IT'S RAINING

“For after all the best thing one can do when it is raining, is to let it rain.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The first winter’s day in Melbourne today with a gray leaden sky and low temperatures punctuated by showers of icy rain. Looking out of the window and seeing the puddles of water mirroring the silvery light, the images are broken by the falling drops of rain as they form ever expanding and melding rings. The cars on the road few and far between, most people are inside by the heater.

Perfect day for listening to some Bach… Here is Mischa Maisky playing the Prelude from the Cello Suite Number 1, BWV 1007:



Perfect music for a rainy day…

BREAD

"The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight."
- M. F. K. Fisher

A busy day at work today, which started at 7:00 am and did not finish until late. After several meetings and many consultations with staff, we had a delegation from a Chinese University come and visit our campus. They are our guests for the next five days and we have to have many discussions regarding cooperation and exchange programs. The day culminated with dinner, which I hosted at one of the Italian restaurants close to our campus in the centre of the City.

The restaurant is called Spiga and it’s a handy one to have just across the road from where one works. It has a good service and the food is very nice, with a warm ambience and good location. Our Chinese guests very much enjoyed the food with most of us having fish. Baked fillets of ocean trout, or tuna steaks or deep fried Barramundi. The bread served was rather nice and although typical yeast bread, it reminded me a little of some beer bread I had had some time back in another restaurant.

Beer bread is an interesting beast. It belongs to a class of foods that I call the “faker bakers”. These are foods that you concoct fast and without much preparation, but they resemble very much something that takes a lot longer to make the usual way. Here is a recipe for the faker’s bread, which is much easier than the yeast/knead/rise/knead/bake variety.

BEER BREAD
Ingredients
2.5 cups of sifted plain flour
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
1.5 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 can (350 mL ) of beer
1/3 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon ground cardamon
1 teaspoon dried, ground mixed herbs
1 teaspoon turmeric
Sesame seeds

Directions
Preheat oven to 190˚C.
Sift flour (very important!) and mix in other dry ingredients.
Mix in the beer (at room temperature) quickly
Pour into a greased loaf pan.
Pour melted butter over mixture.
Sprinkle sesame over top.
Bake 1 hour, remove from pan and cool for at least 15 minutes.

Enjoy your weekend!

FAMILY

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." - Theodore M. Hesburgh

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed that the 15th of May of every year shall be observed as the International Day of Families. This Day highlights many of the family values that form a part of social moral values. The observance recognises the importance of the family as the basic unit of society. The International Day of Families provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and can become a powerful mobilising factor on behalf of families in all countries, allowing them to lobby for the protection and support of family issues appropriate to each society.

Families nowadays are finding greater challenges and more obstacles to raising children to be healthy, responsible, productive adults. Economic hardship, increasingly hectic activity, tight schedules, domestic discord, divorce, absentee fathers, changing attitudes about what is right and wrong, some popular music and entertainment, influences of street life – all these and other stressors do little to promote healthy families. Children that are growing up in modern urban societies have more needs for a stable family in order to grow up healthy and happy.

The Families Day theme for 2008 focusses on “Fathers and Families: Responsibilities and Challenges.” Family structure in our society is in a process of change and this is evidenced by the increasing numbers of “non-traditional” families – single-parent families, same-sex couple families, families where both partners have been previously married and each may bring into the family children from previous relationships, families that rely heavily on the input from all sorts of external support structures. The role of fathers is changing, especially now when IVF has made the biological role of the father almost redundant - the patriarchal role of the father as catalyst for the creation of a family has been eclipsed by technology. The social role of the father, however, has become an increasingly important one.

Research has shown that children with fathers who are actively involved in their lives are more likely to stay out of trouble and become successful adults than those with absent or uninvolved fathers. Responsible fathers make a big difference. The timely 2008 Families Day theme invites individuals, families, communities and governmental policy makers to reflect, pray and act to facilitate healthy families and responsible fatherhood.

The focus on responsibility is a timely one and it is important for us to redefine it. Traditionally, the father has been considered to be the one who is the “provider”, the one who spends most time away from the home, the one who is perhaps the most uninvolved in the upbringing of the children. We still speak of “mother’s love”, “mother tongue”, “mother’s milk”, “mother hen”, etc all denoting a very close and special nurturing relationship. As society is changing, so are the family relationships and increasingly, more fathers are spending more time with their children and are more actively involved with their upbringing – some to the extent of being “house-husbands” while the wife is the “provider”.

In other cases, we find that increasingly permissive social mores, greater emphasis on individual liberties, greater sexual openness and increasing acceptance of personal interests being more important than the interests of the group (family or larger social group), are causing a greater likelihood of fathers to abandon families and pursue their own personal goals: A younger woman, another man, another career in a distant place away from the family, etc.

