Lucerne the new Venice

The rain has finally stopped now the water has arrived. Well it had to go somewhere.
The lake of Lucerne has risen and has started to overflow. My Mum lives about 5min walk away. We have been unable to live the city. There is only one road and the motorway to the north left. Why should we go and stand in a major traffic jam for no reason.
We have just been walking around town and looking at the water. Noor had to take her shoes off and she had a walk through the water. It seems clean but is freezing cold.
I have spent a fair amount knitting. My husband bought a DVD player and we have been renting a lot of movies.
More knitting time for me. I have finished the scarf for my mother. I did take the baby jacket with me. I did not take the whole cone but I wound off about 4 balls of yarn. I thought that is about the amount of knitting I could on a busy holiday.
Noor wants to go to the top of the Pilatus but it was to cloudy. No point in going to the top of a mountain and look at fog.
Today we walked accross the old defence wall and visited the towers for the view.
I don,t know what we do tomorrow. They have forcast more rain. It also depends on the water situation.
The husband is starting to get upset about the rental car. It has been parked in the same spot since Saturday. There is no point in driving anywhere. All that money could have been spent on yarn - just daydreaming!

Rain, rain go away

We made it to Switzerland on Saturday evening and it has been raining ever since. Noor and I have gone from one extreme to the other. London has nice sunshine - makes a change. There is so much rain - people have been adivised not to travel to Lucerne, the main north south railroad has massive delays - in a country were everything runs like clockwork.
Sadly two fireman have died in a mudslide, it really hurts me. I used to be a member of the firebrigade here in Lucerne. I saw some of my former colleagues at work today on a traffic accident. Here in central Lucerne the world still looks OK, we went and had a look at the river and debated how much longer until it starts coming over. But in other places here in Central Switzerland it has already happend.
Maybe tomorrow the rain will stop for a while. Today on Monday the two yarn shops are closed. I went and saw the yarn collections in two department stores. I will go back, after I have made up my mind in what to get.
We have been playing games, mostly Yatzee and Domino.
Of course I also got a lot of knitting done. I have been doing the Aplpaca Fishtail Scarf. Alpaca is sooo lovely to knit whit. I look forward to blocking it. My Mum has a very heavy ironing blanket, I think it will make an ideal blocking blanket.
I have been unable to down load pictures to my blog - even though I waited over 15min for one picture. I will try again or use my phone to take pictures.
Of course we have been paying with Nino the kitten, he is now nearly five months old. He is very cute.

Back home (not for long)

Noor and I made it back to London a day later than planned. Tulsa airport is not that busy and it is close to town. Going back and forth was not such a hassle.
We had a very smooth journey accross the atlantic in a nearly empty plane.
I have managed to unpack everything and do the laundry. This afternoon I will pack for our trip to Switzerland. Unlike packing for Tulsa I now have to pack for diffrent weathers. It could be warm but also it could get cold.
Finally I was able to see my Rowan Exchange gift. Carol from California included a gift for Noor. Noor found it hard to understand that someone she has never met could send her a gift. She is very excited. Perry had to help her to show it off. Noor loves doing Art and Crafts.

Noor and Perry with the Fairy Kit.

Noor being sheepish.
She is modeling the lovely scarf Carol made for me. I love it, it is a wonderful long ruffle, I think it is done in Kid Silk Haze, it also has a row of beads on the bottom of the ruffle. I love it.
Thank you Carol.
The internet is amazing, I have been trying to explain this to Noor.
After spending an extra day in Tulsa I managed to finish the Koigu scarf, well almost, I had already packed my sewing kit, all I have to do is sew in a few ends.
Then I started the Fishtail scarf in the Alpaca. Now that is yummy yarn to knit with.
Jenny the cardigan will come to Switzerland with me and I will finally be able to get some buttons and hopefully some ribbon as well.
Then I have to debate wheter I travel to Switzerland with a yarncone.

Leaving Tulsa (not yet)

We have reached the end of our time here in Tulsa. The knitting has finished. Now I am back to my airline knitting.
We had a wonderful time here. Maybe we did not do or see as much as we could have done, but the most important thing is that we spend a lot of time just with our friends here.
Baby James has learned a lot of new words while we were here.
Now we have to make our way to the airport and hope for a nice smooth journey back home.
We will not stay long in London. On Saturday we are of to Switzerland to spend a week with my Mum.
The travelling Shah's are on their way. Over and out.

