Post Industrial Brambles

Ever since the days have been getting longer, I have been missing biking something fierce. I do have a “winter bike” in the garage, but it is not winterized enough to handle whatever is on the roads right now (ice covered with slush) and Markus is still not old enough for me to have enough time to just myself, I have not been using it.

My dad sent me the picture of this bike the other day and I took a look into it. For one thing, this bike gets it exactly right (by my standards) as far as accessories go. It has:
- rear rack
- integrated 7 speed hub
- fenders
- chain case
- lights
- hub dynamo (I have never seen this standard on any bike. I actually went to the store to have my bike fitted with it but the store owner talked me out of it because it is non standard for my bike and very expensive)

I absolutely love that it has all these features and it is a step-through.

The price on the handlebar translates to just under $1000 in Zagreb. I looked this bike up and there is a store in Toronto that carries the brand and these bikes go for $1300 in the States (so more in Canada).

On one hand this bike is very much for people like me. It has all the features that I would want on the bike except for one – looks. This bike is not intended for sporty people and yet it is painted for the lycra set. I don’t get it. It is like the otherwise perfect purse that is made to look like a plastic bag on the outside. Maybe it is made for women who want to feel sporty without breaking a sweat.

This bike is a more upscale version of the Africa I am currently riding. Apart from having lights and dynamo hub (drool), I am assuming that it is a smoother and faster ride because it has more gears (7 rather than 3), bigger wheels and it is one of those posh brands that girly transportation blogs write about. It is aluminium which makes it lighter, but I prefer steel so that’s a draw. on the other hand, my bike is half (or even third) of the price and it looks more stylish. Big drawback of both bikes is that I can’t fit three kids on either.

One of the reasons why I avoid romance novels is that, unlike Austen, many authors can’t construct a good relationship if their life depended on it. The main character in this novel had a series of decent sounding relationships, some even serious (i.e. talking about baby names, buying a dog together, etc…) but then within two years the boyfriend would bow out. This abandonment was inexplicable to both main character and the narrator. Consequently the narration did nothing to assure us of the success of the relationship claimed to be successfully beginning at the end of the novel.

Hats off to the idea of Austen theme park. I really liked it, but I would prefer to have a novel exploring logistical and ethical issues arising from existence of such a place more than describing an unconvincing romance.

Here is something you probably did not know about me, I sometimes read parenting books. Like any other non fiction, these can be very informative and sometimes I blindly follow their advice (particularly when it closely allines with my own theories) and sometimes I toss it because it is a bunch of self-serving trash (the author has one issue, probably all due to a trauma suffered while a spool boy, and he keeps harping on it for pages and pages).

“Brain rules for baby” is of the first kind. It makes a claim of heavily relying on current research (whether it does or not, I can’t tell not really being a follower of child brain studies) but it is intelligently written and it makes sense to me. A lot of it was stuff I already knew or intuited. There were two things that I learned from it:

Thing 1: do NOT stress the pregnant lady. If I had any reason to believe that anyone would give a hoot about my opinion I would go to the hospital and ask them to re-examine their risk informing practices. For example, I had to sign a form stating that the risk of Bad Things Happening during birth is twice as high for my subsequent deliveries because of a previous c-section. Instant stress for mom. Do you know what the change in risk was? It went to 0.5% form 0.25%. That is not sign-the-form worthy.

Thing 2: lots of empathy. I never though of saying “you are really upset that you are thirsty” when the kid is crying and we are nowhere near water, but what the heck, I am trying it now. It can’t hurt and at worst I will just sound silly.

I think the theme of this year’s Canada reads program must be: “Go Canada! – because the rest of the world is scary, dangerous and all-around unpleasant”. Initially I was not going to read “Prisoner of Teheran” because between having already read a political book this month, having previously read about situation in Iran and having had talked to a number of ex-pat Iranians I figured I already knew a lot and could live without it. It arrived from the library sooner than I though possible so I figured I would just read the first couple of pages to get the sense of the narrator’s voice. Well, the narrative was so interesting I finished the book in three days. It is a memoir of a woman who, at sixteen, is arrested and spends the next two years in a notorious political prison. Compared to “Something Fierce”, “Prisoner of Teheran” is surprisingly easy to read due to narrator not focusing too much on negative things which is a pretty big feat considering the circumstances. I am not sure which book I think would be better suited to win the Canada reads. They are both informative about the part of the world and they both discuss difficulties living in a particular kind of state. “Something Fierce” is more emotional while “Prisoner of Teheran” is more pragmatic and balanced.

Owen was screaming in frustration on and off this morning until I found a way to stick three minifigs onto the bike:

Once he was happy about that he started crying because he wanted to eat more than two candies today. I did not help him with that.

