I am way behind in my Post card swaps for January, but I am finally catching up!
I had thought to use “Sam Wise” as my model, but being unable to find fabrics to play with, and definitely NOT feeling like preparing my own fabrics, I resorted to a favourite  cat-person from an earlier time: Jesse Jomo passed over the Rainbow Bridge in 2007 but his personality lives on.

Some years ago, I received in another Postcard swap a card similar to this, and it always intrigued me.

So, with thanks to Patsy for the inspiration, here is my “purrfect cat”   :Jesse Jomo

Still being in a lazy frame of mind, with nothing exciting to blog about, I’d like to share with the the above link.

“Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.”  (According to the introduction on Wordle’s Home page)

and this was my first attempt at  ”cloud words”

I would also like to thank  Patsye of Whimseytopia for sharing so much with me: her philosophy and suggestions for reading some wonderful books.

Franki, who I “met” way back when I first got interested in Fabric and Fibre Postcards and has been a wonderful mentor

Vivian Helena has been a wonderful online friend for I guess about six years.I met her through Postmark’dArt  (where Franki is our list mom)and I must admit I always look forward especially to receiving her cards. The first one I received from her portrayed one of her llamas and its wool ;

Remember that Vivian?

And last but not least, Pen! She lives  nearby, but we met because she Googled “Needle felting” and my blog came up!

In another life, Pen was a renowned potter and now she quilts….and stretches my imagination by introducing me to so many aspects of fabric art.Hopefully , this year, I’ll get to tackle those “confetti landscapes” Pen!

Anyway this is my way of thanking you all for the impact you have made in my life…so many people

Happy New Year to you all

I’d like to share this link with you.  Please enjoy.

http://youtu.be/eBxPSWn6gyo

We noticed other people  from our ship, but the language was predominantly French!

After  consuming a dozen luscious, juicy oysters, I ordered a very filling Beef Carpaccio with red and green rocket and shavings of a delightfully aged and tasty Parmesan cheese.

Colleen went vegetarian. I can’t remembering having either  dessert or coffee, because I was getting anxious at  how quickly Time had sped by, and I didn’t want to “miss the boat”.

And that was when the fun started: Four of us agreed to share a taxi and the maitre de (apparently)  phoned and ordered one for our party. Forty five minutes later, it still hadn’t arrived and we all were  getting very “toey”. Colleen and Geoff checked ” Oui  Madame/Monsieur” the cab has been phoned for;

The local buses stopped running at 6.30 pm, so it was wait for cab or try to walk the distance. NOT me that’s for sure!

In the distance we spied a yellow Tchou tchou so we ran to it…..rather the other three ran and I hobbled along behind. We got to the “train” and found it was booked out for an evening excursion. Even though we were prepared to pay, there was no room!

Forty five minutes to sailing time……. we saw the comedian who had been on the ship still in the Bistro, and he asked the proprietor to phone for a taxi for us. Five minutes later, one screeched to a halt: saw how agitated we were and drove rather speedily back to the maritime area and got us to the ship in time. He thought it one great joke, and  our mix of thanks in English and French rather amusing.

And so our visit to Noumea came to a successful conclusion.

As we only had from 3pm to 10.30pm in port it was difficult which of 14 tours on offer to book for.We settled for  The Tchou tchou/Bumble bee train in the hope of managing some shopping time in the city centre.

However, we went on a bus ride with a local (Michael’s buses) who gave far more interesting insights(being of Melanesian race) than the Dutch lady who was our tour guide on the Tchou tchou train later.

Our very short stay made me realize that Noumea needs more than a six hour visit, and it is up near the top of my ever increasing Bucket list.

Seeing all the street  and shop signs  in French made me realize that French lessons are also a MUST before returning. as so few were bi lingual.But hey! so many Australians have only English, why should I expect other nationalities to cater for my ignorance!

Michael, who has a sister living in New Farm in Brisbane was an excellent guide, only too happy and patient to answer my questions about Kanak culture.Aboard with Michael, we learned about the Protestant Temple (I had never heard protestant churches ever referred to as temples before this trip.)

http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/8AC17F54-5F65-49DC-9E5C-47CCBC557D63/0/noumea_map.jpg

Along the curvy, hilly, roads, and driving on the opposite side of the road to that which Aussies are accustomed to we passed the Notre Dame de Pacific lookout, the Latin Quarter, and finally had French pastries and a soft drink at the Ouen Toro lookout before witnessing a magnificent sunset before returning along the water’s edge of Limon Bay to the Maritime area .  Later, on the advice of our Dutch guide, we returned by taxi to Limon (Lemon) bay for Dinner at a very popular restaurant…….and that drama I will save for my next posting!

(I wondered, if  this ship still had a hex on it)

The reason for delay, was truly valid: Strong winds and narrow(ish) shipping lane meant that the wind-age of the ship would pose navigational difficulties.

Slowly, under the surveillance of two tugs, the ship passed under the dual Gateway bridges, passed Luggage Point, and north into Moreton Bay.

It was amazing to everyone on Deck 12 how little space remained between the ship’s masts/radars and the under surfaces of the bridge.

I guess it is not attempted during peak King tides. By the time we passed Bribie Island and Caloundra, all that could be seen was the street lights along the coast line.

Next day (Monday) the winds had eased and the ship was charging along at 22.5 knot, arriving at Noumea ,Tuesday early afternoon.

Light clouds peppered the sky as the Pacific Dawn wove her way through the protective barrier reefs to the port of Noumea.