11.11.11 11:11:11 .. and later

Last Friday I rode to the city on the bike. Just managed to reach the Shrine of Remembrance when 11 hours stroke. And few minutes later I watched this..



.. there is no year on my watch, so it showed only five elevens. Official ceremonies ended soon after and could see memories from those times, almost 100 years ago..



.. horse-drawn ambulance. Horses contribution to military history of Australia has been commemorated in this statue..



I still had one important point on my schedule, afternoon concert at Australian National Academy od Music (ANAM). It was only a short ride, I changed my dress and was ready. The concert started with Suite No 5 for cello by J.S. Bach. Opening Prelude was breathtaking (hear this). Next few parts went smoothly, and then, close to the end of the second Gavotte, there was some commotion behind the scene. The soloist performed few ending bars and stopped. An official appeared on the stage and announced a short break due to someone in the auditorium needing medical help. People started turning heads looking for a person in need. I did the same and saw few candidates for medical help, but was quite worried as many people looked questioningly at me. Luckily, the official asked us all to move away to make medical procedures easier. I got the message - who is not able to leave the room, will be taken by the ambulance. People hurried outside. In the foyer we could refresh ourselves with cooled water and fill declarations of donations for the Academy. The second option had also desired effect - people went outside, preferably on the other side of the road. After few minutes paramedics transported unlucky person to the ambulance and we were invited inside.
The soloist bravely performed the last part of the Suite. Then we listened to very refreshing French songs, and finally Till Eulenspiegel by Richard Strauss. Not the original piece for full orchestra, but a condensed version for an instrumental quintet. How light and witty it was! Check here.
Time to return home. I rode to the station and took the train. There was one thing, which bothered me a bit: how come, that the only photo I took from the WW I memories, was an ambulance? Was it a prediction of things to happen at the concert?

Blossom

In January I described my search of a tree planted by famous Polish pianist I. Paderewski in Royal Botanic Garden in Melbourne. Now was the time for a visit in the spring...

It blossomed so nicely. I wonder what will happen with all these flowers. Last Autumn I checked the fruits - there was only one - dried and dead.

End of newspapers

Last Monday, I passed by the rear door of the newsagent. I was struck by....

... stacks of unsold newspapers. What a waste :((((

The tree of knowledge

First thing which struck me on our tour bus, was a pile of wood on the roof...

What? Are we going to drive timber to the forest? Correct. It was needed for bonfires. After few days our stock ran out and we had to collect wood from the bush.

On our first stop at Windjana Gorge, we met a group of Aborigines. Couple of them approached our guide - Travis - and asked him to give them some wood as apparently it came from their land in a gorge nearby. I declared solemnly, that we carried this wood directly from Broome, but Travis dropped down few charred branches. Aborigines chuckled between themselves, what I took as a proof of bluffing our guide. Nevertheless, I helped them to carry wood to their place.

- How long are you going to stay here? - I asked.

- Only 1 day - answered one woman - our kids are sick, have terrible cough, but we could not find here the medicine. We will look for medicine in another place.

I wished them good health and returned to our bus. Travis was tying up branches and chuckling to himself.

- You know what? - he asked me. They were perfectly right. I collected this wood a week ago, exactly in the place, which they mentioned.

Coffee with someone, who will come later

Today I visited caffe sospeso...

Beautiful, napolitan tradition to order additional coffe - in suspense - sospeso - for someone, who cannot afford it. Page linked above, mentions that this tradition is less popular now. What a pity! At least it spreads outside Naples, for example here

On the wall is a blackboard, on which, marked with chalk, is number of "suspended" coffees. After my order, it has been changed to two ..

Have a nice day my unknown friend :)

The final solution

I was driving my grandchildren near a cemetery.

- Grandpa, they hide dead people in boxes and put them here - said Felix (6 years old).

- Yes, you are right.

- You are old grandpa, you will die soon.

- Yes, thanks for reminding me, I will book a place here tomorrow.

