Travellin' Penguin

This is a funny post. Today I turn 76. i can’t believe I have survived this world for so long. What is even funnier is I’m still playing with Penguins.

As some of you know, I began these posts in 2012 on Blogspot when I began collecting old vintage Penguin books published between 1935 and 1970 when the ISBN numbers came into play. I had a library of 3000 books from four continents. I gave talks to senior schools about the history of the books and tead everything I could find about them. I still have several reference books about them published by the Penguin Collector Society. As I got older I had to finally downsized and I sold the library between two book collectors. But I kept the little mascot that travelled with me.

I took him everywhere.

Penguin and I in Cornwall on a road trip with a friend.

At the end of each year I like to look at the coming year and see what changes I’d like to make. I think many of us do that to keep things fresh.

I’m going to bring back the original penguin. For those who followed me from the beginning you know I travelled a lot over the years and I took the Penguin with me in the drink holder section of my backpack. We travelled the world and Penguin was with me on six continents.

The old penguin featured in my blog for a few years. Then as time went on I changed the blog illustration with a different penguin. I took the penguin from Penguin books and changed him and added clothes that matched the theme of the post. I was learning photoshop and had different ideas about him.

The next generation.

Then AI came into photography and once again I changed the illustration of the Penguin.

Yet another transformation

As part of my photography and photoshop training and AI apps available I have decided I’m bringing back the original penguin.

Penguin and I visited Sydney. We love the Opera house.

He has sat on my book shelf for a long time. He has a history. He was with me in South America when I found the first Penguin publishing paperback there in Spanish. He travelled in a backpack in Africa. He had a bath in Singapore. He went to a formal tea ceremony in Japan. Th folks on that tour group took turns posing him in various Japanese settings.

When I went to Sydney to see a friend and she got Covid and I couldn’t see her, we drowned our sadness with a beer.

I have to say I have missed him. I have decided I’m getting him out of retirement and putting him back in the work force. He will continue to reflect the theme of my posts.

I have information that is coming out tomorrow about a Russian Gulag escape story I’m listening to. Old Penguin found a Russian coat and hat for that post. He looks quite the man.

I hope my online friends will be glad to see him again as we read books in 2026, go on photography day trips and just generally muck around in Hobart.

I’m hoping it will continue to increase my photography and editing skills and learn to use different apps to personalise our little guy.

For the days I want to go out and do something and no one is around to go too, the Penguin and I will continue our travels together with what lies ahead. 🌻🌻🌻

The cover

I will start out with the statement- I Love Journals. I especially like looking at journals in book shops, overseas as I travel, on social media. Tik Tok has quite a few people who talk about their journals. Junk, Commonplace books, travel, daily, gratitude and on it goes. I know that tik tok has some dodgy content but I use the search bar for my interests and don’t see the other stuff. There are young people with their journals and there are older women who write, but I am going to crawl out of this rabbit hole and share my travel journal from Japan with you.

I need a big band to compress this thing.

From the moment I book the trip I start saving stuff. Flight info. Itineraries. A few photos from a travel guide. I also add a picture of the penguin from a small little printer I take with me. It prints my phone photos into small 2×3 stickers.

A coffee wrapper from hotel room, a receipt and a map.

Whilst travelling I don’t ever do as much as I want as after a morning sunrise shoot, early breakfast with the group, long days and socialising with before dinner drinks and long dinners I just get to my room, get things ready for the next day and collapse. But I do stuff everything I find into a bag and save what I can, then finish it when I get home. I don’t write much. There isn’t time.

One of the book’s illustrations

Instead I collect everything that is paper. Wrappings from snacks, labels from bottles if they are removable, tea bag wrapping, coasters, tour brochures, maps. I never know what I will find.

A few low value coins

Today I spread all that stuff out on my desk and began putting it all together. I still have blank pages so from now on I will cut out photos of Japanese items from magazines as I come across them.

