It seems that Feedburner is still working, but not on the two hour window on which it is set. Last week the post was 16 hours late in going out. I will now plan for that and keep monitoring.
I spent Wednesday recovering from my booster. I cancelled a visit to a friend's place. My arm and gland under my left arm sore, but mostly I was just tired. Around midday got a few provisions from Markets but read and rested.
I finished the Fallahi pincushion, deciding not to put the tassels all around as per the pattern. I didn't like the way the cushion sits with tassels on all sides. I quite like it hanging with tassels only around the bottom.
I haven't quite shaken the lethargy all week, but I was fine for Pilates and had friends around for early dinner on Thursday.
I cooked duck and made, for the first time in about 30 years, an orange sauce. It tasted good but was a bit thin (shouldn't have added that cup of wine!). No cornflour. It was a relaxed and renewing evening, very pleasant sitting with the balcony door open and the city lights. They brought me a lovely table centre.
The long awaited Rowan No 70 arrived in my letterbox. It has some fabulous patterns. Fortunately, summer is upon us and I have a few things to finish before I decide whether I will take the plunge.
I saw my doctor on Friday morning for my driver's licence assessment. She was, I think, a bit impatient with needing to do it. She believes I no longer need to declare epilepsy and has written as much on the form. I now need to get my optometrist to fill out the eye test and send it off.
I also took a necklace to be repaired at the Norwood bead shop. One strand had come out of the clip. I did my best to retrieve the beads but was one short. I expected to leave it and pick it up after Christmas, but the diligent proprietor repaired it there and then - took about 20 minutes and cost me $12! Brilliant.
Just after returning from Norwood I found a promo for a book that looked promising for my Goddess in Embroidery studies next year. After sourcing it online, I rang Dillon's books (back in Norwood!) to see if they had it in stock. I paid for their one copy and picked it up on Saturday morning.
It is less useful for the Goddess than I hoped, but very useful for a couple of other projects - including the Certificate Course Christmas challenge, with its theme of 'Star'. It has really clear illustrations and diagrams. Pleased to have it.
Saturday by moonlight.
There were very delicious burgers for dinner courtesy of Anthony. The kids are enjoying their holidays. It is, however, a very busy time for their parents.
Ali, who cleans for me once a fortnight, is from Pakistan. His father is still there, and is dying. Ali's children were born here and have never met their grandfather. The family of four are attempting to fly to Pakistan in the next week, implementing elaborate precautions to protect themselves against Covid and get back in time to isolate before school goes back in late January. Such hard decisions.
On Sunday I was a woman on a mission. I needed an item of underwear and I wanted to buy two packs of DIY Christmas BonBons from Ecolateral. The underwear was most easily purchased from a department store in the city. Ecolateral have a large, new shop in the city although I like their original shop on Magill Rd, about 4km from me. I went into the city. I got the underwear in Myers. It took a bit longer than I expected because the helpful assistant persisted in reactivating my loyalty card (which I didn't have on me, and didn't try to us) and installing the App on my phone. Ecolateral, when I got there, had sold out of BonBon kits, but told me their Magill store still had 7 in stock! So of course, I headed out there, secured two of them and headed home to make them up.
They come with cloth wraps, tubes, jokes and snaps, but you provide your own novelty. No plastic toys. The idea is to reuse the wraps and tubes each year. Replacement snaps are promised. I think people will enjoy them, this year, at least.
This week I selected another long-held but unstarted kit. This one is by Sue Barrows and I've had it since 2009. I did her class in Italian Smocked Silk Cushion at Beating Around the Bush that year, and she had spare kits from another of her classes, The Most Useful Needle Case Ever. I bought a kit, which has sat in my kit drawer until now. The smocked panel sits in a double band of silk
It then folds into a pouch. I found a silk-covered button to hold it in place. I don't need another one of these, but someone will like and use it. I'm delighted to have finished it!
On a roll, I have begun another old kit, this Hearts and Roses bag from Inspirations 75 - ten years ago. This one is rather more complicated. It comes with a metre of fabric and interfacing, which has to be marked up into over 20 pattern pieces.
I've ironed and traced, marked up all pieces, attached interfacing, and begun work on the base of the bag.
Now that the stitching is started, this is proving to be a most enjoyable, if fiddly, project to work on. At the current rate of one heart per night, I might have the base finished by next week's post!
Today I had a podiatrist appointment and went from there to supermarket shopping. I'm hoping I've stocked up sufficiently to get me through the Christmas break. The less I need to go out over the holiday period the better, given the current chaos around opening borders, queues for testing and Christmas shopping.
As I recovered in my favourite chair with a glass of mineral water there was activity on the balcony. To my joy an abseiler swung down to remove the covering on my Vergola. 20 minutes later I heard them depart across the roof - like elves removing chimney covers for Santa's visit.
Today was my mother's birthday. Had she lived, she'd have been 96 today.
For all of you who follow this journey, I wish you the very best of the season - and hope you too, have plenty of sky for Christmas.
