Category: Travel

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Travel

I’m back and feeling refreshed! (day 1)

Anne S

I’ve decided a mini-break is most definitely good for the soul … especially when you spend it with friends that you’ve known for a squillion years (I’ve known Nigel for about 30 years, and Brenda for about 14).  I’m definitely going to have to do that more often – and as well as that I played tourist on my own for a bit, which I haven’t done in a very long time, and it felt really good 🙂  There are a fair few photos I’d like to share, so I might split it up into a couple of posts … I’ll document it all in chronological order, so it makes more sense to me more than anything else …

My trip to Sydney started off quite eventful – I had my little ‘overnight wheelie case’ packed in good time and ready to walk out the door at the planned time, until I flipped over the top of the case to zip it closed … only to find the zip hanging off!  A slight panic ensued as I struggled to find another bag that would suit … finally I found a soft-sided bag that has back-pack straps hidden away, and everything fit in it nicely … not a great start to the trip, though!

I arrived at the airport, after leaving my car in long-term parking, just in time for check-in and wandered through to the gate.  My company were very kind to send lounge passes to make the trip more memorable, and gave me a ticket that was able to be upgraded to business class if there were no paying customers wanting the seat – it was a wonderful way to start being spoilt.  (You may/may not recall that the reason for this trip to Sydney was for the service award presentations to eXcel winners from all over the company, and we were being flown in for a big gala event in our honour, so we got spoilt from start to finish.)

The flight to Sydney was pleasant and smooth, and when I got there I went straight to the train lines to journey into West Ryde, near where Brenda works so she could pick me up and drive us home from there.  When I arrived I had 1 1/2 hours to kill so I just went for a wander and eventually found a shopping mall with a Gloria Jeans coffee shop … I plonked myself down and stuck my nose in my Jeffery Deaver book (The Empty Chair – great book!) with a coffee or two and waited.

I hardly recognised Brenda when she arrived – she’d had her hair cut off short and lightened, and has lost about 30kg … she looks amazing!  She hasn’t changed inside though, and is still the same Brenda we all know and love – she’s so bubbly, and so much fun to be around … it was wonderful to see her again.  When we got home I got mauled by the over-friendly border collie Dusty, and snubbed by the two cats (although we were the best of pals by the time 24 hours had rolled on by … especially with Obi who is totally schizo and normally has nothing to do with people).

We didn’t have to wait too long before Nigel got home from work, and there were more hugs all round … then we did a quick change of clothes before heading off for a short walk to dinner – they have an “Outback Steakhouse” just up the road from them, so we went and troughed out after Brenda and I slugged back a frozen Margarita each 😉  It was a wonderful night – there’s something to be said about hanging out with people that have known you for so many years … there’s a level of comfort that is so refreshing, as you know they already love you and accept you warts and all, and there are so many stories and memories that you share, it’s such an awesome feeling.

We spent the rest of the night watching TV and chatting, then we hit the hay for the night as we had to be up early.  Brenda was going to run me up to the ferry terminal before work, so we had an early start.  I had the earliest start of all, however … I opted against taking my separate alarm clock with me and thought I’d just use my mobile phone … hmmm, dopey me forgot that daylight saving had changed, and I’d forgotten to reset the time on my mobile phone clock – it was amazingly quiet in the house when I got up to have my shower and get dressed to start the day … and has a lot to do with the fact I was actually up at 5.30am!!  What a blonde!!!  Gave us a laugh for the day, though, and I’m happy to say my mobile clock has now been updated! 😉

I’ll continue the story in a new post, as there are some piccies coming.

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Rotation, Travel

New rotation plans hatched!

Anne S

While sitting in traffic yesterday afternoon I mulled over my current rotation, and I’ve decided to try cutting back a few slots and see if that works. This way I’ll get through my pieces more quickly, and hopefully have some quicker finishes, which means I can then add more new projects into the mix … rather than having so many projects on the go at once ‘cos I just wanna stitch everything NOW 😉 I’ve removed the “kits/classes” and extra “UFO” slot, plus one focus piece and smalls slot. I’ll finish my current rotation until the end of the list, then I’ll look at starting this new one up.

