Here is my progress from last week. 'Giraffe Mother and Baby' from Dimensions. Mother's neck is nearly finished, and next time on this piece I'm ready to start on the body.. it is surprisingly easy to stitch and I'm not yet bored of all the browns. It looks so realistic, that's what I like. Some of the colours are mixed e.g. 1 strand of 350 and 1 strand of 397 etc, and with those longer threads, I find that they start to come apart nearer to the end, so quite poor quality thread in the kit I guess (?). So it's either working with shorter threads to reduce the friction, or knotting when they tear - annoying.

Jackie Collins 'Lovers and gamblers'

Right, here it goes again, I've read so many books since I've last reviewed, and there are all sitting on my pile here.

Sexy and wild without being unpleasantly 'dirrty', I like Collins' style. As with her other books, we find ourselves in the world of Hollywood stars and starlets, film premieres, models and everything in between. Lovers and Gamblers is essentially the story of Al King, and aging soul and rock star who does the whole sex, drugs n rock'n' roll thingy, and plenty of women thrown in for the fun of it. But inside, of course, Al's got a good heart and I quickly warmed to him as the 'hero' of the story despite his womanising antics. And than there is Dallas (what a name btw!), a model / actress with a dodgy past which she would like to keep secret. Initially separate stories, Al and Dallas will meet, but not the way Al likes to have it. Her character's well drawn out without being too much OTT (indeed she manages this even with cliched stuff like Hollywood, models, rockstars). The story is fast-paced, funny and never boring and the 600 pages will fly by.

Poodle 09. August 2009

Poodle 03. September 2009

Lilliput Lane 04. September 2009

Here finally some update on my cross stitch. I had taken the poodle with me to Germany to get something done on it, hopefully a big chunk. Well, I did finish page 4 of 6, and started on page 5, now half-way done. So, it won't be much longer I guess. But it's been slotted in again in my ususal 5-weekly rotation, so it will be a while before I stitch on it again.

Lilliput Lane is going slowly. Don't like the 14ct Aida, should have substituted it, never mind. The roof is confetti at it's finest, and the colours don't seem to match the picture. It comes out as darkish pink colours, whereas on the picture on the front of the kit it's brown. The pink doesn't look out of place or anything, I guess will just have to wait until I finished a bit more on it.

Why are weekends always so short? Was really busy today. In the morning, went with Nafees to East Ham for shopping. Than, coming back around lunch time, we went straight to Dartford fair. I was looking forward to see 'Stavros Flatley', those hilariously funny dancers from Britain's got Talent. I thought were were really funny, and we need something to laught don't we? Anyway, I didn't feel to well after eating some doghnuts, and generally I 'can't' do big crowds, so I had to leave before Stavros Flatley came on the stage. Oh well, but Dan saw them.

Than, coming back, I went straight to Jo's for our weekly cross stitch session. Had to help her with a lot of frogging on her huge Chinese Lady picture. And after that I went out with Bonnie, as mostly on Sundays we went to Beacon Wood. I looked out for fungi, as mum keeps telling me there are plenty in Germany, but nothing here... I just don't know the right places!

Only a little over 3 weeks now and we go to Germany. Vorfreude schoenste Freude - that's what they say in German. Well, it refers to Christmas time and means anticipation is the best joy or something like that, it's just nice sooo much looking forward to something. I read on a German TV channel website today there is big trouble with the 'S-Bahn' in Berlin. S-Bahn is a train-link-network in Berlin, very fast and reliable trains (bit like an overground tube). Apparently, due to some technical problems, most of the lines are now shut and only a few are running on emergency timetable - and this is likely to go on for many weeks. Well, of course, we will need the S-Bahn when we arrive in Schoenefeld to go into Berlin - and than from there take the train to my parents place.

I've written to the housing asociation to see if I need permission for the satellite dish, hopefully it won't take them long to reply. And than Nafees is treating me to German TV. I can't believe it - after 16 years in the UK, I'm going to get German TV.

Today we've done a proper 'shopping addict' thingy and went to the NEXT sale. Everything half price - and there, we were lured to the shop. I could understand Nafees, as he needs new suits for this new job (which I loves btw), and I came out with 2 new bags, 1jeans, 2 tops, 1 mac. Felt really stupid running around Bluewater with my 150 (or more) NEXT SALE bags.

Jo is inspiring me to pick up my cross stitch again and keep to the rotation (to some degree anyway). As we now are not any more allowed to work flexi time at work, I try to take 1 hour lunch, and have a small kit with me for cross stitching. It is actually really relaxing, just taking your mind off work for an our or so.

I've discovered this good photo shot opportunity a while back while out walking Bonnie in Beacon Wood Country park, this beautiful Kent village peeking through a hole in the forest. At that time, earlier on this year, I didn't had the right camera to get the houses in the background zoomed in. I finally shot it today - notice the typical Kent Oast houses. I really like the composition, with the trees framing the village in the background, but not too keen on how the colours turned out. Can't manage to change them so far - the countryside looks 'washed out'. Wish I could get more into Photoshop, but it really is not as straighforward as I'd thought. I started reading the 'Photoshop for Dummies' book, but after only 3 pages I'm as confused as anything - its peppered with words I don't understand. Hope I can get into it....

Not an easy read...and not something I would normally pick up. It came as a 'freebie' with some other books from the book club, and I generally try not to restrict my reading, so I would give almost everything a go.
John Diamond, the author of this book and a profilic journalist and broadcaster in the UK, is terminally ill with cancer, and actually dies before he was able to finish his book on 'Complimentary medicince' of which he writes critically about - it is fair to say he is not a believer in complimentary medicine. His brother-in-law writes the foreword, and also includes as the 'second part' of the unfinshed book, John's columns from several UK newspapers (The Times, The Jewish Cronicle etc). He tells the 'story' of his cancer - how he gets first diagnosed, thinking it is probably nothing etc, to the treatments and eventually having to face death, quite literally. Of course, it is sad to read, but also gives out vibes of a very positive person.