More answers...

Wow the questions just keep coming.
Here are a few more answers, I promise I'll do a post about something else soon. I've fried my brain in the beautiful sunshine we've had today (well the half pint of cider is also making me sleepy) so I'm not up to much more than this!

How did you hook up with the NaComLeavMo thing?
I found out about it via Eliza at Doolittle and just thought it seemed fun. also with not belonging to any of the blogging communities I've never had many visitors before.

How do Rainbows get on with Brownies?
Just fine actually, I think we run Guiding in the UK a little differently than you do in the US with Girl Scouts. In my Rainbow unit are 15 girls aged between 5 and 7, at the end of every school term I pack a couple who have turned 7 off to Brownies, and at the start of the next term I take a couple of new 5 year olds. Most of the Rainbows can't wait to go to Brownies, like all kids they want to be big and grown up, and to them the Brownies seem so adult!

Climbing always seems very scary and dangerous to me, have you had any scare?
I'll come out and say this right at the start, like a lot of rational people I am scared of heights. I don't like being very high up and looking down! However I do love climbing, but most of the time when I climb I'm concentrating so hard on what I'm doing I don't notice the height. In the style of climbing I do (ie. not mountaineering) I'm more likely to get hurt in a car accident than I am get hurt climbing. We are a really risk averse society but all think nothing of getting in these metal killing machines on a regular basis. Having said that yes I have hurt myself once, this was the result.

That was after two weeks on crutches and regular icing and using a compression bandage, my ankle is still a little bit dodgy now, but I gain so much enjoyment from climbing I'd never not do it.

Have you done something that turned out to be a mistake but that you would do again if given the chance?
I think I can honestly say no. While I have made mistakes I would change most of them, but none of those mistakes have been so disastrous that I have major regrets about them. I hope to continue in this manner!

Ok come back tomorrow for Fix-it-Friday where I will share with you some sort of wondrous tip, or website and point you towards Jo for some more good ideas from her and her readers.

Answers...

Ok I promised you answers, and answers you shall have. though first I swear that I need to start leading a more exciting life, even one person who knows me in real life could only come up with a question about the best place I'd visited abroad (seriously A, after all we've been through and the potential embarrassment you could cause you only came up with that!)

Anyway my answers-

What is a Rainbows unit?
Rainbows are the youngest members of Girlguiding UK, basically they're 5-7 year old girls, the equivalent of Daisy Scouts in the USA.

What is your Rainbow leader name?
I'm sorry to report that my Rainbows call me Katie. I couldn't think of a name I'd want shouted at me in the street so I decided that all the leaders having their first name was for the best. The leader I took over from was called Bluebell however.

North or South?
There are beautiful parts of both, but I think my heart is Northern. Before I came to university I was more of what you'd call a Midlander, I've never really wanted to be one, but my home town is in the very northern limits of the Midlands, so I transplanted quite easily when I moved North to come to university. My heart is very firmly in my current city, I love living here, and have built my life here, at the moment I can't see me moving away.

What is the best trip abroad you have been on and where would you like to go?
This is really hard, I've been to so many awesome places. I spent 2 months in Thailand, it was my first time away from my parents and I think it really helped me grow up. I wouldn't say I'd repeat it now, but at that time in my life it was the best thing I could have done. I think it helped that I was there with a purpose and working at a gibbon sanctuary. I don't think I could have done an aimless gap year wander, I need to have purpose in my life! (In fact I think I'll write another post about this with some pictures at a later date during NaComLeavMo.) I also had a wonderful time bouldering in Fontainbleau this year despite some less than great weather I had a blast with some really good friends. I've also had some really great holidays sailing in Greece (maybe I'll get my Mum to scan in some photos for me to post), backpacking and sea kayaking in British Columbia (again maybe in another post I'll go in to more details.)
As for where I'd like to go again that's tricky, I'd love to visit the northern parts of the USA, I love reading Knitting Iris because the photos she posts of the countryside surrounding her are so beautiful. I think I'd also like to go to Egypt but only if no one else was allowed! I'm not too fond of lots of the touristy options, I enjoy my solitude too much, but I am blissfully content in the UK, I really don't have much of a wanderlust.

What would you like to teach and what age group?
I'm three weeks away from qualifying as a secondary science teacher, secondary school in the UK is for kids age 11-18. Officially I am a Biology specialist, however in practise I'll teach Chemistry and Physics as well until age 16, only specialising for A-Levels (16-18).

Can you tell where a British person is from by their accent?
(And no it's not a dumb question!) To a certain extent yes, I sound very vaguely northern. There are some people who are very clearly identifiable as from a certain city, or area, others like me just sound Northern or southern. You can pick out a Geordie, or a Scots person, or most Welsh people (I say most as one of my friends is Welsh and doesn't have the accent!), Yorkshire is also quite obvious as are some London accents. As you can tell it's quite complicated, a bit like many things on this wonderful little island!