The greatest and most despicable of irresponsibilities is the loss of respect for the normal restrictions that are placed within the family group: The father who commits violent or sexual crimes in the family. The recent events in Austria and the heinous Josef Fritzl are only the tip of the iceberg. How many more of these crimes are reported almost daily, and unfortunately how many more go unreported, undiscovered… It is fathers such as Josef Fritzl that often have been brought up in dysfunctional families and pass on that terrible legacy to their own family.

How to deal with it in this increasingly precarious urban society that seems to be a major stressor on wholesome family living? The qualities of love, laughter, listening and learning within a family are the key factors in its happiness and success. These four values are the foundation of any happy, healthy family and by extension society. The family is the most basic and important unit of any society or nation. Without healthy, functioning families, a culture cannot survive.
Have a good Family Day, whatever your family is.

family |ˈfam(ə)lē| noun ( pl. -lies)
1 [treated as sing. or pl. ] a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household.
• a group of people related to one another by blood or marriage : friends and family can provide support.
• the children of a person or couple : she has the sole responsibility for a large family.
• a person or people related to one and so to be treated with a special loyalty or intimacy : I could not turn him away, for he was family.
• a group of people united in criminal activity.
• Biology a principal taxonomic category that ranks above genus and below order, usually ending in -idae (in zoology) or -aceae (in botany).
• a group of objects united by a significant shared characteristic.
• Mathematics a group of curves or surfaces obtained by varying the value of a constant in the equation generating them.
2 all the descendants of a common ancestor : the house has been owned by the same family for 300 years.
• a race or group of peoples from a common stock.
• all the languages ultimately derived from a particular early language, regarded as a group : the Austronesian language family.
adjective [ attrib. ]
designed to be suitable for children as well as adults : a family newspaper.
PHRASES
the (or one's) family jewels informal a man's genitals.
in the family way informal pregnant.
ORIGIN late Middle English (sense 2; also denoting the servants of a household or the retinue of a nobleman) : from Latin familia ‘household servants, household, family,’ from famulus ‘servant.’

INIMICAL CITY

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” - Albert Einstein

I was in Sydney for the day for work and it was very much a commuter’s trip. Getting up at 5:00 a.m. to catch the early flight, seeing the sun rise several kilometres above the earth, landing in the busy airport, finding myself surrounded by milling crowds, queueing for a taxi, doing battle with the early morning traffic and spending all of the day locked up in a sunless room, conferencing and meeting, assessing and moderating… A quick lunch in-house, more work afterwards, a brief recap and then another taxi to the airport for yet another flight back home. The business trip is not a pleasure trip when packed into a very busy day like this.

Flying above Sydney, seeing the bright lights, the endless ribbons of cars on streets, the grid of streetlights and the hum of the engines brings to mind our modern-day existence, technology and the loss of something precious…

The Sound of the City

The city lights cold and distant
Suspended above gloomy shadows
Hovering between the concrete and the ethereal.
Neon flashes mundanely its inanity
Its message thankfully illegible in the distance.
Revolving signs in multicoloured glare
Make known anonymous companies
And broadcast lurid messages of brands X, Y and Z.

The city streets lit brightly in sickly yellow,
By rows upon rows of sodium lamps
And by the blue-white cold and hurtful glare
Of sentinel streetlights.
Spires, domes and towers in full spotlit splendour
Advertise the venues of the rich.
Regular, square, cell-like, impersonal
Windows of the tall office blocks
Enclose faceless cut-outs of carbon-copy people.

City, all brightly lit and brilliant
You are peopled by the men of shadows,
A corpse-like populace.
Ugly, unhappy ghosts transparent
Who lost in the dreary shadowy depths
Revere your garish, gaudy, neon illuminations.

The hum of traffic, erratic red of tail lights
The stinging, ever-moving discs of head lights
All echo your bright lights in unnatural imitation.
City, you callous, cruel, empty-hearted harridan
Your dazzling flashes, your hurtful luminous din
Obliterate the silver symphony of moonlight
And the wispy, hopeful streak of argent falling star.
Your empty humdrum and incessant noise mechanical
Drown the voice of humankind
And the song of rustling leaf and nightingale.

Lucky are those of you that live away from this maelstrom of pullulating humanity, in the countryside, breathing fresh air, enjoying the quietude and the empty spaces on your doorstep.

