No stitching progress today

Today I feel a bit battle weary from work, so I'm taking a day off stitching and just blobbing out in front of the PC for a while catching up on blogs, and emails and paying bills etc. Then I intend to get out and have a walk on the beach before heading off to work again ... managed to get a dose of 'acoustic shock' last night, and ended up being taken off the phones due to the fact that my right ear especially was burning/aching :( Our headsets are really sensitive, and one call dropped in where their baby/toddler had just hit its head - right next to the telephone receiver ... next thing you know I had huge feedback coming down the phone from the ear-piercing shriek coming from the kid ... OUCH!!! Anyway, today my right ear is still a bit achey, but hopefully I'll be OK to take calls tonight ... Anyway, it's yet another gloriously sunny day in Melbourne, with just enough breeze to keep the heat down - would be mad not to make the most of it and go for a wander.

On that note, though, it reminds me of something I thought about the other day ... I live in a predominantly jewish area of Melbourne - I apologise for my ignorance in advance ... there are many orthodox jews walking the streets, and it fascinates the heck out of me! Coming from a mainly Asian community where I last lived, it's a huge cultural difference in this suburb. I love to see them out walking in their traditional clothes and outfits ... but what made me think of them today is, how the heck do they survive in the high heat of summer?? I saw an older gentleman the other day in his full black outfit, complete with coat and fur hat - on the hottest day we've had so far - sat on a garden wall in the street ... first thing that crossed my mind, "no wonder you're sat down on that wall, you must be bl**dy roasting!!" (not meant to cause offence to anyone). I have to say, I admire these people for being so steadfast in their religion and culture, and not being swayed by outside influences - but I also think it's easy for someone to target them for being 'different'. When I moved here, ex-flatmates said "ooh, you're moving to a very Jewish area", as if it was a dreadful thing to do ... I just see other people like me, that are just in different packaging ... anyway, just something I was thinking right now ...

Before I go on my walk, though, a quick response to some comments (and back to stitching-related talk) ...

Von, now you can understand why I couldn't stop from looking at that chart all night - Close at Heart chart is just beautiful! I'm going to stitch it in the purple colourway, seeing as I'm not much of a pink chick (although I still think the pink is very dainty and pretty) ... unless I can work out some blues that I can use instead from my stash (that'd be a surprise for me, wouldn't it, changing something to be blue!! LOL). As it is, I'm going to try to find colours in my stash that would work, as I can't afford to buy more threads for a while. Let me know if you're going to stitch it next year, and I'll join in with you and squeeze it in among my other million stitching projects :)

And Jenna - on the same note, I just went to your photo site to check out the Close at Heart piccies ... just stunning! I really love this piece done on the green fabric - awesome!! Hadn't thought of changing the fabric colour, so now I'm going to have a play in my stash and look at other options aside from just white ... especially if I change the colours to blue ;) As for the hardanger squares at the bottom - when I saw the chart I nearly choked LOL. I've only ever attempted doves eyes in hardanger, so that's really going to be a huge challenge ... will definitely have to do a 'dummy run' on a scrap piece of fabric, I think. Oh well, if nothing else, it will challenge me to do something different. Maybe I should come to you for a holiday for some hardanger lessons ;) haha. In fact I've had Walk the Gentle Path by Cross 'n Patch for years, and the hardanger part at the bottom is what's stopped me from stitching it ... I think if I just bit the bullet and give it a go, I'll be fine. I actually bought the Janice Love books to help me, but loaned them to a supposed friend at work in NZ, and never got them back (which is a right royal pain considering I'd ordered them specially from the US - she ended up running off with over $200 worth of my books boohoo). Maybe 2006 is my year for finally shaking off and trying to conquer my fears ...

Rightio, off for my hour's walk ... especially for Lynn, here are photos of where I live (and where I'm about to go walking) ... in the first photo, where the end of the path is (where it veers off to the right), there is a canal - you just follow the canal for about 4 blocks, and you're practically at my front door :) The photos are taken either side from a hill at which there is a viewing point - I usually continue my walk to the grey concrete wharf you can just see in the distance (in the second photo), then turn around and come back. Last time I kept walking round to the next bay and nearly killed myself! :) I think I need to buy a bike!!! Of course that's the city skyline of Melbourne in the background ...