Well, time is gradually healing my mood, though grieving for a friendship so cruelly dropped will take a little longer. So... work is tricky at the moment, as I teeter between anger and avoidance, distrust and pity. But my sleep has improved and I guess time will cure all in the end, one way or another. I get more independance to travel to work with better music (and I actually get in on time now, which I prefer!) so I'm focussing on the positives! I did accidentally talk myself into getting a new laptop, although in terms of RAM it's identical and so far it's refused to let me install anything on it beyond Teams and Outlook so I'm not hopeful!
I took a friend down to the annual Knitting and Crochet Guild AGM weekend, this year in High Leigh Hall, Hoddesdon. The drive down was ok until we got to the M25 and the A roads in London during rush hour. I had forgotten the insane and impatient car drivers seem to congregate further south! Anyway, we made it with about half an hour to spare before the opening meeting and then off to the dining room for a very nice dinner (I had beef curry). The after dinner speaker was Vicki Haffenden - alas we were both very tired so made directly for bed afterwards, which is when I discovered I'd be using my ensuite without a lightbulb!
Saturday morning we had a keynote speaker, Sue Maton, and then the AGM. After lunch, I had a class with Vicki all about holding position - we had a two-sided handout but alas I could really have used instructions for some of the samples she'd brought. It was interesting, but I may skip machine knitting classes next year because I'm not sure I learnt anything new (I managed to mess up anyway!). We were interrupted by enthusiastic crafters wanting to pick over the yarn amnesty (leftover knitting and croche items donated to raise funds for the Guild). After dinner another talk by Lily Kate France. Again we were too tired to hang around for drinks, which is a pity.
Sunday morning (having slept badly) I did a quick walk around the lake, after being waylaid for various other reasons. It's a very nice site (though I never did find the cave!). After checking out and loading up the car, we had a show and tell which was amazing - so much inspiration! After lunch I had a go at "lacis crochet" with Helen Jordan, a very interesting circular crochet pattern that would make amazing shawls, and after lunch there was a raffle. I didn't win anything but I was quite relieved because a few of the prizes were tickets to Ally Pally and I've already got a ticket for that! All too soon it was over - we decided to take A roads back, which may or may not have been a good idea. At one point the heavens opened so heavily that people were pulling off the road. I kept going (but slowly) and after twenty scary minutes we were back in full sunshine. Yep, it's definitely autumn!
Current mood: 
moody
hot
