Early morning but had to share one photograph with you.



Brilliant night but now it's time for bed. (Phil is on the right)

Amongst the greens and blues and pinks.



Is there anything more perfect than a flower, especially if you have grown it yourself?

Happy Birthday Edward!
24 years, oh, my! It was whilst reading Edward's page today that I actually did laugh out loud when he mentioned the rabbit. On a reconnoitre to buy a rabbit at Stapeley Water Gardens, an incident involving a passionate little bunny had Edward and myself in stitches. It was the most adorable white, long-haired, floppsy creature with raging hormones because he took one look at Edward's fathers shoe and fell madly in love; maybe a leather lover! The Fabio of the rabbit world leapt onto the shoe, gripped with its front paws and wouldn't let go! The more the foot was shaken to dislodge the offending little creature the more excited it became! It looked like an animated white, fluffy slipper. It still makes me laugh.

So I have just come back from Mr Stitchit and yes my bum does look big in these harem pants. They are so big I'm sure a Bedouin tribe would find them a spacious abode! Well my bespoke Indian tailor, tried to convince me that they were the correct measurements, my theory is that I have a pair of pale blue silk pants in Phil's measurements. After taking out at least a metre of fabric they are still very roomy! Phil is getting exasperated and keeps saying, "it's only a fancy dress party and not the Elton John Gala Masquerade Ball!"
Party is on Thursday and I don't think that there will be any photographs!

I enjoy recalling the mountains of trivia that seem to be a precious part of my son’s early life. Often he will join in with the sweet and funny and inconsequential things that are common to our history as mother and son. This indulgence, on my part, is often painstakingly ornamented as I dredge up another of those memories. If he should agree on some subjective matter, it becomes automatically and quite irrevocably the truth. At each subsequent retelling I become increasingly unaware of the alchemy that has made it so.
Recently I began another of those rambles along the well-travelled anecdotal path. Edward reluctantly dragging his feet behind and declaring work commitments as being more important.
“Edward, do you remember when we were having a meal in that restaurant and your Dad ordered duck? When the waiter brought the food, held the plate up and said ‘duck’, we both dived under the table?”
“Nope!”
“Oh, you do, it was SO funny!”
“Nope”
“And then there was the time I was driving too fast down that lane and went over the hump-backed bridge and we took off on all four wheels. You laughed so much as our heads ricocheted into the roof of the car and the axle piled into the tarmac, we had to go back and do it again! …and again!…and again!”
“Nope!”
“And then when we were staying at that hotel in America and all that we could hear from the room next door to ours was ‘OH, ROD! OH, ROD! OH, OH, OH, RO….D!’ It went on all night and I complained to the hotel manager that it was indecent and he said that it was strange because an 80 year old woman was on her own in the next room. Remember how we laughed when we found out she was actually saying ‘Oh, God!’ because she had forgotten her arthritis pills?”
“Nope!”
“And then there was that time when… Edward, are you paying attention to me?”
“Nope!”

I love photography! I'm not brilliant at it and I'm learning all the time but wherever I go the camera goes with me. Friends just accept that if they invite me round I will probably trawl through their gardens looking for a photo opportunity. This was taken in a friends garden in Cyprus:



Taking photographs of food in restaurants is very amusing. As soon as the camera comes out they assume you are writing an article for a magazine and the service improves ten-fold!
At the moment I am giving serious thought to the Questions and Answers interview on sh1ft.org projects. Now one of the categories is 'something that people don't know about you'. Well how many of you know that I can tap-dance to Davy Crockett? Thought so! Now how do I capture that in a photograph?

Last summer I travelled via Athens to get home to Cyprus. I was amazed to find one corner of the airport Duty Free area designated to Olympic Games 2004 memorabilia. The emblems of Athena and Phevos are quite hideous and I'm still unsure of their significance. However, I digress.
If you haven't been to any of the far eastern countries on the Mediterranean you will probably assume that if they get all of the merchandise out so soon, the actual event will all just happen on time. Well there are 114 days left until the official opening and a friend, who was in Athens 2 weeks ago for the Easter vacation, asked a taxi driver what the huge mound of earth was for in the middle of an intersection? His reply was that it was the equestrian centre! The IOC were getting jittery a few weeks ago because there was no roof on the velodrome! They are not denying that there's much work to do and no doubt it will be finished.
ATHOC President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki promises a unique and historic Games. I hope that the nations of the World will realise that attitudes are very laid-back here. So far back that they are almost horizontal!
I believe one of the biggest stumbling blocks will be when the Brits and Americans need to use the facilities! When they realise that the sign by the toilet is for real and that they are being told to put their dirty toilet tissue in the bin provided and not down the lavatory, they will probably break their own records to get back to the airport.

