Monday 16 August 2010

Day Three. Wednesday. It was a better day.

Ok. Clue in the title methinks.
(Hello Posh Knitters by the way!)

Wednesday
Our landlady was delighted that we had 'another knitter' in the building, turned out to be Larissa which was good, much gossip was swapped, who cares what was true and what wasn't, it made for excellent breakfast laughter and our lovely landlady was highly entertained by it (I will link both B&Bs later as they were both excellent for anyone ever visiting Stirling). Larissa kindly let us use her laptop to say hello to the good folk of Ravelry before she headed off to Edinburgh for the festival.

We borrowed huuuge towels and set off for the pool at the uni - great time swimming, the pool is superb, split into two sections - one was quieter than the other so Becca shot into that one.
And promptly disappeared from sight - it was a VERY deep pool! After two lengths I got the giggles, and said I would have to swim up and down for the rest of my life because I couldn't touch the bottom - we very sheepishly swapped to the other (shallower) pool. NOT the baby pool as someone said!

More dancing than swimming (Becca), swimming with immaculate makeup (me). Excellent fun, I love my swimming and this did me the world of good.

Then we tried to find food on campus (I have lost almost half a stone last week as I simply didn't eat - minimal appetite combined with being a coeliac veggie) - might have helped to know the Haldane was open to non residents ... then headed to the KnitCampShitCamp office for a) my refund from Tuesday and b) to collect the wheels hired for the day and c) to find out where the spinning class was being held.

BUSY office. When I went o ask for a refund the previous day Jo was being very pleasant, and jotting down names, classes and why a refunbd was needed on paper. Maybe naive of me but I expected that information to have been added to a spreadsheet on a computer (there were several in the office) and that information then being used to adjust various class lists etc.
No.

The pleasant lady I spoke to said 'I don't know but will find out for you right now' - and did. This was something screamingly absent from the organisers - most people are bloody nice and if you hold your hands up, admit you have cocked up and apologise - and mean it - they usually bear with you until things get sorted out. This lady managed this.
There wa sa bit of a queue - the money had to come from Jo's husband, who looked utterly confused. As others have said it became a case of 'how much did you pay' and you were given cash. Nuf said.
Professional?
No.
My friend pointed out that as the prices of classes seemed to change constantly there was probably no record of who paid what.
Again, I would have expected all this information to have been available at the press of a button.

So we asked about wheels, several were in the room.Nobody knew a thing, so one of the helpers got a trolley and moved them to the class. We spotted Deb and followed her to the lesson.
Now this became an excellent day - the class was booked for me as a present from Becca (how fab is that!) as both of us spin and own 2 wheels each, but neither of us have ever met another spinner and are self taught.


Deb Robson got it absolutely right.
She manages to combine being extremely knowledgeable, professionable, friendly, relaxed, fun, approachable and being able to share her knowledge. That's the nub - there's a whole world of difference between KNOWING something and being able to share this. That's why there are crap teachers and excellent teachers the world over.

It was aimed as a beginner's session but there were all levels of ability, and she made time for everyone. Being told that what I always think is my overspinning had absolutely nothing wrong with it at all was bliss. Definitely a fan girl now, apart from anything else she is a damned nice woman.

Plenty of resources and she told all of us to take plenty home to play with, she taught the lovely lady next to me to spindle completely from scratch. It was simply a very good afternoon (if rather hard on my poor back! Seriously, I am becoming a pensioner with more aches and pains than is normal!).

T.....*** apparently this is totally incorrect, and for this I apologise without reservation. I was going to simply remove this section, but thought it was better to apologise for a prime example of what I have tried to avoid in all posts about Knit Camp, gossip and rumour rather than hard fact. I have apologised in the comments section as soon as this was pointed out, but feel it needs to be added here too. I hope the lady concerned will accept my apology - which I am trying to do as publicly as my blog will allow - and will forgive me for any hurt caused.

Ah. We went for a meal that evening and then shared a room (my friend and I, not Deb)(although I suspect she would have joined the giggling easily), much laughter and chatting. So yes, a good day.

The most unflattering photo of me imaginable, but I love the way Debs is laughing!

(I cut my fringe after I saw this bedraggled mess!)


5 comments:

yvette said...

Hello Sulkycat
thanks for the great write up
andsewtoknit

Anonymous said...

Right - let's get this straight. The lady at the back had paid full whack for the class and was there to provide support for her partner who was nervous about his first class in a group of women AND more importantly for her friend who has just been widowed very, very suddenly and is more than a little fragile at the moment.

Anonymous said...

To anonymous,
if the lady was a non spinner providing moral support, then it's criminal that she had to pay full price -if she is also a spinner , maybe she would have been better served sitting with the person she was providing moral support to and joining in, either way, something was awry -
to sulky -sorry it's anonymous, but I can't remember my password

sulkycat said...

no problems with either anonymous comments - all 'clearing up misconceptions' comments very welcome too!

it is an example of the lack of communication - i know i wasn't the only person who left with the impression someone had freeloaded - when of course this true version puts things into perspective

and how good that this means the fab spinning class is now faultless

Rebecca said...

i had also been under the impression (that i seem to remember having gotten from herself something along the lines of tagging along but would it be ok to sit here in the corner or something like that) that she hadn't paid. who knows. either way, class was great and the people were lovely.

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