Bieguni - English title Flights

Bieguni by Olga Tokarczuk
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Looks to me as a random collection of less or more interesting facts, memories and stories.
Professional critics try to prove that they see some deeper meaning in this maze.
Definitely not my idea of reading books.
I ended my efforts around page 120 and immediately forgot what I read in preceding pages.

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Rachel and Leah

Rachel & Leah by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am familiar with biblical Jacob's story. First of all from Joseph and his Brothers, a monumental book by Thomas Mann. Thomas Mann was most interested with complicated relations of Biblical characters with God, women were left in a background.
So I welcomed Rachel and Leah as a worthy addition of woman's point of view.
I was quite pleased with first few chapters, different characters of two sisters, daughters of Laban, Jacob's uncle. I welcomed addition of Bilhah and Zilpah, two women with unfortunate childhood, but with strong characters.
I enjoyed witty dialogues with gentle humor and bits of spite.
But there remained few hundred pages to read, will all be just a lighthearted banter?
No, author introduced a significant element - reading holy books, the word of God.
It looks to me like an author's invention, there is no mention in the Bible of any books passed between Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Another point is Jacob, the book pictures him as a man of great depth and faith, it rather contradicts the biblical story.
Anyway, I do not mind some deviation from the biblical path, but as for me there was too much about influence of holy texts on Leah character.
Finally we come to the climax of the story - wedding of Jacob and a daughter(s) of Laban. I was very interested how the author solved this puzzle? Well, again he resorted to God, faith and love. On one hand I do not see any other peaceful solution, on the other it was choosing an easy way out.
Summarizing - I read this book with some interest, but I will not read other biblical stories by this author.

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Cadence

Cadence: Travels with music — a memoir by Emma Ayres
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I remember Emma Ayres very well as ABC morning music presenter.
Not so long ago I've been to his (Eddie's) presentation of his latest book - Danger Music. I found this book very interesting, but at the same time I was very frustrated with descriptions of life in Kabul and hopeless struggles of Afghani musicians.
I just received from Goodreads a summary of my readings this year. A very saddening summary - 35 books read, average rating 2.3. Most of books written by writers I respect and such a disappointment. I got a feeling of time lost and hesitated to start another book.
It looks that the last glimpse at books in my local library was a kind smile of the fate - Cadence by Emma Ayres - her life, musical experiences, adventurous bike ride and reflection on selected pieces of music.
I suppose for everyone who remembers Emma and her music programs it will be a most welcome return of a good friend.
For those, who do not remember Emma? Still I think it should be interesting story of a brave girl fighting for finding her place on earth.

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Richard Flanagan - The sound of one hand clapping

The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

A very depressing story, a very depressing book.
Wasted life of refugees employed in early 1950-ies at building the dam and electric station at Butlers Gorge in Tasmania.
Author tries to connect hard memories of Slovenian refugees with the harsh climate of Tasmania and here he goes over the top. In the opening chapter one of main characters leaves her home at night, it is cold, windy and snowing, which "...brought back painful memories of forced labour camps in the Urals and Siberia".
Tasmania and Siberian winter - it sent me the warning - there will be lots of exaggeration and demonizing Tasmania.
Another point related to the same paragraph in the book: "... she knew it wasn't Stalin's USSR. Knew it wasn't Kolyma or Goli Otok or Birkenau".
I personally found this sentence very disturbing .
Couple of facts - Goli Otok was a Yugoslav concentration camp on Adriatic. Communist Yugoslavia broke any cooperation with Stalinist USSR in 1948.
Birkenau. Yes, there is relation of Birkenau and Stalin's USSR. This notorious German concentration and extermination camp has been liberated by the Red Army in 1945.
It is only page 4 of the book and I was warned - the author feels free to play tricks with facts and history.
I appreciate R. Flanagan's great writing style, but throughout the book I felt it excessive and false.
Another point is ironic, sarcastic view of Tasmanian hydro-scheme. It is written definitely from the perspective of current day environment protection activists and does not fit atmosphere of years 1954 or 1957 depicted in the book.
And here comes the story - I find it extremely depressing. I know that the author being married to a Slovenian must have good knowledge of migrant fate and stories, but this one was for me impossible to accept. I just paged through large sections of the book to find whether it leads to some feasible end.
Well, on hand there was some relief. Hate and cruelty ends. On the other hand idyllic finale does not fit anything of what was told in the preceding 390 pages.

