I guess Mark Twain didn’t follow book blogs.

What I’m Reading: 

This week I finished a fascinating book called Grandma Gatewood’s Walk by Ben Montgomery.

This is a fascinating tale of the first woman to ever walk the Appalachian trail in the 1950s from Georgia to Maine. The blurb is as follows:

“Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than twhundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, sixty-seven-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. By September 1955 she stood atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin, sang “America, the Beautiful,” and proclaimed, “I said I’ll do it, and I’ve done it.”

Driven by a painful marriage, Grandma Gatewood not only hiked the trail alone, but she was also the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times. At age seventy-one, she hiked the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity and appeared on TV with Groucho Marx and Art Linkletter. The public attention she brought to the trail was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction.”

Author Ben Montgomery interviewed surviving family members and hikers Gatewood met along the trail, unearthed historic newspaper and magazine articles, and was given full access to Gatewood’s own diaries, trail journals, and correspondence. Grandma Gatewood’s Walk shines a fresh light on one of America’s most celebrated hikers. 

I found this book fascinating and would recommend it to anyone who might enjoy a different kind of travel narrative and nature. The themes are memoir, travel/walking, history, domestic violence. She also raised 11 children. Bookish Event of the Week:  

The most exciting event was seeing Geraldine Brooks launch her recent book Horse, at the Theatre Royal interviewed by Heather Rose in conjunction with Fullers Bookshop. The recently built studio theatre was a great venue. The event was sold out and she was generous to sign books in the theatre foyer after the event. I gifted her a small cloisonne black cockatoo pin in a little felt like bag for her to put somewhere in her horse stable when she gets home. She seemed to love the small Tasmanian gift.  I always think authors must get so tired of book signings and repeating themselves over and over during their tours. I did not take my book to be signed just to give her hand a rest. 

She told us about this obscure piece of American history in this book which in the end I loved. I wasn’t sure at the beginning I was going to enjoy this book but as I went along, I just kept reading and reading.  I will never forget this tale. Horse racing was built in America on the backs of slaves in the 1800s before the civil war. The book combines that history of the 1800s. It also has two other periods of time the story includes. The 1980s of the New York art worlds and the current times of the science of preserving skeletons at the Smithsonian.

The author talked at length how this book was successfully finished after the sudden death of her husband three years ago. It got her back on track as her grief was deep.

The research into the art and slavery issues were well researched. She talked about how as a Caucasian she talked to many African Americans about writing this book about their culture and history. She was encouraged to do it on all fronts, and she consulted with the African American community regularly. 

I admire the research skills she displays in the writing. She is an experienced former foreign correspondent and journalist and her writing displays that. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in these topics.  It finishes with a current race event of the 21^st century of America and the impact is greatly felt.

She also made mention of a little-known law in Australia that I think would surprise people. She would like to come back to Australia at some time. As she has lived in American, married to an American man since the 1980s or so, she mentioned her biological son can get dual citizenship with Australia however her legally adopted Ethiopian son cannot. She and her husband adopted him at the age of five and raised him as their own. He is an American citizen now through the family adoption. Australia really does need to get their act into gear. (My letter was the lead opinion piece in the Saturday paper.

Many are surprised by this little-known law. So, one day I wrote a letter about how discriminatory it is and sent it to the Opinion page of the Hobart Mercury, and Tasmanian Senators Jacqui Lambie and Andrew Wilkie as well as the federal minister for Immigration.  I felt better but no idea if anybody will respond or open their eyes a bit. Other families must be affected by this I’d think.

Off the Shelf: 

When I get back from my upcoming trip to New South Wales I have some new books to share with you that I am enjoying very much.

Penguin of the week:

I have also rolled the random di and have a 70^th anniversary Penguin picked out of the boxed set collection. That too will be shared later.

Life Happens: 

Life is starting to pick up. Thursday I am flying to Sydney to begin an eight day road trip of photography down the coast with a good friend. We will travel south of Sydney for some seascape days and then inland for some photos of areas I’ve not been to before.

