Anyway on a more normal level we have been racing about the country, John to the south to visit kids and sisters, me to Wales to visit the bride-to-be and Leo.

I do like Penarth and the little house that Natasha and Leo bought in December. Of course now it is almost demolished on the inside, as rooms have been opened, walls have been broken down, bathroom has been relocated and French doors put in…all at the same time. I was quite horrified to see the old bath still in the middle of the kitchen and even more bemused when I found myself in it the following morning!

It’s amazing how quickly you get off the high horse and just go with the flow! The pair are full of plans and the plumbing for the new bathroom is to start soon and all the fitments bought so Natasha was just bending my ear about possible floor coverings…tile, wood, slate, lino etc etc. I can’t wait to see the completed house, and I think it will be finished before the stupid Edinburgh Tram Works which seem to be never-ending.

I had some art work to share my room with!

So wedding plans are in full swing, and I am delighted to announce that I shall be Granny Gael in the New Year! (maybe the above ‘art picture’ is a sign of what is to come!!!

We spent lovely sunny days wandering about Penarth and the surrounding area and wandered about the Llandaff cathedral where the bishop who gave his name to a particularly lovely dahlia presided.

We visited Barry Island, legendary home of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ and lost a whole £3 on the gaming machines…on the 2p tables. Such fun! My most inexpensive day so far!

Before I left Doha Carol, Rose and I sewed up the bunting that John had carefully cut out, and we had about 150 m of the stuff…Tasha and friend tried it out in the church hall, and it is perfect. Phew!

John collected me and we drove over to the Mumbles in the Gower Peninsula, and walked down to the sea on one of the Three Cliff walks passing the Rest Home that once was the house of Dylon Thomas.

I knew that Joyce and Al from the US were visiting in the area, (friends from Sabah days around 1982) so I said to John as we drove through Bishopstone…’drive slowly, you never know’. Well! There they were, and we had lunch and it was wonderful. Their little grandson was intent in licking all the chips, but we shall gloss over that! ‘My name is Tor and I am free.’ Ok. We have all that ahead of us!

We stayed the night in a beautiful Georgian hotel in Ross-on-Wye….Oh my! What a pretty town, all medieval and quaint, and the sun shone and we drank a bottle of red wine overlooking the greenest of gardens and celebrated the last day of John’s old year before he woke up to his birthday.

Onwards to Evesham where we had lunch with his sister Di and husband Roy, who were also looking after a baby grandson. This pair needed L’s on their backs as they struggled with gadgets and prams, and John marched round and round pushing the reluctant sleeper to sleep. The wasps were plaguing me and the salad, so lunch outside under the trees had to be abandoned, unfortunately. Good to see them though.

The holiday seems to have been centred around houses somehow. We had idly thought of moving from the city, and so set up a couple of viewings of places that included gardens and garages etc, and went to the pretty village of Dunkeld, the gateway to the Highlands. But alas, the house was too dinky, and too remote. The cathedral on the banks of the River Tay was worth a look, and we duly quoted the poet, McGonagall’s verse about the silvery Tay that runs from Perth to Dundee a day!

Gerry and Cathal are house hunting like mad.

We went with Gerry on Sunday and looked at areas outside Edinburgh, where you should be able to find a house with a few bedrooms that would fall into their budget. But it is so depressing. The estates that have grown up are without local amenities, people commute to work so there is no evidence of a community. Some don’t even have a decent bus service. It felt like a wildernesses of loneliness. As Billy Connolly once said about some of the dreadful housing schemes in Glasgow, they are ‘deserts wi  windaes’. Anyway they are looking about and are off to see some more this weekend, I am sure the right place will turn up soon.

John is off back to Doha now, but we did have a good break, though a little frenzied. Ideally it would have been good to have had one more week together for just walking about and cycling and enjoying this pretty city. We did have a laugh walking back from town and seeing some lads shouting at one another….John commented that there were a lot of foreigners about.  I told him that they weren’t foreign, they were very very local and what they were actually saying was, ‘Shut yer mooth!’ in a variety of aggressive ways! Following that incident we then  had the pleasure of meeting a very ‘big mooth’ in the Botanics.

