel, we decided not to join the Longest Queue Ever, and instead sat down in the middle of the pavilion with a cup of tea watching the fun unfold on #atpfestival on twitter.
So that was the end of our ATP experience. I can’t imagine a more perfect set up for a festival and two weeks later I am still on a comedown, constantly playing Neutral Milk Hotel and watching the ACME performance on YouTube. This was my first ATP and it definitely won’t be my last, I am already planning how to get tickets for this coming December. The lack of corporate sponsorship is more refreshing than I thought possible, and the atmosphere was constantly friendly and relaxed. I never once felt like either me or my possessions were in any danger of any kind – which I can’t say for previous festival experiences.
So, until December. I can’t wait!
In the middle of 2011 I had a phone call from my boyfriend, he was rather excited by the fact his musical hero, Jeff Mangum, was curating the music festival All Tomorrow’s Parties. I’ll admit it – I had never heard of Jeff Mangum or the band he was in, Neutral Milk Hotel. C was so excited about the prospect of seeing Jeff Mangum play that I agreed to go with him, despite the fact I’d never heard of any of the bands that were playing apart from one – Low. C and I had been browsing in Rough Trade a couple of months before and their album The Great Destroyer was playing, I liked what I heard so I bought it.
So, we bought our tickets for ATP. I was amused and excited by the fact it is held at Butlins in Minehead – a place I had last visited in around 1990. We got to October and heard that the festival was being postponed, the original date of 2nd December had been pushed back to March 2012. There has been much speculation online about why, but I guess only those that are involved in the planning will know the real reason. Thankfully this didn’t cause any problems for us, and March came around very quickly.
We had a four hour drive to Somerset on 9th March. I was half way through a course of antibiotics for a chest infection and by the time we got there I was utterly exhausted and ready to sleep the weekend away. I managed to keep going though, and I was so glad I did. Butlins has barely changed since I was last there 22 years ago. We laughed a lot at our classic chalet with dodgy camp bed, plastic mattress, no kettle and rather grotty bathroom… but we were at a music festival, and at least it wasn’t a tent!
The music started at 4:30pm on the Friday with the amazing Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise. It was to set the scene for the whole weekend – amazing music, brilliant atmosphere, and completely unexpected in so many ways. The set ended with the entire band marching off the stage and in to the crowd playing a Sun Ra cover, then leading everyone on a pied piper type walk around Butlins whilst still playing. That brilliant atmosphere? It just got even better. The security guards looked utterly baffled and slightly terrified as Scott Spillane walked past with his giant sousaphone, and Julian Koster was waving his saw around.
I’ll let you in to a secret – after Elephant 6 we headed over to Crazy Horse for a bit of Robyn Hitchcock, but we were tempted in by the infamous Butlins hot dogs. It was a mistake we only made once, and will never be mentioned again.
Back at Centre Stage and everyone was gearing up for Jeff Mangum. I still didn’t know what to expect – I’d heard In The Aeroplane… once at C’s house, but that’s it. I was utterly blown away by that voice, and it’s something I’ll never forget. I caught a 10 second glimpse of the top of his head – I felt like the only 5ft 6 woman in a crowd full of 6ft + men for most of the weekend. I can’t do any justice to what that set was like, so I’m not going to try any more. After a short wander around Butlins I was defeated by the chest infection/stinking cold and had to sleep.
… part two to come tomorrow.
Yesterday I had the lovely Julie come over for knitting, fireworks and dinner. The fireworks and knitting were both great, but this post is all about dinner. I had some lamb in the fridge that needed using, and it was just about cold enough to dig my slow cooker out the cupboard. I searched the Internets, but for once it didn’t produce what I was looking for – a good recipe for a lamb stew. They all looked rather dull and uninspiring.
So I decided to make it up. I wandered up the road to the farmers market and came back with two large bags full of veg, some of which went in to what was to become a very tasty lamb stew. Recipe recorded here so I can remember it again for next time!
Ingredients
500g diced lamb
4 banana shallots – chopped
2 sticks celery – chopped
4 small carrots – chopped
1 small butternut squash – peeled and chopped
5 new potatoes – quartered
1 green chilli – sliced thinly
1.5 handfulls pearl barley
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 cardamom pods, split
1 pint veg stock
1 cinnamon stick
Cooking
1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a big saucepan and brown the meat for about 2 minutes. Take the meat out (leaving the juice in the pan) and put in to the slow cooker.
2. Add the celery and shallots to the saucepan and cook until softened. Add the cumin, mustard seeds, cardamom pods and cinnamon stick, mix together so the veg is coated with the spices and cook for another minute.
3. Add the potatoes, butternut squash, carrots and chilli to the shallots/celery/spices. Stir together and cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Put all the veg in to the slow cooker with the lamb. Add a hand-full of two of pearl barley, then pour the pint of stock over the top. Stir it all together, season, and if needed top up with a bit more hot water (so the liquid level is just below the top of the veg).
