Bali Pops

A few months ago, I bought a Bali Pops set, in the colourway of Sherbet. Bali Pops are pre-cut 40 x 2 1/2 inch strips of fabric in the same line.
http://www.hoffmanfabrics.com/SuperStore/SuperStore-Assortment.asp?AssortmentID=302

Since coming back from holidays, I've been pondering what to make out of them. I have a book on Jelly Roll designs (same concept, but by a different fabric manufacturer - the 40 strips are sold in a roll - for Aussies we would use the term Jam Roll to understand the concept).


There's not a whole lot of contrast in this set, though there are two clear colour sets - pinks (with some purples) and blues (with some greens).

I checked out the ideas on the Hoffman's website but still nothing appealed. I glanced at my quilty calendar (new quilt blocks every day) and there was a quarter log cabin block that day - mmmm. That looks like an idea. The quilt is still going to be very soft with low contrast, but I like the look of my sample block, so here goes!

Las Vegas

We left Scotland at 1.30pm on Sunday 9 August. There was a problem with our itinerary on the airline system and it took them 30 mins to sort out at Edinburgh airport - queue behind us not too happy, but it was a technological problem! Just as well we were early.
We flew to London Heathrow and connected to our United Airlines flight to Chicago okay.
The plane was 30 mins late taking off. As Chicago O'Hare was the first place we touched down in the USA, we were required to get our luggage and take it through customs (it couldn't just go through to Las Vegas and collect it there). It took 45 mins for our suitcases to arrive, which was 8pm - the same time our next flight was boarding in another terminal. Once through customs, we were to put our luggage on the transferring flights intake. We said that we didn't think we'd make our flight (nearly 8.10 now), but they said, yes you might - run!

So we headed off - had to wait for a train to connect us to the other terminal - of course it was the furtherst stop. We dashed towards the gates, but had to get through security and there was a queue and no way to speed through. Off came the shoes & belt, through the security - shoes & belt back on, carry on luggage collected - a dash down a long terminal... plane well gone by the time we got there. No one there to assist. One fellow said to just use the kiosks - no we said, as there did not appear to be any more flights to Las Vegas that night.

So off on a long wald to Concourse C to the United Airlines Customer Service Desk - another long queue. By now, we had been up for 16 1/2 hours.... 2 hour wait in line. Finally, as it was the airline's fault, they put us up in a hotel overnight and booked us through to Las Vegas the next day. First class tickets to Denver, then Economy Plus to Las Vegas. We arrived in Las Vegas around 3.30 pm, when we should have been there at 10.30pm the previous night, so nearly a whole day was wasted in airports and flying. Mind you, we had a spectacular view over the Rockies and the Grand Canyon on the flight.


We were booked to see Wayne Brady (does improvisation - very funny) at the Venetian. Now that is an amazing hotel and casino - check out this entry way! Matches anything we saw in the real Venice in 2006.
http://www.venetian.com/

Wayne Brady was very good. We had a 9pm show and discovered that dinner wasn't included. So we bought something from the food court. Horrible.......

We just laughed all throughout the Wayne Brady performance - he is very talented. Prior to the show, Col filled out a form with name and home town, plus a suggestion for a song title. Col's suggestion was 'my koala just died' and it was used. Wayne made up this kid's song about having a koala... and at the end it became a backpack...



This wonderful umbrellas in the rain scene was in the shopping centre attached to the Venetian Hotel.

We stayed at the Luxor Hotel, in the pyramid itself. The lift (or inclinator) felt very weird, as it went up on the same angle as the side of the pyramid.
http://www.luxor.com/

This massive structure is part of the entry foyer of the Luxor.

And the Sphinx is also huge - outside the Luxor. It formed the tram terminal and the taxi drove in under the Sphinx for the hotel entry.

Even the gardens had interesting statuary. This one is next to the driveway. You can see how intense the sun was... esp after our balmy Scottish summer.

Next door was the Excalibur Hotel... again amazing. Looked like a Lego castle, except full size.

Inside the Excalibur was also very interesting. Col found the Dragon's Lair shop with everything dragon!

