Post 384 I get my second vaccination and keep busy.

Photo from Inspirations

Apologies for posting a day early last week. It is school holiday time in South Australia and it felt more like Tuesday than Monday. I lost track of the days. I'll double check in future.

My Inspirations  magazine arrived and as soon as I saw the Natural Wonder project by Maria Rita Faleri I knew I would do it.  I found a piece of fabric Christine Bishop had provided for a similar project and began straight away. The threads in the fabric are finer than in the original, but the count right. I'm giving it a go. I love the design.

On the Tuesday I missed, The Adelaide Advertiser sent a reporter and photographer to interview Jennifer about her Covid experience. I went along as a support. Both reporter and photographer were pleasant, thorough and professional. The article appeared in Wednesday's paper.

It is a good representation and distillation of Jennifer's main points. And a good photo. 

On Thursday I had my second Covid vaccination. I parked in the Frewville Foodland carpark and walked across the intersection. Afterwards I bought some prawns for my dinner. I also went to the chemist and bought a new set of bathroom scales. My existing ones must be at least 25 years old and keep giving me different readings with up to 0.4kg variation 10 seconds apart. It may be related to the fact they measure to .2kg rather than 0.1 but I was not confident they are properly calibrated. I need a fairly accurate set, so thought I should be sure. I've been using both each day. So far there is a consistent 0.4 variation between the two, but the day to day change is the same.

I had no reaction to speak of to the vaccination.

At home, I unpacked and hung out some washing. A dove friend came down to watch, again staying while I was there. 

I had a nice long talk with my brother and finished editing the Baby Boomer Teacher conversations before making a prawn salad for my dinner.

Friday saw me working on my Conversations with Baby Boomer Teacher book in the morning and off to Sit'nStitch in the afternoon. It's 2 weeks since we met and there was much to catch up on. Susan is working an i-cord edge on her knitted blanket and Jennifer is now on Row 99 of Sophie's Universe. I worked on my second shawl. The first one arrived in Canberra late on Thursday and was put to immediate use. I'm delighted it proved to be as warm and useful as I had hoped in the Canberra winter. 

Saturday morning the sun rose on fog - not common in Adelaide. It had lifted by 7.30 here in the city, but came down again around 10.

Sunday morning our Crime Book Club met at our usual coffee shop in Norwood. We had two hours of animated conversation, most of it about the books we had read, but some about our health and experiences we had as young women in education. Our books for next month are Her Last Holiday by C.L. Taylor and

When You Are Mine, by Michael Robotham.

The Sunday sun went down on a threatening sky - more rain forecast this week.

I spent Sunday afternoon following up references for Anglo Saxon embroidery. I am researching this for WES Group and had agreed to repeat it for the Certificate Course next year with a  counted project. This is not proving sensible so I've negotiated to change it to Bulgarian embroidery. I've already got a plan for a project. Nevertheless I had a pleasant and interesting afternoon gathering information. 

The Sunday sun went down on a threatening sky - more rain forecast this week.

Again, I had to remind myself that Monday was not Tuesday. I'll recover when school goes back! I spent much of the day writing the final chapter of Conversations. The 49 Conversations are anonymous, but I think for both context and authenticity I need to provide my own story, which I can hardly make anonymous. I struggled a bit with it, but am  happy with the result at the moment. 

I finished reading Agatha Christie's Murder at the Vicarage, the first Miss Marple book. Kerrie, the convenor of our Book Club, is running a U3A course on Agatha Christie, and has me interested enough to do a bit of rereading.

Today I had a dental appointment with a new hygienist. She did a great job and entertained me with conversation (mostly one way!) the whole time. 

I picked up a new top at Unley before picking up the kids for our school holiday lunch at River Cafe.  We shared Tapas starters - Mozzarella & saffron arancini, salt and pepper squid, 

house-made flat

bread with garlic yoghurt and lemon. The girls had various pasta main dishes, Fionn had a mixed grill with barley tabouli, which he loved. I stuck to the swordfish and kept to my weight-loss regime.  No one was up for dessert.

Most readers will be aware that Sydney is in the midst of a Covid outbreak and locked down. We are struggling with vaccine rollout, with supply issues for Pfizer and media-generated fear around AstraZeneca. I feel for authorities in NSW. It's easy to criticise with hindsight. They will manage their way through it. I'm very pleased to be vaccinated. 

Today's progress on Maria Rita Faleri piece (left)

and the second shawl. I put my magnifying headset alongside to show the length.

As of this morning, I have lost 2.8 kg since I began this regime 17 days ago. I'm encouraged and not finding it too hard. In that time I haven't had an ice-cream or a glass of wine, both of which I will have as a treat once I have lost a few more kilos.