There were only 3 of us at gymnastics last night, the coach offered us a trampoline class. It was fun: undulating instead of the linear furrow of tumbling. Initially I was tentative, my balance all over the ship, but then the fella beside me told me how when he loses his focus or mucks up on the floor he visits the trampoline to gain his groove back.

I saw what he was talking about, once you settle in with it, it’s rather like breathing. This particular trampoline is very powerful and it’s where all the competitive young gymnasts learn to throw their most complicated and double twisting “I’m heading into outer space” moves that have names I cannot remember.

Later we moved to the tumbling tramp (which is a like sprung tumbling floor — big long line of lift) and worked on individual moves of our choice. I decided to embrace front tuck somersault, since my linking moves have been giving me such trouble. I am now adding a brand new pie to my oven!

The soundtrack of the rain was extraordinary last night, echoing around the gym. Louder than the boomy stereo system that always seems beset with the very worst of music.

A good night’s work — long overdue.

I have been having a number of adventures in ereading. I’ve held a long curiosity for web books and found myself thinking about how such might be employed when considering narrative ideas. I read a fair bit online, usually factual, anthropology, political, or some writers I’ve read exclusively online because their work can be hard to obtain or because my appetite for it will not wait until I can find a hard copy. And webcomics I’ve often enjoyed.

The reading is normally in intense bursts of middling duration. Rarely have I attempted to digest an entire 300 page text. Last night I did just that and the experience was a middling one. The book concerned contained images and I skipped rapidly through them. The text wasn’t too bad on the eyes, it was friendly enough (the content is another story), but I read it at a galloping pace which satisfied me. How and ever, I was disappointed by how little the images did for me that I declared it over to the ceiling for me and digitized images in books.

Today I tried the BC online books initiative through the Vancouver Public Library (available here if you hold a VPL library card http://www.vpl.ca/electronic_databases/cat/C88

I examined several titles. Initially the BC online books beta reader gave me trouble, I could not understand how to turn the pages with any ease and efficiency, however once I established an account and downloaded the library ereader plugin, matters improved. The reader interface is fairly basic, but critically the quality of the print improved & the images were decent in comparison to yesterday’s experience during which I was ready to write off all images via ebooks.

The volume of information and access to 650 titles blows my head off my shoulders and around the room. However it returns to land when I consider that it is so uncomfortable for me to experience books on a laptop I might only manage a few chapters ….

I am now dead curious to try an ereading handheld device and see how it compares.

It concerns me, the strain on the eyes. My vision is now at the point where I can’t read information on jars and medicines. I have to put my glasses on. It’s certainly diminished compared to what it was. It was always good enough to get away without glasses despite being given them.

*

It’s a long time since I ran on pavement or grass. Yesterday time did not permit to do anything else and I was desperate for some exercise. God it is so difficult and hard on the joints, I’d forgotten. Also, how one experiences the damp whiff off fungus, trees and so on. I could not understand why it was so much more uncomfortable to run on what are normal everyday circumstances compared to the much more unnatural heave of an airborne ski shifting machine …. It was also cold. I ran in a thermal shirt with 2 further layers, despite two laps of a significant sized track (6 city blocks at least) I did not warm up!  But it was a great observational experience.

After the run, there were birthday’s to attend to and we had a visit from our favourite babog who has a sense of humour I’ve rarely encountered previously in a seven-month-old. He adores my son and lets this be constantly known by turning his head, seeking him out and letting out constant laughter at the sight or sound of him.  It’s currently one of my favourite soundtracks — the dotey dote that he is.

*

I am receiving constant and diverse weather reports. Shocking weather events taking place across the pond. The water was turned off in Dublin and other places from 7pm -7am to deal with shortages. My poor mam has no water at all. (only her well water requiring an icy trek ) She said it was so cold that the gas inside the cylinder, inside the house froze! She’s still chirpy in spite of it.

My son entered his 11th year yesterday.

This morning we had Black Sabbath at the breakfast table.

I have just learnt that the first province in Canada to give women the vote was Manitoba in 1916. I read it in an interesting essay

Politicizing the Laboring Body: Working Families, Death, and Burial in Winnipeg’s Influenza Epidemic, 1918–1919 written by

Esyllt Jones.

I woke at 7.19am thinking of George Bataille’s Documents.

I wished I had Chazuke (茶漬け, ちゃづけ) in my cupboard at 5.19pm.

I gave George his s, Georges, at 9.21pm. I was 2 mins late.

We have just had a particular light, on a particular street corner, for a particular time of year.

It was the light of dusk falling, without rain to blemish it, the air so cold but the street lights and people sat in the window bounced off each other and the sky, in compliment.

I wonder of the particular light in other places at this hour of the day. (4.17 pm precisely)

Crossings merci

I’ve received three lovely messages from people who attended the Betty Lambert event. Thank you so much to the women who wrote to me. Especially to the woman who couldn’t make it to the event because she was ill, but looked me up and sought out Betty’s plays and Crossings and took the time to write and tell me of her experience with the work.

“…wanted to thank you anyway for bringing Lambert’s work to my attention. I read a couple of her plays with much interest and am almost finished Crossings. I find this author’s voice to be engagingly authentic and her subject matter disturbing yet pertinent in light of the ‘woman’ question.”

I did make a blog to post responses to Crossings from readers, but I have manage to forget what I called it. It will come back to me.

Help continues to come from the most unexpected corners, thank you.

Giantesses: Gadd, Copithorne, Rodin & Robertson

Some links: Giantesses features the work of Maxine Gadd, Judith Copithorne Renee Rodin, and other women poet/visual artists. I love the line in Lisa Robertson’s intro which describes them or their work as possessed of

“An unembarrassed and clear criticality which never refuses the complexities of daily existence”

Sadly one of the complexities of my daily existence this moment is fever and sciatica, which renders me unable to say much more on this, despite wishing to.  Another time I’ll revisit it.  Mainly want to record the link here for the purpose of a revisit.

Sciatica and fever. What an odd couple. Not sure where either came from.