Hi everyone and hope you're all keeping well ! Sorry it's been so long, but I have been on a 6 week round the world trip ~ I told myself that everyone has to do one once in their lifetime, but sitting here shattered at my comfortably messy kitchen table all I can say is NEVER AGAIN ! With delays and transit times I arrived in Colombia after 40 hours without sleep. So rather than arriving at 10 pm and being met by my friend over there for a few drinks and a proper nights sleep to adjust, I arrived alone sometime after 4 am, unpacked on auto, and crashed out in a zombie no-mind state. After that it was good ! We jetted off to San Andres, a coral island in the Caribbean Island much loved by Colombianos, staying in a chalet at the wonderful Solare Eco Hotel. Somehow I forgot the number of my Emerald contact but that was a "meant to be" because I had a great few weeks in Medellin of gym, swim and Mall which I really needed.
Next leg was UK to see family. Again the Round the World ticket stuck it's boot in. I could have flown direct to Rio then connected to London. Instead the flight was Medellin to Bogota to Lima to Santiago and an overnight airport stay before the connection to Frankfurt and finally London ! Again 40 hrs travel time with but a few hours sleep sprawled over airport chairs. It was great to see family after an 8 year gap.
Finally a decent flight to Bangkok via Vienna to catch the gem show in Bangkok.
After 13 flights in 4 weeks, I messed up and arrived on the second last day of the show rather than the second day. But that didn't matter. Thanks to the corona virus the show was deserted so I still had essentially the first pick and furthermore without the underlying competitiveness in the art of gem selection ! Seriously, it's so civilised on the surface but normally you have to keep an eye on your selection tray, nothing worse then some random customer picking through that !
We got some great new stones set in silver. Noble Shungite, which is 80% plus carbon as opposed to 30% for the regular stuff and recognised by a golden sheen. Peruvian Pyrites. Norwegian Thulite, Mexcan Fire Agate, more Watermelon Tourmaline Pendants. Russian Black Garnet Druze. The most amazing Amazonite I've ever seen. Russian Azurite ~ one side polished to reveal Star like inclusions. Nuggets of Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, beautiful and much more affordable than Cabochons. Imperial Jasper which has lovely patterns. Chrome Diopside Cabs, We also restocked on Blue Lace Agate which only comes on the market every few years. And so much more ! You'll have to wait for me to upload, or visit me in the shop.
In specimens, I was able to find more of those fabulous and rare quartz clusters with Epidote Phantom inclusions and some rough gemmy Aquamarine and Kunzite Crystals and some small but perfect Herkimer Diamonds with petroleum inclusions you can see in a black light.
Meanwhile Nicha produced her usual amazing amount of Bracelets.
OK, enough for today
It's really good to be home.
Love to all of you from all of us !