If we go to Las Vegas again, we'd like to stay in the Excalibur or at least do the dinner show, which is a jousting tournament.

http://www.excalibur.com/

It was impossible to walk up the strip and not be amazed by the size and design of each of the hotels. Up on the next corner was New York, New York, with the Statue of Liberty in front.

http://www.nynyhotelcasino.com/

There was even a Parisian hotel, with quite a large Eiffel Tower in front - not as big as the real thing, but pretty impressive, all the same.
http://www.parislasvegas.com/

Tegan wanted us to get her something from M&Ms World - 4 storeys of everything M&Ms! http://www.mymms.com/merchandise/las_vegas.asp

We had some truly awful fast food in America - too fatty or too sweet, or just no taste. But we had a memorable meal at

http://www.billslasvegas.com/

Chicken taco salad with a side order of Onion Rings. Delicious! And we stayed for dessert, too.

We didn't get out to the Hoover Dam, which was a shame. But maybe there will be a next time! Las Vegas deserves a visit, as it is one of a kind - a massive theme park.

Libraries

I dropped into or passed by several libraries while overseas.

When we were returning to our Bangkok hotel after a bus tour of the Grand Palace and several temples, I spotted this sign for a library:

I didn't have the chance to go back and see the library itself as we were flying out to Switzerland that evening.

Interesting that the sign was in English!

Certainly the cutest library was the one in Leysin, the alpine village where we stayed in Switzerland. Leysin is in the French speaking part of Switzerland, hence the library is 'bibliotheque'. Quite a different building, but typical of the Swiss village.

There was a little library close by to where we stayed in Cardenden, Scotland. It was part of a miners society building and took up just a room about the size of our West End Library. No computers were provided for the public, as another branch in the village had computers for children to use. I also popped into a shopping centre library in Glenrothes - quite small too, but had a room for computer use.

When out visiting Falkland Palace (in the middle of the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland), we came across the office of a Library Supplier! Had to take a photo. :-)

After visiting Falkland, we drove up to Perth and just happened to find a carpark right next to the Perth Library. I had already been told by someone that this was a good library and it certainly was. Obviously it was an old building, but the inside was very modern. I quite liked the layout of the shelving, which was many L shaped shelves to create spaces.

When we visited Hamilton, we went to the library to do some research, as Col's parents were both from Hamilton. We were able to find their names in electoral rolls, as well as the names of Col's grandparents and great grandparents. The staff in the local history room were very helpful. I left them copies of a number of family photos that showed the area where they all lived in the 1930s and 1940s.

quilt shops OS

Excepting Las Vegas, I had not set out to find any quilt shops, but I did come across several in our travels:

- Aigle, Switzerland. This is a little village 60 mins by train from Geneva. There was a needlework shop and quilting shop next to each other down an old cobbledstoned laneway. We were there on Sunday and I was trying to work out the hours sign (written in French, of which I know very little). It said: Lundi - Ferme.... anyway, dropped in again on Monday, to find the shop closed. Now I know that it means Monday - Closed.

- Lausanne, Switzerland. There was a Bernina shop with patchwork fabrics, in the main shopping street

- Sion, Switzerland (I think). Another Bernina shop, which was closed.. for holidays, I think.

- Stirling, Scotland. A craft/sewing machine shop just off the High Street. Had nice little collection of patchwork fabrics, cross-stitch kits, etc.

- Las Vegas, USA

Of course, when in the USA, one must check out the quilt shops.
I had googled Las Vegas quilt shops at home and had a list of the five shops in town, plus found out how far each was from our hotel. We were in Las Vegas for only a couple of days, but we did manage to get to the Fabric Boutique on Charleston Blvd. I ended up with this bag of Fat Quarters, at half what we would pay in Australia. ie $2.75 ea.


We bought a medium suitcase in Las Vegas as we both bought clothes at the outlet stores. The pocket in the suitcase lid was just the perfect size to slide in the rolled FQs. :-)

The Gathering

Day 1 - Saturday

Right, we're here for 2 days of the biggest clan Gathering for over 200 years.... what will we see first??