‘Whit dae you dae?’ he asked John then didn’t wait for an answer but proceeded to tell us the story of his life. He was personable and funny but what I loved was the language…he told us that he had been giving evidence in court, and he refused to listen to the prosecuting lawyer, instead he transferred his mind to his herbaceous border. He thought about his delphiniums and butterflies, and he just refused to let the man get him riled. When he was asked to give his opinion of the accused, he told the judge, ‘he was so crooked he couldn’t lie straight in his bed!’

He went on, ‘You can haud a thief’s hand, but you cannae haud a liar’s tongue!’

The judge was so impressed apparently she has been known to quote our friend on many an occasion!

Love it, love the people we meet, the stories we hear.

Some photos from here and there…

Whoosh! The time has flown. We seem to have hit the tarmac running, and I am reminded of my hairdresser in Adelaide describing how he hyperventilates when he lands in Sydney as the pace of life just accelerates. (This is Steve who bought an ex racehorse to train and compete in dressage competitions in order to fill in his spare time! Hmmm.

Anyway on a more normal level we have been racing about the country, John to the south to visit kids and sisters, me to Wales to visit the bride-to-be and Leo.

I do like Penarth and the little house that Natasha and Leo bought in December. Of course now it is almost demolished on the inside, as rooms have been opened, walls have been broken down, bathroom has been relocated and French doors put in…all at the same time. I was quite horrified to see the old bath still in the middle of the kitchen and even more bemused when I found myself in it the following morning!

It’s amazing how quickly you get off the high horse and just go with the flow! The pair are full of plans and the plumbing for the new bathroom is to start soon and all the fitments bought so Natasha was just bending my ear about possible floor coverings…tile, wood, slate, lino etc etc. I can’t wait to see the completed house, and I think it will be finished before the stupid Edinburgh Tram Works which seem to be never-ending.

I had some art work to share my room with!

So wedding plans are in full swing, and I am delighted to announce that I shall be Granny Gael in the New Year! (maybe the above ‘art picture’ is a sign of what is to come!!!

We spent lovely sunny days wandering about Penarth and the surrounding area and wandered about the Llandaff cathedral where the bishop who gave his name to a particularly lovely dahlia presided.

We visited Barry Island, legendary home of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ and lost a whole £3 on the gaming machines…on the 2p tables. Such fun! My most inexpensive day so far!

Before I left Doha Carol, Rose and I sewed up the bunting that John had carefully cut out, and we had about 150 m of the stuff…Tasha and friend tried it out in the church hall, and it is perfect. Phew!

John collected me and we drove over to the Mumbles in the Gower Peninsula, and walked down to the sea on one of the Three Cliff walks passing the Rest Home that once was the house of Dylon Thomas.

I knew that Joyce and Al from the US were visiting in the area, (friends from Sabah days around 1982) so I said to John as we drove through Bishopstone…’drive slowly, you never know’. Well! There they were, and we had lunch and it was wonderful. Their little grandson was intent in licking all the chips, but we shall gloss over that! ‘My name is Tor and I am free.’ Ok. We have all that ahead of us!

We stayed the night in a beautiful Georgian hotel in Ross-on-Wye….Oh my! What a pretty town, all medieval and quaint, and the sun shone and we drank a bottle of red wine overlooking the greenest of gardens and celebrated the last day of John’s old year before he woke up to his birthday.

Onwards to Evesham where we had lunch with his sister Di and husband Roy, who were also looking after a baby grandson. This pair needed L’s on their backs as they struggled with gadgets and prams, and John marched round and round pushing the reluctant sleeper to sleep. The wasps were plaguing me and the salad, so lunch outside under the trees had to be abandoned, unfortunately. Good to see them though.

The holiday seems to have been centred around houses somehow. We had idly thought of moving from the city, and so set up a couple of viewings of places that included gardens and garages etc, and went to the pretty village of Dunkeld, the gateway to the Highlands. But alas, the house was too dinky, and too remote. The cathedral on the banks of the River Tay was worth a look, and we duly quoted the poet, McGonagall’s verse about the silvery Tay that runs from Perth to Dundee a day!

