Clothes

What better way to spend a Sunday than going through your wardrobe?

Like most women I find that as I get older the weight starts creeping up. I´m not overweight - according to my gynae I´ve put on 1 kilo in the last three years - but I could do with losing that and another kilo as well. The problem is that my weight seems to have re-distributed itself and settled on my tum. This means that some of my tops are getting a bit snug, and if there is one look I hate it is clothes pulled tight across a big belly...hence the wardrobe reorganizing.

I decided to try on every single top I have and discard those that no longer fit nicely - no keeping any because they may "fit me later"! My cleaner will find a good home for them through her church since there are no charity shops here I could donate them to. 

I am parting with some reluctantly, favourites which are borderline, but I am being firm. Except, that is, when it came to a lovely green and gold top with an Indian motif and a large Ohm on the front. It was a present from my daughter and I just couldn´t part with it. Instead I put it on, stuffed the largest pillow I could find up my front, and have been walking around like that all morning to try and stretch it...it is a good job I live alone!

Photo by Peter Plashkin at Unsplash
 

More wine and jazz

 I´ve never seen the square so full of people. 

Listening to the jazz

Checking out the stalls

Eating and drinking

Wine and jazz

When I took Toby out for a walk yesterday I found the square next to my building was holding a wine and jazz festival. There were loads of food stalls and crowds of people. Even Spiderman came to call! 

The building on the right is where I live so you could say this is right on my doorstep. The festival continues today, I can hear the jazz starting up while I type this, I may pop over later.

It´s the little things that make life difficult

The vet has changed Toby´s heart medication...he has to have 1/4 of a tablet once a day.

 Look at the size of the wretched thing sitting on my finger. Even using a tablet cutter doesn´t really help as it crushes the quarters. Give me strength!

Update

Just to say that those tiny ant-like figures on the side of the building are abseiling workmen covering the damaged area with netting. Presumably this will stop any further metal cladding plates from swooping and soaring around like paper airplanes, instead making them drop straight down the side of the building. 

They are very difficult to see and I don´t know how to draw those red circles round them! One is about halfway down near the right edge and the other further down just below where the trees start. It gives you an idea of how large the building is.

Cyclone!

A couple of days ago I noticed it was very windy in the morning while I was having breakfast. I looked out of the window when I heard some crashing and banging and saw some large panels flying through the air. Some of them landed in the five-a-side football fields - luckily there were no games being played - and some landed in the road. 

The wind got steadily worse and panels continued flying at intervals. The local news said we were having a cyclone and the building losing the panels made the headlines. Eventually the civil defense turned up and closed off the local streets before someone got hurt. The panels were large and made of metal and could easily decapitate someone. Three days later the streets are still closed off.

This is the culprit, a neighbouring building which is 30 stories high, the panels were part of the cladding. They were flying through the air like sheets of paper with no way of telling where they were going to land.

This photo shows one peeling off. It is a miracle no-one was hurt as the street some of them landed in is used by commuters and very busy before it was closed.

One panel fell in these trees directly below my study window in our grounds.

Another landed on this car parked right below my sitting room. The photo gives an idea of the size. Needless to say I closed my wooden shutters where I had them as a precaution, although the large windows in my kitchen and sitting room which faced the danger do not have shutters. The wind did not die down until the end of the day. Three landed altogether in my condominium.

Elsewhere quite a few large trees came down and in the evening we had a power cut. I was on my way out to a birthday dinner and had to finish getting ready showerless and in the dark, then walk down eight flights of stairs, and back up again when I got home later and get ready for bed in the dark. Exciting times!

A happy potter.

I have been making fewer pots lately as I´ve been exploring new ideas and experimenting with glazes. It can be quite challenging and most of my tests don´t work but I am enjoying myself, and once in a while it pays off. I was very happy today when this plate came back from firing. It turned out just how I wanted, using a technique I invented (it´s not a painted design). I´ve been smiling all day. 

Well, that´s a first!

I finally got around to using my Mother´s Day present. 

It was a unique but very enjoyable experience. The "egg" is filled with warm water and a large quantity of Epsom salts which leave you completely buoyant. You climb in, shut the lid and float for an hour with changing lights and music. It is large enough that I could float with my arms and legs extended without touching the sides. It was hard to relax at first but once I accepted I wouldn´t sink I floated quite happily and the hour sped past. A present with a difference!

It´s not finished...

 I was a bit hasty in my last post, assuming the headless parrot painting was finished! Maybe the head will appear round the other side...watch this space.

A large parrot

I can see this tower from my bedroom window, I´m not sure what its function is but it´s something to do with the tower block on the right. 

Up to a couple of weeks ago it was white all over, then one morning I saw the graffiti artists had struck overnight and all down one side was an elongated tic tac toe game from top to bottom. A week later some painters started covering this up with what I took to be a colourful abstract design. After a couple of days when more detail had been added I realised that it is actually a painting of a large parrot, albeit without a head!