The Shieldmaiden, the cheese, and more of the 100 Questions
I'm not mathematical enough to know whether it is amazing that the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day should have fallen on a Sunday, but it's very appropriate. At the same time, it feels like there's no possible way to properly commemorate the end of something so apocalyptic.
...
I had a busy couple of weeks, then it took me another couple of weeks to recover, and then I got so behind with work, and so worried about it, that I got up at 6 am yesterday morning to catch up, only to find that, when I finally put my mind to it, the totally impossible took me less than two hours!
Unfortunately, posting here has also slipped...
But, thanks to bogwitch, who did some research for me and then suggested a body-swap solution, my ridiculously-expensive-but-bought-off-ebay-for-only-£16.99 Eowyn doll no longer looks like one of Michelangelo's female nudes...
...AKA a man with breasts (here seen with with Barbie's head and Ken's shoes)...
...but more like a Made to Move Barbie (now with Eowyn's head):
It did take me literally two months to pluck up the courage to pull off the heads, which, as it turned out, wasn't entirely unjustified because, although Eowyn's neck has a fairly straightforward mushroom shape, Barbie's neck has an elaborate set of barbs (LOL), which makes the operation quite tricky. Still, it's done now, and Eowyn no longer needs to wear Ken's shoes but can nick Barbie's instead:
(I'll be painting those pink boots brown, but I can't bring myself to risk spoiling the red ones).
By coincidence, somebody recently gave me Kudos on one of my old LOTR stories at AO3 and, whilst I was over there admiring it, I ended up re-reading the story, and some of the others (especially the unfinished ones), and I noticed that my!Eowyn has a distinctive wardrobe, so I decided to make something similar for doll!Eowyn, starting with the suede corslet Eowyn wears in The Two Towers and in most of my stories:
There's a brilliant tutorial on YouTube, which shows how to make a close-fitting bodice. Basically, you wrap the doll in cling film, cover that with sticky tape, and then, with a permanent marker, draw lines in all the appropriate places. Then you just cut the sticky tape shell into the pieces you've marked, trace them onto paper, add a seam allowance, and you have a pattern!
Here's a very grubby picture of doll!Eowyn in her new corslet:
It annoys me a bit that the grain of the fabric isn't running vertically in the centre panel, and I would have added more gold if getting the big needle through the fabric hadn't hurt so much... It still took me an entire day (!) to make it, and my fingers are absolutely ruined. When they've recovered, I'm going to attempt a long, fur-trimmed coat like the one Eowyn wears in the scene where Aragorn finds her lying on a couch.
My Christmas blanket, meanwhile, is about half done:
Yay! Just 18 more squares left to knit, plus about 17 feet of border, then a lot of blocking and sewing, and then I'll need to remortgage the house to buy some fleece to back it -- I had no idea that fleece was so expensive! But I've put the blanket aside for the time being, so that I can concentrate on this:
It's a Santa suit for my great nephew, who'll be about 7 months old at Christmas! I've knitted the other leg since I took the picture, and I want to get it finished by the end of the month, so that he can wear it in December (if his mother likes it ;-)
...
I'm not a member of the Friday Five community, but several people on my f-list have posted answers this week, and I love cheese, so...
1. What was the first type of cheese you ever ate?
I grew up in a cultural black hole on the outskirts of Manchester, in the 1960s. We lived in a terrace, and there were four shops 'on the front of the road' -- a greengrocer's, a fishmonger's, a grocer's (Mr Crook's) and a general store-cum-newsagent's (Joyce's) -- where we bought all of our food. (Nowadays, that would cost a fortune!) In Mr Crook's and Joyce's, you simply asked for 'cheese' and were given a lump of white Cheshire. It was harder than the Cheshire cheese you get nowadays, possibly because it had been kept at room temperature in a big cheese dish with a transparent plastic cover, and cut with a wire, then wrapped up in greaseproof paper.
On holiday in the Lakes one time, my mother bought some cheese and was given something orange! I remember we were all dubious, but we tried it, and loved it. Looking back, I think it was probably Double Gloucester, because it was quite mild, but my mother's attempts to buy orange cheese at home resulted in Red Leicester (which we also loved).
It wasn't until I went up to university that I discovered Cheddar, which is really hard to believe now!
