Inspection seemed to go well, we’ll get a report in a few days, I guess. The landscaper came and gave the owner another quote on the yard work. If the garden ever comes to fruition, I’ll let you all know. It’s been about 2 years in the promising!
No knitting today, much more exciting happenings have been going on!
Last night was the Duran Duran concert. Fantastic show, absolutely excellent.
But even more exciting than that? The concert took place at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. The parking station is right at the back of the centre, and where you come out is just on the other side of the fence beside the stage door.

See? That van? That’s THE tour van. I had to wait at the parking station for David to walk up to meet me (he was coming straight from work), so I hovered for a while, and discovered that the band would be coming out any minute.
Any Minute. It actually took half an hour, but who could walk away, knowing that it could be Any Minute?
But patience is often rewarded. See the back of Simon Le Bon’s head.

See Simon in the car.

See Roger.

See John?

Dammit, I wasn’t fast enough! And I have no idea where Nick was. No autographs or anything, but Simon did talk to us, he told me that they were going to a TV station to film a segment before the show, and I asked him which station, and he told me it was “The Lair” on MTV.
Pretty exciting, huh? It got better!
We went round to get something to eat, and then came back around the back to kill time until the show started, and I was there when John came back.
See?

See John’s autograph?

Picture me beaming?!?
The show was fantastic! They played for over two hours, combining some of the newer stuff with *all* of the old favourites. There were big warning signs outside the centre stating that cameras and recording devices would be confiscated, so I was good and didn’t take my camera in, and it was out of batteries anyhow. But nearly everyone else in there had cameras and were taking pictures, so I was kicking myself for not taking the camera and extra batteries! We were dancing about 4 metres in front of John, great spot, and I’m still feeling a little deaf.
And my feet are killing me from dancing all night in high heels. Well, half the night, because I kicked them off halfway through the show.
After the show, we decided to go up to Star City Casino for dinner, but nearly everything was closed, so we ended up with plain old fish and chips, then headed back to the car at the Entertainment Centre parking station about 12.30 or so.
And there were still heaps of people waiting back stage for the band to come out! (Silly them, should have been there before the show!), we headed up to our car on the second level, got in, started it, and straight away everyone started screaming. (All those middle aged women, Em would have died from embarrassment!). Jumped out of the car, and it was Simon, Nick and Roger coming out. By now of course, my camera was completely dead unfortunately. They stayed there for ages, signing autographs and stuff, but we were up on the second floor of the parking garage so I missed out this time.
Didn’t take the smile off my face, though! I felt about fourteen again all night long.
Knitting next time, I promise.

Please pardon the blog silence.
Easter was great, and hectic. Some knitting was achieved, but most of the weekend was spent out and about, visiting and going to the Easter Show, and drinking far too much wine, so there wasn’t as much done as I might have hoped.
And unfortunately, the blog silence will carry on for a few days, because we’ve just found out yesterday that the real estate we rent from are coming to do an inspection of the premises on Friday.
Friday, the day after tomorrow.
So I have today and tomorrow to make this look like a habitable space.

Yes, again.

See, what goes around comes around. In the second most recent post, I was having a serious case of the blahs, but I ended the post with “I think this means the next post should be bursting with lots of wonderful things!”
Then the next post was about the shawl placing at the Easter Show, and even apart from that, I’ve had a phenomenal week.
By the way, for those who were interested, this is the shawl that won the Shetland section.

It’s stunning. Well, from what you can see of it. And in addition to being so fine, and beautifully knit, it’s hand spun. I’m happy with second behind that!
Other great things, I got some wonderful mail from lovely people. The streetlight outside my bedroom window that had been flickering for seven nights, making it feel like we were sleeping in a disco has been fixed. (And fixed properly, not by me throwing a brick at it!)
I’m four rows from the end of Hyrna Herborgar

I’m hoping to finish it today, but we’re going out in a little while, so maybe tomorrow.
And yesterday, I found out that Duran Duran are touring, playing in Sydney next Friday. I have no idea how I didn’t know about this, but I didn’t. I checked the ticket site yesterday afternoon, and there were only crappy seats left. I was pretty disappointed, and decided to think about it for a while before buying tickets.
Last night, after talking it over with David, I decided that it was better to go and have crappy seats than not go at all. I went online to get tickets, and they’d obviously released more tickets, because we’re sitting in the second row. Second row, for Duran Duran.
I feel like I’m thirteen again! I was bouncing around the house for hours. What will I wear?!?
An awesome week! And finally, yes, Twinkie’s still pretty.

Ailsa and I went to the Easter Show Arts Preview tonight, and checked it all out. Unfortunately, my Wedding Shawl didn’t even get displayed, but the Shetland Shawl?

That’s a very pretty red second place ribbon attached to my (badly displayed) shawl. And I’m over the moon with that, the shawl that won was incredible, and actually took out the overall knitting award for the whole show. Hand spun, incredibly fine, it made my cobweb look chunky!
I’m so proud I could burst! Unfoirtunately a great deal of the knitting is very badly displayed, many of the stockinette based shawls have actually been hung wrong side out. I wish I were joking.

I’ve been feeling out of sorts the past couple of days, nothing serious, just a case of the blahs. Of course, that means that there’s very little worth blogging.
What’s contributed to it? Lots of little things, some of it knitting related. Staying up ridiculously late on Thursday night to try to score some Wollmeise from The Loopy Ewe probably didn’t help! I loooove The Loopy Ewe. I spend far too much time checking out what’s new over there anyway, but I knew that Sheri was listing her latest Wollmeise order at some point this week, and it had been narrowed down to late Thursday night (really early Friday morning) local time, so I sat up, intent on getting my hands on some.
Unfortunately, I blinked at precisely the wrong moment and I missed it. Five minutes, people! The whole lot was gone in five minutes! I’d click on a colour I liked, and it was gone. Click on another colour, gone. Gone, gone, gone.
I’m consoling myself with the fact that the last thing I need is more sock yarn, and at least it wasn’t the Wollmeise Lace weight.
The Easter Show results haven’t gone up yet. I’ve stalked the website since Thursday (judging was Tuesday and Wednesday), but Sally found a message on the site tonight that the results won’t be posted until Wednesday. Fortunately, Ailsa and I are going to the Preview on Tuesday night, so I’ll find out a little earlier, but the anticipation may be the end of me.
And the ennui has extended to my knitting, I’m afraid. I finished a Monkey sock, but I can’t be bothered grafting the toe. (Hands up anyone who is actually surprised by that!).
So I sat down tonight to work on Hyrna Herborgar instead, and realised that I’d made a stuff up 4 rows back, and it took the best part of the night to rip back four rows of 300 stitches and re-knit them.
And that’s the sum total of anything even vaguely worth reporting, or not.
I think this means the next post should be bursting with lots of wonderful things!