CHINA QUAKE

“Perhaps catastrophe is the natural human environment, and even though we spend a good deal of energy trying to get away from it, we are programmed for survival amid catastrophe.” - Germaine Greer

The earthquake in China is the latest news of a disaster to hit our newspapers and TV screens. More human lives lost, more pictures of destruction and devastation, faces paralysed by grief and fear. The death toll stands at over 12,000 and there are thousands more reported missing. No doubt, the death toll will rise over the next few days.

The images of bodies covered with sheets lining streets as rescue workers dig through schools and homes turned into rubble by China's worst earthquake in three decades makes for a terrible scene. The survivors dig in the ruins in a desperate attempt to rescue victims trapped under concrete slabs. There are varying reports of the magnitude of the quake, some as high as 7.9 on the Richter scale. The earthquake struck Monday afternoon and the epicenter was in Wenchuan county. Tuesday has seen a massive rescue and relief operation begun. The number of casualties is still unknown as the quake tore into urban areas and mountain villages. The quake was China's deadliest since 1976, when 240,000 people were killed in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing in 1976.

All this in the wake of the Burma cyclone that has claimed thousands upon thousands of lives, while in USA tornadoes and hurricanes cause damage and claim lives as well. The earth is sick and we humans continue heedless of its cries of pain and the shudders of its disease-ridden frame. We have become immune to these news items and we plod on with our lives steeped in routine and mindless concerns over non-issues. What will it take to galvanise people into action?

MOVIE MONDAY ON THE WEB

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!” – Sir Walter Scott

OK, I must admit it, when I was young I used to love reading comic books too. I mean I couldn’t always read Proust and Shakespeare and Marx and Stevenson, could I? In any case, I enjoyed reading all sorts of things and comic books full of super heroes are the modern-day mythologies. Superman and Batman, Spider-Man and Aquaman, the Fantastic Four and Captain America. I had a friend who had an attic full of comic books so I used to borrow them all and read them at the weekends.

When the comic book heroes were transferred to the big screen, I watched with amusement, sometimes with wonder sometimes with bemused surprise at the more or less successful adaptation of comic book into comic movie… Superman (1978) was a big hit and rightly so as the casting was excellent, with Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder a well-matched pair, transferring well to the screen. Batman (1989) interesting, not the least because of the surprising choice for the lead, Michael Keaton, who until then was definitely not super hero material. The rather prosaic Fantastic Four (2005) and the abominable Captain America (1990).

Spider-Man came into the scene in 2002 with a satisfying transference of comic book to celluloid. Tobey Maguire was young and fresh, playing the superhero role with sufficient wide-eyed wonder to allow all young fans to identify with him. The story was good, the special effects excellent and the movie a success. Spider-Man 2 (2004) a good sequel, with a continuation of the shenanigans and high spirits, more web-spinning adventures and poignant soul-searching for our hero.

Last weekend we saw Spider-Man 3 (2007) and wished we hadn’t. It was too long, too full of special effects, too many villains, too much of a dog’s breakfast. There were some funny scenes (unintentional, but just ridiculous), the attempts at poignancy heavy-handed and false and the action way too violent and gratuitous. The plot is disjointed and episodic, the villains like a sampler at an ID parade in the police station and the romantic interludes wishy-washy. The “dark side” of Peter Parker with the emo side of his self plain ludicrous. The black glop that makes it all happen is just stupid.

OK I said I liked comic books and super heroes but obviously not enough to forgive whatever glop is dished out. If they dare to make a Spider-Man 4, I am calling the pest exterminators...

ART SUNDAY - BERTHE MORISOT

“God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.” - Rudyard Kipling

Berthe Morisot (born Jan. 14, 1841, Bourges, France - died March 2, 1895, Paris) was a French painter and printmaker. She was the first woman to join the circle of the French impressionist painters and she exhibited in all but one of their shows. Despite the protests of friends and family she continued to participate in their struggle for recognition. Born into a family of wealth and culture, Morisot received the conventional lessons in drawing and painting. She went firmly against convention, however, in choosing to take these pursuits seriously and make them her life's work.

Having studied for a time under Camille Corot, she later began her long friendship with Edouard Manet, who became her brother-in-law in 1874 and was the most important single influence on the development of her style. Unlike most of the other impressionists, who were then intensely engaged in optical experiments with color, Morisot and Manet agreed on a more conservative approach, confining their use of color to a naturalistic framework. Morisot, however, did encourage Manet to adopt the impressionists' high-keyed palette and to abandon the use of black. Her own carefully composed, brightly hued canvases are often studies of women, either out-of-doors or in domestic settings. Morisot and American artist Mary Cassatt are generally considered the most important women painters of the later 19th century.

Here is one of Morisot’s canvases, entitled “The Cradle” (1872), very apt for Mother’s Day.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mums!

