Juxtapositions

I am back and finally a bit recovered from the homeward journey. Leaving Dubai at 2.45 am after earlier that day having flown from Kuwait and arriving in Melbourne at 1.45 am is not my idea of fun. The last two weeks have flown by and are full of juxtapositions- from the dust and dirt and charm of Bub Zwela and the tentmakers where we spent our last day in Cairo and where I purchased some cushion covers ( 6 to be exact) from Mohammed who does lovely fine designs to the new kitsch and glitz of Dubai where everything can only be said to be big- shopping centres are big and one even has a ski slope, where an island has been built in the gulf to accommodate the worlds only seven star hotel where all that glitters really is gold( however the building in which it is contained is very interesting and is indeed a landmark on the coastline).

When I started my blog I called it the musings of a textile itinerant and the last 7 weeks has indeed been the encapsulation of that- now i am home for five weeks and then I am off again to Europe to teach in Spain near Girona, and the South of France before heading up north and the Netherlands. There are some other possibilities floating around that need to be finalised in the next week or so plus I have to make a number of new quilts.

And then there is next year- I have been invited to bring another exhibition of Australian work to Syria and Damascus for a three week period March 2007, and Oman has been put on my wish list to see- I heard many wonderful reports about it. My daughter Celeste who came with me this time is thinking of ways to save money so that she can travel to this region again because we really had a fabulous time and there is so much to see, and well the jewellery and textiles are stunning- we have lost so much - for me fine craftmanship and a richness of decoration are surely one of the beautiful things you encounter in life's journey and a life devoid of it is all the poorer for it.