KnitTatPug

Last full day, one more sleep

2010-07-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

There really hasn't been anything to report, other than the regular swim among the usual suspects, snoozing, reading, and eating. The usual suspects include triggerfish, eels, parrotfish, moorish idols, and a largeish squid who hangs out most of the time under the furthest buoy. Occasional visitors are the turtles. And once I saw an exquisite fish I have been unable to identify, with long long feathery fins.

There was one exciting shopping experience. Nine days ago I bought a pair of red shoes at Nordstrom, and I liked them so much I bought a black pair as well. Except they weren't in stock. Would I like them shipped to me at the apartment? Yes, I would, provided they arrive in time. No problem, they said - five to eight days by UPS. OK, I said. They sent me an email giving me the UPS tracking number, and this has been more exciting than most of the television. I log in to find that the shoes left Baltimore, they arrived in Vernon, California, they left there and arrived at Ontario, California. Days later (maybe they liked California) they leave for Honolulu. They arrive in Honolulu, but not in my hands yet. This is my last day here - we leave early tomorrow morning!! It is 3 pm. I call Nordstrom. Nordstrom call UPS who assure me that they will arrive. The front desk calls, and they have finally arrived, at the eleventh hour. Phew!

What of all the great plans for knitting? I had one ball of sock wool, (black Patonyle) and a sock pattern. Some tatting for the aeroplane. Some lovely baby alpaca lace yarn (thank you Lien!) which I planned to turn into the Leaf and Nupp Shawl from Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia. I have the needles (from my trip to Isle Knits) and the yarn I ordered from Stitch Diva arrived (silk, Galactic Blue), plus the pattern for the Endless Cardi-Shawl. Quite a list, huh?

How did I go? Not too badly. I finished the sock. I wanted some black socks, and thought if I knitted them in a lacy pattern they wouldn't get nicked by someone who thinks all black socks are his. Never have I been so cavalier about a pattern. In the words of my daughter, 'it is just a sock', so I spurned the instructions on how many stitches needed to be on each needle (I like twin circulars for socks) and did what suited me. The Great Sock Maker (Julie) also talks about making a longer heel flap, so I tried a few extras to see how that worked. (Beautifully). I have wide feet, so didn't decrease back to the original 66 stitches, preferring 72 for the foot. The sock turned out really well. I made it quite long, not expecting to have enough yarn to finish it, but there was JUST enough. And I did the kitchener grafting from memory with no problem.

From Hawaii2010

There is a cardigan on the needles at home (too bulky to bring with me), so while I was sorely tempted to cast on the nearly 500 stitches for the Endless Cardi-Shawl, I forebore, confining my lust for the yarn to winding one skein into a ball. Step away from the yarn now... you have to finish a couple of projects first... Ooh that is hard. Sometimes I have to be very stern with myself.

The lace shawl became a saga, and I have learned a LOT. I did the border with a lot of difficulty. The lessons I have learned are:

1. I was using my Boye needles, and the joins made it very difficult to slide the very fine stitches. Isle Knits came to the rescue with a very nice Addi Turbo Lace circular needle. MUCH better.

2. I can read knitting charts OK, especially with the lovely magnetic board that Lien gave me for Christmas. Yes, I brought that with me. It helps enormously. However, it also helps enormously to know that when knitting in the round you read the chart from right to left, every row. BUT when knitting back and forth, you read the chart back and forth!!!! This realisation made a huge difference to the accuracy of my knitting, and reduced the frustration enormously. I feel embarrassed at confessing this. It involved ripping out the entire 25 rows of border and re-knitting them. Yes, Julie, I did. It was worth it.

3. When knitting pattern repeats it helps to have markers. I'd bought some nice little markers at Morris & Sons a while ago, and I thought I would give them a go. The wonderful thing is that you can see immediately whether you have made a mistake (like missed a yarnover) and fix it without any hassle. Lace is very difficult to unpick. I know. Markers are a great leap forward for me.

So, after learning these lessons, and doing the border again, I am much more confident now about continuing.

From Hawaii2010

Seeing as how we are now thinking homeward thoughts, our housesitter and I have been exchanging confirmation emails of return times, and status reports about The Pug. He's been having a great time going out with Iain the dog walker every day, plus playdates with housesitter's Mum's dog Emma. He's just fine, and here's the proof..

From Hawaii2010

Yes, I am looking forward to seeing him soon. I'm also looking forward to seeing my Mum. I am not, however, looking forward to rugging up in lots of clothes, and not having my daily swim.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday

2010-07-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, I know. I am falling behind on the daily schedule, sliding further into sloth and torpor, into Hawaiian time. The days begin to merge into a slow blur of eat, shop, sleep, swim. Pretty good, huh?

Julie and Martin left on Thursday, leaving their excess food with us. We scored the most excellent cherry vanilla icecream (mmmmm), blue corn chips, cheese, eggs, bacon, limonata, and much more.

Every time I go for a swim I see the man from Parrot-dise with his collection of colourful parrots, taking over-the-top tourist pictures. Today was the day, so I took Michael down to show him, and to get some info. The man took our photos with our camera, and here is one of them:

From Hawaii2010

OTT? Absolutely. As we returned to the apartment we were notified that my parcel had arrived from Earl & Lois Stokes. My string figure kit!

From Hawaii2010

The rainbow strings are fused together by melting the ends:

From Hawaii2010

I spent a happy few hours reading the booklets and the philosophy associated with this art, and playing with the strings. I can do the turtle now - quite an easy figure, and the bracelet.

From Hawaii2010

The turtle is appropriate, because for the first time in my visits here, and all those hours snorkelling, I have seen turtles at Ft. de Russy beach. One large one on Sunday, and a small one today. Such a thrill.

My bin diving career has expanded. As I lie on the grass or on the sand I see men diving into the bins to retrieve anything that has a deposit on it - cans and bottles. The deposit is 5cents. Instead of putting all our returnables into the dumpster in our building, which is secure, we are now taking them to the public bins and making them available to the people who can use them. I put a whole lot into one bin, and had a conversation with a man who was retrieving them. He didn't want to take the Pellegrino bottle, saying that wine bottles were not accepted. I said this was a water bottle, not wine. I pointed to the return label with the HI (for Hawaii) on it. He seemed convinced. There isn't much recycling that I can see, apart from this. There is a bin for plastic bags outside the Safeway store, and I do see that being used.

On Friday we did what we should have done earlier - visited Waikele Premium Outlets. The variety was terrific, and the prices sensational.

After a reconnoitre and a slow start, we warmed up. Michael did particularly well at Brooks Bros with the two-for-the-price-of-one deals. Two suits, two sweaters. Also from Saks 5th Ave a pair of leather slides, for which he has been searching for some time.

I did well too. Two tank tops and a purple jumper from Anne Klein (less than $20 each, and nothing in black!). Three t-shirts from Bass (two blue, one red, no black.) To redeem myself I bought a black shirt from Brooks Bros. Perfect. I was tempted by some shoes, but I have enough shoes. Enough? Yes, enough.

Today is Saturday, and despite the food infusions from the departing daughter, we were out of vegetables and other necessaries. Michael was having Saturday morning shopping spasms, so off we went to Safeway again. W got out with relatively little damage - fruit, veg, meat, fish. Returned for the final of the Tour de France, some serious snoozing, then a swim for me. Swimming a fairly deep section I saw that what looked like a rock or large piece of coral had flippers. A turtle, below me.

I have booked to go on a catamaran snorkelling trip tomorrow morning at 8 am. I am so looking forward to it.

Wednesday: Shopping at Ala Moana

2010-07-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

Alas, it was a no-swim day. It was a no-pics day too. It was a shopping day. We had several things on our list of must-see at Ala Moana Mall.

First stop was Long's Drugstore, for some good aeroplane earplugs. Done.

Next stop for me was Sephora. I am after some Lancome lippy, 08 Rose, having scraped out the very last of the last tube. Also some cream blusher. No luck with the lippy, but did OK with the blusher. Perhaps it is a bit too light, and maybe I need the next darker shade. I'll think about that. Some dark red nail polish (for toes) leapt into my basket too.

Shanghai Tang is always worth looking at. I love the styles, but somehow never manage to find anything that suits me, or that fits right, or that I can afford. I did sample the perfume though, and being in a ginger phase, it appealed to me. Maybe I'll have to go back for some of that, despite being in an "I will use up all the perfume I have before buying any more" mode. For a long time I have not worn perfume, finding it unsuitable for work, prohibited by choir, and just not appealing. Maybe it is time to revisit that.

We reviewed the Walking Shoe company for slides for Michael, without success.

Then we went to Nordstrom, our favourite store. Even better, Nordstrom is having its anniversary sale. About two years ago for Michael's birthday I bought him an up-market track suit designed by Hugo Boss. These are the ultimate soft clothes. He lives in fear and trepidation of its wearing out, and we have tried everywhere to find another. No luck. I asked Dennis, the shop assistant in Nordstrom, for advice. Men can't ask for advice, so they probably miss a lot if they don't take their wives with them. We found a good pair of soft pants. I left him to look around a bit longer, and went in search of shoes. Despite being unable to try shoes on effectively (I'd banged my little to on the door jamb and it is bruised and hurts) I managed to find a pair I liked. I liked them so much I bought a red and a black pair of the same style. The red will match my new nailpolish!

Michael found me in the shoe department and told me he'd found a new suit at a great price. He was going to go to the fitting section and organise the tailoring Nordstrom does so well. I was free to continue my hunt in the clothing section, and was very happy to find two very nice tops.

After emerging with bulging shopping bags and empty wallets, we had a lazy afternoon.

We'd organised to have dinner out with Julie and Martin at Chilli's just behind the International Market. Off we went. Virgin Margaritas are pretty darned good, not so sickly sweet as the Pina Coladas. Being off the grog doesn't mean you can't have frou frou cocktails! Deep fried onion strips are pretty good too!

Michael and I walked home through the International Market, but were not tempted by anything. Too much tat!

Tuesday - a three-swim day

2010-07-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

Everyone else went to the Pacific Aviation Museum but me, and I will let them tell their stories in their respective blogs (Julie and Michael).

For me, it was a beach day. As the days go by I wear less. Where once I would put on togs, a sarong, shoes, a towel over my shoulder and a hat, I now put on togs and carry the towel. No shoes, no sarong. For today's expedition I did take the straw mat for lying on, and my specs and sunnies, and my book. The Leopard is my choice of reading for Waikiki. It is so perfectly languid and reflective. I'm enjoying my reacquaintance with Don Fabrizio, House of Salina, Maria Stella, Tancredi, Concetta and Angelica, as well as all the other characters not forgetting the dogs. Also perfect is the climate, Sicily in the unremitting unrelenting implacable summer.

It was a two swim episode. First the swim (mask and snorkel), then a read, another swim, another read, and back to the apartment.

The gang returned full of enthusiasm about the Museum, but I was not sorry to have missed it. They were particularly fulsome about their guide, Grant. A young man in his twenties, with a good grasp of the events and a talent for story-telling.

Lunch, then another visit to Safeway. We were running perilously low on staples (icecream), and bought some tuna for Michael to cook for us. While he was doing preparations I thought it was time for another swim.

We watched the sunset...

From Hawaii2010

...and watched some more TV. As previously noted I do enjoy Squeal TV, but also its variation, Squalor TV. This includes Clean House (where people reveal their terribly cluttered and disorganised lives) and Animal Hoarders, where houses and their owners are taken over by hordes of dogs and/or cats. All very sad. Thus far I have resisted Fat TV (Too Fat for Fifteen, Dance your Ass Off, etc). Michael gets revenge with hours of Tour de France or baseball. There is no basketball, thank you god for small mercies.

We ate the tuna which was wonderful (stuffed with pineapple and pomegranate seeds, plus brussels sprouts, snowpeas, broccoli, and our first ever encounter with a rice-cooker.)

Monday at the Foster Botanic Gardens

2010-07-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

We are all finding that the best schedule is getting going at about 9 am, returning for lunch, then relaxing all afternoon. We are also finding that there are plenty of things we haven't already done in Hawaii. This morning's adventure (with a different designated driver) took us to the Foster Botanic Gardens. It was grey and raining, which gave us an opportunity to fiddle with camera settings and see things in a misty light. It also made the gardens very fragrant... or stinky, depending on the plant in question. The cannonball tree was very stinky.

From Hawaii2010

It wasn't far out of town, in fact it is right in town. It is a gem. There was a fabuous display of bromeliads, and orchids.

From Hawaii2010

Some of the trees were exceptionally large, and some exceptionally weird. There was a terrific display of spices, including a pepper vine, vanilla vine, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg trees, plus a herb garden.

Pepper:

From Hawaii2010

Vanilla:

From Hawaii2010

Pitcher plant:

From Hawaii2010

Foliage:

From Hawaii2010

Orchids:

From Hawaii2010

The orchids were spectacular.

There has just been a Hawaiian special occasion - the Lahaina Noon, where the sun is directly overhead. This was celebrated in the garden by the construction of some witty sculptures.

From Hawaii2010

We returned for lunch, and a snooze. Michael and I then went shopping to the Ward Centers, the Marukai Market, and the Nordstrom Rack store. We failed dismally at the Ward Center. Nothing at Brookstones, nothing at the wonderful kitchen shop that has everything (alas, we now seem to have everything too). Nordstrom was great, I made some great buys. Then to the market, which is a Japanese/Hawaiian market. We got some steaks which will be BBQed on the balcony upstairs, some fruit and veg, and some much-needed chocolate.

Today is the first day, and I hope the ONLY day, that I didn't swim. Sigh.

Sunday means the Bishop

2010-07-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

The Bishop Museum, that is. The last time we went the big hall was closed for renovations, and we were looking forward to seeing it again. We set forth at about 9 am, and let our TomTom direct us. This led to much conversation about the GPS choice of route ("I wouldn't have done that!") and kibbitzing. Nonetheless, we got there in good time and in a direct fashion.

The big hall was beautifully restored, and the exhibitions very beautifully done. The feather capes were magnificent, the human hair/whale tooth necklaces as spectacular as ever. There was much more information, much of it in Hawaiian. There were perhaps fewer items on show, but more information about them. The weaving, netting, tapa cloth design and feather capes were of great interest to me.

We also saw an exhibition of surfing. Some of those boards are HUGE! We didn't do the Planetarium this time, although it was tempting.

I drove us home in the Impala, receiving advice from all three passengers plus TomTom. Eventually I boiled over with cognitive overload and told everyone except TomTom to be quiet. They knew what was good for them, and complied.

Although it was only just 12 noon, we were starving. Michael and I went to the Starbucks next door for an iced frappacino, a sandwich, and the New York Times. Funny how lunchtime comes early! Funny how you get snoozy after lunch! We ate, we snoozed. Then I went for a swim, which of course I enjoyed.

I've also been enjoying flipping around squeal TV. This is a specific form of reality TV involving people (usually young women) squealing, crying, and hugging each other. My picks include How do I look? What not to Wear, House Hunt, Clean House. I am saving Bridezilla for later. There is only so much squealing you can cope with in one day.

Michael is enjoying the coverage of the Tour de France.

We had a date with Julie and Martin at the Shore Bird grill-your-own restaurant next door. We all remember the 2006 earthquake when I made everyone leave the tenth floor and go there for breakfast.

I had ribs, Michael had ahi tuna kebabs, Martin had steak, Julie had chicken teriyaki. It was all very good. Julie had Mai Tais, Martin had beer, we had virgin pina coladas which were waaaaaaaay too sweet. At least they had chunks of pineapple and a paper parasol.

Sorry, no photos today. Well, perhaps I'll put one in from today (Monday) just so you have something to look at.

Pancakes for breakfast, Isle Knits, Ala Moana shopping, and a soroban

2010-07-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

We used Balcomms (leaning over the balconies to discuss matters of great import) to liaise for our proposed breakfast adventure. IHOP is a frequent answer in puzzles, and it stands for International House of Pancakes. Julie and Martin had waxed lyrical about the offerings there, so we left quite early, and quite ravenous. It is dangerous to get between me and breakfast, and I am not the only one.

We had a short wait, and then were shown to our table and introduced to Anthea, our server. I am always tempted to introduce ourselves too, by name, and let them know that we will be their diners. So far I have resisted that temptation....

We had pancakes and syrup (butter pecan is really good) and eggs and bacon and coffee and juice. All good. Mmmm. We waddled back to the Waikiki Shore, and parted company with Martin. Julie and I were headed for Isle Knits, and we dropped Michael off at Ala Moana Mall so he could cross a couple of items off his list.

On my Isle Knits list were Addi Turbo circular knitting needles, a lace circular (also Addi Turbo), and some Maizy sock wool for corn socks. We took about an hour, then back to Ala Moana to liaise with Michael, who had achieved his shoe objectives. We looked at the books in Barnes & Noble. We went to the Japanese department store looking for a new robe for my mother, kitchen gadgets, the food floor, and the beginnings of the hunt for a new standard size soroban for me (Japanese abacus), plus a bento box for Julie. See her blog for further descriptions of her purchases. I did not find the soroban, but the very kind assistant called another shop for me, and they had one, so I scheduled a visit there for later.

On my list was a new pair of Ann Taylor black pants. The old pair is getting increasingly shabby, but they are perfect. If I could find some more I would be happy. I found some more - not exactly the same, but close enough. And for only $40 on sale!! So I bought a grey pair as well. Julie and I tried on some soft clothes - trackie pants that looked OK, for only $8, but they were truly daggy and did not justify even that paltry amount.

We had two goes at the shopping, dropping some purchases in the car before returning for more. Julie must take after me - she bought some cast iron Le Creuset. Once upon a time in Utah I spent up big on cast iron frypans, which I carried home and still use almost every day. Souvenirs? Pah! Who wants souvenirs when you can buy cast iron?

We returned to the apartment for snacks (who needs lunch after an IHOP breakfast?) and a rest. Then I decided to walk the mile or so to the shop with the soroban. Hakubon Do is on Kapiolani, in the Pan Am building. I found it no trouble, and made my purchase. I got the Tomoe 23-rod one.

I have three or four resolutions to keep on this holiday:

* Get up when I feel like it
* Eschew the hairdryer
* Swim every day

After my long walk it was definitely time for the third of these resolutions. I swam. It was perfect.

Dinner was more spag bol (we are indulging in a lot of wheat while not catering to my mother's gluten intolerance), a sunset, and some TV. We were enthralled by the programme on dog obedience, including surf dogs. Dozer the bulldog won this event. There are plans for Majic on our return. He will LOVE it. We don't propose the surfing aspect for him, as it helps if they can swim. Pugs are not built for swimming.

Day 3: Rainbows, Shangri-La, and fireworks

2010-07-16T23:40:00.000-07:00

I opened the curtains at 6.45 am to this rainbow.

After some fruit for breakfast, and some Illy blue coffee, I went for a swim. I might be in a rut, but I did my usual circuit of the three big white buoys out there. Back for a shower, to find another rainbow. This one was a full arch, over the ocean. As it faded it looked like there was a rainbow fire on the horizon, quite spectacular.

Today we planned on visiting Shangri-La. This is the estate built by the heiress Doris Duke, whose will stipulated that it be opened to the public after her death. Her passion was Islamic Art. That's a pretty big sweep, and she bought what she liked. It was very eclectic, and very beautiful. Persian, Syrian, Indian, a wonderful array of pieces in a spectacular setting on the 'other side' of Diamond Head.

Our trip started from the Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts, and we were bussed there and back.

We were all starving afterwards, so returned to our rooms for salady things for lunch, and snoozing. Julie and I went out later for 'girl shopping'. The boys are good, but there are subtle signals and special breathing that we recognise as impatience with looking at racks of clothes, shoes, arty things. I bought some leaf-shaped place mats, Julie bought another pair of shorts.

Back in our room, I prepared the dinner. I'd made some bolognaise sauce during the day, so cooked some spaghetti for a delicious bowlful. We had the benefit of some fireworks, so had fun twiddling with the camera again.

Diving, swimming, and snorkelling

2010-07-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

I've done all three today. We woke with the daylight, just before seven. We ate pineapple, peach, pomegranate, then Canadian bacon and scrambled egg. Stoking up for rigorous activity.

Swimming time. I got into my new Sue Rice togs (Abigail, black, tribal), gathered my goggles for a swim (not the mask and snorkel this morning), plus towel etc. I gathered up the rubbish to take downstairs to the dumpster in the basement. Dumped it. Set off for the beach.... where are my goggles? Yes, I had dumped them. Thus ensued my first experience of dumpster diving, a time honoured sport. It was quite empty, so I had to climb up using one of the handy footholds, then jump in. Fortunately there was nobody watching (I hope.) Also fortunately there was a layer of nice clean cardboard on the bottom, to land on. I landed gracefully, retrieved the goggles, climbed out, and on my way. That took care of the diving for the day.

The swim was good - a real swim out to the first buoy, across to the second and third, then mooching back with the current to my starting point. As I lay resting on the sand with my book (The Leopard, by Lampedusa) couple about ten feet away renewed their wedding vows. An army chaplain did the honours. She wore a simple white dress with a floral lei. After the ceremony I applauded, and so did a mother and child nearby. Aaaah.

I returned to my book, becoming reacquainted with the prince Fabrizio (who now appears in my imagination as Burt Lancaster, having seen the movie since the last time I read the book, which was the last time I was here), his family, his dog, his friends, his enemies.

Up for a shower and to tame the straw hair. Had some lunch including a lot of salady things, then out for an excursion. Number one on the list is a Hugo Boss tracksuit for Michael. A while ago I bought him one for his birthday, and he is now anxious about wearing it out. There is a Hugo Boss shop nearby. Alas, it is not to be. They had nothing remotely similar. While out we looked at Chanel, Gucci, Max Mara, Tiffany, and a couple of other high names. Bought nothing (yet). Back through the Royal Hawaiian shopping centre, now open. Where is the ukelele shop? I had my hopes.....

A little reading, a little diarising, a little knitting, a little play with my camera based on the great big manual Martin has lent me (what is white balance? what does a histogram tell you? what is bracketing?).

Suddenly the call came. More swimming required. The afternoon swim called for the pink Gottex togs, plus mask and snorkel. And what a treat - for the first time ever here at the very familiar Fort de Russy beach, I swam within touching distance of a very big turtle.

Julie and Martin were back from their jaunt to the North Shore and the Dole Plantation. They bought a fabulous pineapple, some dried pineapple, and some taro chips (my favourite.) Mmmmm.

We plan to eat out tonight, at PD Chang. 8.30 is the earliest we can book for. Will we still be awake then?

Day 1: Arrival

2010-07-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

We ate our Hawaiian Airlines breakfast after a bit of sleep.

No flat bed seat, so not much sleep. We landed, got our bags, and cleared immigration with no fuss. My fingerprints gave themselves up without the struggle that has characterised previous entries to the US. Emerging into the warm sunshine, we found our way to the rental car kiosk where we had ordered a standard car.

"Would you like to upgrade to something sportier - a convertible?" No.

"Would you like an SUV insteade?" No.

"What about a Jeep Wranger?" No.

We are not the sporty funky quirky types, and don't want sunburnt heads. We are boring old farts.

We got our silver Impala with a sunroof, and drove away very happily down H1 to Kalia Road, Waikiki. Our room wasn't quite ready so we contacted Julie and Martin who have been here for a week, and we went to their room to catch up. Sittting on the balcony overlooking the water finally got to me - I had to swim. I went down to the lobby to start rummaging around in my bag for my togs and snorkel/mask, to find that our room was ready! Yay! The view was as we remembered it.

We got organised, and I went for my swim. Hi guys! I greeted all the fish, all the coral, everything. Like being home again.

Phew, got that out of my system. I aim to swim every day.

Next on the agenda is shopping. We need to lay in stores for the next two weeks, as we are self-catering. Julie and Martin had reconnoitred, and we set forth for Safeways. A couple of hours later, after wheeling our trolley up and down all the aisles, we had enough to go on with. Said trolley came equipped with a cup holder, and just as you enter there is a shop for purchasing coffee or soda to put into the holder. We didn't indulge. I can do the shopping without coffee or other fuel.

We have enough food, enough cleaning supplies for the moment.

Michael offered to cook the dinner, so bought some swordfish, some maui and vidalia onions, and some tomatilloes for tonight.

Returning, we put it all away, and Michael began cooking. Julie and Martin came down to our apartment, we ate. It was delicious. A crescent moon and a diamond-bright Venus over the water lit our dinner. We played with our cameras and talked about the programme for the next week, while Julie and Martin are still here.

