We're home!
As usual with holidays, some things went well, some things didn't.
The weather was lovely. Warm, 23 C and it only rained twice in the evenings when we weren't mooching about the streets.
The ice-cream was fantastic.
You can travel anywhere on the bus in the entire Alpes-Maritimes region for one Euro. Anywhere at all. We went to Grasse from Nice, a 90 minute bus journey, for eighty pence.
My knitting (on bamboo dpns) went through airport security on the way there without as much as a second look, and I finished the second Wheelie Bin sock.
I knitted almost a whole sock for me.
My Golding spindle came back in my hand-luggage so I could spin at the airport (I didn't want to risk 2.25mm metal knitpicks in the x-ray machine) and I spun while I waited for the plane - apparently there was a small interested audience for this which I was unaware of because I didn't want to drop it, and while I can knit without looking (a bit) I can't spindle without looking. It went through two lots of security with no problems.
On the down-side....
There was a one day train strike which scuppered us going into Italy for the day because the buses came out in sympathy as well.
I set off all the alarms in the airport at every secuity check because of the buckles on my birks. Every time I said "My shoes will set off the alarms", and every time they told me to keep them on. So I got frisked every time. The man at the airport in Nice was more interested in my pedometer and how it worked than in my bags. He looked at it, sent me back through the scanner and then had another look and was most impressed that it recorded an extra 22 steps!
I got bag-dipped twice.
The first time the person tried to get my purse which was double double triple zipped into pockets inside pockets in my rucksack. They failed. I realised there was someone messing with the bag and turned round.
The second time we had just come out of the supermarket where we had repacked the bags to allow for cheese, wine, and yogurt, and my document wallet was stolen. It would have been slim pickings.
Four credit/debit cards (business and personal accounts) and my Driving Licence.
One Moleskine (and you know how I like my Moleskines) which was a recently started one with not much in it.
A plastic sheet thing you can use if you need to do mouth to mouth on someone more safely (less cross infection).
And the only thing I am fairly sad about, the swatch (about 2 inches square) from the first ever Yarn Yard yarn I sold.
But.
No-one is dead.
No-one was hurt.
It's all just stuff. The cards were all cancelled within twenty minutes and new cards arrived yesterday (just waiting for PIN's). There was no money in the wallet at all and Gavin had my passport.
So, not a disaster, just an inconvenience.
I'll tell you more about our adventures in the next day or two, but I just have a couple of photos to show you.
We went to Monaco for the day. This is THE casino from the Casino Royale film. Sadly Daniel Craig was nowhere to be seen.
As you probably know the Yarn Yard has a Garden Shed on Ravelry.
Well, I am thinking of expanding the company to include a more luxurious option.
I give you...
The Yarn Yacht.
What do you think?
I think we would all look pretty cool sitting on the aft deck sipping cocktails and spinning or knitting as the sun goes down.
Why this one?
There were a lot to choose from. Several hundred, and quite a few were bigger and swankier than this.
But you see...
... it had my name on it.
☺
There are just two problems.
- Gavin gets sea-sick.
- I didn't dare ask the price.
A small fishing boat type craft with a teeny tiny cabin and fishing nets on the deck was for sale nearby and it cost more than my house!
A couple of announcements...
- I'm updating the shop this afternoon with yarn, and there will be a fibre update later in the week.
- There will be a competition on the blog in the next couple of days to win something French, inexpensive and completely non-knitting related... but useful. It will require no skill at all to enter, and is just for fun.
- This is almost the end of November October (eeeek), so we are approaching the time for the annual Store Cupboard Challenge. Start peering into the recesses of your kitchen cupboards and freezers and having a think about how you could use every scrap of stuff in them over the next month. I'm telling you today because it's the end of the month and it may influence your food shopping this week. The idea is to have a clear out of everything, use it all up and have an inexpensive month of November grocery shopping which will hopefully make space for Festive food shopping and baking etc in December. I did this last year and lots of you joined in with suggestions so I thought I would do it again this year.
Okay... to the camera and the photographic tent. I'll be back later.
n
