A Little bit of this and a Little bit of that ...

"... and you wiggle your ..."  oh hang on ... that is the chicken dance - and I am not doing that right now - lol
(I am not sure it has any official lyrics ... but there seem to be lots of different ones that come up in a search ... but I just remember what Mum and Dad - who have been known to get up and do the chicken dance in public without even having to have their grandkids around at the time sometimes sing - "With a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, and you wiggle your bum" actually it was Dad who would sing it and Mum would pretend to be a bit shocked at him being a bit rude - lol)

but ... to get to the point (if there ever IS any point to most of my blog posts?) ... I have been sitting here getting Lost in cyberspace while uplaoding a pile of photos onto the computer (and the darn camera software seems to be having a go slow lately ... even re-starting the computer did not fix it)  and I thought maybe while I am here I probably should post something to my blog, seeing I have not done my L post for ABC Wednesday yet (and in a couple days it will be time for the Letter M)

... and while I am here I will maybe even do something I have been meaning to do for months and Lose that Light coloured background - which is   was  a nice Light blue with a Lovely sky picture, but, for a few people at Least (possibly even Lots of people?) it is not the easiest thing to read my blog on top of ...

but what should I put there instead? LOL

I think my text (and everything else for that matter!) would get Lost among these Leaves:

The weird brown flower is a Banksia ... still in the process of flowering. There were Lots of them growing along the paths near Mum and Dad's place when I was up there visiting them (that is where I have been for the last couple of weeks - up in Queensland ;-)

These weird pink and green Leaves were also up near my parents place:

... somewhere in a garden in their street, I think.

these sunflowers were also nearby:

There is not much Left of the one on the Left - Mum has a similar photo to this, but the bird (I think it was a parrot) was still on there eating the seeds from it ... it has Left a weird, but rather cute, heart shaped patch of seeds in the middle (maybe it Left those for Later?)

I Like the Legs on this Lovely spider:

The spider was a Little way away from where I took the Leafy photo.

btw - you should (if things work like they normally do) be able to click the photo (and any other photo in this blog post) for a Larger one if you Like - LOL (but I bet most people don't click the spider one!)

To me, the veins on this Leaf (not Lettuce - it was cauliflower - lol) look more gruesome than spiders Legs:

 ... but that didn't stop me eating it ;-)
(the veins kind of Look all Lumpy - like on some creature in a B grade sci fi movie or something ... but I actually ate that leaf just after I took the photo, and it tasted Lovely ... so did the thing Mum cooked with some of the cauliflower in it, when we ate it Later)

I also took this photo of a Lily and its Leaf - in Mum and Dad's new fish pond

 a very Little fish pond actually ... but it was the deepest one they could find at the time (their garden is only Little so they couldn't really build a huge great Lake or anything).

Mum and I went walking along a beach one morning and found some pelicans waiting for some Lunch

the table thingy is where the fishermen clean their fish (there is a boat ramp just to the Left) - the pelicans know where to come and wait for some Lunch ;-)

I Love the colours on this Little beasty - not something many people Like - a Bluebottle - which has a nasty sting!

I also Like the Little holes in the sand (from where air bubbles were as the waves washed up the beach and back - and Left this poor Little creature high and dry, where it won't Live for Long)

"Leave only footprints"?

yes - my footprint, and some more weird bubbly marks where the waves had been.

Let's get a bit more? "arty farty"?

I had to Lie down on the beach to get the right camera angle!
(I am sure anyone who was Looking would have been Laughing at me)
I think a storm is Looming? (actually it was just a very light shower of rain that came - and it was not as big as I had hoped it would be - I Like swimming in the rain!)

I also Like the colours I got in this photo:

"quick - Let's dive under the water so we don't get rained on ..."?

I seem to have a Lot of watery photos - but I guess water IS a Liquid ...

I think this ship got a bit Lost:

it is the wreck of the ship that the beach is named after - Dicky Beach  - "Dicky" is a weird name for a ship - lol

there is not much Left of it now ...

I took this photo (and the ones after it) a couple days Later:

it is amazing what a difference one can get with different Light for one's photos

I also Like to get right into what I am doing:

(yes those are my toes - and yes - I was IN the water for a Lot of these photos - I Like my clever Little waterproof camera!)

I also Like the fact that the Lifesavers are there to Look after those Lunatic tourists (and possibly a few odd Locals) who Like to Leap into the water on days Like this!

it was getting Late in the day when I took those Last few photos - soon after this the Life savers packed up and Left for the day ... and I Left too ... not swimming once the Lifesavers had taken their flags and gone was one of the things in the List on that sign, and also - I figured DH (who was reading a book in the car) might Like to go back to my parents place in time for tea!

and ... this is now a rather Long post (maybe I should have called it a Lot of stuff, rather than a little bit ...)  

Maybe I should Leave it as it is and go do something useful?

... except I am still Loading photos onto the computer, and I don't want to Lose track of where I am up to - LOL

(and I might find another good L one?! ;-)

ok ... now the only photos not on the computer are the ones on the card in the camera ... I was going to do those but I have other things to do before I go to bed, so that Lot will have to wait until tomorrow, or sometime.