- But grandma is older than you.

- No, she is much younger than me.

- She is very, very, very old - confirmed Matilda (4 years old).

- She will die before you grandpa - announced Felix.

- You are wrong - I interrupt - I will die earlier.

- No grandpa, she will die earlier, but you will not marry anybody else! - stated Felix.

- Felix - she cannot die before me - who will cook us the soup? - I used the strongest argument.

- Yes Felix - Matilda was seriously alarmed - who will cook the soup?

- Grandpa, you will buy yourself baby food! - declared Felix triumphantly.

Life is a ball

On Tuesday (26/07) I celebrated my birthday. Over 3 days, there we 3 social gatherings on this occasion. But privately, I most enjoyed this...

Mission accomplished

I did my walk on Sunday. Team Red Bull welcomed me warmly, the weather was beautiful, the crowd BIG. It was a great walk!

My sponsors helped me to collect $646 !!! Thank you very much!

Full slide show from the event is HERE.

I got a POLE position

Yes! I switched off from Facebook and got in touch with people. And I received great support and advanced to the second position in Team Red Bull!! Great thanks to all sponsors.

In the meantime, I received a full fundraising kit from Multiple Sclerosis Society - poster, leaflet, receipt book, and my start number 4206.

Today we had z beautiful, sunny day. I was just ready for a bike ride when the kit arrived. So I tried it, this time in my bike riding gear...


Looks OK. Should I stand like this, in my red racing suit, in shopping centre on Saturday??

I am in the Red Bull Team!

I do not like Formula1 races at all. And I hate to have them here, in Albert Park. Each year, one week before the race, I ride my bike to Albert Park, look sadly on metal fences separating the race course from the lake and from the lawns and I raise my hands in anger: take this noisy and stinking event from here to hell where it belongs!

There is a saying, that God listens to our cries and fulfils them, but in the best way, which is not always the way we might have expected.

Can you imagine my surprise when I got an invitation to race on the Albert Park Formula1 course in the Red Bull Team?

Well, the invitation did not come directly from heaven, it came in quite complicated way... I am very active blogger on Polish blogging site. Browsing through blogs, I noticed one maintained under nick AnnaBlack (in Polish). I looked inside and got into a quite personal diary of young Polish girl fighting Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It is dramatic fight and a dramatic account of it. Anna stumbles and falls, her heart jumps up on each sign of improvement and falls down on each bad symptom, and there are many. She loses faith in doctors, in some people, she find support from others. And she fights. God, she really fights!

She also desperately needs financial support as most of medications and treatments she needs, are not covered by Polish medical scheme. So she fights, for money needed for her life, and for recognition of needs of other people affected by this nasty disease.

Few days ago, visiting my local library, I noticed a leaflet - Get moving for people with MS. This led me directly to the MS Walk page. I opened the Melbourne page of the walk and there I got the call - join the Red Bull Team! 

And here is another coincidence: organizers asked participants to wear something red, actually as much red as possible. So what about my ski racing suit?

So here I am!

Actually, it seems I will not be able to ski much, definitely not in any races. I thought, I will never have an opportunity to wear my red racing suit. Here I was given another chance! Because skiers, even without skis, remain always skiers.

And guess what? I put a short note about this on facebook. I did not have to wait long - soon I got a donation from my friend from Singapore whom I met almost 40 years ago in Birmingham. Thanks to his support, I jumped into 3rd position in my team!

I admire administration of the MS Walk. The minute I registered, I received an internet page where I could add my own texts and photos. I placed there links to two YouTube videos of the person , who motivated me to all this.

As I said before, I advanced already to the third position in the team. So with some help I may soon get a POLE position matching so nicely my nationality and the title of this blog :)

Well, somebody might say - this is nice that you will collect some money for MS cause in Australia, but what about Anna, who is apparently in much worse situation?
Firstly, I am trying to establish some channels to be able to support her from here. Secondly, I believe, that if her fight in Poland could benefit some people in Australia, similarly my walk here can help MS sufferers in Poland. Because suffering is global thing. And good will is global too.

