Gentle reader,
When I was a kid, I was extremely forgetful. Utterly scatterbrained, even. I would forget important things I’d been told, I’d forget to do things, I’d leave things behind, all sorts of worrisome mishaps like that. One of my trademark forgetfulisms was to leave my wallet every possible place imaginable. In the car, at home, at school, at friends’ places, at the corner store. Once, I left it on a stack of Jurassic Park toys at the mall after staring at them longing for a good twenty minutes. Another time I left it atop a hideout my cousins and I had fashioned into the forest-y growth of an empty block in our neighborhood.
I learned not to do this eventually, after leaving my poor mama irate and exasperated at having to drive me back to somewhere to find it and after having to keep myself organized when I was stage managing or production designing at university. But, once a scatterbrain always a scatterbrain, and to this day I have my moments (too many of them, depending on who you ask…) but they don’t all turn out badly.
Yesterday, I left my wallet at work. And I did not have the key to get back in. Oy. This meant missing a BBQ with some friends. More logistically troubling, it also meant I was stranded in the city until Joel returned from said BBQ. But I shall not be beaten so easily! I had knitting in my bag and a full iPod battery, so of I went to find a pleasant place to knit.
If you’re familiar with Melbourne, then you’d probably know the cathedral on the corner of Swanston and Collins Streets, and the strip of lawn beside it. I sat on one of the benches and began knitting away, but I then moved to the lawn after many a smoker decided to accompany me on the benches, bless them. But I felt that damp breeches was a small price to pay for a clean air. But, I digress.
I had just cast on “Jesse’s Christmas Hat” by Elspeth Kursh with some Morris Woollahra (I think… I’ve misplaced the ball band…), and I was quite content to knit away for nigh on two hours. The weather has taken a cold turn after spending nearly a month warming up, so I was rather happy about that.
Meanwhile, I guess sea gulls are supposed to be gross, but they kept me company as did a few of those lovely little brown birds, and they didn’t seem at all cross that I had no food to share with them.
All in all it turned out quite peachy!
Just some other things I wanted to tell you about:
- I was featured in an article in The Sunday Age yesterday! I’ll post a scan of it this week.
- My little impromptu yarn giveaway is still going, and I think I’ll close it on Friday and announce a yarn recipient on the weekend. To be in the running, go and comment on this post.
- I got a new bit of software to put my pictures together. Do you like it? I’m always looking for little helping-hands to make my picture layouts more interesting.
What mishaps have you turned into a little bit of pleasantness recently?
– R
theshylion.wordpress.com 
Hello Raynor, I love that you turned a bad momment into a positive!! I need to do that more…and I love your photos of the park also looking for to seeing your article in the Sunday Age.
Still missing you
JJ
❤
That hat looks fab, I must add it to my Ravelry list (even though I look ridiculous in all headwear). And I very much love your image software, they look like old 1960s postcards. ~ T
Sometimes it’s just fun to make stuff for the sake of it. It’ll find a home in due course. I really don’t keep much that I make; I always panic when I need to have examples of things for classes and such!
I like it too! It’s a bit more restrictive in terms of layout, but it looks more polished than the old program.
Aren’t those little brown sparrows just the friendliest little birds? I love seeing them on my verandah.
I always have something in my bag like crochet, knitting or embroidery for times when I am waiting for an appointment. I never get cranky when I hear the receptionist say “Sorry it’ll be another 20 minutes” – I just think “Ooh I’ll get lots done in that time.”
Ah I’m so glad that you were able to let go of any disconcerted feelings from what you didn’t have (wallet and going to the BBQ) and opened your heart up to the here and now. Time making with yarn – it’s soulfood isn’t it? And the company of busy little birds too – see they don’t need wallets either! It also brought back one memory of the cathedral for me. I’d worked in Melbourne for years and passed that building every day, never actally going inside. Then one day, when it was absolutely pouring with rain, I rushed inside for shelter. I’m not a church-goer but I have always appreciated the good vibes inside them – but this time was magical. A woman was singing hymns in the most angelic voice – just herself in front of the alter – and it was so beautiful that I’ve never forgotten that unexpected moment.
I love them! They’re totes adorbz!
That sounds completely amazing, Sandra! Oh, I’d love to see inside, but I’m always intimidated by churches and cathedrals. I collect religious iconography though; prayer cards and trinkets. Religious art and architecture is so amazing, regardless of your faith/atheism/agnosticism.
I saw you in the paper today!!! I was sitting in the lunch room at work, flicking through the papers that someone left there over the weekend, then all of a sudden there you were! And I let out a little squeal and said “I KNOW HIM!”. I was quite over excited really! Haha… Anyway, congratulations! It was a great read 🙂
I read it too! Very nice article!
I love that that was your reaction! ^_^ Thank you so much, Katie! I think it turned out pretty well.
i can’t wait to see you in the paper! scan that thing, sir! i’m always locked out! i lose my keys at least once a week. gah!
I’m so lucky that I need my keys to get out or I’d be completely screwed. Even so, I swear at least once a week I leave my house three or four times because I have to keep going back to get something I’ve forgotten. That’s why I’m always late!