New Activity –Marching to a Different Drum

Exercise afficionado is not in our job description. However, when the opportunity to join one of our women’s groups for Drumba arose, we jumped – or should we say marched – at the chance of getting in some aerobics in a fun way. Drumba is a fast-paced exercise class that combines aerobic marching movements with hitting a large exercise ball with drumsticks. It was an opportunity to move madly, raise your heart rate and laugh at the realization that you will never be mistaken for Ringo Starr.

New Projects – Masterpieces and Media Travel

This month we are launching two new projects.

We are both avid readers yet there are so many classics that neither of us have read but which peak our interest. We are very curious to know the story line and reasons why these books have reached the status of masterpiece . However, we realize we’ll never get through them all so we have allowed ourselves to take a shortcut by watching those which have been adapted to film. We’ve started this month with Moby Dick and, while we didn’t particularly enjoy the story, we can finally say we have an appreciation of the various meanings of one of the most famous opening lines in literature: “Call Me Ishmael.”

Our second project is Media Travel. Recognizing that there are many countries we will never get to visit, we decided to get there by proxy. Barbara “visited” Malta which, as the host of “The Travel Bug” says, is a place that is often ignored when planning a trip to the Mediterranean. The people are described as speaking Arabic with the hand gestures of an Italian but who are sometimes more British than the British themselves. It’s too bad we didn’t do an add-on when we took our trip to Sicily.

In an episode of “Discovering the World,” Laura traveled to Madagascar, where she fell in love with the wildlife – approximately 80% of its species of animals and plants are endemic to the island. It’s hard to resist a high jumping lemur and an upside-down tree (better known as a “baobab”).

Nothing beats a first-hand experience but rather than miss seeing these countries entirely, we’re happy to sit in front of our tv’s and travel “remotely”.

New author – Mary Morris

Barbara: So many historical fiction books that have been recommended to me are about the same subjects so when I heard about Gateway to the Moon by Mary Morris I was eager to read it and glad I did. The time period was that of the Spanish Inquisition when the Jewish and Muslim populations in Spain were forced to convert or be expelled or killed. Interesting to me is that a large number of them came to the New World and settled into what is now New Mexico and their descendants did not know about their origins. They observed traditions such as lighting candles on Friday night, not eating pork or mixing meat with dairy but had no idea why they were doing it. But what will stay with me for a long time – not in a good way – is the fact that those who were tortured by the Inquisition had to actually pay for it, literally. The Inquisitors had a pricing list and depending on the particular torture you received, you would have to pay for that item on their list. This book was a real eye opener.