Okay, well, this post is a bit of a grab bag!
First off, here are my TUSAL updates:
For those of you who don't know, the TUSAL is a project run by Daffycat, click on the button above for more details. 2015 ORTS - an entire year's worth of threads from my work:
2016 Orts: Travel orts on the right, home on on the left:
2016 so far:
Friday Frolics and Friday Night with Friends: Luckily for me, the first FNwF run by the wonderful Cheryll (click on pic to find out more) happened to correspond to my first Friday night back home and, of course, Friday night is Frolic night (you can click on this pic to get to the blog) - so all was good. This is what I stitched for FF and FNwF: I randomly chose "Troubled Waters" part of the Bad Neighbourhood series by Ink Circles as my FF piece. The last time I stitched on this was 11 December, 2013! Oh, my goodness!
So, this is my before pic:
... and this is my progress after last night.
So getting there!
Anyway, enough from me - see you all tomorrow with another update on our trip - Taiwanese Wedding - Part 2!
Have a great day everyone,
hugs,
Hold the Presses!
The wonderful Nancy is having a fabulous floss giveaway, click on the pic to have a chance to win!
... in my earlier post on our trip I showed you some of my DS1 and DDIL1's 12 hour photo shoot photos. Well, this post I will tell you about the pre-wedding day ceremonies that took place.
The day before the wedding, there were a number of traditional rituals and ceremonies which had to take place, all presided over by one of the family matriarchs who was there to ensure that all was done properly.
TraderVic and I, along with my DSister1 and several of DS1's friends, were staying at the hotel, the Chateau de Chine, where the wedding was to take place the next day. We were all picked up by various family members to be taken to DDIL1's house where the first of the ceremonies were to take place.
When we arrived, our DIL was waiting up in her bedroom (in her white wedding dress) for her groom to win his way to her. However, he and all of us were not yet allowed inside the house. DS1 had to perform a number of tasks successfully - the Heng Tai challenge- just to be allowed in the house to speak to her parents. If he failed these tasks he was then "punished".
In this task the boys had to create a shape with their bodies, post it to FB and get 20 likes in ten minutes for DS1 to be able to move to the next task.
The "punishments" were all fun things he had to do as well!
Eventually he made it into the house where our DDIL's parents were waiting.
Then, DS1 performed a few more tasks and punishments but finally managed to make it up the stairs to where his bride was waiting. He got down on one knee and proposed to her again - luckily she said "Yes!"
Then it was back in the cars, back to the hotel (which represented DS1's home), DDIL had to walk through fire to get into the building and then there were lots more photo ops and then the tea ceremony. Sorry, there are no pictures of that, as TraderVic and I were the centre of this piece of the action. Our DIL had to serve us ceremonially serve us tea and give us ritual gifts of rice and bean.
It was all very beautiful and moving, with even more excitement to come as the wedding banquet was to be the next day!
Well, as usual, I am a little late for my Saturday detention - I missed both December and January! Aaaggh!
So, I have two letters to make up for, right now!
For those of you who do not know what I am talking about:
What is the Alphabet Club, I hear you ask? Well, it is the brainchild of Chiara from The Grey Tail and Jo from Serendipitous Stitching and is loosely based on the premise of the movie "The Breakfast Club" - you can see the button for The Alphabet Club on my right sidebar.
On the first Saturday of each month, members of the club have "detention" and have to post about something that will enlighten others about their culture (as blogland is so diverse). Of course, there should be something stitchy in there, if possible. Each month will be a different letter of the alphabet - hence the club's name - and, of course, we started with "A" and now we are up to "F"
You can see the link up of the posts of the other detainees for this month, here.
Now, I am going to be sneaky this month as my E and F make one post as they stand for ....
ErrolFlynn
Such a handsome man (and born in Tasmania) and a great Hollywood swashbuckling hero. Who could forget him as Robin Hood!
One of the many great Aussie imports into Hollywood.
Well, TraderVic and I are back safe and sound from a wonderful adventure overseas... and it was indeed an adventure!
A Taiwanese wedding, a magical lake and being chauffeured around Taipei by a billionaire - and that was just the first week!
So, if you would like to read more about it, stay tuned over the next few weeks, while I catch you up on all my travel (and stitching) news - of course, if you follow me on FB, then you will have seen most of these pics (sorry!)
Let's begin with the wedding in Kaohsiung- the whole raison d'etre for the trip, really. Just to remind you, our DS1 married his lovely bride here in Melbourne, nearly a year ago now, you can revisit that post, here, if you wish. However, DDIL1 is a gorgeous Taiwanese girl, who wanted to have the Taiwanese wedding experience with her family and friends as well - and what an experience it is: 12 hour wedding photo shoot for the bride and groom (pre-wedding) involving at least five changes of outfits (for both bride and groom) and different hairstyles (for the bride); a tea ceremony the day before when the groom needs to perform a number of tasks to win the hand of his bride and then a full on 13 course wedding feast the following day at which the bride wore three different gowns and then after all that we went to Karaoke! Wow! What a couple of days!
Today, I am going to show you some of the wedding shoot photos - they are quite stunning!
Anyway, I am going to leave you here for now, watch this space for further updates on our trip.
.... this post is going to go on this blog and all of my SAL blogs, too. You may have noticed that I have been MIA for a couple of weeks now and I am so sorry but I cannot see that changing for a while! I am uberbusy at work setting up a important project before I go away on leave in a week or so. At the same time, I am uberbusy at home, trying to get organised to go away for our big trip!