A dinner menu of about 12 courses and a tour brochure

While browsing in Fullers one day before my trip, I came across a brilliant little journal that specifically stated ‘Japan’. There was another one beside it that said ‘France’. It made me want to research how many countries are represented by this publisher. I notice in the credits, that are in French, there is a web page. I’ve not looked at it yet but I will now I see it.

http://www.alibabette-editions.fr

The journal has some beautiful Japanese illustrations throughout the book plus other pages that are lined. Between the illustrations and the content I added it has turned into a beautiful little book.

Brochure from the castle we visited.

I hope you enjoy looking through some of the pages. As I seldom buy souvenirs in other countries (except journals) I find this is a wonderful souvenir. I will print out a few of my own photos and continue to add things to it.

A tea wrapper and a chocolate biscuit wrapper.

I hope you find it fun and maybe I’ll inspire you to think about the things you could pick up, travelling or on your own day trips. I find it adds purpose to any outing and very, very relaxing assembling it all.

A hotel receipt.

The back of journal

Publishers information

🌻 Penguin keeps his own journals. I can only guess what he writes about. 🌻

Hi to everyone. I’m back from Japan. Had a wonderful time. The group was good, the landscape in the northern national parks was beautiful. We photographed waterfalls, rivers, lakes, scenic locations with people and quite a few street scenes in historic villages.

The group was fun and everyone got on with each other. We walked a lot. 8000 to 12000 steps every day and I did struggle with that a bit towards the end. All of our steps were mainly on trails. Mountain trails, river trails, up high to view points and down again on uneven ground. I only toppled over once on my way up a rock strewn trail to a lake. 

The food was something else altogether. We ate so much I’m surprised we didn’t just burst. It was almost uncomfortable there was so much interesting and beautifully presented food. 

Two of hotels had onsens which was also lovely at the end of the day. The water was piped in from mineral springs and the temperature was about 40 degrees C. So hot but once lowering one’s self into it the relaxation was the next level. I wish I had something like that here.

Now with the trip behind me I have a couple of thousand of photos to start sorting through. I have cancelled my old Instagram page and set up a new one. The new one is just for photographs taken in Japan and in the future from various places. If you’re on Instagram and wish to see more photos then you can begin following me at:

Wanderlensphotographytasmania

Now it’s almost the end of the year and Christmas is popping up in the shops everywhere I am beginning to plan for 2026.

This blog has been going since 2012 and I’m wanting to continue it but maybe with a few changes.

I’ll be talking about that more before long.

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Did I get any reading done on this trip? Yes, in fact I did get the book The Names by Florence Knapp finished. Did I like it? Yes for the most part. I thought the end was wrapped up a little too quickly but overall I enjoyed the concept.

The concept is what direction will a person’s life go depending on a name? There are three story lines. A boy is born within a family with serious domestic violence. The man regularly beats his wife. The father’s name is Gordon and he wants his son named Gordon. After all his father was named Gordon and so is he. His wife however does not like the name for her son.

In one story line she names him Julian. The next story line is when she goes to register his name her young daughter wants to name him Bear. Mom is angry enough and injured enough by her husband she registers him as Bear. Then last of all she does as she is told and registers his name as Gordon.

The story is told in alternating chapters. Three names, one person, three different lives. Our book group will be discussing this book next week.

Does your name impact the direction your life will go?

Other than that I started listening to a book about a man walking the length of Japan but it was so unorganised I never knew where he was or what he was doing. A bit of history here, an accommodation there. Meets up with a friend. Who? Why? I was often confused, lost and could not get the purpose of the whole trip so it ended as a DNF. I won’t even name the book because I can’t remember. We’ll leave it at that.

Now I need to decide what I’ll dive into next.

I’m glad to be back with my online friends. I did read quite a few posts in the evenings while away though we didn’t have a lot of down time. I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys have been reading. What you’re doing. How your pets are. Lol.

Real life begins tomorrow with the gym again. Lovely to have had a break. With photo clubs, book groups, exercise. Normal food.

Until next week…have a good week. 

A couple more photos below. Click on them to enlarge.