B is for books

I cannot live without books.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

I love books. I "read" books much before I learned how to read, and I cannot think of a time when I've not had a book or more on the go. Always reading.

I love books, and I find it very difficult to go into a bookshop and not come out with at least one. I grew up in a house filled with books (triple stacked, in every corner, in good-quality boxes in the attic when we ran out of space), and that's how I want to continue mine to be. I would love to have a place big enough to have a dedicated library.

For this entry, I went around my flat and took pictures of all the books I could see. It so happens that the only room without books is the bathroom, although I always carry mine there. The study contains 4 1/2 Billys mostly filled (3 fiction and 1 1/2 non fiction), and there are books in the bedroom (waiting to be read), in the kitchen (cooking books) and in the living room (mainly knitting, but some others as well). There is also still space for more books, so clearly I need to go out and get more.



I love books, and few things give me more pleasure.

I would love a baby otter

A little pick me up in case anybody is feeling a bit sad.

A little baby otter was rescued by a postman.
As a follow up, now the baby otter has a kitten foster brother.

Be careful when you click on those links. My head nearly asploded of cute.

Wisteria in progress

Because I walk lopsided, all my legs joints were hurting on Friday. So bad that I stayed home instead of going to work, because I didn't feel I could easily make it there, and then work. So I knitted a whole lot, as well as taking an incredibly nice bath with a lavender and cocoa butter bath bomb.

The result? Here is the progress on wisteria half-way through Friday:

On Saturday I went with Alex to see my best friend, and then Alex and him played Warhammer 40K while I knitted. I am already doing the waist decreases! I have knitted a lot recently, but it is also a very quick and moderately easy knit. I'm very happy with it.

I have a new camera!

This is my Wisteria. You can't see the cables very well in the picture, but I just wanted to show off my new camera (Samsung L200, for what is worth).

The stitch markers are some cute bees from yarnlust. I am completely in love with them, and I will recommend her: I got several sets from her and I'm very happy with all.

Pictures will slowly resume as I take them. I still don't have a full picture of my Emerald, so I should probably do that first.

Foot update: still broken! :(

So, when people have been asking me how was my foot, and I was answering either still attached or still broken, I was right!

I had a follow-up appointment today. My foot is mostly ok , but the bone has not finished joining, and it shoudl have by now. Even I could tell the bone wasn't completely closed from my x-ray.
I will keep with my boot and my crutch to see how it goes, and I have another appointment in 6 weeks. However, if it hasn't finished healing by then, I'll need an operation to put a screw in the bone, which sounds quite a lot unlike fun. I'm not being very lucky! At least, things seem to be going all right in other areas, so I can't complain too much.

A is for Astronaut

(c) NASA (source)
My father reckons I was about 3 when I said that I wanted to be an astronaut for the first time. Most kids want to be astronauts at that age, although most of them outgrow it and move on to other professions, like fireman or doctor (or a porn star, apparently girls today want to be porn stars when they grow up). I, however, never grew up.


(c) NASA (source)
Wanting to be an astronaut has been, and still is, one of the main forces in my life. It has shaped my life, as I chose subjects and eventually my degree based on what decisions would get me closer to that. I decided what my degree was going to be when I was 10, as that was one of the ones that NASA recommended for future astronauts. Those decisions took me places, which made me who I am.


(c) NASA (source) Red filter by me: Mars!
Realistically, I know that I can't be a proper astronaut. I am too blind, too weak and my brain is too special to be chosen to be amongst the first crew to go to Mars. Although I do hope that the prices for space tourism go down, so I can go up too.
While being an astronaut might be out of my league, I have not given up on my dream, only adjusted it slightly. I work in Space. I might not be able to go up there, but my work can. I will help the space exploration from down here. I will strive to plan and design the manned space program to get us out there. When the astronauts ring home and tell us they have a problem, I want to be the one asking them what is the problem, and work to solve it.

I want to go to space. Like the hominids in Africa who stood up and walked the plains, I want to be there when we leave the planet and walk the stars.


Part of the 2009 ABC-along series

It arrived!

I've been waiting since November for my pile of yarn to arrive to Get Knitted. Probaly not their fault, although a bit annoying. Today I phoned for what was going to be the last time, but it turned out the yarn had just gotten there, so I picked it up during my lunch break.
The yarn in question is Rowan All Seasons Cotton in colourway 235, Tornado (blueish grey). I needed 16 balls of it, which was the main problem, as they didn't have so much on stock.
The minute I get home, I'm going to finaly cast on Wisteria.

Tales of a camera

My camera used to belong to one of my housemates. About two years ago, when we were moving out of a house, he left all his packing to the very last day. I found this incredibly annoying because that meant he was busy packing, and did not help cleaning and tidying the place, but that is another story. He was panicking and packing, and then decided to throw away his digital camera, because it was broken. By broken, he meant that he had lost the battery charger and the little tab to move between taking pictures, videos and displaying them was missing, so you had to get a pen into it to move it. So, while it was technically broken, it was perfectly serviceable.
I rescued it, got the card reader from him, got myself a charger and voilà, I had a digital camera! It was fairly decent, albeit a bit old (4 years when I got it), and it served me well ever since (although I did have to get another card reader eventually, and then another memory card).

Alas, now it's dead! It turns on, but everything comes out black, so I would like to replace it before its body finishes cooling down.
Given that all I use my camera is to take pictures of knitting and the occasional holiday, I don't have grand demands from one. Yesterday I had a look at the cameras in the big supermarket and discovered that they go as low as £29. While I will not buy something so cheap, at least I now know that you don't have to sink in hundreds of pounds on one. Something mid-range, so it can last me a bit, and ideally with manual features, as I do know how to handle a fully manual camera: I took photography and was school photographer for a year!

I'll probably buy my camera online after some research, and hopefully I can have some pictures up soon. My webcam does no justice to anything.

In chronological order...

• I spent Xmas at my not-in-laws, which was very lovely. I even got presents, including more Bill Bailey (Tinselworm) and the Spore Cute & Creepy parts pack from Alex, a lovely necklace from Alex's sister, and a couple of beautiful scarfs and a knitting book (Heartfelt - rav) from his parents. I was happy.
  
• Walked with my boot and one crutch to the centre of town, where I got new glasses. One of my eyes is now worse, but the other is better. Alex was quite shocked at the price of glasses but, with my prescription, you need them that high quality if you don't want them to be bottle bottoms.
  
• I can now walk at home without the boot.
  
• Knitted and finished a dice bag for my upcoming Shadowrun campaign.
  
• Worked on Alex's socks. At time of printing, I'm only missing the ribbing on the second one, and weaving in all ends. I might pass on the blocking; after all, they are going to go on feet!
  
• Saw the New Year's fireworks from the comfort of my own balcony. This is particularly nice because I could go back inside where it was warmer. Bristol is very cold at the moment.
  
• Got a gremlin. My old phone got bust, my new phone is not yet active, my camera is not working and my webcam is temperamental and crap. Now I wonder where I have put the rest of the points.