French countryside

Here's a lovely pic I found on the internet of the very house I'll be staying in!  My friends live in the white single-storey house, and in the background is the big house where they lived when I was there in 1972, and which is now lived in by one of the children and her family.

I'm practising my French and will not allow myself to speak one word of English once I get there!

Autumn

Have calmed down after the initial excitement of being invited to France and am now looking at flights, etc, getting close to booking.  Just yesterday a friend sent me the itinerary of her trip to US and France, celebrating her husband's retirement, and they are leaving in two days; and another lot of friends left yesterday for three months in France!  Golly.  There'll be nobody left in Australia at this rate!

My trip will be short - two to three weeks - as this will kind of lesson the anxiety I always feel when I'm away from home.  I'll simply be staying with my friends in the countryside, not doing lots of sight-seeing.  

Little did I think when I sent you all those lovely pics of Paris that I'd be there again soon!  But, to be honest, I prefer looking at pics on the computer to the hassle of travelling.  Other people seem to think travelling is wonderful but I dread it.

Blast from the past!

I still can't quite get my head round it, but on Wednesday I got an email with the subject:  

'an invitation to come to France', from the daughter of some wonderful friends about to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary!!!

How could I refuse?  As much as I hate flying, I love these people even more, so will be joining all the rest of you at the top of the world very soon!!!!!!!

The last time my friends and I were together was when this passport photo was taken, 39 years ago.  I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!

Fagan Park

There's a park just down the road where Philip takes the family as often as possible.  It was given to the council by the family that used to live in the lovely old house, which is now a museum. It's huge, and has sections of gardens and buildings from all round the world, as well as having a kids' playground, picnic areas, etc.  


While they all went on Sunday, I stayed home, muddling along with my piano and Japanese.  Now, I tell you, Japanese has to be the HARDEST language in the entire world. I just printed 20 pages on verbs I found on Wikipedia.  (When I studied at TAFE a long time ago, we did a whole year without as much as learning a single verb.  There are no English equivalents like French, Spanish, German, etc.  Oooooooohhhhhhhhh, it's nearly impossible!)


I definitely think we should change the expression, 'It's all Greek to me' to 'It's all Japanese to me.'  Of course, I could say the same thing about piano chords!  


And, into the bargain, I'm trying to read Sartre's Being and Nothingness (635 pp), A C Grayling's The Good Book - A Secular Bible (597 pp) and Matthew White's Atrocitology (668 pp).  Not to mention I'm still going with Aylmer Maude's The Life of Tolstoy (928 pp), Steve Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature - Why Violence has Declined (802 pp) and your thin little volume, Olga, Elif Batuman's The Possessed, (a mere 296 pp).  I've included the index in the page count, so they're all really a bit shorter!

On the way to the bus stop...

Yesterday Emma and I walked to the bus stop - not two minutes away - to meet Daddy after work.  I took the camera to photograph the tibouchina on the footpath, and snapped the rest as a bonus!  We may not have the beautiful buildings of Paris, but nature everywhere is wonderful.

Beautiful Nepal...

This is one of Skype friend Samir's magnificent shots, taken in Nepal.  Thanks, Samir.  I am thinking about Nepal again as friends told me yesterday they plan a trip there in November, so I thought it would be a good idea for them to meet you.  This is the next best thing to going myself!  Mind you, I still prefer to enjoy vicariously, as I can't bear the thought of not sleeping in my own bed.


Winifred, if you only knew how much trouble I sometimes have with this blog!  But it's relatively simple to get a picture in anywhere.  (There is a beautiful tibouchina on the footpath just down the road, so I'll take a pic of it for you.)

Autumn

Yesterday I changed my clothes four times!  We get the whole gamut of weather in a single day - sunny, cloudy, warm, cold.  At least it's not boring.

Olga, I have learnt from a friend who knows everything that this flower is called tibouchina.  This is another of the pics I took the day we had lunch together.  


Frank, I still can't explain why your comment appears twice, but don't let that put you off.  I agree with you and Winifred that the bush scenes are so tranquil.  We all need moments of tranquillity in our lives to contrast with the busy times.  


I'm still trying to tidy up my files, both real and virtual.  You know the saying, 'So many books, so little time...' - well, I think I'll change that to, 'So many files, so little time...'  I won't get it done in my lifetime, that's for sure.


To those of you off to the top of the world in coming days, I say Bon Voyage!  Do keep emailing while you're away.

Procrastinating - again!

I really drive myself mad not understanding how to do most things on the computer.  Right now, instead of doing some serious work for a fellow who's making iPad apps of my reading scheme, I'm going through thousands of old files.  Thought this was cute, even though it's got nothing to do with the price of tea in China!

Bushwalk

Had a lovely walk here the other day.  It's hard to believe this is only five minutes from home.

Trip to the zoo

I hadn't been to the zoo for about a hundred years, but went the other day with a friend who's staying with me over Easter.  There's no doubt about it, the site, just over the harbour as it is from the CBD, is breathtaking.

The only problem was the crowds, but one cannot expect to be there alone during the school holidays!!!  However, we did seek out quiet spots whenever possible.