I ate one of the marshmallows Julie and Martin had both rejected, and rejected them. There is something not nice at all about them - they certainly aren't the Pascal ones Martin and I both favour. I ate some Cheetos, and accepted them! We had found Orangina, but it is not the version we so enjoyed in Noumea, it is full of high fructose corn syrup with is the latest food baddie. I drank it, but won't be buying another bottle. It isn't bitter enough - to sweet and soft.

Michael was asleep by 8 pm, and I flipped around the reality TV for a while. Buying houses is the new reality craze, and it has a certain voyeuristic fascination.

Upgraded!

2010-07-14T02:31:00.000-07:00

All went according to plan. The taxi came, we said our goodbyes to Majic, and fronted up to the checkin counter at Hawaiian Airlines in good time. presented our frequent flyer cards for Hawaiian. Would you like to upgrade to Business for $585 each? I wrestled with my inner miser for a millisecond. Michael deferred to me, no doubt with considerable trepidation. We would, I said, to tangible relief. This is a very good deal on an overnight flight and means we might get some sleep. Here we sit in the lounge as happy as can be.

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Preparing for Hawai'i

2010-07-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

We are ready. Ready to get on an aeroplane bound for Honolulu. Ready to escape the winter chills. Ready to leave behind the coats, gloves, scarves, boots, heavy socks, and hot water bottles.

We've been many times before but it doesn't ever lose its gloss. The warm soft air, the swimming, shopping, relaxing. Ahhh.

I have several projects.

One ball of black sock wool, and a sock pattern. I will make lacy black socks that will not be stolen by he-who-thinks-all-black-socks-are-his. Perhaps he will draw the line at lacy cables.
One ball of baby alpaca in a fuschia colour, ready to be made into the Estonian Leaf & Nupp shawl. Am I mad to take on nupps? They are worth perfecting, I think.
Some small aeroplane tatting, in Mary Konior's Masquerade pattern. Started it when we went to Auckland, and it is now my Travel Tatting.
I have the set of Boye knitting needles so I can be flexible if I find something at Isle Knits.
I have the StitchDiva Endless CardiShawl pattern in case I find some nice yarn at Isle Knits.
Coloured pencils and sketch book.
Plans to buy some strings and instructions from a Hawaiian supplier for string figures (now that I am a member of the International String Figure Association.)
Perhaps a trip to the Soroban (abacus) School for a new large Japanese abacus.

I have my camera, the Kindle (with some books), we have the iPhones and a Netbook and our GPS (TomTom). We have some printed books. I have my diving mask and snorkel, and plan to buy a new beach towel. Two sarongs, two pairs of togs.

Is that enough? I didn't forget the sunscreen, sunnies, and a hat.

The plane leaves tonight. The housesitter arrives after work to get reacquainted with The Pug. I am ready.

(Note: I have turned off comments because I am sick of rejecting all those spammie things. )

Chapter 3: Mending

2010-03-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

Can you tell I have been putting this chapter off? Who mends anything these days. We just chuck stuff out or give it to Vinnies, and buy new stuff. We usually buy things well in advance of their needing any mending, and the modern fabrics are not nearly so prone to wear as plain linen, cotton and wool. Anyone who knits socks knows that sock wool must contain some nylon, else they wear out in about the same time it takes to knit them.

Thérèse agrees, mending is wearisome. But she says that no woman should be ignorant of the methods of doing it. Darning and patching are the two main methods of mending. Naturally, she breaks those down into further categories. There is linen darning, twill darning, damask or fancy darning, and invisible darning. Patching isn't just sewing something over a hole, oh no. There is hemming down a patch, overcasting a patch, and drawing in a patch.

I thought about skipping this chapter. Julie suggested that my galoon effort around the hems of the Nitya Black Pants could qualify as mending. Perhaps, but I didn't think either of those courses of action were in the spirit of this exercise. If I started skipping or cheating at this early stage where are my standards?

When thinking about a possible assignment, I looked first at the damask or fancy darning. Some of the patterns and techniques illustrated in the pictures looked quite interesting. So too did the little description. "Figs 68 and 69 (in my edition) show two specimens of darning as it was once done in convents." Those poor nuns. Were they taking in other people's mending? Was the mending itself more beautiful than the original?

I just couldn't think what I would use any of this for - embroidery? But that's not mending, so not in the spirit of this chapter. I continued.

Aha. Invisible mending sounded useful. This is otherwise known as fine drawing, and Thérèse says that in spite of its undeniable usefulness and importance, the art of darning cloth invisibly is known only to a few people. She goes on to say it is easy to understand, but takes great patience and care. That sounds like me.

Here are the instructions:

"A very fine needle is used, threaded with hair, which is stonger than the threads drawn from the cloth itself and less visible than silk or any other thread. Red or white hair is stronger than other colours. It is scarcely necessary to mention that the hair must be carefully cleaned before use, to free it from all traces of grease."

I look up, and across at Michael. White hair! Looks good! He quails. I consider. Is it long enough to sew with? Perhaps I should wait until just before he has a haircut. Then I have a brainwave. My red-headed daughter has a fabulous supply right on tap:

I'd have to insist that she washed it, and no curling it please. When I broached the idea with her, though, she didn't seem too keen on contributing. Sigh!

Assignment 3: On searching for items to mend with this technique, I glanced down at the pair of black pants I was wearing. This particular pair is the Hedrena second tier black wool pants. Not the Good Hedrenas, the Old Ones. They have developed a small hole in the thigh. They also had a big run at the back (I musta snagged them on something) which I had mended once before, not well. This is my chance.

The hair will probably come from my own supply. No doubt I can find some of sufficient length and suitable colour for this assignment.

Assignment 2: The machine conquered

2010-02-28T13:50:00.001-08:00

See how long it takes me to get up the oomph to get at the sewing machine? Mum had some black knit fabric that I cadged for the purpose of this assignment. There was plenty of galoon left. A week or two ago I got out the sewing machine and put it up on the dining room table. I looked for my T-shirt patterns. Alas, in a fit of tidying, I think I had thrown them out. In digging very deep into the recesses of the linen cupboard I found some old paperwork that had been very carefully filed in order and put into a box. This, of course, led to a fit of shredding and throwing out. Sewing-machine avoidance tactics, of course. I'd had a fit of tidying and shredding a while ago, but this small, select cache predated even that. I had American Expresss statements back to 1985. I had tax returns back to 1979. There were group certificates and pay slips back to the seventies. Of course this was a bit of a trip down memory lane and no sewing got done that weekend.

Yesterday was planned to be a Beach Day. Saturday had been lovely, and I predicted more of the same for Sunday. The iGod said it was going to be 27, so I was sure it would be lovely. It wasn't. It was warm, but cloudy. I like sunshine at the beach. What should I do? Yes, sewing.

I have some old stretch knit patterns my mum gave me, including one for T-shirts. BevKnits Family t-shirt patterns. These are from the seventies, but they work a treat. I traced a pattern from this (and double checked against a couple of my favourite t-shirts) onto greaseproof paper (my usual modus operandi), and proceeded to cut out the black knit fabric. I knew when my mother got the knives out that sewing was going to happen, and I am the same. Who needs pins when you have a drawer full of knives? Pictured are the BevKnits pattern, the BevKnits instruction book, my paperback copy of Thérèse, the greaseproof-paper pattern and fabric, and the knives.

Stretch knit sewing is easy, and by the afternoon I had it done. I didn't have any trouble with the machine so I don't know whay I always have such angst about it. I decided that the galoon was going to be sufficient embellishment for this t-shirt, so used the machine plus some hand-hemming to attach it to the neckline and the sleeves. Seeing as how I was going high-tech I used some of that glue thread to iron up the hem.

It turned out very well, I am very happy with it, and am wearing it now.

There is some fabric left over. As it made up very nicely and feels good on, I am thinking about what to make with it. Right now, I am inspired by all Thérèse's talk of underwear trimming, so am thinking about a camisole with yoke tatted in beautiful black Godebrod silk my daughter gave me a while ago.

Will I do that today while the machine is still up, or wait until Thérèse's tatting chapter? Perhaps.

Chapter 2: The Sewing and Embroidering Machine, Machine Sewing and Embroidering

2010-01-30T23:16:00.000-08:00

Thérèse first published her book in 1884, so machines can't have been around all that long. In fact she gives a bit of a history, starting with F. Weisenthal in 1755. He took out a patent for an apparatus provided with a needle pointed at both ends, with an eye in the middle. Others attempted, but it wasn't until about 1850 that E. Howe and I.M Singer introduced (after many vicissitudes) something practical. Thérèse discusses the parts, the accessories, and the uses.

She also talks about Motive power. She means by hand, treadle, or the most convenient, an electric motor, which can be used wherever electric lighting is available. "Machine sewing has become an absolute necessity of everyday life."

Well, um. Motive power = motivation. I've been thinking about this chapter a lot, and while it is only a few pages, I've been avoiding it. I don't really like machine sewing. I don't like getting the machine out, and every time I do it seems I have to re-learn it. Perhaps if I left it out and ready to go, I might use it more, but having to wrestle it out of the cupboard and set it up on the dining room table is not fun.

Thérèse says that "uses for this kind of work are manifold, for besides being a pleasant pastime it enables those whose means are slender to gain a livelihood." Among the manifold uses are the trimming of the inevitable underwear, table and bed linen, curtains, blinds, and for large articles requiring imposing ornamentation.

My machine is a pretty good one, bought in a fit of enthusiasm. It has embroidery stitches, none of which I have used. None.

My mum is a very good seamstress and has made many beautiful garments. She had some black stretchy fabric, so I have claimed that for my next assignment.

Assignment Chapter 2: Machine sewing and embroidery.

My assignment is to make a black top and embellish it with some machine embroidery. Not only that, I am going to bind the neck and maybe the sleeves with the berry galoon. The embroidery will make use of one or more of the embroidery stitches on the machine.

But wait! There's more! While I have been avoiding thinking about the machine project, I have been looking ahead to Projects of the Future. (This is the MOST fun.) Freecycle is a great gift to us all, and I scored bigtime. Mostly I use it to get rid of stuff, but this time I saw an offer of fabric bits. I emailed. Did she have any nice linen pieces? Yes indeed she did. I went out to see Jacky at Croydon Park, and she had some wonderful linens. There were some pieces, both fine and coarser, ready to do all sorts of things with. Forthcoming chapters deal with Embroidery on White Materials, Linen Embroidery, and Openwork on Linen. Oooh, I can hardly wait!

Not only that, but she gave me a beautiful embroidered linen sheet which had belonged to her aunt's third husband's mother. Linen sheets are one of life's great blessing.

And a beautifully embroidered linen pillowslip.

My mother has claimed both of these items and will put them to good use. I didn't want to cut them up, and it is great to see them being used. Thanks Jacky, and thanks Freecycle.

Calloo Callay, Galoon Today!

2010-01-23T23:31:00.000-08:00

Thérèse Assignment 1 - Completed

The galoon arrived, and it is beautiful. It is definitely what I expected, a kind of twin row of braid. The Black Pants were taken out of the wardrobe and examined.

Yep, very very frayed. No more wearing velcro sandals with these pants. I think the braid is going to look lovely instead of those raggy threads.

The instructions in The Book say that although this process can be done with a machine it is much easier to get the braid to go into place with the fingers. I am happy about this, because I don't want to get the machine out.

"These should be back stitched onto the right side of the article to be bound, quite close to the edge, then folded in half and hemmed down on the wrong side."

Back stitch is explained in detail earlier in the book. "Working from right to left, take up six threads of the material on the needle and draw it through; then insert the needle two threads back from where is was last drawn out, and bring it through again six threads beyond." This was done, but I confess to not counting my threads absolutely rigorously.

Having done the back stitch on the right side, it was folded over the article being bound, and I knew how to do the hemstitching without further reference. The bit not explained was how to join the ends of the braid into a neat circle, so I just did the best I could. I am quite pleased with the result.

Now for the other leg, and to wonder what I will do with the remainder of the galoon. There are several options. It is such beautiful braid, such a pleasure to work with, I can think of heaps of things that need binding with it. Perhaps I should buy a whole heap more and bind everything?

Therese or Thérèse

2010-01-14T00:17:00.000-08:00

There I was on my early morning walk with the dog, wondering whether I should do Thérèse the honour of using her diacritics. I was deep in thought about this important question, and I remembered some news items about our Prime Minister's wife, Thérèse Rein. She copped some flak for insisting on her acute and grave. Thérèse deserves no less.

As I crossed the railway bridge going towards Erskineville thinking about this topic, I stepped on a piece of slippery cardboard on the footpath. My foot slipped, I threw my arms up to grab something, and my keys went flying. Where were they? I looked around, not there. I looked over the side of the railing, and there they were. They had fallen down one of the very few very small gaps in the wire, and were lying on a concrete plinth about two feet below me. Thank goodness they had not fallen all the way through to the railway line, but how was I going to retrieve them? What to do? Hmmm.

The pupster wanted to continue his walk, and I didn't think anyone was going to see the keys, let alone be able to get at them. We continued on our walk around. In the park I spoke to one of the regulars on the park bench (I often speak to her - is she an alcoholic? does she have a mental illness? She never looks happy, she looks very shy, but seems happy to be spoken to) and we both wondered what I would do.

When the walk was done, I went home and got a wire coathanger and returned to the scene. My friend on the park bench was interested in how I was going to cope with this. I could just get my head and arm through the railings, but there was no way the coat hanger was going to reach. Starting home to think about another tool (or calling the council for help), I realised that I could unwind the neck of the coathanger to make one much longer wire with a hook on the end. It was *just* long enough to hook the keys, and I was saved. As I read the newspaper this morning about the increasing amount of litter in the streets, I thought about that damned slippery cardboard on the footpath, and blessed the existence of wire coathangers.

Back to thinking about Therese vs Thérèse. It is easy enough to copy and paste the ampersandeacutesemicolon and ampersandsegravesemicolon each time, and perhaps I owe Thérèse the distinction of her real name. If I had a diacritic on my name, I know I would want it there, just as Thérèse Rein wants hers.

What are the ramifications? How will it print? Is it searchable under just Therese-with-no-accents? Investigations revealed that the search engines know about this problem. See here and here. My decision is to use the accents, in deference to my heroine.

Galoon report: It is on its way!

Therese Assignment 1: the search for galoon

2010-01-12T22:26:00.000-08:00

The search for galoon (and what one might do with it) has taken me far and wide. As a librarian and wordlover, I looked first for a definition. After all, if you don't know what it is, how can you buy it? I ranged through all kinds of search engines. If you type define galoon into Google, you do get some hits, although it asks you whether you really mean gallon...

My confession is that I spent an inordinate amount of time typing terms into search engines like Google, Bing, Bing Images, my favourite Kartoo, and Clusty. I used search terms like galoon, galloon, galoon braid, galoon lace, and more. Given that Therese wants to use it as a binding, I'm assuming it is like a braid. Many of the websites I found took me to lingerie and erotic wear sites, where galoon lace seems a common enough term. But I didn't think Therese was talking about this kind of galoon lace, despite all her talk of fancy underlinen. During my ferretting around the web, I also noted that the web version of Therese's Encyclopedia no longers talks about braid or galoon. The image is there, but it is now referred to as 'sewing on flaps.' What happened? Was it too esoteric for more recent editions? Had racy lingerie given the term a bad name?

I found my way to Wordnik, where I found the word, and a chunk of text quoting the word but not really defining it. Of course, I signed up for Wordnik and added some comments of my own. Today's word-of-the-day is bombinate, in case you were wondering. Leading on from there, I found a definition from Webster's Dictionary. That made me feel a little shamefaced, so I got off the computer and went to consult our own copy of Webster, and then the OED. We have about three different versions of the OED on our reference shelves plus a range of other dictionaries. Why hadn't I thought to start there? Am I so internetted that I forgot about print? How embarrassing. Anyway, the Shorter OED lists the word under GALLOON, with an alternative for GALON. It is a French word, defined as a pice of narrow ornamental fabric, esp. close-woven silk braid or a strip of lace, used to trim or finish costume or upholstery.

I wandered down King Street to Bollywood Braids and Trims, a treasure trove of all things braidy. Alas, it being Tuesday, it was closed. I must go back. Surely they would know about galoon. Avanti, the lovely braid and tassel shop on King Street is no longer.

In my web wanderings I found myself at the Italian Ebay site, and found some divine berry coloured galoon trim. This is the current listing, and here is a picture.

Naturally I ordered some. In my exchange with the operator of the Italian ebay store, I also found their US version here, and a glossary of terms here. There is a wonderland of terms out there, arcane terms like dimity and dobby, suzani and tabinet. Who knew?

While I await delivery of the Berry Galoon, I wonder what to do with it. Trim underwear? Cushion covers? Trendy trim on a skirt or top? At the moment the best idea I have is to use it to bind the hems on some fine black pants. (Regular readers will know I have more than one pair of black pants, and they have names. Those in question right now are the Nitya ones.) When I wear velcro-closing sandals, the hems get caught in the velcro, and the hems of these pants are now shredded. A Berry Galoon binding might be just the thing to renovate them, and to practice on.

Our next Therese chapter is Machine Sewing, so stay tuned.

Therese Chapter 1: Plain Sewing

2010-01-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

Where better to start than with plain sewing. Therese begins with a kind of apologia for hand sewing, acknowledging that the machine so often takes the place of the hand in sewing, but "in whatever circumstances of fortune one may be placed, the ability to sew well will always be useful."

You just know there is more to plain sewing than meets the eye. Right at the top of this chapter is a picture of a strip worked in running, herringbone and buttonhole stitches. This would hardly be called utilitarian, despite the simplicity of the stitches.

Therese has some useful tips in the first chapter, and some not so useful tips. Perhaps the least useful is the advice to those with damp sweaty hands. She advises those unfortunates to keep a small box of asbestos powder handy, and occasionally dip their fingers into it.

The more useful tips involve posture while sewing. "No kind of plain sewing or embroidery compels one to adopt an awkward attitude." One must avoid ungraceful and unhealthy positions. One must keep one's work at a height that will render it unnecessary to lower the head, which should be held as straight as possible and at most only slightly bent forward. Perhaps I should modify my twisted posture, curling up on the sofa with legs tucked under, watching TV and sewing at the same time.

Who would think that there are so many different kinds of stitches and seams? She covers them all: flat seams, seam stitch, dressmaking seam, antique, openwork, double or french seam, open hemmed double seam, herringboning, whipping, scalloped gathers. She moves through gathering and smocking (remember we are still under plain sewing), how to sew on tape loops, rounded cords, piping, binding with braid or galoon, and ornamental stitches for underlinens.

As a child I dreamed of coloured underlinens decorated with ribbons inserted using the openwork seam, ornamented with coral stitch, single or double feather stitch, or Russian stitch with interlaced stitches. I wondered what galoon was, and where I could get it. I dreamed of little frocks with smocking, even though I was never the little frock kinda girl. The possibilities seemed endless as I browsed the pictures of delicate disembodied hands with needle and thread, working the stitches.

Coming back from dreamland, the section on how to sew on buttons and how to sew buttonholes is really useful. I refer to this often, as I mostly still work buttonholes by hand even though I know how to do it with my sewing machine. It gives me inordinate pleasure to do them by hand. Buttonhole stitch makes a little knot of each stitch around the edge of the buttonhole.

Plain sewing is so much more than a simple running stitch. This chapter alone earns the Encyclopedia its place on my bookshelf.

Assignment from Chapter 1:

Find out what galoon is, and make something with it.

I blame the books, especially Therese

2010-01-08T19:29:00.000-08:00

It is true, I am a craft junkie, a craftaholic. A craft shop is an Aladdin's Cave, and I can hardly wait to try new things. Some people are passionate knitters (like my daughter.) Some people spend their lives doing cross stitch. Not me - I have to try new things.

The title of this blog reveals two major pastimes - knitting and tatting. However it does not cover the episodes of Berlin woolwork, cross-stitch, hardanger, lacework with bobbins, filet lace, macrame and more. I realised a long time ago that I am fascinated by what one can do with a single thread. While I've experimented with sewing clothes (I can do it, but I don't love it) and other hobbies (soapmaking is another story altogether), I love what one can do with a single thread. (That extends to string games/cats cradle, but that too is another story.)

Why am I such a junkie?

It is time to examine the origins, and I have two people to blame. The first is my father, whose mantra was "read the instructions." You can do anything if you have good instructions, and if you read them carefully. The second is Therese de Dillmont. Therese and I are old friends. Her Encyclopedia of Needlwork was first published in 1884, and when I was a child we had an edition - the New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. I still have that copy. You'll find the complete text and some information about the work at http://encyclopediaofneedlework.com/.

It was a small compact book, with gold edging along the top, and coloured plates. I have no idea where it came from. It is battered, the spine is broken, the gold has worn off, it has a rubber band keeping it together.

Maybe it came from a school fete? My mother sewed clothes but she was not an embroiderer. She was a knitter and had done fine crochet work in her youth, but was not passionate about either. I loved that book, and spent hours poring over the instructions, the line drawings, and the coloured plates.

Not only do I have the original little book, not only do I have web access to the fulltext (I wonder could I download that to my Kindle?), I have a paperback version so I can use it for reference while venerating the little old copy as an object.

The book is a goldmine of technique. Just casting one's eyes over the table of contents is enough to start me rummaging through craft shops for tatting shuttles, old knitting needles, lace making bobbins, whatever.

Having recently watched Julie & Julia, I wondered about doing a series of blogposts taking me through Therese's book, and reporting on my adventures. The idea has festered long enough.

I don't intend making everything in the book, but I do intend looking at it chapter-by-chapter and looking into it in some depth. I will talk about what I have done from it and when, and what I would like to do. Perhaps I will find a new technique in here. Get ready, Katie & Therese are about to begin.

Me and my mates

2009-12-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

The Vice-Chancellor and The Librarian of the University of Sydney co-star with me in a video here about the centenary of the Fisher Library.

This is KaBlooey the cat

2009-12-07T13:56:00.000-08:00

Another of Majic's favourite toys

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmas tatting

2009-12-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

Years ago I did a green Christmas bauble with white tatting around it. This year I splurged on gold thread, and some nice red balls. This is the result, using this pattern. Turned out pretty well, I thought, and now I am opening up my copy of Festive Tatting to choose another pattern.

I haven't blogged in about a hundred years

2009-12-01T14:30:00.000-08:00

The raggy bit of string in front of Majic the Magnificent is also known as The Beige Shoestring of Mystery. He loves it. I bought a lot of these shoelaces (which don't need tying, you just stretch them and link them together) and he loves them, particularly this one. As you see, it has had a lot of love and attention.

I'm now thinking of immortalising all his dog toys. Fascinating? Maybe not...

Thursday 9th July, 2009: shopping confessions

2009-07-09T14:54:00.001-07:00

Another cloudy day, alas. We are lapsing into slower and slower time, and breakfast is a long leisurely affair. I have finally come to terms with the knowledge that I really am not terribly keen on croissants. The occasional one is fine, but after two or three days I don't want any more. I reached that point a while ago. I am not a big bread eater either, nor cheese. My mother likes some soft brie or camembert every day. I eat cheese maybe once a week.

With the slow pace and the cloudy weather, not much was on the agenda yesterday. We are pretty much out of attractions. Our old Lonely Planet Guidebook gives some examples of things to do like...

"the brochures say that (Yaté) is reminiscent of an Alpine village, but in reality it is just a small hamlet overshadowed by an enormous white power station generating so much electricity that the village is enveloped in a constant crackle and hum."

"Today this gritty little town (Thio)with its colonial building and bare surrounding mountains is a cheerless place where shop windows and homes are covered with a rusty hue."

"Hidden by the central mountain chain the east coast mining region ... tends to leave travellers in a mixed state of awe and unease. The mountains droop with the burden of mining and most people's lives are veiled by the sombre day-to-day burden of work."

Unless you are big into hiking, camping, active water sports like scuba diving, parasailing, windsurfing, and full-on snorkelling, there isn't a great deal more to do than we have already done.

We look out of our balcony and count the swimmers. Today there were a couple of fishermen.

We finally roused ourselves to go out around noon. We thought there might be some interesting shops at Le Meridien, a big classy resort nearby. This shows how desperate we are now for things to look at. It being noon, everything was closed until 1.30 or 2 pm. Fortunately we didn't see anything in the shop windows in the hotel that we couldn't live without. Pearls are lovely, of course, but mostly these shops cater to the Japanese tourists.