Then I will have a ‘rest’ when another friend arrives, and we will spend 4 nights in Sydney visiting all the places we love. We are going to the Opera House one evening to see A Comedy of Errors.  This week I researched the play as this is a play by Shakespeare, I am not familiar with.  It looks like it will be fun and quite comical. We won’t forget the bookshops either.

Photo(s) of the week: 

Last Sunday our photography club went south of Hobart to the Wooden Boat centre at Franklin. We spent time photographing whatever we wanted for a couple of hours. I’ll share a couple of the photos at the end of this post.

It was a beautiful day and not as cold as it’s been. We really enjoyed the day and followed it with hot coffee in a local café afterwards.  It felt like life was normal again. 

I’ll be back here after 20 August sometime. Need to get over the two hour jet lag I’ll experience. I have not been off this island since 2019. 

What the Penguin did this week:

Outside of hasseling politicians I am packing.  I will see that our Penguin is on the road again with me as well. Long term followers will have seen him visiting other countries previously.  He is looking forward to this trip as much as I am.

Stay well everyone.

18 July 2022 – 6C i

When I was collecting the old Penguin books I was able to attain several boxed sets. In fact I had 37 boxed sets in all by the time I sold the library. I sold most of the boxed sets but I wasn’t able to part with all of them. Too sentimental.

I kept the 1960’s, 70’s and the 80’s little black book anniversary sets.

However I have not read them so I thought it was time I did. I am going to begin with the 1970’s set. There are 70 small books in this set. Some books are excerpts from larger works, some are like short stories or novellas.  I will use the random org app to choose which one I read next. I would like to read one a week but I can’t promise this as life has its chaotic moments. I will do a brief summary of each book so do not expect a long review of anything. So many people do such a wonderful job of book reviews I don’t feel compelled to add my voice. 

Stay well. Stay tuned…….

The week of 10th July, 2022

Welcome to the new format of the Travellin’ Penguin. With my dodgy eye sight I decided to develop a template for future blogs. Something easier that keeps my on track, avoids me rambling too much and just getting out the points I want to make. 

What I’m Reading: I am getting through Geraldine Brook’s book Horse. It is based on the true story of the most famous race horse in 1800s America who was cared for by a young slave. I’m finding it a much simpler read than I anticipated. It is more like a book I would have read in 7^th or 8^th grade, a level above Black Beauty maybe. I am finding the research is quite good as are the characters that pop up in the 1800s.  Of course a book about slavery and horse racing is not my favourite topic. I really abhor stories of slavery (though so far I’m not finding the horrific events written about in other books but the night is young). I also really despise horse racing but as this is a book for August book group and I’m seeing Geraldine Books at the Theatre Royal the end of July I am persevering with dread. 

I have begun a wonderful memoir by British actress Sheila Hancock called Old Rage. She is in her late 80s and she has a lot to say about growing older. The book is in diary form. Her sense of humour is on every page and I have seen her most recent film, Edie (2017) a couple of times and no doubt will watch it again. The story revolves around her life after her husband’s death. She doesn’t want to sit around waiting to die so she travels to Scotland where she is determined to climb a mountain in a remote area. I loved the film. There is a synopsis of it here.

I also have the book about death called The End on my Kindle by Bianca Nogrady. Sue at Whispering Gums wrote a great review of it so I decided to read it. Find that here.

It is an interesting non fiction account of death, what happens physiologically, the myths, is there an afterlife, etc.  It is not a book for everyone but I am really enjoying getting familiar with the nitty-gritty and hearing other person’s experiences with it (then revived) or around it. But……(Now you’ll laugh at this) I tend to read it when sitting in doctor waiting rooms or at the Franklin Square bus stop waiting for the bus home after the gym). I do not read it before falling asleep at night in bed. It is a bit too close to home!