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Richard Flanagan - First Person

First Person by Richard Flanagan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In 1991 John Friedrich was in the centre of media attention. A person with unknown background climbed to the top of Victorian Branch of National Safety Council (NSCA) and changed it from an advisory body employing maybe a dozen people to a very modern search and rescue organisation with some 400 employees and state of art equipment. For this he was awarded Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
2 years later NSCA collapsed with debts of around 300 million dollars. Friedrich was arrested and charged of obtaining property by deception.
He became media celebrity, no wonder he received a lucrative offer of writing an autobiography. A ghost writer was hired to assist in this task.
I looked in the result - John Friedrich with Richard Flanagan (the second name in smaller print): Codename Iago: the story of John Friedrich.
In a book there is a short note about the helping hand: Richard Flanagan is a writer who lives in Tasmania... he is presently writing a feature film script and completing his first novel.
First Person is Richard Flanagan's story about above project.
In first two chapters I enjoyed Flanagan's great writing style and some observations on literature and publishing industry. We are also introduced to main characters of the story - Siegfried Heidl, the con man and Kif Kehlman, the ghost-writer - and realize that the task will be difficult. Heidl does not cooperate at all in providing details for the book, he limits his relation to ambiguous comments and observations - euphenisms, riddles, rhetorical formulations that could mean everything or nothing.
Frustrated by the lack of progress and pressed by a publisher, Kif Kehlman finds himself dependent on Heidl, he feels that his own character changes, that he becomes Heidl-like.
For a while I enjoyed Flanagan's language and style, but there is too much of it. Some 200 pages and no progress of the story.
And then, unexpectedly the pace accelerates - Kif writes like an automaton, book completed, money received, but this is no longer Kif we knew at the beginning of the book, his family breaks, he becomes an unscrupulous producer of best-selling media contents. He became Heidl.

I paged through the real product of Friedrich-Flanagan cooperation - Codename Iago. I wanted to see the very beginning:
Chapter 1.
I have been absent throughout my life.
In First Person we have:
I typed (after Heidl): I have been missing since I was born.
I stared at that line. And then cut it from the end of my document, scrolled upwards, and pasted it at the top, immediately below the words Chapter 1..
As for the rest of the book, I found it very average. Only opening chapters about Friedrich's work in Aboriginal communities were interesting to me.

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Paper is patient

Paper: An Elegy by Ian Sansom
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Elegy for paper - very difficult task.
I respect the author for taking the challenge and all hard work. Unfortunately, at least in my case, he lost.
Already at the start of the first chapter I raised brows - idyllic description how paper was produced from the bark of mulberry tree... in Japan.
It puzzled me, I always thought that paper was a Chinese invention. Two pages later my thoughts were confirmed. Yes - China was a correct answer. So why Japan in the opening paragraph?
Another big and unexpected surprise - I was used to the idea, that paper is made from trees. The opening phrases about mulberry tree confirmed my view, and then a shock - at the beginning of XIX century there were problems with paper production because of shortage of rags.
Rags? There is no mention in the book since when and why rags were used for paper production.
Someone may say I that I am picking on the author.
Well, the problem is, that the book contains hundreds of associations of various events and writings. Majority of them unknown (and irrelevant) to me. I read them with some reserve - what for are they in the book? In many cases I got impression, that only to demonstrate author's knowledge and writing skills.
And again to the facts. Author mentions book burning in Nazi Germany in May 1933. He mentions some authors whose books were burnt.
Among them - Thomas Mann.
WRONG! These were books of his brother Heinrich.
Another point - author devoted few pages to the 1937 Munich agreement signed by Chamberlain and Hitler. Why just this, and only this, document has been treated in such detail?
Similarly, there is quite elaborate story about building of Natural History Museum in London. It ends with a conclusion - paper made it possible. Same conclusion as in the previous case.

