Travel

Better news.

But first, I should explain. In my distress yesterday I don’t think I was entirely coherent: I never thought KLM – my contract seems to be with them, rather than with Delta/Northwestern – I never thought KLM would let me down entirely. I feared, I still fear, that they might offer an itinerary, take it or leave it, so time-consuming and complicated that I couldn’t face navigating it twice in five days.

To begin with, KLM doesn’t seem to fly to the US from any UK airport. So the day starts with going to Amsterdam. Then you go somewhere else. Then you go to Hartford. Whereas, if I can’t fly directly from Amsterdam to Hartford, the sensible thing is to fly from a UK airport (such as Edinburgh) to Newark or Boston, and take the train. Amtrak actually stops at Newark International Airport.

Yesterday, on the suggestion of Helen’s husband David, I phoned KLM. The nice Dutchman I spoke to didn’t know that the Amsterdam-Hartford route had been cancelled. (Here is the evidence. I emailed the link to KLM later in the day.) When he went into his routine – “But if it’s true, madam, you can be sure we’ll get you there” – I went into mine – “I am old and I chose the route because it was easy for me; it it’s not going to fly, I want to go directly from a UK airport” – he said without hesitation that I could have my money back.

It’s not exactly cash in the hand, but it’s hopeful. Now I can but wait until they get their act together. Your tale, Theresa, of being booked on a connecting flight that left before you had arrived, is not entirely encouraging. My sister sent me this poisson d’avril link yesterday.

Knitting

The news is even better here. I have begun the lettering which will be my signature and date on the Princess shawl and so far everything seems to be going well. There is every reason to hope that I have counted and planned accurately. I will post a picture the very instant anything coherent emerges. Working from the bottom up, as I am, the first row will be AMDG for Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam, “for the greater glory of God”. Lettering is done every-other-row, “lace knitting” rather than “knitted lace”, so coherence will be relatively slow to emerge.

But even more exciting, in a way, is the fact that I am now engaged on row 38 of repeat 13 of the Princess centre – and I have calculated with some care that the whole thing will be finished after row 38 of the 14th repeat. (Other people seem to finish a few rows earlier. We won’t worry about that.) So from now on, I’m knitting each of the 46 rows of the repeat for the last time!

Doubling back to London and my happy afternoon at I Knit: while there I bought some sock yarn because I liked the name. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. It’s a Cherry Tree Hill yarn with some possum in it, and it’s called “Spring Frost”. I’ll try to get a decent picture for tomorrow.