Back from holiday, feeling unwell

Just a quick update – I’ll take photos and fill in details on Saturday as usual. 

Last week we were on holiday in Brixham, South Devon.  It was nice enough, just not quite it, you know.  I didn’t feel very rested or relaxed while we were away, and didn’t come home feeling that way either.  In fact it was really good to get home this time.  A’s Mum came away with us, which changed the holiday completely.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad she did come – she really needed it.  But we didn’t do our usual stuff, and felt the need to come up with ‘things to do’, which normally doesn’t bother us.  I think she enjoyed it though, and hopefully feels rested. 

Actually, I think the only thing we really did differently was the walking – not as much of it as usual.  We did still eat out a lot.  And I mean A LOT. 

Anyway, there was loads of time for knitting (didn’t actually get around to it much) and cross-stitch.  I have started and finished, apart from name and date, a picture for A’s cousin’s baby…due any time now.  I’ve also planned another for another cousin’s baby.  Then I’ll think about one for our niece.  Looks like I’ve been bitten by that bug again! 

I have been knitting since we got back, and A’s jacket is just one pocket away from finished.  There was a magic moment late yesterday when I thought it really was finished, but then A tried it on, did up the buttons (yes, complete with buttons) and we both realised at the same time that the pockets don’t match.  I don’t know how.  I made them identically, down to counting rows and everything.  But somehow, one of those damn pockets is a good inch taller than the other…guess I know what I’ll be doing today.  Also, I want to soak and block the whole thing, as it’s quite snug and some of the stitching looks a little uneven. 

So, why is it that I have knitting (and writing) time in the middle of a working Thursday?  I have a stomach bug.  It started yesterday, and today I feel a little better but still not good.  Fingers crossed for a quick recovery…I actually have work to do, and now I’m starting to fret about it.  I know, weird huh?!

A quick Saturday catch-up

I don’t have much time today, so this will be even briefer than usual.  I have a thousand and one household chores to do, plus 2 very short deadline knitting projects to get on with. 

I’m back at work full-time now, kind of enjoying it, but frustrated at how little time there seems to be by the time I’ve been at work all day, endured rush-hour traffic on the drive home, cooked and eaten dinner and then washed up afterwards.  It didn’t help that this week we’ve been round to see A’s Mum twice (helping her to install a new phone) and my Mum once (it was her birthday yesterday).  Being able to drive in the evening can be a burden as well as a bonus!  At least once this week we didn’t even get out for a walk. 

Anyway, on to the good stuff…although it’s not that good…there hasn’t really been much knitting time either, and I’ve been too tired to do anything complicated.  I’ve only done a round or two on the shawl in the last couple of weeks.  Maybe I’ll take it on holiday with me and make some progress then.  A’s cardi is coming along.  It now has nearly-sleeves, just coming up to the point where the sleeves join the body.  Sadly, it’s back on hold again. 

I finished these little pretties:

They will be in the post to New Zealand as soon as we get our act together. 

I had just returned to the cardi, when I was approached by a friend at work for help with premature baby cardigans.  Her granddaughter was born 11 weeks early, and has already survived 7 weeks in an incubator.  Marriella is now doing so well that she is allowed short cuddles out of the incubator, provided she is wrapped up warmly enough.  Enter Grandma’s plan for tiny little cardigans.  Marriella is only 4lbs at this point and measures just 10 inches around her chest.  I can’t even imagine a baby that tiny, it’s amazing she can survive, let alone thrive as she is so far.  So I’m starting this:

Avril supplied both yarn and pattern, and I started last night.  It’s so small, it should knit up really fast. 

I was satisfied that I’d be back to A’s jacket really quickly, until we were at my Mum’s last night and I spotted a row of tiny teddies on the mantelpiece.  I remembered with a sinking feeling that I’d made them for my step-dad’s last two birthdays, and promised another bear and the rest of the picnic set (blanket, crockery, food etc) for this year.  His birthday is 2 weeks today.  Aaaarrrgghh! 

Oh well, as usual I’ll just get on with it and hope I have time for everything.  A really wants his jacket to take on holiday, but it looks like he’ll just have to wait!

Saturday Catch-up

It has felt like a really long week, full of ups and downs.  I don’t seem to have many weeks which aren’t like that lately, but there’s no point complaining.  I’ve made it through to Saturday and I’m chilling out.

