Spark has caused disaster in New Zealand over the weekend with malware infecting their whole system. Thankfully it was not a busy workday otherwise the voices may have been heard in Australia as they complained loudly. I think we are all hoping the return is a good sign.
As I become more and more involved with WLM I am amazed at this group of memoir writers and readers worldwide who care for and extend their knowledge so freely. I had been missing contact with Val in Rotterdam and just this morning she has posted a notice saying she is still busy and will be in touch intermittently. Now that I have learnt how to access the free books it is all go for me, I hope my kindle can handle it.
Last night, or perhaps it was early this morning, I finished The Flame Trees of Thika as the family leave Kenya for Britain to escape the war. I am unsure which war as my history of Africa is quite thin, but if they are going to England it cannot be the first world war although they are talking of fighting Germans.
I will now read several magazines which are backing up on my VRS and then choose another book to enjoy.
This book was free on Amazon yesterday and came highly recommended by a WLM member. After caring for a dying husband Barbara goes on a journey of self discovery which sees her travelling widely and living now between Cornwall and the Andes. Sounds like a really interesting read.
I now have about 20 books I have obtained free or for a very low price on Amazon, I just need a second life to enjoy them all. I think the age of the digital book is growing and more and more people will dispense with the print version and purchase these books which can be enjoyed at will, do not take up space or have to be returned. Only people who resist this emphatically will never learn of the joys that digital reading can bring, especially to people like me who can no longer read normal sized print.
I am about to embark on a dog tidy up - my old chocolate Labrador has to visit the vet tomorrow for her arthritis injection and Jay needs a good trim. Not an easy job but one I tackle willingly to save money as well as care for my beloved dogs.
My internet provider is having a lot of problems with connections today so I hope I manage to get this post up. I doubt I will be able to insert book covers but I can mention the books.
Yesterday I spent an inordinate amount of time at work trying to get my scanner to work, I cannot find the programme files to change what is suggested so again have to sit and wait for something to be done. I have now been waiting since March and no one seems to see me as a priority.
I won a book in the birthday celebrations for the We Love Memoir FB group but no one was able to get it to me. The book I wanted is free on Amazon this weekend so I have now downloaded it. I just need to push on and continue with Piano Obsession.
Twenty Thousand Miles to See a Tree fascinated me as a book about a couple cycling around the world catapulted me many years ago into taking my children camping in wild and desolate places here in New Zealand. This provided me with the best memories I have of my children when young. I also bought Tails Along the Trails which is about walking dogs and other adventures. So much to read, so little time to do it in. I do sound like the white rabbit.
Poor sight and arthritis are lowering my resistance at present. I am struggling to walk anywhere and suspect the exercises I have are also being combined with arthritis drugs to make me feel a bit better. I know this is my life now but I hope to spend some of the summer researching ways of reducing the pain and keeping my mobility.
Extra work this week and probably next week also is tiring, I hope I do not experience any anxiety trying to fit in the extra hours around my already busy schedule. I need to work the hours so I can have the school holidays off in 3 weeks, otherwise I have to work at school alone which is no longer safe.
Reading has taken a back seat again this week as I have been so tired at night. I am thoroughly enjoying Piano Obsession and hope to read the chapters on her unpacking her new piano tonight. I have also been listening to The Flame Trees of Thika each evening on my VRS. A fairly long book, I suspect I have several more days of reading before I can choose a new book.
An author has been trying to email me a large book file which I doubt will come as I do not have ultra fast broadband. I am not sure where she lives but sending the file is proving incredibly difficult for her, so much for winning a prize!
Jay had a phone call from his puppy walker today and Chocolat received a letter from the vet reminding her she has to have an arthritis injection. Seems dogs are becoming more and more human!
I am exhausted after my weekend of Facebook partying. It went on all weekend and people made some fabulous food which we all wished we could partake of, the only thing I did not like was the 1400 email notifications which I had to delete from both my ipad and laptop.
I am having to adjust to not being young any more! While some may laugh I am staring retirement in the face and wonder how much longer I can keep working. One job is exceedingly boring while the other keeps me interested and occupied. Work from home is my best option but soon I may have to look at my choices. The things I wish to do each day in a relaxed and creative manner will now have to take precedence other wise I will suffer from burnout again and this is not an option for me. I want to live and love!!
