Bit of a rum do

[usuallyhats]

silly_cleo gave me Discworld, the Merlin OT4 of happy, Cheltenham, Wolfsbane and crafts in that five things meme approximately three hundred years ago; I have been working on my answers ever since and here they finally are.


Discworld: Discworld books are the only books I buy in hardback and also the only ones allowed to jump to the top of my book pile (I'm quite strict about reading books in the order I buy them, or else some things would never get read). I really like that it holds up both as satire and as a fantasy series in its own right; it's very funny in a way that appeals to me greatly, the characters are beautifully drawn and it has a fierce sense of morality.


the Merlin OT4 of happy: I love a good fictional team and even more so if they team up because they happen to be friends. (If they could walk purposefully towards the camera with their cloaks billowing out behind them at some point in season 2, that would be excellent.) This one is especially good as I like all the characters individually too, as well as all the different relationships between them: Morgana and Gwen's easy affection, warmth and humour; Merlin and Arthur expressing their love through mockery; Gwen and Merlin being all cute and awkward; Arthur and Morgana with all that mingled closeness and semi-rivalry that you get when two people have grown up together; Merlin and Morgana's uneasy trust; Arthur and Gwen's mutual respect and care. Watching these four in any combination makes me happy.


Cheltenham: Cheltenham is my favourite place ever. My parents moved there when I was four (much to my annoyance: if we'd stayed in Maidenhead I could have had another year of playgroup instead of having to start school), so I grew up there and I love it to pieces. It was founded by pigeons! Sort of. One of the things I love most about Cheltenham is the LitFest: for two weeks in October (and a weekend in the spring) the literati descend upon Cheltenham to talk about books and book-adjacent topics. Last year my parents and I saw Sandi Toksvig's standup show there, which was aces. They have a really good selection of children's events that I used to go to and occasionally win prizes at for my encyclopediac knowledge of the life and times of Roald Dahl. I am still vaguely annoyed that my parents made me go to Hated Swimming Lesson instead of the Knightmare event, though I did see Treguard and Pickle wandering the streets of Cheltenham, which was pretty cool. The Sister went to see J.K. Rowling and my dad got her copy of Philosopher's Stone signed ("To Kate, who likes the Sorting Hat") and had a nice conversation with JKR about Ford Anglias. Also at the festival they have a Book Tent and every year I was allowed a book or two from there. That was awesome.

Also in Cheltenham is the fantastic Sandford Lido, a bit like the seaside but without the sand. This was extra good while I was at uni because there was usually a week or two when we were all back for the holidays and it was sunny but the schools hadn't broken up yet so it wasn't heaving through the day. You can sunbathe, swim, play games and buy chips from the shop. What more could you want?

Cheltenham: the town that has everything. Crazy statues! (Crazy shops, too, for that matter. (This isn't my photo, btw.)) A clock that blows bubbles and plays "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" on the hour!. And beautiful Cotswold countryside. And Gold Cup Week in which Cheltenham's population doubles and all the after school clubs are cancelled due to Epic Traffic. And horrible (allegedly: I haven't tried it) spa water.

*eyes sheer amount of writing in this section* Apparently I was just waiting for an excuse to go on and on about Cheltenham. Huh.


Wolfsbane: (May contain CAPSLOCK) This is one of my favouritest Doctor Who books; Eight and Harry make such a fab team! In my mind sometime after Eight gets his memory back he goes "WAIT THAT WAS HARRY!" and goes back for him and they have lots of lovely adventures together, possibly with kissing. I was thinking about this and have decided that my ideal Team TARDIS would consist of Eight, Harry, Benny, Anji and Fitz. Yes. Anyway! It is a wondrous book and Harry is PURE OF HEART and Eight KEEPS HENS. My favourite bit is when Harry finds the Doctor writing a note saying "If I do not come back, please look after Mary and Betty (hens)." and gets all worried because if the Hero thinks you might die, that's not a good sign. I love this book to pieces and need to read it again and remember all the other bits I love...


crafts: I craft because I don't have any maths homework to do. I spent most of my GCSE and A-Level years doing my maths homework in front of the TV, so when I went to uni I got all these random feelings of guilt whenever I was sitting watching TV with nothing else to do. I picked up cross stitch again first, but quickly ran out of kits I both liked and could afford. Then the Guardian printed a few excerpts from Stitch 'n' Bitch and it was downhill all the way. My mum and my grandma both had a few goes at teaching me to knit when I was younger, so picking it up again wasn't too tricky.

Currently on my needles:
- Carolyn, being knit in dark blue, light blue and white cotton (Patons DK cotton, my favouritest yarn in the world, colourful, reasonably priced, easy to knit with and not itchy).
- Elfin Bride from Domiknitrix, in a very pale mint green cotton. I've made Gothlet already and it was really fun!
- A grey and pink striped jumper that I'm probably going to frog, as the colours really aren't working and there's no point making something that I'm not going to wear. I might try dyeing the grey stuff a different colour. *sigh* I knew when I was buying it that I didn't really like it. Fool.

From the "so nearly finished I can almost taste it" department:
- Yosemite in dark blue. Mine... does not look like the picture, but I like it anyway. Just needs the buttonholes tweaking a bit, not a long job but an annoyingly fiddly one.
- Pioneer in different shades of light blue. I LOVE this and cannot wait to wear it, I'm just considering redoing the crochet edging with a bigger hook as it's rolling under at the moment.
- Sweetheart from Domiknitrix in green. (Ravelry link; it's a jumper with a sort of trapezium shaped neckline.) The neckline does not look like it's supposed too at all and the top half is a little too big (why? I'm not that pearshaped!). I'm trying to decide if I like it the way it is or if I should rip it back and try and modify the pattern or start again. On the one hand I've been working on it for ages and have already pulled it out a few times, and now it's all sewn up, ends woven in and everything, on the other, I want to be able to wear it. Rar.
- The Slink from Domiknitrix. (Ravelry link again; it's a short sleeved, v-neck top, knit side to side instead of up and down.) I've been fiddling with this pattern a bit, lengthening the sleeves so they don't showcase my broad shoulders quite so perfectly, poking the neckline, and I still don't think it's right. I will probably end up frogging this, to be honest. It's the same yarn I'm using for Elfin Bride, so I'll wait and see if I need to cannibalise it for that.

Yeah, I really need to finish some of those.