Anyway, this is what my half-asleep brain came up with while driving, I just have to think it through a bit more when I’m more awake to see if it will work (I’m still half asleep today too), but at the moment it’s incorporating all the WIP’s I’ve currently got ‘on-the-go’:

  1. Focus piece
  2. Smalls/ornaments/gifts etc
  3. UFO’s
  4. Canvaswork/Specialty stitches
  5. Focus piece
  6. Charity stitching
  7. Mirabilia/L&L
  8. Smalls/ornaments/gifts etc
  9. Focus piece
  10. Band samplers/Specialty stitches
  11. Quilting/Stumpwork
  12. Free choice
  13. Finishing session (just for 1 or 2 days, not 10 hours)

I’m still doing my SAL pieces separate to my 10-hour rotation slots, which will add more variety until they’re finished. At the moment that will mean focusing on the following projects in my rotation, with those in brackets are like to be the ‘next in line’, along with my SAL commitments:

  1. Egyptian Garden Mandala
  2. Stitching Leporello & gifts (then Lavender Rose Sewing Case)
  3. Nature’s Resting Place (then a ‘mystery’ UFO)
  4. Flight of the Bumblebees (then Sapphire Star)
  5. Egyptian Garden Mandala
  6. Charity stitching
  7. Winter Queen (Angel of Love)
  8. Strawberries So Faire & gifts (then My Treasures Workstation)
  9. Egyptian Garden Mandala
  10. Le Jardin Silk Sampler (then Golden Garden Sweet Bag)
  11. The Blue Collection quilt
  12. Free choice (undecided yet but probably a small Just Nan or Drawn Thread)

* SAL Wednesdays – Macaw with Carina
* SAL Thursdays – Bordeaux Sampler with Carol
* SAL monthly – Needleroll SAL
* SAL monthly – Christmas ornie SAL
* Round Robin – Quaker Friendship Sampler

And I’ll finish with another quote I really like:

“A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.” Hugh Downs

Staying with friends in Fiji taught me that material possessions etc do not maketh the man and make you happy – it is how you view life that makes you happy. They took me into their home when I had nowhere to go, and showed me a world of kindness and love rarely experienced by many. They accepted me into their family circle, and will always leave a mark in my mind and on my heart. I shared Christmas Day with them and experienced Fijian culture at its best, within the true family setting. I know I’ve talked of this before, but that quote brought thoughts of them back again. I managed to repay their kindness by paying for their food while I was there, and when one of the brothers lost his job during the ‘George Speight coup’, I paid for his daughter’s school books and stationery before I left so she could continue her education that year with a good start (even though I was a student then myself, with no income … thank goodness for Visa!). Here’s a photo of us on Christmas Day with an amazing feast of local delicacies (all the photos are clickable for bigger versions) 😀
Christmas Day in Suva
Also, sitting outside my temporary home having a kava party with the boys … the guitars were playing well into the early hours of the morning (I think I eventually slunk off at 3am and it was still going strong) – I don’t know how they can drink so much kava, it’s dreadful stuff! The only time I’ll drink a few is when they’ve thrown a party in my honour, and I’ll do it as a sign of respect to them, but it’s downright awful!
suva-1.jpg
Now here’s one of one of my favourite Fijian couples – Dokko and Ana … they call me “Ana” in Fijian, instead of Anne, so we say “Tai-Ana” to each other, ie “my namesake”. We always tried to make a special trip to see them as they’re out in the islands, and Ana’s face always lights up when she sees us, and cries when we leave – she has a big heart, and I always love to see her.
dokko-and-ana.jpg
And lastly one of Mum being treated like a Queen at a party they held for Mum and Dad, as they greatly cherish and respect their elders – something else we could all learn from them, as that seems to be disappearing in our modern society! Mum and Dad hadn’t met them before, so I promised to drive over from Nadi to Suva to introduce them, and they threw a party in their honour. Mum loved it all, but Dad was bored stiff, as for the first time they didn’t bring their guitars … poor Dad – but Mum and I adored it all and lapped it up!! The lei she’s wearing around her neck is called a “salusalu” and is traditional in the part of Fiji they come from, and they made it especially for Mum, as well as some exquisite woven bags … I should take photos of them next time I go home, they’re gorgeous!
suva-2.jpg
Sorry, didn’t mean for this post to be so looooooong! 😉

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, PhotoHunt, Travel

PhotoHunt – Red (& Old)

Anne S


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This week’s theme is “RED” … going by the current festive season, I’m sure there will be a few Santa suits on the blogs, but I opted for something different. This is a friend ‘Sha’ at her wedding not long before I moved from Auckland – my first Indian wedding, it was a wonderful cultural experience and this photo in no way does her stunning outfit justice! 🙂

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My second choice for this week’s theme is a scene from outside the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tsai Temple in Hong Kong … I took this photo just because of all the red colour that was predominant 🙂

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And lucky last, here’s another archive theme – this one is “OLD” … again I had a few choices for this theme, but I opted to use this one, which is one of my all-time favourite photos I’ve taken … “keeping OLD traditions alive” – starting a fire in Fiji 🙂

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Melbourne, PhotoHunt, Travel

PhotoHunt – Lights (& Round)

Anne S


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This week’s theme was a definite challenge for me while hunting through my minimal photo library (oh boy, I miss my huge pile of photos back in Auckland) … but I managed to find something that would fit the theme of “Lights“.

