D & D Challenge

Yesterday was my day off and I popped into my local scrapbooking supplier and picked up some free samples, not to mention inspiration from the work on show! It's a tiny place but such a large variety of papers and embellishments. They are probably moving to new premises so I look forward to more frequent visits when they have the space to show off more pretty things.

I also saw my good friend Denise and on the spur of the moment she got her son to take a picture of us and then we challenged each other to come up with a page layout from it. As I was driving home, two things happened.


1. A big red warning light pinged up on my dashboard to say I had a puncture. Fortunately, minis have run flat tyres so I just slowed down, drove especially carefully and managed the ten miles back to BS and my local Kwik Fit. They checked it all over and found nothing wrong so another little 'mini mystery'.
and

2. Whilst driving slowly I remembered an old photo that I had of me and Denise taken at a friend's wedding in 1981. So when I got home I trawled through all the old photo albums (what a mess I made!) and found it. It was perfect for the layout I had in mind so here it is:

Another African page

I think the time has come for me to return to work! Although I am quite liking the routine of coffee and cake mid morning while doing a bit of scrapbooking, followed by lunch and an afternoon nap. However, I think there has been enough improvement with my ear for me to go back to work. Especially as the GCSE exams start next week and life in the exams office will be manic - we need to be organised from day one or it will be a nightmare.

So here is my last Tunisian page:

Both main pictures were taken at lunchtime at the cafe on the beach. They did the best pizzas and salad!

The smaller pictures are a view of the swimming pool from our bedroom window, the frontage of the hotel, the beach between Port el Kantaoui and Sousse, and the 'dancing' fountains in the marina by the hotel. I hope that I've managed to get a little bit of the atmosphere of where we were with the pages I have done.

Now I need to finish off the HTE project which seems to have gone off the boil a little bit!

Sousse

I would hate to think that anyone was thinking that I was wasting my days off sick so here is a page that I did this morning.

I've used pictures that we took on the day we went into Sousse. It was quite an experience, you think you know what to expect when you are told the shopkeepers are persistant and want to barter but until you have been - you have no idea! Also, the goods on sale are - how shall I put this? - not always of the highest quality and I really did not want to bring home a stuffed toy camel. You can see a typical shop in the photo.

Whenever we go away, Paul likes to find the highest possible building, go to the top and take aerial views of the city. This means that over the years I have spent many a happy hour loitering around at the bottom of said building on my own waiting for him to finish photographing from every angle. I have an absolute phobia of lifts so anywhere that is higher than I am able to climb by stairs is out of my reach. Obviously as I get older and more unfit, this will seriously reduce the amount of aerial photos taken with me in the foreground! So there is one photo showing the rooftops of Sousse, and one of me sitting on a wall waiting at the bottom of the staircase.

Tunisia was a lovely experience, the people and the culture there is so different from European destinations. It was a really nice holiday and whilst it wasn't a place I particularly had on my 'to do' list, I am really pleased that I have been.

Survived

And the award for the best performing actress for her part in hosting a 60th wedding anniversary celebration lunch whilst fighting pain, deafness and tinnitus is .....(drum roll) ... me.

I'm not quite sure how I got through the day, but everyone seemed to have a good time, there was more than enough food and I have just two words to say. Never. Again. Which is what I am sure I said after we had their 80th birthday celebrations, but I mean it this time!

My treat for going through all that was a crop day at Welwyn Garden City, hosted by Sue at Crafty Stash and these are the pages we made.

This is so much out of my normal style, but you know what? I love it. My first thought was that they were a bit cluttered but the more I look at them the more I like them. I like the fact that there is stitching on them too and quite a bit of layering and texture. I'm learning a lot!

ears

When my daughter was little, she suffered with lots of ear infections. She would cry and scream and be inconsolable. As her mum, I would feel so helpless as nothing I could do would take away her pain. We just had to tick off the hours until sufficient antibiotics (and Calpol) had been given and the infection went away.
Well now I know why she screamed so much. Ear infections are HORRID. And this one does not seem to be going away very quickly. I don't think I've felt this ill for a very long time and speaking as someone who does not easily turn to pills for pain relief, I can't believe that I am just watching the clock to wait for the 4 hours to be up before I can take something else.
More to the point, on Saturday I am supposed to be hosting a 60th wedding anniversary celebration for Paul's M&D and we have 30 of his relatives descending on us at lunchtime. Surely I will be better by then - won't I? I have serious cooking to do, thank goodness I did a bit before I went away but I hardly think 2 quiche, 2 cakes and 2 desserts is going to share out between 30.
Even more to the point, on Sunday I am supposed to be going to another Crop Day at WGC and I was so looking forward to that, it was my little treat after the onslaught of the day before! But I am in no fit state to drive at the moment due to serious dizziness issues.
Repeat after me: I will be better in time. I will be better in time. I will be better in time ........

Out of Africa

I'm back! A little worse for wear, but with happy memories of Tunisia.
BAD BAD memories of the flight home, which has left me with a horrible ear infection, mega pain and tinnitus in one ear but hey!
Tunisia was fab. It wasn't a place I had entered on my 'Places I want to go to' list but it got chosen due to it being a place neither of us had been before and £400 cheaper than the Canaries!
The culture there is so different to anywhere European and it was such an experience.
The hotel was lovely and Port El Kantaoui was very pretty. The weather was mixed but on the whole we had more sunshine than showers so that was good. People always ask, 'Would you go back' but I'm not really the kind of person that likes to go back to places, there are too many new places to see (apart from Portugal, but my sis has a house out there and it really is like a home from home) But if you were thinking of trying somewhere different I would definitely say 'go' as it was spotlessly clean, the people friendly, food very cheap and a very different atmosphere to the normal European destinations.
When I am feeling better and the noise of typing on the keyboard does not hurt my poor damaged ears, I will write more and post more pictures. But in the meantime, here's our hotel!