These last few days in Tucson have passed in a blue of diagrams, planning, laughing, stupid book buying, packing and pining.

I'm pining for home, and my wonderful, wonderful boyfriend, and cannot wait to be there. But already I'm pining at the thought of not waking up in Tucson. Waking up without cats, without all this sunlight and of course without Kate there to made laugh, amaze me, educate me and generally amuse me throughout the day.

Gabriellea left only 36 hours ago but I strongly miss her presence already. She is a sophisticated woman of taste and an amazing beader and designer with a great collection of music which has got us through a few long days of beading. I hope it's not too long until I see her again.

I have a very busy few weeks ahead of me. By the time I get home and adjusted to the time change it'll be time for me to fly to Egypt and teach. How ridiculous is that sentence?

Then it'll be back home to a few weeks of sleep, interspersed with lots of writing and beading as we have plans for some extra brand new projects to feature in the book. Seriously this book could be a 5-year project there are so many ideas sparking off from it and potential for experiments and variations.

My last 50+ hours in Tucson have featured a Tiki bar, pina coladas, great signs, a gargoyle house, antique mall shopping, barbecue food eating and hundreds of other things I can't even begin to get my head around. I look forward to my return very soon...