Next on the agenda was to shop at the supermarket, to keep supplies of essentials up. We opted for the supermarket at Port Plaisance this time. They had almost nothing in the way of fresh fruit and vegetables. No bananas (shock horror! We are in a banana crisis!), no avocadoes, no pawpaw or pineapple. They do have local vanilla pods in a jar at the cheese counter though, so I bought three of those. I bought whitlof because I love it, and a lentil salad from the deli. That would be lunch today. Whitlof leaves make excellent scoops for things like lentil salad.

Our freezer now holds five different kinds of ice-cream. Chocolate for Mum, coconut (very rich) to go with the intense vanilla (nearly finished), the butter pecan for me, and a refill of the vanilla for Michael.

Shopping always includes chocolate. Cadbury Fruit and Nut for me, everything else for Mum and Michael.

Sodas are included - Coke Zero for Michael and Orangina (light and regular) for me. I join with Julie and Martin in having developed a taste for this drink. They discovered it on their honeymoon in France, and I will take some home for them (if I don't drink it first). Michael claims with no evidence at all that it is just like Fanta, but there is a world of difference. Michael can never resist a baguette, particularly as they are still warm from the bakery. I don't think a baguette has made it home (or even to the boot of the car) intact. I see at the checkout lines that it is de rigeur to pull off the ends of one's baguettes and eat them as soon as possible. I thought I'd try a palmier to see whether I liked it better than croissants.

As we come into the last days of the holiday I realise that my swimming opportunities are dwindling. The water temperature is 23 C, so despite the cloudy day I decide to swim. Nobody else joins me. I swam along the rocks where the fisherman could be seen above, and saw an array of tropical delights. Anemones with clownfish, a seasnake slithering away from me, coral with iridescent blue tips, large brain coral and other varieties, clouds of small pale green fish, sergeant majors, moorfish, a large long squid, neon blue and yellow fish, lots of brown/yellow fish that looked like mini-sharks all lying still on the bottom, striped, coloured, spotted, clear, big, small, round, long, fish of all kinds. Then swam back to one of the pontoons, and back to shore. It was great. I have never been for a swim where I've said "I wish I hadn't done that." (Except, maybe, for the time I had to be rescued at Whale Beach, although I've had many a good story out of that.)

Wednesday 8th July - Parc Forestier

2009-07-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

Not every day is an active day. There is plenty of inaction around here. This is a pretty standard sight:

The entertainment centre contains lots of books, headphones for the iPhone, the score I am learning for the Verdi Requiem (next choir performance) and so forth.

The round dark object is my favourite "Flat Hat" my sister gave me. The woven bag was purchased at the Market in Place des Cocotiers on Monday.

When we managed to rouse ourselves, we went out. On our list of attractions for a non-swimming day is the Parc Forestier, the Botanic Gardens and Zoo/aviary in the hills behind Noumea.

We set out in mid-morning with map in hand, noting that the map does not run to street names apart from the major roads. That doesn't really matter, seeing there are very few street signs. We headed northeast, thanking the designer of roundabouts again, as we circled one a couple of times. The road headed up to the hills, and then seemed to peter out. It became a dirt road, and then there was a temporary traffic light around a big building site. Our guidebook has alerted us to a road elsewhere in the island in which traffic goes one way for the first twenty minutes of every hour, then the reverse direction for the remainder. We hoped this was not an example. We were pretty sure we were lost, and then, there we were. They really aren't ones for signs around here!

We entered the grounds, and began reconnoitring. Viewed the site map,

viewed the vista

viewed the grounds

and decided we would proceed down the hill to the lake and look at the aviaries of native birds, including the flightless and endangered cagou.

It was beautifully done, with lush vegetation all around. The aviary where the cagou birds are, along with the notou and other pigeons and parrots, was really well done. A kind of airlock system of doors operated to let us in and keep them in. I am not much of a one to take pictures of birds behind wire, but eventually I did.

We have noted that the fashion for boys here is to wear hoodies, and almost always with the hoods up. Fur lined ones (great for these freezing days of only 24 degrees C), polar fleece, windproof, all kinds of hoodies. Hooded boys are everywhere. Viewing the danse nuptiale of the cagou, which we were lucky enough to see, gave us a clue as to where this might have come from. The cagou have very long white crests on their heads which flip up during their courtship.

Perhaps this is the inspiration for the hoodies? (I am joking. I am pretty sure that the hoodies are a direct import of US black gangsta fashion.)

After walking around and taking some pictures and generally enjoying being out in the fresh air, we settled at the Snack le Cagou for lunch. A Hook Mister (croque monsieur) each for Michael and I, a salade au jambon for Mum, and some pommes frites to share. The menu offered many delights, including the Dimension Pig (spine in bone), the Steaklet Spotted Apple, and the Pie Chart. A rumsteak perhaps? How could I have gone past them?

From Noumea2009

We returned via a scenic road (they almost all are, it being an island, and hilly) and back to reading and knitting.

I'm reading a terrific book - Rich Desserts and Captains Thin, by Margaret Forster. The story of the factory, the family, the Quaker principles set against the politics and the business practice of the time, are all fascinating. They form part of the utopian scene we travelled about a few years ago, alongside the Cadbury Family in Bourneville, and the Frys, and the Rowntrees.

Sunday and Monday

2009-07-06T00:52:00.000-07:00

It was a watery and cultury couple of days.

Sunday was a glorious day, but Mum wasn't feeling too well, so we took things slowly. The Aquarium is very close to our hotel, so we walked down there. It is a terrific looking building, low, and with a blue glass wall with water coursing down the sides into a moat. Quite something. It was a fabulous display, segmented by fresh water, reef, medium depth, very deep. There was a display of fluorescent coral that was really beautiful, lit with ultraviolet light, glowing orange and purple. There was a sad exhibition about sharks, with an electronic display counting up as we watched, showing the number killed since the museum opened. A shocking number, and the knowledge that most of them are killed by having their fins sliced off, then thrown still alive back into the sea, is the stuff of nightmares. We spent a lot of time there, and it was a beautiful display.

It gave me a taste for snorkelling. On previous walks I had seen a sign (on Anse Vata beach) showing an underwater walk on Duck Island, or Isle aux Canardes. One got there by taking a water taxi. So that's what I did. Got there just as the taxi was leaving, and a couple of minutes later I was on the islet. Did a quick walk around the crushed coral perimeter, dropped my stuff, and put on my mask. Didn't take my camera, so no pics. What a treat. Numbered buoys had submerged signs telling what was to be seen, and what things there were! The most brilliant fish, zillions of them. At least as many and in as much variety as at Molokini Atoll, or at Hanauma Bay in Hawaii. What really distinguished it was the amount and variety of coral. There was a whole forest of it, all brilliant colours and shapes, it was just fantastic. Enough to take one's breath away. I have my own mask and snorkel, which was good, and I almost never wear fins, preferring just feet. It was, for me, the highlight of the trip. Wowee.

We ate out last night, at La Boucherie. Mer et terre for me, with foie gras sauce. Delicious. I am impressed with the availability and range of frou frou non-alcoholic cocktails. Last night I had something coconutty and pineapply, with parasol and dyed green shredded coconut frosting the rim of the glass. Michael had a bananacolada, also with froufrou. Mum had a glass of white wine, and chicken liver/potato warm salad. My meal was terrific, the meat excellent and the prawns really good. A great end to a perfect day.

Monday saw more culture. First on the list was the Museum of New Caledonia, near the main market. Snapped some 'tribal art' on the way.

We parked easily, and paid about 70 cents as entry. What a great museum. The first display was a roomm full of carved wooden posts - some doorposts with faces and chevron patterns, others great poles that are the central poles for the huge thatched structures. These structures are called case, and are wonderful spaces.

I particularly enjoyed the weaving, and the netting for fishing nets, and the money skirts.

We had seen the P&O liner Pacific Dawn arrive this morning, so there was a market on the first floor of the maritime terminal to greet the tourists. Mum and I went to look at it, while Michaell went into town to a shop with nic quality stuff, and bought a shirt. Mum and I will go back to this shop and look at the beautiful handbags and some of their clothing. No, you will NOT see me in a Mother Hubbard muu-muu (comfy though they appear). There are sosme nice old buildings where the French influence is quite evident.

We then had to go to the supermarket, because amazingly enough we were out of the ch's - chocolate, cheese, chips. Not to mention icecream, Orangina, bacon and eggs, and fruit. Shopping is constant. I can see the appeal of being on an ocean cruise where all food is provided constantly. That might be the only appeal, though.

After lunch and a nap, Mum and I decided on a late afternoon swim, this time at Anse Vata beach. The water was pleasantly cool, but lots of churned up sand. I couldn't see much at all - just some sea grasses and a few shells and corals on the bottom. I was feeling a bit disappointed, when I saw something large and moving in front of me. I thought at first it was a big ball of seaweed, but it was a turtle, quite a large turtle, swimming underneath me and off to my left. I let him go, and felt utterly blessed to have seen him.

We returned happy, and had our afternoon game of cards and some knitting. I have almost finished my socks.

Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th July, 2009: City walk

2009-07-04T00:42:00.000-07:00

Friday wasn't a swimming day - too cloudy, cool, and windy. However we had been led to believe that local oysters would be available at the central market, so we went. They weren't. Instead we bought New Zealand oysters, and had to ask to get them opened as our apartment does not run to an oyster knife. (It didn't run to any kind of chopping knife, so we bought one on our first day here.) We also stocked up on Poingo bananas, pineapple, pawpaw, more sesame doughnuts with the yellow pea stuffing, and much more.

From Noumea2009

After taking it home and having lunch, we headed for what was marked on the map as the Handicraft Centre. This turned out to be a special event in the line of a trade show for plants and flowers, and gardening equipment. There was one shop selling fossilised shark teeth, but we passed on those. Across the street is the Musee d'Historique de Maritime, so we went there and had a good look around. It was interesting, but we passed on the movie about the Mystery of La Perouse. It was 90 minutes, in French, so we thought we could live without seeing it. Cap'n Jackson and Convict Kate were snapped.

Saturday too was grey and windy, the water looking too choppy for much swimming. There was a market in town, in the Place de Cocotieres, so we aimed for that, and perhaps a wander around the shops. They would be open, it not being lunchtime.

We passed a very large demonstration, the Kanaks are seeking greater independence. There were many people.

Yes, the market was on. We saw lots of stalls and I bought a woven basket. We saw some dancing girls,

and dancing boys,

and men.

and a pug, dressed in raincoat. The little boy in his walker was very protective of his pug, and every time I bent down to coo over it, he wheeled right between me and the pug.

We walked around town and bought a few souveniers. It being just below thirty degrees, the women were all rugged up. This means their Mother Hubbard dresses, with woolly scarves, cardigans, coats etc. The look for the women is all exactly the same style. Their dresses vary not at all in style, only in colour and the amount of lace adorning them. They look comfortable, but not stylish. They dominate the stores.

The poncho over the muu-muu is also a good look:

I haven't managed to snap anyone, but the look for the boys is the hoodie, with hood up.. Sometimes a fur-lined parka against the freezing weather.

A nice variation on a manhole cover was sighted and snapped:

Thursday 2nd July: Nouville and Anse Keunde

2009-07-01T23:20:00.000-07:00

Another glorious day. The mission for today was to drive through Nouville, just outside Noumea, and find the little beach called Anse Keunde. It was no trouble at all. There was a little traffic jam, perhaps caused by the docked liner, Pacific Sun. The road took us straight there with no trouble at all.

The little beach was charming, and not many people there.

Mum and I togged up, got our masks on, and waded out.

And waded, and waded, and waded. Well, paddled, really. I went out a long long way, and nowhere did it get above thigh deep. I went out almost to those boats in the background and still was only knee deep. Here I am emerging after the swim..

Still, one can swim and snorkel in very shallow water, which I did, being careful not to scrape tummy on coral. There was a bit of coral, lovely colours of purple and pink. There were some bright fish, big and little. Around one lump of coral was a cloud of tiny iridescent blue/green fish, the tiniest I've seen.

After our swim (Michael sat on a shady bench with his books for the duration) we lay in the sun, and enjoyed the sound of some children splashing and playing - all in French. We strolled around and took some snaps of the small resort that is there.

I was particularly amused by the steel shipping container with the thatched roof. It turned out to be a toilet block.

We drove home, ate some lunch, and spent the rest of the day lolling about. Reading, knitting, playing cards, snoozing in the sun. This is my idea of a holiday. We have just watched the sun set, so will get ready soon to go out and eat dinner.

There was NO SHOPPING today of any kind. Nothing, no fruit, vegetables, fish, cheese, bread, anything. We have enough for breakfast tomorrow (bacon and eggs is on the menu) and will enjoy our evening out.

Mum and I played Malice and Spite, and yes, it was her turn to win.

Wednesday, 1st July 2009 - culture and water

2009-06-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

Up at 7, breakfast of pawpaw, pineapple, banana, yellow passionfruit, and then a croissant. We will know not to buy robusta coffee again (arabica next time) and realise that we are spoiled by our regular infusions of Illy coffee at home. I admired my snowdome..

Today's agenda was the Tjibaou cultural centre, built by the French, designed by Renzo Piano. The drive was quite pleasant, past the suburbs of Motor Pool (you heard me..) and Magenta and its small airport. We parked, and went to the ticket counter. Being over a certain age and with grey hair, we paid no entry fee. The walk in was lovely, peaceful, lush vegetation. The entry hall was large and open, but there seemed very few people. We walked up and down, admiring the unusual buildings. They really are beautiful structures - like pods arranged along a central spine. Inspired by a collection of huts in a village? The soaring exteriors are skeletal grey weathered wood.

We looked at the shop but were not inspired to buy. We looked at the art exhibitions which were quite interesting with some lovely carvings. We watched an arty movie/presentation in the cinema, showing Kanak culture. I took lots of pictures, including a shot of one of the local fashionistas in the latest Noumean fashion statement, seen everywhere - a floral muu-muu and woolly scarf. Then temperature is below 30, so a scarf is de rigeur.

There are some terrific sculptures in the gardens,

and a very amusing cow made of corned beef tins:

Alas, my sunglasses decided they liked it there, so they hid from me when it was time to go. Cést la vie. We sampled Orangina at the cafe (Martin's favourite orange drink), then set out for home and lunch.

We had not planned to go to the supermarket again, but the car had other ideas. A few wrong turnings saw us heading back to the Geant Sainte Marie, so we yielded, and there we were again, putting stuff into our shopping basket. More icecream, chocolate, salmon for dinner. There was a whole shelf full of all sizes of Orangina. Then as I turned around I saw a shelf full of Chateau Martin. Hmm. I wonder which he would prefer?

Home for lunch, a sit down, and then..... wait for it.... a swim! Mum and I togged up, gathered mask and snorkel, and crossed the road. We found a spot to sit in, left our stuff there, and went into the water. A bit cool, but not too cold. A nice sandy bottom for standing on. Mum's mask filled with water so had to be adjusted. Gosh I hope I am still snorkelling when I am 87. I swam out and around the pontoon, and then over to the side where there were grasses and corals and beautiful coloured fish. Divine. Then we sat in the sun and dried off, and came home for showers and a cup of coffee. Still finishing off the robusta.

Mum and I played Malice and Spite and I won, again. It will be her turn next. Maybe.

Before dinner we all three went on a stroll around the restaurant strip nearby. We'd seen it earlier, and investigated more closely with a view to eating there tomorrow night. As we were out, a pair of black pants fell into my hands and I had to buy them. A girl can never have too many black pants, as my regular readers will know. Mum bought a shell ring. We looked at menus, and there is one place offering one of Mum's favourites, osso bucco. Guess where we will be eating tomorrow?

And now to settle in for the salmon de dieu which Michael is cooking, and maybe some tv and knitting. Aaah.

To market to market

2009-06-30T00:10:00.000-07:00

Got up around 7.30 with the sun. Breakfast was excellent pineapple and watermelon, I had a dollop of plain yoghurt with mine. Coffee - local robusta (not good), and then a croissant from the Geant supermarket. I now know which knob turns on the griller on. The croissants were very lightly toasted. Not bad. Plain this time, not chocolate. Scale of 1-10? I'd give it a five.

We decided on a trip to the market, which is on the waterfront down near the centre of town. They are instantly recognisable by the blue roofs.

Out the front were several women with their laptops. Doing what? Fortune telling? Accounting? Facebook?

We did a circuit of the fruit and veg stalls. The quality and variety is much better than either of the supermarkets we visited. There is a wonderful array of bananas, some yellow and ready for eating, some black and ready for what? Some green, no doubt for cooking. We bought some fat little yellow ones, which later proved to be golden and creamy inside, and delicious. We bought some green beans, fresh coriander, passionfruit. There were avocadoes that were big as footballs but we already had one. Loads of papaya, taro, and other root vegetables were alluring.

We bought a couple of souveniers at the jewellery stalls. It is so hard to pick out interesting and acceptable souveniers. Things always look different when you get them home, out of their context. Some things improve and become exotica, other things turn into dross as soon as you get them home and you wonder what on earth you were thinking. At least with snowdomes you know exactly what you are getting....

The fish section was mostly empty apart from one or two stalls, where we saw local fish (vivaneu), white tuna (thon blanc, which we bought), marlin, something de dieu, salmon, very expensive huitres de New Zealand, (oysters), and lots more. We asked, and the local oysters will not be in until Thursday. We'll be back for those as we read that they are good.

Finally, because I love them, I bought two sticky sesame balls. These are sticky something gluteny (rice flour?) with sesame seeds on the outside, and usually red bean paste inside. I had mine for lunch at 10 am, so didn't feel like more lunch later. It had something yellow and creamy inside, sweet peas or beans of some sort. Yum. Sticky, oily goodness.

Goodies in hand, we returned to the car and back to the apartment.

After some relaxation, Mum and I took off again to search for French fashion. We discovered that everything closes for two hours for lunch. We were there at 1 pm, and not much was open. Things would re-open at 2 pm. There wasn't much on show. We looked at some fabulously expensive stuff in Hermes that didn't appeal to me. I bought some cheap silver plain earrings, and some black cotton to mend my black pants with. Alas, they had developed a run in them. (My favourite new (ish) Hedrena black pants! I will throw the old Hedrenas out now, and these, now mended, will become the old ones. Mum kept telling me I ought to take these back, but as I've been wearing them for about a year I didn't think I would get a refund. ) We moseyed around, and succeeded in finding an appropriately tacky Nouvelle Calédonie snowdome for the collection. We found a couple of lingerie shops - Mum can't resist lingerie shops, so we always go in.

Returned to the apartment for a solid afternoon's reading and relaxing in the sun. No swimming yet, but it isn't far off, I feel it in my bones. I finshed reading The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham, described on the cover notes as a feral SeaChange. Feral it was, and highly amusing, black and grimly funny. Loved it.

I am working on my travel tatting, (same pattern as you see on the banner of my blog) and will return shortly to a second sock. I also have a ball of wool Lien gave me for my birthday (the colourway is Taurus - well done Lien!) with which I will knit the Woodland Shawl.

Mum and I played a card game (Malice and Spite). At one stage the door handle turned and there was attempt at entry. I unlocked and opened the door (should I have been anxious?) and two blokes were outside with their suitcases. Their key said room 607. This is room 607. They apologised and disappeared - back to reception, I guess.

Michael is cooking the thon blanc tonight, with some refried potatoes left over from last night and some green beans. I intend to eat a tub of runny chocolate pudding for dessert. Tomorrow night I think we will go to Le Roof for dinner, or for lunch.

And yes, I might go for a swim.

A midwinter holiday

2009-06-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

When the days become shorter, it is dark in the morning, and the weather gets cold, our thoughts turn to warmer climes. Fortunately the Man of the House is a forward thinker, and when it was hot and muggy (January) he began planning our mid-year holiday in Noumea.

We were inspired by Julie and Martin's honeymoon in France to explore France on our doorstep. Only two hours away by plane from Sydney, New Caledonia is a completely different culture. A blend of Polynesia and France, it offered sunshine, French bread and cheese, practice in speaking French, and perhaps some snorkelling.

Michael organised it, and here we are. We are staying in a two-bedroom apartment overlooking Baie des Citrons, close to the touristy section of Anse Vata. We have a fantastic view of the ocean and the mountains, the pine trees. It is glorious.

Alas we also have an aural view - the noise from the generators of the restaurants below impinges on the sound of the ocean. We are used to it now, but would prefer it not to be there.

There is wifi in our hotel, so I am sitting on our balcony typing this. As it is a self-service apartment our first priority was supplies, so after breakfast in the very small hotel breakfast room (coffee and chocolate croissant for me) we set out.

We have a car. It is a manual, so a lot of brain power is used up in changing gears and staying on the correct side of the road. I drive, Michael navigates. There is minimal bickering as we negotiate the way. We stop off at an ATM and get some cash (takes a bit of figuring to decide how much to get) and then Michael navigates us to a supermarket. It wasn't the one we thought it was going to be, but it had stuff. We bought apples and milk and chocolate and washing detergent and eggs and bacon and cheese and bread. Nothing exciting, but it means we will be clean and won't starve. I was interested that fresh milk was not to be found - my execrable French asking for lait was met first with incomprehension, then I was directed to the longlife milk. My requests for oeufs went better, and I had to wait for the fresh ones to be brought in from the delivery truck outside. No plastic carry bags were given away at the checkout, and not any paper ones either. We bought three shopping bags (that polyester strong fabric) and will use them while here, add them to our Hawaiian collection when we get home.

Naturally my attention falls to the ground and discovers a not terribly exciting array of manhole covers.

It is warmer than Sydney is, but it is also windy. We are not inclined to go swimming today, but see intrepid souls out there, some in what looks like a group learning something.

We are all relaxing now after the strenuous shopping and will consider what the afternoon will bring a bit later. We are on holiday speed now, and that is veeerrrrrry sloooooowwwwww.

On the agenda (for later) is some French fashion, and maybe a polynesian muu-muu or two, preferable voluminous and frilly and very bright.

This week targetting.... handkerchiefs

2009-01-24T17:44:00.000-08:00

I confess I've been reading Flylady and in that spirit I thought I'd spend fifteen minutes on my scarf/belt drawer. I've ironed the scarves, thought about whether I really should keep belts in there AND all the little soft handbags. It is only a small drawer, after all, and the scarves get all scrunched up with all that other stuff. Some of the larger scarves get hung on special E shaped hangers in the wardrobe, but I don't find that very successful really.

The little handbags have been moved. I'm mulling over the belts. Over the last few weeks I've been keeping the inner tubes from toilet rolls and using those to store smaller rolled scarves in.

Today I'm getting a little more holistic and thought I'd attack it properly. There are fifteen handkerchiefs in there (handkerchieves?) in various states of scrunchdom. So I got them all out and ironed them. There are about four pretty lacy ladylike embroidered ones. There are four or five souvenier ones in garish colours with pictures of kangaroos and koalas and Brisbane buildings. Where did they come from? There are several that might have belonged to my daughter a zillion years ago - a blue gingham teddy bear holding balloons, a duck wheeling a bunny in a barrow. There are a couple of nondescript and quite pretty florals.

What am I going to do with them? Keep them? Put one in my handbag as a ladylike accessory? Is a used handkerchief any more or less disgusting than a used tissue gradually decomposing in one's handbag? Is washing and ironing a hanky more or less ecological than disposing of a tissue? What is the ick factor about using a cloth hanky to blow one's nose? It is years since I have done so.

On the principle of use-it-or-lose-it I am going to put one hanky in my handbag and see whether I use it. I am going to put the others in an accessible place until I see how I feel about using a cloth hanky.

This week targetting.... tea bags

2009-01-03T15:57:00.000-08:00

Every so often I decide I want to or should drink herbal teas. Their packets are so enticing, their names so delightful. Different varieties tend to leap into the trolley at the supermarket.

But then they languish at home after one or two are used. This week I am targetting them. There are two St. John's Wort with Berries bags left. I like St. John's Wort, it really does have a cheering effect, so it will be the first to be finished.

Then there is the Chamomile tea, which I ought to drink at night for its relaxing effect, instead of the mug of Chocolait. There are two versions of chamomile. And three bags of the organic fairtrade lemon valerian. And a box of Healtheries Sleep Tea with passionflower and chamomile. I have no trouble sleeping eight to nine hours a night, so I don't quite know why I have all this sleepy stuff.

