I remember how in high school I used to write a lot. Like a LOT. I got published once in our school paper – I think I mentioned it before here – but it only happened because I was in the editorial staff and we had a few pages to fill. I pity those teachers and students who had to suffer my teenage angst.

Anyway, I used to enter essay/feature writing competitions and hated, no that’s not right, I loathed being given a topic from which to pull out ideas to put on paper. And the worst topic ever: the competition’s theme! It could be as boring as “Working together towards a better world for the next generation.” Gah! Excuse me while I throw up.

A…nyway. Was that random enough? Okay, if not, these photos should be. My dear daughter Eibee has been hit by the baking bug, esp the cookie kind. She wanted to bake last Christmas so she hunted for a recipe online and since we both love the inimitable and very funny Joy the Baker, she went to that website and found Joy’s Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies. We both love chocolate, and peppermint so this got a thumbs up from me too.  Sorry, no photos of the cookies because it didn’t turn out quite like Joy’s, it tasted good, and oh by the way, I added a bit of Kelly Green Wilton’s Icing Colour to the peppermint-flavoured filling so it ended up in this nice light green colour, not yellow like below.

Okay, more random. My nephew, Ronan Immanuel, has these facial expressions that are funny and intriguing but last only a fleeting moment so it is handy having the camera focused on him. We did have a home video of the games on Christmas Eve where he pulled this really funny expression and which we would have missed if the camera didn’t catch it.  These four examples might explain it better.

His baby sister, Roslin Isabelle, is not to be left out.  She has a very expressive face too.  This was taken last Friday at their school’s Foundation Day.  Bellybutton and her class were doing calisthenics with pom poms and they were all ready to start when we arrived.  Upon seeing her Kuya Patrick, my son, she lit up like the fourth of July, see first photo.  She then walked over to say hi to us and then went on to participate in her class calisthenics.  The girls all had henna tattoos done at the school, Dh5 each hand, and Belle-belle was so good not getting her henna smudged even though she was eating a snack and even went to the little girls’ room!

The Festival Centre in Dubai has a lot of subjects for wannabe photographers like me. On the corridor next to the More Cafe, they have these shelves filled with vases, wooden chests, and other Arabic-themed items just screaming to be photographed. I took a photo of one vase sitting on the floor and waited to see if anyone would tell me off. I heard nothing so I went on to other items. I even re-positioned some of them to get them in good light and no one came to drag me to the security office. Good. I love the jade and orange jar.

Enough of random, more knitting content shortly as I dyed new colours and also need to tell you about my Personal Sweater Club.