Well, Richard Branson's ears must be on fire the amount that I have cursed Virgin Media over the past 6 weeks. Not having a smart phone (mine is a hand me down from E and it's actually her last but 1 phone!) I rely on my laptop for checking emails etc. Our internet has been intermittent for the last 6 weeks and completely non-existent for the past week and a half. I didn't mind it for a while; it made a nice change being comparatively cut off from the outside world. It started to irk me when I began decorating L's room and couldn't have my usual Audible playing in the background. I worried that people would have emailed me and think that I was ignoring them, and then the cherry on the cake: I traveled to Oxford to attend a colourwork workshop at the Oxford Yarn Store, only to find that they had cancelled it ...... by email. It wasn't their fault, and I did end up having a lovely day doing a bit of Christmas shopping, but still. Their customer service also sucks. After spending quarter of an hour listening to pop music, you eventually get through to someone in India who can only say that there is a problem in your area (we know!) and give us a completely fictitious date when it will be repaired. We know it is fictitious because the said date came and went 6 times (yes, we kept ringing India!), and eventually they admitted that it was probably made up. It wasn't their fault, so there was no point taking out our frustration on them, but it was difficult when there was no way of contacting anyone in the UK to find out what the problem actually was. We were just on the verge of changing providers when it miraculously returned. We will probably swap anyway as we are just too annoyed.
Anyway, rant over. Sorry.
Here then are the photos from the past month that have been languishing on my camera waiting to be uploaded:
A day trip to Abingdon for lunch and a potter round:
Raiding the veggie patch for our Hallowe'en pumpkin. The jar is some pumpkin butter - one of the presents that our lovely neighbours brought us back from America for cat sitting. It's yummy.
Carving said pumpkin - it made some of the best pumpkin soup we've had in ages.
A trip into London to attend this:
It was held in the Central Hall in Westminster. I bought a Coop Knits book of patterns and 3 skeins of yarn, one of which is now a hat.
The Central Hall was opposite Westminster Abbey, so I joined the queue to get in and paid my respects to Stephen Hawking - he is in illustrious company, sandwiched between Newton and Darwin.
R works just down the road, so I popped in to meet up with him before we went for dinner. His office has quite a view:
It's also a great place to catch the sunset:
This is where we went to eat. To be honest, I wouldn't really recommend it; both of us were disappointed with our meal.
My autumn view from the kitchen window:
Our friendly woodpecker:
More painting. I finished the actual walls etc. quite quickly. There is a run of 8 cupboard doors down one wall though that is taking me forever.
Having fun with Bosh! Bowls:
A paint your own Christmas decoration workshop at our local museum:
Remembering how tricky it was to paint the tiles last time, I kept my designs quite simple. Here they are before firing:
A trip to the theatre. It was okay, but not the best play we've ever seen:
A trip to Bristol to catch E between essays!
As it was Remembrance Sunday, we were lucky to get there just in time to pay our respects with 2 minutes' silence at the war memorial. For obvious reasons, I didn't use my camera then, but I really like the soldier silhouettes that have been on display around town:
R was desperate to see The Great Britain, so we humoured him. He was thrilled to discover that the tickets are valid for a year ....... E and I less so!
After knitting L a pair of Pride socks a while ago, I managed to squeeze a pair for E out of the leftover yarn by adding contrasting heels, toes and cuffs:
The Harvest Hat, made with one of my Yarnporium purchases. Weird lighting, sorry.
Finally, a photo of the yarn store where my workshop didn't take place! It is a lovely shop though.
Toodle Pip for now. x
Glad you’re back. Must have been exceedingly frustrating. We’re away for a week and the Internet has been very patchy. Lots of lovely woolly things and I love your London shots. We’ve been seeing lots of soldier silhouettes wherever we’ve travelled this week. B x
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. Richard Branson and I parted company some years ago for similar reasons. I had a problem that no-one would sort out. After five hundred and seventy-three phone calls I crossed him off my Christmas card list and moved elsewhere. When Virgin come knocking on the door trying to sell themselves to me I still shriek with horror. Lovely to see pictures of Bristol, my home town for many years. Love your Christmas decorations, beautifully done. Have a good weekend. CJ xx
ReplyDeleteArgh! We had the same thing over the summer. Incredibly frustrating! I love your tiles. Beautiful. And that view from R’s office! Does he notice it much, being familiar with it I wonder? Xx
ReplyDeleteNot only have we dumped Virgin Media, we’ve changed gas & electricity to Utility Warehouse, saving us a lot of money for they changed almost all our lights to LED bulbs, we have a cash back card which we load up. Where we were in contract UW paid costs of leaving the supplier before contract ran out.
ReplyDeleteFor TV catching up we use Chromecast, better picture on iPlayer than from Virgin media.
Glad you got your internet back, can't imagine being without for so long, I think my hands would begin to shake. IMO, you more than made up for it with that yarnporium, I would love to attend something like it, looks like my idea of fun.
ReplyDeleteAmalia
xo
Oh, how horribly frustrating the internet problem must had been, I've been there too. You could tear your hair out! So glad it's sorted. You have been out and about! Love that spider carving, how artistic, and those delightful Christmas decorations. Wow, R certainly does have a view, how lovely being able to see the sunset each day! Hope you manage to get those cupboards done, I must admit, I hate glossing!xxx
ReplyDeleteSo frustrating, I hope everything is working properly now. Love those stripy socks.
ReplyDeleteSo many lovely photos! It was worth the wait. That's quite a view from an office window. My son is in London at the moment and has been enjoying all those sights. You ate a vegan meal at Wulf & Lamb? It sounds like a meaty place! Love your tiles and the Harvest hat. Nice to have you back!
ReplyDeletebeautiful series of photos.
ReplyDeletehave a great day