The vanilla flavoured Rooibos is terrible. Plain rooibos is good but the vanilla flavouring adds a really unpleasant note. That can go into the bin.

Then the liquorice tea, which is deliciously and oddly sweet, but is really old now. Out.

Dilmah's Masala Chai fiery Ceylon spice is great on a cold day, and maybe even on a hot day. I will finish that next.

Buddha's Tears are gorgeous. I love the way they unfurl in the mug, but truly the flavour is not much. Green tea is supposed to be good for you, so I have the obligatory box of that too.

Finally there is the Lipton's black tea. I only have that because when the back yard was being re-done the two builders seemed to drink an awful lot of tea and I was forever making pots of my favourite looseleaf Panyong Congou from T2 or Twining's Russian Caravan. With tons of milk and sugar in a mug it didn't really seem necessary to do more than tea bags.

For myself, a pot of tea around 4 pm is wonderful. Looseleaf, in the teapot, infused for the right amound of time, in a white china cup and saucer, with a very small dash of sugar. Mmmm.

It is likely to take more than a week of targetting that lot. Maybe two or three months instead! I've discovered with my 'this week targetting... little bottles of moisturizer' that incorporating it into the daily routine (instead of just occasionally) the stuff gets used.

Adventures in Sockworld

2008-12-20T19:25:00.000-08:00

Every sock I have knitted so far has been the same basic pattern - cuff down. Start with the leg, work down, turn the heel, do the gusset and foot, Kitchener stitch the toe. Five double pointed needles.

My lovely sister bought me Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles last year. The first pair, of course, I knitted for her. They were Columbine Peaks, on two circular needs, and I fell in love with that technique. A pair of plain black garter rib socks for you-know-who was done using the same technique.

Toe up socks have been a bit of a mystery, so I decided to knit Cat's Cable Top pattern, using some blue/grey/white bamboo yarn. What an adventure! The brilliance of knitters is never ending. There have been so many new techniques to learn, with the help of Cat's book and her videos on Youtube. Youtube replaces the skilled granny or auntie in transferring knitting skills.

First was the cast on. I learned how to cast on from my mother - long tail, thumb method, and that's how I always did it. Recently while knitting tams I branched out into the tubular cast on, which is wonderful, but not appropriate for toe-up socks. A quick search revealed Judy Becker's Magic Cast On. Absolutely gobsmackingly amazing. When it worked I called the Man of the House over to ooh and aah.

Then came the toe. This is Cat Bordhi's Turned Toe, which does a kind of heel turn on either side, forming what she calls 'a sleek parking garage for your toes.' Because I am new to all this I have done exactly as she instructs, even though I have my doubts about the size of only 48 stitches around my foot (I usually go for 72). The toe is easy and very inventive, and seems to fit (this is one of the joys of a) toe-up, and b) twin circulars - you can try on as you go.) The toe seems a little pointy, but when it is on it seems fine. The size seems OK, perhaps a little snug.

Onwards around the foot, and then to the gusset. Don't know about you but I hate picking up stitches. I don't know why that is, I just do. So this seemed good -instead of decreasing then picking up, you just increase for the gusset on one of the needles.

Next came the heel turn. I have never done wrap and turn short rows, and this too was a revelation. Cat's videos once more were played over and over, with BabyNetbook on my lap and knitting in hands. This is a fascinating and beautiful process, resulting in miraculous shaped knitting, just right for one's heel. Amazing.

It isn't over yet. I have never done i-cord, and the tops of these socks have a cuff edge of two i-cords twisted and knitted on. I am looking forward to it.

From this one sock I have learned a new and wonderful cast on, wrap and turn short rows, and more. I am definitely a recent convert to knitting on twin circulars.

Photos will be posted when sock 1 is complete. The way it is going, it won't be long.

This week targetting....

2008-12-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

Maggie Alderson is a terrific writer and I turn to her Saturday Good Weekend column as soon as I can. A few weeks ago she wrote about the police signs you see on our roads - This Week Targetting...SPEEDING, or SEAT BELTS, or DRINK DRIVING. She wrote about personal grooming. This week targetting... FLOSSING, or CRACKED HEELS.

This has become a mantra in this house now. This week I am targetting ....USING UP ALL THOSE LITTLE BOTTLES OF MOISTURISER YOU GET WHEN YOU FLY BUSINESS CLASS. Business class is wonderful (there is no going back now I have enough points to upgrade), but what to do with those little goodie bags? I have bottles of moisturiser and tiny tubes of toothpaste and sockies galore, saved for years. This week I have chucked all the socks, put the tubes of toothpaste in the cupboard to use them, and am working my way through the little bottles of moisturiser.

What am I targetting next week?

As my favourite saying from the I Ching goes, 'it furthers one to have somewhere to go.' Perhaps the I Ching wasn't really thinking about airline moisturiser, but hey, it is working for me.

"She couldn't even knit!"

2008-11-22T02:29:00.000-08:00

Said Gordon Wood's mother, speaking of Caroline Byrne in today's Herald.

Knitting is a fine art indeed, but one suspects that her inability to knit might not have been the only reason she was thrown headfirst off the Gap.

The manhole covers

2008-11-03T15:05:00.001-08:00

There was no shortage of manhole covers on our travels. Here is the haul:

Omaha:

Greeley:

Arcosanti:

Desert Botanic Gardens - Phoenix (OK these aren't really manhole covers, but I think they can be included here)

Phoenix:

Glendale:

Phoenix and the Heard Museum

2008-11-03T14:39:00.000-08:00

We are home now, and it is too easy to let the trip record slide. There are a couple of days left though, and a couple of wrapup posts to make.

Our last day in Phoenix was a travel day, but that wasn't until the evening. We reviewed options, and decided on a visit to the Heard Museum. After packing and re-packing, and after breakfast (the Holiday Inn Express throws in a good free breakfast, but the coffee is the usual US execrable weak brown water) we set out. Michael suspected there might be beads, and indeed there were. There was a terrific exhibition called Home, which was all about home crafts of the Indians. Rug weaving, beads, jewellery, and magnificent basket weaving. Of course the beads always interest me, but I can see how the basket weaving could become a passion. Such fineness, detail, design. There was a magnificent display of Katsina dolls, too much to take in. I took issue with a display of some fine knitting - one completed legging and the other in progress. The sign said they were being knitted on sewing needles, but a) I did not see any eye for threading yarn, b) their points were not sharp enough to be sewing needles, unless for leather, and c) they looked exactly like my fine steel double-pointed needles. Hmmm.

There was another section which reminded us very much of the Smithsonian Indian Museum. Lots of very little, quite similar, and very wordy displays for each individual tribe. I can just see all the politics involved in these displays. The message is often one of harmony and love for the earth and the sense of solidarity with people, but this fragmentation into tribes is also a message of Us vs. Them.

We had a coffee, and Michael was terribly disappointed to find that there was only one variety of coffee - regular. No espresso. The usual pale weak brown water.

The shop was fantastic, but we are just retailed out. Not that we've bought much in the way of souvies, but we have learned from past experience that what looks good in the US southwest does not look good in a little terrace house in Sydney. The style just jangles. And because my mother is from New Mexico, I really do have enough in the way of silver/turquoise jewellery.

After the Heard Museum we set out in the car without a clear plan. We kind of had a mall in mind, with a food court for lunch, but didn't have any of our usual reference material. All the brochures had been packed or ditched. So we drove around and around, ending up in Glendale. It seemed utterly deserted. Although we found a kind of historic area with shops, there was not a soul to be seen. Could be because it was in the high nineties out there, with a merciless sun. A moment to note: we passed the Bead Museum, and I passed it without a flicker of interest. Yes, bead point has been passed.

We found a Visitor Centre, which was manned, and got some directions. We found ourselves at the Desert Sky Mall and had some lunch from the Mexican place. Tamales for me, my favourite.

We were now in travel mode, so took the rental car back to the airport and started the long process of getting home.

Phoenix, and the Desert Botanic Gardens

2008-11-01T16:44:00.001-07:00

The sun shines brightly here in Phoenix, and it has been in the mid-90s (F) so an early start was in order. It is easy to understand why people from colder climates want to retire here. It wouldn't be for me. The constant hard bright sun would drive me berserk after a bit. The flat arid terrain, coupled with the total dominance of the car also does not appeal. There are no pedestrians, the place seems dead, apart from the cars on the roads. Looking at the suburbs it would be impossible to do anything without a car. Contrasting this with the arcology concept of close living, and the way we live in dense inner city Sydney, it seems sterile and terribly artificial. I guess if you went to one of the many churches you would have a social life!

The Desert Botanic Gardens were wonderful, and very different. I spent a lot of time fiddling with my camera settings, learning about RAW vs JPG and all the various options for aperture and speed. It was lots of fun, and I enjoyed taking closeups as well as vistas.

The suguaro cacti are enormous and varied. Here is Michael wearing his Arcosanti t-shirt to give perspective:

The morning light made for some nice views of spiny plants:

A little bird provided his silhouette:

and I enjoyed taking some closeups:

Naturally there were vistas, and I couldn't resist. Especially the one with the sign, where there was a very handy stand for your camera. The timer setting can be very useful!

Prescott to Phoenix, Tuesday 28th October.

2008-11-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

A travel day, and a few odds and ends to deal with. We drove from Prescott to Phoenix, which didn't take very long. The zip on Michael's leather bag had sprung, so I'd found a luggage repair place on the web, and used our GST navigator (Uhura) to get us there. How did we manage before the web and navigators? The guys at Cobblestone said they could repair the bag by the next day, and were very affable. Across the street was a Dillard's, our favourite department store. We went over for some retail experience. I always buy bras at Dillards. The service from Jill and the range was terrific, so I bought four. Michael likes a particular brand of shirt, in a hard-to-find size, and found one there. The salesman had the most amazing comb-over hair I have ever seen.

One of the things on the Phoenix agenda was to visit Utopia Street and Utopia Estate. Uhura got us there. Utopia in Phoenix is trailer homes, an estate for the over 55s. We took photos, of course.

Returned to the hotel for another hot tub experience for me, followed by a review of possible activities for the next day. We contemplated a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. This would have been interesting, particularly as Paolo Soleri had spent some time there and learned a lot from Wright, but it was an expensive and extensive tour for which we didn't quite have enough enthusiasm. We are completely vista-ed out, so I suggested perhaps some botanical interest with the Desert Botanic Gardens. That's the plan.

Are we in Sim City?

2008-10-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Those of us who spent far too many hours playing Sim City 2000 will be familiar with the term Arcology. Arcologies were these huge self contained structures with thousands of unseen inhabitants. Some were pleasant looking with greenery, others seemed dark and sinister.

We wondered at the time where the term came from. Now we know. It was coined by Paolo Soleri, a combination of ARChitecture and eCOLOGY. Soleri is an architect and visionary, and his vision is partly realised here in Arizona, in Arcosanti. We visited today, and it is why we are in nearby Prescott.

Arcosanti is out in the arid desert, and his book (purchased at the gallery) says that this is part of the plan. If you can do your living in the arid areas and keep the productive land for producing, this is a better way.

About 75 people live there, and the site funds itself through sales of its cast bronze and ceramic wind bells designed by Soleri. They are indeed beautiful. We went on a tour and saw the innovative architecture. What was most impressive was the way the work spaces are largely open, huge apses, oriented to make best use of sun and shade according to the seasons.

We went on the short tour, given my an almost uninterested young man with multiple piercings. His most enthusiastic comments concerned the very modern swimming pool. He pointed off into the distance at the vegetable gardens, and announced with pride that he didn't eat vegetables. (I class this comment in the same category as those who for some reason take pride in announcing that they don't read fiction. Let's reject Shakespeare and Dickens, shall we?)

We went expecting some earnestness and ideology. There was none of that.

It was very Italianate, with cypresses and olive trees. Soleri is Italian and this obviously reflects his culture.

The aim was to have five thousand residents.

The philosophy behind it is very compelling, and the book makes very interesting reading. I can't help thinking that where I live offers some of the advantages proposed by this architecture. The dense inner city offers community, resources such as libraries and hospitals and schools, restaurants (akin to communal kitchens?) yet privacy, all within walking distance, no reliance on the demon automobile. It is certainly a far cry from suburbia and its sprawl totally dependent on the car.

You certainly need a car to get to Arcosanti though! It is in the middle of the desert.

A selection of the windbells which are everywhere, and which form the business basis of the community:

The ceramics apse

The large community apse, where community meetings are held:

Living quarters, and some of the infrastructure spaces such as library and archives:

They even have their own manhole covers, presumably cast in their own foundry:

Where is our pedometer?

2008-10-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

Those of you who read of our adventures in Greece this time last year will remember our obsession with the pedometer and achieving more and more steps each day. So where is the pedometer this time?

It is here, safely packed away. I would be too embarrassed to record the few pitiful steps we take each day. This is the USA, not Greece. We don't walk anywhere here. If we can't park outside the front door, we go somewhere else. Today we went to a mall, and it was pretty spread out, so we drove through the parking lot from one store to another. In Grand Canyon we drove across the street to the restaurant and the coffeeshop. It is sad, really, but somehow the environment just isn't conducive to walking anywhere.

I shudder to think what the scales will make of all this.

Grand Canyon to Prescott, Arizona

2008-10-26T19:43:00.000-07:00

Another travel day today. From Grand Canyon we drove through Sedona and Jerome to Prescott. I did all the driving - it wasn't that much of it, and it was through utterly spectacular scenery. We had one or two stops, so there aren't too many pictures.

Sedona features wonderful red rock formations. Jerome is an old copper mining town built on a mountainside, and it is very picturesque indeed. The drive took us through forests and by the side of a river, with trees in their autumn colours. We drove on State Highway 89A which goes over Mingus Mountain on a very precipitous route with lots of switchbacks.

I enjoy using spas and pools in the various hotels, if they are available. Often I am the only one there, but last night at Grand Canyon there were several people - tattooed pierced Okies (described as such by them, from Oklahoma.) There was the usual exchange of 'where are you from'- Grand Canyon is like a United Nations. One of the young men recommended Sedona, so that's why we went. I asked one woman where she was from - 'Arizona, unfortunately.'was her response. I was a bit taken aback, and said I thought Arizona was pretty damned impressive. So much natural beauty. I asked her where she would rather live. In my mind I wondered - Japan? Australia? Scotland? Bali? She responded "Colorado." I had to laugh. What is to choose? Now when we see fabulous sights, like the red rocks of Sedona, we remark to each other that it isn't as good as Colorado.

Monument Valley to Kayenta and then Grand Canyon

2008-10-25T17:33:00.000-07:00

Man, one's shoes get dusty tromping around in the desert!

We'd gone to the Trading Post at Gouldings and bought some lovely things, gifts for ourselves and others, then to the Grocery store for dinner supplies. I made fresh sweetcorn (white) with some of the butter left over from the baked potato from the night before (how many meals does that make out of those leftovers?) plus some corn tortillas sandwiched with pastrami and cheese, buttered on the outside and pan fried. Pretty good. Ice cream for dessert.

The next morning was travel day. Kayenta was definitely on the agenda and the menu. We had an apple and banana for breakfast, with huevos rancheros at the Amigo Cafe in mind. We arrived in Kayenta at about 10.15, ready to eat. Found the Amigo Cafe. Closed. Hearts and stomachs fell. It looked pretty abandoned, but the sign out the front said it would open at 10.30. We drove around a little, got some petrol, looked at a few of the sights of Kayenta.

That took five minutes. We drove around some more, then back to the cafe. It opened as scheduled at 10.30

We were the first customers, but as soon as we sat down and ordered our huevos rancheros, the place filled up, mostly with Navajo Indians, as this is their land. It was delicious, divine, as remembered. We cleaned our plates with much satisfaction. We also enjoyed the reading matter provided - "How to cope when you are surrounded by idiots - or if you are one. " Sample true/false question: cats like to relax in a gunny sack while floating in the canal." I cracked up over that one. I'll spare you more.

We drove on, past the Elephant's Feet

and stopped in Tuba City (Tony Hillerman country) at Van's Trading Post
to get refreshments and change drivers. There was a small supermarket, a pawn shop (for real pawn, like silver and turquoise) and a trading post with Pendleton blankets and jewellery and so forth. To borrow from my daughter's idiom there was a whole rainbow wall of wool skeins.

I'm always on the lookout for wool, and this was not where I expected to find it. The wool itself came from Mitchell, Nebraska, and was either pure wool or a wool/mohair mix. $4.95 per skein. I bought four, (navy, bright blue, lilac and cream) and spent many a happy mile wondering what I will knit with it. Hats? An afghan? .

We bought a Tony Hillerman CD to listen to, and were slightly disappointed that extraneous descriptions of the countryside had been edited. That was what we were interested in, really, as we were there.

We stopped at another scenic spot with a mini-canyon, and ran the gauntlet of the bead shops. Michael reaches bead-point long before I do, but I am there now. There is just so much STUFF! We took some snaps, then headed on.

The Grand Canyon is high on the plateau, and the scenery changed to forest. We stopped at the Desert View point, with the stone Watchtower, and took some snaps,

looked around. Then decided that as we had no hotel booking we would press on and secure accommodation, then do what else time allowed. We went to Tusayan, at the south entrance to the Park, and got a room at the Holiday Inn Express. Feeling comfortable about having a room, we returned to Yavapai Point to take pictures of the canyon at sunset. My parking karma was good - there were a lot of people there. Kinda missed the sunset, but enjoyed looking and snapping. I am still coming to grips with my new digital SLR. There is a lot of new stuff to learn about it, and I am enjoying it.

Monument Valley

2008-10-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

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Nearly twenty years ago Michael spent a year in Utah. I met my mother and my sister (with her two boys) in San Antonio, and we did a road trip up through this whole area. We have many happy memories of (in no particular order) Mesa Verde, Pagosa Springs, Carlsbad Caverns, Taos, and Kayenta, just outside Monument Valley. We drove past Monument Valley, and stayed in Kayenta nearby. In that town was possibly the best Mexican food I've ever eaten. We ate dinner there, and breakfast the next morning. Back then, in 1990, we pressed on to Logan, Utah. Michael and I got married there. I suggested then a trip to Monument Valley, but there wasn't the time or inclination. This is that trip.

We woke to a cold morning, and this is the view from our room.

Breakfast was leftover baked potato with a salad of corn, black beans, green chile and red peppers. Mmmm. We had booked a tour which started at 9, so off we went. Up and down very rough dirt roads, it was simply sensational. Again, the pictures speak for themselves, I can't add too much commentary.

I learned from my trip to Egypt in 2000 that you really need to have people in photographs in order to show the scale. Here is an example:

Moab and Arches National Park

2008-10-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

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Breakfast was the all-you-can eat American breakfast at the Chinese restaurant in Moab. Then we retraced our steps to the Arches National Park, and drove around going ooh and aah. Drove to the end of it, then walked for a while. We saw many of the eponymous arches and it was just awe-inspiring. I think I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

It took the afternoon to drive to Monument Valley, where we arrived at dusk. Magical views. I couldn't resist stopping every so often for pictures. Why resist? Isn't this why we are here?

We are staying at Goulding's, where John Wayne used to stay. Just glorious. Our room has a fabulous view:

Dinner was at the restaurant here. The mini Navajo frybread appetizer was anything but mini. The mains were huge. We took the leftovers home and they were both breakfast and lunch the next day. Six meals for the price of two!

Greeley Colorado to Moab Utah

2008-10-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

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A 6 am wakeup call got us going early. A sticky icky cinnamon bun and a hard boiled egg for me and cheesy omelet with sausage patty for Michael.

We were at the Greeley Museum at its opening time of 8.30. A cold and very foggy morning, and the air redolent with cow. The museum is a lovely old building, and there was plenty of stuff on the Union Colonists. Greeley himself only visited once, after lending his name to the place.

Nathan Meeker, it turned out, was killed by the Indians (who he was teaching to farm instead of hunt), when he ploughed their favourite horse-racing field. Two of his womenfold were held captive by the Indians for 23 days. Seems his idea of utopia was not the same as that of the Indians. There was a lot of information in the museum on sugar-beet farming, and also on irrigation. That must have been a real priority in this arid landscape.

Once done with the museum we set forth.

What a fabulous drive, through such amazing scenery. From the Colorado high country through Denver, through the mountains and down to the spectacular scenery of Utah. We are staying only one night at Moab, because we are on our way to Monument Valley, to a booking at Goulding's for two nights. That couldn't be changed, and was on our must-do list. If it was good enough for John Wayne, it is good enough for us.

Our breakfast kept us going until a quick stop at Georgetown for an apple, a Pepsi, a Snickers bar, and some dried fruit. Michael had similar, with two Butterfingers instead of the Snickers.

Moab is definitely a tourist town. One of the things on my list of possible purchases was a fancy belt. The cheapest I've seen was $1800, and the most expensive over three thousand! Um, maybe not this time.

We just ate Mexican for dinner. I make better tamales, but I don't do them very often as they are very labour intensive. Same for chile rellenos. Yum. We are very happy now.

We are staying at a Ramada, which doesn't appear to offer free wifi. However the list of networks tells me that the Gonzo Hotel has an unsecured network, so that's what I am using.

And now time for some photos. Such varied and glorious scenery. The high mountain passes had snow, and we drove through a few flurries. Frosted fir trees, golden aspens, the sparkling Colorado River. Some of the time Michael was driving, so I took the pics. Sometimes I was driving, so begged Michael to use my camera to take some. "Twirl the lens off macro to infinity." "Turn the polarizing circular filter so the little white notch is at the top, so you get blue sky." "Look through the viewfinder, it doesn't have a screen for taking pictures." "Turn the lens so you frame the picture." Etc. My two rules for taking good pictures are 1) have your camera with you, and 2) take a lot of pictures. Im adding a third - 3) look through the viewfinder.

See if you can tell whose photos are whose....

New 'prize'technology

2008-10-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

Up at 6 this morning to go to Moab, and as we check out we receive a flimsy plastic card with a strange window in it. The instructions on the card tell us to go to a website and hold this window up against the screen to reveal a secret code to enter for prizes. I try this on Baby (our little white EeePC). What comes up on the screen is a blue box against which to hold the card, but I can't get the code right - I get an error. I took it to the hotel lobby to view in their monitor, and still can't get it right. Am I colourblind? Is it too hard to read, like some of those online verification codes? Do we really WANT 25,000 Holidy Inn points?

Our first stop this morning is the Greeley Museum to see what they have on the Union Colony, then into the car for a long road trip. We are aiming for Moab today, which is well on the way to our booking at Gouldings in Monument Valley.

Hastings, Nebraska, to Greeley, Colorado

2008-10-20T18:28:00.000-07:00

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A leisurely start with coffee, fruit for breakfast, bed making, packing, and pleasant conversation. It is a long way to come for a short visit, but it is good to see Barbara.

We set off from Hastings, with Michael driving. Remember how Michael was crook? My turn. A stop off at a truck stop. Free wifi is everywhere - truckstops, OfficeMax, Walmart, Borders, hotels.

I drove, but had to pull over on the highway somewhere in Colorado. Bringing together the bottle of Sprite, the high wind, and the smell of the cattle yard made for a very memorable experience. Michael took over the driving again while I felt very fragile. It was a long drive, and we enjoyed Garrison Keilor narrating one of his books along the way. It formed a distraction!

From UtopiaUSA2008

We drove into Greeley around 5 pm, and checked into a Holiday Inn Express. I crawled into bed and stayed there until 8 am.

Arose today feeling relatively normal, but had minimal breakfast and no coffee for me. Did a bit of research on the town. We are here because the town was a utopian community. Temperance had something to do with it, but more because of its foundation as the Union Colony, which as Wikipedia says was an experimental utopian community of high moral standards. We sought the museum (closed, because it is Monday) and the Meeker House (closed, because it is the wrong season), and generally drove around. We were disappointed, and will do the museum before we leave tomorrow. It seems most visitors to these parts are the active kind. All the hotel brochures are to do with hiking and white-water rafting and horse-riding. None of that is us. Although I've done my share of those things in the past.

We decided to hit the malls. Specifically Borders, where Michael was looking for local history, and I bought a knitting book. Then to Petsmart for a couple of dog toys for you-know-who, and to Office Max for a storage wallet for SD and compact flash cards. A quick lunch of soup for me and pizza for Michael.