- for some odd reason DH wants me to actually take up the hems on the 2 new pairs of jeans he bought, so he can wear them to work instead of his old worn out ones with holes in the pockets ... not sure what the rush is - they have only been sitting waiting for me to do it for about 5 weeks - LOL

(yes - I guess I sometimes Like to Leave things for Later - lol)

but ... one thing I did do while I was in here was to Loose that Light background on my blog ... well, it is not actally Lost as such - I just replaced the Link (to the background image) with a different one, and I could find and put the other one back if I really wanted to ... I threw some other photo up online (on the same photo website the other one was on) and stuck a link to that one in the widget thingy instead ... my original plan was to do something similar to what was here (if you want to know what that was, and how I did it, this post on one of my other blogs describes how I did it, and that blog still has the same background that this one did have until today), but I was going to do it with a different coloured and hopefully more interesting photo and a darker background behind the text, but it could take me a while to work out exactly how I did it and make an image that was the right size/etc again (having different image editing software than I used back then doesn't help!) - so for now you will have to live with what is there - which for most people will probably be the same as I get - the top bit of a bigger than it needed to be photo of the dark sky that was above the sea when I took those photos of my swim in the surf.

anyway - I have to go back to work in the morning, and I still have those jeans to hem ... and it is getting has got rather Late ...

but ... here is one more photo that I almost forgot to add  - Last (but not Least) is the Lizard I almost stepped on yesterday morning!

Looks like he/she is Looking at me ... I kind of don't blame it for keeping an eye on me - it was probably happily minding its own buisness at the bottom of Black Mountain, when this whole Lot of Lunatics came tramping along the track on an annual wildflower walk ... and one Lunatic with a camera (me ;-) Lunged off into the bush and almost stood on it! ... Luckily I was sort of looking to make sure I didn't step on any rare orchids or other such thing (there were rather a lot - that was what we were walking around looking at - lol) so I did not quite step on it ... but I must have almost - because the first thing I noticed was when I heard it rustle as it ran out from the bunch of grassy stuff I was stepping over ... it probably stayed where it was in the photo until everyone had gone past - it stayed there looking at me for a few minutes while I took some photos of it, and the red flowers on a nearby grevillia plant, and it was still there when I walked off to take photos of some orchids and a whole heap of other things ... at least one of which has a name that starts with an L ... but I might have to do a whole other post about wildflowers and put some of the photos in there.
- I think I took a few ... HUNDRED ... photos on that walk!!!
(there was room for over a hundred photos on the memory card that I had in the camera, and I filled that up fairly quickly and then took a lot more photos on the card that is now in the camera!)

oops - time to stop getting  Lost in cyberspace and go do those jeans hems ... Luckily that should not take too Long to do. (I seem to have had a Lot of practice at taking up jeans hems - sigh)

btw - anyone actually reading this stuff will probably think I have Lost my mind and belong in a Lunatic assylum ... hmmm - a lovely holiday in a nice soft room - I could Live with that ... for a Little while ... until I find out they won't Let me have my crochet hooks or sewing stuff in there ...


 

Just a bit weird ...

... but I like weird ;-)

which could be why I like all those old TV shows that Julius Sumner Miller did ... I guess that as a kid I also wondered "why is this so?" LOL (and yes - I still like science ;-)
 ... but what has that got to do with weird? - well - he was a bit of an oddball ... but he would have been a rather interesting person to meet.
But why am I posting about him?  - well - I was trying to thing of something to post for the letter J for ABC Wednesday ... and I was catching up with putting some photos on the computer (the lot I am doing at the moment are from the middle of July!) when I found some photos that I took at the Cadbury chocolate factory (yum yum - lol) - they had a display with a pile of (rather peculiar but very interesting) letters that Julius Sumner Miller had sent them, and among them was this recipe for baked beans ...

(I don't think it is copyright or anything ... and it is there on public display)

I don't think I will ever bother with cooking my baked beans that way ... it is way easier to Just open a can and microwave them while the toast is cooking - lol

Also ... Just because I felt like adding it to this post - is a photo of a rather interesting tree:

I took the photo late in the afternoon, near some blowhole south of Hobart (but not the one on the way to Port Arthur - we went there the next day - this one was down the other way ... I could work out where if I dug out the map, but I am not doing that at almost 4am ...  not when I should have gone to bed 3 or 4 hours ago!)

This was near the other blowhole - the one that IS on the way to Port Arthur ...

but it is not right next to that blowhole, it is actually at the tesselated pavement (which is a rather interesting rock formation at a beach a few km up the road).

(hmmm - maybe I could post a photo of that when we are up to the letter T ... along with a few other photos I Took in Tasmania? lol)

btw, the other day (before I found that J photo) I think I was thinking of writing a post about how one should not use the word "Just" as often as we do ... like when someone makes a really nice quilt or other hand made item/work of art and says it is "Just a 9patch" or "Just a log cabin quilt" or "Just something I threw together" ... or "Just a painting I did" or "Just some poem I wrote" or "Just a photo I took" ... it is not JUST anything ... it is something you have created (or in the case of those who say "I Just did ... " when they have done something nice/good - it is something nice/good you have done) - so it should stand alone and be counted on it's own merit - you don't need to JUSTify it - lol
... Just thought I should say that ... lol

er ... I now have Just a few hours until I have to be up again ... I might Just get enough sleep to tide me over until tomorrow night ... (it is a good thing that I will Just be a passenger, rather than the driver, on my Journey tomorrow - lol)

goodnight ...

Zzzzz here, Zzzzz there ... where will I ZZZZZ tonight?

Actually ... I do know where I will be going Zzzz (except I don't snore ... even if DH does say I do - I have never heard myself snore so I guess I don't - lol) Tonight I will be sleeping here in this hotel ... the one that has free wireless internet ;-)  which I am connected to with DH's laptop ... which I am not used to typing on, but which has been very handy to have - DH has a mobile phone which will work as a modem, so he has used it/this laptop to book all of our hotels/etc the day or so before we have arrived places - his phone plan includes a small amount of internet/whatever, and he purchased a bit extra for this month, but it is probably not enough for me to spend ages and ages blogging etc ... so I decided to only do that if we have free internet anywhere ... which we do here/now (we were given a password to log on to their wirelss network, rather than using DHs phone) - so here I am now - lol

So where is here? and why are DH and I in some hotel? ... because we are on holiday down here in Tasmania (currently in a town called Somerset, which is right next to Burnie, which is on the coast along the top bit of Tasmania)... we came down here (to Tassie) for the 2 weeks I don't have to be at work (the school holidays ... back home that is - they only have 3 terms a year down here so it isn't holidays here at the moment) ... and ... we left the kids home :-)  ... well - someone had to look after the dog!

