Sunday, December 23, 2012

where does time go?


I live in India, there is always people sitting around with all the time in the world on their hands? What am I doing wrong - there never seem to be enough hours in the day?

We have been working on sample ideas....trying to improve our photographs....I really need to find time to thoroughly attack the Creative Arts Safaris website, but, but, but- it is on the old computer,... but it does my head in spending days trying to sort out all the nooks and crannies of the website,.... but internet is so slow it is rather frustrating,.... but I am so tied up doing tour bookings at the moment, and tour costings....my excuse list is rather large at the moment and so quickly slips off the tongue I think I will let it sit a few days more on the 'to do' list.

Tours are an interesting phenomena- first the fun of research and exploring, fossicking around making contacts, discovering what excites you, getting a feel for a place…then the tedious task of sorting all this out, making lists, checking details and contacts, then a bit of excitement re-dreaming your travels into a format that will work for a tour, then listing it and waiting to see if anyone comes.

At that time you have a whole jigsaw puzzle spread out around the event, as numbers are confirmed we start to slot the jigsaw puzzle together…it works but takes a bit of fiddling and jiggling to get everything to lock into place…..I know it will all work but those few weeks or so of jiggling are quite stressful for me as a worry-wart until I KNOW we are there…

Moorish Delights of Andalusia and Morocco is all in place now- yeh! I think I have a bigger bus than I wanted for the Spain side- but hey we can pick up hitchhikers! – joking.

Madly sorting Rajasthan for next October, already we are half full, I have all the info I need it is just I have a number of new options we are wondering if we can jiggle things around, trim and add….that means I have to wrestle Praveen to the ground to sit still long enough to work it through…always the phone goes off and I lose the track…and I want to do everything…he is the voice of reason- we can’t run people ragged…they are in India and need to cruise a bit as well…says my cruise guru J

 I like looking at what we have done much better, wish a fairy god mother would come and take pictures for us...for the new The Stitching Project website we used Yahoo small business, they are pretty good to use and price is not so bad....but would you believe a few days after we paid I found another provider who is even easier to use - Murphy's Law- so Tasty Old Chooks is hosted by Big Cartel- really are easy to load up and get going and better images are displayed og your items...I was rather disappointed by the image options in the shop part of TSP - just working on a link to more pictures....
 love all the little red hand made buttons down the sides....
 Just a few pictures of thinsg we gloated over this week...was good to pull some of our quilts out again and re-photgraph- groping them meant we could re-appraise where we were at with the look, decided to add the handmade buttons to the corners of all the silk/cotton stitched quilts [button lady Sayda is very happy to get the work as well] more pics on Pinterest still enjoying using that....pictures are a great path into daydreaming :)
The rooster has planty of time to hang around and watch us work- thank goodness someone does.
In another day or two it is Christmas- Happy Christmas to you, I hope your New Year holds lots of enjoyment in store for you...

Around the village- the other day the main road was shut- this is a highway mind you,  and all the traffic was diverted down the little back street our workshop is situated in....rather interesting seeing the trucks and cars negotiate a small lane way....and what was causing the ruckus?
Local farmers protesting outside the Electricity Office. The Rajasthan Governement is always big noting itself for giving rural services a subsidy...our farm house is on rural electricity supply and we rarely have full strength power. We need at least 200 V of the 240V supply to run our pump, firstly the power is cut completely 12-15 hours a day and it is usually only during the dark power comes and then often half strength. We have a water tank so as soon as power comes we fill up the tanks and manage to keep going and have enough for a small garden and about a dozen other families we supply with water....if you were a local farmer- you could not afford to build a tank most likely, power is un-reliable so you would loose crops to no water and /or you would have to water in the dark- really makes life hard.
Not to mention industry in the state- no power we have to run a generator at least a few hours a day at the workshop- noisy and expensive. We are one of the poorest States in the counrty...a little help with regular supply rather than subsidices for non-existant supply would be good.
Moral of this rant?- be thankful for the wonders of regular full strength electricity and may Santa bless us with the same.

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