Time Flies.

Time flies indeed.

The last two months have simply whizzed by, so many good things have happened, alongside things so bad that to relate them here will send me back into a tailspin of depression so deep it has taken this long to climb out of. Sometimes when bad things happen, I merely shrug my shoulders and move on. Whatever is, is. Other things I may never get over, and will have to live with for the rest of my life.

Still, Crappy Temp Job allowed me the opportunity to forget recent troubles and concentrate on something so mind-numbingly boring that it was a welcome relief. or it would have been, had they remembered to pay me. They've booked me for one more week, so hopefully they will have sorted out the problem, before I feel the need to peer at the Line Manager over my glasses and give him the kind of talking-to that could peel the skin off his blazing red cheeks.

Studley, as ever, has been wonderful, trying to find ways to keep my spirits up, even while away working in Finland. When he returned, he displayed the kind of knitter-enabling behaviour that should be cloned by scientists and distributed throughout the members of Ravelry. Thanks to him, I am also the new owner of a iPod Touch.

The other night -when I returned from Knit Nation, actually - I got home to find him in playful mood. He had been to a charity shop, and spied some books he thought I might be interested in.

"I couldn't get you on your phone to find out which books you had, so I rescued them all for you," he said, as he sat me down.

Are you ready for this? Deep breath, then:

Scandinavian Knitwear by Alice Starmore

Designer Collection by Jean Moss

Glorious Knitting by Kaffe Fassett

Family Album, by Kaffe Fassett & Zoe Hunt

The Handknitter's Design Book by Alison Ellen

Knit Design by Betty Barnden & Gabi Tubbs

New Directions in Fair Isle Knitting, by Patty Knox

In all, he had found 12, some of which I already had, but - what a haul! I was already tearing my hair out over where to put my stuff. HW Towers has been undergoing a serious re-organisation of storage space.

More importantly, 12 knitting books - and only one was a paperback - are really heavy! The man went above and beyond the call of duty. This has seriously racked up his Brownie Points.

"I love you, Studley." I could feel myself welling up. "You are mine, and I shall keep you forever."

His eyes twinkled. "That's the plan, Babe".

So, Tell Me About The Lobster...

I was going to mention this ages ago, but I got really busy over the last few weeks. I realize a lot of my friends think I spend most of my time knitting and eating biscuits, but there is a lot to do at Hand Wash Towers. That mould in the bathroom doesn't go away by itself, you know.

Press Night at the Globe, to see Macbeth, was a jolly night out, made even more interesting by the rather unusual form of audience participation. The groundlings' area around the stage was shrouded in a tautly pulled tent-y thing with holes in it for the audience to put their heads through to watch the play, supposedly to represent the frozen Lake of Cocytus in Dante's Divine Comedy (here's the image, by Gustave Dore). The tent was used also for characters to appear and disappear through, and for the three witches to wreak havoc among the audience.

This production is very, very gory, so much so that the audience were dropping like flies. Studley and I counted four (all men) being wheeled away by the St. John's Ambulance during the course of the play. We found out later at the Press Night party that 15 members of the audience flaked out that night. I call that a success.

I recently bumped into the lovely Ruth Saberton while out shopping, who was busy signing copies of her new book "Katy Carter Wants a Hero". Ruth is a funny lady, with a passion for all things pink, and her book is a good quick summer read, full of good people, bad people and a lobster, a facsimile of which she brings to her signings. He is quite an important character in this story of a London teacher who aspires to be a novelist, whose life is changed forever after a dinner party from hell.

Here's hoping "Katy Carter Wants a Hero" makes it onto TV. It would be perfect.

Guess what? I've got a signed copy of the book to give away.

Share your funniest dinner party stories. Make me laugh 'till I spurt my tea out of my nose, and the book could be yours.

Thank You!

My 13th Anniversary took me out and away on a lovely train journey to meet up with Studley for a long leisurely lunch, after which we took a little walk around a pleasant town with a charity shop selling these:

"The Complete Book of Traditional Knitting" Rae Compton

"The Complete Book of Traditional Aran Knitting" Shelagh Hollingsworth

"The Complete Book of Traditional Fair Isle Knitting" Sheila McGregor

"Traditional Knitting in the British Isles" Gwyn Morgan

Chuck in "Knitting in Vogue", volumes 1 & 2, plus a copy of "Mary Thomas's Knitting Patterns", all in pristine condition I might add, and I happily passed just under £25 to the salesperson. To heck with the fact that I already own three of the seven books.

And then I thought, "Oh, no, more books. He'll tell me off. He'll make me give them back!"

But I can't possibly. I rescued them. They're mine.

I struggled to Studley's side with my haul. I goo-goo eyed him. I told him the price.

"Babe," he said, with a twinkle in his eyes, "you've got some bargains there. Would you like me to help you carry them?"

What a treasure.