Travellin' Penguin

My sister arrives in five days from California for a month’s stay. I am really looking forward to her visit as I’ve not seen her in five years. We plan on several day trips, some theatre experiences, a market day and a week on the west and northwest coast of Tasmania. I will have my camera on me a lot so who knows what kind of photos I’ll collect.

Today is 34 degrees C in Hobart (almost 100F) so a good day to stay in and write a post.

One of my book groups met last week to discuss The Dry by Natalia Ginzburg. We only have 5 in the group and really got into a good discussion. Such an interesting tale of a loveless marriage, a mistress on the side, a sickly child and an Italian background. Depressing? Yes, but also riveting to see where it all goes and a good discussion about the interpretation of the ending.

I’ve just started The Castle by Franz Kafka for next month’s discussion. A novel that Kafka did not finish due to his death. A story of the absurdity of bureaucracy and so far it is quite funny with very descriptive characters.

I am also going to begin Richard Flanagan’s latest book Question 7. It has received many great reviews. I went to the launch of this book and that was such a good evening. The stories of his family living on the west coast of Tasmania really drew me in.

I have done a couple of days of street photography and am doing some online courses and studying many you tube videos. It takes a lot of time so not as many books being regularly read but am learning a lot. It really keeps me an hored and I have always enjoyed learning new things. Non fiction over fiction I guess as I age. There is so much out there.

I have been playing with AI Chat GPT and that has been great fun. For example I am able to ask it to give me 3 dinner recipes for two adults using an air fryer and it comes up with three recipes, including the directions and a shopping list if I include that request. The recipes look good.

I also asked it to tell me about the book The Castle and I got a really good answer explaining what it is about.

I can see why teachers in educational institutions are wringing their hands over it. It develops and produces quite good essays on any number of topics. I asked it “How can I become a really good street photographer based on the advice of the best street photographers in the world.”. I got a list of ten items telling me what to concentrate on when I go out.

I also asked for a good bedtime routine to follow before bedtime to get over my severe insomnia. My GP has me on a very good behavioural program that’s online and free and it has been starting to work. The AI app gave exactly the same advice with a few more things one can do to prepare for a good night’s rest. This is ongoing.

So quite a diverse week of learning on top of a lovely lunch with a good friend and her son as well as my regular gym workouts and follow up coffee with my fun trainer friend.

Now to just get the spare room fixed up for my sister’s visit. It will go by all to fast I’m sure.

I hope the rest of you are enjoying your weekend and if you’re not do try and find a happy time to look forward if even for a few minutes. It is so important to take care of yourself and don;t be afraid to use the word NO if life gets too hectic.

Summer’s morning. Birds are active outdoors. Can hear a wattle bird at the moment, a magpie with it’s wonderful chat and the neighbour’s chickens clucking around their front yard. I really like hearing their chickens.

 We are looking at a 26 C (79F) today. Lovely day with a mild breeze coming through the window. Cats and dogs still sleeping. Always lovely when they sleep.  I’m looking forward to the week. 

 The Hobart Photographic Society photography exhibition is on at the moment and I will work a two hour shift down there this week. It doesn’t require much except passing out pencils and slips of paper for people’s choice awards and keeping track of njmbers of visitors and selling raffle tickets to win a print.

So far the photo of a baby wombat named Lenny is leading the pack by a great number of votes.

 There is a Philosophy Night at Fullers Book store later in the week that Mr. P and I will attend. Should be interesting and fun. They are in the midst of their 104^th year birthday celebrations with prizes, cake, etc that I am watching from their social media. Will will share one of their photos.

 I only have two small books to share with you today from Wooden books publishers. There is an entire series of these little books and I acquired two of them sometime back.

Grammar: The Structure of Language by Rachel Grenon and Plot: The Art of the Story by Amy Jones.

Logic asks, “When is a sentence true?” Rhetoric asks, “Which is the right sentence?” Grammar purely asks, “when is a sentence correct?” I hope that these pages will at least whet your appetite for grammar, if not turn you into a most ardent and impassioned grammarian. (Introduction from Grammar:the structure of language.)

 They are small books that slip easily into a bag and come in a variety of subjects. I love the covers.

 

I missed the book club where the group discussed Zadie Smith’s, The Fraud for a really pitiful reason. There was a three car fender bender on the Tasman Bridge in Hobart. There are very limited streets heading out of South Hobart where I live. The traffic was backed up seven to eight kilometres. Where we exit South Hobart there is also the Southern Outlet that goes south to Kingston. It was also backed up kilometres. I sat in South Hobart trying to travel the five kilometres to the city.  After trying every way of getting out of South Hobart, I was unable to do so. Cars were at a standstill, what is known as the Hobart Grid Lock. 

