Lunch was wonderful. We were the only Occidentals there. Alexander ordered a magnificent dim sum feast for us. It’s a good way to eat, helping oneself to a delicious mouthful here and another there instead of contemplating an unmanageable mound on one’s plate.

Kate, “Sauchiehall” is pronounced “Sauch-ee-HALL” giving the “ch” that almost-k sound, as in “loch”. Once the Princes Street of Glasgow, it’s pretty dismal these days, half squalor, half pedestrianised horror.

I all-but finished the first KF sock, so decided in the evening to polish it off; tidy up the Shawlette, and swatch the Araucania. I didn’t finish the last-named task – the rugby proved too exciting even to swatch to.

I’m glad it came out the way it did – sorry, Theo. We had selfish reasons.

a) Our bedroom is immediately above a student flat. They had friends in last night to watch the match, several of them wearing English rugby shirts. When it was over, they went quietly home.
b) If England had won, there would have been a victory parade through London one day this week, team in open-topped bus, crowds totally paralysing the centre of the city. And it might have been one of the days on which we want to look at art.

The next question is what to do about the second KF sock. Normally, I don’t worry at all about matching repeats in multi-coloured yarn, finding delight in variety, but I have really been wondering whether I should try to, this time.

The repeats are long – this sock involves two repeats and a bit, as can be dimly discerned in the rather dark pic. Inevitably, the second ball begins at a point about an inch down the cuff of the first sock, so I would have to unwind a lot to get to the matching point.

And I think I have decided not to bother, but to let the second sock be different.