Sunday Catch Up…

| TravellinPenguin
We are trying to stop our city from building a cable car across this landscape to the top of Kunanyi (Mt Wellington). A private business wants to put a very large information center and restaurant on top of this sacred indigenous mountain. Just unbelievable. Photo by ABC broadcasting.

I haven’t been online here for a bit. Reason is I’m decluttering my online presence in several areas. It was becoming overwhelming. I have decided to really follow only a small handful of book blogs and you people will know which ones. I followed many other ones but never got a response so off they went. I only need to read so many book reviews a day.

Have also deleted many fb pages and newsletters I follow, mainly photographic ones. All they want to do is sell me classes or take my money somehow. Life feels much more streamlined now.

My reading has been slower this month as I’ve been studying photograghy and photoshop classes quite a bit this month. It’s one of those things if one doesn’t practice, important lessons are forgotten.

My personal trainer, Theresa. There are prizes at the end of the 12 weeks including a dinner on the waterfront. I’m going for it. 😍

The main activities I’m involved in lately is within the gym. I am doing a 12 week challenge that takes up three days a week. The routine is….

Take the bus into the city, walk the five blocks to the gym, do the class, chat a bit, run errands I might have in the city, then walk back to the bus. I get in an hour’s worth of fitness training plus approximately a 5 km walk by the time I get home. Two days a week I am doing weight training in a small group with a trainer. The third day I spend one hour with my personal trainer on the pilates reformer apparatus. My main goal is to continue strongly into older age.

By the time I get home each afternoon I need to rest a bit. There have been annual health checkups I need to undergo each year and so far that has all been fine. We have also had our first Covid vaccination. Things seem to be getting back to normal where that is concerned. Tasmania has just passed the one year mark without a single case in the state. Living on a small island has its benefits.

Wonderful story of a brilliant photographer

I’m listening to a book or two on audible. I had a break with the Bohemians by Jazmin Darznik, a story of the photographer Dorothea Lange who is know for her depression era photos during the 1930s American depression. It takes place in early 1900s San Francisco and has been good. I will return to it soon.

I interspersed that listening experience with a couple of essays or podcasts I also enjoy from other writers.

Book club read for June

The book I’m currently immersed in for book group is The Yield by Tara June Winch. This book has had a great deal of hype around it rightfully so. It is a very good tale of an Indigenous family that is extremely well written. It won the Miles Franklin Award in Australia for 2020. It took me a few chapters to get into it as I found the writing a bit confusing in the beginning. But I listened to a couple of interviews online with the author to get the story straight in my head and now I am sailing along with no further trouble. Our book group will meet and talk about it the first week of June.

Another book I am in the middle of is one referred to me by my very academic cousin from New Hampshire. It is called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. If you wish to know about it you can tap on this link here. My cousin used to teach it to his university classes. I am really enjoying it. Extremely well written and a very good story. I must admit I’ve read more about Indigenous Australians than Native Americans and it is nice to have another perspective from a different culture.

I have also attended a couple of book launches through our book shop in the city, Fullers. They do events almost fortnightly and my friend and I go to all of them. One hour of interesting conversations and then a quick meal at our favourite Japanese takeaway. Always an inexpensive and lovely evening out.

We recently went to the launch of James Boyce’s account of Inga Clendinnen’s writings. She was a writer and history who’s writings are worth reading. The discussion of her (of whom I was not familiar) was interesting and I look forward to exploring her writing. The event was very well attended and the book is very popular here.

A selection of her writings was read at the launch and we really enjoyed it.

We also attended the launch of the Three Burials of Lottie Kneen by her granddaughter Krissy Kneen. A memoir of sorts of her very controlling grandmother and matriarch who travelling between Slovenie, Egypt, UK and finally Australia. The author resides in Brisbane now. The story is fascinating and I am looking forward to hearing more about this unusual life of the family.

So while I haven’t abandoned books altogether I am participating in some interesting varied events.

An absolutely fascinating tale.

I also had to edit some photos for our club photography challenges and that took some time. Our theme was 1. city nightscape and 2. side lighting of a person. I dug into my travel archives for those. I will share them at the end of this post.

