William McInnes..

Last Thursday night DH and I were lucky enough to attend a Book Talk at a local library. The author was William McInnes, who as well as being a successful author, is also a well known Australian actor. Although he lives and works interstate, William has a soft spot for Queensland as he grew up in Redcliffe. 

The evening started with drinks and savouries in the foyer of the library. Then we moved to the meeting room which was set up with chairs and a lectern. It's the same meeting room where Sisters of Stitch meet each fortnight.
We managed to get a seat near the front and to one side near the door...

Waiting for William to arrive...

 And here he is...just 60cm from me!

Here he is being introduced to the audience...

 As soon as he took over the microphone, he enthralled us with his stories of life when he was a boy; especially his early memories of Chermside and also of Redcliffe.  He told us funny anecdotes about his parents who sounded like they were 'real characters'.  He talked of the sadness when his parents died and also the all consuming sadness when his wife Sarah died in 2011.

 He told us that the new book was the result of his 'trying to make sense' of his wife's passing...

He had us in stitches as he told us what it was like being a single father of a teenage daughter. (he also has a 20 year old son) 

 William told us how he came up with the characters in his latest book. Writers really store store little bits of information away ready for a time they can incorporate it into a book. Every now and then he would do an impersonation of people ranging from John Howard to his parents, especially when his mother was fed up with his behaviour in his teenage years. Young william was certainly a larrikin and still is, I suspect! lol

William read some excerpts from the book every now and then but most of the evening was taken up with his telling funny anecdotes, singing ads from the 1960s 1970s word perfectly  or imitating a public figure.

Most author talks are just half an hour; William talked for over a hour! lol

But we did have time for a few questions from the audience...DH tried to ask the question ' Will there be another series of "The Time of our Lives" ' but question time was over.

DH and I usually borrow books for the library, occasionally buy books as gifts and sometimes buy eBooks. But last Thursday, I bought a copy of William's latest book, 'The Bird Watcher'. 

While the book was being signed DH asked his question. And the answer was, 'Yes! Filming of the 2nd series starts in January and William said that he has to lose weight for the role'. lol

There are lots of photos of William McInnis in this post. That's because I took lots as he's sort of my 'pin up boy'!

Scarborough Knit and Natter...

The first Monday of the month is the Scarborough Knit and Natter. DH knew that I really wanted to go to this so instead of him heading off to his usual Monday golf game, he drove me to Scarborough. We had bags of yarns that friends had given me for K4BN, some fabrics for some of the sewers, a gift card from Yarn Over that DH and I had donated for the Christmas Raffle and I had a blanket of donated squares that was ready to hand in.

Blanket made with squares donated by Stephanie and Julie from Sisters of Stitch

 I loved 'Show and Tell' as there were some beautiful blankets...

Gorgeous! This is a new pattern that Angela tried and loved doing it; she used indigenous colours

 And here's another one that Angela made

 Karen held up this one that consisted of lots of small crocheted motifs

Here Karen is holding up a jumper and beanie set in indigenous colours. Hmmm hiding behind that beanie eh?

And this one was knitted in strips by Helen. Then each strip was crocheted around in dc and then each strip  was joined...very effective!

A new member, Robyn, brought along some wonderful toys that she had sewn...

These will make lovely gifts for needy children...

The next photo shows a bag filled with mini Christmas stockings which have been made by many of the group's members.

Each mini stocking is filled with sweets and then community groups hand these out to the needy at Christmas functions. Karen had been asked that group provide over 2000 of these Christmas stockings. That's a huge amount and members of our sister charity knitting group, Knit for Charities have given us a hand to get that number.

At many of the K&Ns at the moment, members are filling the stockings ready for the community events.  Here's my wonderful DH helping fill mini stockings...

And here's the stocking fillers on the other side of the table...

We only stayed for an hour as I was starting to tire...but it had been a wonderful outing :-)

Eduardo has been 'in the wars'...

Last week I wrote a post about Eduardo's visit to the vet the week before. We continued to give him the anti inflammatory medicine and he seemed to be doing okay. Then  by the Saturday of that week, it was obvious that he wasn't well; he had stopped eating and was very listless.
Then on the Sunday of that week, I noticed that he had a swelling on the side of his head and ironically he started eating again. But I knew that he needed antibiotics as it seemed like he had an abscess.

He decided to have a sleep on the printer that afternoon but DH woke him up when he started printing off some documents ; the lump on the right side of his face is very obvious...

 Luckily we didn't have to take Eddie back to the vet for a consultation, we just had to call in and get a course of antibiotics. I ground the tablets to a fine powder and put it in with his canned food...he ate it all up! Nothing seemed to happen for a few days, then on the Wednesday morning I noticed that the lump was gone...

It was a bit mucky for a few days and being a cat, Eddie kept rubbing it with the side of his paw.