Bookish Event of the Week:  There have been two book launches in the past two weeks through Fullers Book shop. The first one was the Stella award winning author Evelyn Araluen discussing and reading from her book of poetry Drop Bear.  There are many reviews of this book online so I’ll let Mr Google lead you there, but what a breath of fresh air she is. Young, dynamic, tells it like it is regarding First Nation’s people of Australia. Funny, intelligent and I think I’d read anything she publishes. We just loved her. If you get the chance to see her or read her poetry, run, don’t walk.

The second event was the launch of Undertow, by Kim Bambrook.  The blurb is as follows:

And on it goes. Fiction published by Forty South Publishing.

Kay wakes up on a floundering yacht.The Tasmanian coastline has receded, and her partner, Sam, has mysteriously disappeared.An eerie fog hinders visibility.With no means of communication with the outside world, Kay’s worst fears are realised: she is alone and isolated, her vessel off-course and lurching into the unknown.From the bow of a sinking yacht to remote and craggy coastlines, Kay’s journey is one of unexpected dangers and startling discoveries.In an unforgiving environment, Kay has to dig deep and trust her instincts

(Photo at left- Above: Kim Bambrook rt and below Evelyn Araluen)

The launch was a bit of a laugh. This is her first book, and she based it on a very adventurous childhood and adult life she has lived. She has travelled the world, lived and sailed on a yacht alone for 7 yrs, had two children, seemingly raised on her own.  The head of Forty South Publishing flew here to introduce the two people who would introduce and interview her. The room was packed with quite well off people who flew here from all over the country to be here for the night.  The launch was person after person singing her praises and achievements. In one hour we had the three who heaped accolades on the author, the interview of the author, a journalist whose name escaped me after the audience was told she had Covid earlier in the week! I lost my train of thought after that announcement and I must say she looked very sick. Then we had the talk for 15 or 20 minutes of how the book came about which was interesting. I must say I liked the author and she appeared very humble but the others! Then there were a few questions and then the author gave a speech lasting about 10 minutes as to how humble she felt and she had a list of notes four pages long of those she wanted to thank. OMG, we winced.  There was a book signing afterwards and of course I bought the book for my friend’s 83^rd birthday and I think I will actually enjoy the story. But as my friend and I left the shop we looked at each other and said, “Did she just launch her first book or did she find the cure for cancer?” Hilarious. 

Penguin of the week:

I will tell you more about this the next time and probably in a separate post. 

Life Happens:

My week went well. A couple of times at the gym, no visit to the eye doctor for a change. Cold days but I accomplished a fair amount of walking. A wonderful pedicure with teal nails in anticipation of seeing two dear friends in Sydney soon. I hope my mask keeps me healthy as I wear it everywhere. The book launches over the past two weeks and the Monday night shared reading of Hard Times by Dickens pretty much filled the week.

From the Photo Archive:

I am continuing to learn editing software of my photos so have pulled a few out of the archives. I will share one of the past travel photos here. I hope you enjoyed this rambling missive and look forward to hearing one or two things you read or did this week.

This photo was taken in Botswana on a trip we did to Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. These guys are scary and purported to be the most dangerous animal in Africa. Faster than you’d think.

Hippos weight up to 2000 kgs and kill 3000 people per year in Africa. Yikes!

Let me know what you did or read this week. I really enjoy hearing what people do to make themselves comfortable or happy during these times.

Although left eye vision will never be very good again at least I can see the outlines of trees, buildings and cars. Driving isn’t bad either as my right eye is sharp as a tack for vision and with glasses I can read. There is a possibility too a new left lens in my glasses down the track a bit will improve it a bit more.  So onwards and upwards!

Reading has been slow but has been happening. I see Brona has written a review on H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, but I’m holding off reading it as I find the more I hear about a book the less I want to read it and I have just started Hawk myself. You can read
Brona’s review here.

I need to begin Geraldine Brooks book Horse as a priority as it is our August book group’s book and I have a ticket to see her at the Theatre Royal 27 July as organised by Fullers book shop. Tim who now owns Fullers felt bad when I could not make the Shakespeare event earlier this year due to eye surgery so he kindly put aside two complimentary tickets for a friend and I to see Geraldine Brooks this month.  (How to win over permanent customers though he never has to try with me.) 

