Back so soon?

I have reached Dubai. It's 6:36 UK time, we landed 2 hours ago and I have spent 15 minutes on a bus that takes you from plane to airport, about 45 minutes eating a McArabia and chips in McDonalds while checking Facebook, 20 minutes looking for a clean toilet cubicle and applying various facial refreshments, and 20 minutes looking for a seat near the gate for my flight to Dar. Dar airport leaves a lot to be desired, so I hope the 2 hour wait flies by - can't wait to get to Mwanza.  


I figured I might as well take advantage of the free WiFi while it's available. Once I leave Dubai airport it will be a little more sparse... however I will save my ramblings on Word and transfer them here ASAP. If you are important enough you'll get text messages with the most important bits anyway. 


Flight to Dubai consisted of no weird/sweaty people and a window seat - great, but it also consisted of average food and 'state of the art entertainment' which failed me. I had it all planned out - watch Invictus, eat, sleep for about 4 hours. Yeah right! The screen failed me after 20 minutes, then they switched it off for 20 minutes to 'fix it', then I managed to watch the rest of the film.. but it was jumpy all the way through, so I'll have to watch it again because I missed the point of it! Argh! PS Emirates crew... if someone presses their call button you are supposed to answer it (I was desperate for water), and 'tea with extra milk' is not the same as 'one part tea 9 parts milk'. Wasn't impressed with the lovely hot towel of 2009 being replaced with a cheap lemon wipe out of a packet either!!! (moan moan moan I know... blame the lack of sleep)


I also forgot that I no longer have the body of a 10 year old, so sleeping was nigh on impossible. Coupled with tired legs that just wanted to wiggle and be propped up (but with nowhere to prop them up) I just closed my eyes, listened to CDs and soon it was light again.. the sun rose just as we were between Kuwait and Baghdad... I am in awe of myself for being so clever for remembering to pick up some cucumber eye gel and face wipes!


Will mention the funny sunset I saw over Vienna too.. the bottom was red, and as you looked up the sky it turned orange, yellow, green, blue... like an upside down rainbow. Very pretty! 


T'ra for now, next stop, Africa...

Lets get this show on the road!

'The show' being the travels, and this blog... I hope you all read it, might save me a few emails while in Tanzania ha ha...


Okay, so I am sat in the airport, had a Starbucks panini and cake thanks to mum's Starbucks voucher she gave me at Christmas, I have paid for an hours Wifi and although the first flight to Dubai is delayed by 30 minutes I don't care as they let me have 6kg extra luggage, a window seat that had previously been stolen from me AND a bit too much hand luggage! Get in!!  My new tattoo itches like hell though...


Will be at the Baby Home and probably be in bed this time tomorrow, so sweet dreams and I'll see you in 8 months sweet England :-) 


xx

Stitching update and a test of how well you know me...

OK so this is where I am up to now:

It's coming along nicely! I want to get it finished before the end of June so I can start on a new one, a pretty purply fairy epic sized thing i have just purchased:

It's just cute and will probably take forever!


I have also made a rather large purchase today. I mulled over it for a long, long time but decided it was the right thing to do so went for it! I won't say anymore for now, but those who know me will know what it is.. there's a clue in the blog name :-)


OK, back to a bit o' stitching... later xx

I don't care what you think!

Tonight I tried to do more than mess about on Facebook, so as well as watching 'One Born Every Minute' I turned my attention to a cross stitch kit I have. 'Oh My God...' lots of people will probably say, 'you're 28 not 68'.


Well I don't care! I actually enjoy it, it's more productive than god damn Farmville, and it focusses my attention - I have severe snacking issues and when I'm stitching I find the night flies by without me having raided the fridge. 


Also this cross stitch has meaning to me.. I got it aged 16 as part of some 'craft club' you used to get all the times in magazines... there were book ones too. You bought 3 or 4 items at 99p or not much more, then you had to buy 3 or 4 full price items in the following 12 months. Well one of my items was a cross stitch kit called Calendar Bears. My nanna got the same one - she completed it in a short space of time and it hung by her front door for many years. She sadly died last September so now it feels appropriate and right to dig mine out and finish it off.


Anyway back to the stitching, here's where I am now:

Indecisiveness

I am terrible for being influenced by people, TV and the like. I'll see someone on TV doing a job and want to do it (for about 1 day, then change my mind). I'll hear about a friend having a baby and I'll want a baby (for about 12 hours, then change my mind!!) 


Relationship aside, as I am incredibly happy in that department, I have no idea what I want to do. I will make a decision then a few weeks (or days!) later will think that it's not a good idea and something else will be better. Really, I want to do several things all at once but that's generally impossible.


I can write a list of pros and cons but then there's 'If this' and 'but that' endlessly whirring in my mind.... If anyone has any ideas about how to resolve this feel free to comment!


I think we have too much choice in the Western world.... 

Productivity and Positivity

After my 'woe is me' post on Thursday I woke up on Friday feeling better than I have done in about two months and just thought RIGHT THEN!! So this post title has two very important words in it.


I have just spent my weekend sans boyfriend (booooo), so decided I should do some of those things that needed doing around 6 months ago. I bought buttons for my coat, got it dry cleaned (£11.75, how expensive!), watched a few episodes of Planet Earth on DVD, and managed to make a couple of bracelets! Not sure what to do with them yet though. 

Feeling rather pleased with myself, I then proceeded to clean both fridges out, cleared them of mouldy foodstuffs then settled down for a bit of East Africa holiday browsing. Success!

On Sunday the sun was shining but my head convinced me I deserved a day of doing nothing, and I spent it doing silly things like browsing eBay for things I am not intending to buy, and planting strawberries on Farmville and ridiculous stuff like that. By 3pm I was kicking myself for not having taken a book to a park somewhere (or something, maybe it was still too cold for that!) and got rid of a little guilt by doing a little more work on my Forever Angels scrapbook and peeling enough potatoes and carrots to feed the street. 

Anyway today I was back at work and, still in awe of how well I feel, I had a really good day, I was full of enthusiasm with the kids and came home to clean my room, sew buttons on said dry cleaned coat and watch The Secret Millionaire.

I find this programme amazing. I am in awe of people who can watch this type of thing then carry on with their lives, as I can't. I sit and think about it in minute detail... anyway tonights episode kind of summed up why Productivity and Positivity is important. You never know what is round the corner.

Evening All!

There is nothing special about March 4th. December 27th, December 9th, April 17th.. maybe! But there is nothing special at all about today that prompted me to create this blog.

In fact I am having a terrible day which has involved calling in sick thanks to ugly antibiotics and generally feeling the need to wallow in self pity.

What is it about March that makes me sick? 5 years in a row I have called in sick in March!

Anyway, this I think is a great way of recording what's going on in my life, whether you care to read or not... I will read it! And every post will have reference to sparkle, Swahili or stress (though ideally not a lot of stress!!)

xx