Poor John, he’s had a week from hell. The wonderful crown that he had made in Kiev, came to a sad end when he pranged it with his fork. A second one was made here in Doha, but it was no good, the dentist had dislodged the titanium post and chipped bone and all sorts of evil things.

Anyway… this is the week that the work began. He had to have a bone graft, and a gum transplant taken from the roof of his mouth and all this in the front tooth cavity, and whilst he was AWAKE. The team of four are amazing, he says… young, talented and full of the latest gadgets.  A Lebanese surgeon, a Guatemalan nurse, a Ukranian dental nurse, and someone else.

He came home, quite shell shocked, and was still numb and had a load of pain killers for ‘just in case’. ‘Nursie’ was at the ready, with soup and sympathy.

There was a lot of checking with my pocket mirror to view the bright blue stitches, and the strange false tooth that is in place till the bone graft takes.

Anyway… I heard a call from the bathroom to ‘bring the scissors’ and rushed to help. He wanted me to open the packet of the dressing, as he was bleeding quite badly; the packing had come unstuck from the roof of his mouth and he was gushing blood like a red waterfall over the wash hand basin. I handed the scissors, all set to help, but it was too much… I was overcome with a swoon, and nearly fainted away, the head started to feel like black cotton wool and I could feel myself falling, luckily the toilet was at hand. ‘Nursie’ disgraced herself.

He is off getting something done today, maybe stitches out, so will be late home. I have made mushy stuff that is easy to eat with a teaspoon. It’s all go in ‘the sickness and in health’ dept.

Otherwise, it has been rainy and cold, so we have been off to the cinema, all dressed up in our fleeces to watch The Book Thief’ and ‘Philomena’ – wonderful films, both of them, and last night we went to see The Comedy Club that had funny comedians from London over to entertain the Brits  Abroad. Clever takes on the everyday nonsense of life.

We did go to a party last Saturday and met some folk from other walks of Doha, and compared notes etc. I really liked a young guy called Amir who promised to take us to Iran. He is taking my friend and her husband so we will see how that goes, but it sounds wonderful. To Persepolis and Isfahan, but not Tehran.  There is so much world to see, but how to fit it all in? I will be going back in Scotland soon (!!!!), and then after that we are planning a trip to North Borneo.

We went to the beach on Friday and the sun shone and we walked and walked and gloried in the colours, it was so beautiful. Such a relief after all the rain and clouds.

Otherwise it has been sewing days for me. With a lot of help from Carol, I have now finished the Scottish quilt, except for sewing down the binding… it looks so good, I love it,

and today I  finished the batik one, it is amazing, and I think the most difficult one I have done. The colours have not been done justice by my phone flash.

Carol, Rose, Kerrie and I are going to Dubai on Sunday for the night, coming back on Monday evening. It’s to be a girls’ ‘jolly’. I shall take my quilt to Mala and get it professionally quilted because the size of this one is too big for me to do on my machine and I think after all this work, it needs some proper finishing off. I have such a headache at the moment as I have been sewing since 7.30 this morning. Why can’t I just relax like other people and say, ‘Who cares? Finish it next week or next month, just stop and go for a walk.’ But I can’t.  I have deadlines. I have a Noah’s Ark quilt waiting in the wings, ready to be started, and an ‘I spy’, and maybe a ‘Sunbonnet Sue’, Oh, dear Lord, I need more days!

My friend Kerrie tried out the new bus system. It plods about this business area, clogging up the lanes in an attempt to alleviate the traffic problem. They were stopped at the lights, when a massive crane swooped down and smashed the driver’s window, then swung back and smashed the side of the bus. It was all very dramatic. There was only Kerrie, Karen and the bus driver on board. Fortunately the hook on the end of the crane was pointing outwards, otherwise the driver might have had a very unusual death.

Day is done, and gone is the sun. Tomorrow night we shall eat haggis and think of Robert Burns, and remember the first Burn’s Supper that we were part of in the Press Club in Hanoi.

A wee glass of something won’t go amiss either!