I finished the audio version of Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. I have read several reviews of this book who love it but I was more than ready to finish it once read.  I found a lot of it tedious and I guess in today’s world the personalities of four women sharing a medieval Italian castle grated a bit against the daily news of today. I didn’t escape into it as many have though I thought the writing was good and the descriptions of the characters were good. It was orginally published in 1922 and though the world had just gone through  a couple of wars at the time and were recovering this book was a tad too fluffy for now.

I have also downloaded The End: The Human Experience of Death by Bianca Nogrady after reading Sue of Whispering Gum’s review of it.  I put it on my kindle as the book to read while sitting in waiting rooms and bus stops after the gym each week. As this book is quite a scientific look at death I think I need to read it in short sections. You can see her review here. 

I am currently half way through a new Australian crime book, Black River by Mattew Spencer. A serial killer has killed two women from a rich Sydney neighbourhood near a private boys school. When a third woman is found on the grounds of the school is it linked to the previous two? Two detectives, one female, one male work it out with the help of a cooperative journalist they enlist to publish specific information to hopefully flush out the killer or killers.  There are a range of suspects from the headmaster to the principal at the school and a few red herrings. This is the author’s first novel and I’d say he does a pretty good job of it but for Sydney all the characters bar one are pretty white as they talk about a multi cultural city.  But it moves along and I’ll finish it soon before I move on to Horse. 

Later this week my friend and I will attend the Fullers launch of 2022 Stella Prize winner Drop Bear with author Evelyn Araluen. I am looking forward to it very much and no doubt will buy the book. 

The 2022 Stella Prize judges described the winning book as:

“…a breathtaking collection of poetry and short prose which arrests key icons of mainstream Australian culture and turns them inside out, with malice aforethought. Araluen’s brilliance sizzles when she goes on the attack against the kitsch and the cuddly: against Australia’s fantasy of its own racial and environmental innocence.”

Chair of the 2022 Stella Prize judges, Melissa Lucashenko, says of the winning book:

“When you read Evelyn Araluen’s Dropbear you’ll be taken on a wild ride. Like the namesake of its title, this collection is simultaneously comical and dangerous. If you live here and don’t acquire the necessary local knowledge, the drop bear might definitely getcha! But for those initiated in its mysteries, the drop bear is a playful beast, a prank, a riddle, a challenge, and a game. Dropbear is remarkably assured for a debut poetry collection, and I think we can safely say it announces the arrival of a stunning new talent to Australian literature. Congratulations, Evelyn.”

That pretty much wraps up the bookish side of my week. On a more personal note, the planning of the Sydney photographic road trip thanks to my good friend J. there, progresses for August followed by four nights in a 5 star hotel near Circular Quay with another friend, I, who will arrive from Port MacQuarie for some R & R. We will enjoy full buffet breakfasts and a cocktail of the day for 4 glorious days following J and I crawling around rock pools and abandoned buildings I the rain with our cameras. SO looking forward to both lifestyles and getting off this island for a break. 

I’m back at the gym with Daniel who runs the weight classes, twice a week, followed by another dear friend, Teresa who is a diabolical personal trainer I will work with for 12 weeks developing core strength, balance and Pilates. Hopefully I’ll build up enough coordination and muscle people will stop on the street and stare saying, “Who is that old woman with the big muscles and drooping eye?

I’ll be the one wearing the black hat, black eye patch, black mask carrying the black Canon. Might make a good Instagram or Tik Tok personality. (As if…😳😳😳)

On that note the Penguin and I wish you all well and hopefully all obstacles in your life will be pursued with a sense of humour. 

I’m back with the living after three weeks of fighting with my left eye. I won’t go into the details as I once heard Germaine Greer say, One should not use body parts in conversation once over the age of 50 or you’ll be very boring. So I’m standing by that.