I had a day alone with Trev (and Markus) today. The first part of the day he played with Legos, after that I told him it was time to go outside for a bit and he gets to choose where he wants to go. He though about the Aviation Museum for a while but then said that he wants to go to a museum he has not been to yet. The War Museum it is.

I looked up the War Museum web page because I wanted to check how to get there. Yes, duh, I know where it is, but there is some pretty restrictive no-turns signage around and I didn’t want to circle around and go over the bridge trying to get into it. Usually museums and similar locations have a map and a text description of what streets to take from the highway or another site. Do you know what the War Museum has as text information on how to get there by car? GPS co-ordinates and the museum address you can enter into the GPS device if the co-ordinates are too much for you. That’s all. REALLY????

I am glad we went to the War Museum though it is such a different experience than the usual museum fare. For one thing I don’t even know how to begin explaining things to Trev. “Ummm, a few years before dida was born there was this horrible war in England and Zagreb and the rest of Europe and the country that attacked the other countries had a dictator and he drove in this car and I don’t know why it had bullet holes in it, I guess someone shot at it.” Yes, I am no good at explaining complex subjects to kindergarteners. According to the Internet, the holes in the car were from after Hitler died, not that I could find any information about it in the museum.

Anyhow, I read Trev the little plaques next to the exhibits though it is kind of obscure as a way of explanation. I did get a good run when we were looking at the statues modelling the Vimy memorial. Trev asked me why they look upset and I said that the war is kind of upsetting and that they have lost friends and family and that makes them very sad and that they have to try and build a better future which is why they are looking forward. Trev then asked me why they are half naked which stumped me and I mumbled something about artistic expression and showing humans as they are. Boy, I would be the worst tour guide ever.

We had chocolate milk before going home and that was nice and easy.

Trying to change up the bedtime literature for Trev, I run across this:

For those not versed in south slavic language, the dedication is from my junior kindergarten friends and teachers. Out of the twenty children I can only put 11 names to memories of actual kids and four of them I remember only for stupid things (like that they ate chalk or were too dramatic). Three of the kids went on to be in my elementary school but I only remember two last names.

In any case, “Jezeva kucica” is an interesting choice for a bedtime read. It is a poem about a hedgehog who gets invited to a dinner party at fox’s house. Once the dinner is over he heads home despite fox’s pleas to stay in her beautiful stone home. The fox is surprised and follows the hedgehog, curious to see his dwelling. Hedgehog’s home turns out to be modest but very dear and important to him.

Because this is a poem, the language used is quite stunning, but also not something Trev has much experience with. He was asking me to translate the first few pages and then he gave up and just told me to continue reading. To be honest, even when I was a kid, I did not understand all the words in this story (or many other stories I read often). Even today there are words I just assume I know what they mean (is ‘gaj’ a forest or a valley???).

I hope that the difficult language will not make Trev not want to read this book again. I will try to translate a couple of pages every time we read, but let him enjoy the rhythm of the rhyme the rest of the time. I really liked this book when I was little, I hope he will like it too.

I have two resolutions for this year. One is to read more and the other is to do a major house clean-up by the end of February.

My latest experiments in knitting centred around colourwork. I have done some couourwork in the past, but never on a large scale (i.e. where most of the project is about colourwork).

The first piece is this hat.

The pattern, End of May, is meant for thicker yarn than what I used so I modified it by adding an extra pattern strip vertically and half the pattern strip horizontally. The hat ended up being just a tad bit too long so I left it on the side to think about how to fix it up. I have some ideas now (I will extend the grey underside so I can flip it up without showing the wrong side of the colourwork), let’s see how it will turn out.

The second project is these mitts.

The pattern is Natural Heather Striped Mittens from a book I got at the library. The interesting thing about the pattern is that the yarn is twisted rather than just carried in the back. it makes it look really pretty inside and the mitts promise to be warm, but, boy is it ever finicky to do.

My next project is NOT going to be colour work. I am really enjoying working on these projects, but they do take forever (or at least twice as long as the same project in single colour would). With any luck I might be able to use these next winter.

P.S. I can’t believe I do not have a “knitting” tag yet.

In the last few weeks I have slowly been coming out of the sleep deprived stupor. With my new clarity I remembered to check out the Canada Reads webpage to see what are this year’s contestants. I got my hands on two of the books and breezed through the first one.

Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre is a coming of age memoir recounting the life in the Chilean resistance movement. This book is at times harrowing and it came very close to giving me nightmares. However, it is very compelling and very well written.

I have not read any other entries, but if this book wins the Canada Reads contest it will be a well deserved win. However, the book is not really about Canada apart from bringing home the fact that Canadians have a good story to tell about where they came from. Also, it is a very emotionally difficult to read which makes it not a book I would recommend to just about anyone. These two factors might make it difficult to win the Canada Reads prize.