Travellin' Penguin

LIFE

Such a rainy day today.

I sat down and reviewed the pile of books I’m reading from the Australian anniversary books, the spinning wheel and the Fullers Bookshop Reading group. 

I’m also looking at my fitness program now spring has arrived. It will no doubt be a bit windy with unpredictable weather but I am determined to get a plan in place that will get me through until summer or I should say 1 Jan. 2027. 

So let’s get into it.  First off the gym. That has to be priority. Weights are necessary for older people and especially women. On a personal level I still need to improve my fatigue levels. That sounds weird. I don’t want more fatigue. I want less fatigue. 

So here is the plan:  Twice a week to the gym to do the treadmill 30 minutes. There is a hill climbing program with intervals of hills and flat ground that lasts about 25 min. Then I will do my 15 or 20 min. upper body and leg weights. Then I do my minute plank and will look to increase that and I currently do a 2 minute wall sit but I used to be able to do a 4 minute one. I’d like to get back to that.

Then one day a week I will have “My Day Out”. I have set up a project on Chat GPT and I want to see how it works out. I have asked it to send me a one day plan every Sunday. I will pick a day following that day during the week to take up the suggestion.

Suggestions will include anything from a local cafe for reading and having a coffee, a film maybe, a day out to a local area within 100 kms to do photography. Photography will be either landscape, street or macro.  I included visits to art galleries, book shops, parks, nature reserves, historical sites, novelty shops, dog parks, garden centres, you get the idea.

I have given it a compilation of local activities to get out and experience once a week. All of it will include walking and experiencing some creativity.

Now I have no idea how this random Day Out will work but I will take my bag with me of art supplies and journal, my diary, my camera and see what the experience will be. I hear so much about chat GPT organising projects for people at work so I will see what is possible for it to come up for me. I reall enjoy a good project. It could be a total bust but I think the randomness of it will be fun and I may find some local places to go that I’ve not been to before. So stay tuned.

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`BOOKS

Thursday evening was Book group discussion of Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy then my friend and I went to a local Nepalese restaurant afterwards for a meal. 

What I liked about the book:  character development of everyone but one older teenage boy.  

The location that took place on an island southeast of Tasmania (based on MacQuarie Island). The animals that lived there. 

A bit of suspense

The plot was interesting

What I didn’t care for.  The older teenage boy just wasn’t developed nearly as well as his siblings, father or stranger who washed up on the island.

I couldn’t visualise the home they lived in or the surrounding area. The characters went from one place to another, climbed hills but I wasn’t sure how all these places linked up geographically. I need to see that pictures in my head.

One unnecessary relationship that developed that I could see a mile away. Just bored with it.

Ending started sliding into unreality and ending was unsatisfactory, almost too corny and seemed to be wrapped up in a big hurry.

Overall though it was an entertaining read and better than some other books I’ve read this year. Somewhere in the “maybe” recommendation category.

SPINNING A BOOK

(This is where I spin the wheel that lists ten books and I read that selection for one hour.)

So far I’ve read The Red Notebook by Antoine Lauren twice for two hours .  I am currently 55% through it. I am really enjoying it and will write more about the story once I’ve finished. 

I read a short story one hour. Selected was The Dog of Flanders. It is an 1872 dramatic novel by English author Marie Louise de la Ramée.  It is about a Flemish boy named Nello and his dog Patrasche and is set in Antwerp. I am loving it. I’ll share more of the story once finished. I am about 80% through so hope I spin it soon so I can finish it off.

I also spun out an Anita Brookner’s book from my TBR shelf of a book called Misalliance. I am only 20% of this book so will move on here.

If you’re new to my posts you can see the Spinning wheel set up in previous posts. 

My next read has come up Photography. I have several large illustrated photography books.

PENGUIN ANNIVERSARY BOOKS CHALLENGE

I have randomly picked Night Owls which is a Penguin Archive book by author Nikolai Leskov. I’ve never heard of this author or book so looking forward to beginning it soon.

That’s what I sorted today as it poured rain outside. It was only 14 degrees C and I towel dried two wet dogs a couple of times as they came in and wanted to shake all over the walls. 

Hope your week is going well.

A Suitcase and a Spatula — Tori Haschka
A lively mixture of travel writing and recipes that explores the places, people and memorable meals the author encountered around the world.

Walking the Gobi — Helen Thayer
An inspiring account of Helen Thayer and her husband Bill’s demanding 1,600-mile trek across the Gobi Desert, facing extreme heat, thirst, sandstorms and physical exhaustion.

Heresies — Richard Flanagan
In this collection of essays and reflections, the Tasmanian author writes passionately about literature, history, politics, nature and the importance of questioning accepted beliefs.

Nonna knows Best &Garden Like A Nonno- Jaclyn Crupi
These two affectionate illustrated books celebrate Italian grandparents, family traditions and the small everyday moments that create lasting childhood memories.

A Misalliance — Anita Brookner
After her husband leaves her, the lonely Blanche Vernon becomes entangled in the troubled life of another family in this subtle and intelligent study of emotional need.

The Red Notebook — Antoine Laurain
A Parisian bookseller finds an abandoned handbag and uses the owner’s red notebook and possessions to search for the mysterious woman who has captured his imagination.