I have managed to get a bit of reading done but not a lot. I gave up on The Animals in that Country. by Laura Jean McKay. It is for the July book group. I read 50% and for me it was just irritating and I am the first to admit I do not appreciate books where things happen to animals. I have met others though who really enjoyed the book so I will leave it to individuals to form their own opinion.

I had to pull my Kindle out of a drawer to read the past couple of weeks as I spent a lot of time in dr waiting rooms and I appreciated the large font. I have been enjoying the book, The Day the World Came to Town by journalist, Jim DeFede. He writes about the history of the small town of Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada in the wake of the September 11th attacks. The small city embraces the welfare of the many people stranded there from all the planes that could not enter American air space. It is a wonderfully uplifting story of the kindness of people when life gets tough.

For our shared reading group at Fullers on Monday nights we are reading Dubliners by James Joyce and I really like these short stories. We read four stories each week and discuss them a bit once finished with each story.

I also attended a couple of book launches the past two weeks at Fullers. One was Chloe Hoopers Bedtime Story which was quite moving. She tells the story of her husband who was diagnosed with a terminal type of leukaemia and the doctors said chemo would not be effective. She had to work out how to tell her children their father was going to die. She has written an entire book of grief and children and how to approach it. However, our audience felt better once she told us her husband’s cancer mutated six months later, chemo did become effective and he is now in remission. I hope it lasts.

The second book launch was Wendy Davis introducing her book, Don’t Make a Fuss: It’s only the Claremont Serial Killer. In 1990, Wendy was working as a social worker in Palliative Care in a Western Australian hospital. Her office was located in a more isolated area of the hospital and when a telecom worker asked to use the toilet (in uniform) she didn’t think anything of it. Suddenly though he had grabbed her from behind, put a cloth over her mouth and was dragging her towards the bathroom. She fought hard, kicked him harder and he apologised to her and ran out. She was able to get to a nurses station and report it to police and the telecom office. But, being female and the police being as they were, no one took her seriously. Telecom made excuses for him and continued to employ him. The police never took a statement and sent her home with her husband, who was also employed in the police department. She was very traumatised and eventually moved to Tasmania. Then in 2012 (I believe it was), she heard on the news that this same man had been arrested as WA’s worst serial killer having raped and killed several young women. Suddenly she was contacted and gave evidence in his trial. The killer had gained more confidence and escalated in his attacks on women since her experience.

Her book details how she felt by not being taken seriously, and how the whole case affected her. She joined a Victim’s Support group in Tasmania when flashbacks came back to her upon hearing the news he had been arrested. The psychologist suggested she keep a journal, which she did and that became the book. You could hear a pin drop in the audience as she recounted the experience. Her message, is to definitely make a fuss and make sure authorities take your story seriously. I am sure police practises have changed (hopefully) in dealing with assaults on women in our current times but women still need to be assertive in these types of situations of assault or bullying.

The Telecom company eventually apologised profusely to her but nothing more ever came from the police department.

That pretty much wraps up my last three weeks of bookish news. I hope to get a few more things read in the coming three weeks. However it might still be slow going.

I will leave you with one of my photographs of some beautiful Tasmanian fungi.

Good morning. There has been quite a bit going on and I have not been able to write much over the past week or so. First off I had a trabeculectomy on my left eye and presently, I have no vision in it but do have heavy duty eye drops and pain I am struggling with. Having to get used to reading with one eye hasn’t seen me do a lot. It is going to take awhile to settle down and we don’t know if the vision will come back.

The saddest part of the procedure is I had to cancel the order I had with Motorworks for my 150cc Italian scooter due to arrive in Australia in August/September. I don’t feel I should be on the roads with one eye.

I did finish The Promise by Damon Galgut and I am hoping to get to Wednesday night’s book group to discuss it. I think it was a powerful book about families, interactions around funerals, dysfunctionality all against four decades background of South African history. There is a lot packed into this book. I can’t say it was a fluffy read by any means and hard to enjoy but the characters were well drawn, the climate within the family around the funerals and the ramifications of the promise during those decades made for quite a riveting story. I’m looking forward to the discussion with the others.