This photo is of a row of street lights illuminating the way down St Kilda Pier in Melbourne (well, they would be illuminating the way if it was dark LOL).

Next up are some lights illuminating the room at the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong (and a very difficult shot for me to get trying to reach up behind the barrier, and around a stone ‘dragon’, as well as missing the guard on duty 😉 Under the circumstances, it came out OK 🙂

Lucky last, here’s an archival theme – this one is “Round” … I had a few choices to use, but opted to do use this one – definitely not a great photographic shot, but I like it for the ’round theme’. Any LOTR fans will recognise this character – chasing the ring over the rooftop of Wellington Airport in New Zealand! 😀

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, PhotoHunt, Travel

PhotoHunt – Time (& Wet)

Anne S


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This week’s theme is “TIME” … I was originally going to pop up the road and take a photo of a local building with clock face and flag flying, but the weather has been awful today, so it wasn’t worth going (and during the week I didn’t have shifts that were conducive to being home in daylight hours either). So instead I came up with the following …

Very wise words said many many years ago … “Take time to smell the roses” (Russian Proverb) – over the years I’ve come to realise how important it is to take time to enjoy the simple things in life, and everything that each day brings … These roses were from the flower markets in Hong Kong – I just adore how every single bud has it’s own protective packing!

Then just for fun, here’s my Dad dressed up as “Old Father Time” 😉

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” Carl Sandburg

Now here is one from the archives again … this time the subject is “WET”. I didn’t realise I’d brought this photo with me when I moved to Aussie, but sure enough I just found this during the week … a very VERY old ph0to of me when I was about 17 – on Christmas Day in NZ, wearing my brand new dress I’d bought for the occasion (I was working full time back then as a typist) – my cousin who was visiting from the UK very kindly threw me into the swimming pool, then to add insult to injury made Mum throw a bucket of water over me while he took photos … have to admit, it’s a great action shot! 😉

The next photo is me being stupid – sitting waiting for a bus at Nadi bus depot … in the middle of Nadi being flooded! I think I was in for a looooong wait! 😛

Travel, Uncategorized

A bit of allsorts

Anne S

A few days ago, during my crisis days, I started to finally start scanning chart covers in readiness for posting on Ebay – however KarenV has a great idea, to start selling via blogging first, and I think I’ll steal that one soon. Even if only a few sell via this method, the rest will get dumped on Ebay for ‘open slather’. Anyway, it might still be a few days away before I get around to scanning them all, as it’s a HUGE task – there’s a lot of rubbish in that pile, but someone may find something they like … and if not, there’s nothing lost.

It’s been an interesting few days recently, that’s for sure – surprisingly enough now that I don’t have spare money to buy groceries etc (only one week left to payday thankfully) I’m actually eating healthier … go figure! Admittedly I’m not eating fresh fruit etc at the moment, but that’s just an interim thing until my funds are OK again, but I’m actually being really conscious of what it is I’m putting in my mouth! I’m planning meals again, and not eating junk because it’s quicker and easier … oh boy, it feels really good 😀 I used the timer on the breadmaker last night for the first time, and woke up to the smell of fresh baked bread this morning – I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! 😀

I’m not really stitching at the moment … I’m halfway through a Christmas ornament that I started at work on Sunday (to try to take my mind off things), but don’t have the motivation to finish it yet – I’ll snap back into stitching mode again this weekend, though, I’m sure. I’m slowly starting to get my energy levels back again … earlier in the week it was taking all my energy just to get up and go to work 😦 Now I’m on day 5 of working days, with only 2 left to go, and starting to get my ‘pep’ back. I spent a lot of the day today like my old self laughing my head off with Lucien – it felt really good to be back to normal at work, that’s for sure!