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Kiwi

Kiwi: The Australian brand that brought a shine to the world by Keith Dunstan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

History of one of the most popular Australian brands.
Great history of Scottish migrants who brought to Australia new concepts and energy.
The story of Kiwi Polish storming world's market was quite fascinating for me.
As negatives I will mention some difficulty in keeping synchronized the story of Kiwi polish conquering the markets and Ramsay family history.
Last chapters was for me a bit too much of the politics of a large multinational corporation.
Note: I read a hardback edition, could not find it on Goodreads.

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And deliver us from... Baldacci

Deliver Us from Evil by David Baldacci
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The book is based on well designed scenario.
Start with a commonly known event. In this case it is Holocaust. Follow with a widely unknown historical event. In this case it is Holodomor - a Soviet designed famine in Ukraine. The aim of such a mixture is to make impression, firstly that the author sticks to historical events, secondly that there were terrible crimes committed in obscure places and circumstances which we never will be able to fully comprehend.
On such prepared ground we can plant a story of another, not-so-authentic, genocide, this time organised by post-soviet KGB (of source there is a mention, that the current leader of Russia has KGB past).
The book is about a hunt for a perpetrator of this crime.
The second arm of the story is detailed description of cruelty. Once I read an interesting observation. The author looked on the bookshelf in the library. He noticed that in one of the books there was a small section apparently read more frequently as the pages were more worn out. He looked there - these were descriptions of tortures.
It seems the observations were right, some readers are excited reading about cruelties. My impression is, that this topic was one of driving powers of Stieg Larsson's Millenium series.
Writing about cruelties has an additional strength. The reader feels a strong desire to punish the perpetrators. It opens a field for a further fantasies about cruelty - this time for a good cause.
I understand, that 'And deliver us from Evil' is a part of a series of books. It is about some mysterious organisation(s) whose aim is to punish mass murderer's. They collect enormous material on crimes committed, but do not pass it to any justice system rightly considering them as not efficient enough . So they will bring the devil to justice themselves. It seems that there are numerous occasions to kill the the beast, but a special scenario must be observed. The perpetrator must be presented a documentation of atrocities committed and then executed. It is not easy and here we have substance to fill 400+ pages of the book. This way to justice leads to few dozens of accidental casualties.
I managed to read almost 300 pages of this book and I have to admit there were written well. I mean the plot, language, characters presentation, description of localities. In this book there were not so many graphic descriptions of cruelties so only a dozen or two pages to skip.
The author describes frequently technologically advanced methods and equipment. In my opinion does it very well... with one exception. Hunted criminals are protected by very advanced security systems, still in 2 cases just a few seconds power failure creates opportunity to break them. Well, for $80 I bought a very simple home security system and guess what? It is not affected by a power failure.

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Nicola Tesla - for beginners

Tesla For Beginners by Robert Sutherland-Cohen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Simplified story about life and inventions of Nicola Tesla. I suppose the name of the inventor has been recently popularized by Elon Musk, thus quite a number books published.
Having read few other books on this topic I can say it gives a good look into a fascinating life of a fascinating person.
Negative point for me is demonizing Tesla opponents or competitors, specifically Edison and Marconi.

