TUSAL Pt 2

Feb New Moon, Second Photo in this year long SAL - despite my lamp packing up, there are actually a fair few new threads in there - lot of mark up threads from 12 Days of Christmas

TUSAL

Due to the restrictions of life in Saudi Arabia I'm doing far more cross stitch and came across the TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch A Long) yesterday and although the the offical start (6th Jan) has passed - thought I would take up the challenge as it is SO EASY. All I have to do is collect the bits of threads left over in a jar/container and take a picture every new moon.


I've choosen my Rock Bottoms glass to start with, although based on the amount of stitching I'm hoping to do this year think I might fill it before the end of this stitch along


The TUSAL is run by It's Daffycat

One Last Hurrah!!!

wasn't possible to think of heading off on my next adventure with out one last weekend of indulgent dancing (not going to be much of that in Saudi ;) )

And what an indulgent weekend I got, not only of dancing but of wonderful old & new friends from all around the country!!!! at Mariachi's first weekender!!!!

So many fun dances, so many lovely chats, and some very sweet and treasured farewell tokens, and support at a difficult time.

After 2 nights of luxurious freestyle, 2 days of teaching workshops the icing on the cake was the wonderful after party full of giggles and nibbles, and the cherry on top was breakfast the day after with some very special friends.

couldn't think of a better Last Hurrah!!!!

Up to speed 2

well it's been nearly a year since the last the last time I brought this blog up to date so here we go - and I have much more reason to actually stick with my resolution to keep this up to date as I'm off on a great big adventure!!

since last time the following has happened

• have become an Aunt!!
• been offered and accepted a job with Saudi Aramco
• departed the UK for Aus (just 3 days shy of my visa expiring it turns out)

and now I am in Aus waiting for my Visa to Saudi Arabia to finalised.

I'm going to be working as a secretary on the western side of Saudi Arabia - not exactly sure where as yet.

For those that know my family - Sister, Hubby and my darlin neice are in Sydney and have recently bought a house, and Parents are currently traipsing around the US of A on their way back to Aus.

Perfectly delightful

Travelled up to Aberdeen last Sunday night for a Blues Party - had originally planned to do the entire blues weekend but my budget put its foot down so had to settle for just the Sunday night and it was SO worth the 2 hours each way and 3.30am bedtime!

The evening was lovely and chilled with the nicest of vibes – very relaxed and just the antidote I needed. Was lovely to catch up with friends I hadn’t seen for awhile including Lucky had been teaching the blues workshops over the weekend. Lovely dances, delicious cakes and delightful company and decadent blues music– the perfect combo.

And although rather later heading home the drive flew by with a fun chattering passenger – Lucky I’ll go on a road trip with you anytime!!

up to speed

Well it’s been awhile – and it’s not that I haven’t written things to post here – but that I haven’t posted them.

But given that yesterday (12 May) my was my 3rd anniversary of arriving in the UK I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf and start writing and posting – even if only short bits – hoping this will also motivate me to get my camera out more often – as I have been sorely remiss.

Right to get things upto date (I do have a plan to post some of the posts I have written but not posted but you know what they say about plans ;) ) so without further ado since I last posted the following major things have happened

• Applied for and got a full time job
• moved to Edinburgh

Hmmm well that is pretty much it – still dancing way to much – and driving all over the countryside to do so – this month being a prime example – first weekend of the month was in London for the Ceroc Champs, last weekend I was in Torquay for a MJ & Tango weekender – am SO getting into Tango at the moment and this weekend am heading south once again this time to Oxford to teach a workshop and attend a ball.

For those that know my family – my sister and her husband have moved to Australia – were in Melbourne in the family home but now in Sydney for a little while as that is where the work is. And the parental figures are still in the UK.

weekend of shiny new toys

Friday I got my first shiny new toy – a new mobile – I’ve been using cast off phones for the last 18 months since my photo committed suicide by jumping out of my handbag onto a concrete floor. I am now the proud new owner of this lovely piece of shineness

Still learning how to drive it – and for the first time ever I don’t hate predictive text – just got to learn how to accept the word offered LOL

The other piece of fabulous shininess is a 30GB black ipod – I have been lusting after one of these for years now and on Sunday morning bright and early – way to early really considering I got to sleep at around 3am - I was given a wee little box which contained the wonderful shineiness that is my ipod. And a special thanks has to go to my Dad for saying lets get the 30 GB rather than the 8GB, but it was Mums idea in the first place and Sis was the one that actually went to the shop to get it so special thanks to all of them – it was a fab birthday pressie – and I don’t think I’ve ever had one that was such a team effort

Amazing Day!!!!

Blackpool Comp was amazing - the venue was the Tower Ballroom - which is like the mecca of ballroom dancing here.