It's held at Holyrood Park, just behind Holyrood Palace.
There were: heavy weight Highland games, highland dancing, pipe bands aplenty, historical displays, lots of Scottish food (including haggis pasties and yummy lemon tarts). Lots to keep people busy.

Right - the Clan tents. Robertson comes under the Donnachaidh (donn-a-key) clan, so there first. We met the Clan Chief and shook his hand.

My mum was a Wyllie, which is part of the Gunn Clan.

My sister-in-law Helen is a Cameron, so a quick greeting there.

The organisers were expecting 40,000 people to come from all over the world. The weather on the Saturday was fantastic... and nearly 50,000 people turned up. We had bought Silver passports, so were able to just walk in, while there were long queues for the day tickets.

Arthur's Seat was the spectacular backdrop. On Saturday, you could see people like ants scurrying up and down the hills. We went only a short way up to take the photos above.

The people one sees - Prince Charles and Camilla - coming out of the back of Holyrood Palace. Charles officially opened the Gathering.

Interesting bands - this one wearing the old-style tartan, playing drums and bagpipes.

There were plenty of the traditional pipe bands as well.

The highlight was the clan parade up the Royal Mile from Holyrood Palace to Edinburgh Castle. This was the biggest parade of tartan in over 200 years. Though most of the participants were not Scottish, they were all of Scottish descent. Apparently there are 37,000,000 people in the world claiming Scottish descent, but only 5.5M living in Scotland. There was a long wait, as Robertson was towards the end of the alphabet. We talked with the Ross & Stewart Clans. I had my photo taken with two pipers who were practising.

Col was thrilled to hold the Robertson placard and lead the clan. Most of the group were Aussies - there were a few Scots wearing the Robertson hunting tartan (green/blue)

What felt amazing was that there was a crowd of onlookers, all up the Royal Mile. The parade itself took over 2 hours, but people were waiting so they could cheer on their Clan. We felt like film stars on the red carpet (no autographs).

The parade finished at Edinburgh Castle and only silver passport holders could attend the pageant. We weren't allowed to take photos of the pageant itself - Aisling's Children. It was about the changes in Scotland over the centuries and how many people left Scotland for other countries. The pageant was written especially for The Gathering.

Day 2 - Sunday

The weather was not so good on the Sunday - forecast rain most of the day. So we set off in our weatherproofs (it was about a 2 mile walk from our Edinburgh apartment to Holyrood Park)

On Saturday afternoon, we had seen the last few minutes of a performance by The Red Hot Chilli Pipers. We had heard their music in many of the Princes Street and Royal Mile souvenir shops... who was this band playing Queen and John Farnham on the bagpipes??? Apparently they won a British 'Who wants to be famous?' TV show in 2007.

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers were fantastic. They call what they do 'bag rock'... bagpipe rock'n'roll.

http://www.redhotchillipipers.co.uk/ They were playing again on Sunday at 11am.

They even had the Red Hot Chilli Pipers dancers, who merged traditional Highland dancing with contemporary dancing.

Col bought a CD and 2 DVDs!

The Gathering finished on Sunday at 6pm, with a final pipe band. Most people had left, so we got good seats on the stands, without people standing in the way.

Back in Scotland

Back in Scotland! The day after we arrived was our 29th wedding anniversary, so it was a good excuse for a BBQ and a family gathering. BBQ not so good an idea, as it was cold and rainy.... ahhh a Scottish Summer.

We caught up with Col's cousin Linda and her two daughters, Amy and Debbie.

Also got to meet a new member of Hazel & Mike's family - Cookie the Westie. Nice to get enthusiastic puppy greeting - we're missing Oscar and Lucy.

Hazel, Mike and Abby took us for a drive to Loch Lomond - while it looks fine here, it rained most of the drive. Also got in a little shopping... the sales here are amazing. There's a nice brown skirt with embroidered details in that bag.

We had lunch at an old inn at Bulloch.

