Tag: Travel

Updates

October Recap 2015

Geoff W

2015 10-31 Frida and the GhostFull steam ahead right? We’re entering the last two months of the year and those are never busy. That last sentence is dripping with sarcasm. Mostly I’m impressed I’m reading anything at all, let alone keeping up with blogging, podcasting and another project that’s in the works. (Not to mention work and friendships and stuff.)

Outside of work it was a busy month full of culture and reading. I’ll talk more about La Bohème and our trip to Wellfleet and Provincetown, MA in the culture corner section. To end the month we went to my friend Caitrin’s house party for Halloween where I dressed as an old fashioned ghost and Tim dressed as Frida Kahlo. Needless to say I’m ready for the cooler weather to stick and to curl up with a book and read, but I don’t know if I’ll have any time to do that this year.

Continue reading “October Recap 2015” →

Books

Book 365: The Brontë Project – Jennifer Vandever

Geoff W

I’m not sure what it is about Brontë fan-fiction, but they’re just not as whimsical as the Austen fan-fiction. Looking at the subject matters and general ambiance of the works and the author’s lives it is fairly obvious, but when you think about it the options for fan-fiction are limitless. I picked this book up in late 2012 and have finally gotten around to reading it.

The only other Brontë fan-fiction I’ve read include Solsbury Hill and The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë and they were both a bit ho-hum. I did enjoy the vilification of Charlotte in Michael Thomas Ford’s Jane Fairfax trilogy, but that could be the problem. Emily and Anne died so early and Charlotte had so much time to cultivate/purge their images in society that it’s all about Charlotte and not the rest of the family. (“What’s more, she [Charlotte] has become adept at spinning her own legend and constructing her image before the public.” (59) – and I would even argue spinning Emily and Anne’s images, obviously). Even this novel, whose main character, Sara, is in love with Wuthering Heights ends up being predominantly about Charlotte.

Click here to continue reading

Random

Spain Photos!!

Geoff W

Hey Everyone!

2015 06-09 Tiny Elevator Footie
The tiny little elevator in our Madrid Hotel!

I planned to upload more photos but when I saw how many photos I took (roughly 1,100) I realized that was never going to happen. I did finally upload them to Picasa. I’ve always uploaded them to Picasa ever since my first trip to Europe. So why change now? I have realized I need to get a new external hard drive to put all my photos on, but until then they’re “safe” (or as safe as they can be) in the cloud. So that this post isn’t empty of photos here’s our vacation in selfies, one a day every day! I’ve included where we were so you get an idea of what you’re looking at (or not in the bad ones :-D):

Click here to continue reading.

Books

Reading Spain, AKA an Homage to Miguel de Cervantes

Geoff W

2015 06-15 Barcelona Reading Statue 1In case you missed it, I went to Spain last month (scroll to the end for some GREAT panoramas). I was there for two weeks and it was wonderful. I’m still working on a “recap” post which will probably just be a link to my photos and a list of everything we did. The plus side is that you, my lovely book lover friends, get to have a special post made just for you!

To kick off, here’s a photo of the Monument al llibre statue by Joan Brossa (Wikipedia link) we stumbled across in Barcelona. Here’s a different angle. Overwhelmingly our bookish adventures were in Madrid. I’m sure this is because I planned Madrid and Tim planned Barcelona, but that’s just how it fell.

2015 06-16 Llibreria RodésIf you’ve followed this blog for a while you might be aware I can read Spanish, or at least eek my way through it. I’ve wanted to improve on my speaking and reading of Spanish ever since I realized I was starting to lose it, but haven’t had much opportunity (aka I’m lazy). What I didn’t know was how all-pervading Cervantes’ was to the city of Madrid and the country of Spain. Seriously, I mean sure I knew going to Madrid I wanted to visit the statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in the Plaza de España, but I didn’t know I would see Cervantes or Don Quixote (Part 1 & Part 2) EVERYWHERE.

Click here to continue reading.

Updates

June Recap 2015

Geoff W

2015 06-26 First DanceI. Am. Exhausted.

In case you didn’t know, June was an incredibly busy month from being an international jet setter to participating in the marriage of two of my good friends, to one of the busiest times of the year at work, I have good reason to be.

First, I’ll start you off with a photo of Caroline and Nick’s first dance. It’s probably what they were most worried about, but it was excellent! We all had an amazing time and it’s hard to believe they’re FINALLY married. YAY! Here is a shot of the water as the sun went down. This was the view of all the guests during the ceremony:

2015 06-26 Gloucester PanoramaNow on to the bookish. Don’t worry, I will talk about Spain, but you’re only going to get a VERY brief preview (AKA a lot of panoramas at the VERY end of this very long post).

Click here to continue reading.