Steamy Tales Of Arabia.... by Florence, who turned pink.

The day kicked off with a little bit of steam
Everywhere was steam
Steam heat
Sweat

But I emerged
minus layers of skin
pinker than I  have ever been

and shiny new
ready ...
from my second Hammam

So the week was over and the new Semester will begin. I have had no time to look around me and continue any adventuring. By the time my focus on an assessment driven system was allowed to be freed, I felt an imminent collapse was to be mine....

Apologies to my good friend but I need people to know that life is great here.....

But a new day for the weekend
and my gym provides me always with a great place. It is cool at the moment - six degree morning and 20 deg day... very cool.
This place always delivers something that makes me take a breath. Most recently it has been my understanding of the people who have fled Syria in the last fifteen years because it is not a new thing.... It is my sincere wish that Australians would begin to understand the people who are refugees... not the emotive and criminalised version fed by media and that government... but humans who are no different from you and me... they even sound the same except for the accent! But then Australians sound pretty weird at times....
And, these people are Muslim.. AND Syrian... I wonder where that places them in your eyes. My wonderful opportunties are grown by the people I have met and these are the people i meet...
It is difficult to write of some of the things I hear  and I will need time to process clearly the sadness, the difficulty and the heartbreak... and war.

Wrong paper for the Singing Swans of Denmark

A beautiful winter in Denmark

My Studio

Setting up....

So to assist with the understanding I am going back to my painting with help from wonderful Sarah Weaver......
I now have my own little studio in the process of development on the 11th floor of the Creativity Building, Street Two , Block One, Hawally, Kuwait......

The Merging of Florence - a gradual (de) evolution!

So  I am back and have been for two weeks.
I have lived in Kuwait ,now, for  almost five months which is not very long in the grand scheme of things. I love it!
Being back meant being thrown into the hysteria of reviewing for exams and the actual exams which are just beginning. Hysteria, did I say? I have learnt new meanings for the word!
Here we have four quarters and two Semesters. we are just coming to the end of our second quarter. Each Quarter is 8 weeks long- the rest you can work out for yoursleves!
It almost feels like coming into the home stretch now, even though we do not finish until the first week in June. In that time we have  few looooooong weekends and an April break. We also have more exams at the end.
Then , after a few exciting things in Europe... I might head home in July for a bit.
So, for the time being, as I commit myself to my work totally, I will be blog slack.
Fear not, however, as very soon, exciting times begin again with a few new adventures on the horizon.
Love my life!

Florence Says Goodbye- a Farewell to Denmark

Nearly done!
One more night is all that is left then back to Kuwait.

So after a great , long night of red wine and conversation, the day found me supine on the huge leather sofa.
and
chanterelles for lunch.

Vorupor was calling.... and it was wild
The cobwebs disappeared
totally

Church at Vorupor

and now the last morning has arrived.
Soon we will drive to Aalborg then I leave Denmark...

But

I will be bacck!

The Danish Three O'Clock - Florence , Kaffe and Kage

Let me tell you about the Danish person on a normal day.


Kind, warm and generous is the general demeanour of the Danish person- polite and respectful of others.


I will confess that this is my experience.

Danes eat fisk because there seem to be a lot of these critters/fisks in the North Sea. They eat it with rye bread, ground and made with own fair hands...... accompaniment can be a cheese- some like it smelly and others not.
When fisk is not being eaten, there will be many other delicious meats and such.... very tasty.

There is a strange thing , though, that is common among the Danish people.

You might be walking along a windswept beach- the harsh Northern blast tearing at your skin..
.. you might be looking for the amber that could be cast upon the beach..
look, a wooden seat

and the clock strikes three.

At the stroke of three you will spy a Danish person holding a Danish basket which will be placed on the table/seat.... a tablecloth is cast upon the frozen surface...
immediately we have a thermos

and cake

and cups

and
so the rite begins

Coffee and cake

it matters not the weather
no sun  makes no difference

three oclock is witching hour/ kaffe time


So this afternoon
before we swept onto the beach filled with the German battlements


we had coffe and cake
on a beach
in the wind....