Anymore questions?

Questions???

I'm having a bit of a blogging blank. My life is pretty dull right now. I'm in university for the holiday week and it is meaning that i have quite a bit of free time but not very much excitement. All my friends are busy doing university exams so really don't have the time to be out doing exciting stuff!
Anyway in the spirit of trying to keep this place fresh for all my new visitors I felt I should write a post, this will however require a bit of work on your part! I'm probably very guilty of leaving out key details when I write posts and forgetting that you guys don't know me in real life, so do you have any questions, anything whatsoever?

In the spirit of openness I'll answer anything,



as long as it doesn't involve giving away my bank account or credit card details!

Come back tomorrow for some answers.

Happy Bank Holiday

Boy am I glad that this is a long weekend. It's really nice to recharge, it's been a long half term at school, and I'm in university for all of the week that everyone else gets off as a holiday. If you've been stalking me (and if you are then please come out and say hello... I'd welcome the company! you'll have noticed the progress bars on my stuff I'm knitting have been creeping up quite nicely this weekend.
Todays to do list mostly consists of the cleaning I meant to do on Saturday and didn't get round to! Shouldn't take long, and then I am going to spend the day relaxing, and doing more knitting. I was out teaching climbing all day yesterday so the house is a bit of a bombsite as I just dumped stuff when I came in yesterday and didn't tidy up. I'm making the most of this as I have 1 month eft of living by myself. Part of me is glad, these last 6 months have got slightly lonely, but I have enjoyed being able to do everything when I want to do it. After all, if I don't want to do the washing up it's not as if anyone is going to moan about them sitting on the side for the day!
I'm really enjoying NaComLeavMo, it's been great to visit some other blogs, and has actually made me try and write posts more often!

Fix-it-Friday

Todays post has taken a bit of deliberation. I mostly avoid talking about knitting on here, I have ravelry for that, and this isn't a knitting blog. However when I first started out knitting I had no idea how much wonderful stuff there was out there, (or how much some of it costs!). I decided for todays post to summarise where I buy stuff from (Mum you should maybe stop reading now, of course I'm not spending all of my bursary on this!)

Some sites however are places to get some absolute bargains from, even better they're all UK based, which is a common trouble I ran in to. So many places have links to lovely stuff, but it's all in the USA.

1) New Lanark
I can't quite believe how little they're charging for their wool. a 100g ball of DK weight costs just £1... I'm making my whole honeycomb vest in it for less than £8 including postage....

2) Get Knitted
This place isn't the cheapest, but they are the only place to stock the knit picks needles in the UK. I love their needles, in fact I have just used by Grandads"congratulattions n getting a job" money to buy the interchangable set. I've also just bought this . Who could refuse colours like this.



3)No post about yarn could be complete without a link to the Yarn Yard.
All of Natalies stuff is hand dyed and really reasonably priced. I love the feel of her sock yarn, and have just bought some yarn to use in my first shawl to take part in Seasons of Lace.

4)Finally is a Texere Yarns where I've not yet got my order from, but the prices are ridiculous. I've just bought some Alpaca for £3.30 per 50g ball, you'll have to trust me if you don't knit, but that's stupidly cheap! Their customer service seems really good to. I ordered last night and they were out of stock of the colour I ordered I got an email immediately today asking me to pick another yarn as a substitution. the yarn I picked is on clearance which is why they were out of stock.

Anyway, if yarn isn't so much your thing then be sure to head over to Jo and there is bound to be a post from somebody where you'll learn something new.

New Haircut

Crikey it needs to be the weekend, like now...
I have had enough of kids, along with just about every teacher in the place. Most of them however get half term, I simply get the bank holiday off and am then in university every day. The battery recharge will have to wait.
I changed my facebook status on Monday to one that expressed uncertainty about my new haircut, as one of my friends pointed out, how is anyone meant to express an opinion if they can't see a picture. So for your approval and comments I thought I'd post a picture.

The photo was taken at 7.30am, which might explain the slightly vacant look on my face.
Anyway, come back tomorrow for a fix-it-friday post, hopefully I will feel a bit more alive then, though after taking a group of guides ice skating tonight I somehow doubt it.

Waffle house socks

It's been a while since I talked about knitting on here, but I have just finished my latest pair of socks (that's 3 so far).
They're really pretty so I wanted to share with those of you that can't get on to Ravelry. The yarn is from the Yarn Yard, and is really beautiful, I've only put them on to photograph as they're a present, but I really don't want to take them off!




Next up is some socks for me, now to decide on a pattern!