I'm Nailed Right In

For Annie who believes the blue tongue of the lizard is a delicacy. This is the other side of the Samoan Cross hanging on my wall.  My camera battery is dead and I lent my other camera to a new friend, who I haven't seen since!  Alas all I was left with was the camera on my laptop and I could not remember how to reverse the image.  This is my favourite side but I keep him hidden from those who do not share my admiration for the Naive.  


Thank you for your support of my intermittent Samoan blog, I will be visiting the artisan's wife at the flea market to acquire your good self some of his work.  Perhaps the boys would like one or two for their birthday? 

On My Wall

Inspired to share some of the walls in my Samoan house by Vic. This is a great idea.

Samoan essentials.

Surf essentials

Wet Season Walls

Man of house Made, love the knots up top.

Bedroom Siapo and Ric-Rac Mary

Boy's Games

A Tapa Strip to hide peeling paint.

The previous tenants enjoyed jigsaws, they contacted the backs and pinned them to the wall.  I took down the ones in the general living areas but the boys like the ones in their room.

Part of a triptych by the owner of the house.

These gorgeous copper fish are from Value Village the closest thing to an "op shop" in Samoa.  2 Tala each, approx 80c AUS.

Siapo with your cool drink?

Tongan Tapa

Plantation House

Inspired by Tatau, stencils and bumpy roads.

Flowery Life

Tropical islands are lush with flowers of vivid colours and hay fever inducing pollens.

In the dry season this bougainvillaea at our front gate brought much joy.

My youngest presents me with flowers to wear behind my ear.

He is my flower child.

And I have become partial to the floral adornment.

My friend Polily makes leaves look like flowers when there aren't any flowers in the garden.

Her name is like a flower.

She is like a flower.

Things that go bump.

Meet my new friend.

We welcomed Smeg with open arms after "winning" it at the Australian High Com Auction.

Many have warned me against buying a digitised machine.

The auctioneer warned it had a faulty reset switch!  I pleaded for those around me to tell me "Is a reset switch vital, what does it do, does it matter?"  Everyone just looked at me blankly.  

I got into a lively battle with my old boss - the Principal of my boys school.

I WON, for 200 tala I WON a Smeg 650 washing machine with a faulty reset switch and a microwave with a broken door - lucky me!

The domestic surfing God put on the first load with outstanding success, piffle to the faulty reset switch.

The faulty reset switch reared its ugly head on the next load, but Smeg responded valiantly to a good shove and all was good as the pump kicked in.

Yippee!  I can wash at home and get active in the process.  Now the problem - how to stop the machine once it gets going.

sSlip on your Jandals it's Time to go Back to School.

Back to school, time to buy all those essential items.

Like school shoes.

The expert "Jandal" fitter said they each needed a new size, they were both chuffed at going up half a size.

The first morning of school a proclamation was made;  "These lunch boxes are babyish!"

Faced with the imminent failure to locate "grown up" lunch boxes I hit Myna's supermarket with no luck.

 Carruthers, the back to school version of MacDonald and East were stocking Klipit! It was amazing and a real relief to find these, but I then felt a sense of sadness as I realised that Samoa is becoming just like any other country.  Stocking commercial goods for today's consumer.

The boys were happy with their new lunch boxes until they got to school and realised that everyone else had Klipit Lunch box cubes.