I consider myself very lucky. My new sewing machine arrived today - and yes I had to go out and give my talk! I'll begin at the beginning.
Mr T, love him, said he would buy me a new sewing machine for my birthday, and after humming and hawing over which model he said I was to go for it, so I did and ordered a wonderful new Brother machine from my local shop last Thursday. Mr Theobald from the oldest shop in Luton said it should be in on Monday, it could even be in the next day. I was like a kid a Christmas, waiting for the phone to ring - only it didn't. Late Tuesday I was beginning to feel a bit sulky - childish I know, but I had dusted, vacuumed, laundered and ironed so I would have a clear day or two to play, but at this rate everything would need doing again (I know, it was only two days). A phone call to Mr Theobald reassured me that is was on its way - having to order by computer had caused the delay, and he had arranged it to be delivered straight to my house on Thursday.
Now Thursday - that is the day I am giving my talk, so I wake early with a few butterflies, and lay listening to the Today programme dozing - when .... silence ... no electricity. I get up and check the fuse box - no problem there, so batteries in the radio and I find out from the local radio station that half of Luton has been effected by a power cut. NO ELECTRICITY! I am giving a talk with a PowerPoint presentation AND I am getting my new sewing machine - I need power. No tea and toast for breakfast so what, tuna sandwiches for lunch, fine - all this going through my head in the first five minutes of no power. Of course, by 8.30 all was restored, I though, needed a calming bath and a bacon sandwich to before I felt restored. The rest of the morning I thought I'd start my April page for my journal to give me something to do. Then I checked and double checked my notes for my talk at 2pm. At 1.30 I was nearly ready to go, dusting of my old laptop bag and making Mr T promise he wouldn't go out in case there was a delivery - I was sure it wasn't going to come - and then there it was - a large lorry with a cheery driver with a box under his arm! How could that be my new machine, but it was - it is about half the weight of my old one. But I had to leave it unopened in the hall and dash off for my talk.
My talk - thank you for all your good wishes - went fine. The projector 'talked' to my laptop and I had time to settle myself in before I began. I had 50 slides and up to an hour and a half to fill. The first half went very quickly and I rather raced through, but after a cup of tea and a hot cross bun and lots of encouragement I relaxed and slowed down a bit. My subject was a local beauty spot which is familiar to most of my audience, but I hope I was able to give them a different viewpoint and a bit of new information.
So it was home to my new toy.
My picture is of a piece I have been working on with painted on dye and hand stitching. It was waiting for some machine embroidery.