FIRST KISS

“Ah why refuse the blameless bliss? Can danger lurk within a kiss?” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The memory of our first kiss can stay with us throughout our life and sometimes may colour a gray moment. Whether it was really as beautiful as what we remember it as being is debatable, but nevertheless, we hold it in a dear place within our heart. Here is a short extract from the movie I reviewed last Movie Monday, “The Choir of Haritonas” (2005) by Greek director, Grigoris Karantinakis. It captures beautifully the magic moment of that first innocent kiss. The music is by Nikos Platyrachos.



What is your memory of your first kiss?

PAVLOVA IN PERTH

“Cookery has become a noble art, a noble science; cooks are gentlemen.” - Robert Burton

The pavlova is a very popular dessert in both Australia and New Zealand. It is named after Anna Pavlova, the famous Russian ballerina who toured Australia and New Zealand in 1926 and Australia again in 1929. In 1934, the chef of the Hotel Esplanade in Perth, Western Australia, Herbert Sachse, created the pavlova. The dish is sweet, light, foamy white and delicious. A truly poetic interpretation of a great dancer’s angelic stage presence in sugar and egg-white.

There is some controversy over which country it originates from - both Australia and New Zealand claim the Pavlova as their national dish. The Meringue Cake was common in NZ in the early 1930s. In 1973, Sachse stated in a magazine interview that he sought to improve the Meringue Cake recipe that he found in the Women’s Mirror Magazine on April 2, 1935. That recipe was contributed by a New Zealander.

TRADITIONAL PAVLOVA

Ingredients
5 egg whites
pinch salt
250 g caster sugar/sugar (equal parts)
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 level teaspoons cornflour
(Please note the following equivalents:
Caster sugar or fine/super fine sugar; corn flour or cornstarch)
Whipped cream
Fruit to decorate: Sliced kiwifruit, peaches, strawberries, blueberries and passionfruit pulp.

Method
Preheat oven to 200˚C. Lightly grease oven tray, line with baking paper or use non-stick cooking spray. Beat the whites of eggs with a pinch of salt until stiff (until peaks form). Continue beating, gradually adding sugar, vinegar and vanilla, until of thick consistency. Lightly fold in cornflour.
 Pile mixture into circular shape, making hollow in centre for filling. (Mixture will swell during cooking).
Electric oven: Turn oven to 130˚C and bake undisturbed for 1.5 hours.
Gas oven: Bake at 200˚C for ten minutes, then turn oven to 130˚C and bake a further hour. Fan forced oven: temperature and time needs to be adjusted accordingly.
Turn oven off, leave pavlova in oven until cool.
Top with whipped cream and decorate with fruit.

When seeing the dessert, it is easy to understand why some people say it was inspired by one of Pavlova’s famous tutus, draped in green silk cabbage roses. The basic shape was provided by a meringue case, while the froth of the net was suggested by whipped cream with slices of kiwifruit for the green roses. I must say that while in Perth I enjoyed a delicious slice of pavlova, home made too! Thank you, Rosanne!

RING-A-DING-DING

"You owe me five farthings" say the Bells of St. Martin's – Folk rhyme

I’m still in Perth and this morning I enjoyed a walk down by the river. The Swan Bells, situated on the banks of the Swan River close to the city centre of Perth, are housed inside this futuristic tower with armadillo-like shells enclosing a glass and steel spire. It contains 18 bells, 12 of them (cast in 1724) from St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, and the Perth tourist bureau speak of this carillon construction as one of the world's biggest musical instruments. They really do sound majestic as one walks by and are a great focal point in the Swan River foreshore park. The bells had to be removed from the London church because they were vibrating so vigorously every time they pealed that they caused structural damage and would have shaken the old building into eventual ruination. They were then sent to Australia as a gift during the bicentennial in 1988.

The tower and the bells have become a monument synonymous with Perth, the sound of its success ringing proudly through the city. The tower is within the redeveloped cafe, restaurant and shop-filled Barrack Square. The square also features entertainment areas, offices, cycling and walking paths, boat ramps, jetties and function areas within a landscaped garden and has become a focal point for residents and tourists alike. The tower was designed by architects Hames Sharley and is highlighted by innovative illuminations that show it sitting in a pool of water lit at night and refracting sunlight during the day.

The noise emitted by the bells is such that it has to be controlled. Soundproof louvers and doors were used to muffle the sound and can be manoeuvred to direct the noise towards either the city or the river. The 18 bells have a combined mass of about nine tonnes and when rung, exert forces of several times their mass on the support structure. To achieve the required stiffness, the six-storey bell chamber is made with reinforced concrete that was cast in-situ.