The other thing I did was to look at re-doing my 101 Things list … I’ve gone through and removed all the pricey items, as it’s just not feasible and realistic – it’ll take me the full 18 months to pay off my new lounge suite, and there’s not much left of the challenge time then, so I’ve found challenging items that are within closer grasp – I have a number of embroidery classes that I’ve signed up for (correspondence classes) that will challenge me as a stitcher that I have all the items for, so it makes more sense to include those as items to complete. While it makes the other items no less worthy, it’s just a simple case of being realistic and getting back to the basics 😀

I’m hitting the hay earlier tonight, though, as I’m now on a 6am shift tomorrow to cover someone who’s off sick, so I only have an hour before I have to be fast asleep. Dinner was some fresh soup from the freezer (Pumpkin and Potato) with fresh baked bread … yummo. So now it’s time to get into ‘unwind mode’ ready to drop off to sleep quickly hopefully.

Yet again I’m far behind on reading blogs, but I hope to remedy that this weekend too … it’s a good job I have 4 days off LOL.

Seeing as there are no stitching piccies to post today, here’s something totally different … if you’re ever in the Adelaide region, and want to visit a good vineyard, I can honestly recommend Hugh Hamilton Wines in the McLaren Vale wine region – they’re a small boutique winery that only sell from the cellar door, but their wines are wonderful (especially the reds – love the Sangiovese mmmmm) … they’re a bit on the pricey side, but oh so worth it.

Travel

Ouch, my feet hurt!

Anne S

Not much of a stitchy post today, but I thought I’d take a few minutes to sit down and rest before picking up my needle for the afternoon … I’ve been tagged by Margaret, but I need to think about my anwers yet before I write them up, but watch this space 😉

Yesterday I enjoyed my walk a little ‘too much’, and came home with whopping great blisters under both feet oops – it made it a very uncomfortable trip into the city to catch up with Fraze for dinner, but it was lovely to catch up again after not seeing each other for a couple of months. We were going to the Rose Garden in Elizabeth Street, but opted instead to go to the Shanghai Dumpling & Noodle House in Chinatown, and I loved every single mouthful … we had prawn and chicken steamed dumplings, pork fried dumplings, spicy chicken noodle soup, Shanghai fried noodles and green vegetables with oyster sauce, and could barely walk afterwards … yummo 🙂 I was finally able to give to give him the potato crisps we bought him from Marks & Spencers in Hong Kong 😉

Then today popped in to clear my PO Box on the way to my hairdressers appointment (which is about 3/4 hour drive away from home), and found some wonderful things hiding in there – my order from Dragonfly Dreams, and Christmas came early with my parcel arriving from Jenna too. As I’d already said I was wrapping my scissors up for myself to go under the Christmas tree, the cheeky little monkey has already done it for me, so there’s no peeking allowed and it will be a REAL surprise on Christmas Day – you’re a real crack-up! My American twin also sent my Christmas prezzie from her at the same time too, so that means I have two prezzies under the tree this year woohoo 😀 Thanks again, sweetie, for getting my scissors for me, and thanks heaps in advance for my Christmas gift 😀 {{hugs}}

Aside from that, no stitching piccies to show – seeing as my stitching mojo had returned, and I got home so late from dinner last night, I decided to put the snowmen to one side and get cracking on my gift stitching … I was originally hoping to get these finished earlier, but I didn’t have the fabric for one, and I’m still awaiting the thread for the other with a back order from SB&B (which I’m also getting a bit antsy about, as there are items I need for the scissor fob exchange hmmm). Now it’s back to my stitching again – I managed to get 8 whole eyelets done at the hairdressers today (I had a bit of blonde put back in again, sorry Mum, but it’s pretty subtle!) so I really need to get the needle cracking again tonight! I’ll take piccies of my postal arrivals later … I can’t be bothered getting the camera out of my bag from yesterday, lazy sod that I am 😉 LOL.

Today will finish with Tom Yum soup I bought from my fave Vietnamese (and Thai) restaurant in Box Hill today … I love getting my hair done, if just for the fact it gives me an excuse to pick up some of my fave food 😉 And today there was an extra highlight to the day – I called in to say “howdy” to my fave Melbourne stitcher and friend, Sharon, and managed to catch up for a few minutes while she was at work. Unfortunately it wasn’t long enough, but still wonderful to catch up briefly and share a hug – she’s such good company 😀

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Travel

50 Projects lists

Anne S

I decided not to list a list of projects I want to complete as part of my 50 Project Challenge, as I need the flexibility to pick and choose as the mood fits … and considering my HUGE list of possible candidates in my current stash, there should be no problem whatsoever in finding 50 projects. My relatively full stash list is here, and is by no means complete (eg I have most of the TW charts in existence from a stash collection spree years ago).

