Down, Down Under

Well, I managed to arrive safe and sound on the shores of Auckland city at 3am on Monday morning ... which was absolutely exhausting seeing as I'd worked a 6am shift on Sunday and hadn't had any sleep at all since then (as well as working 6 days straight) - unfortunately the plane was late leaving Melbourne, so a late arrival into Auckland. Got into bed at about 4am and managed to get about 4 1/2 hours sleep before an unexpected wakeup call hmmm. Let's just say I was a bit of a zombie, and to be honest I still feel quite wrecked 3 days later! I've slept for 10 hours both the last two nights ... fingers crossed I'll be starting to feel a bit more 'normal' again soon ...

I haven't managed to get much done ... although my priority has been to parcel up all my XS charts etc, ready for freighting, and I've nearly accomplished the mission - still have to go through my books as well ... and I think there will be quite a number of charts heading over to Ebay when I get them home. There are LOADS of rip outs from magazines that I know I'll never stitch in a month of Sundays, so they'll all be free to a good home for the cost of the postage if anyone wants them ...

The rest of my time has been spent trying not to get Dad's blood on the carpet ... to say it's been "trying" at times would be a serious understatement. I had to jump in the shower last night before I lost my cool at him. I love my Dad 'cos he's my Dad, but I don't always like him very much. I'd forgotten when I come home that usually by the 2nd day here my tension levels are sky high, and my patience levels are very slim. Mum and I went out for dinner in Auckland city last night for her birthday, which was lovely ... and much to my Mum's disgust it was my shout yay. Dad, of course, being the miserable sod that he is, refused to come out with us, even though we chose a steak restaurant that he would have enjoyed. Considering we had a party for his 70th birthday two years ago, Mum had already been warned we weren't allowed to have one for her ... I'll leave my comments unwritten on that score, but I think it's pretty poor ... but then again, that's my Dad to a T - very very selfish. Oh well, we still had a good time out, and to be honest it was probably more enjoyable with just the two of us ...

As for stitching, I didn't even get out of my PJ's on Monday, so did a bit of stitching instead to try to keep my eyelids open ... I started Santa's Stash by Full Circle Designs, as part of the Ornament challenge/SAL on the Welcome Friends BB. But I forgot to pack the Mill Hill beads, and needed to buy some buttons and two of the DMC colours before I could finish it, so Mum and I popped out to Spotlight on Tuesday, and by midnight Tuesday night the final stitches were put into place.

If you were wondering why there are amazing shifts in weather patterns at the moment, you can blame my Mum! At the grand old age of 70 she's finally decided she wants to learn how to XS haha. So we bought her a little kit of Frangipani (gee whizz, I wonder who chose that?!!), and she managed to put a few stitches in before I got chance to teach her ... she's keen! I bought some aida cloth offcuts over for her to try stitching on, and we've been looking for some easy Christmas designs for her to stitch some ornaments - now I'll have to start hiding my stash from her teehee. She used to do tapestries and she knits, so she'll be just fine :)

Mum's dial-up connection is absolutely appalling, but I finally managed to get Blogger to upload more piccies - I just have to share these before I get home ... these photos are of a scissor fob that Pauline stitched for me as part of the StitchNZ scissor fob exchange, and posted to Mum's address ... it is the most awesomely exquisite fob ever! The colours are just to die for ... they are so "ME" ... totally stunning! I will always treasure it - thanks so much Pauline :D


Rightio, I suppose it's back to the salt mines again ... aka "the garage" ... groan ... Mind you, by the sounds of it, Dad's already brought more boxes into the lounge for me to sort through - a less than subtle hint! haha. If I manage to find my way out again, I'll see if I get time to post again - otherwise it won't be until I get home again. I think I need an entire month to go through all my stuff - I'm starting to wonder how in heck I'm going to get everything done that I'd planned :(

Hope everyone is having a good week :)