The malls are all showing signs of the ailing economy. Many shops boarded up, "available", for lease. Things looking dingy. The town itself is lovely, with beautiful autumn foliage.

From UtopiaUSA2008

Just so you know I am on the job, there are manhole covers too:

As advised by my daughter, I used Ravelry to find a local wool shop, but alas when we went to the address it was no longer there. I think it is a sign of the times.

The hotel has a pool and spa, and as we had the afternoon free I availed myself. It was great to soak in hot water. Driving for long periods leaves one stiff, and the soaking was good. We have much more driving to do.

Speaking of which, I suggested we walk to a nearby restaurant (my appetite is back, thank goodness!). Michael snorted with derision at the thought of walking anywhere here, so we drove the 500 metres to the restaurant. Food was good - grilled chicken with apricot sauce, asparagus, broccoli and tomatoes. No cheese, no oil, nothing deep fried. Excellent.

We will have an early start tomorrow, aiming for Moab.

Omaha to Hastings to Omaha to Hastings

2008-10-20T15:02:00.000-07:00

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There isn't much worse than going to bed too early still jet lagged, and waking up at 1.30 am to the very clear memory of leaving one of your very favourite items of clothing hanging in the closet in the last motel you stayed at. My black velvet jacket with the pink lining. At that time of night I went through all possible variations on leaving it there or retrieving it. Morning finally came and I called the motel to see if it was indeed there. It was. Michael the Wonderful immediately suggested driving back to get it. Not a cross word. It is a long drive.

Barbara was happy to go along for the outing, and wanted us to take her car for the journey, so we did. This was an all day thing, I fear. We know that road pretty well now, and I took quite a few car pictures. This is me outside the motel flashing the pink lining of the jacket.

From UtopiaUSA2008

Another couple of car pics:

I love that square cloud formation.

We got home just in time to go out again. Dinner with some family friends, who are very good to Barbara. I think we are going to avoid church on Sunday, which is a relief.

Hastings (the ancestral home) is a mobile phone black spot, and there is no easy wi-fi, so communications has been limited. It is odd to spend so long without a keyboard. Good for me, no doubt. I enjoyed looking at Barbara's knitting magazines from the seventies and eighties. Some of the patterns deserve a spot in Stitchy McYarnpants's Museum of Kitschy Stitches.

The journey begins

2008-10-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

with a busy morning getting everything done, packed. Popped in on Mum to say farewell, and cuddled the Pug. Ordered a taxi from the website, it arrived promptly. To the airport, then the airport lounge. I''d checked in online, and asked at the checkin counter whether it made any difference to do that. No, she said. So I wondered why I had bothered.

14 hours later I arrived at SF Airport. Having had dry-finger-no-fingerprints twice now at Honolulu, I was prepared with handcream. Ooops! There is a new system where the dryer the better. Fingerprints too dark, had to go to the secondary customs area where I was checked out. There are no winners in this game.

Despite being sent to the domestic terminal I did make my way back to International where my old workmate and friend Michael was waiting for me. He whisked me off to their condo where I was ushered into the shower (bliss!) and we had a lovely salad and a long chat. It seemed like only yesterday I had seen him, but it was probably 1986. It was great to meet Ed, and the time was much too short. I hope to see them when they come to Australia next.

Refreshed, got back on the plane to go to Denver (about 3 hours, I think) then a half hour change at Denver to Omaha, another hour or so. Getting pretty weary, this is a long trip and I usually break this kind of cross country flying with a night in LA or SF. Michael was in Omaha to meet me, although he was pretty fragile having picked up some kind of bug. Kept us both awake most of the night, but at least I was lying flat! I drove down to Hastings the next day and was glad to see Michael's mother looking so well. Michael still really crook, so I cooked for Barbara and I. We'd stopped at WalMart coming into Hastings to stock up. Barbara doesn't cook at all, and I wanted some fruit and veg. Man, Walmart is ENORMOUS! Saw some fresh tomatillos so bought them, made a creamy tomatillo chicken dish for dinner.

The countryside is very autumnal, with golden cornfields at the end of the harvest, leaves turning. It is a nice time of year. There are some Halloween decorations about the place, but not as noticeable as last time we were here.

Off off and away

2008-10-15T19:03:00.001-07:00

I'm back from two days in Brisbane, and off this afternoon to the US. Feel like my feet aren't touching the ground.

We've eaten enough Michael's-Away food (lamb chops, pork spare ribs, chicken livers, etc)

First stop San Francisco, where I will catch up with a friend from days of yore (thank you, Plaxo, for the reunion), then to Denver, then to Omaha. I will be a weary one!

The housesitter is ensconced, the dog walker is engaged, and all is well enough organised. Off we go.

Michael's-away meals 1

2008-10-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

Michael is in the US for a month, and I will be following in two weeks. That means Michael's-away food for my mother and I for two weeks.

Last night was chicken-livers with polenta. The chicken livers were dusted in rice flour (for the gluten-intolerant member of the family), then pan fried, with a final splash of balsamic vinegar over them. I'd read that this is a nice flavour, and it was. The soft polenta was delicious and has been refrigerated so that tonight it can be sliced and grilled.

The Wedding

2008-09-08T00:37:00.000-07:00

Eighteen months ago my daughter announced her engagement. She's blogged about it, so you can read some of the preparations (especially the knitting) for it here. I've enjoyed all the leadup to it, especially finding and buying the dress. According to Julie you know when you have the right dress when your mother bursts into tears. There were moments like that all along.

The wedding was on Saturday. It was a dismal day, cold and rainy, but nothing dampened the joy and love.

I went to her house in the morning for the 'fooofffing'. She had organised a hair and makeup person to come to her house to prepare us for the Big Day. The Bridesmaid was there, and we had such fun. Melony, the artiste, did a terrific job. We ate a healthy lunch, Julie knitted to keep calm while Bridesmaid and I were dollied up. The flowers arrived on time. I took lots of photos during the preparations.

The Bridesmaid's Husband was the Chauffeur and he shepherded us to the car, and we drove to Curzon Hall, where the wedding was held. It was to have been in the garden, but the weather precluded that, so it was on a beautiful verandah. There was a harpist accompanying. Curzon Hall is tremendously professional. The reception was in a lovely room inside from the verandah.

Everything was lovely. The Bride and Groom glowed, the Best Man looked terrific, the food, the music, the flowers, everything. What a charming occasion.

Of course I had my camera and took lots of photos. They are in the album linked at the side, and here are a couple of the best ones:

From Wedding

Mango Mourning

2008-08-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

We are in deep mourning today as our mango tree is being removed. As I sit typing this I hear the sound of the chainsaw. Over the last few years it has been ailing. We have had the Tree Doctor in several times.

On 15th January, 2003 the notes say "the tree is showing marked signs of decline. A secondary infestation of ambrosia beetle exists."

On 7th April, 2006 the notes were "leaf colour is poor with interveinal clorosis throughout the canopy."

Nothing lasts forever, and the tree is probably sixty years old. It now looks terrible and it is time to bite the bullet.

Over the years it has given us enormous pleasure. It gave shade, and it gave fruit. The fruit were enormous - sometimes over a kilo each. They were sweet, delicious, and a blessing. To harvest one's own mangoes in inner city Sydney was an amazing thing.

Farewell, tree. We loved you.

I've got a new toy

2008-08-17T15:59:00.000-07:00

And I am truly besotted. It is an Asus eee PC 901 netbook.

For years I have sought connectivity on the road. I've trundled around a Texas Instruments Silent 700 with acoustic coupler.

No screen, a roll of thermal paper, and two sockets to plug your phone into. I used it for my first email on the road. Email then was done 256 characters at a time, from a DOS command prompt, and printed on the thermal paper. This must have been 1979-80.

There were the years of trying to find (and often unscrew) telephone connections in hotel rooms, near a powerpoint. There were the years of going through switchboards to try and call interstate numbers for packet switched networks. Those were the days before free calls or 1800 numbers, and switchboards often had bans on interstate calls.

I've lumped around heavy laptops and experimented with all kinds of different ways of staying connected. I've pointed my infrared mobile phone to my old Palm Pilot (yes, it worked) and jumped through all kinds of hoops just to get online.

Things are so much easier. I now have gmail on my mobile phone with no problems at all. Even in a hotel room in Athens, without having made any prior arrangements, I could just click and receive my mail.

One of the big changes in my computing over the last year or so is that I have moved just about everything out into the 'cloud.' Because I travel a lot, and have a laptop and desktop, I got sick of making sure all my files were on both computers, that Outlook had copies of all my email, that I had a memory stick with the appropriate files on it. No more. I have moved everything to gmail. I use Google docs for the files that need transferring. Plaxo and gmail run my contacts. I use Facebook and various wikis and google groups. All I need is connectivity, I don't need huge processing power.

I thought about an IPhone, what with all the hype, but that really isn't what I needed. My Nokia 6230 does a lot of good stuff for me and I saw no need to replace it. I have an iPod already and it works well.

When Michael showed me an article in the SMH on netbooks, I was hooked. It took maybe two weeks for me to make up my mind, rush out and buy one. I did a bit of research, and it came to a decision between the Acer Aspire One, and the Asus eee. My local computer shop has been very good to me so I like to give them my business. They recommended the eee, so I went ahead.

I picked it up on Saturday and spent the weekend playing with it. It was a joy.

I turned it on, it booted up with no problems. I asked it to connect to my wireless network at home - no problem. I was downloading Firefox within minutes. Then I thought I'd see about a bluetooth connection with my phone, so I activated the bluetooth connections on both machines, downloaded the Nokia PC Suite, and synched my phone. I'll configure it to work with my phone as a dialup modem too, just to be on the safe side.

I wondered about connecting it to our small digital camera - no worries. Just took the SD card out of the camera and plugged it into the socket on the eee. Up popped all the photos. Today I'll see how it goes with the bigger CF card from my Canon 30D SLR. I'll just plug the cable into one of the USB slots.

Skype? No problem, built in webcam and microphone.

I am overwhelmed with how easy all this was, compared with the struggles I have had in years past. Getting some of that functionality to work in the past has taken days of frustration.

Now Michael wants one. Who can blame him?

Being organised

2008-07-20T18:04:00.000-07:00

Sunday is my washing day.

In this Sunday's Sunday Life (SunHerald) was an ad for ANZ which caught my eye. It features a clothesline, with the tag line "Organised savings options for organised people."

This clothesline is the one of my dreams. There are four parallel lines, with the washing arranged in PERFECT order.

From left to right are blue jeans with red pegs, then pink shirts with green pegs, purple/blue shades of teeshirts with yellow pegs, singlets in shades of green with white pegs, and then striped socks with blue pegs.

From the back line to the front they are arranged from largest to smallest.

Not that I am obsessive about hanging washing out on the line, of course. Not that I have to have matching pegs or anything. Or that socks MUST be hung in pairs by one side of the cuff only, not by the toe.

Whoever did this ad has my enormous respect. I wish I could find a picture of it to show you.

Parking in Newtown? No problem

2008-06-28T17:53:00.001-07:00

We live very close to King Street, Newtown. Eat Street. On Saturday nights parking is very difficult around us. The people across the road are having work done on their two-storey wall, and a cherry-picker was parked overnight. Did that stop someone parking? Not one bit. I saw the car parked underneath it when I went out for the 9.30 pm walk with the dog, and decided to take a picture. Just as I returned with the camera, the car's owners arrived. "How cool is that parking spot" said I. They agreed, so I snapped the pic.

This morning when the workmen arrived, I printed out a picture as proof. Not something they would see every day.

Rail: to revile or scold in harsh, insolent, or abusive language

2008-06-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

I've had it up to HERE with NSW's CityRail, so I have come here to rail against it. So that's where that word comes from!

I've tried, really, I have tried, to make it work. But there is just no effort from the other side.

I work for Monash University, in Melbourne, and live in Sydney. This means many early morning starts and evening returns from the airport. Sometimes I persuade my better half to take me there in the mornings, but sometimes I creep out before dawn's early light to get myself there. A train seems a good idea because I live two minutes' walk from the station, the service is usually quick in the mornings, and because my inner greenie wants to support rail transport and support the airport service. I think it is generally a Good Thing, even though we are close enough to the airport for it not to make much difference in cost.

But I've had enough, I can't try any more.

Episode 1: I get there at 5.30 am for a scheduled train, nobody to buy tickets from. I have a $50 note (for a $20+ return fare) and there is no change in the machine. I have no alternative but to hail a cab.

Episode 2: I am going to Melbourne for the day. I have a tight connection on the way back to get to a choir performance at the Opera House, so I want to save time. At Newtown station I cannot buy a return ticket Newtown/Airport/Circular Quay. No way. A return won't work. Newtown Station cannot sell me a Domestic/Circular Quay single. There is no alternative but to spend precious minutes at the airport struggling with baggage and running for time, getting the money to feed into a machine or to wait in the inevitable slow line.

Episode 3: I go to Melbourne Wednesday morning, and return Thursday evening. I like to be organised, and I make a commitment to travelling by train. It seems like The Right Thing. So I bought a return ticket. Put the ticket in my purse, and travel ensues. On my return, I get the ticket out, put it into the machine, which rejects it. The attendant points out the message on the ticket that it is valid DAY OF PURCHASE only! Naturally, you don't see this message (if at all) until AFTER you have purchased the ticket. I ask for my money back. No go. I get a form to fill out to request the return of my $10.10. Why on earth is my ticket invalid the very next day? I will fill in the form, and I will make my point.

Let's not talk about the sheer inconvenience of having to travel back to Central, then change platforms with my baggage. Wait for trains at Central outside in the cold, with my baggage. Deal with the steps at Newtown Station (more than forty steps, no lift, with my baggage).

So I try to support public transport, but every time I try it seems they throw ball bearings under my feet.

I'm pretty cranky about it!

A Scold's Bridle?

2008-06-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

I can't help thinking there is more than a touch of sexism in the Belinda Neal/John della Bosca affair. I don't know the woman, and she doesn't sound like someone I really want to know, and that is totally irrelevant. This this whole affair has been blown into huge proportions. Would it have happened if it had just been one of the blokes who threw a tanty at having to move tables? Is Belinda the only one to trade insults in Parliament? I reckon that she's copping a whole heap because she is a woman playing politics to a man's rules. She's damned if she doesn't. And it looks awfully like she's damned if she does.

The garden progresses

2008-06-11T21:24:00.001-07:00

Majic adores the goings on in the back yard. He adores the builders, especially Rick, who loves him in return. I fear that Majic might be abducted one day!

I think Majic was cut out to be a Builder's Pug, or a Plumber's Pug. He just loves being out there and in amongst it all. Rick even indulged Majic's desire to drive the wheelbarrow.

Majic had a bit of a problem finding the steering wheel, though.

While The Blokes are generally happy to have him around, we did have to draw the line when he went wading in the wet concrete. The footings were not long poured when Majic decided he didn't need to use the wooden plank. After all, an urban Pug knows about footpaths! Alas, he didn't realise it hadn't set.

He was quickly whisked to the bathtub.

Things are going along beautifully out the back. The curved 'seating wall' is now in place, and I can see we are going to have a lot more room now that all the perimeter garden is gone. It is kind of sad to see some of it go, but truly, I don't need to have a big garden to weed. The corner left will be ample.

Carmina with oomph

2008-06-08T21:10:00.000-07:00

As part of the Festival Chorus I'd sung in Carmina Burana in August 2007. We did some ten weeks of rehearsal for it, picking apart the text and music intimately, learning the text off by heart. What a blast it was, a tremendous experience.

When it was announced that the Chorus Oz performance for 2008 was also going to be Carmina, many of the Festival Chorus thought to give it a miss. When you get to the end of all that rehearsal and the performances, you almost never want to hear it again.

I'd often wondered what it would be like to sing tenor (being an alto) and I expressed this at some stage. A fellow alto said that if I registered as tenor for Chorus Oz, she would too. So we did!

We spent this last weekend rehearsing and performing it. There are lots of similarities between the alto and tenor parts, but there was plenty of new stuff to keep us interested and on our toes. There are some songs which are only for the men, including a fabulous (and difficult) drinking song.

It was a very different experience. How delightfully amusing it was to be treated as the pampered divas by Brett Weymark, our conductor. Altos are the workhorses, but tenors are temperamental artistes. He referred often to the men, and men-esses. Did he really mean menaces? Out of a choir of over eight hundred there might have been 8 women tenors. I gather there were about 270 male voices, including the basses. There were heaps of altos, and about two boxes fewer sopranos. Carmina is a piece where the men have a real starring role so it was a good one to be my debut.

Sitting on the right hand side of the stage gives one a different view of the orchestra and conductor, and it is very close to the sopranos, so the sound balance is very different. Singing those blokey songs in full volume chest voice takes a lot more energy than the pretty alto part in head voice. I was really tired at the end of it and my voice felt very strained. There seemed to be a lot of testosterone in the atmosphere around me!

I don't think I'll sing tenor again. It was interesting, and it was certainly fun to belt out those booming low notes, but I think I like being a girl and singing girl parts. I missed the musicality somehow, of the lovely alto lines. It will be good to get deep into the Beethoven program that is coming up - rehearsals start in a few weeks.

Backyard Blitz

2008-05-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

It is time we did something about our back yard. We were going to do it a while ago, but then the underpinning of the house had to be done and our bank balance took a beating. We have recovered sufficiently now to address the garden.

We had a design and quote some years ago, and resurrected it. According to the King Street Conservatory, who did the quote, this is the longest sleeping quote they have ever had.

I've just let everything go in the garden. Self-sown compost tomatoes have taken over, grass and weeds have run riot. Stuff has sprung up between the paving bricks, it is all an utter miserable mess. The before photos in the album show how terrible it is.

2008Garden

Blokes and a skip arrived this morning, so at last the process begins. Steve and Rick are out the back and down the side of the house. Majic is dying to be a Builder's Pug (he adores tradesmen, and a while ago made a bid to be a Plumber's Pug) and he is great at getting underfoot and making a pest of himself. Here he is keeping an eye on Steve:

While the cat's away

2008-05-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

My mother has gone off to the US, by herself, to visit her twin brother and her older sister. She wanted to celebrate her 86th birthday with her twin brother, and to visit her sister, aged 93. Those are pretty good genes I have inherited, I reckon.

Mum lives only a few doors away from us, and we eat dinner together most nights. Mum is gluten and lactose intolerant, so there are quite a few things that are verboten for us. We don't mind that, there are plenty of alternatives, but now there is terrible freedom! We can eat wheat and milk! We made a list of things to eat while she is gone. Here it is:

Wonton wrappers - little prawn dumplings coming up
Burgers, cooked on toasty bread bases
Pizza
Fettucine and spaghetti
Floured and crumbed fish
Veal schnitzel, floured with tarragon, with a lemon sauce (somehow no other flour works as well)
Cous cous, as itself, or as a crumb coating for fish or meat
Filo pastry parcels
Puff pastry

Hmmm, how is this going to affect The Diet, I wonder?

Bronte to Bondi

2008-05-25T01:28:00.000-07:00

I've wanted to do the Bronte to Bondi walk for ages. Summer isn't the time to do it - parking is too hard, and it would be too hot. I definitely didn't want to go when Sculpture by the Sea was on - far too crowded. So I suggested to Lien that we do it this weekend. She agreed.

The plan was to park at Bronte, walk to Bondi, eat, and walk back. And that is exactly what we did. The weather was pretty gloomy when we started out, but by the time we got walking it had cleared up and was wonderful. There were still people about, but not too many.

I took my camera, of course, and captured lots of images. I LOVE having a digital camera, one can be so profligate with images. Snap snap snap click click click click click. I am not too good at deleting them, but adore taking them.

The water, the waves, it all looked so splendid and sparkling in the sunshine. I wished I could be out there on a board too!

The rock formations are wonderful. They look alive, almost. This one reminded me very much of Gaudi's architecture. We watched a movie about Gaudi while we were in Hawaii, so his work is much in my mind.

The colours in the sandstone are so varied. From grey and black and white, through to all the bright yellows and oranges and reds.

Crumbed whiting and a serve of chips between us, eaten at Bondi Beach, tasted pretty darned good. We walked quickly back to Bronte to work off the calories.

Our next venture is going to be the Spit Bridge to Manly walk. I've done that one before, but it was a long time ago, and I'm ready to do it again.

Hat leash

2008-05-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

When we were at the top of the Aloha Tower we espied two Japanese wearing hats. More than that, they were wearing hat leashes. Theirs were pretty fancy - hers was a jewelled owl in gold, with a gold chain. We were immediately jealous and went into the hat shop in the shopping centre to see whether they had any. No such luck, alas.

Now we are home I have plans for a beaded tatted crocheted netted embroidered version, but until then two bulldog clips and a shoelace make a nifty substitute. Here I am demonstrating it with the hat Mum made out of Esperance raffia.

Classy?

A pattern to speak of

2008-05-12T01:27:00.000-07:00

I spent a goodly amount of time on my holiday working through filet netting. There was one stitch I needed to know more about (point d'esprit) so I finished it when I got home, having consulted my trusty copy of Therese de Dillmont's Bible.

Here it is - my first proper piece of netting, just cut from the mesh. It has been buttonholed around the edge, and you can still see the little bits of the mesh poking out the ends. It has to be washed, and it has to shrink. Then it will all fluff up and the linen stitch will compress, and it will look better. It is SUCH fun to do! I love it. There will be more of this, I can assure you.

Did you know that the Hawaiian flag includes the Union Jack? This piece is a kind of union jack design, so it is appropriate.

Eating and dieting

2008-05-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

I had it set in my mind that I was going to wear my bikini on my birthday. That meant dieting. It was time I lost some weight, and Julie's wedding was another motivating force. So I lost ten kilos over the last five months. I also didn't care too much about dieting while on holiday!

Some of my favourite foods in Honolulu are here:

Mmmmm, taro chips, Azuki (red bean) ice cream, twice a day. Or creme brulee ice cream. Mmmm, haupia - a kind of solid sweet coconut jelly. Love it.

Mmmm, lychee yoghurt! Gingerade - packed a real wallop. Guava nectar - I just love that gritty texture it has.

So it was with some trepidation that I stood on the scales when I got back. Mentally I'd prepared to have gained 3 kgs, worst case. After all, ice cream and chips on a regular basis is hardly dieting.

Morning, on the scales, eyes crunched closed, hands clenched........... eyes peeking a crack........ and I don't believe what I see. I've lost nearly a kilo! Off the scales, back on to check whether I am seeing things. Yup - definitely lost a kilo.

Must be the regular ice cream.

Or maybe it was 40 minutes a day of serious swimming. What do you think?

All is well

2008-05-12T00:26:00.000-07:00

The computer has returned unscathed. The jolt from The Mighty Pug resulted in a card being jarred out of its slot, and the hard disk had to be checked. The card is back, the computer is fine, the dog hasn't a worry in the world.

I wasn't too worried either, but there were a few photos that had been downloaded but not yet backed up. Most of them had, but not all. This one was among them.

I love my new digital camera. I love playing with it and seeing instant results, and being able to post them on my blog. This was the best of my Moon Shots from the Plane. It turned out pretty well, I thought.

The Pug is in my Bad Books

2008-05-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

OK, I confess. I was watching funny pug videos on Youtube. It was the Wonder Pugs video and I was just laughing like crazy when Crazy Pug went into action. He really doesn't like hearing things on the computer, it sends him berserker than usual. He leapt onto the computer box, which was sitting on its side, and pushed it over with a mighty thump.

The video stopped, went jerky. The screen went blue stripey shaky. I decided to reboot. It won't.

Bloody pug. Bloody computers. Thank heavens for the laptop.

Women who run with the Pugs

2008-05-05T19:46:00.001-07:00

While I've been lolling around on the sands of Waikiki, Majic has been getting fitter and fitter. I arranged for his walker to come every day instead of once a week while we were away, just so I know he's been out there getting his exercise. Iain and Renee from Paws to Play take him out for runs and romps for an hour every day.

Now I hear that my housesitter has been taking him out for a RUN every evening! Does that mean that I will have to run to keep up with him when I get home? He must be the fittest Pug in all Pugdom. That is a pretty scary prospect. Women who run with the Pugs indeed.

The Bobbsey twins

2008-05-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

It had to happen.

As one walks around Waikiki one often sees couples dressed alike. Honeymooners, old couples, mums and daughters, wearing identical floral numbers.