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Nicola Tesla - My Inventions

My Inventions and Other Writings by Nikola Tesla
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Exciting and confusing book at the same time.
Insight into a terribly restless mind.
I used term "terribly" because while reading this book I felt sadness. Sadness for this lonely and in many aspects wasted life.
Exciting part - of course description of his many, many brilliant ideas.
Confusing. Firstly, I could not reconcile some of his ideas with my knowledge of physics. Secondly, in few cases his ideas reached beyond science and led to very bizarre conclusions. E.g. he imagined that producing a super weapon will bring an everlasting peace as nobody will dare to oppose a country having such a weapon. That's crazy.
In few Tesla articles included in this book, there are very specific references to drawings, which are not included into the book - this is very sloppy editing.

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Nicola Tesla - Electrical Wizard

Electrical Wizard: How Nikola Tesla Lit Up the World by Elizabeth Rusch
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I am not sure what is a target age group for this book.
Judging by the format and contents - large print, lots of pictures and simple style - it is for children.
In my opinion Nicola Tesla was such a mentally disturbed personality, that it is impossible to write a good book about him, specifically for children.
The book is loaded with pictures of a magician and quite confusing text.
As for text - it is excessively sensational - wizard, magician - there not much about science, education, hard work - just spectacular demonstrations,
Two drawings I found quite disturbing - Tesla wizard keeping an electric wire in one hand and a glowing bulb in the other.
Excellent example for children.
Scientific Notes are printed at the end of the book, they include a warning: electricity kills!
Sorry authors, but all diligent readers are already dead.

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Dancing Bears

Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Held Captive to Old Ways of Life in Newly Free Societies by Witold Szabłowski
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

There was along tradition among Eastern European Gypsies to earn money by showing a dancing bear. When Bulgaria joined EU they had to stop it. Bears are bought out from owners and transferred to a nature park. Bringing them to freedom is a long, difficult and painful process. Actually it is a failure. All freed bears have to be castrated as they are unable to teach their kids how to live in wilderness.
First part of the book tells stories of bear keepers and of Four Paws representative responsible for negotiations with bear owners.
Great story beautifully told.
The second part tries to find analogy between process of releasing bears to "freedom" and difficulties of people of countries which abolished Communism to adjust to free market economy and politics.
In my opinion author fails in this part of the book.
The idea was great. First part of the book is divided into chapters describing various stages of bears transfer: Love, Freedom, Negotiations, History, etc.
The second part is divided into chapter with same names, each chapter describing a case from a different country.
As I said, the idea was great, but I cannot find any relation between the chapter title and the story it contains.
Another point is, that cases described it the book do not prove authors thesis. In my opinion people interviewed by the author manage very well. They demonstrate unusual inventiveness, energy and initiative to earn money in the new system. They just grumble from time to time about some nonsense - e.g. a collective farm in Poland closed, people earn money performing in Hobbit's Village, many food products are imported from Germany.
The last chapter looks like a misunderstanding - crisis in Greece. It had nothing to do with Communism, Greeks lived in full freedom, they just wasted money with a silent approval of European banks.
For me, as a person who spent most of his life in Communist Poland, the book was just a return to memories from the better part of my life. Readers with no such background will not get even this satisfaction.

