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Tuesday 25 February 2014

Olympia

For the third time I was asked if I would help as a volunteer on the local authority stand at Olympia for the Who Do You Think You Are Show? Live. Bit concerned, there were two of us scheduled for the day, the young heritage/ local studies/ archivist and yours truly, for whom the opening at 9.30 meant an early start. Some of you will know I don't cope well with early mornings, but yes this time, with much help from Ian and South West trains to Clapham Junction and London Overground to Olympia I was on time.

The show is for genealogists for whom we have much information, but some people are interested in the buildings in the borough too, for example one enquirer wanted to see a picture of the building in which he was born. We don't answer complicated questions, these are dealt with back at base, we can do searches using the laptop so the collections of borough plans and street photographs can be admired.

It is quite enjoyable chatting to visitors, many are local but there is confusion always between us and Richmond in Yorkshire, plus it is not always recognised that the borough spans both sides of the Thames so our history covers both Middlesex and Surrey in our pre-London days. Little interesting snippets from visitors, like one lady was born in the road I lived in from age of eleven.

I forgot my camera, a kind exhibitor used my phone to take a picture of the stand for the record, so you can view the scene.


I have come late to using my phone for photos, I like to take my 'proper' camera, but forgot it. Not sure which gadget has the higher number of pixels but for recording events like this either will suffice.

Although it was a long day, left at 5.30 I was pleasantly surprised I wasn't as exhausted as expected so all ready for Saturday's exhibition, of which more anon.

Sunday 16 February 2014

This is another crafty update, well it is that time of year, weather and health has meant I have been indoors more than intended. Feel annoyed with my lungs that I missed attending reading group on Monday morning and a knitting group in the afternoon but just wasn't well enough to go.

A few weeks back I had a check up with the Practice Nurse, I have bronchiectasis so am monitored carefully, the lung function test result on that day was a bit alarming, it had dropped to 28%, this along with Ian suffering with tinnitus made us decide to sort out our Powers of Attorney. Last Tuesday we trotted along to the family solicitors. Really are family solicitors, both my grandparents and their descendents used the same firm in the same premises. We look on PoAs like wills, once registered we can forget all about them, hope they are never needed, we're the invincible baby boomer generation, so much to learn and do yet.

 As we walked - in the rain - from the car park we passed one of the bookshops and I spotted a crochet book in the window, there wasn't time to buy so Ian asked the bookseller to put it aside for our return. Book is A little course in crochet: simply everything you need to succeed, published by Dorling Kindersley so clear illustrations and layout, plus a good index with a name check for the Indexer.

The cushion cover I am crocheting is growing very quickly, work has grown more since this picture was taken.


Our cushion collection is growing, we went into the Princess Alice hospice charity shop looking for Royal Doulton Tapestry china, we would like to have more pudding/cereal bowls, instead we found these three brand new cushions on a shelf at the back of the shop as if they were nothing. The pads inside were labelled Laura Ashley, assume the covers were the same brand.


 So underpriced at £4.50 each, they lighten up our red sofa, also lovely and squishy to lean on. A complete design contrast from another set of cushions we bought recently through Not on the High Street website.


In case anyone was wondering, the hexipuff total has reached 339, time to go downstairs to start another, target is 384.



Wednesday 5 February 2014

Crafty update

Just an update on the hexipuff front and the crochet cushion cover. I am working on the 333rd hexipuff, but as a change whilst home have continued with the half treble crochet. More colours of Big Wool were purchased last Saturday on a visit to JL in Kingston so as of yesterday




this is the work in progress. Doesn't look as big and garish here, it is for a cushion pad 40 x 40cm so a fair bit to do yet but it grows very quickly, each colour is a single row of crochet.

For even more encouragement if it were needed, Ian returned yesterday with Simple Crochet: hooked on handmade, so many lovely items to make for our home. How will time be found, along with knitting, family history, socialising, volunteering at Local Studies, sorting out the boxes of pre-digital photographs dating back 30 years. Amazed to find I have even kept those bad photos that returned from the developer with a little sticker identifying an error. The ones of local scenes, like Whitton carnival will be labelled and given to Local Studies for their collection. All part of our decluttering.