Travellin' Penguin

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.

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.
__________________

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.