The day was the usual mix of waiting around and frantic activity - but with plenty of great company and lots of lovely dances to be had - the waiting around wasn't so bad :)

It was great to see friends from all over the country side and put more faces to forumite names.

CJ & I both entered Lucky Dip & Advanced. I had fun in Lucky Dip but didn't make it past the first heat - CJ however was blessed by the gods of dancing with the divine Miss Yuko as his partner and made it all the way through to the Finals and placing 3rd a fabulous achievement!!!



Unfortunately we didn't do so well in Advanced - didn't make it passed our heat - but we were happy with how we danced and most importantly we didn't fall over. We got some lovely compliments on both our dancing and our costumes. To be honest the music for our heat was rather odd compared to the other Advanced heats - and no couple from our heat went through to the next round which really surprised me as there were some impressive couples in our heat.

Despite being rather ill I held up fairly well until we had a fire drill - in which we evacuated the building in record time - but the standing around outside didn't do me any favours and once we were allowed back inside there was only time for a few dances before it was time for presentations - by the time that was all over - well i was done in and headed home early - which was a shame - but with an early start on the Sunday well it was all for the best.

Photos @ Kodak

As long as I don't fall over

Well the past few weeks have been pretty busy. Since agreeing to do the Blackpool comps with CJ at southport have been busy practising with him when he's been down this way - he lives near Edinburgh which is about an 8-9 hour drive away from Reading. So it's it tends to be very packed weekends.

It has been great to working on my dancing again with some focus and CJ is a fabulous partner to work with - pushing me to extend myself and giving me the safe space to do so.

And there have been all the other comp prep things to go through costumes - with the added twist in this case that CJ only wears kilts, accomodation, transport, entries and so on.

And now it's all only a few days away and I'm terrified and excited - although mostly terrified but I just keep reminding myself

"As long as I don't fall over it's all good"

Another Southport Experience

well another Southport has been and gone. And what a blast it was!!!! Got a lift up with MsFab & PaulF - which made for a very amusing journey. Shared with Jo - a lovely girl.

It was lovely to catch up with old friends and make new ones - although several familiar faces were absent.

Was a little worried what it would be like in Feb being winter and all - but the weather gods blessed us with beautiful sunny weather so while cold it wasn't miserable. The blues room deck was enclosed with a marquee and it was difficult for them to get the heating/cooling levels right.

I spent more time in the main room this Southport - which was due to 2 things 1 temperature variation in the blues room and that the main room was much less crowded and hot than in June or Sept.

In addition to all the fabulous freestyling I also undertook 3 workshops with CJ - this combined with freestyling was a trial in consideration of entering the a Chance2Dance comps in Blackpool - it all went well and we decided that we would give it a go!! *GULP*

It was fun doing the workshops with a fixed partner got so much more out of them that way.

My favourite of the day was proberbly the aerial workshop - taught by Yvual Hod he with his partner Gabby (who had flown in on the Saturday to assist as Nathalie was injured) taught one move - initally I was hesitant about how effective such a large aerials class could be but Yuval was absolutely strict about people only progressing as far as they were instructed - and he also made it fun at the same time, a very enganging teacher and dancer.

Have already booked my place for Sept!!!! but sadly will have to miss June as I will still be in Italy following E&P's wedding.

5 minutes in a day

It’s amazing the difference 5 minutes can make to a working day.

The bus I catch to work is being delayed by roadworks so is arriving at work 10-15 minutes later than it would otherwise arrive – so rather that getting in between 5 & 15 minutes before the guys I work for I arrive at the same time as them – this means that they are firing things at me while I’m getting my coat off, computer on and trying to check the calendar/to do list for the day. Needless to say those 3 things often don’t happen until much later in the morning

Yes?

Saying yes to things can be a scary thing. For all sorts of reasons, it’s a commitment of your time, your energy, it may be something that is going to take you out of your comfort zone – in away you are not sure you want to go.

Anyway I've decided to say yes more often to the random things that come my way and see where they take me....

Heaven in a Biscuit

had my first BBQ shape biscuit in 6 months today - oh the bliss
- there is nothing like Shapes biscuits over here - nothing that has that
crunch that shapes have *sigh*

The Cold Has Arrived

Ok I am SO not a fan of this cold malarki!!! 0 degrees is standard overnight low - with - degrees not uncommon.

Getting dressed to go out doors is a mission - there is a coat and a scarf and gloves and a hat - well I don't have a hat yet but mum's making me one.

this many layered michilen man impression is fine until you enter any building and then it is a frantic strip so as not to expire from heat exhastion

Home Time

I’m on the train back to London now and it feels really strange sort of like the past 2 weeks didn’t happen – the whole 2 weeks in Turkey were amazing – especially the last 2 days,exploring Istanbul – and I’m already trying to work out when I can get back there and go further east and also spend a little bit more time in a few of the places – because although the tour was fantastic – and it you are thinking about going to Turkey I can highly recommend TravelTalk – but it was a tour and you weren’t always free to do what you wanted.

