Back again with a new computer

Hullo, I am back again at long last. What a saga this has been. Bill now has a brand new computing system and I have his old computer, completely rebuilt. That took him quite a few days, and doing all of this so close to the end of the financial year has added some excitement to say the least! I have had to learn how to operate upgraded versions of nearly all the programmes I was used to, and the buttons are all different, or hidden completely - aaaaargh!!



Anyway in the midst of the drama when I had no computer at all, I have made a wild woman, lots of fun. I have never made one before, but if my grand daughter has anything to say about it, I will be making quite a few more. She thinks they are "cool, Granny".



I think the same could be said of her in the photos below. She was a flower girl at a wedding recently and the dress was so sweet and simple. Hannah has very fine, very straight hair. She was so thrilled before the wedding, telling me that she was getting her hair curled, and it was going to stay curly for ever!! The weather on the wedding day was drizzly and I doubt that Hannah's hair stayed curly even till the end of the reception.

I had to show you the back view as well, and showing the wreath the two little girls wore on their heads, they were very delicate and pretty. You can just see the page boy standing next to Hannah who had the thickest natural curls you could ever imagine! He probably hates them.

This last photo was taken when my sister came to visit. This is Hay Point Coal terminal just south of Mackay. The jetty is nearly 3 kilometres long, though it doesn't look it. The jetty in the distance on the left of the picture is Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal, which is much bigger than Hay Point, and is being doubled in size to try to cope with the amount of coal waiting to be exported through here. We have massive coal deposits to the west and south of Mackay, providing huge wealth to the Australian economy, and particularly to our city. The poor old sugar industry, which was the only major industry when I first came to Mackay over 40 years ago, is in real trouble now. They can't get labour because all the young ones go off to the large wages in the mines - they can earn about three times as much there as in the canefields. The lifestyle is pretty awful for married men though - mostly four days on, four days off, or seven on, four off - commuting on your days off.

Now that I have come back, I am going to run away again, but only for just over a week. I am off to stay in boarding school for the next 6 days - I feel certain it has changed more than somewhat since the last time I was in boarding school though - and the food would certainly have improved. I have memories of one eighth of a pound of butter being divided into eight pieces for the eight girls at the table, and the one doing the dividinb got the last piece!!

I am attending my first textile forum, and I am getting very excited. I am doing a workshop with Jacinta Leishmann. I am sure I will come back with information overload, but I will have a head full of interesting ideas I am sure. There will be 110 students and 10 tutors. I am sure I will have lots of pictures and stories to tell you when I return.