Gone to the dogs

My blogging really has gone to the dogs recently, hasn't it? I have a shameful four previous posts to fill in which are currently only titles, and I haven't written up my New York trip at all. I've had the time, surprisingly, but not the inclination. Perhaps I am just overwhelmed by the number of photos to process before I get it all done. Perhaps I am just too distracted by Ravelry and all the sagas of MCY, Magknits etc. Perhaps I am just a lazy cow. I see many blogs go through lulls so I don't feel all that bad, but it does weigh on my mind that it's not getting done. I will get it all patched up before I go on holiday next month.

I have been knitting though, and have finished one sock today (the first of a pair) and the end is finally in sight on the huge green Clapotis. I still have plenty of boxes to tick on my "clapometer" grid before I'm done, but I'm decreasing and so every row is quicker than the last. I love decreasing, I do. The sock knitting has been boosted by the fact that I am finally brave enough to sit and knit at work at lunchtimes. My colleagues and I always lunch together and generally sit around chatting in the canteen afterwards, so why not knit? The reaction hasn't been as surprised as I'd feared actually, and it really is upping my sock productivity no end.

I did really go to the dogs this week too though, to Walthamstow Stadium to be precise. I'd been to greyhound races before but not this one, which is probably the most famous in the UK. Unlike the gee-gees, dog racing in the UK at least has more working class origins, and is still rather less formal and significantly cheaper. Being really quite risk averse (I don't do the stock market) I like the fact that the minimum bet is 10p, and I stuck to betting anywhere between the minimum and a stonking 60p on each race of the evening. My strategy paid off - I ended the evening a whopping SEVEN WHOLE PENCE in profit! Hoorah! Perhaps it would have been better if my stakes had been higher, you know, earning me something in the pounds rather than pennies, but I'd have been too frightened to do it. At one point I was £2 up which would have paid for my morning soya latte, but I lost it all, sigh.  Never mind.  Low risk/low reward, that's me.  At least I didn't make a loss!

Here are some lovely sleek dogs preparing to madly chase the bunny:

They all looked so happy at the end of the race - they hadn't caught the hare but they were given a biscuit and their tails were wagging.

Walthamstow Stadium has a gorgeous art deco frontage with the neon sign that you'll see on their homepage, but inside it was the most 80's-tastic place I'd been to for ages, particularly the menu in the bit where we were sitting. We started off with avocado and prawns, and it went downhill from there (stylistically that is, it was actually quite tasty) to the finale: the Caribbean Pineapple:

That's right, a huge quarter pineapple, scooped out and filled with pineapple ice-cream, topped with two whole wafers. You don't get that sort of thing in central London any more, and it's a sadder place for it. Walthamstow Stadium, I salute you and your comedy puddings.