Patchwork

I have decided to make a patchwork quilt for my sister, who is having a baby. I began very enthusiastically, buying lots of fabric, planning the design and then began to cut out all the little squares.....

and then I slowly lost interest

It was pretty boring - cutting out squares. They are not even small squares. I mean, imagine if I had decided to make one of those quilts with tiny hexagons or some other multi-faceted paneling. I think I would have lost the will to live.

As the last few prints lay discarded on my desk, and the birth of the baby draws ever nearer - I decided to take serious action, and get on with it. So this weekend, I have had a totally self indulgent time, alone in Falmouth, going out on boat trip on Saturday - see seperate post - and getting down to the dreaded patchwork today. I am most pleased with the results, as you can see the pattern is starting to take shape:


It took abit of time deciding how to make it look patchworky and random. I actually quite like the repeat I've settled with, it gives some uniformity to the panel as a whole.

now it looks pretty I think that I will be able to endure the sewing part....

St Ives

Walk to work

Since leaving London in 2006 I have had the good fortune to be able to walk to work in almost every place I have lived. In Germany, it snowed and my feet froze. In China, it snowed as well and my feet froze even more, whilst in the summer I melted in the humidity after walking only 2 blocks.

Above all, the thing I loved was being able to take in my surroundings, perhaps because they were foreign, but also I think because I enjoyed watching life going on around me. The posing people of Dusseldorf, and the busy Chinese, going about their business, selling food, cooking in the street, piling onto electric bikes or walking to the bathroom down the lanes, wearing pajamas.

Now in Falmouth I have a new walk to work. It was very important to me to live in Falmouth, close to the office, so that I could walk to work. I love what it adds to my life. The mornings here are beautiful at the moment. still sunny, but with that autumnal fresh air that has so many associations with 'back to school' and a new start. I kick myself for not photographing my walk in China, so I have taken some here while I have the chance.

latest sewing fad

Since getting my sewing machines back, I have been going crazy fixing lots of clothes that needed fixing. Wanting a "quick fix" of making a whole thing (clothes can take ages to make) - I have opted for the shoebag as my current favorite. I have made lots, which has been really handy for moving house, and gives major satisfaction as they hardly take any time at all to make, use up odd bits of cloth and ribbon or tape (very eco-friendly)and can be made in a multitude of sizes for different purposes.


these two are housing a hairdryer (in the small one) and a yoga mat (I'm particularly proud of that one.)

moving on

It feels like that is all I ever do and all I ever post about is moving house.
I do other things as well sometimes. perhaps I should mention those things too!

Pendennis Castle

My first outing whilst here, has been to Pendennis Castle. It is an old castle built on the rocky outcropping at the entrance to the Falmouth Docks and Harbour. It was built by Henry the 8th, as he feared invasion from Europe (ie. the Spanish.) Being a bank holiday there was Jousting and Falconry and several people acting out in costume. I loved the old building, it's views and the colourful tents the jousting crew had on site. I did not like the wind or the extrordinary queue for cream teas.

Heat issues

I am living in a large victorian house. I have a wonderful front bay window, with, what I think are technically known as 'sea glimpses'. I am also reliving the joys of a shared household, as I share with 3 other girls, and a couple, who own the house.
It's spacious, but cold in my room. I have this evening had a flash of joyful inspiration as i remembered my electric hot water bottle from china. A favourite from last winter, so I can go to bed with a scalding hot bag of conductive liquid.

I do not look forward to the day when it leaks.

A change of scene

well, in the intervening weeks I have been busy doing pretty much nothing, but quite a lot at the same time. Seeing friends and looking for work; making my website and portfolio better, looking for work, camping and conducting a serious life Laundry.

Now I have a neat and tidy life, a renewed social life and, the holy grail - a job!

The new job is in Falmouth. Not a place I have had anything to do with ever - but, intrepid as usual, I have found a place to live and moved down here with my intention to live temporarily, and see what happens.

my first impressions are that it is very far away from anywhere, but I love being by the sea, and smelling Cornish pasties baking on the walk to work in the morning. the people are very friendly, and I miss Mr V.

finally landed proper

Well, it has taken a month of spare room living and countless hours of property viewing, but we have finally got ourselves a place to rent, which is big enough to swing a cat - not to mention house all of the 'stuff' we have had in storage. The men arrived on moving in day with a big truck, and moved us in. The relief to finally have all our home comforts back is super. We have titdied up and been to the tip twice, and the place still looks like an e-bay warehouse - but, this time we can at least MOVE in the place unlike our last flat which was a disaster.