There's a lot of healing still to go but his appetite is well and truly back and he is being 'bossy' and vociferous at mealtimes; in other words all back to normal! lol

Some visitors...

I wrote 2 posts recently about little excursions DH and I have taken but I've also had a number of visitors since I have come home from hospital...
Some of these visitors have spoiled me by bringing flowers, which I absolutely love!

This beautiful bunch were brought over by my friend Helen; the roses have the most beautiful fragrance!

 These flowers came from my friends The Newmarket Mum's...

 Another friend, Liz, came over with some zucchini slice and some bromeliads to plant...

DH, Liz and her husband Glenn, catch up while I circle the table taking photos :-)

With DH doing all the hard work, these were planted pretty much straight away. You see there is a 'bromeliad story'...

A little while ago I came home from Liz's place with a supermarket bag of bromeliads to plant...DH thought that it was rubbish...so you know what happened don't you! lol
The other day Liz also brought over some EPP that she did in some classes ages ago. She didn't know what sort of patchwork it was called but her memory had stirred a few weeks back when I was talking about my current projects. I loved her table centre and gave her all the info she needed to finish off the project!

Liz's EPP in front and a glimpse of one of my projects that I have on the go at the moment...

 I also had another visitor who came recently. Now we did not invite him to sit down nor did we offer  him coffee/tea but DH did send him some money later by direct debit...

Graham, who lives in the next street, is our plumber and he came round to see why the drain was overflowing when the washing machine and dishwasher water emptied...

DH was convinced that it was the roots of my shrubs that were the culprits for blocking the drain. It was looking like I would have to have these bushes pulled out, just when we needed the privacy from the complex next door, as well as for shade on our kitchen window from the western sun.
But all was good! It wasn't tree roots; it was just a build up from the soaps and general grease/scum. As well as cleaning out the blockage and sending the 'electric eel' all the way through the pipes to the street, Graham was also able to view the drains with a camera...no tree roots and no other blockages.

Another glimpse of my time spent working in the classroom...

Occasionally I have been writing posts about old photos that give a glimpse of my former work in the classroom (and outside too). The photo I have chosen this time, dates back to 1974. It was the year of 'The Flood' after heavy rain during the Australia Day weekend. Hundreds of homes and businesses were flooded in the Brisbane/Ipswich area and schools remained closed to students for the first week of the school year.
Staff were recalled on the Wednesday if they were able to get to a school, even their closest school if flooding prevented access to their own workplace. I had a bag full of year 3 resources because I had been allocated that year level. When I got to school I was told that I had a Year 5 instead. And I would meet my new class on the following Monday. What a delightful group of children they were; I had a wonderful year with them.

Some of the gonk dolls made by my class in 1974

When I trained at Teachers College we learned that stitching was an important part of the art curriculum and it just wasn't for the girls like when I was a student at school.  (we used to stitch these samplers each year while the boys went to cane work and marbling paper lessons; I always felt cheated as a girl! lol) Consequently I planned art programs for my classes that covered so many art areas and used a wide variety of media.

The photo shows some of the completed dolls. Gonk dolls were a simple oval shape, hand-sewn with simple running stitch, stuffed and then legs,arms, hair and facial features were added. The class were very enthusiastic and some of the dolls even got shirts, skirts or pants made for them by their young designers.

In the rear left hand corner of the photo is a display board with some weaving samples that the children had made. We made the weaving with a few colours to imitate tartan checks.
The pictures hanging on the back wall are some origami houses glued to the background sheet and then by investigating perspective the students drew in a path and also drew some garden plants. The roosters' pictures are simple paper mosaic with many students experimenting to make their roosters appear 3D.
You may have noticed the back wall of my classroom. It's actually a wall that folds back. The ceilings in this 1930's building were very high and those doors were very tall and heavy and to actually fold back those partitions were beyond most of us, lol!

But looking at those doors/partition wall in this photo brought some other memories flooding back. In those early 1970s when I had started my teaching career, if a colleague was away, a supply teacher would not be employed to replace them. The teacher next door to the absent teacher was expected to take both classes. You would open the doors there in the middle, stand there and look after both classes for the day. I was 19 when I first started teaching and I waited with trepidation for the class teacher next door to have a day off...she ended having several days off throughout my first year and I would end up with 76-78 students...obviously I survived and it was because the children were lovely and worked hard throughout the days under those conditions.

Years later I would come back to this school as a relief teacher and this building had a complete refurbishment. The rooms were opened up and each pair of rooms became one classroom with lots of space. And most of those partitions were removed and replaced.
One more photo...this was my class in 1974; the ones who did all that creative works.

