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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