John and Leah's little girl Susanna turned 1 in June. Happy Birthday Susie! For Susanna, I made Alice.

I used Wee Wonderfuls' Olive pattern to make Alice. It was one of the most challenging projects that I've sewn so far. Getting the legs in was the hardest part. You have to sew already stuffed legs into the body and there isn't a lot of room. I had to get advice on the pattern instructions from my sewing expert (thanks Nat!) and even then it took me 3 attempts to get it right(ish). On the 2nd attempt I sewed the legs in backwards (oops!).

Alice hung around in our living room for a while before I packaged her up and sent her to her new owner in Vancouver. She freaked out Andrew one night when he fell asleep on the couch and then awoke to find Alice staring down at him.

I'm happy with how she turned out even though she has some very obvious flaws. They just add to her charm (that's what I tell myself anyway). I'm looking forward to another go at the pattern. I might try the Archie pattern next.

Germany: Tuesday morning - Autumn. Sydney: Tuesday evening - Spring.

"Look at what John and Leah made! They've been doing some crafting of their own. This is John and Leah's daughter Susanna, who we were lucky enough to meet on our trip to Germany. Travelling with a four-month old didn't slow John and Leah down at all. We did a hike in an ice cave, we toured a fairy-tale castle and we wandered through several quaint German villages. Susanna was such a good girl though and she kept up with the pace. Here she is with a bit of my crafting. Remember my bunnies? Susanna found that Pinky's ears are very good for chewing on."




Check out Sue's day at noodlebowl.net and her photos on Flickr.

I'm a bit behind on my Project 52 updates at the moment. Life got kind of busy. But more on that later. For now, a project 52 update from 2 weeks ago.

London: Wednesday evening - Winter. Sydney: Thursday morning - Autumn.

"The Festival of John returned to town. We caught up with him on a Sunday evening (at a pub) and a Wednesday evening (at a pub). We commented to John that we see him so much it's almost like Vancouver is an outlying suburb of London. One that you can't get to by bus though. After dinner on Wednesday we caught the bus home. It was late so it was almost empty. Even the buses are good in London. They have a little display at the front which tells you which stop the bus is approaching. No more stressing about when to get off (as I always do on an unfamiliar bus in Sydney). We're going to miss London transport when we return home."




Check out Sue's day at noodlebowl.net and her photos on Flickr.

John is in town. Yay! He's in London for business but that doesn't mean we can't hang out. We've tried to squeeze as much Johnny goodness out of him as possible. Friday night, we caught up for drinks and dinner. Saturday, we invited John over for dinner. Sunday night, we had dinner and the boys went to a Superbowl party.

Our Saturday dinner followed the usual Dubs schedule. The boys played some Pentago, we ate dinner and then we played a game of Diminishing Whist.

While John is gallivanting around the world for business, poor Leah is stuck at home. So on Saturday evening while we played cards, we video conferenced Leah in so that she could be part of the fun. Every round John would show Leah his hand. On the webcam, Leah could watch each trick being played out. Leah could also listen to the usual trash tralking and join in the conversation. It was like hanging out with Leah, except for the fact that she was physically on the other side of the world.

As I've described before, there is a round in Diminishing Whist, where you are dealt one card which you are not allowed to see. Instead, you have to stick it on your forehead and let everyone else look at your card. On Saturday evening, we figured that we could include Leah in the round of one. We dealt everyone a card. We used the webcam to show Leah the cards on our foreheads. When we bid, Leah called out her bid. There was lots of giggling.

The photos below describe the second round of one. (Andrew was leading. Diamonds were trumps. Andrew, Jess and Leah bid 1 and John bid 0. Andrew won and bid correctly - 11 points, John bid correctly - 10 points, Jess and Leah did not bid correctly 0 points.)










We spent the rest of the game trying to figure out how we could play a full game of transcontinental Diminishing Whist. We'll keep brainstorming.

The Pension... sounds like a dodgy three-star hotel, doesn't it? Well, that's kind of right. Except, it's a dodgy three-star hotel which has a top-secret nuclear fallout bunker hidden underneath. How top-secret? Super-promise-you-won't-tell-anyone-cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die top-secret. The bunker's existence was only revealed to the public in 2003, twelve years after Latvia gained independence from the Soviet Union. We arrived at midday in time for the day's only tour of the Bunker (yay!). Unfortunately, the tour was not offered in English (boo!). (Tours in English can be booked in advance and are run if there are sufficient numbers.)

Waiting in the reception area for our tour to begin, I felt like we'd travelled back in time. When the bunker was created, a Rehabilitation Centre was built on top as a cover. This Rehabilitation Centre is now billed as a day spa. This term conjures up imagery of gleaming white surfaces, the smell of scented candles, and relaxing music piped into rooms with water features. The reality was 70s décor meets school camp facilities. The predominant colour was a drab olive green. The marketing video in the waiting room showed beefy Eastern European women torturing patients. It definitely didn't meet the Western ideal of a day spa.

The bunker was much larger than I expected. Covering an area of 2,000 square metres, it includes offices, bedrooms, a canteen, its own power station and a well. It was designed to be fully self-sufficient in the event of a nuclear incident. We were shown the very important Party room, which features a bust of Lenin, the USSR and Soviet Latvian flags and a map of Soviet Latvia showing the collective farms.


Our Latvian is a little rusty (read non-existent) so although our tour guide explained the purpose of each room within the bunker, we remained clueless to the details. A room full of maps of Latvia with areas marked in different colours was intriguing. The official website says they are maps which show how much of Latvia would be underwater if dams and hydro power stations were destroyed. A sign which showed how to put on your protective radiation suit was a little scary.



The bunker was built for a day when the world as it had been known, ended. And while you're inside it certainly seems that world has ended. In the bunker, time stands still. It's a snapshot of an era that no longer exists.

More photos on Flickr...

Our visit to the Pension was part of Dubs' Easter 2008 trip. We travelled from Riga, Latvia to Tallinn, Estonia and then on to Helsinki, Finland, spending a couple of days in each city. Other entries from this trip include: Paldiski.