... but it is getting late at night (DH had his turn first, then I spent too long reading a few blogs/etc) and I want to stick the camera memory card in here and include a photo or 2 ... and we are here in the same place (Somerset, near Burnie) tomorrow night ... so ... time to hit the sack ...

... ok ... now it is the next night and it is probably about as late as it was when I stopped at the end of the previous paragraph - that sort of thing happens when we decide to find a nearby cinema and go see a movie and then come back to the hotel room and have cheese and biscuits for tea ... but I didn't want to post this until tonight anyway - because now the ABC Wednesday Z post is up there ready for me to add my link ... so I guess that if I am going to make this my Z post for that, then I should find a Z photo to put in here - which is why chose the particular memory card that I have put in the slot this laptop has ... it was the one I had in the camera yesterday, when we drove through the town of Zeehan ... pity I didn't actually TAKE any photos there! LOL 
... but ... this is one I took before we got there, and I think that mountain in the distance is Mount Zeehan (which the town of Zeehan is to the North of)  ...



... it probably isn't a great photo, and I am not going to worry about trying to find/use any photo editing software on here to try and make it look better because I kind of need some sleep too (DH is already snoring in bed on the other side of the room) ... but it does have sky and trees and a mountain - which I have seen lots of down here (mind you there are lots of the same home in Canberra too - but these ones are different ;-)




btw - I didn't get around to doing a W post, or X or Y ... life kind of got busy - the last 2 weeks of the school term and getting organised to come on holidays (I had stuff to pack, and stuff that had to be done before we left) ... then last week I wasn't home and didn't have free Internet in a hotel room - lol

hmmmm - I seem to have taken a lot of photos of trees ...


and a lot of photos of beaches :-)



... and a lot of photos of things ON beaches - LOL



... even my feet!



- those are my rather cold toes after I took my shoes and socks off and paddled in the freezing cold water ... and went walking onto the even colder rocks at the end of the beach ... unfortunately it is way too cold to go swimming - in fact down here most people find it too cold to swim in the sea in the middle of Summer, let alone in the middle of Winter (which it is down here on the bottom half of the planet ...

Anyway ... it is now after Midnight ... and I still need to have a shower ... and wash out some socks and undies so I don't run out of them the day before we get home ... which is getting way too close ... I don't want the holiday to end ... although it will be nice to see the dog and the cat again (oh ... and the kids I guess - lol)  ... the dog has missed us since we have been gone ... DS said he spent the first 2 or 3 nights looking for us and whining at the bedroom door (which was open - but his people were not in there in bed) ... and the cat probably misses us too, but just doesn't let on because that would be too uncool - lol


oh hang it all ... while I am here (and the photo uploading seems to have been working so well) ... I am probably going to be rather busy for a week or 2 when I get back home ... so ... in case I miss doing an A post (or any post in the next week or 5) ... here is a photo of Port Arthur ...



... and a photo of a Blowhole



... hopefully that lot will do for now ... DH woke up and asked how much longer I was going to be (I said about 5 minutes ... about 10 minutes ago - oops? LOL) ... the light is bothering him ... and we both need sleep ... so ...

Goodnight ...

(and too bad if there are any typos still left in here because I am not proof reading this again ... lol)

Keeping Up

... more like NOT keeping up actually - I seem to have missed quite a few letters for ABC Wednesday ... and that isn't the only thing that I seem to have got behind with ... sigh ...

Is it just me, or does life seem to rush by faster these days?

I thought about doing a late post for J ... but I am not sure you really want to read a post about Junk - lol (I could probably find a few pictures of rubbish to put here, or I guess I could have posted pictures of my sewing/etc stash - I collect all sorts of stuff and DH says that most of it is junk!) but the next letter is due in a few days so I decided I may as well start writing a K post a bit early - then I might actually be able to put one up on time ... if I remember to finish writing it ... I guess I could set it to post automatically anyway ... but last time I did that I never came back and finished it so this time probably wouldn't be any different - LOL

I guess I could still put some photos of my junk here and call it "Keeping things" ... LOL

(probably easier than finding photos of my Knitting - seeing I don't do much of that - I prefer to crochet ;-)

hmmm - I actually DID post a J post last time around (where I did mention my Junk) ... but without pictures - so I guess I could put them in here instead - LOL

I wonder what I would have posted for the letters I have missed?

G for gee I am disorganised? or goodness me where has the time gone?

H for how did I get behind again?

I for I don't know where the last few weeks have gone/I don't seem to ever have time to get all the things done that I want to.

... and J for just another boring blog post? LOL

but if you Keep reading ... I might eventually get to the point ... if there is one ...

maybe I should post about what I have Kept up with ... just ...

I did manage to finish some stuff for that ACTTAA exhibition that I mentioned in my last post
(yes - not just that quilt, but some other stuff too)

I finished this rather odd crochet rug (could it be a Knee rug? lol) for the exhibition:



It was meant to look like paddocks seen from above ... it does to me ... and to the person who told me it made her home sick for the area of farmland where she grew up ...