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Danger Music

Danger Music by Eddie Ayres
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Danger Music - I understand it as a music accompanying danger and I think this role it plays in the book.
There are two dangers - life in Afghanistan in years 2014 - 2o15 and author's own battle with her/his own sexuality. Both surrounded by music.
Emma Ayres is a musician (viola, cello), was a very popular music presenter in ABC Classic and music teacher in Afghan National Institute of Music (ANIM).
Teaching music in Afghanistan is the core of the book.
Well, the best I can say about it is - it is extremely honest, and as for me - very, very depressing. Kaleidoscope of students' names and stories and none of them ends well.
Afghan war lasts already over 3 times longer than a 2nd World War and, at least in 2015, the general situation in the country was worse than before.
Cost of the war goes into trillions of dollars. Author of the book mentions, that USA alone spent 100 billion dollars for help to Afghanistan - outcome - NIL - all money stolen, mismanaged, wasted.
Someone would think that the school of music, generously supported by many international organisations, would be a beacon of light and hope.
It is not. Firstly students, specifically female, must fight all the time with their families. There is not a one case mentioned of parents supporting music study of their child. Quite opposite, some children do their musical studies secretly, some are constantly punished for their passion (by extra load of work at home), all are aware, that any minute their family may stop their education. It applies specifically to girls, for whose parents the highest priority is marriage.
Secondly, the students are not much different than the surrounding world. Gossip, cheating, bullying, sexual molesting. All this happens in the school and in most cases goes on unpunished.
The only "positive" stories are those about students, who managed to go overseas to study. I put positive in quotes because at the end none of them returned to Afghanistan.
Creator of the school, Dr Sarmast, expected, that the graduates will take positions of music teachers in the school and after few years there will be no need to employ teachers from overseas. Nothing like this happened.
I have to admit that before reading half of the book I felt very tired and depressed. I knew, that nothing good will happen and continued reading only from loyalty and sympathy to the author.
The other danger - man's soul in wrong body.
This subject is quite alien to me, but I appreciated Eddie's honesty in presenting his very personal suffering and fight. I wish him all success.

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The happiest refugee

The Happiest Refugee: A Memoir by Anh Do
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A story of settling down in Australia of a Vietnamese family.
On one hand, a story typical for thousands of Vietnamese families - extremely risky boat travel, refugee camp, very hard work to reach some level of stability in the foreign country.
On the other hand, it is not quite typical family.
Extremely entrepreneurial father, very talented children.
Anh Do spends over 2 hours a day on return travel to a good private school, on some occasions works till 3 am helping his mother with her sewing work, cannot afford all required school manuals and still ends school as a top student and is accepted to study Law at Sydney University.
He does not like his studies, again undertakes numerous jobs to repair family budget, plays rugby and at the end of studies if offered a good job by a renown company. And he rejects this offer.
As for the book. On one hand it is an exciting story. Story about hard work and great family love and mutual sacrifice. On the other hand... in my opinion it is not very well written book. It looks like the author tries to sell too much and included into the book too many irrelevant or just poorly written details.

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The crying place

The Crying Place by Lia Hills
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My rating relates mostly to the art of writing. The subject and the story were not too much to my liking.
The Preface tells what the book is about - grief. Grief in Aboriginal culture.
Interestingly the subject of the only other book by Lia Hills - The Beginner's Guide to Living - is also grief.
Young, but no too young, man learns that his closest friend committed suicide. He is overtaken by grief and guilt - could he do something to save his friend?
Overtaken to such an extent, that instead of going for funeral, he undertakes a long journey to visit place where his friend spent last months of his life, to meet a person who apparently was important for his friend in that time.
It is a long journey, from pulsating with life Sydney to a remote desert somewhere on the border of Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia.
In quite a number of Goodreads reviews I found a complaint, that the journey is too long, nothing happens, boring.
I agree, to some extent. I also got an impression, that the author, having traveled all this long way ( and I know it from my own experience), tries to "sell" each detail of it. After some 80 pages I felt tired - been there, saw it, come to the point. But it did not discourage me from further reading - simply the book is too beautifully written to be skipped. I just changed my reading method. The book consists of over 80 short chapters. I read just few of them each day and just enough to give me inspiration to think, dream, enjoy. And I was not disappointed.
Desert - it plays a very significant role in the story. And plays it very well. Not only Australian desert, but also Sahara where the main character and his friend experienced adventurous and thought-provoking few months.
Eventually he reaches his destination - an Aboriginal settlement in the middle of nowhere and the trouble starts - for the main character and for me as a reader.
On one hand I appreciate insight into Aboriginal life, way of thinking and traditions. On the other hand I cannot find any connecting point with current day civilization. The same conclusion I reached reading Peter Carey's - A long way from home.
It is a very saddening conclusion for me.