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The four books I have enjoyed very much are the motorbike travel novels I downloaded from Audible by Sam Manicom. Sam is a British motorcyclist who spent six years riding around the world on his BMW motorcycle. It is one of the best travel series I have listened to. He wasn’t an experienced biker when he decided he was going to travel the length of eastern Africa in the 1980s. The first book is called Into Africa. The deciding factor for him to begin was the Ethiopian war had ended even though there was still quite a bit of unrest around him in the other countries. Sometimes naivety can be useful.

What is so good about his writing is the amazing detail that he balances out throughout the books regarding history, terrain, the people, the cities and villages and the people he meets. He has many really interesting experiences, both positive and negative and frankly, I am surprised he survived.

The second book is Under Asian Skies as he travels from Australia northwards to Asia and much of that book covers India, Pakistan and Iran. Again the same format. By now he has met a female partner and she is travelling with him as pillion.

The third book is their trip that his German girlfriend, Birgit goes on with him, Distant Suns. He asks her to continue with a new adventure but she agrees only if they can go through Africa again and she can ride her own bike. Now we have her on a BMW with no experience getting her first miles in Africa. It is the later 80s by now, almost the 90s. She turns out to be a great navigator, and has the social skills to get through some very tricky border crossings. Once they arrive in South Africa they travel to Brazil and ride to the southern tip of Chile into Patagonia, back to Argentina and north along the pacific highway into Peru and up through Central America. Their trip in the third book ends at the Mexican border.

The fourth book I’m currently listening to, Tortillas to Totems, has them riding throughout Mexico and into California then exploring the American west and their goal at this point is Alaska. The point I’m at now is they are soon to go into Canada on their way to Alaska but it is almost September and I think the weather might be a concern as they head to Alaska. They have two months to spend in the USA, then will head back to the UK.

The detail of his memory in these four books is quite astounding, however he said Birgit kept scrupulous diaries and he noted quite a bit down too. I admire travellers who can do that. I find by the end of the day when I travel I am so tired, I can barely write down the name of the town or hotel I am in.

While I have lain in bed with my eyes closed for several day, my cold compresses over my eye, I am vicariously living their trip and it has really kept my spirits up.

Another reason books are so important in contributing to life in so many ways.

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In the meantime, I am picking my way through The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion because I am attending a Theatre Royal performance of it in June.

It is described as:

This highly personal account of loss through the lens of hope unpacks a surreal and overwhelming time in Didion’s life as she faces the sudden loss of her husband John, and later her daughter Quintana. Deeply moving, sometimes funny, and ultimately joyful, this is one woman’s story of the journey to find acceptance, and the lessons learnt in letting go.

After a critically acclaimed sellout premiere season in Melbourne, this production is a must-see for all fans of great writing and drama.

The Year of Magical Thinking is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French Inc., and Concord Theatricals Company. This production was developed for the stage by FortyFiveDownstairs.

Upcoming things to look forward to:

My photographer friend in Sydney and I are planning a road trip in NSW in early August for approx 10 days to share photography skills together. I am really looking forward to that, one eye or not! Fortunately I look through my camera with my right eye and that works well.

We were going to have gone in July but she has some things happening in July and I see that Fullers Book Shop is hosting Geraldine Brooks at the Theatre Royal on the 27th of July to launch her book Horse. She is in conversation with Heather Rose. Our book group will be reading Horse towards the end of the year. I am really looking forward to both.

This is as far forward as I care to think at the moment. As I go along I am enjoying time at home with family. Mr. Penguin is just now off his crutches and driving again after six weeks recovering from his third hip replacement.

Our dog Ollie, has had a torn ligament in his back leg and is on restricted activities. That is fun. Have you ever tried to restrict the activity of a Jack Russell terrier?

Now I am laid up just a bit, but we all deal with health issues pragmatically here. It is a part of aging at times and we just focus on what we can do and the good things around us. That means not following any awful news or interacting with others about it. We were very happy with our federal election results and that kept us happy too.

