“Have no fear of perfection; you’ll never reach it.” 

The past couple of weeks have been zooming by. Book launches, photography club, friends, reading group. Exercising. All of it enjoyable.

Control your moods-

This week had a few walks in between 5 and 8 kms each. Had a pedicure as it is probably the most relaxing task. Love the massage of legs and feet after soaking feet in very warm water, only to have them swabbed with lotion. Hair appt too is always good for the mood. Coming out of winter an appointment or two with a psychologist also change a mindset and can be rewarding.

Book Launches

The raptor refuge in Tasmania has launched a book about Tasmanian raptors (Birds of prey) Wonderfully photographed with relevant information about the birds. It was well attended and appreciated.

Jenny Hocking came to Tasmania to launch her Australian history book, The Palace Letters.

Jenny Hocking is an award-winning biographer, Emeritus Professor and political commentator. She is the author of the acclaimed two-volume biography of Gough Whitlam, Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History (Melbourne Universiry Publishing 2008) and Gough Whitlam: His Time (Melbourne Universiry Publishing 2012), winner of the Fellowship of Australian Writers’ Barbara Ramsden Award and shortlisted for several awards including the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the National Biography Award.

It was a riveting discussion as it related to Australia’s governor general and his covert links with Prince Charles in the sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in the 1970s. The corruption, the lack of any transparency, the secret letters that have only recently been discovered and released from the national archives after winning a high court battle. The conspiracy between the royal family especially a younger Prince Charles and John Kerr, the governor general at the time.

I know a lot of Australian history of colonial times. I also am familiar with political history from the time of our arrival in Australia in 1988 to the current day. However I am quite weak with historical knowledge from the time of federation in 1901 through the 1970s.

I also attended a book launch of Profiles in Hope by John Brogden. John Brogden was a former liberal politician from New South Wales. The two other speakers were Jacqui Lambie who is a current Tasmanian Senator and Nick Sherry is a former Tasmanian Senator. What do they have in common? They all made serious attempts to end their lives. It was a very interesting discussion about events that led to their attempts and how they recovered. Older men make up the majority of people who kill themselves at this time. All very sad. But help is available and this evening we heard about these three success stories.

Reading Group

There were 8 of us who had a really fun discussion of Paul Auster’s book New York Trilogy. Several of us want to read more of him. One man said he’d had enough. Lots of laughs.

We are now on summer break until February next year. Time to dive into that large TBR pile.

Looking forward to this new book.

I recently acquired this beautiful travel book called Border Crossings: a Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway by Emma Fick. It is a beautiful format of her travels with coloured illustrations throughout. Emma Fick is an artist and illustrator. After completing her degrees in English Lit and Art History in 2013, she obtained a Fulbright scholarship to teach English in Serbia. I’ve included a few

photos.

Social life

The highlight was when a dear friend of mine from New South wales was in town this past week and we spent a couple of days together. We went to the southwest of the state to Mt Field National Park, having stopped in a favourite cafe for lunch on the way there. So good to catch up. We had beautiful weather.

Looking forward to …..

Spending a week in Sydney in December to see two wonderful friends. I really love Sydney and will meet a family member of one who is helping me with transport to spend time with one friend. The other is our 15th year of a girl’s week out. Shopping, a play at the Opera house and a cocktail each night. Did I mention visiting a favourite stationery shop and a couple of book stores.

Planning

Looking forward to refreshing my blog posts in the next year. Looking at content and/or format. Reading more Australian writers in 2025 and books from writers of other countries. I will not be interacting with any political news from America. When someone asks me if I’m American, as they often do because of my accent, I am going to tell them I used to be. Fully embracing my Australian citizenship from now on. 🇦🇺

There is some exciting news to look forward to in 2025 but I will talk about that more once it is confirmed.

30 Minute Friends (a random person one chats with for a short period of time in a shop, bus stop, restaurant, etc. A pleasant chat before moving on with your day)

Renay is a lovely woman who runs a cafe in a country town in Tasmania. I have chatted to her when my sister was here and we visited her cafe. We were sitting outside by the river, trying to spot a platypus (wrong time of day) .Our photo workshop had us going there for lunch one day and Renay chatted to us. This last week I took my friend and the three of us had a few laughs.

Question to ponder

Did any of you have a 30 min friend this week? Or

What was your favourite reading/bookish moment of the week ?

Have a good week. Do something fun.