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Price of a plastic shopping bag

In June this year our two main supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, tried to limit usage of plastic bags. They stopped giving them for free.
After few weeks, Coles abandoned the action - our customers are not ready for it - was the message. So plastic bags are again delivered for free.

The Almighty Free Market nodded approvingly - Coles is the winner, Woolworths sales fell significantly - read HERE.

I could propose few ways to penalize shops and customers for using plastic bags, but each of them would mean intervention or a regulation of FREE MARKET, and that would be a sin against the main foundation of our great free world.

The Beginner's Guide to Living

The Beginner's Guide to Living by Lia Hills
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After first dozen pages I was charmed. What a deep and touching insight into soul of adolescent boy who just lost his mother in a car accident.
Next pages cooled me down.
Grief. A very difficult time, very individualised, making the grieving person difficult for people around.
I had some taste of it in J. Barnes' book - The levels of life. Last part of it is a relation of author's grief after loss of his wife. A very significant part of it was a feeling of anger or at least disappointment towards all surrounding people.
And it was Julian Barnes, mature and extremely cultured person.
So what about a 17 y.o. boy?
Terrible! I got really fed up with it.
The author makes lots of effort to confront the main character with various thoughts and ideas about life and death - ancient Greek philosophers, European thinkers of XIX and XX century, Buddhists, sufis etc.
Thoughts and ideas? Rather one-liners.
As it is was not enough there is also introduction to sex and drugs. And more.
As for me too much of it.
One aspect totally ignored is Christian religion. Allain de Botton in his book - Religion for the Atheists - admits that religion offers tried ways to deal with guilt, sorrow, grief.
Parents of the main character, Will, baptised their son in Roman Catholic church. There is mention of another Catholic baptism. But all of this is absolutely superficial. Looks like some absurd ceremony to have opportunity to post some photos in Facebook.
And this impression prevailed - person living very superficial life tries to find some quick solution to the real problem.
One thing puzzled me - I found the book in the Teenagers section of the library. Definitely the title justifies such classification, but I find this title strongly misguiding.

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Working as a mule

Sometime ago I landed in a bit shitty hospital...

The reason for my stay was to connect an extra lead to my pacemaker.
I had a pacemaker installed few years ago and I believe it saved/prolonged my life.
In last 2 years there was a noticeable degradation in my heart's capacity and my cardiologist suggested connecting another lead to my pacemaker to activate more thoroughly my heart's muscles.

It was a bit surprise for me that my old, but not so old, pacemaker has been replaced by a new one. I asked what happened to the old one? Apparently there is a rule that this type of devices must not be recycled so it has been returned to manufacturer to make a best possible use of it.

While in hospital I watched TV, ABC 7:30 report, and there was a report which made my heart pacing faster.
They reported, that hospitals or companies running them receive kickbacks from manufacturers, up to 50% of cost of the device.
That means, that the hospital buys a device for say $25,000, installs it and sends a bill to the insurance company, which pays the price. Than, some time later, the hospital receives $12,000 back.
It explains why private insurance premiums are rising so fast.

Transcript of the 7:30 Report - HERE.

What puzzled me is that on one hand - few companies mentioned in the report responded with statement, that they just selected pacemaker from the official listing. On the other hand some doctors said that there should be more transparency in pacemaker choice, that patients should be more involved.
I do not see it as the main issue. I trust my doctor and do not feel qualified to verify technical details of his/her decision. In my opinion whole issue is about money circulation. If the hospital received any money from the manufacturer then it should be returned to the party which paid the bill - private health insurance, Medicare, patient.

For the time being I feel as a mule - an ignorant carrier used to channel money between some secret players.

When there is a St John's Day

In winter 1998, I visited my skiing friend Jan. He impressed me a lot with his work to develop sport in his small village. One of his initiatives was a mountain run on the summer solstice, which coincides with St John's day. It was also his nameday - in Poland nameday is more celebrated than birthday. 
At some point he said to me - I would be so pleased if you could one day participate in My race.
I smiled and answered something polite, but my thoughts were somewhere else. 