Gerry and Cathal are house hunting like mad.

We went with Gerry on Sunday and looked at areas outside Edinburgh, where you should be able to find a house with a few bedrooms that would fall into their budget. But it is so depressing. The estates that have grown up are without local amenities, people commute to work so there is no evidence of a community. Some don’t even have a decent bus service. It felt like a wildernesses of loneliness. As Billy Connolly once said about some of the dreadful housing schemes in Glasgow, they are ‘deserts wi  windaes’. Anyway they are looking about and are off to see some more this weekend, I am sure the right place will turn up soon.

John is off back to Doha now, but we did have a good break, though a little frenzied. Ideally it would have been good to have had one more week together for just walking about and cycling and enjoying this pretty city. We did have a laugh walking back from town and seeing some lads shouting at one another….John commented that there were a lot of foreigners about.  I told him that they weren’t foreign, they were very very local and what they were actually saying was, ‘Shut yer mooth!’ in a variety of aggressive ways! Following that incident we then  had the pleasure of meeting a very ‘big mooth’ in the Botanics.

‘Whit dae you dae?’ he asked John then didn’t wait for an answer but proceeded to tell us the story of his life. He was personable and funny but what I loved was the language…he told us that he had been giving evidence in court, and he refused to listen to the prosecuting lawyer, instead he transferred his mind to his herbaceous border. He thought about his delphiniums and butterflies, and he just refused to let the man get him riled. When he was asked to give his opinion of the accused, he told the judge, ‘he was so crooked he couldn’t lie straight in his bed!’

He went on, ‘You can haud a thief’s hand, but you cannae haud a liar’s tongue!’

The judge was so impressed apparently she has been known to quote our friend on many an occasion!

Love it, love the people we meet, the stories we hear.

Some photos from here and there…

Whoosh! The time has flown. We seem to have hit the tarmac running, and I am reminded of my hairdresser in Adelaide describing how he hyperventilates when he lands in Sydney as the pace of life just accelerates. (This is Steve who bought an ex racehorse to train and compete in dressage competitions in order to fill in his spare time! Hmmm.

Anyway on a more normal level we have been racing about the country, John to the south to visit kids and sisters, me to Wales to visit the bride-to-be and Leo.

I do like Penarth and the little house that Natasha and Leo bought in December. Of course now it is almost demolished on the inside, as rooms have been opened, walls have been broken down, bathroom has been relocated and French doors put in…all at the same time. I was quite horrified to see the old bath still in the middle of the kitchen and even more bemused when I found myself in it the following morning!

It’s amazing how quickly you get off the high horse and just go with the flow! The pair are full of plans and the plumbing for the new bathroom is to start soon and all the fitments bought so Natasha was just bending my ear about possible floor coverings…tile, wood, slate, lino etc etc. I can’t wait to see the completed house, and I think it will be finished before the stupid Edinburgh Tram Works which seem to be never-ending.

I had some art work to share my room with!

So wedding plans are in full swing, and I am delighted to announce that I shall be Granny Gael in the New Year! (maybe the above ‘art picture’ is a sign of what is to come!!!

We spent lovely sunny days wandering about Penarth and the surrounding area and wandered about the Llandaff cathedral where the bishop who gave his name to a particularly lovely dahlia presided.

We visited Barry Island, legendary home of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ and lost a whole £3 on the gaming machines…on the 2p tables. Such fun! My most inexpensive day so far!

Before I left Doha Carol, Rose and I sewed up the bunting that John had carefully cut out, and we had about 150 m of the stuff…Tasha and friend tried it out in the church hall, and it is perfect. Phew!

John collected me and we drove over to the Mumbles in the Gower Peninsula, and walked down to the sea on one of the Three Cliff walks passing the Rest Home that once was the house of Dylon Thomas.