Most of these students will have celebrated their 49th birthday this year...:-/ 

P.S. I posted the photo of the art work on the school's Facebook page with the caption asking if any students recognised their sewing. I didn't expect anyone to respond. The girl 3rd from the left in the back row wrote a comment saying that she did recognise her gonk doll. It was second from the right in the back row and she added that she still had the doll up to a few years ago, 'when it fell to pieces'. I was impressed! lol

Friday Night with Friends...

The first Friday of the month in Blogland, is Friday Night with Friends or FNwF. Despite different time zones, participants from all over the world sign up to spend an evening doing some sort of crafting and then write about what they did on their blog. Other bloggers then 'visit' to find out what wonderful items were worked on during the previous evening. Now this all takes organisation and we have an Aussie blogger, Cheryll of Gone stitchin' blog, to thank for organising this monthly event.  

Last night I thought that I might like to do some tracing using the lightbox, but ended up using a crochet hook and yarn instead of a tracing pen and lightbox! lol

The story about what I worked on starts a few months back... 2 ladies at my Sisters of Stitch group have been giving me 3-4 knitted squares each fortnight. 

Disclaimer: I can take no credit for the squares that you see in the photos. They have all been made by others. I'm just the 'joiner-up er'...

Stephanie went out and bought variegated yarns especially for this project and many of the squares were knitted on the diagonal. This looks particularly effective when joined into a rug... 

Julie embroidered on one of the squares that she knitted; a lovely gesture for the recipient...

The squares are to make blankets for Knitting for Brisbane's Needy. By the beginning of October I had joined 4 rows of 5 squares each and just needed another 4 squares to complete another row. Stephanie handed over 4 squares the last time I went to SoS. In all the 'excitement' of my hospital visit, I had not got around to completing that final row. 

Stephanie and Julie had lots of fun experimenting with designs for the squares...

So last night I did that. I also started crocheting a border around the finished blanket but didn't get very far with that because weariness overtook my enthusiasm. 

Still the border to do and some general neatening up; then it's all ready to be handed in.

 Some of the bright/cheerful colours of the row over the back of the chairs.

These days most of the donated squares that I join up into blankets are joined just by crocheting. It's quicker than stitching each of the rows using mattress stitch because unfortunately it has come down to speed of output, rather than the luxury of taking hours/days to put a number of squares together. 

If you use the link to Cheryll's blog that I inserted in the first paragraph, you will be able to visit other bloggers who took part in this month's FNwF. I guarantee you will see some 'top stuff'! lol

Another unexpected outing...

For a few years I've been whinging complaining querying my dentist about the occasional ache in my gum where I have a small crown. Each time, Tony dutifully probes with those hideous pointed tools, x- rays the offending area, and has always pronounced that there were no problems with the crown. And the pain would disappear on its own any way!

Well after I left hospital last week, this tooth has started playing up, making it difficult to eat even. This started last Saturday...but it was only every second day that I would have the soreness. On Wednesday this week, I decided I could stand it no more and rang the dental surgery and got an appointment for yesterday afternoon. Within the hour of making the appointment, I suddenly realised that I had a sore lump in the gum where the crowned tooth was...so I was glad that I'd made that appointment. Then later in the evening...the lump had gone!! And I could chew food on that side again.

Urban Dental at Kelvin Grove

So yesterday afternoon, I sat in the chair and told him the story...what a weird and convoluted tale it was! Tony got to work with those probing tools and then after that took a single x-ray... and found a large abscess. Needless to say he was very surprised, as there was little sign when he did the examination. He hadn't found any sore spots when he was probing around the crown and the gum. (remember I did say that the pain comes and goes???)

While I sat outside the dentists waiting for DH to bring the car around, I noticed the interesting pattern on the footpath...I have walked on it so many times before but have never noticed this!!

The 'dramas with this tooth started when I was in my late teens when I got an infection in a temporary filling put in by the family dentist. Problems have tended to flare up with this tooth about every 10-12 years, necessitating root canal work, part crowns, full crowns, with the last work done in 2004 when Tony saved it from extraction. This time however, he  has recommended that I get the tooth removed.  He offered to so that yesterday but as I just couldn't face it, I said 'I was too fragile', so I have a course of antibiotics to take now...big ones too!

Looking down the street from where I was sitting. The Kelvin Grove Urban Village was built on the site of the former  Gona Army Base there. This street, like most in the village did not exist 10 years ago. 

DH and I didn't go straight home from the dentist...

We stopped in Alderley so DH could send off a parcel for me. I took a photo of the Physiotherapy sign; the practice is owned by a former student of mine.

Then DH drove us out to Grovely (Keperra) to Yarn Over, the yarn shop there. We bought a voucher as our donation to K4BN's Christmas raffle.

So Thursday turned out to be a big day for me. And after starting my course of antibiotics, I'm a bit zonked out at the moment and having lots of naps...:-)