vivdunstan

Back home from the V&A Dundee now. Really enjoyed the Kimono exhibition. We could turn up any time to get in, with our new joint memberships, and the V&A staff handled that we hadn't got our member cards in the post yet. I came away from the front reception desk with a freshly printed temporary membership card, and they will look into the missing cards (I'm thinking Dundee East postal depot backlogs!). It was incredibly busy when we got into the exhibition, so much queuing needed to get around the different sections. Slightly anxiety inducing for infection phobic us. We dodged a few obviously coughing or sneezing people ... And we skipped some bits that were of less interest. But I saw all the bits I really wanted to see. I was especially interested in the early history and some of the related artefacts on display. Plus kimono pattern books and drawings and paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries. I was agog at those. I only had a few things I struggled to see from my wheelchair because of height/arrangement. More of a problem was navigating around the fellow visitors, who were so engrossed that we'd often have to very clearly alert them to wheelchair coming through. I needed a horn! But we both enjoyed it and are glad we went. And just outside was the Dundee Tapestry exhibition still, which was also attracting lots of visitors, and we were happy to go round it. Bought stuff in the shop after - which is still a bit too much of a squeeze with a wheelchair, though somewhat improved after my feedback a year ago which they acted on. Then coffee and bagels lunch at the kiosk/van outside. Very glad we made it, though I won't be surprised if the same thing happens as last time we went there, and we've picked up an infection (was Covid a year ago). Fingers crossed not though!

P.S. Martin just said he could have done with fewer physical kimonos on display. I also found some of those some of the less interesting elements of the exhibition. But as he said, if you went to a kimono exhibition and didn't see lots of kimonos you would probably be justifiably disappointed! But overall the balance was good.

P.P.S. Have just emailed the V&A Dundee with some feedback on the Kimono exhibition, including how it was much better for me accessibility wise than Tartan, and also to thank them for improvements they have made re accessibility in the shop. Which they did after my feedback a year ago.

Just ordered me some goodies from RedBubble, where an artist - and member of the Box of Delights online fan community - has been creating art for the 40th anniversary celebrations. I have managed to resist getting a framed wall print. We already have too many pictures waiting to go up on the walls! But I might have ordered a fridge magnet, two designs of coasters, some stickers and a large fleece throw 😜 Really looking forward to getting this package!

I also have a new and expanded version of Philip Errington’s companion book coming soon, and later in the month the remastered 40th anniversary Blu-ray produced by the BBC will be here.

Got the first thing I've treated myself to from my IFComp 2024 prize money (I have quite a chunk of the prize still to spend). Jeff VanderMeer's "Wonderbook: An Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction". Reading this book is not going to magically make me a great writer. I know that the important thing is to just write, and stick at it. And I've confidence from my IFComp 2024 game that I can complete new creative writing projects in future. But any tips I can get from the book I will gratefully receive and apply to my own projects. It is a gorgeous book. Lavishly illustrated, very creatively designed. Not a wall of text. So it's accessible even for reading challenged me.

Stupidly early again, but we missed out on what we wanted one year, trying too late. So Christmas food order now in! We get two lots of main meals, and freeze one for New Year. Each nosh lasts 2 days. We collect it from the Broughty Ferry M&S. We are also getting a really nice dessert this time. Plus some sides.

Ordering me in some notebooks from Cult Pens. Strictly speaking I only currently needed one, for brainstorming ideas by hand for my next interactive fiction game. But they have such a nice range of good paper nice design ones that I thought I'd pick up another couple of notebooks too! These ones are Clairefontaine, stapled A5 size, 120 lined pages inside*, and 90gsm. So they will work well with my fountain pens. I am also brainstorming on the computer. But I often like to settle down with a notepad and pen in hand, when pondering ideas.

* Checking some other sites they may have 96 lined pages, not 120. But either is fine. I will tell Cult Pens if they need to correct their product listing, when I have the notebooks in hand!

I'm rereading Lord of the Rings, starting with Fellowship. And gobbling it up. Until I got to the Council of Elrond chapter, which was estimated by my Kindle to take 45 minutes of reading. To be fair I was extra sedated at the time, so this was even more of a mountain to climb than usual. But I can also remember young me, e.g. teenage years and earlier, boggling at this lengthy over-wordy section of the book.

I'm now nearly through it, and will press on quickly with the rest. At the same time, I'm looking forward to Oxonmoot in a few weeks, the Tolkien Society annual convention in Oxford. In recent years it has offered online viewing too, watching live as things happen, and later on catchup through Christmas. I sleep through most live talks, so find catchup invaluable. And yes, I have another online viewing ticket, bought very early on, when it was extra low cost, helped by my Tolkien Society member discount.

After Worldcon I have also been picking up a few treat things, as substitutes for not being in the Dealers' Hall in person this time! Today I picked up a low cost ebook version for my Kindle of Luna Press Publishing's Adapting Tolkien collection of essays from a Tolkien Society seminar. Some while ago I picked up a print copy of their Translating and Illustrating Tolkien collection of another Tolkien Society seminar’s essays.

I'd also like to pick up something decorative in my not-at-Worldcon catchup. Must resist a plush dragon, though the call is strong, and not for any dragon in particular! I may wait to see what's on offer from the dealers at Oxonmoot, and possibly pick up something Tolkien-y. Though going to browse the Weta Workshop site just now might not have been my best move! Not just Lord of the Rings and Hobbit stuff, like a balrog, Smaug and even Radagast* (I'm telling my husband, very unsubtly, about that last one, given my birthday soon!). But they also sell other great things, including a scene from the Escher-like castle, and Sir Didymus and Ambrosius, all from The Labyrinth movie. Also Hoggle and Ludo figures ...

* I greatly disliked the Hobbit films of Peter Jackson. But Sylvester McCoy's Radagast was fab.

Here are the three books I bought today in Toppings St Andrews and at the Wardlaw Museum in St Andrews.

Enjoyed the V&A Dundee Tartan exhibition, though as a historian I was exasperated that the historical context was only covered in detail about 3/4 through, and viewers really needed that to understand earlier stuff. Also a shortage for Borderer me on the making of tartan, and early worldwide examples. It was wonderful to see many of the artefacts on display though, especially for me pre-1850 ones. Though both me and Martin struggled to understand some of the reference labels and figure out which item was what. Clear numbers were only used in one particular set of exhibits. But we did enjoy!

We also got some lovely nibbles while out, both at the V&A and at a coffee shop we love (parked outside at a table - bitterly cold! - with my wheelchair). And we spent too much in the V&A shop.