2. What was the type of cheese you ate most recently?
Cheesestrings! I'm not proud! I love peeling bits off them :-)
3. What is the most unusual cheese you ever ate?
Egyptian hard cheese has a distinctive taste and goes well with chips and roast vegetables (which was standard vegetarian fare in Egypt in the 1990s).
I think the most memorable cheese I've eaten so far is the Cheddar with Maple Syrup I bought in a Duty Free shop at Vancouver Airport. I explained to the shop assistant that, because my travel agent hadn't told them I was vegetarian, Air Canada hadn't had any food for me on the flight over (10 hours!), and that I wanted to have some cheese and crackers with me on the way back, just in case. She very kindly cut the cheese into small pieces and packed it in ice for me. It turned out that I didn't need it, but it's a combination of two of the best tastes in the world, and they really go well together -- and, when I got back to Heathrow, my brother and sister-in-law liked it, too!
4. What is your favorite cheese?
I love lots of cheeses (though I hate goat's cheese). My favourite English cheese, mainly because it's rare, is Sage Derby. I've no idea why supermarkets don't stock it; I'm sure it would be very popular. Maybe it's hard to make in sufficient quantity.
My favourite, favourite cheese is Polish smoked sheep's cheese. At the Krakow Christmas Market, they sell it, toasted, with a sauce they call 'cranberry', but I suspect it's made from a local berry, and the name's just to reassure tourists.
Here are some, er, very atmospheric pictures of last year's Christmas Market:
And in three weeks' time, I'll be there again :-)
5. What is your favorite dish made with cheese?
Macaroni Cheese!
I make a pretty good Macaroni Cheese myself, but the best I've ever tasted was in a fairly posh restaurant at Somerset House a few years ago; I think it was on my birthday. It had a topping of bright green dust, and was served with a teeny, tiny side salad that had a dressing which tasted like Heaven.
...
More of the 100 Questions!
43. What was your first profile picture?
My first ever profile picture was of Nefertiti:
One of my colleagues (who worked at the London office and had never seen me) asked if it was a picture of me, LOL.
44. Favourite tshirt?
My favourite ever T-shirt was bought from Oxfam's Sale rack for £1. The fabric was printed with bright yellow chains on a 'patchwork' of red, green and blue. I got a lot of compliments when I wore it -- people thought it was expensive, and someone said it was 'very Lacroix'. I wore it until it literally fell apart, and I think I still have it, somewhere, but I couldn't find it to take a photo. This pattern isn't the same, but it has a similar vibe:
My current favourite T-shirt is also from a charity shop. It's black, with a square neckline and fake embroidery -- the flowers are printed in a plastic-y material -- and it has pearly beads here and there. I haven't photographed the whole thing because it needs washing, but you can see that I've lost a bead :-(
It's seen better days, but I still like it!
45. Best tumblr friend?
I don't do tumblr. (And if I did, I would never say that someone was my best friend, and risk hurting other friends).
46. When did you last run?
Depends what you mean by run! I often waddle a bit -- to catch the train, etc -- but I haven't done any serious running since I was at school. There was a time when I was super-fit (and super-slim), doing Jane Fonda's most advanced workout and another workout -- maybe Callenetics or something with resistance bands -- every day, but those days are long gone!
47. Do you like to paint your nails?
I love nail polish. I am always buying exciting colours. But the most I ever do is, occasionally, paint my nails a pearly pink. I do use dobs of nail polish for other things though, such as marking light switches and keys, and stopping things fraying, and -- in the days when I used to make my own greetings cards -- for special paint effects.
48. Did you ever do something as a kid that got you into loads of trouble?
Oh, my god, yes!
I can't remember how it happened but, one day, I managed to get out -- seriously, our back yard was like Fort Knox -- and go playing on some waste ground with a group of other children. I don't think I knew them. They'd made a tree house and I thought it was wonderful. The tree must have been a willow, because its branches drooped down and touched the long grass, so it had green 'walls', and there were wooden crates you could sit on, and you could climb up onto some of the branches. I must only have been gone for about half an hour, but my mother -- who was a good 30 years ahead of her time in this respect -- had always been certain that it was just a matter of time before a serial killer got hold of me, and she had the entire neighbourhood out looking for me. Luckily, we didn't have a phone, or the police would have been involved, too. Afterwards, I spent a lot of time in bed.
Then there was the nose-blowing incident -- I'd seen people blow their nose, and I'd certainly heard them do it, but I couldn't understand how they did it, and I was convinced that it would hurt.