Something had to give, and I promise you, it has not been the stitching but it has been the blogging! I cannot see that changing in the next week and a half before we go, unfortunately!
Where are we going, I hear you ask? Well, TraderVic and I are off to Taiwan for DS1 and his wife's Taiwanese wedding - why have one wedding in a year when you can have two? We attend the wedding then we will be travelling around Taiwan for a while then it is off to a lovely resort in Kota Kinabalu in Borneo for the rest and relaxation part of our holiday and then Singapore - should be a lovely trip if I can get everything organised, that is!
So, you will not see me on any of the blogs, I do not think between now and mid to late January, I shouldn't think. I will try to read blogs while I am away but not too sure how much blogging of my own I will get done!
If you are a Facebook friend, keep an eye on my feed if you would like to follow our travels.
Merry Christmas to you all, lots of blessings and a Happy New Year,
Hi lovely bloggers, Not much time for blogging lately but, I have had time to listen to a great Tudor novel on Audible (when I go for my walk on my way home from work).
It is the first in a trilogy about "forgotten" Tudors. This first one is about Katherine Parr, Henry Viii's sixth wife. Here is the publisher's blurb about the novel:
Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived: This is the story of the one who survived.
Widowed for the second time at age thirty-one Katherine Parr falls deeply for the dashing courtier Thomas Seymour and hopes at last to marry for love. Instead, she attracts the amorous attentions of the ailing, egotistical, and dangerously powerful Henry VIII. No one is in a position to refuse a royal proposal so, haunted by the fates of his previous wives—two executions, two annulments, one death in childbirth—Katherine must wed Henry and rely on her wits and the help of her loyal servant Dot to survive the treacherous pitfalls of life as Henry’s queen. Yet as she treads the razor’s edge of court intrigue, she never quite gives up on love.
As I said, I actually listened to the novel on Audible, and I enjoyed the narration immensely. If you are into "talking" books, then I can highly recommend "reading" it in that way.
I intend to download the 2nd and 3rd novels in the trilogy to listen to whilst I am away on our trip. The second novel is about Lady Jane Grey's two sisters (who survive her execution) and the third is set in Elizabeth II's court, towards the end of her reign. Both sound really good and are read by the same narrator as the first, whom I really enjoyed listening to.
....."Downunder".... I am not sure how many of you know this but Australia is often called the land Downunder because when you look at a globe of the world, where are we? A big island sitting by its ownsome in the middle of the ocean!
DOWNUNDER!
Now, why is this? Because, of course, the first mapmakers came from the northern hemisphere and they put North at the top.
Well, you know, this doesn't have to be so. If you have ever been to the Map room at the Vatican Museum, you may have seen the maps which place Rome as the centre of the map and everything else is seen in relation to Rome. In 2006, we brought this map of Sicily home for my DFIL from the Vatican map room and if you know Sicily, you will see that it is "upside" down. That is because it is the view from Rome, which is North of Sicily.
But why should Australia be Downunder? Why can't we be on top? No reason at all, really!
I used to go to university with a guy who didn't believe that Australia was Downunder, so much so that he created this map and self-published it in 1979 - it is still being sold today.
See, Australia is in its rightful place!
This is the spiel about it on the website:
Unique downunder viewpoint with cheeky Aussie humor. This map was created by Stuart McArthur of Melbourne, Australia. He drew his first South-Up map when he was 12 years old (1970). His geography teacher told him to re-do his assignment with the "correct" way up if he wanted to pass. Three years later he was an exchange student in Japan. He was taunted by his exchange student-friends from the USA for coming from "the bottom of the world." It was then, at age 15, he resolved to one day publish a map with Australia at the top. Six years later, while at Melbourne University, he produced the world's first "modern" south up map and launched it on Australia day in 1979. It has sold over 350,000 copies to date.
... and just to finish off, you may have heard of this famous Australian song by the iconic Australian band, Men at Work.
Here are the lyrics:
"Down Under"
Travelling in a fried-out Kombi
On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast
And she said:
"Do you come from a land down under
Where women glow and men plunder
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder
You better run, you better take cover."
Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscle
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich
And he said:
"I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder
You better run, you better take cover."
Lying in a den in Bombay
With a slack jaw, and not much to say
I said to the man, "Are you trying to tempt me?
Because I come from the land of plenty."
And he said:
"Oh! Do you come from a land down under (oh yeah yeah)
Where women glow and men plunder
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder
You better run, you better take cover."
So, hopefully I have now educated you about the meaning of the word Downunder!
Just to finish with some stitching, here is the very sweet "D is for Darning" stitched for me by my dear friend, Kim. Pretty, isn't she?
P.S. Sorry that this post is late but I have been so sick for nearly a week now - tonsilitis and the flu - double whammy! So, no blogging, very little stitching, just a lot of sleeping, reading cosy crime on my kindle and watching bad TV!
Take care of yourselves,
hugs, Kaye xoxox
P.S. If you would like to join in the fun of "The Alphabet Club", pop over to Chiara's blog (The Grey Tail) to see what all the fun is about and link up your post for the Letter "D".
.jpg)
run by the wonderful Cheryll (click on pic to find out more) happened to correspond to my first Friday night back home and, of course, Friday night is Frolic night 
(you can click on this pic to get to the blog) - so all was good.
