That which cannot be named

The Ravellenic Games start on Friday. This knitting and crochet challenge is apparently inspired by some sporting event or other that's also starting then; the said sporting event sent a "cease and desist" order when Ravelry called their games the Ravelympics, so they renamed them. Maybe like Oxford Street Waterstones we should call them "Lord Voldesport - it which cannot be named".

I'm not taking part. I've tried taking part in a crochet challenge before and it took all the fun out of it. I'm taking wool and hooks on holiday with me and I'll probably turn out an object or two over the two weeks away, but I can't work to a schedule.

On the other hand, I have every intention of taking part in the madness that is Nanowrimo this November. Unlike crochet, I don't write much during the year and I always need something to set me off. Maybe it's because crochet is mostly mindless by comparison with writing, or maybe I just like the feel of wool between my fingers. Or perhaps I'm just lazy.

What about you? When you're writing, crafting, taking part in sport or whatever you do for fun, do you like a challenge or do you prefer to go at your own pace?

My Beautiful Daughter(-in-Law)

I'm not biased. Really I'm not. Not one tiny bit. It was simply a wonderful wedding.

For a start, we had NO RAIN. I know I'm shouting but this summer a day without rain deserves a shout!

And my son is deeply in love with this beautiful young woman and it was a delight for us to have her become an official member of the family. (Mind you, to me she's been part of the family this last five years!)

And her mother had organised a lovely, beautiful and amazing wedding.

And now I have two sons and two daughters-in-law and I have to say that both my sons have impeccable tastes in women.

Like I said, I'm not biased. OK well maybe I am a bit. Well, yes I am a lot then! But it was still a lovely wedding.

Silver

My younger son gets married at the weekend and I finally finished the silver shrug I was making to go with my dress.

I have silver sandals and a silver bag so I also sprayed a hat silver. It's great if you don't mind the silver coming off on your hair and fingers. So I bought one on ebay. Then I saw a better one.

How many silver hats does anyone need?

Naked Cyclists

I saw naked cyclists at Covent Garden today and I'm completely unharmed.

The ride was to publicise cycling as a means of transport but it felt much more like a statement about human nakedness. I admire the cyclists stripping off even though it was so cold for June.

Many people feel uncomfortable about nudity - I know I wouldn't want to get my kit off in public - but I'm not sure what damage it's supposed to do. I wonder what makes it such a strong taboo.

LOLcat

Parachute Fail

I'm sure you can think of a better caption. The comments section awaits and ReCaptcha is turned off!

A perfect little game

I know that some of you like point and click games as much as I do, and A Grain of Truth is a perfect little gem of a game by the same people who made the earlier Trader of Stories game. 

The controls are straightforward, and if you click on the eye at the top it shows all the hot spots on each screen so you don't have to pixel-hunt.

Travel is easy by use of the map where you can immediately access any location that you've visited.

The pleasant music is set by default to "off" so you don't deafen everyone around you when you first go to the game; if only all websites were that considerate!

The puzzles are tricky but not impossible and I was never left wondering what to do for very long. Except at the very end!

It's definitely worth a look.

(Edited to add: it won't work in Internet Explorer so it's time to upgrade to Firefox or Chrome!)

Only in England

It was our street party for the Diamond Jubilee on Monday. There were races for the children, and a children's tea party, and a display of classic cars right outside our house.

Neil got me to take his photo with the Queen but as he was sloshed at the time I'll spare him a public airing of that one.

In the evening we had a barbeque with Fifties costume optional. I wore a full-skirted dress for the first half hour but after that I covered it with a thick coat and scarf, and added fingerless mitts to boot. I still wasn't warm.

Only in England could one of the evening announcers say that "the weather was kind to us" when we had rain during the day and it was freezing cold during the evening. Still, no snow, no hail, no hurricanes, so I suppose it could have been worse.

Despite the weather, we had a lot of fun. How long till the next one?

I'm a doormat

Well, Rufus thinks I am anyway. This is the third time he's gone out, got wet, and come in and wiped himself dry on me.

Remind me someone, why do we have cats?

Better than the Queen

Yesterday, my son and daughter-in-law were driving to the shops when they passed a car coming the other way and saw the Queen inside, doing her Queenly thing. No really. We're in Epsom and she was on her way back from the races. Apparently people had been queueing for hours to see her but my son and his wife were just in the right place at the right time.

But I went one better. I met Chris Baty* and he shook my hand! He's been touring and meeting people from lots of different NaNoWriMo groups and yesterday he was at the London meetup. He came round speaking to all of us so that he could hear from us what Nano means to us. So all of us got the chance to speak to the great man.

He's delightful! He is so unassuming and he still seems amazed at the huge movement he started from such small beginnings. He can talk comfortably to a roomful of people and make each of you feel like you're the one person who matters. I really enjoyed meeting him. Much better than seeing the Queen.

*Founder of NaNoWriMo

A Cat Story

I'm still writing a story a day and today was a cat story, about a cat not unlike Rufus. He's called Hubert and I may use him again!

All these short stories feel like small ideas that I could work on later, maybe when a competition comes up. I only seem to write when there's some outside stimulus so I need to find a way to motivate myself that doesn't involve other people.

Or maybe not. For me writing is a hobby; if I only enjoy it in company then it doesn't really matter.