It’s not often I experience a book that has me crying honest-to-goodness wet variety tears. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman had me in those tears. I was riding my bike home during the last chapter and really struggled. The tears were not the tears you would have had reading A Little Life. These were bitter sweet tears, tears you cry because the pain of loss and love is so very familiar and so easy to relate to. This…
It has been a while since I wrote a book review. I rely on the reviews of others heavily, so my reluctance to put virtual pen to virtual paper is likely poor form. That said, if I’m reviewing books that I’ve read, based on he review of others, am I am adding any value? Well perhaps only to those who place value in my opinion because they either love the books I love, or hate the books I love and…
I have been inspired by a friend to ‘put it out there’ and get make myself a facebook page. Why? Because I have come to think that the best thing you can do to improve your skills is to give yourself a project. Having someone else give it to you works too. The most powerful projects have three critical elements. A deadline, or at least a target date. An audience. Feedback These things are just as important for writing as…
I’ve only recently discovered that Imposter Syndrome is an actual thing, is more common than you might think and that I have a bad case of it in just about every aspect of my life. According to Wikipedia, and I paraphrase, it’s about feeling like a fraud, – about to be found out at any moment – even if you’re good at what you do. And no, you don’t have to be a spy to suffer from it. I’ve been…
Our family did a bit of camping when I was young, but it has been a while since I went bush. We fancied a little mini break and K had the bright idea of trying out a teardrop camper. And a fine idea that was. Glamping is all the rage at the moment and the Gidget fits into that category nicely. We hired from Tears of Joy camper rentals in Kenwick. We don’t currently have a tow ball on the…
The measure of a trip away to me is the question, if money were no object, would you go there again? When it comes to our trip to Antarctica the answer would definitely be yes. In fact Birdlife Australia are adverting a trip, including South Georgia, for November this year and I would love to win lotto and go. There are things I would do the same and others I would do differently, so on the off chance I ever…
Our last day in South America was supposed to have an early start. However all these late night dinners are messing with my early morning wake up and we didn’t hit the streets until after 8. A quick march through town, with a short stop for brekkie and we were at the ecological reserve. I thought it would have a few more vistas than it did, but the cyclist and runners clearly enjoy it. By reputation it used to be…
Walking around Ushuaia over the last few days has that awkward feeling of running into the same people over and over again in the supermarket. Sitting her at the airport we are next to a lovely German couple who shared our coldest day of the trip on the Pira tour to visit the Magellanic penguins. More about that to follow. Lots of hugs with the crew as we left the Ushuaia. As everyone disembarked the must reach the polar circle…
We woke this morning to Monika’s announcement that there were humpbacks breaching around the ship. I shrugged on my Gortex jacket and pants over my pjs, grabbed my camera and beanie and I was out the hatch. No gloves, very few extra layers, but I wasn’t missing this. Luckily my camera habits meant that I had a memory card ready to go in camera and the batteries were fully charged. The visibility was sub optimal (snow / rain / low…
Last night a few of us had a mini session with Alex going through some of her common Photoshop edits. The thought process behind them was, for me, the most interesting part. The art rather than the science so to speak and a peek inside someone else’s thinking process. I hope she doesn’t find that creepy… The science of how to make the edits I’m more familiar with, although I tend to use Lightroom for the basic things I do…