My flight home was quite interesting, and a bit scary! As I was flying with Olympic Air, we flew to greece first, where I had to board the final flight home. On the flight from Heathrow a very nice and handsome man was sitting next to me, and this man looked after me, bringing me juices, and water, and I listened to his talking about his city, Alexandria with interest, as I knew so little about that part of the world. When we landed at Greece, he said to me that I just had to see the wonderful beaches and feel the pulse of Alexandria, and stated that I should postpone my going home, and went with him for a week or two so that he could show me his world. I declined with regret, and he then told me that to be scared of grabbing life is a big sin, and as he would be there to look after me, I would be safe! I got scared, and hastened to get off the plane, and onto the bus that took us to the airport building, where I went directly through the security gate, although we had to wait about three hours for our flight to leave.
It was indeed good to come home to my kids and my family, and I was happy to hear that Trienkie and Stephan were indeed getting married, as he is a lovely young man. It was such a vast transition from the green hills and lots of water of Scotland to get  used to the brown wintry landscape of home, but I loved it just the same. Trienkie gave me just enough time get into the swing of the family thing again, before she told me that she wanted me to make her wedding dress! I was not too happy, and told her that I was not that kind of familiar with the art of making fancy dresses, but she assured me that what she had in mind was not difficult at all.
She then brought me a huge parcel containing a lot of meters of calico, and stated that she did not like the dresses in the shops, and in the catalogues, as they were all too shiny, and like Irma, she just do  not like shiny things!
So we looked for a pattern that I felt I could master, and as calico is not expensive I started cutting out the pieces for the dress without too much apprehension. I myself love the natural feel and colour of calico, but I never dreamt that one day I would be asked to make a calico wedding dress!
It looked fabulous! I had worked a pattern of small pearls on the front of the bodice, and at the back I put beautiful pearly buttons, and pearls also on the bottom of the petticoat that was just an inch or so longer than the dress! I felt very proud of myself, as when I started I had a lot of misgivings!
The wedding was also not a shiny affair, as they had decided on a small country hotel that was known for good food and service, and indeed the staff and owners were all just so nice, with the eresult that the party was also a great success.
The only almost hitch was when Clifford, a family friend that was almost like a grandpa to her, had to bring her into the church, and him being a bitty deaf, started walking up the isle when he thought he heard a note, and Trienkie, after trying in vain to keep him back, just relaxed and started walking, while the poor woman playing the organ, hastily started playing the weeding march!
I was now in the flat, and as bored as anything, as I could only visit the library so many times a day, or walk down to the town, and although the botanical gardens was close by, it was just too dangerous to walf around it on your own.
It wasn't long before I started feeling like a sardine in a tin, as even my garden that was of minuature size did not keep me busy for long. It was then that I decided to make myself a fish pond.
As Irma and the kids all had their things to do, Irma working and the kids at school, I was starting to look forward to my going back to Scotland.