You just never know what is around that next bend in the road do you? You just keep riding.

I have been reading a bit lately and I will tell you about the travel books by the same author in a post to come. I am not quite finished with the second one but enjoying it very much. More information on that to come.

I also have some new books to share and I need to continue with the book group read of The Promise by Damon Galgut. More on that too later.

But for today, I have been learning a bit more with my camera with the help of a good friend in Sydney. We are planning a road trip with our cameras hopefully the end of July. I will fly to Sydney then we will do a New South Wales road trip with our cameras. I am looking forward to it very much. But more on that later too.

For this Sunday I will leave you with the following photos.

I drove from Hobart south to Police Point and then stopped in Dover. There was a rally of old mustang cars zooming around down there and I watched them go by as I set my tripod up on the side of the road overlooking the Huon river. It was a pleasant day out. My Sydney friend encourages me to have a Pam day as she does with her Judy days. That means you get all the camera gear loaded into the car and spend a day away from the world enjoying the opportunity to take photos of places we haven’t investigated lately. One might also call it a mental health day.

I guess this post wraps up the week. I’ll keep reading and post up some bookish news next time. Stay well.

Things have been more than hectic the past few weeks with Mr P having had his hip replaced and on crutches and not driving for six weeks. I’m having eye surgery end of May and will be out of commission but by mid winter we should all be up and back. Did I mention I backed the new car into a guard rail one early morning while blinded by the sun and that is in repair for a week so learning to drive a little rental car. I need to pick it up this week the same time Peanut goes to the vet for injections. Whoops

I could go on, but it is boring so I won’t.

I had a disaster with this blog disappearing and I gave up and moved to Wix. They were great at setting up a blog but once that was just about finished they pulled all support and communication so to make a very long story short, I cut my losses and decided to get stuck back into the original one at Word Press. I can now tell you there is good in the world I really misjudged WordPress. As confusing as I find it at times, I spent more than 90 minutes in an online chat with a lovely person who got me back online. They can’t figure out what happened either. I had part of a different blog incorporated into mine and the whole thing went “Whoosh!” But….I’ve spent enough time on all of this so let’s say no more. But I can’t praise the WordPress support I got more. I’m now eating my words.

Photography has had some lovely moments as we are in autumn here and if I manage to figure how to post a photo I will do so.

There are many events happening at Fullers book shop this year. As my friends and longer term followers know, Fullers is the oldest book shop in Australia at 102 years. It is under new ownership by a young, lovely man (Tim) who has a PhD in philosophy and is also extremely well read, ambitious and absolutely full of ideas for the shop that people are flocking to. With more than 100 people divided into groups of 12 for monthly book groups, there is also a shared reading group that meets regularly, a new monthly poetry reading group where they focus on one poet a month. Shakespeare and philosphy events are scheduled as well as many author events and book launches.

Just last week my friend and I attended a really fun event as Jane Rawson launched her newest book, A History of Dreams. It is the story of four very different women who become witches to deal with rising facism during 1937 in Adelaide. Such an unusual theme but as she stated she is very concerned with many issues both past and present regarding how right winged our world is becoming and coinciding with that the problems of global warming especially as it relates to Australia with fires and floods. It was a great night and Geordie Williamson, one of the book critics from The Australian interviewed her. I think he should be working for the Guardian listening to their conversation. It was most enlightening and Jane has very unusual and interesting ideas for her books. She stated her next book would be about a time traveller who goes back to the 1980s and murders those responsible for global warming, though I must emphasize that is simply an idea at this point but it got a good round of applause and laughter from the audience.

Well I don’t want to push my luck here so we will see how this goes today so I will wrap this up for now. I must say my panic has subsided now I have my blog back and fortunately Wix transferred almost all of my past Word Press posts to this site though I haven’t had a good look yet. So stay tuned.

If you’d like to see the new direction this blog is going check out the new About page. All the best.