I received an email a few weeks ago from someone calling themselves Dora Casso. They were informing me that they had made a search for Louis Vuitton and I had come out as number 13. I was then made to feel pretty good because they had linked to me and would I make it reciprocal?

My site is one of the best resources for info in our category (I think you'll see that my site is pretty clean and high quality, and I only request to link to other quality sites for exchange). Because of this great info, I get a pretty decent amount of visitors...so if I link to you, your site should get some nice traffic as well.


Well the site doesn't seem to exist and I find that I have joined the ranks of many other confused Bloggers who haven't got a clue as to what's going on.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

We braved a trip down town tonight, out through the perimeter boundary, through the 3 check-points, past the armed guards, mobile units, the bomb barriers, spiked tripods and the notices that informed us that we were on high alert again.
The reason for such a journey? A fancy-dress party next week! We needed to organise material and a visit to Mr Stitchit (that's what the board outside his shop says) to be measured for a harem concubine costume and a sheikh outfit (he speaks a little English and we speak a little Arabic so you will appreciate the difficulties). I'm not sure we managed to explain fully and will probably end up with 2 cavemens suits. I will keep you posted.

Our journey began at 5.00am this morning and we arrived at the Tabuk villa at 4.40pm; excellent time.



We are very fortunate that we are able to travel First Class and so our flight with Royal Jordanian was again excellent. I think I'd better make the best of this as when we retire it will be Economy all the way.
The 'wagon' was parked at the hotel in Amman (not the one with the hairy sheets...) and once the luggage was in we set off on the five hour journey travelling south through Jordan and crossing the border at Madharbah and into Saudi.
It was not long into our journey that a desert storm began and it was a nightmare.



This was very much what the journey consisted of. Now normally when travelling through a desert you are able to stop and take a pee by the side of the road (well needs must as both countries don't go a bundle on public conveniences) and so taking the conditions into consideration you may now understand the reason behind :) the title.

The last two days have been very busy. A little retail therapy yesterday morning, lunch down at Arappa at Coral Bay and then friends came round yesterday afternoon. Today we went out for lunch with Singapore Jill and Merv and in a moment we are off for drinks at a friends villa down at the bottom end of the road.
I just don't seem to have had the time this holiday to write for the page; most frustrating.



Another thing, no donkeys this time.

Today I am trying to be Martha Stewart, Nigella Lawson, Paris Hilton and a thoroughly nice Stepford Wife.
It seems to me being a modern 'housewife' these days is far removed from the days when it was acceptable to stomp around the kitchen in your furry slippers, hair in rollers and sporting an M&S pinny over your favourite leggings!
Now you seem to be judged on whether you have Buffalo mozzarella in your fridge, are able to scumble glaze an old cupboard and prepare a sumptuous sushi supper for twenty. And then there's all that feng shui business; what is that all about? You know I just can't be bothered and the pool looks very inviting...

We went out for Sunday Easter lunch to the club house with Singapore Jill and husband. The food, company and location were excellent. Gino was playing music and we ate outside under a blue Mediterranean sky.



On returning to the villa I noticed a swift brown object darting down the steps, centimetres from Phil's feet.
"Argh, Phil, a Blunt Nosed Viper!"
AND indeed it was!!!
Phil is now outside with jeans tucked into Timberlands and a pair of my Marigold gloves on, a veeeery long stick and my brave hero is out there tackling THE most venomous snake in Cyprus. Don't try this at home folks...oh, bum...he is!

Sorry about that, guests have now departed and you have my undivided attention.
The skin condition is clearing nicely although my neck does look like a benobo's bum! The villa is receiving a Changing Room transformation; well an accent wall of hot paprika and new curtains in buttermilk.
Today we went out and bought a new Sony TV, sleek silver jobby which takes the Memory Stick from my camera; ACE!
Guess what, I arrived and my very own Bird of Paradise is flowering! What more can a girl ask for, her flower is flowering and patterned toilet tissue is adorning her bathroom!

The garden is looking stunning and friends have just arrived so will this do for the mo?

Bet you'd given up on me! The journey was an absolute nightmare!
I started travelling at 3.30 pm last Wednesday and arrived at the villa on Friday at 5.00am (cream crackered)! I slept for a few days and then the sun rose, I showered and ended up with an almighty skin infection! Now I have No proof but I had to get the sheets changed in the hotel in Amman because they looked decidedly grubby with a splattering of short curlies that had me shuddering, (travel in the Middle East is not for the faint of heart!!!)
So now Phil has arrived, the sun is shining, my neck and arms would do justice to an armadillo (bleepin' skin infection!) but I am happy to be back in the Bloggin' world.
Message for Tami; I HAVE FOUND PATTERNED TOILET ROLL!!! Yep the cupboard is FULL! My cup brimmeth over!