Posted in Fiction

Remember, if Christmas isn’t found in your heart, you won’t find it under a tree.”

Posted on by TravellinPenguin

(Quote by Charlotte Carpenter)

Welcome to Sydney

It has been awhile since I was here but wanted to wish everyone well for the new Year and hope your Christmas is/was going well. We aren’t much of Christmas people anymore. We do enjoy the day but our priority is giving funds to the local animal welfare groups in our city.

Yesterday I took Ollie and Peannie to the dog beach. After a few months of rehab, Ollie’s leg has healed enough he can play with other dogs. They had so much fun and really wore themselves out. They both came home and crashed out. I think they had smiles on their faces.

Totally knackered! Look at Ollie bringing up the rear. He played so hard with other dogs.

I finally finished the book Flights by Olga Tokarczuk. Because I took so many notes on my Kindle Scribe it took me a long time to read it. The next book on my list is Zadie Smith’s book Fraud. I’ve not read her before but have heard so much about her. I will also be choosing a random book off my shelves to begin. I will randomly select three books and choose one of the three to get stuck into. I will need to speed up my reading or allow more time to get through all the books coming up in 2024. I am not the fastest reader in the world.

With my eye sight being so low now in my left eye I look like a budgie, focusing on the print with my right eye.

I find kindle books much easier and faster to read as I can adjust the font size so I think the majority of my book club reads will be kindle and I will also try to mop up more TBRs from my shelves.

Earlier in December I met my good friend from Port Macquarie in Sydney for 5 days.

She and I saw the Dictionary of Lost Words by the Sydney Theatre Company at the Opera house. We enjoyed it very much and laughed at all the big groups of people around us in the audience. They were all book clubs. How fun would that be. Your whole book group goes to the Opera house.

This is my favourite building in the world. I just love it.

I also spent some time with my photography friend who lives in Sydney that I missed when in Sydney the end of May because she came down with Covid. It was a fun week but I was glad to leave on the 8th as Sydney was 41 C (105.8 F) that day. We went to Central station that morning and boarded a train for the 6 hr journey to Port Macquarie. I enjoyed the trip but it is S L O W ! So many stops.

I stayed for a few nights with my friend. I have never been there before. It is a beautiful city.

The highlights were attending the Glass House performing arts centre to see the indigenous dance group, Bangarra. It was excellent performance and the dancers are incredible. We also had lunch at the Koala hospital grounds that includes the historic Roto house. Just beautiful. I adopted a koala for a year while there and receive mail outs about how Roto-Jazz is doing.

An injured koala came into the hospital while we were there. The vet and assistant are evaluating it. They have a viewing platform where visitors can see into the hospital.
The historic Roto house where we ate lunch on the grounds.

wrap this up with some of the phone photos from the last month . I didn’t take my big camera as my friend and I spent time at theatre (no cameras allowed), shopping (just a nuisance when holding ags) and having a cocktail every night, (takes up too much space on those tiny tables).

Our Roto Jazz . We will keep an eye on him.

This year had it ups and downs, as usual so I look forward to the clean slate of a new year. I also look forward continued chatting with my blogger friends who I have enjoyed very much this past year. Here’s to the next year into our world of the unknown.

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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.

23 thoughts on “Remember, if Christmas isn’t found in your heart, you won’t find it under a tree.””

  1. Lovely post!!

    We are going to see Dictionary of Lost Words with some of our bookclub which I am looking forward to. Should probably read the book before then though!!

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  2. Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. You seem to have spent some time on lovely trips and with the dogs on the beach. Christmas was always a very big holiday for me, but, like you, we tend to make them simpler with the age and the change of time.
    I can relate to reading on a kindle, or ipad as I do. I can just not buy all books these days, because the text is too small. It is fantastic to be able to change as suitable.
    I wish you and your family a very good 2024. Hopefully, it will be a good reading year.

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    1. Thank you. I am always happy when the holidays are over and life gets back to its routines. I am enjoying my kindle a lot, exactly for the reasons you mention. Happy New Year to you and your family too🌺🌺🌺

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  3. So glad you loved Port , as the locals call it Pam. You can see why it’s become a Mecca for retirees can’t you. We love the koala hospital and Roto House; love Sea Acres (did you get there?) So glad you enjoyed Bangarra, we see them every year in Canberra. Was it a good sized audience?

    Am thinking about a new Kindle this year. My eyes are still fine, but I don’t have the bookshelves. Is the note taking function better on this new version?

    Anyhow, love your posts, and look forward to more this year. All the best to you and yours for 2024.

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    1. We dod go to Sea Acres. Bangarra was sold out I’d say. A beautiful venue at the Glass House. “Port” reminded me so much of our life in Florida. Florida too hot. Our homeland of Michigan too cold. Tassie is like being Goldilocks. Just right. I love my Kindle scribe. Go to you tube and search kindle scribe. Find a fairly recent date. You can write any number of journals but you can also take notes as you read. I use it all the time. Also you only need to charge it about every 4 weeks and the pen needs no charge. Just works. Thank you for kind words of my posts. I look forward to another year. All the best.