The 80m high glass clad spire is designed using the same concept as a bicycle wheel, laid horizontally. The spokes radiate from the centrally-positioned axle, the form declining in width as it rises to a point. The solid steel columns of the spire are rectangular. The concrete bell chamber is enveloped in 30m high, armadillo-like copper sails and glass.

carillon |ˈkarəˌlän; -lən|noun
a set of bells in a tower, played using a keyboard or by an automatic mechanism similar to a piano roll.
• a tune played on such bells.
DERIVATIVES
carillonneur |ˌkarələˈnər| |ˈkarɪljəˈnəː| |-ˈrɪlə-| |kə-| noun
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from French, from Old French quarregnon ‘peal of four bells,’ based on Latin quattuor ‘four.’

PERTH POSTCARD

“A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” - Lao Tzu

Greetings from Perth! I am here for work and enjoying the very pleasant Autumn weather with beautiful sunny days with temperatures in the high twenties. Lots of things to do for work, but also some opportunities for walking around the City and perhaps a dinner in one of the nice restaurants here.

A poem by Emily Dickinson for you today:
V
THE SUN just touched the morning;
The morning, happy thing,
Supposed that he had come to dwell,
And life would be all spring.

She felt herself supremer,—
A raised, ethereal thing;
Henceforth for her what holiday!
Meanwhile, her wheeling king

Trailed slow along the orchards
His haughty, spangled hems,
Leaving a new necessity,—
The want of diadems!

The morning fluttered, staggered,
Felt feebly for her crown,—
Her unanointed forehead
Henceforth her only one.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

MYANMAR DISASTER

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” - Albert Einstein

The powerful forces of nature have yet again wreaked havoc, and the death toll in Myanmar is rising and rising with each news report I hear. An international relief effort has begun and it is perhaps just as well that the junta has appealed to the international community for help, because clearly the infrastructure is unable to cope with the magnitude of the devastation. The disaster is the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh. Presently, the death toll stands at 15,000 with 30,000 people reported missing. No doubt the death toll will rise in the next few days.

It is as though humanity is being punished for its hubris. We strut about and parade our discoveries, our science and technology, the control we exert over life and death and yet we cannot do anything about the weather… Our activities on this planet are proving to be increasingly deleterious and our pullulating masses are causing climate change, extinctions of plants and animals, destruction of the biosphere in a degree unprecedented until the present time.

We have started to react, sluggishly and half-heartedly and in the meantime, disasters such as the Myanmar destruction, recent tornadoes in the USA, droughts and floods around the globe are driving home the point that we may be reacting too little and too late. How can we avert disaster at this stage? We are bombarded with the bad news on a global level and yet our sphere of influence is only local. The message must get through to everyone and it is only by changing behaviour on the local level that we can expect to see benefits globally. Perhaps not in our lifetime but in our children’s or grandchildren’s generations.

Our government here in Victoria has a list of ten things that everyone can do to help the environment and help in long-term sustainability. This is a good start and may help each and every one of us to “think globally and act locally”:

1. Take a four-minute power shower
2. Take reusable bags with you when you go shopping
3. Turn off lights and appliances at the switch when not in use
4. Sign up to Green Power with your electricity supplier
5. Buy the most energy and water efficient appliances you can afford
6. Put your food or plant scraps in the compost or worm farm
7. Look for products without unnecessary packaging
8. Walk, cycle or use public transport when you can – and leave the car at home
9. Grow plants native to your area in your garden
10. Go green when you clean.

MOVIE MONDAY QUARTET

“Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.” - Peter Ustinov

For Movie Monday today, four movies we have recently watched and a mixed bag they are too! I hope something here tickles your fancy.

1) “Hearts in Atlantis” (2001 – Directed by Scott Hicks)

An interesting period piece of the 1960s, a coming of age story and the story of a friendship between a young boy and an old man. The movie is an adaptation of a Stephen King book, or rather the first novella in the book, “Low Men in Yellow Coats”. It is a beautiful movie, slow and full of period touches, good acting with the two leads, Anthony Hopkins and Anton Yelchin certainly carrying the movie. Although we enjoyed the movie, it is also one that is easily forgotten and on reflection not as profound as it first strikes one. Worth seeing, 6.5/10

2) “The Tree of Wooden Clogs” (1978 – Directed by Ermanno Olmi)