Yesterday Michael and I, by sheer accident, got dressed in twinnie style. No florals for us though. White pants, dark blue tops. We had to immortalise this moment, so here we are:

Oh, and one more spam shot - this was a work of art for sale - Spambiance. I shall say no more about Spam.

Spam - a LOT of spam!

2008-05-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the 6th annual Waikiki SpamJam. According to the Lonely Planet's Honolulu guide, Hawaii consumes three times the amount of Spam as any other US state. That amounts to nearly eleven thousand cans of it every day. The most visible daily consumption is the spam sushi - a block of rice with fried Spam on top, with a wrapping of nori. They sell like hot cakes.

Kalakaua Street was closed off from 4 pm to 10 pm, and there were lots of festivities. Bands, dancers, food stalls, and Spam himself wandering the street looking cute. We had already decided that takeaway was going to be the order of the day for dinner, so our choices were limitless. Sort of....

Spam anyone?

We eschewed (not chewed..) any form of Spam in favour of the Hawaiian steak and shrimp.

It was truly excellent.

Craft addiction

2008-05-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

Readers will know that I am addicted to many kinds of craft. Today I will share with you the booty I brought with me, had sent here, or bought here. Judge for yourself whether my addiction is out of control. Here it is, all collected together.

First, I brought with me my tatting, the perennial tatting. This is the almost-finished second placemat which might one day become four placemats which may one day get joined into one big tablecloth. I like tatting for many reasons. It is small and portable, it goes on planes because it uses a little plastic shuttle, not needles or hooks. You don't need to see much to do it - it can be done in relatively dim lighting. And once you know the pattern (and I know this one very well now), it is mindless and soothing.

I also brought the filet lace kit my sister (bless her soul) gave me for my birthday. What you see on the stretcher frame now is my next doily, with a pattern this time. You also see the pattern I am using. Making the pattern is a fascinating combination of dotting in the squares you want to fill, then tracing a single continuous line around them all. Then you follow that with your (long ball-pointed) needle and thread.

On a trip up to the Lyon Aboretum with Julie and Martin we stopped for lunch at Kailua. There was a bead shop, and there was a 50% off sale on Swarovski crystals. I bought their stock of purple velvet small bicones, which will become a beaded rose with baby's breath to form Martin's buttonhole for The Wedding. I have made two experiments, and we think these crystals will be perfect. We hope so!

Before I left Sydney, I placed an order with Beadwrangler for two beadspinners - a small one for seed beads and a larger one. Fill the bowl of these twirly devices with beads, stick a wire or needle and thread in at a certain angle, spin... and the beads just climb onto the wire or needle. As one who enjoys knitting, tatting and crochet with beads, and making beaded flowers, these spinners are going to save me hours of hand-stringing time. It is so boring, and I hope these are going to work. Included was a free pack of amethyst coloured seed beads, and a wooden spool for the strung yarn or whatever.

There was a trip to the Temple of Craft in Honolulu, Flora Dec. I love this place. It is jammed with goodies - eyelash yarn to make leis with, craft wire, stickers, paper punches, artificial flowers, and so much more. Beads, glitter, you name it. Michael was amazed at the amount of stuff. I reckon half or more of Hawaiian craft souvenirs start here. It is a great place to buy non-flower leis, they are beautiful and reasonable. I might have to make another expedition there, as I didn't even dare peek into the huge warehouse section.

I was on a search for coloured craft wire, with which to make French beaded flowers. In particuar, the rose for Julie's Boy's buttonhole at the wedding. In general, flowers to grace the house or become gifts for people. They are fun to make. I found the coloured wire, and you see it here. Green stem wire, green wire for leaves, purple wire for flowers, and a variety pack for whatever I think to do with it. I found florist's tape (for binding the stems). I couldn't resist a spool of lilac silk rattail, for maybe making a crocheted lei out of the dark red eyelash yarn I bought on the last trip (with instructions), or for Chinese Knotting. (although that's hard to do and I haven't mastered it by any stretch of the imagination.)

Here's the Flora Dec haul:

Julie the Knitter was most willing to accompany me on a visit to Isle Knits. This is a tiny shop on the 14th floor of an office building in downtown Honolulu. A treasure trove. I was on the hunt for tiny circular needles for bead knitting. Knitting beads on rayon thread on metal double-pointed needles is an exercise in slippery frustrating. Perhaps the technique of two circulars will serve me better. Did she have any OOO circulars? Yes. She even had 0000 circulars. I took two for the bead knitting. My sister also sent me a book on using two circulars for sock knitting, so I bought two of the appropriate size for that purpose. And while I was there, there was this lovely silk alpaca that Julie said would be enough to make a Swallowtail shawl with, so the appropriate amount leapt into my shopping bag.

Here is the haul from Isle Knits:

The common thread running through most of my crafts, I realise, is exactly that - a single continuous thread (or wire, in the case of the beaded flowers.) I love what you can do with a thread. That fascination extends to string games too, which I will blog about one day.

You can never be bored if you have a thread.

A triple dipped two-togs day

2008-04-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

The youngsters were leaving today, so we got up early to take them to the airport. Very early - 5.30. We were ready way before they were!

After we dropped them off we had plans for the rest of the day. I had an agenda. At the luau we sat next to a young couple who said that Shark's Cove on the north shore was better than Hanauma Bay. I've been to Hanauma Bay twice before, so I pricked up my ears. We went.

We drove up the centre of the island, past the Dole Plantaion, past Hali'ewa. It was still early, and there was almost nobody there. A beautiful spot:

with a big tidal pool. I clambered over the rocks and took this picture of a rock rose.

Was it safe to swim there? It looked OK to me but you never know about currents, rips, and other nasties. There were no lifeguards and Michael wasn't about to rescue me if I got into trouble. But, I was there to snorkel, so I snorkeled.

Here's proof:

I wore my Teva sandals in case of coral, and they do add a certain buoyancy. It was just glorious. Almost immediately I saw a sea turtle chomping on a rocky coral outcrop. He stopped, hung suspended in the clear water and we gazed at each other for a while, before we went our separate ways. How lucky was that? This isn't my picture, and I only saw one turtle, but this is pretty much what I saw.

There were heaps of fish, and it was terrific. I felt a bit nervous as I went out quite a long way, so I had a bit of a swim back and hugged the rocks on the way back. Apparently there are lots of underwater caves, but I was not investigating those!

On the swim back in I saw a facemask wedged on the bottom. Always the tidy one, I picked it up and brought it back to shore with me. In the picture I am carrying one and wearing one. What will I do with it? Anyone want it? It is a really good one.

After this dip we went up to Kuilima Cove. I dipped there too. It was very shallow, there was lots of nice coral, and there were a lot of fish. The most interesting thing I saw were these long tangled strands of white stuff that I think were alive. Not sure though!

We came home after a coffee and cake at Starbucks, and were weary. Had lunch. Then the water called me again and I went for a long swim at Fort de Russy beach, my regular. As I emerged from the water, a woman asked me if I had seen anything. "Yes, lots of fish," I said. "How far out do you have to go to see any?" she asked. "About a foot," I indicated. She was surprised, but it is true. All you need to do is put your face in the water and there they are.

So a three-dip two-tog day. No bikini today, though.

Practice piece

2008-04-27T12:35:00.001-07:00

Netting is lots of fun. Quick, interesting, and a good result. At least I think it will be once I get going with some patterns.

This is my very first piece - a practice piece with no pattern to speak of. I started at the lower left corner, and there are mistakes - it is easy to pick where I went over instead of under and vice versa. By the time I got to the big square at top right the work was going pretty quickly.

This is on mesh size 3. My next attempt is going to be on mesh size 5 (smaller - the number refers to the number of meshes per inch.) Stay tuned.

Today was a retail therapy day. Michael and I walked to the Ward Centre where we got some more Illy coffee (blue, medium grind). Then back to the Ala Moana mall where we replaced the mystery tomatillos (the first two disppeared from the refrigerator) and a few other bits and pieces. A new cotton robe for me from the Japanese department store. A new vegetable steamer for the micowave. A Reyn Spooner shirt for Michael. A New York Times. That was the sum total. Alas I have been bitten by the Vinnie's bug and any item of clothing over $12 seems extortionate now. I blame my mother for that.

We were tired after our walk, so I went for a swim (in my bikini) and a sunbake (I know I am bad, but I love it) and a read. Finished Dora Damage's Journal and have started on a Hawaiian crimmie by Deborah Turrell Atkinson. So far, so good.

Tonight I am cooking in. Pork thin sliced with tomatillo jalapeno chili sauce, mashed potatoes, broccoli and asparagus.

Who needs a hair drier?

2008-04-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to a luau at the Royal Hawaiian, also known as the Pink Palace. I really wanted to see a show of some sort, and we didn't want to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center - it is run by Mormons. And besides, we went to the Pink Palace for Michael's birthday and it is now a Family Tradition.

It was great. I wore the feather necklace Michael bought me 18 years ago on our first visit here. We were given leis, as you see in the photo. As you see by my Little Dutch Girl hairstyle, I have not used the hair drier for some time and this is Just How it Is after a day's swimming.

The food was "authentic" - quite good, but one wouldn't want a regular diet of Hawaiian food. Poi is best left alone. Taro chips are excellent. Lomi lomi was a bit too salty. Pulled Pork is good. Desserts were indulgent.

The show was terrific, with hula girls and fiery dancing. A good time had by all.

I blame Therese de Dillmont

2008-04-24T19:33:00.000-07:00

When I was little I spent hours and hours poring over a copy of Therese de Dillmont's Encyclopedia of Needlework. It is (I still have it) a very small but fat book with gold on the edges of the paper, and glossy coloured illustrations of fantastic things. There is hardanger and tatting and netting and berlin woolwork and macrame and embroidery on white materials and darning and just plain mending. Plus knitting and crochet. The plain black and white illustrations showed lovely pairs of hands with strange implements making lace and embroideries of all kinds. I was fascinated, and loved looking at it. I taught myself how to tat from that book so the instructions MUST be good.

I blame Therese for my obsessions. Do I need another craft? I already knit, tat, crochet, cross-stitch, play with beads. I have tried macrame (in the seventies.) The chapter on netting always fascinated me. When I saw this website offering kits on filet lace making, I knew I had to try it. I asked my lovely sister for one of the kits for my birthday, and she sent it to me.

I brought it with me to Honolulu, as I thought I would have the time and focus to really get moving with it (while not going to luaus or snorkelling on the reef or lying in warm sand or looking into expensive shop windows at Ala Moana Mall).

I did. First I assembled the frame, then I thumbtacked the netting to it. Then I started to practice diagramming the patterns, and finally got going with the needle and thread. It is such fun! It is quick, and effective. The book says it shrinks a lot and that this is good, because the filled meshes all pack in and fill the space really well. There is going to be more of this. Just what I needed - another craft. A worthwhile day spent in Hawaii.

More on our luau adventure later.

2008-04-23T22:51:00.000-07:00

A vista from the Lyons Arboretum:

Some tree roots:

A flower from a very large Pride of Burma tree:

No fingerprintS - a life of crime could be mine

2008-04-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

It is true, I appear not to have any fingerprints. Last time I came to Hawaii, two years ago, they had great trouble fingerprinting me. This time, they failed entirely. Left index finger, left thumb, right index finger, dampen them all on the little pad, rub oily nose, nothing worked. I was taken off to a room in which there might have been eight people. More than I had expected! One woman struck up a conversation. She was Australian, but her partner lived here on Kauai, and she was trying to extend her residency. I am afraid I know rather more about her than I needed to. She filled me with dread, saying that the interviews took FOREVER and that I could be here for HOURS.

Just then, my name was called. I spoke to a woman behind the counter. Did I have any food with me? Was I travelling alone? No, my husband was with me. Where was he? Waiting for me with the bags, and waiting for daughter and her man. He is a US citizen, I said. Where does he live? With me, in Australia. Do you want to move to the US? No. No plans in the future? No. OK, off you go. Phew! I waved farewell to my chatty friend, and re-joined Michael who had wrestled with all the bags.

Julie and Martin awaited us with leis, which we donned. Found the car, drove to Kalia Street and checked in. Fortunately Chatty Mark was not on the desk.

We've had a terrific day today at the Lyon Arboretum followed by Isle Knits. While the going is good, I am going to try some photos now. Our wifi connection is very dicey....

Successful connection

2008-04-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

My laptop has proven very recalcitrant at getting connected. Having a senior moment before I left home I signed up for two weeks of dialup access. That has not proven successful at all, even though I have years of experience at that sort of thing. So I've moved on to wireless and finally beaten the laptop into submission with a credit card and a position perched on the bed. Typing like mad before it falls over!

I've swum every day. Today was my longest swim, right out to what looks from our window like a rock, but on close inspection is a kind of barnacle weed encrusted bollard. I was pleased to have finally swum around it.

Yesterday was a terrific visit to Queen Emma's Summer Palace, which was full of beautiful things, including lots of lovely wood furniture and fabulous feather capes and kahilis and such like. We found a bead shop in one of the local shops, bought some purple velvet crystals with which to make a beaded rosebud for The Wedding. Happy happy us.

The camera is working really well, and I did get the software installed for it. So I guess a few pics are in order. I think I shall publish this and then try some pics!

On our way

2008-04-20T03:07:00.000-07:00

We left the dog, and the house. A taxi to the airport took us the most circuitous route through one-way streets in Erskineville at high speed. "We aren't in a hurry" I said. "This is the only illegal bit" said the taxi driver. It was dark and rainy. We are now in the Air New Zealand lounge awaiting our flight from Sydney Airport. I have unpacked my new camera and read some of the instructions, and the battery is charging at one of the power points. We have had a snack, it being dinner time.

The housesitter left an SMS so I am not worried about the dog any more. There was a moment in between leaving and hearing from her when I was convinced she was lying in the gutter bleeding (family joke...) and the dog was abandoned to a lonely death in the house all alone for nearly three weeks. I have a very active worry mechanism.

Hawaii here we come

2008-04-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

I am turning sixty. How can that be? Only yesterday I was eighteen...

Two years ago we went to Hawaii to celebrate Michael's sixtieth, so it instantly became a family tradition. I think that snorkelling at Waikiki in a bikini is an entirely appropriate way to spend my sixtieth birthday so that is exactly what I am going to do. Right down to the bikini. It isn't THAT brief, and I have lost ten kilos, so it won't be too awful. Most of the time I shall be face down in the water anyway.

Daughter and her man are there now, and they will pick us up from the airport. We are busy packing. Packing includes Illy coffee and Pangyong Congou tea. Those are essential. The laptop too, because I intend to blog the entire time. After our Greek holiday we realised that slides have had their day, so Michael has bought me a fabulous Canon digital camera to play with. I can't open it yet (duty free regulations) so will have something to play with when we arrive. I also have a filet net lace kit to learn a new craft with. If I like it I might have to change my blog title to knittatfiletpug. Sounds a bit like Pug Filet, which doesn't bear thinking about.

The housesitter is primed - she knows Majic, and I hope she has lots of energy. The dog walker is coming every day. As an aside, the dog walker leaves little notes every time, and these are some excerpts:

"Majic makes friends wherever he goes. He had a good game of chasing with Fromage."

"Majic was the life of the pack today. The other three dogs are a little timid so Majic was teaching them how to relax and be social. Sooo cute!"

"What a sociable, well mannered little boy he is! He took a real liking to Riley although Riley didn't pay him much attention. Soo much personality for such a little dog!"

"We didn't believe it, but Majic can outrun a Jack Russell!"

Just to get me in the mood, here is a picture of our view from one of our previous Hawaiian adventures. I am ready!

2008-04-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I haven't been here in a zillion years. There is heaps of catching up to do, but.....

www.oddpic.com - Funny Pictures

I'm angry about the T-card

2008-01-24T12:50:00.001-08:00

After a zillion years and $95 million, the government has pulled the plug on Sydney’s T-card. When we were in Seoul it was wonderful to have a card which worked on all transport, which totted up your fare wherever you went with a single swipe. You didn’t even have to take it out of your purse, just wave it over the sensor. It can work in other cities, bigger cities. What is the problem here?

We don’t believe that it is entirely the fault of the company involved, although there is probably some of that. We think it is Sydney’s arcane mess of private transport operators who will not agree to change any of their ways.

Whoever is to blame, the people of Sydney are the losers. We still have to figure how many sections (huh?) we want to buy on a bus. We can’t buy a train ticket from Newtown to the Airport and return to Circular Quay - oh no, we have to buy two separate tickets.

Sydney is an utter mess of traffic and we are all as mad as hell.

Majic buttons

2008-01-13T21:35:00.000-08:00

I finished knitting my red mohair cardigan this weekend, and decided to try my hand at making buttons for it using polymer clay (Fimo). I mixed up the colour I wanted, made them red with black stripes. I was happy with the result. I made quite a lot, which turned out to be a good thing.

I sewed them all on - all eight of them. Very happy with the result. I like those buttons! Turns out I was not the only one who liked them.

After taking some photos for Ravelry, I left the cardigan over the back of the sofa and entered the details of the project onto my Ravelry site.

Then I heard activity......

That Dog had gotten the cardigan and had eaten not just one or two, but FOUR of the buttons. He'd chewed them right off the cardigan!!! There were some fragments left, but I know he has swallowed some. I wonder if polymer clay is good for Pugs?

Maps on the phone

2008-01-02T19:11:00.000-08:00

We went up to the Blue Mountains on Sunday, for lunch. Leaving Alpha Prime means that we need a street directory and directions. Of course we went to Whereis before going, to review the best route. We had excellent instructions from our friend too.

Our street directory is getting a bit old, but the printed ones are SO big that they don't fit either in the glove box or in the side pockets of the car doors. I was interested when rocketing around Google's latest offerings to see Google Maps for Mobile. I downloaded it and had a bit of a play.

Then yesterday we went into town, and I thought I just might pop in to Tapestry Craft. I've been there before (d'oh!) but wasn't exactly sure which block it was in. So while Michael chose coral trout from the fish counter at DJ's Food Hall, I fired it up. Clicked on Search, then typed in Tapestry Craft. Up popped the address and phone number, with options to call, or to view it on a map, or to view a list of directions from my current location.

I am very impressed.

Oh yes, I got five balls of pale khaki cotton to knit a pram blanket for my niece's baby. I'll put that on Ravelry soon. If you have a Ravelry account then you'll find me there under Knittatpug. I've been gradually populating that site with my projects, stash, and library. Along with playing Scrabulous on Facebook, I've been busy!

Does it sound like I've been on holiday? More toys to play with. Love it.

Taking a quick break from Greece with Henrietta and Majic

2008-01-02T17:18:00.000-08:00

Every dog deserves a Christmas present, and Majic is no exception. He LOVES his toys, all of them. Anywhere we sit ends up with a cairn of toys around our feet as he brings them to us. He presses a toy against a leg and looks up beseechingly. If we ignore him, he assumes that toy wasn't good enough, or tempting enough. He drops it, and goes to get another one.

When we saw Henrietta the Christmas Chicken in a pet store window near us, she had to be ours. He adores her. Wouldn't you?

Henrietta is rather large. Almost as large as Majic is.

She also makes a very engaging noise. Not a squeak, so much as a cluck.

He loves to play with her - so does someone else around here!

Majic loves it when you throw Henrietta the length of the house. He fetches her back looking very proud.

Henrietta can be a bit dangerous though. When Majic is on your lap he likes to take her by the neck and give her a good shaking. Those big black boots of hers really make a dent in one's face as they swing by.

21st October, 2007

2007-12-28T19:17:00.000-08:00

That step counter is mesmerizing. No sooner do we count steps than it is time for bed. Watched TV until 10.30 (The Hunt for Red October) then read. Now 8.00 am. Sky seems blue so we hope today to do.... MORE STEPS!

Tatting shuttles, black rayon, spools of silk, knitting needles, thimble. That's my list for today. Flea market. Anything else that strikes me! Yes indeed the step counter (the pedometer, as opposed to the also-frequently deployed pedantometer..) is not only mesmerizing, it is tyrannical. Getting 10,000 steps per day is mandatory. 15,000 is a matter of honour. Over 20,000 is cause for celebration. It does, however, lead to feeling very creaky in the evenings after sitting for a while. Last night I took some Neurofen before bed so I wouldn't ache so much. It worked.

The bells of Sunday morning are just pealing.

I keep meaning to write about how strange it is to walk into a shop and see all the shop assistants standing around smoking - even clothes shops and food shops. How weird it feels not to have a smoker next to you in a restaurant smoking throughout their meal. I see no warnings on advertisements, nor on cigarette packages. Young women, in particular, seem to be the big market.

For Christmas baubles (which we enjoy buying overseas) failing anything else, a large blue eye on a string will do. It is distinctively a reminder of Athens, and it will hang on a tree. A big one for Martin and one not so big for us. (Later - hmmm I think we gave both of them to Martin.) There is a Christmas store, but as far as we can tell everything in it is a) generic, not Greek-looking, and 2) made in China.

General note: when travelling we seem to eat two meals a day. First is a big breakfast at the hotel, which here at Hotel Adrian is included in the price. For me a bowl of excellent yogurt with a honey topping and some grapes and/or kiwifruit. Followed by a fried egg and a little bacon. Maybe some toast without Vegemite as I keep leaving my travel tube of it in the room. Michael has two eggs and bacon and bread, and whatever fruit I make him eat by thrusting at him. Coffee, and a big glass of fresh orange juice. We might have a coffee and a cake or something latter in the day, when convenient. We might have a late-ish lunch at a restaurant. In Milos we had bread and cold cuts etc. If we have lunch, we don't have dinner. If we don't have lunch we have an early dinner. Snacks might be figs (beautiful big purple figs) or the occasional banana. Chocolate bars and Coke.

No sooner did she write the above than I ate a bowl of fruit, little knowing what SHE had written about my breakfast. Harumph!

Sunday is Flea Market Day, so we spent 5,800 steps shuffling around it looking at junk. Some of it was Good Junk, but an awful lot of it Just Junk. In an antique shop full of copper and brass I found proper Christmas balls, so bought three. One large painted one for Julie and Martin, a smaller version for us, and a brass one. I went into a jewellery shop and found a pin, which I have been wanting for my black and white linen jacket and various shawls, particularly the Cardiff Rees Shawl. Maybe I'll keep an eye open for something in gold for Jules. Mine is silver with three pearls, for forty euros. Plus some worry beads for Mum. Michael was extremely patient as I picked around all the stalls. I'm reminded that all the fun in embroidery/crochet/tatting etc is the doing, not the having. I saw mounds of crochet and embroidery being virtually given away. I saw plastic bags with patterns and canvas with half one designs, sometimes almost complete. Tempting to buy just for the canvas. I remember giving just such bags to Vinnie's. I have half done and fully done stuff in my own linen cupboard. Almost bought an ecru red embroidered table runnier, but remembered the equivalents I have made myself, lying in baskets in the cupboard. Sigh!

Michael bought some big blue eyes as Christmas decorations, also a sponge, and two calendars (Mum and us.) An owl clip from the pistachio man (not really - he pointed to the shop behind him.) Two cloth badges for the collection I'll do something with some day. Not bad takings for the day thus far, but again I am overwhelmed by STUFF. We are having a Coke and some chocolate on our balcony as we prepare ourselves for the next onslaught. Some hand towels, perhaps, as souvenirs and for Gwen. Some felt beads and whatever else I can find that was on my earlier list.

I'm amused sometimes when we are out in restaurants that we hardly say anything but we write up the diary in turns. It is as though we are having written conversations. My plan is to get all the photos developed and to blog in sequence, a day at a time, all the entries here. I think that was my plan on some other trip, but it never happened! Maybe this time it will.

Very ambitious plans give one someplace to go, I am told. Oh oh, grey clouds are rolling over the Acropolis about 12 noon. Rain is forecast, but for later. When we sally forth this time, must remember to take brolly, and to get something for eats upon return so that we don't need to g o out for dinner if it is raining later.