Col in his favourite place - outlet shopping in Tillicoutry. Yes, he spent up in the Adidas and Nike shops. About £120.00 all up that day, on bargains not to be had in Aussie sports shops.

Adventures in Switzerland

Switzerland is an amazing country. I had not realised just how long people had been living in this area of Europe - from Neanderthal times!

We had a 5 day Swiss rail pass, so most days we travelled down the mountain in the funicular (30 mins) to Aigle and then on to other cities.








Even in the small village of Leysin, there was a library. Very quaint.

On Sunday, we walked around the charming little village of Aigle. As it's in the French speaking region of Switzerland, everything is in French. I saw a patchwork shop, which was closed. We were back in Aigle the next day, Monday, but the shop was closed again. I now know that 'Lundi-Ferme' is Monday - Closed, not Monday to Friday.....

The Aigle Chateau (Castle) is also a wine museum, as it is in a wine-growing region. Here I am at the entrance to the castle.
We tried several local white wines (we just asked for 'vin blanc') over the week and they were all lovely - slightly sweet and fruity. Each city and village we visited in French speaking Switzerland had signposts for the village/city centre - 'centre ville', so we would follow these signs and end up in cobblestoned streets, with quite old buildings - often festooned with window boxes overflowing with bright flowers (especially geraniums).

We went on the Swiss Chocolate Train on Wednesday. It was an additional cost to the rail pass, but was an all day train trip. We went out through Gruyere and stopped at a cheese factory. The journey finished at the Nestle chocolate factory at Broc. The whole town smelled of chocolate.

We had lunch at Gruyere Castle, which was fascinating. The castle had been lived in for hundreds of years by the Counts of Gruyere and was a medieval castle. The village seen here is a walled village in front of the castle. All tourist shops and restaurants, now. I had an excellent roesti for lunch (grated potato pancake). Col had Alpen Macaroni Cheese (not as good as my lunch!).

From the castle, you could see the whole valley.


It was a very picturesque village, with lots more window boxes!

One day, we jumped on the train and did a big circuit around 1/4 of the country. We left Leysin at 8.58am and returned at 9.30pm! Leysin - Aigle - Lausanne - Bern - Speitz - Montreaux - Aigle - Leysin. Whew! Bern is the capital and had heaps of of outdoor dining, as seen here. It was good to be somewhere where we could understand more of what was spoken (it is in the German speaking area).

In Bern, I bought zwei saltzbretzel (2 salted pretzels) from BretzelKoenig (Pretzel king) - delicious!

We also visited a natural history museum and saw a complete mammoth skeleton, as well as tons of fossils. Amazing.

In Lausanne, there was an alphorn busker.....

There was also a wonderful fresh food markets through the pedestrian mall in the city. Lots of wonderful berries and other fruit and fresh vegetables (reminded me of the Wednesday farmer's market in Brisbane).

Another day, we were going to go to Lausanne, but missed the train because we were booking the Swiss Chocolate Train. So we decided to go the other direction to Sion instead. As we approached Sion, we could see a castle up on the hill overlooking the city.

We got off the train and followed the Centre Ville signs, but weren't sure how to get to the castle. We stopped at a souvenir shop and asked for directions to the castle. The shopkeeper only spoke a little English, but we asked if she spoke German, which she did. So we had this great French/English/German conversation and got directions to the 'Alte Stadt - drei Strassen und gehen rechts' (old city - 3 streets and go right). Once we got to the Alte Stadt, there were signs for the castle.

We climbed up this rather steep roadway to find outselves with a choice, as there were two big hills - so, was it up a very steep long path to the castle or up a shorter, but no less steep path to the cathedral and natural history museum? The shorter path won out! It was rather warm and we had already walked some steep hills.

The museum was fantastic - neanderthal bones and artifacts from the stone age, bronze age and right up to modern times. Just amazing to see these items 'in the flesh' that we would only see in a book.

The view over Sion from the cathedral was worth the hard climb. We looked over at the castle on the other hill and decided to call it a day - it WAS rather hot.

Switzerland was really very interesting - I would go again!