Enjoying a sense of peace one stitch at a time
Here is my choice for this week’s Ruby Tuesday – a very old photo scanned from the printed copy of a brasserie in Paris … my favourite city in the world.
And in trying to keep with the ‘crafty theme’, here’s a redwork exchange I sent to Nicki five whole years ago in 2006 … probably one of my most favourite exchanges I’ve completed! (The photo was compliments of Nicki, she did such a wonderful job of the photography!)
At least they do in this colour … and this one’s on its way to Mama Annie (moi) care of Ebay {insert happy sigh of contentment here} đ
It matches the fountain pen that I already have (loaded up with scrummy turquoise Waterman ink!) … can’t wait for it to arrive – this feels almost as good as stitching stash being on its way đ
1 cup of friendly words
2 heaped cups of understanding
2 cups of human kindness
4 heaped teaspoons of time and patience
Pinch of warm personality
A dash of dry humour
The spice of life
Add the words and understanding to human kindness.
Sift together three times before using.
Use generous amounts of time and patience and cook slowly.
Keep temperature low.
Do not boil.
Add a dash of dry humour, a pinch of warm personality and season to taste with the spice of life.
Just trying a new posting option from a different software program … it will be interesting to review the results! đ
The theme for 15 May was âHalfâ and here are a couple of crayfish cut in half and baking in the oven.  The dreadful thing is that there were only three of us for dinner, so we got an extra half to share (and mostly for the chef, me – yummo! đ  I think this is my favourite way to cook crayfish (lobsters to you, up north), however at $50 each crayfish it’s definitely a real “treat” once in a decade! đ
Then of course there is the Half a pumpkin that I’m still working on in the lounge … it’s almost growing at the same rate as a real pumpkin, very very slowly. Fingers crossed my threads arrive this year so I can get it finished sooner rather than later!
The theme for 16 October was âMiniatureâ and here’s one of the smallest pieces of stitching I’ve completed – and most definitely the smallest I’ve ever had framed (and the smallest the framer had ever completed, they found it quite a challenge!). The stitching is just over an inch tall and just under 2 inches wide đ Â (The bottom photo is the closest to the actual colour of the fabric etc.)
Sorry about my rant yesterday, but oh boy did it feel good afterwards!!!  Yesterday morning we had a meeting to discuss next week’s plans with my colleagues and bosses, and I tried to put forward my feedback in a constructive manner. The one thing they know about me is that I will openly address issues I’ve got once it starts to affect me, but then once it’s been voiced I move on and it’s generally put behind me.
The male boss (“M”) I was referring to wasn’t too thrilled with it regardless, because I guess the feedback was directed at his handling of the situation – plus he feels that the rest of us put too much effort into testing and that he feels it’s not required in such detail – he feels that the test cases provided by our developers are sufficient to test from. My new (female) boss (“W”) stood up for me in some of my feedback in particular in regard to testing, but I know that she struggles with M and they often clash in meetings with differing opinions I’ve been told … W (the lady) is much too polite to discuss those things openly herself and doesn’t play politics, which I really admire about her. Anyway, I said I would review the developers’ test plans and see if I could flesh them out to suit our needs to save me some work … and had great pleasure in providing M feedback at the end of the day, that “BTW, M, there are no test plans whatsoever provided for X and Y parts of my project” – his response, “well, how have they been able to sign off for functional testing?” … well, that’s the million dollar question isn’t it? And yet again it has been proven that we can’t rely on those test cases (which has been my argument for over 12 months now) – but M likes to take the easy way out, and take shortcuts and not put the hard work in himself … and unfortunately the guys in the sites hate him for it. He’s got the worst reputation in the sites – he’s a lovely enough man outside work (still arrogant, but that’s easier to cope with outside work), but his work manner is arrogant and overbearing and I’ve learnt the hard way this year that he does take the credit for everything, and likes to dominate any meetings and/or decisions regardless of whether he is provided with data to prove that his solution is inaccurate or just plain wrong. Unfortunately many of his projects go out in a less-than-perfect state and the sites get angry.
The new guy who just joined the team last week has already made a comment to me that M really likes to take over meetings and is overly assertive. Personally I just think he’s stubborn and bloody-minded, egotistical and arrogant. I had to laugh inwardly the other week when he offered to be my work mentor … while I politely thanked him for his offer and changed the subject …
Funnily enough, we had a team training meeting yesterday afternoon (without the bosses) and my other colleagues all started talking about M and how arrogant and overbearing he is, and that they can’t stand him … especially how he sits in meetings leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head, with a non-verbal display of arrogant dominance and aggression. I have to admit I was a bit surprised by the vehemence of their attitude towards him, though. I’ve heard other people call him incompetent and useless, but didn’t quite realise how far-reaching this antagonism towards him went … I can normally tune out my frustrations with him (until I lost the plot on here in my last post!), but now I’m realising his impact on others a lot more …
Unfortunately it’s all this sort of rubbish that is making me lose my enthusiasm for the job … I find I am ‘numbing myself’ every day to try not to be affected by all the environmental crap that goes on, but that is tiring in itself …
Anyway, enough of my gripes about work …
I’m about to do a Photo Hunt post with a piccie of my latest stitching finish … then it’s time to start putting my fingers to the keyboard in Excel and start writing up these test plans, I guess …
I’ve been trying to catch up on a few blogs over the weekend, but keep getting error responses when trying to add comments – it appears from the help forum that this is a known issue, and multiple of reports of it happening. Not sure when the issue will be resolved, and I’ll be able to comment again – I’ll keep trying, as every now and then a comment does get through, it’s just frustrating typing everything then losing it all to the ether đŠ
… to add this photo … Katie and I popped into our local restaurant on the way home from work one night last week, and parked in the ‘angle parking’ outside the restaurant … please note that angle parking actually has lines painted on the road … the road rules dictate that you must park inside those lines … all very clear, right? When we look up to check there is no time limit, we see the following sign …
Um, “front or rear to kerb” … WTF??? Geez, and I was looking forward to trying to park sideways in that little tight spot … and I’m not even going to touch the under 6m rule!!! Oh well, gave us so much of a second-look and a giggle that Katie had to take a photo on her iPhone đ
Thanks to Annette, for reminding me of my favourite Australian poem, in honour of Australia Day:
PhotoHunt
Feather Stitching 