We went out, in search of the bead shops which turned out to be on Perikleos. Closed. But now in Monday's plans, along with the needlework shops on Kalamida. As I said, the fun is in the doing. Checked out a haberdashery shop at Ermou 8 but it wasn't the sort of thing I was looking for. Then we aimed for the Museum of Traditional Plottery. The rather vague young man had to open things up for us and seemed surprised anyone at all was there to see the stuff. He opened the loo twice, and each of the rooms containing information on the potteries of Greece, with details of clay and glazes and wheel versus non-wheel and kilns for firing (open and closed.) He did not open the shop, nor the cafeteria. It being Sunday market day, the area around Monastiraki was seething with vendors and consumers. Among the vendors are tribes of Africans selling knock-off Vuitton and such. Every so often we would see them all gather their wares into the big white cloths and disperse. Immediately after that we would see three Athens policemen striding along, and behind them the Agricans could be seen setting up on the footpath once more. We bought "donats" (that's what the sign said) from the vendor in front of the station. Huge and very sugary. Then to Everest on the corner to buy baguettes. We waited an AGE for the six girls behind the till to get their act together to take our money. Back to Hotel Adrian - we have 13,200 steps. I read all afternoon, a book by Kate Gibbons (?) which was set just after WW! and the Spanish Influenza. Ripped right through it. We both checked email. Nothing of any importance but sent brief notes to Mum and Lisa the Housesitter. We are working up to tripod and night shots of the Acropolis and Athens.

I must also extol the blessings of travelling with a few bulldog clips. They are so useful. Keeping the coffee pack closed, clipping up one's sarong, either on self or as a dark curtain when needed. Never travel without them.

Our final outing for the day - we finally went out at night with camera and tripod for night shots. First the Temple of Zeus, then the Parthenon, then street scenes of happy diners. Step count: 18,347, or 13.76 kms or 688 ccalories. Will that make up for the huge sugary fatty donat? Bought some peanuts from the cart near the Acropolis Museum, and some doritos from the shop near the Temple of Zeus, and some peach juice. We had a whole baguette left (salad and chicken) so had that for dinner with the nuts and juice and chips. Maybe some chocolate later. A good day.

I spoke encouraging words while Katester snapped, as well as spotting locations to snap. I also carried the camera and tripod a part of the time. Now boots off!

Later: the slides turned out quite well, but I have not scanned any of them yet. May not scan them for some time to come, as I bought myself a multifunction scanner printer copier unit and ditched my old scanner (which did slides, when it was in one of its rare good moods.) It was Freecycled, along with the ancient fax machine. Also a terracotta chimney pot. Amazing what people will take, and wonderful that Freecycle can match stuff with people who can use it.

20th October, 2007

2007-12-28T18:38:00.000-08:00

A new day and we are again planning our day's steps. We are heading towards Banaki's Islamic Museum, although I am in pattern/design overload after yesterday. I couldn't sleep for thinking of all those beautiful t6hings I'd seen yesterday. I should not buy embroidery books - it just sets me off thinking about things I could make. Nevertheless, Islamic Art here we come. Nearby, close to Keremeikos, there is also the delightfully dubbed Museum of Traditional Plottery. One of our maps is not noted for its accuracy of spelling or location.

AKA the Museum of Traditional Pottery. However, nearbyer there is the Museum of Traditional Greek ceramics too. It is even closer, hence neraby-er. Overall the objectives for today include 1) M. Ceramics, 2) Plottery 3) Islamic Art, 4) Hellenic Cosmos, and 5) Ancient Eats. Along the way we need some AA batteries.

Step Count as at 6.00 pm - 15, 719, or 11.78 kms, 589 cals. The morning was ALL GO! We headed for the Benaki Islamic Museum with a few side visits into bead shops. I'm thinking of buying some brightly coloured felted 'beads' but I'll have to return to that shop I saw yesterday. We skirted the Keremeikos and found the Museum of Traditional Plottery, but were told by the man in the ticket office (!) beyond the open door (!) that it was closed on Saturday (!!!) Around the corner was the Benaki Islamic Museum, in a very run-down area. We went in and headed down to the WC (bottom floor) when we saw roons among the foundations. Part of Themistocles' wall. Being so close to the Keremeikos is it any wonder? There are roons under every building, no doubt at all. It must make any kind of development extremely difficult, as the Archeological Police descend when you dig your veggie patch!

The Museum was deserted but for us, and eventually two American women. We started at Floor 5 (cafe) and worked down, back in time. Wow! What a spectacular museum. The quality of the exhibits, the beauty, it was all just glorious. We were intrigued to see quite a lot of depictions of human figures (given the proscriptions of Islamic culture and the barbaric destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan). huge One huge bronze candlestick, however, had had its human representations effaced. The tiles were lovely, ceramics, glassware from sixth centry, mosaics, textiles, gold jewellery. This could be my favourite museum. When we reached the bottom we went back up for a coffee on the rooftop, level 5. Excellent coffee and some exceptional chocolate cake. Light and moist and warm. A good view over Keremeikos:

and some interesting graffiti on the building next door:

Thus fortified we set off down Piraeus Street in search of Helenic Cosmos. Past the Gasworks. Down a very busy road, we walked and walked. We walked some more, looking, looking for #254, We walked even more, and found ourselves at #134. A few drops of rain dampened our resolve. We got weak and gave up. We headed back in search of Ancient Eats, a restaurant. Walking, walking, We walked through back streets, and got an impression of what it must have been like in the 1920s. some lovey old houses, but now very dirty and run down. The streets are lined with orange trees in full fruit. You could smell the oranges on the ground. Much bougainevillea and geraniums.

We found the restaurant - closed - but we were not expecting to eat there, being still full of cake. We were close to the Metro (Metaxourghis?) and opted for it. On the train Michael was surrounded and squashed by some blokes who refused to budge despite his an my shoving. Wallets and purses were closely watched. No harm done, but it was odd. We changed at Omonia and got off at Monsastiraki. From there we went to the small museum of ~~Traditional~~ Folk ~~Art~~ ~~Ceramics~~ ~~Pottery~~... whatever. There are so many museums! It is in a 1759 mosque with a dome. An odd collection of stuff, but there were lots of Greek women in there enthusiastically admiring the displays. There was stuff from a couple of artistsd - not particularly good, I thought, but the, we'd just seen some pretty spectacular stuff at the Benaki.

Then we divided. I went to the end of Adrianou in search of a drachma note for the Hortons, which I found for one euro. So cheap I bought two so the vendor did not have to make change. I then headed back to get an IHT. Once I had that I back tracked to the T-shirt place that had the EYE. Found it and got one. Then back to the hotel, getting some soda next door. This took time because of a throng of German-speaking children milling about the doorway. By the time I got back to the Adrian, Kate was already there, worried that I had been abducted. I'll let her explain that, and how it was she got back sooner than I did. I presented my acquisitions for her approval. Then I went downstairs to gdo email, as it started to rain. Usual stuff from work, but it took time. Couldn't find anything in English on the web for the Hellenic Cosmos, but there was a leaflet in the hotel. If we try again we'll take the metro. We ate figs and lollies while it rained on and on. It rained from about 3 pm until 6.30. When it seemed to stop we were hungry, so we geared up and went next door for eats. Good plan! I had pork Kassato (a wine sauce, the waiter said) and Kate had salmon.

The salmon was good, if salty. I also enjoyed the brussels sprouts, oyster mushrooms, carrots and lettuce leaf garnish and bread roll. Definitely hungry! After we had split up at Monastiraki I went in search of the bead shops, but was unsuccessful. I looked at a few scarves but nothing of the quality of the Benaki one I bought Julie, and I have so many scarves myself. I couldn't find the owl clip we had seen on the pistachio man's cart either (it was holding down a sheet of plastic in the rain..) Dispirited, I returned to the Hotel Adrian expecting to find Michael. Not there. Immediate thought was that those blokes on the train had tracked him down and abducted/murdered him, and I was going to have to find the Australian Embassy to help find his body etc etc. I need some Very Large Worry Beads to help deflect some of this! I heard his whistle outside the door and was VERY PLEASED to see him. I'm not a worry-wart, and I never exaggerate. We sat around all afternoon listening to the rain, tatting, puzzling, emailing etc. I have plans to go to the bead shops again, and to the haberdashery shops at Ermou 8 to look for tatting shuttles and thimbles.

On Saturday our missions include 1) Traditional Plottery 2) Bead Row 3) Sunday Flea Market, and...

19th October, 2007

2007-12-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

(Note - I have to get Greece done before I can get back to blogging about daily stuff, but Christmas was lovely.)

It was a late night for us. Lights out at about 10.30. We flipped the TV for a bit and read. Got up about 8.00 am in the dark. The room gets no sunlight. Got re-acquainted with the footwork of the half-tub for shower. Noticed many more bites from Milos. The mozzies will miss us for dinner. At breakfast we will work out today's mission(s).

Our room, 105, does get natural light but a lot is blocked by the big wall. And it does not get light until quite late - we can't rely on the sun to get us up early.

I thought it useful to compare hotel amenities:

The Adrian HAS: face washers, shower hat, electric kettle and tea/coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice (squeezed by a person and brought to the table.) It HAS NO tissues.

The Portiani HAS: tissues, mozzie zapper, pizza for breakfast, the charming and ebullient Danae, a pull bell for emergencies (!) in the shower. It HAS NO face washers, shower hat, electric kettle or coffee.

The Jason Prime HAS: a proper shower, tissues, but HAS NO spare blanket, mini fridge, or electric kettle.

Plan for today: The Numismatic Museum. The Cycladic Museum (again, but there is an exhibition of El Greco's paintings). Perhaps the Benaki, especially the costume and textiles part of the exhibition. Much planning of our day is now in progress.

And the day DID progress. 16,448 steps, or 12.33 kms, or 616 calories, we are sitting back in Room 105. Creakers! We walked up Ermou to Syntagma (very close) and looked at shops. We went to the Numismatic Museum. Glorious location. The mosaic floors and the frescoed ceilings and the painted walls would be enough to go visit, but the coin collection was fascinating. Hoards of coins tumbling from their original containers. Big and little, portraits and owls and wheels and buildings and gods, and geese and turtles and tortoises and bulls. You name it. What a trove.

There was an interesting WC setup - a common hand washing area with alternate mens and womens cubicles. We have not, I think, mentioned here the proscription about putting ANY paper down the toilet. There are large and definite signs in most places, including the hotels. We read about this in the guidebooks. Apparently the pipes are very small and any piece of paper larger than a postage stamp clogs the system. Yes, this includes toilet paper. There are small bins provided. We adjusted.

After the Numismatic Museum we walked to the Benaki Museum. Talk about treasure troves!!! The usual stuff (how quickly one becomes blasé) like neolithic pottery, some cycladic figures, etc etc, but for me the highlight was the extensive collection of costumes and embroidery. I thoroughly enjoyed goggling and gawking. I must look up the Dodecanese raised stitch. The costumes were glorious. There were husband chairs there which I have not seen elsewhere. Where are the wife chairs when they are needed?? We had lunch on the rooftop outside, with colourful bougainevillea kept in check. Could see the Acropolis, and overlooked the National Gardens. We bought up stuff at the excellent shop. Gift cards, a shawl for Julie's birthday, a book on embroidery for me, a tie for Michael. A better than average museum shop. Oh yes, the meal we had was very good. Small vine leaves - cone shaped - with a meat and rice filling. Yoghurt on the side. Most excellent. A good cup of coffee to finish, Greek for M, cappuccino for me.

After the Benaki (no... before..) we went to Notos, a department store. Michael bought a non-Greek (German) tie. We are surprised at the lack of Greek motif ties, or Parthenon umbrellas etc.

The Benaki about finished us so we walked home. Came down Mitropoleos instead of Ermou. Bead shop heaven! One, two, three, four, more, all in a row. I spent the grand sum of three euros on some conical caps for my black and white knitted necklace. My bead stash is ample enough as it is and I truly do not need more. (Alas.)

Michael went back to the hotel but not before I'd bought some coconut ice logs from a street vendor. These are wonderful carts with lotus-like coconuts and little fountains. I wish I'd taken some photos!

Then I went down to Monastiraki to buy fresh figs and chocolate while he bought Cokes asnd returned to the hotel. I browsed a bit, gawking at all the jewellery. Too much! It makes me seize up! So here we are sitting at last, with our steps done and kms covered, museumed out once again.

We spent so much time in the Benaki Museum and shop we did not go on to the El Greco. Maybe tomorrow. The Benaki Museum is better than most of the others we have seen for signage, eats - a real restaurant with a view, and ... a shop. It is very easy to see why it gets such good reviews in the tourist books I did my homework on.

I got two Greek ties today and an owl paperweight. The tie from Notos is purple - a fashion, the salesman said. The one from Benaki has a boat from Skypos which I will think of as an honorary trireme. The owl is marked Athena in Greek.

Must do email tomorrow to keep the backlog manageable.

About 22 C today. Not too hot, but sunny and fine.

A feature of Greek TV is talking heads - public affairs, I guess, with 4 - 6 heads on a split screen. Usually half of them talk at once, two of four, or three of six. Or one person talks all the time while the other three or five stare at the camera. The moderator-journalist is in the middle, talks without end, and the others cut across. The screen occasionally cuts to pairs who may or may not be talking. It is utterly exhausting to watch and listen to. The more people talking at once, the more they shout, the more frantic. There is also face-making and arm-waving. We say the first of a six episode version of PD James' "An Unsuitable Job for a Woman". Must get it on DVD and follow it through.

By the way the talking head teams can be on three or more channels at once, each featuring a different team. Both morning (we saw on ferry-TV) and the afternoon and evening.

18th October, 2007

2007-12-25T23:24:00.000-08:00

Travel day back to Piraeus and Athens, but that is not until 5.30 pm. Now 8.30 am. Now I really know what Island Living means - Pizza for breakfast! Wake up, Oahu, and get with the trend! Meanwhile the New Tour Guide plots today's spin. She seems to have settled for a place described as lunar, which means featureless, colorless, and lifeless!

Well, we might as well see stuff around the island - we have a car. Tempting though it is to return straight to Paleohori and swim. Breakfast pizza is not my style. Yoghurt, honey and grapes, and half a small pear. Then a little flaky pastry, a boiled egg, and some kind of flaky bread stick circle. Well, the egg might be for later. Our destination is Sarakiniko where there is a tiny beach but most of it is white rocks from which you jump into deep water!! Sounds like me....

Sun screen today - I am a bit burned from yesterday. Not too badly, but I don't need any more. Island living also means ten hours of sleep every night. No later than ten o'clock to sleep, and up at eight. I could get used to it. This is our last day of island living, and it is memorable, delightful.

5.30 and we are on the ferry waiting to sail for Piraeus via Sifnos and Serifos. M has just terrified me by noting that we have many more museums to do and many more museum steps!!

Today we set out for Mandrakia then Sarakiniko. Apparently Michael the Navigator and Greek Scholar thinks that the greek δ is NOT a d (as in Manδrakia) so we didn't take that road. We found ourselves at Sarakiniko which was fine by me. It was spectacular. Very light with the sunshine reflecting off the white rocks. Brilliant blue water and skies. Caves carved into the hillsides, linking up inside as far as we could see (which wasn't far as we had no light with us.) We took slides, rather than digitals, so I've linked to a few representative images instead.

I got into my togs. Nobody else around at all. There was a LOT of litter on the little beach, which is really a small cove, which we collected and binned. Our bit for the environment. I waded out and swam. Alas I had trodden in some oily gunk and it got all over my hands and feet. I felt like one of those poor birds caught in an oil slick. Perhaps it came from the wrecked ship just around the corner. It looked like it had been there rusting away for thirty years. I swam - it was superb to have the whole place to ourselves. While swimming, the ocean was mine, looking out at rocky outcrops and islands in the distance while surrounded by those brilliant white sculpted rocks. I put my shoes on (Tevas) and went walkabout. Found a natural rock arch. The sea had done its fair share of rock carving too, and as the waves rushed under me into the rock caverns it made deep whoomping sounds. How glorious! Another swim, this time in my shoes. I hadn't done that before and found them quite buoyant and surprisingly pleasant to swim in. Back to the car - some people came (two couples) and so it was too crowded for us!! We retraced our steps and found Mandrakia. It is a tiny village perched on the cliff. Boatsheds with brightly painted doors were carved into the rock below. Boats bobbing. A tiny church. A dozen cats. A couple of people. We returned to our little car and drove, trusting to my stinks (instincts..) and before too long found ourselves back on the Big Road (private joke..) again, leading down to Adamas. I returned to the Hotel while Michael returned the car and bought great hunks of pizza for lunch. I had a shower and tried to scrub off the oil. Sand and a stick strigil had some effect but soap and hot water were better. Foot tapping then began and we sat around waiting for our departure.

Highspeed 3 is just now getting ready to shove off.

Nautical things are happening and the engine is hammering. The hawser is hawsering. Etc.

While K natated I sat in the shade and read a book. When two other couples came around noon it was time to escape the crowd. We are in motion. The day has been warm - say 24 C without a breath of wind.

10.15 and we landed. Tony was waiting for us (how wonderful) and drove us back to the Hotel Adrian. Room 105. Our bags were still here. Athens is certainly bigger than Adamas! Milos has under 5,000 people on it. I heard that a German couple were on Milos looking for real estate, a retirement option. Not for me! Give me Newtown any day. Milos is lovely, but remote. And nothing but Greek food. Everything has gone so smoothly, a testament to the Great Organiser.

8530 steps. Back on known ground, the Hotel Adrian. Reunited with our luggage.

17th October, 2007

2007-12-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

Lights out at about 9.30. Woke at 8.00. Is that enough sleep? I think so. Struggled not to get water all over the bathroom floor, but the shower isn't designed that way. Now at breakfast deciding between chocolate pudding and chocolate cake. M opted for cake. I am about to eat a crispy creamy turnover and a cinnamon scroll. I have a boiled egg for later on. Had some plain yoghurt and honey with kiwifruit and plum. Orange juice, self-squeezed. We are on the hunt for hot springs atain today, aiming at Paleohori. If we don't find them, well, I'll go home and have a hot bath! Will have seen a lot of Milos - all that can be seen by car, that is. The world looks very different by water, I think.

About 3 pm now. A very satisfactory trip to Paleohori Beach. It was pretty much deserted apart from a couple of blokes sitting at the cafe - Volcanic Foods. Michael and I walked up the length of the beach and I decided it was definitely the place for a swim. I got into my togs in a sheltered cover, and swam. The water is lovely - clear and blue. Had my goggles so saw a few little fish. I swam to some rocks, around some buoys, then came out again. Asked a local (at the cafe) where the hot sprints might be found. "Out there" he gestured, from right to left. "How far out?" "About ten metres" he said. I'd been out a good fifty metres, and no sign of any heat. I am good at finding heat, usually! There was a strong smell of sulphur, though, and areas where if I imagined hard enough it might have been a tad warmer. I went back in and swam some more, and some more. The step count will be low, but the stroke count will be high! The rock cliffs were multicoloured with volcanic activity, the sea and the sky a deep deep blue, the water perfect. Michael had a bench to sit on - blue, with the name SIROCCO in white. He was happy. I was in heaven. I lay on the warm dark sand in the sun. A few others came down but I largely had the ocean to myself - they just dipped briefly.

We returned to the hotel. M went hunting and returned with smoked beef and prosciutto, bread, tomato, baba ganoush, coca cola, plums and chocolate for lunch. We are now on our balcony. He has the IHT, shoes off. The water is sparkling. Life is awfully good.

She natated forth and back, while I kept watch, mostly on a book. We left about 1.30 pm and by then maybe a dozen swimmers, subathers had assembled, including some Greeks, one who brought two dogs who yapped at the water. Katester seemed to have a good time. It is 4.30 and I have retreated indoors from the balcony - too hot.

But he didn't retreat for long because he's still out there and it is 5.45. A light breeze keeps it from being too hot. I have finished my book (A Long Way Home, but Mary K. Pershall) and done the word jumble. Soon I am to be despatched to one of the three or four bakeries for spinach pie or cheese pie or whatever for dinner. The step count is barely over three thousand (3488) so the expedition will give me a few extras. It is very peaceful. What a relaxing day.

I drew the view from our balcony, making it a little more abstract than usual. Experimenting.

This is a photo of same view:

And this is a little drawing of the corner of our hotel room. It was a charming room in a lovely hotel.

16th October 2007

2007-11-30T23:09:00.001-08:00

We early risers rose at 7.30. Now worried we will miss breakfast! Nemesis has struck again.
I slept log-like. Dreams of a librarian-friend becoming a silent nun (!) and rehearsing for the Messiah with the wrong score.

Breakfast is served until 11 so we didn't need to worry. I'm having yoghurt with honey, kiwifruit and plum, self-squeezed orange juice. Will move onto the protein next. Lukewarm coffee. The enthusiastic Danae offered bread which she had made yesterday. The table's floral decoration is a bowl of sprouted lentils. Tonight's dinner? Cute. Danae made us more (hot) coffee. I moved onto her bread (with crusty salt), a piece of what turned out to be marmalade tart and a small apple turnover. All delicious. Michael wants to go to Plaka today - 5 kms uphill. We think we won't walk, although he complains he didn't sleep well last night because we didn't get enough steps yesterday. We can fix that! I think it was the very late hour we turned out the lights - ten o'clock! Amazing how TV can hold your interest and keep you awake, while silence leads quickly to nod-land. The TV last night was Part 1 of something in English. Who knows when Part 2 will occur.

I bought an Internet card last night and cleared the mailbox of all junk. Not much else BUT junk. M. did the same. There is 10 minutes left on it this morning so M is clearing his again. If there is time left I'll send an email to Mum and Julie. Then we will get on our pins and get going.

We got going! Down to the waterfront to hire a car from Nikos. A small silver car EMZ 9521, manual. I drove.

We headed for Plaka, which we found. We could only drive a certain distance, then had to turn around. It transpired that we used the famous bus turnaround mentioned in our guidebook to do so. Plaka is a very small place. We parked where we could, near the Police Station, and found the obligatory Archaeological Museum which was, surprisingly enough, open. Two women sat in the back smoking and watching TV. The Venus de Mea Culpa was there. ( a copy generously given by the French government in return for snatching the real one.). Also the guidebook's "herd of perky little bulls."

The car is a Korean Hyundai Atos. Katester volunteered to drive - that's my distinct memory, and off we went to Plaka - site of the ancient city, and once there many more vertical steps.

After the Museum we enquired about the Folkloric Museum. Closed. Michael led us to the Kastro - yes indeed, many very steep vertical steps. Wonderful views, fabulous spot. White domed church, intense blue sky, views of the island of Milos and others. There were lovely paths painted blue, and many quaint houses. A few snaps shows how far up we were, and some of the lovely sights we saw on the way up.

After coming down noted 7,200 steps - verticals. Explored the town. It is a little labyrinth of white houses splashed with cobalt blue, pale blue, green, and bougainvillea and geraniums. One or two dogs, a few cats. Michael wanted to see the Utopia Cafe and my infallible instincts led us there. It was closed but we saw the view and a plaque quoting Thomas More. Many photos.

Wound our way through the narrow lanes, nothing open. It was everything a Greek village ought to be - tres picturesque. We returned to the car and tried to navigate out. Not an easy task, really. But we did manage to find Trypiti, and then the delightful oceanfront Klima, the ancient port.

We saw the ancient theatre and the spot where the Venus de Milo was found (nearby.) Back to the town centre, and tried to find our way northeast. But we found ourselves coming back to Adamas and that was fine by us. Tossed up about lunch but opted instead to see if I could find the hot springs south of Adamas. All we could see were choppy cold seas and no swimmers. It is clearly the end of the season. the hot springs are in the ocean so there are no markers. Alas! Cut over the narrowest part of the island to Provatas Beach. I at least got my toes wet and feet sandy but a swim did not appeal.

Back to Adamas for lunch at the restaurant inf front of the Hotel Portiani. We ordered too much. A Greek salad came first, which we demolished. Then a plate of chips which we made a big dent in. Then the mixed grill for two (meat, not seafood) which was enormous and included its own pile of chips. The waiter should have told us when we ordered it that it came with chips and we wouldn't need to supplement them. We ate what we could, including liver, but really were too full. Sitting now with a bit of sun, the rest of my lemonade. Did a little pen drawing of a patron.

We have reached 10,299. Enough for the day, I think.
I got some worry beads at Plaka, and suggested getting some for worry-wart June (Kate's mother). The Kastro (Frankish Castle) was built on the ancient acropolis, the highest point on the island. Many vertical steps on uneven rocks with slurry of chips and small stones. Then picked our way back and forth in the car trying to translate the Greek letters on the signs, or see some in Roman letters. Klima, the site of the ancient port, past the field where the Venus de Milo was found. The museum had a drawing with four or five alternative placements of her missing arms.

The worry beads are amber-coloured. The will be a perfect gift (or some similar ) for Mum, who is an ace worrier.

