I am at a loss. All my sewing projects are finished, I have packed up what material I want to keep and have thrown away all the scraps and now the room is empty, except for all the bobbins and threads that will be packed in due course. What a wonderful two years I have had, with so many lessons learned on this sewing journey, and a passionate reason to get up each morning and be busy by 7.30am and stay busy till 4pm. An obsession, a passion, a ‘reason d’etre’. It has been a lonely activity, yet at the same time it combatted loneliness, for it has also introduced me to some wonderful friends. I shall miss the excitement of starting and finishing a new project, but who knows…we have a lot of rainy days in Scotland!

We are getting ready to leave. We go to Cyprus on Thursday for a week, and then back for 3 days then off home on the 6 August. The last week has seen a series of farewells. I said goodbye to my massage guy, Jason, and also Pixi and Debbie. The sewing ladies gave me a ‘ladies’ brunch’ which was so nice and yesterday Rose hosted a lunch with some friends. I sailed home on a cloud of pink fizz, even though it was Ramadan!

Bags are getting packed, clothes thrown out, and I have also started clearing out the food cupboards, and packing stuff to take to Cyprus. This time next week we shall be on the balcony sipping an Efes beer.

As I have attacked my various ‘slum areas’ around the apartment, I have come across countless little sticky notes, and recipes and things that must have tickled my fancy. I found the word ‘discombobulate’ written. Wonderful! But I cannot imagine stopping writing to look up a thesaurus to check out and extend my vocabulary. My Open University tutor used to say that my essays were written in white hot passion! I obviously didn’t feel the need to go back and edit and trim! Maybe I should have done. Not much changes, but I did love that word. ‘Discombobulate – verb: humorous, to disconcert or confuse’

Then I found in my handbag (whilst clearing another little heap of rubbish) a piece of paper with ROFL COPTER scrawled on it.
It took me back to the Kinabatangan River in Borneo, and a young couple telling me how to be hip with my text messaging.
The translation is ‘Roll on floor laughing, Can’t operate properly till eyes refocus’. I am a bit tardy about being ‘hip’ as I haven’t used it yet….actually haven’t found anything to laugh about to that extent!

John and I had a posh breakfast out on Saturday, and as I said being Ramadan we are still surreptitiously eating and drinking behind closed doors, but we decided as it was our last weekend we would visit the area of the Zig Zag towers where we lived the last time we were here. We had breakfast in the Ritz Carlton, and gazed over to the Pearl and it was all rather soothing and beautiful and as I sipped my coffee I watched mynahs playing in a frangipani tree.

Sadly we did have our last drive north to the beach. It was almost deserted but the sky was blue the sea perfect and for an hour or so we floated and relaxed and enjoyed the wide wide open space, the long beach, and far in the distance beyond our vision, the shoreline of Iran.

The week has been unbelievably sad as we watched in horror the continuing tragedy of the Malaysian Airways plane. Tears sting your eyes as you see pictures of the people who lost their lives, see the streets where they lived, and hear small personal stories. It could have been any of us, our families, our people. It is just unbearable.

So I shall go and walk about. John is getting through his last few days, he is as busy as ever, and with his perfect tooth and my perfect crowns, we can walk away from our time in the Middle East, our teeth glinting in the hot sun and we shall always have good memories of our lovely dentists! Just look at them, wouldn’t you ‘open wide’ for them!

And here is my lovely grand daughter. Nearly five months old, with such dark brown eyes! We shall have to call her ‘the nut brown maiden’.