Another catch-up!

Well, it has been a long while since I posted (again!)
I can't believe that it has been 2 weeks since our fab Newcastle trip, where we headed up-North to visit one of John's ex-housemates and his wife. As well as a chance to catch up on the many years since we last saw each other (hey - we've all got married since then!), and fondly Jenny's cat, we also took the opportunity to expose my thin Southern blood to the chill Newcastle wind and head out into town. To get out of the knife-like wind, we walked over the tilting bridge (though sadly, didn't get a chance to see it tilt as the website with the times on it was wrong by a couple of hours...) into Gateshead, and went to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

It wasn't the first time I'd been in an art gallery, but it's definitely the first time I'd been in a modern art gallery. I can't say that I was overly impressed... I was a little bit amused by the display of the Fluxus art, where the description given ran along the lines of "These artists (especially George Maciunas, who founded the movement) felt that art shouldn't be contstrained by galleries or museums, and some campaigned for such buildings to be closed", yet the display was being hosted in a gallery...

I know that modern art is supposed to "speak to the soul", but I really think that if something needs to have an essay next to it explaining what it is about, then surely it isn't doing its job as art.

Getting out of Newcastle was fun... We won't mention the refusal to use the sat-nav, nor the getting on the wrong motorway...

The last couple of weeks have seen some interesting weather hit the British Isles; Bristol seemed like it was getting away with it (it *never* snows in Bristol...), then got smacked with a couple of inches at the end of last week. However, other people have posted on the snow (particularly UHDD who has some amazing shots of the Lake District), and as I think that it covers the worst of all possible weathers (being both cold *and* wet), all I shall do is grumble about the cancellation of a hockey match and two hockey practices (apparantly we had the wrong sort of snow for our "all weather" astroturf...)

I'm looking forward to the weekend - I've got my first TKD competition for a while over in Cardiff. Whilst I don't expect to do any better than I did last year (in fact, given that I've gone up a couple of belts, I do expect to fact tougher competition...), I'm looking forward to the challenge!

Still doing my sewing as well, though I'm learning the follies of overconfidence; after finishing John's waistcoat, I've had to unpick a *lot* from my latest top due to first of all sewing up the sleeveholes, then, through trying to be too clever (fitting in a lining where there wasn't one on the pattern), made the armholes too small... Ah well - all good experience!

Being busy and plans

Time seems to be speeding away from me again - it is past the middle of January already (2009 is now over 1/24th gone...)

As well as all the usual stuff (hockey - played two matches in the new year - lost one and won one; TKD - have a competition coming up at the beginning of Feb, so am getting in Saturday practices every fortnight as well as the Sunday training; orchestra and Family Centre meetings), I've also kept on going with the sewing, now having two tops and a pair of trousers to my name, plus have started making a waistcoat for John.

Plus, we have the big next stage in our lives - we have started our emigration proceedings. We put in our expression of interest (EOI) in December; this is a basic questionnaire, which allocates points based on work experience, qualifications and age. Once you have completed the EOI (and paid your fee), you then go into a pool of other applicants, and, if you reach a required level of points (which, though it is always over 100, fluctuates month by month depending on how many people are in there and what their quota levels are looking like), you get selected to submit a full application for a visa (known as the Invitation to Apply (ITA). Whilst we knew that our points levels were ok (we had 115, which is above the basic minimum, but well below what we needed to get an automatic selection), we didn't realise that the base line for points was reasonably low at the time, and so I was very shocked when we got pulled straight back out of the pool in the next draw.

So, we have received our ITA, and the application is essentially asking us to prove the points that we have claimed for. Deadline is the middle of April. It will take the NZ immigration dept in London about 4 months to then assess the application, and, if all goes well, we will get our blue stickers (our visas) by the beginning of September. Which means that we could very easily be living in New Zealand by next November, and will have had our last Winter Christmas...

All a little bit scary!

Catching up

OK - I don't think the NZ diary is going to be completed any time soon - it probably would have been better to have kept it updated whilst we were going round! I will get stuff added, it might just take the next couple of years....

The run up to Christmas has been the usual round of busy activities, particularly with orchestral concerts and general Christmas parties; this year we've managed to avoid clashes in the main, which is good in that we've got to see everyone and not miss out, but it has also meant that free time has been at a minimum.

However, I have had the free time (even if a good chunk of it was when I should have been sleeping!) to learn how to sew. Not cross stitch, or threading a needle, but using a sewing machine, something which, as I never had Home Economics classes at school, has always been a mystery to me! So, last weekend, my best friend took me out to Fabricland, showed me how to pick a pattern (including the warning that pattern sizes are *not* the sizes given in shops...), how to find fabric (and I did end up choosing the one where the care information was "user guesses...") and all the little bits and pieces that go round (learning the new language - "Interfacing"??) making an item of clothing.

Then we went back to her flat, and she showed me how to cut out the fabric, and, more cruicially, how to understand patterns and the instructions ("Basting" = "Tacking", and I would never have even considered there being a right way and wrong way up for fabric, though it is pretty obvious!). Then, the fun (scary) part of putting the fabric together, learning how to use Interfacing (which did include gluing it to both the tea-towel and the ironing board!), and then actually stitching it all. It takes a bit more time than I'd thought - John came to pick me up at nearly 11, and I wasn't half done.

So, I took the sewing machine back with me, and ended up working till 1am on Monday night getting it complete (though my body insisted that it couldn't be much after 9, as time hadn't actually gone past!).

Wore the new top into work on Wednesday, and, even if I do say so myself, got a lot of compliments about it, including from a couple of people who asked where I'd bought it.

So - it's back to Fabricland tomorrow lunchtime to get some more fabric in order to do some more sewing over the Christmas break - I think I've got addicted!