And then there was the porridge incident but, looking back, that really wasn't my fault. What sort of idiot would be surprised when a visiting five-year old refused to eat porridge? I mean, look at it! I've still never tasted porridge.
49. Who is your favourite dog that isn’t yours?
I don't know anyone (other than online friends) with a dog, and I have to be careful around dogs because stroking them gives me a rash, but I do sponsor a dog through Dog's Trust. My first dog was a Jack Russell terrier called Apache, and I loved him to bits. He used to 'write' letters, telling me how he was doing. But, during a fairly simple operation, they found he had a much bigger problem and they put him to sleep. Dog's Trust allocated me another dog but she didn't feel right, so I phoned (in tears!) and asked if I could choose one myself. Now I have Seamus. He's a character, but he doesn't write as often -- I think Dog's Trust have cut back on their expenses -- and I don't feel quite the same connection with him. No one could ever replace Apache.
Apache on the left, Seamus on the right.
50. Have you ever been drunk?
About three times in my entire life. The first time, I came home to find we'd had a power cut, phoned the elctricity company, and could not make them take me seriously... Then I lay on the floor, watching through closed eyes as a neverending line of ceilings jumped over me. I really don't like being even a little bit drunk. I'm very aware that I'm not in control and I don't enjoy the feeling.
I don't like watching other people get drunk, either, so I'm a lot of fun at parties.
51. Have you ever done something you regret while drunk?
No.
52. Do you want to kiss anyone right now?
Huh, chance would be a fine thing.
53. Do/did you like your math teacher?
I was always very lucky with maths teachers. Unlike games teachers, maths teachers do seem to understand that just because you aren't a natural at their subject, that doesn't mean you're an idiot.
At university, most of my closest friends were mathematicians -- I've no idea why! -- and one of them introduced me to his younger brother who, later, became my husband. (And then my ex husband).
When I met him, D was preparing for his Physics A Level, so one of the first things we did together was work through a book called Essential Pre-University Physics -- very romantic! -- with me testing him. I remember thinking that, if only I'd had that textbook, I'd have got a much better result in my Physics O Level, and might even have decided to take Physics A Level.
D won a school prize for his A Levels, and chose a book called The Moscow Puzzles, full of those "If one train starts from Moscow and another train starts from Leningrad..." types of puzzle, so I then spent a whole summer learning an entirely new way of thinking, which I'll always thank him for.
...
I had a busy couple of weeks, then it took me another couple of weeks to recover, and then I got so behind with work, and so worried about it, that I got up at 6 am yesterday morning to catch up, only to find that, when I finally put my mind to it, the totally impossible took me less than two hours!
Unfortunately, posting here has also slipped...
But, thanks to bogwitch, who did some research for me and then suggested a body-swap solution, my ridiculously-expensive-but-bought-off-ebay-for-only-£16.99 Eowyn doll no longer looks like one of Michelangelo's female nudes...
...AKA a man with breasts (here seen with with Barbie's head and Ken's shoes)...
...but more like a Made to Move Barbie (now with Eowyn's head):
It did take me literally two months to pluck up the courage to pull off the heads, which, as it turned out, wasn't entirely unjustified because, although Eowyn's neck has a fairly straightforward mushroom shape, Barbie's neck has an elaborate set of barbs (LOL), which makes the operation quite tricky. Still, it's done now, and Eowyn no longer needs to wear Ken's shoes but can nick Barbie's instead:
(I'll be painting those pink boots brown, but I can't bring myself to risk spoiling the red ones).
By coincidence, somebody recently gave me Kudos on one of my old LOTR stories at AO3 and, whilst I was over there admiring it, I ended up re-reading the story, and some of the others (especially the unfinished ones), and I noticed that my!Eowyn has a distinctive wardrobe, so I decided to make something similar for doll!Eowyn, starting with the suede corslet Eowyn wears in The Two Towers and in most of my stories:
There's a brilliant tutorial on YouTube, which shows how to make a close-fitting bodice. Basically, you wrap the doll in cling film, cover that with sticky tape, and then, with a permanent marker, draw lines in all the appropriate places. Then you just cut the sticky tape shell into the pieces you've marked, trace them onto paper, add a seam allowance, and you have a pattern!
Here's a very grubby picture of doll!Eowyn in her new corslet:
It annoys me a bit that the grain of the fabric isn't running vertically in the centre panel, and I would have added more gold if getting the big needle through the fabric hadn't hurt so much... It still took me an entire day (!) to make it, and my fingers are absolutely ruined. When they've recovered, I'm going to attempt a long, fur-trimmed coat like the one Eowyn wears in the scene where Aragorn finds her lying on a couch.
