A Condo in Paradise,,,

I know it's been awhile since my last post but there are times when I just don't have anything to write about and I wonder what is the point of doing the blog anyway since I pretty much am writing to myself rather than the public in general. And I wonder does any one read this stuff? Does any one care? LOL

The photo above is Maili Cove. A nice apartment complex (although they call them "condos") on the Waianae side of Oahu. The unit I stayed in was on the bottom floor, just to the right of the corner unit in the photo. It's hidden by the palm tree. I was able to find on the web a plan of the unit that I rented for a month in March of 2007.
http://www.thehawaiistatecondoguide.com/oahu/MAILICOVE.html It has a listing
for the Condo.

  

It was wonderful going to sleep every night listing to the sound of the ocean.  I altered the plan they had just a little by flipping it since my until faced north. Although it was only 774 square feet it seemed large to me, especially when you opened the sliding doors to the bedroom. I really liked the open floor space. I rarely used the bed but slept on the futon instead which was located on the right side wall in the living area. On the opposite wall was the entertainment center which I rarely made use of. :)  I was to busy exploring the island during the day and by the time I got home, cooked my meal (which I ate outside on the lanai most nights) I was pretty much ready for bed. And I would leave the lanai doors open, the screen locked, and let the ocean lull me to sleep. The security at Maili Cove was wonderful so I wasn't afraid of someone suddenly coming into my apartment. If you like taking care of yourself, cooking rather than eating out every night, I highly recommend the place. The residents are very friendly and there was quite a few nights where they'd have something going on at pool side. No one was to noisy and they usually wrapped things up before midnight...and if the "party" did go past the witching hour, they kept it pretty quiet. The lovely part about the place is that it is literally on the beach. The only thing separating you from the ocean is an iron fence.

Shot was taken as the sun was setting.

If you go to this site:
http://www.mailicove.org/mcoutside.html
they show a panoramic view of the condo and they pan right by the unit that I stayed in.

The layout of the interior that they feature is identical to the unit I stayed in. In fact judging by the exterior view it was a couple of doors down. http://www.mailicove.org/maili_pano.html

2007 was the first year that I was able to really give my new Kodak camera a "work out". I'd bought it for it's 10x optical zoom feature and used it quite a bit while I was there. The photo that I took of the condos, though it looks like I was close, I wasn't. In fact I was quite a distance away at a beach park several miles down the road.  If you look closely at the photo with the three palm trees I've framed Maili Cove between them. If you take out the condos I can just imagine what the area looked like before there was a building there. It was built, if anyone is interested, 1975. So it's been around awhile.

It sometimes takes me several days to write my blog, which means I may have started it at the end of May but will post it at the beginning of June. I suppose I should at least post SOMETHING...a photo without having a lot of words attached to it. :) I can hardly believe that it's already June and we are now six months into the new year.

I'm still reading Barbara Cartland's. The one at the moment is entitled: An Innocent in Russia, about a young woman who's father has died and she's gone to live with her Aunt, who's now her Guardian. The year is 1836 and  her Aunt has decided that she will not tolerate Zelina's presence because she's very pretty and doesn't want the competition even though the Aunt herself is married, she doesn't want to vie for the attention of young men with her niece so she decides to send her off to Russia as a more or less glorified Governess. Because Zelina is only 18, she still must do what her Guardian tells her, regardless of the fact that she has money of her own and doesn't necessarily have to depend financially on her Aunt. But because she is a woman alone and doesn't have man to look after her, no one will give her a place to live. A woman living on her own just wasn't done in those days. And if you did live on your own you were fair game where men were concerned since they considered a female alone prey to their advances. Especially if they were attractive.

