Posted in Fiction

Coffee and a catch up.

Posted on by TravellinPenguin
I love this.

It’s Friday here and I’m home all day after a busy week so time for a catch up chat.

I saw this bag advertised on Amazon so ordered it. it is a very soft material and I like it. Will be good for all the Fullers events I attend. They have a artist coming in weekly for 6 week two hour sessions to teach drawing. I have been looking for a drawing class for several years and not found one I like or it is filled or I find out about it when course is half way done. So I jumped on this. It begins in September.

I have closed my eBay shop for now. Ebay has changed a lot from when it was an auction site. You could list things, they would sell and be out of the house in a week. Now it is 90% Buy It Now, competing with Amazon and seller must store stuff at home until it sells so just adds clutter to a home while waiting. Spring os not far away and I will be happy to get get outdoors more with camera and metal detector. Better exercise too. Haha

I picked up a Kindle Scribe and I love it. My old Kindle was just too slow, pages turned slowly and it just wasn’t doing what I wanted it to do. It is several years old. The scribe has pop ip notes to write things as you read, has notebooks where you can journal, do bullet journaling, sketch and keep up tracking and whatever else you feel like. The surface is very nice to write on with the fountain pen tool. Just fun. Very similar to Remarkable 2. You can then send anything you write as pdf file to email and you cannot get distracted by social media apps as it does not support them.

This is a very short book.

I’m reading Greek Lesson by Han Kang for September book group. She is the author of the previous book, The Vegetarian, an International Man Booker prize winner, which I have not read.

The blurb around Greek Lessons is as follows: In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight.

Soon they discover a deeper pain binds them. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it’s the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages.

Greek Lessons is a tender love letter to human connection, a novel to awaken the senses, vividly conjuring the essence of what it means to be alive.

Translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won.
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It is an interesting story so far and I find the writing quite beautiful. Our August book club meeting had us debating the virtues and disappointments of Eva Catton’s book Birnam Wood. Several liked it, several thought “blah”‘ a few were bored. Most felt it was too long. It was touted as a satire of which half said they couldn’t see it. It was also advertised as a thriller and noone thought it met that definition. i\I was happy to move on.

I have another little project going. I am randomly selecting a page out of 1001 Classical Recordings You Should Hear Before You Die. I have a notebook on my Scribe that I allow one page of notes for each recording. I then listen to the recording from Amazon music. I write short notes on the single page of the journal of composers life, period of history, date of birth and death. I include a couple of pieces of info about him or her (should a ‘her’ arise). Today random.org picked Symphony No 5 by Tchaikovsky which I am enjoying as each movement has a separate style from movement to movement. The last entry was Alessandro Scarlatti’s Cantatas which I really enjoyed. Cantatas changed so much between the 17th century of a single voice to 18th century, several voices to 19th century when they became more spiritual texts or a type of short oratorios. Now! How many of you knew that!!!

Photography going well this week. I will leave you with a couple of photos from the Oatlands Annual Bullock Festival. From cantatas to Bullocks, gosh life has a lot to offer if you look for it! Lol.

I guess I did hear a 17th century cantata from the bullocks as each of them mooed alone or drifted to 18th century when there were several voices. Does that count? Anyway, enjoy.

Oatlands is a small country town up the midlands of Tasmania. Very country but nice coffee shops , scenery and even a lake with many wetland birds. A lovely place. It is about an hour’s drive north.

Until next time.
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Author:

I live a retired life in Tasmania, Australia. I love books, travel, animals, photography, motor biking and good friends. I indulge in all these activities with the little Travellin' Penguin who has now shared five continents with me. We love book shops, photography walks and time with friends as all our family is in USA and Canada. I enjoy visitors to my blog so hope you'll stop by.

13 thoughts on “Coffee and a catch up.”

  1. Love that Just a Girl Who Loves Books tote bag!

    I hope you enjoy your drawing class!!!

    Kindle Scribe sounds interesting! Pop up notes would be GREAT to have! I have an old, old, old Kindle Fire.

    Greek Lessons sounds good and I think The Vegetarian is already on my list.

    I love doing projects like your 1001 Classicals and I was doing something with some kind of Classicals book like that. Not sure if it was that exact book. I wasn’t doing all the fun notes and things like you are, but I was definitely listening to each piece thanks to already-existing Spotify playlists other readers had compiled. Unfortunately I always forget about or lose track of doing those kinds of projects. Not intentionally. There’s just so many fun projects to be done!!!!

    I definitely did not know anything about the changes in cantatas. lol

    This!!!: From cantatas to Bullocks, gosh life has a lot to offer if you look for it! Lol.

    Nice pics of the Bullocks and their humans.

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  3. I bought my Kindle in 2017. I don’t use it very often, though recently it has proved to be the best way to get books from Canada. I’ve got conservative in my old age about updating my toys – my 23″ monitor is 15 years old now, though the pc has been changed a couple of times.
    Great photos. I should have been a bullocky. Even now it would be better for me than sitting all day in the Volvo listening to books. Then again, loading/unloading by hand would probably do my back in.

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    1. Those bullocks were so muscular. They were pulling logs up onto a wagon in a demonstration. Impressive. I think I’d prefer the truck to working with 8 bullocks in harness. 😄

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  5. I liked Eleanor Catton’s The luminaries pretty much, but it was also long. I’m not rushing to read this one.

    I’m intrigued by the Kindle Scribe. It sounds like it might have the functionality that has been irritating me a lot about eBooks. Maybe finally I’ll get what I want. I’ll look into it. I have been using the Kindle app on my iPad which has been OK, but not really what I want. I do though make notes and can access them on my laptop… but I want more flexible note-taking option.

    I don’t quite understand why the change in eBay means items hang around longer? I would have thought the auction method meant they hung around longer because you had to wait until the auction period was over, where as Buy It Now would mean you could, theoretically, sell it as soon as it goes up on the site. Have I missed something critical?

    Oatlands looks great. Love little towns like that.

    Keep well.

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    1. Watch a you tube video about Kindle Scribe for info. There are several. When you list an auction on eBau it is ofer in 7 days. When you list a Buy it Now, you get it online then have to wait for someone who wnts it to buy it. There may be 100s of the same item online or it may not be anything anyone wants. You need to research their site and see what sells then look at how many sold and the prices need to be competitive. It might sell in a day or hang round for 2 years. So it needs to be stored waiting for it to sell. In an auction if it doesn’t sell in a week you can move it on to a thrift shop. The economy doesn’t have as many people buying outside of what they really need so eBay has become slow. Hope that is all clear.🌻

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  6. The Scribe sounds interesting!
    I have misplaced my Kindle… I’ve searched high and low but I cannot find it. So I may have to buy a new one for those books that we just can’t get here in Australia.
    I like the sound of 1001 Music Recordings too. We have no shortage of music books here but something that offers a concise summary of why a piece matters would be nice.

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