I also made this bag:



it is made from some odd fabric I found in my stash (I think it is linen ... looks/feels like linen ... could be anything - my fabric has come from all sorts of odd places). I machine quilted a few wiggly lines on it then hand stitched/etc in between them ... and added a few dangly/etc bits. The light green yarn is some from a ball of acrylic yarn that I bought at a farmers market in some town in the middle of Turkey! (it cost me the equivalent of a dollar, and I wish I had bought more than one ball! ... I used it to crochet a silly beanie - which I did on the tour bus the day after I bought it! ... if I had realised how good it looked used for embroidery/stitching, I would have bought more ... I guess when the half a ball I have left is gone ... I will have to use something else instead ... )

Those 2 things (the rug and the bag) and the black hole quilt I just posted about (and yes I did just write that post ... I am trying to get this one done BEFORE it is time to post my K post ... in fact I started writing this post yesterday) ... those 3 things were what I had on display in the gallery section of that exhibition.

I also made some stuff for the fashion parade ... I also modelled the stuff I made in the fashion parade ... people took photos of me modelling it, but I never got around to taking any photos of the stuff myself ... if I do that (or get sent any photos someone else took) in the couple of days before I post this (or it posts itself if I decide to set it to do that ;-) then I will put them in here ... but if not, I won't - LOL

The other section of that exhibition is the bazaar ... and I made some stuff for that too.
I also had a pile of stuff left over that didn't sell last year ...

I made these 4 phone thingys just before the exhibition, and the ear rings are actually some I made quite a few years ago!



I also finished this scarf that has been sitting almost finished for a while ...



... and I added it to the pile of a few others that were left over from last year.

and I decided to sell this plastic bag and beanies that are made from ... plastic bags!



and I had an idea and made up a few packets of bits of interesting yarn to sell:



I don't think much of it sold though ... I guess I probably should have put a bit more effort into it? LOL

I had a few more things for sale, but I either don't have photos of them or already had photos but not recent ones that I found when I dug these out - I took these last few photos on the lawn (or the fence!) next to the car park at the place I went to before dropping my bazaar stuff off on the way home, because I kind of didn't get around to doing it any earlier!

I did sell a few things ... have not sorted it out and worked out exactly what sold, but I noticed that someone did buy a fabric bowl that I made a few years ago, it was one that didn't sell last year or the year before ... my things are probably a bit odd, and therefore have a limited appeal ... LOL
(and there are a few very talented and quite professional people in that group - so there were a lot of lovely items for sale for people to choose from)

btw ... the clothing I made for the fashion parade is rather unusual too ... a crochet shawl dyed with food dye and vinegar (and a weird hippy dress I made to match it but will probably only ever wear as a nightie or fancy dress), an outfit made from 3 of DH's old business shirts (which actually ended up looking way better than I expected so I might have to wear that somewhere), and a skirt made from a too small around the middle skirt I got from an op shop and bleached and altered/added bits to ... which I might also wear ... sometime ... on one of the few ocasions where I actually wear a skirt instead of just wearing jeans/pants - LOL

oh - and the thing I mentioned that I went to on my way to delivering the bazaar stuff - was actually the trade display part of a green energy/etc conference, where they had a sort of a workshop thingy run by some people who are getting into making re-cycled clothing - like the stuff we have already been doing in the ACTTAA group ... I didn't have a lot of time to organise much but I took along a pair of old jeans and a pretty old green cotton dress (that I think I may have bought at an op shop because I liked the lace on it and the colour of it and was thinking of making it into something else) ... I ended up doing some slicing and dicing and started yet another UFO (Un Finished Object) - hopefully when I finish it, it will become an interesting skirt ... and I might have enough fabric/lace/etc left to maybe make a bag or something to match it ... but (like this blog post ;-) who knows when/if I will ever get around to finishing it ...

(yes ... I am putting a future time/date on it so it will be scheduled to post itself when that time/date comes around ... and if I get around to taking photos of that clothing I can still add them in here before it gets posted ... but somehow I don't see that happening - lol)

hmmm ... seems there is a glitch in blogger or this poor old computer ... or something ... I just hit the post button and it changed the date/time back to today, all by itself, and posted it ... then it let me edit it and change the time and date ... but it is showing up on my blog with Tuesdays date on it ... wow - time travel - LOL (or - really scary thought - did I just loose to days and it IS Tuesday?! ... hope not ... the time on the computer screen still says it is Sunday evening ... even if my blog does appear to think it is Tuesday already ... )

ok ... I think I fixed it ... so if anyone was subscribed to my blog they may have got this post early ... or if anyone just happend to be looking during the 5 minutes this post was up there early then they may have seen it ... I hit the "save as draft" button after I added the other purple edit and it is now NOT showing up again ... but it isn't listed as "scheduled" either ... sigh ... but ... "nothing ventured nothing gained" - now that the date/time seems to be staying how I set it, and showing up as one minute past midnight on Tuesday (which is what I did change it to before it changed itself back, and what I again changed it to when it then still showed up on my blog, but as being posted on Tuesday) ... I might just see what happens and hit the "post" button again ... and if it shows up early then it shows up early - it will "fix" itself when it actually IS Tuesday - because nobody who didn't look this evening or tomorrow will know any different - LOL
(well ... you wouldn't have if you had not read this - LOL)

D4 ...

... is an even bigger explosion than you get with C4?

(or maybe one of R2D2's or C3PO's mob?)

No! - it is the Daft title I came up with when I logged in to blogger (where the first place I get taken to is my "Dashboard") and noticed that I called last year's D post "D" so that meant I would have to come up with something else ...

so what Dopey stuff can I Divulge about the letter D for ABC Wednesday?

