……I will never finish. (Maud Casey)
Hi everyone. I had a fun bookish and theatre week again this week.
Books I’m reading now: Homework by Tassie author Helen Hayward. I went to the launch of this book Thursday night. The blurb on the back states-
When Helen Hayward had her two children in London, 25 years ago, she found looking after them easy. Loving and looking after her kids was straightforward. However loving and looking after her home was not. She had long been instructed to put her career first. So she did. Yet what to do with the mushrooming laundry by the bathroom door? And what about if she actually liked cooking? Home Work is a series of personal essays motivated by three questions.
- Is there an art to running a home?
- Can it be a satisfying thing to do?
- Has the work we do around the home ― which accounts for roughly a 1/4 of our waking hours ― something important to teach us about life itself?
It is quite a fun read and she raises some interesting questions.
Friday night saw our end of year all Fullers book group members get together at Fullers book shop with drinks and nibbles. It was also announced what books we’ll be starting the year off next year.
The Fraud by Zadie Smith kicks off February. Followed by 2023 Booker Prize winner Prophet song by Paul Lynch. The Sri Lankan tale of Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran and Question 7 by our local Booker prize winning author, Richard Flanagan. I am looking forward to reading all of them.
I am still working my way through Olga Tokarczuk;s book Flights. There is so much in it I don’t think it is a book that can be rushed.
I am also travelling through audio with the 125cc Honda trip of the 73 yr old man, Simon Gandolphi, riding from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego at the bottom end of Chile. This is the book I listen to in the car and when I can’t sleep so it will take awhile to finish it.
To end the week Mr P and I enjoyed a 50 yr anniversary if the song, Tubular Bells at the Theatre Royal. It was a fabulous, amazing 60 minute piece of music by two musicians who are incredibly talented. I remember when Tubular Bells first came out in 1973. It was the beginning of a lot of electronic music at the time. The two musicians in one hour played six guitars, four keyboards, two sets of drums, a mandolin, a glockenspiel and a set of tall pipes with a mallet. The lighting matched the music. It was a full house and an exuberant audience. Such fun. Last night was their final performance after 15 years, 500 performances in 20+ countries. We loved it. Wonderful they ended their run in Australia’s oldest theatre, our historically beautiful Theatre Royal. (I might add Tubular Bells was played in the movie The Exorcist which I have never seen nor wanted to see)
On that note 🎶🎶🎶🎶 I will leave you for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow I fly to Sydney for the annual Girl’s week out my friend and I share every year. A week of theatre at the opera house one night (A Dictionary if Lost Words is the play), some shopping, maybe a gallery, a book shop and two, and cocktails in the evening.
I also plan one day seeing my photography mate who I went to see in June for 5 days but she had Covid and we missed each other. That trip became a bust except I did enjoy Sydney.
On Friday we do the six hour train to Port Macquarie , where my friend lives, and attend the Bangarra dance performance in their event center, The Glass House. I may be able to get to the Koala hospital there which I would find very interesting. Then home on the Tuesday. A fun packed 9 days.
As my second planned photography workshop in July fell apart with jy health, I am hoping all goes well for this third attempt. 🌻
I am also looking forward to returning home and spending a leisurely, quiet Christmas with Mr P, our dogs Ollie and Peanut and our cats Grizzy and Cousin Eddie.
Looking forward to following my blogger friends and see what you’re reading and doing this month. We all send you our best.
Travellin' Penguin 