Well I got on the plane and flew to Thailand and am now sitting in the Millenium Hilton Hotel waiting for the others of our group to arrive. The view out the window over the river is ever changing and although I am still finding it difficult to move around I am here and doing things.
The temple spires give a different look to the sky line and the distinctive shape of the boats that ply their trade on the river make sure you know this is an Asian country.
I have been looking for a copy of this book for years.
It is the first book published in English about Kogin Embroidery and is by Beatrice Fulton Keeber. It is out of print and cost a lot on the Second Hand sites. (A friend had bought it and made a copy for me.) It was interesting to read, not only because of it's age but because there was so much information that was incomplete and even wrong. It got me thinking about how much is lost in translation when one is not fluent in the original language.
I'm sure the author published it in good faith but in some ways it was a bit of a dissapointment. I had hoped to gain so much extra knowledge but found that I already had more than was in the book. Still, it is another one for my Kogin collection.
Another day of frustration. I took my phone in to have the screen repaired and told it would take 1/2 an hour. Three hours later I got to pick it up and pay the $140 for the repair.
Next was a trip to the Quilters and Emboirderers' Store, which is about an hour away. The business is up for sale and the have discounted a lot of the stock. When I took my purchases to the counter they asked if I was in the system? I was, No6. The first time the assistant had ever seen a single number loyalty customer! So what did I buy? Some threads and cutting blades that were discounted 40%. I love those watercolour threads, might go back and get some more.
Then some Osnaburg and other plain fabrics for future classes. The Osnaburg had some fade marks so this was even cheaper. I'm sure I can cut around the marks.
I came away feeling very pleased with myself.
I have managed to cut out some fabric using my roller cutter and my shoulder didn't freeze up! Well it still hurt but I did get it cut. Next job is to sew it on the machine.
My health problems have taken me on another journey and hopefully I have now returned. I do not deal well with medications and even over the counter drugs can cause me problems. I had to come off my pain killers, which was only a low dose over the counter type, but I had horrible withdrawal problems and oh the pain without the drugs! I was only on a half dose but that has been cut in half again and I am now back in the real world again.
I still have a frozen shoulder and am unable to stitch but I thought I would use this time to learn to use my iPad pro and pencil. But, I just have not been able to get that pencil working. In desperation I went into the Apple store to find out what I was doing wrong. (That is a 4 hour round trip.) Turned out I was doing nothing wrong, I had a faulty pencil. Now I have a brand new pencil that works. What a great outcome? I also went to the post office and just couldn’t recognise anything. The girl gave me a lesson in the new self service model. You live and learn.
One thing I didn’t like to learn was that the council has installed parking time limits in the streets where I used to live. It was only a half hours walk from down town and now you can only park for 4 hours. That was a bit of a shock as was the rise in parking fees in the city $80m for more than 2 hours.
I ended up parking in the street that ran at the side of my old home and was greeted with the heady perfume of the Jasmine vines I had planted before we sold the house. They have now grown and cover the fence. Now everyone who walks down the path beside the fence can smell the sweet perfume and admire the flowers. Just as I had planned.