I Definitely have to mention the Dog! (he Doesn't like to be left out of whatever is going on;-)

- I have lots of photos of our Dog, Diesel, on this blog - http://spot-theblog.blogspot.com/

(and a few on here as well - I knew labels were useful for something - )http://aykayem.blogspot.com/search/label/dog and/or http://aykayem.blogspot.com/search/label/Diesel ... another D word comes up at the top of that one - "Don't touch" - LOL - I Did enjoy writing that post ;-)

and D is Definitely for Desert - a rather Delicious part of Dinner to Devour ... oh Drats - I Don't think I have any ice cream in the freezer ... what a Disaster! LOL

(hmmm - Does anyone remember this Delightful (Disgusting?) concoction? - http://aykayem.blogspot.com/2008/01/sticky-bananas-and-other-stuff.html )

maybe I should talk about Devilled Kidneys instead (which I think are rather Delightful Do Dads to munch on, even if Dozens of people I know think they are rather Disgusting - even to the point of them Divesting themselves of whatever they were currently Digesting, and producing something Diabolical that seems to always contain Diced carrots ... oh - sorry - Did you just Do that too?)

D is also for Digress - which I tend to Do way to often - and you probably wish I Didn't after reading that last paragraph!

I probably Do that because I am Disorganised ... I am not even sure where to start Dealing with that topic of conversation - just read my whole blog and you will probably get the idea - lol

(you will also notice that this is not the only post that mentions, and/or has photos of, yucky/goopy/icky stuff that looks/sounds Disgusting - I tend to Delight in Doing that - I guess some people might find it Disturbing, and maybe they might think I have some weird Disease or Disorder? but who would Dare to Diagnose something like that? ;-)

Dictionary is one D word that I Don't need to actually go and use - I seem to be thinking of enough Darn D words as it is!

D is also for Dunlop Environment Volunteers - which is the Landcare group I belong to.
http://www.ginninderralandcare.org.au/category.php?id=26

... and for Distilled/De-ionised water ... not quite the same thing as each other but near enough for the "bucket chemistry" they do in high school science classes ... which is why they get the Dodgy De-ionised stuff whenever they ask for either one - because that is what we have ...

It is also what I Dissolve stuff in when I make up chemical solutions and stuff for the science classes to use ... but I had better stop talking about my work before I bore you all to Death - LOL

but - talking about science - DNA also starts with D ... and stands for DeoxyriboNucleicAcid or somesuch ... and is the stuff that gets Decoded to Define what we look like ... but just before I logged in here I found a rather Different page about DNA - http://goldennumber.net/dna.htm - it mentions the geometry of the Double helix and Decagons and Diagonals and Degrees and stuff - and could be Decidedly exciting for those who like to Delve into the mysteries of geometry and fractals and other weird stuff like that ... (a much more exciting part of maths than times tables and long Division!)

D is also for Dubai, which I WAS going to do most of this post about ... until I thought of a whole pile of other stuff before I even got around to opening my image editing software and finding some of my Digital photos that I took in Dubai earlier this year ...

I also just (when I first came in here and Decided to check my e-mail first) got sent a link that led me to this interesting blog written by someone who lives in Dubai - http://sonenskadu.blogspot.com/ (Definitely one I must remember to go back to another Day - and oddly enough, it was also her site that led me to the thing about DNA)

- you can Dally there for a moment or 50, while I go dig around and find MY photos of Dubai - lol


oh yes - I have Definitely got to include this rather Different one! ...



- some Daft cat ... Probably trying to lie Doggo in the Drainpipe until it felt that the Danger had passed. I Don't think it was stuck (but I wasn't about to touch it and risk having it Dive out and Dig it's teeth and/or claws into me or somesuch - not in some other country where they have horrible Diseases like rabies and stuff! ... and definitely not on the first Day of my month long overseas holiday! any kind of Disease or infection could be Dangerous when in a place where it can be Difficult to find a Decent English speaking Doctor)
I never Did see it's head - lol
but - Did you notice the Designs on the Drain cover (or whatever it is) ... a geometric Design ... and a Diamond - LOL


Mum and I also Did some walking Down at the Docks, on Dubai Creek - and we took Digital photos of Dhows (I think that is how it is spelt - they are the boats that were traditionally used for trade in these parts - and many still are) and watched the men unloading and loading stuff, and sitting around talking, and staring at us because we were female and female tourists probably don't usually wander around that area taking photos while it is getting Dark! LOL


... if you look at the horizon/buildings in the Distance (you can sort of just see them through the Desert Dusty haze) you can see some of Dubai's Distinctive buildings ... the tall skinny one on the right is the Burj Dubai ... which is probably going to become the world's tallest building (if they ever actually get it finished).

I took lots of photos of Doors:



single Doors

and Double Doors



... because I liked the interesting Designs.

I also like these Designs:



... this was part of the wall of a rather large (and rather blue) Mosque.

I am not sure what they are building here - but it also has some interesting Designs on it:



... but what on earth are those workers Doing?! (in orange clothing, on the scaffolding on the right) ... I wonder if there was a reason for them being all lined up one under/over the other like that? - maybe if was just so us tourists could take a Different photo - lol ... actually - they all look like part of one of those old "platform" computer games - like "lemmings" or something! LOL

ok ... just to prove that Dubai has/is Desert, and I went there:



not that this photo proves anything - tourist camels could probably be found anywhere - Desert or not - LOL
... I wonder if those thingys on their faces are crochet? ... could this be "Camel Crochet"?!
(yes there is a type of crochet called that - the stitches are done a bit differently than normal crochet)

The camels were where we went for our Dubai "Dune Dinner" tour (yes - we had to to the tourist thing at least once - lol) ... we went for a 4WD over some Dunes, stopped for a few desert photos, but we only stayed for a few minutes at the stop they usually use for the "Sunset photo" - because it was too Dusty and there wasn't anything spectacular to see in the way of a sunset ... it just kind of gradually got darker until it was night time ... lol
I think I did go for a camel "ride" (if you can call sitting on one and being led around in a small circle "riding" - lol - I guess that is what kids do for "pony rides" too ... but it was all pretty tame for a person like me - who has actually ridden a camel in a camel race! ... it was a long time ago ... back in "another life" - before I met DH, when I lived in Alice Springs for 3 years ... but I would ride in a camel race again now if the opportunity presented itself - LOL)

