In which Gorgeous Girl cooks

While we were in Australia Gorgeous Girl spotted a video recipe on my Facebook feed and decided to recreate it. She made some modifications and it was delicious.

The salmon was a real treat as we can only get frozen salmon at very expensive prices here in PNG. Asparagus runs to around $45 a kilo so that was a real treat as well. (We don’t eat salmon or asparagus while we are in PNG).

She also made potatoes, carrots and brocolini as sides. Gorgeous Man assisted with the wrapping of the salmon and asparagus in the foil but the rest was all Gorgeous Girl. I’m so glad that she is learning cooking skills now. I didn’t really start to cook until I was an adult.

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A basket

Earlier this year Gorgeous Man took a trip to Tari in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. This was a leisure trip for him. He travelled with a friend from the USA and their mission was to see birds.

When I mentioned on Facebook that Gorgeous Man was in Tari one of my friends made a comment about the local baskets that were available made in the area. She spent time in PNG as a child. When Gorgeous Man got back he handed me this:

Right now it’s being used to hold my knitting. It’s beautifully made. The skill that has gone into this is astounding.

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A Milestone

In December, family and friends gathered in Brisbane so that they could help me celebrate this:

My Mum flew over from Perth.

Family pictures were taken.

Don’t I look lovely and formal?

Look again…

Do you see the bare feet?

My shoe broke as I was walking to congregate with the other graduands before the ceremony. As I sat down I took off my shoe and said to the girl next to me:

“My shoe broke! I’m going to have to walk across the aisle in bare feet!”

In a series of fortunate events, she had decided to wear high heels and had a spare of flat shoes in her handbag, in my size. So I borrowed her shoes for the graduation ceremony (with effusive thanks) and was spared the embarrassment of walking across the stage in bare feet. I did have to go out to dinner in full regalia and bare feet though.

I guess it’s things like this that make life interesting….

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Feeling blessed

I belong to a local group on facebook. It’s a place to share news of impending shortages such as fuel, security alerts/areas to avoid for the next little while as well as a place where people who are leaving sell items they don’t want to take home.

Last week Gorgeous Man alerted me to a post offering free quilting magazines. A few text messages later and we had arranged for the very generous lady to drop them at Gorgeous Girl’s school. I was working when she was in town and wasn’t able to meet up with her in person. There were far more magazines than I was expecting.

Here they all are sorted out. Gorgeous Girl counted them and said there was over 100. There’s enough to keep me in crafty reading for quite some time. There were about a dozen in the pile that I already have. I’ve given some to a friend who has just started doing crafty things in the last few years and a few others have been put aside because they have projects I think people I know might enjoy making.

I got a lot of knitting done this weekend, but haven’t taken any photos yet. I’ve come out in a horrible itchy rash – this happens about once a year here – so I spent a quiet weekend at home on the couch with my knitting and new (to me) magazines to keep me company.

Back to work today thankful for the air conditioning in my office. The antihistamines from last time seem to be preventing it from getting worse. I’m hoping to avoid a trip to the clinic and injections.

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More Independence Day Celebrations

In addition to the Independence Day celebrations at Gorgeous Girl’s school there were also some where Gorgeous Man and I work.

This tree house was built for the occasion. It is the traditional house of the Koiari people.

This is the side view.

Front view.

Gorgeous Girl and I climbed up to have a look.

Gorgeous Girl climbed right to the top.

The students dressed in traditional costumes.

There were demonstrations of how to prepare traditional food.

These girls are preparing coconut milk.

Students from other Pacific Islands also dressed in traditional costume for the occasion. These girls are from Rarotonga (Cook Islands).

I’m grateful for the opportunity to experience this first hand.

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Celebrating Independence

Recently Papua New Guinea celebrated 40 years of Independence. Gorgeous Girl’s school put on celebration. The kids dressed in traditional costumes from the various regions around Papua New Guinea.

Gorgeous Girl was in the group from Manus Island. They practiced their dances for a few weeks and costumes were supplied.

We supplemented her costume with some shell necklaces.

The local ladies set up shop outside the school gates (shop consists of a cloth on the ground spread with their wares) knowing that the school has these celebrations.

One of the older classes made paper mache mud men masks.

The staff had the authentic masks.

These following ones aren’t the best pictures I took, but they do show a sense of the day without showing the faces of other people’s children.

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Update

I picked up my new visa on Friday and flew back into Papua New Guinea on Sunday. The reason I needed a new visa was because I have started working and this involved a change of visa status.

I hit the ground running and on Monday taught my first class in a very long time. I’ve done adult education before as a TESOL teacher, but this is the first time I’ve been lecturing in History. I’m enjoying it so far, hopefully the students are also enjoying it lol.

We had very heavy rain on Monday and Tuesday and the road in to town was flooded quite badly. This meant Gorgeous Girl had to miss a day of school as there was no way to get her there. Fortunately the water has subsided and she was able to go to school today.