Work-wise it’s all about preparing for several weeks off sick, after my op.  Not only do I have a lot of new year pre-development work to get done, I also ended up running the monthly regional reports due to an equipment problem.  That was 3 days I could have used more constructively.  I’m back on track now though, and should be ready to hand over to the boss-man on Thursday.

In the garden, everything is ticking along prettily.  The Royal William rose doesn’t seem to want to stop flowering.  Every time I think he’s done, I find yet more buds.  The slugs and snails completely stripped the sunflower my Dad bought me…leaves, flowers and all.  The lavender looks like it will flower soon, and has started to smell pretty good.  One of my apricot trees seems to have some kind of problem though, its new leaves are weirdly shrivelled and no more have grown in for a few days.  The other one is fine though, and catching up fast.

Knitting is at a plodding along stage again…plodding along at the cobweb shawl…plodding along on the alpaca/entrelac gloves.  I may have to take a knitting break for a while though, as A’s aunt wants me to make a cross-stitch picture for her new grandchild…due in October.  It’s a sticky situation though, as I made one for Auntie A’s first granddaughter which Auntie A paid for.  Then I made one for Auntie V’s granddaughter, which A’s Mum paid for.  No-one asked for one for Auntie A’s second granddaughter, and I’d moved on to knitting by then so didn’t feel inspired to offer.  Now, do I charge Auntie V for her second one?  Or ask A’s Mum to pay again?  Or do it for free?  I don’t like being in the middle!

Speaking of A’s family, we got a big fat cheque in the post this week, from the estate of A’s late uncle.  It was completely unexpected – we thought if there was money coming to anyone, it was to A’s Mum.  Well it did, but also to each of her children (the same for A’s Aunties and cousins).  It was sadly but also gratefully received…we are going to pay off our one outstanding loan two years early .  We’ll be completely debt free now in less than 2 years, fingers crossed.  There’s even enough left after paying off the loan to start a ‘cruise fund’ for next summer.  Hopefully we can do the British Isles cruise we’ve been considering for the last year or so, and it would be really nice to take A’s Mum with us.

On to my family…Dad’s final divorce hearing was yesterday.  He texted me to say it was a long day, but all is settled and finalised.  He’s promised to pop in sometime today to tell me about it.  Fingers crossed it went his way in the end. 

Tonight we have Alan and Kat coming round for dinner.  Of course when I say dinner I really mean pizza .  It will be nice to catch up. 

Next week…I dunno, lots of work.  I might get out for lunch with Caron, if she’s free.  I’m hoping to go knitting in the library.  And I’ll be avoiding thinking about the hospital and surgery for another week.  I can’t put off thinking about it for ever, but the worrying can wait until the time comes.

Mid-week update

As I didn’t say much on Saturday, I thought I’d add a quick mid-week note to catch up on all the stuff I couldn’t get my head around. 

I’m knitting away on my lace shawl.  It’s really coming along, but still takes too much concentration to do more than a couple of rounds each evening. 

I bought some lovely 4 ply alpaca from a local shop, to make a hat and gloves to match my entrelac scarf.  I’ve settled on a plain hat/gloves with entrelac brim/cuffs to match the scarf.  The hat is nearly done and looking good.

Next, A wants me to make him a cardigan/jacket type thing.  It has to be black, and he has a pattern in mind.  I’ve found a suitable yarn and ordered it from Get Knitted.  It should hopefully be here in time for my time off sick, which implies that…yes, miracles do happen…I have a surgery date!

I’m going in on 25th August, just 3 weeks away.  I only found out late yesterday, and only then because I phoned the hospital’s Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) to complain, for the second time.  Still, at least I can start planning around it.  We’ve already booked our October holiday on the basis that I should  be better by then. 

Now, what else…oh yes, in the garden everything is coming along nicely.  Some of my wildflowers are actually flowering, which is so good to see.  A second apricot seedling has popped up and is rapidly catching up to the first one.  And the neighbour’s cats have been having a butterfly killing spree.  We went out on Monday to find 3 cabbage whites in pieces on the path.  I’m no fan of the hairy creepy little bugs, but such wanton slaughter seems somewhat harsh. 