Turkey is a country of contrasts and contradictions – their national hero seems to be adored and was a very forward thinker who created a secular government and law system, who in acted laws that established amazing equality for women – education, financial, the vote – including the banning of the headscarf in schools and government offices. But now when Turkey is wanting to join the EU it seems to be in part trying to turn back the clock to the government and laws prior to Ataturk.

It is the contrast & contradictions that are Turkey’s appeal – mobile phones, satellite dishes are commons sites but so are tradiditonal food sellers wandering the street (apparently these are under threat if turkey joins the EU due to health laws :()

There are amazing beautiful building here both old and new but then we would pass by places that in Australia you would wonder why they hadn’t been knocked down that were home to families.

Istanbul for all it’s bustling internationalism is also very old school – with the call to prayer heard a cross the city and business’s in go slow mode during Ramadan and in some respects seems to have a rather love hate relationship with it’s westerness. But it is all this that gives Turkey and Instanbul it’s character – the ritual of being offered tea when doing a deal is lovely

Wandering in Istanbul

As the weather was lovely we decided to walk back to the city – which made for a lovely adventure – we walked through a sculpture exhibition, I finally got to buy a bread ring from a street seller – it was delicious, be paused for some tea and a game of tavla, and a snooze at a tea house along the way.


We also stopped by the fish markets where the fish is so fresh it’s swimming, and it was here that Lorin and I got some lunch from one of the many food stalls we passed – pialf – rice with chick peas it was delicious.




From the fish markets we walked over the bridge – well sort of underneath it actually – passed lots of bars and cafes and then across the top past all the fishermen. Once we reached the other side we wandered around the stalls that were on the outside of the Spice Market – there were stalls selling, spices, nuts, clothes house hold items – pretty much you name it you could buy it here and finally we succeeded in our mission to buy spoons to go with our teasets!!!! The stall holder had very little English and we had next to no Turkish so it was one of our more unsuccessful bargining sessions but at a mere 4 lira we didn’t feel much need to kibble.

Feeling rather foot weary we headed back to the hotel and farewelled Frostie who is leaving late on Monday.

Lorin and I headed upstairs to our rooms and got our bags packed – with a bit of squishing and rearranging we managed to fit everything. Just!

Once we had finished packing it was still early so we decided to take one last wander down by the harbour. It was very different to the first night – which was due to a number of things – Ramadan was over, it was Republic day and we were there much earlier than Phillipa and I had gone out on our first night.

There were far more people around, and not just men – there were women as well – and lots more stalls selling, shoes, bags, toys belts clothes etc – there were also more of the delicious smelling portable food stands – I looked at having a fish kebab – they smelt divine but the fish were put in whole and my fear of bones wouldn’t let me have one. I did however get a sweet donut like thing from another stall – it’s not actually anything like a donut – it was a larger round version of the light and crunchy syrup soaked dumplings we had enjoyed.

Photos @ kodak

New Palace

Today was a busy and relaxing day – Lorin and I met Frostie in the hotel Foyer at 10am and from there we headed to the New Palace – between the 3 of us we had a rough idea of where we were going and managed to get ourselves on a train and to the New Palace with out any major dramas. The walk from the train station to the palace was quite nice – a few stalls on the way and lots of people heading to a soccer match.

The new palace is one of the most expensive places to go see – and as a result we didn’t go through the actual palace it’s self. But we did go to the Crystal pavilion, walked around the gardens, saw the clock collection and snuck into a ballroom in the Palace, saw guards marching and got our photo taken with a guard.

Photos @ Kodak

Trip to the Spice Market

Back at the hotel – Lorin and I got dumped our shopping, made plans to meet Frostie the next morning, I checked to see if my phone had arrived and we headed out to the Spice Market for a last couple of items.

This was the most fun part of our shopping day! The markets were not as busy as they had been in the afternoon and we were more relaxed than we had been in the morning. We found the sweets shop where we had been offered a special price – and he remembered us!! And we got the full treatment – he gave us tea and chatted with us, then we sampled various types of Turkish delight before deciding on our purchases which he then vacuum sealed for us.

While we were chatting the topic of backgammon came up – and he invited me to join him for a game later on – and while he seemed perfectly nice I declined – but it was very flattering and Lorin loved telling Canar and Cassie later on about me getting hit on my the Turkish delight seller.