I am continuing with reading Piano Obsession, and while Perri Knize has yet to even purchase a piano her search is fascinating and I am even tempted to learn again myself. Listening to the tone of a piano and asking sellers to change the tone and adjust the piano setting is not something I imagine occurs regularly here in New Zealand.
A friend of mine, Susan Joyce, has just won the people's choice and overall best book on Amazon memoirs for her book The Lullaby Illusion. Determined to purchase the book and read it I went to the Amazon website only to discover I had bought the book a couple of months ago, it shows how far behind I am with my kindle reading.
Susan has just friended me on Facebook, I feel like I have a really famous writing friend. I hope she can give me some real encouragement to keep writing and expand on my memoirs and short stories based on my life. This is the type of sharing I need in my life as I grow to accept who I am and who I could become in my later years.
I also purchased another place-getter today and hope this book may offer me some guidance and hope as I cast aside a friends comments and begin to write in earnest again. How people's put-downs have stopped me writing is cruel, I need to move on and write in any style I choose.
Jay is outside drying off after a quick and rather late shower this afternoon. He was getting a bit wiffy and really needs a trim, might manage this later. I love him to bits, my best friend and companion.
The Facebook page, We Love Memoirs, is having a 1st birthday party today. I was unsure how it would work given we are domiciled all over the world but so far it is fantastic. Word games, pass the parcel, tagging people, I cannot keep up with all the posts. What an amazing group of people dedicated to the writing and reading of memoirs.
Tonight I am attending a concert to raise funds for the hospital chaplains. I am not sure who is singing but I understand it is a mixture of choirs. It will be interesting to see who is performing, I am looking forward to it.
Reading has taken a back seat much of this week, although I have read quite a lot of The Flame Trees of Thika. I had no idea that there were several books in a series, hopefully the RNZFB has all of them so I can continue this story of Kenya.
My latest issue of NZ House and Garden arrived earlier this week, I have managed to read the story of one home, in a famous block of flats in Auckland, but tiredness and other chores have kept me away from my year of reading.
A short post this time, with no pictures! I am trying a different contact lens and everything has a shadow to it, very blurred, I think glasses are my only option now. I can hardly see the screen as I type.
After finishing the rather uninspiring Silver Wedding by Maeve Binchey I trawled through my VRS for something a bit more inspiring. I opened:
Somehow I knew, as soon as I started reading this book that I had read it before on my VRS. It is interesting, just a short read, I managed to finish it by reading at work while sorting photographs. Inspired by the number of well known people who moved to live in Florence for a variety of reasons, Leavitt twists and turns around some rather interesting and unknown history of this beautiful city. He does not mention many more famous people, such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, yet the curves in the story invite the more unusual and perhaps newsworthy events.
Having finished this book I again pushed the 'book' button and decided to read:
This book was made into a TV series, in the 1970's I think, and was fascinating. I also have her next book, The Mottled Lizard which I am sure will be just as interesting. Elspeth recalls that her father won the land while gambling and so the whole family was uprooted and taken to Kenya. I left her in a small village resting overnight after beginning the trek from Nairobi to their farm sitting on a buffalo cart. Books are often better than their TV series and I suspect this one will follow that pattern.
Last night I also finished Follow my Heart by Frances Lawson. While it does describe the difficulties she faced when deciding, in middle age, to move to France from New Zealand, I found her naivete rather difficult to understand. Surely she had researched the 'systems' of achieving things in France before she left, after all this is the day of 'Google', and was aware of the many difficulties she would have sorting through government regulations. I found myself having little sympathy for her given that more planning should have gone into her move and her constant drive to find a sexual partner despite admitting early in the book that she found it physically difficult. I think I finished the book believeing she was the maker of her own destiny and wishing she would stop complaining and try to discover how other people had coped with such a move. Admitting she had not thought about the lack of a pension as she aged seemed a statement which showed her overall ignorance.
This is my next adventure into a kindle memoir. The story of a piano, coveted then different, forms the basis for this investigative memoir into how a piano is born and the sound developed. A lovely weekend read.
I am off to lunch today with a lovely friend who is travelling overseas on Monday for 2 months to accompany her husband as he lectures all around the world. I will miss her but know that she is such a genuine person that our friendship will not suffer. It does alert me to the obvious that I need to occupy myself with what I enjoy and fill these growing days with joy and the business of getting well again.