Last Thursday I went to Plymouth for work, which gave me loads of knitting time on the train.  I stayed overnight in a hotel in the city centre, meeting up with my friend and colleague T, and her partner, for dinner.  We went to an amazing Italian restaurant, where I managed to order the creamiest pasta dish on the menu – I’m not surprised I’ve lost no weight this week, I’m just amazed I haven’t gained any. 

The work meeting I went to Plymouth for went well, then T and I went shopping at lunchtime to buy some goodies for our team meeting this week.  As I was thinking of heading back for the train though, I got the message from my Dad about my Grandfather, so that was a really hard journey home.  T did offer to drive me all the way here, but I figured I’d be all right. 

I spent the weekend trying to get my head back together, and suffering extra pain from all the travelling and stress, but I took Monday off to rest a bit more. 

Yesterday I went to Bristol for the monthly team meeting, then today I made it to knitting in the library. 

Tomorrow is my Grandfather’s funeral, then somehow we’re back to Friday again!  Work is really getting busy now, as we start into the new academic year, and it’ll only get busier from now until xmas.  Still, I don’t like to be bored

Anyway, I’d better get back to work…photos as usual on Saturday.

This year sucks

I don’t have time, inclination or inspiration to say much.  My Grandfather died on Friday morning.  I’m ok, just very sad.

More another day.

Garden Photos again

After last week’s ‘happy happy garden’ post I got a big shock.  When A got home from work, we both went back to bed for a nap, forecasting a long evening at a friend’s party.  On waking up, I pondered out to water my pots and found the lavender pot, with it’s 6 or 8 tiny seedlings, dug over by the neighbourhood cats!  I was furious.  We went out, got back late as predicted, got up late Sunday morning and found one of the other pots dug over too. 

This is one of the suspects…

He’s cute, but not that cute.  He’s also one of the range of 5 regulars who now appear in our garden whenever A tops up the bird feeders.  Damn cats. 

Speaking of bird feeders, our tallies are now getting impressive – and these are those we have seen in our tiny garden, and mostly feeding:

Sparrow – 1

Pigeon – 6

Crow – 1

Blackbird – 2

Magpie – 1

Yay!  That ’s much better. 

Now I think of it, I forgot to mention a brilliant sighting a couple of weeks ago, when I went to the open air service at Oxford Crematorium with my Mum.  We were folding the chairs and wandering back to the car, when Mum looked up and asked what that bird was, the big one flying low overhead.  It was only a red kite!  They were pretty much extinct in this country, but have made a bit of a comeback.  It’s the first time I’ve ever seen one, and it was so close!  We both stood staring, absolutely gobsmacked.  It was just drifting around over the treetops, eventually disappearing behind the trees with a weird kind of screech.  Wow!

Anyway, back to the garden.  My window-box herbs are still doing well, even though I haven’t yet got round to moving them to t heir new, bigger pot:

See that basil bursting out of there?  It’s smelling fantastic now too. 

That’s the smallest of my bee-flower pots.  The plants are coming up well, still struggling with slugs and snails and goodness knows what else.  The bit of broken protractor on the floor next to the pot is my slug extraction tool.  Well, I’m not touching the slimy little beasties! 

This last picture is the dill pot.  The plants are coming up thick and fast, despite the sprinkling of peanuts donated by the birds on the feeder!  Still no mint, but we’ll see. 

So, what else has been going on this week?  Yesterday was A’s Uncle’s funeral.  It was sad, as expected, and A’s Mum was clearly devastated.  But that’s what funerals are for I guess, and at least she had a chance to get some of that grief out into the open.  I hope she feels better. 

No knitting group this week, but hopefully we’ll get together soon.  In other knitting news, well there is no news really.  It’s still plod plod plod with the cardigan – still on the sleeves.  And for light relief I do a few rows on the scarf. 

I’m thinking I really need a smaller project, maybe socks, to give me short term satisfaction.  The risk is, if I’ve got something more interesting on the go, I’ll give the other stuff up completely.  I can tell myself that knitting should be fun. I should be enjoying it, so I should give up on the stuff I’m bored of…but I really want the cardi and I’m loving the way the scarf looks, they are just taking so long to finish! 

So, this week coming…hmmm, not much to say really.  Nope, can’t think of anything but work.  Exciting!

A wierd week.

