Week 102 — Poetry corner
Monday night Clare and I went to a multi-lingual poetry night at Smith's in Civic. Every Monday there is a poetry thing on, but this one was an open mic, and was centred on poems in people's native language. Most people would read a poem they like or wrote in a language other than English and then follow up with the English translation. Translating anything is a massive pain in the butt, but I'd imagine poetry would be an extra level of difficulty. Especially where there is a specific rhyming structure, and where things may be onomatopoeic and you need to find words that mean the same things and still fit within the same structure. But it was really interesting listening to poems in some languages that I was loosely familiar with, and, because of the slower delivery of poetry over conversation, being able to pick up a few words here and there. There was a lady who had learned Greek as a native English speaker and presented a poem she wrote in Greek, and then translated it to English, so getting the experience of understanding both languages drove home just how hard that must have been to translate nicely.
I have been continuing to knit my beanie! Though I have definitely dropped a stitch or 3, or 5, because I end up finishing on the wrong kind of stitch (if I am supposed to be alternating, which I am!), so part of the hat looks nice, and then it just gets a bit messy in the middle 😆 I am in two minds of starting it again. On one hand, I have come so far (I am about a quarter of the way through), so I don't want to do that again. But I also feel like I have learned so much in just the last week of knitting in this style, so maybe it'll be better if I start again? I think I will just carry on, though, get it done and then make another one if I feel so inclined :)
On Saturday Clare and I went to support one of her colleagues in the AFL Canberra Grand Final :) She was playing for the Belconnen Magpies, who got beaten by just 3 goals (well, 2 goals and 4 points). It was such a low-scoring game, which made it even more intense. It had just started raining when the game began, so the ball was like a hot potato, and it looked hard to get around without blowing a tyre (as they say in the hockey 😆). But it was really fun to watch, and wander around the oval with Sebby :)
On Sunday we went down to Woden Park for a Father's Day picnic. Saturday was gloomy as all get out, but Sunday was gooooorgeous! The sun was out, the breeze was nice, the trees were starting to get shoots on them (with a handful already blossoming), just the best weather! Clare, her dad and Sebby and I each packed a picnic, so we were well set for food in any genre 😆. Once we picked a table Sebby, Clare and I went off to explore the park while we waited for Clare's dad. We climbed bridges, sat on logs, tried to move giant rocks, kicked some leaves, chased some ducks, splashed in some puddles, chased more ducks, crunched some leaves in our hands, blew a thistle — it was beautiful to see and to see through the eyes of a child who has such an exuberance for life! After a quick lunch, we were up and exploring again — this time taking turns to guard the food from enterprising magpie-larks scouting out the area. It was so lovely to have a sit and a chat to Clare's dad, and then to go off and explore with Sebby 🥰. Oh, and we saw some horses! I feel so incredibly lucky to have been able to spend such a gorgeous day with the people who are so so important!
During the week, I had the thought of migrating all of my last.fm listens (past and future) to my blog. I had a look at some of the existing self-hosted last.fm alternatives out there, but a lot of them were too full-featured for what I wanted. all I wanted was scrobbling, and some stats pages based on scobbles. Oh, and an embedded Apple Music player for anyone browsing and wanting to get an idea of what a song is. So, with the power of Claude on my side, I built a thing that I would never have bothered to build otherwise — https://fm.dnitza.com. It's still heavily skewed towards my music taste of the early 2010s, but now that I have a semi-reliable iOS and macOS app to do my scrobbling, that should change!
Speaking of poetry, one of Clare's goals was to do an open mic performance, so I volunteered to join her! I am looking for something to do in Greek, and so far, I think I will pick something from the works of Yannis Ritsos. I have been trying to get better at speaking, and I hope this will help in some ways — maybe with a few words, or maybe with just some pronunciation, or just getting my tongue used to making these new sounds. Who knows, but I am looking forward to November, when the next multi-lingual open mic is :)
Tags: weekly