Pronounciation

I'm listeing to The Plantation by Di Morrissey read by Kate Hood.

It's about about a  plucky young Australian woman tracing her family roots back to a plantation in Malaysia.

I've listened to a few Di Morrissey books now and they've all been read by Kate Hood, who generally gets right into the spirit of things.

Her pronounciation is bothering me though because there are quite a few Malay phrases scattered throughout the book and I reckon she's saying them all wrong. I used to study Indonesian awhile back and there are a few simple rules that wouldn't be that hard to put into action. Then again, maybe I'm just ignorant and don't realise the differences between Indonesian and the form of Malay in the book. Or maybe she's doing it deliberately to reflect how the plantation owners would have spoken.

So I can't be sure, and I suspect I just need to loosen up.

Contrasts

To keep my brain fresh and young by learning new things, I am listening to Talking Poofy's poofcasts, which promise to be - "Everything you ever wanted to know about our people, and all the things you were too terrified to ask". I am learning a lot. And cackling.

I've only just discovered the poofcasts and it turns out they have a back catalogue of 40 episodes! Luckily many of them aren't available, because otherwise I might overdose.

Because I'm all about balance, I'm also listening to Love over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith.

Jeeves

I'm listening to Ring for Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. I thought I knew exactly what I was getting with this one but I didn't.

Firstly I assumed it would be read by Jonathan Cecil, who I believe is the ultimate Jeeves narrator. Instead it is read by Nigel Lambert. I was concerned, but without cause, Lambert does a great job.

Secondly, I assumed Bertie Wooster would be present. He is not. Jeeves is instead in the service of Bill (Lord) Rowcester. I miss Bertie. Bill is also dim and bumbling, but he doesn't have Bertie's turn of phrase.

Thirdly, the book is explicitly set in the 1950s. There's all kinds of references to the modern world, like television and the welfare state. Not sure I'm a fan of this because Wodehouse is all about escapism for me.

And finally, no-one is trying to get out of an engagement. There is still the classic breaking of the engagement and subsequent reunion plot, but I like this to be paralleled with a fellow trying to get out of  an engagement too.

So not 100% what I was expecting but still absolutely fine to cook dinner to.

Happy Birthday to Me

It was my birthday a week or so ago. I received excellent presents from my sister.

The first was Carry on Jeeves by PG Wodehouse read by Jonathan Cecil. I know I've said before that I don't need to own audiobooks, but there are exceptions. Carry on Jeeves is a classic. I now know I can now listen to it any time without being dependent on the fickleness of library collections. This will help me sleep at night.

The second present was The Penny Pollard Collection by Robin Klein read by Rebecca Macauley. I loved these books when I was in Grade 4. I actually thought I was Penny Pollard. (It turns out that I'm not though because I'm scared of horses.)

The third present was an Indonesian novel Obsesi. I used to learn Indonesian at Uni and to keep my eye in I occasionally read pot-boilers in Indonesian. This makes it sound like I'm more proficient than I am. I don't understand a lot of the words, but it doesn't really matter, I still get the idea.

So, this was an excellent combination of presents. But did my sister have to scour the streets of Melbourne wandering from shop to shop looking for the perfect present? No she did not. She just went to this shop. They specialise in audiobooks and foreign books. All future present dilemmas solved - something for everyone! Brilliant.

Disease!

I'm listening to The Demon Under the Microscope by Thomas Hager read by Stephen Hoye.

It is a ripper. It's a non-fiction book all about the discovery of the first antibiotic, sulfa. One of my favorite ever subjects at university was The Ecological History of Humans and was all about how diseases have shaped human history. And boy have they! The outcome of wars, colonisation, trade - all of these major forces have been at the mercy of diseases and our ability to deal with them.





So, as an old history and philosophy of science nerd I am flipping loving this story tape. My only criticism is that I find the narrator a little dramatic. He has a habit of extending and then falling away on the last word of sentences, which sounds like he's narrating a movie trailer. You can listen to a sample.

The Outsiders

I'm listening to the Outsiders by SE Hinton, read by Jim Fyfe. I love this story tape and I wanted my partner to hear it, so we're listening to it before bed each night.

I first listened to The Outsiders when I was in Grade 5. My sister and I lay on our bunk beds and listened to the whole thing in an afternoon, absolutely mesmerised. We then made all our friends listen to it and played 'The Outsiders' at recess, which mainly involved pretending to jump people and saying "Need a haircut greaser" a lot.

I'm now listening to the exact same recording, which is lucky because I couldn't stand hearing another narrator read it. For me, Jim Fyfe's voice is integral to the book. I once read The Outsiders and it was impossible to stop hearing his voice.

Listening to the audio book after all this time, I really want to join in on phrases like "Paul Newman and a ride home" in a terrible American accent. But I don't, because I'm sure would be very annoying.

Believing

Last night I actually watched the first hour of the Tour de France coverage on SBS. After listening to 13 episodes of the Sag Wagon podcasts (which are best described as coverage of SBS's coverage of the Tour de France) it was almost strange to find out that the SBS coverage really exists in its own right, and not just as described by the Sag Wagon team.

It was a bit like when I went to New York for the first time - I'd heard so much about it and watched so many films and shows set in New York that various places in the city seemed familiar. But at the same time, on the whole it was different from how I'd imagined and therefore strange to me.

That's how I felt watching the Tour last night. Of course it didn't help that SBS decided not to include Taste le Tour or Keenan's breakaway commentary last night. Apparently that had even seasoned viewers feeling confused and homesick. It was like they'd ripped the Statue of Liberty down.

Before last night I intellectually knew that SBS was covering the Tour de France, but I didn't completely believe it. Just like New York was a backdrop for films, not a real place. Now I've seen it, I'm sure it's there. Whether I believe in France is a completely different matter...