Travellin' Penguin

Well! The Sydney trip turned out to be different than the expectation but isn’t that just the way of life? I arrived after a smooth flight from Hobart on Monday last week and checked into my hotel. I think that is when I may have last checked in. I went to the Kinokuniya book store and picked up Aphrodite’s Breath after reading Lisa’s review. It had been on my radar.

I read Limberlost by Robbie Arnott on the plane and was really enjoying it. It is such a Tassie book. Robbie writes about Tasmania like Tim Winton scatters Western Australia dust through his pages. They both have a deep understanding of their home states and are wonderful of getting it into their books.

Then Tues morning arrives and I was preparing to meet my friend for a day of photography but she got covid so that scuppered those plans. I had been looking forward to seeing her but we will catch up again. I hopped on a ferry and visited Taronga Zoo. I had fun with the camera and although I haven’t downloaded the photos yet I hope the young gorillas playing come out good. Will share that later.

Wednesday was the Tina Turner musical and I think of the hundreds of plays I have seen in my life this would be one of the best. I loved the energy, the inclusion of so many of the events of her life and the actor, Ruva Ngwenya was incredible. It was also so very sad hearing about her death on the same day I was enjoying the play. I saw her in concert twice in Melbourne in the 1990s as well as growing up with her and Ike’s music and stories for a lifetime. I don’t think there were many people at the play who were younger than 65.

Thursday I hopped on a crowded bus and went toBondi Beach to do some photography. Ended up sitting on a bench chatting to an 81 yr old man from Albury-Wodonga about the play we had both seen the previous day. He told me he went to see it. His wife and he loved dancing and did so several evenings a week during their married life until she went into care for dementia. I listened to his memories as though reading a book. I then got up and took some photos as I headed back to the city on an even more crowded bus. I really love sitting next to older people while travelling alone and hearing their stories. There are so many stories in the world and so many lonely people wanting to share them with someone.

Friday morning I woke up with a sore throat. I was quite tired Thursday so the sore throat didn’t surprise me. That’s what my body does when I’m tired. It had been a very busy week.

So back onto another delayed Qantas flight with the rest of Limberlost to occupy my time arrived home feeling worse. It felt so good to be back in my own bed. Saturday morning I tested positive for Covid and I haven;t done much since except take the anti virals and sleep. Monday arrived and now Mr P came down with it.

This week is dragging on a bit but I am thankful for vaccinations as I would have been much sicker without them though even with them this illness is not a walk in the park. I’m starting to feel human again. I now have the energy to do some laundry, pick up Hemingway;s book The Sun Also Rises for June book club. Maybe begin to download the photos I took. In the meantime I will share the phone pics I took of the opera house as the Vivid Event, running in Sydney now was being set up.

It’s good to be home and on the mend.

The photos scattered throughout this post are from the Sydney Harbour area.

With my friend out of commission or whatever happens on my trips, I can always count on the Penguin for company. Out last evening celebrating our week of surprises.

The Alphabet photo challenge and reading challenge has begun. But let me back up.

Tomorrow I head to Sydney to see the Tina Turner musical and spend a couple of days taking photos with a friend. Now, I’ll need a book to read on the plane. Will put my soundproof headphones on and enjoy a couple of hours in the air.

Alphabet by author’s last name: The A book is Robbie Arnott’s book Limberlost. I have heard so much about it and hope I can finish it then pass it on. It has won numerous awards and everyone I know seems to have read it or is talking about it. The blurb states:

“In the heat of a long summer Ned hunts rabbits in a river valley, hoping the pelts will earn him enough money to buy a small boat.

His two brothers are away at war, their whereabouts unknown. His father and older sister struggle to hold things together on the family orchard, Limberlost.

Desperate to ignore it all-to avoid the future rushing towards him-Ned dreams of open water.

As his story unfolds over the following decades, we see how Ned’s choices that summer come to shape the course of his life, the fate of his family and the future of the valley, with its seasons of death and rebirth.

The third novel by the award-winning author of Flames and The Rain Heron, Limberlost is an extraordinary chronicle of life and land- of carnage and kindness, blood ties and love.”

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Yesterday I visited a home where a young woman had lost a ring from her grandmother somewhere between her garden and a large hardware store several miles north. She posted on our Good Karma fb page wanting a metal detector. I contacted her and said I don’t loan it out but I would come over and scour her back yard. After 90 minutes yesterday digging up screws, nails, bottle tops and crushed beer cans I am fairly certain there is no ring in her yard. She said it could be in her house and one of her two cats found it. One of her cats is a kitten so we can all guess what could have happened if that is the case. She presented me with a lovely bottle of red wine for my efforts so it was a good return for me anyway.

I then headed north to begin my Alphabet photography challenge. I really want to visit places I have not been so the afternoon had me at the James Austin cottage north of Hobart 14 kms. A for Austin. The wind was blowing a gale but the sun was out and although cold it didn’t take long to explore the small grounds of this property. I’d never seen it before.

Google told me:
It is a small and simple cottage, built by James Austin in 1809 and is located a couple of hundred metres from the Austins Ferry Yacht Club.
Austin was a convict who had been transported to Port Phillip in HMS Calcutta in 1803 and then transported to Van Diemen’s Land in 1804. His crime was the theft of beehives valued at thirty shillings and he built Austins’s cottage on his release from local stone. He named the cottage and farm after Baltonsborough the village of his birth in Somerset, England. In 1816 James Austin and his cousin James Earl established the first trans Derwent ferry service which remained the main transport route from Hobart Town to Launceston until completion of the Bridgewater causeway in 1838.

He became prosperous and developed a large farm property and orchards. He died in 1831. The original farmhouse he lived in is gone and an inn built at the time burned in the 1967 bushfires.

It was a lovely day out and finished off with a toasted sandwich and a flat white coffee sitting outdoors in freezing wind along the River Derwent. I look forward to future challenges. We need to go out into bad weather at times just to feel alive🤠🌻.

I hope you enjoy the little cottage photos. I’m tempted to visit it one Sunday arternoon when it is open.

I will finish off with our cat, Cousin Eddie helping me pack. So glad I noticed him.

In January I was notified I had a bunch of Frequent Flyer points and I needed to use them by end of March or lose them. I had been wanting to fly to Sydney to see the Tina Turner musical as I love anything to do with Tina Turner. Event though she does not play herself in the play I think the actor who won the part will be very good. So I booked it all and leave Monday.

I’ll be there for five days. Two days will be spent with a good friend doing photography. Hopefully some street and urban photography one day and animals another. Then I’ll come home.

I’m taking my lovely copy of Hemingway’s book The Sun Also Rises to read on the plane. That is the June book club read. It is one of the books of his I have not read due to the bull fighting in it but I’ll just have to skim over that part if it gets too busy.

When I return I am going to do a little photography project and a book project. Both are alphabet projects. Tasmania is cold and dark for the winter and it is important to get out for some sun. Photo project will have me visiting different places alphabetically with my camera. Saturday I am visiting a local spot that starts with A. I’ll include it in a future blog. I’m hoping to find some interesting spots in southern Tasmania that I have not been to before.

Alphabetical TBR project. I have my book club reads that are often more substantial but I have a lot of books on my shelf that are slimmer and need to be read and removed. So I will start with an author that begins with A and go from there. We’ll see how far I get until the first day of spring, equinox spring, but of September spring.

So stay tuned for my thoughts on that and some photos hopefully in a couple of weeks. Stay well everyone.