My Christmas blanket, meanwhile, is about half done:
Yay! Just 18 more squares left to knit, plus about 17 feet of border, then a lot of blocking and sewing, and then I'll need to remortgage the house to buy some fleece to back it -- I had no idea that fleece was so expensive! But I've put the blanket aside for the time being, so that I can concentrate on this:
It's a Santa suit for my great nephew, who'll be about 7 months old at Christmas! I've knitted the other leg since I took the picture, and I want to get it finished by the end of the month, so that he can wear it in December (if his mother likes it ;-)
...
I'm not a member of the Friday Five community, but several people on my f-list have posted answers this week, and I love cheese, so...
1. What was the first type of cheese you ever ate?
I grew up in a cultural black hole on the outskirts of Manchester, in the 1960s. We lived in a terrace, and there were four shops 'on the front of the road' -- a greengrocer's, a fishmonger's, a grocer's (Mr Crook's) and a general store-cum-newsagent's (Joyce's) -- where we bought all of our food. (Nowadays, that would cost a fortune!) In Mr Crook's and Joyce's, you simply asked for 'cheese' and were given a lump of white Cheshire. It was harder than the Cheshire cheese you get nowadays, possibly because it had been kept at room temperature in a big cheese dish with a transparent plastic cover, and cut with a wire, then wrapped up in greaseproof paper.
On holiday in the Lakes one time, my mother bought some cheese and was given something orange! I remember we were all dubious, but we tried it, and loved it. Looking back, I think it was probably Double Gloucester, because it was quite mild, but my mother's attempts to buy orange cheese at home resulted in Red Leicester (which we also loved).
It wasn't until I went up to university that I discovered Cheddar, which is really hard to believe now!
2. What was the type of cheese you ate most recently?
Cheesestrings! I'm not proud! I love peeling bits off them :-)
3. What is the most unusual cheese you ever ate?
Egyptian hard cheese has a distinctive taste and goes well with chips and roast vegetables (which was standard vegetarian fare in Egypt in the 1990s).
I think the most memorable cheese I've eaten so far is the Cheddar with Maple Syrup I bought in a Duty Free shop at Vancouver Airport. I explained to the shop assistant that, because my travel agent hadn't told them I was vegetarian, Air Canada hadn't had any food for me on the flight over (10 hours!), and that I wanted to have some cheese and crackers with me on the way back, just in case. She very kindly cut the cheese into small pieces and packed it in ice for me. It turned out that I didn't need it, but it's a combination of two of the best tastes in the world, and they really go well together -- and, when I got back to Heathrow, my brother and sister-in-law liked it, too!
4. What is your favorite cheese?
I love lots of cheeses (though I hate goat's cheese). My favourite English cheese, mainly because it's rare, is Sage Derby. I've no idea why supermarkets don't stock it; I'm sure it would be very popular. Maybe it's hard to make in sufficient quantity.
My favourite, favourite cheese is Polish smoked sheep's cheese. At the Krakow Christmas Market, they sell it, toasted, with a sauce they call 'cranberry', but I suspect it's made from a local berry, and the name's just to reassure tourists.
Here are some, er, very atmospheric pictures of last year's Christmas Market:
And in three weeks' time, I'll be there again :-)
5. What is your favorite dish made with cheese?
Macaroni Cheese!
I make a pretty good Macaroni Cheese myself, but the best I've ever tasted was in a fairly posh restaurant at Somerset House a few years ago; I think it was on my birthday. It had a topping of bright green dust, and was served with a teeny, tiny side salad that had a dressing which tasted like Heaven.
...
More of the 100 Questions!
43. What was your first profile picture?
My first ever profile picture was of Nefertiti:
One of my colleagues (who worked at the London office and had never seen me) asked if it was a picture of me, LOL.
44. Favourite tshirt?
My favourite ever T-shirt was bought from Oxfam's Sale rack for £1. The fabric was printed with bright yellow chains on a 'patchwork' of red, green and blue. I got a lot of compliments when I wore it -- people thought it was expensive, and someone said it was 'very Lacroix'. I wore it until it literally fell apart, and I think I still have it, somewhere, but I couldn't find it to take a photo. This pattern isn't the same, but it has a similar vibe:
My current favourite T-shirt is also from a charity shop. It's black, with a square neckline and fake embroidery -- the flowers are printed in a plastic-y material -- and it has pearly beads here and there. I haven't photographed the whole thing because it needs washing, but you can see that I've lost a bead :-(
It's seen better days, but I still like it!