Withering pages

Last week we received a new issue of Yellow Pages. I put them next to the last year's...

See the difference? They shrank by 440 pages, about 17%. I checked inside - print size was the same, contents as well. Just the number of advertising businesses must have decreased.

Australian economy is doing well, so I doubt if this is a result of massive withdrawal from the business. Simple explanation would be - they shifted to internet.

Tree lovers might smile with delight.

I still have my doubts. Internet advertising carries also some ecological costs. There must be thousands and thousands of internet servers managing enormous ocean of advertising. This means lots of materials and energy. In this world nothing comes absolutely free.

Basic Engineering Error which shook the World

I mean Fukushima nuclear plant catastrophe. It was going like this:

Friday 11 March
14:46 ...power plant's nuclear reactors 1, 2, and 3 are automatically shut down by the shake...Power plant is cut off from the Japanese electricity grid, however, backup diesel generators kick in to continue cooling...

15:01 The tsunami unleashed by the earthquake strikes the Fukushima facility damaging the backup generators required to cool the reactors... Details HERE

And this is all, the rest is CHAOS.

All problems the World has and will have for a long time, are the direct result of cooling system failure. Cooling system failed because backup generators were hit by tsunami. They were hit by tsunami because "..fuel tanks for the generators, positioned at ground level just metres from the sea, were among the first parts of the facility to be destroyed ..". Details HERE.

That means the backup system was located in more vulnerable position than the object which was to be backed up. It is absolutely against the logic and engineering practice. Something like hanging the keys to the safe on the wall just above it.

And it shook the world. Many countries have to revise their energy programs. It puts in danger plans of reducing carbon emissions. Consequences are difficult to predict. Only because of one error, placement of backup generators, which has nothing to do with nuclear technology.

On one hand we can say - why all that panic? We learned a lesson, the error will not be repeated. But on the other hand .. If it was an error in the old, traditional engineering art, how can we trust engineers at all? We must not implement technologies which failure can cause such enormous damage. Because humans will always make basic and fundamental errors.

I dedicate above statement to enthusiasts of genetic engineering.

Paderewski's tree

At the end of January, I reported here my search for a tree planted by Ignace Paderewski in Royal Botanic Garden in Melbourne.

As Autumn arrived, I visited it to see if it produced any chestnuts, buckeye chestnuts. I found the tree, but it looked very, very poorly....

Leaves yellowing at the edges, and just a single fruit, which looked dry, empty and dead. I hurried to the visitor's centre and explained my concern to the same lady, who helped me so patiently and kindly in January. She called a horticulturalist for assistance.

He checked some botanical data and explained to me, that this type of chestnut, does not produce actual chestnuts. Chestnuts, which you could eat - he said.

It amused me a bit. I do not come to botanic garden to feed myself. For this purpose, my little secret forest full of mushrooms, will do quite nicely.

But I did not mention it to the horticulturalist. He might have called the ambulance :))))

Mushrooms

Autumn, means in Poland mushrooms. I remember from many years ago, excursions to forest and coming back with bags full of mushrooms. Actually, I did not like these events. Many hours of careful walking with head hanging down and eyes looking for brown hats in the grass.

We did not expect to find mushrooms in Australia. Couple of years after settling down here, we learned, that there are good mushroom fields around Daylesford. That was true. Another good place was found at the Red Hill. For me it was too far to drive and I was right. In December last year I found a mushroom field just 10 minutes walk from our home. It is in the bushes at the back of children playground. It produces just one type of mushrooms, like this...

At home they looked like this...

The recipe is simple:

- take heads only,

- mix one egg with 3 tablespoons of milk,

- put some salt or herbamare on the mushrooms,

- dip mushroom head in the egg with milk,

- toss in bran,

- drop on hot frying pan...

Delicious!!!

