In the library

My local library is located in Box Hill. I visit it frequently although choice of books is very poor. I got impression, that the main source of books are donations.

But I noticed, that the library turns into some kind of after classes room for students from nearby tertiary educational institutions.

This is how it looked last Tuesday...

Actually, now we have school holidays. So what are all these students doing here?

I got impression, they are all foreign students. Probably they live in some rented apartments and prefer good space in library and opportunity to study together with friends.

And they not only studied here. Few rested their heads on library desk and slept. Some had their lunch...

I was bit concerned about eating in the library. For me books and food do not mix well. But there are no signs prohibiting food and there is a coffee machine.

But eating hot food was bit too much. A lady from library administration informed young people, that heated food emits too much smell and asked them to take it outside. They obeyed this instruction quite happily.

Generally, I enjoyed view of so many young people in the library although I noticed, that they did not use much of library resources. On the other hand, I think it should be noticed by city council and educational institutions, that great demand exists for some kind of after-classes space where students could study, rest, develop their social contacts. It seems to me, that it exceeds current library capacity.

Empty Cross

Few days ago I received a Red Cross Gift Catalogue ...

I liked the cover, photo reminding the First World War. Maybe there will be some traditional Christmas Cards? - I thought with hope.

Because Christmas cards in Australia are hopeless. One could say: show me your Christmas cards, I will tell you who you are. Looking at Australian made Christmas cards, I can say - these people do not know who they are. They have broken links with tradition, but did not create anything instead. Well, they created something - market full of meaningless and useless things.

But Red Cross, they surely should know who they are. I looked inside the catalogue. There were some Christmas cards - one with a tree of hope (whatever it may mean), another with a dove, and with a ginger bread bear, or two birds.

So in the name of political correctness, Red Cross eliminated Christ from Christmas.

Actually there is one Christmas card, which perfectly summarises this practice - a donkey in front of an empty manger. As a next step I suggest to replace cross with a donkey on the Red Cross logo.

Woman's Eye

I read a book to 4 y.o. Matilda. It was about a girl who visited her uncle on a farm.

The uncle grabbed her in his arms..

- What are you going to do, unpack or go directly to see animals?

- I want to see animals uncle Frank..

I turned a page. There was a picture of the girl sitting on the back of a cow. I started to imitate noises of cows, sheep, ducks, but Matilda interrupted:

- Dziadzia (grandpa) ! She has different top, changed her shoes and headband!

- Yes, it is more convenient with animals.

- But Dziadzia! You said that she did not unpack her luggage?

My jaw dropped, my credibility as well.

Authors of children books, please! More attention to detail, specially when it comes to female dresses.

Revenge of the financiers

Yesterday I noticed a news about sentencing a payroll officer, who stole close to $20 mln from electronic goods retailer. She received sentence of 8 years in jail with parole possible after 5 years.

Apparently she found a loophole in her employer's financial system and used stolen money mostly on buying homes - 44 in total.

Few reflections came to my mind. First - what a financial system this company had? I assume it was not some home made system or MYOB package from the shelf for few hundred bucks. I suppose it was designed and implemented by some reputable company and then managed by highly paid professionals. How come they did not notice any loophole nor any missing money?

Second - this company finances were probably audited every year. I would like to know WHO was doing these audits? I would not wonder if the same company which verifies financial models of our main political parties.

Third - company suffered lack of funds for last couple of years. How come nobody looked what happened with the money?

Four - stolen money was invested over last three years in homes. Report says, that accused cooperated with authorities, all homes have been sold, $16,5 mln recovered. Hey!!! So what happened with the MONEY???

We all know what happened to the value of houses in last 3 years. In my opinion, this investment should have been more profitable than all retailing activity of the company. So I am asking again - what happened with the money? I suggest to employ the sentenced person to scrutinise this recovery.

Even the judge mentioned that the final losses are not so great, that there is no chance for re-offending. So why such severe penalty? What will happen to two autistic children?

Let's compare THIS - $68 mln lost. How much of it has been channelled to private accounts of owner's family? Small investors, who lost their lives' savings have little chance to recover anything. Prosecutor called for the sentence of 3 years in jail, non parole period 2 years.

I heard about dozens such cases in last 2 years.

Justifying his sentence, the judge said, that it is to: ".. send a message to all those in a position of trust..". I do not think so. The message is: thou shall not cheat on those who own big money. Feel free to cheat these who own little.

An amateur entered the playing field of big business and had to be punished in exemplary way.

Whales in Labor

There are still many unknown in the coming Federal Election, but one thing looks certain - Peter Garret will get a seat in the new Parliament.

He was selected to one of the safest Labor seats - Kingsford Smith - by Mark Latham in 2004. In the meantime:

- Mark Latham resigned from politics after angering his party,

- visionary Kevin Rudd has been sacked by his own party for not satisfactory performance in opinion polls,

- Peter Garret.. well...

• tried to close one of most successful music institutions (Australian National Academy of Music) - luckily this project failed.
• introduced a solar panel installation rebate. After few months, this scheme was abruptly terminated after exceeding threefold planned costs. Apart from devastating many installers, who had to close thousands of started projects, this scheme had very bad effect on Australian manufacturers of solar panel as they were not protected against import of cheap panels from overseas. Another issue is safety of hastily made installations. It seems they scared Peter Garret from some public appearances.
• home insulation scheme, I think, my comments are not required here.

Labor understood that Peter Garret was unable to sort the last mess and handed it over to someone else. So he was stripped of most of his duties, but he retained his ministerial position where his main duty will be protection of whales.

And now, 6 years and many billion dollars later, Peter Garret is still the best Labor candidate.

I expect great future for whale watching.

Birthday

Having birthday in July is cumbersome. In Poland it was in the middle of summer holidays, if celebrated, then in random place and company.

In Australia it is in the middle of the winter, same story. Memorable was my 50th birthday. I decided to celebrate it at Mt Buller. I went there for one week, my Family came just for my birthday, plus I had few random guests, inhabitants of the ski lodge. But important thing happened three days before. There was a blizzard, they closed all ski lifts. Resigned I went to ski hire to return skis I could not use. They offered me some back-country skis.

Where could I ski on these? - I asked.

Every where - was the answer.

It was prophetic. In the next many years, I participated in cross-country ski marathons in 17 countries.

But today, there was very little snow in the mountains, but beautiful sun in Melbourne. Yesterday, on Sunday, I made a bike tour in company of some 10 friends. It ended with coffee and cake in our home. I prepared a poster for the ceremony. Guess from it how old I am?

.. Sylvia baked a cake. This is sharing duties.

Today, I went for some swim. 50 years ago, it was my favourite sport, I even competed in University club. Nowadays I run out of breath after one length of the pool. But today I swam 1000 m. In 9 instalments. Still it was a nice effort and nice memories.

Winter

Winter is coming slowly. Most of July there was cold but minimal snow falls. Lately we had mixture of both.

Last Saturday (17/07), I accompanied Michael and his family in snow play in Lake Mountain.

First, Michael transported Matilda on his back...

Then we tried to build a snowman and an igloo.

Felix invented a modernized version, with a glass roof. As a material we used ice sheets from the frozen creek...

During drive from Melbourne, Felix told me:

- I know how to ski, I saw it on TV.

I think it was not so much TV , but his ballet training which helped him to cope quite well with icy snow and slippery skis.

But playing on toboggan was most enjoyable.