PS: Well we went to the airport and went to check-in. Our flight from Tulsa to Dallas was very delayed and there was no way we were going to make our connection. So we are here an extra day!

Done, done, done

The tunic for my friend is finally finished. She is very happy with the result, it fits perfect. We only have to dig out her iron and ironing board and put it to work. This has been a fun knit, I used about 13 1/2 balls, the neckborder is knitted with the front and then extended and sewn to the back neck.
I have now started a top from the same booklet, just to finish the last six balls that I have. I finished the tunic Tuesday night and started the top on Wednesday. I am doing it in the round, no sewing up to do then. I will also do the three needle cast off. Besides the darning in of ends there will be no sewing. I have finished all below the armholes and now have to do the back and front above the armholes plus all the armhole and neck borders.
We will be leaving Tulsa on Monday morning, I should manage to finish this.

Healthy Noor

Noor is almost back to her normal self. I find she gets tired more quickly and she is still not eating that much. But boy can she talk and talk and talk...
She went to the Tulsa Zoo with her Daddy and our godson while we Ladies went to play golf. Golf was good but very hot, we both made sure we drank a lot. On the coourse was a young Lady driving around with a golfcart and selling cold drinks. What a great idea!
I am also making good progress on the jumper. I should finish with the knitting side of it sometime today. Then I will try and iron or block it and the sewing up can start.
Tomorrow we may go back to Oklahoma City and visit Frontier City. Noor and Amar love amusment parks. Time for me to knit on the journey, I still have the scarf that I started on the Airplane.

Hot News

Today another post without pictures.
Noor has been very poorly since last Friday until yesterday. Today she is back to her normal jolly, chatty self. I am sooooo glad she is back to her old self. Actually to a point were it is slightly annoying.
What happend? I don't really know. A combination of diffrent factors, I think. Last week she spent every day at day camp. I believe she has not been drinking enough. I know that, I packed her plenty of drinks every day, and every day she came back home with full drinks. No matter how many times I told her, drink, drink, drink... she did not. Well I did tell her: if you do not drink enough you will end up in hospital.
That is exactly were we went on Sunday night. On Saturday we went to Oklahoma city, she felt sick there. Our friends sister is a doctor and she got her some nausea medication. Noor felt sleepy but we could not get her to drink a lot. On Sunday she felt slighly better was complaining of a severe headache, I tried to give her plenty of fluids, she was just getting sicker. Then in the evening we went to the ER. She was throwing up to much and not responding anymore. In the ER, they put her on a saline drip, gave her Motrin and Tyneol. After a short while she percked up and they let us go, I got the order to give her the medication every six hours. Which I did during the night. Monday morning she woke up screaming, she was in so much pain. I tried my best to give her fliuds, I did not think it was possible to throw up water, but she did. We went back to the ER. She was addmitted to the hospital and we spent the night there, it took a lond time in the ER before they had figured out what was wrong with her. They only found out what is not wrong with her, they think she had a Non Spesific Viral Infection. They put her on the drip again, but this time much more and much longer, Tuesday morning she woke up without any pain and her usual chatty self. She loved the hospital bed, her own TV and the visit to the play room (for patients only). She managed to eat breakfast and lunch without a problem and they send us home in the afternoon.
Amar flew her the same evening, she proudly showed of the bandage from where the drip was and her two hospital bracletts. I think she will wear them until they fall off.
We are just happy she has come through this and is back to her old self, OK she is making us do everything for her. She claims her arm still hurts her.
Monday night and Tuesday morning I managed to knit up one ball of yarn. At least it kept me sane, since all she did was pressing all the buttons on her bed.
I am also glad this happend in an American hospital and not somewhere else. They took fanastic care of us, even though I felt the ER could have put her on a drip a bit sooner, or not send us home on Sunday.
Noor will go to day camp tomorrow, she was booked to go from Monday, with the First Baptist Church here in Tulsa. They are talking the kids every day to Lake Fort Gibson and have a diffrent activity every day, Noor is looking forward to the indoor climbing wall. Well her arm has to stop hurting for that, she will go tomorrow.
The Church will also make sure that all the kids drink enough and stay in the shade.
As long as she drinks enough I do not care what, coca cola or water.