A WALK IN THE PARK

PIRATE PARTY

PIRATE BOOKS FROM FIONA

PIZZA FROM ARIEL

FINGER PUPPETS FROM THE BOYS IN SCHOOL

BEAUTY PLAYING WITH HER PRESENTS

PIRATE PARTY....AAAAAARRRGGGHHH!

BIRTHDAY WISHES BEAUTY

PIRATE JACK FROM VIENNA

'GO TO THE STREET THAT IS CALLED STRAIGHT'

THE UMAYYAD GREAT MOSQUE,DAMASCUS

I feel like I have trekked to the foothills of the Himalayas and back.
Beauty and I went to Damascus to visit Ariel and we returned dusty and exhausted on Friday evening.
I would definitely recommend it as a place to visit but go prepared!
YOU WILL COME AWAY WITH A DOSE OF MONTEZUMA'S REVENGE
Beauty also drank from a carton of orange drink that was 6 months out of date and this delayed our return home by 3 days, even then she stank out the plane. I apologise to everyone on our flight.

Beauty looking poorly.

Beauty was so poorly the first night of the sickness that half the night she slept on the bathroom floor and the other half she slept in the bath! Whilst she slept in the bath I watched her but when she was on the floor(which was not very big) I slept on the floor with her. I slept mostly lying through the bathroom door on the bedroom carpet.
We paid for a doctor to visit and he was there within 10 minutes. He gave Beauty anti-sickness medication and a prescription for other drugs and we paid £40 for a 25 minute visit and I was very impressed.If only we could pay for that kind of service at home when a child is sick.

Rotana Suites

Poor sick baby.

However, do not worry about buying medications,everything is readily available. Each item that we required cost approximately 50p and I also managed to buy Ariel some multi-vits and iron for 50p which at home costs me approximately £6.00 for a months supply.

Beauty has just woken up so I shall continue later.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTY.....8 TODAY.

I AM IN DAMASCUS.

I am visiting Ariel and with all the beeping cars( why do they do that?) and hustle & bustle and dust ,Damascus is a beautiful city.Even with a few children holding out their hands,I love the children,they are sweet and well mannered and speak English very well. Anastasia and SnoWhite would love it here.

I absolutely love Ariel's house, for anybody who has seen the film with Kate Winslet 'Hideous Kinky', the house is very similar to the one lived in by Kate and her children.

There is a central open courtyard with an overlooking balconey and a roofed living room/sitting area

We walked through the Souk but it was not very successful as Beauty did not enjoy walking, next time Beauty will go in her buggy.It was a very similar place to the indoor market that we visited in Turkey but here are a lot more shops.

And I also have the beginnings of a chest infection which I think that I caught from the guy sitting behind us on the plane who spluttered his way through the entire journey.

Oh Well!

AND I CRIED.....

Tess

at the conclusion of the new adaptation of Tess of the D'urbevilles.
At the beginning I wondered how a new adaptation could be better than the others already done, especially my favourite the Roman Polanski TESS in 1979.
But it is just as entertaining.
And when Angel cried at the end I was also crying.
However, when I first watched the film in 1979 I was 18 and now it seems like a whole different story that I saw compared to the new adaptation even though it was word for word the same in many parts.
NOW.....I wanted to give Angel, the mother and father of Tess, her vicar and farmer Groby a punch in the head.If anyone treated one of my daughters the way Angel treated Tess then they would have felt my wrath. I actually felt sorrier for Alec than Angel, even though he was a selfish pig.

FOR BEAUTY
I have a joke, as told by a TV presenter before an episode of CSI Miami about pirates.

WHY ARE PIRATES CALLED PIRATES?
BECAUSE THEY AAAARGH!

CLASSIC.

Autumn has started in earnest here.
Beautiful leaves changing colours and I am on to my second cold.
Last year I started with a cold in the second week of September and I had some sort of cold or bug all the way through until April.
This year I also started a cold in the second week of September and now I am on to another bug, it is some sort of head cold.
I seems that the small fortune that I have spent on IMMUNACE tablets and fresh fruit and vegetables this year have made little or no difference to my immune system.

BEAUTY HAS A THEORY.....IF I'M AWAKE THEN YOUR AWAKE!

She has been awake since 5 am.....singing about pirates.
Beauty has a pirate costume and pirate dishes and a pirate cutlery set and I am knitting her a tank top to go with her pirate costume for Halloween.
And if she wanted to she could be a pirate when she grows up!
As long as she doesn't steal tanks,
perhaps on the stage.


Perhaps a part in the Pirates of Penzance?


Considering her delays and autism, Beauty certainly has a mind of her own and independently decides what she likes and doesn't likes.
She loves dressing up, she loves pirates, she loves dolls(a very strange development!) she loves videos, she loves McDonald's plain Mcflurry and she loves Walkers green crisps, to name but a few!


As for my knitting.....
it is coming along slowly but surely.
And I have a list of things that I would love to knit

BABY CLOTHES for friends of the girls.
GLOVES
MITTENS
SOCKS
A PATTERNED BABY BLANKET
A BIRTHDAY PRESENT FOR EACH OF THE GIRLS
And the following dress.
NO.....not the hideous rug on the left but the long gown on the right(minus the scary hair do of course!).


And finally The Sheriff of Nottingham was right about the spoon

[the Sheriff has said he'll cut out Robin Hood's heart with a spoon]
Guy of Gisborne: Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe?
Sheriff of Nottingham: Because it's DULL, you twit. It'll hurt more.

Two days ago I cut my hand on a spoon and it is still hurting like a little beotch.
And how did I manage that?
The spoon handles are attached by a round piece of metal coloured plastic which is starting to peel and my hand got caught on a jagged piece.
In future I will be buying one piece 100% metal cutlery.