Going to school

Gorgeous Girl has been asking to go to school since the middle of December last year. Now that we have a car she was finally able to start.

and wearing her hat.

I was very nervous about driving Gorgeous Girl to and from school every day. We did test drives on the Friday and Sunday before she started school so that I would know the way and the conditions of the road.

It takes about 35 minutes to get her to the school if the traffic is good and there are no new major potholes. The roads are constantly being repaired and new potholes being created when it rains (which is every day at the moment – wet season) so conditions vary daily. But it hasn’t been as hair raising as I thought. I think the traffic looks worse when you are a passenger…

Gorgeous Girl is loving her new school. She is in the transition pre-school and so is learning to write letters and numbers. She was very excited to go to school today, because on Fridays her class has Music, Sport and Swimming. She loves the water and has had her swimming togs and towel in the car since she heard about swimming classes on Monday. 🙂

And because this is a craft blog. Here is a picture of a bag I made for a good friend. It is handspun by me from a Nurturing Fibres batt.

Details here.

Read Full Post »

Odds and ends

We now have wheels.

It’s a small 4WD. It’s also an automatic as that is one less thing for me to worry about when driving. Having a 4WD is pretty much essential given the state of the roads in Port Moresby. This picture is taken in front of our temporary accommodation (which we are still in…).

I drove for the first time yesterday. Gorgeous Man was, thankfully, in the passenger seat. The traffic is pretty wild and the roads are not in the best condition. Recent rains have washed both lanes of the main highway away and caused large pot holes in many of the other smaller roads. Our trip home from shopping took over 2 hours (for what should be a 25 minute journey) and involved police directing traffic. The car behind me got friendly with his horn when I complied with the Nice Mr Policeman’s direction to stop and let traffic through. Given that Nice Mr Policeman was armed with a semi-automatic rifle, I was quite happy to let the car behind me honk as much as they wanted to…

The worst part of the trip was after it got dark, because it’s very hard to see people walking on the road, there are cars with no headlights and of course it’s hard to see the condition of the road as well. But we made it home safely.

I’m going to have to get used to driving on my own, as Gorgeous Girl starts pre-school on Monday – there is only two weeks of term left, but she is desperate to get to school again. She has been very good about amusing herself. She spent a very happy morning making a cubby for herself in one of our suitcases.

Speaking of suitcases, if you have (say for example) 178 kilos of luggage that you wish to take on a plane with you when you are moving to a new country (that is just the checked baggage), it is much cheaper to buy your excess baggage in advance than to just turn up on the day. It will take 2 phone calls and at least 2 hours to accomplish this. Also expect to take at least 45 minutes for check in (that is just time at the counter).

Before we left South Africa I knitted a comfort shawl for a friend. Finally managed to get the photos from camera to computer.

Pattern can be found here (Ravelry link) or here if you are not on Ravelry.

While in Australia I kept seeing a hand-piecing block of the month club advertised in the various quilting magazines and was umming and ahhing over whether to get it. Then I went to see my friend Lisa. (Lisa is the person who started me on my quilting journey by helping me make a cushion cover (my first project) and then sending me home with her spare machine and a pile of Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazines.)

Well, Lisa the enabler struck again. She had the pattern from the block of the month club and let me sew a few blocks. I was hooked. I rang the company and asked if they had any of the kits left and if they would sell me the entire block of the month kit at once. I have to give a shout out to Quilt Fabrics Delight  she was out of stock of the fabric range I was after, but once she heard I was leaving for PNG any day she had it express posted to her so she could make a kit up for me. I ordered on a Monday and had the kit by Thursday (I did pay to have the kit express posted to me in Brisbane, but the turn around time was impressive).

I’ve done about 30 blocks so far. Here’s a sample of a few of them.

They are lots of fun to make, quite addictive really. You can find out more information here.

I’m planning on making a queen sized quilt.

Read Full Post »

Just popping in

Just popping in to say that we are safely in PNG.

Right now we are staying in a transit house (basically a big room with 4 beds, a kitchen and side bathroom) while we wait for our allocated house to have some maintenance done. I am very grateful for the air conditioning 🙂

It is very hot, but we are enjoying fresh papaya and coconut and village bananas (smaller than the type you see in the shops). And I’m drinking lots of water.

There has been some hold-up with shipping our stuff from South Africa and we have been told that it will arrive in Port Moresby at the end of April. We have also been told that it will take about three weeks to clear customs here in PNG, so we are not expecting to see our furniture (and my yarn and fabric stashes) until at least the end of May. Good thing I bought far too much an adequate supply of knitting yarn with me and a hand-piecing quilt kit to keep me occupied.

Internet is very slow so I don’t know how a post with pictures will go, but we are hoping for a better solution once we are in our own house.

Read Full Post »