In this Italian film set in a farming community in the 19th century, poverty-stricken Italy, nothing much happens and the film lasts for three hours. Yet the masterly film-making manages to involve the viewer into four seasons with the humble families in Lombardy, immersing one into the back-breaking work, the joys and sorrows and the relentless cruelty of a rich landowner, who controls the lives of his serfs. A beautiful film, rich in historical detail, with non-professional actors making of it almost a documentary of another time and place, that manages to make one smile, cry, laugh and sob. The soundtrack of Bach organ works is just right for the mood. Get hold of it and watch it! 8.5/10
3) “The Disorderly Orderly” (1968 – Directed by Frank Tashlin)

I first watched this Jerry Lewis film many years ago when I was 10 or 11 and I remember I laughed till I was sore. By chance I got hold of the DVD and we watched it again. Not as funny as I remembered it, but nevertheless, still managed to make me chuckle. It is slapstick and derivative, but nevertheless, manages to highlight Lewis’ comedic talents and as a farce it is one of Jerry Lewis’ best. Lewis play s Jerome Littlefield who wants to be a doctor. But he is very clumsy, and a hypochondriac (whatever symptoms he hears described, he gets). So he must settle for being an orderly. Dr. Howard, who runs the Whitestone Sanatorium where Jerome works, has faith in Jerome, but nobody else it seems... 
Alice Pearce is great playing a woman with many medical conditions (the description of her “Gall bladder just dripping and dripping” is hilarious). It all ends well and boy gets girl. Fun and games. 5.5/10

4) “The Choir of Hariton” (2005 – Directed by Grigoris Karantinakis)

A well-made Greek film, set in the late 1960s at the time of the military dictatorship. It is set in a small town in Corfu, where the annual tradition of the competition of the choirs has many choral groups in the city competing for the prize, a chocolate statuette of Venus. A leftist headmaster, Hariton, trains the school choir, but he soon crosses sword with Major Dimitriou, the town's new National Guard Commandant, who trains the army choir. They both vie for the affection of Helen, the maths teacher, while the adolescent Gregory who is in love with a fellow student is the great hope of the school choir who have their hopes set on his pure voice to win them the trophy. Intrigue, mystery, love, sex, humour, slapstick, pathos, it’s all a mixture and rather well carried off! 7/10

ART SUNDAY - DOUBTING THOMAS

“To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting.” - Stanislaw Leszczynski

This Sunday is called St Thomas’ Sunday in the Greek Orthodox faith as it commemorates one of Christ’s apostles who is best remembered for his lack of faith. St. Thomas is best known for his role in verifying the Resurrection of his Master. Thomas' unwillingness to believe that the other Apostles had seen their risen Lord on the first Easter Sunday merited for him the title of "doubting Thomas." Eight days later, on Christ's second apparition, Thomas was gently rebuked for his scepticism and furnished with the evidence he had demanded - seeing in Christ's hands the point of the nails and putting his fingers in the place of the nails and his hand into His side.

At this, St. Thomas became convinced of the truth of the Resurrection and exclaimed: "My Lord and My God," thus making a public Profession of Faith in the Divinity of Jesus. St. Thomas is also mentioned as being present at another Resurrection appearance of Jesus - at Lake Tiberias when a miraculous catch of fish occurred.

This is all that we know about St. Thomas from the New Testament. Tradition says that at the dispersal of the Apostles after Pentecost this saint was sent to evangelise the Parthians, Medes, and Persians; he ultimately reached India, carrying the Faith to the Malabar coast, which still boasts a large native population calling themselves "Christians of St. Thomas." He capped his left by shedding his blood for his Master, speared to death at a place called Calamine. He is the patron of architects.

The painting I’m showcasing today is an illustration is by the masterly Caravaggio painted in 1600. It is oil on canvas, 230 x 175 cm and is in the Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, in Rome. The drama of disbelief of the tale of St Thomas seems to have touched Caravaggio personally. Few of his paintings are physically so shocking. This depiction of Thomas pushes curiosity to its limits before he will say, 'My Lord and my God.' The classical composition carefully unites the four heads in the quest for truth. Christ's head is largely in shadow, as He is the person who is the least knowable. He also has a serene beauty that is lacking in the furrowed faces of the apostles. The shocking image of the digit exploring the depths of the lance wound is mitigated slightly by the guiding hand of Christ, which seems to push Thomas’ finger deep into the wound. There is no doubt that this is supreme proof of Godhead.

A GREEK SONG

“The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” Alexander Chalmers

A Greek song for you today by the talented Mihalis Hatziyannis. It is called “Pio Poly” (Much More).



Much More
Music Mihalis Hatziyannis; Lyrics Nikos Moraitis

Ask me whatever you want about love
Whether it will exist after we are gone.
Ask me about the ends of the world,
All the difficult questions you want answers to, my darling.

Only don’t ask me if I would die for you
As the answer is easy for me to give you.

