Busy in Bahrain

Phew! I was a bit concerned for a minute as everything in Blogger was in Arabic! Thank goodness I found where to change the language.

I arrived here last Tuesday morning to quite cool weather but that was a good thing as it has allowed me to climatise gradually. Today is bright and clear and is going to be rather hot. My arms got sunburned on Wednesday when I went for a short walk around the lagoon here at the complex where my family lives; later today we are going to watch my son play cricket and I wish I had a sun hat.

It's so nice to be with my son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren and get a taste of what their life is like here in Bahrain. I think that my daughter-in-law is amazing the way she drives long distances to school and into Manama to fetch my son from work. This island is very congested and the traffic is horrendous. The motorways are all like the M25! There are massive trucks all over the place because of all the construction going on.

Yesterday I spent an interesting couple of hours at the Bahrain National Museum after which Sharon and I treated ourselves to a manicure and a FREE shoulder,neck and head massage! Today she is taking me to a FABRIC SHOP after cricket. Yippee!

As usual with a visit to my children, the little sewing jobs have emerged: out came the trusty Bernina so that I could repair the seam on my son's trousers; I've handstitched the collar on a jacket for him and sewn a button on a pair of shorts. More will appear before I go home, I'm sure. I did also bring some cross stitch and crocheting with me in case I needed to fill time while everyone is at work.

I will put some photos on my blog when I get home. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying my adventure here in a very different country and culture.

Work in progress

I haven't posted in a while but I haven't been idle. I'm actually having a problem with my left eye, which aches nearly all the time. I went to an optician who prescribed new glasses but that made my eye worse! So I've taken them back and decided to see a doctor as I thought it might be sinus. She checked me out and said my sinuses appear to be fine but she has referred me to an opthalmic surgeon. I will see someone in the next couple of weeks after I come  back from my trip to Bahrain to see our son and his family. I leave on Monday and return home on 1 March.

Despite being rather careful about using my eyes too much, I've done a bit of sewing: four more charity tote bags and I've started two crocheted blankets. I sorted through my stash of wool and found quite a lot of bits and pieces of double knitting. The colours aren't wonderful and the squares are rather mixed in appearance but I've done a few to start with. I now don't have enough colours to contrast with quite a bit of dark green so I will wait till I can get my hands on some more bits and pieces. I also found quite a lot of 4 ply wool left over from knitting for my second granddaughter, so I decided to start another blanket just to keep myself occupied.

So the blankets are works in progress but I'm happy about that. I enjoy doing squares because I can take my work in the car or wherever I go.

The double knitting squares. This blanket will probably go to a dogs' charity.

The 4 ply squares. This blanket might end up on the craft table at our church sale.

A first for me

On Thursday I made a birthday card using papers from Craftseller magazine, the Sew Chic range. I've made cross stitch cards in the past but this is the first card I've made using papers. It's very much a beginner's effort. I added a bit of rick-rack to add some texture. Craftseller often has papers included in the magazine and I have blank cards from the cross stitching days so I thought I'd have a go. Here's the result:

As my computer is obliging me with adding photographs, here is one of the placemats I made to match the criss cross coasters I made for my friend's birthday. The floral fabric is some curtaining I was given and the plain cotton is from Doughty's.