Having a kitchen again is super - so I am indulging in cooking all my old favourites. going to the supermarket is fun again, and best of all I have my sewing machines back. the monster big one has been serviced by a nice man who came round, and now it's ready to go. Joy.

Back In Blighty

Well, finally made it back to England. It has taken rather a while for me to update,but now we have got ourselves together somewhat.

Posted with LifeCast

last supper

It was not really biblical, but we had a favourite local food joint and took our good friend LH out for a slap up supper on our penultimate Shanghai evening. cucumber salad with chilli chilli and sesame oil....broccoli cooked to crunchy perfection.... sizzling cabbage and pork drenched in tasty oil...Yangzhou Chau Fan (fried rice to you and I).... spicy chilli ribs....pickled beans and chilli....oh....oh...oh YES! DEEEE LISH!

Wulumuqi Lu

There's a mouthful of a road name. It took me some time to get it right (and I'm not even sure if I am right still, but the taxi drivers get me) "woo loo moo chi lu" for those of you who are wondering. I love walking down this street. there are lots of little everyday shops and life bustles in the street. the traders are all really friendly. It's a little corner of chinese life, and it always makes me smile.

A quick cuppa

Today we are mostly drinking 'Hong Cha' this is translated as 'red tea' and is as close to the familiar 'black tea' as you are going to find in a Chinese tea shop. In fact if you go in and ask for black tea, they will smile knowingly and say that you must mean 'hong cha'.

Since our recent supply of PG tips has run out on us, we are resigned to drinking Hong cha. I actually really like it, as it reminds me of Earl Grey, it has a properly flowery flavour, and we drink it with milk, although I'm sure this act would make any self respecting Chinaman shudder. Mr V is taking some time to acclimatise to the new tea, for precisely the same reason that I am so taken by it. it's not rough enough for him. what a philistine.

This tea we bought in Carrefour, from the tea seller. It was 4.50 RBM per 50g.

the big descision

Once again I am found guilty of being a bit slow on the updates. Well as of today I have decided - who cares? The sky hasn't fallen in - and, as Mr V. would say "no children have died".

This however is not 'the big decision'. Mr V and I have decided after much consideration that we will be returning to the UK. This might sound crazy to all you people presently residing there amidst economic recession, and rising unemployment (more on that later) BUT - we have given this place a shot - and frankly, on this occasion, it ain't cutting it for us.
here are the big reasons for coming back:

1. We can't find any work here.
2. All or 'stuff' is in storage in the UK.
3. we are missing things like:
- getting in the car and driving somewhere
- going out on the bikes for a ride
- green places
- friends and family
- pub lunches
- my sewing machine (that one is just for me you understand.)
- Sky TV (I put that in for Mr V. since he is a telly addict.)

there are lots of other little things but you get the gist. I admit I am slightly afraid I have romanticized 'back home' perhaps due to watching too many episodes of 'Lewis' and 'Midsommer Murders'. I'll just have to deal with that when the tabloid reality kicks in.

The more we prepare for our departure, the more I think of small experiences or places that I know I will miss here. Things I want to try and fit in before we leave. Not to mention all the different food I want to get 'one last taste' of before I have to resign myself to 'chicken and cashew nuts' from a british Cantonese takeaway. I have have become a chinese food snob, no doubt about that.
More soon (well, maybe not that soon, but whenever I get round to it)

the end of the KL visa saga

There wasn't really an end to it, suffice to say we returned to the consulate in OSK Plaza on the Tuesday as advised, and joined the large queue to apply for a visa. No problem.

I guess it would have been helpful if:

- The correct address had been on the consulate website.(or at least handed to us at the embassy)
- The consulate website had stated the closure dates for Lunar New Year - I think it actually stated 2007 New Year Dates. Not much use.

We could have spent a week outside the city - maybe done some longed for diving, had we known there was no chance to apply for a visa until Tuesday.

Hey ho, The city is not that bad, (snake charmers and man with baby monkey aside) Oh yes - and the taxi drivers - they are something else here. They have meters, and there are signs all over the city to advise that it is illegal to take an unmetered cab, and yet they REFUSE point blank to put the meter on. So every time you want to take a taxi, you end up bracing yourself for this stupid negotiation standoff with a driver. It's hot outside, and taxi's are cheep, even when you are being ripped off - BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT! I hate being taken advantage of, simply because I am a foreigner.


night scene of restaurants

Happy New Year in KL.