Much more than you can imagine
Much more than you are afraid of
Much more than you can dream
In my arms when you’ll sleep;
I love you much more than I love myself.

Ask me whatever you want about the moon,
Maybe one day it’ll come and take us.
Ask me if our love will last
If it runs around the clouds.

Only don’t ask me if I would die for you
As the answer is easy for me to give you.

Much more than you can imagine
Much more than you are afraid of
Much more than you can dream
In my arms when you’ll sleep;
I love you much more than I love myself.

Enjoy!

STRAWBERRIES

“If people take the trouble to cook, you should take the trouble to eat.” Robert Morley

Spring has sprung in the Northern hemisphere and autumn is well and truly here, in the South. We’ve had a couple of really autumnal days with cold, rain and leaden skies. It was good to see the rain come down, although I dare say we need much more… Nevertheless, I had some delicious strawberries yesterday, flown all the way down from Queensland. The strawberries were red and fragrant, fully ripened. Each berry perfect and shiny, picked at its peak. When I bit into it, the flesh was firm yet yielding, the juice aromatic and so sweet. Here is a recipe for strawberry tart.

STRAWBERRY TART
Ingredients for the pastry
350 g flour
175 g butter cut in small pieces
90 g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoonful Marsala
1/2 teaspoonful ground cloves/cinnamon
zest of one lemon, pinch of salt.
for the filling
1 punnet of strawberries
3 tablespoonfuls strawberry jam
3 tablespoonfuls caster sugar
1 teaspoonful ground cloves/cinnamon/ginger

Method
Sift the flour on a wooden board and make a well in the centre. Within the well add the butter, sugar, egg yolks, Marsala, lemon peel and salt. Work the dough well and quickly, shape it into a ball, cover it with wax paper and refrigerate it for 30 minutes. Then roll out l of the dough into a thin sheet and line a 23 cm buttered flan tin. Spread the bottom of the tart with the strawberry jam and then arrange the washed, hulled, drained and halved strawberries thickly on the tart base. Sprinkle the fruit with the sugar and spice mixture. Roll out the remaining 3 of the dough into a sheet and cut thin strips. Weave these strips into a lattice which is used to cover the tart. Neaten the dough edge of the tart by scalloping and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake the tart in a hot oven 210˚ C for about 30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown in colour. The tart is best eaten after 24 hours.
Enjoy your weekend!

MAYDAY

“Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.” – Victor Hugo

Today is Mayday, traditionally a day associated with the welcoming in of Spring. In many countries this was the day when people had a holiday, going out into the fields enjoying nature and when the young lads and lasses flirted with each other, their courting mimicking the couplings of the rest of the animal kingdom. Shakespeare in his play “As You Like It”, has this to say:

It was a lover and his lass —
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey-nonny-no —
That o'er the green cornfield did pass
In springtime, the only pretty ring-time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.
Sweet lovers love the spring.

Between the acres of the rye —
With a hey, and a ho, and hey-nonny-no —
These pretty country folks would lie
In springtime, the only pretty ring-time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.
Sweet lovers love the spring.

This carol they began that hour —
With a hey, and a ho, and hey-nonny-no —
How that a life was but a flower
In springtime, the only pretty ring-time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.
Sweet lovers love the spring.

And therefore take the present time —
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey-nonny-no -
For love is crowned with the prime
In springtime, the only pretty ring-time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.
Sweet lovers love the spring.

The holiday from work on Mayday assumed a rather more serious purpose in the 19th century and this was the observance of Labour Day in many countries around the world. International Workers’ Day commemorated on May 1st is for the people involved in the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago, Illinois. As the culmination of three days of labour unrest in the USA, the Haymarket incident was a source of outrage and admiration from people around the globe. In countries other than the United States and Canada, residents sought to make May Day an official holiday and their efforts largely succeeded. In some European countries, working people continue to use May Day parades as an opportunity to show disapproval with the government or to protest cuts in social programs. Although May Day received its inspiration from the United States, the U.S. Congress designated May 1 as Loyalty Day in 1958 due to the day's appropriation by the Soviet Union. Alternatively, Labor Day traditionally occurs sometime in September in the United States.

“Mayday” is also the international distress call which is used by ships and aircraft on radio when life-threatening emergencies strike them. It has nothing to do with the 1st of May, but rather is the phonetic spelling of the French words for “help me”.

Mayday |ˈmāˌdā| (also mayday) exclamation
an international radio distress signal used by ships and aircraft.

Noun: a distress signal using the word “Mayday”: We sent out a Mayday | [as adj. ] a Mayday call.
ORIGIN 1920s: representing a pronunciation of French m'aider, from venez m'aider ‘come and help me.’