Diary of a Young Naturalist — Dara McAnulty
A beautifully observed account of a year in the natural world, written by a young autistic naturalist whose intense connection with wildlife brings him comfort, wonder and belonging.

Any book about Photography– Books with many types of photography in order to study composition and techniques from my library.

Any children’s story from recommendations within the book Children’s Book of Wonder. EditorDaniel Hahn. Books from the First Golden Age- 1837 to 1929; New Horizons- 1930 to 1959; Modern Narratives- 1960 to 1984 and Contemporary Classics- 1985 to 2024. Must be stories I missed as a child.

A Book of Short Stories- read an hour’s worth of a short story from books I own. TBR

Bonus Book Choice- any book in the house. I have a few books on a variety of subjects. Journaling, music, science, nature, exercise, etc. They don’t fit into any of the above categories.

As each book is finished over time it will be replaced with another.

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Project Rules- Idea taken from #Jack Throws Books on Tik Tok. Reader has a random wheel. Each slice of the pie (wheel) has the name of the book or category. Once the wheel is spun and the book is randomly picked, the reader reads that choice for 1 hour exactly. The wheel is spun again for the next selection. Thank you Jinjer of the Intrepid Angeleno for putting me on to him.

So far I have read four selections to date. As a result of starting the project there were changes I felt needed to be made. Hopefully this is the final form. It has been lots of fun and I really enjoyed my hour’s read. It has been easy to find time in the day. If time is short the book can be read 30 minutes then another 30 later in the day. Any combination of minutes can be read to equal the hour. So far I’m not having any problem remembering the previous books.

I might add the Penguin Anniversary set of books challenge is also going well. My reading spirit is alive again and I’m getting a lot done after a long spell of mediocrity.

Note: the book pictured here is new to me. It is beautiful and has much information about children’s literature over the years. I will use it to choose what books I read in this genre.

Have a good week.

COMING UP……

I have a photography excursion coming up this week that should be interesting so a separate photography post is in my sights.

Have a good week.

The ransom selector on the Book Buddy app picked this book to read. It is part of the 20 books in the Penguin Great Journey’s set.

The Cobra’s Heart is a short work of literary travel writing rather than a novel. It is drawn from Kapuściński’s longer book, The Shadow of the Sun, and recounts his experiences as a journalist travelling through Africa during the period of the early 1960s when many countries were gaining independence. O

The central episode takes place in 1962. Kapuściński and his companion Leo drive from Dar es Salaam toward Kampala to report on Uganda’s independence. They become lost on the vast Serengeti plain, pass through an enormous herd of buffalo and spend the night in an abandoned hut—where Kapuściński discovers a deadly Egyptian cobra beneath his bed. Their struggle with the snake gives the book its title.

(The snake episode is very frightening.)

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The first paragraph of the book drew me in.

More than anything, one is struck by the light. Light everywhere. Everywhere, the sun. Just yesterday, an autumnal London was drenched in rain. A cold wind, darkness. But here, from the morning’s earliest moments, the airport is ablaze with sunlight, all of us in sunlight.

Reading this in our winter gloom was just what I needed on the day I read it.

I found the book really interesting but had to look up a few things as I’m not that familiar with African geography or history on the whole. So these are the things I learned .

Vocabulary: Women are pounding maniac and baking taro bulbs. Manioc cooking is the preparation of the starchy, edible root of the manioc plant (also called cassava or yuca) into safe, tender, and flavorful dishes

Flavor: Cooked taro has a dense, starchy texture and a mild, nutty, slightly sweet taste.Preparation: People roast, bake, boil, or steam them just like potatoes.

I might need to put these on the list with the gooseberries I wrote about in a previous post.

Kente cloth – is a brightly colored, hand-woven textile made of silk and cotton strips that originated with the Asante and Ewe people of Ghana. Resembles a basket weave.

Djellabah- Design: It features full, long sleeves and a distinctive pointed hood called a qob, which historically protected wearers from harsh desert sun, wind, and sand.

Then I needed to look up a couple of geographic areas on the map. Google was helpful with this, i saw how big the Serengeti desert is and I looked up Murchison Falls in Uganda. So powerful and beautiful. i also needed to see where the Gulf of Guinea is. I’m really enjoying what these little books toss up to research. I wonder what more I’ll learn in the books to come.

And I’m sharing one last quotation that made me laugh. The men wanted to get on a bus to get to their next destination.

We climb into the bus and sit down. At this point there is a risk of culture class, of collision and conflict. It will undoubtedly occur if the passenger is a foreigner who doesn’t know Africa. (This takes place in 1962.) Someone like that will start looking around, squirming, inquiring, ‘When will the bus leave?’

‘What do you mean, when?’ the astonished driver will reply. ‘It will leave when we find enough people to fill it up.’

It left more than 2 hours later.

It is now time to get back to Book Buddy and see what Penguin anniversary book I’ll be reading next.

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LIFE

I’ll leave you with a photo of this sad sack. Ollie had a pea sized tumour removed from his bottom eye lid area. It has been sent to pathology but the vet believes it will be ok. In the meantime Ollie is enjoying feeling sorry for himself.

Hope your week is going well.