a simple yarn

Warning (and apologies): The following is devoid of any direction, purpose or theme. Just followin’ a train of thought…

So, it was a day in the city. Shopping (or rather bashing against the other million January sale shoppers on the sidewalk), knitting with the girls at Barnie’s, getting a haircut, and more shopping (or bashing, as it were).

Pride and Prejudice
Right, as I’m sitting in the chair getting another inch or so of brown/blond cut off my hair to reveal more of the salt and pepper combo underneath, I’m wondering to myself (cuz I’d never have the nerve to ask the hairstylist)…why is it exactly people have a prejudice against gray hair? I’m not so utterly unobservant. I’ve seen platinum blond with black; black with blond and red and brown; black with raspberry; blue and green; red and purple. Quite the rainbow of colours sitting atop many a female head in Dublin. So why is it, I ask, that we shrink in fear at simple, unobtrusive gray?

Does the absence of colour automatically equal fatigued aging? Did you know that in certain parts of Africa, someone with gray hair is revered for their wisdom? Pity I don’t live in Africa, it’d be a healthy boost to my pride…but then again, it might be hard to knit in such a hot environment…

Speaking of knitting…
Sitting on the bus coming home from the city centre knitting group, the upper deck is crowded, windows steamed, quietly murmured conversations. A few rows behind me is a young tot chatting to him/herself…never saw the child exactly to determine him-ness or her-ness. Eventually, the sing-song toddler-babble took on a measured melodic familiarity. Surely not….what I was hearing sounded an awful lot like Queen’s ‘Radio Ga Ga’. Perhaps the child is singing a new Sesame Street tune and I’m superimposing my own interpretation on it. Or so I thought until the child began to chant at the top of his/her lungs…’We will, we will….rock you,’ which actually came out like ‘Ee ill, ee ill, ock u.’ Moreover, after that little tribute to Freddie was done, the dad (I’m assuming) began selecting a Bryan Adams selection. ‘Don’t yike at song!’ Wow. So much for the simplicity of Barney the big purple dinosaur with the iPod generation…

Speaking of purple…
I have found myself buying more purple in anticipation of the soon to be silver hair colour. Picked up a little aubergine cardigan in the city today and, not wearing it altogether in one go, I look forward to the cobweb felted scarf I need to coerce Holly into making for me…early birthday pressie perhaps? Also found some forgotten Lorna’s Laces sock yarn purchased at the November Knitting and Stitching Show! Which also puts me in mind that I have a lovely stack of likewise aubergine aran yarn (5 more skeins received as a Christmas pressie) which needs to be transformed into a cabled vest…once the unfinished projects of 2006 are completed of course.

Speaking of 2006…
One of my end-of-the-year Christmas pressies to me was a beautiful plate and bowl from pottery mecca (or so I was told). Found it in the little town of Lagos in the Algarve region of Portugal. Yummy!

Speaking of yummy…
While in Portugal, Holly and I stumbled upon some chocolate we thought only available in France. Lovely brand of dark chocolate! She likes it with bits of chopped espresso bean. Me? I prefer the plain dark—76%. Interesting that it’s 76%, not 75%. Does that extra 1% make such a difference? Also have 86% yet to try. Wondering what the other 10% tastes like. At some point I figure the cocoa percentage will be too high to be tasty. But until I reach that point, the current 76% is a lovely complement to the evening cup of cappuccino.

Speaking of cappuccino…
Dear Husband-Will has just handed me the daily cup of bliss…so, it’s time for the runaway train of thought to come back to the station.