Sunday, October 09, 2011

EVOLVED FOR LOVE?


We went out to Queensgate Mall in Peterborough. I could not resist photographing this hostess trolley type thing. It is foul, tacky, tasteless. Painted silver AND they wanted £595 for it.










Then I saw this Top Man and had it not been for my meds, my blood would have boiled! Really, this seam is a disgrace. I am sure it will sell and the buyer will not care or notice. I am sure though that if they see GOOD seaming, they will realise how they are being ripped off. Don't think that big money will mean good finishing. I went into a very famous designer's boutique and personally handled and examined a sweater selling at €1200. It had loose threads hanging, wonky seams. Appalling. I would have binned it had I made such a bad job of finishing.

To be fair, I see bad finishing in knitting magazines too, often on the front page.

Finishing is of the utmost importance. If you have spent many hours knitting a garment you don't want to ruin it by shoddy finishing. I read many people writing how they hate to finish and I wonder why they knit in the first place. Sewing is part of good knitting. Don't want to do it? Don't knit. Find a different hobby. Sometimes it is just fear that makes some avoid finishing. It really is a simple process. It takes time but time very well spent. No need to fear it. Doing a good job does not require you to be supper talented. It just requires that you commit, be patient and take pride in your work.

I really like the two shirts below. The one on the right is the most expensive I have ever bought but it is simply beautiful, not just in look but handle too. The green jacket was expensive but I got it on sale. I would not have paid the original asking price which was 5 times the sale price! It was bought in Engelhorn, a store in Mannheim, Germany.

The brown jungle like shirt was reasonably priced and is very much my type of design. Has an African look to me. Interestingly the front left and front right are pleated which adds to the appeal of this shirt.

I may have some exciting doggy news very shortly.

Life is still a challenge. I guess it is for us all regardless. I mean that my disease is more of a challenge to deal with recently. A symptom I had a few years ago is back. Moderate to severe pain down both arms and across my chest. This symptom originally caused concern for my heart and I was treated as if I was having a heart attack 3 times until the last heart surgeon took some notice of me and realised that my pain was not my heart but something else - my spine. He noticed how I moved and how did not turn my head but my whole body when I needed to see to my sides. Anyway, not even I knew I didn't move properly. I had had the problems for years and I had adapted without realising I had a problem. i was aware of odd things-numb hands, poor balance, sudden pain, cramps, eye sight disturbance but it was all erratic and mild and I did not think I could go to a Dr with what sounded like a hypochondriac's complaints. I did not have good Dr's then. When I changed 12 years ago, my new Dr saw straight away that I had physical problems.

I have typed this by hand, slowly and with one finger. Other times, I just could not. There was a time I type 80wpm but no longer. I mainly use voice recognition software to type for me. Today I wanted to type myself.

We were only out for 90mins today yet the dogs greeted our return as if we had left them days ago. Then I put them all in the garden and was moved to joy as I watched the gambol about, tails wagging, creating each other. After a while I called out 'do you lot want dinner?' and they came flying past me into the kitchen, got into their cages and waited, with Luque and Whitney and Pussy howling until they got theirs. Such a pleasure I tell you. My dogs give me so much. I am certain that without them I'd be far more disabled, further along in the disease's progression. I'd have no reason to get up in the morning. No matter how bad I feel, I do it. The occasions when getting upright was a challenge too far, fortune has meant John was home to ;let the dogs out, give me my drugs so that I could get up once they took effect.

Dogs fascinate me. They are a completely different species from us. Some say they are parasitic and evolved their curtness so as to appeal to us, stroke our egos, just so we feed them and thus their species survives. Really? It certainly does not seem like that to me. I don't have a different idea about why but that reasoning just doesn't gel with me. I have lived with dogs for 40 or more years and know that they feel, not just physically, but emotionally, and that they think. One of my dogs, Whitney, waits by the door when I am out but John is in. She also will not eat when away from me. I don't really see how pining is just an evolutionary thing. To what end?



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