While the tourists were still fighting over the camel rides and getting henna tattoos and stuff, I went for a walk up a very big sand Dune:


... every time I thought I was nearly at the top ... another, even higher, Dune would appear behind it! I gave up when there was still at least one more much higher Dune behind the one I was standing on to take this photo - that is the Dinner "camp" Down in the Distance. Boy was I Darn puffed out when I got up there ... it probably took me 10 minutes to walk up there (I kind of needed the couple of "photo stops" I had on the way up - so I could catch my breath!) ... but it only took about 2 minutes or less to get Down - because I ran down - what fun - wheeeeeeeeee! LOL

After Dining on a Delightful Desert Dinner, while we were eating our Desert, we got to watch the belly Dancer Do her stuff:



she was actually quite good ... pity my photo wasn't!

After the show was over we got to spend a while sitting around and have a smoke on the water pipes (no - not opium or some other Deadly Drug ... just what was probably a little bit of tobacco with a pile of spices and apple and stuff mixed with it) ... then we piled back in to the vehicles for a nice Drive, in the Dark, back to our hotel in Deira City (one of the suburbs/whatever of Dubai).

Another tour we did was a Drive, in a bus, around a few of the other emirates (Sharjah, Fujira etc, and some weird little part of the country of Oman that is inside the UAE - the borders/etc do some odd things over there!)
I Didn't put a photo of it in here, but we got to take a Dip in a Different ocean Durning our lunch stop (hmmm I might have to do a whole blog post about all the different places I have been swimming - lol).

I think we were still in Fujira when I took this photo:



I actually took this out the window of the bus as we drove past! - I noticed how amazing the sun looked through the clouds, and I was taking a few photos of it over the craggy mountains beside us, when I noticed that this Minaret was up ahead ... and I did the usual thing I do on moving vehicles that are not about to stop just so I can take a weird photo - I lined it up and clicked when I thought would be about right, and hoped for the best - and in this case it wasn't "Did I get it? ... Drats, I Didn't" it was "Did I get it? - oh wow! yes I Did!" LOL
... and no - I have not Done anything to this photo, other than made it a bit smaller size so it wasn't too big for uploading - this is how the camera saw it - and how I saw it as well ... (kind of eirie, eh?)
Don't forget you can click on these photos to see them bigger (and if you want to see them bigger than that I guess you will have to ask me to e-mail them to you in their original size - lol - I doubt that anyone really wants to Do that though ...)

I actually got a few other good photos on that trip (to Dubai, etc) ... and quite a few of those "Drats I missed it" ones ... but that is enough for now - especially seeing DH got home from work while I was typing most of this last night (Monday evening), but I still had not added the photos - so I Decided to Do it "tomorrow" (Tuesday) ... which I Did ... but now it has got rather late again - in fact it is just past Midnight (so now it is actually Wednesday, but I might leave Tuesdays Date on here - lol - and the time I have just put on here is the time I was actually having my Dinner! - I kind of Didn't get around to it earlier because DH was at work and I was in here messing around finding/fixing the photos to put on here!)


The reason that the stuff about Dubai was only going to be "most" of a post is because I was also going to mention the other Deserts I have been to ... like the ones here in Australia (hmmm - maybe I should just let you google that? lol), and the other Deserts I ended up in while on the same trip that took me to Dubai - like the corner of the Sahara Desert that is in Egypt ... which had some areas that were quite Desolate, and some that were Delightfully Different (like the Black and White Deserts)

but ... seeing those were in Egypt, and, because the letter E comes immediately after the letter D, I could actually now be posting my E post - I might have to put some photos of that Desert in there!

but I Do have one for you to go on with ...



and I Didn't have to Dodge trees whizzing past a bus window to take this one ... we were camping for the night in the White Desert, and while the guide and driver were setting up camp I Decided to go for a walk - so I just had to Dash around to the right places to get the right angles to line up what I thought might make interesting photos as the sun set and Darknes Descended upon the White Desert ...
(and Mum started to wonder how much longer I was going to be as the guide and Driver had Dinner almost ready and apparently they were starting to look Decidedly worried about the fact that I was not back from my walk yet - Mum wasn't that worried because she knows me, but they Didn't know that I am me and I Do that sort of stuff all the time ... they also Didn't realise that even though I had Disapeared into the Distance, and had Ducked in and out from behind a few large rock formations, I could see exactly where the camp was and I knew it would only take me a few minutes to Dash back if it started getting too Dark - LOL)

oh Dear! - I hope you liked my (Decidedly Different? Disturbing? or just plain Daggy?) Dally into the Delights of all sorts of things to Do with stuff that starts with the letter D ...

(and I hope you Didn't find it too Disturbing? ;-)

btw - yes - D is also for Delivering this stuff Decidedly late! - oops! LOL




Note: the following paragraph probably makes no sense - feel free to Decide it is too Dopey and ignore it - I originally wrote it when I first started typing up this post ... then added the red bits later. (then I added this blue bit because it still didn't make sense anyway - LOL)
(yep - been too busy Doing other things ... maybe I should just post my E post at the same time - LOL ... nah - I Don't want to be a Day or 2 Early er ... no chance of that seeing I wrote this bit on Monday and it now IS the Day my E post is Due ! (just) ... so this whole paragraph probably Doesn't make any sense now - lol ... then again ... Early does start with an E ... but tomorrow is Early Enough - if I feel Energetic about it tomorrow Evening Energetic - maybe, but did that Eventuate? no - not when I didn't Even finish this post! ... or if I Even remember! I guess what I now need to remember is to come in here tomorrow Evening and DO my E post while there is still Enough of a chance that it will be posted in time for me to be able to add it to their silly linky thingy before it stops letting people add any more links)

wow - this post is a Doozy!

