Photo Hunt – Thankful

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This week’s theme is “Thankful” and I have to say I have many things to be thankful for in my lifetime – friends and family that have helped be grow and become the person I am today … opportunities to experience many different adventures along life’s pathway … and the opportunity to travel and broaden my horizons and life experiences. I am thankful for all these things – thankful for the richness of life itself!  Here are some snippets from my life of which I have been thankful to experience…

Photo Hunt – Warm

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This week’s theme is “Warm” and here are my choices for the week.

Sulphurous, steaming rocks in the geothermal area of Rotorua, New Zealand

Warm sunset in Santorini, Greece

Warm pies on the east coast of New South Wales, Australia

Photo Hunt – Nautical

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This week’s theme is “Nautical” and seeing as I couldn’t choose, I’ve opted to show three separate photos …

Speedy internet service

Just a quick note before I tuck myself in for the night to say “YIPPEE!!!!!!!” – I bought a new modem/router off Ebay this week and it arrived tonight(thank heavens for Visa!) … 1 1/2 hours later and I’m the proud new owner of a super fast, super beautiful internet connection.  I can’t believe how much faster my connection is – pages are loading up really fast in my feed reader, and I’m not making as many typos (I think) here typing this as my internet page is actually keeping up with my fingers at the speed they’re typing … ah, sheer bliss!!!

And on that note I’d really better get to sleep … I was at work until 8.30pm again tonight, and have a phone hook-up with Tuscon, Los Angeles and Auckland first thing in the morning (that’s how every Friday morning starts for me at the moment), so I’d better get some shut-eye so I’m semi-awake for the call (especially as I’m the project lead from our end hmmm).

I’ll be sleeping with a huge grin on my face tonight … partly because of the modem/router … partly because the Chiropractor untwisted my neck tonight so I feel more ‘centred’ … and partly because I managed to track down an old friend of the male persuasion in Melbourne, who I used to have a bit of a crush on (and no, that doesn’t mean there’s romance brewing … although that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love him to come and visit Sydney for a weekend haha).  One of the few times in life that my Mum likes someone and so do I … you don’t need three guesses to work out who I’m talking about Mum!!! haha.

Rightio, time to sleep … happy sleep tonight after being stressed out to the max all week with work … happy sleep … happy sleep (do you think I’ve talked myself into it? haha).

Bad update photo of Winter Queen

Seeing as I’m not sure if I’ll get anymore stitching done until the weekend, I thought I’d quickly jump on and upload my latest WIP piccie of Winter Queen … for once you can see some substantial improvements in the last piccie!  Can’t wait to get her finished so I can unroll her from the scroll bars and see her in all her glory … also so I can move on to something else

As previously done, here’s the before and after pics:

Before (closer to the actual colours of the threads!)

After (dunno what happened to the colours in his one!!)

I think the next “major” BAP I’ll focus on after Winter Queen is finished is Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello … so much for my rotation this year, I just want to keep stitching on WQ until she’s done … of course I’m female, and therefore reserve the right to change my mind on a whim! ;P

Praying for a reprieve

I have to say I’m not religious in any sense of the word … but I’m praying for a reprieve for those poor people who are suffering so badly in the tragic bushfires raging south of us here.  It is heartbreaking to see the death toll steadily climb each day, and anyone who does not feel touched in some way must have hearts of stone. 

Watching the news tonight had tears rolling down my cheeks.  One generous soul who had lost his own property and seen so many of his neighbours properties destroyed spent 6 hours driving around the township helping living victims to safety.  After saving 12 lives, he was found by his brother laying in the street in front of the local pub with his dog at this side.  On asked whether he would go back to live there, he said how could he?  He would be forever haunted by what he had seen – that people were normally trained to view such horrors as he had seen.  I can’t even begin to imagine what he went through in those 6 hours, not to mention those other poor souls who have been at the centre of this tragedy.  I don’t know what else to say … it breaks my heart …

The death toll is now sitting at 131, and the possibility to hit the over 200 mark … such devastation … such loss … such tragedy

On a different note, it’s unlikely I’ll be online much over the next week or so until a new modem turns up.  My modem has died a horrible death (it actually died almost a week ago now) – I just remembered on Saturday night after working all day (thankfully in air-con) that I’d forgotten to cancel my old mobile broadband account with “3″, so I’ve managed to log into my emails over the last day or two.  It doesn’t have much upload/download space, though, so my online time with be very limited for a short while.

I did a whole heap of stitching yesterday on Winter Queen, but I haven’t taken a photo yet … I’ll be stitching most of the upcoming weekend, so will likely take a photo then.

In the meantime, please keep those affected by the bushfires in your thoughts and prayers.  As for the mongrels that set some of the fires in the first place, I truly hope there is such a thing as karma … and hope you’re not sleeping too well with that death toll on your conscience!

Photo Hunt – Bridge(s)

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This week’s theme is “Bridge(s)” and while I’m living in a city with one of the world’s most beautiful and well-known bridges, I decided to stick with the obvious – here’s Sydney’s Harbour Bridge, as viewed from a ferry coming into the harbour … you can see the Sydney Opera House in the bottom corner too

Winter Queen update

After getting my hair done on Saturday I sat and stitched for a few hours on Winter Queen.  Sunday was spent at work the whole day, and yesterday was spent in agony hobbling around at work with an agonising back.  Thankfully I had a chiro appointment last night, so I was sent home with instructions to put an ice pack on my lower back followed by some Anti-Flamme ointment, and today thankfully it is quite a bit better.  I was so chirpy last week ‘cos I’ve had more energy than I’ve had for at least 6 months … but apparently this is to be expected in the initial stages of the therapy.  Still, I feel so much better within myself, the $1000 is worth every cent so far!

As for Winter Queen, she’s grown a wee bit since the last photo, and I put a teeny bit more into her again last night too as Katie and I sat and watched another 2 episodes of Supernatural Seas0n 1 … just can’t get enough of that show!  Anyway, just before I jump in the shower, here’s a quick update piccie – sorry but these update piccies are quite boring, as you can hardly see that much improvement thanks to the lovely blocks of white … can’t wait to get to a nice blue to stitch with

Now for my own benefit, to make me feel like I’ve actually made some progress, I’ve included the before and after shots again… starting with the “after”:

Before