Lines. lines and more lines

I've got more lines than a school detention (not that I was ever in those at school - I was far too good!)  Our play opens in less than 4 weeks now and nerves are rather fraught. 

We're performing "Summer End" by Eric Chappell (as you can see from the photo), who wrote the wonderful "Rising Damp" series.  I've got the support lead, so no pressure then!  Before that, I've only been in the chorus line of the panto, so I hope I'm up to the job!  Bit nervous about playing a woman in her 70s too - bit of a blow to the ego, that one :)

With all that going on, I must confess that all my crafting work has gone out of the window for the time being.  I still haven't really picked up enough since the last blog to get round to doing anything.  I've been working on a top for ages and there isn't that much left to do, so I really must crack on.  It was a pattern out of 'Let's Knit':

I'm making mine in a multi-tonal brown, but I'm not sure I'm going to include the bow.  I may team it up with a brown leather belt, but I'll see when the main body is made up.

This pattern requires many stitch markers.  I'm not a big fan of the shop bought ones, so I tend to make my own.  You can't really see them very clearly from the picture, but you get the idea.

Last week was the10th anniversary of HP's company.  It's has a small number of staff (about 6 or 7), but it's done/ is doing incredibly well.  The boss took them all out (plus partners - yay!) to Midsummer House in Cambridge last Friday.  I can thoroughly recommend it, as long as you can find someone else to pay - inexpensive, it is not!  We had private dining room, with champagne on arrival, followed by endless courses of magnificient food, washed down with fantastic wine.  I was so grateful for the chance to dress up and dine at such a wonderful restaurant (I've lived here for 20 years and have never been to Midsummer House), that I made the boys a celebratory cake.

Just a few calories in that, as you can probably tell.  It was a marble cake, fully covered in chocolate butter cream icing, decorated with Cadbury's Flake and then drizzled in white chocolate.  I've been assured by HP that it went down very well and was gratefully received.

 Anyway, to take your minds off cake (for those of you trying to abstain from the naughty stuff), I managed to get a picture of the lovely little black squirrel that lives in the grounds of my work place.  I took the photo through my office window, so it's not as clear as it could be, but I'm sure you'll agree that he's mega cute.