Come to Poland in summer? At that time I was preoccupied with skiing, so summer holidays looked quite alien to me. 

Participate in 12 km mountain run? Impossible! I had no problem with 90 km ski race, but run? Running was my weakest point.

3 years later, I learned about Jan's tragic death. At the same time, my health cooled down my enthusiasm for ski races. Then the memory came - it might be proper time to please my friend.

The opportunity came in 2008. By this time, I was practically out of any competitive events. My running was terrible, but I knew, that Jan still would be pleased.

On 20th June 2008, I came to Skoczow. In many places I noticed posters announcing the run. Actually it was named after my friend.

Not only the race. Coming to the start area in Jan's village - Pogorze, I noticed that the sport hall and the school bore also his name.

There was nice number of participants. They looked awesome. Eventually I noticed few older guys in T-shirts marked something like -  Trotters Club. Maybe this is company for me - I thought and moved closer to listen to their conversations. They discussed events of last week. One participated in half marathon last Saturday, another in 15 km mountain run.

Completely discouraged,  I retreated quickly to a distant corner and waited nervously for start.

Start was signaled with a shot of an old cannon and the crowd of runners moved energetically forward. 

From the very beginning I positioned myself at the end. For a while, I followed closely a pair of runners. It looked, that the female runner was inexperienced beginner and her partner was coaching her during the run. It was a perfect company for me, I thought. But after 500 m, I gave up. I could not run any more, I slowed to a walk and considered my options.

There is no way, I could cover 12.5 km. Probably the best thing to do, is to withdraw now, when we are so close to the start area. Later it will be a nuisance to get transport back.

I was accompanied by few boys on bicycles, who played the role of rear guard.

- I think, I should withdraw... -  I said to them.

- No, you must be joking - they protested and overwhelmed me with encouragements...

- You do not have to hurry. 

- We have lots of time.
- You must not give such example to young people.

- Important thing is to finish the race. 

- Just after this turn, there is a beautiful meadow, there are lakes, it will be so nice, you have to see it.

So I walked on. 

Indeed, soon we reached the meadow. There was smell of fresh grass and of the lakes. I alternated jog and walk and moved slowly on. The last pair of runners was far ahead of me. 

From time to time, we passed farms. Around some of them there were people gathered around bonfires. On St John's night, people in Poland celebrate old pagan traditions of Sobotka. They waved to me and encouraged to continue. The course led through meadows, into a forest, up and down few hills. I did not control my time. 

A memory of  DolomitenLauf, ski race in Austria, came to me. 

At the finish line, Jan waited for me (he participated in he half distance race).  

- Why you are so late, Lech? - he asked smiling and extending his hand to me - I got cold waiting so long for you.

- Sorry my friend - I thought now - you have to wait for me again. Hopefully, it is not so cold in heaven.

Eventually I recognized familiar surrounding and heard noises of the stadium. I gathered myself to the final jog and entered the stadium.

In the tent for the officials, I noticed a familiar face - the niece of Jan. I met her during my visit 10 years earlier. She recognize me too. It appeared that she was the mayor of Skoczow. How pleased Jan would be with it. We drank glass of vodka for old memories and I moved to the exit.

Passing the school, I noticed few boys sitting at the stairs. I looked again at the commemorative plate. There was a quote from St Paul's letter to Timothy: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith..."
- Did you finish the race? - asked me the boys.
- I did, I did - I answered and got a feeling that it was a bit more than the race.

Ah, sweet mystery of Life

Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life by Roald Dahl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Down to earth stories from English countryside written soon after the end of the II World War.
Warm pictures of people and situations, but always adding a sprinkling of the sinister.
In the case of one story - Mr Feasey - I felt tired and disgusted with a long list of cruelties employed by race dog owners to slow down or accelerate their animals.