I knew that Joyce and Al from the US were visiting in the area, (friends from Sabah days around 1982) so I said to John as we drove through Bishopstone…’drive slowly, you never know’. Well! There they were, and we had lunch and it was wonderful. Their little grandson was intent in licking all the chips, but we shall gloss over that! ‘My name is Tor and I am free.’ Ok. We have all that ahead of us!

We stayed the night in a beautiful Georgian hotel in Ross-on-Wye….Oh my! What a pretty town, all medieval and quaint, and the sun shone and we drank a bottle of red wine overlooking the greenest of gardens and celebrated the last day of John’s old year before he woke up to his birthday.

Onwards to Evesham where we had lunch with his sister Di and husband Roy, who were also looking after a baby grandson. This pair needed L’s on their backs as they struggled with gadgets and prams, and John marched round and round pushing the reluctant sleeper to sleep. The wasps were plaguing me and the salad, so lunch outside under the trees had to be abandoned, unfortunately. Good to see them though.

The holiday seems to have been centred around houses somehow. We had idly thought of moving from the city, and so set up a couple of viewings of places that included gardens and garages etc, and went to the pretty village of Dunkeld, the gateway to the Highlands. But alas, the house was too dinky, and too remote. The cathedral on the banks of the River Tay was worth a look, and we duly quoted the poet, McGonagall’s verse about the silvery Tay that runs from Perth to Dundee a day!

Gerry and Cathal are house hunting like mad.

We went with Gerry on Sunday and looked at areas outside Edinburgh, where you should be able to find a house with a few bedrooms that would fall into their budget. But it is so depressing. The estates that have grown up are without local amenities, people commute to work so there is no evidence of a community. Some don’t even have a decent bus service. It felt like a wildernesses of loneliness. As Billy Connolly once said about some of the dreadful housing schemes in Glasgow, they are ‘deserts wi  windaes’. Anyway they are looking about and are off to see some more this weekend, I am sure the right place will turn up soon.

John is off back to Doha now, but we did have a good break, though a little frenzied. Ideally it would have been good to have had one more week together for just walking about and cycling and enjoying this pretty city. We did have a laugh walking back from town and seeing some lads shouting at one another….John commented that there were a lot of foreigners about.  I told him that they weren’t foreign, they were very very local and what they were actually saying was, ‘Shut yer mooth!’ in a variety of aggressive ways! Following that incident we then  had the pleasure of meeting a very ‘big mooth’ in the Botanics.

‘Whit dae you dae?’ he asked John then didn’t wait for an answer but proceeded to tell us the story of his life. He was personable and funny but what I loved was the language…he told us that he had been giving evidence in court, and he refused to listen to the prosecuting lawyer, instead he transferred his mind to his herbaceous border. He thought about his delphiniums and butterflies, and he just refused to let the man get him riled. When he was asked to give his opinion of the accused, he told the judge, ‘he was so crooked he couldn’t lie straight in his bed!’

He went on, ‘You can haud a thief’s hand, but you cannae haud a liar’s tongue!’

The judge was so impressed apparently she has been known to quote our friend on many an occasion!

Love it, love the people we meet, the stories we hear.

Some photos from here and there…

Whoosh! The time has flown. We seem to have hit the tarmac running, and I am reminded of my hairdresser in Adelaide describing how he hyperventilates when he lands in Sydney as the pace of life just accelerates. (This is Steve who bought an ex racehorse to train and compete in dressage competitions in order to fill in his spare time! Hmmm.

Anyway on a more normal level we have been racing about the country, John to the south to visit kids and sisters, me to Wales to visit the bride-to-be and Leo.

I do like Penarth and the little house that Natasha and Leo bought in December. Of course now it is almost demolished on the inside, as rooms have been opened, walls have been broken down, bathroom has been relocated and French doors put in…all at the same time. I was quite horrified to see the old bath still in the middle of the kitchen and even more bemused when I found myself in it the following morning!

It’s amazing how quickly you get off the high horse and just go with the flow! The pair are full of plans and the plumbing for the new bathroom is to start soon and all the fitments bought so Natasha was just bending my ear about possible floor coverings…tile, wood, slate, lino etc etc. I can’t wait to see the completed house, and I think it will be finished before the stupid Edinburgh Tram Works which seem to be never-ending.