It’s been an odd one.  I’ve had a stomach bug for most of it, feeling rubbish and tired and with much-worse-than-usual pain.  I worked in the office Monday morning, then at home until Weds afternoon when I gave up, feeling grotty and miserable. 

Weds was our niece’s first birthday, so we’d arranged to go out for dinner with A’s immediate family.  It wasn’t quite the cheerful occasion it should have been though, because it turned out A’s uncle died on Weds morning, unexpectedly, in his sleep.  Understandably, A’s Mum didn’t feel much like celebrating.  I felt thoroughly unwell anyway, and everyone was a bit subdued. 

We caught up with A’s Mum again yesterday, and she was much more cheerful.  Hopefully we’ll find time to see her over this weekend, maybe tomorrow. 

Apart from that, there isn’t really much to say.  No hospital appointment.  No work news.  nowt much really.

I’ve been pottering in the garden again.  We got some more compost yesterday, and a packet of teazel seeds, so I dragged some more pots out of the shed and got planting again. 

There are three pots, all approx this size, in different spots around the garden.  We’ll see if they grow! 

The window-box-herbs are still doing well – the basil seedlings are growing fast, there are now a few parsley seedlings, but still only 3 or 4 chives.  I’m a bit concerned about drainage, as there are no holes in the container and I didn’t think to add gravel when I had chance.  I’m planning to move them into a much bigger pot, with better drainage. 

The wild flower pots are doing well, growing fast.  Sadly, they seem to have a fight on against slugs and/or snails, but in our natural garden, that’s their battle, not mine. 

The pot I planted with dill is doing well, lots of little plants peeping out over the past few days.  And a few lavender plants are coming through too.  Only the mint is still missing from last week’s pots, but I’m sure it will get there. 

It’s kind of soothing to have that evening watering routine.  For now, at least. 

Knitting is still a bit dull, and not worth the photos…the stripey cardi is plodding along, it has a back, two fronts and two partial sleeves (which are rather boring).  The entrelac scarf is also plodding at the moment.  It’s good switch-off knitting, but not very exciting. 

This coming week…we’re off to a friend’s for the evening tonight.  Then catching up with A’s Mum tomorrow.  Then work next week.

Photo Saturday – mostly not knitting!

This week’s photo Saturday, as the title suggests is not all about the knitting for once.  There are of course a couple of knitting pictures…but only of the little dog I made for my friend.  I’ve re-done the spots as patches, complete with new ears and tail:

 

I have been knitting other things, of course.  They just don’t make for very interesting pictures.  I’ve been working away on my stripey cardigan, which now has a complete back and a nearly done left front.  Still lots to do though. 

I’ve also restarted my entrelac scarf…again.  I realised that I would run out of yarn before it was anywhere near long enough, so I’ve started again with just 3 squares across instead of the 5 or 6 I had before. 

I’m beginning to think I need some socks on the go?!

The rest of this week’s photos are all about the garden.  Yes, I’ve been at it again.  I’ve been watering stuff all week, when it hasn’t rained anyway.  I’ve planted some more:

There are two of these, one planted with dill and the other with mint. 

This big beastie has lavendar seeds in it.  I held back a few seeds for one of the pots in the front garden, but ran out of compost before I could plant them. 

Now, an update on last week’s plantings…some impressive results…

That is the window-herb-box…the many seedlings to the left are basil, and on the right (too small to see in my photo) are the first 3 chives!  No sign of parsley yet, but we’ve never had much luck with parsley for some reason. 

Next up, a sample of the pots I planted with wildflowers:

See that?  Seedlings!  All of the pots I added these seeds to last week now have at least a few seedlings, and of different flowers by the look of them. 

The next few pictures are of established pretty things in the garden, which I can’t take much credit for at all.

Those are our two roses.  The big red one in the foreground is called Royal William.  Apart from helping to select him, he’s all A’s work.  In the background (and turning up all over the garden) is our wedding rose.  It was a gift from my Dad when we got married, and it’s actually named ‘Wedding’ or ‘Marriage’ or something like that.  It has been moved once or twice, ruthlessly cut back on various occasions and always comes back stronger than ever.  It’s much more like a wild rose and is more to my taste than big flashy flowers like William.  That said, William makes a lovely contrast and truly stands out.  Plus, his scent is beautiful. 

On to my red hot pokers…

I call them mine, because I chose the seeds (or bulbs?  or whatever), I planted them, I watered them maybe twice, then I left them to get on with it.  I am a bad gardener. 

