Photo a day - February

February 2007

And the recurrent themes for February appear to be...offshore, food, cats, and really pish weather!

The Invitation

The Invitation – Oriah Mountain Dreaming

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

© Mountaindreaming, from the book The Invitation published by HarperSanFrancisco, 1999 All rights reserved

Something new!

I got bored. The Handmaiden silk kept winking at me, toying with me, saying "you want to play with me baby..." It was pleading with me to look out a pattern and start to knit. Something delicate and pretty. Not necessarily something that is going to be an everyday wear item. A bit more special than that.


So I started to look to see what I could find. And this seemed like the perfect option. The Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits (Fall 2006). I've already completed 7 repeats of the main lace pattern. It's pretty fast but as only 3 out of the 6 rows in this section are patterned rows it's not exactly difficult. I've actually upped the needle size to 5mm so I can end up with a larger, airier shawl but when one is considering using this as a substitute for a jacket on posh evenings out and one lives in a climate which is wet and not particularly warm then there is a logic hidden in there somewhere.

And now it's time to return to the work stuff - even though I so don't want to. This week I go offshore to present on Respiratory...while I have a stinking cold and so will be coughing and spluttering away in front of the guys. Yeah! Go me!

Sometimes when you go offshore it's a bit of kerfuffle to actually get there in the first place. You don't always fly out straight from Aberdeen. Sometimes you have to go through the joy that is Norwich Airport. Don't get me wrong! Nowt wrong with Norwich (as far as I know - it's got really good shopping...as my credit card is now aware after last Friday's episode when dealing with a delayed flight!) but airports aren't good at the best of times and it doesn't help when Norwich really isn't one of the busiest. There's a wee bundle of flights that go out to the gas platforms off the Norfolk coast. You get a morning surge, mid-day surge and then a late afternoon surge. It's mainly small budgies heading out that direction (I think it's the EC155's but don't quote me on that). Last week I had the chopper all to myself on the way out - made me feel like quite the rock star...apart from the survival suit, 4 layers of clothing underneath it, trainers, ear plugs and ear defenders! So one ends up sitting in Norwich Airport bored out of one's skull for around 5 hours between the time of the flight arriving from Aberdeen and then heading out to the platform. All the staff are really fine and will actually speak to you which is quite fine so can't complain there. It's all a tad more relaxed than what happens in Aberdeen.

And then you land on the delight that is Clipper! It might not be the sexiest, newest platform on the block by any means but I will say that it has a really nice bunch of guys onboard who always make a trip there an enjoyable experience. They're chatty, they'll have a laugh with you, and they take the health stuff onboard and love to ask loads of questions - mainly in an attempt to wind me up but it never works...and they know that. It's a bit cramped onboard which made it interesting accommodation-wise when my flight back into the Beach (onshore) got cancelled due to snow (mainly because the rotor blades could ice up - nae nice!) as they had a full POB (personnel onboard) and bugger all space. There was a bit of hot-bedding going on as night shift bounced out and day shift bounced in. Meant the place was busy so I had lots of faces to yap to. I like the place. Most places offshore I like. The environment is strange and can be a bit claustrophobic but the guys make a real effort to compromise and get on with each other and that's what's important.

Must admit, don't think it would work out quite so nicely if alcohol was allowed offshore...!

Been finishing stuff...though some of it was ages ago!

Thought I'd better show off some finished items and those that are progressing just to show that I have done something in amongst the other trials and tribulations that show themselves up as "life!"

This was a freebie pattern from Yarn Forward and used less than one skein of Hipknits silk. Think it took me at least an evening to produce. Haven't had a chance to wear it yet. I see it as more of summery cover-up and we are definitely nowhere near summer here in Aberdeen. It's February - nuff said!



The next wee shrug is from Vogue Knitting and it was a a strange one to to do. The knitting wasn't difficult but trying to figure out how to put the thing together from the diagram was a bit of a "eeh" moment. It made sense once the bits started to go together but it wasn't that intuitive. Not initially anyway. For something so little it's surprisingly warm when it's on.

And we have finally had success with the variegated Karaoke! I used the pattern out of a RYC book with a small alteration to take account of being totally boobless i.e. eliminating about 2inches off the circumference of the body! It worked. And it looks really cute on. Thank hivvens!

Nearly finished Flicca. I just have one front band and the ribbon stabilising bit to do and that's it. It's going to be so cosy and I think it could end up being a bit of slobbing around curled up on the armchair sort of cardi, interspersed with moments of not-quite-cold-enough-for-a-jacket-
but-not-quite-warm-enough-to-go-without-a-woolie type of thing going on. It was finished (up until this point) dead quick like but other stuff has kind of got in the way of finishing it and as our weather is going to be incompatible with wearing this outside the house for at least another 6 weeks I'm not panicking too much as yet!



An over-the-knee sock in progress...the f***ing Aran jumper that I've knitting for the last year (nearly finished the front - only a sleeve to go then)...a couple of books I bought the other day when I got stuck in Norwich waiting for my flight back up to Aberdeen...and some Handmaiden silk that fell into the shopping basket when I was buying the latest Vogue Knitting from Get Knitted. You know how these things happen. They don't mean to but they do!

My credit card has been so hammered lately that it's feeling just a tad poorly. I really need to rein in my spending before it explodes with overuse!

And this is what else has happened when you have a credit card and know how to use it. Maybe there's a little bit of over-compensationary spending going on but it's also part of the preparation for the next bit that's going to be happening. Gotta get the costumes ready for the parade after all. I have also got 3 weddings lined up this year as well so need to look half-decent for those. A nice frock helps...and we all know that I really, really like my nice frocks. Tis an addiction and I seem to be quite unable to stop it. Don't really want to either! Hardly as though I'm in the thousands of pounds worth of debt bracket. A few hundred that is paid off in a couple of months really doesn't count in quite the same way. Now I just need to go out and look purty in them...!