'Blue Elegance' update

I finally managed to finish this week's stitching assignment for my Blue Elegance piece (officially "Apricot Elegance" by Cindy Valentine) - I'm using Blueberry Watercolors thread on 28ct Cashel linen in an unknown blue colour from my stash ... I thought it was quite 'chunky' on the 28ct linen, but I'll keep persevering with it as I think the colour really blends well with just a bit of subtle shading. I've really enjoyed stitching this piece so far - it's a nice change to stitch with some chunky threads and having something that grows so quickly!

The rest of the week has gone in a bit of a blur really ... I finished my night shifts at 5am Monday morning, but only managed to get 4-5 hours sleep again ... and was back at work again for 11am Wednesday - feeling very tired and very cranky! LOL. The only way I can explain it is that it's like going from Australia to London (totally opposite time zones) to work for 3 days, then flying home to Australia again and going straight to work off the plane! Usually we get 4 days off after the night shifts to recover, but because I was covering the Hotline for two separate staff members, I ended up with split shifts and only 1 1/2 days off to recover ... never ever again! I've felt like death all week - then Fraze came to stay on Thursday night (which was lovely to have his company as usual) so I didn't get quality sleep again - now it's my weekend and I feel like a train wreck :(

Mum made me laugh last night - she knows I hadn't been feeling great, so I walked in the door to the following greetings - first of all a bourbon and L&P all ready to add ice (sheer nectar!) ... and the 2nd thing is she'd lined up my 'lounge ducks' in a row on the floor along with Bukta in front of the TV, saying they'd been having a lovely time watching cricket with her as a family night in - she's a crack up! I swear she's going through her second childhood! LOL. Poor Bukta (on the left) belongs to Fraze ... it's his childhood toy that we've tormented dreadfully since I moved to Aussie. It's a long story how it all happened (and it was initiated by his best friend Scott), but we decided Bukta was a closet transvestite and dressed him in a dress, made him boobs, and a wig and he feels so much happier ... you had to be there at the time, but it was hysterical to see Fraze's face when he saw him (we attacked Bukta while he was at work). When I moved out I told Fraze I'd really miss Bukta in his little pink outfit (it never got removed, 'cos it made us laugh) ... so Mum and I hijacked him to play a joke on Fraze - we took him for a walk up to the beach here and I made him a little hammock out of chopsticks and a handkerchief ... then we took a photo of him and sent it to Fraze from Bukta saying he was having a lovely time on holiday at the beach with Auntie Anne ... we howled ourselves silly! And to this day Bukta still resides happily here - I keep telling Fraze to take him home, but he says he likes it here! So he sits permanently on top of my computer desk keeping my printer company ;)Can you tell I haven't done much stitching this week? Not much to show at all, really - hence the other pictures haha. I don't have much energy today, so stitching will be the best thing for me to chill out, I think (actually, I was told by Mum that's my best relief, so I have to put a DVD in and get stitching - gee, I'm gonna miss her when she goes back home!). Am trying to talk Mum into staying an extra couple of weeks to the middle of February so she will be here for my birthday. I wasn't going to do anything this year, but seeing as it's a "decade" birthday, we're going to go out to Dracula's for dinner - it a theatre restaurant, and is fantastically funny! It's not cheap, but it'll be a good way to say goodbye to the dirty-30's and hello to the naughty-40's :) The food is usually pretty good, and the show is absolutely side-splitting ... then there is a big group going "grape grazing" the next day, which is a wine tasting tour on buses - they're trying to talk me into going to that as well, so it will be a very unforgettable weekend all round if that's the case! haha. Anyway, enough driveling on about nothing - off to wake up and try stitching again ...

But a quick reply for Cathy ... yup, I really do work for an airline, and yup you guessed the airline correctly! :) We're apparently the ony airline worldwide that has a call centre open 24 hours a day/7 days a week - aren't we lucky? LOL. I worked for them in Auckland for 3 years, then moved to the 'mother country' where I've continued to work with them for another 2 1/2 years so far ... and most of the time love it! I'm an international consultant there, but also do relief cover on the Supervisor (staff assist) Hotline, where we help consultants out finding information when they get stuck, taking escalated calls (not my fave part of the job), and trouble shooting ... it can be very interesting, to say the least! :)