frayed at the edge

Tuesday Treasures

Hip hip hooray - Tuesday Treasures is back after a longer than planned holiday!!  Today's treasures are little things that we brought home from Indonesia........

 

These little wooden figures are only two inches high.  They are beatifully painted and haven't lost any of their colour in the nine years we have been back home

 

This vase is only a little bit taller than the figures, but the detail is amazing, with raised flowers and the delightful butterfly

 

Normally this little lady has a glass cover over her, as she is silver and would tarnish out in the air.  It was very hard to take clear photos of her.  Here she is facing you, but when she is turned round, you can see she is carrying a basket of dishes on her back (clicking on the photos should enlarge them if you want a closer look!)

 

This little man and his becak (bicycle taxi) are also silver, and like the lady usually lives under glass.  He is very fine and delicate and you can see the bottom of his stand is covered in batik fabric, which brings us to the last treasure

 

This is a cap (pronounced chap) a metal stamp used to put the wax outline on fabric.   It is very heavy - by the end of a day stamping fabric, the workers must be exhausted!  It is lovely to have these reminders of the years we spent in Indonesia - as I said when I started Tuesday Treasures, these aren't things of great monetary value, just little things which enrich our lives.
 
 
 
 

 

Be careful what you wish for!

Picture the scene.  It's September 1996, and Malcolm, Stuart and I are lying by the pool, enjoying some wonderful sunshine.  We have gone on holiday a bit later than usual, as Stuart has left school and is about to go to university at the start of October.  Knowing that we will be going back to decidedly autumnal weather, I ask Malcolm why he can't work somewhere warm and sunny ....

...... some weeks later, Malcolm came home from work and said 'remember you wanted me to work somewhere warm?' ... why did I know I probably wouldn't like what he said next!  BP had asked him to go and work in Indonesia - cue look in atlas to find out exactly where Indonesia is!

Malcolm spent the early part of 1997 going back and forward on business trips, then in August I went with him for a 'recce'.  Now I have to say, this bit was very enjoyable, as we stayed in a 5-star hotel for four weeks, and when Malcolm was working I was forced to spend time at the pool - this is the view of the pool from our room (on the 29th floor!)

 

and this is the lounger where I spent quite a few enjoyable afternoons ...

   

often sipping on an iced lemon tea. (a little historical footnote - I was in the Shuttle Lounge in Heathrow Airport, on my way home, when it was announced that Princess Diana was dead!)

Back home, the house was sold, a flat bought for Stuart to live in, and I flew back to Indonesia to start a new and very different life.  At first, we lived in a very smart apartment complex - this is part of the landscaped gardens and one of the swimming pools ..

 

... but in Indonesia, poverty is never far away, and this was the view from our 18th floor apartment ...

 

and although we were living in comparative luxury, we still had to have bottled water, as the tap water wasn't fit to drink ..

 

Malcolm's Indonesian colleagues were friendly and welcoming, and this was our first company event ...

 

My Indonesian never got past the basics, but I do remember that selamat datang means welcome.  This was a family day out, with fun and games, and I got roped in to one of the teams ...

 

It's a pity you can't see what we were doing - we were wearing what could best be described at multi-person skis!  We had to 'ski' across the room, turn and come back - of course we ended up in a heap on the floor, and I had some lovely bruises!!

Stuart came out to visit for Christmas and New Year, and we went to Bali for a few days ..

 

Late afternoons, these food stalls would appear in front of the hotel, ready to feed people on their way home from work.  Amongst ex-pats, these food stalls were known as 'cholera carts'!!  Of course, when we were celebrating New Year, we weren't to know that 1998 would bring massive political and economic changes to Indonesia, and change our life there as well ... but I'll save that for another day.

ps I have been doing a lot of sewing over the last few days, but I can't tell you about it, because it's for a swap - this is my first ever swap - I always seem to read about them on blogs when it's too late to join.  But I will give you just a little look at what I started with ...

Nip and tuck

Don't worry, I'm not heading off for cosmetic surgery!  Instead, tomorrow I am going to Borderland Fabrics to do a workshop with Jennie Rayment.   If you haven't encountered her before, I would suggest that when you look at her website, you click on 'lectures' (but don't do it if there are young children or men with weak hearts in the room .....)

So this afternoon, it was out to the studio to get organised.

   

First I had to choose nine fabrics.

 

I hope you like these batik fabrics that I chose.

 

Next, I had to cut various squares and rectangles.

 

Then I laid everything out and checked (and checked again) that I had everything on the list.

 

Finally, the machine went in its case and everything else into my workshop bag.  You can see the power lead and the foot pedal in the machine case - I think that at every workshop that I have been to, someone has forgotten their lead or pedal!  At least tomorrow I don't have to worry about taking a packed lunch, as a soup and sandwich lunch is included in the price of the workshop (and I believe home baking was also mentioned!)

I'm sorry if the quality of this last photo isn't too good - I didn't get round to scanning  some photos from my time in Indonesia, so I took a photo of this photo!

 

These are some of the ladies in my little patchwork and quilting group, showing off their sewing.  (you will recognise the Amish blocks from yesterday's post)  We were called the Wacky Patchers - but that wasn't a comment on our personalities!  It was because we were all members of WAC - Wanita Asing Cilegon, which translates as the Foreign Ladies of Cilegon (although it can also be translated at the strange ladies ... ).  We had a lot of multi-cultural fun - cooking national dishes (I did porridge, mince and tatties and pancakes), Scottish Country Dancing .....and some of us got together on Friday mornings to play a card game called 99 (the money we put in the pot each week was used to buy things for a local orphanage - just before I came home, we bought matresses for the kids - they had been sleeping on the floor ... ).  And did you spot our youngest member?

I don't think I'll be in a fit state to do a post tomorrow - I've done a workshop with Jennie before, and she makes you work hard!  So come back on Monday and I'll tell you all about it.

ps - if you're wondering what I'm going to do with my block, I'm going to make an ABC  (that's quilterspeak for another b****y cushion!!