I have probably had the most chaotic time in the past six weeks I’ve had in a long time. First things first. We are heading overseas to Russia and the Baltic countries on Thursday. I will be taking my laptop with me and although I do say I will try to put up blog posts I find the 20 persons tours we go on are exhausting. However I will try a bit harder. The days we have dinners out at night give us less time for anything else. We are heading to Moscow and St Petersburg then onto Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic. It is a 27 days tour.
Next up, is, our dog Odie had his second ultrasound scan and the tumours remain unchanged so he very happily remains with us. Our house sitter has been briefed and is an angel who cares for him in conjunction with our vet. We expect he will be with us awhile longer. We really are overjoyed at that.
I just had a week in Sydney with two good friends. As it was booked months ago, the timing turned out to be difficult as so much going on but it was a good distraction and we had lots of fun. I spent three days of photography with one friend and then four days of theatre, shopping and a film. We saw The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard at the Sydney Opera House. It is a very wordy play and I thought a bit too long. But once we figured out the first act of a play within a play we soldiered on. One night we went to the beautiful Capital Theatre and saw the musical Chicago. It is thoroughly entertaining with great music, dance, choreography and voices that brought the house down. Lots of fun. We had one very rainy day so ended up at Events Cinema on George street, a large, almost empty theatre to see Downton Abbey which we loved. I hope to see it a second time. It was so much fun.
We also loved visiting the independent Glee Books on Glebe Pt Rd and the second hand shop next door and the big Japanese book store in the Victoria Galleries, Kinokuniya.
I brought back two books, one from Glee Books and one from Kinokuniya. I thought I would share them with you.
Writing Across the Landscape 1960 to 2010 edited by Giada Diano and Matthew Gleeson. This is one of the stories of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, now 100 years old, who has been many things: (from the blurb on the back) a poet, painter, pacifist, publisher, courageous defender of free speech and the co-founder of San Francisco’s legendary City Lights bookstore. (A store I absolutely adore.) This is a compilation of his travel journals spanning 60 years of various places around the world. It’s a chunkster so won’t be travelling with it but the bits I’ve dipped into are fascinating.
The book I purchased at Glee Books is called Thumbing It : A Hitchiker’s Ride to Wisdom by Barbara Noske. I have just begun it and not sure if I’ll travel with it as I only tend to take books I’m happy to leave behind and this is not one of them….yet.
Barbara Noske is mad about hitchhiking, especially in trucks, and has 40 years of it, in, among other places, Europe, Algeria, the Sahara, as well as the vast expanse of Canada and the Australian outback. She is a Dutch anthropologist and philosopher whose field is the relationship and the similarities between humans and animals. She lives in the Dutch countryside with a horse and a bike. She has no driver’s license and no smartphone. (Blurb on the backside)
She travelled during the days before the internet, google maps and smart phones. I really enjoy tales of travel from brave women in the past.
I finished Shaun Bythell’s book Confessions of a Bookseller, the sequel to his first bookseller’s tale, The Diary of a Bookseller, in Wigtown, Scotland. It is identical in structure to his first book I know many people have read. If you really enjoyed the first book I would recommend this one. There are more characters introduced, just as quirky as those in the first book. I found it a delightful read, especially in relation to all of the things going on around here during the past month.
Other good news is one of my photos made the finals in the Fremantle, Western Australia International Portrait Prize and will be on exhibition in October. I have been invited to attend but will be overseas so will not be able to. I really am in shock that it has been recognised as a finalist.
I could go on for another couple of paragraphs of activity but feel this has been enough. I wish everyone well and hope to be in touch again soon.
PS- I will remember to pack the Penguin and hopefully he will not end up in a Russian gulag or lost on a bus somewhere.
A Penguin's Journey- Books, Travel, Photography 
What great news about little Odie!!!!! I’m so happy to hear that.
Wow-ee you sure do have some awesome traveling adventures! All those places you’re going to will be amazing.
All the books you mentioned sound like my cup of tea so they have been added to my Goodreads queue.
Congrats on your photo making it to the finals!!!
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Thanks very much.
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Congratulations on your photograph! Well deserved! Oh, I’m so jealous of your trip to St. Petersburg, etc. That should be marvelous! I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear the good news about Odie. How wonderful to have more time to look forward to with that little sweetie. 🙂
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Yes, very happy about Odie. I will try to get some photos up. Thank you.
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So much news! Congratulations on your photo and that’s great news about Odie. Your trip sounds amazing and I can’t wait to see photos. I’d love to visit the Baltic and St Petersburg looks magical. Prague is already one of my very favourite places in the world – I visited every couple of years to see family – and I hope you’ll have an especially wonderful time there!
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We have been to Prague and happy to return. Will try to post while away. Thank you.
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Wonderful news about Odie! And I am *soooooo* jealous of your trip! Have a wonderful time and I look forward to reading about all the adventures you and Penguin have! :DDD
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Thanks so much!
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I am very happy to hear about Odie. What a relief!
I’m not at all surprised that your photo is among the finalists. You take such beautiful and poetic photographs.
Finally, I hope you have a wonderful trip. I can’t wait to read all about it and to see the photos.
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Thanks for your kind words. I will try to get some photos up. We hope Odie is with us for awhile yet. He is such a lovely boy.
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Good to hear the news about Odie, he’s a little champion!
I know what you mean about tour dinners. We usually travel independently but on the recommendation of friends in 2015 succumbed to an art tour of the Netherlands. The tour was fine; the dinners wore us out, some of them going on till 11 at night and then we had to be back on deck at 8.00AM the next day. Not only that, the whole group bonhomie thing was a nightmare for introverts like us, and if I’m ever tempted to take a similar tour I will simply skip the dinners altogether or skive off with another like minded couple as we did in Russia.
Of course you have to pay for the dinners anyway, but when you think that you are to enjoy yourself and not be too tired (or fed up) to enjoy the days, the price of an uneaten dinner is not much to pay when you look at it as a proportion of the tour cost.
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My sentiments exactly on the late evening dinners. I tend to skip them and find a market where I can get yogurt, fruit and nuts and will eat in my room.
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Fortunately not too many dinners. I’m very happy to spend time in our room at night. Thanks for your thoughts.
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FINALIST!! many congrats! and it’s heartening to see Odie play… and Lawrence Ferlinghetti is STILL ALIVE?? i used to visit the City Lights some times in my youth: great place… your tour sounds exciting but tiring; i hope you have a lot of fun…. maybe you’ll be able to tour the Hermitage in St. Petersburg? we watched a program on it once: incredible art work…
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Thank you MP. Odie is very happy at the moment. Yes L Ferlinghetti is still alive. He was born the same year my father was in 1919. The tour should be interesting and will rest when we can. I’d be surprised if we don’t go to the Hermitage though it’s been a few weeks since we looked at the itinerary. Will do soon. By the way, thank you for your postcard from you days away. We enjoyed it.
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So glad to hear Odie is doing well, the books look interesting, especially Writing Across Landscapes. Enjoy the trip it sounds like a wonderful adventure, look forward to seeing any posts you do put up.
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Thank you Sharon. We are happy Odie is okay for now. I will try to put up a couple of posts. Will see how we go and how busy and exhausted we get!!
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