There are a few projects in the “highly desirable/pretty definite” pile, though, and these are:

  • Lavender Rose Sewing Case – Fancy Work
  • Bordeaux Sampler – Sampler Cove (WIP)
  • Egyptian Garden Mandala – Chatelaine (WIP)
  • Dolphins Domain (aka “The Dratteds”) – Cross My Heart (WIP)
  • Winter Queen – Mirabilia (WIP)
  • Stitching Leporello – Chatelaine
  • Star Spangled Scissor Finder – Calico Crossroads
  • Apricot (“Marine”) Elegance – Cindy Valentine (WIP)
  • Autumn Arbor – Drawn Thread
  • For the Birds – Drawn Thread
  • Summer Solstice needleroll – Eventide Designs
  • Quaker Swan Case – Fancy Work
  • Golden Garden Sweet Bag – Forget-Me-Nots In Stitches
  • Raphael’s Raspberries – FMNIS
  • Secret Garden needlecase – FMNIS
  • Folding Cross Needlebook – Indigo Rose
  • Le Jardin Silk Sampler – JCS magazine (WIP)
  • Pacific Pohutukawa – Jen’s Jems (WIP)
  • Polynesian Paradise – Jen’s Jems
  • Evening Star – Just Nan
  • Winter in the Square – Just Nan
  • Sapphire Star – Laura J Perin
  • Angel of Love – Lavender & Lace
  • Coffee Menu – Little House Needleworks
  • Needle Nick – Lizzie*Kate
  • Sun needleroll – M Designs
  • Schwalm Whitework Pinkeep – Moss Creek Designs
  • Lavender Blue Celtic Knot Quilt – Nancy’s Needle
  • Onyx – Paw Printings
  • Here Comes Santa Claus 2005 – Prairie Schooler
  • Rainbow Lorikeets – Ross Originals
  • Flight of the Bumblebees – Ruth Schmuff Designs
  • Nature’s Resting Place – Stoney Creek (UFO/WIP)
  • French Monogram – Twisted Oaks (WIP)
  • Crimson Fire – The Victoria Sampler
  • Bunnies in my Garden – With My Needle
  • Strawberries So Faire – With My Needle

Other than that I have the freedom to choose a project at will 🙂 So much for not making a list!! oops hahaha

Thanks to everyone for their comments on the Aussies vs Kiwis – it is true that every country/race has their minority that are less than tolerant of other cultures, and friendly (and sometimes not-so-friendly) rivalry … and yes, the Brits vs Scots and Yanks vs Canucks are definitely right up there too! LOL. Personally I’ve always been very accepting of all races and cultures, and that’s been part of the wonderful experience that life has given me so far. While I’m certainly not perfect on that score, I try not to be judgmental and accept everyone for who they are … and have made some great friendships and learnt a lot by doing that. One of these life experiences was staying with a Fijian friend’s family outside of Suva, in a typical Fijian home (they were very poor) … they taught me a lot, and I treasure a lot of the memories from my time there.

Still no stitching news … tried again last night, but to no avail – I took a Shepherd’s Bush needleroll into work again, but not much chance to stitch, plus I was very tired last night after only 5 hours sleep (and last night it was the same, so heaven help me tonight! – geez I hate these 6pm shifts!!). I have had great plans of stitching a gift for a friend, but can’t get my head around designing/choosing the project … it might end up being a late arrival, as this week just isn’t the right time for me 😦

I’ll end of saying “welcome” to the new commenters here … it’s been nice to hear from you, and I’ll be popping over to your own blogs soon to return the favour 😀

Charity Stitching, Finishes, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Travel

Week of the Dragon! (2nd post)

Anne S

Nope, I didn’t get that wrong in the title … it’s not the “Year of the Dragon” – for us it’s been the Week of the Dragon!

While we were in Hong Kong I made Mum pose in front of the Nine Dragon Wall in the temple gardens, and laughed saying it was now a Ten Dragon Wall hahaha …

Dragon #1 (ie 10th Dragon)
Then tonight it was a true dragon-fest … I put the final backstitches into my dragon quilt square, while watching Dragonheart on TV, with my own mother dragon stitching away opposite me … an absolute plethora of Dragons!!! LOLOLOLOL.

Dragon #2