After we had bought our Turkish delight we wandered about the Spice Market a bit more – after a full day of dealing with shopkeepers we were much more at ease with them and chatted back to them when they talked to us – and even though we assured them that we had already bought all the Turkish delight we wanted/needed they would insist that we try this or that type – all of which were very delicious.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped off at the lovely baklava shop where we bought some for a snack and I checked that they would be open the next day for me to buy some to take home we also stopped to buy a Turkish news paper to use as packing around our tea sets – we picked the fattest one and took placed it on the counter – as we paid for it the shop keeper asked if we read Turkish to which we responded no – the look on his face was classic

After dropping off the last lot of shopping in my room I headed out for some dinner the others had had a kebab on the way back from the Grand Bazar. Down stairs I ran into Canar and after chatting for a bit – he joined me for dinner – it was very interesting talking him with out his tour guide hat on a very ambitious young gentleman.

After dinner we could hear the fireworks – it was the start of the celebrations for republic day – and Canar asked me if I would like to see them as he knew a good view point near by – Of course was my response – the viewing point turned out to be a bar upstairs in the hotel – the view was amazing – wish I had had my camera with me – we could see the bridge and the new palace and topai palace and all all the fireworks in between.

A Day of Shopping in Istanbul

Today was the last day of the tour and breakfast saw the first of the farewells – to Joelene, Joel & Kristy – Phillipa had already gone – having an early morning flight.

Shopping with boys
After breakfast Lorin & I headed to the Grand Bazar with James & Chris. It was all a bit whirl wind as the boys had to be back at the hotel by mid day to get to the airport – so Lorin and I mostly just tagged along where they wanted to go. J&C are master hagglers – and made several great deals. I didn’t buy anything in the morning – Lorin bought a leather poof thing with the boys – they bought like 20 of them and got them for about ½ the original price.



After a speedy tour of the markets it was time to head back to the Hotel via jewellwery shop we had passed on the way – which after an abortive attempt to back track – James wanted to turn left which was back toward the Bazar – and Chris wanted to go straight ahead which was the opposite direction to where we needed to go master barginers they may be but with no sense of direction what so ever – we managed with ease.

James & Chris’s master bargining came into effect again at the jewellery shop – this was my favourite shop of the morning – as got to help spend other peoples money ;) the boys bargained for 20 pairs of earrings for 30 lira – this was ½ the price of one pair. It was fun helping Chris pick out 20 pairs of earrings. I bought 4 pairs of earrings – 2 for myself and 2 for gifts – I got them for the same price as the others got theirs – it pays to go shopping with big spenders

As well as earring the shop sold plates, drums, rings and bracelets. The Jewllery was all make there – they had the sheets of pressed copper – both plain and coloured – with the shapes marked on them which they engraved with the designs then cut out, curved and applied fixings to.

Back at the hotel we caught up with the rest of the group & Canar for the final time :( although it wasn’t quite good bye to everyone yet – Lorin, Frostie and myself were all staying until Monday – Cassie was staying until Sunday

Got some good news about my phone – it was on it’s way and for just 30 Lira I would have it that evening Canar’s friend would drop it off at the hotel for me YEAH – what a relief!!


Shopping with Lorin & Others
The afternoon was more shopping this time with Janet and Robert, Frostie, Cassie & Lorin – this time Lorin and I did so some buying – we had made lists and were on a mission as the markets weren’t going to be open on the Sunday.

We started off at the spice markets, where you are confronted with an amazing assortment of sights and smells – although we looked we didn’t buy at this time – but made a note of a couple of stalls to come back too.

Once through the spice market we made headed toward the grand bazaar – this tooking us through local shopping area – we didn’t see many tourists here. But we did see a number of the items we wanted to purchase so serious browsing was taking place. It was surprising how easy it was to keep our largish group together in the crowds.

Prices aways from the tourist areas were cheaper – so we had our eyes peeled for things on our lists – the first purchase I made was several evil eye protectors – which was followed up by the first bargining of the day for 2 tea sets – one for Lorin and one for me – and once the price was negotiated we had to find just the right ones – which we finally managed.

And finally we made our way into the Grand Bazar – at this point we fair welled Janet & Robert who had some other things to do before heading to the airport later that afternoon.

In the Grand Bazar against all odds I managed to navigate back to several stalls we had been to in the morning – where based on our return we managed some very fruitful bargaining. The biggest shopping missions of the day were Cassies search for a pipe – she succeeded after several shops and much bargining, and Lorin & mine’s search for spoons to go with our tea set – the closed we came was some at 200 lira for 6 – they were stirling silver – oh well we always have Sunday.

My final purchase at the Grand Bazar was a Tvla (backgammon) set – I probably didn’t bargaining the guy down as much as I should have but to be honest I was rather over it and had enough shopping.

After an afternoon of successful shopping we headed back to the hotel – via the jewellery shop we had been to in the morning where Cassie got the same great bargain as we had. I couldn’t resist and bought myself a ring to go with one of the pairs of earrings I had bought in the morning.

Photos @ Kodak

Long day of travel

Long day of travel from Cappidocia to Istanbul with a stop at Ankara the capital of Turkey to visit Anit Kabir the monumental mausoleum of Ataturk the father of modern Turkey.



Photos @ Kodak