Don't piss off the librarian

I have just deactivated my FaceBook account. If anyone is interested enough to follow me here, please comment so that I can add you as a friend as nearly all my posts here are friendslocked. This is a rare public post so that anyone looking for me here can actually find me!

Yesterday I used one of the patterns I made at the Pattern Cutting with Simple Shapes course I attended last year. I made up a pair or wrap-around shorts - it's hard to imagine what they might look like, but the pattern is so easy, it's a rectangle of fabric with a U shape cut out for the body to "sit" in ... and they fold perfectly and are great for holidays. I made mine out of Liberty tana lawn (a really nice lightweight cotton fabric) and they look OK to me even though, of course, they don't actually "fit". The most obvious lack of fit is at the waist. They go on by tying - first you position the back half and tie this round your waist, then you pull the front through from between your legs and tie that on - so the bow for the back is at the front underneath the front piece, which has its bow at your back. The ties are narrow so the bows are fairly unobtrusive. The sides are well overlapped and the whole thing hangs unbelievably well. I'm delighted with how these have turned out. They seem very comfortable to wear, but I'm going to save them for my Italian holiday and will report back then after wearing them "in anger" so to speak.

Today I have so far taken my circle skirt block (also made on a Morley College course last year) and from that I have made a pattern for a wrap-around skirt, based on the half-circle, which I'm going to make up in the purple glittery cotton fabric that I found on eBay and fell in love with. I've cut out three half circles - two to go round me and one for overlap - and a long strip for the ties. Now all I have to do is brave putting it through the sewing machine. Googling has given me a lot of anxiety about the glitter coming loose and clogging up the works. I think I'm going to try using some paper between the machine and the fabric to see if that will help to keep the machine clean.

I think I'm going to have to order me some pattern cutting paper on a roll. The kind you can buy in packets is pretty rubbish and comes with creases in that are difficult to get rid of! The only problem (apart from storing the roll) is that I'm not sure I'll ever use it all up. The rolls are 250 or 300 metres long!

RARE PUBLIC POST

My current landline and broadband supplier is Pipex - or is it Talk-Talk? It gets a bit confusing as they seem to change hands constantly, but it's Pipex who send me bills, so we'll go with that. Our line was originally BT until we took out broadband from Bulldog (remember them?)

I want desperately to change as the service we get from Pipex is crap and very expensive. I've identified a supplier to go with - BE (http://www.bethere.co.uk) and now the fun starts.

I rang Pipex to get a MAC code (migration reference code) and they told me they were unable to provide one. Something about bundled services? I got my son/aka system admin to talk to them at this point. They did of course try to sell us a different package until my son told them in no uncertain terms that we did not want a different package we wanted to quit.

They claimed to be totally unable to help us and suggested we approach our new supplier.

I rang BE and they tested our line, found they couldn't get any info on it (not a BT line) and could go no further with it. Their suggestion is that we transfer the landline to either BT or the Post Office, and then from there we will be able to transfer it to them (BE) with no need for a MAC key.

This all seems a lot of trouble and I'm scared we will somehow end up with no internet access for an unpredictable length of time which is completely unacceptable. Or maybe we need to transfer the broadband and phone line to Post Office for a short term in order to progress?

Any wise words of advice from anyone out there on how best to sort this situation?

I'm angry as hell with Pipex as they seem to have us in some kind of lock-in which is NOT acceptable.

If there isn't any easier way out of this, is there any ombudsman or similar avenue for complaint as frankly this situation is driving me insane?

Oh, and on a brighter note, the post rapture party will be at Bi Bi Baby tonight ... and will involve lots of personal rapture with any luck, both during and after! ;-)

I seem to be noticing that we are changing in the ways in which we are prepared to communicate with each other, "we" being modern privileged English-speaking human beings with internet access.

At first I noticed that people didn't write letters any more, preferring the more instant gratification of exchanging emails.

Now, however, it seems people won't even write emails, they prefer to tweet or IM.

What's brought this to my attention is the way a new member of a mailing list community I moderate is trying to interact with the membership.  She doesn't seem to understand the medium of an email mailing list and seems to want, and send, very brief, one-line communications.

I think it's a sad day when we lose the capability of stringing a few sentences together to express ourselves.

Have any of my readers anything to observe or to add to my observation on this subject?

S N O W      

in London!

I confess I am nearly 58 years young and I still love the white stuff.  I've been out for a walk in it this morning, as it was falling, all wrapped up warm and cozy, and it was a sheer delight.

About the only thing I don't like about snow is having to shovel it.  And mercifully I haven't had to do that for years.

Well, actually David's bike, but still. I'd been too nervous to try it out on the roads and so he had me drive us to Dulwich Park where there are road-wide paths and cycling is allowed. After a few wobbly attempts I was off. Practiced getting started to the point where I can do it without having to "scoot" several yards before getting my second foot onto the pedal. Not confident I could do this going uphill yet though. Practiced steering round bends and avoiding obstacles - needed an obstacle course of traffic cones, but such was not available, sadly. Still, for a first cycle in probably ten years it wasn't bad.

May I wish all my friend who celebrate it a very Happy Thanksgiving.

I am grateful for the love and support of my many friends at this time.

I've been looking at bedlinens online recently - duvet covers, sheets, that kind of thing. Just placed orders this morning, and what do I find when I look in my email inbox but an email from my online grocery company, Ocado, offering me a discount with a supplier of bedlinens ... I really really hope this is just a coincidence!

I can't seem to get through to meeble.net to look at my email.

This is not the end of the world. I guess it will wait until Monday. :-)

I am full of cold and feeling tired so haven't gone socialising this evening at all. Hopefully I'll get a decent night's sleep and feel better tomorrow.

There's been no shortage of people to push me in my wheelchair, which has given me opportunities to chat to people I otherwise might not have.

So far so good.

One of the things I was aiming to do when I went part-time was to join my *local* public library (as opposed to the branch of Westminster libraries near where I work). This morning I got myself to Crofton Park Library (confess I used buses in each direction though it's less than a mile to walk!), joined up and borrowed some very light reading, which seems to be all I have the energy for at the moment. The branch is disappointingly small ... I may end up preferring to go to Catford or Lewisham branches, but I like to start with the local one - it encourages them to keep them open, if nothing else. I can always use the catalogue and the reservation system to get stuff delivered to the local branch. Politically I think it's important to use local services whenever they are provided really, and perhaps to campaign to improve them if they're really substandard? Not that I'm implying Crofton Park Library is sub-standard, but there seemed to be very little adult fiction stock and no new book display that I saw. A friend was working there this morning, to my suprise ... maybe I should have loudly asked him "Where do you keep your queer stock?"?! ;-)

I'm not feeling too bad as a result of my excursion either ... :-)