Our politicians can’t work out public transport. We have a large river system and it would be wonderful if they would put in some ferries like Sydney has up and down their harbour. They talk about it a lot. There is a rail track that could accommodate light rail north of town with some work.

Bike trails are appalling. But the Metro system has a shortage of drivers due to less than ideal working conditions.

The timetable can be erratic. Lots of pollies standing around looking at everything, tsk, tsk, tsking but taking no action (as usual). So as the time edged into the meeting without me, I turned around and went home. I was very disappointed to miss the group. Just ridiculous. Wished I still had my scooter.

 Well that is the quiet trial of the week. I am now just satisfied having my morning coffee and the neighbour’s chickens chatting.  See you next time.

This past week was incredibly busy and this week is

turning out to be the same too.

I had a couple of very good gym sessions in the weight

room and the Barre’ class room.

I turned up on Thursday for my private PT session and my

trainer friend, Teresa and I just looked at each other and

said, “Let’s go for a coffee!!” We postponed the training

until tomorrow. It was a beautiful Tassie day and we sat in

the sun at our favourite café, drinking our oat latte’s (I

know), and along came another woman friend from the

Barre’ class. The three of us happily chatted until we had to

get back to the gym. They are such positive women and I

really enjoy them.

I had Adam’s book group Wed night and six of us had a

lovely time during the evening in an empty Fullers book

shop café discussing Olga Tokarczuk’s book Flights. We

had a lot of fun really dissecting this book. We all enjoyed it

as just so much in it.

Speaking of Adam’s group, I finished The Dry Heart by

Italian author Natalia Ginzburg (Dob 1916 to 1991). It was

first published in 1947 then translated into other languages

beginning in 1950s. It is wonderfully written and very

concise. It packs a lot in for only 105 pages. The writing style

reminded me of Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday. I would

certainly recommend it if you enjoy a real study of a couple

in a very unusual marriage situation. The characters are

well developed and the story kept me reading even though

we know on the first page the protagonist shoots her

husband between the eyes with his revolver. It takes place,

I would guess in the 1950s, post WWII.

I also went to a couple of Fullers book launches last week

too. I met some friends there and we all enjoyed the launch

of The Chocolate Factory by Mary Lou Stevens. The

history of the Quakers who first developed Cadbury’s

chocolate in the UK is an interesting tale. Alcoholism was so

bad in the UK, they developed a chocolate drink that took off

In popularity. They wanted people to drink chocolate

instead of alcohol. It eventually became the Dairy Milk

chocolate the rest of us know. They were great employers,

developing accommodation, child care and

schools for the children of the employees.

The author said she ate a lot of chocolate while she wrote

it.

Friday night we went to another launch but I am not going

to write much about it as although the book is probably

interesting, the presentation was abysmal. The woman

stood behind a podium, cleared her throat continually, did

not consistently use her microphone and droned for 50

minutes. Complete monotone. Painful! I played with my

watch in order to not pull out my eye lashes. My friend fell

asleep as did a few others in the room. I guess you never

know the level of public speaking skills of an author when

that author is booked.

This past weekend had me spending Saturday meeting my

photography friends north of Hobart in the small town of

Oatlands. It is a lovely country town with an even lovelier

bakery. I had the best heated chocolate croissant with my

flat white. We then had a few cars and we car pooled north

to Tunbridge an even smaller village with not much there

except very old houses and agriculture.

From there we went farther north to the more touristy

town, Ross. It has one of the older convict made bridges

in the country. It also has a nice bakery. There was an

amateur medieval day going on and they were happy for us to photograph them. The local group do these little exercises

regularly and by then I was getting tired. There was

another American expat on the sidelines watching her

husband running around with armour and a sword. The

group was funny as they were like enthusiastic four year

olds who had all been given rubber swords for Christmas.

The others took more photos and I enjoyed talking to the

woman on the sidelines. We discussed the Super Bowl and

the upcoming American elections and how much we both

hate Donald Trump.

So now we are in the next week and activities continue to

roll on but more of that next week. I hope you do something

fun this week. I’ll leave you with the delicious banana bread recipe I made today. I substituted 1/4 cup of the flour for drinking chocolate mix. It really added to the flavour.