Thursday, December 23, 2010

Happy

Our son and daughter-in-law and their little girl have arrived from Singapore, there was some worry that the nasty weather in London would cause them to be delayed but luckily their plane was one which got through.

This is all the Christmas present I want. Thank you Santa!

I hope all the readers of this blog will have such a lovely wish fulfilled.

Happy Christmas to everyone.


Carole

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Be nice....

Just a thought when you are rushing around buying all that stuff that you can't afford for people who have everything they need anyway...here endeth the sermon.
Maybe this is my way of justifying my lack of Christmas shopping this year, anyway, have a good one.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Lotus eaters...kindof



                                                                        Lotus

Every year I 'eat them with my eyes'. They are so beautiful that I feel as if I have captured a magical creature for a brief time, I could just sit and watch it for the two or so days that each bloom lasts.
My very first blog post was a photo of the lotus in bloom last February.
Christmas matters proceed apace (a snails pace) and we are just marking time 'til the arrival of our Singapore family.
Granddaughters are here for some of the holidays, we have been baking up a storm and watching movies. The baked goodies hardly make it past the kitchen door the heat makes it a different experience, baking in 30 degrees celcius and 90% humidity. Sometimes I remember the cold Christmas times in the USA when we were students there and how Christmas preparations were so elaborate . Here we are as like to put on our cozzies (swimsuits) and go to the beach for a barbeque for lunch. The Prof. however still insists on the full baked disaster, ham, pork, chicken (we don't like turkey) with all of the trimmings. Thank goodness we have been able to dispense with the plum pudding and mince pies...Our English/Irish ancestors have a lot to answer for.....I confess that although it is a lot of work and we usually sit eating it in an airconditioned room, I would miss it. Besides, we wouldn't have a few glorious days of left overs to give the cook a rest if we didn't do it!Today it was making meatballs which we had for lunch and froze some...exciting stuff!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Steam powered internet

I just want to say, if you are contemplating using a 'dongle' for mobile internet, forget it. A dinosaur could deliver a message faster and they are dead! Have tried every which way to upload a photo this morning and just would not do it. Grrrr!
So, all that is left is for me to bore you to tears once more dear friend with Ta Da...


                                            Pemberly
                       Chapter 2
It is not to be supposed that Frederick alighted from his post chaise onto the steps of the great house to universal approbation.
His election as the future inheritor of Pemberly did not sit well with the daughters of the house and their opinions had been loudly voiced by their elder sister Jane, So named in honour of her well beloved aunt.
"Mother, are we still to be denied the freedoms and rights so long withheld from our sex when a woman, the princess Victoria is to come to the very throne of England? Rational men cannot cling to these outmoded customs! The placing of an entail directing property away from a natural inheritor denies a woman her rights and is abhorrent, it must and should be addressed by an act of Parliament to right the   wrong!"
"Be still Jane, that is as it may be  replied her mother, the prevailing state of affairs is that you and your sisters MUST marry well, moreover it is as easy to love a rich man as one who has only his personality to reccommend him, even though his family be ever so worthy. Love grows in time in the case and you have only to look to  the example of poor silly aunt Lydia to educate you on the evils of the path she chose in marrying for what she supposed to be love thus disregarding her future."
Privately Lizzie felt all of the injustice of her daughters' situation having experienced a similar imperative in her youth.
"Thank goodness I was able to see the goodness in Darcy and the evil in Wickham before it was too late, even though one had all of the virtue of it and the other the mere appearance of goodness" was her thought as she reviewed the many happy years  she had spent with one whom she had first perceived as a proud haughty man. Fortuitously for her, love had come with a large estate attached. Indeed her first  glimpse of Pemberly and its magnificent grounds had cemented the growing regard that she fostered for  its owner, the taciturn but tender hearted man whom she had loved these twenty odd years past. Lizzy could only hope such good fortune  would befall her daughters.
It is here we must enumerate and name these beauties who while having all of the cogniscence of their position in life but none of the hauteur usually associated with it were, nevertheless Darcys and proud of it. Jane we have met, a girl not unlike her namesake, possessing beauty and a calm nature but with  perhaps a little more sharpness of wit than she. Her capacity for outdoor sports was boundless and it was said that "No one sat a hunter like Miss Darcy".  Miss Darcy was admired for her energy and  and would think nothing of tramping miles in the mire in search of an interesting wildflower specimen to draw. Her energy stood her in good stead also at county balls where she was so much sought after as a dance partner and many a young swain was observed to sport a black eye gained in a contest to see who would become Jane's next partner in the waltz (waltzing being a fashion come lately to the county but much practiced during the London season).  Her unfailing good humour did not prevent her from peevishly noting that they "Had much better be using their time playing at tiddlywinks than fighting as if they were disputing the ownership of the better pack of hounds!"
During the course of the last London season she had successfully parried at least five declarations that "A chap might just shoot oneself" if his suit were not successful, a boast happily never executed to her profound relief.
Jane's good looks and friendly nature exerted a powerful inducement to these many declarations from admirers who chose to ignore  her lack of real prospects in pecuniary matters when the melancholy day of Mr. Darcy's demise should eventuate.
Still Jane would not be swayed.
"Pray do not make of my Jane an old maid" thought  Lizzy, "There is too much goodness and beauty in her to waste in a lonely spinsterhood".