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Over to you

Over to You by Roald Dahl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I know Roald Dahl from bit perverse stories for adults, published in mid 1950-ties in Poland. It was a great surprise for me to find this author many years later on shelves with books for children.
Over to you - already the title is quite ambiguous - I wonder what it means to other readers.
I see it as a routine in military radio communication - when each person ending his/her message says - over.
Military communication, right, the book is based on author's experience as RAF pilot during II World War. Roald Dahl serves in Africa, Middle East and Greece. He experienced a very serious airplane crash.
10 stories in the book are short snapshots of war experiences of the author and his colleagues. In most cases, experiences for which no human is prepared.
Some stories are shocking, but I do not think author's intention was to shock the readers. Rather to show them how helpless we all might be.

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A Modest Proposal

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Jonathan Swift from early years excelled in political and social satire. No wonder, that after moving to Ireland in 1714, he couldn't keep silent about pitiable life there.
A Modest Proposal is an extremely absurd and revolting book. I have never expected that such a book could have been written at the beginning of XVIII century.
On one hand it is a smart example of skillful rhetoric.
On the other hand, I consider its absurd considerations as a expression of defeat of socially sensitive person. Swift found fate of Irish people so hopeless, that his only answer was to write something completely mad.
Digression: one of important arguments of the author is to release parents from a burden of caring of children while living in extreme poverty.
Actually there is an example in Irish history of someone following this track.
In 1846, at the peak of Irish Famine, Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki was made an agent of British Relief Association and he proposed that instead of distribution of food and clothing for children by distribution centres it would be more productive to provide free school education for children and distribute good at school. The scheme was very effective and brought an additional positive effect - parents relieved from hopeless full time care for their children gained new energy and initiative for finding some employment, in most cases successful - this is exactly what Jonathan Swift promised, but achieved by Strzelecki in so humane way.
For his work in Ireland Paul Edmund Strzelecki was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

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First Sunday of June

Means for me Multiple Sclerosis Walk.

This year I did it for the eighth time.
Better stop writing here, let's the pictures talk...

The weather

The crowd

Start...

and then just enjoy...

At the finish line with my friend from skiing fields, who supports me in this walk for many years.

The donations side also looks good, almost reached my target - $440 collected.
Thank you my supporters.

Communion intravenously?

Last weekend we spent in Ballarat on a great music festival - Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields.
On Sunday we attended the Mass in St Patrick's Cathedral.

The Gospel was about how Samuel heard the call of the God.
In the homily, the priest talked about current means of communication.
For example a direct phone call to Heavens, and there a recorded message:
- for a prayer press ONE,
- for a request press TWO,
- for an acknowledgement press THREE,
- for any other inquiry press FOUR.
Please note: this office is closed on Sunday. In the case of emergency contact your local priest, rabbi, imam.

After the mass I visited a toilet and there I noticed another sign of modern times...

A container to dispose used syringes. These are quite common in public toilets in Melbourne. Usually at trains stations, in the parks, on the beaches. But near the church? Thus the title question.

Go and look in lecherous manner

On the New Year's day google displayed special logo...

The second letter O replaced by a rising sun. First 2 letter look like a command - GO! Get out from your hole!

I tried the same with the whole word - GO OGLE!
Ogle? Is there such a word?
I tried google translator - ogle = stare at in a lecherous way.

Here you are! Now I know why google is so popular.

Question for me: to google or not to google?

Balance of the year

At the year end we tend to look into statusctics to make summaries.

I am registered with Goodreads page so it makes a summary for me:

My target for last year was 20 books, Goodreads reported 35, but in last days of the year I managed to read 2 more.

On the other hand my average rating was 2.5 out of 5, that means - mean, mediocre - does it make sense to read?
On one hand I am often tempted to read again my favourite books, on the other - I know that I will reach for new ones. Hopefully this year will be better than the last one.