Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Mosaic and stuff


Well, I had lots of fun at the mosaic workshop, though like many things it's not as easy as it looks! This is what I've done to date. Still more mosaic to go on, and then grout. I'll post another pic of the finished item. god knows what I'll do with it when it's finished, but it's something to get started on!!

And the smaller mosaic at the top of the picture - there's a good story attached to that! When I was a kid we lived in Libya (my dad was in the British Army and we were posted there for a year). We lived in Homs, and just down the road (or mediterranean coastline) was a ruined Roman city called Leptis Magna. My sister and I learnt to swim there, in the rockpools. The sea had receded since the city was a functioning port city. Anyway, we used to swim in the rockpools with masks on. And in the bottom, in the sand there were all these bits of tessarae - the bits of mosaic that the Romans had used to make mosaic floors. The mosaics had been broken up by the sea I guess. So my mum still has boxes of these that we collected as children. And she made the little pot-stand (can't remember the actual word for this!) in a craft class a few years ago, using some of those bits of what had once been part of a Roman mosaic!!

What with all the running around, getting tiles, safety goggles, glue, etc. I didn't end up having time to get to yoga on Saturday. I realised I'd forgotten to bring my mat with me anyway, so perhaps I subconsciously knew that would happen?! Anyway, I went yesterday evening, which was good. I haven't been going to the classes during the week for a while now. It's just easier for me to go on the weekend - considering that it's a 45 minutes drive there.

At work I've been trying (with the emphasis on 'trying'!) to learn Joomla. A content management system. There are 2-3 websites coming up that I'll be working on that will need to go into a CMS, and we've sort of decided that Joomla is the way to go. I can get some of it, but the template file that incorporates all the CSS, and actual graphic layout of the site ... it is just doing my head in! Luckily someone told me about a place that sells a sort of 'kit' that includes an hour-long video explaining everything, and a Dreamweaver extension to use. And even more luckily, my work has agreed to buy it! It got very good reviews on the Joomla website, so hopefully it will help me get my head round it all!

Healthwise everything is good, although there is still the tendency to put any little thing that happens under the microscope and think, what is this? is it something I should worry about? ... etc etc! I guess that sort of comes with the territory nowadays!! I am trying to wean myself off reading so much on the web about lymphoma nowadays, not visiting the discussion boards very much or anything. For a while I felt compelled to read everything every day, but I'm trying to be more 'normal' !! I am still on a couple of email lists, and do follow up on things that sound relevant to my situation. But it feels good to pull back somewhat from all that. :)

3 comments:

June Weeks said...

Hi Susie
I lived in Homs as my Dad was also in the Army. I lived next door to Susan And Mary Ann Hocknell. Could that Susan be you.

Regards June

susiegb said...

This is so weird. My mum's name is June!

But no, that wasn't us. We were 'Gardner-Brown's - Susan and Vivien were us kids, and June and Patrick my parents. This was in 1956 or 57 mind you - a long time ago! We lived in or near Oleander Avenue - always remembered that name! We were there just for a year.

When were you there?

Pretty amazing!!!

cheers
susie

June Weeks said...

Thank you for answering me.I thought it might be to good to be true. We lived there about 1957 to 1959 not quite sure. My Dad was in the Tank Regiment.I cannot remember the name of our Street however I do remember quite a few of the kids I lived near. I wonder if we kne some of the same people. What regiment was your dad in. The school was walking distance and was quite small not a lot of pupils. I do remember going to Leptis Magna and seeing all the Roman ruins. I have very happy memories of out time spent there. Iknow my friends moved to Crawley have been trying to find them for quite a while with no luck. I also live in Australia Mt Martha Victoria. Have been here since 1975. I still have my Dad and Brother and Sister in England so I still get over there quite often.

Regards June

 

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