Domesticated Bloggage
Domesticated Bloggage
Musings
Blimey! It's the end of September. I can't believe how fast this past month has gone by. Happily I haven't slept all of it away; I'm having a lull in the fibro front and I'm actually managing to stay awake for about 10 hours a day rather than in two hour spurts with four hour naps in between.
I'm not over doing it though. I'm keeping relatively up to date with the housework and doing the odd crafty thing. Pregnant Daughter1 has put in a request for some maternity tops so we went shopping for fabric last week and I've now cut out the pattern. It's actually a tunic T-shirt pattern that I'll adapt to fit her blossoming middle region. I never actually learned how to make sewing patterns but I have no problem with adapting them at all. She wanted me to make her some maternity jeans but I can't get hold of any lycra/jersey to make the tummy panel so she's going to make do with some stretchy fabric trousers she's found on-line.
Himself and I celebrate 19 years of married bliss next month and we're talking about going away for a couple of days. It's difficult to choose where to go. As I'm moving into fibro remission he's going into MS relapse which means he can't drive for too long without getting painful cramps in the backs of his legs. We think we may take a mini city break or just spend a night in a nice hotel so that we can splash out on the champagne with dinner without having the washing up and not having to drive home after. Sounds good :)
We want to do something special for our 25th anniversary and we're starting to think about it already. Being in the discussion phase we're not sure what we're after yet. It can't be anywhere that needs special injections against nasty diseases as Himself is not allowed to have them (anything that attempts to boost the immune system is a serious no-no for him) and it can't mean lots of walking or climbing because his poor legs just can't manage it. Maybe the Orient express (although I don't know if I can stand that long on a train)? Or perhaps an east to west drive through America done at a slow pace?
What would you do for a special celebratory holiday?
Free Knitting Pattern
Was directed to this free pattern from one of the knitting lists I'm on:
There are lots of free patterns online but this one is particularly cute. I may have to knit it myself. It'd make a nice change from knitting garments which is what I tend to do.
I Quite Agree
Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964)
In Memorium
Where's Maddy?
I've kept quiet about the whole Madeleine McCann story. It's not that I've not had an opinion, it's just that the information has mostly come from journalists or from the the McCanns themselves. Living in a country where one is used to hearing updates from the police I've felt like we've not had any unbiased information presented to us.
The McCanns have now been made official suspects and whilst I wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to whether they are likely to have harmed their own child or not, I find it interesting that they've come to the decision to return to the UK at this point.
Trawling the web today I came across someone else who has been following the story and her thoughts struck me as being like those of my own:
Istorya - The McCanns On Trial
In a statement given by Gerry McCann he said:
I don't agree. They left their children home alone. Children far too young to be left by themselves. Their actions, whether direct or indirect, have lead to their daughter going missing. In the final analysis, in my honest opinion, the buck stops with them.
Gone!
Having a check through all my links I've noticed that Blogphiles seems to be up the swanny. I've tried going over to Paul's site (the ring owner) at Aardvark.dj but that doesn't seem to be working either. Blogphiles was, and still is from looking at the stats, a very large Netring. Looking at the queue I can see that it's full of mainly spam applications. I wonder if Paul just got overwhelmed and chucked in the towel. I hope he'll try to let some of us know so that we can remove the link; not just wait for it to die a long lingering death of missed sites and broken links :(
It's easy to get overwhelmed though. It takes work and effort to maintain ring integrity and a large ring means more work. I have a ring check happening on Blogging Brits this weekend so no doubt there'll be sites to move to the queue while I try to find out what's happened to them. Blogging Brits costs money to maintain and I question the logic of it at times when so many people are either too lazy or just plain rude by not maintaining their own admin in the ring. There's no excuse. I'm always available by email if help is needed. It's not just rings either. I've tried going through some blog listings and directories and notice broken links and missing sites there. It's very frustrating. And demoralising too.
Sometimes I really feel that Blogland has lost something. It was a much more vibrant place when I started the Blogging Brits ring over 5 years ago. It's been a shame to see some very fine bloggers up and leave because they seem to lose faith in blogging. Paul and Blogphiles may be another such casualty. A real loss.
Ack! Take no notice of me. I'm just feeling pissy. I'm sure once I've had my meds and I'm tucked up snug and warm in bed I shall feel very much better...
You Can Knit Just About Anything
Personally, I like the conjoined teddy bears :)
via You Tube
Still Around
Just mostly sleeping at the moment. I've also got some nasty back pain that doesn't seem to want to go away. I've never had much trouble with the tender points in my back before so it's come as a bit of a surprise.
Photos of knitting projects on the way...now I've got some new batteries for the camera. Lots of ickle cardigans and sweaters knitted. It's been lots of fun :)