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Dogoo (plus stamps)

Thank you to my blog buddy in Japan, 'Senior' for sending me an interesting etegami of Dogoo (I think she is a character in a popular Japanese TV show).
Also in the envelope were the name stamps for me to use on my etegami, carved by Senior as well as a blank postcard that he has made himself using plant matter to make the paper, very clever! As you can see on this postcard the paper is a very interesting texture and colour.
Thank you very much for these, I will use them on an etegami to send to you and maybe you can put it on your blog?
As usual, a misunderstanding, Dogu, which I think the TV series  (Dogoo) is loosely based on, is a warrior woman clay figurine of the Jomon period, a Japanese national treasure.
So, I looked up Wikipedia for Dogoo and in English it is Dogu also in Wikipedia ???? Thanks Senior hope that clears that up.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Time and tide

Lawks a mighty! is it Christmastime again so soon?
Well, bah humbug, Scrooge that I am I just cannot get into the Christmas spirit. Two people in the family battling cancer, a total of forty seven days in hospital this last 12 months for me and I am just getting older and no better looking! Things have got to look up.
The BIG bright spot on the horizon is that our family in Singapore will be here for Christmas, a whole week enjoying the granddaughter I never see from one year to the next. The worry though is that they are booked on a Qantas A380 jumbo, surely they will be ultra cautious by then and all of the safety tests will be totally rigorous.
My token effort towards getting into the mood is to have made these rather festive origami earrings in all colours for friends, too bad if they don't have pierced ears. I do make a lot of stuff out of origami, mostly cards but I never seem to post them here
 I am managing to waste my time in many other ways, chiefly in fantasizing about the next chapter in the lives of the  characters I have hijacked from Pride and Prejudice. The thing has taken on a life of it's own, however I will possibly ditch the whole thing in embarrassment when I hear what other people have written on Wednesday. It sure is fun though.
Then there is the New Year greeting  etegami to think about and ponder the  many ways to draw a rabbit. Thinking, thinking.......

Friday, December 3, 2010

A picture postcard from Japan

Etegaminikki (http://etegaminikki.blog97.fc2.com/) sent me this very cute card she had made in response to my email. As well as the card there was a beautiful set of calender cards , I shall think of her every time I look at them for a whole year.
Her grandchildren love Nutella and the jar she buys is made in Australia so she made this connection!
While I do not read or speak Japanese I understand she is the person who organizes to display etegami in train carriages in her region and many people submit work for her to put in.
Sounds like a fun idea and gives commuters something to look at .
Still hassling with OPTUS over the internet connection, looks like they are upgrading our package to 500 mgb but we still haven't canceled the old service...maybe this afternoon....sigh.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

There will be a short interruption to programs.............

We have (foolishly as it turns out) decided to change our internet provider and learned to our dismay that there would be a hiatus of THREE WEEKS between disconnecting from the old one and reconnecting to the new, after we had signed up.
This despite being assured by the smiling rep. from OP...er, the company that such would not be the case.I think the words seamless transition and you don't have to do a thing were uttered.
Himself is not pleased and is going around with a pained look because the company's solution to my squeals of horror was to give us an apology and free mobile broadband for the interim and it has taken us 24 hours to solve all of the problems associated with installing the software on our MACs  (OPT...oops, the company does not provide any technical support to MAC users of course).
NOT HAPPY, it is as slow as a wet week. To add insult to injury OPTU....er the company is now offering a download limit of ten times what we signed up for three weeks ago for less!!!!!!!!
I will leave you with this smiling face which bears no resemblance to my expression at the moment.