Wednesday, February 25, 2015

A day out with the girls!


Tuesday 24 February 2015

Colossal thunder storms during the night
Torrential rain and sleet but who cares because I got a day out with the girls!!

Dad's birthday - would have been 87.  Happy birthday, daddy xxx

Woken in the dark by tremendous crashing and banging overhead and the glass in the windows reverberating like Kate Winslet when she first gets her mitts on Leo de Caprio (who, judging by a photo in Look magazine,  now is starting to look like Henry VIII).  Through the shutters, the rain was stinging the courtyard and flinging up the gravel.

Dozed off and awoke to grey morning but heart full of joy because I get a day off normal by going out for the day!  It is a large world, and to my amazement, the sister in law of one of my great UK friends has chosen, in all of this large world, to have a holiday home just 15 minutes away from where we live.  How good is that?  She is over for a week so a meet up is arranged and I get to meet the daughter of my UK best friend for the first time in 20 odd years.  TD has the same timbre of voice and the same sharp sense of observational humour and I realise, with a pang, how much I miss her mum.  Must make an effort to get hold of her land line and ring her up.

We have a quick coffee and I make the wonderful rediscovery that TD is a digital marketing specialist (something I had known and forgotten) so she gives me some great mentoring and puts me in contact with someone who can help partner with me and bounce ideas off. Fate has decided to give me a hand, at last!  It is so good to talk to someone who is dynamic and is doing something she loves, and getting paid for it.  That is just the dream. Realise I would far rather help people than actually make stuff myself.  Better not tell OH this as I have entire craft room full of gorgeous craft stuff.  From remarks of other crafters, everyone has a stash of stuff and not many of us actually get anywhere near to using it up. Or using it at all.

Pile into a tiny white car and TD is at the helm and we head to the big city, with only light rain, on the autoroute.  Nearing our destination, the gorgeous facade of an American style diner calls to us and we stop immediately and go in.  The owner tells us that it is not open for ten minutes.  We smile and don't move.  He says we can sit down and then ignores us for ten minutes during which time hailstones bounce a foot up from the car park and we have to shout to hear one another.  At 12 on the dot, the owner switches on the lights and the neon signs and takes our order.   The deco is 50/60s with beautiful blue and white banquettes, mini petrol pump and car grilles.  The big tvs showing motor sports and the US sports memorabilia in wall displays are not quite authentic but the coffee and chocolate was enjoyed and, suitably refilled, we headed for the delights of the mall.


We then do the shoe shops - TD favourite - and I do find some that I like but I would need a life where I could wear pink suede shoes.... 

The palest of pink is the color del dia so here is a little selection of shop offerings...





I find a lovely pale cream sweater with sparkly thread running through and splurge on that and then we head into a wonderful kitchen shop where I buy a selection of different flavours of mini chocolate bars for TD mum for her birthday.

The kitchen shop has a wide array of things that you never realised you needed - pink sea salt from Mozambique, black sea salt from Hawaii (looking like caviar), large irregular cubes of flavoured sugar packed into beautiful glass jars wrapped in ribbon, exotic teas in desirable tins, spices and aromatics, glassware, pans, and many many small plastic items which have a way of finding their way into one's shopping basket and then lurk reproachfully in a kitchen drawer and periodically announce their presence by getting stuck in the runners.

There is a very large store full of books, music, craft stuff and art stuff.  We are in there a very long time.  TD gets some trays to decoupage and some lovely tissues.  JD gets some paint.  I look at what is trendy in the crafting sphere.  Colouring in mandalas and shapes and kirigami which is Japanese for cutting paper

Kirigami Architecturefrom the most complex of structures in the form of architecture

to beautiful snowflakes


We have lunch in the central plaza, which features a massive floor to ceiling exotic bird area.  There are budgies and parakeets and the local birds come in to have a look at them.  The air is alive with tweeting and twittering.  The girls have sandwiches the size of barrage balloons and I have a quiche and salad.  Happy and replete, and the rains having slackened off, we head back into normality.



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