A is for ... ABC ... Again ...

A is for ...

Alphabet! ... and All the letters in it! LOL
yes - ABC Wednesday is now starting it's 5th round ... so - let's see how well I can keep up this time ... lol (it is a wonderful excuse to try and post at least once each week - lol)

A is Also for All that stuff I posted about last time (Arachnids and Aykayem and All sorts of other Amazing ... or was it Awful? ... stuff)

And ... er ... And! - that word that one should NOT start a sentence with - lol

A is for Antarctica!
... An Amazingly Awesome place that I really want to go to ... which is why I decided to try and blog my way to Antarctica ... trouble is ... I will need more than 2000 votes to win (someone else already has 2002 votes, and a few others are not far behind) ... And I don't think I have Any yet ... sigh ...
(maybe I need to change that Awful profile picture? ... or do some Advertising ... maybe I should tell the ABC radio people About it? - I could tell them that they need to help me, by doing an interview/publicity/etc, because it should be an Australian who wins? - LOL)

A is also for Astronomy ... which is Also Apt - not just because 2009 is the International Year Of Astronomy (As I mentioned in the other A post) but it is Also for the Aniversary of the first Moon landing - 40 years ago this week (I could have said "Today" if I had posted this on time - lol) and Apollo 11 and the Astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who were the first to set foot on the moon. (First humans, and first Americans ... much to Russia's disgust ... hmmm - I wonder if humankind would have made more/greater advances, or made less progress, if America and Russia had been working with each other rather than against each other?)

A is also for ACTTAA - the ACT Textile Arts Association (which I am a member of) ... and the theme for our exhibition (in a couple of months time) is partly to do with it being the year of Astronomy - the theme is "Heaven And Earth" (the other thing is the fact that it is also the year of natural fibres)
... I guess that theme kind of covers everything ... well Almost Anything Anyway ... it could be possible that there might be some where/thing that is not part of Heaven or Earth? lol
I Assume one would have to ask an Astrophysicist about that one?

I Actually had an Amazing and Awesomely odd thought About Astrophysics last night ... (it was to do with Black holes and the Big Bang theory - But that can wait for next week ... or whenever I get around to doing my "B" post - lol)

hmmm A is also for the Absence of Any images ...

... In order to make this post more Attractive, I might have to Add one:



This is from my Geocities page (the one that is about to be Absent because it will not exist any more once yahoo "flick the off switch" sometime soon) in fact I just went and copied this one from the geocities page because I can't remember where on the computer I put the original (bigger) copy of it!
(it is Also possible that it is Absent All together ... As in ... it isn't where I put it Anyway ... the likelyhood of that Awful fact being Applicable is dependant on where I Actually put it in the first place ... And ... it is possible that the image IS where I put it, but where I put it is not in Any of the places where I think I ought to have put it - it could be in Another folder Alltogether ... maybe even the other "Andrea" folder, which is on Another computer ... Ahhhhrrrrgggghhhh ...)

So ... what is it? ... well - this is what I have written under it on my geocities page:

This picture is actually an image of gaseous pillars in the Eagle Nebula, M16. It was Taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, on April 1st (!) 1995 .
The image is courtesy of the Space Telescope Science Institute (ST Sci), operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc., for NASA., and NASA.Material created with support to AURA/ST ScI from NASA contract NAS5-26555 is reproduced here was reproduced on my geocities page with permission.
I drew in the fuzzy bit at the top right hand corner (because it had nothing there, just black squares - the image is actually made up of several smaller ones, and there were a couple missing in the corner).

I still think there is something kind of weird and eerie about that image ... that tallest pillar on the left kind of looks like someone got a whole zoo of animals (both real and imaginary) and kind of squidged it all up together ...

... maybe some Aliens did that to it, just to drive us nuts?

A is Also for the Awfull smell of whatever DD just cooked herself for a Midnight snack (toast I think) which would probably smell ok if I was hungry and I wasn't half alseep, and hadn't had black pudding for supper A little while Ago ... hmmm - DD should be in bed - she has school in the morning ... then again - so should I, because I also have school in the morning! (actually I have to go to work in the morning ... but ... I work at a school - lol)

I can think of At least one other A word ... but that could be a bit Awkward (As it is a bit Awfull) because I want to try and keep this blog "family friendly" ... or at least not too bad mostly - lol

so .. I will bid you Adieu (or however u spell that word) ... and I could say a goodbye/goodnight/etc in a couple of other languages that have words for it that start with A, but I can't be bothered looking up how to spell them ...

Tryıng to type on a Turkısh keyboard

... ıs not very easy when you are not Turkısh, don´t speak Turkısh, don´t lıve here, and have never been here before - lol

yes - İ had to do ıt - The hotel İ am stayıng in tonıght has free internet (well it is free for those of us on the tour İ am on ...) so İ just had to see what ıt was lıke to post stuff to my blog from Turkey - LOL

btw - İ am in Canakkale, not far from Gelibolu (a town near Anzac Cove)... half an hour on a ferry and then half an hour down the road - but a whole contınent away - LOL (Anzac Cove etc, ıs on one sıde of the Dardanelles, and ıs part of Europe, but Canakkale ... and most of Turkey ... is on the other sıde of that bit of water, in Asıa... whıch ıs the name of a town near Anzac Cove)

