Morecombe, Mumbai, Malden

Well, hello there!  I love seeing the list of cities and countries that pop up down the bottom of my blog - it's actual proof that there is life on other planets... 

I've been busy doing the usual frack, working, driving, sleeping... and yet more sleeping.  I've booked in for a sleep study on Tuesday, after seeing the specialist.  Lovely man, probably the nicest doctor I've ever dealt with.  You know sometimes they can be arrogant pricks?  Not this one.  He took a comprehensive history of my sleeping habits, the increasing need to sleep at weird and wonderful times, and the constant tiredness.  Words like 'snoring', 'loud vigorous snoring' and 'snorting' were discussed, along with the couple of times in my life when I've woken up feeling completely paralysed - it's a weird feeling - apparently you're actually not awake, you just think you are.  

Anyway, the word 'narcolepsy' was eventually raised, along with the doctor's eyebrows, especially when he heard about me having to have sleep in the carpark before starting work (lucky for me it's an underground carpark) because I've barely been able to keep my eyes open on the drive in...

I try to go to be in bed by 10.00pm most nights, and the alarm used to go off at 0530, and I'd be out the door by 0630.  Now, I can't even wake up till about 0620, and sometimes I go back to sleep and wake up at 0700, meaning I don't get to work until 0900.  It sucks. 

In other exciting news, I made a 1600 Quilt - using the very beautiful Lumiere De Noel fabrics from moda - one of my favourites.  I've left it at My Lovely Ma's, because I'm avoiding the 20 year long tradition of Festival of the Boot at The Boxes, and I'm going back to Perth for another long weekend, leaving Poor Mr Golightly behind.    Mixed blessings, hey?

And now, Gentle Readers, it's time for bed.  Buona notte!

Epic craft fail!

So, Gentle Readers, I've been reading my favourite blogs, waiting impatiently for the updates, cursing the authors when they don't update often enough, and it dawned on me this morning that I, perhaps, might be causing the same amount of angst for you - it's been ages since I wrote a post... but so much has happened (not really)...


I had an epic craft fail - I asked my lovely Ma what she wanted for Mother's Day, and she wanted, weirdly enough, padded coathangers.  OK, easy enough.  I start out with beautiful red japanese fabric, piped with red, quilted and looking fab:

But the idiot seamstress forgot that the coathanger has to go over the whole hanger, not just the narrow end.  Hmm..

So then, having used up all my beautiful Japanese cotton, I dug out some nice cream & brown, and repeated my mistake with a skinnier coathanger:

And then, I did it all over again with a slightly larger coathanger!

Oh my.  Good thing I made up for it with some fabulous alien-type sewing:

And some hearts:

Ha.  In other, slightly less exciting news, I have given up attempting to write my blog on my tablet.  It's really frustrating that I can't make formatting changes easily, and I don't have all my photos on the tablet, so I'm using Dropbox to move stuff between devices - not the most effective way to do things... ah, technology.

What else?  Work is ticking over, I've had two more trips across this wide brown land to see my lovely Ma, who is also ticking over, and that's about it.  It's now 0757 on Saturday, this post having taken two whole weeks from start to finish, and I'm about to go & have hot wax applied to various body parts.  Betcha really wanted to know that, hey?

Ciao!

I am too late?

To stop what I'm doing and do something completely different?  Do people get to have two sea-changes in a lifetime?  When I was 37 I was working in IT, but without any qualifications, so off I went & did a IT Diploma (Analyst/Programmer, if anybody cares) - it was useful, and  the skills I learnt are just as valid now as then, but what's changed is the job focus - in the '90's I worked in what's known as 'Production Support', but is now known as 'Business as usual' - keeping the lights on & making sure that people can get their money out of the ATM's when they want it (snigger snigger NAB)...


Now you get to 'analyse' people's requirements, write process flows & talk to idiots who don't know how their products work but need you to work it out for them so they can tell you  how to change it.  It's more like hand-holding than analysis.


Gentle Readers, I've had enough of this.  I've seen an ad looking for an Upholstery apprentice.  I know it says "suits school leaver".  I am a school leaver.  It was just a while ago.  I'm reliable, I'm keen, I won't take sickies, I'll work hard.  Just because I'm 30 years older than the school leaver you were thinking of, doesn't mean I can't do a good job, right?  


Mr Golightly is somewhat dubious, because this will be my second sea-change, and he doesn't do upheaval very well, but really, I'm not working now, so what have I got to lose?  The August Institution I work for pays really well, there are great benefits and it's so secure it's like they've shackled you to your desk, but my heart just isn't in it anymore.  


