Monday 16 August 2010

Knit Camp - The Second Day!

Tuesday. An Interesting Day.
Sooooo.... up early to make the 7.35am explanation, lovely landlady said she would do us a late breakfast when we got back - we were pretty sure we would be back as opposed to doing the full day class we had booked (and I was really looking forward to it). Huge group of folk at the designated spot (upstairs, downstairs, in my lady's chamber sort of carry on), then back to another place because it was all locked up (spot the Disorganised theme raising its ugly head already).

So in an open space with cafe seating (ie hard to hear what was being said above people setting up a cafe and cleaning) we are told that the day class with Joan McGowan Michel is postponed until Saturday (refunds available)(the market stalls are that day, gee great rescheduling), that J will be teaching Jared's class because she has 'knit three or four of these' (refunds available) etc etc.
I am going to start teaching advanced sock knitting  by virtue of I have feet. Or open heart surgery because I have watched Holby City. FFS.

In amongst this insanity, an incredibly rude woman who looked like a body guard wannabe started shouting 'shut up ladies' - I was gobsmacked. She did it twice, so I waited and walked over to her, told her she was absolutely out of order and who the hell did she think she was shouting at.
'I want to hear what Jan is saying' she said in a very patronising way, staring over my head.
'Well, to start with her name is Jo, not Jan. Don't you ever dare shout at me to shut up - people are talking because they are confused, cross, disappointed and because it is so unclear they are checking with the person next to them. You are very rude.'
She tried to avoid looking at me - sorry, you may be a good foot taller than me but I don't give up easily.
'What is your name? Look at me please, I am speaking to you politely - what is your name? I like to know who is being rude to me'

She gave me a name, no idea if it was actually hers, and apologised, sort of.
The American ladies sitting at the table looked pretty shocked that I did what I did, but that is NOT how to talk to people, ever. One lady picked up her knitting and left, she was so disgusted.

As for the loud 'AH AH!!' shouted everytime anyone spoke at the other side of the room, being patrolled by a tacky red cowboy hatted 'person' - these are adults, not puppies piddling on the floor. They do not need to be reprimanded that way.
Utterly appalling. Add Rude to the themes of the week.


So we fekked off to the castle, met many other Ravelers who had done the same thing for the same reasons, saw a great pipe band and dancers (much to the drooling delight of my friend ;-)  ), listened to an excellent talk about the tapestry being made at the castle - I highly recommend this if you are ever in the area, it was superb - took touristy photos, had a nice giggly lunch with mucho cheeeeese, went to a fabulous old church, an excellent old graveyard, the wool shop of wonders (will add info on all these when the ShitCampKnitCamp farce is out of my system), walked a million miles, got lost in the multi storey car park despite not having a car, and collapsed in tired but happy heaps.

** edited to add:
in amongst this - Jo forgot to pick woollywormhead up from the airport, and two hours or so later the mother in law was sent to get her.
Yes, it's that professional.

And all the 'oh it's so hard to get information to people because the internet connections are awful is an absolute LIE - I didn't have a laptop with me but managed to post a few times during the week, connection downstairs in the uni was absolutely fine, as it was throughout Stirling, people at the Market place had connections - add LIES to the craptastic themes of the week please.







Make Your Own Fun - tis what many people did all week.

6 comments:

PatMS said...

Given that I was driving in by the day, I decided not to attempt Tuesday-- since it was pretty clear my (American-led) class would disappear like yours. I wouldn't have been around at 7.35 am (!!) even if I had done that, so I am really glad I stayed home.

Anonymous said...

so ... as professional and organised as one would expect then.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for being brave enough to be honest about what went on.

Homer said...

Thanks for the revelation. Like many I have followed the saga on Ravelry and I'm glad to have some unadulterated feedback from a fellow trader (we didn't go to this one - perhaps in hindsight that wasn't such a bad thing!).

Fred said...

Oh god! Please tell me that rabbit didn't get squished!

sulkycat said...

the bunny was lovely, and enjoyed having its photo taken - and was still alive when we left!

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