Courtesy Wikipedia

It takes place during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I and according to the novel he wasn't a very nice Monarch. The Secret Police had eyes and ears everywhere and no one was immune from them, not even if you were a visitor to Russia. Scary stuff!  I can't imagine living in a country where you can't voice your opinion if you aren't happy with what the party in power is doing, and you have to not only watch what you say but who you talk to!  If you are seen talking to someone who is an enemy of the state, you could be hauled in and questioned by said police. Hopefully you didn't end up somewhere in Siberia after they were finished questioning you. Cartland wrote at least two novels dealing with this time period, this one and another book entitled: Fire on the Snow, which I read a week or so ago. The scenerio is similiar in the respect that both women are sent to Russia. In Fire the niece accompanied her cousin who was to marry a Russian prince. Her Uncle disliked her and told her in no uncertain terms that she was never going to marry and after her cousins marriage she was to return home. Both characters liked to read and the beginning of the story starts out the same where the heroine is reading a book. But in Fire the niece is slapped on the back of the head with a fan and her Uncle also beat her. In Innocent her Uncle is indifferent and is only related to her by marriage to the Aunt. in Fire, the Uncle was the brother of the heroines father.

I have to say that the cover of Fire on the Snow is one of my favorites. It rather reminds me of Cinderella with the Prince being in military uniform and Alida in a white ball gown. You can almost see them moving around the ball room and hear a waltz being played. I also have to share the other cover for Fire on the Snow published by Arrow. Both were done by Francis Marshall. It's nice but not as beautiful as the one done for Bantam.

As in Innocent, the story takes place during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I. Only Alida was taken before the secret police because she was seen speaking with a former Russian citizen on the ship taking her to St. Petersburg. Both stories take place in that great city, only I haven't gotten that far in Innocent. Zelina is about to change ships after arriving in Denmark in order to continue her journey to the former Russian capitol.

Today's paper doll is from Boots and was originally published on Sunday June 5th 1949. It is a challenge to find newspaper dolls published on the same day I'm posting. I have quite a few of these and most are not organized yet. I'm getting there though. :) My ultimate goal, which might be unattainable, is to have every newspaper paper doll ever published. Which is quite a task in itself if you consider that I have to try and get a whole years worth of paper dolls and there are a variety of them. Still it is fun to try and collect all of them. It's the hunt that is the fun part. I do enjoy going through my collection and just seeing what I have so far. And all things considered it is impressive. :) My favorite of the dresses in the latest paper doll is the tiger stripped one. Love the impression of her standing with the wind blowing. Can't you just picture her standing on a cliff somewhere in New England looking up and watching the seagulls wheeling over head?

 For my paper doll I'm sharing a "Ballerina doll". The first is the pencil version. I used tracing paper at the time (1980's) because I didn't have a light table in order to put her clothes on regular drawing paper.  You can see the tape in the scan. The second is the color version of the same doll which I am selling on Ebay. This set has 5 pages of costumes. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to revise her or not. Sometimes it's just better to leave something as it is rather than improve on it.

Well, I've reached the end for another addition of my blog. Until next time (and I don't know when that will be, hopefully within the next few days) hope you've enjoyed reading about my lovely trip to Hawaii and will return again to at least, if for no other reason, check out more photos from that trip.

Until next time...ALOHA!!

BEST FRIENDS
Copyright N Dennis June 2012

Pink clouds at sunset

Sunset Maili Cove March 2007

This is one of my favorite photos from my trip in 2007. I was walking in the beach park next to the condo where I was staying at Maili Cove and looked up and saw how beautiful the clouds looked. My faithful Kodak camera was never out of my hands.  Sunsets in Hawaii are always beautiful and each one has a magic all it's own. The clouds rather remind me of pink cotton candy. 


I tried to be at a different beach park on the western side of the island every night to capture one of the amazing sunsets. Sometimes I succeeded and at other times I was still on the road. I always wanted to capture the sun as it eased it's way into the western ocean. So with that being stated, here are more photos of Hawaii sunsets. 

From condo at Maili  Cove 3/2007

What could be nicer than staying in a condo (really an apartment complex) on the beach and seeing this view each night from your Lanai. Is it any wonder that I want to move there and live there for the rest of my life? How can a person be stressed out when they have this kind of a view to look forward to each evening while they are eating their supper? 