I had some art work to share my room with!

So wedding plans are in full swing, and I am delighted to announce that I shall be Granny Gael in the New Year! (maybe the above ‘art picture’ is a sign of what is to come!!!

We spent lovely sunny days wandering about Penarth and the surrounding area and wandered about the Llandaff cathedral where the bishop who gave his name to a particularly lovely dahlia presided.

We visited Barry Island, legendary home of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ and lost a whole £3 on the gaming machines…on the 2p tables. Such fun! My most inexpensive day so far!

Before I left Doha Carol, Rose and I sewed up the bunting that John had carefully cut out, and we had about 150 m of the stuff…Tasha and friend tried it out in the church hall, and it is perfect. Phew!

John collected me and we drove over to the Mumbles in the Gower Peninsula, and walked down to the sea on one of the Three Cliff walks passing the Rest Home that once was the house of Dylon Thomas.

I knew that Joyce and Al from the US were visiting in the area, (friends from Sabah days around 1982) so I said to John as we drove through Bishopstone…’drive slowly, you never know’. Well! There they were, and we had lunch and it was wonderful. Their little grandson was intent in licking all the chips, but we shall gloss over that! ‘My name is Tor and I am free.’ Ok. We have all that ahead of us!

We stayed the night in a beautiful Georgian hotel in Ross-on-Wye….Oh my! What a pretty town, all medieval and quaint, and the sun shone and we drank a bottle of red wine overlooking the greenest of gardens and celebrated the last day of John’s old year before he woke up to his birthday.

Onwards to Evesham where we had lunch with his sister Di and husband Roy, who were also looking after a baby grandson. This pair needed L’s on their backs as they struggled with gadgets and prams, and John marched round and round pushing the reluctant sleeper to sleep. The wasps were plaguing me and the salad, so lunch outside under the trees had to be abandoned, unfortunately. Good to see them though.

The holiday seems to have been centred around houses somehow. We had idly thought of moving from the city, and so set up a couple of viewings of places that included gardens and garages etc, and went to the pretty village of Dunkeld, the gateway to the Highlands. But alas, the house was too dinky, and too remote. The cathedral on the banks of the River Tay was worth a look, and we duly quoted the poet, McGonagall’s verse about the silvery Tay that runs from Perth to Dundee a day!

Gerry and Cathal are house hunting like mad.

We went with Gerry on Sunday and looked at areas outside Edinburgh, where you should be able to find a house with a few bedrooms that would fall into their budget. But it is so depressing. The estates that have grown up are without local amenities, people commute to work so there is no evidence of a community. Some don’t even have a decent bus service. It felt like a wildernesses of loneliness. As Billy Connolly once said about some of the dreadful housing schemes in Glasgow, they are ‘deserts wi  windaes’. Anyway they are looking about and are off to see some more this weekend, I am sure the right place will turn up soon.

John is off back to Doha now, but we did have a good break, though a little frenzied. Ideally it would have been good to have had one more week together for just walking about and cycling and enjoying this pretty city. We did have a laugh walking back from town and seeing some lads shouting at one another….John commented that there were a lot of foreigners about.  I told him that they weren’t foreign, they were very very local and what they were actually saying was, ‘Shut yer mooth!’ in a variety of aggressive ways! Following that incident we then  had the pleasure of meeting a very ‘big mooth’ in the Botanics.

‘Whit dae you dae?’ he asked John then didn’t wait for an answer but proceeded to tell us the story of his life. He was personable and funny but what I loved was the language…he told us that he had been giving evidence in court, and he refused to listen to the prosecuting lawyer, instead he transferred his mind to his herbaceous border. He thought about his delphiniums and butterflies, and he just refused to let the man get him riled. When he was asked to give his opinion of the accused, he told the judge, ‘he was so crooked he couldn’t lie straight in his bed!’

He went on, ‘You can haud a thief’s hand, but you cannae haud a liar’s tongue!’

