Monday, February 19, 2018

It has been another quiet day. Helen is gone, and will be away for three weeks. The installation of my new kitchen looms, and inspires dread. Still, it won’t happen this week.

I find I have reached the final pattern repeat for the centre of the baby shawl, rather to my own surprise. I might be grafting tomorrow – when the knitting is finished, the stitches are grafted to the live stitches of the fourth border. Fortunately, I love grafting, although I’ll have to look up how to do it in garter stitch. And I could be blocking by the end of the week.

Archie is coming to lunch tomorrow. Today’s Mindful Chef – smoked trout and quinoa in a sort of kedgeree – would have been plenty for two. Broccoli cropped up again. Tomorrow is a monkfish curry. I think I’ll see if I can get a bit more monkfish, just in case; and perhaps some more black rice from Health Food opposite the fishmonger there at the top of Broughton Street.

That will do for tomorrow’s walking. Today, inspired by (or, under pressure from) Mary Lou, I walked twice around Drummond Place Gardens. I tell myself that it’s a quarter of a mile per circuit, but I am probably flattering myself. It was sad to remember how recently I used to speed-walk four circuits in the morning before going to get the papers.  

No, I haven’t seen your French detective series, Shandy (comment yesterday). My Italian one is called “Maltese” and is all about the Mafia. The first episode was on Channel Four one Sunday, but since then it is not being broadcast anywhere and one has to summon it up from somewhere in the bowels of the television set. One of Alexander’s sons showed me how to do it. It’s good, but rather unpleasantly violent.


Half-asleep, I heard a Syrian girl from Aleppo on the radio this morning. She has cerebral palsy and could not get out at all, therefore no school. She had learned English by watching American television, and spoke it brilliantly. I don’t think Maltese (or anything else) is likely to have such an effect on me. The girl is now in Germany and somehow or other, there, manages to get to school, where she is doing well. 

5 comments:

  1. There is a biography of Nujeen Mustafa's life - co-authored by Christine Lamb, the writer who did the one on Malala Yousafzai. It's just called "Nujeen" and not very well written but still interesting.

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  2. I measured the Drummond Place circuit using Google Earth. The outside perimeter is about 550 m or 0.35 mile. The inner circuit, outside the fence of the park, is 415 m or 0.26 mile. Inside the park the path is about 355 m or 0.22 mile, but it's hard to see through the trees.

    I am such a map geek. :)

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  3. AS with most things in life, exercise is one of those things that is easier to keep going rather than re-start. But, we do get slower/weaker as we age (my excuse for the age of personal bests being long gone). Be accepting of that reality.

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  4. Anonymous1:37 PM

    Karen soumds very sensible. Marathons are great but so is the daily walk around the block. Chloe

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  5. Nice to know that I can pressure you from afar!

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