DARN YARN!

 I thought everything was humming along nicely using leftover yarns to crochet my granny squares and I put aside a ball to specifically use for crocheting all the squares together. It looked like it was almost an entire 100g ball which I presumed would be quite enough for the job. WRONG! With only one and a half rows to go I ran out! Yep, that'd be right. Having never tried crocheting squares together before I just "guestimated" that it would be enough. All the yarn was from the UK and I only need that one ball. To make matters worse I had already placed an order to the UK for another crochet kit . Ah well, I just placed an order for that one particular colour and decided to order some new crochet hooks too. So, now I am expecting 2 parcels from the UK. You can't see it yet but I have placed the squares like a colour wash .

 

 

Remember Little Lucy? I put her away for a while after spitting the dummy when I realised that I had stitched 2 blocks the wrong way around. I had swapped  blocks 4 and 5 by mistake. Not a happy gal that day! I couldn't unpick the blocks because the whipstitching is so tight and small that the fabric started to fray.  Anyhoo, I decided to punch through my disappointment and carry on regardless. I now just have to add the top row and then I can fill in the edges.

 

 

 

I have read another book. This book is very similar to Philipa Gregory's style especially when writing about the Tudors. I am looking forward to reading the next one about Anne Boleyn.

 

 

 

Speaking about the Tudors, it reminds me of my visit to Hampton Court Palace  in 2015. So, I shall continue with a bit of my travelogue now. 

 

I can't remember where I exactly left off last time so I shall start on the the 24th June, 2015 when we returned the car to Cardiff and caught a taxi to the train station. One would think that catching a train to London from Cardiff would be easy. Not so! We were told at the station to catch a train to Nottingham and to change for Queens Way. However, when we were on our way  the ticket inspector told us we should have caught a train to Bristol then to change for Paddington. He gave us new tickets and made sure we got off at the right station. How's that for service!  To cut a long story short we eventually arrived at our hotel around 8pm . What a disappointment! When we opened the door we practically fell down 3 steps almost landing on one of the beds. It was sooooo small we could barely fit our luggage anywhere in the room. It was pokey, felt like a sauna, the window looked out onto walls so one couldn't even see the sky and the bathroom door wouldn't close.. The first thing we did after breakfast the next morning was request a room change which was thankfully granted. It was slightly larger.  Yep, this is the larger room.

 

 

We then went to pick up our London Passes before heading off to meet a friend at Victoria Station.

( Not sure if this is Paddington Station or Victoria Station. )

 

 

 

The next day we went to Cambden Market but I can't seem to find any photos on the computer except for this one which I can't seem to turn around.

 

 

 

 

 

On the 27th June we decided to relax and wandered across the road to Hyde Park.  It was a beautiful warm and sunny day. There was a classic Carousel , or Merry Go Round as we used to call them, so we had a ride on it. I have always wanted to do this There were those beautiful white swans on the lake and I managed to take this pic. Clever huh?

 

 

As we were walking we stumbled across Kensington Palace!!  We had no idea that it was situated right there in Hyde Park, although I now realise that part is actually called Kensington Gardens. Dah!!!

 

 

Agghhhh another sideways pic!

 

 

 

 

 

Having a London Pass was fantastic as we could get in to most tourist attractions quickly without having to pay anything. This is The King's Staircase leading to the King's State Apartments.

 

One of the halls.

The ceiling of the King's Drawing Room.

 

This dress is known as a "mantua" and only grand palace doorways have the width to accommodate the hooped skirts. The whalebone hoops forced ladies to take teeny steps which created the illusion of rolling along on wheels.

 

Men's shoes.

 

 



After our visit to the Palace we went back to the hotel to freshen up and catch a taxi to Hard Rock Café for an early dinner with my daughter's friend. We had then planned to catch a cab to the theatre to see Phantom of the Opera but we chose the worst night to find a cab. Apparently Taylor Swift had a big concert that night so the taxis could only travel so far before coming to road blocks.So, we caught a train and walked ( and walked and walked and walked) to the theatre. Afterwards we couldn't even flag down a taxi anywhere so we decided to catch a train to no avail as they were overcrowded. We hung around for a while and I think it was about 1.00 am that we eventually found a taxi to get back to our hotel. The London Underground was the busiest I have ever seen or expected in the early hours of the morning.

Needless to say we were totally exhausted but it was well worth the effort. After all, how many times does one get to the West End of London?

Thanks for hopping on board my tour. Next time we see some more wonderful sites of London.. Hopefully I will be able to work out why I can't rotate the photos.

Angel Blessings.