It turns out that red hot pokers don’t mind being ignored though.  There was just one flower the first year, one the second and then nothing for a couple of years.  But this year, well see for yourself, there are no less than 6 flowers there (one is hidden at the back, and smaller than the others)!  It’s so pretty.  The pot probably isn’t really big enough for it, but it seems to be thriving anyway. 

Finally, for photos anyway, we’ve added a couple of feeders to our bird-feeder pole. 

In addition to the original fat-ball cage, we’ve got a seed-feeder and a wire-mesh tray. 

Now, here’s the big news…we have birds visiting our garden!  I’m so happy .  We put out peanuts on the wire tray, and they started to disappear after a day or so.  So we started paying more attention, looking out of our bedroom window.  Unfortunately, the cherry tree completely obscures our view of the feeders, but we can see birds coming in and leaving again.  So far this week, Ive seen big fat pigeons (twice) and a sparrow.  Nothing really exciting or rare or anything, I know that, but still – it’s a start. 

Okay, I’ve rattled on about the garden for long enough, what else do I want to say? 

Oh yes, I finally spoke to a real person at the hospital.  I was so surprised when she answered the phone that I forgot what to say!  I haven’t yet been booked in for surgery, but I should be on July’s list.  I’ve also got my record amended to state that I’m available for cancellations.  It’s worth a try. 

I’ve been a bit bad this week – I ordered 3 new books.  Two of them should be arriving any day now, the other is released later this week.  They are by Terry Brooks, and as I understand it are the connection between his Shannara series and his Word/Void books.  I’m so excited – not only do I get to read new Brooks books, but they might answer a lot of questions and link some of my favourite stories up.  I’ve started re-reading the Word/Void books in preparation for a massive Brooks-a-thon.  I’m going to read them all through one after another, all 20 of them!  I’m looking forward to reading the original Shannara books in a new context – it’s more than 20 years since I first started reading them!  That’s scary, am I old or something?  Don’t answer that! 

Finally, tomorrow I’m going on an outing with my Mum.  Oxford Crematorium has an annual open air service, to which we always took my Nan after my Gramp died (that’s where they were both cremated and their ashes are buried).  When Nan died, we went to one more service, but it just wasn’t right.  We’ve been to the crematorium since, with flowers, for birthdays, after I got married, that sort of stuff, just never for the service.  This year, it is 10 years since Nan died.  It’s hard to believe, I still miss her so much.  Anyway, Mum and I both got the idea to go to the service this year, so we’ll be there tomorrow afternoon.  It’s a kind of happy/sad thing.

The usual Photo Saturday thing

It has felt like a long week.  Which is odd because it was a short one really, due to the bank holiday at the start of it. 

Firstly, our friends didn’t come round for dinner last Saturday after all.  They had some personal issues to deal with and weren’t up to socialising.  Big karma hugs to both of them. 

I’ve done fairly well work-wise this week.  I not only made it in to the office 3 mornings out of 4, I managed to time those days for when the fairly-high and really-high bosses were there.  Result!  I had a down day on Thurs when I didn’t get up on time, in lots of pain from the start of the day and couldn’t quite think clearly all day.  I made up for it with a good day on Friday.

This morning I woke up at 7.30am…but for no reason!  I lay in bed for a while, waiting to go back to sleep, then gave in and got up at 8.00.  The post lady knocked on the door 10 mins later (good timing!), to bring me this:

It’s the new sock book by Cookie A, who designs some lovely socks.  Part of the book is about designing socks, which is really interesting and could be useful.  I’ve waited weeks for this, since before our holiday.  In fact, I ordered it in time to take it on holiday, or so I thought.  I don’t know what went wrong, but almost no-one was able to get hold of a copy for a while, and as recently as yesterday my order status said ‘we’ll let you know when we have the faintest idea when we might send this to you’, or words to that effect. 

Hooray!  I got my prize! 

This week I have a team meeting in Bristol on Tuesday, and lunch planned with my friend Caron on Wednesday. 

The start of the team meeting has been delayed by an hour, but T from Plymouth and I have decided to catch our usual trains and meet for coffee before the meeting.  It’ll be nice to catch up, and have longer than the brisk walk to the office for once. 