I am stıll tryıng to work out whıch letter I İ should use ... there are TWO on the keyboard! ... and the one ın the rıght place (the one I just used here) ıs actually not the one that works ın e-addys even though ıt looks more lıke an I when İ use a capıtal i ... at least ıt does at thıs end ... LOL
Some of the other keys are in dıfferent places too ... and there ıs an extra key that works lıke the shıft key but for some thıngs the shıft key doesn´t ... lıke the @ - it took me a whıle to fınd that one when İ was ın here sendıng a couple of e-maıls earlier in the evening - lol
The , (comma) key ıs over on the sıde ... under the backspace key ... there seems to be a ö and a ç down where İ went lookıng for the comma ... and the ~ ıs one of those thıngs lıke the @ - where u need the Alt Gr key ... İ was goıng to put that key name ın quotatıon marks - but İ can,t FIND them! LOL

btw,
Mum and İ are having a wonderful tıme ... I have taken LOTS of photos, both here ın Turkey (thıs ıs our 2nd day here) and ın Dubaı (and a couple other parts of the Unıted Arab Emırates that we went to one day) ... but at thıs hour of nıght İ wasn,t goıng to dıg around ın my suıtcase and fınd my card reader thıngy and try and work out ıf I could put photos from there onto here - I only came ın here at thıs late hour of nıght - ıt ıs after 11pm here ... (and ıt ıs last nıght, for those of you ın Australıa stıll - lol) - I dıdn,t have tıme to mess around wıth my blog when İ was ın here sendıng e-maıl earlıer because ıt was a few mınutes to tea tıme, and there were also a whole heap of people wantıng to get on here and send theır e-maıls too ... but most of them are probably sound asleep and snorıng by now (Mum ıs ... asleep ... and snorıng - that ıs why İ came down here - LOL)

Anyway - I had better go back to the room and get some sleep - before İ fall asleep on thıs keyboard and make ıt look even more weırd - LOL

Goodnıght ... good mornıng ... whatever ...

J

J is for journey ... I head off in a few days for my big Journey - I fly up to Qld to Mum and Dad's place, then later that same day Mum and I fly overseas on our big adventure ... LOL

Actually - I have already left! ... I am up at Mum and Dads place in Qeensland (I flew up this morning) and we head off to the airport late this evening, ready to fly off at "stupid 0'clock" (in the middle of the night ... you know - that time when I am often still UP posting to my blog - lol)
... although by the time you read this (if scheduling the post for 2 days time actually works), I will be in Dubai ... lol

if I have got organised, I will have posts for the letters k, l, m, n, and o, for ABC Wednesday, scheduled to post themselves for the weeks I am away ... or I may run out of time and not get there (or I may stuff it up and they won't post themselves at the right times or something - lol) ... but I probably won't be near a computer/the internet to check if they work, or add them to the "Mr Linky" page ...

(I ran out if time, but I might see what I can do now while I have use of this computer at the community centre, while Mum and Dad are at a meeting there ;-)
... on second thoughts - no - I won't schedule any more after this one - because I just went and looked at what I had saved as drafts and I have not put any photos in any of them, and they make for pretty boring reading without any photos - lol ... so they might all get posted in a bunch when I get back ... or saved for next year if we keep doing ABC Wednesday again ;-)


J is also for Junk ... DH thinks most of my sewing/crafty/etc stuff is junk ... some probably is, even to me - lol

- I tend to collect "stuff" ... and a lot if it is junk, but I intend to use at least some of it eventually ... just not sure which part I will use, so I don't want to chuck it all out quite yet ... sigh ... but I have thrown some junk out ... and I will do more sorting out/chucking stuff this year - after I get back from the big Journey - lol

[b4 and after photos of pergola that now looks like a pergola again?]

er ... sorry - you miss out for now - I didn't put them in here while I was still at home - LOL
(so this post can be an example of how boring a blog post is when I don't have the photos to go with it - lol)

up up and away ...

... oh hang on - the airline that had that slogan doesn't exist any more ... but the one I flew up here to Queensland on does.

I had to get up before sunrise to catch my early morning flight from Canberra (where I live) ...



yes ... this is me I am talking about and I did mention sunRISE - lol
- usually I see (and take lots of photos of ;-) sunSET ... so this is a bit different for me ... my sense of direction got all confused seeing the red glow of the sun behind the top of the hills and told me I was looking West when I was looking East - LOL

It was worth only having (er dare I say it ... yes why not ... Mum never reads my blog anyway - about 2 hours sleep) to get to fly over the clouds and see views like this:


and this:


and this:


and


and


and this:


and these:



















hmmm - the colour of those clouds, and the sea ... is there such a colour as "steely indigo"?

Anyway ... why am I posting to my blog right now ... well ... Mum and Dad live at one of those places that has a community centre with a pool and a bowling green and and a bar/etc and also a library with a computer that is connected to the www (which is where I am right now) ... and tonight is darts night ... but I am not really into darts ... lol ... so I decided to test drive photobucket and upload the 35 pictures I took on the flight up here, and post this blog post - lol

After the darts finish, we go back to Mum and Dads place for an hour or so, then we have to leave to go down to Brisbane airport so Dad can drop Mum and I off to catch our "stupid 0'clock" (as in it leaves just before 3am!) flight to Dubai ... and my blog will probably go very very quiet for a few weeks - lol
(well, apart from this week's ABC Wednesday post that should post itself just after Midnight on Wednesday, because I set it up to do that when I was in here earlier this afternoon while Mum and Dad were at some social club comittee meeting ;-)

ok ... pile of photos are there ... photobucket seems to be a good way to add them actually ... but Darts is almost finished and they will want to lock up ...

Time to go back to Mum and Dad's unit (well it is called a unit but it is bigger than their last house was!), and get ready to fly off on our big adventure ...

... as some kid in the seat behind me said when the plane took off - wheeeee!