I'm in Kuala Lumpur this week, and next week as well. It was an economic descision, although it sounds rather an extravagant thing to be doing. It is cheeper than a 2 week stint in HK, and cheeper than a trip home - which was also a consideration. Since there is a perfectly good Chinese consulate in KL, then we opted to come here for a visa. The Consulate is closed though, which we discovered after a 2 day treasure hunt for the correct location to make our application.

It all started when we headed to the embassy on day 1 for what we thought would be a simple stand in line, and hand over forms situation. Sadly not, as after our train/walk/ taxi dash to find the embassy ended in a guard handing us a slip of paper with the address of the consular office on it and telling us to go there. Bother! we thought, and off we trudged, in the humid heat to find this mysterious address. Being at number 229 on Jalan Ampang, the office we wanted was at number 25, so it appeared a simple task of walking the length of the road and getting there..

1Floor office
OSK Plaza
25 Jln Ampang
50450 KL

HA! no so, as number 25, when we finally got there in an exhausted and hot state, was a small derelict building. Hmm. most frustrating. Number 35 was a Chinese consulate office, so we opted for the 'address must be wrong' solution to the mystery. The said office was however closed for the Chines Lunar New year, a notice on the door politely told us, and would be open on Saturday 29th. Blast. Oh well simply return on Saturday and get the job done. We remained slightly baffled to the address's reference to a 'Plaza" since the area was singularly devoid of any plaza like buildings, in fact appeared to be virtully in a ramshackle part of town close to the bus station.

Saturday arrived, and although we did sleep through the alarm, we still managed to make it back to the consular office before it closed at 11.45 (chinese lunchtime) Only to met with puzzled responses to a request for a visa application. They told us to go to the Bank of China building. Odd. This time we had no patience for walking, and jumped in a cab. Arriving at the Bank Of China in a few minutes, and seeing it is located in a big shiny building named OSK plaza. AHHH all becomes clear. The number 25 bit was just a cunning plan to confuse us right? who knows. On arrival another polite notice informed us that the offices would be closed until Tueday 3rd Feb, because of the Chinese Lunar New Year. So the visa application sits quietly in our hotel room, waiting for Tuesday. Joy.

Jasmine Tea

I am a huge fan of tea. I can do English PG tips with a slosh of milk, naturally, but what I do really love is some Chinese tea. Many of my friends tell me that they don't like green tea - 'it's too Bitter' they claim, having sampled a cup of well stewed tea made with a 'green tea' bag. I find that sort of green tea bitter as well. In reality, green teas can be wonderfully smooth and sweet, the trick is - tea leaves. Even the poorest street sweeper in this land has a flask of tea made with leaves. The country simply would not function without thermos flasks of hot (and tepid) tea.

I have decided to log my tea experiences here, since i very often buy some tea, happily drink it and enjoy it very much, whilst forgetting completely what it is called, or where I bought it.

Jasmine tea is a very good place to start, the jasmine flowers mixed in the tea make it lovely and flowery. My most recent purchase of jasmine tea is all rolled into little balls, it looks really sweet as it unfurles in the hot water. I bought it from Carrefour, where there is a tea seller squeezed in between the dried beans and nuts and the flower stand.

Who really wants to know?

I was talking to A*** the other day, and he was very dissmissive of blogging. I was surprised, as being a creative writing graduate I would have thought he found it relevant and interesting. I think what he really meant was that he felt other peoples lives were not interesting and that anyone writing a blog about themselves perhaps had some inflated sense of self importance. It's a point. It made me think too, as I actually struggle - if I'm honest - with the whole blog thing myself. I mean really beyond my immediate family - who is THAT interested in little old me?

So, part of my new year resolutions is to make this blog less about me and more about other stuff. What the 'other stuff' will be - well that remains to be seen.

graffiti

graffiti, originally uploaded by Miss P's photos.

This graffitti is from a fire escape in Antwerp. The graffiti it's self is pretty boring, but what i really like is the colour of the door.
whenever i'm out i always feel compelled to take random pictures like this, for some assumed future purpose - Ideally inspiration. The only problem I find now is that I actually rarely use the pictures. As part of my new years resolution, I have decided is to do something with the pictures. even if I just stick them here - at least they have been useful for something.