5. Cook on high in the slow cooker for 4 hours, or on low for longer. Serve with crusty bread, with a dollop of sour cream on top.
A few of months ago my wonderful boyfriend took me to London for my birthday. I’ve finally had the chance to scan the negatives of the photos I took with the Microcord when we were there, so here are a few of them (click for bigger versions)…
Natural History Museum
Lunch in Leon, Spitalfields.
New blog posts are being formed in my head that involve exciting new camera experiments and knitting. I just need to remember how to form coherent sentences and find the time to get them out of my head and on to the internet.
I have been making things. Or, more accurately, I have been finishing things. My knitting mojo generally comes and goes in waves. I have a few weeks of wanting to start 958 different projects, I spend all my time on Ravelry, browsing old issues of Knitty, or reading a few of the many inspiring blogs that have appeared on my Google Reader feed over the years. I start a few of those projects, and then I don’t touch any of them for 10 months.
This often means that when I do come to pick them up again I can’t remember where I’ve got to in the pattern (if I can still find the pattern, that is), or I’ve dropped a few stitches through moving it around, or I just plain hate it now it’s been sitting there for so long. So once I’ve tidied the wool basket and sorted out all the unfinished projects, I generally get bored with everything and the mojo goes again.
During one of my recent Ravelry browsing phases I noticed someone suggest a Milton Keynes meet up, and I decided to go along and say hello. I think we scare the bar staff slightly, but our Thursday evening pub knitting has really inspired me to start making things again, and this time I’m actually finishing them – in some cases, after many years of them sitting around gathering dust!
This is Clapotis. It’s a popular pattern. Anyone who knits and looks at knitting on the internet will probably recognise it. A quick glance on Ravelry shows that there are 17,517 of them out there in various stages of completion. People have blogged about it 2,167 times, and there are 2,429 forum posts about it. Like I said, it’s popular.
I liked the pattern, but always thought it looked a bit chunky in the pictures. Then I saw the two cones of glorious Habu Tsumugi silk peaking out the top of the basket, that had been crying out for a pattern for years. So, over probably slightly more than two years, the lace weight silk clapotis was born. And I’m so glad it was, even if it did take forever!
And I didn’t stop there! Not wanting to be left out on Thursday nights, I searched the pile of unfinished projects for something to take with me. I stumbled across a very lonely looking single cashmere sock, that had never been worn, even on it’s own, because the bind of had no give in it. I undid the bind off, ripped back the ribbing, weighed out the remaining yarn so I had an equal amount left over for the next sock, and I began to knit.
The first one was finished (for a second time) fairly quickly. I found a lovely stretchy bind off for the cuff, and I had a very soft single sock! Then came the problem – I had long forgotten what pattern I’d used for the first sock. I knew it was toe up. I counted out the stitches (64), I counted the cast on, I searched for free patterns, then I made it up. A toe is fairly simple to make up, I found a pattern that had a similar looking heel, and the rest was just endless knitting on my very cute addi circular sock needles. Now I have a pair of unbelievably soft cashmere socks that will never ever be worn outdoors or with shoes, because they’re just too bloody nice. Instead I will wear them in the kitchen, and slide around on the laminate flooring in them!
After the socks, I had a dilemma. I’d ordered the yarn for a Brand New Project, but it hadn’t arrived, and I needed to knit! I had a little bit of left over cashmere from the socks, so I made Mr S a Nunny Bugget, to keep him company on his train journey home.
So there you have it. Three finished projects! The next Brand New Project has been started, and I’m quite excited about it. For the moment I’m trying not to get distracted by other pretty things that keep catching my eye, like quilting, or needlepoint, or crochet. For two reasons – not enough money, and not enough space! But I definitely want to keep making things!
To celebrate the fact I am yet another year older, the ever wonderful Mr S took me to London for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. We had fantastic time exploring the Natural History Museum, went out for an amazing meal (thanks, Dad!) with views of St Paul’s Cathedral, and wondered along the Thames late at night happy in the knowledge we didn’t have to rush back to get trains home, because we had a lovely hotel room to go back to. The next day we watched the sun come up, with a view of the Shard, Southwark Cathedral, and Canary Wharf in the distance from out hotel room window. We made our way in the sunshine to Spitalfields, walked up and down Brick Lane (stopping for various food and drinks along the way), and spent more money than was planned!
It was a fantastic birthday, and I didn’t mind getting older at all, because I got to have so much fun!
I can’t believe we’re half way through March already. Where have the last three months gone? So much has been going on I’m not even going to attempt to summarise it all. I am, however, going to attempt to update this place more, starting now.
Last weekend was a lovely quiet weekend at home with C. It may not seem exciting, but when we only get two or three days together every two weeks, staying at home and doing simple things like cooking, watching DVDs and wandering around the village are sometimes the most enjoyable things to do.We are planning excitement though! C has booked a hotel in London for my birthday, and I can’t wait!