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      1. I’ve had a look … how are the notes different to the note capability that’s been there for a while. What sort of notes do you take and where do you find them when you want them. Can you add to one note as you go or do you start a new note each time. The reviews I saw were good but none of them really got into the nitty gritty of notes on reading. I can take notes now … I have an Apple Pencil and the Kindle App on my iPad … but the notes are attached to the point where I am in the book. I’d like to have one note that I just add to as I read.

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        1. 2 ways to do notes. Go to the notebook section and open up a notebook. You can keep all the notes, running notes in a notebook. You can open different notebooks for different books. Or you can go to library, open your book and keep tap on a word. That enables you to highlight the word, or define it with dictionary or leave a note in that part of the book. Once you have left a note a little icon pops up above the word that lets you know if you go back and tap on that icon it will open up to read, erase or add to it but it stays on that page. If you want to keep a running log of notes for a particular book you need to do so in the notebook section. That is what I do. However if I come across vocabulary I don’t know in the book section I often write a note so I remember or make a comment. I also highlight the last word at the end of each chapter, open a note and write what that chapter was about. I do that for books that require more thought. Hope this sounds clear. I’ve never had a kindle where I could write notes, just the most basic so I am enjoying this one. In the notebook section you can choose from different type of templates for the pages. If you want a bullet notebook the page has dots, timetable type pages. I write a personal journal and like that as it is password protected so I can complain about people and noone reads it but me. It also fits in my bag easily so on bus days I take it with me so I can write and read. In America it links to library books but not in Australia yet. I’m hoping they upgrade it so we can read our Libby books on it. You can download pdf files on it and also send your notebook writing to your email even if you had hand written it the print converts to text. That about sums it up.

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          1. Thanks very much for answering in such detail Pam .. the second part I can do on my kindle and in the kindle app … that is highlight, find meanings, add notes to what I’ve highlighted (with the little icon appearing) … I’ve been doing that for a long time on my existing kindle and on the app. That’s like doing marginalia in a print book, isn’t it. It’s the running commentary I want to do. Can you open the notebook section from anywhere in the book or do you have to open it separately and toggle between book and notebook. This is what has not been completely clear to me in all the video reviews I watched.

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            1. Inhave only seen that you have to toggle back and forth between library and notebooks but I am not positive. If there is a way to open as you read book I have not tried hard to find it. That would make it simpler. Maybe if we asked google that question???

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              1. Then that’s what I’m waiting for … in the meantime I should just toggle between the Notes app and the Kindle app. I’m not sure the Scribe offers a lot more (or enough more) than I’ve got.

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                1. For the price you are probably right. One woman said she reads on the kindle app and takes running notes on her iPad beside it. Might as well have a paper notebook to do that. Happy reading.

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                  1. If it’s on the kindle app she is surely on her iPhone or iPad where she has the Notes app, unless she meant she uses an actual Kindle and then has her iPad. I’ve just realised that on the iPad I could try the split screen option and have the Notes app open next to the Kindle app. The advantage of Notes over a notebook is that the Notes are electronic so anything I write there I can copy and paste into a blog post. I also don’t have to carry the notebook with me when I am out and about.

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  6. I’m so glad Ollie is able to run and play again! He looks very happy.

    The Opera House is so amazing. Recognized by everyone everywhere. What I want to know is, what is the view as you’re standing inside looking out the famous windows?

    That Roto House is very cool and LOOK at your cute little koala!

    I look forward to your 2024 adventures and seeing where we all end up next year at this time.

    Merry Christmas to you and your family, Pam!

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    1. Those glass windows at front of opera house are very high. The theatres are much lower below those windows. There are some verandah areas where people can walk out. The views are of the northern harbour shore. To the left is the Sydney Harbour bridge or the “coat hanger” as locals call it. The harbour is very beautiful. To the right water way it eventually goes out to the Pacific ocean. Ollie is very happy but he has become a bot lazy. Have to work to get him to exercise but we all understand that one. 😄 All the very best to 2024. I am now looking up recipes on tik tok. What a rabbit hole that is!!! Thanks to you, lol😳😳🐾🐾🐾

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  7. Best wishes for the festive season to you and Tom and of course to Ollie and Peannie.
    We don’t do much Christmas any more either… I have given away most of the Christmas decorations to a new family of migrants in the street, and felt a burden lift from my shoulders as I did so! Why is it that we have let Christmas become such a Big Deal that everyone is exhausted by it? Lately I’m starting to see cars wearing Christmas decorations!
    Having said that, I feel sorry for the kids who got a Christmas bike this year and can’t ride it because of the rain. Let’s hope for their sake that it fines up soon.

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