I wrote, that mushroom season is in Autumn. But these ones are crazy. I spotted them first time in December and since then I regularly brought home a dozen per fortnight.

Our only worry is, that it is so close to the playground. One day they may be noticed by council workers maintaining vegetation around the playground and I am sure, these guys will treat them as a dangerous pest and eradicate them with some killer of all growing things. So I check our secret forest every second morning to prevent the strike.

Children speak

 At the beginning of Febuary we drove grandchildren home.

- What will you be doing at home? - I asked.
Felix thought a while and then answered:

- I will draw a birthday card for my Mum.

- Me too, me too - shouted Matilda - I will draw many, many cards for my Mum.

- Yes, we will make gigantic number of birthday cards - confirmed Felix.

- Felix, and can you write - Sarah? - asked Matilda.

- No - answered carelessly Felix.

- So what shall we write?

- We'll write - I love you - and instead of writing Sarah, we'll draw Mum's portrait.

- Yes! And I, instead of portrait, will draw a piglet.

- Yes, and I, instead of portrait, will draw a pirate ship! - announces Felix. Then, after a short considerations, he corrects - actually, I will draw crossed bones and a skull.

- Yes! We both will draw crossbones and skulls. Mum will be so happy!!

Paderewski in Melbourne

I have known for a long time, that one of most distinguished Polish citizens - Ignacy J. Paderewski visited Australia and gave concerts in Melbourne and Sydney. No wonder, I looked for some Australian memories of this visit. I found quite a few.

Firstly, there was a story of a postcard mailed from Melbourne to Guernsey Island on 12 July 1904. It contains a report from Paderewski's performances in Melbourne and Sydney and an interesting cartoon showing I.J. Paderewski shaking hand with some representative of "Socialist Melbourne". This person was much, much later identified as Sir Malcolm Donald McEacharn, who in 1904 was Mayor of Melbourne.

Quoted report from The Bulletin is quite interesting too. It describes quite different reaction of Melbourne and Sydney audience. In Melbourne it was: "... crowds which thronged the building, applauding till their hands were sore and shrieking until they were hoarse".

In Sydney: "..the artist left the platform in a towering rage...During the performance some non-musical members of the audience drifted out of the hall as soon as their curiosity was satisfied. ... M. Paderewski played, as he stated later, with genuine pleasure to those whose appreciation had led them to remain. But he resented the lack of honour shown to a visiting artist by something like 500 people in hurrying away at such juncture. They are nothing but savages - said the irate artist. In Melbourne no one went out, and I played a longer programme. I have never had an audience behave like that - even in the Wild West”.

Here you are.

Secondly, I found a number of newspaper reports in The Argus ( here is a later one about a concert in October ) and in The Age.

Thirdly, I learned about some diplomatic scandal, which happened during second visit of Paderewski in Melbourne in 1927.

Luckily, I.J. Paderewski left in Melbourne a tangible sign of his visit. Wikipedia says, He planted a tree in the Melbourne Royal Botanic Garden. What tree? Where?

From the biography of the founder of Royal Botanic Garden, William Robert Guilfoyle, I learned, that it was an American red chestnut.

Equipped with such knowledge, I came on Australia Day 2011 to RBM Visitor Centre to find an exact location of the tree. The person at information desk searched diligently through some files and catalogues but in vain. Lastly, she looked at some printed document, which listed in alphabetical order all plants growing in the Garden. And there it was - at the very first position - aesculus x hybrida, planted by Ignace Paderewski!!!

Aesculus x hybrida?? What is it? What's it English name? It was not so easy to find. In the meantime we found, that it belonged to sub-family of chestnuts, namely horse chestnuts - hippocastaneae. And finally, we got it's English name - buckeye!! And it came from the state of Ohio, USA. So it was an American chestnut.

I received a map with a marking of the tree location ...




.. and here it was...





.. the tree is quite majestic..





I will have to visit it in Autumn to see it's fruits, whether they are red, or whether they remind buck eyes.