Travellin' Penguin

This past week was pretty busy. You know what they say. It’s either feast or famine.. whoever “they” are. Some weeks are jam packed with stuff to do and other weeks have nothing happening at all.

I did get some reading done. our book group met and discussed A Month in the Country. Not a lot of conflicting views as everyone liked the book. But we did spend a lot of time discussing the period of the 1920s, people returning from the great war. We liked the characters. There was plenty to talk about in our hour’s time. It is such a visual book. I also learned there is a film on You Tube one of our members watched and told us about. I must look it up as they evidently show the church fresco the main protagonist was working on.

Then my friend and I went to a Nepalese restaurant for a meal. Her teenage son came along and it was nice to see him. Our book group meets from 6 to 7 pm so getting a meal afterwards rounds out a nice evening.

I had an appointment with the eye surgeon and so far the extra drops seem to be working but I have to go back again in three months. Glaucoma is a nuisance. If you haven’t had your eyes checked in awhile I’d suggest it as glaucoma is silent and it can cause blindness.

Another friend of mine and I also attended the Theatre Royal that was absolutely jammed with people for a conversation between Richard Flanagan, 2014Booker Prize winning author and Independent MP Peter George. The occasion was the launch of his latest book Heresies. The place was electric between these two popular Tasmanians. The event just about sold out. The book is a collection of speeches, essays and articles about what is relevant to Australia recently. Richard spoke of many of the interviews he did with people as he compiled everything and the banter between the two men was humorous. It was a really good event. Lots of fun.

Then yesterday we briefly attended a memorial for one of our friends who sadly passed away. It was a lovely farewell to someone Mr P especially spent a lot of time with helping out on their farm. It was lovely to see the family members who had come from New South Wales and Germany. This past month has just been sad with the passing of two friends and our old cat. I’m looking forward to warmer weather in spring and longer days one Daylight Savings Time gets here.

I began my book challenges but it was a slow start. I have tead one hour from spinning the wheel and will start hour 2 on a different book once I finish writing this. The random Penguin book that was picked from the box set of English Journeys. It is a lovely little book called Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. The title is also the title of one of the poems in the collection by Thomas Gray. The book is a collection of poetry by various authors including John Keats, Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth and others.

I’m not a big reader of poetry but I enjoyed travelling through this little book.

Our photo club also met last weekend on the Hobart waterfront and we enjoyed a sunny winter’s day looking for abstraction in photography. I’ll include a couple of what I found.

I hope everyone has a good week coming up and you get to do something you enjoy. I’m looking forward to quieter days.

My Kindle TBR- too many books…

I follow Jinjer’s posts on her blog regularly on The Intrepid Angeleno. I love all of the random tasks she sets for herself with  her reading. I also love a lot of random things. I have just begun my 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s Penguin Anniversary books challenge. I choose them randomly through the app Book Buddy. 

Jinjer has been talking about a random wheel. On the wheel are ten slices of pie (book titles). On each slice of the pie a different book title is written. The wheel is spun and she then takes that book and reads for an hour. I thought it would be fun to join in with such a challenge as a way to get through some of my Kindle books. I always have a Kindle book with me either on my Kindle scribe or on my phone. I spent a lot of time waiting for busses or medical appointments, etc and I like to have something to read. Once the hour is up, the wheel is spun again. Mind you a different book will most likely be randomly chosen. I could eventually be reading 10 different books as the wheel spins again and again. I think it will be good for my brain to see if I can keep them all sorted. 

That will be the challenge. If I find I can’t do it then I don’t need to continue but it should be fun trying. I will continue with the Penguin books of course as they are on my shelf and are not very long books. I will also read my monthly book club books but I usually listen to those on audible. Ideally I will have an audible book, a Kindle book and a real book all on the go. 

Hopefully that will keep me off the screens so much as I find it is easy to scroll on social media apps and you tube when tired or need to relax. So often it consists of so much wasted time

I selected ten books and they are listed below. I think they are different enough that I shouldn’t mix them up. So stay tuned to see how I go. Thank you Jinjer for sharing your idea. I love it.

1. All Aboard! A Journey on the Trans-Mongolian Railway throughEastern Europe by Carrie Riles
2. Black Bazaar by Alain Mabanckou
3. The Accidental Book Club by Jennifer Scott
4. Big Magic- Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
5. Bad Karma: The True Story of a. Mexico Trip from Hell by Paul Wilson
6. Angelina’s Children by Alice Ferney and Emily Read 
7. Alone Time:  Four Seasons, four cities and the pleasure of solitude
8. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
9. The Boarding House by William Trevor
10. 1871: A Novel of the Great Chicago Fire by Peter J. Spalding

Doing a quick catch up here. Hoping to get out over the weekend as it’s going to be a tropical 15/16 degrees C. (60 degrees F). And the sun should shine a bit. 

BOOKS

I just finished the latest book by Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say. 

The blurb: 

Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbours, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive. But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad-at himself and the people around him-and turns a question over and over in his mind: how is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us?

And then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear-and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.

What I thought of it:

I thought it was a good read but not as good as the Olive Kitteridge series she wrote. I thought the story was pretty good and of course I always love her realistic character development. I think she’s great with characters but the overall book I thought was a little uneven. But I would recommend it for a light read.

I’ve just started reading A Month in the Country  by J. L. Carr for book club and I am enjoying that so far. Our group meets next week to discuss that book. 

LIFE:

Sadly we lost another friend in the past couple of weeks. This month has been quite the month for sad news.  I hope we are finished with winter sadness. I am ready for spring happiness, if it ever gets here. 

PHOTOGRAPHY

Our photography group had a fun excursion last week. Ten of us went to the tip shop. A tip is a dump. A refuse centre. The tip shop is where people donate things they no longer want or want to recycle. It’s too good for landfill. It’s the last stop for useable items.

Our mission was to make photos that tell a story. We had some interesting photos. Everyone has posted their photos up on our club Facebook page and we’ll show them on the big screen at our next meeting.  On Sunday we plan on going down to the waterfront to get abstract types of photos. No doubt I’ll get distracted by scenery and landscape but I’m sure I can find some more abstract type of things. 

Next week is the big Bullock festival in Oatlands, about an hour’s drive from here. Not sure I’ll make it up there. It runs the whole weekend and the bullocks are amazing animals. The residents hold a big parade through the main road. 

Enjoy the photos and I look forward to seeing what reading you get up to. By the way, next week I will share the random Penguin book that came up this week. I need to read it first. Have a good week and weekend. 

From the tip shop-

Penguin loves a bargain.