This week’s routine was varied from the norm by two events. The first was a funeral on Monday, and the second was on Tuesday when I followed my usual schedule of doing the weekly shop. I’d been stymied the week before by the supermarket being out of eggplant/aubergine and had to substitute courgette/zucchini. This week I checked first, and found that none of the local shops carry corn meal. I skipped forward to plan B, and chose a different recipe.
Bzzz
The new car has a nifty feature where the boot will open automatically when you stand behind it. This is very useful if you’ve got a box of groceries in your arms and don’t want to lower the box, open the boot, and pick up the box. With the groceries duly deposited in the boot, I pressed the button to close the tailgate.
Pareidolia
And then realised that all my keys – house and car, plus the phone – were in the boot and the car was locked. If I’d had the phone, I could have used it to open the car. I feebly tried to open the doors but didn’t want to try too hard for fear of breaking it or to setting off an alarm. Cursing my own stupidity, I pondered what to do. I could walk home – it’s only half a mile – and get the spare car key at home, but the front door was locked. I could shamefacedly call the RAC or a local garage to see if they could assist. There were spare house keys in the house, not useful. Then I remembered my lovely neighbours have a spare set. I strode home, hoping they were in, and knocked on the door. They were in, so it was the work of an instant to obtain the spares, and they even gave me a lift back to the supermarket. I am hoping that leaving the keys in the car is an instance of something I only do once.
A Bird in the Bush
On Thursday, I learned a new word – lasskie – although it’s a variant of the more common ‘lassie’. The two born-and-bred Caithnesians on my Thursday morning shift at the museum frequently use local words, and if I can’t figure one out, I ask. One morning, ‘markies’ was in frequent use – that’s short for ‘Marks & Spencer’. ‘Lasskie’ wasn’t too difficult to guess from context, but ‘markies’ had been a puzzler. The context was shopping in Inverness, but I couldn’t think of any stores with that name.
Nasturtium leaves
The knitting hiatus on the gansey was but the blink of an eye, for the new needles came on Monday. I bought lots of spares of different makes. I chose Addi ‘unicorn’ needles to replace the broken bamboo. The tips are on the dull side, so it’s not as easy to split the yarn as with pointier tips, and the needles themselves have a subtle twist like a narwhal’s horn. With the new needles I’ve been able to surge ahead, and have nearly completed the pattern band on the sleeve. I’ve already started to think about which pattern to knit next.
I had to chuckle when reading your post about locking the keys in the car. I bet you’re right, you’ll go through a ritual now to assure your keys are accounted for.
Love the progress on the gansey. So hot and humid here in northern Michigan I have a hard time thinking about wool.
Connie Stafford
The way things are progressing you are fortunate the car did not take off by itself and drive home without you…
Your knitting continues to amaze
Ihello. I enjoy reading your posts as I’m a Guernsey pattern fan. In Wiltshire, we call Marks & Spencer “Marksies”, so nearly the same.
Penny
I envy you the boot opening every time I balance the groceries on my knee or against the car or occasionally even on my feet to fight with the boot (do you use boot or trunk?). The gansey is still looking great.
Dave
Usually I say ‘the back’, “I opened the back of the car”. 🙂
I’m in England and call it boot. I think trunk is an Americanism. 😎
Indeed it is. I grew up there, and now the only British terms that still befuddle me are ‘crotchet’, ‘quaver’, ‘minim’, etc. Far more sensible to call them quarter, eighth, whole notes.
Luckily, I was taught music in Junior school and learned crotchets and quavers, etc. then. I didn’t come across the American system until much later in life. Being close to 80 years old, , I still think in feet and inches and, often compare decimal coinage to the old denominations. I still have half-crowns, shillings, sixpences, pennies, farthings and threepence pieces, etc., in a jar.
I am enjoying your stories of the patterns you find in the museum. Thanks for sharing.
Penny
My most dramatic lock-out was the time I came home from grocery shopping, parked in my garage, and started carrying my groceries into the house through the connecting door. On the first trip into the house I left my purse and keys in the kitchen and went back out to retrieve the remainder of my groceries. My large dumb but adorable cat shoved the door shut behind me and I was locked in the garage. We had just moved into the house and didn’t know the neighbors yet so no one had a spare key. This was pre-cell phone so I sat and waited for my husband to come home, while my cat meowed angrily at me through the door, wondering why I did not come in to feed him.