Townsville Wednesday

Time to head home today, but first we drove up to the top of Castle Hill for the views

The place I stayed - Aquarius - is the tall building just to the left of the rocky outcrop.
Climbing Castle Hill is THE thing to do, apparently - heaps of people were sweating their way up and down, and most of them were women with strollers....

Townsville Tuesday

Breakfast was delicious haloumi and mushrooms and pesto

 and a great view UP!!

then a full day of interviews, finished off perfectly with steak, complete with fat chips, from the Newmarket Hotel

Townsville Monday

Today was the day I'd been looking forward to for a while - sea kayaking!!  I caught the ferry to Magnetic Island (or Maggie Island as it's affectionately known by the locals) and then got a bus from Nelly Bay to Horseshoe Bay.  The paddles and kayaks ready to go...

We had breakfast on the beach at Radical Bay and paddled back again.  Really great fun.

Late lunch/early dinner was at c bar overlooking Cleveland Bay.  Two refreshing glasses of wine

 to accompany a SUPERB seafood linguine

 I liked what was written on the menu -

Townsville Sunday

I went to Cotters Market in town (the main thing of note were the stuffed cane toads - some holding miniature bottles of Bundy - eeewww) and then took a bus to the Willows shopping centre - this was where it was all happening.  The obligatory Great Australian Ice Creamery Sundae - The Olgas

Another wonderful view from my room

 Some interesting beading and embroidery on the bed scarf

Notice there are NO BLANKETS on the bed - that's how wonderfully warm it was - ahhhh!!!  :-)

Townsville Saturday

On Saturday I flew up to Townsville.  I was lucky enough to get work there, and took a couple of extra days.  My accommodation was on The Strand.  This is the view from my balcony.

You can sky dive right onto the grass on The Strand.

Sculpture

Waterfall (not natural I'm afraid)

 

Amazing tree

Full moon (I have a goal to take better shots of the moon in the future....)

Bags

First up, I did a run through of a pattern for a bag our group is going to do - they hold drainage bottles for women who've had surgery for breast cancer.  This is the front

and the back

 This is a lunch bag for me - using some wonderful pear fabric!  I really like the drawstring cover :-)  Find the tutorial at Pink Penguin.

Sewing

I made a snug little cover for my new Kindle....a little quilting

the assembled cover

 perfect fit

 room for the cable

 all tied up

Bobbin Karma - I don't know what else to call it - bobbin luck?? -  MUCH more often than not (say, 90% of the time) the bobbin thread is just enough to finish a seam (rather than finishing half way through) - happened again today - it always makes me smile!!!  I like to take pleasure in all the little positives that life throws me :-)

Industry

I spent some time this week tidying and sorting my fabric

 and cutting 2 1/2" strips from pieces that were too small for projects....

Yet Another F.I.N.I.S.H.

Complete with label even :-)!!

World Statistics Day

In case you missed my previous post - today is World Statistics Day - 20.10.2010 - cute, huh?
In honour of today, check out these mesmerising figures from - Worldometers - world statistics updated in real time.  According to those stats, there will be over 218,000* blog posts today :-)

*correct at time of posting - but check out the numbers for yourself!!!

Walnut Cookies

The good news - I used up all the walnuts left over from a disastrous walnut pasta recipe.
The further good news - they turned out great

Well - not ALL of them turned out great :-)

Curls

I saw these through the window as I was having my shower...

Broad Strokes

We met at era for breakfast and show and tell - here is Kathryn's bag - made from a jumper and some beads and other embellishments

 

Suzanne's portfolio -

and Mel had heaps to show - collages (see her blog) and her photos that she's had made into cards and a calendar thanks to redbubble.

I showed my portfolio, Sue Dennis' quilt, Sue Bleiweiss' quilt and a piece in progress - photo another time.

After breakfast we headed to the Valentino exhibition at GoMA - what a long line!!

You can't take photos, so enjoy it vicariously through this image gallery.  The catalogue would have been a good purchase - excellent photos of all items - but it has SOLD OUT!!  I put my name down to be contacted when it gets in.  The cafe had a great view of the Kurilpa Bridge - usually I am on the bridge looking back towards the gallery -

[title of show]

I saw this show at the Powerhouse on Friday night - very funny and clever writing.  It's about two friends who enter a competition for a musical; the musical is about their conversations about entering a competition for a musical.  Get it??  The audience was extremely receptive - quite a young audience too.  I thought the music was good, the voices strong, the writing smart and polished...the accents good.

 The Powerhouse is always buzzing with action at the bar or the restaurant or just people wandering around.  A great venue and atmosphere.

Important Question...

Not surprisingly, that poster was at the ABS, where I also saw these mobiles -