45. Best tumblr friend?
I don't do tumblr. (And if I did, I would never say that someone was my best friend, and risk hurting other friends).
46. When did you last run?
Depends what you mean by run! I often waddle a bit -- to catch the train, etc -- but I haven't done any serious running since I was at school. There was a time when I was super-fit (and super-slim), doing Jane Fonda's most advanced workout and another workout -- maybe Callenetics or something with resistance bands -- every day, but those days are long gone!
47. Do you like to paint your nails?
I love nail polish. I am always buying exciting colours. But the most I ever do is, occasionally, paint my nails a pearly pink. I do use dobs of nail polish for other things though, such as marking light switches and keys, and stopping things fraying, and -- in the days when I used to make my own greetings cards -- for special paint effects.
48. Did you ever do something as a kid that got you into loads of trouble?
Oh, my god, yes!
I can't remember how it happened but, one day, I managed to get out -- seriously, our back yard was like Fort Knox -- and go playing on some waste ground with a group of other children. I don't think I knew them. They'd made a tree house and I thought it was wonderful. The tree must have been a willow, because its branches drooped down and touched the long grass, so it had green 'walls', and there were wooden crates you could sit on, and you could climb up onto some of the branches. I must only have been gone for about half an hour, but my mother -- who was a good 30 years ahead of her time in this respect -- had always been certain that it was just a matter of time before a serial killer got hold of me, and she had the entire neighbourhood out looking for me. Luckily, we didn't have a phone, or the police would have been involved, too. Afterwards, I spent a lot of time in bed.
Then there was the nose-blowing incident -- I'd seen people blow their nose, and I'd certainly heard them do it, but I couldn't understand how they did it, and I was convinced that it would hurt.
And then there was the porridge incident but, looking back, that really wasn't my fault. What sort of idiot would be surprised when a visiting five-year old refused to eat porridge? I mean, look at it! I've still never tasted porridge.
49. Who is your favourite dog that isn’t yours?
I don't know anyone (other than online friends) with a dog, and I have to be careful around dogs because stroking them gives me a rash, but I do sponsor a dog through Dog's Trust. My first dog was a Jack Russell terrier called Apache, and I loved him to bits. He used to 'write' letters, telling me how he was doing. But, during a fairly simple operation, they found he had a much bigger problem and they put him to sleep. Dog's Trust allocated me another dog but she didn't feel right, so I phoned (in tears!) and asked if I could choose one myself. Now I have Seamus. He's a character, but he doesn't write as often -- I think Dog's Trust have cut back on their expenses -- and I don't feel quite the same connection with him. No one could ever replace Apache.
Apache on the left, Seamus on the right.
50. Have you ever been drunk?
About three times in my entire life. The first time, I came home to find we'd had a power cut, phoned the elctricity company, and could not make them take me seriously... Then I lay on the floor, watching through closed eyes as a neverending line of ceilings jumped over me. I really don't like being even a little bit drunk. I'm very aware that I'm not in control and I don't enjoy the feeling.
I don't like watching other people get drunk, either, so I'm a lot of fun at parties.
51. Have you ever done something you regret while drunk?
No.
52. Do you want to kiss anyone right now?
Huh, chance would be a fine thing.
53. Do/did you like your math teacher?
I was always very lucky with maths teachers. Unlike games teachers, maths teachers do seem to understand that just because you aren't a natural at their subject, that doesn't mean you're an idiot.
At university, most of my closest friends were mathematicians -- I've no idea why! -- and one of them introduced me to his younger brother who, later, became my husband. (And then my ex husband).
When I met him, D was preparing for his Physics A Level, so one of the first things we did together was work through a book called Essential Pre-University Physics -- very romantic! -- with me testing him. I remember thinking that, if only I'd had that textbook, I'd have got a much better result in my Physics O Level, and might even have decided to take Physics A Level.
D won a school prize for his A Levels, and chose a book called The Moscow Puzzles, full of those "If one train starts from Moscow and another train starts from Leningrad..." types of puzzle, so I then spent a whole summer learning an entirely new way of thinking, which I'll always thank him for.