Thank You Linda

Linda must be one of the most patient people ever.  A few months ago I saw she was offering to swap ATCs  and I asked if I could swap with her.  FINALLY I got myself into gear and sent her "Direction" - and she sent me her "Dutch Houses", a thermofax print.  It's just wonderful.  Thank you Linda.

New Sewing Machine Foot

Isn't ebay wonderful?  It's like a ginormous garage sale, with similar bargain prices.  I've wanted this quilting foot set for a while now - but at $124 I just couldn't justify it.  Via ebay I scored the set brand new for $24!!  I'm a happy little vegemite!!

New Computer

I've had my laptop for quite a few years and it's been my everything (only!) machine.  When I resumed work as a consultant about 18 months ago it was great that I had a portable machine.  But as I got more and more work it was clear that I needed something more compact.  Enter my new Samsung.  It's literally half the size of the laptop, but does everything I want it to do when visiting clients.  I got it Monday, fired it up and loaded Word on Tuesday and it went straight to work yesterday.  It's a little ripper!!

New Book Reviews

The Insidious Dr Fu Manchu; Sax Rohmer
The Children of the New Forest; Frederick Marryat
Little Lord Fauntleroy; Frances Hodgson Burnett
King Solomon's Mines; H Rider Haggard
Oskaloosa Moon; Gary Sutton

The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church

What can I say?  I LOVED this.  Daniel Kitson walks onto an almost bare stage and starts talking - 90 minutes later he stops.  He's here to tell us the story of Gregory Church, a man he's never met but got to know through the 22 boxes of letters that ended up at his place.  Daniel read all 30,000 of them, reads excerpts to us and creates a richly detailed, funny, poignant and real portrait of Gregory's life.  On the way there are many detours - we learn a lot about Daniel and he's not averse to confronting or bantering with the audience.

The words pour forth, gathering momentum and sweeping us along and then letting us rest before the next wave.  It's wonderful stuff - if you love words, go.  If you love comedy, go.  If you are interested at all in being human, go.

City Parking

Following the flood parking has been created at the Convention Centre in the halls that usually house events - it's weird seeing cars where the Craft and Quilt Fair is usually held....

A Day with Bronte and Hahn

Bronte picked me up on Sunday and we headed for Nudgee beach.  It's a place where all sorts of dog lovers head - when the tide is out there is plenty of space for dogs to run, chase seagulls and splash around - and meet other dogs.  The water leaves hard currogations in the sand

The shallow water was HOT

If you squint and look really hard into the distance you'll see the Glasshouse Mountains

Bronte and Hahn