I'm back!

So I've been away for a while.  I headed off to Bali to turn 50 somewhere warm and tropical. It was all that I could have wished for and more. A great holiday with family and friends. Then the kicker....I got dengue fever! Bit of a downer. But I'm bouncing back, well crawling back :) what a revolting few days I had with that. Anyhow I'm through that dark tunnel and back at work, back to reality.

Here are a few snaps from Bali - they are very random as my phone that I took all my photos on has died.  Hopefully, I'll retrieve them at some point.  For now I only have the ones I uploaded to Instagram or Facebook whilst I was there.

We stayed at Villa Kukka - as the description said - ''it oozed Bali funk",  It was a fabulous haven.

The door to Villa Kukka aka paradise

Birthday girl - our first breakfast

Mosaic Marilyn in my bathroom

First Bali Kopi (coffee) of the day

View from the cabana
 

Everything was fabulous, the company, the food, the pool - I loved every minute of it. It was a dream come true. 

A flying visit to the Cotswolds

 

 

 

 

My second last day of my holiday was spent visiting my old flatmate from my London days, who now lives in a thatched cottage in Oxfordshire.  My sister and I caught the train down from Hertfordshire, where we had a quick flit around Oxford itself, then headed out to Cathy's house in a little village for lunch.  We hadn't seen each other for 18 years, but it felt like yesterday. Isn't that the best when that happens?  In that time she has married and had 3 children, but it still felt like we were flats mates in London 25 years ago.

 

 

 

A Day in Doha - Part 1

My sister Helen is currently living in Doha, Qatar for a few years with her husband's work contract, so I flew via Doha to London on Qatar Airways to stop off and glimpse her new abode and surroundings. 

It was so interesting to see such a distinctly different environment to my own.  I loved my Day in Doha, and will hopefully return for longer to explore the gulf region a bit further.

Here's a brief overview....Helen picked me up and drove me home via the camel market. What a sight! Hundreds of camels in all sizes in smallish pens. Deals were being struck on elevated platforms where the relevant parties sat cross legged or reclined on cushions.

Sadly, the heat had taken its toll on several camels.  They had collapsed where they stood in the pens. Here one had been removed to the nearest skip bin.  It was an awful, awful sight.

 

And one dead in its pen.

 

 

 

Here's where the deals were struck - on these elevated platforms.

And here's one ready to be transported to its new home.

 



My pictures don't indicate the size of the area and the hundreds, if not thousands of camels for sale.  There were also sheep and goats - they were at least housed in covered sheds so there was some shade for them.

Next on the agenda were the weekly riding lessons, held somewhere on one of the Emir's properties or estates. His stables house 100 horses!

 

I watched for a while and then went exploring...to find he had a mini zoo with a resident Oryx, the national emblem/animal.

 

 

Here are a few pics from around the complex.  I loved the Parisian lamp posts.  The whole thing felt a bit like I was on a Doctor Who setting...totally transported to a ghost town of a parallel universe as the only inhabitants were the 2 Welsh riding instructors!

 

 

 

 

 

The temperature was escalating so next stop was for a dip in the Gulf Sea.  How beautiful the water was. We lunged in.

 

 

and gave it the thumbs up!

 

 

It was getting close to lunch time so we headed to a local jaunt passing a few Qatari style fast food outlets along the way....Falafel anyone?

 

 

We escaped from the heat of the day with a siesta.  Emerging late afternoon to head to the souk. First stop the Falconry centre, where you can buy your very own bird...

 

 

 



 

and fully accessorise it with all sorts of things, including these hoods!

 

 

 

The Sumo Sisters

Something else I got up to in Scotland..

 

 

courtesy of a cousin who hires them out. Wish my sister and I had had these when we were kids!

 

 

 



Holiday snaps

So I promised some more pics and after days of trying to upload photos I seem to have finally pressed the right button somewhere to make it happen.  Why would my computer suddenly stop uploading photos?  One of the items on my "things to do this year'' happens to be computer courses.  Even though I work all day on a computer, there are aspects of it that are completely unknown and mysterious to me - and I lack the skills to figure it out myself, it would seem.  Take my blog - it's very stock standard and I would love to change it up a bit, but I struggle with that and it takes me hours trying to do something that I know other computer-savvy-bloggers do in 5 seconds.  It's one of the reasons I sometimes want to do away with my blog, in that I can't create the look I really want to create.  I am very time poor, so having someone show me would be a very constructive exercise I feel.

I digress (I do a lot I know)... here are some pics from my 2 weeks in Victoria.  Who else but me would go to (arguably) the shopping/fashion capital of Australia and return with wool and fabric only?

This is my hero piece from the pieces I bought.  I love it so much I want to base an entire quilt around it.  Now I know I'm not the only person who does that, am I?  Finds a piece of fabric as an excuse to make a quilt?  Below is a pic of my shopping...

Mum took me to the most fabulous shop called Morris and Sons. I'd never heard of it, but that means nothing.  This is an institution in Melbourne.  It's in the CBD!  Ma and I spent AGES in there browsing and I picked up the yarn pictured for my collection-of-many-splendoured-coloured balls for my granny square rug.  It is going to be G-OR-GE-OUS! Yum, yum, yum.

The fabric came from Jiddi's Patch in Geelong.  A great shop with LOADS of great fabric.  As you can (just) see I picked up some of the reprinted Flea Market Fancy range - this time in the green, grey and orange along with a few delicious bits.  I showed great restraint believe me.  I flew over with a suitcase full of fabric as I was going to get stuck into sewing - I had the beginnings of 3 quilts I hope to finish piecing the tops of !  I am nothing, if not optimistic!! Needless to say I worked on one of them, still unfinished.  So I flew home with a suitcase full of fabric too, in fact MORE fabric than what I flew over with.  I am a nutter! I also took knitting, embroidery and linocut tools.  

Here's a taste of what I did finish....

Yep that's it - one hat!  In 2 weeks I started and finished one hat!  I worked on other things I might add, however, only one item was actually finished.  I'm not a slacker you know!  :))

This is another Snow Hat by Rowan.  It's going to live in Chicago on one of my sister's heads... happily I hope!

I spent a lot of time enjoying the countryside.  It's beautiful country. Rolling hills, cattle, horse and sheep grazing.  I saw several native animals in the wild - koalas, an echidna, roos, owls, kookaburras and endless other birds.  Here's a few photos you can play "Where's Two-Thumbs? (the koala)'' with.  I promise there is a koala in every photo!.

It's always a thrill to see creatures in their natural habitat...

Hay bales were littered over fields everywhere

We ventured to and along different parts of the Great Ocean Road over the course of the 2 weeks. It is a spectacular coastline.

 A sign tickled my fancy in Apollo Bay.

The lighthouse at Aireys Inlet - lighthouses are  just so wildly romantic don't you think?

some local flora