The judge was so impressed apparently she has been known to quote our friend on many an occasion!

Love it, love the people we meet, the stories we hear.

Some photos from here and there…

 

 

Posted on August 2, 2013 by gaelharrison

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.

 

Posted on July 3, 2013 by gaelharrison

Well we can all relax. Apparently the mutton crisis has passed. Ramadan is almost upon us and the newspapers were full of the worry that there might not be enough sheep to assuage the starving fasters for the sun down meal. More worrying is the sight of the long queues of four wheel drives snaking out to the booze souk. John and I amongst them, buying as though it might be our last chance ever to savour the sweet taste of the ‘water of life’. The shopping trip was manic but worth it, and now each night we can say, ‘cheers’ knowing there will be plenty to see us through this ‘dry’ month!

Talking about dry, we have had hot temperatures, though not as bad as Death Valley, though on Friday I honestly thought I would have to lie down and die of heat exhaustion and leave my bones beside the turtle shells.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beach was beautiful, but the wind was unbearable, blowing hotter than the already 46C. I took refuge in the sea, and floated on the salty waves.  After a mouthful of hot water from the bottles, (John just said, imagine it’s tea) we decided to walk along the beach to see how the turtle egg incubation was doing…The area is still fenced, and netted to protect them from Arab speedy nutcases in beach buggies, and wicked cormorants who eye the area with a beady eyeballs. Poor little turtles. How can they survive? It is a miracle they are not cooked in their shells.

Walking back, I was horrified at my shadow, for my hair had spiked up and dried with all the salt. I looked just like the nightmarish depictions of Struwwelpeter by Henreich Hoffmann.

I remember as a child being scared half to death by the book of strange moral tales, and then later on I think I passed on the legacy to my children. See what happens if you suck your thumb…hmmmm. No gentle psychology there.

So Julia Gillard has gone, gracefully and with dignity, inspite of all the aggression and shouting. Here too we saw a passing of the baton, as the Emir abdicated in favour of his son, Tamim. We shall see how the new reign affects us, and how he and his very liberal mother get along. Sheika Mosa has so many forward thinking projects on the go, an Education City, a woman’s hospital, a new cancer hospital and so much more. Her son has already got rid of women teachers in boys’ schools and has segregated classes in Qatar academy. Still, early days.

The whole country was told on Monday night that Tuesday would be a public holiday, so chaos ruled, as the phone lines buzzed to inform everyone. The new Emir and his father would be receiving dignitaries so all the major roads were closed. I did love this picture… of the proud father taking a snap with his phone as his son is pronounced the ruling prince!

The days are whizzing by, and sewing has been top priority as usual. We have been meeting at Benita’s house (the former Australian champion of Latin dance!!..I am such a groupie! I told her I used to go to ballet lessons, but I don’t think she was that impressed.) We have been making mah jong cloths, to stop the tiles clacking about. And I have embarked on another major challenge…a crazy quilt that looks like stained glass. It is such a pain…horrible to quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did go to dinner with Kay and Colin, before they took off for their 5 wk holiday in Italy. The menu was out of this world. Everything made from scratch.

Mixed starters of pork terrine, oven baked tomatoes, pickled walnuts and roasted fig.

Home made pasta with lemon and parlsey

Seared salmon on a bed of wasabi mash with grilled vedg and some jus

Pomegranate and Campari sorbet

Raspberry ice, hazelnut meringue, and lemon icecream.

 

It was WONDERFUL. But sadly we were also farewelling Jenny and Steve who are leaving the desert for pastures new… in Singapore. I shall miss them.

John and I are looking forward to our trip back to Scotland in August and I can’t wait to see Gerry and Cathal in Edinburgh and I have already booked my flight to Cardiff to visit with Natasha and Leo. John will be heading to Worthing to see his kids there.

Today is the first year anniversary of our contract here in Doha, so to celebrate I got my hair cut and we are going out to dine at the Hilton. The time here has flown by, but for me I just can’t find enough hours in the day…Quilts to finish, books to write, friends to see, letters to write, meals to be made and books to be read. I love it all.