I want to do something creative.  I want to spend 30 minutes driving to work instead of 90 minutes on a bus.  I want to leave home at 7.00 & be home by 4.30 instead of 7.30pm.  I want to be able to go for a walk after work.  I want to learn how to do this.  Do I want too much?

Steak vs mince

I started writing a post this week about our lovely new PM & the tribulations faced by people who give up everything they own, have ever known or ever loved, and spend days in a leaky unseaworthy boat in the hope of starting a new life free from persecution... and how ironic it is that her parents were able to up sticks and make a new life in a country of their choosing, at a time of their choosing, bringing their dignity and their possessions along with them... and now she's denying people, whose situations are far worse than "her health will suffer if you don't move to somewhere warm" (let's try "we don't like your religious beliefs so we're going to rape your women and kill your children and you have no recourse" or "your skin is the wrong colour, so you can't go to school", or "you eat different foods to us, so you can't have a job", for starters) the same opportunity.  It is not a crime to seek asylum in another country.  Guess we can't say that too loudly or too often.


I didn't finish it, because my moral outrage was too strong to let me think straight.


In addition, I am well and truly over this week.  My wonderful new job has a few glitches in it, and for the first time since changing jobs, I wonder if I've done the right thing... maybe I jumped too quick?  


Ah well.  On the good news side, Doc Rosie got her birthday present, the beautiful Julia Froggie, but in light of the above... maybe she'll need a name change?  My Taiwanese customer got her 60 lavender bags and apparently was very happy with them, which is nice, and I made bits and pieces that didn't rate photographs... and I found out that Eckersley's Arts and Crafts supplies has a huge selection of ribbon, so I bought a few metres:

There's something inherently beautiful in ribbons, I think... here's some I already own:

Is this a fetish, do you think?  So ephemeral, so fleeting but so functional, so useful and so beautiful.  Reminds me of William Morris's exhortation to "Have nothing in your house which you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful"...


It's nearly as good as being a fabriholic!


And so, gentle reader, it's nearly time for bed, so... ciao for now!

Spending the day in your pyjamas is...

very enjoyable, actually.  Sunday, it was cold & rainy.  Fascinating details of my day follow, so you may want to tune out here & come back some other time...


I got up early (7.00am), had breakfast, read Saturday's paper, did a bit of pottering to clean up from Saturday night's dinner with Nephew (and friend), went back to bed & read a bit, then got up again & tidied the Small But Perfectly Formed room - there's a limit to the amount of mess I can stand, y'know?  I can live with it for a while, but then, BAM!  I have to clean up.  I bought a bunch of magazine boxes (what are those things actually called, anyway?) from Ikea a while ago & started to sift through the two large piles of magazines on the living room floor, I moved all the crap off my sewing table, I even shifted some fabric around to make room here and there for the accumulated Holiday treasure...


Then I sewed.  I made the previously discussed pouch for Miss Jerry, using this from here:

And this, from here:

with a co-ordinating blue zip, and blue ribbon, just to keep it from being too 'dark'.  She's only seven!

And then I took it to work for the lovely buyer, without taking any photos.  Oh well, you get the idea.

I also cut out two flat pouches from this, which I love:

 oh, now, see, blogger is doing that stupid thing again where it won't put the pictures in the middle.  I hate this. 

Anyway, I'm lining the pouches with this, from here:

, which, amazingly, is the exact colour of the turquoise on the linen.  Nice, huh?  Pictures, I promise. 

And now, gentle readers, because it is 2.57AM, and I have to be up at 5.30AM, I'm going back to bed, for another attempt at sleep.  Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye... 

Sometimes I wish, often I wish...

Blogger ate my post!  Man that is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooo   oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo annoying.  A bit like reading that word, I'm guessing.


Anyway, I was rambling on about Jessica Steen, who originally played Dr Elizabeth Weir in Stargate, and how I'd seen her on NCIS but couldn't work out who she was until it about 3.30am the next morning - and why was I rambling on about this?  Because the title of this blog is a line from a song, but I can't remember which one... but I'm sure... it'll come back to me.  And then, Blogger ate my post.


Arrrrgh.


So, the new job is going well, I'm really enjoying working closely with my new project manager, and being back in town - and I just found out my BA Buddy, who was there to help me out when I started on this journey last year, won the annual Big Prize for Being Fabulous At Work (which she always is!) - well done Jen!



Creative news - I bought some lovely fabrics on Saturday up at Cottage Quiltworks, and I need to lock myself in the magic room on the weekend to take advantage of it all!  Alas, I am in thrall to the cricket (plus it's just tooooo cold to be anywhere except in front of the fire!) and cannot move!


Stay tuned!