Speaking of the end of this post…..it is now here. Until next time the Penguin and I wish everyone well.

Busy, Busy.

A couple of assorted photos from the archives…

Spanish Busker. I really liked this guy. Give him a coin and get some movement. This photo won me a silver category at our photo club.
Moroccan bride.
Moroccan Woman

22 thoughts on “Sunday Catch Up…”

  1. I agree with you. I don’t know how people keep up with all the different social medias. I concentrate on my blogs, but even that is hard sometimes.

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  2. Decluttering feels good, doesn’t it? I’m gradually doing the same. And I am super-impressed by your 12 week exercise program! good luck with that. I certainly could ‘nt do that bus to town, walk, gym, and reverse trip home. After that, you’ve earned your tea & bikkies!

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  3. I think your decluttering process makes a lot of sense. I don’t really use social media, but I probably follow too many blogs. I miss going to the gym – haven’t been there since the first lockdown started. Gyms in the UK have just been allowed to do exercise classes again, so hopefully I’ll be back soon.

    Great photo of the Spanish busker!

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  4. Lovely to catch up with you, and your fitness regime is very impressive! My main exercise is walking to work and back twice a day which is not really enough – I need to do a little more. But we are still restricted a bit over her, with cases still rising despite everything, and although I’ve had both vaccines I don’t feel confident venturing far.

    I totally get what you say about cutting back with online stuff – it can time consuming and I think I should do the same. Maybe then I could even consider a dog…. That would keep me fit!!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. A dog!! Would be exciting. Lol. The fitness program has been good. The most difficult part is getting there. Leaving the house in the cold or rain. But good once done. We get our 2nd jab in July. Astra zeneca here. So far no reaction.

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  5. Here in the UK we’re pleased to be down to around 2k cases a day! And we’re an island nation. Good luck with the training. Mrs TD goes to hers twice a week, me just once. Both had both injections- mild soreness after the second one. Pfizer.

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  7. I get on Ok with facebook, see all my widespread family and follow a couple of political sites (The Simpsons against the Liberal is the best). And I agree it is too easy to follow too many blogs, well to start following them, keeping up is the problem. Love your photography; understand – if not practice – keeping fit into old age; hate all cables, in streets, across bush. Good luck preserving your mountainscape.

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  8. I’m very impressed by your fitness regime.
    I’ve read a few of Inga Clendinnen’s books, and I agree she was a remarkable thinker and her writing, often about difficult issues, was always clear and never a word wasted. I recommend Dancing with Strangers, Reading the Holocaust and Tiger’s Eye, all of which changed my thinking about things.

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    1. PS Congratulations on having your first C-vaxx, I’ve had my first too. No after-effects except a sore arm (same as the flu vaxx) and a bit of tiredness the next day, which was a good reason to loaf on the sofa with a book:)

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    2. Reading the Holocaust and Tiger’s eye was mentioned quite a bit in the talk. She would find a topic that interested her then reseach it to death then write about it. I am looking forward to reading her. Her selected writings book is meant to be very diverse.

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  9. Oh no! I feel your pain! Back home in L.A., we are fighting them running a cable car up to the Hollywood Sign! Good lord, no.

    I haven’t come across anyone who has regretted deleting their FB page. Unfortunately, that’s the only way to communicate with some of my extended family and friends so, reluctantly, I keep mine.

    Sounds like you have a great fitness program going and who doesn’t like prizes????

    I loved The Absolute True Diary…

    Love your photos.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks Jinger. I need to keep fb bc my brother and sister live overseas. And our photo club business is all on it. The Indian book is very good. You might like it. 🐧🌷Hi to your mom. And Marilyn

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      1. where-ever there’s a dime to be made… businesspersons have no sense of beauty, seemingly… it’s great you’re exercising; pretty important as we get i along (i bike about 50 miles/week). also important to do what appeals and you sure have a talent for photography: great pictures!

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          1. my comments section gets tangled up sometimes, also… hard to keep it all straight, lol…

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