There has been a little bit of crafting since I got back. I had a play with my sister-in-law’s new gelli plate while I was in Australia and have used some of the paper from that session to upcycle a pringle tin as a pen holder for the desk in my office. I’ve been taking a few minutes at the end of each day to decompress with my spinning wheel. I’ve been itching to spin ever since Gorgeous Man gave me some beautiful fibre for Christmas. It spins as beautifully as I imagined it would.

No photos yet. The heavy rain has knocked our internet access around making it very intermittent. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get a post without photos up without too much difficulty.

I

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Surprised

A month ago Gorgeous Man and Gorgeous Girl went back to PNG without me. I’m very grateful to generous family members who have let me stay with them and for friends who have been keeping me busy and out of trouble,  but I’ve been missing them a great deal. Gorgeous Girl also racked up quite a few firsts while we’ve been apart. First day at a new school, first missing teeth, first music lesson (drums) first individual swimming lesson, and so on and so forth.

Anyway, a friend asked me to go out with her and some of her friends. When we got to the place we were supposed to be eating (Eat Street Markets – well worth a visit) she suddenly stopped and started fussing with her bag and phone and then pointed behind me and said “Who’s that?” I turned and got the shock of my life when a certain Gorgeous Girl came running through the crowd.

Gorgeous Man and Gorgeous Girl had flown down for a few days.  I was a touch overwhelmed and tears were shed. Gorgeous Man wins Valentine’s day this year.

They flew home today and I’m still in Australia waiting for visas to be sorted out. But I’ll be home in another few weeks and all will be right with my world.

In other news, there has been knitting.

This is a child-sized hat. It’s going to a friend of mine in the north-east USA. She is a registered foster parent and is part of a network of foster parents in her area. The idea is to give her a stack of hand-knit hats, scarves, mittens and baby blankets to keep on hand for foster children that come into care. The knitted items will be one less thing that foster parents need to provide and in addition to keeping the children warm it is something they can take with them when the leave that foster family. A few of my Ravelry friend have joined me in this project and we are going to see how many we can make. Sadly there is a large demand in the county my friend lives in.

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Misleading

So, I have to confess that this scrapbook page is misleading.

Gorgeous Girl does not like visiting Santa/Father Christmas. She has to be cajoled into it by me, because I really like having a photo each year to see how much she has grown. There are a few years missing because she refused to participate at all. Last year she agreed to see Santa, but refused to get closer than this. 🙂

I dyed the chipboard using DIY mist (food colouring and water) and my new watercolour wax crayons.

I made a card as well.

I’ve been wanting a large woven basket for a while. Gorgeous Man found one at the market today.

It’s certainly large.

It’s now housing Gorgeous Girl’s collection of soft toys.

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Returned

I got back from Hong Kong on Wednesday night. Both my meeting in Australia (at uni) and the conference in Hong Kong went well and my paper was well received.

I did a little bit of crocheting on the plane and turned this

into this

The blue crochet is a wee little creature that just needs ears and stuffing to bring him to life.

I didn’t get as much done as I expected to because on the way over the lady across the aisle from me was fascinated by the crocheting. In the end she came and sat in the spare seat next to me and I taught her to crochet, between her very limited English and my very limited Mandarin and a Chinese-English dictionary we got by. She was so impressed with herself that she hung her bit of crocheting over the seat in front of her and took a picture. I was impressed at how quickly she picked it up.

The flight home was a night flight and because I am super-speedy I was able to snag a row to myself once the seatbelt sign went off and managed to lie down and sleep for 4 or 5 hours. One advantage of being vertically challenged is that I can stretch out on a row of seats on a plane and not bang my head or my feet.

Sock knitting happened in the down time in the evenings. One sock down and one to go.

For my two nights in Australia I stayed with my SIL and her family. SIL gave me my birthday present and then helped me create my first page in it. A big art journal.

Close ups:

Not bad for a first attempt. Of course I had lots of help and many more tools to play with than I will here at home.

I also picked up a prize that I won in one of the online scrapbooking challenges recently which I had delivered to her place. Loads of lovely chipboard. Unfortunately on unpacking my suitcase it is nowhere to be found. I’m really hoping that it is at SIL’s place and not feeling lonely in a Hong Kong hotel…

Getting home was a bit of a marathon. Because I flew from Hong Kong to Australia with Qantas and then from Australia to PNG with Virgin, Qantas refused to check my bags the whole way through. I asked if they could deliver the bag to the international transfer desk and I could pick it up from there, but that was also refused. They insisted that I clear immigration in Australia, pick up my bag and clear customs and then go to the departure area in Brisbane Airport and immediately check myself back in with Virgin for my flight to PNG. On hearing this I stood at the check in counter and cried. I was sure that there was no way I was going to make my connecting flight. Qantas then upgraded my checked baggage to business class (I didn’t get an upgrade…) so that it would come off the plane first and they moved me from the rear of the plane to the front of economy so that I could get off the plane first. Fortunately our plane landed a little bit early and I was able to make my connection, but it was a very negative and stressful experience and I’m grateful that I am familiar with Brisbane airport, which certainly made the whole process much easier.

I have to say I was very unimpressed with the Qantas ground staff in Hong Kong.

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