I haven’t seen Caron for a while, and although I’ll miss knitting group this week, I really need to catch up with her.  She only works part time now, and doesn’t live in Swindon, so when she suggested Weds I said yes anyway.  Caron’s little girl celebrated her second birthday this week, and it was for her that I made the ladybird pyjama case.  We’ve now bought some ‘jamas to go in it too…

So cute!  I’ll deliver ladybird and ‘jamas to Caron on Weds and hopefiully get a couple of pictures in return. 

In knitting news, I’ve finished a couple of things this week, starting with the socks which were nearly complete last week:

I’m pleased with how they turned out. 

I also started and finished a little dog for my friend at work, whose dog was put down last week:

Ali was really happy with it, even though the spot pattern isn’t quite right.  I have offered to re-do the spots, but she just wanted to take it home. 

The second start this week was on my stripey cardigan.  I haven’t made much progress because I stopped for the dog…and to start a scarf (not sure why, the weather is suddenly lovely), but here’s where it is:

And finally, the scarf.  It’s an entrelac pattern, which is the only thing I’ve found to suit this particular sock yarn.  I love the mad colours of it, but the colour changes are just a bit too much for all the sock patterns I tried.  The intention was that I’d have this as a smaller project for travelling with…but now I’ve got the new sock book…maybe some socks are in order?!

I had a discussion with my niece a few weeks ago.  I was showing her some of the things I’ve knitted recently, and some of the things I’m planning to knit, and she asked me why I don’t knit for her any more.  I always used to include a hand made gift in their birthday presents, but haven’t for a year or so now.  For a start, we have 13 nieces and nephews, and several we include as step-relations.  Secondly, they just don’t appreciate them.  I pointed this out to M, and she went quiet.  An hour or so later she started raving about the cushion I knitted for her birthday one year.  Did it take her that long to remember the last thing I made for her? Or was she just trying to decide what her favourite gift was?

Anyway, M herself put a successful end to the conversation when she said about the cardigan I was showing her ”I don’t know why you don’t just go to Primark and buy one for £6″! 

Nuff said.

Where’s my mojo?

My knitting mojo!  Where has it hidden itself away?!

Seriously, I’ve hardly been knitting at all.  I finished my last pair of socks, I finished the ladybird pyjama case for Maya, and I couldn’t think what to cast on next. 

I thought “That’s easy, I’ll just make me some more socks”.  I picked out some lovely Tofutsies yarn, mmm pretty blue yarn.  So soft.  I picked out a pattern, couldn’t get gauge.  I picked another pattern, didn’t like the look of it.  I picked a third pattern, which had options for two sizes.  The large one was way too large.  The small/medium was way too small. 

I trawled Ravelry.  I searched my queue…ransacked my favourites…scoured the forums.  I rummaged through both of my sock books.  I could not settle on a pattern. 

I decided to make a plain, simple stocking stitch sock. 

I knit the cuff then thought to myself “I could just take a peek in the book of stitch patterns I have upstairs”. 

Then of course, the only problem was deciding on one stitch pattern!  I’ve ended up with something kind of odd looking, but I like it.  It involves wrapping the yarn several times around the needle before knitting stitches on some rows…

And the close-up on the pattern:

Of course, I’ve realised since I finally settled on these that the Tofutsies yarn isn’t the 4-ply fingering weight yarn I usually use for socks…it’s 3-ply light fingering.  Genius! 

When I’ve finished these I’ll hopefully be able to afford enough yarn to make me a cardigan.  I love cardigans, wear them all the time, and I’ve got a few patterns in my Ravelry queue. 

After that, I’m hoping that my new sock book will have finally turned up.  I ordered it weeks and weeks ago, and I’ll have had so far is repeated e-mails apologising for the delay.  The only consolation is that I’ve seen lots of other Ravelers complaining of delays too, so it’s not just me, there is a problem with it. 

On to non-knitting stuff…our 11 year old niece is staying over with us tonight.  I offered her a choice of birthday treat – a shopping trip, a fancy restaurant dinner, a trip to the cinema, a sleep-over with take away of her choice…or anything else she could think of.  The strange child wouldn’t even consider the other options, she desperately wants to stay with us.  So we’ll be ordering pizza and trying to keep her entertained for the evening. 

Hmm, apart from that…can’t think of much news…nope, that’s it, for today anyway.