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.

Saint Jose Silva?

There is no such a saint? Maybe should be.

Not so long ago, I heard about Silva Method, a method enabling people to utilise hidden powers of human brain.

Personally, I am a sceptic quite critical about all supernatural powers. But this method can fit into my rational point of view. In a nutshell it works like this...

It is based on assumption, that brain controls all functions of human body including our immune system. That means, brain can defend the body against any sickness. In some cases, it can also accelerate a destruction of the body producing toxins - e.g in a depressed person, who lost any drive to live.

According to Jose Silva, we can program our brain. To do this one should reach alpha state (look also here), state externally similar to meditation. After reaching this state, one can program his brain to perform specific job. Here a couple of examples: a person with blocked arteries imagined a vacuum cleaner sucking all the rubbish from his arteries. Another one, with arthritis, imagined a pneumatic hammer crushing rocks on his joints. Both were healed within few weeks.

So far, I do not see anything illogical or supernatural.

Why am I writing this under a banner of sainthood? Because the church monopolised the domain of miraculous cures. It even requests minimum two miracles to award the title of a Saint. Our Australian Mary Mac Killop had to wait 101 years to jump over this hurdle.

What is interesting to me, is the fact that two sides most interested in this area, do not even want to hear about this method. These sides are the Church and "official" medicine. About the church I already wrote, it would undermine the whole idea of sainthood. As of medicine - it would be a blow for omnipotent surgery and pharmacology.

Just lately, I heard a story of a doctor, who could not convince a patient to agree for some surgery. Then, one morning, the patient said:

- I saw Jesus in my dream, he told me the surgery will go OK. Now I give my consent to it.

The doctor joked with his colleague, that there was another candidate to psychiatric department.

Quite inappropriate joke. Why the doctor was unable to convince the patient? Maybe it was he, who needed help from a psychologist?

Looking closer on miracles recognised by the church, I see lots of similarity to Silva method. Firstly, sick person prays, repeating over and over simple prayers. This is a way to achieve an alpha status. In their prayers, sick people call a Saint to heal their body. The signal goes to brain. For the brain it is immaterial whether it was St Francis of Assisi or a tradesman with pneumatic hammer. The brain does the job.

Grand Final 2010

I am not a fan of footy but I am trying to feel the pulse of Melbourne. So on Saturday morning, I rode on bike towards MCG. It was 4 hours before the start of the game, but the crowd was already building up.

Fans of Saints...

And of Magpies..

After returning home, I showed my colours..

Yes, black and white, no wonder Magpies won the trophy.

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.