One of the new seniors recreation groups which started up this week is a Poetry Club. Lately I've felt a hankering to try writing some poetry again, so I joined it. Five of us showed up and we had a marvelous time!
I also began a fun Qigong class which teaches the gentle and meditative stretching, strength and balance routine known as The Eight Pieces of Brocade. We covered the initial two exercise movements in the first class: "Two Hands Holding Up the Sky" and "Drawing the Bow to Shoot the Hawk." This cute little GIF shows the routine's eight movements in simplified form --
The album I've been listening to this week is the just-released debut by Aigul Akhmetshina, a 27-year-old Russian mezzo-soprano who made a big splash recently in Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera House in London. She is at the start of a huge international career! Although born in Russia, Aigul plans to become a British citizen.
