And finally the stumpwork piece - in class we did half a leaf, half a raspberry, a bud and a stem, so this one takes a while. This is where the satin stitch comes in, on the leaves, and on the buds. The raspberries of course have French knots (which are just called "knot stitch" in French, and the French were puzzled as to where the French bit came in), but they are in six strands, and not too horrific for me.

I'm going to take them down to Cyprus with me, I hope I can fit everything in to my cases that I want to take. I have to go out and buy another case on Saturday, to replace the big old American Suiter that I chucked out in the summer (which was really past it, and far too heavy, I can get one now that holds nearly as much, but is much lighter). One thing you can get in Paris is luggage at a fairly good price, Samsonite and Delsey are quite reasonable.

Actually I have so much to do on Saturday that I am contemplating being sick one day this week, which is incredibly unusual for me. I have to go to the doctor, hairdresser, epilation, do a heap of laundry, work through a long shopping list. And it is not as though I am doing anything here, we are just waiting for Kent to come back tomorrow. Suzette is back (she brought me some champagne pink pearls, yum!), and, after about an hour yesterday, she sent me a message saying "so we are seat-warming, right?". "Right", I replied. Seat-warming is what we call it when he have to be visible, but there is nothing to do.

The only other news concerns the saga of the cellphone and the SIM card - I got my SIM card on Friday, only a month after I ordered the thing, and of course it doesn't work! Then yesterday morning we got a message that our old phone numbers had been restored, and lo and behold, the phone works again. However we have got no information about the contract, who pays the bills, is this permanent, temporary or whatever, so I don't know if it is going to last or not.