Maili Cove March 2007

In regards to the photo on the left, I took a series of photos on this day as the sun slowly sank from sight. It might seem strange but I never grew bored watching the sun disappear from the sky each evening. The only thing I never had the opportunity to observe was the sun rising each morning. I just was never up early enough. LOL  I kept promising myself that I'd get up early to drive over to the windward side of the island (or go to Koko head) to see the sun come up, but I never got around to doing it.  I will do it one of these days though.  On an observant note...sunsets are mores spectacular when there are clouds in the sky. :) I have to be honest and say that the photo to the right is doctored somewhat. I just darkened it a little because when it was taken it was darker than the photo came out. This is the sky I saw on that day. This is looking directly west toward Japan. :)

While I was there, and each time I've gone, I rarely watched television during the day or anything on the web. With views like this to gaze upon daily who needs television?

http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk

I'm still reading The Slaves of Love. Yasmina is now aboard HMS Himalaya in the cabin of Lord Castleford having been smuggled aboard the ship by a faithful servant of Mihri (who is the Sultan's favorite)  in a trunk (try that these days!). Yasmina might have been in the harem until the war with Crimea was over had it not been for the Black Eunuch's interest in her and he was not the most gentle of master's. Of course Castleford is not to happy to be involved in her escape since Britain is at war with Russia. His being the new Ambassador to Greece and his harboring a Russian would not look good for his career. 

Photo from Wikipedia

I wish in some ways that I had the Internet when I first read these books. I so enjoy looking up the people and places mentioned in them. For example: In this book the Sultan of the Ottoman empire is mentioned, it is into HIS (Abdülmecid I) harem that Yasmina has taken refuge. He was quite a handsome fellow judging by the painting. In the book there isn't much of a description of him but then perhaps Cartland didn't have the painting on the right to go by. She did have, however, his accomplishments where the Ottoman Empire was concerned. I've tried to find out if Mihri was a real person and the closest I could come was Gülüstü Kadın Efendi who was of Circassian descent as is the character in the book but who was a servant in Yasmina's household before she was abducted and imprisoned in the Sultan's palace, something that was pretty rampant back then. I couldn't really find to much about Gülüstü but the time period when she was his wife matches with Cartland's novel. 

Today's paper doll is Jane Arden from May 9th, 1943. I enlarged it a little and brightened it up.  My favorite garment is the dress with the fur coat. 


For the paper doll from my designs, I present a baby Ewok. I don't know what the heck I was thinking giving it modern clothing. This is another one I'm in the process of revamping and giving it more "primitive" outfits made out of fur and hide. I suppose I was thinking at the time along the lines of a teddy bear. The clothes however, just aren't right for the little critter.  I will also be changing the border to something more appropriate

to Endor.  The set has only two pages of clothes. I am not sure if I created more for this little girl or not. If I did I hope to eventually find the other pages. I'm still searching for my other sets. I had created 100 of them varying from children to adults, reality to fantasy. I had one set that went with the movie Clash of the Titans and while I've found some of the clothes, I've yet to find the complete set. I suppose that is the downside of moving, you may leave things behind. Yet, I don't really think I did, I just feel that perhaps the other sets are packed in a box that I haven't  gotten to yet or squirreled away and I've just forgotten where I put them. 


I suppose that is it for this time. This blog is a little shorter than usual. I was trying to fix the lettering on the blog and lost quite a bit of writing in regards to the palace mentioned in The Slaves of Love and I really don't feel up to trying to hunt down the photos again, and try to remember what I'd written. Maybe next time.  I wanted to share the photos of the palace because it was and is quite impressive. I'm also rather late in posting this. I was going to post a few days ago but ended up selling quite a few things on Ebay and with one thing or another I wasn't able to complete this posting until now. So until next time...Aloha and May the Force Be With You. 

N Dennis March 2007