Just an excuse to use this icon, really...
- I was reminded of this userpic by mrsrevj and finally got around to stealing it off the internet today!
- When did I last update? Heaven knows. Shouldn't really be updating now as it is 11pm and I need more sleep than I'm going to get!
- We went ice skating today! There is a temporary rink set up in a marquee next to a restaurant in Nantwich and there were half price vouchers in the entrance hall at school last week for people to pick up if we wanted to. I took four, realising that in the time scale they allowed we would have to go today after school. I put the vouchers in my pocket, forgot all about them and washed the trousers. Oops! Suddenly remembered what day it was today, found the washed and totally useless vouchers still in my pocket in the clean jeans on the radiator, and thankfully there were still a few left when I got to school to collect the children, so I picked up another four! Phew.
- It was brilliant. All of the children coped really well on the ice; Two is just a natural, possibly because he has no fear, One was nervous and took a while to get going, but once she did she really enjoyed herself, and Three did far better than I had imagined. I thought I was going to have to keep her with me, and I wouldn't get to do very much skating, but they had these most amazing plastic penguins on the ice, with handlebars for ears, so that small uncertain people would have something to hang on to and slide around with! She went off, sometimes with a penguin and sometimes without, and was very low maintenance indeed! Marvellous!
- I haven't skated since I last went in my first year at Manchester Poly, which was... ahem... 19 years ago... I used to be able to get quite a speed up but had totally lost confidence and it took me ages to get anywhere. Also this wasn't real ice, and was far more slippery somehow - the blades didn't get a grip on it in the same way and my feet kept sliding sideways when I wasn't expecting them to! However by the end I was managing ok, though I never really got going as I would have hoped. However, it was an awful lot of fun, and Two was delighted to see two of his schoolfriends there too, so he basically went off and skated with them - it was great!
- After skating we went to Pizza Hut for our tea. That was a spur of the moment decision on my part; I set aside a bit of money each month for holidays and days out, and hadn't touched December's allocated funds yet. I thought that as this is likely to be our only trip out this month to do anything particularly exciting as a family, then I could spend a bit more and make it into a proper evening out. It was lovely and we all enjoyed it - a lovely break from the norm on a Wednesday evening!
- We didn't get home until after 8pm, so once the children were all in bed I didn't have a great deal of evening left really; hence why I am still up now, winding down! I've basically been watching things on iplayer and knitting.
- I'm knitting a really pretty pair of socks at the moment using a beautiful yarn which was a very kind gift from Wendy, a Canadian facebook friend. It is Sea Wool - 70% merino and 30% seacell and is a variegated yarn in the colours of autumn leaves. I pondered for quite a while about what pattern to use, because I knew such a special yarn needed the right pattern to set it off, and in the end I plumped for a really simple eyelet rib pattern from the sock knitting book which tanglefrost gave me for my birthday this year. It is a four row pattern repeat and three of those four rows are the same, so it's incredibly easy to memorise and quick to knit. And yet it is incredibly effective and to the untrained eye it looks a lot more complicated than it actually is - always good for showing off in public places, that... *grin* It suits the yarn really well and I'm very pleased with sock number one so far!
- I'm now yawning my head off so think sleep is in order. Could do with a quick hot bath first as my legs are starting to ache now from the skating!
- When did I last update? Heaven knows. Shouldn't really be updating now as it is 11pm and I need more sleep than I'm going to get!
- We went ice skating today! There is a temporary rink set up in a marquee next to a restaurant in Nantwich and there were half price vouchers in the entrance hall at school last week for people to pick up if we wanted to. I took four, realising that in the time scale they allowed we would have to go today after school. I put the vouchers in my pocket, forgot all about them and washed the trousers. Oops! Suddenly remembered what day it was today, found the washed and totally useless vouchers still in my pocket in the clean jeans on the radiator, and thankfully there were still a few left when I got to school to collect the children, so I picked up another four! Phew.
- It was brilliant. All of the children coped really well on the ice; Two is just a natural, possibly because he has no fear, One was nervous and took a while to get going, but once she did she really enjoyed herself, and Three did far better than I had imagined. I thought I was going to have to keep her with me, and I wouldn't get to do very much skating, but they had these most amazing plastic penguins on the ice, with handlebars for ears, so that small uncertain people would have something to hang on to and slide around with! She went off, sometimes with a penguin and sometimes without, and was very low maintenance indeed! Marvellous!
- I haven't skated since I last went in my first year at Manchester Poly, which was... ahem... 19 years ago... I used to be able to get quite a speed up but had totally lost confidence and it took me ages to get anywhere. Also this wasn't real ice, and was far more slippery somehow - the blades didn't get a grip on it in the same way and my feet kept sliding sideways when I wasn't expecting them to! However by the end I was managing ok, though I never really got going as I would have hoped. However, it was an awful lot of fun, and Two was delighted to see two of his schoolfriends there too, so he basically went off and skated with them - it was great!
- After skating we went to Pizza Hut for our tea. That was a spur of the moment decision on my part; I set aside a bit of money each month for holidays and days out, and hadn't touched December's allocated funds yet. I thought that as this is likely to be our only trip out this month to do anything particularly exciting as a family, then I could spend a bit more and make it into a proper evening out. It was lovely and we all enjoyed it - a lovely break from the norm on a Wednesday evening!
- We didn't get home until after 8pm, so once the children were all in bed I didn't have a great deal of evening left really; hence why I am still up now, winding down! I've basically been watching things on iplayer and knitting.
- I'm knitting a really pretty pair of socks at the moment using a beautiful yarn which was a very kind gift from Wendy, a Canadian facebook friend. It is Sea Wool - 70% merino and 30% seacell and is a variegated yarn in the colours of autumn leaves. I pondered for quite a while about what pattern to use, because I knew such a special yarn needed the right pattern to set it off, and in the end I plumped for a really simple eyelet rib pattern from the sock knitting book which tanglefrost gave me for my birthday this year. It is a four row pattern repeat and three of those four rows are the same, so it's incredibly easy to memorise and quick to knit. And yet it is incredibly effective and to the untrained eye it looks a lot more complicated than it actually is - always good for showing off in public places, that... *grin* It suits the yarn really well and I'm very pleased with sock number one so far!
- I'm now yawning my head off so think sleep is in order. Could do with a quick hot bath first as my legs are starting to ache now from the skating!