A quiet afternoon reading on the terrace followed by snoozing. At 7.00 we went for a passegiato, or to be more accurate, an ice-cream search. Found it in a gelato bar that also sold hone, preserves, spices. We had half and half vanilla and chocolate, and ate it over the rest of our walk. It is cool but not as windy as yesterday. All the shops are open at this time - they have been shut, most of them, all day. The tourists have just about all gone and it has taken on a decidedly autumnal air. Total 13,651 or 543 calories.

How many kilometres did we do in the car? Forgot to check. Probably not many. It's about 6.5 to Plaka. Then back to Adamas and on past the airport to Provatas and back, say another 6-8 kilometres, flatter and faster.

15th October, 2007

2007-11-24T22:52:00.000-08:00

Up early before bright at 5.30 am. Quick change and first at breakfast at 6.00 am. Yum. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in the street did not go on all night, and in any event I got my nods. I checked out while Kate found Tony the Taxi Man and loaded the car, and off we went into the darkness. Socrates walked to the end from Piraeus, but we took a cab. Tony found the right ferry (by asking) and squired us (carried the bags) on board. We are in seats 3H and 3I, up the front of the ferry. So far, so good.

It is comfortable and a large ferry. We have donned our seasickness wrist bands to prevent same, and are having a cup of coffee - a large mug of cappuccino for me. Nods hit last night at around 8 o'clock! The revellers below did not disturb me. There was no extra blanket so I was a little cold - two twin beds so Michael's warmth was not available! No tea/coffee making either. Should have packed the Brisk Brew. It is just getting light as we sit here. We are right at the front so can see blokes outside doing nautical stuff.
We left on time. Many announcements, first Greek, then English. Easy to understand. At 8.11 we are passing an island to port (left, to you 'lubbers'.) The coffee tasted like Nescafe. I read somewhere that Nescafe has been very successful in Greece, even replacing Greek coffee to some extent. Is this another example of the evils of marketing? Am I outraged? Moving on..

We've been turning to port after aforementioned island at 08.16 and now steering into the sun. First stop Stifano and then Mylos.

This section of the ship is nominally divided into smoking and non-smoking. It reminds me of aeroplanes and how they used to be divided too. It really makes no difference, but at least there is a recognition that people who don't smoke don't like being near it. The smell is of very dark tobacco - like Gauloise or Disc Bleu- names from my past! We are going straight into the sun so curtains are being drawn. It is choppy and there are whitecaps. Land is visible on both sides.

Forgot to turn on the step counter until we were on the ferry so we are now at 277. There wouldn't have been many more than that anyway. We have reached our first stop, Stifanos. Steep, rocky, white houses on the only available flat surfaces and clinging to the hillsides. 10.10 - Serifos? We can check the map in my bag for the name. Yes, it is island hopping. The ferry tickets I bought off the web and had delivered to the hotel worked. I have the map now: Serifos, Sifnos, then Mylos.

Arrived, disembarked. It is cloudy, windy, a bit cool. We walked along the path around the waterfront to our Hotel Portiani.

Danae behind the desk was very cheerful, very enthusiastic, but it appeared there had been no booking made. the travel agent strikes again. There was a room, however, at the top right (looking out) with a lovely view of the water. Delightful. We got some maps, discussed beaches and hot springs and lunch. Walked up a ways, then returned to the restaurant recommended, where we ate "tomato balls" (deep fried slices in heavy batter), "zucchini balls" - again deep fried fritters, then I had spaghetti with seafood (prawns, baby whole squid, mussels) and Michael had meatballs. We followed it with coffee. Michael had Greek coffee and I had iced frappe. Pretty sure it was instant, and it was awful. We discussed later that the coffee is disappointing generally.

Here in our room at the Portiani we have no kettle for making our own. Bless the Hotel Adrian for providing that small luxury! After coffee we were provided a sweet - a sticky semolina pudding with cinnamon. Feel like I am rolling. A short walk after lunch along the promenade but no verticals! We are only at 7220 steps. A rest day. I called Mum to let her know all is well. She, Majic and Lisa are doing fine.

We sat around, I got out my sketch pad and did a version of the view. I'm not particularly happy with this drawing - I just couldn't get the colours of those hills right.

There will be more tomorrow from the long balcony, and lots of photos. After our rest, some reading and tatting. No more eating!! (Apart from a Coke and some chocolate.....)

Went for a brief walk in search of the International Herald Tribune, but it wasn't to be had in all Adamas. Also in search of more steps, and we have made it past our mandatory 10,000 to 10,479. Phew! It is too cold and windy to be out too long, and Michael did not bring his windcheater so is feeling it. We'll see what the morrow brings.

Breakfast is not served until 7.30. We early risers will be starving by then. And no coffee can be made in our room!!! Aaaaaargh!!!

14th October, 2007

2007-11-16T21:49:00.001-08:00

I awoke a birthday boy. Kate the Great had acquired a musical birthday card on her trek to and from her meeting. It featured on the front a sunflower worthy of Van Gogh. The rest, as Shakespeare said, was all Greek to me. When I opened the card the music started. And we have Athena and her owl tucked away. A very nice birthday, and today is Sunday. At 8 am (now 6.45) it is off to Delphi and along the way, Chaironea with Taxi Tony. Before that we have to 1) cash up from an ATM, 2) check out and leave two bags at the Adrian, 3) get the Jason Prime telephone number so we can call and confirm and give an ETA, 4) tell the Adrian desk we will be back on 18th about 10 pm, and 5) get going.

I agree with Katester's comments on the Central Market. The fish and meat were certainly sizeable and the fish glistened only when it wasn't wriggling. But the vegetables, apart from the very red tomatoes, were neither bountiful nor eye-catching quality. When I remember the equivalent markets in Florence this market pales. There was one olive purveyor and he had 20+ varieties, but in Florence there were many olive purveyors, etc. The other feature of the Central Market were the destitute Albanians (a general term to include legal and illegal Balkan-Soviet emigres) selling the clothes off the backs of their children. So for us it is a site to be sighted, but I prefer Coles, Harris Farms, de Costi etc.

We see a lot of beggars, and often deformities. I've seen one lad a few times and his feet are turned in badly with talipes. Julie had a mild case of that when she was born. It took plaster casts for a few months, and special shoes until she was about five, and now you would never know. That this lad was in a wheelchair begging on the street for his living shows a terrible lack of medical care for those early years. There are old women begging, limbless people, and more.

The herb and aromatic shops are unlike anything we have (bar Herbie's in Rozelle) and they are redolent with all the different kinds of dried herbs. We see such bags of dried herbs at George's, our local deli, but nothing like the scale of these shops. We saw a couple of fresh cheese shops too, but didn't investigate very closely.

12,477 steps later, many of them vertical, and many kilometres on the clock, we are tucked up at the Jason Prime, ready for floppo and a 5.30 am wakeup call. It was such an interesting day. After breakfast at the Hotel ADrian we checked out and Tony collected us for our day trip to Delphi. First stop, the monumental stone lion at Chaironea (Kai-RON-ea). Sure enough, after about two hours of driving, there he was sitting by the side of the road. Michael had seen a picture of this lion years ago, but had no idea of the scale. The picture below shows that he is HUGE.

Pictures were taken, then off again. A rest stop a bit later narrowly avoided the tour bus throng, then on our way again. Tony suggested a detour to a Byzantine monastery where there was a crypt of St. Barbara. Must look her up. The monastery was lovely and the church and crypt beautifully adorned. It was cold with a strong powerful wind. Glad that I wasn't an 11th century monk! There was a church event, it being Sunday, and there were lots of people about. The shop was well stocked with religious trinkets and was quite crowded with buyers. Back up the steps (oh yes, this monastery was perched on a hillside high on a mountain) to our yellow taxi. Then down the mountain roads and up again towards Delphi. First stop, the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia. A perfect spot, a lovely temple (roons, of course), quiet, the sound of goat bells.

Then the Gymnasium - more rock clambering. We made our way up the steps to the road, coming out just opposite the fabled water spring. Down the road to meet Tony. He drove us up to the next site - the very grand Temple of Apollo. More clambering. Lots of tourists, quite crowded.

A lot of climbing and clambering through the roons up to the theatre. Many vistas, and many vista snaps. The Delian League started at Delphi. The treasure was amassed in this remote, neutral spot sacred to all Greeks, until Pericles took it to Athens for safe-keeping.... to spend it on beautifying Athens.

The museum at Delphi is light and airy, as ethereal as the gods themselves. Including the rarest-of-the-rare - ivory carvings of Apollo and Artemis. There is also a round building at Delphi - another Greek rarity.

We finished all the clambering and gawking, and then got in the car and went to Delphi. It is a few streets cut into the hillside. Souvenir shop, hotel, taverna, one ofter another. Tony took us to a taverna and we filled up with a 2.30 lunch. Then back in the car, first to Arahova, an up-market area for the skiing set and general touristville.

Finally to the Jason Prime Hotel off Omonia Square. A dirty noisy area, but a large clean room with a full size bathtub. A big comfy lie-down in the with-bubbles bathtub, which is whence I have just emerged.

We looked at the tourist shops briefly at Arahova (the Athens side of Delphi) but didn't buy a fur hat with a fat fur tail, nor any embroidered cushion covers (thinking of Majic having his wicked way with all cushions and pillows..) nor any table linen to live in the linen cupboard or be ironed. Nothing, in fact.

The countryside was mountainous and very rugged and rocky. On the flat plans grew olives, some vineyards, and fields and fields of cotton. The sides of the road for miles were lined with fluffballs, looking a little like it had snowed cotton wool. Surprising in one way - cotton needs a lot of water and this is a dry country. But I knew there was cotton here, after all, I bought some. The taxi idea works really well in terms of getting sights seen with a minimum of angst. Tony knew where to stop for loo breaks, where to eat, where the sights are. We didn't need to navigate or drive, didn't miss anything. And we could have a mini-snooze on the way back. It was a grey and cold day, I was glad of my blue cashmere cardie and my windcheater.

Lunch was good - yellow eggy bread, cabbage rolls in egg and lemon sauce for me, moussaka for Michael and Greek coffee and baklava for afters.

13th October, 2007

2007-11-16T03:17:00.001-08:00

We discovered last night while booking our wakeup call that we have nowhere to stay on the night of Michael's birthday. Our travel agent stuffs it up again. Next time we must check her stuff very carefully. This is twice she has us with no accommodation. We will try to extend the booking today.

My tallons screppolati (cracked heels, according to the label on the foot cream I bought) are dong much better on assiduous application of both the screpper and the crema. My feet are bearing up under the strain.

It was an early start for us, 6 am. Tony was coming to get us at 8 am for our half day trip to Marathon.

We breakfasted (plain yoghurt, honey, banana, grapes - yum!). Tony appeared on the dot of 8 (so much for the myths of Greeks being late for appointments - he was on time every time) and it was rather nice to be driven around! Our first stop was the funeral tumulus of the 192 slain at the Battle of Marathon, and a commemorative white marble pylon. We walked around the mound.

It was quiet, butterflies flitted, and the air smelled damp and resinous and rich and loamy. A glorious early morning. The Plain of Marathon is fertile and we saw crops such as eggplant and cabbage.

From there we drove down little country roads, and drew up at a big shed, or hangar, sheltering a site of some 3,000 BC graves. Bones still visible.

Next stop was the small but lovely Museum of Marathon, which had a very nice range of antiquities, from Neanderthal on. There were two very engaging puppies very pleased to have some pats and attention. There were also some ancient graves. Tony offered to take us on to Ramnous where the Temple of Nemesis stood. Again, it was down country roads through small villages, and when we got there it was so quiet and peaceful. There was no noise except the buzz of flies, us, and chirping birds. We looked out over the sea, and it must have looked like this centuries ago.

Here are Tony and Kate

Time to return to Athens, through the suburbs. Tony stopped briefly at one of his favourite Macedonian bakeries and shouted us a pastry. Delicious. It appeased the ravening pangs of hunger (briefly). We returned to the hotel very briefly then set out on foot to search for a tie shop Michael had spied. The search for a Greek tie continues. We found the shop but it was one we'd seen before, full of It6alian ties. We pressed on to find the fruit and veg market. Noisy, bustling. Not a huge amount of variety - we feel lucky in our choice and quality. It is romantic to see this kind of market but it would wear thin every week. The tomatoes looked divine, though. Getting hungry. Bought a Herald Tribune and opted for the Hermion taverna for our main meal of the day. Lamb chops and grilled veg for me, whole silver dory for M. It was a lot of food, and hit all spots. After lunch we decided to add more steps and walked around past the New Acropolis Museum to the Theatre of Dionysius. Alas, the part Michael wanted to visit was closed, as the big cranes are in place there for the moving of treasures from the old museum to the new. We did clamber over stones and took photos.

Ah, I should say that Michael was able to book us to another hotel - the Jason Prime in Omonia, for our Sunday night here before our very early start off to Milos on Monday morning. His birthday hotel! We discussed all this with Tony.

Returned to the Hotel Adrian for a bit of a lie down. Managed a respectable 14,000 + steps despite having been driven around all day. A brief snooze does help. We need to pack to leave some stuff here and take some to Milos. Tomorrow is our day trip to Delphi and Monday morning our ferry departs at 7.30 am. It is all go around here! 14,898 steps. I recalibrated weight and stride length this morning so this now represents 7.59 kms and 592 calories. I think we had been overestimating the kms and underestimating the cals.

Pretty amazing to use the cell phone to call the reservation desk of the hotel company from the front of the Marathon Museum while Katester patted the puppies. I took snaps here and there. Plan is to check out of the ADrian Hotel tomorrow morning and leave two bags here for our return. When Tony collects us tomorrow we take our island bags with us. Then at the end he drops us at the Jason Prime, not the Adrian, and he collects us Monday morning from the Jason Prime (which I should call - got to get the number - to double check the reservation and tell them we won't be there until 6 pm, say.) In addition Tony also pointed out the burial tumulus of the Plataeans, the Athenian allies, near the museum. It is behind a fence but utherwise unmarked or unremarked. I decided to replace the Tokyo owl dangly on my camera with something more durable. The wear and tear of going in and out of my pocket pulled one of the owl's ears out. I packed the owl away with the Kyklades head. (we saw some of these figures in the Marathon Museum.) I got one of the Greek blue eyes to string onto my camera.

I am amused when Tony the Taxi Driver talks about going to see the Tubes. I think that is Greek for Tombs!

We got organised for the day trip tomorrow, the shift to the Jason Prime Hotel, and thne on Monday morning to head to Milos via ferry.

12th October, 2007

2007-11-10T22:56:00.000-08:00

Rose and shone about 07.00. Beauty sleep effective once again. Now on roof top, eating. Today it is Piraeus: the Maritime Museum, the Archaeological Museum, and the Ancient Ship sheds on Sirangiou, then more eats! Got two out of those three. Also seeing other things to do! Ancient Eats, Hellenic Cosmos, Benaki Museum and Annex, Museum of Costumes, and more.

No doubt our programme will involve lots of walking! We are now at 333 steps and haven't warmed up yet. There is nothing on TV to watch. About the only English is CNN and it is stupid and repetitive. We saw a kind of shopping show one night. It appeared to be an auction, and it was extremely slow. The presenter was very laid back, none of the histrionics of the Italian version we remember so well and with such affection. So we read and then conk out. Made it to 9.30 last night - our record!

Afternoon: Piraeus and Syntagma cost us 20,739 steps, or 15.5 kms. Jeepers, creepers, where'd you get those creakers! (old bones..) Here I am, plodding on.

We caught the metro from Monastiraki to Piraeus where we debarked and began our walkaround. We had as our goals the Piraeus Archaeological Museum and the Nautical Museum. We passed the former without realising and found the latter after a completely useless bout of instructions from a group of blokes. The museum was heavy on modern war (those pesky Turks!) and quite light on ancient, but it was quite interesting. Back around the harbour (where ruins must have been lurking underneath) and up to the Archaeological Museum. It was shut, it being October, or Friday, or the day we were there. We breathed a secret sigh of relief, and pressed on around the harbour. Michael had his sights set on an ancient slipway visible in the foundations of an apartment building. He found them. The new pressing down upon the old. The layers of civilization are very clearly visible here and we often commented on how the new Athenians jostled for elbow room among the old. Pictured is a map of the original site, and then the view through the glass window into the foundations of the building.

We continued around and saw lucky people swimming, although I can't think the water would be clean or clear. On to Mikrolimano where eats were the order of the day. Such a choice! Eventually the man touting for business outside the Four Brothers was persuasive enough and in we went to sit. Blessed sitting! He wanted to sell us 80 Euros worth of lunch but that was much too much foodwise. Tzatziki for me, Greek salad for Michael, followed by grilled sardines for me and fried calamari for Michael. All delicious, and around 15 euros. Fish swam nearby feeding on scaps of bread thrown in by patrons and a waiter. A fisherman caught one of the fish on a line and bore it off - to eat? Greek coffee finished our leisurely meal. We sat right on the water - this is the view from our table.

The food was cooked in the restaurant across the street. We were in no hurry and neither was our waiter. Finally we paid up and creaked on our way to the station - Neo Filari. Validated our tickets and stepped straight onto the train. We've never waited more than 30 seconds for a train.

Being gluttons for punishment we decided to go to Syntagma Station and see the exhibition of the excavation for the metro. Very well done - informative, nicely laid out. Then set off for the Museum of Greek Costume. We made our way throught the narrow streets in the middle of the city. Found the Museum. It being Friday, or October, or 2007, it was closed. Alas. I had my heart set on that one. Ancient roons (ruins) might be interesting enough, but I wanted to see embroidery and textiles!!!

We made our way back to the Parliament where the guard was just changing. Good timing for once, for me to take my photos. Bought a couple of snacks for tonight's dinner and finally made it back to the hotel for complete collapse. Today is our record for steps. One of these days perhaps we will have under ten thousand! Maybe. Having a coffee now, sitting on the little balcony, thinking about showering off the dust. Tomorrow is a half-day trip to Marathon, I think. Yep.

Piraeus was quite grubby, very dense as usual. It is a little like a more up-market Cairo. We saw a supermarket with a meat van, carrying in carcasses. One set of ribs appeared to get dumped in a rubbish bin, but I don't think it was left there. Ferrying groceries to the top floor of those 8-storey buildings can't be fun!

Maybe we should have walked from Piraeus to the Akropolis as Socrates did. Getting to Piraeus was easy, but getting around was difficult - even fewer signs. We saw the inner harbor and those shipsheds - or the stone foundations of them. Several of the menus at Mikrolimanis listed a fish called Arrogant. Yep. It was very nautical: rows and rows of ever bigger yachts, more and bigger yachts than at the marina in Nice when we walked around there, whenever that was - 1994? I have now seen many models of triremes, but none explains its evolution or how it worked. The top rower had one very long oar to manage. One sign at the Natucial Museum said rowed by "Free Greeks, not slaves" (no Ben Hurs there). That is literally true, Greeks with very few Athenians among them. Most of the navy, Pericles recruited from the Ionians, the people of the islands, and paid them well. They found work in peace time in Pericles' vast constructions, and in war time there was ever more money to be made rowing. When the gold stolen from the Delian League ran out, the rowers were paid in another coin - Athenian citizenship. The Piraeus Archaeological Museum was closed for renovations, as was the Costume Museum. So our walk there was a zero though Katester asked about a Greek necktie at a shop. Nope, only two, and not nice.

11th October, 2007 (Greece continues..)

2007-11-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

Awoken at 4.10 by the ringing of Kate's phone. Worrying. WEnt back to nods and it is now 7.10 am. Cool outside with chirping birds. Brisk Brew is on the job and Kate is in the half-shower. More museums today.

The phone didn't worry me much. The blood bank calling to ask for more? Amex offering me a platinum card? I didn't recognise the number.

Only 11.8 kms yesterday, 590 cals, 15,742 steps. There will be more (!). We are ready.

Last night we ate figs from a small fruit shop (wonderful) and a nectarine (floury, not nice) and some cold spinach pie. We read for a bit and I tatted, and just before nine we were conked out. All that walking around does get one ready for bed. Today we do Museums in the morning, and then I meet Robert Molho from Elidoc - a Vital user. I am looking forward to it. I may return to purchase another less expensive trinket I spotted near the new Acropolis Museum. Will take the metro around, I think.

Later that evening. Step count for me is 19,790 or 14.84 kms. Probably more for Michael as we separated for the afternoon.

After our breakfast we took the metro from Monastiraki to Evangelismos. Emerged to find our way down past the War Museum to the Byzantine & Christian Museum. That is a lovely moderm museum with very informative displays. Lots of icons, many double-sided. Some textiles and books. I saw some hooks and eyes for clothing of absolutely the same design as today's. This was the site where a new wing was to be built but they dug a foot down and the Archaeological Police decreed that this was Aristotle's Lyceum. We asked about it but alas it was closed and workmen were busy there. It being Thursday.... (private joke - whenever we are THERE whatever we are THERE to see is closed - it being Thursday, or July, or 10.00 am, or a Saint's Day, or 2005, or whatever.)

We also saw an exhibition of Gothic architecture in the Mediterranean which was very nicely done. In the interstices of those vaulted ceilings are usually lots of ceramic pots - they make it light but add strength. There are always lots of young women hanging around in these museums, with their mobile phones at hand and their handbags slung over their chairs. What are they doing? They are not in any uniform, seem not to offer much, or any, assistance. The shop was absolutely minimal. A few scholarly tomes in Greek.

Contrast that with our next stop, the Cycladic Museum. It was much more impressive. Only half the museum was open but that included those enigmatic cycladic figures.

One of the more unusual figures is seated, holding aloft a cup. There are lots of t-shirts showing that figure, with funny quips about drinking through the ages.

How intriguing they are. It is impossible not to see Modigliani's faces looking back at you.

Some of those figures are really large. The 'frying pan' thingies are very interesting too.

We went to the Byzantine Museum because it is currently supposed to be the location of Aristotle's Lyceum, at least according to one of our guide books. Wikipedia has it at the new Museum of Contemporary Art, based on a 1996 find. However that new wing is a construction site, which fits with one blog I found. I took a few snaps. Then Kate set off and I returned to the War Museum - free admission. Very very little ancient. Mostly the endless war with the Turks. I had hoped to see the foll Spartan body armor - about 60 pounds including shield and weapon. The armor would be for a man 5' 2" tall. But no. The I set off for the Numismatic Museum in Schliemann's mansion. And a mansion it certainly is. I was reminded that the one Euro coin has a national symbol on the back; those minted in/for Greece have Athena's owl. I put one aside. There were some very informative displays, e.g., one showing the gradual debasing of the Byzantine Empire - the coins got lighter (more alloys), smaller, and finally concave from use - some light and fragile. I guess they got bent. Others about the flow of commerce, aided or hindered by money. It was nearly all coins, not paper money. Then I crossed the street and trawled throught the Attica department store, looked at homewares for kitchen utensils. I also looked at men's wear for a Greek necktie. All Italian or Englishe that I saw. Then I walked past the Congress with the guards in national dress, caps, skirts, (with the 40 pleats celebrating something to do with the eternal war with the Turks), pom pom shoes.

Past the National Gardens, then slowly back to the hotel. Made it at 3 pm. SMSed KVB. She got back at 5 pm. After a bit we did a promenade around the Acropolis, climbing the Acropolis, climbing the slippery rock Areopagus, scouting the Jewellery Museum. Somewhere along the way Katester acquired more stuff. Yes we went to the Cycladic Museum first. Those strange figures. I think the first time I saw one was in "The Magus." I had to have an aide-memoir so I got a head that will serve as a paperweight. Kate also got some stuff there, which I bravely carried back to the hotel.

It was paper - a few cards and notebooks so not hugely heavy, but I appreciated the carrying.

I had an interesting afternoon at Elidoc, comparing notes about VTLS. Must write that up separately - lots of notes. They are indeed isolated and are doing some interesting and creative stuff, especially their work with the National Theater of Northern Greece, managing all the objects in a performance. Here is the crew:

On our perambulation around the Acropolis we bought a couple of baguettes and boxes of fruit juice for our dinner, which we have just eaten. As M says, it is great to have dinner in your underwear after a shower, with no getting up to go anywhere! We both had showers. One of my purchases today was a Dr. Scholl's foot scraper and some heel cream which I deployed. All those steps take their toll. I'm wearing a Waikiki sarong and my new Athenian necklace which M persuaded me to buy.