Ding Dong the wedding bells are soon to chime, and I shall be Mother-of-the-Bride, take 2! Natasha and Leo suddenly announced that they are to be wed in September! Oh my, and we are all in a tizz. We leave Doha Wednesday night for summer hols at home, then I shall stay on and return to Doha after the ‘do’. Sadly John won’t be able to attend the wedding, so I shall be modelling my lovely blue ‘designer-dress’ alone.

The photo below was taken in Glenelg Primary School, with Natasha as the blushing bride, and Alan McDiarmid not really interested and the fellow in the red tights keeping well away from the proceedings! Let’s hope the REAL thing looks better!

Exciting times… one minute the family is scattered all over the place then in a twinkling we shall be united again for the happy event. Nick will fly over from Oz, and Gerry and Cathal will be there, so we shall all have lots to talk about (e.g. quilting HA HA!).

It all sounds wonderful. The ceremony will be in Cardiff City Hall, full of beauty and art denoting the Victorians’ civic pride, then it’s off to Penarth for a Greek banquet with a lamb on a spit, champagne on a roof terrace overlooking the sea, then lunch in the restaurant, then on to Penarth Church Hall for a dance with the wild Cat’s Claw Ceilidh Band! (It could be a scene from the Highland Games!)

My sewing friends here have offered to help me sew bunting and decorations for the hall, so we shall do that on Tuesday. Natasha says her theme is rainbow colours, so material for that that is easy to get in the souks here.

Not much else to report as the searing hot winds in Qatar are a nightmare. You just cannot go out, and as it is still Ramadan, there is little point in going out anyway as everything is closed during the day. We did venture to the beach one Friday but it was too hot. The seawater was hotter than my bath and the heat is exhausting. We have been ogling DVDs and have gobbled up ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Breaking Bad’. As a break from the series routine we decided to watch a Bear Grylls, and chose his survival tricks in the Sahara. Oh dear God. I couldn’t sleep that night with visions of him munching beetles and scorpions, barbecuing snake and biting into a live frog to survive. I cannot dwell on goats’ testicles and grubbing about inside a camel’s stomach and scooping up handfuls of water as though it were a cool mountain stream. It was all too awful.

So naturally, with all this Ramadan restrictions, I have been in sewing heaven, stitching away the hours, and have made a rather dramatic quilt which will be bordered in mountains depicting the seasons. I have even hand-dyed the sky colours. I did finish the original one then I got inspired and ambitious. It took me the whole day to cut and place all the segments of the snowy scene. I was squatting on the floor and standing up and ironing and then squatting… I must have done it about 100 times. At night I could barely sit down, as my lower back and thigh muscles were in spasms. This quilting lark is not for Jessies.

So Adios from Doha for now. Next time I write I may be in Edinburgh or Wales… and the time will be passing until I see another daughter married. Working on Rastamouse was a good move for them both, and I don’t  think they envisioned that they would buy a house and tie the knot in the pretty little town of Penarth. As for me, ‘Bring on the Cat’s Claw!’, I say.