APRIL

“This is how it feels when it's all over
This is just the way a true love ends” – John Denver

The last night of April tonight and this poem I wrote some years ago, seemed apropos. If for nothing else, at least in memoriam, as an anniversary offering.

April Showers

April speaks with words of rain
Uttering watery farewells
Crying through peals of laughter
As he leaves me.

April says goodbye
His hollow words carefully chosen,
His false tears duplicitous
As his rainy days run out.

April leaves me once again,
Wounding, healing, promising much,
Giving little, taking all;
Dreams run, dissolving in his rain.

April is over, tonight his last night
April finishes and my love for you
A tired traveller, wearily stumbling
Exhausted, stopping finally by the wayside.

April ends my hopes
He kills my every fantasy,
Destroys my world, dissolves the sugary images
Of happinesses he promised me would come.

April speaks with words of rain
Uttering watery farewells
Crying through peals of laughter
As he leaves me.

IN RETREAT

“To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.” - Jane Austen

There is a special kind of activity that is quite common in the business world and which is called the “Offsite” meeting or the “Retreat”. This is an occasion where selected staff are taken away from their normal work environment and stay away for a couple of days (and nights) in order to work through an agenda and resolve current issues, plan for the future and set future directions. The rationale behind this is that while away from the normal work environment, staff are able to disengage from routine and distractions, thus being able to concentrate fully on agenda items and be able to devote their activities and collective intellectual resources on resolving the issues at hand.

I am currently taking part in an executive “retreat” fro a couple of days and it is a strategic meeting designed to analyse our current activities, identify areas of concern and prioritise intervention strategies in order to be able to effectively plan ahead. I was pleasantly surprised by how much we achieved in these couple of days and how much better we were able to work together as a team and to function effectively as an executive body that set directions for future developments and growth.

We are at a very nice conference and spa centre about 60 km to the north of Melbourne, called Macedon Spa. The setting is lovely, right in the middle of Victoria’s spa country and at the foothills of Mt Macedon. Hanging Rock (the very atmospheric setting for the 1975 Australian film “Picnic at Hanging Rock” is only about 5 km from here and there is a real tranquility in the crisp, clean country air. Autumn has really arrived and the temperatures plummet down to single figures for the night, although the days are sunny and still quite pleasant.

It is a good balance, the work and the relaxation, the social conviviality and the resolution of the problems at hand. Getting to know one’s co-workers in this type of environment is a really good exercise and it does contribute to a better organization.

MOVIE MONDAY - MON MEILLEUR AMI

“My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.” - Henry Ford

We watched a wonderful French movie at the weekend. It was Patrice Leconte’s “My Best Friend” (2006 ), a tragicomedic film which makes a important comment about modern society. The basic premise of the film is how we view friendship in today’s world and how we define that most elusive of relationships: “My best Friend”…

The movie begins at a funeral which is very sparsely attended and in which Monsieur François Coste (Daniel Auteuil), an antiques dealer, finds himself because he has unfinished business with the deceased and wishes to close a deal with the widow, even at a funeral. This puts François’ character in context and makes the viewer of the film regard him as a anti-hero.

François superficially seems to have a perfect life: A young daughter doing well at her studies at University, a girlfriend who seems to love him, a successful business with an astute partner (Catherine played by Julie Gayet), an engagement calendar full of lunch dates and meetings with business associates. However, despite this seemingly perfect existence, François realizes that he has serious gaps in his life.

The pivotal point is the whimsical purchase of an ancient Greek vase at auction, which François buys, even though it is not the sort of thing he trades in, and it is something he and his business cannot afford, and it is against the wishes of Catherine, his partner. The vas is special because it is a funerary offering of one man to the memory of is dearest and best friend. At a dinner with his associates he is hit with the hard truth that none of these people, would come to his funeral. He is forced to admit that not only does he have no friends but also that no one likes him.

Being arrogant, and egotistical, valuing “things” more than people, he denies that he has no friends, and in a silly bet, accepts a challenge from Catherine to prove this hard truth false. The prize is the Greek vase. In the process of finding a "best friend" within 10 days, to win the bet, Coste learns what friendship means, and just how wrong he really was in his values. Instrumental in François’ epiphany is a taxi driver called Bruno (Dany Boon) who is the catalyst in François’ change of character and life.

The film is not amongst the best of Leconte, but it is warm, engaging, earnest, and with the right mixture of comedy and drama, making for satisfying viewing. The acting is very good, restrained and almost phlegmatic in parts, but nevertheless expressive and moving. Highly recommended film!