Monday - Tuesday, September 7 - 15 2013 (diary)

My mind is to a large degree occupied with thinking up new bridge ideas and writing them up for the benefit of our Trailer Boat Bridge Club members and my numerous bridge fans online from around the world. So my Blog writing suffers a bit from that at present.
The weather is still good here at present. We did have a total of 53 mm (2 inches) of rain these past two weeks, with our first thunder storm yesterday afternoon. Another one is expected today.

Australia is not a very book friendly place. Books are expensive here, often double the price you pay in Europe or the USA, and bookshops are largely filled with the usual "here today, gone tomorrow" so-called Bestsellers. Public Libraries too, although providing a wider choice are not a great deal better.
This has been the main reason for me to invest in an Asus mini-pad, so that I can purchase and download books online. I have enrolled for a 4- weeks course on its use, but the start of that has been delayed for a week until October 22.

My sister Wivica has also come to the rescue and purchased several novels (written in German) for me which arrived last week.
One of the novels included was Anton Chechov's collection of short stories entitled "Die Dame mit dem Hündchen" (The lady with the little dog). I can not recall ever having read of Chechov before, and this is certainly an eye opener. Highly intelligent, imaginative and creative writing.

Chechov was a GP (General Practitioner, medical doctor) from profession. This made me suddenly reflect on the fact that GP's (when assessing a patient's health) would not only look at the patient's physical aspects, but also take into account his or her emotional and mental states and attitudes. This would provide a rich source of material for writing like Chechov's.

Chechov's writing is an enormous inspiration and motivator to start writing yourself. The only other writer (I am familiar with) that has such effect on me personally would be Ernest Hemingway.